This was it. My best friend had finally gone crazy. I knew that her plan to get the prince to fall in love with her and then marry her so they both could live happily ever after like a Disney princess was something that she had never stop dreaming about, but now something was happening that I never thought would happen. Emma was giving up her plan of getting the prince to fall in love with her so they could get married. Instead, she was changing her plan to get the prince to fall in love with me so we could get married and then live happily ever after, which was something that I didn't want.

I didn't want to live the lifestyle that Prince Carter had. That had always been Emma's dream and what she wanted. I just wanted to live the same life I lived now and not have it drastically change, but of course I wanted to be a successful author and married to a guy who was as normal as my dad. Well maybe a little more normal than my dad because sometimes he wasn't all that normal. That's a story for another time though.

I snapped out of the daze that I had fallen into so I could protest against what Emma had said, but when I looked around for her, I saw that she had gotten a head start towards her car. Chicken.

"Emma!" I said starting to walk to catch up with her. She seemed to walk faster when she heard me calling her name, but I also walked faster to reach her.

"You can't just say something like that and then walk away! We need to talk about this because it is not happening!" I yelled at her breaking into a jog so that I could catch up with her.

"It is too happening!" she called over her shoulder, not bothering to fully turn her head to look at me. Emma was trying to watch where she was going so that she wouldn't trip over something and I would end up catching up to her.

"No, it's not! It's not something I want," I replied as I reached her, grabbing onto her shoulder to stop her from going any farther. Emma turned to face me while putting her hands on her hips before saying, "It is to something that you want. You just don't know it yet."

"Are you serious? We just literally met the guy and you think that I want to marry him?" I asked her while rolling my eyes.

"Well, I'm not asking you to marry him right now. That'll take some time, but you'll eventually see why I'm changing my plan so that you end up married to him and instead of me," Emma said smiling at me sweetly. I knew that she was trying to butter me up so I wouldn't get too mad at her. Narrowing my eyes at her, I responded by saying, "You know that I don't want to marry any kind of guy like him. I'm pretty fine finding someone who's got a normal life."

Emma sighed and rolled her eyes. She didn't like the idea of me finding someone who had a normal life. She thought that a guy like that wouldn't be able to handle a girl like me, but when I asked her what she had meant by that, Emma wouldn't tell me. Emma just said that when she knew that she had found the right guy for me, then I would eventually know what she had meant. I didn't see how Prince Carter was the right guy for me.

Even though I didn't know the guy well enough, I still wanted no part of the kind of life he had grown up in. Maybe we would be friends if I could get along with him, but other than that I wasn't going to marry the guy like Emma seemed to think I was going to. So far I didn't think Prince Carter and I were fit for each other and I didn't think that was going to change.

Plus, weren't you supposed to feel some kind of attraction for the one? I mean Prince Carter is good looking and all, but I didn't really feel anything but annoyance towards the guy.

"You'll get too bored with a guy who's got a normal life. Just think about how well things worked out with Chris," Emma said giving me a knowing look. She knew that I didn't like to be reminded about Chris Peterson. Also known as the douchebag who broke my heart when he cheated on me with one of my friends, who is no longer my friend. She wasn't the only girl that he cheated on me with though. There were others. And then he had the nerve to break up with me in front of the whole school even though I was going to do it after school the same day.

I was going to be a little nice about it though and not do it in front of the whole school even though I should have done in front of way too many people. But I had been too quiet back then and I had never stood up to anyone until after that day. I didn't let anyone walk over me after I had been humiliated in front of most of the school. It still hurts to think about it whenever someone brings it up or the thought of Chris just pops into my head because something unfortunately reminded me of him.

Chris was just a lesson to be learned and a mistake that was never going to be happen again. I wasn't going to fall for the charming guy who thought that he was better than everyone else just because I thought the guy was hot. Back then I had been blind, I wasn't so blind now when it came to guys like Chris.

"Just because things didn't go well with Chris, doesn't mean it's going to be like that with all guys who aren't royalty. But I know that Prince Carter is similar to Chris in how they date many girls at one time. Guys like Chris and Prince Carter don't settle for just one girl. They like having multiple girls by their side. Not all at once of course, but still, they're the kind of guys that don't want to settle for just one girl. And you and I both know that Prince Carter like his girls since he hasn't had one serious girlfriend. I'm not interested in dating a guy like that again," I retorted crossing my arms over my chest.

"Well, I think that you're just the girl that will make Prince Carter settle down," Emma said winking at me. I rolled my eyes at her, but she didn't notice because she had already started walking towards her father's car again. Reluctantly, I followed her since this conversation was far from over.

"Emma, I'm not interested. If you want to go after him, then be my guest, but I don't want to be with a guy like him. And you know why since you so kindly mentioned Chris," I replied not thrilled at all that Emma wasn't listening to me.

I knew that she could tell that I was past the point of discussing this and letting her slide through the conversation without me getting angry. Emma wasn't understanding this wasn't something that I wanted and she couldn't just decide that it was. She couldn't just decide what guy should be with me. Especially one that we had both just met. And one that was so different from me in every way. Not to mention that there was no way that Prince Carter's parents were going to let their son, the next ruler of our country, marrying someone so outside of their circle.

I was definitely not on the list of women who could potentially marry the prince. And I didn't want to be on that list. Ever. If I have to keep telling Emma how much I don't want to be a part of that world, then I will until it gets through her head.

"Morgan, you just wait and see. You're going to fall for him," Emma said softly after she had turned to face me. Sighing, I said, "Emma, you do realize that even if you're right, I would never be able to marry him. His parents wouldn't allow it. Don't get your hopes up."

***

I was only in my room for ten minutes after I had said goodbye to Emma and watched her drive away to go back home, which was five houses down from our house, before there was a knock on my door. Not bothering to look up to see who it was, I kept my eyes closed as I laid on my bed. I told whoever was knocking on my door to come in as I tried to calm myself down and think of a way to convince Emma to stop this foolish plan of hers. It was worse than the one that I had just agreed to not so long ago.

I was still only warming up to that idea, just as long as my parents were going to be okay with keeping the prince here. Lying wasn't something that I liked to be doing to them. It wasn't something that I liked to do to anyone. Lying never did any relationship any kind of good. I felt someone lay down next to me on my bed. And by the smell of the cologne that was coming off of that person I knew that it had to be Zach.

"Mom and Dad are home," he said breaking the silence that surrounded us in my room. I opened my eyes but didn't look over at my brother since I was still thinking about what I should do to stop Emma from going through with her next plan. But now I had something else to focus on.

"Okay, we should go talk to them," I responded as I sat up and started getting off my bed. Zach sat up as well, but he grabbed my arm before I could walk away from him too fast.

"What's wrong?" he asked me. I sighed and then looked down at him.

"Emma has changed her plan," I replied.

"The one about you know who staying here?" he asked me. I shook my head and then said, "No the plan that she's had since she first laid eyes on Prince Carter."

"Oh, that one. Wait, she wouldn't change that plan," Zach replied looking confused.

"Well, she did. And it's not good," I said sighing as I plopped down back on my bed since it didn't seem like we were going to downstairs to talk to our parents right away.

"I can tell that it's not good by how you're acting," Zach replied. I could feel him watching me as I said, "She's decided that I'm going to marry Prince Carter."

Zach started laughing. And it wasn't just a quick little chuck. He was laughing so hard and the longer that he laughed, the redder his face got. I didn't really find the whole situation funny, but I guess that it kind of was. Everybody knew that Prince Carter wasn't my ideal guy like he was for every other girl and woman in this country. I had never gotten the hype that had always been around him so for Emma to decide that I was the one that was going to marry Prince Carter, would seem funny to everyone who knew me.

The only reason I wasn't laughing along with my brother was because I could tell that Emma was serious about this new plan. And when she was serious about one of her plans, it was really hard to change her mind. She was going to be set on putting Prince Carter and I together until it actually happened or she realized that it was actually never going to happen. There was no way I was going to fall for a guy like Prince Carter though. I had done that before and I had vowed never to do it again.

"Oh crap, she's really serious about it, isn't she?" Zach asked me after he stopped laughing. I think he had realized that I wasn't finding this situation funny.

"Yeah she is. I don't know how to stop her," I replied.

"You'll figure it out. But why don't we go talk to Mom and Dad? There's still that other problem, courtesy of Emma, that we need to take care of," Zach said reaching over to put his arm around me before squeezing me into his side.

"Yeah okay," I said sighing and then standing up again.

Zach and I headed off to go downstairs and find our parents. After walking down the stairs, we decided to go into the kitchen where we found Mom, but Dad wasn't there with her so Zach said that he would go find him. Mom looked at me curiously as I went over to the large bulky kitchen table and sat down in one of the chairs, making sure it was facing Mom before I had sat down in it. I knew she wanted to know what was going on, but if I told her that Zach and I wanted to talk to her about something, then she was going to start asking questions before Zach came back with Dad and I was still trying to figure out how to best approach the topic that we wanted to talk to our parents.

We could either just straight up be honest with our parents and tell them what's going on or we could fish around and see what they would do if they happened to come upon the prince. Maybe the latter was a better idea.

"Please tell me that you two didn't do something," Dad said as he came into the room with Zach following right behind him a few minutes later.

"Something like Logan did? No," I replied. Maybe just being straight up honest with my parents was the better idea. Fishing for what they would do if they came across the prince wasn't the best idea when they seemed to already know that something was going on.

"Then what's going on," Mom said as swung the knife she had in her hand down hard, slicing through the broccoli she was cutting up. That was Logan's least favorite vegetable. It was one of my favorites so I was happy to see it on the island as Mom was cutting it up.

"It started with Emma," I said pausing to watch my parents' reaction to that statement. They both looked at each other with a knowing look and then looked back at me as I continued, "I think after the commotion with the prince she got this idea that we would end up running into him if we left right away, which we did. Run into him that is."

"You ran into Prince Carter?" my mother said slowly as though she couldn't believe what I was saying and was still trying to process the thought.

"Yeah, so then of course her plan to marry the prince kicked in. And well long story cut short, Prince Carter is in our cottage right now. He doesn't want to go home. Instead, he actually wants to stick around and see what's outside of the palace walls," I replied.

I looked over at Zach and he shrugged his shoulders, which I guess meant that he didn't want to add anything or he thought that I had said enough. We both looked over at our parents who looked quite stunned at the fact that there was a prince in their old run down cottage. I don't know if they believed me, but I mean all they had to do was walk down to the cottage and check for themselves. They would find him sitting there waiting for me to bring him food. Hopefully though, my parents weren't going to be angry about him in our cottage and were going to let him stay. No one said anything for awhile and I thought it would be best to just let my parents think about what was going on and then let them speak up when they were ready to.

"You told him he could stay, didn't you?" Dad said just as slowly as Mom had spoken when she had asked me if I had run into Prince Carter.

"Yeah, but if you guys aren't okay with it then I can tell him to leave. I figured since the cottage isn't used that much except for by me once in awhile, then it wouldn't hurt to let him stay for a little bit. He's probably going to miss his life eventually," I replied shrugging my shoulders.

"Zach, why don't you go get Prince Carter?" Mom said wiping her hands on her apron.

"Should I pack up the things I gave him?" Zach asked. Mom nodded her head. I wasn't sure if this meant that they were okay with Prince Carter staying here and we're just moving him into the small guest room that doubled as Dad's office that was downstairs or if they were sending him on his way to stay somewhere else.

"Yes, put them in your father's office. He can sleep on the daybed in there. I'm sure that bed is a lot comfier than the one in the cottage," Mom replied.

"Zach, did you put clothes in that backpack?" I asked him before he could head out of the kitchen. Zach shook his head and then said, "I knew I forgot something."

"We'll have to get him some clothes then," I said.

"We can buy him some underwear, but Zach can share some of his clothes with him for now until Prince Carter figures out what he's going to do," Mom said smiling at Zach. I saw Zach nod his head and then he left the kitchen.

I looked over at my parents after Zach had disappeared and found them looking at each other. They seemed to be having a silent conversation between the two of them that I often saw them do. I really hoped that Zach and I weren't in trouble for this.

We probably should have just waited for Mom and Dad to come home and asked them if Prince Carter could stay here instead of just deciding that he was going to stay here, but the guy does have nowhere to go and I would actually feel bad if he ended up sleeping on the side of the road or wherever he would find to sleep if he hadn't run into me and Emma. But I didn't think that my parents were going to change their minds and say that he couldn't stay here. I just think that they weren't too thrilled that Zach and I didn't run this by them first.

"Are you guys mad?" I asked them when the silence was too much. They both looked over at me and then Dad said, "No, we're not. We would have been mad if you had decided to keep this secret from us for a couple of days, but you told us today."

"I think Emma wanted me to hide him away in the cottage at first, but I thought it would be better to just see if you guys were okay with him staying here. I figured you guys would understand that Prince Carter wants to see what's outside of his world. Plus, it also helps that the king and queen aren't punishing anyone who helps out Prince Carter," I said smiling at them.

"It does definitely help, but you're right, we do understand that he wants to get out of his comfort zone. Maybe it'll do him some good and we'll have a better king when he becomes just that," Dad said lowering his voice the more he spoke. I'm sure he didn't want Prince Carter to know that he didn't approve of how his parents ruled our country.

"We'll just have to wait and see. Oh, and Emma has another plan, she seems to think that she can get Prince Carter and I to end up marry each other in the future," I replied.

Just like their son, my parents burst out laughing at the thought of me marrying Prince Carter. This time I smiled as I watched them laugh, but I still didn't join them in laughing. It was then when Zach came back with Prince Carter. I saw them both look over at me confused, but then Zach seemed to realize why they must be laughing. He didn't say anything though. There was no need to tell Prince Carter of Emma's other plan. I looked over at my parents and cleared my throat to get their attention.

They stopped laughing when they realized that Prince Carter was in the room with us. And they seemed to freeze after that when it occurred to them that Prince Carter was actually standing in the same room as them.

"Mom, Dad, this is Prince Carter," I said taking the chance to introduce my parents and Prince Carter to each other. "And Prince Carter, these are my parents, Connor and Anne Branson. I'm sure they'd like you to call them Mr. and Mrs. Branson though."

"Yes please do call us that. It's very nice to meet you Prince Carter," Mom said smiling at him after she had snapped out of it. I watched her walk over to him and shake his hand. We weren't actually required to bow before a royal unless it was a royal event. That rule had changed a long time ago, before I was even born.

"Please call me Carter. And it's nice to meet you Mr. and Mrs. Branson. Thank you for letting me stay here. I hope it's not an inconvenience," he replied smiling at both of my parents as he shook my mother's hand. I watched as Mom smiled back at him. So did Dad.

"It's no problem. We're happy to have you here. Are you hungry? Please tell me my children feed you something after you arrived," Mom said glancing over at Zach and I before looking back at Prince Carter.

"We did. Actually Emma got him something since I was explaining to Zach what was going on, but he's been fed a snack and a drink," I replied.

"Good because it'll be another hour and a half before dinner is ready. Why don't you two show him around the house?" Mom said looking back over at me and Zach.

I agreed to that and so did Zach. We headed out of the kitchen to show Prince Carter around the house and also introduce him to our other siblings since he would eventually run into them while he was staying in our house. It took us about thirty minutes to show Prince Carter around the house and when we were done, we introduced Prince Carter to Logan and Jade who had been at their friends' house by the time we started showing Prince Carter around and were in the living room by the time we had finished.

I was glad that we wouldn't have to go searching for Logan because I figured that he could be off anywhere and he could be working on his next experiment even though I was pretty sure that he knew how much trouble he was going to get into when that experiment went off.

Although I had no idea what his punishment was for the experiment that he had set off this morning since it seemed like he wasn't grounded. Logan had been allowed to go to a friend's house and he was allowed to watch the television, which is what he and Jade were doing right now. Maybe my parents had decided on a different kind of punishment since the one they had been using wasn't working anymore.

"Jade, Logan, can we talk to you for a minute?" I asked walking in front of the television so that they would pay attention to me and not the television.

"Sure, what's up?" Jade said muting the television. They must be watching a show.

"We're going to have a guest staying with us for awhile. Zach and I want to introduce you to him so you know that he's supposed to be in our house," I replied.

"Who's staying with us that we don't know?" Jade asked looking confused.

"You actually do know who he is, you just have never met him," Zach said coming over to stand next to me. Before he could say anything else though, I added, "You need to not tell people that he's here though. I'm sure he would like to go unnoticed for as long as he can."

"Oh my god, Emma did it, didn't she? She actually found Prince Carter," Jade said whipping around to answer her own question without waiting for me to answer. Logan turned around quickly to see if Prince Carter was here. And when they saw him they both gasped.

"Yeah she did. And that's why Prince Carter is in our house. Because Emma was determined to meet him so don't be surprised if she's over her a lot more than she usually is," I replied.