Chapter Three: Fairytale Princesses
On the Isle of the Lost, Chloe Charming lunged out with her sword. She parried, she dodged, she sliced…!
And watched the head of her stuffed dummy fall to the ground
Great, now she would have to sew that back on at 1am in the dark.
Chloe heaved a sigh and slid her sword back under her bed. The Charming family lived on the top floor of a leaky, mouse-infested, brownstone that lined Main Street and, ever since Chad had moved out, Chloe had the second (very tiny) bedroom all to herself. Her bed was pushed against the wall with the window, covered in a stained quilt her mother had made, matching the quilted and patched curtains that were currently shut. Her leaning desk was next to her bed, covered with books ready for the first day of school that was fast approaching. And her stuffed dummy was propped up by a broom even Cinderella had deemed unfit when it lost all its bristles.
Everything belonging to Chad had been tossed or donated but Chloe had managed to save a little bit of his knight training gear, including a rusty sword she'd fixed up and his old training dummy that had definitely seen better days.
Her parents didn't know she had saved all this, obviously. As the daughter of royals, Chloe needed to be trained how to be a proper princess in case her father, the old King Charming, was ever reinstated. And as a good girl, she should be spending her time sewing, sweeping, and cooking, not learning how to swing a sword like the boys on the Isle.
Even if, in her opinion, she was rather good at it.
Chloe suddenly heard the door screech open.
"Honey, we're home."
Quick as a flash, she shoved the rest of her supplies under her bed and pulled the mouse chewed bed skirt over to hide it. Then, she pulled her brown spiral curls back and hid them under a brown kerchief before grabbing her mop by the door and rushing into the living room where her father was placing paper bags of bruised and rotted groceries.
"Your mother is downstairs, talking to Flora and Fauna. Apparently, Merryweather hasn't been seen in a while so…" Charming let his statement hang in the dead air. Then he pushed back his graying brown hair, brushed off his raggedy pants and patched shirt, turning to the kitchen tucked in the back. "So, let's get these unpacked for her!"
Chloe stacked dented cans in the cupboards Chad had refurbished and tried not to think about what Merryweather missing could mean. A year ago, it would've been a cause for alarm, a sign the villains weren't done with their revenge. But now, it meant something else. It meant they'd left the Isle.
"Aren't you two sweet?" Cinderella giggled, coming into the apartment.
Charming beamed as he did every time she walked in the room. No matter if she was in a ballgown or rags, their love never changed. He walked over to her, bowing and kissing her hand.
"Dad," Chloe groaned but she never meant it. Her friend Melody complained all the time about the tension and lack of communication between her parents.
Cinderella began to hum the song that had played at the ball where they had fallen for each other. Charming hummed along before bursting into song when they reached the chorus as they waltzed around the couch, the one with stuffing leaking out.
"So this is love," they harmonized. Charming spun Cinderella and her skirt of rags swirled around her legs.
"Can you not?" Chloe laughed, dumping the bruised apples into the bowl she'd made from mud when she was five.
"You know, this is the first song your mother and I ever danced to," Charming replied, still swaying with his wife.
"Yes, I know, at the ball." It had been Chloe's bedtime story for a decade.
But Cinderella laughed. "No, not at the ball. At Castlecoming at school, actually."
Chloe dropped the moldy bread. "Wait, what? You guys knew each other before the ball?"
Charming bowed as his wife curtsied. "Yep. One magical dance and then, poof, I never saw her again. Not until the ball. She was the one who got away."
"I didn't even know he was a prince at Castlecoming or the Ball. I didn't know until he started looking for me. But I loved him just the same and he loved me."
"How come you never saw her again if you guys went to school together?"
Cinderella shrugged and picked up the bread. "My stepmother broke her ankle tripping over Lucifer the cat, so I dropped out of school to help her heal. And I just…never got around to going back."
Her jaw was tight as she refolded the bags for the next grocery trip and Chloe clammed up. Her mother's past was firmly on the 'Do Not Discuss' list along with many other topics like her brother.
"Are you ready for school, Chloe?" Charming asked.
"I'm ready." She stood a bit taller and smiled a bit brighter. "I'm sure I'll do great just like last year. I've already read all my textbooks."
"Have you picked out what you're going to wear on the first day?" Cinderella inquired, her lips quirking up. "I hope you haven't, because I have something I think you'll like."
She walked into her room and came back with a shoe box decorated with a small blue-ribbon bow. She beamed as Chloe pulled off the lid to reveal glass slippers.
The glass slippers.
"Mom…" Chloe breathed, tracing the glass toe. "Mom, I can't."
"But you can." Cinderella squeezed her daughter tight. "You earned them, Chloe. You got straight A's last year"
"And volunteered for the soup kitchen, the clothing drive, and the Goodness Historical Society," Charming added. "And you always get your cleaning and cooking and mending done at home."
"And the thing I'm most proud of is that you're such a good person," Cinderella finished. "That's why you'd be a great princess and will, someday, with enough hope and belief, be a great queen one day."
Chloe's stomach swirled. "These are some big shoes to fill."
"Well, it doesn't hurt to try them on, does it?"
Chloe laughed and let her father take off her paper-thin flats with duct taped toes. Then, just as the Grand Duke had done all those years ago with Cinderella, he slipped a glass slipper onto her foot.
She quickly put the other one on and stood. The glass clinked against the wooden floor, but they held her weight. Her toes were slightly scrunched, and she could feel the glass rubbing odd spots on her heels.
"Well?" Cinderella's hands were clasped and Charming had tears in his eyes.
Chloe beamed. "Perfect fit!"
Jubjub birds called out to their kin in the forests of Wonderland while the sun shone down on the kingdom, making the whole world glow scarlet.
Red rolled over, pushing her curls out of her face to glare at the sun. While it was always cloudy in evil Auradon, Wonderland's weather was notoriously particular.
She didn't have much time to be mad about that though, because in a few minutes Red's room was a flurry of activity. Maids with roses in their hair flooded the room, pulling back curtains and drawing her bath. They quickly and efficiently scrubbed Red's skin and combed her hair, curling and spraying it until it would stay in place in a hurricane. Then they stuffed her into a ruffled red dress and tied a black corset tight enough to stop her breathing.
Red held onto two maids as a third helped her into her skyscraper heels that she couldn't walk in then she sat very still as they painted her face with dripping eyeliner and shaped her lips into a red heart.
Finally, they sat a heavy ruby crown on her head. The maids stepped back and bowed while Red looked at her reflection in the mirror.
Painted, tied, tugged and shaped, she looked like a perfect evil princess.
Red fought back a scream like she did every day and nodded.
"Perfect."
"Her Royal Highness!"
The gate was raised up by card soldiers, revealing the Queen of Hearts on her heart shaped throne, surrounded by golden roses, her large ruby crown atop her pin straight red hair.
"Her Grace! Her Excellency!"
The sunlight bounced off the rubies on her eyelids and the gold around the neck of her red and black dress. The card soldiers carrying the throne began to march forward, into the Royal Plaza.
"Her magnanimous Majesty!"
The servants in red jumpsuits that were cleaning the plaza quickly tossed their brooms aside and stood up straight.
"Empress of Wonderland!"
Jack of Diamonds walked to the center of the plaza and, as one, the assembly fell to a knee.
"The Queen of Hearts"!
"Your Majesty," everyone responded as she was carried into the plaza, witnessing the disaster for the first time that day.
Her dark eyes went from the shattered vases to the chopped roses, before finally looking back at her torn and paint splattered portrait. Her fiery gaze fell on Jack who was being very still.
"Who is responsible?" The Queen's voice was as hard and cold as ice.
Jack looked up. "We don't know, your Royal Highness."
The Queen's throne was set down and the guards formed ranks behind her.
"I've doubled the guard, tripled the patrol, and personally offered ten diamonds for any information that leads to the capture of the criminal," Jack rattled off.
She stood from her throne, slinking forward, her dress trailing behind her.
"Her Royal Highness, Princess Red!"
Jack glanced at Red, flanked by her own two guards, trailed by Maddox, entering the plaza. She teetered on her heels and held her voluminous skirt with both hands before stopping just behind the queen. Red glanced at her mother and the mess. Then she saw Jack and his expression of realization.
Her heart dropped and her stomach began to churn. Her corset wasn't letting her get a deep breath.
The Queen walked over and patted her daughter's cheek with a scrap of affection. "I apologize for rousing you out of bed before noon, but while you were sleeping, the Royal Plaza was vandalized."
Red just nodded.
"And this sorry excuse for a solider failed to protect my portrait." The Queen stepped closer to Jack, heels clicking on the stone. "So, the question is, what do we do? Poke thorns in his eyes? Off with his head?"
Cards flipped between her fingers as he began to shake. Even if he threw blame to Red, he knew he'd still be in danger.
Her fiery gaze fell on her daughter. "Since you'll be queen one day, I'll let you decide."
Jack and Red looked at each other. It was hard to tell who looked more afraid.
"It's up to me?" Red asked, looking back at the queen.
She nodded. "Mmhm."
Red breathed deep, standing a bit straighter. Her eyes flashed and she turned back to Jack. "Okay. Well, in that case…" She stepped closer to him, as menacing as her mother. "Off with his…"
The Queen of Hearts began to smile. Jack closed his eyes.
"Hat!" Red plucked off his guard hat and placed it over her crown, squishing some of her styled curls, turning back to curtsy at her mother.
"You're such a disappointment." The Queen shook her head, picking up a cut rose from the ground. "You know, I was the same way at your age. Desperately wanting to be a queen that everyone would adore. But if I've learned anything, it's this."
Red took the hat off her head as her mother caressed the petals of the flower with her ruby finger claws. That wasn't what she wanted but her mother couldn't see beyond a crown.
"It's better to be feared than loved. Love ain't it." She narrowed her eyes at Red. "Now, try again."
Red turned back to face Jack, painfully slowly, focusing on keeping her balance. She could feel her heart racing and he was breathing quickly.
This couldn't be happening, this was not happening.
I should've used the watch.
"For your crime…" Red tried to think of something, something that wouldn't hurt but would still satisfy her mother. Maybe having to wear a heavy crown that made your neck ache. It certainly felt like punishment to her. "You are…are sentenced to…"
She looked over her shoulder, feeling her mother's eyes on her every move, waiting for the words that wouldn't come.
"Get it right or I'll show you punishment!" The Queen roared and Red flinched at dozens of painful memories.
"I beg your pardon!"
The Queen whirled around to see the White Rabbit (though grey would've been more appropriate) hopping into the Royal Plaza.
"Apologies for interrupting court, Your Majesty." He fell into a graceful bow, then held out a creased envelope. "Royal delivery."
She arched one graceful brow as the letter floated to her, opening in midair.
"Dear Queen of Hearts, Empress of Wonderland," Lonnie's voice magically boomed from the parchment. "As the new Headmistress of Auradon Prep, it is my honor to invite your daughter, Red, the Princess of Wonderland, to attend our school, as a symbolic olive branch and an acknowledgment of your and Auradon's separate strength."
Other card guards came from behind, grabbing Jack and taking him off the plaza, to the dungeons for holding. Maddox walked closer to Red until he was standing next to her.
"I hope you'll join us for the Welcome Day ceremony. Let us know if you accept and we look forward to opening discussions to an alliance when Queen Mal returns for her journey," Lonnie's voice finished.
"From warrior to headmistress," The Queen of Hearts muttered. "Another hero's trying to be a villain."
Maddox leaned closer to Red, smiling wide. "Maybe you have a future after all. If you go to Auradon Prep, you get to leave Wonderland."
Red's smile began to grow. For the first time, she could see something ahead of her, something that would lead to the life she wanted but had hardly allowed herself to hope for. But just as quickly as that hope began to burn, cold reality extinguished it.
"It doesn't matter," she replied, watching her mother finger the letter, tracing Lonnie's signature. "The only thing she hates more than Auradon is the idea of me having my own life. So. I'm pretty sure that's going to be a 'no.'"
The Queen of Hearts turned back to her crowd with a smile as wide as her crown. "We accept!"
Red froze, jaw dropped. "Wait, hold on. Really?"
Her mother nodded and a red checkmark appeared on the letter. It quickly folded itself back up like origami, forming the shape of a key.
"But you hate Auradon and Queen Mal!" Red protested, though she wasn't sure why she was fighting this. "You say she's made it the worst place ever!"
The Queen simply shrugged. "Well, with my daughter there, it might not always be."
She hurried back to her throne, fluffing out her skirt as she sat down.
"You're going to let me go? You?" Red yelled after her. Maddox was looking at her as if she was, well, mad.
"Pack your bags!"
Red turned to Maddox, trying to make sense of her new reality. "Am I hallucinating or did my mom suddenly become chill?"
"And do try to not embarrass me!" the Queen called as the guards carried her throne back into the palace.
Red's smile began to return as her dad, the King of Hearts, a ginger midget in a large crown and red robe, ran out of the palace.
"Did I miss it?" he wheezed. "Oh my, what's happened to the Plaza! Oh, my dear Queen will not be pleased, not in the slightest."