Apple blinked against a blinding light. She looked down and saw that she was dressed from head to toe in an orange jumpsuit.

"Wha?…What is this?"

The sound of a gavel echoed in her ears.

"Apple Queen, you stand before this court of law accused of identity theft, poisoning the Queen, and abuse of power as the Queen of Ever After."

She was in her kingdom's courtroom. Headmaster Grimm, who was wearing Judge attire, slammed down the gavel once more.

"Miss Queen! How do you plead?"

"That's not my name!" Apple cried. "My name is Apple White, Daughter of Snow White!"

"Miss Queen, please cease these erratic outbursts."

"My last name isn't Queen! That's Raven's last name!"

"How dare you sully the name of our new beloved Queen?"

A spotlight suddenly shone down on two seats watching the trial from above. Raven was dressed in the dress that Snow White wore during her coronation.

"She was so horrible!" Raven cried. "She poisoned me with an Apple, all because she was jealous of my beauty!"

The crowd cried out in sympathy.

"It's all right dear, she can't hurt you anymore."

Beside Raven sat Dexter, though he was missing his glasses. They huddled close together.

"I didn't do this! Please let me call a witness at least!"

"You may not call any witnesses Miss Queen, your case rests solely upon the word of the accused."

"But I didn't poison her! You have no proof!"

"Miss Queen, you must understand that we are not here to determine guilt or innocence. We are only here to decide if there is sufficient evidence to convict the accused."

"But I didn't do anything wrong!" She looked around the room. "There must be someone here who knows I'm innocent! Where's Darling?"

Darling stood up and walked slowly towards the front row.

"My dear Queen, I have sat idly by and let you hurt our dear friend Raven for far too long." She sniffled. "But I will request that we bring some witnesses to make sure."

"How can there be witnesses for something that hasn't happened?" Apple argued, but she was ignored.

One by one witnesses were brought up to tell their story.

Ashlynn and Hunter went first.

"She found out that I was dating Hunter, she demanded we break up! How heartless could someone be to not want someone to be with their true love?"

Apple was taken aback.

"What does that have to do with this trial?"

"Miss Apple, is this true?"

"I… that's not,"

She sighed

"Yes that's true, but I made a mistake! I know that now. That doesn't make me evil!"

They shook their heads and the next witness was called.

"Hello everyone, as you know I am the daughter of sleeping beauty."

"Briar?" Apple gasped.

"I didn't want to follow my destiny, it would have forced me to sleep for one hundred years! I would outlive everyone in my life, my friends and my family." Briar pointed at Apple, tears in her eyes.

"She was going to force me to do it! And she said she was my best friend!"

"Briar no it's not like that! I thought it was written in stone, I didn't know we had a choice!"

Briar didn't listen.

"Your ignorance would have sent students to their deaths!"

"Please stop!"

"This is why you weren't the hero! Because you are selfish and self-centered!"

"No! No!"

"The court calls its last witness to the stand."

"Oh god, please don't let it be her" Apple prayed.

"The court calls the Evil Queen to the stand."

Apple could only stare as a mirror magically appeared in the court room.

Raven's mother, the Evil Queen appeared in the mirror.

The crowd screamed.

"Hello dear, I'm glad that you have been following in your mother's footsteps."

"You aren't my mother!" Apple growled through gritted teeth.

"Of course I am, in fact!." She grinned. "I would like to tell the court a little story of when I escaped from the mirror."

"No stop it! Please!"

Apple found herself standing before the mirror holding a sledgehammer.

"In fact, she's about to demonstrate!"

Apple's body began to move on its own, raising the hammer to the mirror.

"Stop! Stop!"

She tried to struggle against it, but she couldn't stop herself as she moved even closer.

The crowd around her transformed into an angry mob, throwing rotten fruit and vegetables at her as she lost the last of her control and shattered the mirror.

Apple woke up in cold sweat.

Apple sat in bed as she calmed herself down.

"It's just a dream Apple, it was just a dream." She sighed as she felt her breath getting heavy.

The trial, the witnesses, everything felt so real.

She had been through buckets worth of tears over the last week, but the change hadn't really hit her until now.

She and Raven had traded places, in more ways than one.

She took of Raven's hoodie that she borrowed and tossed it in the laundry hamper. After making sure the door was locked, she got changed into one of the outfits she brought from home. Her mother had suggested that she try a much darker colour pallet, for the fall season of course. She wasn't stupid, she knew her mother was trying to make her dress like Raven to be "appropriate for her story". She was hurt, but she tried to believe her mother had her best interests at heart… deep down.

"Hmm, I've never worn anything like this before." She mused.

She didn't have the strength to put it on, and her legs were still covered in thorns, but she held it up in front of a mirror.

Her mother had wanted something more purple or blue, but Apple couldn't see herself without red. Destiny or no, it was her signature colour.

The dress was an dark red evening gown with a floral black pattern on the top. Not really her standard style, but she couldn't deny it had class. Maybe Cerise would have a problem with someone else using wearing black and red, but she didn't seem like the type to care.

"That's a pretty dress…is it new?"

Apple nearly jumped out of her skin. She didn't need to turn her head to recognize the voice, she used to hear it everyday.

"Wha-how did you get in my room?"

Apple scrambled to shove the dress back into her closet. Not that wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants was much better.

"You gave me a spare key, and Raven told me that you were back in class." She held up her mirrorpad and showed her the messages. "Also you hexted me just a moment ago so I assumed I could come in."

Had it really only been a few minutes since she was asleep? Apple could have sworn she was out for at least an hour, though it would explain why Raven wasn't back yet.

Apple looked up at Darling. She had really hoped that reuniting with her girlfriend would be less awkward.

They stared at each other for a while before Darling broke the silence with a huff.

"Listen I know your hext wasn't exactly an invitation to come over but" she pulled out her phone to read the message. "'I'm sorry. I really am.' Apple what the hex! How am I not supposed to worry when that's the only thing I've heard from you in weeks?"

Apple was taken aback. Darling almost never raised her voice… granted Darling had a really quiet voice so it just sounded like angry whispering, but it was still shocking!

"I… just wanted to let you know I was ok! I know I should have sent more but I'm not ready to talk about it yet! You don't understand how big this is! It- it's more than just my own feelings, or wanting a happily ever after, this is bigger than us!"

Darling just stared at her.

"Us? What do you mean us?" The frustration faded from her face was replaced by worry.

"You know what I mean Darling."

"I obviously don't! You're important to me Apple! I thought this was the kind of thing we would talk about together!"

"But this is my future! My future as Queen, the thing I've been training for, for my entire life might belong to someone else now! And that's more important than a stupid relationship!"

A-hem! Hello there! I'm terribly sorry to interrupt the story, really annoying I know, but I have to clear some things out.

Now I would like to note that if Apple's day had gone differently, she wouldn't have said that. If class had gone better she wouldn't have run out, if she hadn't run out she wouldn't have fallen out the window, if she hadn't fallen out the window she wouldn't be exhausted and covered in bruises, if she hadn't been exhausted and covered in bruises she probably wouldn't have called it a "stupid relationship".

But that's the way this story goes, shame she hadn't thought it through it would have saved it some heartache. Oh well, until next time.*

-The Narrator, who shall remain anonymous.

"Stupid relationship?"

Darling's face was red.

"I… that came out wrong what I meant was-"

The door slammed open and Raven came in with a first aid kit.

"Apple I'm back!" She wiped the sweat off her brow. "Sorry I took so long I had to wrestle this away from the theatre club, apparently they wanted to use a real first aid kit for 'authenticity' can you believe that?"

She stopped when she noticed Darling's face.

"Oh! Uh-sorry am I… interrupting something?"

"A little bi-"

"No."

Apple was cut off as Darling turned away from her.

"I was just leaving." Darling stormed past Raven and went to leave. Right as she left she turned to Apple and pulled her spare key out of her pocket.

"Let me know when you're ready to to have an actually conversation."

She shit one last glare before tossing Apple the key. She closed the door behind her.

After Darling's footsteps faded Raven turned back to Apple, who's eyes were beginning to well up with tears.

"Apple I'm really sorry I shouldn't have told Darling you were here!" She slowly walked towards her.

Apple grabbed the first aid kit out of Raven's hands, stormed off to the bathroom and slammed the door.