The Princess Sisters (The Princess Sisters Series) (20 page)

Chapter
Thirty-One

Wednesday,
September 8th

Wednesday
morning, Snow White sat watching the clock slowly tick each second of her first
period away.  She wasn’t paying attention to the teacher at all, and wasn’t
even sure what subject they were covering today.  Her left hand was busily
twirling a strand of red hair around her index finger while her right fingers
tapped out a rhythm on her desk.  Snow White stiffened when she saw where the
minute hand was headed.  Three…two…one…even though she was expecting it, Snow
White still jumped when the bell rang.  She got to her feet, heart pounding,
and quickly made her way to the lockers.  Her stomach felt as if it were
working on a merit badge for knot-tying!  She and Cinderella had gotten to
school really early to set everything up.  But now as the moment of truth was
approaching, her hands shook involuntarily.  Snow White reached up and turned
the combination on the lock, then yanked open her locker door.  A dozen or so
apples came falling out at her feet and Snow White jumped back to avoid
collision with her toes.  Several students had stopped in the hallway and
watched, waiting for Snow White’s reaction.  A few boys nudged each other,
grinning, and several other girls had to stifle giggles.  Taking a deep breath,
she bent down and picked up one of the apples.  Snow White brought it to her
lips and took a big bite, crunching loudly.

“Mmmm,
that’s pretty good!” she said, and she closed her locker and walked away,
leaving her audience behind in stunned silence.

Snow
White met up with Cinderella in the girls’ bathroom at the far end of the
hall.  She walked in and, after making sure no one else was in sight, she made
a face and threw the remainder of the apple in the trash.

“So?”
Cinderella asked.

“Nobody
laughed this time,” Snow White said, still a little shakily.

“I’m
proud of you Snow!” Cinderella said, giving her shoulder a squeeze.

Snow
White said nothing, but gave her cousin a weak smile in return.

“We
better hurry or we’re gonna be late for choir,” Cinderella said, reaching for
the door.

“You
go ahead, I’ll catch up in a sec,” Snow White responded.

After
she was gone, Snow White heaved into the trash can and then followed after
Cinderella to their next class.

***

After
school, the Princess sisters walked across the street over to the Surf N’ Swim
to help Ariel practice.

“Oh
man, I wish I could have been there to see their faces!” Aurora said.

“It
was pretty great!” Snow White admitted.  “Although, for a little while there, I
almost didn’t think I could do it.”

“I
knew you could!” Cinderella said.  Then turning to Ariel she asked, “You’re
being awfully quiet, everything okay?”

 But
Ariel didn’t hear anything.  It was her turn now for her stomach to join the
boy scouts, as it twisted and turned into knots.

“Ari?”
Aurora asked, touching her sister’s arm.

Ariel
jerked out of her trance.  “Huh?” she asked, looking up.

“Are
you going to be okay?”

“Yes,”
she said, after taking a deep breath.  “I can do this.”

Aurora
put her arm around Ariel’s shoulder as they walked inside the building and paid
their $3 to enter the pool.  The girls changed into their swimming suits and
shoved everything, including backpacks, into the small lockers that were
provided.  Aurora locked arms with Ariel, to prevent any attempts at escape,
and guided her out the heavy door from the girls’ locker room.  They felt the
rush of cool air as they momentarily stood outside, between the building and
the bubble.  Now that summer was over, the pool had a giant hot-air bubble over
it so people could still swim in the fall and winter months.  Then they pushed
their way through the rotating doorway and felt the burst of hot moisture
against their bare skin.

“So
this is what humidity feels like,” Belle said, waving a hand in front of her
face like a fan.  “I think I’ll pass.”

“You’ll
get used to it,” Cinderella said, playfully shoving the drama queen forward.

Ariel
stood still, keeping the exit within reach, as the other four moved forward and
into the water.

“Come
on Ari!” Snow White called.  “If I can eat an apple and put on a show for 30
students, you can definitely do this!”

Ariel
smiled.  “Just give me a minute,” she said.

Belle
leaned in to Aurora and whispered something in her ear.  Aurora grinned and
nodded.  Then the two of them emerged from the water and went to stand on
either side of Ariel.  They linked arms with her and slowly started forward
towards the shallowest part of the water.  Ariel immediately went rigid and
tried to dig her heels into the concrete.  Belle and Aurora stopped.

“We
aren’t going to force you in,” Aurora said.

“We
are just here to help you get there,” Belle added.  “And to make sure you don’t
back out,” she said, after a short pause.

Ariel
still didn’t budge.

“Think
of a fish,” Aurora said.

Ariel
gave her a funny look.

“Fish
can’t be out of the water, or they’ll die.  So just channel a fish.”

“Be
one with the fish,” the others chanted.

This
made Ariel smile.  Then she sighed and squeezed her eyes shut, allowing the two
girls to guide her forward again.  Ariel gasped when the water rushed around
her ankles, but she kept her eyes shut tight.  Her arms tightened, holding on
to her cousins for support, when the water splashed around her knees.  Then she
began to feel light-headed when the semi-warm water made contact with her
swimsuit and the waves moved up to her waist.  Belle and Aurora felt Ariel go
limp and they put their other hands under her arms to keep her from
collapsing.  They also stopped moving forward and stood still in the pool,
allowing the water to swirl and splash past them.  Very slowly, Ariel opened
her eyes.  First she saw Snow White and Cinderella standing directly in front
of her, encouraging smiles lit up their faces.  Then she made the mistake of
looking down.

“It’s
okay!  It’s okay!” Aurora soothed, stroking her arm as Ariel fought to get
away.

“How
did Dave keep you calm in the water?” Cinderella asked, moving forward and
placing her hands on Ariel’s shoulders.  Ariel was forced to look directly into
her face, and she felt her heart rate slowly return to normal.

“He
distracted me by kissing me,” Ariel said.

“Oh
yeah…..Snow?” Belle said, gesturing toward Ariel with an outstretched palm.

“Gross!”
Snow White said, backing up.

“Are
you sure?  I’m wearing cherry chapstick!” Ariel added, unable to resist.

That
seemed to do the trick.  The Princess sisters all started laughing hysterically
and Ariel was soon able to relax.  She even sat on a tube and allowed Aurora to pull her deeper into the water.  She got a little nervous when the siren went
off and the waves began rocking her tube, but another kissing reference toward
Snow White, and the girls relapsed into a fit of giggles.

Ariel
lasted about an hour playing in the water, and then she was ready to go.  To
all her cousins’ amazement, she even jumped off the tube and walked back
through the water towards the exit without anyone’s help.  Ariel sat on the
steps leading to the shallow end of the pool with her feet in the water.  She
bent in half so her chest was resting against her knees and swished the water
around with her hand.  She created a cup with her hand and filled it with
water.  Then, raising her hand-cup to eye level, she tipped it to the side and
watched as the water slowly poured from her palm.  Ariel had never noticed
before how pretty water could be.  As she scooped a second cupful and then let
the water cascade over her fingertips, it caught the light overhead, creating a
tiny rainbow.  She continued to play in the shallow water while her cousins
dove headfirst into the waves and screamed and splashed in the deep end.

When
they were all worn out, with hands and feet like prunes, the other girls joined
Ariel and prepared to leave.

“You
made a lot of progress today!” Aurora said to her sister.

“I
know!” Ariel said.  “And you know what?  Maybe water isn’t so scary after all”

“Really?!”
Belle exclaimed.

“Well,”
Ariel said.  “It will still probably take awhile for me to be completely
comfortable playing like you all were, but I’ll get there.”

Chapter
Thirty-Two

Thursday,
September 9th

Thursday
morning, Aurora sat in her math class, head resting on her folded arms.  Her
blonde and red hair kept falling across her face, threatening to tickle her
nose.  She closed her eyes and pretended to fall asleep.  She thought back to
when Dave had helped her in the car.  She concentrated on her breathing and
made her body relax, pretending someone was massaging her temples again.  But
she remained focused intently on what her teacher was saying, so her fake
sleeping wouldn’t become a reality.  She spent the last two days pretending to
fall asleep in different classes.  Aurora was very careful to only play this
little trick in one class each day, otherwise it would be obvious what she was
doing and the other students would catch on.

Aurora
could feel the eyes of several students burning into her back, but she remained
breathing, slow and steady, so it would look like she was asleep.  Even though
her eyes were shut tight, she could feel the movement around her.  Aurora could almost picture the guys sitting behind her, nudging each other and pointing,
just waiting for her to verify the rumors.  But Aurora remained strong.  After
ten minutes, she decided it had been long enough.  She sat up slowly and rubbed
the fake sleep from her eyes.  Then she stretched her arms over the front of
the desk and stretched her legs after sitting up.  Aurora casually glanced
around her before rubbing a hand over the cheek that had been resting on her
arms.  She could tell by the whispers around her that some of the kids were
disappointed.  She had fallen asleep
and
she didn’t even jerk awake,
like many had been anticipating.  Those hoping for a show got nothing.

Mission
accomplished
, Aurora thought, smiling to herself.

After
class, she hurried to meet up with her cousins to tell them of her success. 
She turned a corner, and looked up.  Dave was standing right in front of her. 
He gave her a weak smile and opened his mouth to say something, but Aurora gave him a dirty look in return and walked right passed without uttering a word.

***

Belle
sat leaning back against her plastic chair, feet stretched out under the desk
in front of her, and crossed at the ankles.  Her English teacher, Mrs.
Trelease, was going on about their reading assignment from the week before;
Romeo
and Juliet
.  Belle hated Shakespeare!  His stories were fun and all, but
she preferred them in movie form.  Nothing was harder to read than Shakespeare,
especially in front of the class!  They were going to be watching the movie in
class on Friday and Belle couldn’t wait!  She liked the classes when she could
just sit back and not have to do anything.  But first she had to take the
permission slip home saying her mom didn’t mind if she watched a movie that
showed a little nudity.

Belle
began studying Mrs. Trelease as she continued to babble on about the film.  She
was actually a fairly young teacher, in her early thirties.  She had short hair
that bobbed around her head in tight, brown curls.  Her brown eyes matched her
hair almost exactly.  Belle had never really noticed how tiny she was before,
but as Mrs. Trelease continued pacing back and forth in front of the
whiteboard, she looked at her skinny frame with new eyes.  Her wrists weren’t
much thicker than Belle’s cell phone, and her ankles, poking out today under
her zebra-striped skirt, were just as thin.  She liked to walk between the
desks with a yard stick in her hand, craning her long, slender neck over the
sea of shaggy hair in search of snoozers.  If she ever caught one, she’d slam
the ruler down on their desk right next to the perpetrator’s head, jolting them
awake.  Then she and the rest of the students would pause and laugh before
continuing on with the lesson.  Mrs. Trelease was a fun teacher to have for
English, or any subject for that matter.  She had the energy of a
four-year-old, always talking loudly and bouncing excitedly around the
classroom.  Maybe that’s why Belle had never really paid attention to her
stature; Mrs. Trelease never held still long enough for her to notice!   

Finally,
Mrs. Trelease was done talking about the movie and had moved on to discussing
the play itself.  She thought it would be fun to have some students come up in
front of the class and read key parts from each act. 
Oh joy
, Belle
thought to herself, a lump rising in her throat.  This was the moment she had
been practicing for.  The reason she was suffering through her tutoring
sessions with Dave, as well as practicing every single night alone in her
bedroom, ever since that heinous poster had been displayed on the first day of
school.  Belle sat up straight, nervously tucking her legs under her own chair
now.  She gulped and then slowly raised her hand in the air.

“Yes,
Belle?” Mrs. Trelease asked.

“Oh,”
she said, looking around.  “I just wanted to volunteer to read.”

There
was an audible gasp from several of the other students, which quickly turned to
a low thunder-like murmur that carried through the classroom.  The teacher
hushed her students and after regaining control, she smiled down at Belle.

“Wonderful!”
she said.  “Why don’t you come up here and be our Juliet.”

Belle
quickly got to her feet and moved to the front of the room.  She was afraid
moving slowly would only make her rethink what she was about to do.  Right now
she needed the adrenaline and, with any luck, for the fire alarm to go off so
she wouldn’t have to continue.

“Now,
who would like to be our Romeo?” Mrs. Trelease asked, eyeing her pupils.

Belle
may have been pushed to the bottom of the social ladder by Cynthia’s cruel
words, but there was no denying she was still beautiful.  Every male hand in
the classroom went up.  Each hormone-driven boy was hoping for a chance to
reenact that fateful final scene when Romeo gets to kiss Juliet as she lies on a
table, unmoving.

Unfortunately
for the Romeo chosen, a shorter boy with sandy blonde hair and chestnut eyes, Mrs.
Trelease didn’t have any intentions of hosting a make-out session in her
classroom.  She simply had the readers stand in a line at the front of the room
and recite lines straight from the text.

“Everyone
please turn to the beginning of act two, scene two,” Mrs. Trelease said,
walking in between two rows of desks and stopping at the back of the room.  “I
know, I know,” she said in response to the accompanying groans.  “This scene is
over-done and you’ve all heard it a million times.  But there’s a reason these
are some of the best-known lines in this play.  Just hang in there for one
measly scene, and then we can move on to whatever you guys want, deal?”  Most
of the students nodded their agreement, and she continued.  “Romeo, go ahead,”
she said, waving a fairy-like finger in his direction.

“But
soft, what light through yonder window breaks?  It is the east, and Juliet is
the sun,” he began.

Belle
was glad they had started with an easy scene.  She’d heard these lines quoted
in movies and on TV shows often enough before that she was familiar with the
lines.  Even when the words jumbled together a little, Belle knew what they
were supposed to say, and was able to fudge her way through the scene with very
few mistakes.  Belle read slowly and deliberately, taking her time with each
famous word.  The few times she did stumble, she recovered quickly and
smoothly, without any negative feedback from the class.  After finishing the
scene, Mrs. Trelease allowed her actors to take their seats and asked for new
volunteers to take their places.

Belle
sat down and breathed out a long, slow breath.  She wondered if she had been
holding her breath the entire time she was in front of the class, for the
amount of air that escaped through her lips.  She smiled to herself as she
resumed her relaxed position and found she rather enjoyed hearing the following
groups perform.  It was a nice feeling knowing she had taken her turn and
wouldn’t be called on for the rest of the period.

When
the bell rang, Belle got to her feet and began loading her books and notes back
into her book bag.  She saw someone approach her desk out of the corner of her
eye and looked up to find herself standing eye to eye with Mrs. Trelease.

“Can
you hang on just a minute?” she asked.

Belle
shrugged and watched as her classmates filed out of the room.

“You
did an excellent job today!” Mrs. Trelease said as soon as the last pair of
sneakers passed through the open doorway.

“Thanks,”
Belle said, smiling.

“I
mean it.  I know it’s hard for you to get in front of the class like that, but
I’m proud of you for trying.”

“Trying?”
Belle asked aloud without thinking.

“And
succeeding,” her teacher added, noticing her choice of words had seemed to
deflate Belle’s enthusiasm.

Belle
nodded.  “I’ve been practicing,” she said.  “And it really helped to do a scene
I was already familiar with,” she added, swinging her bag over her shoulder and
turning to exit.

“I
was hoping that would help,” Mrs. Trelease said.

Belle
looked back at her teacher.  Mrs. Trelease winked at her and turned to get the
whiteboard ready for her next class.

***

“What
a nosy prick!” Belle vehemently added to the end of her story, after telling
her cousins all about reading in class.  “I mean who does she think she is?”
Belle went on.  “I’ve been practicing and doing just fine without her help! 
Then suddenly
she
comes in and gives me an easier reading so
she
can look like the hero!”  Belle shook her head and then looked to her cousins
for confirmation, fire burning in her eyes.

“Don’t
worry about it,” Aurora said, brushing the incident off with her hand.

“Yeah,
you would have killed it no matter what part of the play she had you read,”
Ariel agreed, nodding.

“Really?”
Belle started to calm down, slightly.

“Most
definitely!” Cinderella said.  “You have been working so hard!  Don’t even
worry about what anyone else says or does.”

Snow
White placed her hand on Belle’s back.  “You did awesome!  And it was all you!”

“Thanks
guys,” Belle grinned a little.  Then she got up from her seat to get in line
for food.

“That
was really nice of Mrs. Trelease,” Cinderella whispered to her other cousins,
as soon as Belle was out of earshot.

“I
know!” Snow White said.

“But
we aren’t going to tell that to Belle, right?” Aurora asked.

“Oh,
gosh no!” Ariel exclaimed.  “Not unless one of you has a death wish!”  They all
vigorously nodded their agreement.