WHEN THE CANARY STOPS SINGING ─── original applyfic

WHEN THE CANARY STOPS SINGING

We felt the imprisonment of being a girl, the way it made your mind active and dreamy, and how you ended up knowing which colours went together.
- Jeffrey Eugenides, THE VIRGIN SUICIDES

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A FEW YEARS AGO, THE COTTAGE ON FOUNTAINS COURT WAS A HOME. Hidden behind a white picket fence and a  neat garden of bougainvillaea- a stream of purple, pink and white- is a small cottage with wisteria growing on the walls. Most of the townfolk admired its storybook-charm but that is all it was.

The three girls appeared one day all of a sudden at the age of five, following Miss Sylvie von Weiss around like a gaggle of ducklings following their mother. A, B, C, Arabella, Bianca, Cecilia. Until that point, Miss Sylvie had been residing at the hand of the generosity of the nuns at the local monastery. The town responded with small town gossip. They speculated that Arabella had been Miss Sylvie's daughter out of wedlock for they had the same light hair and ocean eyes, and she had sneaked Bianca and Cecilia out of an orphanage from another town. Nothing and no one denied nor verified their claims. Hence, the gossip, like sea foam, dissolved into nothing.

In the summers, the four were often seen seated on a picnic blanket with their books and pens propped in their gingham skirted laps. They were dressed in their respective colours- a uniform of sorts- Bella in cherry red, Bia in a sandy, beachy yellow and Celia in the powdery pink of Valentine's candy. They spent days laying on a long red picnic blanket, writing on mini whiteboards and snacking on woven baskets full of cherries, strawberries and nectarines. By sunset, the four were seen pruning the shrubs in the gardens, dressed in long puffy nightgowns, embroidered with images of angels, flowers and birds.

The girls' fairytale-esque, arguably prelapsarian lives raised the eyebrows of local fathers who clucked at Miss Sylvie's hedonism, the interest of local boys who would throw pebbles at the girls' bedroom windows past bedtime and the taunts of said boys' girlfriends. But the girls would respond to any invites outside of the house from the age of seventeen, albeit secretly, sneaking out of the bedroom in miniskirts and glittery makeup Arabella had sneaked home on her way from the greengrocers. These midnight escapades- wading in the ocean, feasting on cheese fries at the local fast food joint and kissing strangers- were the only brief glances the outside world had on the von Weiss girls- the only opportunity to break down their mysterious shells and learn something, anything.

Life was the same and perfect until the clock rang midnight on their twentieth birthday. The girls never stepped foot in the house again. Those days were over five years ago now. Miss Sylvie is dead, the girls are gone, the pruned gardens are unkept and overgrown. The girls are doing good. Bella's in the world of fashion, Bia is in her final year of studying law and Celia returned to town to work in the local primary school.

But there is a gap in the story. What happened at their little home on Fountains Court? How did the girls even end up at the house in the first place? What other secrets are they hiding?

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jessica alexander as ARABELLA VON WEISS

maitreyi ramakrishnan as BIANCA VON WEISS

baek jiheon as CECILIA VON WEISS

also starring
rosamund pike — MISS SYLVIE VON WEISS
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tag 5+ friends if interested!!

starlightrene ilyseo anoldcardigann girldecayed _yugyums dreamshoon

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( 🥀 ) - you have one (1) new message from ally!!
are you ready for some sofia coppola goodness??? okay, i must admit, that i did want to write something pastel-pink and oldies after watching the archies with my mum (say what you want about the film, but the set design was GORGEOUS)

i recently read the virgin suicides and reread the bell jar... that should probably say enough about my aims for this project. it's all about girlhood and mystery and misery (as are many of my works). i'm purposely being as vague as i can about this... but enjoy! i guess!