A/N: The song I reference in this piece is "Ex-Wives" in Six the Musical. I'm going to create a version to tie in with Emma's Six on Wattpad.

We are beginning to work on our project in our history class, discussing what we can do for a video. 'We don't want Henry in it, and we want it to take the wives' point of view,' I say. 'Any ideas?'
'What about a music video?' Kitty asks. 'I'm taking music lessons so I can compose, we can all write the lyrics, buy costumes, things like that.'
'But what about where we will film it?' Catalina asks. Her brow creases in worry.
'That is a good point.' We continue thinking, but unless we film it in someone's back garden, we don't have much choice.

'I have a big open space in my back garden,' Anna says. 'You should all come around later this week and check it out.'
'We will,' Catalina promises. 'Right, music. Kitty, what sort of things can we do?'
'What sort of feel do we want?'
'Pop?' I suggest. 'That seems rather popular; then we can style each queen after a certain artist if we like.' The others nod. We decide how we want to style each queen and include colours we want to use, things like that. 'We need to do a song that all of the wives can be part of, a bit like that rhyme. Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived.'
'That's a stupid rhyme. It doesn't even scratch the surface.' Katheryn says. We agree. 'The queens can discredit that rhyme, claim their lives as their own rather than something people can talk about in only one sentence. Emma, I don't know what books you were reading about me, but I wasn't beheaded.'
'What?' I go to check the biography I brought with me about Katheryn Howard. In front of my eyes, the chapter 'Syon Abbey' changed to 'Labyrinth Castle'. 'What? The same thing happened when I thought that Emma Smith-White was Catherine Parr.'

We begin thinking of a song, Kitty starts to make music on the guitar she brought with her. We smile as the music begins to take form, and Kitty writes the sheet music so some other people can help. By the time we disband for the day, we have most of the music for the song and costumes planned. We will go to my house tomorrow to begin putting lyrics to the music and sort out who will make which outfits. We will make outfits for ourselves, but we'll see how it goes.

The next morning, I tell my parents what our plans are. 'We'll have to lock the attic,' Mum considers. 'But that's easy enough unless we need to save the world.' I nod and begin telling them about the project we are working on.

I collect my bag and put in two biographies, both about the six wives of Henry VIII in general. I hope we can do a little more research today, or maybe start writing some of the song. Anna and the others are waiting for me in the girls' toilets, which is relatively private compared to the rest of the school. Anna has her introduction and sings it to us. What's cool is that she included pieces of German in the beginning, and left the end open for Kitty to cut across her.
'That sounds awesome,' I grin. 'It sounds a lot like catfishing.'
'That's because that was what my experience was like.'

In History, we continue working on our project. 'Am I going insane?'
'No, darling, you're sane,' Jane says, and I notice she's writing something.
'What are you doing?'
'Nothing.'
'If it's nothing, then you can let me see.'
'It's my to-do list.' Jane hands it over.
'Why does it say 'Mary + Jane' in hearts everywhere?'
'That shows how much I love Mary.' Jane takes the list back.

'Someone get that snake out!' Someone yells.
'What snake?' Catalina asks. 'Who has the stupidity of bringing a snake to school?' We look around to see a boy with auburn hair and blue eyes; he is laughing at the whole exchange.
'He cannot do that,' Anna mutters. 'With pleasure.' She stands up and strides towards the boy. He looks a lot like Henry VIII.
'I didn't expect to see you here, Anna.'
'Enough chat, more throwing.'
'No, not that snake!' The student yells. 'This snake! But he's a snake too.'
'Too right,' Jane says.
'What's this, all gang up on Henry day today?' The kid asks. Great, he's also called Henry. Today will be exciting.

We continue looking at our project at lunch. 'What outfits do we want?' Anna asks.
'As it is for a history project, we should try and find something close to what the six wives wore, or at least inspired by fashion at the time,' Kitty suggests. 'But we are making them, so we should make them unique. We can use the normal colours we wear; yellow, green, grey, red, pink and blue.' We nod and go back to the lyrics and what can work for the tune Kitty made.

'The beginning part sounds like there is only enough for someone to say one word before two beats, other than the third time and the sixth time,' Jane says. 'Should we use that for our parts of the rhyme?' Kitty begins playing the music. We sit in a circle, first is Catalina, then Anne, then Jane, then Anna, followed by Kitty then me. We will go around in this order.
'What should I say for mine?' Kitty asks. 'I wasn't beheaded, so should I say eaten or devoured?'
'It's your choice,' Anne says. 'But eaten has two syllables which might make it seem out of place with my 'Beheaded'. But it's your choice.'

Kitty decides to go with devoured since that's what people use in the rhyme. We try it out with the music we already recorded, and it begins to build up. 'What can we do for that bit? What will fit in?' I ask.
'And tonight, Park Vale, we are...' Catalina suggests. 'Maybe only one of us should say that to avoid confusion.' Then the music picks up. 'When the music picks up, we can all sing 'live' for a few beats.'
'Shall we give it a go?' I suggest.

'That works,' Kitty squeals after we try it. 'I can't wait to hear what the rest of this sounds like.'
'Maybe we should professionally record it,' Anna suggests. 'I have all of the equipment at home, so we can use that.'
'I didn't know you were interested in recording songs.'
'I only do it for fun, but if it's to help our history project, I'm in.' We all smile as we consider what to put next.
'The next part sounds like we are meant to sing something, but we need to make sure it fits in with what we already sang,' I suggest. 'It could sound like we are going to show the people behind the rhyme, or maybe even turning it on its head.'
'I love the second idea,' Anne grins. 'Let's do that. We can start it like we are telling a story, but then turn it on its head. I love that idea.' We all agree and decide that for that part, we will go in order of the queens, so we will start with Aragon, and I will finish it.

'I think we need something witty at the end,' Jane says.
'Yeah, that sounds cool,' Anna says. 'Maybe we should sing it together as we all just sang one line. After that, we can go back to the rhyme.'
'Let's try it!' Anne says. We don't do the rhyme for the first bit as we know that works.

The bell rings, and we must go to our next lesson. We all have different language classes; I am taking French with Anne and Katheryn. Anna is taking German, Catalina and Jane are taking Spanish. This is one of the few lessons we have separate, but it does make things easier sometimes. For example, you don't get teachers confusing the two Katherines or the two Annes, so we're good with that.

As our French lesson ends, Anne, Kitty, and I go to our lockers. Anne has politics with Catalina and Anna. I have a sewing class with Kitty and Jane. Jane joins us, and the three of us walk to our lesson. 'I was thinking about my introduction,' Jane says. 'Henry always said I was the one he truly loved, so we could include that, but have the other queens say rude.'
'That sounds great. We'll be going to my place after school so we can try it out then,' I say. 'Come on; we don't want to be late for our lesson.'

The three of us sit together as we work. We can work on our own projects, and the teacher will rank us depending on how much effort we put into them and how far we progress. We decide to work on the outfits we want to wear for the music video; the teacher let us have four weeks to complete our history projects and hand them in. Hopefully, that will be enough time to get our costumes done. Jane is working on a white bodice with silver sleeves and a silver skirt. The fabric for the sleeves and the dress are the same. 'I was conservative when I was queen, so I want to reflect that in my costume,' she says. I am working on a navy-blue costume with silver beads, but I want something different about it. So far, Cleves is the only person who is wearing shorts rather than a skirt or dress. I might desire trousers for my costume, so I ask Jane and Katheryn to start measuring me so I can change the pattern if necessary. They finish measuring me, and I don't need to change the design. We will make our accessories, such as crowns and earrings, at home as Jane and Catalina enjoy making that sort of thing. All our accessories will be unique. I look over at Kitty, who has a pink bodice, long black sleeves, and a separate piece for the skirt flaps. Well, our idea of dressing like the queens has gone out of the window already.

When we get to my place, I introduce my parents to my friends before we head up to continue working on the lyrics. Anne, Anna, and Catalina are working on their costumes as we talk. Kitty, Jane, and I have brought our outfits with us, and we all continue working on them.
'We might want to introduce each queen separately in the song, like Anna suggested,' Jane says. 'Her introduction fits well for what history knows. We should try doing that for each queen and promise to turn over the tables and tell our own stories at a later stage.'
'That will allow us to produce more songs if we want to,' I realise. 'Jane, you're a genius!'
'Am I?'
'Sure, you are! Right, what does everyone want to do for their introductions?'

'I could have a Spanish beat to mine as I grew up in Spain,' Catalina suggests. 'I would introduce myself formally as Cleves did.'
'That will emphasise that you two were born in royal families while the others can introduce themselves informally, which will show that to a considerable degree. What were you thinking of Catalina?'
Catalina starts singing her introduction, and when she finishes, Anne starts singing. Jane follows along, then Anna, Kitty, and me.

'That can then signal the other queens to join in,' I finish. 'That will allow us one more chorus at the end.' We all smile and agree to the lyrics. We also decide to use the rhyme to introduce each of the queen's verse, except for Kitty. She would have hers after her line about getting eaten.

While the song might be upbeat and happy, it shows underneath the torture some of us went through. Jane, losing her life during her moment of triumph, never watching her son grow. Katheryn, getting eaten for something that wasn't her fault.

We finish off our costumes before dinner. Once again, Mum has ordered a takeaway since Mummy almost burned the kitchen down- again. At this rate, Mum may have to ban Mummy from the kitchen except to make tea. We are all talking and laughing, discussing our project. 'You'll have to show us once it's finished,' Mum says. 'Emma has always loved the six wives of Henry VIII, and we are glad that she finally made some friends.'
'Mum!' I moan.
'What? We are proud of you for making friends.'
'Shall we focus on choreography tomorrow?' Jane asks. 'I have a dance studio at my place so we can practice.'
'That could be a wonderful place to record some of it,' I say. 'For some of our introductions, could it be worthwhile to have one of our biographies with us? If we are going to turn the tables in our introduction, we can throw it over our shoulder. We can always edit the sound out.' We begin nodding and decide on which queens will work best to throw the biographies over their shoulders. Anne would be a major one, as would Anna. We agree that Katheryn and I can also do that as we are overthrowing our stories. In contrast, Jane and Catalina are the only two that aren't.

I find biographies on the four queens we need, preferably by an author I don't agree with. There are several I have for Katheryn Howard and Emma Smith-White, and two for Anne Boleyn and Anna of Cleves. For Catalina, Anne, and Jane, we decide to film their introductions outside. Anna's would be inside. 'My room will be the best place for it as it is one of the fancier rooms in the house,' she says. We nod. Katheryn's introduction will be in Jane's dance studio, while mine would be in my room. At least we have time to perfect the choreography before we must film. We can have a couple of dress rehearsals to make sure the costumes work before we do any filming.

We have four weeks of rehearsal and filming before we can hand our projects in.

Before my friends leave for the night, Anna suggests that I could have a skirt flap if I want something similar to what Kitty wears. 'Maybe another time,' I say. 'I already have the trousers, so I don't want to change the outfit if there is no need.'