Ariel walked through the town uneasily, trying to ignore the many faces that were staring at her. She had only been married for about a week, and reality was coming back to her. The fairytale state she had been in the last month was slowly disappearing, and she realized what she was in for in her marriage to Eric.

These people had never seen a mermaid before, and she knew that was why they stared at her. The stares made her uncomfortable, but what was worse was hearing the snippets of conversation about her.

"Can you believe the prince married a fish?"

"There's no way she knows how to be a princess!"

"I think everyone pressured Prince Eric too much into getting married."

"Their marriage was so rushed!"

"That siren tricked the prince into marrying her!"

And the worst of all:

"She doesn't belong here."

Ariel had to fight back tears when she went out in public alone. If she was with Eric, she was fine; no one would dare insult the prince's wife when he was in ear's reach. But once she was alone, Ariel was simply an outsider and a target for criticism.

A majority of the people thought of her in that way, she knew: a crazy siren who put a spell on the prince, forcing him to make her his princess. She constantly told herself not to let it bother her, but how could it not? She was planning on spending the rest of her life here; how could she go through years and years and YEARS of people disliking her? If they couldn't accept her, how could she believe that Eric truly accepted her the way she was?

But how could she blame them? They were right anyway, weren't they? She wasn't the type of person to be a princess. She wasn't the type of person that could be a princess. She was a mermaid, and she always would be. The only reason she even had legs was because of magic. She wasn't a true human.

She continued walking, shutting her eyes tight in hope to block out the hushed voices. Would she ever be accepted? Would people ever respect her the way that Eric did? She didn't know, and she was almost afraid to find out.

With all these worries surging through her mind, the "princess" continued on her journey, feeling like the loneliest, most unaccepted person in the world.