I DON'T OWN SOFIA THE FIRST

She truly was the red-headed stepchild. Ever since her mother married the king she's had an unwelcome feeling inside her. It started in her stomach but it soon spread throughout her body like a disease. The feeling was cold and always there, whether painfully sitting on her heart or in the back of her mind nagging at her.

It's been a decade to the day since she was crowned princess of Enchancia but the feeling still stayed and didn't seem to be going anytime soon. Recently, she even started to feel as if her mother wasn't hers anymore. She didn't feel completely like this at first. She was fine at the wedding, happy even. The feeling first attacked when she moved into the castle.

Her step-sister Princess Amber was the first to feed the fire burning deep inside the young girl. Amber would be rude, unhelpful, and insolent towards her new sibling no matter how hard the new princess tried to make friends with her. Prince James, her step-brother, tried to make her feel welcome just because his father told him to but all he did was make his new sister feel small and weak by pitying her. The royal sorcerer interested her. His name was Cedric and he seemed very introverted and grumpy and that made her very curious about him. Everyone seemed to dismiss or reject Cedric and that's how she felt.

She had to attend a new school for royal children. She was put in the grade that matched her age but not experience. She was hardly better than terrible at her classes while her classmates excelled. She felt like an outcast, a loser, the one who didn't belong. At first she tried talking to her mother about how she felt but her mother was convinced she would soon grow out of the feelings and move on.

Her step-father King Roland gave her an amulet to try to ease her insecurities but at first all it did was decorate her neck. Her amulet granted her the power to talk to animals after she helped a family of birds in the forest behind her new school while drying off, the reason she was out there was one of her siblings of course. She confronted Cedric about her amulet and he revealed it was the Amulet of Avalor. He said it helped princesses but that couldn't have been true because she wasn't a princess.

She grew closer to her family over the years and the word step was eliminated for she was no longer considered step-family to them but rather one of their own. Amber would love to spend time with her and do sisterly things, James loved doing flying derby and playing dazzleball with her, and her dad would hug her as if he's held her her entire life. Calling him dad was bittersweet. Calling him dad made her feel like she finally had two parents and it showed him that she loved him but it also reminded her that she wasn't his kin.

Time continued its course and she earned other titles such as Storykeeper and Protector of the Ever Realm. Those titles were her everything, they were the only titles she felt were truly hers. She worked to be called them unlike her princess title which was given to her for legal reasons. She didn't deserve to be a princess and she didn't deserve to be called daughter or sister by the royal family of Enchancia but she was anyway. She felt like a liar and a phoney by allowing others to address her as a princess. She would never be the lady she was told she was. She didn't belong or at least it didn't feel that way. In her eyes, she would never even be close to good enough. She's always tried but it wasn't meant to be. It wouldn't work. It couldn't work.

"Sofia?"

The eighteen year old turned to find her step-sister standing by her bed. She was wearing a chaise mauve ball gown, silk white gloves, white cone heels, a pearl necklace and a silver tiara complete with matching pearls.

"Hey Amber, when'd you come in?"

"Sofia I've been standing here calling to you for ten minutes but you just kept staring out your window, are you alright?" Concern filled her voice as she walked over to the young adult and felt her forehead.

Sofia gently brushed the blonde's hand away and smiled.

"I'm fine Amber."

The nineteen year old didn't seem convinced but decided to drop it knowing that Sofia doesn't talk about anything she doesn't want to.

"If you say so. Come on, I'm here to escort the princess to her anniversary ball." Amber smiled softly and offered her arm to her sister and Sofia accepted it by linking her own arm with Amber's.

They walked the halls together until they reached the ballroom packed with nobles and villagers alike ready to celebrate the royal family of Enchancia.