The Princess Sisters (The Princess Sisters Series) (17 page)

Hear
ye, Hear ye, students of Layton High

Some
Princess Posers are trying to get by

They
think they are royalty because of their name

But
they’re nothing but frauds trying to steal some fame

Cinderella
is so afraid of losing a shoe

She
wears man boots; does she have other man parts too?

And
Belle who is supposed to be into books

Barely
can read, so she hides behind her looks

Aurora
is no beauty with bags under her eyes

She
can’t sleep at all, she’s so afraid of guys

Ariel
won’t even go near any water

What
kind of a wuss is this King Trighton’s daughter?

And
last but not least is our fat Snow White

Who
won’t eat an apple, not even a bite

So
before you get ready to stand and applaud

Look
closer behind these whores’ little fraud

Chapter
Twenty-Six

“Well,
at least it’s creative,” Mary said.  She sat beside Rachel and Dana on the
couch in her front room, holding up the bright yellow flier.

“Thanks
Mom,” Belle said, crossing her arms over her chest and giving her mother a
dirty look.

“It’s
true.  Insults have come a long way since we were in high school,” Rachel
added.

“Who
would have done this?” Elizabeth asked.  She sat on the couch across from her
sisters, her arm around Snow White’s quivering shoulders.

“It
doesn’t matter who; I just want to know why!” Aurora said.  “It was our first
day!  Who could we possibly have made enemies with already?!”  She paced around
the room as she spoke, unable to stay in one place for long.

“Do
you know how bad today sucked?” Ariel asked quietly, without looking up.  “Today
was a terrible, horrible, awful day!  Every class I went to people said
‘there’s one of those princess whores’ and every time I walked by a drinking
fountain, someone threw water at me.”

“They
threw water at you?” Rachel asked, jumping up from her seat.

“Yeah,
and then they’d say something stupid like: ‘Look out princess, don’t want to
get hurt by the scary water’.”

“Well,
I think we need to call your principal,” Dana said, her fists clenched as she too
rose from the couch.

“That
will just make it worse,” Cinderella said, blocking her mom from reaching for her
cell phone.

“Yeah,
what are they gonna do?” Aurora asked.  “Punish the whole school?”

“Well
we have to do something!” Dana exclaimed, crashing back onto the couch beside
her sisters.

“Who
do you think is behind all this?” Elizabeth asked again.

“I’ll
tell you exactly wh-who,” Snow White sniffled.  “Dave!  We never should have
trusted him!  He just played us!”

“Why
would Dave…?” Aurora started.

“Think
about it!” Snow White yelled.  “Who else knows that information about all of
us?”

“It’s
not Dave’s fault!” Belle blurted out.  “If you all had given us normal names
instead of these stupid princess names, they wouldn’t have had anything to make
fun of!” Belle threw her mother one last threatening look and ran up the
stairs, slamming her bedroom door.

The
Princess sisters all stared at the floor, unable to make eye contact with their
mothers.  Dana, Rachel, Mary, and Elizabeth exchanged gloomy looks with one
another.  Then, as if a bell went off signaling the end of a fight, they all
stood up and silently guided their daughters home.

***

“I’m
sorry!” Cinderella said.

The
five Princess sisters were gathered in Cinderella’s room later that night.  She
had asked her cousins to all come over after the day’s fiasco.

“I’m
sorry too,” Belle said.  “I should never have kept it hidden from you guys that
Dave kissed me that very first night.  Then maybe he wouldn’t have been able to
manipulate you as well.”

“I
thought you didn’t blame Dave?” Aurora asked.

“I
didn’t,” Belle said.  “At least I didn’t want to.  That is until I called Dave
and asked him about kissing both me and Cindy.  He came up with some excuse,
and then he got off the phone with me real quick.”

“I’m
sorry,” Ariel said, putting her hand on Belle’s shoulder.

Belle
shrugged it off.  “Oh well,” she said.

“I’m
confused,” Snow White said.  “So he kissed…all of you?”  The other four girls
nodded.  “I thought it was just Cindy, Aurora, and Ariel.”

“Wait. 
I thought it was just me and Cindy,” Belle said, looking around.

“Be
glad he never got to you, Snow,” Ariel added.

“He
didn’t…?” Aurora asked in response to the guilty look on Snow White’s face.

Snow
White was too embarrassed to tell any of her other cousins what had happened,
especially after she found out she wasn’t the first one to get kissed. 
Cinderella was the only one who knew.

“When?”
asked Belle.

“Before
the fireworks,” Snow White said.  “When the two of us went to get food.”

“I
can’t believe he tricked you into kissing him too!” Belle exclaimed.

“I
can’t believe we let a guy mess things up between us,” Ariel said.  “We broke
the pact!”

“What
pact?” Belle asked.

“Sisters
before misters!” she said, throwing her arms in the air. 

“Well,
so what are we going to do?” asked Aurora.  “Not even just about Dave.  The
whole school now knows I can’t sleep and everywhere I went today kids were pretending
to snore at me.”

“They
called me fat,” Snow White said quietly.

“You’re
not fat!” Cinderella said.

“I’m
not as skinny as any of you!”

“That
does not make you fat,” Cinderella said.

“You
really aren’t,” Belle added.

“But
that’s how everyone is going to distinguish me from now on.  I’m the fat
Princess.”

“At
least you weren’t accused of having...I can’t even say it!” Cinderella said,
trying to change the focus.  “What do they think I am?  A hermaphrodite?”

“Everyone
knows about me now too,” Belle said.  Even with her secret out and the whole
school knowing, she still couldn’t bring herself to say the “D” word out loud.

“We
have to do something to fight back,” Aurora said.  “I don’t want to go through
the next three years with everyone thinking I’m just a big joke.

“People
will just say we’re denying it and probably believe it more if we make a big
deal,” Ariel said.

“I’m
going to find out more,” Belle said.  “We can’t do anything until we know the
whole truth.”

“What
are you going to do?” Snow White asked.

“I’m
gonna go talk to Dave,” she said, and she got up from her seat on Cinderella’s
bed.

“I
thought he wouldn’t talk to you?” Aurora asked.

“I’m
going to his house,” Belle stated.  “He can’t avoid me if I’m right in front of
his face.”

Chapter
Twenty-Seven

“I
want to know why.” Belle stood on Dave’s front porch, her arms crossed.  She
looked Dave straight in the face and then looked up; trying to force the tears
back in with gravity.

“Can
we do this later?” Dave asked in a whisper.

“Why? 
So you can come up with a better story?” Belle’s voice grew louder with each
word so that ‘story’ was almost shouted.

“Is
everything okay, David?”  Dave looked back into his house, towards his mother’s
voice.

“Fine
Mom,” he said.  He then stepped out onto the porch, closing the front door. 
“Look,” he said, “I really like you!”

“Well
you sure have a funny way of showing it,” Belle said angrily.

“I
had no idea they were going to twist the things I told them and humiliate you
guys the way they did.”

“Who’s
they?”

“Cynthia
and her friends,” Dave said matter-of-factly.  He looked puzzled.  “Didn’t you
know that’s who was behind everything?”

“Cynthia? 
…You mean Cynthia Brown?” Belle asked.

“Yeah. 
Head cheerleader, dating the captain of the football team.  She said you guys
were making fun of her and she just wanted some payback.”

“When
did we...?  The restaurant.”  Belle started to question Dave, but then she
remembered and could see everything perfectly.

“She
said she just wanted a little bit of information about you guys that she could
use to tease you a little bit.  She made it sound like you were old friends and
it was all harmless.  I honestly didn’t realize how far she’d go!” Dave
appeared regretful for the things he’d done.  But Belle still wasn’t sure she
trusted him.

“And
what about kissing us?” she asked.  “You just thought you’d get a little action
while you were gathering information on us?”

“You
know about all that?” Dave asked, his eyes widening.

“I
know you wanted all of us to keep it a secret so we wouldn’t find out.  But did
you really think it would stay a secret forever?  You not only used me, you
used all my cousins too!”

“Wait
a minute,” Dave said, putting his hands up to signal surrender.  “I really like
you!”

“You’ve
really got to stop using that one,” Belle said, her eyebrows narrowing and her
lips forming a very thin line.

“I’m
not lying!” Dave said.

“And
I should believe you based on what?” Belle asked, getting louder again.

“When
I first kissed you, that night when we went to the redbox…I meant it.  It’s just
that everything got so screwed up after that.”

“Enlighten
me,” Belle said.

“I
started football practice right after that night.  I was talking to Bret Downy,
Cynthia’s boyfriend, and some of the other guys on the team.  I asked them if
anyone knew you guys.  They were coming up with initiations for the new guys
and before I knew it they told me I had to get all five Princess sisters to
kiss me.  I had to do it!” Dave said.  “It was the only way the guys on the
team would accept me.”

“Then
why didn’t you just lie and tell them you’d kissed all of us?”

“Cynthia
was there.  She’d stopped by to visit Bret.  She said you guys had all gotten
some bracelets when you came to the restaurant and if I’d really kissed you,
I’d bring back the bracelets for proof.”

“YOU
stole our bracelets?!” Belle took a step toward Dave, looking as though she
were ready to strike.  Any previous sign of tears were completely gone now, her
sadness replaced with fiery anger.

Dave
sat down on the porch, his head bent low between his knees, resting in both
hands.  “I thought I just had to show them the bracelets and I could sneak them
back in your rooms before anyone ever knew.  But Bret kept them.  Cynthia made
him, no doubt.  You guys must have really ticked her off!”

“Don’t
you dare turn this around on us!” Belle shouted.  “I want our bracelets back. 
I don’t care how you do it, just get them back!”  Belle turned away from Dave
and started home.

“You
believe me though, right?” Dave asked.  “I didn’t have a choice!”

Belle
turned around.  “No Dave, you did have a choice.  I just hope your new friends
are worth it.”  And she continued home without looking back, despite Dave’s
voice calling after her.

***

“What’s
the matter, sweetheart?”

Cinderella
sat on the curb in front of her house.  Her cousins had all just gone home, but
she wasn’t quite ready to go back inside yet.  Her neighbor, Grandma Johnson, had
just gotten back from the store and was about to walk in her house, when she
saw Cinderella’s slumped figure in the moonlight.

“Some
kids at school said some mean things about me and my cousins,” she said,
gloomily.

“Why
don’t you help an old lady carry her groceries,” she said, holding a bag out to
Cinderella.

Cinderella
got to her feet and took the heavier of the two bags from Grandma Johnson and
then followed her down the sidewalk, toward her house.  She sat on a stool in
her kitchen while the old woman put the food away.

“Would
you like some cocoa?” she asked when she had finished.

“But
Grandma, it’s August,” Cinderella said.

“Don’t
matter the least little bit,” she answered, brushing off what Cinderella had
said with the wave of a hand.  “Hot cocoa is the best thing in the world for a
hurting heart.”

“Okay,”
Cinderella said with a smile.  “But I better call my mom first so she doesn’t
think I’ve disappeared.”

“You
do that while I get this ready,” she said, placing a bright red kettle under
the faucet.

A
few minutes later, Cinderella and Grandma Johnson were sitting on the sofa in
her front room, a large mug in front of each of them.  Cinderella smiled as she
noticed Grandma had dropped a handful of mini marshmallows in her mug.

“Now,
you tell me everything that happened,” Grandma Johnson said.

Cinderella
began explaining the situation and before she knew it she had spilled the
entire story, kissing scenes and all.  Grandma Johnson leaned back for a moment
as she let all the information soak in.

  “It
seems to me,” she said.  “That these kids are teasing you for being unsure
about yourself.”

“Yeah,
I guess that’s it,” Cinderella said.

“Then
the best way to get back at them,” Grandma Johnson continued.  “Is to be
completely confident in who you are.  If you don’t question yourself, than
neither can they.”

Cinderella
wasn’t really sure that Grandma Johnson was right, but she’d at least given her
something to think about.  She thanked her for the cocoa and slowly walked
home.