Author's Note: Well, here is the first chapter. This will actually be a brief collection of flashbacks leading up to "That Fateful Day" so that you can get a feel for the characters and their interesting situation. From now on, Rose Red is the pale girl and Snow White is the rosy-cheeked girl. Remember that.. there might be a quiz.
Just kidding! Heh xD But still, remember it.
Pale Spring Rose
Chapter I
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A baby in each arm, the Queen sat down in a fine rocking chair as she visited with her darling girls. They were both so beautiful, with fair hair and blue eyes and why, this little girl had the rosiest cheeks she'd ever seen! Yes, she had two beautiful girls. Her dark green eyes closed as she rocked Rose Red and Snow White to sleep, wondering what they would be like when they grew up.
She knew that one of her girls would be a pretty musician, one who would make courting princes swoon with her craft in songs and dances. Perhaps the other would be a poet and writer, a great intellect who would lead a whole nation into an age of prosperity. Though the Queen sadly knew that both of her girls would be nothing more than pawns in the game of marriage, she could surely dream a little, couldn't she?
Deep down she hoped her girls would be creators of great things. Deeper down she knew they would.
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Two girls were playing with dolls. Rose Red giggled as she held up a boydoll, exclaiming loudly, "A kiss for a kiss madame!" Snow White held up her girl doll and the dolls pretended to kiss. "Now let us dance!" Rose Red added. The two girls, laughing over such silliness that only children can fathom, held the dolls in a dancing fashion while swaying back and forth.
The ball party was interrupted by their nurse, Miss Hamdin. "Snow White, Rose Red, time for your lessons!" Although they were only seven, they were trained at an early age etiquette, rhetoric, and proper ladylike accomplishments.
"Aw, I hate lessons," complained Snow White.
The hawkish figure of Miss Hamdin came into view. "That's enough of that, Snow White. Oh, and look at your new white gown, dirty as your dark hair! I cannot understand your mother sometimes... really, I see nothing snowy or white about you." Their nurse rebuked Snow White sternly, wagging a finger at her dirty dress. "You must bathe first tonight."
"Not fair! I went first last night," complained Snow White, but apparently Miss Hamdin was not interested for she led the girls by the hand into the study.
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Her pale, dainty fingers pressed the keys of the piano-forte with a flourish. Rose Red sat in a mocking stately way at the instrument as Snow White strutted about, trilling and vibrating her voice in a manner not to unlike their musical instructor. The two girls, mischievious at the tender age of 12, giggled at their antics before beginning their practice.
"When the sparrow builds his nest," Snow White sang prettily, while Rose Red's fingers twinkled quickly on the keys. "He knows every season's best and worst time for building!"
Rose Red looked on enviously at her sister as she continued to sing, wishing she had such a pretty voice and vibrant eyes. Her own were pale and mysterious, but hardly beautiful like Snow White's. Rose Red was very fair and dreamy, like a cloudy autumn day, and she enjoyed painting and playing the piano-forte while her sister liked to sew and cook and clean and sing to her pretty heart's content.
Sometimes it was hard being the uglier sister, but Rose Red braved it well.
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Snow White hummed a merry tune while she finished sewing a skirt to match her new petticoat. In a fortnight would be a ball for her and her sister's 16th birthday, and she wanted to look as beautiful as possible. It wouldn't be hard at all for Rose Red, what with her dainty figure and beautiful blonde hair. Not every prince in all the lands wanted a brown-haired, red-faced dump of a girl.
Sighing unhappily, she glanced outside to see Rose Red throwing and catching a light ball. She laughed slightly when the ball rolled into the woods, for it was funny to see her sister make such comical faces and run after it. She shook her head and went back to sewing, knowing the skirt needed to be finished by that night.
It was not but half an hour later when she was called down to supper. Remembering her sister's little "adventure" in the woods, Snow White entered the dining hall prepared to tease her sister tremendously.
But... Rose Red was not there. In fact, Rose Red was not anywhere. She had disappeared!
TBC...