Episode one

Antonio Fernandez:

As my eyes begin to flutter open I was greeted with harsh florescent lighting. I was lying in the corner of a stark white room that made the already blinding lights even more obnoxious. As I lazily stood up, I found that the only other thing in the blinding room was a small black speaker perched just out of reach above the corner I was just sitting in. I took a seat in the middle of the room trying to recall how exactly I got to this place.

I came up short, barely recalling going to my mailbox but after that it seemed to shut out like a light. I moved my hands into my lap trying to hide the fact that they were shaking impulsively. I slowly rubbed them, realizing I had been here for more than a few days; the medicine I took to keep my ADHD habits under control seemed to be acting up more so then when I had left the pills for a week trip to Portugal last summer.

I took a deep breath trying to calm myself down, but I was interrupted as a loud voice began to boom from the speakers.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the brand new show HAPPILY EVER AFTER!"

What? I though warily. I never signed up to be on a TV show…I had students to take care of I would never have the time…

"To all of our dear contestants welcome! Now the rules of our game are simple; on the other side of the wall in front of you is your future husband or wife. All you have to do it make this lover (and the audience of course) fall in love with you and you'll be safe for the week. BUT if you can't succeed in this simple task…well let's not talk about that quite yet. Thank you for your participation and let the games begin~!"

Suddenly a wall that stood on the other side of me began to open and a silhouette began to appear. I stood dusting off my shirt ready to me the mysterious woman in front of me.

Gilbert Beilschmidt

The brightly lit doors that seemed to appear out of thin air soon revealed a stunning figure. The round hips and perfectly sized chest showed me that of a beautiful woman. She had long flowing brown hair that cascaded down her back in small waves. She had bright green eyes that seemed to glow in curiosity and a light playful smile that had me hooked immediately.

She was wearing a floral summer dress that complemented her eyes nicely and fell down her luscious legs stopping short of her knees. I walked over to her chest puffed out and ready to introduce myself.

"Hello" I bowed my head slightly knowing ladies loved that sort of princely type garbage "My name is Gilbert Beilschmidt, it's a pleasure to meet you" I kissed her hand lightly with an impish smile

"Oh um…I'm Elizabeta Héderváry, it's a pleasure to meet you as well. "She curtsied a tiny bit and we both began to laugh and ruined the charade. "Nice hair" she teased "Is it real?"

I grabbed a strand of my snow white hair grinning "It's as real as it gets. The carpets matches the drapes if you know what I mean" I laughed but I noticed her peering at me some more "My eyes are real too, I'm considered a grade A albino"

She lifted a brow and laughed softly "Oh yeah?" she walked around me in a slow circle as if scanning me "I dunno Gil, you seem more like a grade D maybe C if you actually put effort into your appearance"

I placed my fist on my heart faking being stabbed to her delight "…So cruel "I groaned with a smile.

She was about to say something but was rudely cut off by the annoying voice from the speaker.

"Now that each of you has been able to introduce yourself to your partner, you are allowed to acquaint yourself with the town you will be staying at for the time being. Oh and don't forget, we will always be watching~"

Suddenly a light brown door appeared in front of us. It came completely put of thin air and due to Elizabeta's jump once she turned around to see it, I realized I hadn't just imagined it. I took her hand slowly moving it towards the door with a confident smile. Suddenly fueled by my own confidence we both made out way to the opening.

Time seemed to stop as we ventured around the small town. I learned that Eliza had grown up in Washington State as an only child. She was a lot stronger that she appeared to be, I found this out when she wrestled a coin-in arm wrestler game on its hardest setting without breaking a single sweat. I also found out her chest was a hundred percent real (she was very proud to say this) after she had noticed one of the other girls walking past us clearly had a boob job done.

Not that I could tell.

To me boobs are boobs. Real or fake.

…Anyways, with all the questions I fired she'd shoot one back at me.

Any siblings? Nope…though I have a cousin does that count? Haha no; gay or straight? Better tell me the truth she held up a fist to my face in a joking matter but for second I really did fear for my life.

"Don't worry sweetheart, I'm bi-sexual" I tapped her hand down away from my major arteries " I don't go around breaking girls hearts" she blushed lightly when I called her sweetheart I noticed though I didn't pay too much attention to it. We continued to walk, until we stopped by an arcade across the street.

"Are you game Gil?" she teased once more. I took a triumphant pose with a large grin on my face.

"Are you ready to lose to the awesomest person on the face of the earth?" I challenged.

"You're on!" she ran towards the entrance hiking up dome of her dress and running into the arcade. I in turn ran after her into the darkened room.

The space was much larger then what it appeared to be from the outside. The machines were of the usual kind like Pac-man, Dance Dance revolution and assorted coin drop games. However there was a few gems scatter here and there like fruit ninja I thought that was an app…? a huge wheel of fortune, and a two way pinball machine. On either side of the machine sat two stools, one of which Eliza sat at.

"How do you play this?" I asked sitting anyway.

"Basically we will both get one pinball and we try to shoot it into the other person's goal. Winner is the one with the most points at the end of the game."

I pushed my two quarters into the machine on my side smirking as the game lit up. With a ding both pinballs were released and shot into play. My ball was bright red and Eliza's bright blue. Mine immediately got trapped in the bumpers bouncing around their bumpers and racking up points. Being stuck threw me into the lead but Eliza's ball went soaring on a metal rail above mine gaining double my points in less time. Unluckily for her though, her ball landed right in front of my flipper and I sent it sailing across the table back to her side.

I looked up briefly to see her face and instead of a pout face, a magnificent smile spread across her face and with one press of her button the bright blue ball went soaring back and into my pocket right in-between my flippers. The machine flashed bright colors and on Eliza's side in bright blue lit up the word winner!

I stared at the machine open mouthed and heard Elizabeta cheer for herself. I stood a tad disheveled by my loss and walked over to the girl.

"It's my turn to pick"

At this point more and more people seemed to have found the arcade and a small bundle of people had formed around the once empty fruit ninja game. I began to step in the direction to see what the fuss was about and once I reached the front I was in complete shock.

A black haired male was slicing through the fake fruit with ease earning direct hits every single time. The combos he was landing was outstanding, flawlessly avoiding the bombs and hitting every banana in his path. The game was coming to its end and the maroon pomegranate went floating across the screen and as if cutting it for real the boy hit a ninety slice combo!

"How on earth…? That's so cool! "Eliza marveled next to me.

I nodded in agreement as we dispersed like the rest of the group. I took a few steps closer to the front of the arcade finally standing triumphantly at the dance dance game. I pulled out two dollars and slid them into the machine.

"Oh come on, you know you're gonna lose at this" Elizabeta laughed stepping onto the machine. I simply smiled at her and clicked on the hardest setting. I noticed her flinch as it boomed out our setting, but I continued to type in my personal code letting the avatar I created appear on my side of the screen. Eliza also typed in her code on her side and I noticed that the small dancing figure was a spitting image of the girl. We took turns testing all of the foot controls making sure they worked on both sides and then went to work on playing the hardest song on the machine.

The song started up and the clicks from our feet echoed inside the arcade. The song blared through the speakers on either side of the machine and quickly sent up bright yellow blue and pink arrows, often at the same time. I grinned getting into the motion of the machine landing perfects every time I looked up at my own score. I grinned over at the girl next to me who was struggling to keep up until she missed one singular step, sending her into a plummeting failure that ultimately kicked her off the screen.

She stepped off the podium as I continued in the game, and I could practically feel her shocked gaze as I continued my never ending streak. Soon the song hit its peak and began to slow slightly until the last note was played and my score appeared in front of the two of us: five hundred and ninety-nine perfects and one simple miss step.

"Wow" Elizabeta breathed with a shocked grin on her face. I nodded in reply, simply too out of breath to form words at that moment. As we went through the arcade spending every dollar I owned, until we came to my last quarter.

I discreetly walked over to a small claw machine in the back feeding it my last coin. Inside sat a few lone toys and dolls but there was two I noticed immediately. There was a fairly large stuffed bear with cream colored fur and on the other side a bright red heart. With the timer moving quickly, I tried my luck for the soft looking heart but when I received it from the machine, I was instead greeted with something that well…didn't meet my expectations.

I walked back over to Eliza and gave her the toy looking away from the group from which she was sitting in.

When we left the arcade, a little while later I found that every 'set of partners' were given one room with a single king sized bed in the middle of the room. My room was with Eliza, and even though I was fine with this in the beginning, my two new drinking friends pointed out something rather distasteful to me.

"Mon ami, you know they want you to…do the thing"

"The thing…?"

"Si si, they want you to…you know…do that…and well, they did say we were always being watched remember?"

"Well… I mean if they gave me one bed they probably want me to show off that beautiful piece of woman…."my voice trailed off as I noticed the other two faces next me were looking depressed.

"She must be nice…"I heard Francis mumble to himself while taking a sip of his whiskey

"Yeah…must be great…" Antonio replied also lifting his glass to his lips.

"What's wrong with the two of you? Are you guys always like this…I mean we're being given the chance at love..! You should be excited about this…" I smiled weakly

"Well Arthur has a bit of an anger problem…he's not exactly happy to be here…" Francis winced downing another sip of his liquor

"And Lovino…Well…I'm an elementary teacher so I have to teach my students how to say better words then the ones they might overhear at home…but for Lovino it's like every other word out his mouth is an insult or a curse word…" his voice trailed off as I began to realize not everyone's happily ever after's were quite as nice as mine…

"At least they noticed you…" a voice next to me chirped. I turned around to see who had been so rudely spying on our conversation when I realized the person was in fact one of the loveliest people I had ever laid eyes on- besides myself of course.

The boy had medium length blonde hair that rolled just past his ears in neat little waves. He had light violet eyes that shone of innocence and disappointment. He had a soft face that looked like that of a doll and for a second I felt my heart stop.

This boy was gorgeous

"Why…why do you say that?" I asked clearing my throat and trying to hide my darkening blush.

"Alfred…he just doesn't know who I am as a person…when I tried to explain to him my…predicament…he just ignored me as if I was nothing. He discarded me the minute they told us we could leave…" he sighed sadly "I bet he still doesn't even know my name"

I took a sip from my beer, placed it back on the counter smiled at the boy "I doubt it. Only a complete dick would choose to ignore someone as special as you" he looked back up at me and the stains on his cheeks were positively adorable. I was ready to lean over and tell him so, but my two friends spoke before I could.

"Hon-hon how darling you look so red!"

"Si! Just like a little tomate~"

I watched as the boy blushed a deeper shade and excused himself from the bar stand. This was followed by a punch in the arm to the two idiots next to me. After leaving the two writhing on the floor I also left the bar.

Mathew (Madeline) Williams

Wherever it was that we were placed was absolutely freezing outside, I thought as the shrill wind bit at my cheeks. My lucky jacket was flapping in the night air along with my hair, rolling the strands out in a mess that would surely be tangled by the time I got back to our room. I was able to catch one and slide it behind my ears I walked into the hotel form which we were all staying at. I thought about my room.

The one I now shared with Alfred that jerk.

So maybe I hadn't told those boys my entire story, but I didn't need the kind of reaction I got from him twice. So today was a boy day was great for me, but when I tried to explain my fluidity to Alfred instead of the weak –and sometimes forced- smile I had grown accustomed to I was met with a complete disgust. Alfred had grown up in one of those; you're this way because god said so houses and it wasn't hard to see the mentality had rubbed off on him.

I sighed deeply as I stood outside of the door preparing myself for the mental torment of being shunned, but instead I felt a hand land on my shoulder. My immediate action was to jump up and duck, but instead of some angry jerk was the white haired man from the bar. He smiled at me but seemed to be out of breath so I gave him a few seconds to calm down.

Silently thankful, from as far as I could tell, the man hunched over, trying to breath and return the air back into his lungs. I noticed there was no darkened lines of hair along his the roots and that his entire head seemed to be this snowy white.

He smiled noticing my disbelief "it's all real"

I smiled lightly still not sure if I believed him.

"My name is gilbert" he said jumping in front of me and pulling out his hand. I nodded and mumbled a short "Mathew" hoping to send him the message of not wanting to be bothered at the moment.

It didn't work.

"So is today a boy day?" he asked quietly

I looked back up at him in shock, ready to fight as to why It was perfectly normal for someone to be like me and that no maybe I didn't think I was going to hell and

…wait

"Yes….?" I said quietly scanning him over "how could you tell?"

"Just sort of guessed, I mean I don't judge 'cause I think you're fine either way you put it, but your eyes sort of gave it away." He smiled brightly knowing he had hit the nail on the head.

I didn't know what to say to that. Was I supposed to tell him I was born a boy, but wanted to be a girl my entire life?

"You know, you're very beautiful- oops, sorry, you're very handsome- and if you want someone to come teach that Alfred of yours a lesson feel free to ring me up"

I smiled surprised that he was able to catch his own error.

"There it is…" he mumbled softly "I knew you had a beautiful smile…why hide it?"

Blood flooded to my cheeks and I looked down at the floor.

"Good night Gilbert" I said quickly opening the door and quickly closing it, trying to avoid being seen with my face so red.

I stood at the door waiting for him to come knocking, but instead there was a quiet good night Mathew.

You have just listened to four stories of our up and coming show "Happily Ever After". The show is about fourteen random singles that were being picked out of their boring and dreadful lives for a chance to win the ultimate happily ever after. Of course we can't just give this to them for free, each contestant must make you, the viewers, fall in love with them and their assigned partner or they will receive the marriage cut!

You the viewer will be given the opportunity to vote every episode which contestants didn't satisfy your expectations and who made your heart beat wild with passion! Watch "Happily Ever After" every Friday night; until death do us part~