Prologue
Once upon a time, in a far away land called Swanmore, there lived 5 girls. Well, technically only 2 of them lived there and the others were just visiting, but I digress. It was a beautiful day, the birds were singing, kids were playing, and our heroines were doing what comes naturally to teenagers under such conditions.
That's right, they were lounging around indoors, practicing for "Lord of the Rings: The Parody Musical".
Ok, maybe that's not what comes naturally to most teenagers, but not one of these girls could truthfully claim to be normal.
Firstly, there's Laura. Exercise-addict, health food junkie, and incredibly annoying.
Then, Jess Kovacs. Practicing witch, ardent reader of all fairytales, and poisons expert.
Shannon. Answers to "God" and will tease anyone given the chance.
Hanne. Sarcastic and cynical, extremely lazy, and has a talent for disappearing when she's needed.
Finally, Jess Baldwin. Often described as a militant feminist, hater of poor literature, and likes making insane plans with Hanne, e.g. to send all males to Siberia, or to make a Prawn Circus.
As you can see, they aren't typical fairy tale princess material. Perhaps they weren't the best choices for their roles in this tale, but fate moves in mysterious ways…
Back in Jess K's room, our heroines had got distracted from practicing yet again. This time, the cause was their search for Jess K's diary. Or rather, Laura and Shannon's search. Jess B had found a magazine with an article about Twilight and was busy fuming, Hanne couldn't be bothered to shift from her comfy spot on the end of the bed, and Kovacs obviously didn't want anyone to find her diary anyway.
However, instead of the diary, Laura found a rather different book. It was a book of fairy tales Jess K had found the other day and hadn't got around to reading yet. It was perfectly normal in every way except one. The princesses illustrated on the front had more than a passing resemblance to each of our 5 heroines!
It was this that caused Laura to pick it up and open it; and it was that action that sent the 5 spiraling off into the pages…