Happily Ever Never? Starting!

This is Sabine's dress!

Spoiler

Sabine

I hurried along with them in my light pink ball gown, pink ballet flats lightly touching the white marble floor. The fairy godmother had let me have my curls down in all its full glory, with a pink rose clipped into my (also!) pink hair. I secretly smiled to myself. How did she know that I love pink? I wondered. When we finally arrived at the ballroom, I stood frozen in my tracks. The ballroom was full with people in beautiful costumes and they were all either dancing, chatting or pigging themselves out at the white dining tables. It was wonderful! It's just like a fairytale --- wait. I am in one.

A waiter suddenly swooped in front of us out of nowhere. He gestured to his tray, "Fruit punch?" Kelsey squealed with delight and clapped her hands. "Thank you!" He gave all of us a glass of punch. Natalie looked wary and gingerly sipped from her glass. She looked surprised, and said, "This is the best fruit punch I have ever tasted in all of my life!" "Really?" Jessie asked, and peered into her glass.

I took a little sip and beamed. It tasted of oranges and kiwis and strawberries and cream and oddly, chocolate. "It's really good!" All of the others tried some, and all of a sudden we all grinned at each other like fools. Claire rolled her eyes and turned her back on us, looking at the people swirling in pairs across the ballroom. "You all are hopeless," she muttered.

Suddenly, Kelsey pulled on my dress. I looked down at her, and she loudly whispered, "Cinderella just arrived!" We all turned our eyes towards the newcomer and I gasped.

She wasn't beautiful --- no, she was absolutely stunning, to say the least.

Cinderella shyly dipped her head and entered the ballroom, her lovely pale cheeks flushing. A man in a dark tuxedo --- it must be the prince! I realised --- had his mouth wide open and looked as if he was a gaping fish.

She soon disappeared into the crowd, and people whispered amongst themselves, pondering one question: who was that gorgeous maiden?

The conductor tapped on something to get our attention. The King arose from his golden throne and slowly spreaded his arms wide open, eyes twinkling. "Let the ball begin!" People cheered and the orchestra started to play a lively tune. "It's a polka!" I beamed, and tapped my feet along to the rhythm. "What's a polka?" Kelsey questioned, while hugging her teddy bear. Natalie explained, "It's a kind of dance, and a kind of dance music." Kelsey looked as if she didn't really understand, but in the end, she started jumping up and down.

Claire scowled at Kelsey. "What are you doing? You are embarassing us!" Crokk shook his head. "Look at what the people in the centre are doing --- aren't they just jumping around like Kelsey?" He had a point.

Jessie blushed, and mumbled, "I think we should dance." "That's a great idea!" I exclaimed.

Ryan

Jessie and Sabine started dancing and I planted my hands on my hips.
"That's great that you guys want to dance," I said sternly, "but we have a matter to attend to. "We have to get to the end of the story," I said. Sabine looked over and pouted.
"But don't we just have to ride everything out to the end?" Everyone got in a big argument over what we had to do. I wanted to try and speed things up but Sabine was saying that we should just let things run their course.
"Guys," a small voice off the the side said. I ignored it and continued stating my argument. "Guys," the voice said a bit louder. I looked over and glared in that direction.
"What?" both Sabine and I asked at the same time. Crokk, the voice, flinched before waving the paper in the air.
"There are more words on it," he said. I walked over and took the paper from him.
"You must make it to the last page blah, blah, blah. Go through all the stories blah, blah, blah. And there will be a portal at the ending of each story to transport you to the next fairytale, but, if you don't make it to the end point in time, the portal will close and...you will be stuck in the fairytale world forever."
"Yay!" yelled Kelsey. Natalie grabbed Kelsey by the shoulders and shook her head.
"No," she said, "that's not good, Kelsey," she mumbled.

Crokk groaned and slumped down to the floor, shaking his head.
"But I can't just disappear," Jessie said. "I-I have family back home and-"
"Calm down," Calcifer snapped, "we're not getting stuck here." Claire nodded sternly and scanned the crowd.
"Now, everyone," she said, "find Cinderella and make sure not to lose her!"
"Found her," Kelsey chimed. I looked over to her and raised an eyebrow at her.
"But we didn't start looking yet," I said softly.
"She's on the stairs," she sang before grabbing my tail and pulling me, "come on, kitty!"

Spoiler

Crokk's tux.

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Ryan's tux.

Calcifer:

I had never run so fast in my life! Cutting through groups of people and shouldering anyone who got into my way, my eyes froze on the elegant Cinderella walking down the marble stairs. They weren't kidding when they said she looked beautiful! I could hear Sabine and Natalie running behind me; Kelsey and Ryan had taken a different route, trying to up hold the future queen.

It's funny, it was as if we were trying to assassinate her not get her help. Claire and Crokk walked behind us, taking up the rear. I glanced behind at Claire suspiciously and before I realised I was sprawled across the floor. Groaning, I looked up to see two ugly women peering down at me. The first looked to pudgy to exist and the other was as thin as a twig.

"What's a fine gentleman such as yourself doing all alone? You aren't trying to see that witch are you?" the thin one motioned her head towards Cinderella.

I instantly cringed and tried to recoil my steps. To late! I was talking to the ugly step sisters. They crowded around me, pulling at my cheeks.

"Would you like to dance?" the fat one asked.

"No, I am kind of busy!" I craned my neck back to see the group closing in on Cinderella.

"Doing what?" the thin one asked.

"Would you like some shrimp?" the fat one added in.

"No not really. I really have to go, vamoose you know; scram! So if you excuse me, I'm just going..."

The thin one grabbed at my hands and began to spin me around, he sharp fingers digging into my flesh.

"Don't hog him!" the other sister shouted.

"Someone, anyone; help me!" I screamed over the music.

Jessie

I was getting so worried about not making it back in time. I mean even though I ignored my mother a lot, I still loved her. The charming young prince walked over to Cinderella and took her hand.

"I don't know who you are, but you're beautiful. Care to dance?" He asked in a very lovely voice. Cinderella looked too shy to say anything, so she just nodded along. They started dancing, and everyone at the ball looked at the most handsome couple of the night. I noticed two ugly sisters scoffing at the couple. Their make-up looked clownish and their dresses didn't suit them at all. It was the ugly sisters!

Kelsey noticed that I was looking at the vile girls and she looked too. She pulled Natalie's dress and pointed at them.

"Look! It's the ugly step-sisters!" Kelsey cried, unfortunately, they over heard.

"Not so loud, Kelsey!" Natalie cried, but it was too late. They were already walking over

"Who are you calling ugly?" They said in unison in a horrible tone.

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ball gown for SB edit.JPG (30.38 KiB) Viewed 207 times

Jessie's gown

Natalie Greene

Natalie stopped when Calcifer's voice pierced the crowd.

"Someone, anyone; help me!"

She groaned and turned, seeing him being pushed around by the ugly stepsisters. She walked over and put on a fake look of anger. "He's with me," she snapped, grabbing Calcifer's arm and pulling him away from them. They glared at her, but she was already dragging Calcifer off.

"Thanks," he said, gasping.

She shook her head. "It wasn't a problem." She went back to her sister's side.

"Look! It's the ugly stepsisters!" Kelsey cried.

Natalie groaned. "Not so loud Kelsey!"

But they were already coming over. Calcifer ran in the other direction. They didn't notice. "Who are you calling ugly?" they snarled.

Kelsey took a step backwards, looking frightened. Natalie's eyes narrowed, and she pushed the girl behind her. "Leave her alone," she said coolly, reaching for her pepper spray.

"But she called us ugly!"

"Get out of the way, prissy." One of them grabbed Natalie's arm with the intent of shoving her away.

This didn't happen, however.

Suddenly Natalie had sprayed both sisters dead in the face with her pepper spray. They screamed loudly, stumbling backwards. Kelsey stared up at her sister, shocked.

Crokk

I flinched and covered my mouth in surprise as Natalie pepper sprayed the step sisters.
"You little witch," screamed the fat one as her skinner sister flailed and screamed.
"Guys, I think we should go," I offered, backing away. "Cinderella's getting away." Everyone looked over to the stairs before taking off.
"She's on the baloney," Sabine said. We all ran off up the stairs and stopped just short of the baloney. Cinderella and her prince were standing next to each other and he was just professing his love for her. Someone off to the sighed of me awed and some one else scoffed. I smiled at the couple and ran a hand through my hair. Just as they were about to kiss, the clock struck twelve. Hurriedly, Cinderella pulled away and started running home, her shoe slipping off in the process.
"That's our cue," Jessie said, "follow her!" Everyone ran off, apologizing to the prince as we almost knocked him down. We followed her at a distance all the way to her home.

Panting, I collapsed on the grass and put my head in my hands.
"Now," I said between intakes of breath, "we just have to wait until the prince finds her and puts on the shoe. After the shoe fits, I suppose the portal will open." I looked around to make sure everyone heard me clearly. They were all scattered around in various positions on the lawn. I smiled and took off my bow tie, that was only making it harder to breathe.

Sabine

"But it might take another week!" I said, panting. Kelsey nodded. "The prince took the slipper and vowed to find and marry the girl to whom it belonged, and he tried the slipper on all the women in the kingdom. Cinderella's house was last."

We all groaned, and Claire snapped, "Well, I'm not going to hang around and continue chasing so-called princes and soon-to-be princesses like headless chickens anymore!" She unsteadily stood up and snarled at all of us, "This entire thing is stupid, mad, insane!"

Kelsey blinked and said in a tiny voice, "You think Cinderella is stupid?" Claire turned on her and spat, "Yes, I do!" She stared at all of us with contempt in her eyes. "I don't care if you guys go to ten different fairytales or if you live your whole wrenched life here in this dumb world! I'm. Going. Home." she hissed through her teeth.

She turned her back on us and marched into the forest without a word. Natalie stood up and said, "Hey, wait a second, you ---" Calcifer stopped her. "Let her go --- or else she'll just continue to be in our way," he said while staring at Claire's retreating form. "She'll come back to us soon enough."

It started raining heavily, drenching all of us in just a few seconds. Ryan urgently said, "Hurry, we don't want to get wet," He sprinted across the meadow and into the woods, tail flicking. Crokk snorted and muttered under his breath, "You just don't want to get your tail wet, huh?" We all giggled at his comment, and even Calcifer cracked a little smile.

We huddled together underneath a big tree as the rain started to fall even heavier. Poor Kelsey pulled on the folds of Natalie's dress, and mumbled, "I'm hungry, Natty." I suddenly remember about the little red box in my purse --- luckily the fairy godmother put my purse into a little pocket inside my dress --- and took it out. The others gathered round, curious of what I was doing, and to our surprise there was a little note and a few chocolate muffins inside.

Ryan moved closer to me and I tried not to blush or make a fool out of myself. Come on, Sabine, I scolded myself, get a grip! I crinkled my eyebrows together and read out loud, "Here is a magical box that will give you what you desire." Crokk raised his eyebrows and coughed a little. I continued, "But be aware that you may only use it three times during each story. And if you use it for evil purposes... you may not get out of this storybook at all."

As I passed the chocolate muffins around, Jessie sighed. "I wish we could have a place to stay while waiting for the prince to come and fetch Cinderella." Crokk nodded and said, "That's actually a great idea." "But how do we get the box to do whatever we want it to do?" Natalie asked while munching on her muffin.

I turned the note over and read the postscript out loud. "P.S: Remember to ask Jean-Louis nicely or else he won't give you what you want!" Calcifer picked up the box and said unbelievingly, "This thing has a name?!" The little red box suddenly closed itself, taking one of Calcifer's fingers along with it. He yowled and we all laughed at the sight.

Kelsey stepped closer to Calcifer and whispered to the little box, "Jean-Louis, can we please have a place to stay?" He let go of Calcifer's finger and spun in midair, giving off a bright bluish light. We oohed and ahhed over the spinning box, wondering what it was going to do. Suddenly, it stopped and a treehouse appeared on top of the tree. We cheered and climbed the ladder up to our temporary home for the next few days.

As we climbed into the spacious house, I was startled to find that our clothes had changed as well. The girls had all changed to peasant dresses and the boys were wearing breeches and stuff like that. A nice hot bubbling stew was waiting for us in the center of the house, and we gathered around it to start eating our dinner.

On the table was another piece of paper. Jessie picked it up and read, "Welcome to the Canopy Treehouse! It will serve as your home for the next few stories. Remember to be polite to the furniture!"

Be polite to the furniture? I mused. What does that mean?

The treehouse itself:

Spoiler

The living room, dining room and the kitchen:

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The bedroom:
(Yes, they all sleep in one room. xD)

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Inside this bedroom is a wardrobe, which has all their clothes in it:

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EDIT! Sabine's peasant dress, from now on until some special occasions:

Spoiler

Jessie

This whole adventure so far was actually quite fun, I was really scared at first but it's all ok now. I have great new friends, well, apart from Claire. She seems like she couldn't care the slightest about anyone but herself. I was sort of worried about her, its was bad enough to be stuck in an animated world, but by yourself? Freaky.

I didn't particularly like my peasant dress that much, I wasn't fond of dresses as a whole but it could have been worse; and I had to admit, the guys looked pretty funny in their breeches.

"How about we crash for the night?" Crokk suggested, we all agreed, it was getting quite late, and most of us had danced quite a bit. There was a wardrobe room (wow) and we all got our night-stuff. The girls had to wear freaking night gowns that were really thick and really long. It was hard to walk in, I couldn't wait to get changed out of them.

We all made our way to the bedroom. Kelsey immediately bounced up on her bed and sat up.

"Will you read me a bedtime story, Natty?" Kelsey asked.

"Kelsey, we are in a bedtime story, it's even better." Natalie replied, smiling. Kelsey frowned, but she wasn't going to ask again.

"Shall I turn the lights off?" Ryan asked, near the light-switch. All of us nodded.

"Keep the door wide open though!" Kelsey screamed. Natalie told her to hush.

((Natalie's dress; http://myfrockshop.com/dresses/pics/may ... ulips1.JPG Kelsey's dress; http://www.costumefancy.com/products/cl ... 883-1s.jpg

Natalie and Kelsey Greene

Natalie was getting tired of this whole dress thing.

She hadn't worn a dress of her own free will since she was nine years old, and frankly, it felt... odd. Wrong, almost.

She sighed, tucking Kelsey into bed. The poor girl was exhausted. She yawned and wrapped her arms around Natalie's neck in a half-hearted hug. Natalie smiled slightly and hugged her back. "Night Kelsey," she murmured, kissing her forehead.

Kelsey yawned again. "Night Nat..." Natalie smiled slightly and gently pried the girl's hands away, going to her own bed and laying down. She sighed and closed her eyes. She was able to pretend, in that moment, that she was back at home, in her own bed.

Unfortunately, pretending didn't do much to change the facts.

She sighed, curling up into a ball beneath the sheets. Where were their parents? Did they know they were gone?

Probably not, she thought with a sigh.

Ryan

I nodded and climbed into one of the beds. Tomorrow would be the day the prince finally made it to Cinderella's house and I could'nt be happier.
"Night, guys," I said, sleep heavy in my voice. Everyone said goodnight and went to sleep.

Crokk

I woke up and stretched. Finally, it was morning. I could'nt be happier.


Short? I know, but it's hard to type on a PSP. If everyone posts again, I give up all rights to my characters until further notice. Do whatever you want with them. Be back tomorrow.

Erm... I missed a lot, now didn't I? Could someone bring me in? Maybe I hit my head on a rock when I fell into the story and missed everything until the time that you find me? Sorry, I've been away.

** I can try, Dreamy...

Claire

Claire froze as the rain started. "Great," she growled furiously, pushing aside wet vegetation. Claire was going back to where this all started. She'd figure out what had happened at the library, and how to reverse it. Claire didn't need any of the others. She was smart enough on her own.

The rain was making the ground muddier and muddier by the moment. But Claire trudged stubbornly onward.

Soon Claire was cold, wet, and muddy. Her ballgown was drenched and clinging to Claire's form uncomfortably. And it was getting dark and cold. Claire let out a frustrated cry. Numbly, Claire huddled under a large tree, trying to squeeze herself into a relatively dry spot.

There was a deafening clap of thunder. Claire shivered, pulling her knees up to her chest (or as close to her chest as Claire could manage). She found herself suddenly blinking back tears.

Claire hated wherever she was. She wanted to go home. She wondered if, somehow, time had frozen back in her world. Was Tommy still listening eagerly to the story teller? Had Claire's absence even been noticed?

Claire's stomach twisted in sudden panic. What if time had passed? Tommy was just a little boy! Would he know how to get home by himself? What he wandering the streets, just as lost as Claire was? Claire didn't know. Because as much as Claire hated to admit it, she was utterly and hopelessly lost. As time passed, Claire found herself honestly believing that she was trapped in a fairy tale. That scared Claire more than any dream or kidnapping ever could. Because, more often than not, fairy tales couldn't be reasoned. They were as they were. Claire had long ago forgotten how to make sense of all of the magic and mystery and fate nonsense. She was a creature of science. Of cold, hard facts.

Claire jolted out of her reverie, quickly. She furiously brushed away her tears as she heard another rustle come from the nearby underbrush.

"Who's there?" Claire demanded weakly, standing up. There was another rustle, and a girl came tumbled out of the underbrush. She had blue hair, and was wearing normal clothes. Claire stared down at her as she looked up, surprised.

"Hi," the girl said nervously. Claire blinked.

"Hi."

Thanks, phantom!

Avie-

I groaned and opened my eyes. My head throbbed, and rain dripped onto my face. One moment I had been looking for princess stories for my sisters in the library, and the next thing I knew, I was here. I sat up. I had somehow fallen on a rock. was so confused. I patted my sore head. I was in the middle of some woods. How on earth had I gotten here? I walked through some bushes, thunder cracking ominously. I stumbled, and fell through into a small clearing. A girl sat there, wearing a huge, old fashioned-looking ballgown. I blinked, and she looked at me oddly, as though my clothes were out of place. "Hi." I said, nervously.

"Hi." she replied. Had she never seen goth clothing before?

"Would you mind telling me where I am? I was in a library... and now, I'm not. I know it sounds crazy."

"No, you're not crazy. It happened to me, too. But how did you get here now? Everyone else has been here for hours."

"I woke up on a rock. I must have hit my head. So, where am I?"

"Um... well... ever read the book Cinderella?"

"Naturally."

"Well, that's where you are. We were all sucked in, and we have to find our way out. I'm Claire, by the way. Who are you?"

".....Avie. Avie Blue." I spluttered. "You can't be serious?" I added. She nodded.

"I certainly am."

"God. This is too much. I'm must be dreaming. Well, I'm freezing my ass off. Is there somewhere I can go? And get some dry clothes?" I asked.

Hm. I used the word 'I' way too many times.

Crokk-

I woke up and stretched, bringing a hand up to ruffle my hair. Looking around, I saw that nobody was in the house. I stood up and went to look out the window. I saw that everyone was outside around Claire, who'd come back, and some other girl. Frowning, I walked down the stairs and went outside to the group.
"What's going on?"

**Okay, I'm back!**