Once upon a time long long ago… just kidding, this story starts today. Anyway, there was this girl that lived in a land far far away. Actually far away, she lived in Mexico in a small little town right outside of Cancun. Her mom died whenever she was seven, and her dad died just recently when she was fifteen. Her father remarried before he died to her evil “stepmonster”. In the last year her step mother, Maleficent, which somehow had a weird way of fitting into her personality,  had planned her next fifty years for her. Her step mother had planned for her to marry this rich man, Phillip,  whose parents she was well acquainted with. This girl's name is Aurora. This is the story of how she never really knew she was asleep until she woke up.

“Aurora, you don’t have a choice! You will marry that man and give me his money! I don’t care what you do with him after that, but I will get my money!” 

“Why are you screaming at me… I just want to be able to live my life. You're so worried about me meeting someone I might actually have feelings for - someone that isn’t your money trap.” 

“You're right! All you’re good for is getting me money, and  I don’t really care what you think about that. You wanna know why-”

“Not really. Are you ever just going to let me live my life?”

“Aurora, I don’t think you realize that I am the only family you have, without me you are all alone!”

“Trust me, I would rather be dead alone, then live with you in your pathetic life with your pathetic dream and your pathetic self. That’s all you are. Pathetic!”

“Well, if that’s how you feel Aurora then why don’t you ever go outside? Go experience the world. Go drown in the Atlantic Ocean for all I care. Here's my warning… If you come back and beg for help, you are marrying that man. No questions asked. Understand?”

“I completely understand. You want to know why I am so sur-”

“Not really”

“Too bad, because you can mock me all you want but I know I deserve a voice, unlike you. Anyone who listens to you knows you're just full of nonsense and no one can trust you. I’m packing my bags and leaving.”

When I woke up this morning I didn’t expect to be leaving my childhood home that was taken over by a witch. However, here I am. I can hear her laughing at me down the hall, but I don’t care. I have no doubt that I want to get out of here. I packed my bags and set out. I grabbed all the emergency cash, which I know if she caught me doing I would be as good as dead, but I’m pretty sure she is too busy laughing at me and looking into commiting tax fraud. 

Once I got out of the house, I started looking for a bus or something that would take me to the opposite side of town, somewhere where she would never let me go. I saw a bus stop, so I stopped and sat there. As a bus pulled in front of me, I suddenly saw a bunch of people running and screaming. I couldn’t tell what was happening, but I wanted to know. I wanted this to be the first thing that happens as my first adventure out of the house. A guy jumps on the bus, closing the doors behind him with the lever. The busman didn’t even seem to care. It was like this guy was royalty. 

He saw that I was supposed to be on the bus and he let me in. We stood on the steps of the bus as the door closed for a second not moving. I wasn’t quite sure what was going on, but it felt special. The bus driver coughed and ruined this moment. I wasn't quite sure what was happening.

“Listen, I'm all for a romantic bus save or whatever, but I have to go, so if you can stay on the bus without attracting too much attention you can stay on but if not you kind of need to get off, dude.”

“Oh, yeah, we will go sit down.”

“Hey, I still need to know where y’all are going!”

“Take us to my house.”

I heard the bus driver mumble under his breath something about being famous and patriarchy or something like that and he definitely said some not nice things about this mystery man. However, I didn’t get much time to think about what was going on because the voices inside my head were quickly interrupted by this strange man trying to talk to me.

“What’s your name?”

“Aurora! What’s yours?”

“Are you serious?”

“What?”

“You don’t know who I am?”
“No, I think if I knew who you were that would defeat the purpose of me asking who you are!”

He chuckled a little bit, but personally I’m not quite sure what is so funny. I am really confused and once again I am interrupted by his impromptu talking.

“So, have you lived under a rock your whole life or do you just not have a phone?”

“Both, kind of.”

“Okay, spill, I'm interested. What’s your story?”

“My story?”

“Yeah, everyone has a story to tell. What’s your story?”

“Umm. My story. Okay. Umm. My mom died when I was seven, and then my dad remarried to this awful person, and then he died last year. Within this pear my stepmother has planned my next fifty. She has this plan to get me to marry this guy whose parents she knows. Apparently he's super rich, so she wants me to marry him and give her his money. She doesn’t really care what I do after that. This morning we got into this super big bad fight and she told me to go, so here I am.”

There was a moment of silence while he was trying to process what I just said and a moment of silence from me after realizing I had just trauma dumped on this poor guy. 

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to just trauma dump you. I just started talking and then didn’t stop.”

“It’s okay. I’m kinda interested now. Have you ever met this guy you're supposedly supposed to marry?”

His follow up questions were valid, but very unexpected at the same time.

“Umm. No. I have never met him, don’t know what he looks like, sounds like, or how he acts.”

“Wow. That’s a mega bummer, dude.”

“Yeah, mega bummer.”

“So what’s your story?”

“Not so fast, you can know my name though!”

“Okay, what is it?”

“Guess!”
“Umm. Phillip?”
“No…”

“Good, that’s who I was supposed to marry.”

“Sammy. My name is Sammy”

The car ride to his house was quiet, but when the bus dropped us off I thought the whole house was a village or something, because the size of his house was the size of the whole city I was formally trapped in. He gave me a tour of his which took about what felt like an hour, because the house is the biggest building I have ever seen.  Someone  could probably hide in this house for two days before anyone could find me here. After the tour, he said that I could stay with him instead of staying in one of those mumbo gumbo hotels that will just steal all your money and make you pay ridiculous money for an uncomfortable  mattress. I got to  pick one out of the seven guest rooms. He said that he couldn’t let a pretty girl like me out alone on the streets at night in this city. To be honest, I don't really know anything about the city so I accepted the offer. 

Later that night I heard a knock on the door, and when I went to open it I supposedly got a surprise. 

“Hey, so you don't know me, but I sure know you. You are the person I am supposed to marry and if you don’t marry you. I will curse you. Oh yeah, I probably should have mentioned this before, but magic exists, and if you don’t marry me I will curse you.”

“No, I’m not marrying you.”

“Do we have a problem?” I hear Sammy say from behind.

“No, not at all. I was telling your girlfriend I was going to curse her if she doesn’t marry me.”

“Yeah, right, and you also have a scar on your forehead and this crazy guy wants to kill you.”

“Fine then, you asked for it.”

There is a pause before it happens, but I can feel myself change.

“What did you just do?”

“I just cursed you and I will curse your new boyfriend if you don’t marry me.”

“Hey, she’s not marrying you.”

“Fine then, watch her sleep.”

Suddenly there was a big burst of light and I saw my mother coming down from the clouds singing a song, but the words meant something.

‘For she will not die from not marrying, but live from not. For whenever she marries whom of which she wishes she will be saved from your curse by a true love's kiss.’

“Mom”

Suddenly she was gone and so was my mystery man, however the bus boy was still here. 

“Hey, I’m not going to let this happen to you.”

“It’s already happening. I can feel it. He cursed me and I can feel myself already draining. Something is very wrong.”

“It’s okay, we will figure it out.”

“I only have a limited amount of time.”

That is when it all changed. My whole life ahead of me turned into what felt like just a couple of days. The next few days me and the bus man, who still hasn’t told me his name because apparently it adds to the mystery of life that I have been missing out on, so I still have no clue who he is. One morning however I didn't wake up. The weirdest thing about being in this sleep was that I could hear everything that was happening but I couldn't speak. I almost wished that I couldn't hear because hearing him talk to me begging me to wake up but not being able to do anything about it was the saddest thing the real world has ever done to me. 

Of course, the first thing he tried to do was kiss me but we have known each other for just under a week, there was no way he had fallen in love with me. He tried calling my mystery marriage man and he didn’t answer so after a day of me being asleep he finally called my step mother. She said that she would refuse to come. 

One night I heard a bunch of noise as if someone was trying to break in, but I recognized the voice. It was step mothers. What was she doing here? Did she just come to watch how I turned out? Then suddenly she started crying, bawling her eyes out. I had never seen her cry before, and now I'm only hearing it, but still. Was she crying over me?

“Aurora, I'm so sorry. I should have never screamed at you. You don't deserve that. You deserve so much better than I will ever have to offer. I just could see how sorry I was. Just please wake up Aurora, please. Just come back.”

“Hey! What are you doing here?” I hear from the hallway

“I’m sorry! I just wanted to say sorry! I didn’t want it to end like this. I really didn’t! I know you have no reason to believe me, but please!”

“No! Get out! You did this to her!”

“Please, please! Just let me stay!”

“No, this is my house and you will get out or I will make you get out!”

 “Just believe this one thing, if I could help her at all, I would!”

She starts to walk off, but then comes back. She came back to give me a kiss. I woke up. I can see. I can move. She loves me.  She saved me. She saved me with a true love's kiss. 

“How did you do that?”

“I don’t know! I just couldn’t leave without trying!”
As I start to speak, I realize what a struggle it is, but finally something comes out. “I love you…”

“I love you too!” Her smile grows chin to chin. Do you want me to take you home?”

“I actually want to stay here for a little bit, but I will be back, I promise.” I hold my pinky up, which feels weird to do, since I haven't done it in the past few days considering I have been under a spell. Our pinkies lock. I didn’t think her smile could grow, but the smile she just made seems like the brightest thing I have ever seen. 

A few days later passed and everything had gotten sorted out.. I also learned that the bus boy's name was Sammy. He was in a band with his partner Goerge. Their band was called s+g and their most popular song was also my favorite song, I just didn’t know it. ‘Once Upon A Dream’. 

Phillip went on to marry someone who actually loved him-for his money. Sammy and Goearge went on to write an album called ‘Sleeping Beauty’ with hit songs ‘Aurora’ and’ Maleficent’. Once named after me and  one named after my step mother. As for me, I went on to do nothing but live my life. I went on tour with Sammy and Goerge. Maleficent, my step-mother, remarried to Goerge’s father, who she met on tour. Me and Phillip ended up as just friends.  Maybe I ended up with no one romantically, but in this journey of ‘life’ I found the one who truly loves me and that’s the best.

They all lived happily ever after. The end.