red is the color of love and anger.

red is the color of anger and confusion

it had been a crazy day.

remember when I said I time traveled with a girl I met that day? I wasn't lying.

I quite literally time traveled.

you see, my friend from wonderland kindly gifted me a time machine.

well not really gifted... I may have stole it from him.

but more importantly, I had meant to go alone. but when I attempted to take a sword from a random girl, I accidentally took us both back in time.

my plan was to go back a few minutes to undo the... let's say, damage... my mother had just done to auradon. (long story) I accidentally took us back in time around 30 years.

the girl in question here, I hate to admit it, but she really is a charming girl.

no, literally.

her name is chloe charming.

she has these big dark eyes like a deer, and this long, curly blue hair that just dances perfectly in the wind. I actually hated her at first. i'm not so sure she was so fond of me either.

but after working together to fix the friendship of our moms, and somehow making my mom a nice person, we sort of started to... I don't know, get along? I guess you could call it that. we aren't necessarily friends yet, I wouldn't call it that, possibly acquaintances? yes. acquaintances.

yes, I did say that we made my mom a better person.

as it turns out, my mother was a really nice girl, always dressed in bubblegum pink, head to toe, even her hair. always giving out some sort of sweet treat.

and since we changed history, she stayed that way.

so now, I am stuck with an overly cheerful, sweet, loving mother. that may sound normal to you, but trust me, the queen of hearts has been anything besides that, even to me, her own daughter.

we're at the welcoming ceremony after the blue princess and I just returned. i'm dancing with my new and improved pink cheery mother.

"i'm going to get food now, k?" I yelled to my mom over the music

she gave me a little nod with a smile, gesturing me to go. I make my way over to the dessert table, where there are plates and trays of sweet treats in every shade of blue and yellow possible.

I start stuffing my face with the first things I see. macarons, scones, cookies, some yellow and blue chocolate covered strawberries.
strawberries.
strawberrie.
strawberri.
strawberr.
strawber.
strawbe.
strawb.
straw.
stra.
str.
st.
s.
.

all of the memories of wonderland came rushing back just at the sight of strawberries. I take steps back from the tower of strawberries to make sure I don't eat any, despite of how hungry I was. tears starting to well up in my eyes, my face feeling warmer and hotter every second, my head feeling more heavy on my shoulde-

"hey red! you seem to be enjoying those desserts." someone behind me said with a giggle.

I could tell just by the tone of their voice that they were a girl, a princess, one with pretty hair and eyes that shine brighter than the stars, no matter how dark they were.

I push back the tears harder and harder, trying to fight back the feeling of nostalgia, pushing it further back into my memories

I turn around, realizing I still had a mouthful of scone. I quickly grab a glass of water from the table to help it glide down my throat smoothly and quickly, as I needed to respond to the charming girl. I couldn't keep her waiting.

I accidentally start choking on my food and water desperately trying to swallow.

"woah, woah! hey, you okay?"

I nod, gripping the dessert table behind me with my right hand, and giving a big thumbs up with my left. a wave of embarrassment rushed through my body.

I managed to swallow, quickly clearing my throat before I tried to let the words escape my mouth.

"uh- hi, yeah" I say awkwardly, clearing my throat again.

"hey." chloe says with a soft smile.

"so, how does having a new mom feel?" she spoke again, pushing a bit more happiness into her voice with every word.

and I just stood there. staring at her, just like I did yesterday when we had just met, looking her up and down, examining each and every curl in her hair, every shade of brown in her eyes, everywhere you looked, every part of her, she was fascinating.

it felt like a zoo tour, like I was the tourist and she was the mesmerizing animal.

but she's just a girl.

not an animal.

i've never seen a girl my age before, or really anyone my age. my mother never let me have friends, or even just acquaintances like chloe. this was all very... new.

that's when I realized I was staring. probably a good eight seconds. I panicked. what should I say?

"uhm... unusual? i'm not really used to having bridget as a mom, instead of 'the queen'" I said with a slightly teasing tone and a grin on my face.

that made her giggle.

I had made her giggle.

i'd never made anyone giggle before.

"yeah, I know, this all feels really unusual for me too. I miss my castle in cinderellasburg, it's super pretty and right across from the cinderellasburg library. I miss that." chloe said with a pout.

"oh uhm, guess what!?" chloe said with a bigger smile that twinkled even brighter than her eyes.

I just looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"since our mom's stayed friends, they requested us to be roomies! they said since they were and are the best of friends, they thought we maybe would be too! so in order for that to happen, they requested we have a room together and uma said yes!"

I stared at her. unable to find words.

my face had an odd look, shocked but relieved as well. I don't know what I would do if I had to be roommates with someone else. chloe charming is the only person I know, and I would prefer to keep it that way.

"oh- wow. that's uh, yeah that's great! you're literally the only person I know here so that works fine I guess."

"yeah, i'm really relieved but also really excited! i'm sure we'll make plenty of other friends here too." the blue princess said.

then it hit me.

she said 'other friends'.

did that mean she thought we were friends?

i'm confused.

maybe red isn't just the color of anger.

maybe red is the color of anger and confusion.

-

hey guys! i'm really stuck on what the write for the next chapter. I really want to keep red's cold personality and not have her branch out too much yet. i'm open to any suggestions you guys have for me. thank you for reading! :)

                                                                xo, irie <3