Chapter 2
"Ahem. Can everyone hear me? Very well, listen up." Headmistress Queenie's voice booms over the loud speakers all over the school. The princesses who were excitedly putting their new books, quills, and paper into their lockers stop in their tracks and listen. They know that Headmistress has eyes all over the school and they will get into deep trouble if they do not listen to what she has to say.
"In just ten days we will be hosting the Beginnings Ball that we hold every year before the new school year starts. Everyone is required to sign up to help with preparations for the ball. The sign-up sheet will be located in the cafeteria. It is first-come-first-serve so it is imperative that you sign up for your preferred job ASAP. As you know, the princes from Prince Academy will be joining us for the ball." Headmistress stops until the laughing and cooing from the princesses ceases. "This year the ball is a Masquerade. That is all. Have a hexing day."
"What does that even mean? Have a HEXING day!" Rapunzel says, doing her best impersonation of Headmistress Queenie's monotone voice.
"Maybe she means have a fetching day. That sounds kinda like hexing!" Mulan pitches in.
"No I think she means have a good day and don't fall into a hole filled with serpents and die." Zelda adds.
"Always the optimist, Zel-zel" Rapunzel says sarcastically giving Zelda a little playful shove into the lockers.
"Hey, Mu-mu's idea wasn't all the great either!" Zelda said, laughing.
"What did you say about my idea? You know the Emperor of China listens to my ideas so I must have pretty good ideas" Mulan says, smirking proudly.
"He just listens to them because he feels sorry for you that no one else listens to your horrible ideas!" Rapunzel says. Mulan gives her a playful I-am-going-to-get-you-for-that look. Rapunzel sprints down the hall laughing with Mulan running on her heels. They both stop outside and lose their footing. They tumble down a hill of grass. When they come to a stop, they start to laugh, rolling in the grass. Zelda runs after them and finds them rolling around in the grass like fish out of water. Zelda starts laughing and plops down next to her best friends in the grass. For a few minutes, the girls just stare at the vast blue sky above them and laugh to their hearts' content.
They all sit up and begin to talk about the Beginnings Ball.
"Do you guys want to help me decorate the ballroom for the ball?" Zelda asks Mulan and Rapunzel. She is the master of decorations. Zelda has this special gift for being able to arrange anything in a room in an artistic and artfully tasteful way.
"Why not? What's the worst that could happen?" Mulan says.
The next day...
"This is a DISASTER!" Zelda screams. "We have to fix this before Headmistress Queenie comes and in and sees the mess!"
Mulan, Rapunzel, and Zelda stand in the ballroom which is currently covered in sticky glue. There is sticky glue all over the walls and some of the feathers that they were using to decorate the table centerpieces with are stuck in the glue. Mulan had been carrying a bucket full of glue when Rapunzel ran into the room, running as fast as she could because she was late. Rapunzel ran right into Mulan and the glue splattered everywhere. Then, Zelda came into the room with the bag of feathers. She slipped on a slippery spot on the ballroom floor and the feathers went flying everywhere. Now, the ballroom looks like it was attacked by a swarm of birds.
The girls furiously started scrubbing the floors with soap and water. The glue was really stuck on the walls and the floor. It was no easy task to get the whole room spotless before Headmistress Queenie came in to check out the decorations. Somehow the girls managed to clean it all up.
"What's the worst that could happen? Oh yeah, THIS!" Zelda yells, mocking Mulan with the words she had said yesterday.
"Whatever!" Mulan says, laughing, chasing Zelda with a paint brush and threatening to paint her face blue.
The ten days of preparation for the Beginnings Ball flew by in a blur. Every princess had a job from dress-making to air-freshening (which was basically spraying Febreeze everywhere and decorating the halls with fresh smelling flowers). After the ten days, all of Princess Academy was sparkling.
Soon, it was the night of the Beginning Ball. All the princesses were dressed to impress. Most of the princesses think about the princes when it comes to the Beginnings Ball because they all want to find their prince. Rapunzel looks forward more to the food, music, and dancing at the ball than to the boys. She could care less about the boys. Rapunzel knows that her prince is out there too and she will meet him one day, but right now she just wants to enjoy her time being single. Besides, boys her age were disgusting. She once saw a boy pick his ears and them put it in his mouth. Disgusting!
Rapunzel slips into her shiny purple ball gown. Her ball gown was made especially for her by Snow White, her roommate, who was part of the dress-making committee. It is soft and has a corset down the back of the dress all made up in pink ribbons. Rapunzel had woven flowers into her long braid of hair so that her hair looked like a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Rapunzel puts on her feathery mask as a finishing touch and saunters into the hallway to wait for her best friends to come meet her. Snow White sees her before she leaves the room.
"Oh. my. gasp! You look gorgeous!" Snow White says in her cheery voice.
"Um, thank you." Rapunzel answers. She is still getting used to the fact that Snow White likes to give complements right and left. Rapunzel isn't used to compliments because she lived alone when she was younger. She doesn't remember her parents so there was no one to give her compliments. It was always just herself and the tower.
Snow White is wearing an extravagant gown that resembles the shape of an apple. It is red and flows down to the floor in ruby red rivulets of cloth. She sparkles practically every time she moves. Rapunzel cannot help but feel like she is not as beautiful as the other princesses. She doubts she will ever find her prince when she looks like the way she looks now; a mess in a dress.
"Your dress is beautiful" Rapunzel tells Snow White before she leaves the dorm room and waits outside in the shade for her friends to come.
After a few minutes, Mulan and Zelda dart out of the dorm building. Mulan is wearing a traditional Chinese gown with delicate cherry blossoms all over it. She even weaved cherry blossoms into her hair. She comes up to Rapunzel batting her eyes and waving her fan in front of her face.
"Don't I look dazzling?" Mulan asks, batting her eyes even more. She looks like she is having a seizure.
"No, I believe you are mistaken. I am the fairest of them all!" Zelda says as she struts toward her friends in her satin deep purple and gold gown. The gown has the triforce symbol woven in gold and Zelda is wearing white satin gloves to finish off the look. She poses like a model in front of the two other girls.
Mulan and Rapunzel roll their eyes at Zelda.
"She's such a diva." Rapunzel says to Mulan.
Mulan answers, "For once we can agree on something!"
Mulan links arms with Rapunzel and they walk toward the entrance of the Princess Academy arm-in-arm.
"Hey! Wait for me! What nice friends I have!" Zelda shouts out sarcastically behind them.
Once the three princesses walked into the ballroom and were introduced by the royal announcer, the music begins to play. There is an orchestra playing dance music on one side of the ballroom. The ballroom is breathtakingly beautiful. Rapunzel could sense change in the air. She doesn't know how but she could just sense it. It's as if she has a sixth sense. They watch as the rest of the princesses file into the room and wait in suspenseful anticipation for the princes.
The princes are more handsome than Rapunzel imagined.
The princes begin to mingle with the princesses and the Beginnings Ball begins.
The princesses and princes cannot recognize each other because they are wearing masks; it is a Masquerade ball after all! What is a Masquerade ball without masks?
Rapunzel walks with Zelda and Mulan through the throng of people in the ballroom. She bumps into a girl with ebony hair and glasses underneath her masks. The girl is wearing a sky blue gown that glitters in the lights of the ballroom.
"Are you sure Tony said to meet us here?" The girl asks the prince next to her. This prince has raven-black long hair and a green suit on. He nods at the girl. Suddenly he waves at another prince in a dark suit to come over. The other prince is handsome with brown tossled hair. He grins and Rapunzel can see a hint of arrogance in his grin.
"There you guys are! I have been looking all over for you!"
"I have been looking everywhere for you too, but I believe we have different reasons to as why we want to find each other." The prince in the green suit says before he extends his right hand. Ice magic shoots out of the prince's white glove and freezes the arrogant prince. The girl in the blue dress gasps and yells at the prince next to her.
"Loki! Why did you do that?" the girl screams at the prince.
"I have always wanted to be Iron Man... and now I can fulfill my dream!" Loki answers, laughing maniacally.
After seeing that little episode, Rapunzel and her friends decide to steer clear of that green suited prince named Loki. He looks like trouble.
The three princesses laugh and dance together. Once they were starting to get tired out, they sit down at a table which line the wall. They watch as princes ask princesses to dance. It is so interesting to see how different and unique each princess and prince is from afar. Rapunzel could see that some of the princes are perfectly chiseled and handsome, but others are short and have messy hair. The princesses are all unique in some way too. Some princesses have magic and special abilities while some princesses do not. The same goes for the princes. Rapunzel sits and enjoys the beautiful violin soloist who is playing a bouncy tune at the moment. She slips into her own little world and doesn't notice when Zelda and Mulan are asked to dance by two twin princes. Soon Rapunzel is all alone at the table. She snaps out of her little world and realizes that she is alone. And there is someone watching her.
She can feel her sixth sense perking up and telling her that someone was watching her. Rapunzel whips her head from left to right then up and down. Then, she sees him. The prince who is watching her is sitting up on a balcony that hangs over the ballroom, his feet dangling above the dancing couples. He is wearing a deep green suit and a mask made out of leaves. Behind the leaves of his mask, Rapunzel can see bright green eyes, dazzling eyes actually. Dazzling, but piercing at the same time which is a lethal combination. Once Rapunzel notices him, the prince stands up and jumps off the balcony. Rapunzel gasps and runs toward him to catch him before he falls and hurts himself. The prince surprisingly lands gracefully on both feet right in front of her. He straightens himself up and bows deeply to Rapunzel. Then, he grabs her hand and kisses it softly. Rapunzel can feel her heart thumping faster and faster as he pulls her into the dance.
"May I have this dance, er, what might your name be?" The mysterious prince asks Rapunzel.
"Rapunzel. And, um, sure." Rapunzel says, forcing the words with difficulty out of her throat. For some reason she feels like she just had the wind taken out of her.
The prince smiles a lopsided grin that makes Rapunzel's heart beat faster than she thinks is humanly possible. She feels that she might have a heart attack if she stays any longer with this mysterious prince. Rapunzel tries to ignore her beating heart as they start to spin to the music. The music she notices sounds very familiar. Rapunzel remembers suddenly that it was the same song that the fairies played for her in the garden. The song is soft and sweet and rolls like honey through the ballroom. A man is playing the tune from an ocarina. Rapunzel had never heard an ocarina before that night, but she instantly fell in love with its breathy sound.
The prince grins his dazzling grin again as he watches Rapunzel take in the music. "Beautiful, isn't it?"
"Yeah..." Rapunzel says as she closes her eyes and listens more carefully to the song. She wants to commit it to memory to make sure she never forgets it.
"It is a traditional tune from my hometown, Hyrule." The prince says.
"You are from Hyrule? My friend Zelda is from there too!" Rapunzel says, smiling.
"Zelda and I grew up together so I know her well. I haven't met anyone else from Hyrule here yet so it is nice to know there is someone else her from my hometown. It's a small world after all." The prince answers, smirking.
Then, it hit Rapunzel. If this mysterious prince and Zelda are the only ones from Hyrule in both academies then that must mean... They are meant to be paired with each other at the graduation ceremony. They have to be since they are from the same hometown and they are both royalty. Rapunzel's heart drops in her chest.
"I'm sorry. I have to go. Thank you for the wonderful dance." Rapunzel says before she breaks away from the mysterious prince's arms and dashes into the courtyard outside.
Rapunzel sits under a tree and weeps. She feels heartbroken because she knows if she could ever be with the mysterious prince from Hyrule it would never last. All of the princesses and princes stories are already written and the couples are already set in stone. She could never be with the mysterious prince because she is not Zelda and Zelda will one day end up with him. Lucky, Zelda, Rapunzel thinks.
Rapunzel doesn't return to the ball. All she wants to do is walk back to her dorm room and wash up. She wants to go to bed early before all of the other princesses get back to the dormitories.
As Rapunzel walks through the meadow that leads from the Princess Academy to the dormitories, she feels someone's presence behind her. She turns around and falls to her knees. Before her was a woman, floating in midair, with a flowing white gown whipping around her. Her eyes are white like pearls and there is a brilliant white glow surrounding her.
The woman doesn't speak with her mouth, but speaks directly into Rapunzel's mind without moving her lips.
"Rapunzel, you have been given a great gift. You have a gift called Unwritten."
"Who are you and what is Unwritten?" Rapunzel asks the beautiful woman.
"In time dear you shall know my name. Unwritten grants you the power to rewrite your story and others stories. You must use the gift wisely. You should not let anyone know that you have this gift. Very few people have this gift. Once the wrong person knows that you have Unwritten, you will be hunted down for it. This gift is extremely powerful you see and many power-hungry people in the past have wanted it. Be careful, my young princess. Be careful..." The woman explains before she fades into a ball of light. The ball of light floats into the sky and becomes one with the stars above.
Rapunzel skips all the way back to the dormitories. She did not notice the rustling in the bushes that the mysterious prince made before he darted back into the ballroom. He had seen the woman and heard her message too. He had no idea why the woman let him hear the message too, but it must mean something.
I must be a trustworthy person if the woman let me hear the message. I know I have a purpose at this school and now here it is! I am going to help Rapunzel rewrite her story!, Link thinks to himself as he darts back to the ballroom.
To be continued...
P.S.- the song that is featured on the ocarina in this chapter is called "Zelda's Lullaby" from the original Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time video game by Nintendo. I hope you liked this chapter! Please leave reviews :) Love you all!