Chapter 1:

Rapunzel Corona

I groaned inwardly as my alarm clock beeped loudly. Come on, Rapunzel, I told myself, Can't be late for the first day of high school!

Suddenly, my door flew open and my mother waltzed in. "Good morning, my flower!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms around my neck. "Today's your first day of high school, and you don't want to be late!" I nodded groggily. She kissed my forehead and left.

Mother wasn't really my mother. She was my foster mother who adopted me when my parents died in a house fire. She could get angry or become rather vain sometimes, but I knew that, deep down, she loved me.

I threw my covers off of me and stepped out of bed onto my soft pink carpet. I padded over to my purple bathroom and started brushing my teeth. When I was finished, I brushed my hair (I was proud of how long it was-all the way down to the back of my knees!) while staring at the outfit I'd picked out last night: a light purple dress with a pink cardigan, a pink headband, and white flats. It had seemed so perfect the last time I'd seen it. Now it looked like . . . like I was trying too hard to look good.

But there was no time to think about that. I only had five minutes to get dressed, eat breakfast, and walk to school. I quickly pulled on my clothes and dashed downstairs, quickly slowing down a bit when I remembered Mother's rule about no running in the house. I grabbed my backpack and a plastic shopping bag filled with my extra school supplies before snagging a muffin and a banana.

"Bye, Mother!" I called to her, racing out the door.

"Have a good day, dear!" she called back, and I could hear her chuckling slightly before I shut the door.

I slowed my pace after that, taking my time to eat my small breakfast so it would last longer. I checked my pink and silvery fashion watch. It was 7:39! The warning bell rang at 7:45, so I would only have 10 minutes to get my new locker combo, decorate, and socialize! I hurried to the school. This would be my sophomore year!

When I reached the school, I was breathing heavily, but managed to get inside and received my locker combination. I discovered that I was next to my best friend Mavis as she was lining black duct tape around her locker.

"Hey!" Mavis said, smiling as she finished, "Isn't it so awesome how they put us together this year?"

"Yeah, totally!" I agreed enthusiastically, grinning back. Then I turned back to my locker. I hung up my pink zebra-print mirror on the inside of the door, my little crystal chandelier was placed hanging from my top locker shelf, pictures of me and my friends were pasted everywhere, magnets were scattered all over, hanging up my stuff, and other miscellaneous junk anywhere there was room.

The warning bell rang, startling me from my decorating. I always get a bit lost into something whenever I do it. I grabbed my books and binders for my first three periods and hurried off to homeroom.

Mavis ran after me. "Hey, wait up!" she panted. "Gee, Punz, all of those early-morning runs must've really made you fast! Anyways, let's compare schedules! What do you have first?"

"Well, I have homeroom and history with Mr. Charming," I replied.

"Yeah, me too!" she said, "But we better hurry, though. My cousin, she said that Mr. Charming is such a pain in the you-know-what." Mavis rolled her eyes, causing me to giggle. When we reached the classroom, I noticed that most of the students had already arrived and were seated. Mavis and I quickly sat down in the two empty seats in the front, as they were the only ones available.

"You two must be Ms. Corona and Ms. Drakla. It's so wonderful that you have both decided to join us today," said a young, blonde-haired male from the teacher's desk. "We have not yet been properly introduced. My name is Mr. Princeton Charming." He flashed us a big, fake, blindingly white smile. "Now, I have already taken attendance, and just added you two. Shall we get on with our lesson?"

All of the students' heads nodded.

Mr. Charming smiled again. "Good! Now, before we actually start, I have a little pop quiz for you all."

We all groaned. "Don't worry my dear pupils!" Mr. Charming grinned. "This shall not be graded, it's just basically what you already know so that I can see how well you'll do in class. Please pass them to the people behind you and pass up any extras. Once you have your paper, you may begin!"

I neatly printed my name on my quiz and started. Okay, first question, I thought, When did King George the 3rd die?

Ooh, that was a hard one. All I knew was that it was in January. I gave up and just wrote down January 28 1812.

By the time Mr. Charming had called time, I was about 3/4 through the test, but was forced to hand it in. I was pretty sure I hadn't done very well, but Mavis was sure that she had done far worse. We both shifted our books in our arms and headed off different ways to our next classes.