Stacy Lynn Carroll
Copyright © 2013 Stacy Lynn Carroll
All Rights Reserved
The Princess Sisters Edition Two
ISBN: 978-0615848297
This book is a work of fiction. Any similarities to actual persons, living or dead, or events are entirely coincidental. All characters and events are products of the author’s imagination. Any trademarks, product names, or named features or places are assumed to be the property of their respective owners, and are used only for reference. Except for review purposes, the reproduction of this book in whole or part, electronically or mechanically, constitutes a copyright violation and cannot be used without permission in writing from the author
To my wonderful husband, Matt, who saved me from a pond of frogs and showed me that true princes really do exist.
Prologue
Once upon a time there lived four Princess sisters. The four sisters did not live in a castle, they did not have knights slay dragons in their honor, and they did not own beautiful crowns or gowns to wear to a prince’s ball. These sisters lived in a small, two bedroom apartment with their mother and father in a magical land called L.A. The four Princess sisters were not princesses in the literal sense, rather their last name was Princess. As the young Princesses would gather around Mother’s bed for their evening story, she would tell them tales of their father Princess and how he had swept her away to his “castle” on the back of a shiny moped. Father Princess had rescued Mother Princess when she was eighteen from her evil stepmother and together they had found the apartment and raised four beautiful Princess daughters. Mother Princess would always end her stories by saying, “Although your father’s name is Princess, he will always be my prince.”
The Princess sisters loved to hear their mother’s stories and as they lay in bed each night, they would dream of finding their own princes some day.
One day, when the oldest Princess daughter was eleven and the youngest had just turned four, the winds changed on the happy Princess family and they fell on hard times. Father Princess had met an evil witch at work who stole his heart away from Mother Princess, and he ran away, leaving the Princess sisters and their mother behind. Mother Princess had to take on a second job to support her daughters, and she would often get home too late to tell the Princess sisters a bedtime story. But the idea of someday finding a prince never left the sisters, and they would repeat the stories to each other every night as they prepared for bed.
***
Fifteen years had passed since Father Princess left home. The four sisters, Dana, Rachel, Mary, and Elizabeth grew up into beautiful maidens and had each attempted in turn to find a prince. But without any good examples of a real prince in their lives, they all struck out one way or another. So after going their separate ways for a time, some having failed marriages and others with failed relationships, they found themselves back home pregnant and prince-less. But the Princess sisters would never give up! They worked hard to care for their ailing mother, as well as each other, and together they prepared for motherhood.
Mother Princess died shortly before any of her grandchildren were born. After the funeral the four sisters paid final tribute to their mother by watching her favorite movie; Cinderella. The soon-to-be moms laughed and cried as they remembered the fairytale stories their mother used to tell when they were young. Then Dana spoke up.
“I’m going to name my daughter that,” she said pointing at the TV.
“What?” asked Rachel.
“Cinderella,” Dana said. “Maybe if she has a name fit for a princess, she’ll stand a chance of meeting a prince someday.”
“I don’t think Cinderella became a princess because of her name,” laughed Mary.
“No,” said Dana smiling, “but it’s a nice thought.”
“I always liked the name Aurora,” said Rachel. “And if I also use Ariel…those would be cute twin names!”
“If I have a girl too, I’ll name her Snow White,” said Elizabeth. “I think we should all do it; in memory of mom.”
“Belle,” Mary piped in, “for Mom.”
“To Mom,” they all cheered as they raised their glasses of ginger ale high and clanked them together.
“They say before you find your prince
You’ll kiss a frog or two
But here’s some friendly advice
We’d like to give to you—
Don’t let his green color fool you
Or his eyes so bulgy and bright
And don’t plant a kiss on every frog
Just find the one that’s right.”
--Anonymous
Chapter One
Friday, June 4th
“I can’t believe we’re finally done!”
“We never have to go to junior high, ever again!”
Cinderella and Belle spoke animatedly with their hands as they walked away from the yellow school bus, signifying the end of their junior high school experience.
“We’re done! We’re done! We’re done! We’re done!” chanted Ariel and Aurora in unison as they skipped past the other girls on the sidewalk. After a couple more happy skips, the twins turned around and began walking backwards in front of their cousins.
“Do you think high school is really going to be like it is on TV?” asked Ariel.
“Here she goes again,” Belle said, rolling her eyes. “Everything has to be related to a movie or TV show.”
“Or song,” Ariel added smiling. “But really,” she said, a more serious look coming over her face, “do you think all the popular girls are really cheerleaders and all the popular guys are jocks?”
“Probably, but I really doubt high school will be as cheesy as it is on a lot of shows, and chances are there won’t be a laugh track in the background whenever one of us makes a joke,” Aurora said.
Ariel gave her a glaring look before continuing. “No, not one of those silly shows, I’m talking more like a drama.”
“I don’t know, but I sure hope there’s a guy as hot as the ones on all those shows.” Aurora retorted. “I don’t think a single show exists where the main guy isn’t smokin’ hot!”
“Of course they’re all hot,” Belle added, rolling her eyes. “Why would anyone turn on the TV for a bunch of uggos?”
“And the actors who play high school roles are usually in their twenties it seems like. So of course they’re hot. They’ve gotten past all the awkward stages,” Cinderella added, joining in.
“You probably stand a better chance of getting one of those awkward boys over a hot one,” Ariel joked.
Aurora tried to kick her sister in the butt, but Ariel jumped out of the way just in time.
“You guys are super mature,” Belle admonished them, glancing around to make sure no one saw. “Definitely not ready for high school,” she mumbled just loud enough for the others to hear.
“Fine miss know-it-all,” Ariel stopped walking and confronted Belle, her hands on her hips. “How are we supposed to behave now that we’re mature high-schoolers.” Ariel said the word mature in the snobbiest voice she could muster.
Belle just rolled her eyes again, and then pushed Ariel aside and continued walking forward. “I don’t know what it’s going to be like, but I do know chasing each other around and acting like little kids is not a good way to get a guy’s attention.”
“Who cares about guys?” Ariel asked.
Aurora looked at her like she had just sprouted a third arm and was waving it around.
“That’s not completely what I meant,” Ariel said. “I like guys, don’t get me wrong.”
Aurora released a huge sigh of relief.
“But I’m not going to change everything I say and do, just to impress some guy. Which brings me back to my first question. Do you think all those stereotypes are real?”
“Well,” Cinderella looked thoughtful. “Let me ask you guys this. Think of your favorite movie that takes place in high school.” Ariel started to respond, but Cinderella put up a hand to stop her. “Don’t tell me the movie, just think of the main guy from that movie. Now what sport does he play?”
“Basketball.”
“Football.”
“Soccer.”
“Football.”
The girls all looked at each other and then laughed as they tried to guess the movies they were each referencing.
“I think that answers your question, Ari. There has to be something to it if we can’t name a movie where the lead guy doesn’t play sports.”
Ariel nodded. “I guess we’ll find out soon enough. Hey, remember that movie we used to watch when we were little though? The main kid ditches sports for singing instead!” Ariel began belting lyrics from one of the show’s most popular songs. Her cousins all joined in, Belle finally giving in and singing the last line along with them.
“I can’t believe we remembered those words!” Cinderella laughed. “I haven’t seen that show in ages!”
“Wouldn’t it be awesome if life were like that?” Ariel asked.
“What?”
“A giant musical, where everyone randomly bursts into song!”
“Really though, how weird would it be if everyone suddenly knew the same words to sing and they suddenly all started dancing together?” Cinderella asked.
“That’s how we can make our mark in high school!” Ariel laughed. “We can start turning every day into a musical. That would sure leave an impression! What do you think, Snow?” Ariel put an arm around Snow White, who hadn’t joined in the conversation yet. Snow White looked up from the book she had been reading as she walked home from the bus stop.
“Yeah,” she said with a smirk. “I can just imagine people will all be sitting around in the cafeteria and then suddenly break into song about the food or something.”
“Okay I’m done. No more talk about school till after summer is over,” Cinderella said.
The group was quiet for a moment as they rounded the final corner to get to their houses.
“I hope boys aren’t as stupid in high school,” Belle chimed in, breaking the minute silence. The others laughed, and soon Cinderella joined them.
“I can’t wait for dances!” said Aurora. “The fancy dresses, getting your hair done, and especially having a date.”
“What if one of us doesn’t get asked to the dance?” Snow White asked quietly, coming up behind them.
“Don’t worry about it Snow,” Cinderella replied.
“Yeah,” said Ariel, “if you don’t get asked, we can always get Aurora to beat up a guy for you and make him go.”
With that said, Ariel took off running, Aurora close behind her. All the girls were laughing as she chased Ariel down the sidewalk.
“You’re such a brat,” Aurora said, stopping, clutching the stitch in her side.
“If she hadn’t said it, I would have,” said Belle, catching up to her cousins. Aurora rolled her eyes and then smiled.
“He did deserve it though,” she said, and they all started laughing again.
Earlier that year, Aurora had fallen asleep in math class with her head resting on the desk. Several boys in the back of the room thought it was funny and they dared one of their friends to kiss her to see if she would wake up. He had approached her quietly and said, “Awake Sleeping Beauty with this kiss,” before kissing her on the cheek.
Aurora did indeed wake up and the boy had to go to the dentist to have the tooth put back in that she had knocked out. Aurora claimed that she might not have reacted so strongly, had this same event not occurred so frequently in the past, but she was still suspended for a week. And although she got in trouble at home, Aurora could tell her mom was a little proud.
Unfortunately, however, Aurora had a hard time sleeping after that. It didn’t matter if she started to doze in class or if she was trying to sleep for the night in her own bed at home. As soon as sleep started to come, Aurora would jerk awake and frantically look around, expecting to see someone hovering over her.
“See you guys tonight,” Cinderella said as she walked up the three small steps to her front door. The girls had made it home and they said brief good-byes as they each walked up the three steps into their adjoining townhouses.
About a year after the new generation of Princess sisters (that’s what everyone calls them even though they are cousins) were born, their moms decided to move out of the cramped apartment. They wanted to raise their daughters in a better neighborhood and give them a better life than they had, so they all began to search. They wanted to find a place where they could stay close to each other so they could all take turns going back to school, but they also wanted a yard where their daughters could play. What they found was perfect! So they packed up their few belongings and traveled, caravan style, to their new homes in Layton, Utah. The townhouses the sisters moved into were located on a side street in a small complex with ten houses on either side of the road. The brown brick buildings were each three stories, including a basement. They each had a small fenced-in yard with a gate between yards, so the families could leave the gates open and have one large adjoining yard. The houses were small, but just the right size for a mother and daughter(s) to get by in.
Snow White shut the door quietly behind her, hoping her mother hadn’t heard her get home.
“Hey sweetie,” Elizabeth said, coming into the room. “How does it feel to be done with junior high?”
“Fine,” Snow White said as she walked past her mom into the kitchen. She wished sometimes that her mom wouldn’t ask so many questions. She always wanted to know everything about her life; Snow White wished she’d just get a life of her own instead.
“I’ve got some apple slices in the kitchen if you want a snack,” Elizabeth said.
“Mom, please,” she replied, giving her mom a sour look and heading upstairs to her room.
Snow White did not eat apples ever since she was little and her mom packed an apple in her lunch for school. She had pulled it out in the cafeteria but before she could take a bite, a boy in her class said, “Look out Snow White, it might be poisonous.” Many kids in her class had laughed and several others joined in.
“Don’t eat it!”
“Who gave you the apple, was it the wicked queen?”
“Hurry, we better get the dwarfs to save her.”
Snow White had always been quiet and especially shy in elementary school. After being surrounded by so many of her teasing classmates, she hadn’t associated with anyone at school, other than her cousins, ever since. And she definitely never ate apples again.
Snow White entered her room and shut her mom out with a ‘click’. She threw herself on the twin size bed and reached for the blue phone on her nightstand beside it. Dialing the number from memory, she lay on her back as it began to ring.
“Hello?”
“Hey Cindy, it’s me.”
“Hey Snow! Miss me already?” Cinderella asked.
“She’s trying to get me to eat apples again,” Snow White said bitterly. “I wish she’d just give it up already.”
“I know,” Cinderella replied. “Trust me. My mom’s been trying to get me to wear different shoes for a year now.”
Cinderella only ever wore one pair of shoes: combat boots. She used to wear a variety of small, colorful slip-on shoes until eighth grade. Their junior high school had a large staircase leading right into the entrance hall. On more than one occasion, while heading down these stairs, Cinderella would lose a shoe and have to turn around to put it back on. Such an incident would not be a big deal under most circumstances, but not for Cinderella. After the fifth or sixth time of losing her shoe and having someone yell, “No, don’t
pick it up! How else will the prince find you?” or, “Hurry Cinderella, it’s almost midnight,” she gave up on wearing shoes that had even the slightest chance of falling off, and stuck with her boots from then on.
“They just don’t get it,” Snow White said.
“I don’t know what they were thinking when they named us,” Cinderella added.
“Well,” said Snow White, “When I’m old enough, the first thing I’m going to do is change my name to something normal.”
“I’m with you on that,” Cinderella replied. “Hey listen I gotta go, my mom is calling me.”
“Later,” Snow White sighed.
“Bye.”
The Princess sisters had all suffered their fair share of teasing because of their names. Dana and Rachel, who were divorced, had both gone back to their maiden name, so all the girls had been passed on the Princess name. Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad, had there not been five of them. The worst was every year on the first day of school. The teacher would always take roll by announcing last name first, followed by their first name: “Princess Ariel, Princess Aurora, Princess Belle, Princess Cinderella, and Princess Snow White.” Because there were five of them, there was always more than one Princess sister in a class. The teacher would take roll, look a bit confused, stifle a giggle, and then hush the laughing children. It was the same every year no matter what. Once the girls reached junior high school and had multiple teachers, they got to endure the embarrassment seven times in one day. So the girls couldn’t really be blamed for wanting to avoid being tied to their fairy tale counterparts.
Two houses down, Aurora and Ariel were busy shoving their backpacks into the back of their closet, as a final good-bye to the school year.
“Hey girls, how was your last day?” Rachel asked, walking into the twins’ bedroom.
“Pretty fun,” Ariel responded. “Everyone just spent most of the day outside signing each other’s yearbooks.”
“Good! So I was thinking it might be fun to go over to the mall after dinner tonight and get some new swimsuits for the summer.” Rachel hesitated. “What do you think?”
The Princess Sisters (The Princess Sisters Series) Page 1