The Princess Sisters (The Princess Sisters Series) (21 page)

Chapter
Thirty-Three

Friday,
September 10th

Friday
morning, Ariel stood outside the locker room door before swim period.  She
spread her fingers wide and shook her hands, expelling all the nerves right
down her arms and out her fingertips.  She stretched her neck to the far right
and then the left, feeling a ‘pop’ as she did so.  Ariel slowly rolled her
shoulders forwards and backwards, then bent in half and touched her toes,
stretching the muscles in her back.  As she had been walking to the pool, she
felt all her muscles tighten, so she now stood outside the locker room door,
stretching each muscle group to prevent the strange looks she would have gotten
had she walked into the room stiff.

Ariel
could hear footsteps approaching the door from behind, so she scooped up her
bag and hurried inside.  Once there, she took her time getting changed into a
swimsuit.  Not because of nerves, which she had plenty of, but in order to make
her entrance seen by as many kids as possible.  She stood in the bathroom
stall, fully dressed for class, waiting for the right moment.  Ariel glanced at
her watch and saw that class was about to start.  She couldn’t hear any more
voices in the room, and one peek under the stall reaffirmed that they had all
entered the pool area already.

She
quickly stepped from the stall, entered through the rotating door, and walked
for what seemed like forever towards the deep end of the pool.  By the time she
got there, all eyes were on her.  Including Ms. Greggers, the gym instructor,
who had already begun class but fell silent at the sight of Ariel.

It’s
now or never,
Ariel thought and she jumped high into the
air, hitting the water cannonball style with a huge splash.  Ariel kept her
eyes squeezed shut as she pushed her legs against the bottom cement and
rocketed back up.  Her lungs burned and she could feel the panic closing in on
her from every direction.  The water was crushing her!  She was going to
drown!  But then the image of Snow White flashed across her mind and Ariel
smiled as her head broke through the powerful waves.  She swam towards the
shallow end where the rest of the class stood, mouths gaping open like a choir
of fish.  Ariel stopped when she reached the point where her feet could touch
and walked the rest of the short distance.  She brought her hands up on either
side of her head and pushed the water out of her golden hair.  With her hair
weighed down by water, it looked more golden than blonde.

“Well,
if Ms. Princess is done showing off, we can begin our class,” Ms. Greggers
said.

“Sorry,”
Ariel responded quietly.  But she wasn’t really sorry at all!

Even
though her teacher’s words were biting, Ariel could see the tiniest hint of
pride in her eyes when she looked in Ariel’s direction.

***

Ariel
beamed with pride as she told her cousins during lunchtime all about her
dramatic pool entrance.

“It
was fantastic!” she said.

“How
on earth…?” Aurora started to ask, but found herself to be speechless.

“Uh-oh.”
 Cinderella suddenly stiffened.

“What’s
up?” Belle and Snow White both asked.  They were sitting on the opposite side
of the table from Cinderella and turned around to follow her gaze.

Cynthia
was walking right towards them.  She was tall and slender, with long dark brown
hair that cascaded over her shoulders.  Her pointed nose matched perfectly with
her bony body.  She wore tight, form-fitting jeans with an even tighter top, to
accentuate her large breasts.  She wore a large belt around her hips to make
her waist seem even smaller.  Cynthia was accompanied by three equally plastic-looking
cronies, walking just behind her.

“Look
at them all in their matching, expensive clothes,” Belle sneered.  “It’s like
they’re a bunch of drones.”

“They
completely lack originality! They might as well be one person.” Aurora
whispered.

“I
bet it takes the brain power from all of them to match the equivalent of one
person,” Ariel added.

The
cousins all had to hide their snickering as Cynthia approached the table, the
sour look on her face transforming into a sickly-sweet smile.  Her eyes
narrowed in on Belle, who stood so they were now face-to-face.

“So
you’re running for office?” she asked Belle, looking over her shoulders to make
sure her friends had caught up.

“That’s
right,” Belle said.

“And
you really think people are going to vote for someone who is handicapped?”
Cynthia asked with a smirk.

“Well,
I figure I can get a lot of pity votes,” Belle responded, without missing a
beat.

“What
exactly are you girls trying to pull?” she asked, glancing for the first time
at the rest of the group.  “I heard about the apples and the swimming pool
today.”  Then she closed in on Snow White until their faces were almost
touching.  “Do you really think eating a couple pieces of fruit is going to
make up for the years of obvious abuse you’ve put that body through?”

Snow
White didn’t move or speak.  She just looked down at her lap and tried to fight
back the tears.

“Why
do you care so much?” Cinderella asked, trying to turn the attention off Snow
White.

Cynthia
ignored the question.  “I heard about you too,” she said, laughing.  “Finally
decided to get some normal shoes I see.  Well now that I’ve seen how they look,
I would have stuck with the boots.  I didn’t realize they were an act of
self-preservation.  I wouldn’t want people to see my feet either, if they
looked like that.”

Cynthia’s
friends all cackled with laughter.  Her assault on the Princess sisters was
drawing quite a crowd now, and several students tried to edge in closer to hear
what was going on.

“That’s
really sad,” Belle cut in, pulling Cynthia’s attention back.  “You really have
nothing better to do than to come over here and try desperately to regain some
credibility on all that stuff you said about us?”

Cynthia
tossed her hair over one shoulder and smiled at Belle.  “Why, I have no idea
what you’re talking about,” she said, bringing her hand to her chest and
pretending to be offended.  She made sure to shake her wrist as she brought it
up, causing the silver bracelet to jingle.  There was a tiny
C
engraved
on a little heart at the end of the bracelet.

“That’s
mine!” Cinderella yelled, getting to her feet and pointing at Cynthia’s wrist.

“I’m
sure you must be mistaken,” Cynthia said, in her sweet voice again.  She was
talking down to Cinderella like a mother explaining something to a
two-year-old.  “My boyfriend gave this to me,” she added, admiring the bracelet
as she delicately touched it with her fingers.

Ariel
reached up and put a hand on Cinderella’s shoulder to prevent her from lunging
across the table at Cynthia. 

“So
are you girls going to the dance?” she asked, pointing with her chin to the
Homecoming sign on the wall behind their table.

The
Princess sisters all remained silent.

“You
mean boys aren’t interested in princess wannabes?” she asked in mock surprise. 
“Shocking.”

“No,
I guess they’re more interested in fake boobs,” Belle said.

Cynthia
flinched, and the corners of her mouth drew down.  But at that moment the bell
rang, signaling the end of the lunch period.

“Well,
we better go,” Cynthia said, keeping her cool.  The students who had gathered
around them started to disperse.  “We just wanted to come over here and tell
you how
cute
we think it is that you’re all trying to fit in now.”  She
said the word ‘cute’ as though it were a swear word.  And with that final
remark, Cynthia and her band walked away.

Cinderella
still stood, her fists clenched tight as she watched Cynthia walk away with her
bracelet.

“At
least we know your plan is working,” Ariel said to her.

Cinderella
finally broke her gaze and looked down at Ariel.

“We
obviously are getting to her,” Belle filled in.  “Otherwise she wouldn’t have
bothered coming over here.”

“She
was just trying to rattle us,” Aurora added.  “You okay?” she asked Snow White,
who hadn’t moved since Cynthia’s encounter.

Snow
White nodded, but made no eye contact with any of them.

“I
can’t believe you said that to her!” Aurora said, nudging Belle.

“I
just hate that!” Belle said.  Then she clarified after all their puzzled looks,
“Miss Silicone is accusing
us
of being fake?”

Ariel
laughed and patted a steaming Belle on the back.  They all gathered their
things together and walked from the cafeteria.  Cinderella placed her arm
around Snow White as they left.

“It’ll
be okay,” she said, glancing back at the Homecoming sign.  “I’ve got another
idea.”

Chapter
Thirty-Four

That
afternoon Belle stood backstage with the four other students who were running
for Sophomore Class President, along with the two running for Vice President
and the six running for Secretary.  She knew she should probably feel nervous,
but she only felt exhilarated!  With the exception of reading, Belle loved
being the center of attention.  She got a huge boost from having large crowds
listen to her, applaud her, and laugh at her jokes.  And since she had been
rehearsing her speech all week, Belle didn’t feel nervous at all about
presenting it.  Especially because she wouldn’t actually have to read anything.

The
administrator finished talking and turned with his hand directed at the
curtain.  Belle smiled and stepped casually into the spotlight as he called the
candidates’ names.  She waved to the audience like a beauty queen riding on a
float.  Many of them laughed, which only encouraged Belle to be even more of a
ham.  She started to blow kisses too, as she made her way to the chairs at the
edge of the stage.  The other candidates walked somewhat stiffly, their eyes
darting nervously at the audience.  This made Belle smile all the more.  She
was winning so far, and they hadn’t even gotten to the speeches yet!

The
Secretary candidates spoke first, followed by the Vice Presidents.  Then it
came time for the Presidents to speak.  Belle was the third one to give her
speech.  She would have preferred to go last, and stick in everyone’s minds,
but she did the best she could with the timeslot she was given.  Her speech
went smoothly with no mistakes, with the exception of the few she threw in on
purpose to go along with her campaign.  After all 13 candidates had spoken, the
administrator got back up to thank everyone and explain that the polls would be
open until 4:00 p.m.  The winners would be announced Monday morning.  Belle
knew it was going to be a very long weekend!

After
school, Belle joined Snow White at Cinderella’s house.  Ariel and Aurora had
dance practice.

“Come
on, you can do it!” Snow White was encouraging as Belle entered Cinderella’s
room.

“I
just haven’t even talked to him since that night,” Cinderella said, her cell
phone in hand.

“Oh
yeah,
that
night,” Belle said, teasing her cousin.

“You
weren’t there,” Cinderella said, rolling her eyes.  “Snow knew what night I
meant.”  Cinderella looked up his number and pushed send.  As soon as the phone
started ringing, she hung up and threw herself down on the bed, burying her
face in the pillows.  “Why would he say yes?” she mumbled into the pillow.  “He
made it perfectly clear we couldn’t ever date.”

“Why
would he say no?” Snow White asked.  “He seemed to really like you, and this is
totally different.  It’s more like a service project!”

“Oh
great!  Cause that’s exactly how I want him to see me! A charity case!”

Just
then, Cinderella’s phone started ringing in her hand.  She glanced down at the
number, and her face went white.  “It’s him.”

“You
have to answer it,” Belle said.

Cinderella
shook her head and tried to hand the phone off to one of her cousins.

“Come
on Cindy, you’re our only chance,” Belle pleaded.  She took the phone from
Cinderella, opened it, and then handed the answered phone back to her.

“Wow,
has it been three years already?” Scott answered without saying hello.  He was
hoping humor would help make the situation less awkward.

“Yeah,
do you want to go out with me now?” Cinderella asked, trying to joke back with
him.  The plan didn’t work.  It felt uncomfortable.

“So
how have you been?” he asked.

“I’ve
been...good.”

“Very
convincing,” he said sarcastically.  “What’s going on?”  Scott sounded
concerned.

“Well,
I need to ask you a huge favor.  I mean really big.”

“I’m
intrigued.  Shoot,” he said.

Cinderella
started to explain everything to him.  She planned on just telling him the
basic gist of it, but she found that once she got started; the whole story came
pouring out of her.  She went into detail about Cynthia, and the bracelets, and
Dave.

“My
brother sucks!” Scott said.  Cinderella was afraid Scott would take his brother’s
side, under family obligation, but she was glad to hear genuine anger in his
voice over the way Dave had treated her and her cousins.  This gave her the
encouragement to go on.

“So
after all this, no one asked any of us to Homecoming,” she said, getting closer
to the purpose of her call.  “Not that we were expecting it after all the crap
Cynthia posted about us.”

“So
you want me to come down there and take you to the dance so you can show off
what an amazing dancer you are and prove this Cynthia chick wrong?” Scott said,
finishing her thought.  “You know what?  I would love to!  When is it?” he
asked.

Cinderella
was smiling so big, her cheeks started to hurt.  “Yes!” she was finally able to
say.  “But I was also sorta hoping that you could bring four friends for my
cousins too.”

There
was a pause on the other end.

“But
if you can’t, that’s okay; I mean I know it’s a lot to ask…” Cinderella started
to say.

Scott
laughed.  “Hold on there Princess!  Of course I would love to help!  I can’t
leave you thinking all the Prince men are jerks!”

“What
about our...talk?” she asked.  Cinderella didn’t want to bring it up, but she
felt she had to.  Scott was quiet for a second, and the awkwardness from the
beginning of their conversation started to seep back in.

“As
long as it’s cool with your mom, I think it will be okay,” he responded,
releasing a deep breath.  “These are special circumstances, and I think every
girl deserves to go to her first Homecoming.  Besides, you’ll probably end up
finding a cute high school boy, and you’ll forget all about me by the end of
the night.”

Not
likely,
Cinderella thought.

“So
when’s this dance?”

“A
week from Saturday,” she said, feeling the nerves slowly creep into her stomach
again.  She wasn’t giving him much notice.

“Hmmmm,”
he paused for a minute, and Cinderella could hear him talking to some other
people.  “Yeah, we can do that.”

“Seriously?”
Cinderella asked, hardly able to believe her ears.

“Yes,
seriously!” Scott said.  “I will have five princes, including myself, on your
doorstep next Saturday.”

“Oh
my gosh, I love you!” Cinderella blurted out.  Her face immediately flushed
deep crimson and she felt very glad they weren’t having this conversation in
person.

But
Scott only laughed.  “Well goodness Princess, it seems a bit sudden but…okay. 
I’ll tell your mother we’re thinking a spring wedding.”

 Cinderella
laughed.  “Oh, she’d love that!”  Cinderella liked that Scott was joking with
her again.  It felt like things were back to normal.

“What’s
that?” Scott asked whoever else he was talking to.  “There’s just one condition
though,” he said into the phone.

“What’s
that?”

“You
have to ask us to the dance.”

“Isn’t
that what I just did?” Cinderella asked, confused.

“No,
I mean the high school way.  We can’t officially take you to the dance unless
you o
fficially
ask us.  I told you I wasn’t going to let you miss out on
any high school experiences.”

Cinderella
had to think for a second, and then she remembered those girls from the mall
and Dave explaining their conversation to her and her cousins.  That felt like
such a long time ago!

“Deal,”
Cinderella stated. 

“Cool!
Well, I’ve got to get to work now, but I will talk to some of my friends and we
can hash out the details later this week, alright?”

“Sounds
great!” Cinderella said.

“But
that means you can’t call me and then hang up again.”

Cinderella’s
face flushed.  She had almost forgotten about that.  “I didn’t mean to hang up
on you!” she tried to explain.  But she paused when she heard Scott laughing
and realized he was only teasing her.

“So
serious, Princess,” he said.

Cinderella
shut her phone and looked at Snow White and Belle.  “Now
that
is a
prince,” she said.  Then in response to their questioning eyes she grinned and
added, “He’s in!”