All my life I’ve had to hide my ability. I almost got taken away when I was five and asked my teacher why her clothes didn’t match. You see no one can see colors except for royalty. Please don’t ask me why because well, I only know what ive been told. Supposedly royalty can see color because they mean something, while the rest of us just don’t deserve to see color because we are unimportant. If that’s true than i must be important, but no one will ever know because if they find out I will be killed. Well that got dark fast. Hello, my name is Crystal I’m 15 and already done with school. Welcome to the record of my crappy, boring life.

Everyday I get up earlier than everyone else so that i can sit on my roof and watch the sunrise. I then go to the bakery where I work, making boring plain cakes with no color patterns because no one but me can even tell. I make things other than cake like bread, cookies, and brownies. Anything that needs to be baked usually falls onto me. There used to be other employees but they all quit because they couldn’t stand the heat of the kitchen and doing the same thing over and over. I bet they are hating themselves, this job is one of the least repetitive jobs there is. Anyway, today I was told to make the most elaborate cake i could make and was given a basket full of labeled frosting colors. This could only mean one thing. this cake was for the prince’s crowning. The prince is going to be crowned tomorrow. Once he is crowned he will see color so they will want everything to be beautiful and colorful. My parents would tell me to put colors that clash since I shouldn’t know what will look good together, but i can’t ruin someone's first sight of colors.

The cake looks amazing. I made it to look like it had a waterfall going down it with little colorful fish in the stream and a big forest near by. In the center of the cake is a castle made almost like an exact replica of the real one. I put the kingdom’s colored banners hanging around the door into the castle. On the top of the castle I wrote just what the paper said, “Congratulations On Officially Being A Prince!“ I wrote this in red because it was the last color i needed to include from the basket. This cake is the best cake I’ve ever made. It took me all day to bake and decorate the cake.

As my boss entered the bakery she shouted to me, “Crystal ready to present your work to the royal family.”

I froze and ended up dropping the basket of labeled frosting. I didn’t think I would have to actually be here when they came to pick it up let alone present it to them myself.

“wh-what do you mean present it to the royal family?”

“It’s a competition for which cake is actually used for the crowning. they asked 1 bakery from 30 towns to make a cake. Did you really think they just came to this little bakery with this grand task?”

“Are you sure you can’t present it? I-I need to go home and make sure dinner is ready when my parents get home.”

“No you don’t i called them and told them that you would be going to the castle to present your work.”

“And they said yes? they told me to stay as far away from there as possible beca- nevermind.”

“Do you think I don’t know? I’ve seen you look around for certain frostings to make sure that they don’t look good together. I asked your parents and they reluctantly told me. The frosting was all labeled so it will be near impossible for them to tell that you can see colors.”

“But why didn’t you tell someone? You could have become rich. What made you not tell the guards?”

My questions never got answered. A vehicle pulled up outside and I was instructed to grab my cake and get in. My boss got in beside me and we drove off.

The car ride was nothing like i've ever experienced. Cars aren't something we have because everywhere in our town is within walking distance. The car was clearly moving but i never felt a single bump or even the engine running. As it came to a stop outside the castle I realized how amazing it looked in person. I’ve actually seen the outside of the castle in person only in our textbooks. My cake isn't exactly right color-wise, but i feel like that makes it a little bit better. It means im less likely to be noticed. Once inside I noticed how much luxury the royal family gets while the rest of us struggle to get by. They also have grand paints with lots of colors and different colored walls in each room. They lived surrounded by color almost like they are boasting that they are superior, even though no one else even knows it.

After walking for what felt like forever with my cake shaking in my arms we finally made it to the throne room. There was only one empty table left so I knew we were the last to arrive. My town is the farthest from the castle so I wasn't surprised, but I did feel everyone's eyes on me as we walked in. There were 29 other tables. My boss instructed me to set the cake down just as the queen started to stand.

“Thank you all for making your cakes, but as you know, we want the best cake for our son’s crownings. Our staff is going to come around first during the first round and eliminate any cakes that aren’t big enough for our crowd. After that the king and I will come around and chose our favorites. The last round will be picked by our son. We will start right away when you are eliminated please take your cake and leave right away. We are very busy setting up for tomorrow so we can’t have extra people about the castle. Thank you all and good luck.”

I just about fainted after she said that I had to make it through three round The staff instantly came around. They never even came to our table because I made such a big cake that it definitely passed the first round. Half of cakes were eliminated. Now came the hard part. The queen and king were eliminating cakes left and right without saying a word. By the time they approached my table all but two cakes were gone. I thought there was no chance I would get to move on. The competitors cakes were so much better than mine. They had better bakeries meaning they had more supplies and more talented bakers than me. They let me continue on. Three cakes left and it was up to the prince. He came down and looked at the cakes and started to ask questions to the bakers. He eliminated the first cake that was lemon flavored. He let the second one stay and then came to me.

“You made this cake?” he asked with a confused look on his face.

“y-y-yes I did.” I somehow stuttered.

“But you are roughly the same age as me. How did you learn to make such elaborate cakes?”

“I-I am the only baker at the bakery. I’ve been working there since I was 10.”

He walked back to the other table and said something to the other baker that i couldn’t quite hear. A few seconds later she is in tears and grabs her cake as she ran away. It took me a minute to realize that meant i had won. Somehow my cake was chosen. I was congratulated then they said to expect payment soon. We were than shown out of the castle and got driven back to the bakery.

Excitement was bubbling through me along with bumfuzzlement. My brain kept switching from “OMG I just won” to “there is no way I could have won that.”

“Your cake was amazing. I knew you would win, the only problem is that now I will need to hire more staff,” my boss said as she got out of the car.

“Why do you need more staff? I’m not planning on leaving the bakery.”

“Because once people find out that our bakery made that cake people will come from all over just to get one of our cakes.”

“But they can’t even see how amazing it is. I mean the colors make it look so much better than if you see it in just black and white.”

“It doesn’t matter. They want a cake that was worthy of royalty.”

“Oh. I guess I’ll have to come in early tomorrow. I’m going home to bed. Goodnight.”

“You think you’re working tomorrow? Well, you're not. You have to be at the castle with your cake. You won yourself an invite to the event of a lifetime.”

“Just me? You aren’t going? Are my parents going? Why do I need to be there?”

“Calm down child! You’ll be fine. You're the only one with an invite because you made the cake. Now you are to go home to bed and your parents will make sure you are up and ready for the crowning.” I tried to speak, but she stopped me and continued, “You have an outfit to wear, now go home.”

I said goodnight one last time and then started to walk home. I live on the outskirts of town so the walk is about 15 minutes. I have to go through the dark zone to get home. The dark zone is an area of town where electricity is turned off and people are exiled. Our house is on the edge of it and functions as a watch tower to make sure the exiled don’t escape. My parents don’t like me walking through it because their jobs put them face to face with the crazies who live here. I’m suppose to walk around but that causes the walk to actually be 30 minutes. As I was passing an alleyway, I got pulled into it. I went to scream but a hand was put over my mouth.

“Please don’t scream Crystal. I need to talk to you. I’m the prince. Please don’t scream.” The man removed his hand from my mouth.

“If you are the prince then I am the tooth fairy. There’s no way the prince would come this far from the castle, let alone enter the dark area without any guards.”

“You don’t have to believe that I’m the prince, but I know your secret.”

“What secret? Everyone in this town knows everything about me.”

“Oh, so the whole town knows that you can see colors.”

“Walk with me while we talk. I’m expected home soon.” I started walking and a few seconds later, I heard him start to follow. “Who are you actually? If you say you’re the prince again, you better have some proof.”

“Fine. I choose your cake to win the contest. The cake had a waterfall and a creek with little fish in it. The words on top were written in red.”

“How would you know the color? You aren’t crowned yet.”

“I’ve always been able to see colors just like you. I don’t know how or why but we need to figure it out.”

“No, what needs to happen is me going into my house and going to bed. You need to get back to the castle and prepare for your crowning tomorrow. Then I will continue working at my bakery and never seeing anyone of royalty again.”

“how's that going to work if you are required to be there tomorrow?”

“ill fake being sick. plus its one day and then i'm done.”

“We’ll see about that. Goodnight Crystal.”

How in the world am I supposed to sleep? He seemed desperate to get help, but it won't matter to him anyway. he gets crowned tomorrow he shouldn't be worried, im the one who would die not him.