As the two classes of students wandered into the Enchanted Forest, each group of future fairytale characters chatted among themselves, ignorant of the scenery around them. Kitty Cheshire, however, was one exception. She floated silently above the rest of her team for the project, trying her hardest not to laugh with glee.
Kitty Cheshire was always a fan of drama. Chaos and turmoil were her favorite pastimes. However, despite what tv shows might say, high school was not fairy chaotic at all. There was always gossip, sure, but most of the time it was some terribly boring fairytale doing some terribly boring shopping or something. I'd never realized just how constricting destiny can be, Kitty thought. After all, it was the destiny of her and everyone around her to be mad and unpredictable.
But now, she'd quite luckily landed herself in a group with what could quite likely be the most interesting and volatile fairytales at school. First off is Cerise, with her big, bad secret; then Hopper, with his unfortunate penchant for crushes on the heroines of someone else's stories; then Daring, one of the two most likely fairytale royals to rip off either of the previous' heads. Kitty couldn't help but giggle, which caught Cerise's wary eye. But then of course, there's Greta, Kitty thought, she's a bit of a wildcard outside of her attachment to Hopper, but what fun is there in knowing everything?!
When they reached the swamp inside the Enchanted Forrest, over half of the fairytales visibly cringed at the muddy terrain. Kitty made sure to perch herself on a high, sturdy branch. After all muddy, thick-as-cream water was still water, and Kitty was, well, a cat.
"Oh come on," 'Greta' said by the bank of the mucky water, smiling at her classmates. "It's only water. If you really don't want something getting wet, just leave it somewhere dry." Kitty watched as she kicked off her booties and peeled off her stockings and her gloves. Cerise and some others followed suit, but most students looked at her like she had grown a second head. 'Greta' rolled her eyes good-naturedly at the disgusted students, including Daring and Hopper, who was barely comfortable in a swamp in his amphibian form.
The two teachers ignored this exchange between their students, choosing to give their students instructions for their time in the swamp instead of addressing their discomfort with the water. Kitty rolled her eyes as they spoke, to her it seemed like the faculty would rather ignore any sort of conflict than get anything done. Once they finished, each group split apart from one another to explore and chat.
Apparently, the students had to 'become acquainted' with each habitat. Kitty shuddered at the thought. When she looked down at the murky water, however, she saw both Ingrid and Cerise standing mid-calf deep in the stuff.
"Oh c'mon," Ingrid prodded her friends, "just roll up your pants, take off your shoes, and come in!" A frog hopped onto a nearby lily pad and Ingrid picked it up. "All the other frogs are doing it," she joked. Hopper shot her a distressed look.
"I don't think so. Maybe if I had swim trunks or something..." Daring looked at Hopper, appalled.
"Are you serious? That mud is disgusting! Why, I wouldn't go in there if someone paid me!" He turned to Cerise, whose cloak was perilously close to touching the mud. "And Cerise, your cloak is important to your story isn't it? How can you let such an important part of who you are become ruined by the swamp? At least come put it somewhere dry!" Cerise's eyes widened as she frantically tried to think of a way to take Daring's attention off of her.
"She can't just take it off," Kitty said mockingly, "like you said, Daring, it's terribly important." Kitty snickered as Cerise glared up at her in frustration. The red cloaked rebel pooled some of the muddy water in her cupped hand and flung it expertly at Kitty's face.
"Shut up, Kitty!" The thick muddy water landed squarely in the middle of Kitty's ever-smiling face. The next Cheshire cat gasped along with Ingrid and their teammates. Slowly, the cat wiped away as much as she could and flung it back at Cerise. Her aim wasn't as good as Cerise's so it only hit her arm, but regardless the wolf-girl snarled up at her and the battle began.
Ingrid quickly leapt out on to dry land, her legs dripping mud as she stood far out of the way of the battling girls. By now Kitty had leapt down from the tree branch and damned the consequences in order to get more mud to sling at Cerise, whose eyes had turned gold under the shadow of her bangs. By the time Professor Poppa Bear noticed the fight, both girls were covered in mud and far enough into the swamp that their skirts were fully submerged.
"Girls, enough!" The bear snarled, coming between the two of them. The girls hardly noticed and continued their fight, resulting in their professor getting his face covered with mud. Every fairytale in the swamp gasped, suddenly very aware of the fight as both girls froze. "Headmaster Grimm's office. Now." The girls trudged out of the swamp with the teacher walking between them just in case another spat began. A few students gathered around Ingrid and the princes to watch the retreating trio.
"What a shame teach had to break up the cat fight," said Arcus, the next 'baby' bear. Blondie, who had somehow ended up in the same group as him, smacked him upside his curly-haired head. "Ow! Oh c'mon Blondie, you know you're my favorite little princess." He leaned in close to the blonde gossip with a lecherous grin on his face, only to have her push him away with a huff.
"That was not funny, Arcus," Daring said, "the two of them keep fighting like cats and dogs and it's getting ridiculous." Arcus rolled his eyes.
"You need to pull the staff out of your arse, princey. The only thing that would've made that better was if the two of them had been straight up grappling instead of throwing things." Daring shook his head in disbelief.
"Were you ever taught any manners?" Arcus grinned widely at Blondie's question.
"Definitely not. I'm your bad guy," Arcus growled seductively at the blonde, "remember?" Quickly, Daring interposed himself between the flirting bear-eared boy and his victim.
"Okay, that's enough," he said, silently challenging Arcus to try to get past him. Instead, the brunette backed off with his hands up. Blondie heavily exhaled the breath she had been holding.
"Are you okay, Blondie?" Ingrid put her hand on Blondie's shoulder to comfort her and she nodded.
"Yeah. Thanks Daring, I really needed the save." He gave her a shallowly charming smile.
"Of course, saving damsels in distress is what I do best."
AN: Sorry for the growing infrequency of my updates, there was a break for school that just ended so I have a lot of other things that I suddenly have to do besides this. Yes, Arcus is an anthropomorphized bear/human. I know that in the show the bear that Blondie had roaring on her tablet was a full-out bear, but I'm going with the explanation that, much like the original Cheshire cat, the original three bears were bears only but the new generation is a mix of the original animal and human, like Kitty.
Who does everyone ship so far? I think all the characters I'm introducing are introduced, so please let me know what you think and REVIEW! :3