“Sorry,” Dana said, picking up her water glass and taking a long drink. The food arrived at that moment, saving them all from the awkward silence that had ensued.
There was much crunching at the table, from those who had ordered shellfish. Snow White looked down at her own lobster and recognized the small claws.
“Guess he never made it out,” she said quietly to herself. Then she yanked one of his claws free from the scarlet body and began sucking on the juicy end.
“Oh,” said Rachel, when everyone had begun to slow down on their food. “We forgot to tell you. Mrs. Pratt is moving.” Ariel’s head shot up to stare at her mom, hoping she had heard wrong.
“Grandma Pratt?” she asked.
“She’s moving in with her oldest son. She says the stairs are just getting too hard for her.”
“But she can’t move!” said Snow White.
“She’s Grandma Pratt!” said Belle at the same time.
The five Princess sisters were the only children living in their townhouses. Six of the homes were occupied by older widows, who had quickly become grandmothers to the Princess girls. Since they had never known their own grandparents, Mrs. Pratt was one of the few who had taken on that role.
“I’m sorry,” said Rachel. “I didn’t think you guys would take it this hard.”
“You’ve barely spent time with her since you were ten,” Elizabeth piped in. Snow White gave her mom a dirty look.
“But she was still always there,” she said.
“There is some good news,” Rachel added. “Mrs. Pratt said she thinks the people who bought her house have kids…” her voice trailed off. The girls were barely listening to her; they all looked like they were about to cry.
“Maybe we should have started with that news and ended on the bracelets,” Mary whispered to Dana. Dana nodded as she watched the five sulking girls slouch and grumble in their seats. With full bellies and drooping mouths, no one was up for dessert that night. Then it was Mary’s turn to grumble that Dana had gotten out of the penalty for being last yet again.
Chapter Four
Saturday, June 26th
The first few weeks of summer flew by with no major events. The Princess sisters spent their days sleeping in late, and then lounging around one of their houses. There was an occasional sunny day, just hot enough for the girls to put on bathing suits and lay on towels in their yard. They’d talk about boys and high school while they jealously watched Belle become a darker shade of brown. The twins and Cinderella seemed to stay white as ever and Snow White simply turned red. If it weren’t for the occasional dance class for Aurora and Ariel, the girls would never have left their street.
One morning, in late June, Cinderella woke with a start. Her head was cloudy and throbbing slightly from the lack of sleep. She glanced over at her nightstand and groaned. The digital clock was screaming a very painful 7:00AM. Cinderella had stayed up the night before watching movies with her cousins and had only gone to bed two hours ago. The loud truck outside that had caused her unfortunate waking groaned again. Cinderella slowly rolled out of bed and grabbed her glasses off the dresser in front of her. She slid the dark rims up her nose and then blinked slowly, waiting for her eyes to adjust. Her feet seemed unwilling to move, yet she forced them over to the window and looked out at the street below. Cinderella and her mom lived on the very end of the row of townhouses, furthest from the street. As she searched for the perpetrator, her eyes fell upon a large yellow moving van parked next to the townhouse directly across the street.
Cinderella’s sleepiness vanished as she flew to her cell phone and held down the number three. Snow White’s sleepy voice answered after seven rings.
“This better be good.”
“There’s a moving van outside!”
“That’s nice.”
“Snow! Wake up!”
“What?”
“The new people are moving in, as we speak!”
“Really? Can you see anyone yet?” Snow White asked, obviously awake now.
“No, I only saw the van but I’ll look.” Cinderella rolled off her bed again and peered back out across the street.
“No one, but the door is open so they must be in there.”
“So what do you want to do?”
“Let’s get the others awake and make brownies or something.”
“It’s 7:00 in the morning.”
“I know. How do you suggest we introduce ourselves?”
“It’s 7:00 in the morning. No one is going to want to meet us at this horrible hour!”
“But…hold on! Someone’s coming out.” Cinderella threw her phone down on the bed and the top accidentally clapped shut. “Whoops,” she said reaching for it, then shrugging, “Oh well, I’ll call her back.” She turned back to the window just in time to see the third person walking out of the empty house. Then Cinderella dove for her phone and pushed the number three until her thumb hurt.
“You hung up on me!” Snow White said in mock anger.
“Who cares? He’s hot!”
“Who?”
“There is a kid moving in across the street right now and holy crap, he’s hot!”
“Really?” Snow White asked somewhat nervously. “What does he look like?”
“I don’t know.”
“How can you not know?”
“Just trust me, he’s hot,” Cinderella said again.
“So what do you want to do?”
“Okay, you call Ariel and Aurora while I call Belle. Tell them all to make sure they look good and then walk down to my house. See if you can’t get a look at him while you’re coming over. But don’t make it obvious!” she added.
“Yes Ma’am!” Snow White said, saluting her phone. Then they hung up. Cinderella ran into the bathroom to inspect her reflection. Her long, brown hair which normally hung straight was now standing up in every direction. Her swooped bangs were knotted into a ball against her forehead and there were definite bags under her eyes.
“Well, don’t I look nice,” she said to the mirror. Cinderella grabbed her pink brush from the shelf which sat above the toilet and began taming the snarled mess. She had almost finished straightening her hair when she remembered to call Belle. Even though it was now quarter to eight, Belle was angrier about the morning phone call than Snow White had been. She snapped at Cinderella until she heard mention of a new hot boy. Their conversation ended very quickly after that so Belle could get ready.
Cinderella returned to the bathroom and dabbed on more concealer than usual, as she tried to cover up the proof that she hadn’t had much sleep. She looked closely at her eyes in the mirror before putting in her contacts. Cinderella thought her eyes were her best feature. Her mom said they were the only good thing about her father.
“His sunflower eyes were the first thing that attracted me to him,” Dana had said on one occasion. The description had stuck with Cinderella ever since. Sunflower eyes; she liked it! Not only did it sound nice, but it described her eyes perfectly. They were a dark brown in the middle, extending out to a softer, almost yellowish brown around the outside.
Cinderella carefully outlined her sunflower eyes with brown eyeliner before moving on to mascara. She glanced at the finished product in the mirror.
Much better! She then returned to her bedroom window in hopes to get another glance at her new neighbor.
Snow White stepped out her front door into the cool morning air. She looked nervously down the row of houses at the yellow van parked down on the end. The back was open and it was apparent the movers were almost done. Snow White looked around cautiously, hoping to spot the mysterious boy Cinderella had raved about an hour before. A young man in a blue baseball cap stepped out of the house and grabbed a box off the back of the yellow truck. Snow White froze. Now she understood what Cinderella had meant. She couldn’t even see the kid’s face, but it was obvious he was very good looking. Maybe it was the way he carried himself, tall and proud, or maybe it was the way his arms flexed when h
e carried each box into the house. Either way, it took Snow White a little while to realize she had been staring for several minutes. She looked down, blushing, and walked quickly to Cinderella’s house. Snow White then ran up the three steps and burst through the front door without knocking.
“You were so right!” Snow White yelled up the stairs as she shut the door behind her.
“Did you see his face?” Cinderella asked, coming down the stairs.
“No, but he’s got to be hot.”
“I know, right?”
“Should we make brownies while we wait for the others?”
“Yeah. They’re almost done unloading.”
“Good! By the time they’re done and everyone else gets here, it won’t be too early to go over anymore.”
“Great,” said Snow White with less enthusiasm. Cinderella didn’t seem to notice. She began pulling ingredients out of the cupboards and placing them on the counter in the center of the small kitchen.
“Why don’t we just make them from a box?” Snow White asked.
“A box?” repeated Cinderella. “This is a hot boy we’re talking about! Don’t you think he deserves better than a box?”
“True.”
“Besides, won’t he be more impressed when he finds out we made them ourselves?”
“Okay,” said Snow White coming to stand beside her taller cousin. “Where do we start?”
Snow White was greasing the pan and Cinderella was mixing the last of the flour into the batter when Ariel and Aurora entered the kitchen.
“Nice touch!” Aurora said with approval.
“We thought so,” Cinderella said beaming. “Did you see him?”
“Oh my heck!” Ariel exclaimed. “Have you ever seen such…great arms?”
“How old do you think he is?” Aurora asked hopefully.
“He’s got to be our age,” Cinderella said, pouring the dark, gooey batter into the greased pan and placing it on the oven rack. “At least we can hope,” she said with a smile.
“You know Belle will play the, ‘I’m the oldest so I get first dibs’ card,” Aurora said.
“Well I may be second oldest, but I saw him first,” Cinderella exclaimed, smiling at the others.
“How does that old rhyme go?” Aurora asked. “First is the worst,” she said and everyone laughed. “Second is the best,” she continued, pointing to Cinderella who took a bow. “Third is...?” she paused, pointing to herself as she tried to remember.
“The one with the hairy chest!” Ariel shouted. The girls all hooted with laughter.
“In that case you can be third,” Aurora said to Ariel.
“No can do big sis, you are definitely older by almost two whole minutes!”
“Great,” Aurora said, and the girls all laughed again.
By the time Belle joined her cousins, the timer on the stove said the brownies had two minutes left.
“I’m the oldest, I call dibs!” she said, smiling.
Her cousins all exchanged amused looks.
“Well the moving van just left,” Belle added.
“Perfect timing,” Cinderella said, glancing at the stove. “These will have to cool for a few minutes, which means they’ll be starting to unpack when we go over.”
“What are we gonna say?” asked Snow White.
“How about Hubba, Hubba!” said Ariel. All the girls laughed.
“Here’s a little treat for your little treat,” added Aurora. The girls laughed again and then continued suggestions.
“We’re girl scouts selling brownies for kisses. How many can we put you down for?”
“What if his dad answers the door?”
“Ew!”
The girls all agreed Belle’s was the best. “I’ve come over to share this brown goodness with you. Oh, and I made brownies too.” They laughed until Ariel had tears streaming down her face.
“Now look what you did!” she said. “My makeup is totally messed up.”
“Go use some of mine,” Cinderella said. She cut the cooled brownies and dished them out onto a paper plate while they waited for Ariel to return. Then, with one final check at their reflections in the mirror by the door, the Princess sisters ventured across the street.
They all agreed Cinderella should hold the brownies, since she was the one who really made them. Then, crossing their fingers that ‘hot boy’ would be the one to answer the door, Belle reached up and knocked. They only had to wait a few moments before the front door opened to reveal a young man in a blue baseball cap.
His dark, almost black hair stuck out from under the bottom of his hat, and he had the bluest eyes any of the girls had ever seen. You could almost imagine the waves crashing in from the ocean behind them. He stood taller than any of the girls and his arms, as they had admired earlier, were more muscular than any boy their age. He smiled at the sight of them and Cinderella lost her words. Then Belle piped in.
“Hi!” she said, flashing him her most charming smile. “We noticed you guys moving in this morning, so we thought we’d come say hi and bring you a treat. I’m Belle and this is Aurora, Cinderella, Ariel and Snow White,” she said, pointing to each of them in turn. “We’re cousins and yes, we were all named after cartoon characters,” she answered before the boy had a chance to ask.
“Do you all live together?” he asked.
“No,” Aurora cut in. “We live in those four houses,” she said, pointing behind her.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you!” he said, flashing them another heart-melting smile. “And thanks,” he said, lifting up the plate Cinderella had handed him. “My name’s David. David Prince.”
Chapter Five
Monday, July 12th
“What’s high school like, do you think?”
“What do you mean?”
“Just thinking out loud. My cousins are all really nervous to start, especially Snow White.” Belle tried to act casual as she spoke.
“Well, why not ask the expert?” Belle stopped walking and looked up into David’s hypnotic eyes. He smiled at her puzzled expression and then continued.
“Where we lived, in Logan, ninth grade is in high school too.”
“So you’ve got loads of experience then,” she said catching up to him.
“Why are you so concerned about high school?”
“I dunno, maybe Snow is rubbing off on me. It’s just that everyone makes high school to be such a big deal. There’s tons of movies about it, my mom says they were some of her best years, and you don’t see people going to junior high school reunions. It’s also when…well…you start to really date.”
“Now don’t tell me Miss Belle is afraid of getting a date!”
“Well…”
“Trust me,” David said, touching her lightly on the arm and stopping her in her tracks. “You have nothing to worry about.” David winked at her and then ran ahead to push the button so they could cross the street. Belle stood still for a minute, her arm still tingling from the gentle touch of his warm hand.
“You comin’ or what?” Belle looked up to see the white “Walk” figure turn to a blinking red hand. Belle ran to the corner and David grabbed her hand, almost dragging her into the street. They were about halfway across the street when the red hand stopped and several cars in front honked. David reached the corner and released Belle’s hand, laughing.
“What’d you do that for?” she said, shoving him hard in the shoulder. “We could have waited for the next light!”
“Oh come on, Princess, toughen up! You’ll never make it in high school with that attitude!”
“Oh yeah?” she said.
“Yeah!” he responded, grinning. Belle accepted his challenging eyes and ran after him. David’s grin widened and he took off running into the McDonalds parking lot that sat on the corner. “Whatcha gonna do when you catch me?” he taunted, keeping just out of reach.
“Wouldn’t you like to know!” Belle laughed. David circled around the redbox and stopped, right in front of her. She had n
ever been this close to him before; her heart was thumping, but she knew it wasn’t from the running. Belle could feel his warm breath getting closer until their noses were almost touching.
“Yeah, I would,” he responded, inches from her face. Then, before Belle could think of a smart comeback, David tilted his head and kissed her. Goosebumps surged up her neck and arms. He pulled back slowly and, from that close, Belle could see a little bit of stubble above his top lip. He leaned in to kiss her again but Belle’s phone went off in her pocket, making them both jump. She wasn’t quite sure what had just happened, but she wasn’t going to say she hadn’t liked it either. Belle pursed her lips and answered.
“Where are you guys?” It was Cinderella’s voice that met her.
“We just got to the redbox,” Belle responded. “We’ll be done in just a sec.”
“Hurry back, Ari already started the popcorn.”
“I’m gonna eat it all!” Belle could hear Ariel’s voice through the phone.
“K, see ya soon.”
“Bye.”
“Bye.”
David Prince or Dave, as he preferred, had spent almost every night with the Princess sisters since the day he moved in, a few weeks before. At first it was weird for the cousins to have anyone else around, but Dave’s laid back personality quickly broke through the barriers surrounding the tight-knit group. The girls discovered how fun it could be to have someone new to talk to, especially someone with such a great smile and who always smelled so good. They enjoyed showing him around their town and introducing him to new things. The Princess sisters, for one thing, were avid movie watchers. They introduced Dave to an assortment of movies, both old and new. Every night they would meet at one of their houses and a couple of them would run down to the corner and pick out the movie for the evening. While they were gone, the others would raid the cupboards and fridge gathering snacks.
It just so happened that on this night, Dave offered to pick out the movie and Belle quickly volunteered to join him. So the two joked and talked, like they had many times before, as they walked the half mile to the corner McDonalds. Only tonight had been different.
The Princess Sisters (The Princess Sisters Series) Page 3
