Page 11 – Line Drawn in the Margin

That night, Raven was unusually animated.

When the others had met her, she'd been unsure about herself, and her stance on her future. Now, when she and her friends had their little pizza party in Pyotr and Taylor's room, she was grinning the whole time. Even after Pyotr beat her at three different Mirror Party minigames in a row.

Every time another boy walked past their door, on their way to a Chapterday night party in somebody else's room, and stopped to stare, Raven would just smile and wave. A few waved back. Most hurried away to wherever they were going.

"Hey guys, don't freak out, but a lot of guys are giving us weird looks when they see me in here with you," Raven told her friends.

"We're rebels," Pyotr assured her. "We've accepted it already. Right, T?"

"Yeah," Taylor replied, distractedly. He was waiting for his next turn, but watching as Cerise Hood took hers while she sat beside him, and trying to figure out what her plan.

"Better watch out, Cerise!" Pyotr announced with a smirk. "Taylor's checking you out!"

"What?!" Cerise asked, jumping to her feet suddenly and almost dropping her controller. A fierce blush on her face. Taylor yelped and fell onto his back from how suddenly she bounded off the bed.

She stood up straight, and looked down at Taylor while he was laying prone on his bed. Instead of being angry or annoyed, her mouth was formed into a weird, crooked kind of smile, and she bashfully averted her eyes. Was she looking a bit…

…hopeful?

Raven and Pyotr exchanged a knowing look, and snickered behind their hands.

"Hey, Cerise," Taylor interrupted them all. "The minigame's starting."

"Oh, fox!" Cerise exclaimed, and sat down again, not realizing she'd just sat on Taylor's legs. She squeaked and stood up until he could get out from under her, and then stared as hard as she could at the game without looking Taylor's way.

A buzzing came from Pyotr's pocket, and he stepped into the slightly less noisy hallway to answer it. "Hey? Oh, great! I'll be right down!...Just out of curiosity, how many other delivery guys are out there right now? Six? Seems kind of low for a Chapterday night! Yeah, yeah, I'm coming!" He grabbed his wallet off his desk and headed downstairs to collect their dinner.

For that night, they were just kids, enjoying each other's company, looking forward to the greasy meal Pyotr was running down to bring back for them.

No thoughts of Seekers.

Or Dark Mirrors.

Or Destiny.

When the RA's got back from a party off-campus, just before their absence might've been noticed by someone in authority, the parties in the dorm ended very abruptly. Merv Notten, son of the Sheriff of Nottingham, and rubbing his hand together at the chance to assert some authority, personally oversaw the job of escorting a small procession of girls out of the boys' dorm and back to their own side. They passed a smaller procession of boys heading the other way, escorted by a scowling pair of girls wielding brooms.

Cerise had grabbed all the uneaten pizza she could while being shooed out, and growled at Merv when he'd tried to confiscate it, giving her some nonsense about "contraband junk food". Once back in their own dorm, she and Raven said, or perhaps, yawned goodbye, then split up to head back to their own rooms.

She dropped the pizza box on her desk, yawned, and was about to fall into bed, when Cerise felt her predatory instincts light up. She wasn't alone.

"Cedar? You in here?" she called out for her roommate.

"Hi, Cerise!" called back a familiar voice, seated at her desk over a stack of thronework, and Cerise suddenly felt even more drained as her brain processed there was no intruder in their room. "Have fun at your party?"

"Yeah," Cerise muttered. "Yeah…I thought for a second somebody snuck in."

"I would've told you if somebody had!" Cedar assured her.

"Yeah," Cerise said again, smiling very tiredly. "Can't help telling the truth, can you?"

"Don't rub it in," Cedar frowned, her wooden features somehow reorienting themselves to allow her new expression. The thought of living with a wooden girl had weirded out Cerise at first, but Pinocchio's "daughter" had quickly proven herself to be one of the most pleasant people Cerise had ever known. It hadn't even been that long before Cerise had gotten used to wood clacking in their room all the time.

Still, there was one thing Cedar wasn't happy about: her father had been unable to tell a lie without everyone in the room knowing. Cedar Wood, however, couldn't lie at all. That was the main reason Cedar was looking forward to signing the Storybook of Legends and getting her story started. Once she finished her story and was a "real girl", then she'd finally be able to be as untruthful as anybody else.

"I won't, promise," Cerise murmured. "Long day, so I'm gonna head to bed now. See you tomorrow, Cedar." She rolled over and shut her eyes.

"…hey, Cerise?" asked Cedar.

"Mmmnnnnnnggh, what?"

"You like that boy you've been hanging out with so much, I bet," Cedar said, her wooden lips curled into a smile, showing painted teeth.

All of a sudden, Cerise Hood sat up and stared at her roommate. "WHAT?"

Cedar shrugged. "Whenever I ask where you're going, you always say 'to hang out with Taylor'. Plus…um!" She clapped her hands over her mouth.

"Spit it out," Cerise demanded.

A dam seemed to burst as everything Cedar said next came out in one relentless stream. "One time you left your mirrorphone on the bed and your pictures were open and I saw you had lots of pictures of him and I swear I didn't scroll but I saw and I didn't mean to Imsorryimsorryimsorryimsorry!"

As calmly as she could, Cerise said, "Cedar, you don't tell anybody about that."

"You know I can't promise that."

"No, I guess you can't," Cerise replied, then curled up in bed and tried to figure out what the hex she was going to do.

It was easy for Cerise to find time to think on what she'd do about Taylor the next day, because he'd left campus early. Most of the other kids at school were just waking up when he and Anna Weaver stepped off the bus at a farm outside town.

"This is so exciting!" the princess gushed, while dragging a yawning Taylor down the steps. "What should we see first?"

"I don't know," he mumbled, looking blearily at his reflection in the bus's side mirror to finally get a chance to comb down his hair. He also turned his t-shirt around so it actually faced front; Anna had come in and woken them up so early, he'd barely had a chance to throw on the first things in his dresser.

Taylor vaguely remembered agreeing to come to a fair she was really excited about, to try to give them some time to bond a little and develop that relationship they were supposed to be working on. "What do you wanna do?" he asked.

"Well, Iwant to see the tapestries people brought, then we can see the rest of the crafts fair, okay?" Anna asked, her excitement not even slightly dimmed by Taylor barely being awake.

"Okay."

"Great! This'll be so much fun!"

She dragged him to an open area near the farmhouse, where people already had stands set up with frames that had elaborate tapestries hanging from them. They showed all kinds of things Taylor had heard about in the great stories: Jack climbing the beanstalk, a golden dragon circling the skies above a castle, Cinderella fleeing down a grand flight of stairs and leaving behind her glass slipper while the prince pursued her, a witch offering Snow White an apple that practically glowed with evil energy.

Anna started going a mile a minute, telling Taylor a hundred things about the craftsmanship of each one that he wouldn't have understood even if he'd been all the way awake. The art was pretty enough, he thought, but this was obviously something Anna was way more into than him.

When she paused for breath, Taylor jumped in. "Hey, Anna. Not that this isn't cool, or anything, but why did we have to get up to catch the first bus of the day?"

"So we'd have the whole day to see everything here!" Anna beamed.

"We need all day to see everything?" he asked.

"Yeah. Just wait until the next bus shows up, this place will be crowded as all hex," Anna replied, admiring the tapestry they were standing next to one last time. When she looked up again, Taylor wasn't there. He'd wandered away to a Hocus Latte cart, and already had a latte and an egg biscuit in his hands.

"What are you doing? Come on!" she said, led him past other stands full of all manner of artisanal jewelry, homemade soaps, hand-dipped candles shaped like princes and princesses, and authentic tchotchkes.

Hours later, Anna was sighing happily and sitting down on a picnic blanket, a cart the famer's family had lent her to haul her purchases around by her side. A band of middle-aged musicians neither of them had ever heard of were up on a stage, and playing some song the two teens vaguely recognized from their parents listening to it a lot when the two of them were growing up.

"I found so much amazing stuff today!" Anna said with a happy sigh. "I hope I have room for it all!"

"Cool!" Taylor, trying to sound supportive, even he could hardly tell where one thing in Anna's stack of acquisitions ended and the next thing began. "You getting about ready to head back?"

Her look of joy turned to confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I mean, we went around the whole place three times. It doesn't seem like there's much left to do."

"Sure there is! After lunch, the vendors with the big crafts are opening their stalls!" Anna replied. "What's the matter? Is this not fun?"

Taylor did his best not to look exhausted, but the way Anna's face fell told him it didn't work. "Hey, what about this?" Taylor tried to suggest. "I was thinking about going to see the Bremen Avenue Experience tonight. You heard about them, the Bremen Town Wailers' kids, who got together and made their own band? They're playing a show in town tonight."

"…you want to listen to a bunch of barnyard animals try to play music?"

"Why not? I've heard them before, they're pretty good."

"But after we got back to school, I was wanting you to help me sort everything and tell me what you thought of it all," Anna protested.

Taylor scratched the back of his head. "All night?"

Her eyes widened a little as if genuinely surprised by his reluctance. "Well, yes."

"Look, no offense, Anna? I've had a really big weekend, and I bet you anything next week's gonna be crazy as all hex after what Raven did on Legacy Day," Taylor explained. "I really want to make sure I can rest up for that."

Hearing that, her eyes narrowed. " 'Raven', huh?" she hissed.

"What do you mean?" Taylor asked, feeling guarded at what Anna just said.

"You sure are friendly with that girl, even though she's going to be the worst villain in the whole kingdom!" Anna snapped.

"Did you even hear what she said on Legacy Day? How she's not going to be evil?" Taylor frowned hard.

"And you trust her?" Anna frowned even harder back at him. "Taylor, you're the most important person to me, and I agreed to take it a little slower because you were uncomfortable with our relationship going so fast. But I can't put up with you being friends with Raven Queen anymore! She's screwing everything up, and you're going along with it!"

"That's enough," Taylor declared. "After we get back, I'll help you get your stuff up to your room, but after that we're taking a break from each other."

Anna turned away and watched the band, not saying another word.

Their wait for the bus back to town, and then the wait for the shuttle school, were painfully awkward for both of them. Anna stared at her mirrorpad so hard while she ignored him, Taylor was afraid she'd damage her eyesight from the length of a bus ride.

Then again, he didn't know what to say to improve her mood. Seeing her beautiful features marred by that scowl of betrayal, Taylor was realizing how little they seemed to have in common, and how miserable a future with her could be, beautiful princess or not.

How much was a relationship with Anna worth, when the only reason it was happening in the first place was because Destiny said they were meant for each other?

What kind of relationship was that, compared to the people Taylor considered his true friends? Whose views he sympathized with. Who'd risked their lives for his sake.

Did the chance to date a princess come close to that?

After they were dropped off back at school, Taylor kept his word and helped to carry the tapestries and other crafts Anna had bought upstairs to her room. She indicated her bed with an outstretched finger, so that was where he left it. With the tension seeming to get even heavier now that they were home, Taylor saw himself to the door as quickly as he could.

"Have a good night," he said evenly, then closed the door behind him.

Anna picked up one of the tapestries she'd bought, covered her face with it, and screamed into it until her throat was hoarse.

A little to his surprise, when Taylor made it back to his own room, Raven and Cerise were sitting around, mirrorpads by their sides as they wrote on pieces of notebook paper.

"Study session, guys?" Taylor asked as he came in and looked in Pyotr's mini-fridge, only then noticing all the empty bottles of fairyberry juice already around the room. There was nothing left for him.

"Yeah," Cerise answered, not looking up from the pdf on her mirrorpad. "How'd the thing with Anna go?"

"Bad," Taylor groaned and sat down on his bed next to Raven. "She's really, I mean really pixie'd off at me," Taylor sighed.

"Dang, that's bad," Pyotr agreed. "What the hex happened?"

"She found out I didn't really like her activity, and when I suggested we go see Bremen Avenue Experience tonight, she didn't like that. Then she started chewing out Raven, and I…I just couldn't take it," Taylor sighed.

"Aww, that's sweet!" Raven smirked, but the brush of her fingers against Taylor's cheek didn't seem as teasing as her tone of voice.

Suddenly Cerise was sitting between Taylor and Raven, who stood up and backed away. "I'm pretty much done with my thronework for the weekend," Cerise stated. "Going to see the band could be fun."

"Yeah, I wouldn't mind the chance to get off campus for a while too," Raven said with a shiver. "Everything feels so tense around here lately. What about you, Pete?"

"Not me," he replied. "I am not getting stuck spinning straw into gold."

Cerise blew a raspberry at his back. "I'm seriously doubting your commitment to the rebellion!"

"Have fun, you guys!" Pyotr called without turning around. The others looked around at each other, gave a collective shrug, and headed out of school.

Taylor found the jacket he used to display his band patches and put that on before going down to the front of the school. To his complete lack of surprise, Raven and Cerise said they needed to get ready before leaving, and he spent more than 20 minutes waiting for them, playing every game on his mirrorphone one after another. He was getting worried they'd miss the bus to town before the girls finally came down.

Raven had put on a shiny black mini-dress of the sort Taylor's mother had warned him about, under a blue leather jacket. Cerise had on a red leather jacket and a more modest red dress than Raven's, but less than the ones she usually wore. Also, Taylor couldn't help noticing, she'd put on bold red lipstick and eye shadow.

Seemed like kind of a lot for a garage band putting on a free show in a public park.

And, did she look pleased when she saw him noticing it?

Once the bus came, Raven and Cerise found a place to sit, and Taylor made a point to sit on the end. Which, after he did it, realized he was next to Cerise again. Neither of the girls seemed to notice, and started up a conversation before the doors had closed.

"Hey Cerise, you think they'll take requests?" Raven asked.

Cerise shrugged her shoulders. "Don't really have one of their songs I want to hear live? Going to live music isn't about hearing the music live for me, it's about going with friends, you know? What about you, T?"

"Me?"

"Yeah, you. Why would I not ask you?" Cerise replied.

"Guess I'm kind of curious to see what 'Dragon Town Heights' sounds like played live, but really I hope I can catch my breath for next week. It's gonna be crazy."

Raven laughed. "You think it's gonna be crazy for you? Who blew off Destiny?"

"Gee, it's all such a blur, I can't remember," Taylor told her.

"Pfft! Cerise, shove him for me, would you?"

Cerise gave Taylor a hard shove and a playful grin.

He gave back a gentler shove, and an equaled grin.

The concert wasn't exactly a grand affair: Bremen Avenue Experience had set up their instruments and amps on the grass, and those were plugged into the side of an overhang in the nearby picnic area. All the tables and benches had already been claimed by other groups, and the groups who'd thought to bring picnic blankets were setting them down to wait for things to start.

Raven, Cerise and Taylor hadn't thought to bring a picnic blanket.

They joined a line at a Hocus Latte cart, which Taylor gave it a confused look. "Do they have these everywhere?" he mumbled.

"Did they have one at the thing you said you went to this morning, too?" Cerise asked him, sounding a little surprised.

"Yeah," Taylor grumbled. "It was the only thing I liked about going."

"You wouldn't like hanging out with me, then," Cerise chuckled. "I get up early to run."

"If we hang out to do that, we're definitely going running in the afternoon," Taylor grumbled again.

She nudged his shoulder with hers. "If you can keep up. I'm pretty fast! What about you, Ray? Wanna go run sometime?"

"Oh, no!" Raven protested and held up her hands in front of her. "Not me! You're looking for someone going out for a track and shield scholarship, look somewhere else!"

The three of them laughed, and then it was their turn. Taylor looked around while the girls placed their orders, feeling a strange sense of normality from everyone just hanging out, looking forward to a fun afternoon listening to some indie music. No garbage about Destiny or a magic book, just a chance for a few kids to be kids for a while.

It was his turn next. "What can we get you, sir?" asked the smiling barista.

"Spiced apple latte, please. A lot of cream." She mixed it up quickly and laid a swirl of cream on top. "One more, please."

"Something on your mind, T?" Raven asked when she saw the mountain of cream on his drink.

"Hoping this'll help me forget it," he replied as he paid and took his cup. He took a sip, and then saw that wasn't going to happen.

Because looking back at him was Anna Weaver.

"Hello. Don't you all look…friendly," she observed with an icy scowl.

"What are you doing here?" Taylor asked. "You were disgusted when I asked if you wanted to come earlier."

"It's a woman's prerogative to change her mind," Anna replied, but her expression didn't change at all.

Cerise squinted at Anna, trying to place her, who squinted back even harder. "Hey, T. Is she the girl you hung out with this morning?" she asked. "What's she doing here?"

He grimaced. "I don't want to think about the answer to that question. Let's go out of here, girls," Taylor answered, and turned away from her.

"You're not getting away that easy!" Anna shrieked, and grabbed Raven by the arm.

"What the hex wrong with you?!" Raven demanded, and tried to pull away.

Anna slapped Raven right across the face, staggering her. "This is all your fault! Everything was fine until you had to ruin a perfect system! Now, he hates me!" she screamed, pointing at finger in Taylor's direction. She swung another slap at Raven's face, but the dark princess caught her wrist before it could connect. Anna slapped with her free hand but Raven grabbed that too, and the princesses struggled as a crowd formed around them. A few cheered, some mumbled to their friends asking if they should intervene.

Taylor Valiant did, grabbing Anna's wrists and dragging her away from his friend.

"That's enough," he told her for the second time that day. "Anna, I don't hate you, but I'm not in love with you, either! Maybe we can figure something out. After you calm down." Taylor turned away. "Goodnight."

He led Raven away, and pushed through the circle of onlookers until they got somewhere they could see the band finishing their setup. An anthropomorphic dog, cat, rooster and donkey were quite the sight, even to kids like them.

"You alright?" Taylor quietly asked.

"I'm okay, I think," Raven said. "Except…I spilled by drink on my leg when she hit me."

Taylor chortled. "Yeah, I dropped mine. Somebody probably picked up what's left already."

Raven sighed and raised her leg to see if her leggings were salvageable. "I'm gonna go get another one. How about you and Cerise find a spot for us?"

"Sure, but if you see the girl who attacked you, come right back."

She held up her hand solemnly. "Promise," she promised, and walked back in the direction of the latte cart. Meanwhile, Cerise took Taylor by the hand and led him to an open spot close to the band.

"Hey, folks!" the donkey addressed the crowd. "Glad you could all make it tonight! I'm Barret, these are my good friends Simon, Jessica, and Tanner!"

Suddenly the rooster at the drums raised his sticks above his head. "Five, six, seven, eight!" he exclaimed.

"Tanner! Not yet! I'm not done introducing us, man!"

Cerise chuckled, and squeezed Taylor's hand. He squeezed back.

When Raven had gotten back in line at the latte cart, there was no sign of Anna Weaver around, but if anything the crowds seemed even thicker, so she didn't let her guard down yet. The music had started by the time she'd placed her order, and Raven started rocking on her heels, hoping it would get there a little faster. After the barista handed Raven her drink, she turned around and almost bumped into the girl behind her.

"Sorry," Raven said, and went to step around her, but the girl put her hand on Raven's arm.

"Wait, you're Raven Queen, right?" she asked.

"Look, if I did something to make you mad, I'm sorry, but I'm really not in the mood right—"

"No, no! It's not that!" the girl held up her hands to placate the dark princess. "Actually, I'm kind of fan, you might say. My name's Melody. Can we talk for a minute?"

"Uh, sure," Raven volunteered. After what'd just happened with the princess from Taylor's story, would it be so bad to go home, knowing she had another friend? They stepped away from the line into an empty spot.

After a couple minutes, when it seemed sure nobody was paying attention to them, Melody said as quietly she could, "It's awesome that somebody blew off Destiny like you did. For a long time, I've been thinking I don't want to end up like my dad. I mean, I love my dad! But I don't want to charm rats with a flute. Eugh."

"That means your dad's the Pied Piper?" asked Raven.

"Yep!" Melody smiled, but sighed. "But, I want to make music for my reasons. My way. Not just my dad's. And after you stood up to Headmaster Grimm and didn't sign the Storybook of Legends, I realized I wasn't the only one thought like that."

"Glad I could inspire somebody."

"Oh, but that's the thing!" Melody exclaimed, gripping Raven's arms in a burst of sudden excitement, then realized what she was doing and calmed down. "Uh, I mean, I've heard from a bunch of other kids who don't want their destinies either. You're like their hero!"

Raven couldn't help but laugh a little. It was a good feeling. "I've got some friends who feel the same way. We're calling ourselves the Rebels."

"Rebels! That is so edgy! I love it!" Melody exclaimed. A few people looked at her, and she retorted, "This is a concert! You're supposed to make some noise!" As soon as they looked away, she whispered to Raven, "Wanna introduce your friends to my friends sometime?"

"I think they'd like that," Raven said with smile of relief.

They'd gotten tired of standing, so Cerise and Taylor had sat down in the grass and were huddled together as the band did indeed start playing Dragon Town Heights like Taylor had been looking forward to. Soon, he was smiling and vibing with the music.

Which made Cerise decide now was a good time to asking him something.

"Taylor?"

"Yeah?"

"It's cool coming out here with you like this, but I was wondering, do you want to do something like this again sometime? Just the two of us?"

He looked down at her, smiling softly. "Cerise, are you asking me out on a date? Like, a date, date?"

Her cheeks turned as read as her hood, and she averted her eyes. "Maybe it's not cool to snipe you on the same day you had a fight with your princess—"

Taylor dismissed her concerns with a wave. "Anna's not my princess. And that sounds great. Let's not go running, though, okay?"

"No running! Promise!" Cerise laughed, and crossed her heart.

He slipped his arm around her shoulders, and she leaned her head against his as the concert played on.

Anna Weaver's roommate quickly found somewhere else to be when she got home, and they saw the look still on her face from the entire ride back to school from the concert.

Immediately she took out her mirrorphone and opened the Fablebook app. She started banging out a rant with her thumbs on the injustice of her life being upended by Raven Queen not signing up for her destiny like everyone did.

It was what people did. It was how they'd gotten all the great stories. The great stories would fade away if the new generation didn't continue them. Or maybe disappear altogether? Didn't that matter to anyone?

What about her, now? How would Anna get her Happily Ever After? How could she get Taylor to see things were better with Destiny still in place?

Didn't anyone at this school get that?

She threw her phone aside, rolled onto her back, and let out a loud sigh up at the ceiling.

A nice hot bath was the only thought on her mind right then, but then she heard a ping from her mirrophone, and picked it up.

Responses to her post were already filling up the screen. From people like the Charming brothers. Duchess Swan. Briary Beauty. Lizzie Hearts and Holly O'Hair. Blondie Lockes herself.

And from some boy named Sol West. "We've been thinking the exact same thing, and we're forming a group to make our message stronger. We're calling ourselves the Royals. Want to meet up?"

She certainly did.

Sorry if maybe this chapter seemed kind of packed, but I guess social chapters tend to be. One relationship crumbling, but a lot more forming. Setting the stage for the Royals and Rebels officially taking shape.

Had some kind of weird easter eggs in this chapter, so I thought I'd point them out: the son of the Sheriff of Nottingham from Robin Hood appeared. His name's taken from Men in Tights.

Bremen Avenue Experience was a short you might remember from the old days of Cartoon Network. I just copied the band members' names straight from it.

The title's supposed to be a reference to "a line drawn in the sand", or about two sides making their problems with each other very clear. But "margin" instead of "sand", because book puns.

A lot's going to be happening after buildup like this. I hope you'll be back to read it.