The guardian

The new home

Rose sat in awkward silence with Cinderella. LingLing and Travis had left to have dinner with their own families, so it was just the two of them now. Rose realized, that this was the first time, she was alone with Cinderella. Before now, there had been at least one other person in the room. Cinderella seemed a bit lost herself, chewing her food absentmindedly and staring at her glass. Rose decided the silence was more annoying than talking to Cinderella, so she asked, "How many pairs of shoes are in your shoe museum?" Cinderella looked up from her glass, surprised that her granddaughter wanted to talk to her. "I'd say about 2050 pairs." Rose's eyes widened, "Seriously? Have you worn each pair?" Cinderella chuckled, "No. Some of the shoes were just too big or small for me. You see the shoe museum is more for looking at. I've bought a lot of these shoes, because I'm a shoe collector and knew from the start, that I was never going to wear them. I have 10 pairs from my mother and 3 pairs from both my grandmothers as memories of them." During the last sentence Cinderella looked out the window and sighed. Rose started moving her peas back and forth. She knew from her mother, that Cinderella's mother's death had happened very sudden. Cinderella had been seven at the time. Apparently Cinderella's mother got mysteriously ill all of a sudden and died quickly. Clara even voiced her suspicion, that poison could've been involved. "So do you like shoes, dear," Cinderella suddenly asked. "I don't just like shoes, I love them. I was in a school drama club back on Earth. I was their shoe designer and lighting master. I often fixed or remade shoes for our plays. I'm also very good at preparing stage lighting, so if you ever need a lighting master, you let me know," Rose said proudly. She didn't know why she was boasting. She never cared about what other people thought of her, except her parents. Cinderella seemed very interested, „Well, dear, then you must meet the shoe elves. They make my shoes and love to talk about their work with other people. As for the lighting, we have enough staff members to take care of that." Rose remembered her mother mentioning the shoe elves. Those were one of the few species, that she wanted to meet in the fairytale world. „I'd love to meet them," she smiled. „Then I'll arrange it. Sadly you'll have to wait until next week, because they're currently too busy," Cinderella announced. „I'm patient," Rose answered. Then there was that awkward silence again. It lasted until dessert. When Rose was half through her slice of pumpkin pie, she mentioned, „So Travis and LingLing informed me, that there was a competition going on for the Cinderella throne and some families won't be too happy with my arrival. I was wondering if I should count on death threats or just cruel teenage mockery?" Cinderella sighed as she leaned back in her chair. „Do you always choose dessert time to discuss complicated manners?" „Why not? It's the perfect time to discuss these matters. That way you're too tired to argue with me and my plan gets executed," Rose smirked. „You really are Clara's daughter," Cinderella chuckled as she lowered her fork onto her plate, „Clara always had a couple tricks up her sleeve to get what she wanted." „Still does," Rose smiled as she thought about her mother. „How is she by the way?" Cinderella suddenly asked. First Rose wanted to tell Cinderella, that it was no longer her concern and that she cut ties with her mom. But before Rose could say anything, she looked into her Cinderella's eyes. Cinderella seemed very sad and this made Rose's throat tighten. „Mom's doing fine," Rose finally managed to say, then looking at her food, „She says hi." Cinderella nodded, than changed the subject. „So about the Cinderella throne. Yes, there will be plenty of disappointed families and they might... oh who am I kidding, you'll definitely get bullied by some of them. Death threats are a possibility. Here's my advice: stay with your Regal Academy group, keep your head held high and always think before you act. Remember there are people that will do anything to keep you away from that throne. They'll try to record every little thing you do or say and use it to their advantage if possible. As for your group, I know your friends with LingLing and Travis, so you'll go to their group. All the other members of that group already have a throne, so that won't be an issue." Rose nodded. She was okay with the first two tips Cinderella gave her, but not with the third one. „Thanks for the tips, Cinderella, but are you sure about them. I mean you did invent the throne, so it was easy for you. How would you know what I'm going to go through?" Cinderella gave Rose a cold stare and kept quiet. When Rose opened her mouth to say something, Cinderella finally spoke, „You know dear, people in the fairytale world don't always respect a queen, when she spent most of her life as a slave to her step-family." She then stood up from her chair, turned her back to Rose and walked towards the hallway. Before she left the room, she turned around again and told Rose, „And I would show the world, that we are together on the same front, so in public you will call my Granny Cinderella. In private you can call me whatever you want." And with that she strutted out of the dining room, leaving Rose alone with her pumpkin pie.

Rose wasn't ready to get up, when her alarm rang. She had had trouble sleeping last night,
but she didn't know why. This bed was literally the softest bed she had ever slept in. But for most of the night she was tossing and turning. Was it because she was nervous about her first day at Regal Academy? Rose snorted at this. "That's ridiculous!" she thought. Then she frowned. Her mother had always told her, no matter how tough Rose acted, deep down she was a softie and people pleasure. And sadly she was right. Her alarm clock rang again, so Rose forced herself out of bed. First, she did her morning stretches to help her wake up, than she took a quick shower and blow-dried her hair. She got dressed in her uniform (the same as in the series) and made sure her collar and tie weren't crooked. She added some eye-shadow, mascara and pink lipstick and tied her hair up in a ponytail. Hey, if she was going to be a princess, she had to look the part. When she entered the dining room, her grandmother was already there, eating her breakfast. „Good Morning Cinderella," Rose greeted, before sitting down and smearing jam and butter on her toast. „Morning, dear, did you sleep well last night?" Rose made a fake smile. „Like a baby," she answered. „Glad to hear it, today is an important day. I'm introducing you to the whole school and you'll have your first potion lesson today. You'll eat lunch with your team and we'll eat dinner with the Snow White's this evening." Rose nearly spit out her drink. They're having dinner with Hawk and his grandmother! „Really, may I ask why?" Rose asked carefully. „Snow White is my closest friend and the vice principal of Regal Academy. We have some things to discuss. Besides you and Hawk will be in the same team, so it would be good for you two to get to know each other better. Especially when you've had a rocky start together." Rose nearly choked on her toast. Her and Hawk were on the same team. This was a recipe for disaster. They finished breakfast and got into Cinderella's pumpkin carriage. Rose stared at the carriage in amazement. It was so beautiful. Rose had been able to create her own vehicles from pumpkins, but never as big as this pumpkin carriage. The trip was quiet, since Rose was too busy admiring the landscape. She saw a few dragons, a unicorn and a few fairies on their way to Regal Academy. When they arrived at Regal Academy, Rose needed a few moments to take in the school. It was just so beautiful. Cinderella showed Rose her locker and made sure Rose got all her school supplies. After they finished, Cinderella needed to do something in her office, so Rose sat down in the gardens, enjoying the early sunshine. She was about to doze off, when a shadow hovered over her face. She opened her eyes, expecting to see Cinderella standing over her, scolding her for lying on a bench. But instead of seeing her new headmaster, she saw Hawk. „Well, well, well, look who's Regal Academy's newest student," he smirked. „Hello to you, too," Rose replied, while sitting up. „You know, when Granny mentioned you were joining Regal Academy, I didn't believe it." „You're not the only one. Travis won't believe it until I've lasted a month here." Hawk chuckled, „We all had our doubts about your arrival, but here you are." They were quiet for a moment. Then Rose asked, „So who else knows, that I'm joining Regal Academy?" „Everybody. The students, the teachers and all the citizens in the near by town." "Bad News travels fast, huh?" "I guess you could say that." Then there was awkward silence. Rose rubbed her arm, while Looking around the garden. "Is it going to be this awkward tonight?" Rose thought, biting her lip. Suddenly she heard screaming. She turned towards where the noise was coming from. At least a dozen screaming girls were running towards them, specifically Hawk. "Let's get out of here," he exclaimed, grabbing her hand and running off. Rose ran with him. She ran a little quicker, getting in front of him. Hawk didn't like this, so he ran faster and took the lead. This pissed of Rose, who ran even faster and was in the lead again. This dynamic repeated itself for a while. Both of them didn't realize, that they were still holding hands or that the fangirls were way out of sight. They probably would've done this all day, but out of nowhere someone opened a huge door and the two teens slammed into it with full speed. They both fell back, groaning and rubbing their foreheads because of the pain. The one, who opened the door was Astoria. "There you guys are. Come on, the assembly is about to begin!" she shouted, before storimng down the hall. Hawk and Rose followed her slowly. They were out of breathe, thirsty and dizzy. "You know, I was this close to beating you, princess glass slippers," Hawk panted. "In your dreams, prince-dude," Rose huffed.

Hey guys. Sry for the wait. Thank you for sticking around. I had some things going on, which kept me from writing, but now I'm really trying to get back into it. I really missed it during my pause.