Jasmine walked into the beautiful garden filled with roses, not knowing what to do. She was a sixteen year old girl with waist-length silky golden hair the colour of crystallised honey and pale green eyes that sparkled like stars were trapped in two big, glittery faded emeralds. She was to be the new maid of the royal palace, and this was her very first day.

"You must be the new maid. Come here and stop stepping on the king's special daffodils." came a crisp voice from behind her.

Jasmine wheeled around to find herself face-to-face with a middle aged woman with a no-nonsense expression. The woman had her mousy brown hair in a tight bun and a maid's white cap over it. Jasmine groaned inwardly. This is going to be a very hard term, she thought.

"Uuhhh… Hello?!" she stammered stupidly. Great. Now she must think of her as a stuttering idiot.

"I am Madeline, your new caretaker. Now please do change out of that unhandy and disgraceful outfit of yours and get in to this." she tossed her a bag of clothing.

Unhandy? Disgraceful? How dare she!

"What's wrong with my dress??" she burst out angrily before she could stop herself. She loved her dress! It was the best one she had, a lilac silky gown with lovely silver roses. A little tattered and stained perhaps, but it was beautiful in Jasmine's opinion. Better than Madeline's anyway, she muttered inwardly to herself.

"What was that?" Madeline scoffed.

Goodness, did she scare me, the girl thought. Could she read minds?

"Maddie? Oh thank goodness you are here!" another girl, a little older than Jasmine, came running onto the pebbled pathway of the garden.

"Greetings , you must be Jasmine Rosetta Snowflakes. I am Lucy-Jane, or you may call me Luce." said the brown eyed girl before Jasmine. "This way."

She led the new girl to a small cabin to get changed. Jasmine felt extremely uncomfortable with her long waves of hair in a cap and she immensely disliked the ugly servant's dress, made of rough navy cotton with a white apron that smelt of stale coffee. Nevertheless she followed Luce in to a sunny patch of the overgrown part of the garden where a line of identical wooden cabins stood by.

"You are sharing your room with me." Lucy told her briskly.

Jasmine had expected nothing too fancy; after all, she was a scullery maid. But this??? The inside of the log cabins, which turned out to be the servant's quarters, smelt of freshly mown grass mixed with mouldy cookie crumbs. It was cramped in there because of the bunk bed that took up the whole space, and in the remaining part of the space were two small drawers to put their clothes in.

"Isn't it a little… too small for two people?" Jasmine asked awkwardly.

"Stop complaining and start unpacking! We are late for Princess Kirstin's tea already!" snapped Lucy-Jane.

I definitely don't want to be on the wrong side of Luce, she thought.

"Alright, alright…" Jasmine muttered back. Trying very hard not to snap back at her bossy roommate, Jasmine tried to engage the other into a friendly conversation. "So who's Princess Kirstin?" she asked.

"You don't know who Princess Kirstin is? Oh yeah, you are new aren't you? She is the fiancé of the Crown Prince, Prince James. She is adorable, but... Never mind! Come on, we should be tidying her room by now. Maybe we'll get to see her if we are early." Luce answered rather stiffly.

There was definitely something in her voice that Jasmine couldn't locate.

After a lot of wading through thorny rose bushes and twisting marble corridor, they were at the Northern tower. Panting and sweaty, Jasmine gasped,

"C-c-could we g-go a l-little slower, please?"

"We're nearly there." was all Luce said before she dragged the blond girl up yet another flight of stairs.

Finally, Jasmine thought, we are here. The two maids opened a gigantic polished door and Jasmine gasped in surprise.

"It's beautiful! Wow! Look at that huge silk draping on the bed! And the carpet is… so fluffy and bouncy!" squealed Jasmine, her green eyes glittering as she kicked off her hideous servants' shoes and started rolling and jumping on the carpet. It reminded her of her tree house she used to live in. It had a carpet like this, too.

"Get off! The princess might be here soon!" said Luce half-heartedly. She sounded like she longed to join the giggling girl and feel some softness on her blistered feet, too.

"C'mon!" the green eyed girl shrieked.

Suddenly the door opened and there stood a tall boy of eighteen, dark haired and dark eyed, undeniably handsome but an air of mischief in his smile.

"Y-your M-majesty!! I, I can explain…" squeaked Lucy.

"There is no need, Lucy-Jane. So you must be the new maid! Nice to see you,..."

"Jasmine." Jasmine said, her chin raised. I must look quite foolish with my hair sliding out of my bun and one of my shoes dangling from my finger, Jasmine thought, but the prince just looked amused.

"Nice to meet you, Jasmine. I am Prince James IVV of the Kingdom of Siglass." He reached out to shake my hand and Lucy looked scandalised, almost jealous.

Jealous?? Hmmm…

I felt the door open again and standing in the doorway was a beautiful girl with sun-ripen wheat golden blond hair and piercing sapphire blue eyes, staring at me curiously through her long curly eyelashes. She was extremely pretty and about the same age as the prince. Then she smiled a most dazzling smile at me and shyly curtsied towards the prince. Then in a soft voice she said,

"Good afternoon, Prince James. Hello, Jasmine Snowflakes. You must be my new personal assistant."