Astrid opened the door with a creak, and immediately, a girl jumped in front in her with a grin on her face. "Hey there, newbie! You play?"
And all of a sudden, a ball was thrown at her.
Now, she was pretty sporty. She could catch a ball. Sure, she hadn't practiced in a while because of work. But she certainly wasn't incapable of catching a ball.
This one however, was so unexpectedly thrown, with a lot of force, and straight into her face, so Astrid felt it was okay that she yelped and shielded her head by covering her face with her hands. Two fairies zipped around trying to catch it, but their efforts were futile. The ball bounced off her arm (rather painfully) and rammed into the wall, where it somehow acquired a pair of glasses and makeup. Then it headed towards the girl sitting on the bed, who hurriedly fell off the bed, and straight onto the laptop she had been holding. A loud, upbeat sound rang across the room.
"Nice!" complimented the girl who had thrown the ball at her. She had long dirty blonde hair, which was done in two braids, and tied messily behind her back. She also wore a smirk that would send shivers down any boy's back. She jumped on the bed and began dancing to the beat.
Astrid hurriedly went to help the other girl up. Please don't be snobby, please don't be snobby, please don't be snobby. "I'm so sorry."
Before the other girl - a raven haired beauty with her not-quite-as-long-but-equally-messy braid done over her shoulder and an angelic face - could speak up, the blonde did first.
"Don't be! Heather's been hiding her music forever and I've been dying to hear it!"
"It's not ready yet!" the raven - Heather - protested.
"Really?" Astrid asked in surprise, "What I heard rocked."
The blonde nodded encouragingly, but Heather merely held her laptop close to her and frowned. Sensing her discomfort, she added, "That's alright. You don't have to if you don't want to."
'I'm Ruffnut, by the way," said the blonde, "You've met Miss-Shy-Girl Heather. So...princess or lady royal?"
"Lady royal. You?"
"Princess. Both of us. What's your name?"
"Astrid," she mumbled, hoping it wasn't too obvious that she didn't belong here. Was she supposed to say Lady Royal Astrid? Wouldn't that be arrogant?
Heather perked up. "Astrid Hofferson? The lottery girl?"
"Is it really that obvious?" she asked desperately.
"Kinda," Ruffnut said noncommittally, "Because they said Astrid Hofferson was the lottery winner on live television."
"Oh, right. TV. Forgot about that." Well, at least they didn't think she was some sort of failure. Her roommates didn't look so bad, really.
An announcement rang through the hallway.
"The Welcome Ceremony will take place in five minutes. I repeat, the ceremony will take place in five minutes. It is held in the sky deck. Repeat, in the sky deck."
"Five minutes?" All of the girls had a momentary panic attack, when they all remembered they had fairies.
Heather's fairy's name was Windshear. She was dressed in all silver, metallic silver, and her hair was pure white. She was looking to be the most responsible out of the three.
Barf was a male fairy, and when Astrid questioned his name (and his green face), Ruff said she didn't really know and to just roll with it. She said she thought it was a pretty cool name, to be honest.
And of course, there was Stormfly.
Lipstick was rubbed, blush was applied, hair was combed, and the three girls were ushered out the door faster than they could say, "Fairy."
The ceremony, like everything in the school, looked breathtaking. Streamers were hanging above the girls' heads and confetti was strewn around the floor carelessly. Magnificent, huge, balloons hung around the room, and the lights were twinkling in the night sky. The stars were never this easy to view from her home.
Home. No matter how amazing this school was, her mom and brother weren't here, so it wasn't home at all. Astrid sighed.
Up on the stage was Toothiana, smiling widely at all her students. She clapped her hands and most people fell silent. Astrid saw Rapunzel and Anna in the front seat. Anna kept on talking but Rapunzel straightened up right away, preparing to listen intently.
Okay, she might have been rude, but she did exhibit proper behavior. She was probably a star student. Except for "Listening to Your Subjects." Was that even a class?
"I welcome you all to follow in the steps of previous princesses and lady royals, to embrace your destiny, and to unlock your princess potential. Now, your classmates Vanellope and Taffyta are passing out your crowns. Don't get used too used to them. Not all of you will become a princess or lady royal. In fact -"
"Yes, yes." Dame Gothel swooped in, immediately taking the mic from Toothiana and walking up to the center of the stage. "I have an important announcement to make, ladies. I...will no longer be teaching."
A few girls gasped, and many started whispering to each other, but not once did Astrid hear a "Aw, she was my favorite teacher." She too, was curious. Why exactly would Gothel not want to teach anymore?
"Now that Rapunzel will be taking the throne, I shall spend the last of my years in the castle."
Astrid rolled her eyes. Not only did she prefer Toothiana's no-nonsense talks better, Gothel seemed to make the speech about herself rather than talking about them and the school. This was a Welcoming Ceremony for heaven's sake.
"Toothiana will continue to take over for me in her own...little way." Only a few of the girls caught the headmistress's dirty look towards Gothel. Most of them like her "little way" better.
"This is extremely saddening for me, as it has always been, ever since my sister, Queen Valka, died, and left me the throne."
"If she died," Ruffnut and Heather whispered simultaneously.
Astrid, who was sitting in between the two, asked, "What?"
"There's a legend," Heather said, "That not all of the royal family died that day."
"But that's just a legend, right?" she asked, nonplussed.
"Maybe, maybe not," Ruffnut said in a sing-song voice.
Toothiana stepped back up, much to the obvious displeasure of Gothel, and ended the ceremony. "Now, curtsies for all, and then off to bed."
As they curtsied, her new roommates told Astrid about the other legends of Berk, which seemed more and more wild by the minute. At one point she got so distracted, she tripped on her own feet and rammed straight into someone.
To her horror, it was Rapunzel.
"Ugh! Don't you have anything better to do?"
"I'm sorry," Astrid said through gritted teeth, "I didn't mean to."
"You...commoners," the princess hissed, "Shouldn't even be allowed here. Why don't you go back to whatever dump you lived in?" And with that she walked off.
Astrid sighed. "Is it bad that I want to punch her?"
"No," Ruff replied, scowling, "That is a perfectly normal feeling. I'd like to do it myself."
"Oh, don't," Heather scolded, "Astrid, just ignore her and wait for classes tomorrow. I bet you can do anything she can do."
"Yeah," she replied, already feeling more confident. "I can do...anything she can do."