Once upon a time, there lived a perfectly ordinary princess, second youngest daughter in a family of five. Her four sisters were all extraordinarily beautiful, and each and every one of them had gone on to do something glorious with their lives, which had ended up with each and every one of them married off to a devastatingly handsome, kind, charming Prince.

Ella was beautiful, with long, curling, flowing auburn hair and green eyes, peaches-and-cream complexion without the slightest hint of a tan. She was tall for a woman, but that tended to be overlooked in light of her great beauty. She had been kidnapped from her cradle by an evil sorceress when she was young, and forced to work as a scullery maid, but her fairy godmother had come eventually and rescued her, giving her a dress as shining as the stars and a pair of glass slippers so she could go to some ball or other. This had, naturally, culminated in the Prince of the kingdom falling madly in love with her and marrying her.

Rachelle was just as beautiful as Ella, with curly light brown hair that touched the floor when it was let all the way down. Her eyes were a blue so light as to be almost white, her skin was ivory, and she was almost a full foot shorter than Ella. She had been kidnapped by a sorceress as well, and had been put in the top of a tower. She had succeeded in getting a Prince to come and rescue her, though, by manner of climbing her hair to the top of the tower, which had no door.

Aurora was sometimes said to be the most beautiful of all, with wavy blonde hair to the middle of her back, startingly blue eyes, and ivory skin. An evil sorceress hadn't kidnapped her, but had put a curse upon her, that she would die upon her sixteenth birthday. Her fairy godmother had done her best to stop the curse, so Aurora had only gone to sleep when she turned sixteen. A devastatingly handsome Prince had come along and kissed her, though, which had, of course, broken the curse. And, of course, she had married him.

Snow was the youngest, with black curls that came down to just below her shoulders, green eyes, and ivory skin, as usual. She had been kidnapped by a sorceress, but had run away, only to be taken in by seven small dwarves. The sorceress had come after her and cursed her, but a Prince had come along and kissed her, breaking the curse. So, she had married him.

Samantha was the only disappointment. She had plain, carrot red hair that refused to grow beyond the middle of her back, and plain blue eyes, not extraordinary at all. She had a tan and uncontrollable freckles, and she was almost a foot taller than even her father, which wasn't proper for a princess at all. She insisted on being called Sam, as well, despite her parent's complaints that Sam was a boy's name. She was seventeen, and her parents were beginning to despair that she would never do anything at all glorious with her life.

Her father, the King, was the most disappointed with her; after four other daughters from his first wife, he didn't see why she couldn't manage to at least get carried off by a troll and rescued by a Prince or some such. She had tried, really she had; she had even gotten carried off by a troll once, and had screamed appropriately, but the troll had really proved to be quite nice, and had let her go after she shared with him the recipe for her step-mother's headache cure.

Her step-mother did her best not to show her disappoinment with her; after all, she loved all of her step-daughters dearly, and was always very kind to them. But she had still been known to ask Sam, rather plaintatively, "Dear, couldn't you at least get kidnapped by a dragon, or...or something?"

Sam had merely sighed. "I try, Mother, really I do. But it just never seems to work out for me. Remember the troll?"

She had told the story of the troll with the headaches to her parents as soon as she had returned home, dusty from travelling all the way from the troll's cave but otherwise unharmed. Her parents had merely sighed and shook their heads, and had then begun to accept that their second youngest daughter would never do anything with her life.

Sam had accepted a long time ago that everything she tried to do would go wrong. No evil sorceresses had been present at her birth, so she didn't have a curse to break; nor had an evil sorceress kidnapped her from her cradle. There was simply nothing she could ever do.