Apple White, daughter of Snow White, was frustratingly blonde. She pursed her lips, and her reflection in the golden, gilded vanity of her glorious room in her glittering palace pouted back. She went through the list in her head: skin as white as snow, check; lips as red as blood, check; hair black as ebony…
She huffed a melodic sigh as she tossed her golden curls. The songbirds behind her flitted about, mimicking the noise.
“My sillies! Are you all making fun of me?” Apple laughed, turning to face the purple and blue songbirds who had settled on her enormous bed’s canopy. The multi-tiered flooring rose up to the platform where her bed sat, and her elaborate golden bedsheets soaked in the light from her crystal skylight. In fact, the entire ceiling of Apple White’s bedroom was made of crystal glass, sloping and twirling into a point, the highest point of the royal palace’s highest tower.
Apple lifted herself up and floated over to the birds, plopping herself down and giggling as she rolled onto her back, soaking in the sun. It was a beautiful day! She would be returning to Ever After High later that morning, and she simply could not wait. It was Legacy Year, after all! The year when Apple and all her peers would be signing the Storybook of Legends, forever tying each of them to their destinies! Apple would finally be that much closer to living out her happily ever after, forever after!
Apple shrieked and kicked her feet, rolling her body over and opening her MirrorPhone to call her best friends forever after. She opened her hext chat of Briar Beauty, daughter of sleeping beauty, and Ashlynn Ella, daughter of Cinderella, and hit ‘enchant’. The phone hummed twice before Ashlynn picked up. Briar’s icon tweeted a few more times before going dark.
Ashlynn sang her greeting, “Hello Apple! Oh- looks like Briar’s missing us again.”
“There’s no surprise there,” Apple razzed, “She’s definitely taking a power nap before move in, she was just hexting me at dawn this morning about how hexstatic she is about going back to Ever After High! How are you feeling?”
Ashlynn groaned, “I have almost everything packed, but my baskets of shoes are far too heavy for any of my squirrel friends to help move them!” She flipped her camera around to reveal some very pooped-looking critters.
Apple brought a polite hand to her lips, holding in her giggle. “Have you asked your Great-Fairy-Godmother for help?”
Ashlynn flipped her camera around in a hurry, “What a magical idea! I had almost forgotten she’s visiting! You’re a good apple, Apple.”
Apple blushed her rosy cheeks, “Aww, you know me,” she flushed.
“So, is Daring picking you up?” Ashlynn batted her long eyelashes, bringing her MirrorPhone close to her eyes and blinking expectantly.
Daring Charming, the eldest of the Charmings, was Apple’s not-boyfriend. He was the prince destined to wake her from her poison-induced coma with a kiss of True Love. Apple’s stomach did a somersault just thinking about it! She was endlessly excited, but everyone at school knew that the two of them were destined to be together. Apple thought that that totally took the pressure off of having to date him! They might as well be betrothed, in her mind. She had dealt with countless disagreements with her mother and friends about her refusal to pursue him, as they all believed that the handsome blondes would make such a great power couple. But Apple refused. She thought she was already powerful enough as the most popular princess at school with parents who ruled Ever After and all its villages. Besides, she had her entire forever after to spend with Daring, why rush into things? Maybe after the two of them signed the Storybook of Legends, she would feel different.
Apple replied to her shopaholic friend, “Yes, Daring is coming by on his way from his castle to help move my things. It's nothing romantic, just him being his princely, masculine self and me acting like the baskets are too heavy so I don't have to carry them myself. I would do it all if I needed to, but why would I when I’ve just freshly painted my nails!” Apple posed her hand for the camera, showing off her glittery red nail polish.
“Oh Apple, those are flawless! Your cuticles are perfection!” Ashlynn raved in her sweet, comforting voice, “Oh, hold on, my mice friends are about to band together and give my second box of heels another go, I should really help them before anyone squashes a tail. Charm you later!!!!” And the call dropped.
Apple let out another giggle, she was just so filled with joy. Her stomach did another flip when she thought about Daring again. This one didn't feel quite like her usual excitement about her destiny, though. She had been feeling slightly queasy recently when she thought too deeply about having to fall in love with him. She truly did hope that after she signed her page, her affection for her friend would be able to deepen. Her songbird friends chirped at her inquisitively, imploring her to open up about her change in mood.
Apple rolled away from them, softly furrowing her brows. She took a quick deep breath and erased the worry from her face, turning back to her friends. “Oh, nothing, you worry flurries! Let's worry about getting all of this to the front of the palace instead,, shall we?” She lilted, sitting up and climbing off of her comforter.
Like clockwork, the songbirds swooped down and smoothed out her bedsheets, polishing out the indent that Apple had just left with her plush body like she was never there. Apple hummed her thanks, skipping sweetly over to her balcony where she whistled out to her woodland friends. She waited expectantly, a soft smile lighting up her dove white face. After a brief moment of listening to the rustling from the green forest branches below, a snow white dove flitted up to her. Apple raised her eyebrows in mild surprise.
“Just you?” She said to it, feeling a kinship with her feathered friend, “You know, my father would sometimes call me his little dove growing up,” Apple twitted, lightly stroking the bird’s white wings. The dove let out a low crooning pattern.
“Well, you are welcome to join us. We’re moving all of my baskets of- Wait a spell, where did the others go?” Apple turned around to an empty room, without so much as a feather to signify where her blue and purple friends had flown off to. “How odd. Maybe my mom called them out of the room for something, I’m not the surest of them all.”
Apple walked inside, but her dove friend just perched on her balcony railing and twitched its head at her. Apple turned and placed her hands on her hips, swaying her weight to one side and eyeing the bird. “You’re an odd one, aren't you,” she sang back to it.
“Well, then, I’m assuming you don't feel like helping me with all of these, now do you. That’s okay, I’ll just get them myself!” Apple pouted lightheartedly, stooping down to grab a basket of dresses whilst trying to trick the little bird into being as helpful as Apple was used to.
The dove just trilled at her.
Upon lifting the basket, Apple realized that she may have stuffed it a little full as she faced a face full of tulle piled higher than her crown. “You're seriously going to perch there while I deal with all of this? Well, that's fine, I’ll manage it all even if it takes my own blood, thread and tears!” She yelled through the faux fur and silk.
The dove stayed silent, watching with its small, beady eyes. Apple took a few steps before tripping on one of her own stray heels, dropping the basket with an unceremonious squeal and falling forward. Luckily, the pile of fabric she had been holding made for a soft landing as it broke her fall.
Apple rolled into a sitting position, neatly tucking her legs under herself by force of ladylike habit. “Still nothing?” She called to the bird before being interrupted.
A new birdcall had reached her ears. A raven’s caw. Apple’s head had never spun around so quickly. The dove wasn't watching her anymore, its gaze was transfixed upon the raven flying by, ebony black feathers glinting green and purple in the sunlight. Apple rushed to her feet, gliding over to the balcony and perching herself close to the dove on the banister. The two doves peered up at the unsettling sight of the raven climbing into the great blue sky before swooping down again and again, slicing through the air in a bizarre pattern that gave Apple a headache to watch.
“I’m meeting a load of odd little guys today,” Apple said under her breath.
As if in response, her finicky fowl friend flapped its wings erratically and took off into the sky, soaring up to meet the raven and joining it in its odd dance in the sky. Apple thought it was a spellbinding sight, mesmerized as the black and white feathers became a harmonious blur in the mid-morning light.
“Oh, so no help for me but the strange and creepy raven has everything you need. That makes perfect sense,” Apple’s red lips uttered.
The girl turned from the balcony with hesitation to stop watching, but she knew Daring should be up any minute. The sight stuck with her, however, as she wandered back across her room. The raven and the dove. Huh. I guess the dove needed the raven to have some sense of direction for itself. It reminded her of someone. Someone very important to Apple, despite her never having truly talked to them at length. Apple stopped her pacing and pulled out her MirrorPhone. She had to make a call.
“Mirror mirror, through thick and thin, please show me Headmaster Grimm.”
The End (is just the beginning...)
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