Red (An EverAfterHigh Fanfic)

~Chapter 5~ Deliberately Forgotten Memories

Cerise had not decided to tell Apple and Lizzie about the woods. It barely meant anything, Cerise thought to herself. Unable to get the three of them, Cerise fidgeted on her window seat. She felt as if she needed to escape the scene, slip out of the room and forget about her classmates. She wanted to run, to feel the pebbles sinking into the earth underfoot and to smell the various flowers blooming around her. But she couldn't run, unless the school field was able to provide the same safety the forest seemed to. And also, she couldn't let her wolf ears show and she liked to run with her hood down. So the only escape option left was to sleep. 

Cerise walked over to her dresser, picking out some black and red picnic blanket patterned pajamas and an average white towl. Then, bypassing her shocked but silent roommate, she walked into the bathroom closing the door behind her. Out of all the rooms in Ever After High, Cerise enjoyed the dormitory bathrooms, because no one could interrupt you if it wasn't important. And if you sobbed quiet enough, no one would hear you crying over the sound of the shower. And that's what she did.

She dropped her clothes in a pile by the toilet after turning on the shower. Stepping into it, she pushed her hair into the water, tracing the shape of her pointed ear as she did it. Cerise started to recall the day she found out she shouldn't have been born. As the warm water dripped onto her tanned body, she remembered the way it rained like in a cliche movie. She remembered the grave look on her parents face, the Bad wolf and Little Red Riding Hood of the past generation, as they entered Snow White's castle. Although the castle was a pale cream colour, an over the top look of a princess castle, Cerise was taught not to trust what is shown on the outside of things. 

Passing the large pillars that carried a large piece of red cloth from the gate to the castle entrance, she remembered touching one and letting her arm linger there as the rest of her body proceeded down the apple shaped stone pathway. Cerise remembered Apple being sent back to her room when Cerise arrived and then she remembered being taken to a room labelled as a 'Conference Room' by a golden strip of metal on the white painted door. 

Then was the words that sent her world crashing to the floor, 

"You do realise you two are not supposed to have a child" Apple's mum, Snow White the Queen of Ever After, said making my mother's cheeks flame. My dad seriously had to restrain himself on that day. As if Mrs White hadn't made it clear enough she then said, "The Bad Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood should be sworn enemies, not mother and father to the same child!"

Cerise reboxed the memory before turning off the shower. The pain had already started beating on her like one of the school band's drums which was the result of her delving to deep into deliberately forgotten memories. 

She opened the door to a Cedar wearing a smile that was to big for her face. Cerise walked past her, assuring Cedar that she was fine, before crawling into bed. The only problem with roommates is that you couldn't cry into your pillow with hideous volume without them questioning you until your tongue fell out. 

-

Lizzie woke up the next morning. The pit in her stomach from the night before was still there, growing quite frankly, in the bottom of her stomach. And then there was that heart ache feeling that made her heart pumping way to exhausting. The night before, she had spent the extra time of being unable to sleep all night designing clothes. Becoming quite fond of one of her ideas, she wanted to head into town to get some fabric. The idea was a dress, a lazy flowing dress filled with broken and mended hearts in a pale amber and red colour. Lizzie imagined herself in it, but who she imagined wearing it for was painful for her. 

Pulling off her nightdress of black satin and gold lace, she picked out a small summer dress she had made a year ago and a long sleeved black turtle neck to go underneath to provide warmth. Slipping into them, she checked herself over in the mirror not bothered by her roommate's absence. Lizzie spent extra time dealing with her black and red hair in hopes Daring would notice it. Lizzie knew he probably wouldn't but she pushed that fact aside and continued to curl every strand. 

"Woah, trying to impress someone?" Lizzie jumped at the sound of Hopper while closing her dorm door, thinking for a very small second then it was Apple or Cerise. Hopper was the son of the Prince who was turned into a frog, when he got nervous he turned into one. He stood in his red suit jacket that matched is red hair frowning at Lizzie. Lizzie looked at her black boots trying not to make conversation, but she had to say something.

"Nah, just in a fashionable mood" Lizzie smoothly leaned against the dorm door searching Hopper's face for any signs that he hadn't bought her story. Hopper nodded before strutting off somewhere else, Lizzie let out a small sigh of relief before walking in the other direction. 

She left the gates just to see Cerise darting off into the distance, stopping for a moment to consider following her, Lizzie decided not to. It was a quiet day in town today as she approached the fabrics shop, but Lizzie preferred it that way. Before entering through the grand looking entrance, Lizzie looked at the sloped roofs and worn out windows on each shop. They all looked like cottages to Lizzie, which sometimes disappointing her because there was never any smoke coming out of the wide chimneys on each one. But she wasn't here to marvel at the architecture, so she entered the shop through the sheltered door. 

-

"Apple...?" Daring caught Apple off guard as he opened the door without a knock or warning. The only thing he had knocked was the wind out of Apple's lungs. Putting her golden hairbrush down on the shelf near her talking mirror, she blankly looked at Daring.

"Daring?" Apple said, her voice even higher than usual. Apple focused on every detail from the exact placement of his stray hairs to the slight colour change in his award worthy blue eyes. It took great amounts of effort to stop her cheeks from reddening even further.