Marie II of Acadia: Story One

Chapter Three

By my fifteenth birthday, I was almost a different person. Between medication and therapy, I was stable. I had also learned, I did not in fact have Attention Deficit Disorder, it had simply been a symptom of Bipolar Disorder.

It was the day I turned fifteen that it was announced to our country of my illness, and just as they were when I was seven, they excepted me wholeheartedly.

Thanks to my father's mental illness, which was also known to our People, our country had become the world leader in mental healthcare. All psychiatry and therapy was included in the already free healthcare system. It helped aid the acceptance of mental illness and helped move towards ending the mental stigma that existed.

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"To be a good ruler." My father explained. "You must know yourself first." We sat in his office. It was the first day of my apprenticeship. "You must know your views, beliefs, and ideals."

"How am I supposed to know who I am?" I asked him. "I am only fifteen."

"You will find yourself." He assured me. "We all do."

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I knew myself, it was true, far earlier than anyone expected, but it was difficult to come to terms with.

I had never liked boys a day in my life. Whenever I saw a man on a show or magazine cover, I felt nothing; it had always been women who excited me. But there was one woman in particular; Lady Hélène Lécuyer, one of my best friends.

How do you tell someone so dear to you that you have fallen in love with them, when you are unsure they love you back in the way you yearn for? I did not have to tell her.

"I know you are in love with me." Hélène had said one summer day in our seventeenth year. We were at Miramchi Beach, trying to hold off the heat of a humid Acadian summer. She wore a red bikini that made her beautiful blonde hair seem brighter.

When she looked at me with her deep ocean blue eyes, I was helpless. "I—I." I tried protesting, all my natural eloquence gone. "I mean of course I love you; you are one of my best friends."

I attempted to be distracted by Élise and Étienne splashing each other in the water, but Hélène grabbed my arms, and turned me towards her. When I refused to look at her, she grasped my chin and kissed me fiercely. I had never kissed anyone before, and she knew it.

It felt as though a supernova exploded within me. Without thinking, I melted into the kiss, which quickly turned into a make-out session. Kiss after kiss was as sweet as the first.

"Get a room!" Étienne yelled from the shoreline, pulling us both back to earth.

"You would never kiss Élise that way." Hélène attempted to catch her breath as she placed her forehead against mine. "I hope."

We laughed as I shook my head. "Never."