Four periods later, Ingrid walked down to the Castleteria. It looked like a banquet hall to her, with it's tall windows and fancy drapes. She walked up to the counters full of food, and stood shocked at the options. There's so much food, and so much without red meat! Ingrid looked over the wite meat and fish, salavating over her 'meat Monday' options. The back of her neck tingled and she turned around to see Apple White starring at her.
"Um...hello?" Ingrid quickly bit some red licorice and tried not to stare right at the blonde in her face.
"I, am Apple White. Who are you?"
"I'm Greta. It's, ah...nice to meet you?" She giggled and tossed her hair.
"I know. Now, Greta, who are you going to be sitting with for lunch?"
"Um... my brother, and Ingrid." Apple giggled.
"Of course you're not, silly! You're sitting with me, Greta!"
"Um, what? Why?"
"Oh, it's simple, really. We fairytale heroines have to stick together." Ingrid opened her mouth to protest, but quickly got cut off. "Now, fill up your tray and let's go!" Ingrid grabbed a chicken breast, salad, and a cup of milk. As she contemplated desserts, Apple grabbed her and whisked her away to a sparkling silver table full of girls in fancy dresses. Apple sat down and patted the seat next to her. Ingrid sat down next to her and Blondie, who sat across from her, shot her a quick glare. On Apple's other side, a beautiful girl with milky coffee skin slept peacefully with her pink sunglasses over her eyes.
"Apple, how come she gets to sit next to you? I've been asking to forever-after!"
"Because, Blondie, I want Greta to feel welcomed." Blondie huffed, but said nothing else. Apple turned to Ingrid. "Greta, this is Blondie, and next to her is Bo Peep. Now, Ashlynn Ella usually only sits inside when the weather's bad, but if she's inside she'll sit here, too. Oh, and on my other side is Briar, my fairy best friend forever-after."
"It's nice to meet you all," Ingrid said with a meek smile.
"Now Greta, do you usually eat, um, meat?" Apple pulled a face, and Ingrid's shoulders hunched.
"No, I usually just do on Mondays-"
"Okay good, then it'll be easy to break the habit! Eating that stuff's no good for your skin, y'know." Quickly Apple grabbed Blondie's fork and used it to fling Ingrid's chicken in to the trash can.
"Oh." Ingrid slumped down further, and turned to look for Greta. Already she missed her friend, the orange softness of her dresses meant comfort and safety. Ingrid realized she needed it desperately now that she had met these girls, whom Ingrid couldn't identify as friend or foe. They were just so... blurry. Like the moral grey area everyone had at times, they seemed to dictate only the hardest choices' easy outs. I thought being the heroine made people nice, she thought. As her heart filled with confusion, she spotted her friend and waved her over with a huge smile. Greta moved to the table, the confidence of her movements warming Ingrid's heart, filling her with the feeling of alright she had missed since Apple grabbed her.
"Hey, Greta." Greta smirked cheekily, pleased endlessly that the act was working, and no one had noticed the switch. As she made to sit, Greta was stopped by a throat loudly clearing.
"Hello, who are you?" Bo-peep's eyebrow raised as she stared at Greta.
"She's my friend, Ingrid."
"Oh? What's your story, Ingrid," Apple asked.
"I'm from hers," she responded, placing a hand on Ingrid's shoulder. "I'm supposed to be the witch."
"Um, supposed to be?"
"Yeah, but I don't want to be. So I won't be." All the Royals gasped, accept for Briar, who snorted awake and sat straight up.
"I think you should go," said the sleepy princess. Greta huffed, but shook her head when Ingrid made to follow. Ingrid stared miserably at her meatless and dessertless lunch. Yes, she thought, I think I liked being on the outside better.
On the other side of the Calsteteria, Greta looked back and saw how depressed her friend was. Ingrid had always had thin skin, always taken things to heart. This will be good for her, Greta convinced herself, the Royals will warm up to her, she's too sweet for them not to. As Greta thought of her friend, she crashed into someone. On the offensive immediately, Greta's lips drew up into a sneer. The girl she bumped into looked up and smiled sheepishly from where she'd fallen. The sneer drops from Greta's face without her permission, and she blinks in confusion once, twice.
"Sorry about that," the girl on the floor says sheepishly. Greta held out her hand ti the girl, who took it and got up.
"It's okay, I ran into you."
"My name's Isabella. It's nice to meet you...?"
"Ingrid. My name's Ingrid. And it's nice to meet you, too."
"Um, would you maybe like to sit with my friends and I? I saw how the Royals went and cold-shouldered you like that, I figure maybe you'd need a different place to sit?" Usually, Greta would get annoyed at anyone who offered her anything out of pity, but for some reason she didn't think that was why this girl had offered.
"Why are you being so nice to me?" The girl shrugged with a small smile.
"You looked like you needed a friend." Greta looked over her shoulder, where Ingrid sat sadly. I think she needs one more.
Greta sat down at a table stuffed full of people. On one side, a girl pulled a teacup filled to the brim and a teapot from her hat, crushed back-to-back with her was a laughing girl with deep purple and black hair. Next to them sat a nervous looking wooden girl who smiled at Greta when she sat down. By Isabella's side sat a girl with a dark red hood pulled over her head and a hamburger on her plate, and next to her sat a girl with pink hair and wings, who was trying to discreetly hide the hamburger from the eyes of the boy next to her, who looked sick when he saw it.
"Hey, how come the new girl can sit next to you, but there's no room for me?" Greta looked up to see a boy floating above the table with a smirk on his face. Greta jumped, but everyone else at the table reacted as if floating boys were the norm.
"Simple Peter," Isabella said jokingly, "you tickle." The floating boy, Peter, shrugged and kissed Isabella before floating down to sit by the puppet girl.
"Nice to meet you, Greta!" Greta's head whipped around and she glared at the girl with the teacup hat. "What?"
"Maddie, her name's Ingrid," Isabella said.
"Yeah, you got me confused with somebody else," Greta said darkly.
"Nope, the narrator just said it! You're Greta!"
"Would you just shut it," Greta hissed.
"There! Again! The narrator said it again!" Maddie bounced up and down in her seat, and Greta seriously contemplated punching the girl. "Hey!"
"Um," the purple-haired girl raised a finger. "Maybe the rest of us can get and explanation here?" Greta gave up on the charade, clearly this 'Maddie' character was going to make it nearly impossible.
"Look, I traded places with my friend, so if you don't mind, can you keep the whole 'I'm actually Greta, not Ingrid' thing on the down-low before it fairy-fails?!" Greta stopped hissing at Maddie and folded her arms over her chest, glaring at no one in particular.
"Okay." Greta looked up, only to find that everyone around her was looking at her with the same kind of earnest look she had only seen on Ingrid before.
"Sure," the wooden girl said.
"Yeah," the girl in the red hood nodded in silent agreement with Isabelle as Maddie over-exageratedly zipped her own lips shut. Greta smiled as the whole mad group round her agreed to keep her secret.
"My name's Raven," the girl with the purple hair said, "welcome to the Rebels."