Author's Note: Agh! I'm so sorry for postponing this! D8 No, I really am! I was originally going to have this up around the time I had spring break around the 14th-18th, but I was gone during the first two days with one of my best friends because she invited me to go see a concert, then I had to attend my grandpa's funeral because he lost his life last month (I still love and miss you Grandpa Tony. RIP), and when my break ended, I went back to school and got lazy again over the weekends.
I'm sorry everyone, I know I can't make up for laziness and absents most of the times, it's inexcusable big time. But I do promise that once summer comes back I have one more month to go and then I'm officially a senior! Yay! And once summer comes, I'll be on here as much as I can. There will be a lot of stuff I'll be doing over the summer, and hopefully, updating stories and posting new ones will be one of them! :D
Alright, enjoy now.
Chapter Four: In Ever After High Now
After she found herself going through the mirror, Courtney started to fall and scream in panic as she kept falling and falling down and not stopping on this wild fall on hers. The background around her was also dark and black. She felt like Alice after she fell through the white rabbit's hole, and speaking of Alice, Courtney saw a lot of things that resembled the fantasy fairy tale like a white grey crown that The White Queen would wear, a big, yet creepy smile that only The Cheshire Cat would have on its face, and a deck of cards that The Queen of Hearts would own.
"Where am I going?" screamed Courtney. "This has to be a dream!" she screamed again and even added; "Only Alice would dream like this, and I'm not Alice!" Courtney started to fall more down the mirror, so far that the background was morphing from black and dark to colorful and bright. In addition, Courtney started to see new items that related to other fairy tales. One example was a clear, glass shipper that would be in Cinderella, another one was an ax that would belong to the Huntsman from Red Riding Hood, and by it was Red's picnic basket. Then, she saw a bear family, referring to Goldilocks, and a marionette puppet with a long nose and strings attached to it, which meant it was from Pinocchio. Eyeing each and every one of these fairy tale objects started to make Courtney go from scared to confuse, just like how she was with the mirror before she fell through it. This also made her stop falling fast and she began to float a little.
"My, this mirror sure has a lot of fairy tale references," Courtney examined with concern, "which could explain a lot about the apple, tea cup, and rose from earlier." The CITPrincess continued to look and eye at each and every fairy tale product she saw, making her confusion increase, yet she was filled with awe and surprise. She also didn't mind her fall anymore since she was just now floating.
"But this still remains, what do these fairy tale icons mean, where are they from, and why do I keep seeing them?" asked The CIT again in concern. She now already saw at least twelve items that were from the fairy tale stories she recognized, but sadly none of them were giving her the answer she wanted, making her confused and awe still and they both were not helping. Usually when Courtney wanted an answer, she would want it now, and if no one would give her one, she would get annoyed and irritated the next second. However, seeing that no answer was coming to her, and that she really had to wait, she just stared at the merchandise all around her. A minute later, as she was enjoying her float, a voice that Courtney had never heard of made her jump. Therefore, she knew it was a voice from the place she was possibly about to enter soon.
"I am Apple White, daughter of Snow White," the voice vocalized and made Courtney jumped; and like last time, she tried to find and look to see who said it and where was it coming from.
"Hello, did I hear anyone say that?" asked Courtney, but no response except for the voice saying another sentence.
"And I am ready to pledge my destiny." The voice finished.
"Wait," Courtney said, "Apple White, daughter of Snow White? Pledge my destiny? Since when did fairy tale characters have children, or pledge destinies?" The CIT thought about this question before she spoke up another statement.
"I mean, in movies like Disney I can understand, but pledging a destiny? That's something new." The CIT stated once more. After Courtney stated her debate, though no one was around her to debate with her, the mirror's background turned into a red background, and decorated on the red walls was yellow golden crowns, and various picture frames of people that indeed resembled fairy tale characters; and on those fairy tale characters were words that said what that character's name was, and what surprised Courtney the most was when she read who their parent was! She even saw the world "Royals" posted in white and red and read that as well.
"My gosh," Courtney gasped in surprise, "so that voice was right, these people are the sons and daughters of fairy tale characters like Snow White or Sleeping Beauty!" The CIT was now in complete shock, heck she felt more shocked than when her mirror was moving. She didn't see anything, but fairy tale characters and their objects. She didn't know if this was all true or not, or if it was a dream, and worse, she did not know where she was going! Courtney wanted answers, but she had to wait until this fall and somewhat float came to a land.
Eventually, after seeing the "Royal" section on the mirror, the next thing The CIT Princess fell into was a purple-colored section that has golden hearts with wings with the same color, and this time, the word "Royals" was replaced with "Rebels," and it was painted with purple and white, instead red and white. The third thing she saw was other characters in pictures with their names on it, and who were their fairy tale parent. Not surprisingly, Courtney felt a little disgusted and annoyed when she reached this part of the mirror because whenever she saw anything that involved "rebels," it reminded her of Duncan.
"Rebels, because you know, I haven't seen them yet!" Courtney sarcastically said with a venom-flavored voice. "But, to be fair, they do look a little better than Duncan, less piercings at least." The CIT added in with a neutral voice. Abruptly, Courtney heard a second voice, but unlike the first voice, she actually recognized this voice because it was one of the two voices she had heard during her time with the moving mirror.
"I am Raven Queen," said the familiar voice, "and I'm going to write my own destiny; my happily ever starts now!"
"Wait, that's one of the voices I heard!" Courtney gasped in surprised again. "And first I'd heard that these characters have to pledge their destines," Courtney started to become more concern and a little suspicious, "now this character wants to follow their own destiny?" "What is going on?" The first voice yelled once Courtney ended her questions.
"How, could you be so, so selfish?!" Suddenly, Courtney was now hearing the second and first voice argue, or at least in the second voice's speech, trying to make a peace talk, but the voice was getting interrupted by boos of anger and cheers of euphoria which belonged to some of the people Courtney had studied earlier, even if she didn't know them nor did she really want to, she still could tell who was booing and who was cheering. At last, Courtney heard the two main voices chat to each other again.
"I'm sorry Apple," started the second voice named Raven since she revealed her name earlier after declaring that she was going to write her own destiny, "but I don't want anyone to tell me who to be. I wanna figure that out on my own." "And don't you understand, I'm not the only one who gets to choose their own destiny now; we all do, even you!" When she heard the Raven voice's speech on destiny, Courtney felt something that was not only in her stomach, but also in her heart. Yet she didn't know what it was. Unfortunately, the first voice that was named 'Apple' began to argue back.
"But I don't wanna choose a new destiny; I'd liked what I had!" "And because of you, it might not happen!" snapped the 'Apple' voice, also putting some blame on her opponent.
"But it might," The Raven voice tried to comfort the Apple voice, but it refused to listen because it started to cry.
"I don't know, I just don't know." The conversation between the two voices came to an end. By the time the two voices' conversation ended, Courtney was now filled with a lot of feelings: She was confused because she wanted to know what did the voices mean about destiny, she was curious because who were these two voices, just because their names were revealed doesn't still mean that the Princess had answers, and finally, she felt a little remorse because the two voices reminded her about her and Gwen, and the moments they had together, and how the second voice just wanted things to go right, but they didn't. Referring to how Gwen and Courtney got their friendship back in All Stars, but because of what Courtney did, wanted to win and not having Gwen be involve, even though she still wanted to be her friend, but in the end, Gwen rejected her; And now hearing the two voices, Courtney accused that the first voice now probably hated the second voice, and so did those who booed at her once she made her decision. Understanding those thoughts and emotions made Courtney let out a depressing sigh.
"That poor second voice," Courtney launched a sympathy accent, "She understands what it means to be hated by everyone you care about, and what it means when you make a mistake and you want to fix it, but, but your friends rejected you and never wanted you again." The Princess sighed again, but with more sorrow.
"And the worst part is I don't know who this person is, and what they did to make everyone hate them now!" The sympathy that Courtney felt was getting to rise up like a volcano about ready to erupt its lava. So Courtney placed her hands on her chest, closed her eyes, raised her head up, opened her eyes again, and started to pray.
"Whoever is in control of this mirror, and wherever you are, I want you to lead me to this voice! You hear me?" The CITPrincess demanded in her usual bossy tone.
"I want to show this person that I know what it's like to be hated by many, even by those who you care about, but don't wanna accept you any more because of one mistake you did, and regret!" "So you better hear me loud and clear, I want to," before her prayer was done, Courtney once again began to fall down the mirror hole, meaning that she once again began to scream in fear and horror; and because of her fear, she now didn't know if the "ruler of the mirror heard her, and had her prayer commanded," or that something worse was going to happen to her. Eventually, a clear, silver-like oval appeared at the bottom on Courtney's fall, so she knew that her fall was going to stop, but did not know how it will end; which worried and scared her even more. Finally, Courtney fell through the oval.
Now that her fall came to a complete stop, Courtney was officially in a new world, and because of this, she had a new appearance that resembled her old appearance, but was alter in a way that would help her blend in while she was in the new universe. The newly done CIT was also lying on some grass after she fell through the oval, so this meant that she was by a place where it spelled nature.
Feeling where she was now, Courtney slowly started to get herself up from her fall by first slowly opening her eyes very slowly. When she finally got her vision, she got on her knees as fast as she can and saw the grass she was on.
"What, what is this place?" The CIT Princess asked in a puzzled tone as she looked around the place, making her see her new appearance as well. She saw that her dress that she wore back in Muskoka was no longer messy or even long! It was now up to her knees, in which made her also see her legs now covered with lavender and purple striped tights. This once again built Courtney puzzled feelings and even scared ones.
"And how did my appearance change?!" As her confusion rise, along with fright and worry, Courtney started to scan the new look she had from her legs and bottom dress to her still gloved arms and used them to feel her new bun tied hair, and added to her hair, was her typical crystal blue tiara that always accompanied her Princess dress. In addition, her makeup was now gone and her dark purple collar dress had a blue brooch attached to it. The only things that haven't change or were added as a new item besides her gloves were Courtney's earrings that still dangled from her ears and her casual grey high heels that were still connected to her feet.
"My, my appearance," Courtney gasped in surprised, "I look like an actual princess now!" The newly changed CIT quickly jumped to her feet because of all the confusion, surprise, and fright she felt covering her whole mind as well as body. She was confused once more because she didn't know what the new environment she just suddenly appeared in was like, and the reason why she was frightened and surprised was because she didn't know who lived in this environment, what type of people were in the recent found place, and what would they do to her if they found out that she wasn't from this world! Nevertheless, if Courtney did wanted answers, she was going to find them anyways; even if her uptight and perfection trait was possibly planning to tell her no because knowing Courtney, she tried to find things herself. Either way, she was going to find answers.
"Okay, let's start from scratch," Courtney began her progress, "if I'm dressed like a princess," paused the CIT as she looked around the land once and down out herself, thinking hard as much as she can. Suddenly, she had an answer: "I could be in a kingdom!" examined the CIT with thoughtfulness. "Yeah, that's about right!" The CIT felt relief after she accused that she was in a kingdom, but then she found something that made her feel stumped; and the "something" was a sign that was located by some trees, and it read in golden letters, all capitalized, "THE ENCHANTED FOREST."
"The Enchanted Forest?" Courtney spoke in a stumped tone, but she shrugged it off within a second. "No, impossible, fairy tales don't exist. This is a kingdom, Courtney, kingdom!" However her protest wasn't strong enough.
"Yet again, if I want answers," concerned Courtney, "Then this forest must lead me to my answers." After she let out her concern, yet kind of filled with reluctant, Courtney took a deep breath with her eyes closed, and after letting out her worries, she opened her eyes again and carefully, walked through the forest.
Meanwhile, down in the forest's end, Raven and Maddie were still in the same location where they first got to when Maddie revealed her "mirror with girl" story to her best friend, however Maddie herself was already sitting down on one of the chairs and also had her tea set out on the table due to Raven already setting them before Maddie came over to her. There she was drinking some tea with her mouse, Earl Grey; while Raven was stomping back and forward filled with two emotions after hearing The Mad Girl's story: Annoyed because when Maddie was telling her story to her, she did not know much about the girl, despite revealing that the girl was crying, and also accusing that she may have something to do with Raven, though Raven herself doubted it, and anxious because Raven really did wanted to find out about the girl, but thanks to her best friend not knowing much about her, Raven felt that she will never see or know who the girl in the mirror is.
"I can't believe this," Raven complained in front of Maddie, who though was content, still felt guilty about not giving enough information to her friend.
"I know Raven," signed Maddie, "but I'm sorry, I'm just don't know who this girl is." Raven stopped her stomping and turned to the female Mad Hatter.
"That I know and understand," replied the rebel, "but you were the one who told me about Giles Grimm and he was the one that told me that I can write my own destiny, and you were the one that saw a broken mirror because of her Wonderland visions, oh and you also saw a broken mirror with the girl!" Raven took a pause on her rant as she started to calm down. Maddie just watched her with a concern face.
"Meaning," Raven started again, "you would have to know at least one thing about the girl, right?" Just as Raven said her sentence, Maddie eventually started to rewind back to when she saw the girl crying. She then started to focus on the girl and her appearance; she remembered that mirror girl was messy looking, her hair was messy and filled with knots, she had a tiara hanging over her hair because it was caught in a knot, her dress was also ruin looking as well, and she even had makeup covering her face because of her crying. Therefore, Maddie finally found a new and one thing about the girl, and afterwards, she jumped out of her seat and added excitedly, "Wait Raven, you're right! I now remember something about the girl!" Raven smiled once her best friend told her that she remembered.
"You actually do," asked Raven happily. Maddie nodded and responded, "Yeah, you remember how I said that she was crying?
"Yeah, I do, why?"
"Well, I think she was crying because,"
"Yes, what is it?"
"Okay, I think the reason why the girl was crying because when I first saw her, she looked messy." revealed Maddie with explanation.
"How messy?" Raven questioned even more.
"Hair was in knots, she had a dress that looked all ruined, I saw makeup smeared all over her face, and lastly, she even had a tiara that was caught in one of her knots, making it dangle from the side of her head." informed Maddie once more. As her ears heard the information, Raven felt a little interested for three reasons: One, Maddie was right the whole entire time about the girl who cried in the mirror because it could possibly mean that she does have something to do with Raven. Two, she now learned that the girl could be a princess, and Three, the one that made her feel more interested was there was a chance that the "princess" may have something to do with Raven, the Rebel Queen thought that may be she was on the same road that Raven was on; not wanting to be treated like a different person and be accepted for who she is. Once she got her best friend's information about everything she told her: the girl crying, the girl looking like a mess, and the girl may be like Raven in a way, Raven smiled at her best friend, and Maddie smiled back.
"Maddie, you're definitely right, this girl does have something to do with me!" Maddie giggled back at her friend's statement.
"And you know why?" Raven's best friend asked. Raven nodded and simply answered with a smile and with no trouble, "Because she could possibly be a princess who could be like me in a way."
"See, didn't I tell yah?" The Mad Girl asked, Raven couldn't help, but laugh at her Wonderland friend's comment.
"It's like they always say, listen to the crazy ones because they know the answer." Winked The Rebellious Queen, Maddie winked back, and added a "you know it." Thereupon, both girls went back to their serious position, starting off with Raven.
"But how are we suppose to know who or what this girl is and what does she have to do with me?
Maddie answered with seriousness back. "That, I'm not sure, but," she began to add optimistic in her answer. "You just leave that up to me because honestly, I believe that this girl may be," as she was about to put in the last words in her sentence, Maddie and Raven suddenly heard a voice, making the two best friends get distracted.
"Hello, can anyone hear me?" The voice called out.
"Maddie, did you hear that?" asked Raven with wonder.
"Indeed, I did." Maddie responded with the same mood.
"Hello, I really need some help!" shouted the voice once more.
"Help," suspected Raven and then asked Maddie "should we see who is calling and what do they want?" Hearing the voice crying for help, Maddie thought a bit out of concern. She was having a theory that the voice may be the girl she and Raven were talking about earlier, and now she was having another theory that the girl may actual be from the real world because when she first saw her, The Mad Girl wondered if the mirror girl was from the real world as she began to remember that; Now finally getting all her information together, maybe, she thought to herself, maybe the girl could be from the real world. In addition, Maddie even asked herself if she was a real life princess. Now that would be interesting, she considered. All of Maddie's thoughts and theories came to an end once Raven's voice mouthed again.
"Uh, Maddie, did you hear me?" Raven asked her friend again, Maddie jumped when hearing her friend.
"Sorry Raven," Maddie apologized, "I was just having thoughts." The girl with Mad Powers then answered Raven's question. "But yeah, let's go see who this voice is." The two best friends grabbed each other hands as if they were going on an adventure, and finally ran off to find out who the voice was.
As the time passed, Courtney was making progress in the so-called Enchanted Forest. She wasn't that deep in the forest, but she was also not that far either. The CIT could feel that she was close to the forest's end, and knew that her answers were coming soon. On the other hand, The Princess was still calling out for at least someone to hear her so they can help her tell her where she is, and if possible, how she can get out of the world as she really did wanted to get home. But feeling disappointed, Courtney was failing. She heard no one reply back.
"Hello," Courtney cried out again, "I really want some help." "Please, I really do." The CIT waited again for an answer, but once again, no one was heard. Courtney now felt exasperated.
"Please, just one person!" called out The CITPrincess in annoyance. When she paused again, she cupped her ear to hear if someone heard, but like the past calls, all she heard was silence. Now officially under stress and desperation, and even anger, Courtney began to feel a burn in her throat and tears began to fill up her eyes.
"Okay, I understand," sorrowed the perfectionist, "maybe you guys know who I actually am." Courtney cried with bigger sorrow and sadness. Do to the amount of sadness she was growing, the uptight girl came to a sudden stop in her walk and fell to her knees in misery. The next thing she did was cover her eyes with her gloved hands, and cried tears in them with more power.
"Maybe that's why I fell into that stupid mirror, because I heard two girls talking about me!" screamed Courtney with agony. "They said they found a girl crying in a mirror because I was the girl crying in the mirror! I was crying because I lost my best friend for a third time, I was crying because she now officially hates me, and never wants me to see her again, but most of all, I was crying because I'm never going to be happy again if I keep repeating my mistakes!" The CIT cried out her reasons why she was crying before she came to the world. These were also the reasons why she was crying again, along with a fourth one, which was all three in one.
"I'm," wailed Courtney again, "I'm also crying because I'm a shame of who I am." Courtney let out her cries once more; she felt like she was in a Catholic church confessing for all the sins she had done in front of the priest.
"Yeah, I am a shame of who I am." Confessed the crying princes in purple. "I'm uptight, rude, a perfectionist, and I only care about winning and no one else, I barely have a heart, I'm bossy, mean, and that's why I lost my best friend and everyone else I use to like and care about, because I got too far into the game. I chose the money over my friendships, I betrayed most of my friends, and do to my actions, they hate me now!" The CIT wailed even harder on those confessions, she wailed so hard that her cheeks were sore again, her eyes were puffy red, and her nose was filled with snot and running down her face. Courtney used her gloves to help clean her face up, but the sadness she felt made it worse.
"And now, I'm stuck in this world because you guys may know who I am, and maybe this world is real and you guys want me to feel better, but are scared that I will hurt you or just don't want to see me until I stop crying."
The crying that The CIT was causing kept going on after she admitted her faults to "whomever" she was talking to. She was hoping for someone to hear her cries, and then maybe, they would come to find her and help her answers that questions she's been asking once she got to her new location. However, Courtney was mostly crying because she wanted someone to make her feel better, someone by her side, therefore she wanted a new friend and one that would give her the love and happiness she deserved after going through the pain she regretted. As in both giving pain to her friends, and receiving it back from them. She wanted all of her faults to disappear.
Fortunately, Courtney's cries would get the attention of the two people whom had heard her earlier.
A/N: Alright, that was pretty fun to write. I know it was long to make (and pretty rushed at times) and will probably be one of the longest chapters in this story. Therefore, probably more will appear in the future.
And I once again apologize for taking a long time to upload this, I honestly thought this would be posted up earlier, but like I said in the first time author note, all of the things I'd mentioned got in the way, so I had to postpone it. Sorry again. ;n;
Anyway, hope you all enjoyed it and don't forget to review!
