The Princess Sisters (The Princess Sisters Series)

by Stacy Lynn Carroll

  “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.

  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.

  Then the girls all climbed into the car and began discussing Cinderella’s plan. They talked excitedly about their ideas, but each one was nervous they weren’t going to be able to pull it off. Dana overheard snippets from the front seat.

  “What are you girls up to?” she asked.

  “Just trying to fix our school problems,” Belle answered.

  “We’re done being teased. This time, we’re going to fight back,” Aurora added.

  “Just so long as nobody gets hurt,” Dana said.

  “Guess we’ll have to get rid of the lighter fluid then,” Ariel said.

  Dana whipped around so fast in her chair that the car swerved and barely missed a collision with the car in the next lane.

  “Mom! She’s joking!” Cinderella said.

  The girls all laughed as Dana righted the car and waved an apology to the honking sedan beside them.

  That night the girls all sat in Belle’s basement on the giant bed they had created from a dozen or so quilts and as many pillows as they could find. The coffee table that normally sat in the center
of the room was pushed against the wall and covered with various boxes and bags of goodies. A bowl of popcorn sat as the centerpiece, with a parade of chocolate, gummies, and chips extending to the outer limits of the table. The Princess sisters decided to have a teen movie night to pump them up for the coming week. They first watched a “girl power” movie, in hopes that the diabolical planning of the teens on the show would rub off on them.

  Then they watched a cute, fairy tale spinoff and cheered when the nerdy girl in school became the gorgeous, popular one. Finally, they ended with a musical trilogy. They were on such a buzz by this point, with the intake of exorbitant amounts of sugar and having caught their second wind around 1:00 a.m., that they spent the rest of the night dancing, singing, and giggling and didn’t sleep at all.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Monday, September 6th

  Belle grumbled as she walked toward the large brick building. I shouldn’t have to be here. It’s Labor Day! I should still be in bed!

  “Call me when you get done!” Mary called out the car window.

  Belle waved behind her back, to acknowledge she had heard. But she didn’t turn around. And she didn’t say anything. Belle pulled open the large door to the school and stepped inside. The halls were empty. She stood there, staring at the great open space. She half expected to hear a bell ring and see dozens of kids come pouring out of their classrooms, but the hall remained silent. The door opened behind her, and Belle turned. Her face dropped.

  “Should we get started?” Dave asked.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I’m your tutor. You are Belle Princess, right?” he asked, trying to make a joke.

  Belle glared at him. Then she pushed him aside with her shoulder and shoved open the heavy front doors. The sunlight hit her square in the eyes, so Belle had to squint as she hurried toward the parking lot. Dave had to jog to keep up.

  “Look, I know I’m not who you expected. When I signed up to be a peer tutor, I wasn’t expecting to get you either!” This wasn’t true. When Dave saw Belle’s name on the list, he had to bribe her original tutor with $50 to make the trade.