The Princess Sisters (The Princess Sisters Series) (3 page)

Chapter
Three

“To
our new junior high graduates,” Dana said, raising her glass into the air. 
Eight other hands raised identical glasses high and they all ‘clinked’ their
agreement.

“Mary! 
What are you doing?” came Rachel’s exasperated voice.

“Oh,
it’s not gonna hurt her to try a little,” said Mary, handing her champagne
glass to Belle.  Belle took a sip and immediately wrinkled her nose.

“It
tickles,” she said, bringing her hand to her throat.  “And burns a little too,”
she exclaimed, rubbing it.  Belle then passed the glass to Snow White, whose
eyes lit up as she brought it to her mouth.

“Well
I’m not about to let my daughter start drinking,” said Elizabeth, snatching the
glass away before her daughter was able to get a taste.

“Mom!”
Snow White shrieked.

“When
you’re eighteen maybe,” Elizabeth replied, handing the glass back to Mary. 
Mary and Snow White both rolled their eyes.

“Anyone
else want to sample?” asked Mary, holding the debated beverage up.  Snow White
slumped down in her chair while three other sets of pleading eyes looked at
their mothers.

“I
agree with Elizabeth,” said Rachel.  “You’re too young.”  Aurora and Ariel both
slouched into positions similar to Snow White’s.

“Not
fair,” Ariel mumbled as she folded her arms over her chest.

“I
guess it would be alright,” said Dana looking at Cinderella.  “But just a
taste.”  Cinderella grinned, showing off her perfect smile, as she reached
across the table for Mary’s drink.

“When
did you get your braces off?” Rachel asked in a desperate attempt to lighten
the mood.  Cinderella brought the glass back down from her lips.  She crinkled
her nose and then smacked her tongue against the roof of her mouth a few times
before responding.

“Last
Thursday it doesn’t taste very good does it,” she replied in one fluid
sentence.

“Not
a fan?” Dana asked, taking the glass away again and passing it back to Mary.

“Not
as sweet as I thought it would be,” she replied, still making a face.

“You
better just stick with what you’ve got then,” said Dana, pushing Cinderella’s
virgin margarita glass toward her.

“Definitely!”
said Cinderella, taking a long drink before her expression returned to normal. 
Cinderella’s cousins seemed to be in lighter spirits now that they had seen her
reaction to the drink.

“Can
I get lobster?” Ariel asked her mom, breaking the short silence.

“Of
course, sweetie,” Rachel said with a sigh.  “You can get whatever you want.”

“Steak
too?” asked Aurora.

“It’s
your celebration dinner,” replied Rachel.  “So get whatever you want.”

“Speaking
of celebrations,” Mary cut in, glancing around at the other moms.

“Now?”
asked Elizabeth and Dana together.

“I
think so,” said Rachel glancing over at Mary and nodding.

“What
is it?” asked Aurora.  The girls had perked up a bit after watching their
mothers’ strange behavior.  Then, in perfect unison, five small jewelry boxes
appeared in front of the five surprised girls.

“It’s
not any of our birthdays,” said Belle, eyeing the package in front of her
eagerly.

“No,”
said Mary, “But going on to high school is a big deal and we wanted to do
something special.”

“Well…”
said Elizabeth with a grin, “Open them!”  Aurora and Belle tore the lids off
quickly and discarded their boxes on the table.  They each held a small, silver
bracelet in their hands.  The bracelets consisted of several tiny links with a
small hollow heart on one end.  On the other end was a small arrow that went
through the heart and then lay flat to close the bracelet around the wrist.  A
smaller, solid heart charm dangled from the middle.  Aurora fingered the
bracelet gingerly before bringing it closer to her eyes for inspection.  A tiny
gasp escaped from her lips.

“Oh,”
she said, barely audibly, “It has my initials on it.”  Ariel, Snow White and
Cinderella, who had taken their time opening the boxes, now examined their
bracelets closely.  Sure enough, Snow White found a small SW engraved into the
tiny heart.  Belle had a simple B on her heart’s front and Cinderella had a
similar C.  Ariel and Aurora’s hearts were designed with a small AR and AU in
turn.

There
were many excited whispers and much hugging from the younger Princesses.  At
that moment, the waitress appeared at their table and the girls quieted. 

“What’dya
want?” she asked without looking any of them in the face.

Cinderella
knew exactly what she wanted to order, but as the waitress went around the
table with her little pad of paper, she kept sneaking glances at her menu to
make sure she got the name of the dish right.  When her turn finally came, she
took one last peek before saying,

“Can
I get the candied sesame teriyaki salmon, please?”

“Soup
or salad?” the waitress asked as she drummed her pen against the back of
Cinderella’s chair.

“Um,
what kind of soup do you have?”  Cinderella asked, quickly looking over her
menu again.  She was overcome by a case of “order anxiety.”  She had devoted so
much time deciding on a main dish that she had forgotten to look up the options
for sides.  The waitress finished listing off the flavors of soup for the day,
in a bored voice, then folded her arms across her chest and waited for
Cinderella again.

“A
green salad with ranch and mashed potatoes for my side,” she said, slamming the
menu closed and handing it to the waitress.

“Goody,”
the waitress said in a bored voice.  Then she wrote two quick notes on her pad and
hurried off.

“Well
she’s pleasant isn’t she?” asked Mary.

“Maybe
she’s having a bad day,” tried Elizabeth.

“Or
maybe she broke a nail earlier,” said Ariel, covering her mouth in mock
concern.

“She’s
always like that,” said Belle.  Everyone turned and looked at Belle, eyebrows
raised.

“Don’t
you remember Cynthia Brown?” asked Belle, looking at Snow White.

“That
was Cynthia?!” Snow White shrieked louder than intended.  She quickly glanced
behind her in the direction the waitress had gone.  Cynthia was nowhere to be
seen.  She was safe.

“Should
have guessed,” said Aurora.

“Are
you going to fill in the rest for us?” asked Mary.

“Cynthia
was in ninth grade when we were in seventh,” Belle explained, turning toward
her mom.  “She wasn’t very nice to anyone.”

“Unless
she wanted something from you,” added Ariel.  “Remember that time in dance
class?” she asked Aurora.

“Oh
yeah,” said Aurora, an irritated look coming over her face.

“She
wanted to be voted dance captain,” Ariel continued, looking around the table. 
“So she was super nice to us like the week before we voted.”

“I
don’t even think she looked at us again after she won,” Aurora finished.

“Is
she the one who had implants?” asked Cinderella, the memory coming back to
her.  Dana glanced over at her daughter, eyes wide.

“Yeah,
that was her,” said Belle.

“All
the boys were in love with her,” Aurora said, her eyes burning.

“Sounds
to me like they were in love with her boobs,” Mary said in an amused voice.

“Mary!”
Elizabeth exclaimed.  But no one seemed to hear her, or they didn’t pay
attention at least.

“They’re
pretty much the same thing to a teenage boy,” continued Cinderella.

“They’re
pretty much the same thing to an adult man too,” Dana added, somewhat
bitterly.  Everyone looked at her, the conversation screeching to a halt.

“Sorry,”
Dana said, picking up her water glass and taking a long drink.  The food
arrived at that moment, saving them all from the awkward silence that had
ensued.

There
was much crunching at the table, from those who had ordered shellfish.  Snow
White looked down at her own lobster and recognized the small claws.

“Guess
he never made it out,” she said quietly to herself.  Then she yanked one of his
claws free from the scarlet body and began sucking on the juicy end.

“Oh,”
said Rachel, when everyone had begun to slow down on their food.  “We forgot to
tell you.  Mrs. Pratt is moving.”  Ariel’s head shot up to stare at her mom,
hoping she had heard wrong.

“Grandma
Pratt?” she asked.

“She’s
moving in with her oldest son.  She says the stairs are just getting too hard
for her.”

“But
she can’t move!” said Snow White.

“She’s
Grandma Pratt!” said Belle at the same time.

The
five Princess sisters were the only children living in their townhouses.  Six
of the homes were occupied by older widows, who had quickly become grandmothers
to the Princess girls.  Since they had never known their own grandparents, Mrs.
Pratt was one of the few who had taken on that role.

“I’m
sorry,” said Rachel.  “I didn’t think you guys would take it this hard.”

“You’ve
barely spent time with her since you were ten,” Elizabeth piped in.  Snow White
gave her mom a dirty look.

“But
she was still always there,” she said.

“There
is some good news,” Rachel added.  “Mrs. Pratt said she thinks the people who
bought her house have kids…” her voice trailed off.  The girls were barely
listening to her; they all looked like they were about to cry.

“Maybe
we should have started with that news and ended on the bracelets,” Mary
whispered to Dana.  Dana nodded as she watched the five sulking girls slouch
and grumble in their seats.  With full bellies and drooping mouths, no one was
up for dessert that night.  Then it was Mary’s turn to grumble that Dana had
gotten out of the penalty for being last yet again.

Chapter
Four

Saturday,
June 26th

The
first few weeks of summer flew by with no major events.  The Princess sisters
spent their days sleeping in late, and then lounging around one of their
houses.  There was an occasional sunny day, just hot enough for the girls to
put on bathing suits and lay on towels in their yard.  They’d talk about boys
and high school while they jealously watched Belle become a darker shade of
brown.  The twins and Cinderella seemed to stay white as ever and Snow White
simply turned red.  If it weren’t for the occasional dance class for Aurora and
Ariel, the girls would never have left their street.

One
morning, in late June, Cinderella woke with a start.  Her head was cloudy and
throbbing slightly from the lack of sleep.  She glanced over at her nightstand
and groaned.  The digital clock was screaming a very painful 7:00AM. 
Cinderella had stayed up the night before watching movies with her cousins and
had only gone to bed two hours ago.  The loud truck outside that had caused her
unfortunate waking groaned again.  Cinderella slowly rolled out of bed and
grabbed her glasses off the dresser in front of her.  She slid the dark rims up
her nose and then blinked slowly, waiting for her eyes to adjust.  Her feet
seemed unwilling to move, yet she forced them over to the window and looked out
at the street below.  Cinderella and her mom lived on the very end of the row
of townhouses, furthest from the street.  As she searched for the perpetrator,
her eyes fell upon a large yellow moving van parked next to the townhouse
directly across the street.

Cinderella’s
sleepiness vanished as she flew to her cell phone and held down the number
three.  Snow White’s sleepy voice answered after seven rings.

“This
better be good.”

“There’s
a moving van outside!”

“That’s
nice.”

“Snow! 
Wake up!”

“What?”

“The
new people are moving in, as we speak!”

“Really? 
Can you see anyone yet?” Snow White asked, obviously awake now.

“No,
I only saw the van but I’ll look.”  Cinderella rolled off her bed again and
peered back out across the street.

“No
one, but the door is open so they must be in there.”

“So
what do you want to do?”

“Let’s
get the others awake and make brownies or something.”

“It’s
7:00 in the morning.”

“I
know.  How do you suggest we introduce ourselves?”

“It’s
7:00 in the morning.  No one is going to want to meet us at this horrible
hour!”

“But…hold
on!  Someone’s coming out.”  Cinderella threw her phone down on the bed and the
top accidentally clapped shut.  “Whoops,” she said reaching for it, then
shrugging, “Oh well, I’ll call her back.”  She turned back to the window just
in time to see the third person walking out of the empty house.  Then
Cinderella dove for her phone and pushed the number three until her thumb hurt.

“You
hung up on me!” Snow White said in mock anger.

“Who
cares?  He’s hot!”

“Who?”

“There
is a kid moving in across the street right now and holy crap, he’s hot!”

“Really?”
Snow White asked somewhat nervously.  “What does he look like?”

“I
don’t know.”

“How
can you not know?”

“Just
trust me, he’s hot,” Cinderella said again.

“So
what do you want to do?”

“Okay,
you call Ariel and Aurora while I call Belle.  Tell them all to make sure they
look good and then walk down to my house.  See if you can’t get a look at him
while you’re coming over.  But don’t make it obvious!” she added.

“Yes
Ma’am!” Snow White said, saluting her phone.  Then they hung up.  Cinderella
ran into the bathroom to inspect her reflection.  Her long, brown hair which
normally hung straight was now standing up in every direction.  Her swooped
bangs were knotted into a ball against her forehead and there were definite bags
under her eyes.

“Well,
don’t I look nice,” she said to the mirror.  Cinderella grabbed her pink brush
from the shelf which sat above the toilet and began taming the snarled mess. 
She had almost finished straightening her hair when she remembered to call
Belle.  Even though it was now quarter to eight, Belle was angrier about the
morning phone call than Snow White had been.  She snapped at Cinderella until
she heard mention of a new hot boy.  Their conversation ended very quickly
after that so Belle could get ready.

Cinderella
returned to the bathroom and dabbed on more concealer than usual, as she tried
to cover up the proof that she hadn’t had much sleep.  She looked closely at
her eyes in the mirror before putting in her contacts.  Cinderella thought her
eyes were her best feature.  Her mom said they were the only good thing about
her father.

“His
sunflower eyes were the first thing that attracted me to him,” Dana had said on
one occasion.  The description had stuck with Cinderella ever since.  Sunflower
eyes; she liked it!  Not only did it sound nice, but it described her eyes
perfectly.  They were a dark brown in the middle, extending out to a softer,
almost yellowish brown around the outside.

Cinderella
carefully outlined her sunflower eyes with brown eyeliner before moving on to
mascara.  She glanced at the finished product in the mirror.

Much
better!
  She then returned to her bedroom window in hopes to
get another glance at her new neighbor.

Snow
White stepped out her front door into the cool morning air.  She looked
nervously down the row of houses at the yellow van parked down on the end.  The
back was open and it was apparent the movers were almost done.  Snow White
looked around cautiously, hoping to spot the mysterious boy Cinderella had
raved about an hour before.  A young man in a blue baseball cap stepped out of
the house and grabbed a box off the back of the yellow truck.  Snow White
froze.  Now she understood what Cinderella had meant.  She couldn’t even see
the kid’s face, but it was obvious he was very good looking.  Maybe it was the
way he carried himself, tall and proud, or maybe it was the way his arms flexed
when he carried each box into the house.  Either way, it took Snow White a
little while to realize she had been staring for several minutes.  She looked
down, blushing, and walked quickly to Cinderella’s house.  Snow White then ran
up the three steps and burst through the front door without knocking.

“You
were so right!” Snow White yelled up the stairs as she shut the door behind
her.

“Did
you see his face?” Cinderella asked, coming down the stairs.

“No,
but he’s got to be hot.”

“I
know, right?”

“Should
we make brownies while we wait for the others?”

“Yeah. 
They’re almost done unloading.”

“Good! 
By the time they’re done and everyone else gets here, it won’t be too early to
go over anymore.”

“Great,”
said Snow White with less enthusiasm.  Cinderella didn’t seem to notice.  She
began pulling ingredients out of the cupboards and placing them on the counter
in the center of the small kitchen.

“Why
don’t we just make them from a box?” Snow White asked.

“A
box?” repeated Cinderella.  “This is a hot boy we’re talking about!  Don’t you
think he deserves better than a box?”

“True.”

“Besides,
won’t he be more impressed when he finds out we made them ourselves?”

“Okay,”
said Snow White coming to stand beside her taller cousin.  “Where do we start?”

Snow
White was greasing the pan and Cinderella was mixing the last of the flour into
the batter when Ariel and Aurora entered the kitchen.

“Nice
touch!” Aurora said with approval.

“We
thought so,” Cinderella said beaming.  “Did you see him?”

“Oh
my heck!” Ariel exclaimed.  “Have you ever seen such…great arms?”

“How
old do you think he is?” Aurora asked hopefully.

“He’s
got to be our age,” Cinderella said, pouring the dark, gooey batter into the
greased pan and placing it on the oven rack.  “At least we can hope,” she said
with a smile.

“You
know Belle will play the, ‘I’m the oldest so I get first dibs’ card,” Aurora said.

“Well
I may be second oldest, but I saw him first,” Cinderella exclaimed, smiling at
the others.

“How
does that old rhyme go?” Aurora asked.  “First is the worst,” she said and
everyone laughed.  “Second is the best,” she continued, pointing to Cinderella
who took a bow.  “Third is...?” she paused, pointing to herself as she tried to
remember.

“The
one with the hairy chest!” Ariel shouted.  The girls all hooted with laughter.

“In
that case you can be third,” Aurora said to Ariel.

“No
can do big sis, you are definitely older by almost two whole minutes!”

“Great,”
Aurora said, and the girls all laughed again.

By
the time Belle joined her cousins, the timer on the stove said the brownies had
two minutes left.

“I’m
the oldest, I call dibs!” she said, smiling. 

Her
cousins all exchanged amused looks.

“Well
the moving van just left,” Belle added.

“Perfect
timing,” Cinderella said, glancing at the stove.  “These will have to cool for
a few minutes, which means they’ll be starting to unpack when we go over.”

“What
are we gonna say?” asked Snow White.

“How
about Hubba, Hubba!” said Ariel.  All the girls laughed. 

“Here’s
a little treat for your little treat,” added Aurora.  The girls laughed again and
then continued suggestions.

“We’re
girl scouts selling brownies for kisses.  How many can we put you down for?”

“What
if his dad answers the door?”

“Ew!”

The
girls all agreed Belle’s was the best.  “I’ve come over to share this brown goodness
with you.  Oh, and I made brownies too.”  They laughed until Ariel had tears
streaming down her face.

“Now
look what you did!” she said.  “My makeup is totally messed up.”

“Go
use some of mine,” Cinderella said.  She cut the cooled brownies and dished
them out onto a paper plate while they waited for Ariel to return.  Then, with
one final check at their reflections in the mirror by the door, the Princess sisters
ventured across the street.

They
all agreed Cinderella should hold the brownies, since she was the one who
really made them.  Then, crossing their fingers that ‘hot boy’ would be the one
to answer the door, Belle reached up and knocked.  They only had to wait a few
moments before the front door opened to reveal a young man in a blue baseball
cap.

His
dark, almost black hair stuck out from under the bottom of his hat, and he had
the bluest eyes any of the girls had ever seen.  You could almost imagine the
waves crashing in from the ocean behind them.  He stood taller than any of the
girls and his arms, as they had admired earlier, were more muscular than any
boy their age.  He smiled at the sight of them and Cinderella lost her words. 
Then Belle piped in.

“Hi!”
she said, flashing him her most charming smile.  “We noticed you guys moving in
this morning, so we thought we’d come say hi and bring you a treat.  I’m Belle
and this is Aurora, Cinderella, Ariel and Snow White,” she said, pointing to
each of them in turn.  “We’re cousins and yes, we were all named after cartoon
characters,” she answered before the boy had a chance to ask.

“Do
you all live together?” he asked.

“No,”
Aurora cut in.  “We live in those four houses,” she said, pointing behind
her.

“Well,
it’s nice to meet you!” he said, flashing them another heart-melting smile. 
“And thanks,” he said, lifting up the plate Cinderella had handed him.  “My
name’s David.  David Prince.”