The Last Enchantment
Characters: Cinderella's granddaughter, Gema, Gema's best friend (Rapunzel's granddaughter) Celeste, a magic cat named Patches and an evil man named Sasso.
Setting: Present day Fantasy Land
Plot: Gema and Celeste embark on a perilous journey to save their enchanted land before an evil man destroys Happily-Ever-After forever!
Gema Charming ran as fast as her pinching ball slippers would let her. Oh boy, she was late! Her mother was going to freak!
Gema stopped to catch a breath. She looked down at her new shoes. They were a pretty forest green velvet, but oh, did they hurt her feet! Gema slipped them off of her feet and ran with them in her hand down the slippery marble floor. Her matching ball gown was a bad asset to her hurriedness and she nearly fell over three times before she finally reached the ball corridor. Her loyal best friend, Celeste, was waiting for her.
"Gema, you're late!" She said.
"I know. My stupid alarm didn't go off loud enough for me to hear it over my headphones. Not to mention my dress was at the very back of my closet and my slippers are killing my feet! How's it going in there?" Gema explained.
"Pretty good. No one seems to be looking for you but your mother. Otherwise, everyone else is just drinking the fruit punch and eating the sandwiches." Celeste reported. Gema sighed with relief.
"So just my mother is looking for me?" She asked Celeste. Celeste nodded.
"She's conversing with my mom."
Gema was the granddaughter of the great famous and royal queen, Cinderella. Her father, Jackson, was Cinderella's only son. Gema was the only daughter of Mila and Jackson Charming, the royal family, making her Princess Gema Charming.
Celeste was the granddaughter of the famous Rapunzel, the fair maiden with the really long hair. Celeste's mother was Harriett, the youngest of Rapunzel's seven children. Celeste had inherited her grandmother's long hair and it was twisted into a braid that hung down Celeste's back to her ankles.
"Well, here goes." Gema said as she walked towards the door.
"Oh, Gema, your shoes!" Celeste called, but it was too late. Gema had already entered the ballroom. Celeste groaned for her best friend. Gema would be yet again an embarrassment to her mother and to herself and the Charming Family. She scanned the hallway for a place to stow the shoes, finally spotting a suit of armor and slipping the slippers into the helmet. She then hurried into the ballroom after Gema and seated herself next to her mother. Harriett leaned over to whisper,
"Is it just me, or is Gema missing her shoes?" Celeste grinned.
"It's not you." She said and Harriett shook her head.
"Gema, why are you late, dear?" Tiara Anne asked her daughter. Gema smiled a nervous grin.
"My alarm wasn't loud enough." She said.
"Wasn't loud enough! Gema, that thing is literally loud enough to be the church bell! What do you mean that it 'wasn't loud enough'?" Tiara Anne eyed Gema suspiciously.
"I had my headphones on." Gema said.
"Gema Sparkle Charming!" Tiara Anne exclaimed, mortified by Gema's headphone usage.
"I was listening to my tutor's CD of French words, I swear!" Gema said. Gema hadn't really been listening to French words at all. She had been listening to Spanish, a language her mother considered useless and ungraceful and not a language princesses should learn.
"Gema Sparkle Charming!" Her mother's voice held a warning as well as shock.
"Sorry! I promise!" Gema corrected herself.
"That's better. I want those headphones, Gema Sparkle Charming, after the ball. A princess does not spend all of her time with headphones on and listening to music that makes her want to sing in an off-pitch voice." Tiara Anne said in a stern voice.
Gema scowled down at her plate. It was always 'a princess does not' this and 'a princess does not' that. She was tired of it! Why couldn't she be a normal girl, like the girls she saw reading under the shade of a tree by the lake all the time? Gema jabbed a fork into her green peas.
"Daintily, Gema. Daintily. You are a princess, not a toddler." Gema defiantly put the whole forkful in her mouth at once and her mother looked horrified, but she stayed quiet. Gema's father stifled a laugh behind his hand. Tiara Anne gave her husband a stern look and Jackson stopped laughing at once, but he shot a grin at Gema. Gema smiled a small smile.
"Gema, stop this instant!" Her mother cried and Gema looked down at her spaghetti. She had been furiously twirling the noodles around her fork and now her entire helping of spaghetti was on her fork. Gema shrugged and began to eat it as though it was a big spaghetti lollipop. Tiara Anne took hold of her daughter's wrist firmly and forced her to lower it.
"That's enough, young lady! We'll speak of this later!" Celeste sent Gema a sympathetic look, knowing that Tiara Anne's lectures were long and boring. Gema scowled down at her spaghetti until the music for the dance began to play. Celeste and Gema eagerly jumped up and ran out across the dance floor to their hideout behind the pillar.
A hollow hole just big enough to fit Gema and Celeste could be found behind the pillar. The hole initially led to their real hideout- a small room below the dance floor. The staircase had been built over back even before Cinderella was even born. The door to the case had been thinly plastered over and while playing soccer secretly on the cleared out, newly waxed ball room floor, Gema kicked the ball into the pillar, which she had never done to that pillar in particular, and the ball crashed through the old, crumbly plaster, reveling the staircase. The girls had instantly grabbed a candle (Which was the only source of light they had at hand) and ventured down the stairs, discovering a small room. Gema had called for Mr. Ames, the janitor, to install lighting and build a door that did not seem to be there.
"Gema Sparkle Charming!" Tiara Anne called after her daughter, seeing her run. Gema froze and winced. She knew her mother was going make her dance with some prince or cousin or somebody, and Gema hated it. "Do not run and come here!" Tiara Anne ordered and Gema glanced at Celeste and walked back to her mother.
"How many times have I told you not to run? The floor has been waxed and it's slippery! You'll scratch it up in those new shoes!" Gema shrugged, forgetting that she wasn't even wearing her shoes. She was so used to wearing tennis shoes that she didn't even know she was in her sock – not stocking – feet. Gema walked out onto the floor and saw a prince she was quite used to seeing – he was a friend that she didn't get to see very often.
"Hi, Gabe!" Gema called and Gabriel, whom Gema call Gabe, turned around and smiled.
"Gem!" He said, calling Gema by his nickname for her.
"What have you been up to, Gem?" Gabe asked.
"Nothing much. Getting into trouble for being me." Gema said. Gabe shook his head.
"That's you." He said. Gema shrugged. She smiled and Gabe offered her his hand.
"Well, Princess Gem, may I have this dance?" He asked, bowing. Gema laughed and curtsied.
"You may." She said. This was a game she and Gabe played whenever he came for one of her mother's famous balls; trick Tiara Anne into thinking they were really dancing together. Celeste looked at her mother.
"Should I be hearing wedding bells?" Harriett asked Celeste. Celeste shook her head.
"Mom! We're only twelve! We can't get married!" She exclaimed, laughing, knowing her mother was joking. "They're just friends."
"True, but when they are much older, about sixteen or so, Gabriel could court Gema." Harriett pointed out. Celeste digested what her mother had said. It was true; Gabe could court her best friend when they turned sixteen! Celeste pushed the thought out of her head as she watched Gema and Gabe go out onto the dance floor. She knew about their little game and she sometimes wished she had a prince friend to prank Tiara Anne with. Then she remembered; the floor had just been waxed and Gema wasn't wearing any shoes! And she and Gabe weren't exactly the most graceful dancers in the history of the kingdom! Celeste groaned.
"Gema, Gema, Gema." She whispered and Harriett stared at her, clearly forgetting that Gema wasn't wearing any shoes.
Gema stepped out onto the cold floor and at once wondered why her feet were all of a sudden cold.
The music began and Gema suddenly realized why she couldn't stand on the waxed floor without slipping anymore; she wasn't wearing shoes!
"Gabe!" Gema whispered fiercely. "I'm not wearing any shoes! I'm slipping! Help me!"
"Gema, where in the name of Snow White are your shoes?" Gabe whispered back, amusement in his voice.
"They're in the ball corroder." Gema whispered back. Gabe let go of her and Gema slipped to the ground.
"Ow!" She said as she got up and began to sock-skate across the floor, weaving in between people as her mother looked mortified.
"Gema Sparkle Charming!" Her mother screamed above the shocked murmurs of the crowd and gasps of surprise. Gema bit her lip.
Not another embarrassment! She thought to herself as she continued to slip and slide across the floor.
Celeste watched her shoeless best friend run across the floor. Gema stopped and almost fell backwards as someone stepped in front of her. Celeste crashed into her and the two fell back. They peered up at the person who had dared to stop the princess of Fairy Meadow, the town where the kingdom was located.
A man stared down at the girls with narrowed eyes. He had black hair and menacing green eyes. He had a toothy smile, as though he had had braces at one time, and Gema remembered when Celeste had had braces. They had made her teeth beautiful, and Gema was supposed to get some within the next two years, but there was something about this man's smile that sent chills up her spine.
"Who are you?" Gema demanded as Celeste hauled her to her feet. Gema yanked off her socks and held them in her hand. At least they were clean due to the clean, waxed ball room floor.
"I am Sasso. You will call me Sasso." The man replied.
"What do you want, Sasso?" Gema asked.
"You are Princess Gema, Cinderella's granddaughter, correct?" He demanded in a rough voice that made Gema think twice about answering his question.
"Gema!" Tiara Anne screamed as she neared her daughter. "Gema, get up to your room n-" She stopped when she saw Sasso.
"What do you want?" She asked in a low voice that made Gema suspect that she had seen this man before.
"I came for my revenge." Sasso said and Gema jerked around to face her mother.
"Revenge?" She asked, not understanding. Was Sasso after revenge for something she didn't know about?
"I thought I said to never come here again." Tiara Anne said and Sasso crossed his arms.
"Does it look like I care what you said? I want my revenge and I plan on getting it." Sasso said and he grabbed Gema's upper arm.
"Lemme go!" Gema said and she looked at her mother, who despised words like "lemme" or "gotta."
"Let her go!" Jackson said as he ran at Sasso. Sasso whirled around and froze Jackson like ice.
"Dad!" Gema screamed. "What did you do to him?" She demanded from Sasso. Sasso let her go and Gema and Celeste stepped behind Tiara Anne.
"He's now ice. And as of right now, I set a spell on this land. Everyone in and around this castle, all of Fairy Meadow, shall be turned to ice!" He screamed and Gema felt Celeste tugging at her sleeve.
"Come on!" She screamed. Sasso had turned around and was chanting an enchantment. Gema and Celeste opened the door behind the pillar. Celeste disappeared down the stairs, but Gema hesitated and looked back as a pale blue light slowly made its over her family and guests and it was slowly making its way towards her. When it was a mere five feet from her, Gema knew she couldn't move. Her legs wouldn't let her.
A sudden hiss and yowl startled Gema as she felt four small paws hit her in the middle of the back and pushed her towards the door. She fell through the doorway, closing the door as she did.
"Get downstairs! Now!" A stern, almost angry voice yowled and Gema ran down the stairs and huddled with Celeste under a table. Gema threw a blanket over the top just big enough to cover the entire table and the sides touched the ground.
"Gema! Are you alright?" Celeste asked and Gema nodded. But who had pushed her through the door? After a maniacal laugh from Sasso above and then silence, the girls crept from their hiding place.
"Are you alright?" Asked a voice. The girls watched as a tabby cat stepped out from the darkness. He had a black patch over his left eye and black-tipped tail. "That was too close!"
"Y-You can talk!" Gema stuttered. The cat looked annoyed.
"Of course I can! My name's Patches. When I was just a young, I was human, but Sasso cast an enchantment on me, making me into a kitten. I grew up and here I am now. I was made a cat by the man that has made your kingdom ice. I will die a cat, for my enchantment cannot be undone, but yours," Patches said, "Can."