Chapter 1: The letter (that marked the beggining)

Briar Beauty couldn't move. She just stood there, in the middle of her fluffy hot-pink carpet, her eyes and mouth wide open, and stared at few rows written on light-pinkish paper. She didn't even know why did she feel so… so shocked. She knew this was going to happen sometime, didn't she? So why was this like a pile of stones materialized out of thin air and crashed on her head? It was just so…unexpected.

Briar slowly started to feel her limbs again. She closed her mouth, although her eyes were still huge. Apple. She needed to talk to Apple. Not only was Apple her Best Friend Forever After, but she also, conveniently, had experience with this sort of things. She threw the letter that was source of all the mixed feelings that were twirling inside her right now on her bed and rushed over the room to the balcony. She was quickly on the other side of golden balcony fence. Not that students were supposed to go on the other side of them and then jump down, like she was about to. Then, on the other hand, not like she cared, breaking that rule on a daily basis. She jumped on the balcony below, the one that led to the room Apple shared with Raven. She didn't even stumble when she landed on marble tiles that covered it, even though she was wearing super high heels. After years of jumping from balconies and windows, she became quite an expert at it. She came to the door that led inside. They were closed, but she could see Apple sitting at her desk through the glass window. She knocked on the door so harshly that Apple quite literally jumped out of her chair and started frantically looking around the room. When she finally discovered the source of sound, she hurried to the door and quickly opened them.

"Briar! You scared me to death! I think you almost broke glass on the door!" Apple looked at Briar's face, which showed something between shock and confusion. "Is everything okay?" she asked worriedly.

"I…I'm not sure", Briar said uncertainly. "May…may I come in?"

Apple looked very worried when she moved to the side to let Briar in. "Sure", she said with concern in her voice.

Briar stepped in and looked around the room. Luckily, it seemed that Raven wasn't here. She probably went to Maddie's room or to the Village of Book End with her friends. Briar made her way to Apple's richly carved gold-red bed with huge red canvas over it and sat down, immediately crossing her hands in her lap and looking down at her feet. Apple grabbed her desk chair and positioned it across the bed, sitting down after doing so, now with even more worry and concern that filled her big blue eyes.

"Briar? What is it? You're really starting to scare me now. Did something happen?" she asked.

Briar swallowed. "I just received a letter from my mother", she said quietly.

"Why? Did something bad happen?" Apple was suddenly alarmed.

"Yes. I mean, no. I mean…", Briar sighted. "I don't know. I don't know is it good or bad. It was a warning, really. She wanted…to give me a heads up…", Briar's voice trailed off as she felt like she was going to cry. But that was ridiculous. She never cried. And this wasn't even a big deal! So why in-Ever-After was she so upset about it?

Apple was scared now. She took Briar's hands into her own. What in the Storybook of Legends was going on? "Briar. Look at me. What is it? What did she want to give you heads up about?"

Briar felt tears gathering in her eyes. She forced herself to look at Apple. "About an event that is going to happen. Here. At Ever After High."

She was now crying. For real. Tears streamed down her face and she had to try hard not to let any sobs out. She was ashamed and angry at herself at the same time. She didn't even want to imagine how she looked, because all of her carefully put make-up was probably ruined and smeared across her face by now, and her face itself must've been really red. That was one of the reasons why she hated crying so much and avoided it whenever she could (usually successfully). Apart from the whole thing being shameful and apart from it not being appropriate behaviour for a princess, as Briar saw it, whenever she cried (which, as we know by now, happened very rarely) she became as red as the reddest apple in the Kingdom of Ever After.

Apple, on the other hand, felt her fear grow. What in-Ever-After that was going to happen here could be so bad to make Briar cry? "Briar, tell me", she said. "Tell me, please!"

Silent sobs shaked Briar's body. "A new student", she whispered through tears.

Apple was so surprised that she let go of Briar's hands. "A new student? But, how is that so bad? And what does it have to do with you?" she asked totally confused.

Briar took one shaky breath, trying to calm herself down. "Because", she finally said, "she's the daughter of Evil fairy. The one that is destined to put me in my hundred year sleep."

A/N: Okay, so I have no idea how this happened. I was just dealing with my usual problem of not being able to sleep and this just popped right into my head! So, as this is my first story, I would really, really appreciate any kind of review, anything. I take both compliments and criticism. Also, as English is not my first language, please let me know if I wrote anything wrong. Thank you!