Chapter One: Snow White
Snow's eyes opened at the sound of an incessant beeping nearby. Turning her head to the left, she pushed a button on her alarm clock, killing the noise, and sat up in bed.
The teenager's living quarters was a terrible excuse for a bedroom. She slept in a dank, dark cellar at the back of the house, that had no windows and only one door, which locked from the outside. No pictures or posters decorate the mud-colored rock wall. Snow slept upon a toddler's mattress which was covered with a dull gray quilt that had random yellow tuna fish decorated on it, and no pillow. Beside the mattress was an empty up-side-down crate, which was used as a bed-side table. Occupying the space on top of the crate was a tin bowl full of water, a wash cloth, a comb, a plain white tooth brush beside a small tube of toothpaste, and an orange headband. The last thing on top of the crate, beside the black and brown alarm clock, was a black walkie-talkie perched at the corner beside her head. There was one other crate in the room, this one containing all of Snow's clothes.
With a yawn, Snow kicked off her fish blanket and stood up, shivering slightly as her bare feet touched the stone-cold floor. She stripped out of the dull gray large tee shirt she used for pajamas and stood in her underwear beside her bed. Picking up the washcloth, she dunked it into the tin bowl filled with water, then began washing herself. Once finished, the young girl strolled over to the crate filled with clothes and slipped on a shirt with horizontal brown and orange stripes that was about three times her size, a pair of torn paint-splattered, a couple of white socks, and scuffed neon-yellow sneakers. After getting dressed, Snow picked up her comb, and used the left over water in the bowl to get rid of the tangles in her hair before holding it back in place with the orange headband.
Now, completely finished, Snow stored the walkie-talkie into the back pocket of her jeans, as she left her room to do her morning chores.
The door to her bedroom opened up to the kitchen, which was kept spotless by Snow, and seeing it was still in perfect condition, she strolled up to the trash can, which happened to be filled to the brim with garbage. With a sigh, she lifted the black plastic bag out of its container, and tied off the end before taking it out of the kitchen, down the hall, and through the living room towards the front door.
Stepping out into the early dawn, she quietly shut the door behind her. Snow had only dragged the trash half-way across the perfect manicured yard towards the street, when she had gotten tired. Releasing the heavy plastic bag, she stopped to rest, panting slightly from exhaustion. Brushing a loose strand of hair out of her eyes, she spotted a lone figure walking down the sidewalk. Upon close inspection, it was a stranger to her, a male teenager a couple of years older than her, wearing scuffed brown sneakers, ratty faded blue jeans, and a blue sweatshirt with the hood pulled over his head, hiding the color of his hair. His hands were crammed into the giant pocket in the front of his sweatshirt, and a couple of white wires trailed up to his head.
Earplugs to an iPod, she thought, continuing to stare at him. As if feeling her gaze upon him, he turned in her direction and stopped. His blue eyes raked her from head to toe, and came to a halt upon her face, one eyebrow cocked up in interest. The stranger opened the gate to the white picket fence surrounding the yard, and headed straight for her. Finally coming to a halt in front of her so close that their breaths mingled, they stared into each other's eyes.
"Uh," Snow managed to say, feeling herself blush, and her heart began to pound hard against her chest. She wasn't used to any boy being this close to her. It made her feel highly uncomfortable. Without saying anything, he picked up the trash, one-handed, and tearing his gaze away from her, carried it out of the yard and dropped it at the curb for the garbage collectors to pick up. Then, he began to walk away as if nothing out of the ordinary happened.
Finding her voice, Snow called out to him, "Thank you!"
Not turning around, he waved a reply, and continued on his way.
At that moment, a crackly voice burst from the walkie-talkie in her back pocket. "Snow White! Get your lazy butt to work and make me my breakfast!" The young girl quickly pulled the device out and brought it to her lips.
"Yes, Regina," she replied, sprinting back towards the house, "I'll be there in a few minutes."
"NOW!" Regina roared.
Regina was Snow's step-mother. For the first year of her life, Snow's father, Leopold White, had hired several nannies, one of them being Regina Mills. He shortly married her, and left his daughter with her. Regina pretended to be a respectable woman of society until Leopold left to travel for his job, then her true personality burst out. She was cruel, and selfish, and narcissistic, and cared only about herself. As soon as Snow turned five, she had the poor girl doing all of the household chores, while she spent hours improving her looks. When Snow turned twelve, Regina realized how beautiful her step-daughter was becoming, and became jealous. Since then, she has had her wear nothing but the vilest pieces of clothing to make her look horrible.
Even though Snow was raised by an awful person, she grew up to be a sweet wonderful young woman.
After rushing back into the kitchen, she made her step-mother some scrambled eggs, then spooning them into a bowl and grabbing a fork, she sprinted through the house to Regina's bedroom. She knocked on the white wooden door.
"Enter," said Regina. Snow opened the door and stepped inside with a smile. "Good morning, Regina. Did you sleep well?"
Regina was relaxing underneath the covers of her large queen-sized bed, her green eyes narrowed at her step-daughter. She flicked her midnight colored hair over her shoulder in annoyance. "What do you care, you little brat?" she sniffed.
Snow handed Regina her breakfast and patiently waited to be dismissed. A couple of bites later she said, "Snow, I'll be out at the salon today. I don't know what time I'll be home, but I still expect dinner to be ready at six. And don't forget to clean the bathroom and wash the windows, and mow the lawn, and do the laundry, and clean the kitchen. That's it. You may leave." She waved Snow away, and the teenager gladly left, closing the door behind her.
With a sigh, the teenager ran back to her own bedroom, and picked up her backpack before leaving the house for school. After walking several blocks, a silver convertible slowed to a crawl beside Snow. She glanced up to see Claudia, Laura, and Paula, the Bimbette triplets, all dressed in matching designer outfits in different colors: red, yellow, and green. Claudia, who was driving, had lowered her white movie-star sunglasses pushed up to the top of her head, and smiled at Snow.
"Aw! Poor Snow," she simpered in mock sympathy, "I would give you a ride to school, but I'm afraid there's no room for losers in my car."
Laura and Paula cackled with laughter, sounding like a couple of hyenas.
Snow just blinked at them, letting their insult slide right off. She wasn't going to let them upset her.
"Later, loser!" Claudia called, stepping on the gas, and shooting off down the street.
Shaking her head in exasperation, Snow continued on her walk to school. Those Bimbette cousins are so mean. At least they leave me alone most of the time at school, she thought, but her mind wandered to the other girl the Bimbettes hated: a pretty girl named Belle Jolie. She doubted Belle noticed, though, she always had her nose stuck in a book.
By the time Snow arrived on campus, she noticed that nearly every girl in school was nowhere to be seen. That's strange. One Asian girl by the name of Mulan Fa ran by, and Snow grabbed her arm before she could get too far.
"Sorry, Mulan, but what's the rush? And where are all of the girls?" Snow asked when Mulan had come to a halt.
"They're all by the teacher's lounge! Claudia Bimbette is going to ask out that new teaching assistant Phillip Kingson! You know the one that works for Mrs. Turner!" Mulan replied dragging Snow down the hall with her. They soon found the female population of the school in a thick crowd, forming an arc. Mulan pushed their way through the crowd, and Snow suddenly found herself at the front of the throng, where she could see the scene unfolding before her.
Her gaze landed on Phillip Kingson and her heart skipped a beat. He was very handsome with his neatly combed brown hair, brown eyes, and strong angular chin. He didn't have that bad-boy look so many girls found attractive. Instead, he wore a gray collared short-sleeve shirt with a black sweater-vest, and brown pants. At the moment Phillip was lounging back against the wall beside the door leading to the teacher's lounge, his arms folded across his chest and he had a small smile upon his lips as he stared down at Claudia.
Claudia stood before him, with a flirtatious smile and twisted a strand of her blonde hair around her finger as she spoke. "So, Phillip, I was, like, thinking that if you're not, like, too busy on Saturday, we can, like, go out on a date?"
"Claudia, that was very kind of you to ask, but I'm afraid it's unprofessional for me to date a girl that I teach," Phillip replied, then he straightened up and walked away from her. "I'll see you in class."
The crowd separated, allowing Phillip to leave. As he walked by Snow, he smiled and winked at her, causing her to blush. Once he was out of sight, the girls began to laugh at Claudia and her face reddened in angry embarrassment. Laura and Paula stood off to the side looking shocked. They were the only ones, besides, Snow, who did not laugh.
To rid herself of this humiliation, Claudia turned and glared at Snow as if she were the one that had embarrassed her. An evil smirk slowly crept across her face.
"Why, Snow, dear, where ever did you find those awful clothes? I didn't think you'd sink so low as dumpster diving," she said. The other girls began to laugh at her now.
Snow flushed, but didn't say a word. At that moment, the bell rang for the start of school and the crowd dispersed. As Snow tried heading for class, Claudia, Laura, and Paula shoved her aside, and she crashed into the row of lockers. She winced in pain, but made now sound as her left arm began to throb. Yup, she was going to have a wicked bruise tomorrow. The Bimbette triplets shrieked with laughter as they sashayed off to class. The tardy bell rang, and Snow sprinted down the hall towards her first hour.