"When it comes to everyone's stories, everyone seems to think that when a character reaches their "Happily Ever After" that, which is the end of their journey. That nothing else happens.
That is wrong. Everyone tends to overlook what happens after the end of the story, the "Epilogue."
So for tonight's assignment, I want everyone to think about their happily ever afters and tell us what your plans to do AFTER succeeding your family's legacy.
Alright, class dismissed."
These were the words that the teacher spoke as he gave the students their assignment for the night.
The idea in itself was simple; many students at Ever After had already their lives planned out for their stories. Apple White was going to be Queen; Daring Charming was going to make sure the woman he married to was going to have her "happily ever after" she ever dreamt of; Holly was going into story writing; Duchess Swan was going to make sure to live. But what about a puppet?
Never once in Pinocchio's daughter's life had she never really thought about what she would do after she would become human. This wooden body she has, had has always been the norm to her – while her mind may have grown, for the past sixteen years her wooden frame has always been that of a teenager; in a way, she never thought she would "grow up." To the young girl, just the idea of having flesh felt alien.
As she sat at the desk; she started to contemplate. During the whole ordeal of Royals and Rebels, she tried to play neutral. It's not like she didn't want a human body, she just didn't think it was right for those that didn't want to follow their story to be forced to do so. She was always the type of person that put the needs of other before her own desires. In one way, this was one of her best qualities; in another, it was her worst.
Sitting there, hands resting under her chin; her attention was focused on the blank sheet of paper.
Had this been a normal assignment, the young puppet could have put any answer down and it would have been okay. But perhaps in was more psychological as the assignment was asking her about something more honest and personal to her, perhaps it was her curse that she couldn't just put down anything – because she didn't find it to be the real truth?
In retrospective, was that really all that wrong? What did she want to do when she became human? All the answers came back to the same thing each and every time as she thought about it "Why would I, when I can do it right now, as a puppet?"
Pen in hand, the young woman was lost in her own thoughts. What exactly would she do when she became human?
Being honest with everyone else is easy; being honest with yourself is the hardest part.
"Hey Cedar?" she perked up as she turned her head to the other side of the room. "I'm going to be heading to bed."
Cedar's roommate, Cerise Hood, was sitting cross-legged on her bed across the room; her long black/white hair was covered by her large bed robe hoodie, draped over her black and white pajamas.
Cedar reached for her mirror-phone to see what time it was. Yikes, it was getting real late. "Okay," she nodded to her friend.
"Are you going to be okay with that?" Cerise asked with a concern look. "You sure I don't need to stay up a little bit longer with you?"
The young puppet shook her head with a smile, "No, I'll be fine. I still have thronework that I need to do."
"Alright," Red riding hood's daughter said as she started making a spot in her bed. "Good night, Cedar."
"Good night, Cerise."
"There is never enough time in the day," You hear this quote all the time from many people. An average person, at best, should spend about a third of their time asleep for a good night's rest. Combine these hours with what you spend at either work or school, and then have probably at least six hours to oneself.
This may be true to the normal person, but a puppet girl isn't a normal person. Incapable of falling asleep, the young girl literally has all the time in the world. Never experiencing dreams, she continues on with her daily activities at night…just doing what a puppet girl would do.
Putting her thronework to the side – it wasn't going anywhere for the next few hours – Cedar grabbed a book next to her desk, and opened it up and started reading with the desk light on low.
This was just a normal routine for her. While the other students of Ever After were sound asleep for the night, she would still be up doing who knows what she does – all with the knowing that no one else would be around to bother her or, more importantly, join her.
She sometimes wondered, "How did her father handle this?" How could Pinocchio sleep at night, knowing that while he slumbered, his daughter would be up all night into the morning, waiting for the sunrise? Of course he needed sleep, his body was flesh – he couldn't stay up with her without ruining his health. What of when she was a baby? How was it that they raised a puppet body like hers with an infant mind? How many nights did her father stay up late with her, how much of his health had she ruined? Did he and Grampa Geppetto switch out morning and night shifts to watch over her infant mind? Just these types of thoughts circulated through the young woman's mind, the long night was only getting started for her.
Cedar sighed heavily, as she placed her book down back to the night stand between her bed and desk.
She picked up her mirror phone and looked at the time. She sighed again; it has not even been a couple of hours yet. Why was it that the nights seemed to last the longest? She asked herself.
Then, as if on que, was the sound of the monster that lived in the room.
Cedar covered her mouth with her hand, trying to keep herself from snorting with laughter. Cerise's sleeping posture was that as the truest beast that she was. Arms and legs sprawled about around her, her mouth wide open as she started to snore loudly – a trail of drool dripping down the corner of her mouth.
She couldn't help but wonder, "What are dreams like?" as she continued to watch her roommate for a bit, she watched as she noticed the foot that was hanging off the side of the bed started to kick the air. Is she dreaming that she is running? She thought to herself, that's adorable! The young woman could watch her mess of a roommate for the rest of the night, but she knew that boredom would have set in sooner or later.
Leaning back in her chair, stretching her wooden limbs, she sighed to herself. I need to go out.
The door to the dorm room slowly opened.
Sticking her little wooden head out past the wooden frame, she checked to see if the coast was clear. Of course, with it being in the middle of the night, it was. The hallways of Ever After High was barely lit with a dim light for people like Cedar and the nocturnal creatures that roamed the empty night of the school.
Slowly, Cedar made her way out the door, careful not to make any sound to disturb her sleeping roommate.
Turning back around to shut the door behind her, Cedar Woof whispered just slightly above audio-able level, "Good Night Cerise."
A loud snore was the only answer she received.
When students would find themselves wondering the hallways of schools, they would often times make a comment such as, "Man, it's a whole lot creepier at night," or something of that variation. Cedar Wood would have to disagree. Perhaps it was because she has been wondering the nights many of times since she has become a student of Ever After High, but all she found of the school during the night was that it was quiet – perhaps a little melancholic.
While the school itself doesn't have much rules that applies to a student like herself about where she could go during the night hours, there was only so many things she could do without causing a ruckus and waking up other students from their slumber. Currently, Cedar's father was in current talks with Milton and Giles Grimm to getting his daughter a pass that would allow her off of school grounds during the night time.
There was one place in the dorm rooms that Cedar knew she could go, and where she could make as much noise as she wanted without waking her fellow students – not saying she would do it on purpose. Connecting the boy and girl's dorms was a recreational center; fit with its own sound proof magical spell, one could make as much noise as their hearts desire; and no one will even hear a peep.
Often times, when Cedar would come to the rec room, she would see some of the other students that were still up at such late hour. From Sparrow and his band of merry men playing billiards for some quick cash; or she would find either Daring or his sister, Darling, with one of the other female students of Ever After High…in which case, Cedar would always quickly dart out of the room before she was invited to join them.
Cedar Wood flipped on the switch, she sighed, yeah she was going to probably the only one here for the night.
As the room came to life with light, Cedar quietly made her way over to the large sofa in the room. Cedar wasn't really much for gaming, she found her fingers a little too stiff to be able to function fluidly to have such reactions to keep up with her friends in such gaming competition they would have.
Cedar picked up the remote off the coffee table and took a seat on the couch. She turned the tv on.
"Dwarf number 2: Blue!"
"Dwarf number 3: Green!"
"Dwarf number 4: Yellow!"
"Dwarf number 5: Pink!"
Pinocchio's daughter sighed at the visual in front of her. Darling must have been the last one watching television, she thought to herself, and it must have not been too long ago. The lights of the screen flickered as Cedar flipped through the channels.
One of the major problems of watching television at night is because on the channels that were deemed appropriate for Ever After High didn't have anything good on this late at night, all the good shows were on the ones that were blocked. Cedar sighed as she leaned against the sofa cushion, the flickering lights in front of her reflecting off of her recently waxed wooden frames.
Cedar covered her mouth as she yawned, or at least imitated a yawn. She was bored, her body knew that she was bored; in that, it caused her frames to reflect it, but imitating that of a person who would have yawned being tired. It was tiring in that sense, that while she couldn't sleep herself, her mind and body would often try to stimulate the need for sleep – often times at the worst possible moments. She could remember times when she would be nodding off in class; not because that her body was actually tired, but because it pretended to be.
She didn't know exactly what caused this, but she often thought it was because of the magic that kept her body in motion trying to keep her "would be muscles" into thinking that her wooden frame was flesh and blood, so when the time her body became real it wouldn't be strange when these things happened to her. She remembered one time in middle school, she had a class in workshop; during class she accidently cut off her own hand one the buzz saw. Sure, she was able to put her hand back; but when it happened, she felt the exact pain one would feel from such thing as she fainted from what would have been the pain and blood loss despite there was none.
Cedar wood jumped from her thoughts as she felt something hit the sofa cushion next to her. Looking over at her new neighbor, she couldn't help but smile.
As mentioned before, Cedar Wood wasn't the only "nocturnal" person at this school. Sitting next to her was one of those creatures, someone that has joined the young girl many of times on these nights.
"Good Morning, Gala."
Apple's pet snow fox made her way over the soft cushions, gradually getting closer and closer to the little puppet. Cedar was at least happy that the little thing wasn't chasing Maddie's mouse, she couldn't help but laugh at the times she had to pull the fox away during their nightly chase – before it became an old cartoon of fox and mouse.
The white fox plopped itself right next to the young girl's wooden leg, making itself comfortable and curled up right next turn her. With a squeak of its yawn, she was ready for a bit of a nap.
Cedar smiled as she placed the remote right next to her as she reached down to pet her little neighbor.
Her fingers weren't as soft as the flesh of a normal high school teenage girl, but it didn't seem that Gala minded the puppet's touch. It was strange; Cedar couldn't help but think to herself as her fingers went through the beautiful fur. Cedar knew she couldn't actually feel the fur as her fingers passed through, but her body and mind told her otherwise – but it was like she was petting one of the many teddy bears that her father made for her when she was younger; not real fur.
She enjoyed this, but she couldn't help but wonder, "What does real fur feel like?"
Before Cedar could get any type of answer, her body and mind told her something else that she needed that was also an inconvenience to someone like her.
She was hungry, Cedar thought as she placed a hand over where her non-existent stomach would be located. She sighed.
"Excuse me, Gala," shifting her body slightly to the side as to not to disturb her little nightly buddy, she got up from the couch and made her way to the pantry.
Cedar couldn't help but notice, it's very quiet when no one else was around.
The sound of a near ear-piercing squeak echoed through the empty room as Cedar opened the pantry door of the rec room.
Organs would come when she was human; these were one of the many essential thoughts that a member of the Pinocchio family has to learn early on. This includes that of heart, lungs, brain, reproduction organs and even that of the stomach. Though her magical mind itself was telling Cedar that she was hungry, she had no way to digest food. The only way for Cedar to truly eat was something bio-degradable; even then, certain foods would stay around in her system for days before finally being absorbed into her wooden frame. So often times, even if she is starving, Cedar was only able to eat small amount of food in one sitting. Sometimes, she just wished she could just photosynthesis.
Grabbing a bag of chips out of the cabinet, Cedar opened up the plastic bag. Reaching in for one of the potato chips she popped one into her mouth and ate. She remembered that other students would often grab a full large bag of these chips, and like they were nothing, they were eaten before they know it. It was alien to her.
Sure, her mind would tell her what the flavors were and whether or not that food would have spices added to; but that was it. Her foam tongue had no taste buds so she couldn't actually taste the flavors; she wasn't able to really enjoy the food. Unlike the other students, she couldn't have an addiction – to find herself want more and more to eat; to a point where someone might be worried for her health. She ate because her mind told her to eat, because it was what normal humans did; not because she enjoyed eating.
Cedar sighed in defeat as she closed up the bag of chips tossed it back into the cupboard. She was tired, but not physically; she was just tired of everything. Her eyes didn't hurt, but she rubbed the bridge of her nose. She just wanted to go back to her room; just wait until the sunlight came.
Turning off the television and the lights of the Rec Room, Cedar made her way out of the room – leaving the door open so that Gala would be able to leave she needed. She made her way through the quiet hallways; through the barely lit darkness.
As she walked, Cedar couldn't help but notice, and I mean really notice, that it was quiet. None of the other girls of Ever After were making their ways to their class. No students were talking about their plans for the afternoon. There wasn't even Sparrow Hood, whom would normally be up to one of his misdeeds; probably attempting to rob some girls for their personal belongings to sell off to the guys. It was none of those things that you would be expecting to happen at Ever After High. It was just quiet. It was lonely.
Cedar made herself back to her dorm room. Her roommate was still sound asleep, her sleeping posture just a total mess – but she could tell it wasn't bothering her in the least. Closing the door behind herself; Cedar made her way back to her desk.
Her assignment, Cedar remembered, she pulled the piece of paper from the side. She looked down at it, but now, it was different; she didn't seem to have such a problem with it now.
She never thought about it before, but the answers in themselves were simple. There were many things in her life that the young puppet could do, but there were many things that she couldn't do. It was natural for to do the things that a normal girl would do, but it wasn't the same. To think the same as other people was one thing, but she never felt the same as a regular girl. It's something even strange to herself to admit, but in a way, it made the most sense. There was many things she took for granted she took for granted.
So she wrote her paper, in a way it felt like time itself went by like a blur. Sure, she wanted everyone to choose their own destinies; but what about her? Sure, she didn't mind her time as being a puppet; but she could not wait until she was human. After all, there were only things she could do as a human.
Cedar was so lost in her thoughts that she never even heard the rustling of covers from the bed next to her.
"Good morning, Cedar" the young puppet jumped a bit as she looked at her roommate.
Cedar took notice that the morning sun was beginning to shine through the window. She couldn't help but be happy that tomorrow had finally come.
"Good morning, Cerise." Cedar smiled.
"… and in conclusion, the things I want to do after I become human:
Go to sleep and dream.
Go to an "All you can eat buffet," enjoy the taste
Give my father and all my friends an actual hug and feel what it is to be hugged back."