“I am the king of the playground!” The young boy announced, only four years old, as he stood on the top of the wooden castle (well, only a castle in his mind). “My name is King Pacey J Witter and all of you are my subjects!”

“Who made you king?” a blonde haired boy asked. “My name is Will Krudski and I am the king of the playground!”

Pacey jumped off his castle and attacked the intruder. The two of them tumbled onto the ground, fighting for a while until Will got a lucky blow and King Witter was defeated.

“I am the king of the playground.” Will gloated.

Pacey slunk off, humiliated at his defeat.

“I am too the king of the playground.” Pacey grumbled as he kicked a few stones.

“Yes you are.” agreed a soft, feminine voice. “I’m Joey Potter.”

“Joey is a boy’s name.” Pacey protested.

“Is not. You take that back!” The girl demanded, her chin trembling. “Besides what type of name is Pacey?”

Pacey stared at the little brown haired girl with the fiery eyes and decided he liked her. “Pacey’s a good name. And so is Joey. I like your name Joey Potter.”

The girl blushed a little and smiled a full, toothy white smile at Pacey. Pacey decided he liked the girl’s smile.

“Stupid Will.” Pacey frowned remembering his lost crown.

“Don’t worry.” Joey commiserated. “He can’t be the real king of the playground because everyone knows to be a king you have to have a queen.”

“Will you be my queen?” Pacey asked Joey.

“Of course. And tomorrow we’ll get the crown back from Will.” Joey stated.

“King Pacey Witter and Queen Joey Potter.” Pacey announced and decided he liked the sound of those words.

*****

He crept slowly and quietly behind her, sneaky. He glanced around careful in case any adults might be watching. Coast clear. His hands moved up towards the tempting strands of brown. It was an urge he had that he couldn’t resist, couldn’t deny. Besides it was going to be so much fun to see her reaction.

She felt the tugging of one of her pigtails, painful and sharp. Without even looking ten-year old Joey Potter knew who had perpetrated the crime.

“Pacey Witter!” she screamed in outrage.

The slightly chubby faced young boy stuck his tongue out at her and stood there, arms crossed and smug. Angered beyond belief Joey rushed forward and pushed him down onto ground before running in the other direction as the boy got up and began chasing her.

*****

Her school books were heavy and carefully trying to juggle them in one hand while her other hand flicked her hair out of her face, Joey Potter walked along the hallways of Capeside High. There were too many school books to carry. Maybe if she didn’t do so well in school Joey might have less books to carry. Of course the option of not doing well wasn’t even a consideration. Joey sighed and stumbled onwards with her load.

Suddenly out of nowhere she felt two hands lighten the weight she was carrying.

“Hey!” Joey cried in protest. “Give those back to me, Witter!”

“Never!” came the defiant yell as the brown haired sixteen-year-old boy ran off with Joey’s school books.

With a scream, announcing war, Joey took off at his heels.

Once again Pacey Witter had struck again resulting in a furious Joey Potter chasing after him.

*****

They lay on the hammocks, an opened book lying on the deck, holding hands and looking out at sea.

“I think I could stay here forever.” Joey whispered.

“What happened to going back to Capeside and graduating?” Pacey teased. “Not that I don’t like your idea. In fact I’m in complete and utter favor of it.”

“Oh we’re going back to Capeside. It’s just that I could stay here forever with you by my side. It’s an absolutely perfect day. The sea is calm. The sky is blue and clear. The sun is shining and there’s just a hint of a breeze. On a day like today I can see forever.”

“And what do you see, oh wise one?”

“I see us Pace. I see us.”

*****

“Pacey J Witter, are you listening to me?” Joey Potter demanded.

“Yes mum.” The twenty-year-old man/boy mocked.

“Pacey! You’re going to be late for class! It’s a wonder how you managed to pass high school and your first few years of college with this attitude.”

“C’mon Jo. Five more minutes.” Pacey pleaded.

“If I give you five more minutes, you’ll be demanding another five and then another five. Now get out of bed!”

“You’re such a slave driver.” Pacey complained to his roommate.

“Maybe but what with you do without me.”

“Sleep in.” came the retort.

Joey rolled her eyes. “I don't know how I got to become the girlfriend of such a smart-aleck, slack ass.”

“That’s because you love me.”

“No I think it’s because I’m eyeing the Nobel Prize for humanitarian work. I’m doing society a huge favor by making sure you don’t cause too much trouble. You’re a natural disaster in your own right, Pace.” She grinned as she leaned over to give her boyfriend a kiss. “C’mon sweetie, you’ve got class.”

“You know it’s all your fault I can never wake up early anyway.” Pacey pointed out.

“And why is that?”

“If you didn’t always insist on making wild passionate monkey luuurve all through the night then I wouldn’t be so tired in the morning. Of course not that I can blame you. After all who cane resist this luuuurrrve machine!”

Joey rolled her eyes, grabbed a pillow and began beating Pacey with it. “Get out of be now!”

“You know I love it when you play dominatrix!”

Quickly Pacey jumped out of bed as his girlfriend began hitting him with the pillow in earnest and chased him out of the room.

*****

“So what do you think?” Joey asked excitedly.

“Marriage.” The word came out slowly from Pacey mouth as if he was testing the sound and feel of it. “Marriage. It’s kind of sudden isn’t it?”

“We’ll be thirty in a few years time...” Joey reminded Pacey.

Pacey shrugged to indicate that age shouldn’t be a factor.

“For another thing we have been living together for over five years now. And besides, haven’t you ever pictured us growing old together?” Joey queried. “Gray hair, sitting side by side as we complain and grumble about the deterioration of society and how things were never like this in the good ol’ days.”

“Of course I have.” Pacey stated.

“Then what’s so surprising about marriage? It’s essentially the same thing. Picturing or imagining you’ll spend the rest of your life with someone.”

“There’s nothing surprising about marriage Jo. It’s just that I never expected you’d ask me.”

“And why not? Women are liberated now. We can vote. We have equal rights. And we can most certainly ask our boyfriend of nine years to marry us.”

“Oh I know. And I agree. It’s just that said-boyfriend of nine years was planning on surprising you on Friday night with a marriage proposal. Of course you just had to ruin my plan, didn’t you Potter.” Pacey shook his head.

“You were not going to ask me to marry you!” Joey exclaimed.

Silently Pacey walked to their bedroom, opened their closet, rummaged around before producing a tiny black box.

“Open it.” He instructed Joey.

Carefully she opened the box, still not quite believing the turn of events.

“Marry me Jo. You know my past and you belong in my present and you are my future. Like when we were kids and you promised to be my queen because the King of the playground was in need of one. Or how I used to tease you relentlessly, stealing your books because I didn’t know how to express or what to do with the strange fuzzy feelings I was developing for you. Or how you would spend most nights in my dorm and I would wake up with you in my arms. And the nights that we were apart you would come into my room in the morning and deliberately wake me up because you knew I would sleep in and miss class. I remember everything, sweetheart. I remember the menage-a-trois snails. I remember sailing away for 3 months with you and every single glorious day of it. I remember the night we first made love, how your eyes were wide and full of love and feeling as we shared the most intimate experience ever. I remember you. In some way or another you’ve been in my life and I don’t want to live a moment without you, Jo.”

He paused to take a breath and Joey crouched down to the kneeling Pacey on the floor. Her fingers trailed over his mouth and then she kissed him lightly, just the slightest brush of lips. She took his hand and rested it against her chest; he could feel the beating of her heart.

“My true love.” She whispered.

She took the small, delicate diamond ring out of the box and placed it on her left hand and with that Josephine Lillian Potter agreed to marry Pacey J Witter.

A king and his queen.