So after months of hiatus, here's the next chapter to Disney Academy, and I wish to thank everyone who has been supporting it!
Chapter 9: In the Cottage of the Seven Dwarfs
It had been a week since Snow had seen a car, and she desperately needed to get back to town. After Hunter had left her in the woods, she wandered blindly until she came to a small cottage near the road. The windows weren't lit and the door was unlocked, so she assumed it was empty. But after she turned on the lights, Snow discovered that not only was the cottage filthy, but it was also owned by seven orphan dwarfs. She had only heard about them in stories, and figured that they might be willing to let her stay, for the night at least. But to make sure that they said "yes", Snow spent the rest of the evening cleaning the place up and preparing some spaghetti she found in the pantry. Snow later figured she must've dosed off at some point because when she woke up, seven small bodies were standing around her and they all wore stained shirts and white underwear.
When they noticed she was awake, they quickly leaped off the bed and put their pants back on in a corner of the room, mumbling several apologies as they did so. Snow found this odd, but dismissed it once she explained to them her story. To her surprise, they all unanimously agreed to let her stay, saying that they enjoyed the spaghetti she made and appreciated her cleaning. In fact, they offered that she stay as long as she needed to, which she was grateful for at the time. But as the days wore on, Snow found herself forced into a daily routine of cleaning the house and cooking meals. Then in the evenings, she saw one or two dwarfs lurking outside the bedroom door. At first, she tried to ignore it, but as this kept happening, Snow became too paranoid to go to sleep and it wasn't until last night that she got an explanation.
She heard her bedroom door slam, and immediately turned on the light by the bedside table. It was Dopey, the youngest of the dwarfs. He was mute, and not very bright. For this reason, the others constantly joked about him, but Snow saw past his disabilities and treated him with respect, while he in turn hung close to her.
"What is it, Dopey? Did you have a bad dream?" Snow asked.
Dopey shook his head, pulled a notebook from a pocket on his dirty over-sized T-shirt, and gave it to her. Inside, there was a series of pictures that were poorly drawn, but simple enough for Snow to understand them. One page showed an old woman sitting in a chair while smaller figures, which were no doubt the dwarfs, circled her and next to her head was the word 'Mamma'. The next showed the old woman in a bed with green skin with an adjoining image depicting a gravestone and the caption 'Mamma got sick and died'. On the third page, Snow saw the same picture as the first one, but with her in the old woman's place, followed by the caption 'New Mamma'. Snow briefly looked up at Dopey and said, "These are really good pictures, but why are you showing me these now?"
For a brief moment, Dopey blushed, and then he flipped the notebook page for her, looking away as he did so. This one shocked Snow the most, because it depicted herself holding a rose and the dwarfs with demonic faces chasing after her along with the words, 'They think you're pretty and want to steal your flower'. Then Snow thought back to the time when she awoke to see them standing over her with their pants down as well as the times they stared into the bedroom, and suddenly the pictures made sense. The revelation frightened her.
"How long have you known this?" Snow asked, but before Dopey could answer, the bedroom door opened.
A candle flickered in the darkness, but as Snow's eyes adjusted, she saw that it was the other dwarfs, which were distinguishable by the color of their clothes and their beards. Snow recognized the one who was holding the candle as Doc because his glasses reflected the candlelight. He walked up to the bed and whispered, "Was Dopey bothering you?"
"No, he wasn't," Snow said, partially lying. "I was awake, anyway."
"Awake at this time of night? An unlikely story!" said a gruff voice, which Snow knew belonged to Grumpy.
"But it's true. I couldn't sleep," Snow insisted.
"Aw, that's too bad!" said a cheerful voice who Snow realized was Happy. "Do you want us to get you anything?"
Snow shook her head. "No, I'll be alright."
"If you say so, Miss Snow," Happy replied, and the others left with Dopey reluctantly following behind them.
Despite what she said, Snow couldn't fall asleep, because she kept thinking back to the pictures Dopey showed her. Clearly, he saw her as a replacement for his and the other dwarfs' mother, but the others only saw her as someone to be taken advantage of. The thought sickened her, and made Snow regret that she decided to stay here. But when she started thinking about trying to escape, the image of her stepmother combined with Hunter's words floated into her mind. It still terrified Snow that her stepmother would want her dead because of what a stupid mirror said about Snow's beauty, but there was her absence from school to think about, and these dwarfs who wanted to keep her as their substitute mother and…
Snow quickly pushed the image out of her mind, and sat up in bed, took off the nightgown the dwarfs had lent her, which no doubt belonged to their dead mother, and changed back into the clothes she had been wearing since she came there, which consisted of a white blouse, red Capri's and black slippers with short white socks. Then she searched around for her backpack, which contained a sleeping bag, a toothbrush, toothpaste, a red blanket, and some teen magazines she had borrowed from Ariel that she was going to return at Ariel's sleepover, which was now last Saturday. After finding the backpack, Snow quietly slipped out into the hallway, walked past the dwarfs' bedrooms, down the stairs, and out the front door. She didn't hesitate to listen for their footsteps and took off into the woods with a general sense of where the road was. Immediately, Snow regretted not bringing a flashlight, but knew she couldn't go back either, so she wandered aimlessly and then took off in fear when she heard rustling leaves, followed by howling. When she saw a pair of faint lights in the trees, she knew they belonged to a car, meaning that the road was near, and ran towards them. As the rustling leaves grew louder, she ran faster, and eventually stumbled onto the road, causing the pair of lights in front of her to stop, followed by a loud screeching. Snow then heard the door to the car open and saw the silhouette of a small figure wearing loose clothes with a spiked-up ponytail.
"What the hell were you doing?" the figure shouted in a deep, but soft voice.
"I…I need a ride into town," Snow said, listening for any further rustling sounds. "Do you know where the police station is? I've just moved here and—
"You'll have to get a ride from somebody else," replied the figure, which Snow couldn't tell was male or female. "I'm heading towards the Emperor Dojo, which is beyond this forest."
But just before the figure went back into their car, Snow made a bold decision and ran up to them. "Then take me with you!"
The figure turned to face her. In the headlight's glow, Snow saw that the figure was Asian, with a feminine-looking face despite the deep voice that came out of it. This person wore baggy pants and a loose shirt with something underneath that Snow thought looked like bandages. It didn't take long for Snow to realize what was going on.
"Are you a…" Snow hesitated to say the word. "…cross-dresser?"
In response, the Asian figure looked surprised and glanced down at the bandage-like things that were sticking out from under the shirt, and swore with a higher-pitched voice than the one before.
"I'm sorry! I should not have pointed that out," Snow apologized. "I don't have anything against the idea of cross-dressing at all, and I certainly won't tell anyone about it!"
"Well you'd better not tell anyone," the Asian girl said, and suddenly grabbed Snow's arm. "But just for precaution, I'm taking you with me!"
Snow didn't know whether to feel glad or frightened, but she obediently got into the passenger's side of the car, and silently watched as the Asian girl put her foot on the gas pedal and drove further up the road. For a while, neither of them said anything, and then Snow briefly saw the eastern sky turn a rosy pink before falling asleep from exhaustion.
End of Chapter 9
