Mira didn't think she was supposed to feel this much relief after breaking up with her boyfriend. Shouldn't she be crying her eyes out in her locked bedroom and watching Fault In Our Stars with her girlfriends and eating ice cream? She didn't have much practice at this kind of thing. Mira hadn't been the most popular in her previous town, before all of this fairytale stuff took over her life, and she didn't know what she was supposed to feel after breaking up with the guy she loved.

The next day was spent ignoring her friends' phone calls and wandering around town pushing Ari in a stroller. Okay, so maybe when she saw Rafe in the window of a restaurant she ducked behind the next corner to stay out of his eyesight. She didn't need them asking her any questions about the mysterious disappearance of the supposed love of her life. Especially Freddie.

Oh no, Freddie. She promised to have dinner with his family tomorrow night. Could she face him now that she was single and free to flirt with him without feeling guilty about it? No, probably not. She had already put him through so much rejection that he'd probably think he was the rebound or reserve choice. Sometimes Mira wished that Freddie wasn't her knight in shining armor, her fairytale prince, because she definitely didn't deserve him. He deserved a real princess, not a messed up girl playing dress up.

Ari woke up from her nap and became restless, wriggling her body around in her tight cocoon of blankets, but she still didn't make a peep. Sometimes Mira wished that the baby would cry like a normal newborn. Was she mute or just unable to cry for some reason?

While Mira was contemplating why her godmothers' new charge didn't cry, Freddie turned the corner and almost ran smack dab into Ari's stroller.

Freddie let out an 'oof' as he jumped to the side to avoid colliding with the baby. Mira froze in her spot and her breath quickened as she began to panic. I was trying to avoid Freddie, not run into him! Mira thought.

Freddie let out a cautious grin when he saw that Mira wasn't jogging away from him. "Uh, hey Mira. Fancy running into you."

Mira closed her eyes in disbelief. "Rafe saw me and called you, didn't he?"

A blush bloomed on her prince's cheeks. He had been caught in the act.

"We're just worried about you, that's all. Blue left us all notes saying that he was being sent to London. I didn't know if he told you as well or..."

Now it was Mira's turn to blush as Freddie stared at her imploringly. Mira shuffled her feet awkwardly as she stared at a low hanging branch from a tree. "He came over last night. We decided to break up. Long distance relationships just weren't in the cards for us, I guess."

Freddie's eyes widened. "Wait, you mean that you and Blue are-?"

"-Over. Yes." Mira couldn't keep eye contact because just one glimpse of his ecstatic face made her want to blush and hold his hand. She wasn't in middle school. She could deal with Frederick Knight. And his perfect hair, perfect eyes, and perfect body.

Birds began to tweet overhead, completing Freddie's image of "fairytale boy dream-come-true."

Mira cleared her throat awkwardly and gestured to Ari in her stroller. "I should probably get her home. It's getting pretty cold outside."

Freddie blinked dazedly from his ecstasy. "Oh, right, of course. Could I escort you home? I wouldn't want anything bad to happen to you."

His formality surprised Mira. She shrugs. "Sure, why not? Very chivalrous of you."

He shrugs his response and walks side by side with her on the sidewalk. As they're approaching her house, Layla stands up from Mira's front steps and runs over to them. They see the tear tracks on her cheeks and immediately get concerned.

"It's happening," she whispers before collapsing into Freddie's arms as she sobs.

Layla spends the night at Bliss and Elsa's that night, surrounded by calming tea with honey and smooth jazz music. She's cocooned like baby Ari and placed in Mira's bed for the night. Mira sleeps on the daybed in Ari's nursery, surrounded by the calming music that Bliss and Elsa play every night for the baby. Freddie went to find Rafe, who was barricaded in his mansion trapped in the form of a hairy beast.

A dark fairy disguised as an old beggar woman had asked him for money, but Rafe had said no. Thus the transformation. Layla knew that it wouldn't be long before she would have to rescue her father from Rafe's imprisonment and stay there for good.

Mira and Freddie agreed to meet the next day for dinner with his family. Bliss and Elsa were treating it like a school dance, with promises of couple pictures and fancy clothing.

But the teenagers couldn't focus on anything else besides their best friends' predicament.

Layla, Mira, Blair, Jewel, and Viv were all snuggled up in Viv's bed the next day watching sad movies. Mira pictured the cliche girl sleepover and realized that it looked like this. Empty containers of ice cream littered the floor, and candy wrappers filled the small trashcan. DVD cases were strewn throughout the room, and the girls all had stuffy noses and wet eyes from the amount of crying they had been doing.

It was Viv's idea actually. All of them had gone through their curses, some still going through them, and they wanted to help Layla out as best they could.

Rafe wouldn't let Freddie or Henley into the house, the shame of his beastly form keeping him away from his friends. Bliss, Elsa, and Salya all tried to think of ways of lightening the curse, but the next birthday was Jewel's and it was around two months away. Also, Elsa had already promised to use her birthday wish to lighten Jewel's curse and keep her from being in so much pain during her jewel-vomiting.

Layla had given up all hope, saying that she should accept her fate sooner rather than later. The girls tried to console her as best she could, but Layla was brokenhearted over the future loss of her freedom, and not even the fairies knew how to change her fate.

Mira rubbed Layla's back soothingly. "Perhaps you'll change him for the better. Isn't that how the story goes? He changes and becomes the man of your dreams?"

Layla sniffled. "The last curse like mine was a few years before I was born. The girl had fallen in love with the beast, but when he had turned back into a human he returned to his mean ways. The girl committed suicide three months later after catching him in bed with another girl. She was 17."

All the girls froze in place, not knowing what to say or how to react.

Mira bit her lip in thought. "Well it's a good thing you already know what Rafe is like then. If the curse breaks and he returns to his former ways, then you can dump him and move on. You won't let him stand in the way of your happiness. You are strong, you are powerful, and you are going to kick this curse's butt."

Viv raised up her milkshake. "Hear hear!"

Mira took over 2 hours to get ready for her dinner with the Knights. She knew that she should make a good impression, so she asked Bliss and Elsa for help. Her hair was curled, sundress on, and small wedges buckled onto her feet.

When she walked up the steps to the large monstrosity of a front door, Mira nearly tripped due to her nervousness. She quickly rapped on the door three times, hoping that no one would answer.

Freddie answered the door immediately.

When she was escorted inside like a princess at a ball, Mira began to panic. She became breathless and gripped Freddie's arm fearfully.

He smiled beseechingly at her. "It'll be fine. I promise."

Mrs. Knight hugged her tightly and Mr. Knight slapped her on the back lightly. They spent almost the entire dinner complimenting her on her looks, the way she carried herself, etc. Mira found out early on that she got along quite well with Freddie's parents. The awkwardness and forced smiles that she had pictured were nonexistent. Freddie glanced at her every few seconds, as if he needed to make sure she was still there and not running for the hills. After the tenth time of catching him staring at her, she raised her eyebrow and smirked at him challengingly. He blushed at getting caught.

She loved to make him blush.

Freddie escorted her to the door at the end of dinner, and Bliss was parked in her new family-friendly car down the road so that she couldn't spy on them. Mira made her promise when she dropped her off.

Her favorite Knight began to rub the back of his neck in nervousness when they stood together in silence.

"I had a good time," Mira began.

Freddie looked relieved. "Good. That's great. I'm glad."

She smiled at him. "Maybe we could do it again sometime."

He looked back at his house in disbelief, where his parents were obviously staring at them through the front window. "With me? And my parents?"

She took a step forward so that she was inches away from him. "Maybe next time could just be you and me."

"Like us? Together? Alone?" He looked baffled. His confusion made him even cuter.

Mira smiled up at him. "Definitely."

And then she reached up and closed the distance between them.

When their lips met, it was as magical as the first time. And the first time was when he woke her up from her cursed sleep in a hotel room full of dead bodies and surrounded by a cage of thorny vines. Lights lit up behind her closed eyes and she almost stopped breathing due to the strength of her feelings. Fireworks seemed to be going off in her head and she never wanted it to end.

And she will totally admit it. Her foot popped up.

That's right, everyone. Her, Mirabelle Lively, Sleeping Beauty reincarnate, had a Princess Diaries kiss cliche.

And she enjoyed it.

A/N- Mira/Freddie fans, are you happy? I'm not sure how much time I'm going to be spending on the Rafe/Layla storyline since they were mostly background characters in the novel, but we'll see. I told you guys that I'd keep my pinky promise!