Olivia slumped down in her bus seat and kept her backpack at her side to keep herself hidden. Both of the year 3 teachers had told the students time and time again that electronics other than cameras would not be allowed on their field trip. They could bring cell phones as well, but that hardly counted, since they had to keep them shut off unless there was an emergency. Looking around the bus, she could see three of her classmates, Hannah, Emily, and Beth, in almost the exact same position as her. After ensuring that they were all hidden, they began their game on multiplayer mode. Soon enough, Olivia could feel imprints forming on her fingers from holding down the buttons on her 3DS, but she was much too focused on beating her friends in Mario Kart to pay any real mind to it. By the time the girls had reached the last lap of Maple Treeway, the class was already about five minutes away from the destination, which was a castle in a small kingdom in Denmark. The mice in the area had once been ruled by their own monarchy, but their last king had been overthrown almost 300 years earlier, and from now only the humans' prince and princess ruled the little kingdom. Olivia didn't notice how close they were until she finished the race in 2nd place and turned off the game when one of the teachers started to make her way toward Olivia's seat. She flipped the 3DS closed as quietly as she could and quickly stuck it back in the front pocket of her backpack as the bus stopped in front of the huge front doors of the castle.
Ariel stood in front of her closet, trying to decide what to wear. Today, she was arranged to meet with some young school mice to talk about life as a princess. Granted, Ariel had, at first, been a bit skeptical at the idea of a school of mice but having grown up with pretty much only talking animals for friends, she didn't really have any problem with it at all.
The class was supposed to arrive in just a few minutes, so Ariel knew she had to rush to get ready. She wasn't sure if she should wear a dress, or just keep it casual. She was a princess, and that's what the children were coming to see. Princesses, by default, are always associated with dresses.
On a whim, the redhead grabbed a casual skirt, boots, and top, deciding to keep the trip casual. She could show the kids that princesses don't always have to wear dresses and look like royalty. It would even help her with the main idea she was planning on telling the children; that everyone is a prince or princess, no matter what they look like or what their backgrounds are.
After changing, Ariel drifted over to the balcony, looking out at the busy street just a little ways away from the castle. Among the zooming cars that sped by, she spotted a yellow school bus. Turning from the balcony, the princess swiftly walked out of the room, only pausing to grab a tiny flower off her dresser and tucking it in her hair.
The inside of the castle was really something to behold, but Olivia wasn't very focused on it. As much as the teachers tried to quiet down the two classes, the children were too caught up in their own side conversations to pay attention. Olivia and her friends were especially chatty today, not having been able to sit next to each other on the bus ride and riled up about seeing the princess. "Do you think she'll look like one of those fairy tale princesses?" Beth asked the other three. "With one of those big poofy gowns?" As Hannah and Emily pondered this among themselves, Olivia shook her head. "I don't know about that. I mean, she can't possibly wear fancy dresses every single day." The girls kept going on until footsteps were heard coming down the hall. Olivia nudged Hannah and Emily and they all sat quickly down on the floor, waiting to finally see the princess. And sure enough, she was dressed just as any regular woman, though she was quite beautiful. "I told you," Olivia whispered to Beth before the whole class fell politely silent.
Ariel waited in the dining hall for the class to arrive, and she watched as the little mice got off the school bus one by one. There seemed to be about thirty of them or so.
As she sat on one of the chairs, Treasure hopped up next to her, purring and swishing her red tail. Ariel absentmindedly petted her, until she realized something, standing up quickly. "Oh my gosh, you can't be in here!" she said, frantically swooping up the kitten and hurrying her to one of the maids. "Put Treasure back in my room, and make sure the door is shut," she instructed, transferring the mewing kitten to the maid. Once she whisked off with the kitten, Ariel let out a sigh of relief. That could have been a disaster.
Almost immediately, one of the castle guards opened the wooden front door to reveal the class of school mice. Ariel smiled down at all of them as they shuffled in, and she was instantly thankful that Treasure was safely locked away. If something was small and moved, Treasure would chase it, without a doubt.
"Hello, everyone!" she said cheerfully, putting her hands on her hips as she grinned down at all the eager-looking mice. When they all fell silent, causing an awkward silence in the room, Ariel bit her lip and decided to sit down. She felt like she might seem intimidating, since she was so much bigger than them. After sitting down on the hardwood floor, she took a deep breath and said, "So, first of all, welcome to the castle! Have any of you seen something like this before? It's pretty cool, isn't it?"
Most of the students nodded quietly, and Olivia eagerly raised her hand. "Princess, you don't have to wear fancy dresses all the time, right? I mean, other than today." She hadn't meant much by it, but she wondered if she'd said something wrong when some of the boys in her class started snickering.
Relieved that one of the children wanted to ask a question, Ariel eagerly nodded towards her, indicating that she could speak. At her question, Ariel smiled and said, "No, of course not! Those big, poofy dresses are ones I only like to wear for extra fancy occasions, like a royal ball or something like that."
When the boys of the class started snickering and whispering to each other, Ariel raised an unamused brow and cleared her throat, saying, "Something the matter, boys?"
The boys who had been laughing at Olivia's question stopped abruptly and shook their heads. "No, Princess," they muttered, now straight-faced. "I guess you don't really look like a princess to them," Olivia commented quietly, feeling a little guilty for bringing it up.
The same mouse who had asked Ariel the question commented again, and Ariel could tell how genuinely interested she was in what Ariel had to say. After giving the obviously embarrassed boys a condescending look, she smiled at the girl and said, "Maybe they just want to see all my dressed I have upstairs, then! There's pink ones and green ones and fluffy ones and slim ones…" She trailed off, looking to see if the boys still seemed interested.
Most of the boys in the class looked indifferent, but a lot of the girls suddenly seemed much more interested. Olivia raised her hand again. "What about blue ones?" she inquired, blue being her very favorite color.
Ariel laughed, "Yes, and definitely some blue ones!" Seeing the girls' newfound excitement, and the boys' decrease in interest, Ariel decided what she wanted to do. "Grimsby?" She asked loudly, waiting for her advisor to emerge. When he did, Ariel said to him, "Would you mind showing the boys around the castle for me? Something that… interests them?" The old man simply nodded, and Ariel said to the boys, "Alright. If the boys could please go with Grimsby for a little while, and the girls will come with me…" On command, all the boys stood up and followed Grimsby.
Left with just the girls, Ariel smiled and stood back up. "Alright, how would you girls like to go see real princess dresses for yourselves?"
The girls all nodded eagerly and stood up after the princess, suddenly much more fascinated with the fact that they were in a real castle with a real princess.
Ariel chuckled, "Okay, good. Just follow me. They're in my room, right up these steps." She turned and began walking, then realized something, a look of panic crossing her face. "Uh, I'm just gunna go ahead and make sure everything's in place," she said quickly, giving an awkward grin before charging up the staircase.
She threw open her bedroom door and was greeted by a meowing Treasure, who was perfectly perched on one of Eric's pillows, looking content as she licked her paw. Ariel rushed over to her and scooped her up, hurrying her into her carrying case across the room. Treasure was mewing angrily, obviously displeased at having been rearranged. "Sorry, sweetie, but you cannot be in here right now."
Wasting no time, Ariel rushed back out of her room, carrying Treasure into the hallway. The mice hadn't gotten up the stairs yet, but she knew she was crunched on time. If Treasure even saw a glimpse of the schoolgirls, she would go berserk. With no other choice, Ariel rushed to Hayden's room and softly but swiftly opened the door, hoping she wasn't disturbing his nap. "Please, please stay quiet," she pleaded with the kitten, placing her cage right inside the room.
After softly closing the door again, Ariel tiptoed back to her room quickly, just as the mice reached the top of the stairs. After an inconspicuous sigh of relief, Ariel said, "Okay! Sorry about the stairs, I know there's quite a lot of them." She bit her lip, feeling guilty for not helping the girls up. Better they be tired than hunted. "Alright, you ready to see the dresses?" She backed up a bit, giving the girls access to the large master bedroom.
The girls nodded excitedly, eager to see real-life princess gowns. After all, they had always been known to be absolutely beautiful. As they entered the room, Olivia became rather impressed with how elegant it was. A few of the other girls noticed as well, but they were mostly focused on anticipating the sight of the dresses.
Ariel walked over to her walk-in closet and pulled the double doors open, revealing many, many different princess dresses in all shapes and colors. She stood back and gestured to the door. "Well, there you go!" she smiled, anticipating the girls' ecstatic expressions. "Feel free to go in and look around, and, of course, ask me any questions about any of them, if you'd like!"
The girls all scattered throughout the huge closet and marveled at the dresses. Olivia happily made her way down a whole aisle of all kinds of dresses until she reached the end, where she saw a white gown with teal trim. She and the other girls who saw it all agreed that it was certainly at least one of the loveliest ones there. Olivia went up to the princess and, pointing at the large white dress, asked her, "Princess, was that your wedding gown? It's absolutely beautiful!"
When asked the question, Ariel raised her brows and walked over to the dress the girls were so elated about. Once they pointed it out, Ariel smiled, gently reaching out to touch the dress, which of course hadn't been worn in almost 13 years. "Yeah, this was my wedding dress," she said, scanning the unique dress as memories of her perfect wedding day surged through her. "Thanks, girls. It's fantastic, isn't it?" She sighed dreamily. Perfect dress, perfect wedding, perfect husband. "And please," she added, twirling her hair hesitantly, "Just.. Just call me Ariel."
"Okay, Ariel," Olivia complied. Suddenly another question popped into her head. "Ooh! Ariel, which dress is your absolute favorite? Other than your wedding dress, I mean."
"Well," Ariel smiled, knowing exactly which dress was the one. She walked over to it and pulled out the simple, fluffy pink dress. "This one," she said, pulling out the dress a bit. "It's very special to me." She looked over the dress with a smile, knowing she would keep it forever simply for being the first dress she had wowed Eric with. Noticing that the same little mouse had been asking all the questions, Ariel said to her, "What's your name, sweetie?"
The rest of the day went on as Ariel had planned. The boys had an opportunity to play around with Max, who didn't have any problem them being mice, and the girls, of course, had spent time looking at Ariel's dresses. In addition, Ariel gave the class a castle tour, explained what she did on a daily basis as the princess, and served the kids a lunch made by Louis himself. Before long, Grimsby came in and informed Ariel that the school bus had just arrived.
"I'm Olivia," she answered. Taking a look at the dress Ariel had shown her, she commented, "It's very lovely!"
Throughout the rest of the trip, Olivia and her classmates found that life as a princess wasn't all that different from what they had learned, although it was somewhat different from fairy tales. When the school bus arrived, the children all politely thanked Ariel and the castle staff for the tour, as well as the fancy lunch. "Goodbye, Ariel," Olivia called, waving as her class started lining up at the door.
Ariel walked Olivia and her classmates to the door, smiling and waving goodbye to them all. "I hope you all had a wonderful time. And always remember, everyone is a prince or a princess. No matter what." As the kids head outside and boarded the school bus, Ariel saw Olivia, the last one on line, waving at her and bidding her goodbye. "Goodbye, Olivia!" Ariel called, continuing to wave until the yellow school bus drove away.
As if on cue, she felt something hit her legs and she looked down to see Treasure had been let out of her cage. She swooped her up and mumbled, "You silly kitten. You could've ruined the visit!" With that, she shut the castle door and walked away, nuzzling Treasure as she thought about what a wonderful day she had had with the children.