The Princess Sisters (The Princess Sisters Series) (18 page)

Chapter
Twenty-Eight

Friday,
September 3rd

The
next couple weeks felt long and painful for the Princess sisters.  One Friday
morning Aurora slowly rolled out of bed.  She wasn’t nearly as excited about going
to school as she once thought she’d be.  She forced her heavy feet down the
hall and to the bathroom where she found Ariel, still in pajamas, brushing her
teeth.

“Hey,”
she said, and sat down on top of the closed toilet.

Ariel
leaned forward, spitting into the sink.  “Hey,” she replied, just as gloomily.

“What
are we going to do today?”

“I’m
trying not to think about it.  I’m just focusing on the fact that after it’s
over, we have three days of freedom!”

Rachel
peered her head into the bathroom, stopping their conversation in its tracks. 
“You aren’t dressed yet?!”

“I
don’t feel good,” Aurora said.

“Look,
I know you two don’t want to go back after everything that has happened, but you’re
going to have to work it out somehow.  Now hurry and get ready!  I’m driving
carpool this morning and you better not make me late for work!”

“Love
you too,” Aurora said sarcastically, after Rachel had left.

“Ladies
and gentlemen, our mother,” Ariel added, pulling a brush through the bird’s
nest tangles in her hair.

Aurora
went back to their shared bedroom and grudgingly began getting dressed for the
day.  Half an hour later she sat beside Belle and Cinderella in the backseat
while Rachel honked the horn for the third time.  Ariel turned around from the front
and looked at the girls in the backseat.

“Maybe
she finally convinced Elizabeth to let her quit,” she said.

Aurora
found herself staring at the whitewash door, wishing it would remain shut.  If
Snow White took long enough, maybe they wouldn’t make it to school.  But just
as she sat there, burning her thoughts into the wood, the door swung open and
Snow White finally emerged from her house.

The
drive to school took no time at all and before she knew it, Aurora found
herself in first period Geometry.  As she sat near the front, Aurora could feel
thirty pairs of eyes burning into the back of her neck.  She hadn’t slept well
at all, which wasn’t uncommon, and this particular day she felt especially
tired.  Who knew not talking to people all week could be so exhausting?        But
Aurora ripped her eyes back open and tried desperately to concentrate. 
What
is this lady? A robot?
she thought to herself as she tried to make sense of
her droning voice.  She took to doodling on the top of her notebook in an
attempt to focus her mind on the lesson.  No matter what, she would not give in
to what these kids were all hoping to see; or hear rather, if she happened to
scream as she jerked awake.  She wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of
confirming all the rumors.  The teacher paused; she was a younger woman with a
blonde bob, not at all the boring, stiff person Aurora would have pictured for
a math teacher.  Unfortunately, Aurora had such a hard time with math that she
still didn’t understand anything she was saying.  Then the teacher turned to
face the class.

“I
know Ms. Princess is nice to look at, but would you all mind focusing on me now
instead please?” she asked.

The
class jumped in unison and Aurora’s cheeks turned pink.  But she was grateful
to her teacher all the same.

***

Cinderella
and Belle had first period gym together.  They stood in the locker room,
talking quietly together as they changed into their T-shirts and yoga pants.

“I
hate having gym first!” Belle was saying.  “It makes you feel gross the rest of
the day!”

Cinderella
looked around and noticed several girls across from them would glance at her
and then whisper.

“Cindy? 
Did you hear what I said?” Belle asked, looking at her.  She followed
Cinderella’s gaze and saw the gossiping gaggle.  “Just ignore them,” Belle
whispered to Cinderella as she sat down and began tying her shoes.

Cinderella
gave Belle a weak smile and nodded.  She unbuttoned her jeans and slid them off
in preparation to switch to yoga pants as quickly as possible.  But as soon as
her pants came down the other girls burst out laughing, not even trying to hide
it this time.  Belle was on her feet in a split second.

“What
is wrong with you?” she shouted right in their faces.  “There is nothing weird
about my cousin!  All the crap you read about us was just that: Crap!”

The
girls walked away from Belle towards the gym, but they continued to giggle
anyway.

Cinderella
and Belle finally joined the others in the gym right as the bell rang.  Coach
Rucker had them getting into teams of six to start volleyball.  And, as luck
would have it, Cinderella and Belle were immediately separated and sent to
teams on opposite sides of the gymnasium.  Belle took a deep breath and pulled
her shoulders up tall as she got in position to serve the ball.  A couple boys
on the opposing team began snickering.  Belle tossed the ball into the air and
hit it as hard as she could.  The volleyball sailed forward and smacked into
the center of the net.  Out of the corner of her eye, she could still see the
two boys whispering.  Belle tried to shake her head clear, but the next serve
wasn’t much better.  The ball went to the other team, and Belle began looking
around the large, open room.  She wanted to find anything to distract her eyes
and her mind from the jackals across the net.  There were brightly decorated
posters hanging in various places around the gym.  They each advertised a
different Homecoming activity that would take place in a couple weeks, the last
one being the Homecoming dance.  Belle narrowly missed the volleyball that had
flown right past her head as she stood daydreaming about the dance.  How she
wanted to go!  But she knew there was no chance she’d be asked now.

Then,
as if they were reading her mind, or perhaps following her gaze, one of the
boys spoke up as his team rotated positions.  “Hey Belle, want to go to
Comehoming with me?”  Then he and his friend proceeded to laugh like hyenas.

“Stupid
toads,” she whispered under her breath.

***

Snow
White jumped up from her seat the second the bell rang, signaling the end of
first period.  She hurried down the hall towards her locker to deposit an
armful of heavy books.  Her next class was on the other side of the building,
so she had to walk fast to make it to her locker before going all the way to
choir.  As she turned the dial to the final number and lifted up on the latch,
about two dozen red apples came tumbling out and bounced around her feet.  The
hall was pretty crowded now with students hurrying to their next class and
several of them stopped and laughed as Snow White frantically dodged the apples
from raining down on her toes.  She slammed her locker shut, without depositing
any books, and ran towards the girl’s bathroom.

***

Ariel
sat at a long table towards the back of the cafeteria waiting for her cousins
to arrive.  Belle came walking up, plastic tray in hand.

“So
how was your morning?” she asked.

“Not
great,” Ariel said.  “During swimming, Coach said I have to suck it up and get
in the water or she’s going to fail me!”  She closed her eyes and slammed her
head onto her folded arms.

“Oh
man, that sucks!” Belle replied.  She put a comforting hand on Ariel’s shoulder. 
“We’ll help you,” she added, in a softer voice.

“In
junior high, Coach Robbins always let me do extra credit work to make up for
not swimming.”

Cinderella
and Aurora came walking up to the table at that moment.  “Have you guys seen
Snow?” Cinderella asked.  “She never showed up to choir.”

“Uh-oh,”
the other three said in unison.  They all quickly got up from the table,
leaving their uneaten food in its place.  They ran into three different
bathrooms, pushing open stall doors as they went, with no luck.  Then as they
entered the fourth bathroom, they could hear sniffling coming from the farthest
stall.

“Snow?”
Cinderella asked quietly.

The
stall door opened a crack and Snow White’s red puffy eyes peered out at them.

“Oh
Snow!” Ariel said.  She walked up to her cousin and threw her arms around her. 
The others followed suit until they looked like a giant ball of Princess.

“What
happened?” Aurora asked.

“Apples...in
my locker.  They fell out and I looked like an idiot trying to dodge them from
hitting me!  Everyone laughed.”

“We
have got to do something!” Cinderella said.  “This is just stupid!”

“You
got any ideas?” Belle asked.

“Yeah,
actually,” she said.  “Our whole lives we’ve been running away from anything
that has to do with our namesakes.  But why?”

“I
don’t even remember,” Aurora said.

“So
I think we need to embrace it instead.  You know, act like we’re in on the
joke.”

“I’m
not following,” Snow White sniffed.

“Let’s
go to the mall after school,” Cinderella said.  “And I’ll show you what I mean.”

***

Cinderella
stared at her reflection in the glass.  She tried to smooth down the fly-away
hairs that were trying to escape from her head, but this only seemed to attract
more static.  Instead, she tucked her long brown hair safely behind both ears. 
Cinderella then took a deep breath and stepped forward into the open doorway. 
Her hands shook and her heart began to pound.  Her face felt warm, like a fire
slowly rising up from somewhere inside.  Her throat was dry and scratchy. 
Cinderella tried to continue forward, but her feet appeared to have put down
roots.

“Come
on, what are you waiting for?” Belle asked, pushing her from behind.

The
others rushed past her toward the many aisles of brightly colored shoes.  There
were boots of all lengths and styles, sneakers of every color, and more strappy
sandals than one person could wear in a year!  Cinderella shook her head clear
and stepped over to a display with many delicate looking shoes that sparkled in
the light.  She picked up a pair of hot pink slip-ons that were intricately
decorated with pink sequins.  Fine white thread was sewn around the shoes,
pulling the sequins together to form little flower petals.  Tiny jade beads
surrounded the flowers to create stems and leaves.  Cinderella held the shoes
up for her cousins to see.

“These
are perfect!” she said.

“So
people are going to stop making fun of you because of these?” Snow White seemed
skeptical.

“Not
because of these,” Cinderella said.  “But they are a start.”

Aurora
appeared at her side with a pair of silver sandals that sparkled.  The glittery
strap wound its way around the ankle, like ballet slippers.

“See,
Aurora’s got the idea,” Cinderella nodded her approval.

The
four cousins scattered and combed the store for the girliest looking shoes they
could find.  They returned to Cinderella whenever they had found a competitor
and added them to the pile.  Cinderella had forgotten how much fun shoe
shopping could be!  She found herself surrounded by a wall of boxes in a matter
of minutes, and delighted in every pair as she placed them on her feet. 
Cinderella left the store with six new pairs of shoes.  As they walked out
toward the parking lot, she wore the pink shoes on her feet and a huge smile on
her face.  She felt happy and confident that this was the beginning of
something good.

Dana
stood outside her car, waiting for the Princess sisters to emerge from the
mall.  When she saw Cinderella walking towards her, boots in hand and feminine
shoes on her feet, she was overjoyed!  She ran over to her daughter, picked her
up in a hug and swung her around like she did when Cinderella was a toddler.

“Ummm…Mom?”

“Sorry
sweetie!” Dana said, landing her feet on the ground.  “I’m just so excited!”

“They’re
just shoes Mom,” Cinderella replied.

Dana
desperately wanted to say something like, “I know, I’ve been trying to tell you
that for years!” But she held her tongue.