Mess of a Fantasy (Darise Ever After High Fanfiction)

Chapter 18: Appleson DiLaurwhiteis

The sun had just started to come up, and the sky was a pinkish color. I, despite sleeping for an extended period of time, did not feel well rested. Everything ached from sleeping on the dirt forest floor.

My original plan had been to run further into the woods this morning, but it didn't seem possible given my physical position. I carefully lowered myself back down onto the ground. I took my phone out and composed long messages to everyone I know that I would never send to keep myself busy. Maybe they'd find my phone one day and see them.

{Darling woke first, and as she was instructed to do the night before, woke each other person asleep around her. However, she was not told how to do so, so she woke each person by smacking them repeatedly with a pillow until they woke up. It took longest to wake Daring up, with seven pillow smacks to the face.

They'd all fallen asleep in the Charmings' movie theater, sharing memories about Cerise and other things from the past year, until the early hours of the morning. Everyone straightened out the backs of their all-the-way-down recliner seats and faced each other.

Everyone was silent, thinking about last night.

Suddenly, the phone erupted into a loud wailing call tone. The caller ID read "Ever After High School". Then the ringing stopped as someone else in the house answered. Daring grabbed the phone and pressed the answer button, joining the conversation. He selected the speakerphone option so they could all hear.

"Hello, is this King Charming?" Headmaster Grimm's voice said.

"Yes, this is, is everything okay?" King Charming said, not sounding at all like the call had just woken him up, but the kids knew he had.

"We need to see your children, and Raven Queen, in my office as soon as possible, sir."

"Why? What happened?"

"We have been notified they have some information about a missing student, and may be hiding other things also."

Missing student. Cerise. They know she's gone.

"What other things?"

"I will take care of it, Mr. King Charming. Just make sure the children come to my office as soon as possible."

The call ended, and Raven, Daring, Darling, and Dexter looked at each other fearfully.

Darling looked stunned. "Other things like..."

"That dragon you slew a while back," Daring added for her, though she already knew what was meant.

"And us dating," Raven said, staring with a painful forlornness evident in her eyes.

"And we all knew Cerise was missing too, and why she left," Dexter sighed, staring at the floor.

"Who would have known this stuff about all of us?" Darling asked.

"Apple White," Raven answered, "she knew you slew that dragon, she knew Dex and I were dating, and maybe she overheard Daring- or all of us- talking about Cerise's secret."

Everybody knew it was true. Nobody knew what to say next. King Charming's footsteps, coming to tell the kids all they'd already heard on the phone call,  echoed down the hall. They were doomed.

*

The Charming children and Raven sat waiting on a bench outside Headmaster Grimm's office, contemplating what to do next.

"When he calls us in there, what do we do?" Darling asked, her voice a whisper so the headmaster wouldn't hear.

"We can't deny it," Raven sighed. She knew her mom would find out what was going on as soon as she stepped into the office. There wasn't a mirror outside, but in the office there was. The Evil Queen can see through mirrors, and that means every mirror. The Evil Queen would jump with excitement to know Raven was in trouble at school, but Raven was quite the opposite. Feeling disappointed in herself, she knew that she hadn't really done anything wrong, but she let a selfish princess Apple White, who she thought was her friend, get inside her head and manipulate her.

"Can we?" Daring whispered.

"Wow, you sure live up to your name, Daring Charming," Raven teased, implying that Daring wasn't showcasing his bravery.

"Dexter, your girlfriend is lovely," Daring said sarcastically in response to Raven's previous comment. Dexter rolled his eyes.

"Seriously, guys, I'd rather not be kicked out of Ever After High. I just got into this school less than three months ago and I won't go back to homeschooling with the queen of proper princesstry, I won't!" Darling whisper-shouted, quite angrily.

"Don't deny anything. Stay strong and defend yourself," Raven advised.

Sounds of chairs moving sounded in the office, and the kids hurried their discussion.

"What if they can help us find Cerise?" Daring asked.

"We can't risk telling Cerise's secret. We shouldn't betray her like that," Raven said.

Footsteps started in the direction of the kids, getting louder as they came. The office door swung open and Apple White stepped out.

"Hey, rebels. Tell all the pretty little lies you want, I'm going to find out the truth either way and you're going to pay for it," she said deviously. As she walked on down the hall away from them, her high heels clicked loudly, and her high-pitched giggle echoed off the walls.

"Why does this seem so eerily similar to a book I've read before," Darling said, startled by the giggle.

"What happens in the book?" Her twin brother asked.

"Um... The main characters are stalked and tortured by a blond teenage girl," Darling admitted, gulping loudly.

Raven put a hand over her right eye and forehead. "That surely makes me feel better."

Headmaster Grimm stepped out of the office. No matter how tall Daring got, he still never matched the principal's height. That made him much scarier to all the students including Daring himself, since Daring is the tallest student in his grade. And Headmaster Grimm had a mustache. Mustaches almost always make someone seem more intimidating, at least in Darling's opinion, but Darling also always had to hold back a laugh around the leader of their school, since he reminded her of the Ever After High founders they read about in history class. Maybe he was one, he was probably old enough.

Headmaster invited them in, and they each took seats in the uncomfortable plastic and fabric "thrones" opposite his desk. Headmaster slammed the door and sat behind the desk in a leather swirly desk chair that appeared to be much more comfortable. He laced his fingers together, and in a loud, scary voice, boomed "now, what do you know about the disappearance of Miss Cerise Hood?"

The four of them sat like deer in highlights. No one said a word.}