It's not like the raven haired girl had never been to a party before. Her mother had hosted many when she was younger. Much younger. It was easier back then because all she had to do was follow one of her parents around or stay in her seat reading a book. But now a teenager it was going to be harder. Especially since this was a Charming party.
Though the princess of naps was also known as the princess of parties, the Charming family still hold the title of the best Hostess and they through the grandest parties. Another thing that worried the purple eyed girl was that she was here as a princess not a witch. She was here as Raven Queen daughter of the Good King, not the Evil Queen.
She pulled on her dress as she made her way through the crowd, briefly saying hi and chatting to people who she could barley remember the name of, and she had finally found it. The refreshments table. The one thing that had always stayed the same at parties and will always be here favorite thing.
Raven quickly looked around spotting things from the most refreshing drinks to the most mouth watering desserts. She also caught glimpse of the menu for tonights dinner and for most of the options she had no idea what they were. Grabbing anything that looked good and putting it on her plate, she quickly scanned the room and found a small table in the corner perfect for her to enjoy her food.
The non-witch for the night made it to the table and sat down in the seat farthest away from the party. As she toke bits of her food and then ordered them from least favorite to favorite, she watched the people. Most of them were adults, there were a couple of people who looked like they were in college, but no one her exact age was in sight. Or someone she knew for that matter.
Someone caught her eye though. It was a girl being chased by a boy who was being chased another boy. The girl couldn't have been older than 8 and she had brown curled hair in pigtails with a bow in each one, fair skin, and had a pair of deep brown eyes. She wore a white fluffy dress dress with a small pink bow in the front of her waist and a big one in the back but she only was only wearing socks, not shoes. The boy chasing her must have been at least 9, possible 10, and was wearing a green dress shirt, green dress pants, and green dress shoes. He also had a silver jacket on. He had much tanner skin than the girl, blonde almost white hair, and the lightest pair of green eyes that she had ever seen. Finally, the boy who was chasing the boy. He was much older than the other two, features more defined, and definitely in his early teens. He wore a white dress shirt, pants, and shoes with a satin pink jacket, the same color that the girl was wearing. He had pale skin, brown hair, and brown eyes with many gold specs.
The dark haired girl notice that they would be heading her way soon and, after putting her napkin over her food so that no one would take it, or worse, one of the waiters would throw it away, she stood up and glided through the party, or run without waving her hands like a manic, and made her way to the closest door and then pressed her back right next to the door frame. And waited.
They would to busy paying attention to the chase that they didn't notice Raven, which lead them to stop in there tracks when they heard her say, "So what's this chase about."
They all turned slowly and looked at her, in which she raised her eye brow in response. She moved herself so that her right side was leaning against the wall and towards the three kids and pointed to the oldest boy. He gulped before she, keeping her eyes still on the boy, pointed to the girl, who had some how ended up on the floor, said, "Your her big brother?"
He nodded his head slowly. "And you didn't like that he," she pointed to the other boy, "was chasing her." He nodded again.
"Well, why were you chasing her," she put her eyes on the other boy who, though younger, held himself with more confidence than the older boy. He replied, voice clear, "She ran away from me."
Raven rolled her eyes and chuckled softly, her eyes finally turning to the girl. She crouched down so that she could have better eye contact, "And could you tell me why you ran away from him."
She giggled and replied in a cheerful voice, "We were playing and he won and he wanted, for his a prize, a kiss from a fair princess," she looked serious for a moment and pointed at herself, "That's me."
The little girl stood up up and walked over to Raven, "I'm Brynn, Brynn Charming and I'm happy to meet you."
"No Brynn," her older brother coming over to her, "It's either 'I'm honor to meet you' or 'I'm happy to make your acquaintance," he looked up at Raven before bowing, "I'm Ryan Charming and I'm happy to make your acquaintance."
Raven curtsied, though not elegantly, and replied, "The pleasure is all mine Prince Ryan."
"And I," the other boy said, using a large amount of hand gestures, "am Fitz Knight and it's an honor to meet you."
Ryan threw his hands up in the air, "It's I'm honor to meet you, did no one read the chapter "Proper introductions and farewells" in A Royal Guide To Parties!"
Raven laughed as Brynn pulled at her dress. She looked down at Brynn, who asked, "What's you name."
"Her name is Raven," a voice said from behind her. All three kids raced away from Raven to who ever it was behind her. But she already knew who it was without looking back.
She turned quickly, her dress swirling for a second, "Darling," she breathed.
Darling Charming was probably the most powerful girl Raven knew. Even in her baby blue ballgown, you could see the defined muscles in her arm. Her hair had been thrown in a bun, which looked pretty painful to herself, and the dress hugged to her as if it was a blanket. It was simple yet extraordinary. Darling smiled at Raven, "I see you meet my cousins, and Fitz."
Raven smoothed her hands on her dress, "Just trying to make some friends."
Darling looked away from her and to the kids, "Yet I do remember telling you three to stay in the room you were playing in while I went to get a drink."
Brynn pouted and said, "But I had to run away, boys have cooties."
Fitz shot back that he didn't have cooties because he was a prince and the two started to brickier. Darling rolled her eyes and looked back at Raven, "Would you like to join me and possible hold me back from going crazy."
"I would love to," Raven said, hoping that she didn't sound to eager, but once she had said it Brynn had stopped her argument with Fitz and ran over to Raven and grabbed her hand and started to pull her back into the party. "I'll show you the way," she said happily as people made room for the two.
Soon enough Raven was in a large playroom that was down the hall from the party. It had large yellow walls with too many playhouse, tunnels, and other toys to count. Brynn was showing Raven all of her dolls and putting on little shows for everyone. She made Fitz do one and Raven had never seen that much angst in a little kid before. But it all melted away once Brynn smiled at him.
"They're quite adorable aren't they," Darling said.
"Ya," Raven replied.
"They seem to like you," she said.
"Ya they do don't they," Raven said smiling, "It's nice to have little kids be nice to you and not afraid of you."
"I was never afraid of you," Darling said, making Raven look at her, "More afraid of what others would think. I think that's what most people were afraid of when we were young, so many of us had parents who were having trouble with your mom that we didn't know better than to not give you a chance and just... judge you."
They were silent for a while, watching Brynn trying to get Ryan to perform shows with them and Fitz saying that he was too chicken to do so.
"I'm sorry for that," Darling said.
"Like you said, you didn't know any better," Raven said. But a part of her wished Darling had because up until 8th grade when she meet Maddie, she had had no friends.
"I'm glad I'm not that way now," She said.
"Me too," Raven said, turning to smile at Darling.
"I don't know what I would do if you weren't in my life," Darling looked at Raven with something new in her eye, something Raven couldn't place. She looked away, knowing that she was blushing.
"Oohh," Brynn said, "their going to kiss."
"No their not," Ryan said.
Soon after he said that, they were all called for dinner. Darling let everyone go before she stopped Raven and whispered in her ear, "I may have not kissed you today but trust me Raven Queen, some day I will."