Classes were over and it was time for cheer tryouts. Walking her way to the athletic field was Greenly with a whole new look. She was done seeing red, so she made a comeback with her naturally long and wavy brown hair. It was pulled into a high ponytail and secured with a shimmering gold bow.
Holly was kind enough to lend her cheerhexing uniform to Greenly; a white t-shirt with the letters EAH embroidered on it in shiny gold thread, a shimmering purple skirt, gold sneakers and red pom poms. Walking alongside Greenly were Raven, Holly, and Poppy. The three girls were ready to support Greenly at tryouts.
As they walked, many people were stunned to see Greenly's new look. One gawking boy walked right into a lamp post. Raven chuckled. "I think your new look is already a hit!"
Greenly smiled and tossed her brown ponytail. "Guess I'm off to a great start already!"
"How come Maddie wouldn't tag along with us?" asked Poppy.
"She said that she'll meet up with us later." Holly said.
But when the girls arrived at the athletic field, they were surprised to see the bookball team instead of the cheerhexers. Daring Charming was practicing his sword fighting on a training dummy wearing a Merlin Academy jersey. Dexter played on his MirrorPad. Sparrow was strumming notes on his guitar and Hunter was munching on some peanuts.
Greenly's heart raced seeing Dexter again. Sure, he's in love with Raven. But it wouldn't hurt to be friends with Dexter. Greenly opened her mouth to speak, but Dexter looked over at Greenly and his face lit up like Daring's smile. Dexter put down the MirrorPad and walked over to Greenly...then walked right past her.
"Hey, Raven!" Dexter waved. "What are you doing here? I-I mean, not that I mind seeing you here, that is!" He shyly chuckled and adjusted his glasses.
Greenly sighed.
"Hey, Dexter. We're just here to support Greenly. She's trying out for the cheerhexing squad." Raven explained.
The boys stopped everything they were doing. Sparrow let out a laugh. "Greenly Pea? A cheerhexer?! This ought to be good!"
"Ahem!" Greenly cleared her throat loudly. The boys turned to stare at her.
"Who's the new girl?" Dexter asked out loud.
The four princesses were flabbergasted. Was Greenly that unrecognizable?! "Uh, Dexter." Raven started. "That's-" She was cut off when Daring shoved her aside and swaggered up to Greenly. He flashed his famous smile. Greenly and everyone else shielded their eyes in time.
"I don't recall seeing your fairest face in our school halls." He reached into his pocket and pulled out an autographed picture of himself and handed it to Greenly. "For you."
Sparrow shoved Daring away from Greenly. "Step aside, Daring! Quit hogging the new girl!"
"Sparrow! You don't understand!" said Raven. "That's-"
"Oh, put an apple in it, Raven." Sparrow snipped. "The new girl doesn't need to be scared off by you. Go stare at your reflection or something."
Raven's eyes flashed. Purple magic gathered within her fists. As much as Greenly would love to see Sparrow go up in a magic mushroom cloud, she didn't want Raven to get in trouble.
"Raven, chill." Greenly said to her friend. "I am the new girl here and I want to get to know everyone." She winked at Raven, who caught on to what Greenly was up to. "So, you're Sparrow Hood, right?"
Sparrow gave a smile similar to Daring's, only it was more cheesy and less flashy. "You know it."
"Nice outfit." said Greenly. "Does it come in a men's version?"
Everyone burst out laughing as Sparrow became red with embarrassment. Raven laughed so hard, she wiped away a tear.
"Whatever-after!" Sparrow huffed. "Where the hex is Greenly?! I'm dying to see her embarrass herself like the other cheer-groupies!"
"Groupies?! We are not groupies!" Holly protested. "We cheerhexers are athletes too!"
Sparrow and Daring laughed. "Oh, please. Everyone knows cheerhexing isn't a sport." said Sparrow.
"And I can't believe I'm saying this, but Sparrow's right, Holly." said Daring. "Without real athletes like us, you damsels wouldn't have anything to cheer for. You're really just support staff for the real heroes of this field!" He thumbed to himself.
"Uh, hello! I'm a cheerhexer too, you know!" Hunter pointed out.
Daring put a hand on Hunter's shoulder. "And you have my deepest condolences."
At that moment, six cheerhexing fairies flew past Sparrow and Daring, the gust from their wings followed by a large cloud of fairy dust disoriented them. The fairies laughed wickedly as Daring and Sparrow sneezed and coughed while trying to brush the fairy dust off their faces. Another fairy swopped down and swiped Daring's crown off his head.
It was Faybelle Thorn. "Well, well. What do we have here?" The dark fairy mused, holding Daring's crown. "A crown fit for a fairy queen!" She plopped the crown right on top of her head and stood triumphantly as her six fairy followers shook their pom poms and did a cheer.
Faybelle! Faybelle! She's the best!
She'll cast her spell and put you to rest!
Faybelle! Faybelle! She's our queen!
She's the fairy queen of mean!
Gooooo, Faybelle!
Raven rolled her eyes. "Oh, gag." she muttered.
Daring stood up. He was covered in fairy dust and his hair was a tossled mess. He glared at Faybelle and her followers. "That's my crown, Faybelle! Hand it over or I'll take it back the hard way!" He threatened. But it was hard to look take him seriously with his princely look ruined.
"Sorry, Daring. But crowns are for real leaders, like moi." Faybelle tucked the crown into her equipment bag. "Why don't you go find your support staff? Cause you're not gonna find it here!" She and the wicked fairies laughed.
A loud whistle blared across the field. Coach Gingerbreadman approached the group along with Apple and Maddie. "Alright, kids! Settle down!" said the coach.
Faybelle groaned with disgust seeing Queen of the Goody Goods Apple White and Blunderland Brat Maddie Hatter. "Eww, what are they doing here?"
"We're here because we have a big announcement to make!" Apple beamed. "And I know you're all going to love it!"
Faybelle scowled at Apple's sickly sweetness.
Coach Gingerbreadman smiled. "Thanks to our student council presidents here," He gestured to Apple and Maddie. "And a thoughtful donation from Sleeping Beauty, we finally got our tight-fisted headmaster to let us have a school mascot!"
The bookball team and the cheerhexers seemed pleased by this announcement.
"Does our school even need a mascot?" Poppy asked Raven.
"Yeah, ever since Merlin Academy got a wicked dragon mascot for their school." Raven said back.
"That's right, ladies!" Coach Gingerbreadman exclaimed. "If Merlin Academy has a mascot, we've got a mascot. If Merlin Academy has a bake sale, we've got a bake sale. If Merlin Academy has-"
"Okay! We get it!" Faybelle shouted in annoyance. "What's the mascot, Coach?"
"Yeah! What's the mascot, Coach?" Dexter asked excitedly. "Is it something cool?"
"You bet your four eyes it's cool!" Coach Gingerbreadman said proudly. "It's the perfect mascot that'll blow Merlin Academy's mascot away!"
"Maddie! If you please!" Apple said to Maddie.
Maddie reached into her hat and pulled out...an accordion. "Oops! That's not it!" She dropped the accordion and reached deeper. "Let's see...hmm..." She gasped. "Aha!" She pulled out a golden knight helmet! It shined brilliantly in the sunlight as she handed it to Coach Gingerbreadman.
"A knight?!" Faybelle blurted out.
"Of course! What better mascot than a brave, noble knight that slays dragons?" Coach Gingerbreadman said. "Especially Merlin Academy dragons!" He shook his cookie fist.
"Laaame! Our mascot should be something that's an actual threat! Like a fairy!" said Faybelle.
"Excuse you! Knights are just as fierce as you fairies!" Daring said snippily.
"It's too late to change the mascot, kids!" said the coach. "All we need now is find the perfect person to be our mascot!"
Faybelle scoffed. "Oh, please! There's no one crazy enough to put on that thing and-"
"I'll do it!"
Everyone turned and saw Greenly with her hand up.
"You?!" Raven exclaimed.
"Great!" Coach Gingerbreadman gave the golden helmet to Greenly. "Now here's a student who knows school spirit!"
As Greenly doned the helmet, Faybelle and her fairy flunkies just stared. "Who's the new girl?" Faybelle asked out loud.
With the golden helmet on, Greenly stood proud and tall, like a true warrior. She was amazed by how lightweight it was. Greenly pointed her finger at Poppy. "Yo, Pop-star! Play some sick music so I can slay!"
Grinning, Poppy took out her MirrorPhone and played upbeat hip-hop music. Greenly did front flips all the way to the training dummy. She delivered a flurry of kicks and chops just like her own training dummy for karate practice.
Everyone's jaws dropped as they watched Greenly in action. She did several cartwheels all around the dummy until she stopped in front of it and gave it's jaw a kick so hard, the neck cracked loudly and the head came off. Greenly let out a battle cry like she just conquered a kingdom.
It took a minute for Poppy to pull herself from her shocked state before turning the music off.
"That, was the most incredible scene of sports entertainment I've ever seen, kid!" Coach Gingerbreadman declared. "You've got the job!"
Raven, Maddie, Holly, and Poppy cheered. "Way to go, Greenly!" shouted Raven.
"GREENLY?!" everyone else screamed.
Greenly took off her helmet to reveal her cheeky smile. "In person. No autographs, please."
Sparrow gagged. "I can't believe I was flirting with you!" He stomped off in anger. "I'm outta here!"
"That makes two of us!" Daring said, glaring at Greenly as he stomped off with Sparrow.
Greenly walked off to the stunned Faybelle. "Um, Faybelle, I appreciate you wanting me to try out for your squad. But I think this mascot thing works better for me. So...are we cool?"
With a curled lip and raised brow, Faybelle pondered this momentarily. "Well..."
The others tensed up. Was Faybelle going to curse Greenly for rejecting her cheer squad?!
Faybelle managed to grow a little grin. "It was satsifying to see a Merlin Academy dummy take a beating like that." The fairy gave a nod. "So, yeah. We're cool. I can let this slide."
Greenly smiled. "Thanks."
Later that day, Greenly, Raven, Holly and Poppy sat out on the west balcony to watch the sunset while having milkshakes to spellebrate Greenly becoming the school mascot.
But Raven noticed Greenly looking a bit down. "You okay, Greenly? That chocolate shake losing it's appeal?"
"No, it's just..." Greenly struggled to find the right words. "Am I really that forgetable?"
Her fellow princesses looked shocked. "What?! Why in the kingdom would you say that?!" asked Holly.
Greenly frowed deeply. "Guys, all I did was change my hair color and everyone thought I was a completely different person! Unless I'm beating someone to a pulp, it's like I don't even exist. Even Dexter treated me like I was invisible." She scowled. "I can't believe I had a crush on him!"
Raven cocked her head forward. "You had a crush on Dexter?!"
"Yeah, but not anymore because he's got the hots for you!" Greenly pointed to Raven with her milkshake.
The girls gasped. Raven actually dropped her salted caramel milkshake. "Really?" she spoke softly. She raised her hands to her blushing cheeks.
"Yeah, really!" Greenly gave Raven a look. "You seriously didn't notice how cute and awkward he gets around you?"
"But...I thought he liked Cupid." Raven said slowly.
"No, Cupid likes Dexter. But he doesn't feel the same way." Greenly said as she sipped her milkshake. "He only has eyes for you and you only."
Raven's eyes were wide like she just took a bite from a poisoned apple herself. She sat in stunned silence as Greenly continued. "You'd think with those glasses on, he would notice me a just little bit."
"What about Raoul? Your actual boyfriend?" Poppy reminded. By now, everyone has figured out that Raoul and Greenly were genuinely dating and not having a love slave and master relationship.
"He's out of town for a while. He said he had some important family stuff to take care of. And his abscence is just salt in the wound. Apparently, Duchess Featherbrain has been going around telling people I don't have that special 'je ne sais quoi' to keep a man." Greenly sighed. "And whatever that means, I think she's right. I'll never be as cool and flashy as the popular kids."
Finally, Raven spoke. "This is really bugging you, huh?"
"Yeah, why couldn't I be a more memorable fairytale? Like Apple? Or Briar?"
"I guess some kids get all the attention. But maybe that's a good thing." Raven said.
Greenly looked confused. "What do you mean?"
"Well, if it weren't for them, everyone would be all over you like stink on a skunk. They'd be drooling all over you, expect big things from you and all kinds of royal pressure. But instead, you're hanging out with you best friends forever after, having a milkshake while enjoying this gorgeous sunset."
Greenly looked at the sunset. And it was gorgeous. When was the last time she enjoyed such a splendor? Seeing the radiant shades of orange, purple and pink as the day softly came to an end. It was a sight that made you feel lighter just by looking at it.
"Yeah, that's a good point." Greenly smiled.
"And don't be so hard on yourself." Holly said. "You're one of the most amazing princesses I've ever met!"
"Yeah! You should run for Thronecoming queen!" Poppy suggested.
Everyone turned their heads to Poppy in shock.
"Me?!" Greenly pointed to herself. "But I'm not popular enough!"
"But you've been such a good friend to us and you became our awesome school mascot thanks to your insane fighting moves! Did all that happen because you were popular?" asked Poppy.
"Well, no..." Greenly pondered this. "Oh, what the hex? I'll give it a shot!" She stood up with determined eyes. "Say hello to your next Thronecoming queen!"