First published 2011.

Copyright © 2011 Sophie Robbins

All rights reserved.

To my parents, who never fail to impress upon me that I can be whatever I wish to be, to Ben who reads every single thing I write no matter what, loves it all, likes my nutty ideas as much as I do and single-handedly prevents my ego from fitting in doors, to Purple who was there while I was wishing death upon this novel as I attempted to finish it and stopped me from giving up and burning it and, of course, always to Abby who has supported me from the get-go and reads even the crappiest of my work.

Part 1

One

When Julia Western was seven, pushing eight, she swore she wouldn’t turn into her mother: the lady who took her daughter shopping with her on a Saturday morning and stopped to talk outside of the supermarket for an hour as Julia quietly died of boredom in the background.

No, she’d never turn into her mother, she’d thought.

And yet, she did. She has the same blonde hair, tied back in a pigtail, the same lack of makeup, the same determination to get the shopping done, get home to cook lunch and get ready for work that evening. Everything is the same, right down to the little pink dress she’s dressed her daughter, Bianca, in, which mimics the one her mother had her in years before, as she drags her out shopping.

One day, she’ll realise this. That’s just not going to be today.

They step out of the supermarket into the bright summer sunlight and Julia switches her phone between her ears, nattering on about her latest project at work, all but ignoring her daughter whose hand she holds on to as they navigate the early morning shoppers.  Her daughter, Bianca, is four, heading fast towards five and her first day at school, with her dad’s black hair and her mother’s blue eyes and an innate annoyance with anything that keeps her away from home and her toys for too long.

Julia pushes her daughter’s hat down more firmly onto her head, even though the girl’s hair causes it to spring back up in defiance and, instead of staying down by her ears, perch there on her head as though about to fall straight off.  ‘We need to get your hair done,’ Julia mutters. ‘Come on.’ She smiles, bag in the same hand as her daughter’s small one as she tows her daughter off down the street.

‘Julia?!’ a high-pitched voice squeals and Julia turns around, muttering a hasty goodbye to the person on the other end of the line and hanging up her phone, to see a woman she hasn’t seen for a while come running across the road towards her, four inch heels threatening to knock her down and cause her to fall into the road. Somehow, due to some miracle, the woman makes it across in one piece and greets Julia with a large, perfume-scented hug, which Bianca can smell from four feet away.

‘Maggie, I haven’t seen you in ages,’ squeals Julia, happily. ‘How have you been?’

*

Fifteen minutes later and Bianca’s bored. The kind of bored that only applies to kids with nothing to do, standing on a street corner. She sighs, scuffing her heels against the ground and watching her mother and her mother’s friend talking, animatedly, about old school days.  She’s tried nagging, tried tugging on arms and sleeves, tried threatening to leave and tried being very quiet and seeing if her mother will notice she’s ‘gone’ (which she didn’t), but nothing works and to top it off she can barely understand a word they’re saying to each other, talking so fast the words are a blur. Her boredom deepens and she starts to wander away. Julia doesn’t even notice, her attention all wrapped up in Maggie.

There’s a wall running around the corner of the street they’re on; tall and insurmountable, reaching far above Bianca’s head, towards the sky. It’s made of large, dark grey bricks, some old and chipped in places. Her mother told her once that it surrounded a house but Bianca can’t see a house, only the smaller wall running around the edge of the bigger one, starting off at step-height and getting progressively bigger around the corner. It looks like fun to walk across, so she climbs on the end.

Bianca balances with one hand stretched outwards and the other hand on the brick wall as she walks around. She steps up onto the wall, half a foot off the ground then one... two... three and she’s approaching the corner now. Four feet off the ground. Five. She’s high up and when she looks down she feels a sense of excitement. After a moment of staring down from what seems to her a dizzying height, the turns the corner and her hand slips inside a gap in the wall, right on the corner and disguised by the turn.

She pauses, for a moment, and glances back at her mother. ‘Mum, can we go?’ she calls over to her, extending each vowel that allows it.

‘Few more minutes,’ her mother replies. Julia doesn’t even look around, she just laughs and apologises for her daughter. She doesn’t see how high Bianca is, or how likely she is to fall.

Bianca looks back into the hole. It’s big enough for her to step easily through, but she can’t see what’s inside it. She feels around, cautiously, old enough to know not to risk going in blind. It feels big enough inside, like she’s not going to get stuck or something, so she takes a deep, completely involuntary breath, and steps into the hole.

Everything in front of her is black and she’s barely able to see a metre ahead for the gloom. She turns to look behind her and can see the exit of the hole there; a shaft of light coming straight into the gap she’s in now, and, convinced she can still get back, turns around to look inside the hole.

As far as she can see – which isn’t much – she’s standing in a barely lit cave. It’s so dark she can only tell what it is by the beam of light illuminating the floor and a little of the stone walls around her. She walks further into the cave, slowly, slipping quietly through the tunnel she’s in and forwards. This leads into a second cave with about five tunnels leading out of it in all directions, a flaming torch burning between each stone entrance.

She’s about to move forward and to explore further on when a sound stops her.

The sound of a chain clanking against the floor.

Her heart beating thunders in her ears as she takes a tentative step forward. ‘Hello?’ she calls out, fear gripping her as her voice echoes in the cave, through the tunnels and onwards into whatever lies ahead.

‘Someone help me!’ a distinctly female voice shouts from one of the tunnels. ‘Please!’

‘Hello?’ Bianca calls again.

‘Bianca!’ her mother’s voice comes from behind her, from the mouth of the cave. ‘Come out of there!’

‘Help me!’ the voice shouts again.  There’s the sound of a chain rattling and the female voice screams in terror. Bianca stumbles backwards, hat falling from her head as she flees the cave, climbs straight out through the hole and leaps into her mother’s arms.

Julia almost doesn’t catch her, not seeing the jump coming, but then her arms go around her daughter’s small body and she says, ‘How many times have I told you not to wander off? Are you okay?’

Bianca nods against her mother’s shoulder.

‘We’re going home now.’ She drops Bianca to the ground and places a hand on her back, pushing her gently towards the nearest car. ‘Maggie’s going to give us a lift.’

A couple of moments later, Bianca finds herself in the car, meeting her mother’s eyes when Julia twists around in the passenger seat and tells her, ‘Belt on.’

Bianca fiddles with the seatbelt for a few minutes, not able to click it into place, and then it locks. Julia has already turned away, talking animatedly to Maggie who, to Bianca, looks like an old woman with skin like the crust of white bread.

Bianca looks back towards the hole and shivers as the car pulls away. That was a scary place.

Two

Ten years later.

Bianca Western looks out through the car window at the scenery shooting by. Houses, trees and other cars fly past as though jumping out of the way of the speeding vehicle. Which, she thinks, her father is driving way too fast.

‘I’m not saying we’re not glad to have you home, Bianca. We just wish the circumstances were better.’ Julia’s watching her in the precisely tilted passenger mirror. ‘We’ve missed you.’

Bianca nods at her and goes back to looking through the window, her own form reflected back at herself in the glass, covering some of the scenery up.  She’s fifteen now, with breasts threatening to get a little too big and blue eyes decorated in a little too much makeup to be appropriate at a girl’s boarding school, covering up how small they are and, hopefully, disguising the size of her nose.

Having spent the last four years surrounded by girls that much hotter than she is, changing in locker rooms with skinny little stick figures with perfect little perky breasts and slender legs, she’s glad to be rid of that awful place. She didn’t even want to go there to begin with, but her parents thought it’d be a good idea to pack her off to maybe get a better education than she would at The Lodge. The fact that it also got her out of their hair was not lost on her.

She wouldn’t class herself as a troublemaker, but in the four years she’d spent at St. Mary’s School for Girls she had managed to achieve a reputation as ‘average’: average grades, average looks, average personality. Her friend Angela was the trouble maker in the group and the reason she’d finally been set free.

Her mother’s gentle words of gladness at Bianca’s return are the first nice words she’s received for the past two days. Until now, the nicest she’s received are, ‘How could you be so stupid to burn down a library?’ Two days straight of being yelled at while her parents talked the school out of pressing arson charges and they hadn’t drawn breath long enough to hear her gentle pleas of innocence.

She hadn’t burned down the library. Although, if she’d known it’d get her expelled and sent home, she would have.

‘I’ve missed home,’ she whispers.  She vaguely catches the sight of her mother smiling at her in the mirror before she turns away again.

She’s missed home. She’s missed her bed, her room, her Scotty, her life. Not her family. They, she can do without.

The trip home after that seems to take less time once she drifts off to sleep in the backseat and, within what feels like minutes, she’s opening her eyes and being greeted with the sight of her home – a moderate sized red brick house – outside the car window. She’s smiling as she kicks open the door and climbs out, bag slung over her shoulder.

Julia hugs her, then, as though she can’t believe her daughter is home. Bianca resists the urge to turn away. If Julia had wanted her home, she would have fetched her earlier, not left her to write emails explaining just how much she hated it there. Her father, Bryan, hasn’t hugged her yet, and continues in that stead as he pulls her bags of belongings from the boot of the car while her mother holds her. Bianca doesn’t miss the evil looks she receives as he does this and realises, with a sigh, that she’s still completely in the dog house for, according to him, throwing away a whole year’s tuition that cost so much he had to take a second job.

She couldn’t care less. She’s just glad she’s home.

Julia releases her from the hug and tries to move errant strands of Bianca’s hair from her face. The hair determinedly drops back down to tickle her nose, as if joining Bianca’s crusade to flip her mother off in every way possible. ‘You’re enrolled in The Lodge, starting Monday.’ Bianca vaguely wonders how she managed to arrange that so quickly. ‘And we haven’t done anything to your room, so...’

The chant of ‘couldn’t care less’ in Bianca’s head is getting louder. ‘Mum,’ she says, loudly, effectively cutting her off. ‘I’ve been coming home every holiday... I know the drill by now.’

‘Right. Yes.’ Julia nods, distractedly. ‘Of course you do.’ She smiles and pats her daughter’s hair again. ‘Let’s go in then.’ She already has her work phone out, turning it on and checking the messages. Bianca is surprised it took her this long, and that it was turned off to begin with.

‘Actually...’ Bianca glances down the street at a small redbrick house a few doors down and across the road. ‘I was thinking I could go see Scotty...’ She gives her mum a sheepish grin, but Julia is already dialling her answer phone to listen to what’s probably a hundred messages. ‘I miss him and you’ve both seen me loads for the last two days!’ While you were yelling at me, she mentally adds.

‘Okay, but be back for tea,’ Julia says, distractedly. She holds out her daughter’s house key and Bianca takes it, gratefully. ‘I’m making lemon meringue pie for pudding. Your favourite. Just for you.’

Bianca sighs. ‘Thanks, Mum,’ she says. She doesn’t have the heart to tell her she hasn’t liked lemon-meringue pie since she was eleven.

*

Scotty, a slightly pimply, blonde-haired, green-eyed kid of about fifteen, looks up from working on his dad’s car as Bianca walks in. ‘Bloody hell! Am I seeing a ghost or are you home when it’s not even summer?’

Bianca grins at him and readjusts the strap of the bag on her shoulder. ‘Nope, I’m home. For good, too! I got myself expelled thanks to a rather awesome display of arson! And I did it all to come home to you!’

‘Cool!’ Scotty moves the mat he’s sitting on slightly to the side so there’s room for her and she accepts the unspoken invitation, going over to join him.

He already knew about the apparent arson– text messages were exchanged as soon as Bianca knew – so she can’t help but smile.

‘Whatcha up to?’ she questions, as she sits down, dropping her bag on the floor and eyeing Scotty inquisitively.

‘Dad’s engine’s gone again,’ Scotty says, with a sigh, ‘and you know how it is... I’m the one that’s good with cars, so I’m the one that’s gotta fix it. Pass me the wrench?’

Bianca passes him the wrench from beside her and he accepts it with a grin. ‘Glad to see that boarding school of yours hasn’t destroyed your ability to know the difference between a wrench and a spanner.’

She grins back at him. ‘Nah, but now I know all about smoking and hard drugs.’

He gives her a sharp look. ‘You better be kidding.’

‘’Course,’ she replies.

‘So, what did you use to burn down the library?’ Scotty enquires, after a moment of working on the car.

‘A few tin cans full o’ petrol and a biiiiig box of matches,’ Bianca replies, scraping her nail down the paintwork.

Scotty bats her hand away and quickly makes sure she didn’t damage the paintjob. ‘Ah, always a good plan.’ Scotty wipes grease off his hands onto his jeans and looks at her. He appears to be visibly resisting the urge to apply the grease to her nose, but knows from experience where that leads them and it’s nowhere good. ‘Meet anyone nice this year?’

‘Couple of girls. They weren’t bad. If we’d had more internet access allotted I’d’ve written you a long email all about it, but I could barely even do my homework before I was being turfed off and I couldn’t afford the credit to text you much.’ She sighs. ‘I hated it there,’ she hisses.

Scotty shrugs. ‘I hated you there, as well. I had no best friend! That just sucks, you know that, right?’

She smiles at him. ‘Yup.’

He stands up and offers her a grease-covered hand to pull herself up with, which she accepts, barely even noticing the muck. ‘So, apparently I’m going to The Lodge starting Monday,’ she says. She wipes her hands on her jeans, complacently.

‘Cool!’

‘You better not abandon me for other friends, though. ‘’Cause I’ll never forgive you.’

He smiles as she pulls her bag back onto her shoulder. ‘I’m not going to abandon you,’ he says, with a smile and a touch of his hand on her arm. ‘I never would.’

*

‘So, have you met anyone special?’ Bianca asks, gently, as she sits on Scotty’s bed, Xbox controller in her hands as she tries, desperately, to knock pirates off their ship. She’s never been good at video games, especially pirate ones, much preferring to play with swords herself.

The one good thing about St. Mary’s School for Lameasses: fencing.

Scotty presses a button and she dies and promptly pouts at him. ‘No,’ he says, ignoring her with practiced ease. ‘Girls at my school are all stupid. Or lesbians. Sometimes both.’

‘Are ya sure they’re not just, I don’t know, not interested?’ She gives him a grin and it’s his turn to pout, which she ignores just as effortlessly.

‘It does my ego less harm to think they’re all stupid lesbians rather than just not interested. I like to think that if they were smart and/or straight they’d be crawling all over me.’ He stands up from his bed and reaches for two cans of pop, one of which he hands to Bianca with a smile.

‘What time you gotta be home for?’ he asks.

‘Tea,’ she replies, ‘which means I have at least one more hour to fail at this game. I think you could probably kill me another thousand times or so.’

He grins at her. ‘Rematch it is, then.’

*

Bianca looks up from her tea, food half way into her mouth, and catches her brother’s speculative gaze.

‘What?’ she says.

‘I wondered if you could burn my school down, too,’ he says, quietly.

‘I didn’t burn the school down, Topher,’ Bianca snaps. ‘It wasn’t me, it was Angela. She did it. I wasn’t even in the room. She just used my lighter.’

‘Why’d you have a lighter?’ Topher enquires.

‘Because, I like looking at flames.’ And because Melissa gave it to her. But she’s not going to tell the winner of Annoying Younger Brother 2010 that.

‘So, you burned the school down because you like flames, then?’

‘It wasn’t the school, it was the library, and I didn’t do it,’ she snaps again. ‘Get your facts straight, you little worm.’

‘Topher, stop encouraging your sister,’ Julia warns from the end of the table. She looks across at Bianca. ‘We won’t always be able to stop them pressing charges,’ she tells her. ‘We don’t want you to end up in jail.’

‘I didn’t do it!’ Bianca exclaims, throwing her hands up. ‘How many times do I have to say that before you believe me?’

Bryan glares at her. ‘Don’t talk to your mother like that.’

‘Dad, I’m sorry,’ Bianca says, ‘but I didn’t do it. And she won’t believe me!’

‘Who’s ‘she’? And it’s not that we don’t believe you, it’s more that the evidence points right at you! You did keep telling us how much you hated it there, after all...’

‘I did, Dad,’ Bianca says, plaintively. ‘But not enough to set fire to a library.’

‘I wish you’d liked it more, Bianca,’ he says. ‘It cost me such a lot to send you there.’

‘Us,’ Julia coughs around her cup of tea.

Bianca and her father ignore her. ‘I think I’ll do better at The Lodge, though, Dad. St. Mary’s wasn’t a good learning environment for me.’

Her father sighs. ‘As long as you don’t burn any more schools down,’ he mutters.

‘It was the library!’ Julia and Bianca exclaim at the same time.

Topher looks up from his food after a moment and says, quietly, ‘If I burn my school down, can I not get in trouble, too, Dad?’

*

The phone beeps at two in the morning and wakes Bianca. She groans to herself, wishing death upon whomever texted her, and reaches out of bed. When she sees who texted her, she immediately retracts her wishes of death. Scotty.

Welcome home. Missed u. Come see me again 2mo. We’ll hang out. xx

She smiles at the text and quickly writes Scotty back.

Dont hold ur breath, still in dog house. Might b grounded dunno yet. Txt u tomorrow. U woke me. Go to bed!xxxxxxx

She hits send and checks her inbox. There’s another text.

I’ll explain it was me. You shouldnt get the blame for my mistake. We’ll talk soon. A. x

Bianca sighs. She doesn’t want Angela to explain it was her. She doesn’t want to have her expulsion retracted and have to go back there. She wants to stay at home, with Scotty just down the street and a whole new school to make friends in.

Even if it does mean dealing with her parents and Topher every day.

Dont. Its fine. Im home + happy. U LIKE SM’s dont screw it up. Im glad to be out of there and didnt get in trouble. Leave it. Talk to u soon.x

She rereads the text to Angela a couple of times before she sends it, wanting to make sure she was as vehement about her desire not to be sent away again as humanly possible in a hundred and forty characters.

She yawns and sits up in bed, flicking on the light and looking around the room she’s missed so very much. There are posters on the walls, a few of random boy bands, a couple of female musicians, a few of TV shows and movies she was a fan of before she left four years ago. There’s a cork board by the door, onto which she’s pinned dozens of photos of her and Scotty and her and other friends; friends she’d made in primary school and lost when she moved to high school.

She sighs and considers taking those pictures down. Scotty’s the only one she’s friends with these days, the others long moved on from her, finding making new friends in high school easy and leaving her behind easier still.

Bianca stands up, moving out from under her duvet, climbing off her bed and walking across to the board. Five minutes later, every picture that doesn’t have Scotty in has been ripped cleanly away from the board, leaving the little pins and empty patches of cork behind.

New start. Beginning now.

Three

Bianca’s rucksack is heavy, weighed down with school books and lunch. This is something she hasn’t missed; carrying a heavy bag all the way to school every day, but she has Scotty walking by her side with a big grin on his face, so, as far as she’s concerned, it’s a necessary evil.

Scotty’s babbling about the people he’s made friends with, gesticulating wildly and almost skipping along beside her as he talks. ‘You’ll meet Cory, too. You’ll like him! He’s a laugh. He’ll probably try and hug you when he first meets you, though, so don’t be surprised.’

She gives him a shocked look and he laughs. ‘It’s fine! It’s just his way! He likes making new friends and you’re the kind of person he likes.  Lewis, though... He’ll go in for a grope if he thinks you’re hot. And you’re totally his type, so you’ll be lucky if your boobs aren’t sore by the end of the day.’

She pulls her blazer closed over her chest and glowers at him. ‘I don’t think I like your friends,’ she mutters. Four years at a girls’ school has left her unaccustomed to modern boys and their ways.

‘Lies, all lies. You’ll love them all,’ Scotty tells her, firmly. ‘Except Lewis, maybe. And Daisy. But no one likes her, anyway. Well, ‘cept Cory...’ He laughs as they turn the corner. ‘Just kidding,’ he says, ‘Daisy’s awesome. Dresses and talks like a slag, doesn’t act like it, though. She’s great.’

Bianca stops in her tracks and pauses. Scotty’s voice fades out as he starts to talk about the teachers and she turns slowly to look at the wall by her side. The hole is still there, bigger than she remembers. It’s big enough for a girl her size to climb through with room to spare, which is strange, considering it was only just big enough for her when she was little. She wonders, for a moment, what it would take to climb up the wall and into the hole. She wants to. She really, really wants to. She’s not sure why she wants to, but the desire is definitely there.

‘Bianca? Earth to Bianca? Hello?’ Scotty waves a hand in front of her face and she refocuses, turning to look at him. ‘Geez, you were out of it!’ he exclaims. ‘What’s up?’

‘Just... that.’ She points at the hole in the wall. ‘I climbed in there once... A long time ago.’

‘So? It’s just a hole. It’s always been there.’ He picks up a stone from the road and tosses it in through the opening. ‘Nothing special.’

‘No, but... it went on forever. When I went in there... there were tunnels and there was a girl screaming.’

‘Are ya sure you didn’t dream it?’ Scotty says, with a raised eyebrow. ‘Seems like something you’d dream. I know what your subconscious is like!’

She shakes her head, ignoring the jab at an incident years before. ‘No. No, I didn’t dream it... It was real. It just happened a long time ago...’

Scotty checks his watch. ‘Biancs, as much as I like and have missed your random trips into insanity, we should go before we miss form. You don’t want to be late, do you?’

‘No,’ she says, distractedly. ‘No, I don’t want to be late...’

‘C’mon then.’ He grabs her by the wrist, towing her off down the street before she can argue or resist. ‘We can have a look at your hole on the way home if you want.’

There’s a pause, a beat in which what he said sinks in as the two of them laugh, and then they’re both laughing, the immature hilarity carrying them all the way to school.

*

‘So, is it true you burned down the school gym like Buffy?’

Bianca looks up at Cory, a shaggy haired brunette boy sitting opposite her in form, the same boy who hugged her like crazy upon her arrival, announced she felt like his best friend he’d heard so much about her and then turned to Scotty and hugged him until they had to go into form and sit down. ‘No, it was the library and I didn’t do it, anyway.’

He looks horribly disappointed. ‘So, you’re not a vampire-killing cheerleader?’

‘I’m neither a vampire slayer nor a cheerleader, no. I’m just a normal girl who didn’t even burn down the library. I’m nothing special. Can we move on now?’

Lewis, a tall ginger kid, is eyeing her across the table. She meets his gaze with a steely glare that doesn’t at all deter him. ‘You don’t look like an arsonist,’ he says, slowly, appraising her.

‘Gee, how kind of you to say so,’ Bianca replies, coolly.

‘Come on, Yanks, make an effort,’ Scotty says, from beside her. ‘These guys are my friends and they could be your friends, too, if you tried hard enough.’

She sighs. ‘Fine.’ She looks at Cory. ‘My friend Angela is the one who burned down the library. I was in bed at the time. I’m sorry to disappoint you. She just... used my lighter. So, everyone thought it was me.’

‘Oh. You should get some kind of CSI guy in to prove it wasn’t you.’ He nods at her. ‘Then you could go back.’

‘She’s not ever going back, Cory,’ Scotty says, quickly. ‘So, don’t even suggest that. It’s a dumb, dumb, dumb idea.’

‘Sorry.’

The teacher walks in at that moment, preventing Bianca from basking in the love of her best friend and Lewis from saying anything more. Instead, everyone falls silent as the teacher shuffles her papers and says, ‘I hear we have a new student today.’ She smiles warmly across at Bianca. ‘Would you like to stand up and introduce yourself?’

Bianca sighs and stands up. ‘I’m Bianca. I’ve been going to a girl’s boarding school since I turned eleven. I got expelled for burning down the library, but I didn’t do it. Anyone who calls me ‘Buffy’ will be taken outside and shot by my best friend.’ She gestures at Scotty, who takes this cue to stand up and bow at the class. The teacher glares at Bianca, lips pursed.

Bianca just grins at her new classmates, some of whom are chuckling, while the others seem to be considering the best way of bullying her into submission, and sits back down, perfectly synced with Scotty.

‘Thank you, Bianca,’ the teacher says with a sigh.  She holds up the register. ‘Register time, everyone. So stay quiet and answer when your name is called.’

*

‘How’s your maths, Bianca?’ Mister Sands, a young, handsome maths teacher asks, once everyone else has started their work.

‘About as good as my German,’ Bianca replies, with a smile, ‘which I cannot speak.’

The teacher laughs. ‘Well,’ he says, with a smile and a twinkle in his eyes, ‘lucky for you, I can do both!’

She laughs back, he grins and Scotty rolls his eyes.

‘Oh, brother,’ he says, as Sands retreats.

‘What?’ Bianca hisses at him.

‘Mister Sands has a bit of a reputation,’ Cory explains, from across the table. ‘I’ve heard he slept with Alicia, Lauren, Georgia... and Oliver!’

Bianca raises an eyebrow. ‘Oliver?’

‘Okay, he might not have slept with Oli, come to think of it. Oli tells a lot of stories... but the rest are all facts!’

‘Okay, so?’ Bianca shrugs. ‘I’m not going to sleep with him and if the rest of them were all consenting... I don’t much care.’

Cory sighs and looks at Scotty. ‘Mate, your girlfriend sucks at being a gossip.’

‘I’m not his girlfriend!’ Bianca exclaims.

‘Could you have said that any faster?’ Scotty mutters.

‘Oh. Sorry.’ She pulls a face. ‘It’s just... you’re my best friend. That’s it... I don’t... it... when...’ She trails off and grimaces. ‘I’m sorry. I should just shut up.’

Scotty shrugs. ‘I thought your boarding school was meant to teach you better than our school?’

‘So you’d think,’ Bianca mutters. ‘But, my D in maths will prove otherwise.’

‘I was referring to diplomacy.’

‘I knew that.’

*

‘So, are you ever going to brave your childhood memories?’ Scotty asks, as he and Bianca walk home from school, his bag slung over one shoulder, hers on his other. She looked tired, so he offered to hold her bag for her. Somehow, this resulted in him carrying it all the way home, but he doesn’t mind. He’s just glad to have her back.

He gestures at the wall as they walk past. ‘The hole, I mean. Your whole spooky dream thing.’

Bianca shrugs. ‘I dunno. I rather like the idea that whatever’s through there is amazing... some kind of Faraway Tree or something.  If I go through, I’ll probably just find some old house and get kidnapped and raped by some creepy old guy.’ She shudders. ‘So, maybe not.’

Scotty snorts. ‘I somehow doubt you’ll get kidnapped and raped by an old guy, but whatever floats your boat, Biancs.’ He walks over to the hole and looks at it. ‘It looks pretty normal to me,’ he says.

‘I know... it looks normal. It does to me, too. But I know it isn’t.’ She shakes her head and walks slowly towards it. ‘I dream about it sometimes,’ she says, quietly. ‘Sometimes’ is an understatement, really. It’s always been there, calling to her.

‘That’s normal,’ Scotty mutters.

She sighs, pushing her short hair off her face. ‘I should probably just... leave it. Come on.’ She turns to go, but he stops her with a hand on her arm.

‘I’ll come with you, if you want? Assuming we don’t both get trapped inside small tunnels and have to beg some fireman for help, I don’t see there being a problem with it.’

‘No, leave it.  Really, Scotty. Leave it be, okay?’ She swallows. ‘I’m just... not ready yet.’

He shrugs. ‘Okay, fine.’ He doesn’t take his hand off her arm, instead tightening his grip and using it to lead her away, towards her house. ‘But, if you go in there alone and get into trouble, I’ll laugh at you.’

‘You’re such a good friend.’ She gives him a strange cross between a pout and a glare, and trails after him as he finally releases her.

‘So, did you enjoy your first day?’

She nods. ‘Yeah. Your friends... they’re not too bad.  I guess I had better ones back at St Mary’s but...’ She shrugs.

‘Ha.’ Scotty rolls his eyes. ‘Are these the same friends that got you framed for arson and that you couldn’t wait to leave?’

‘No.’ She glowers darkly at him. ‘These are friends that I used to hang out with at lunch. Plus, my dorm mates. Leslie, Sash and Donna. They were nice. We got on really well. You kinda have to when you eat, sleep and shower together.’

‘You’ll get on well with my friends, too,’ Scotty promises, thankfully letting the showering slide. ‘Just give them a  chance, okay?’

‘All your friends are boys. I’m not used to being friends with any boys,’ Bianca points out, as they start to walk up their road.

Scotty coughs pointedly.

‘Well, okay. Any boys except my best most manly most boy-like amazing guy friend in the entire world, okay?’ She grins at him and he laughs.

‘Okay. Although... Daisy isn’t a boy.’ He lets her bag slide down his arm and passes it to her. ‘Here ya go.’

‘I haven’t met Daisy yet,’ she points out as she takes the bag. ‘Thanks.’ She slings it over her shoulder and reaches over to kiss him on the cheek. ‘I’ve missed you, Scotts.’

‘I’ve missed you too.’ He yawns and pushes open the gate to his house. ‘See you tomorrow morning.’

‘Love ya.’ She smiles at him, offering him a little wave as she heads down the road, away from his house and towards her own.

Only another four days of school left until the weekend...

Four

She’s standing by the wall, just staring at it. It seems to shimmer and glow slightly, enticing her with colour and feelings of warmth and longing, but the hole itself is dark.

There aren’t any cars going by on the road behind her. It’s just Bianca and the hole, alone in the middle of what feels like nowhere. Nothing more and nothing less.

Silent and enticing.

She takes a breath and reaches out, touching the jagged brick. Her fingers snag against the rough edges and she pulls her fingers back to check they’re not cut. There’s no blood, so she reaches out again.

The hole is big enough for her to climb into, she can tell that by looking at it but it’s not just that. She feels it inside her chest; it’s big enough for her. It always will be.

But does she really want to climb inside? Does she?

‘Help me!’ a female voice screams. The voice is familiar, like she’s heard it before. She has; in every dream set around this hole and so many years before in reality. ‘Help me, please!’

‘Hello?’ Bianca shouts, looking around, trying to find the owner of the voice outside the hole. ‘Is someone there?’

‘Help me!’ the voice yells again. ‘Please help me! It’s dark in here and I’m frightened!’

Bianca turns back around. The voice is coming from the hole. She knows that. ‘Are you in there?’

‘Bianca!’

Bianca’s eyes widen. ‘Am I meant to rescue you? Is that it?’

‘Bianca!’

‘How do you know my name?’

‘Bianca!’

‘Bianca, wake up!’

Bianca opens her eyes slowly and looks up at Topher, who’s currently leaning over her bed, eyes wide as he stares down at her. It takes her a moment before she realises he has a glass of water in his hand, condensation slipping down the outside.

‘What the hell are you doing, you little maggot?’ Bianca shoves him away, scrambling up into a sitting position. Topher stumbles backwards, the glass slipping, drops of water spilling down the front of his trousers.

‘Bianca!’ he shouts, angrily. ‘Now I look like I’ve weed myself!’

‘Good, I always told Mum you weren’t past that stage yet. Maybe she’ll put you back into nappies!’ Bianca glares at him. ‘What are you doing in here?’

‘Mum says you need to get up now.’

Bianca looks across at the clock. ‘It’s seven in the morning. On a Saturday,’ she whines. ‘Can’t I sleep in?’

‘Mum says you can come back to bed, but she wants you up for breakfast.’

Bianca sighs and fists a hand in her hair. Five days a week, her mother never rouses early enough for breakfast. The one day Bianca doesn’t want her to, she does. ‘Why are you so annoying?’ she snaps at Topher, but really it’s aimed at her family in general. ‘Couldn’t you have told Mum to do her own dirty work?’

‘No,’ he says, giving her a wide-eyed look. ‘Mum said if I ever talked back at her like that again, I wouldn’t make it through a second ten years.’

Bianca flops back down onto the bed and pulls the warm covers up over her head. ‘I’ll be down in a minute,’ she grumbles.

They’ll be cold by the time she comes back to them. She wonders what the point of coming back to bed would even be.

*

‘Morning, sunshine.’ Julia thrusts a plate of toast at her daughter as the girl in question enters the room. ‘Did you have a late night?’

‘I went to bed at ten.’ Bianca yawns. ‘You know that.’

‘Mm, but how do I know you weren’t up texting that boy all night?’ Julia raises an eyebrow. ‘You and Scotty would make such a lovely couple...’

‘Ew! Mum!’ Bianca pulls a disgusted face and walks across to the table. She drops her plate down on the surface and drops down into one of the chairs.  She rests her elbows on the table, dropping her face into her hands. ‘I’m fifteen,’ she says, into her palms, ‘you’re supposed to be discouraging boyfriends, not encouraging them!’

Not to mention that if her mother paid any attention to her at all she’d have worked out boyfriends aren’t part of the Bianca experience.

‘Who said the b-word?’ Bryan says, walking into the room and sitting down opposite his daughter. ‘You haven’t got a boyfriend already, have you, Bianca?’

‘No, Dad.’ Bianca sighs and pulls a face. ‘Trust me, that’s the one thing you don’t need to worry about with me.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Julia sits down between the two of them at the head of the table and picks up her own slice of toast.

‘Bianca’s a dyke,’ Topher says, from the opposite end of the table.

‘Topher!’ Julia exclaims. ‘Don’t say such things about your sister!’

‘Yeah!’ Bianca glares at him. ‘Shut up, you slimy maggot!’ She flicks marmalade-coated toast crumbs at him and turns away.

‘You do like boys, don’t you, Bianca?’ Bryan enquires, nervously.

‘Yeah, Dad,’ Bianca says, with a sigh. ‘I think boys are just swell.’ She looks down at her plate. ‘Especially when they’re not within a mile of me,’ she mutters, beneath her breath.

*

‘Any particular reason you wanted to hang out today?’ Scotty enquires, as he approaches Bianca, who’s sitting on a swing in the park. After the boyfriend discussion at breakfast, Bianca had phoned Scotty, who was asleep, and asked him to hang out, he was more than happy to comply, although Bianca feels guilty now: he looks like he didn’t get any sleep at all.

‘I just... I didn’t want to be at home. Is that okay?’ Bianca asks, not meeting his eyes as he sits on the next swing.

‘Always,’ he says. ‘I just wasn’t expecting to hear from you today. You’ve seen me practically all day every day for the last five days... you must be overdosed by now.’

She laughs. ‘I could never overdose on you,’ she tells him, with a smile.

‘So...’ Scotty extends the O, in the hope of starting a conversation.

‘I had another one of those dreams last night,’ Bianca says, after a moment. ‘The same one I’ve been having for a while, but...’

‘But?’

‘Usually, I’m stood outside the hole and I know I shouldn’t go in. The girl starts calling out and I turn and run away... usually to my mother, for whatever reason. But this time, it felt almost right. Not quite, but...’

‘Did you go in there?’

‘No, you know I haven’t.’

‘I mean in the dream. Did you go in?’

‘No.’ Bianca shakes her head. ‘I was scared. Really, really scared. Like if I went in there... everything would change.’

‘Perfect reason to go in there to begin with, don’t you think?’ Scotty smiles at her. ‘Come on.’ He holds out his hand, which she gratefully accepts, and the two of them jump off the swings together. He gives her a moment to collect her jacket then he drags her across the playground and out.

*

It’s a few minutes before they arrive at the hole at a run and then they skid to a halt before it.

‘Go on then,’ Scotty tells her, releasing her hand and gesturing at the hole. ‘Go for it.’

She shakes her head. ‘No,’ she says.

‘Why not?’

‘I don’t know...’ She reaches out, brushing her fingertips along the jagged edges of the rock, like she did in the dream. This time, however, she comes away with blood on her skin. ‘I just... I don’t...’

‘Don’t what?’

‘I don’t think it’s the right time yet...’ She shakes her head. ‘You must think I’m mental.’

He laughs. ‘I don’t think you’re mental. Actually, I lie. I know you’re mental. Always have. But this doesn’t add to it or anything.’ He raps his knuckles against the rock. ‘Seems solid enough. Want me to go in?’

‘No!’ Bianca exclaims. She grabs him and pulls him back. ‘No, Scotty. Really... No. Don’t.’

‘Okay...’ He shrugs. ‘We could go get a pasty or something instead? If you wanted...’

‘Yeah.’ She smiles. ‘Okay.’

*

‘I can’t sleep. Talk to me.’

‘Biancs?’ Scotty sounds tired. He yawns and grumbles. ‘What’re you doing phoning me at this kinda hour?’

‘I can’t sleep, I told you. Just... talk to me about something.’ Bianca rolls over and looks at her clock, which is blinking two am into the darkness.

‘We have school tomorrow, Bianca. I really can’t talk. I need my beauty sleep, unlike you. You’re already beauty.’ He yawns.

‘If I’m Beauty, who are you? Lumiere? Cogsworth?’

‘I’m too tired to talk about this. Seriously, Bianca. Go back to sleep and... just sleep, okay?’

Bianca shrugs, even though he can’t see it, and mumbles, ‘Yeah, fine. Night, Scotty.’

‘Night.’

There’s a click as he hangs up and Bianca sighs, rolling onto her back and staring up at the ceiling.  It’s dark, but the small amount of light coming from the small lamp she’d turned on to find her phone is casting shadows across the walls and ceiling.

She’s restless, unable to even lie still for even a moment. She rolls onto her side, then restlessly returns to staring at the ceiling. After a moment she sits up. Then she lies down. Then she wriggles. A lot. Finally, she groans and gives up.

‘Oh, whatever.’ She sits up and moves the duvet, reaching for her trainers and slipping them onto her feet.

*

Half an hour later, with her thick, fuzzy and warm coat wrapped tightly around her shoulders, covering her pyjama top and shielding her from the numbing cold of the late winter night, Bianca nervously approaches the hole in the wall.

‘This is stupid,’ she mutters, to herself. ‘It’s just a hole. It leads to some private property or something and no one’s ever bothered to fill it in because it’s small and hardly an issue. Pull yourself together...’ She stuffs her phone into the pocket of her coat and clambers up onto the outer wall, careful not to let the loose laces of her trainers snag on anything. She pulls herself up onto the edge and reaches for the jagged rock of the hole.

Her fingers close around the edge and she pulls herself through with one determined tug.

She squeals as she falls forward and rolls over herself and into the cavern beyond. She lifts her head, hair a mess now, and stares around her in disbelief.

The cavern is immense, too big inside to fit into the small area behind the hole.

‘Oh, my god,’ she whispers, clambering to her feet and staring around. ‘TARDIS cave.’

She calms herself down with long breaths, unsure whether she’s excited or terrified. The cavern is exactly the same place as she remembers from when she was younger, when she still had pigtails and an innate curiosity that lead her to crawl into a hole in a wall while older girls knew it was unwise to do so.

Except... she’s doing it again now. She’s exploring an impossible cavern instead of turning around and going home. Her survival instincts tell her it’s not safe, but every other instinct and every gut feeling whispers, take a chance.

‘Hello?’ she calls out, making her descent down the slightly sloped tunnel ahead. ‘Anyone here?’ Her words echo around the surrounding walls and follow the same path as her.

The second cave is how she remembers it: five tunnels leading out like spokes from a wheel. There are doorways, each at least twenty feet high, with flaming torches burning between each and every one.

She steps in a little and shrugs off her coat. It’s warm inside, unlike outside, so she drops it in the doorway from which she came as a marker. She knows better than to risk getting lost in catacombs and vaguely wishes she had thought to pick up a ball of wool or some chalk.

She steps carefully towards the opposite tunnel and quietly enters the large doorway, which leads into a more man-made corridor.

The corridor in question is dark, lit only by flaming torches on the walls, one of which Bianca pulls from its holder as she walks, observing her surroundings with mounting caution.

The ceiling is twenty feet above her and made of the same stone as the walls. The walkway is loose beneath her feet, and crumbles beneath her with every step. Before she’s even reached the end of the passageway she’s decided she’s no longer in her world.

She follows the winding passageway for a few long minutes, not worried about getting lost due to there being no options except to keep walking straight ahead or turn and go back. Somehow, she feels the latter is no longer an option.

She rounds the final corner and is assaulted by a blast of heat and light. For a moment, she flinches backwards, covering her eyes and retreating a few paces back into the tunnel behind her. Once her eyes have adjusted to the change, she steps back out and looks, for the first time, at what she can only describe as Hell.

The inside of the chamber she’s in is made of dark stone. There are fires in small pits scattered around the room and the floor is cracked and broken in many places, a river of lava two foot wide flowing through the room. The remaining floor makes up islands and on each island is a cage.

The first few cages she sees have skeletons and she inches backwards, slightly, starting to realise how much danger she’s really in. The second couple contain creatures she couldn’t name if you paid her (one with long, pointy ears and maroon skin, the other with a large head and no discernable body). Some of the cages are too far away for her to see without binoculars, but the last one she looks at is the nearest.

Six metres away, the cage is sitting on a large island in the lava. It’s approximately four feet in each direction, made of iron and contains, she realises with horror, a young girl around her age, chained to the cage.

‘Oh, my god!’

She doesn’t stop to think, instead drops her torch and makes off at a run as soon as she sees her, plucking a bobby pin from her hair as she goes. She leaps across the river of lava, realising what she did only after she lands, and drops to her knees in front of the padlocked door of the cage.

‘Are you okay?!’ she exclaims, already inserting the pin into the lock. Oh, the things you learn from junior arsonists and their jailbird-in-training friends!

The girl, who is probably only a year or so older than Bianca, turns to look at her as soon as she starts picking the lock and, for the first time, as their eyes meet, Bianca takes in her appearance. The girl is blonde, her hair wavy and flowing freely down her back, seeming to glow slightly in the light from the fire and very, very obviously completely natural in colour. She’s dressed in a horrifically poufy pink ball gown, with overly puffed sleeves and a disgusting flower pattern lacing the square-shaped neck, sleeves and waist. It’s the kind of thing that Bianca would have to be dead to wear, and even then you’d have to catch her rotting corpse on the run, first.

But even as these thoughts float through her head, the thing that causes Bianca to pause is the three-foot-high, pink conical hat perched precariously upon the blonde girl’s head.

‘Who are you?’ the girl asks, staring down at Bianca with big, wide blue-green eyes and reaching for the bars.

‘I could ask you the same!’ Bianca exclaims, as she deftly works the lock. She turns her face away, feeling rather than looking, and works at it gently. She’s pleased to notice the chains wrapped around the blonde’s body are looped through the padlock. Release that, release all of her bindings.

‘Why are you here?’ the girl enquires.

‘To rescue you, it seems,’ Bianca replies, after a moment, as the lock clicks and gives way.

‘Are you Prince Charming?’ the girl asks, hesitantly.

Bianca stares at her. ‘What? No.’ She pulls the chains from the released lock and quickly helps the girl shed the ones wrapped around her.  ‘No,’ she repeats, as she slips the bobby pin back into her hair. ‘I’m Bianca.’ She reaches out and grabs the girl’s hand, squeezing it tightly. ‘And I’m going to get you out of here.’

Five

Bianca pulls the blonde girl to her feet by the hand and when she wobbles for a moment she places her other hand on her arm, steadying her. ‘What is this place?’ she asks, cautiously.

‘It is the Grand Enchantress’ Prison,’ the girl says, as though it’s obvious. ‘You know not what this place is and yet you have come to rescue me! You are truly a remarkable Prince!’

Bianca shoots her an irritated sideways glance. ‘Look,’ she says, as she pulls the girl towards the exit, ‘let me make one thing perfectly clear: I’m not a Prince. I’m not a Princess either. I’m just a girl. A normal girl.’ She glances down at their hands, fingers linked together, and switches her grip to the girl’s wrist, deciding that hand-holding doesn’t help the not-your-prince defence.

‘But, your clothes! So strange for a Princess such as yourself to be adorned in such masculine attire!’ The girl gestures down at Bianca’s pyjamas; a dark blue, short sleeved shirt thrown over the top of long, black pyjama trousers. With trainers. Classy.

‘I’m not a Princess! They’re pyjamas,’ Bianca says, with a glare. ‘To sleep in?’

‘Py-jamas?’ the girl says, carefully.

‘Oh, Jesus Christ,’ Bianca says, the palm not attached to the girl’s wrist finding its way to her own forehead.  ‘We really shouldn’t be discussing this now...’

‘Why not?’ the girl asks, shuffling nervously closer to her saviour.

‘Because I’m busy having a nervous breakdown and should be on my way to a-’ Bianca breaks off, eyes widening as her eyes land on the doorway in the far wall of the chamber. Just inside it is the shadow of a guard fast approaching and, if Bianca is right, carrying a large hammer in his hands. ‘And because any second now, we’re both going to be dead!’ She gestures towards the shadow.

‘Barka!’ the girl exclaims. ‘He is the one who captured me and locked me up in this godforsaken place at the Enchantress’ behest! If he finds me to have escaped, he will punish us both for sure!’

‘In that case, come on.’ Bianca tightens her grip on the girl’s wrist. ‘We need to go before he catches us.’

‘Oh, you are for sure my Prince Charming!’ the girl exclaims, in Bianca’s opinion only one step short of dancing with glee.

‘I am no one’s Prince Charming,’ Bianca snaps. ‘My name is Bianca Western and, for one thing, I’m female. Now, come on!’ She pulls on the girl’s wrist and drags her towards the corridor she entered from, just as the owner of the shadow steps into the light of the cavern.

Barka, Bianca discovers, as she looks back, is eight foot tall. But that’s not the horrific part. The horrific part is what he is.

‘Oh, my god!’ Bianca hisses. ‘He’s a troll!’

‘Barka!’ the girl exclaims, as though she’d told her that. ‘Barka!’

‘You didn’t think to mention he was a troll?’ Bianca demands, in a suspiciously high voice.

‘Barka!’ the girl repeats.

Bianca gives up and, instead of tackling the Barka/troll issue some more, she tugs on the girl’s wrist and the two of them break off at a run, through the doorway and down the passageway beyond. Bianca suspects it takes the troll a moment to realise what they’re doing and then, with an angry shout of rage that causes the whole cavern to rumble, he runs after them.

‘Run, run, run!’ Bianca squeaks, as they emerge into the junction room and almost stumble. They’re through the doorway before she thinks about it and turns around, skidding back to grab her coat.

‘Come on!’ the girl exclaims from the first cavern, sounding panicked.

Bianca runs back and past the girl, who follows behind her, skirts gathered up in her hands.

They stop at the opening and Bianca turns back to the girl, who has released her skirt and is looking confused. Instead of stopping to explain, Bianca just grabs her hand, moves a few steps back and takes a flying leap through the hole, dragging the squealing girl along behind her.

*

They fall out of the hole together and Bianca, braced for the fall from the wall, releases the girl’s hand and hits the ground at a roll, landing on her coat. The girl, meanwhile, drops to the pavement with an ungainly thump and a crack of her shoulder hitting the ground.

‘Are you okay?’ Bianca asks, immediately rushing over to her, pulling her coat onto her arms to keep from having to carry it.

‘I hurt.’ The girl’s dress is torn in a couple of places from the jagged rock and the shoulder strap has broken in two. There’s a bruise developing on her shoulder and she touches it, gingerly, as she says, ‘Mm... It hurts,’ as though it’s an entirely new experience.

Bianca has a horrible feeling it is.

‘I’m sorry,’ she says, as apologetically as she is able having just saved her from a troll. She offers the girl a hand and helps her to her feet, noticing, idly, that the hat didn’t even move when she fell. ‘I should have warned you that there would be a drop.’ She eyes the girl, who seems lost and out of place, and pushes the trailing silk of her hat’s train from her face when the wind catches it. The girl looks suspiciously like she’s about to go on about princes again, so Bianca turns away and looks around.

‘It’s morning,’ she says, in surprise. ‘But... I’m sure I wasn’t gone that long.’ Deciding to just add that to the list of weird things that happened to her today, she turns to the girl, who is gazing at her, and says, ‘Do you even have a name?’ She prays to whatever deity will listen that the girl doesn’t say no.

‘Alexandra,’ the girl says, with an unbelievably radiant smile spreading across her face. ‘I am Princess Alexandra of Calpaea.’

‘What.’ Bianca stares at her long and hard for a long moment. ‘Seriously?’ she says, reconsidering a repeat of ‘What.’ ‘You’re... a princess?’

‘Yes.’ Alexandra gives her another beaming smile, which is awfully infectious. Bianca finds herself fighting not to smile back until Alexandra says, ‘And you are my Prince Charming!’

‘No. No. No, I am not.’ Bianca glares at her, but even that is met with a smile. ‘I’m just a helpful citizen who did the completely crazy thing of saving you!’ She smacks the princess on the unharmed shoulder and turns away, stalking across the street towards her home.

‘Await me, my prince!’ Alexandra shouts, running towards her, dress gathered up in her hands, heels clicking against the tarmac. ‘You must bring me to your kingdom for our wedding!’

Bianca suspects if she was in a cartoon there would be the sound of screeching tires, she stops and turns around to stare at the girl. ‘I’m not your prince. I don’t even have a kingdom! I don’t even have a bank account yet!’ she exclaims. ‘And, oh, god...’ She stares at Alexandra. ‘You stick out like a sore thumb in that dress.’

‘Like a what?’ Alexandra asks, innocently, which lends credence to the notion that she’s never felt pain before.

‘Sore thumb... Sticking out? Oh. Never even mind...’ Bianca sighs and turns away again, crossing the next road towards her house and wondering, silently, as she heads down the next street and crosses the second road, why it’s her that gets sent to boarding school and her who gets framed for arson and her who rescues a fairy-tale princess.

She comes to the conclusion it’s just her dumb luck.

‘Bianca!’ comes Alexandra’s squeak from behind her and Bianca is suddenly aware that the blonde is following her. She turns around in time to see her walk, blindly, across the road and almost get hit by an incoming Range Rover, which swerves to avoid her at the last moment. As Alexandra stops just before the kerb on the other side, the driver pokes his head out of the window, shaking his fist and bellowing obscenities the princess doesn’t even seem to comprehend, let alone know how to react to.

‘Alexandra!’ She runs over, grabs the girl by the arm and pulls her onto the footpath with one hard tug. The poufy sleeve rips, joining the strap. Bianca barely even notices and certainly doesn’t apologise. She’s too busy yelling, ‘You don’t stand in the middle of the road! You just don’t!’

‘Road?’ Alexandra seems innocently confused, so Bianca’s anger ebbs slightly.

‘This bit here!’ Bianca gestures up and down the street. ‘With the speeding cars and trucks that will kill you stone dead!’ She flails in the other girl’s face for a moment, then manhandles the blonde to walk in front of her, instead of letting her trail behind her like before and undoubtedly get herself killed. ‘Right. I guess you’re coming to my house. Come on.’ She gives her a shove and follows her to her front door. ‘My parents’ll be up soon,’ she says. ‘But, for now, they’re still in bed, so you need to be completely silent, okay?’

‘I can do that!’ Alexandra says, horrifically loudly.

‘No.’ Bianca puts a finger over her lips and presses down. ‘Totally silent. No noise. Barely even breathe. Okay?’

Another nod and Bianca groans. This is going to go horribly wrong. She carefully inserts her key into the lock and turns, then she pushes open the door and beckons Alexandra into the house.

They step quietly into the hall and Bianca takes Alexandra’s wrist again, pulling her, gently, towards the stairs.  Every footstep ruffles with the sound of the hideous pink dress, and the lampshade wobbles, dangerously, when the hat collides with it.

‘Quietly, now,’ Bianca warns. They ascend the stairs, Bianca’s heart in her throat as she carefully avoids the creaky floorboards, and quietly navigate the landing until they reach Bianca’s bedroom door, which she pushes open. She silently ushers the girl inside and once the door is closed behind them, she flicks on the light.

‘Ahh!’ Alexandra exclaims, surprised and pleased by the sudden illumination. ‘Magic!’

‘Electricity,’ Bianca corrects, shrugging off her coat and retrieving her phone from her pocket, quickly checking the screen for messages. ‘Not magic.’ No messages, she drops the phone on the bed almost petulantly and sits down on the end, watching Alexandra as she examines the room.

‘It appears like magic to I!’ Alexandra exclaims. She navigates the room, examining the posters and the things on Bianca’s dressing table. Unfortunately, the dress keeps catching things and pulling them off shelves, causing Bianca to dive after and catch them as Alexandra explores.

‘Can we get you out of that dress, please?’ Bianca says, with a groan. ‘At least for now, so you don’t look like something out of a Disney film?’

‘Out of my dress?’ Alexandra questions, gathering the skirts up almost like a defensive shield. ‘You wish to remove me from my frock? It was designed for me by the Royal Seamstress herself!’

‘Just for now.’ Bianca gives her a pleading look. ‘You’re gonna have to come to school with me until we can figure out what to do with you or your parents come to fetch you... and if you don’t change your clothes you’ll not only be laughed at, but you’ll also be sent to the headmaster’s office. And then they’ll realise you’re not supposed to be there. If we’re lucky, you can just blend in with one of my uniforms.’ She eyes Alexandra for a moment. ‘You look around my size.’

If ‘around’ is two sizes smaller and skinny as hell. She’ll just have to wear a belt, Bianca decides.

And roll the sleeves up.

If they’re lucky, Bianca’s shoes will fit her, at least.

‘Uniforms?’ Alexandra questions.

‘Look, just... change. Okay?’ Bianca sighs as she reaches for her school shirts, selecting the one that’s always been a little too small and laying it out on the bed. ‘I’ll...’ She turns back in time to see the Princess stepping out of her dress, revealing long, slender legs and her breasts pushed up by the corset.  Bianca gapes at her and turns away again, muttering to herself.

‘You need... You need to take off the corset and that, too... I’ll... I’ll give you a bra and stuff...’ She opens one of her drawers and retrieves a pink bra with delicate black lace and the matching knickers, both of which she lays on the bed by the shirt. Lastly she grabs a pair of black trousers and drops them onto the pile.

‘You... put these on.’ She points at the clothes and Alexandra nods her understanding. ‘While I... go pee.’ She turns away without looking back at the undressing girl once and leaves the room, heading straight into the bathroom opposite and locking the door behind her.

*

Five minutes later she’s still splashing water on her face trying to wake up because, surely, this is a dream. It has to be.

‘I’ve rescued a princess from a dungeon and now she’s wearing my bra...’ she mutters at her face in the mirror. ‘I think I’ve finally lost my mind.’

There’s a timid knock on the door and Bianca unlocks and opens it, nervously. Alexandra is standing outside, the knickers on but the rest of her decidedly uncovered, with the exception of her hair cascading down around her shoulders and over her chest and the really annoying conical hat that’s still on her head.

‘Erm...?’ Bianca says, blinking at her face. Her face.

‘I know not what I should do with this garment,’ Alexandra says. She holds up the bra and Bianca snaps out of her oh-my-god-naked-princess-in-my-bathroom trance.

Bianca pulls a face and takes the bra off her. ‘Like this,’ she tells her, holding it out with the straps open. ‘Arms through here.’ Alexandra steps into it and Bianca steps behind her, pulling the clasp together. ‘Hands.’ She guides Alexandra’s hands to the catch and helps her to pull it together and make it lock. Her knuckles brush over the smooth skin of Alexandra’s back and it’s all she can do not to just go commit herself to a mental institution on the spot.

Surely, she’s lost her mind. And if she hasn’t, she will do soon because she’s only human, damn it.

She takes a deep, calming breath and steps back, moving to stand in front of the princess once more. ‘There.’

Alexandra looks down at herself. ‘May I ask, what is the function of this constrictive garment?’

‘Says the girl in the corset!’ Bianca exclaims. Seeing Alexandra’s confused look, she sighs. ‘It... it keeps your boobs perky and private.’

‘Boobs?’

Bianca pokes the left cup of her bra. ‘Boobs. Breasts. Chest. Whatever. Keeps it perky and it’s so your nipples don’t show and then the boys can’t perv on you. Well, mostly. You’re lucky my bra even fits you.’ She eyes her for a moment. ‘You’re at least one size smaller.

‘It is comfortable.’ Alexandra pokes herself on the chest. ‘Boobs?’

Bianca turns away and lets her forehead hit the bathroom wall. ‘Oh, god help me. I have to take this girl to school with me,’ she mutters.

*

Twenty minutes later, Bianca is, insofar as her attire, all ready for school: shirt buttoned, tie draped around her neck and blazer and black trousers on, and trying to tie Alexandra’s tie for her, even as the blonde complains and tries to figure out what the purpose of the tie is.

‘I don’t know,’ Bianca says, for the fourth time. ‘I just know we have to wear it, so just let me tie it!’ She pulls the tail through as Alexandra picks up and examines the trousers.

‘Put those on,’ Bianca says.

‘These are meant for men,’ Alexandra announces, wrinkling her nose and holding out the offending garment towards Bianca. ‘Womenfolk are meant to wear skirts and dresses.’

‘I think I just heard a hundred feminists crying.’ Bianca glares at her and finally finishes off the tie. ‘Can’t you just wear the trousers? Is that too much to ask?’

Alexandra drops them on the bed in disgust. ‘Trousers,’ she says, using the word as though for the first time, ‘are for princes.’ She gestures at Bianca and her trouser-clad legs.

‘And princesses!’ Bianca exclaims. ‘Really! Princesses can wear them too!’

‘It is not proper and I will not do it!’ Alexandra exclaims.

‘Oh... for crying out loud.’ Bianca glares at her, pushes past her and walks across to the wardrobe. ‘I might have a skirt in here somewhere...’ She rifles through the articles of clothing lying abandoned on the base and, after a couple of minutes, comes back with a short, pleated skirt from a few years before. It’s multiple sizes too small for her now – something she’s eternally grateful for, since it stops Julia from nagging her to show off her legs – but will probably fit Alexandra. It’s also black, which fits with the school dress code.

‘I dunno if it’ll fit you,’ she says, bringing it back across to the cantankerous princess, ‘but it’s worth a try, I guess.’ She shrugs and moves away to tie her own tie, having paid attention only to Alexandra’s.  ‘Now, come on. We need to go downstairs.’

She pulls the blonde from the room, skirt still clutched in dainty hands, and drags her down the stairs and into the kitchen-cum-dining room. She’s half way across to the fridge when she notices Alexandra just standing there.  ‘Are you going to put that on or what?’ she asks, after a moment, gesturing at the small slip of black fabric in Alexandra’s hands.

‘Yes, of course.’ Bianca can’t help but track the skirt’s progress as the blonde pulls it on and up her slender legs to sit, comfortably, on her hips. Although the waist size seems to be perfect, the skirt itself barely comes down to her mid-thigh. Alexandra stares at it in disbelief and Bianca just stares. ‘This skirt... It is inappropriate!’

‘Do you want the skirt or the trousers?’ Bianca snaps, stalking across and hitting the button on the kettle to boil it, not even bothering to check there’s still water contained within from the night before. Alexandra pulls a face and Bianca knows she’s won.

She navigates across the room and opens the fridge. She’s about to retrieve food of some description when it occurs to her she has no idea what princesses eat. ‘What do you want? You look like the type to be vegetarian or something.’ Alexandra isn’t forthcoming so she sighs and says, ‘Toast, I think. Toast is usually the lesser of the evils...’ She pulls a carton of juice from the fridge and grabs a loaf of bread from within the breadbin by the sink. When she turns to take it over to the toaster, she notices Alexandra is standing beside the microwave, the damn hat finally discarded upstairs, and looking lost, so Bianca gives her a reassuring smile and asks, ‘Toast okay by you?’

Alexandra nods, cautiously. Bianca suspects she doesn’t have a clue what toast even is.

‘Okay then.’ She retrieves two glasses and pours orange juice into both, then pushes one of the glasses towards the blonde. ‘Drink.’

Alexandra gives her a wary look, but trusts her enough to pick up the glass and take a hesitant sip. ‘Ahh!’ she exclaims with wide eyes, as the first sip goes down. ‘It is delicious!’

‘Orange juice?’ Bianca gives her an unsure look then takes a sip herself. ‘Mm, I guess it is pretty nice.  Don’t you have orange juice where you’re from?’

‘No.’ Alexandra shakes her head. ‘We have wine and water... But we do not have this orange juice of which you speak. I feel I must ask, now, what else do you have that we do not?’

Bianca grins and has to resist the urge to start listing the things she suspects Alexandra’s world is bereft of. The Internet and the things contained within spring immediately to mind. But instead of scaring the girl, she says, with an amused look, ‘Now you’re getting interested?’

Alexandra nods, excitedly, ‘Oh, yes, my prince!’ She claps her hands together and she seems so happy Bianca can’t bring herself to correct her over the prince thing again. ‘I beg you now; show me the delicacies of your world!’

Six

‘Morning, Bianca,’ Julia says, as she walks into the kitchen, yawning and scratching at her ruffled hair, robe wrapped tightly around her. ‘What the hell are you doing?’

The two girls are sitting opposite each other at the table, the surface laden with every kind of food and drink Bianca could acquire at such short notice. Amongst the spread there’s orange juice, carrot juice, apple juice, pomegranate juice, toast, all kinds of jams and butter to go with it, every type of cereal Bianca could lay her hands on, fried bacon and defrosted waffles from the freezer.

‘We’re eating!’ Bianca exclaims, happily. Upon discovering Alexandra’s appetite and desire to try everything, she’d quickly decided to fatten her up so she’d actually fit into the clothes Bianca provided.

Julia raises an eyebrow. ‘I see.’ She comes over to the table and sits down next to Alexandra and opposite Bianca. After a moment, she turns to the blonde and asks, ‘Do I know you?’

‘Mum, this is Alexandra,’ Bianca says. ‘She’s my new friend. We’re walking to school together.’

‘Not walking with Scotty?’ Julia enquires, reaching for some toast.

‘’Course! I can walk with more than one person, Mum!’ Bianca exclaims. She grins at Alexandra and nudges the jar of marmalade towards her. ‘Try that.’

Julia raises an eyebrow. ‘I’m sure Alexandra has tried marmalade before, Bianca...’

Alexandra removes the spoon from her mouth. ‘Never have I experienced such a wonder!’ she exclaims, with wide eyes.

Bianca looks at her mother with wide eyes. ‘She’s... erm... she’s an exchange student.’

‘Where do you come from, then?’ Julia enquires of the blonde.

‘Calpaea!’ Alexandra says, with a big smile.

Julia smiles, indulgently at her, as though suspecting her of being mentally deficient. ‘I’ve never heard of it. Where is it?’

‘Somewhere in Asia,’ Bianca says, quickly. ‘Tiny, tiny place. They don’t get marmalade.’ She glances across at Alexandra reverently nibbling at a piece of toast, wonder filling her large eyes.  ‘Or... bread.’

Scotty chooses that moment exactly to walk into the kitchen via the back door and drop his bag on the floor by the table. ‘Hello,’ he says, with a grin, grabbing the nearest chair, straddling it and reaching for the food on the table. ‘What’s with the buffet?’

‘Help yourself, Scotty,’ Julia says, rolling her eyes.

‘Don’t mind if I do, Missus W.,’ Scotty replies, piece of toast shoved in his mouth. ‘My mum’s been neglecting me. I’m being starved!’

‘Funny, you look well fed,’ Julia responds, with a grin, standing up and walking towards the cup rack. ‘Coffee, dear?’

‘Mm, that’d be lovely, ta.’ Scotty turns to Bianca as her mother reaches for a mug for him, then Alexandra catches his eye.  ‘Who’s this pretty lady, then?’ he says to her, with a grin.

Bianca’s eyes widen. ‘You know Alexandra, Scotty!’ she exclaims, overly cheerfully. ‘From school?’

‘No, I don’-’ He breaks off when Bianca’s foot impacts his shin under the table. ‘Oh! Alexandra. Of course. Yes. Of course I know Alexandra.’ He stuffs more toast in his mouth, pulls his phone from his pocket and starts thumbing through his text messages.

‘So, what lessons have you got today?’ Julia asks, sitting down again and pushing a mug towards Scotty, who accepts it with a grateful smile and fills it to its brim with black coffee. Bianca pulls a face at him, noting, with distaste, that Julia didn’t bring her one and stops Alexandra from reaching for the coffee. The last thing Bianca needs is a caffeinated princess on her hands.

‘I’ve got double maths.’ She groans. ‘Then, English, bio and chem...’ She sighs. ‘I miss fencing. I used to have fencing on Mondays.’

‘You did fencing?’ Julia says, her mug of coffee held in her hands by her mouth.

‘Yeah, Missus W.!’ Scotty exclaims. ‘At St Mary’s, she was one of the best in the fencing class.’

‘Actually,’ Bianca interjects, ‘I was the best. I beat the best, in fact.’

‘Which is why she’s not allowed near sharp objects anymore,’ Scotty announces. Bianca sticks her tongue out at him in return. He takes a long swig of coffee and sighs, happily. ‘Missus W., I do believe you make the best coffee in all of England.’

Bianca rolls her eyes, but Alexandra points at Julia and says, quietly, ‘Missus W.?’

Bianca nods. ‘Yeah,’ she says. ‘My mum; Julia Western. Missus W.’

Scotty goes in for some more toast, coffee mug held in the same hand as his phone. He somehow manages to turn his hand over without spilling the coffee and glances at his watch. ‘Biancs, we should go if we want to get to school on time.’

Bianca groans. ‘Okay, okay,’ she says, scraping back her chair and standing up.  ‘Come on, Alexandra.’ She reaches out and catches the other girl’s hand, pulling her to her feet and rolling her eyes when she dives in for once more slice of toast and marmalade. ‘We’ll get you more food at school.’ She shudders to think how much Alexandra will weigh by the time she’s returned to her kingdom.

Scotty grabs his bag from beside Bianca’s and passes hers to her as well, with a smile. She accepts it, gratefully, and throws it over her shoulder, rifling through it as they walk outside. It takes her until the end of the path to realise her error. ‘I forgot my maths book,’ she says, with a sigh, grinding to a halt. She presses Alexandra’s hand into Scotty’s. ‘Look after her for a moment for me,’ she commands.

‘Bianca!’ Scotty shouts, apparently terrified of having hand-holding thrust upon him, but Bianca has already hurtled back into the house.

By the time she comes back a couple of minutes later, Alexandra is in tears.

‘What the hell happened?!’ she demands, running over to her new friend and wrapping her arms around the blonde, throwing a dirty look Scotty’s way.

‘She just... just... she started shouting your name and burst into tears!’ Scotty exclaims, looking as horrified as Bianca feels.

‘It’s okay, it’s okay,’ Bianca whispers into Alexandra’s hair, one hand stroking it while the other holds her close. ‘Scotty’s a friend. He’s safe. Really!’

Alexandra pulls back a tiny bit and looks at her with tear-filled eyes. ‘This world... it is big and frightening. I thought you had left me forever and I became anxious...’

‘I just went to fetch this,’ Bianca says, producing her maths book with a small smile. ‘I promise I’ll always come back for you, okay?’

Alexandra nods and smiles. ‘O-kay,’ she says, cautiously.

‘Biancs, can I talk to you for a moment, please?’ Scotty says, grabbing Bianca by the elbow and towing her across towards the potted plants to the left of the path. Alexandra remains by the gate, within Bianca’s line of sight.

‘What?’ she hisses.

‘Who is she?’

‘Alexandra.’

‘No, Biancs.’ Scotty shakes his head. ‘I’ve never seen her before. I know you didn’t meet her at school. And she got terrified when you left her. Who is she?’

Bianca cringes. ‘She’s... a princess from another land.’

‘Funny,’ Scotty says, with a glare. ‘You’re real funny.’

‘I’m also ‘real’ serious,’ Bianca says, with air quotes. She shoves him back towards the princess. ‘Alexandra,’ she says, gently, ‘tell Scotty who you are and where you’re from.’

‘I am Princess Alexandra of Calpaea!’ she exclaims, with a smile. ‘My Prince Charming rescued me from the evil enchantress who wishes to steal my throne.’

‘You couldn’t have left that bit out?’ Bianca says, with a groan.

‘Prince Charming?’ Scotty says. ‘Then why are you with...’ He trails off and looks at Bianca. ‘No!’ he exclaims, starting to laugh.

‘Shut up,’ Bianca grumbles.

‘Seriously? She thinks you are her Prince Charming? Oh, that’s priceless! You’re not a prince and you’re certainly not charming!’ He laughs harder, doubled up and holding his sides.

‘She is my Prince Charming!’ Alexandra exclaims. ‘It was foretold by my Fairy Godmother that I would be kidnapped by an Evil Enchantress and Prince Charming would rescue me and protect me until the day we return to the Kingdom together to be wed!’

Scotty stops laughing. ‘Is she serious?’

‘Deadly,’ Bianca says.

*

‘Okay, so I don’t get it,’ Scotty says, as they walk to school. ‘If she’s some princess from some fairy tale land... why is she here?’

‘I don’t know.’ Bianca shrugs. ‘I didn’t know what else to do with her.’

‘Eh?’

‘I went through that hole. Last night.’

‘Could’a waited for me!’ Scotty splutters.

She ignores him. ‘And I found her imprisoned by a troll in this... cave. Looked like something out of a game.’ She sighs. ‘She was in this pink poufy dress with one of those conical hats with the silk coming down.’ She gestures madly, trying to describe the hat. ‘You know the ones?’

‘Never been a big fan of the more feminine fairy tales, but yes.’ He looks across at Alexandra, who is staring around at the world in wonder as she trails behind Bianca, clutching on to the other girl’s hand.  ‘So, why is she going to school with us?’

‘What else am I meant to do with her? I can’t leave her at home and I certainly can’t leave her to wander because last time I did that she almost got hit by a truck!’ She throws up her hands and Alexandra recaptures the left one as soon as it drops back down. ‘I just have to hope the teachers don’t notice she’s not supposed to be here.’

‘Poor girl,’ Scotty says, mournfully. ‘She falls into our world and we subject her to school right off the bat.’

Bianca snorts and pulls a hair band from her pocket slowing down and placing a hand on Alexandra’s shoulder. ‘Hang on a sec, Alexandra.’

They stop walking as she gently turns the blonde around, running her fingers through the girl’s long hair. She braids it loosely down her back and smiles when it’s done, turning her back around. ‘You blend in a little easier now,’ she says. ‘Although you’d blend in a lot better if your hair was shorter.’ She fingers the end of the plait, the straggling ends of her hair half way down her back.

Scotty sighs, ruffling his own hair, drawing the girls’ attention back to him. ‘So, are you going to have to go to her kingdom with her?’

Alexandra looks at Bianca, expectantly, but Bianca shakes her head, takes Alexandra’s hand again and starts walking. ‘Nah,’ she says. ‘Eventually, the real Prince Charming will turn up to bring her home and I’m good with that.’

‘No, no, no!’ Alexandra exclaims. She wrenches her hand free and jumps back a few steps, towards the wall. ‘You cannot leave me! You are Prince Charming! You must not leave! You must not!’

‘I’m not going to leave,’ Bianca says, rolling her eyes and catching Alexandra’s hand with her own once more, tugging her down the street. ‘I’ll make sure you’re safe.’

‘You realise we’ve both gone insane, though, right?’ Scotty enquires, as they start walking again, Alexandra clinging more tightly to Bianca this time. ‘You honestly believe this girl is a princess?’

‘There was a troll, Scotty,’ Bianca says. ‘A troll. Once you’ve seen a troll you believe anything.’ They turn the corner, walking towards the large grey building of the school.  ‘And have you heard how she talks?’

‘She’s going to get bullied into oblivion, and that’s just by our friends,’ Scotty says with a sigh, as they approach the school. They slip in with the rest of the uniform-clad teenagers and follow them into the school.

‘At least she’s our age, okay?’ Bianca says.

‘I have been alive seventeen years!’ Alexandra exclaims.

‘Okay, a little older.’ Bianca shrugs. ‘But close enough. There was a girl at St Mary’s who looked like she was twenty-five.’

‘I bet she was horrible,’ Scotty says, pulling a face.

‘She was actually the loveliest girl I’ve ever met...’ Bianca says, with a smile. ‘I miss her, actually.’

‘Huh. You miss something of St Mary’s. Maybe you are human.’ They push open the next door inside the school and stop.

‘We missed form,’ Bianca says, distractedly. ‘Think they’ll call my parents?’

Scotty shakes his head. ‘I’ve missed form hundreds of times. As long as we make it to at least one class we’ll be okay.’

‘Where are we first?’ Bianca enquires.

‘Maths, so, uh... one-two-one.’

Bianca nods and pulls Alexandra down the halls, Scotty following behind her. She squeezes the blonde’s hand and says, gently, ‘In this class, you need to be quiet, okay? Keep your head down, look like you’re doing work and try not to talk too much. Hopefully the teacher won’t notice you, then.’

Alexandra gives her a wide-eyed nod. ‘I will follow your direction,’ she says.

‘Good.’ Bianca pulls Alexandra into the classroom, keeping their joined hands hidden behind her bag, and leads her over to the desk.

‘Nice of you to join us, Scott,’ Sands says, without looking up.

‘Sorry, sir. My alarm didn’t go off,’ Scotty lies, smoothly.

‘Keep using that excuse and I’ll buy you one for Christmas,’ Sands says, looking up finally and quirking an eyebrow at the class as Bianca and Alexandra sit down at the back, opposite Cory and Daisy, a redheaded girl with flashing green eyes. Scotty slides in beside them.

‘Who’s this?’ Cory enquires, casting Alexandra an appreciative gaze and quirking an eyebrow, his interest obvious.

‘Alexandra,’ Bianca says. ‘She’s new.’ She squeezes the blonde’s hand under the table one more time before releasing her and moving around to retrieve her maths book from her bag.

‘Nice to meet you, Alexandra,’ Cory says, with a grin. ‘I’m Cory and this is Daisy.’

Daisy gives her a smile and Alexandra smiles blithely back in response.

‘Don’t you talk?’ Daisy says, after a moment.

‘You can talk to these two,’ Bianca says, quietly, as she opens her maths book and finds the page specified on the board.

‘I do communicate,’ Alexandra says.  ‘However, Bianca thought it best for me to stay quiet in... class.’ She stumbles over the word, as if trying to be sure she’s using the correct terminology.

‘That’s ‘cause she’s a B-I-T-C-H,’ Daisy says, winking at the blonde. ‘But don’t you worry; stick with us and we won’t tell ya not to talk.’

Alexandra tilts her head, mouthing the letters to the word Daisy spelled out. ‘I am not familiar with this word,’ she says, turning to Bianca. ‘What is its meaning?’

‘My god,’ Cory says eyes wide, ‘are you from another world or something?’

‘It means a nasty person, usually a woman,’ Bianca explains quickly to Alexandra. ‘And Cory, shut up. You don’t even know what you’re talking about.’

‘Yeah! And Biancs is definitely not one of those!’ Scotty exclaims, always the first to dive to Bianca’s defence.

‘Indeed she is not!’ Alexandra says, almost rippling with indignation. ‘She is my Prince Charming!’

There’s a dull thump as Bianca’s forehead hits the desk.

‘They’re in a play together,’ Scotty explains, quickly, before Daisy can say anything.

‘Uh huh.’ Daisy nods, unconvinced.

‘Ah, Bianca...’ Sands walks across at that moment and smiles, pleasantly. He leans on the table, looking straight at Bianca. ‘I believe you required tutoring in your maths?’

‘Yes, please, sir,’ Bianca replies, with a smile. ‘Thank you.’

‘Come over here then.’ Sands gestures at an empty desk.

Bianca stands up, her chair scraping noisily across the floor, squeezes Alexandra’s shoulder and disappears.

Seven

‘You spent the entire of double maths being tutored by Sands,’ Cory says, as he, Scotty, Daisy and Bianca – being trailed by a fearful looking Alexandra – leave the classroom.

‘Tell me about it.’ She groans. ‘I think my brain is about to explode. Or implode. Or just overload. I need food. I need chocolate. I need a new brain. I need lunch.’

‘Come on then,’ Cory says. ‘We’ll go get food.’

‘We’ll catch up,’ Bianca says. ‘You, Daisy and Scotty go ahead. I’m going to go outside with Alexandra and get some air.’

Cory nudges Scotty and gives him a significant look. Scotty kicks him in the shin. ‘Idiot,’ he mutters. Bianca rolls her eyes.

‘Boys,’ she mutters. ‘Come on,’ she says to Alexandra, tugging on her hand with a smile, ‘let’s go outside.’

*

There’s a small patch of grass on the outskirts of the school grounds, well monitored enough to discourage the smokers, but not forbidden, inviting a small group of quiet, well-mannered friends to congregate and enjoy their lunch in peace and quiet under the sun, no matter how cold it is on any given day.

It’s there that Bianca leads Alexandra and the two sit; side by side, under the only slightly warm winter sun, on the damp patch of sloping grass.  Alexandra tucks her legs delicately up beneath her, whereas Bianca just sprawls and starts rifling through her bag with about as much grace as a blind elephant trying to get a stick out of its bum.

‘Here.’ She retrieves two sandwiches from deep within her bag and offers one to Alexandra, who accepts it, gingerly, unwraps it from within its plastic bag and takes a bite. ‘You don’t have to act like it’s poisoned,’ Bianca chastises. Alexandra gives her a grin, makes happy sounds and continues munching, settling back on her elbow to enjoy the rest of the sandwich in comfort.

‘So,’ Bianca says, with a smile, licking her fingers and tucking into her own sandwich, ‘tell me about your kingdom.’ She suspects she’s not enjoying her food nearly as much as Alexandra is.

Alexandra smiles, dreamily, and leans back a little more, casting her eyes up to the sky above her. ‘Our castle is by the ocean, set into the cliffs and rising high into the sky. The ocean is clear as crystal and as deep blue as sapphire. In the summer, the servants’ children and I run down to the water with no shoes on and play in the small waves. The grass around the castle is the brightest of greens, greener even than this!’ She gestures at the grass beneath them. ‘And everything is clean and shines in the sunlight.’

‘It sounds beautiful,’ Bianca says, tearing off a small piece of sandwich and placing it in her mouth. She chews on it for a moment but it doesn’t taste as good anymore. Once she’s swallowed, she says, ‘I guess my world seems pretty rubbish in comparison, huh?’

‘No, no, not at all! This is the adventure I have been awaiting throughout my short lifetime! And I get to experience it with my Prince Charming!’ She grins and takes another bite of sandwich.

‘Mm... I’m still not your Prince Charming, you know,’ Bianca says. She puts her sandwich down, suddenly not hungry.

‘Why must you say that?’ Alexandra says, with a sad look. ‘You are more Prince Charming than any man could be!’

‘But I’m not the Prince Charming. You know that, right?’ Bianca says, reaching across and placing her hand on top of Alexandra’s. ‘I’m just the girl who rescued you by mistake.’

The blonde’s blue-green eyes flicker down to look at her lap and she shakes her head. ‘You must be,’ she says, ‘for I was meant to be rescued by the Prince Charming...’

‘I’m sorry.’ Bianca swallows and wishes she still had her sandwich to concentrate on.

Alexandra shrugs and Bianca is suddenly hit by the realisation that the blonde is barely any older than she; a young girl who spent her entire life waiting for Prince Charming to save her life, take her in her arms and marry her. Instead, she gets her bubble burst by a stupid teenage girl who doesn’t know better than to climb into holes without knowing where she’ll end up.

‘I’m really sorry,’ Bianca repeats. ‘I... God, I’m so sorry.’ She retracts her hand and groans.

‘You need not be sorry,’ Alexandra says, with a smile. ‘You quite possibly saved my life! That is nothing you must ever be sorry for.’ There’s something shining in Alexandra’s eyes and Bianca suspects it’s the desire to call her Prince Charming again.

Bianca sighs because she doesn’t want to do more bubble bursting today. ‘Tell me... Tell me about your family. Do you have any brothers or sisters?’

Alexandra shakes her head. ‘No, there is but me. Yourself?’

‘I have an idiot brother called Topher.’ Bianca shrugs and reaches for her sandwich again, despite not really having an appetite anymore. ‘I sometimes wish I was an only child.’

‘Why?’

‘Because Topher’s really annoying!’ Bianca exclaims. She laughs. ‘He drives me crazy.’

‘But you love him?’

‘Says who?’ Bianca scowls at her new friend.

Alexandra smiles. ‘He is your brother. Of course you love him.’

‘Eh. I guess. I’d still rather be an only child, though. That would be so much—’ She breaks off when Alexandra places a finger on her lips and just sorta blinks at her.

‘It is lonely.’ Alexandra gives her a sad smile, not moving. ‘I was raised by a Fairy Godmother and the Queen... There were no others around me until I went out and found them... But you! You have never been quite alone. You do not wish to be alone.’

Bianca sighs as the finger slips free and Alexandra goes back to sitting, contentedly, on the grass, looking around at the scenery. She doesn’t feel like any response will be appropriate, so instead she falls silent and eats pieces of her tasteless sandwich.

‘About that Fairy Godmother thing!’ Bianca exclaims, after a moment. ‘I want to know more about that!’

Before Alexandra can reply, Cory appears from nowhere, dropping down to sit behind them and announcing, ‘We thought we’d come find you!’ Daisy and Scotty sit either side of him as he continues with, ‘You and your... Princess.’ He snickers.

‘You told them?’ Bianca snaps at Scotty.

Scotty throws his hands up. ‘I didn’t mean to!’ he exclaims. ‘It was just... Daisy said she acted like a total princess and I... may have slipped.’

‘Scotty!’ Bianca exclaims.

‘I’m only human!’ Scotty exclaims. ‘I’m not used to keeping secrets! And... it’s only Cor and Dais.’

‘It’s not true, though, right?’ Cory says, still snickering. ‘I mean; she’s a fairytale princess? Really?’

‘I am Princess Alexandra of Calpaea!’ Alexandra says, smiling happily.

‘Oh, this is priceless!’ Cory laughs, clapping his hands together. He turns to Scotty. ‘Mate, your friends are nuts.’

‘Shut up.’ Scotty glares at him.

‘I can prove my claim to be naught but the truth!’ Alexandra announces, standing up. She turns her face up to the sky, takes a deep breath and shouts, ‘Nissa! Nissa!’

‘Alexandra,’ Daisy hisses, grabbing at her skirt and trying to pull her down, ‘people are staring!’

‘You really can’t do this,’ Bianca says, quickly, ‘especially not if you want to blend i-’ She breaks off, eyes widening as a dot of light appears in the air before Alexandra, expanding and brightening until it gets to be bigger than the group.

The four students flinch away as the light explodes, but Alexandra stares into it as it transforms into a tubby older woman, who appears to be floating about two meters off the ground.

‘This,’ Alexandra says, grandly, ‘is my Fairy Godmother, Nissa.’

‘Are you crazy?!’ Bianca hisses. ‘You brought her here?’

‘Only we are able to see her,’ Alexandra replies, smiling up at the Fairy Godmother hovering above. ‘Thank you for heeding my call, Nissa.’ She does a little curtsy before the woman in the air.

‘At least act normal!’ Scotty hisses, grabbing her by the back of the blazer and dragging her down to a sitting position.

‘That’s... that’s...’ Cory points up at Nissa in bewilderment. ‘Where are the strings?!’

‘Strings?’ Alexandra asks, confused.

‘There have to be strings!’ Daisy says, standing up and walking around the Fairy Godmother, waving her hands through the air surrounding her. ‘How are you doing this?!’

‘Magic!’ Alexandra exclaims, with a smile.

‘What do you need, child?’ Nissa enquires, reaching out and tucking the blonde’s hair behind her ear as Daisy sits back down.  She casts her gaze around, and then breaks out in an enigmatic smile. ‘Ah!’ she shouts. ‘Your Prince Charming came for you!’

‘I am afraid not, Nissa,’ Alexandra says, regretfully, but Bianca can tell she doesn’t believe her own press. ‘The one who pulled me from that dreadful place is this maiden.’ She gestures at Bianca, who flushes and looks at Scotty, who’s snickering.

‘Shut up,’ she hisses at him.

Daisy leans over. ‘Doesn’t ‘maiden’ mean a female young or unmarried virgin?’

‘Shut up,’ Bianca repeats, as the group begin to laugh.

‘This is not funny, children!’ Nissa exclaims. They fall silent. ‘If Alexandra does not find her Prince Charming, she will be doomed to remain alone for all eternity!’ She turns back to the girl in question. ‘Are you positive it was not your Prince who rescued you?’

Alexandra casts her eyes down. ‘She insists she is not a prince. She is adamant that she is merely a girl in the right place at the right time.’

Nissa looks across at Bianca.  ‘You are sure?’

‘I’m no Prince Charming, ma’am,’ Bianca says, quietly.

Nissa sighs, dramatically, floating up another couple of inches, then down a foot. ‘In that case, I do believe I must inform the kingdom. They will send out search parties for your retrieval.’

She moves to click her fingers, but Alexandra catches her hand. ‘Tell them... Tell them not to be too hasty, Nissa, please.’

Nissa smiles and clicks her fingers, disappearing in a puff of smoke.

‘So,’ Cory says, quietly, still in shock, ‘you really are a fairytale princess.’

Alexandra just smiles casually at him in response.

*

The rest of the day passes mostly without incident, thanks to Alexandra’s presence being covered up now not only by Bianca and Scotty, but also Daisy and Cory. Cory and Daisy also seem to have taken it upon themselves to protect the girl from bullies, teachers and, in Cory’s case, spiders, although Bianca suspects that’s more of his own phobia than Alexandra’s.

The walk home is uneventful, although punctuated by Bianca and Scotty yawning at regular intervals even whilst Alexandra bounces like a five year old on a sugar high.

They say goodbye to Scotty on the corner, Bianca with a hug and Alexandra with a shy smile and wave, and the two girls sneak quietly into the house, so as not to alert Bianca’s parents to Alexandra’s continued presence.

‘So, when are you going to be taken home?’ Bianca asks, breezily, as she and Alexandra walk into her bedroom. She drops her bag on the bed, shrugs out of her blazer, hanging it up in the wardrobe, unbuttons the top couple of buttons of her shirt and tosses her tie over the chest of drawers, then joins her bag by flopping face-first into the pillows.

‘It could be any time!’ Alexandra says, with a smile. ‘It could be now... or not for a year!’

‘A year?!’ Bianca squeaks, raising her face up from within the pillows. She takes a breath. ‘Okay,’ she says, after a moment, sitting up and tucking her feet beneath her, ‘if you’re going to be stranded here for that long... I guess I should teach you how to fit in with normal society and not let many, many people know you’re a princess from some faraway land called Calpol.’

‘Calpaea!’ Alexandra exclaims.

‘The point still stands.’ Bianca gives her a weak glare.

Alexandra grins, excitedly. ‘Show me how to live!’

Bianca smiles. ‘Let’s start with the iPod,’ she says, with a smile, walking across to her iPod dock and guiding Alexandra by the hand to follow her. ‘You like music, I gather?’

‘Music is surely the most beautiful thing to permeate the air!’ Alexandra exclaims.

‘I’ll take that as a yes.’ Bianca says, rolling her eyes. She holds Alexandra’s hand in her own and directs the blonde’s slender finger towards the buttons. ‘Press this button to turn it on,’ she says, pressing down on the menu button, ‘and slide your finger like this to navigate the menus.’ She slides her finger around in a gentle circle and Alexandra gives her an amazed look.

‘This is wondrous magic!’

‘Not magic. Just an iPod.’ Bianca laughs and scrolls down, still using Alexandra’s finger. ‘Here, we’ll go for a random song, okay?’ She presses the centre button down on ‘Shuffle Songs’ and Alexandra jumps back a couple of paces as the beginning beats of John Barrowman’s version of Uptown Girl fills Bianca’s bedroom via her iPod Dock.

‘That is miraculous!’ Alexandra exclaims, staring around in disbelief.

‘Come on.’ Bianca guides her back across to the iPod with a smile. ‘I’ll show you how to choose your own songs.’

Eight

‘What are you doing?’

Bianca pauses in front of the mirror and turns around to face Alexandra, who has walked into the bathroom and perched on the side of the bath. She’s watching Bianca with obvious curiosity, the kind Bianca is growing slowly accustomed to seeing on the other girl’s face.

Bianca looks down at the eyeliner in her hand, then across at Alexandra. ‘I’m putting makeup on. Don’t your people wear makeup?’

Alexandra shakes her head silently, slipping her hands between her knees and leaning forwards a bit to peer at Bianca. ‘What is the purpose of this... makeup?’ she enquires.

‘Um... well...’ Bianca turns away from the mirror to lean against the sink, almost perched on the cool ceramic object. ‘We use it to enhance our features... like, eyeliner makes your eyes pop, as does eye shadow and mascara makes our eyelashes look longer. Lipstick and lip gloss makes our lips more attractive.’

‘Attractive?’

‘Kissable. It makes you want to kiss someone more if they have lip gloss on.’ Bianca flushes a bit as Alexandra eyes her and her mouth, thoughtfully.

‘I would not need this... lip gloss,’ Alexandra announces, after what seems like a lot of thought. ‘I would be content without.’

Bianca blushes hotly and turns away again, supressing the rising heat in her cheeks with a cough. ‘You don’t wear lip gloss?’ she says. ‘Your lips are that colour naturally?’

Alexandra smiles and nods. ‘Oh yes,’ she says.

Bianca sighs, jealous. Alexandra’s lips look soft and plump and slightly shiny without needing help from cosmetics. It’s not really fair.

‘What is this?’ Alexandra is at her side, retrieving her foundation and eyeing it curiously.

‘It covers up blemishes, makes your skin look smoother.’ Bianca takes it off her and opens it up. ‘Here.’ She starts applying it to Alexandra’s face, careful not to put too much on, and then follows with eyeliner, shadow, mascara and a small, thin layer of light pink lip gloss. She doesn’t need it really, not like Bianca, but it never hurts to give it a try.

When she’s done, Alexandra has a small amount of blue eye shadow on her eyelids, matching and bringing out the colour of her eyes. Bianca turns her, gently, by the shoulders towards the mirror and points.

‘How very peculiar...’ Alexandra says, touching her face and examining her eyes. ‘This is a strange practice. You do this every day?’

Bianca shrugs. ‘Sometimes,’ she says. She grabs a makeup wipe from her makeup bag and starts wiping at Alexandra’s face. ‘You don’t need it though,’ she says. ‘You look gorgeous without makeup.’

It’s Alexandra’s turn to blush and Bianca can’t help but smile as she gently removes the makeup.

‘You don’t need makeup either,’ Alexandra says, quietly.

Bianca smiles and keeps on wiping.

*

‘Should we not be attending school?’ Alexandra enquires when Bianca leads her by the hand in the opposite direction from the high school. ‘I believed it to be mandatory.’

‘So is skipping a day once in a while,’ Bianca replies as she takes a right and slips down a small, almost hidden path. ‘It’s a rite of passage for a teenager.’

‘I see...’ Alexandra hurries after her as she takes a few more turns, going past small cottage-like houses and climbing over a stile. ‘Where is it you are taking me?’

‘You’ll see.’ Bianca helps Alexandra over the stile and they carry on across the grass. The tall blades tickle at the blonde’s knees and the dew clings to her skin and shoes. She doesn’t seem to mind, though, instead just running after Bianca, carefully avoiding holes in the ground.

‘I used to come here all the time as a kid,’ Bianca tells her, ducking under a fence and into another field. ‘I still do as a teenager but it’s not the same. Ever been to a park?’

Alexandra shakes her head and grabs Bianca’s hand again when she loses it. ‘What is a park?’ she enquires.

‘It’s a place with fun things to do. Ever been on swings? A roundabout?’ More shaking of Alexandra’s head follows and Bianca sighs. ‘You’ve been repressed,’ she informs her. ‘Come on.’

They walk for the next five minutes in silence and then Bianca leads Alexandra into a small copse of trees. They duck under a few branches and keep walking until they emerge into a clearing.

The clearing is a playground. There’s a set of swings, some climbing bars, a roundabout, a sandpit and a seesaw. The playground is surrounded by a fence, which Bianca slips through and pulls Alexandra with her, and the main gate at the opposite side leads onto a small residential road.

There are a few parents with small children playing, but not too many. Bianca offers a lady she recognises a wave and a smile and gets the same in return, then turns to Alexandra and says, ‘Tadah!’

Alexandra looks confused. ‘This is a playground?’ she enquires.

Bianca nods. ‘Yes,’ she says. ‘Come on.’ She leads Alexandra directly across to the nearest swing set, pushes her down on one and sits on the next one along. Within seconds, she’s swinging. Alexandra looks even more confused.

‘Swing,’ Bianca says, grinding to a halt. Alexandra reacts with a furrowed brow and a lame attempt at swinging without moving her legs or kicking off.

‘Here.’ Bianca climbs off her own, walks around behind Alexandra and pushes her.

Alexandra squeals – loudly – and clings on for dear life. ‘Oh my!’ she exclaims as Bianca pushes her hard and she flies upwards. ‘This is...’

‘Fun?’ Bianca suggests.

Alexandra looks like she’s thinking of a whole other word, but then the swing starts to slow down and Bianca sits back on her own.

‘Kick off like this,’ Bianca says, walking her swing back and letting go. She stops again when she sails backwards. ‘When you’re swinging, bend and straighten your legs. Watch me.’

She swings higher and higher, leaning back on the way down and straightening her legs, tucking them up and leaning forwards when she swings back up. ‘See?’ she says, scuffing her shoes against the ground to stop.

Alexandra shakes her head. ‘I do not see the appeal of this undertaking.’

Bianca laughs. ‘It’s fun, Alexandra. Just try it for me. Come on.’

Alexandra sighs and Bianca watches, amused, as her first three attempts at getting any kind of momentum fail grandly. Her fourth, however, results in her swinging back and forth without any problems or complaints.

‘Ooh!’ she exclaims as she swings higher.

‘Liking it now?’ Bianca says, smiling.

‘Oh yes!’ Alexandra shouts on her way past. ‘This is exciting!”

The amusement grows. ‘I wouldn’t say exciting,’ Bianca says, ‘but it is fun. All kids do it in our world.’ She gestures at the children on the next swing set, some pushed by their parents, others just swinging happily by themselves.

‘What, may I ask, is the round thing?’ Alexandra enquires when she slows down a bit.

‘Come on, I’ll show you.’ Bianca climbs off her swing and offers Alexandra her hand. The blonde seems reticent to leave her new toy, so Bianca promises, ‘We’ll come back. We have all day.’

Alexandra beams and accepts Bianca’s hand, following her across to the roundabout and climbing on with Bianca’s assistance.

‘Hold on tight and try and keep your eyes on the centre,’ Bianca says, finding the idea of cleaning up Alexandra’s vomit unattractive.

Alexandra nods her understanding and Bianca kicks off. The roundabout spins, faster and faster as Bianca shoves her foot against the ground. Alexandra squeals, happily, and clings on to the roundabout with one hand and Bianca with the other.

Bianca almost misses the subtle vibration of her phone in her pocket and when she checks it she can’t help but smile.

Wtf where r u ur missing skool! Txt me! Tell me u didnt die or get eaten by a dragon or sumthing

‘I may have forgotten to tell Scotty where we are,’ Bianca says, with a smirk, as she texts Scotty back. ‘He’s worrying.’

We’re skiving @ the park! Wont be in 2day teaching Alexandra about swings & roundabouts. xx

The roundabout has slowed down so, gingerly, Alexandra pokes her toe off the edge and makes it spin again. Bianca giggles as it goes faster and clings on to Alexandra.

By the time the roundabout stops spinning again, both girls are so dizzy they stagger together clambering off and drop to a heap in the grass, laughing hysterically.

‘The world, it spins!’ Alexandra exclaims.

‘I’d like to think you already knew that,’ Bianca says.

*

‘Here.’ Daisy hands Alexandra a cup of jelly and a spoon and the blonde accepts it with a smile.

‘You didn’t have to skip too,’ Bianca says, as she tucks into the tuna sandwich Scotty brought her.

‘You kidding?’ Scotty says. ‘My choices: double maths and two hours of sex education, with a nice pop quiz mixed in, or spend the day with my favourite girl and her princess.’

‘What’s your excuse?’ Bianca aims in Cory’s direction.

‘As far as I care, you don’t need an excuse to skip school,’ Cory says.

‘Actually, you do,’ Scotty says, ‘but we don’t care. That’s the difference.’

‘We’re probably going to get in trouble,’ Daisy muses as she pulls long strands off a cheese string. Alexandra watches her, curiously, so she feeds the princess one, laughing when she gobbles it up from below.

‘Probably.’ Bianca lounges back in the grass. ‘But I don’t care. It’s been worth it. You know she’s never been on a swing before today?’

‘Blasphemy!’ Scotty exclaims.

‘Exactly! I had to teach her how!’

‘Alexandra, you are a strange one,’ Daisy says.

Alexandra grins. ‘Swings are fun,’ she says. ‘When I return to my land, I will make it so every village has a set!’

‘Now, that’s a law I can get on board with,’ Daisy says. She grins and leans against Cory’s shoulder. She’s shivering slightly so he takes off his blazer and drapes it around hers. ‘Thanks,’ she says.

‘No problem.’ Cory smiles at her, she smiles back and Scotty snorts.

‘It’s too cold to be out here anyway,’ Cory muses, goose bumps rising on his now bare arms.

‘Yeah.’ Bianca shivers.

‘What else hasn’t Alexandra done?’ Scotty enquires.

‘There’s a list,’ Bianca replies.

‘Hmm...’ Daisy sits up. ‘There should be.’ She pulls her homework diary out from within her bag and clicks the top of her pen. ‘Let’s make one. We can list things Alexandra hasn’t done or tried and then we can introduce her to them.’

‘Cinema,’ Cory suggests immediately. ‘I bet she’s never seen a movie. We could take her to see the new Harry Potter.’

‘Cool. Adding it.’

Bianca watches, amused, as everyone starts listing things. Scotty wants Alexandra to try his Xbox, Cory wants to take her bowling, Daisy wants to have a sleepover and do manicures, pedicures, face masks and have some kind of pillow fight and watch DVDs (she jokingly suggested the Princess Diaries or Enchanted) and, finally, after the list has reached four pages, Bianca says, ‘Supermarket.’

Everyone looks at her.

‘She’s never seen half the stuff we eat, guys,’ she explains. ‘I gave her basically everything in the house for breakfast and she’d never even seen toast before. I could get some money and we could go to the supermarket and just... buy her some things to try.’

‘Marshmallows!’ Cory exclaims.

‘Bananas!’ Daisy counters.

‘Chocolate,’ Scotty suggests.

Bianca looks at Alexandra. ‘You okay with this?’ she says, gently.

Alexandra nods, excitedly. ‘Oh yes!’ she exclaims. ‘I cannot help but wonder of your world and the wonders it contains.’

‘Well, it’s not like we have unicorns,’ Bianca says. ‘But we have some cool stuff. Disneyland, for instance is pretty cool.’

‘Disneyland!’ Cory exclaims.

‘We are not taking Alexandra to Paris,’ Daisy tells him, deadpan.

‘Who was talking about Paris?’ Cory retorts. ‘Florida, baby!’

‘We’re not taking Alexandra out of the country!’ Scotty shouts.

‘Fine, but when she doesn’t know who Mickey Mouse is, don’t come crying to me.’

‘Ooh.’ Daisy writes something down. ‘Early morning Disney Channel.’

‘Agreed.’ Cory leans over her shoulder and eyes what she’s writing down. ‘Bubble bath?’

‘Every girl should know the wonders of a bubble bath, Cory.’

*

Bianca’s hand is almost numb from where Alexandra has been clinging to it throughout the film. They decided to cross ‘cinema’ off the list to start with and went to see the newest Harry Potter which, incidentally, scared the living daylights out of Alexandra. And Cory.

It took them until about half way through the film to finally convince Alexandra through hushed whispers that it wasn’t real, that it was fiction and entertainment. Then, no matter how scary she found it, she started to quite enjoy it.

Daisy has already promised to break out her DVDs to show her the rest.

‘Come on, let’s do the supermarket next,’ Bianca says. ‘I don’t know about you guys but I’m hungry.’

‘Popcorn not enough for you?’ Cory says.

‘No, because you and Alexandra ate it all.’ Bianca smirks and runs on ahead with Alexandra, leaving the other three to walk a few feet behind. ‘You having fun?’ she asks Alexandra, gently.

Alexandra nods. ‘Oh yes,’ she says. ‘Your friends are so nice to me and your world is exciting.

Bianca smiles. ‘I’m glad you feel that way.’ She tightens her grip on Alexandra’s hand and pulls her in a little. ‘I like having you here.’

‘I like being here.’ Alexandra beams at her. ‘What is this ‘supermarket’ of which you spoke?’

‘Ahh. It’s this place where you buy food and stuff. This way.’ Bianca leads Alexandra down the street and onwards for ten minutes, the two of them chatting idly as they go. When they arrive at the supermarket, the automatic doors catch Alexandra by surprise.

‘Magic!’ she exclaims.

‘Nah, just electronics.’ Bianca shoves Alexandra in through the door and into the shoppers.

Daisy, Cory and Scotty catch up behind them, bringing a trolley with them, and Daisy says, ‘So, where do we start?’

‘Fruit,’ says Bianca. ‘Then sweets and chocolate.’

‘Fruit?’ Alexandra enquires. ‘We have fruit in my world.’

‘Really?’ says Scotty. ‘Even... bananas?!’ He produces from seemingly nowhere a large bunch of bananas. Alexandra raises an eyebrow.

‘We have bananas,’ she says.

‘Hm...’ Daisy picks up a melon. ‘What about this? You like melons, don’t you Alexandra?’

Bianca smacks Daisy around the head and the redhead bursts out laughing. Alexandra, however, just takes the melon and says, ‘We do not have melons.’

‘We’ll take that then.’ Bianca pops it in the trolley and the small group spends the next ten minutes going through the sweets section.

‘Try one of these, too,’ Bianca says, adding a packet of Sour Skittles to the trolley.

‘And this!’ Cory drops some Lemon Sherberts in.

‘Are we trying to make her fat?’ Scotty enquires, contributing large amounts of fat free and sugar free sweets to the trolley.

‘One binge won’t hurt, Scotts,’ Daisy says, practically leaping on him and wrapping her arms around his neck from behind. ‘You’re just jealous because your metabolism is slow like Homer Simpson and you eat one chocolate and you start to look like him.’

Scotty huffs. ‘Hardly,’ he says, haughtily. ‘I just don’t want her getting fat and blaming us.’

‘A large stomach is a sign of wealth and nobility where I am from,’ Alexandra announces. ‘But my family and I prefer to spread our wealth to the people and help them to eat, rather than eat ourselves.’

‘See?’ Daisy says. ‘She doesn’t mind!’ She hops down off Scotty’s back and grabs a large box of chocolates, full of truffles and creams.

‘How much is this all coming to?’ Cory asks.

‘Uh, forty I think,’ Daisy says, consulting her list upon which she’s been jotting down prices.

‘All right.’ Scotty tosses a big bag of fruit sweets at Bianca, who puts them in the trolley. ‘We done?’

‘Yep.’

*

They emerge back into the sunlight from the warm interior of the supermarket and head straight for the nearest area of grass, which happens to be a small park.

‘Here.’ Bianca spreads out the bags and reaches for the first item: a large box of chocolates.  She’s never been as horrified by anything as the discovery that Alexandra’s world does not have chocolate. ‘Try this.’

Alexandra accepts a dark chocolate truffle and bites into it. After a moment, her face lights up and she looks almost reverent. ‘I have never tasted anything so exquisite!’

‘I know right?’ Bianca grins. ‘And that’s not even the best one. Here, try this, it’s a champagne truffle.’

The group spend the next half an hour feeding Alexandra random choices from the large collection of sweets and chocolates and noting which she likes and which she doesn’t. Sour Skittles, for example, cause her to wrinkle her nose, do this funny head-shake-shudder and squeal. She’s not a fan of those. She seems to like milk and white chocolate, although dark is her favourite, and she doesn’t like it when the chocolate is accompanied by citrus. Lemon truffles are completely off the menu.

She’s sitting, sucking on a cherry lollipop, Cory watching her intently, when Daisy says, ‘We should take her to a theme park. She’d love that.’

‘If you can afford that, feel free,’ Bianca says, ‘but I blew all my allowance today on this.’

‘Cory!’ Daisy grins at him.

‘No.’ Cory shakes his head. ‘I’m not allowed to spend any large amount of money until July. Something about spending way too much on my guitar.’

‘Damn.’ Daisy looks displeased.

‘That’s okay, we can do it another time,’ Scotty suggests, cheerfully.

‘Sure.’ Daisy lounges back on the grass and checks her phone. ‘It’s getting late,’ she says. ‘Mum’ll be wondering where I am. Oh, wait. No she won’t.’

‘Dais...’ says Cory.

Daisy shrugs. ‘Hey, at least neglectful parents is something we all have in common, right?’ She laughs. ‘Hand me the chocolate.’

She breaks off a large strip of milk chocolate and savours it as Bianca watches. ‘Is that how you guys became friends?’ Bianca asks the group. ‘You bonded over your mutual issues with parents.’

‘Nah, I became friends with Daisy because she broke my leg in drama,’ Cory says.

Bianca blinks. ‘You what?’

‘We were doing a rehearsal and she slipped, landed on top of me, pinned my leg wrong and snap. She felt so bad she went with me to hospital and kept coming to my house with movies and chocolates.’ Cory eats a truffle, as though to illustrate. ‘We bonded.’

‘I’m sure there’s a word for ‘bonding’ with someone who abuses you...’ Bianca muses. Daisy hits her on the shoulder and she laughs.

‘Daisy’s right, though,’ Cory says. ‘We probably should go home. Else the parents will choose this one time to notice our absence.’

‘Yeah, you’re right. And I have to smuggle a princess and a whole lot of chocolate into my room without my mum noticing,’ Bianca says.

‘That won’t be too hard,’ Scotty replies.  They laugh for a moment and then, as a group, stand up. ‘Come on,’ he says. ‘I’ll walk you home.’

*

Once they’re home and Alexandra and Bianca have changed out of their uniforms, the two girls sit on Bianca’s bed and go through the sweets some more.

‘Try some Smarties.’ Bianca proffers them in Alexandra’s direction and the princess spends the next ten minutes sucking the chocolate out of the middle of each one individually and then eating the shell.

Bianca finds this adorable and very amusing. ‘You’re a strange one,’ she says, with a smile.

‘I am normal,’ Alexandra says, completely seriously. ‘It is your world that is strange and unusual. You have such peculiar customs and mannerisms. You touch and attack each other without provocation but without meaning harm... and you accept me so readily.’

‘You’re lucky my friends are accepting people,’ Bianca says, finding it strange that all of a sudden Scotty’s friends are her friends, too. ‘A lot of kids wouldn’t be so accepting. They’d think you are weird and treat you badly.’

‘I have been considered ‘weird’ for a lot of my life,’ Alexandra says, quietly. ‘I have always dreamed of a prince who will come to me, of a person I could be with forever, of a world with no conflict, united beneath my gentle rule. Most people do not understand this.’

‘You gonna be Queen Alexandra some day?’ Bianca enquires, tucking in to a piece of shortbread.

Alexandra nods. ‘I am,’ she says. ‘And you shall be Queen Bianca.’

Bianca chokes on her shortbread. ‘I...what?!’

‘As my Prince Charming, you will one day rule at my side.’ Alexandra smiles. ‘You will be a wonderful Queen, I believe.’

‘Look,’ Biance says, softly. ‘Not only do you seem to have some major issues with getting genders confused, here, but also you aren’t listening. I’m not your Prince Charming. One day, I’m sure, your prince will come, but Alexandra... I’m not him, I’m sorry.’

Alexandra looks down and nibbles on the strip of chocolate. There are tears in her eyes, so Bianca determinedly looks away, wishing she could make Alexandra understand and not have to upset her.

‘I think you are my Prince Charming,’ Alexandra says, quietly, not looking back up or meeting Bianca’s eyes. ‘Whether you say you are, or whether another may call himself such. I will always believe this.’

Bianca sighs and she’s about to argue some more when she notices Alexandra looking at her again and smiling. The atmosphere has changed, so she lets it go.

‘Thank you, Bianca,’ Alexandra says.

‘What for?’ Bianca says.

‘Today. Missing a day of your ‘school’ to give me a day full of enjoyment and adventure.’ Alexandra leans across, kisses Bianca’s cheek and rocks back onto her heels. ‘This day meant much to me. I will remember it always.’

‘Hey, it wasn’t just me,’ Bianca says, trying valiantly not to blush. ‘Scotty, Cory, Daisy... they helped too.’

‘And tomorrow I shall thank them, also,’ says Alexandra. ‘But for tonight, my thanks belongs to you, and only you.’

Bianca smiles. ‘You’re welcome, Alexandra, you really are.’

Nine

Two weeks after Alexandra’s unexpected arrival into the world, Bianca wakes up, yawns, and turns over. Despite the fact that for fourteen days she’s woken up and found Alexandra beside her, she still wakes up and expects to find the bed empty and to discover it was all a truly crazy dream.

Once more, however, she finds her bed not empty and Alexandra is there, curled up in a ball on the other side of her bed, wearing Bianca’s Hello Kitty pyjamas. Her palm is beneath her cheek, her hair is fanned out over the pillow and her lips are slightly parted as she sleeps soundly. There’s about two feet between the two girls on the mattress, a respectable distance agreed upon by both of them the first night.

It occurs to Bianca as she watches the blonde sleep beside her that she really has no idea how she’s managed to hide Alexandra’s presence in her house from her parents for this long.

She takes a moment to muse this and figure it out. Every morning, the two of them shower, dress and come downstairs. By the time Julia rouses, it appears like Alexandra has merely arrived to walk to school and Julia never asks or even wonders, nor does she get up early enough to make sure her daughter is up for school and find Alexandra in her bed. Every evening, Bianca sneaks the other girl upstairs, then comes thundering back down the stairs to announce her arrival back home. Every night before sleep, Bianca sneaks some food upstairs and they have a mini picnic on her bed. None of her family notice this, either, and although it hurts a bit, she figures it’s better this way.

Her time in boarding school impressed a need for privacy on her long ago and because of this, after all of one argument, Julia never walks into Bianca’s room without knocking and when she knocks Bianca stuffs Alexandra into the wardrobe so fast the blonde’s head spins. Despite that, Alexandra always stays completely silent and Julia never notices anything wrong in the room.

She doesn’t come in very often.

So far they haven’t been caught, and this is exactly how Bianca plans for it to stay.

She turns away from Alexandra in the dark and towards the clock. If she’s lucky – very, very lucky – it’ll be three, maybe four in the morning and she can get another few hours of well-deserved rest before Alexandra-the-Rooster crows and all hope of sleep is lost. Her eyes land on the clock, which proudly proclaims in large red numbers that is it five fifty nine, which means it will go off in...

As soon as that thought enters her mind, the alarm does just that with an ear piercing series of high-pitched beeps. Bianca groans and slams her hand into the off button, praying to all that is good in the world that she turned it off and not onto snooze.

Alexandra stirs and turns onto her back, staring up at the ceiling with bleary eyes.

For a moment, Bianca thinks she might doze off again and they can just be late for school because she needs some more sleep. She just does. It’s, like, a necessity at this point. This wonderful thought disappears almost immediately, however, when Alexandra bounces to her feet, rushes towards the window, throws open the curtains and exclaims, ‘Good morning, world!’

Bianca turns away from the horrifically bright, violent, very, very horrible light and groans, throwing her pillow over her head.

Sometimes she hates Alexandra and wishes she had never, ever come into her life.

She pokes her head out from under the pillow, bravely, and lays eyes on the princess as she perches, daintily, at the end of the bed and brushes her golden hair.

Okay, Bianca only hates her on when it’s morning and early. The rest of the time...

She emerges a little more and eyes Alexandra as the blonde gives her the largest, most heartfelt smile she has ever had the pleasure of witnessing, and returns to the brushing of her hair.

Yeah, the rest of the time she’s really quite fond of this girl.

*

‘So, we have the party tonight,’ Bianca announces, as she pours cereal into a bowl for herself and watches Alexandra butter and apply marmalade to a slice of toast with the skill and precision of a girl who’s been doing it all her life, not just a couple of weeks.

‘We do?’ Alexandra enquires, looking up with her big eyes shining with interest. She takes a bite of the toast and Bianca smiles, fondly. Out of everything Bianca has given her to try, toast and marmalade is the thing that has become Alexandra’s favourite food.

‘Yeah, didn’t you hear the conversation on Friday? Cory’s having his sixteenth birthday party tonight. Some club around the corner. His mum – they’re rich gits, to be honest – booked the place for the whole night and we’re invited. Both of us.’

She doesn’t add that Cory’s exact words were, ‘You’ll come, right Alexandra? Right? Right? Right? Oh, and you, too, Bianca.’ Alexandra was just too busy admiring the marvel that was a pen to really notice and Bianca really didn’t want to draw attention to it.

‘That sounds simply marvellous!’ Alexandra announces. She claps her hands together and Bianca wonders where the toast disappeared off to. ‘Whatever shall we wear?’

She seems to already be planning ball gowns in her head, so Bianca interrupts her thoughts, quickly, with, ‘I have two party dresses. There’s a green one and a pink one. I gather you’d like the pink one?’ She laughs and Alexandra follows suit, smiling from ear to ear.

‘Pink is my colour,’ she says, happily. ‘Oh, this will be an excellent night! I cannot wait! Your friend, Cory, is such a gentleman.’

Bianca snorts at this, knowing full well that Cory is not a gentleman. At least... not around Bianca. She sobers when Alexandra gives her a wide-eyed and honestly confused look.

‘I mean... he’s not my friend,’ she corrects, quickly. ‘He’s our friend. He knows you as well as he knows me...’ She pauses. ‘In fact, I think he knows you better. You do spend an awful lot of time talking to him...’

‘Cory and I possess a lot of interests in common,’ Alexandra says, brushing crumbs from her hands and standing up from the table, walking into the kitchen. Bianca wants to ask what time, exactly, Alexandra has spent playing endless hours of Call of Duty, since that’s the only interest she’s aware of that Cory has. ‘Our conversations are always pleasurable.’

Bianca raises an eyebrow. ‘Just how pleasurable?’

‘He is quite the conversationalist!’ Alexandra exclaims, as she pulls two plastic boxes from the cupboard. ‘We discuss art, literature... Did you know your world creates those amazing moving-pictures based on the works of your scribes?!’

‘Authors...’ Bianca says, absently, as she clears up her bowl.

‘He is wonderful company. I feel myself so privileged to have become his friend!’ Alexandra claps her hands together and Bianca glowers darkly at her.

‘I do hope you ladies are talking about me,’ Scotty says, entering through the back door and taking a seat at the table, already reaching for the nearest food stuff and giving Bianca a goofy grin.

‘No; Cory, actually,’ Bianca says. She pushes the jug of milk towards her friend to go with the cereal he nicked and stands up to clear away her own plate and glass. She joins Alexandra in the kitchen, turning on the tap and running the plate under the flow of water. Alexandra smiles at her as she spreads lunch meat across the bread she fetched from the bread bin, already making lunch for herself and Bianca. Bianca smiles back because not so many days before, Alexandra would stare in wonder at the tap and ask many a question as to how such a miraculous thing could work.

‘Cory wonderful company?’ Scotty says. ‘Now I’ve heard it all!’

‘He is quite the polite fellow and has a wide range of interests we discuss during lunch.’ Alexandra smiles across at Scotty. ‘Good morning, by the way.’ She stumbles over the last three words, as though still trying to grow accustomed to normal speech and Scotty grins at her.

‘Morning.’

The door to the hall opens and Julia enters, scratching at her hair and yawning like crazy. ‘Morning,’ she mutters. ‘You all okay?’

‘Pretty good,’ Bianca says, grabbing tupperware to put the sandwiches into. ‘Alexandra is making lunch and Scotty is eating your food.’

‘All your friends seem to eat my food,’ Julia says, dropping down into a chair and scrounging the cereal off Scotty.

‘It’s because your food is so good, Missus W., just like your parenting.’

The sarcasm Bianca detects in Scotty’s tone appears to be lost on Julia, for she replies with, ‘You’re too nice to me, Scotty.’

‘Come on,’ Bianca says, grabbing Scotty by the back of the blazer even as Alexandra snaps the Tupperware closed and runs across to tuck it into her bag. ‘We’re going to be late if we’re not careful.’

‘Oy!’ Scotty twists around and her grip slips free. ‘You say that every morning and are we ever late?’

‘Really want me to answer that?’ Bianca says, but the scowl is more for his sarcasm and he seems to detect that, for he drops his spoon in the bowl, chirps a goodbye in Julia’s direction and heads for the door.

Bianca sighs and picks Alexandra’s pink bag up off the floor, throwing it at the blonde girl, who catches it with a smile, having returned to grab a bottle of water.

The bag was a present from Bianca seven days ago. Once she realised Alexandra would definitely be staying for a while, she bought her the things she felt the girl would need, including, but not limited to, a toothbrush of her own and a bag to put some stuff in.

‘You don’t have to be so rough with me,’ Scotty says, as the door closed.

‘You should be happy, Scotty!’ Alexandra announces. ‘For it is a beautiful day and we are going to school!’

‘But I’m not happy,’ Scotty says, huffing and slowing down. ‘School should not be something you’re deliberately on time for!’

Bianca puts her hands on his shoulder blades. ‘There, there, Scotts,’ she says, kissing his cheek. ‘We all have our crosses to bear.’ She plants a foot on his backside and shoves. He stumbles forwards, shouting obscenities, but she’s already grabbing his hand and dragging him down the road.

‘No way in hell am I letting you make us early!’ he shouts, helplessly. ‘I couldn’t bear the shame!’

Alexandra giggles and runs after them.

*

‘I would have made it on time,’ Scotty complains, half way to school. There’s a shoe print on the back of his blazer, something Alexandra seemed to enjoy pointing out.

She giggles. ‘You did not appear to be,’ she says. ‘Bianca was completely justified in her actions.’

‘Ha.’  Bianca grins at Scotty and reaches over to ruffle his hair.

‘Hey, guys!’ a voice shouts. ‘Wait up!’

The three friends turn around to see Cory jogging to catch up with them. He slides smoothly in between the two girls, effectively shoving Bianca and Scotty into the road, and grins at Alexandra, who smiles back. ‘How you doing?’

‘That’s okay, no one wait for me...’ Daisy says, trailing dejectedly up behind them.  By the time she’s caught up with Scotty and Bianca, Alexandra and Cory are already wandering off up ahead, chatting animatedly and laughing at regular intervals.

‘Since when do you guys walk this way?’ Scotty enquires.

‘Since today, it seems.’ Daisy throws her hands up and sighs.

‘It’s something to do with Alexandra, isn’t it?’ Scotty says.

They all start walking again and Daisy nods.  ‘I swear,’ she says, ‘he hasn’t stopped talking about her in a week.’

‘Ah...’ Scotty chuckles. ‘He has it bad.’

‘What?’ Bianca snaps out of the reverie she was in, watching Alexandra’s hair glint golden in the sunlight, and stares at her friend. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘Cory! He’s totally crushing on Alexandra!’ he exclaims. ‘Can’t you see it?’

Bianca glances up towards Cory and Alexandra’s backs, the two of them laughing and chatting together, Cory deliberately grazing the back of her hand with his as they walk.

‘Son of a...!’ Bianca gasps.

‘You see it now?’ Scotty enquires.

She stares up ahead. She’d thought Alexandra was getting close to Cory and she was jealous of the friendship they’d managed to forge while not seeing each other much outside of school. When she compared it with the friendship she had with Alexandra, it seemed... different and it sent pangs through her chest that she didn’t really want to consider, but if Cory is crushing and Alexandra is... No.

‘Well,’ she says, after a moment, having arrived at this definite negative, ‘he can’t have her!’

Scotty quirks an eyebrow at her, interested now. ‘Oh, really?’

She colours. ‘Well, no. She lives with me and... and... and... It’s just, she’s really naive, you know? And Cory would probably... He’d probably corrupt her or something!’

Scotty breaks out in a grin. ‘Oh my god!’ he exclaims ‘Cory’s not the only one crushing!’

‘What?!’ Bianca squeaks. She stops walking and jumps back a few steps. ‘No! Don’t be daft! I’m not... I’m not crushing!’

‘You totally are!’ Scotty claps his hands together. ‘If you’re not going to take her, though, you should leave her to someone who wants her...’ It’s obvious that he’s just trying to provoke her now, so Bianca ignores him.

‘Wait, what?’ Daisy looks confused and Bianca looks at her. ‘If you’re crushing on Alexandra, that would imply you’re a...’ Daisy trails off, eyes widening. ‘Oh.’

‘Yes, well, maybe I am!’ Bianca exclaims, with a huff. She puts her hands on her hips and blows a strand of hair off her nose. ‘It doesn’t matter, though – sexualities and stuff – because he really can’t have her. Can we change the subject now?!’

Daisy raises an eyebrow. ‘Uh huh... Sure.’ She eyes Bianca for a moment, as though trying to work out if she can ask something.

Bianca rolls her eyes. ‘Spit it out, Daisy,’ she says.

Daisy bites her lip. ‘Do you think I’m hot?’

Bianca throws her hands up, gives Daisy the finger and stalks off towards Alexandra and Cory.

‘I...actually genuinely wanted to know,’ Daisy tells Scotty, with a sigh. Scotty smiles at her, throws an arm around her shoulders and the two wander off after the others.

*

‘Serious question time,’ Scotty says, sitting down beside Bianca at lunch. Alexandra and Cory are off to the side, chatting and ignoring Daisy, who seems perfectly content to just watch Cory from afar with a wistful look in her eyes. ‘Are you crushing on Alexandra?’

Bianca looks up from rifling through her bag and glowers. ‘Don’t be daft,’ she says, a tad too quickly.

‘It’s not daft. I know you and she’s completely your type!’

‘I’m into blonde and ditzy then?’ Bianca goes back to her bag and starts throwing random items at her friend: purse, keys, notepad, books, pens, tampons, makeup... Scotty catches them all and piles them up in his lap, watching her.

‘No, but you’re into nice, sweet girls who dote on your every word and, more importantly, girls like Alexandra who genuinely think you’re a lovely person and seem to have a big heart.’ He dumps all the stuff on the table. ‘I do remember Melissa!’

Bianca glances up from her bag, looking off into the distance with a dreamy look on her face. ‘Ah, Melissa,’ she says, wistfully. ‘That was a good summer...’

‘Earth to Bianca,’ Scotty says, waving his hand in front of her face. ‘You’re evading the question.’

She shrugs and turns back to her bag. ‘Yeah, well, maybe I just don’t see the logic in this questioning. I don’t like Alexandra that way. I really don’t.’

Scotty raises an eyebrow. ‘Isn’t that what you said about Melissa? Right up until she kissed you and you were smitten?’

Bianca sighs as she finally retrieves her lunch from where it had sunk to the very bottom of her bag and grabs the stuff back off the table, piling it back into her bag. ‘No, this is just like how I don’t like her...’ She glances off towards Cory and Alexandra, chatting nearby, then looks determinedly away. ‘Anyway, I guess she likes Cory.’

She cracks open the plastic box and looks down at her lunch inside. There’s a post-it attached to the plastic bag containing her sandwiches and written on the yellow surface is a note: ‘Enjoy your food!’ There are several love hearts scattered around the message and smiley faces in the O’s.

‘I shouldn’t have shown her Post-Its,’ Bianca says, with a sigh, brushing her fingertips over the perfectly shaped little hearts.

‘Oh, yeah, ‘cause you’re not crushing on her at all,’ Scotty says, watching her.

She smacks him around the head with the plastic box. ‘Shut up!’

*

‘Are you and Scotty experiencing problems in your relationship, Bianca?’ Alexandra enquires, as they walk home from school together. She’s stopped clinging to Bianca’s hand now and, instead, holds on to her bag. Bianca misses the contact but says nothing.

‘No, why would you think that?’ Bianca turns to look at her and the blonde shrugs.

‘Earlier, you and he appeared to have an argument and tonight he is not with us.’ Alexandra gestures at the distinct lack of Scotty walking home with them. ‘Has something happened?’

Bianca smiles at her. ‘Nah, don’t worry. Scotty and I are still besties. Always will be.’ She slings an arm around Alexandra’s shoulders.  ‘He’s just helping Cory set up for the party tonight.’

‘Oh, I see. This party...’ Alexandra furrows her brow, confusedly. ‘Is it a ball? A masquerade ball, perhaps?’

‘Err... no.’ Bianca offers her friend a sheepish grin and steps away again. ‘More like a... erm... well, just a party, really. If Cory has his way, it’ll be drinking, dancing and everyone making out with each other.’

‘Making out?’ Alexandra says, looking even more confused.

‘Kissing.’ Bianca sighs at Alexandra’s shocked look. ‘Alexandra,’ she says, ‘just how different is your world?’

‘Hmm...’ Alexandra looks thoughtful for a moment, as the two girls walk through the front door.

‘Mum! We’re home!’ Bianca shouts through the house.

‘We do not kiss those we do not have a connection with,’ Alexandra muses. Bianca nods, absently, and walks into the living room. Julia looks up from the sofa.

‘Who’s ‘we’?’ she enquires.

‘Just Alexandra, Mum,’ Bianca replies, leaning on the back of the sofa. ‘I said she could wear my pink party dress tonight.’

‘Hmm, as long as you get it back when she’s done,’ Julia says. ‘That dress was really expensive and I’d like you to wear it at least once before you completely out grow it.’

Bianca grins, knowing full well she’ll never wear it. ‘Yeah, well, Mum, at least someone will get some use out of it.’ She turns to Alexandra. ‘Come on! Upstairs, upstairs!’ She herds her out of the living room and up the stairs and the other girl giggles as she runs across the landing and into Bianca’s room.

‘Here it is,’ Bianca announces a couple of minutes later as she produces a beautiful pink party dress from the wardrobe. ‘And this is the green one... in case you wanna compare.’ She holds the two out together and Alexandra gives them an awed look.

‘They are simply marvellous!’ she exclaims, taking the pink one and laying it out on the bed. ‘I will truly be the belle of the ball in this!’

‘Alexandra, you’d be the belle of the ball if you wore a paper bag,’ Bianca says, only slightly jealously. She starts rooting around in the wardrobe as Alexandra examines the delicate lace trim around the neckline of the party dress.

‘What will you be wearing?’ Alexandra enquires.

‘Um...’ Bianca all but climbs into the wardrobe trying to find what she’s after and, when she almost trips straight into it, it’s Alexandra that hauls her back onto her feet.

‘Here we are!’ she exclaims, finally, dragging a pair of sparkly jeans and a fancy top from somewhere within the depths of the wardrobe. ‘This,’ she says, holding the two items against her body. ‘Simple and, you know... Trousers. I like trousers.’

Alexandra scowls at her. ‘Hm,’ she says, ‘I believe you can do better!’

‘Yeah, well...’ Bianca unbuttons and pulls her shirt off, depositing it on the floor at her feet, already reaching for the top to replace it. ‘Maybe I don’t wanna do better.’

Alexandra looks at her sadly. ‘But you are so beautiful,’ she says, plaintively. ‘Why must you refuse to show off your limbs?’

‘I do show off my limbs!’ Bianca holds her hands out towards her friend. ‘See? Arms! They go well with bracelets and trousers.’ She shrugs the purple top on over her head, messing up her hair in the process.

‘Well, at least allow me to decorate your face and hair!’ Alexandra exclaims, as she pulls on the pink dress, careful not to rip it. ‘Will you do me the honour of doing me up?’

Bianca nods and zips the back of the dress up, gently removing Alexandra’s hair from inside the neckline. ‘You look beautiful,’ she says.

‘Thank you.’ Alexandra blushes a little as she reaches for Bianca’s hair brush and starts pulling it through her wavy hair. ‘I wish my hair was as straight as yours,’ she says. ‘I envy your locks.’

Bianca sighs. ‘Here.’ She reaches into the wardrobe and retrieves her hair straightener from the floor. ‘Use this. Just don’t blow any fuses.’

Alexandra blinks at the device. ‘What is this?’

‘Hair straightener.’ Bianca sighs as she wipes her makeup off in the mirror and reaches for more. She catches Alexandra’s confused look and says, ‘Okay, fine, I’ll do your hair for you. Just... give me a minute.’

Alexandra smiles gratefully. ‘You are the most gracious hostess!’ she exclaims.

Bianca smiles. ‘I try my best.’

*

‘Why, don’t you two look gorgeous!’ Julia says as Bianca and Alexandra descend the stairs together.  ‘You look so pretty, Bianca.’

‘You don’t have to sound so surprised,’ Bianca says, grumpily.

‘Alexandra, you look beautiful,’ Julia says, smiling at the blonde. Bianca folds her arms and glares at the wall.

‘Whoa,’ Daisy says, from where she’s waiting by the front door. ‘You guys look great! Alexandra, did you straighten your hair?’ She walks over and steps behind Alexandra, running her fingers through the very bottom of her blonde hair which is brushing the small of her back. ‘It’s so long and shiny...’

‘Bianca did it for me,’ Alexandra says. ‘And I did her hair and makeup!’ She gestures at her friend who shrugs. ‘I believe I have perfected the application of makeup.’

‘Gotta admit she did do it well,’ Bianca says. ‘I’m not arguing about that.’

‘Couldn’t get her into a skirt though, eh?’ Julia says, casting an appraising look over Bianca.

Alexandra shakes her head. ‘I did try to persuade her, but she will not budge!’

‘Try bribing her with brownies in future,’ Julia says, with a shrug. ‘It used to work when she was younger.’

‘When I was five,’ Bianca snaps.

Daisy laughs. ‘Come on,’ she says, ‘before we’re late.’

‘You look beautiful, too, Daisy,’ Alexandra says, with a smile, admiring Daisy’s low cut blue top and short black skirt. ‘You did your hair up so nicely.’ She fingers a few stray strands by the base of Daisy’s neck and the redhead blushes until her ears go red.

‘Don’t be daft,’ she says. ‘I’m not beautiful.’

‘She’s fishing for ‘sexy’,’ Bianca whispers in Alexandra’s ear, as she makes her way to the door. Daisy smacks her on the shoulder.

‘Bianca, I was not!’ she exclaims.

‘You were so.’

Daisy chases Bianca out of the door. ‘Was not!’

‘Was so!’

Ten

‘So this is a party as your world knows it?’ Alexandra says, as they walk into the rented club and are assaulted by loud music and the sound of people talking and laughing. ‘I do not believe I care much for such festivities.’

‘Give it a go,’ Bianca says, with a laugh. ‘I’m sure you’ll love it.’

Alexandra sighs. ‘Then you do not know me very well. Could I not have remained at home?’

‘Well, if you won’t stay for me stay for Cory at least,’ Bianca says, with a huff.

Alexandra nods. ‘Of course. Cory.’

The boy in question pushes his way through the crowd at that moment, two punch glasses held in his hands. ‘You came! I’m really glad!’ He pushes the glasses towards the two girls, then glances at Daisy. ‘Oh. Sorry. I didn’t bring you one.’

‘That’s okay,’ Daisy says.

He turns back to Alexandra. ‘Do you like it so far?’

‘I do not believe I do, Cory, I apologise,’ Alexandra says. ‘Too much noise and commotion for me. I prefer balls with elegant dresses and polite conversation.’ She shakes her head. ‘This is anything but polite.’

‘Well, maybe you’ll like it more once you get some punch into you and dance.’ Cory grins at her. ‘And if you don’t, you can always go home; I won’t be offended.’ He gestures through the crowd at a table. ‘We’re all sitting there. Go on.’

Cory wanders off again as Daisy, Alexandra and Bianca push through the crowd, two of the girls holding giant red punch glasses in their hands. They take a seat around the round table and nod to Lewis and Scotty.

‘Not a bad party, eh?’  Scotty says.

‘It’s all right.’ Bianca shrugs. ‘Had better ones at St Mary’s.’

‘Were there naked pillow fights?’ Lewis says. ‘Tell me there were!’

‘No.’ Bianca glares at him. ‘We just knew how to throw a really good party. ‘Til Miss came along, of course.’

‘Course.’

They look around at the people dancing under the flashing lights. ‘So, does Cory know all these people?’ Bianca enquires.

‘Nah.’ Scotty shakes his head. ‘Some of ‘em are regular club goers. He decided to let them in to liven things up a little.’ He glances across at Alexandra as she goes to take a sip of the punch. ‘Careful! There’s alcohol in that.’

She takes a sip. ‘It tastes strange... what is this peculiar concoction?’

‘Swear she talks like a freak,’ Lewis says, downing his glass. ‘I want more punch. Get you a drink, Dais?’

Daisy nods. ‘Please.’ She gives him a smile.

‘Question is,’ Bianca says, as Lewis leaves, ‘can you trust him not to spike your punch?’

Alexandra licks her lips, all the punch gone from her glass. ‘It is as though my vision blurs,’ she says, looking alarmed. ‘Is this poison?’

‘Nah,’ Daisy says. ‘Just alcohol. Don’t drink too much, though, or you’ll have an awful hangover in the morning.’

‘Hangover?’ Alexandra says.

‘Head pain,’ Bianca informs her.

‘Oh, I see.’ She peers down into the glass. ‘Should I not drink this?’

‘It’s up to you.’ Bianca shrugs and downs her own. ‘I’m going to go get more.’ She stands up from the table and approaches the punch bar.  She waits in the queue for a moment before she finally gets her chance to fill the glass from the bright blue ladle.

‘Hey.’

She looks round as Cory approaches and smiles. ‘Hey,’ she says. ‘Good party.’

‘Yeah, it’s not bad.’ He gives her a grin. ‘Woulda been lame if you and Alexandra hadn’t made it.’

‘We’re happy to be here,’ Bianca says, raising her glass and taking a long drink.

‘You don’t seem happy.’ He gives her a puzzled look. ‘What’s up?’

‘Nothing.’ She shakes her head. ‘Just some... stuff. Scotty’s fault. All Scotty’s fault.’ She chuckles. ‘Ah well.’ She glances up, catching movement out of the corner of her eye, in time to see Alexandra coming across. ‘Oh, look. Here comes your fairytale princess.’

‘My fairytale princess?’ Cory enquires. ‘She’s your fairytale princess. Not mine.’

‘Hardly, I’ve seen you two with each other.’ Bianca sighs, drains her glass and goes back for another ladle as Alexandra approaches.

‘I have declared this drink to be interesting and worthy of further exploration,’ Alexandra announces, holding out her glass towards Bianca. ‘Would you mind?’

‘Sure.’ Bianca dips the ladle into the punch and pours a large amount into Alexandra’s glass.

*

Everyone is dancing. Everyone except Bianca, Alexandra and Cory.  Daisy and Lewis are dancing in the middle of the club, but every time Daisy turns around she casts the two girls at the table a look of utter distaste.  Bianca is honestly considering going over there and cutting in and dancing with Daisy to save her from the slimy boy, but the looks Daisy is sending their way are almost too amusing.

Cory, meanwhile, is circulating, asking anyone who pauses for breath if they’re enjoying the party and if he can get them anything. So far, the answer seems to be a resounding yes to enjoyment and no to refreshments, so the circulating is going quickly enough.

‘I much prefer the music contained within your ‘iPod’,’ Alexandra announces, after a moment.

‘Oh?’ Bianca turns away from her observation of the dance floor and looks at her blonde companion. ‘Why’s that?’

Alexandra shrugs. ‘Your taste seems to be more... expansive. Whereas Cory appears to like only one...’

‘Genre?’

‘Yes. Genre.’ Alexandra looks back over the dance floor as the boy in question approaches.

‘I’m so done circulating,’ he announces, dropping down into his seat with a yawn. ‘Next time, someone else is hosting the party. Then I get to dance and make out too.’ He downs the rest of his punch and throws the empty glass at the nearest necking couple. ‘Get a room!’ he shouts. He peers down at Alexandra’s glass. ‘You’re out of drink. Want me to get you more?’

‘Are you trying to get her drunk, Cor?’ Bianca says.

‘I’m horrified you’d even suggest such a thing.’ Cory yawns and checks his watch. ‘When’s a good time to kick everyone out and announce you’re an old codger at the young age of sixteen? You know, with the whole ‘get off my lawn’ thing and everything?’

‘Anything before eleven and you’re in the ‘over-protective mum’ stage. Before two and you’re ‘daddy protecting his little girl’ and anything before four is just lame.’ Bianca shrugs. ‘So, I suggest doing the kicking around three. Or put sleeping bags down and invite everyone to sleep here overnight.’

‘No way.’ Cory shudders. ‘I’m bored of this party even now and it’s only...’ He checks his watch. ‘Midnight.’ He pauses, checks again. ‘Seriously? Midnight? I thought it’d be at least one.’ He groans and drops his forehead onto the table.

‘At least you’re not a mum anymore.’ Bianca tilts her glass towards him. ‘Kudos for that.’

Cory looks up at her, rolls his eyes and stands up, turning to Alexandra. ‘Care to make this evening so much less boring for me?’ he asks, extending a hand towards her.

She gives him a wide-eyed, confused stare. ‘I do not understand.’

‘Wanna dance?’ He gives her a big grin and she smiles shyly at him, getting to her feet. She wobbles for a moment, adjusting to standing while slightly inebriated, and accepts his hand.

‘I’d love to,’ she says, with a smile, letting him lead her out into the crowd.

*

‘Wanna dance?’ Bianca mocks, nose buried deep in yet another glass of punch. ‘Wanna hump on the dance floor? Wanna let me be your Prince Charming because at least I have the parts that make up a prince or at least I say I do?’

‘Someone’s bitter,’ Daisy mutters, from the chair opposite. ‘And I can tell you categorically that Cory definitely has prince-parts. I’ll just never get to see them.’

‘What? No. I’m not bitter. I’m annoyed. Slightly annoyed. A tiny bit annoyed. But not bitter.  Are they kissing?’ She leans forward, staring out onto the dance floor at Cory and Alexandra, the two of them too close for Bianca’s comfort.

‘They’re not kissing, Bianca,’ Daisy says. ‘If they were, I would have left already.’

Bianca pauses, realisation dawning. ‘You like Cory.’

Daisy gives her a wide-eyed look, mouthing like a goldfish for a moment before exclaiming, ‘I do not!’

‘You do so! It’s written all over your face!’

‘Oh yeah?’ Daisy slams her glass down. ‘Well the writing’s on your face too. You have a big crush on Miss Princess over there.’ She gestures across at Alexandra, who trips and giggles when Cory catches her.

‘Yeah, well, at least I’ll admit it.’ Bianca slumps backwards in her seat and glares daggers at Daisy. ‘What do you two see in him anyway? He’s a chauvinistic ass.’

‘No. No, he isn’t.’ Daisy shakes her head. ‘Lewis is a chauvinistic ass. Cory’s a wonderful, handsome gentleman who occasionally makes rubbishy jokes. He’s the type who would never hurt you and would be kind and...’ She breaks off, groans and leans forward, letting her head hit the table. ‘Oh, god, I’ve got it bad.’

‘Yeah, you do.’ Bianca sighs and stands up. ‘Screw it,’ she says. ‘Once I do this, go ask Cory to dance. Okay?’

‘Do what?’ Daisy asks, looking up, but Bianca’s already surging off across the dance floor, brushing people aside as she walks until she’s standing next to Cory and Alexandra.

‘Mind if I cut in?’ she says, venom obvious in her tone.

‘Erm... I was kinda just telling Alexandra a story,’ Cory says. ‘Can’t you wait until the end of the song? Or, until you’re back home?’

‘No, no I can’t. She’s my fairytale princess, remember?’ She grabs Alexandra’s hand. ‘Come on, Alexandra.’

‘Bianca! If Alex wants to stay it’s her choice...’ Cory grabs Alexandra’s other hand as Bianca attempts to pull her away.

‘Look, she’s an innocent girl from another land. I’m not going to let you corrupt her!’ Bianca tugs on her arm. ‘And we really should get home.’

‘Bianca, you’re hurting me!’ Alexandra squeaks.

‘Sorry.’ Bianca lets go of her and the blonde takes a stumbling step backwards towards Cory.  ‘You know what... just do what you want. But if you’d rather be dancing with Cory then maybe you should be living in his bedroom instead of mine.’ She turns away, stalking off across the dance floor, towards the nearest fire exit.

‘Bianca!’ Alexandra exclaims. She looks at Cory. ‘I’m sorry. I should...’ She gestures towards Bianca.

‘Of course.’ He smiles at her and lets go of her hand. ‘Go on.’

She runs off towards the fire exit too and Cory sighs, turning around.  He catches sight of Daisy at that moment, the redheaded girl walking towards him from their table.

‘Wanna dance?’ she says, with a smile, once she gets up to him.

‘Nah.’ Cory shakes his head. ‘Done dancing for now.’ He drapes his arm around her shoulders. ‘Let’s just go drink until we’re comatose.’

*

‘Bianca!’

‘What?’ Bianca stops walking and turns around to face Alexandra. ‘What do you want from me?’

‘I left Cory to come to you. Is that not what you desired?’ Alexandra says.

‘No! I mean yes, but no... I just...’ She fists a hand in her dark hair and shakes her head. ‘What is it that you want from me, Alexandra? You and he... You’re so close. You like him more than me and that’s fine but don’t expect me to like it.’

‘He is, perhaps, my Prince Charming. Since you are not.’ Alexandra glances down at her feet. ‘I am meant to meet my Prince Charming in this world, after all, am I not?’

‘Says who?’ Bianca snaps. ‘Why does it have to be in this world? Hell, you’re, what, seventeen? Why do you need to meet your Prince Charming now anyway? Why can’t you just live your life? Party? Enjoy yourself?!’

‘Because I am Princess Alexandra. It has been foretold since before I was born that my Prince Charming would rescue me and take me back to the kingdom where we are to be wed.’

‘Great.’ Bianca turns around, walking down the pavement under the dull orange street lights ahead. ‘So go marry Cory then if that’s what you want. I’m sure he’ll make a great husband and give you lots of perky little princes and princesses.’

‘I do not understand your issue with Cory and I,’ Alexandra calls after her. ‘You say you are not my Prince Charming, why can no one else be either?’

‘I don’t know,’ Bianca mutters.  She turns around and looks back at the blonde, who looks completely out of place, standing in a darkened alley in her pretty pink dress. ‘Look,’ she says. ‘Go back in. You know where I live... Come back when you’re ready.’ She tosses her key at the princess in front of her. ‘Just... try not to get caught.’

‘Okay...’ Alexandra looks down at the shiny silver key in her palm.

‘Okay then.’ Bianca walks away, ignoring the sound of the fire exit opening in the building behind her and Alexandra walking back inside.

Eleven

When Bianca opens her eyes the next morning, she doesn’t think she’s going to find Alexandra, asleep beside her, sharing her bed as always. She expects to begin to panic, to call Cory and to find out it’s all okay... that Alexandra is living with him now, her Prince Charming. Bianca inhales slowly, the breath calming her raw nerves, removes her face from her pillow and turns around.

‘Good morning,’ Alexandra says, cheerily, from beside her. Her shiny, wavy blonde hair is splayed out over the pillow around her head and she looks tired from the night before, but none the worse for wear.

‘Hey.’ Bianca cringes in the sunlight coming from her window, glad the pain from her headache hides her relief. ‘What time is it?’

‘Five forty-six,’ Alexandra says, smiling. ‘We shall have to rouse soon for school.’

Bianca shakes her head. ‘Inset day,’ she says. ‘No school. We get the day off.’

‘No school today? Much like a weekend, yes?’ Alexandra says.

‘Yeah.’ Bianca yawns. ‘We just spend today doing our extra homework and try not to take too much advantage of a week day in which we don’t have to go to school.’

‘So... instead of rousing and proceeding to school, what shall we do?’ Alexandra enquires.

‘Well,’ Bianca says. ‘Those of us with hangovers are going back to sleep. It’s up to you what you do. Go see Cory if you want.’

It wasn’t meant to come out dripping with so much poison, but the words hurt her throat as she says them.

‘Sorry,’ Bianca mutters. ‘I didn’t mean it like that. Last night... I was drunk. I didn’t mean to be so mean.’

‘It is understandable,’ Alexandra says. ‘You have been my Prince Charming since you rescued me and now I am attempting to find my real prince. It is completely understandable that you would not appreciate this and find it... offensive.’

‘Eh.’ Bianca groans and rolls onto her back, pulling her arms out from under the duvet. ‘It doesn’t feel understandable,’ she says, fiddling with her nail polish. ‘It feels dumb. I feel dumb. I feel very, very dumb.’

Alexandra smiles softly at her, reaches across the duvet and places her dainty hand on top of Bianca’s. ‘If there is one thing you are not, Bianca Western, it would be lacking in intelligence.’

Bianca looks across at her. ‘You sure about that? ‘Cause I got a really low IQ score way back when. I couldn’t be arsed to actually do the silly test right.’

Alexandra keeps on smiling and Bianca sighs. ‘So, do we go back to sleep?’ she says, stifling a yawn.

‘Yes,’ Alexandra says, rolling over. She scoots closer to Bianca, pressing her front against the dark-haired girl’s side, head resting on her shoulder. ‘Let us sleep.’

*

The second time Bianca wakes up, she’s chest-to-chest with Alexandra, the two girls entwined in one another, curled up in bed.

She thinks she should probably be disturbed by this. Worried that she’s woken up wrapped around the girl she can’t be with but loves so damn much.

‘Oh, Bianca,’ she mutters to herself, ‘you really are stupid.’

‘Not stupid,’ Alexandra mumbles from where her mouth is pressed into Bianca’s shoulder, still very much asleep. ‘Very intelligent. Practically a genius.’

Bianca smiles and goes back to sleep.

*

‘Bianca, are you awake yet?’

Bianca shoots up in bed, ignoring the muffled squeal of Alexandra rolling off the bed next to her and hitting the floor with a thump. It only takes her a second to scramble back to her feet and then the blonde is running for the wardrobe and diving inside, pulling the door closed behind her.

‘Yeah, Mum.’ Bianca swings her legs off the bed. ‘I guess I am now.’

‘Oh, sorry.’ Julia pushes open the door and walks in, holding a laundry basket. She smiles at her daughter as she approaches the bed and places the basket down on the end of the mattress. ‘Party good?’

‘Eventful.’ Bianca sighs, rubbing her eyes. ‘But yeah, good. I don’t think I lost any friends. Although Scotty might be annoyed I didn’t say goodbye before I left.’

‘Why didn’t you say goodbye?’ Julia asks, pulling the clothes out one at a time and folding them into a pile.

‘I left in a rush...’ Bianca shrugs. ‘It’s nothing, Mum. Just some boy trouble.’

Julia raises an eyebrow at her teenage daughter. ‘You’re only fifteen,’ she snaps, ‘you’re too young to be worrying about boys!’

‘Sorry,’ Bianca mutters. Her eyes widen as she sees her mother turn towards the wardrobe to put the clothes away. ‘Mum! Don’t!’

Julia pauses. ‘Why not?’

‘Bomb zone. I wasn’t very delicate when I went through everything last night...’ She shakes her head. ‘I don’t want you to see it like that.’

‘Fine.’ Julia sighs as she moves to leave the room. ‘Just make sure you put your clothes away properly, okay? Don’t just throw them in there and say it’s done.’

Julia closes the door behind her and Bianca sighs, relieved. ‘You can come out now.’

Alexandra all but falls out of the wardrobe. ‘I believe the inside grows smaller each time I have the need to hide.’

‘Probably.’ Bianca shrugs and sighs, reaching for clothes. ‘Wanna go out? Or should I do homework?’

‘If you have work yet to complete, work is something you should do.’

‘Meh.’ Bianca pulls a face. ‘When did you become Princess Conscience, eh?’ She sighs as she pulls her shirt on over her head, sliding her other top off underneath.

Alexandra smiles and sits down on the bed behind her, wrapping her arms around her shoulders and letting her cheek rest against the back of her neck. ‘You’re very comfortable,’ she says.

Bianca swallows as the feelings from earlier in the morning come rushing back. The feelings of contentment and love.  Overpowering love.

She shrugs the blonde away. ‘Nah, I’m not,’ she says, standing up and pulling her jeans on. ‘I’m just... padded.’

‘Padded?’

‘Yep. Padded.’ And definitely not in love, she thinks to herself as she reaches for her bag.

‘I see.’ Alexandra sits up on the bed and watches her. ‘You are to do homework now?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Should I continue to sleep?’ she suggests. ‘And thusly not disturb your work?’

‘If you want. I’m not bothered.’ Bianca sits down on the middle of the bed, spreading her work out around her.

Alexandra curls up in a ball on the bed, watching her. ‘I do not believe Cory is my prince,’ she says, quietly.

Bianca doesn’t reply, she just smiles to herself and keeps on working.

*

Alexandra’s plan to sleep more fails after a while having slept too much already. Instead, she sits beside Bianca and watches her work, questioning the science of her world and enquiring as to how things work. After a while she sighs, bored, and stands up.

‘Is it permissible for me to permeate the air with that astonishing music-delivery system you demonstrated to me earlier? Your ‘iPod’?’

Bianca looks up, pen pausing over her notepaper, a smirk playing against her lips. ‘Go for it.’

She looks back down at her work as Alexandra moves across and flicks through the iPod, before landing on what seems to be her favourite song.

Bianca laughs as John Barrowman’s ‘Uptown Girl’ starts playing. ‘Seriously?!’ she says, still laughing. ‘It’s not even the original!’

‘I think it is remarkable,’ Alexandra says, turning around, swaying to the music. She’s coordinated, moving with the beat, foot tapping against the carpet in time to the music. Bianca watches her, eyes losing focus for a moment as she observes her fluid movements. ‘Dance with me?’ she requests, proffering her hand downwards towards the girl on the bed. ‘We did not get chance for a dance ourselves last night.’

Bianca rolls her eyes, accepts the hand and stands up, dancing like an uncoordinated crazy person and singing along. ‘She’s been living in her white bread world, as well as anyone with hot blood can, and now she’s looking for a downtown man,’ she sings.

They do a little jig through the chorus, laughing together and then catching each other’s hands as Bianca sings, ‘She’s my uptown girl, don’t you know I’m in love with an uptown girl?’

They stumble backwards and land on the bed together, Alexandra bouncing for a second on top of Bianca before falling sideways onto the mattress beside her, the two girls still laughing like it’s the funniest thing they’ve ever done.

‘Thank you,’ Bianca whispers, after a moment.

‘What for?’ Alexandra enquires.

‘For being a princess. For letting me rescue you... For... For everything, really. Just thank you. In the two weeks you’ve been here... you’ve become my best friend.’ She smiles across at her. ‘I can’t imagine life without you.’

Alexandra smiles back at her. ‘Me, too,’ she says.

Twelve

‘Bianca, Alexandra, could I talk to you, please? Together?’

‘Yes, sir.’ Bianca looks up at Sands, who is standing at the front of class peering suspiciously at them both as the rest of the class file out, leaving only the two girls and the teacher.

‘Alexandra, how old are you?’ Sands enquires, walking across.

Alexandra mouths like a fish for a moment before sighing and saying, ‘Seventeen.’

Sands nods. ‘Why aren’t you in college?’

She looks to Bianca, who bites her lip and says, ‘She’s not enrolled here.’

Sands looks at the dark haired girl. ‘I know. I did some checking,’ he says, with a nod. ‘So, why has she been attending my class for the last month?’

‘You wouldn’t believe us if we told you,’ Bianca says.  She glances towards the doorway; Scotty, Cory and Daisy are there, watching, listening and waiting.

‘Try me.’ Sands sits on the edge of the desk and watches them. ‘If Alexandra isn’t in the school system but wants an education, I admire that, although I question how you went about it. If there is something else going on here...’

‘I am Princess Alexandra from Calpaea,’ Alexandra blurts out, causing Bianca to hide her face behind her hands. ‘I am from another world and Bianca rescued me, bringing me back here.’

‘No, Alex, don’t say that,’ Cory half-whimpers from the doorway.

‘You’re... a princess?’ Sands says.

Alexandra nods.

‘So, what does that make Bianca? Your Prince Charming?’

Bianca sighs. ‘No, it makes me the idiot who rescued her and is going to get expelled for it.’ She rolls her eyes and lets her forehead hit the desk.

‘You aren’t going to get expelled, Bianca,’ Sands says and she looks up again. ‘But, perhaps your friend requires... mental help?’

‘She’s not insane!’ Cory shouts from the doorway before Bianca can express the same sentiment.

‘Cory, I don’t believe you’re part of this conversation,’ Sands says, his exasperation obvious. He doesn’t look around, but it doesn’t put Cory off at all.

‘Yeah, well, screw that.’ Cory walks in, closely followed by Daisy and Scotty, who flank him, supportively. ‘She’s not insane,’ he says, ‘she proved she’s from another world. She summoned this, erm, Fairy Godmother thing... Nissa, I think she was called. She was floating in front of us. We all saw it!’

‘Is this true?’ Sands enquires.

Daisy and Scotty nod, quickly.

‘I can’t decide whether you’re all insane or if you’re telling the truth,’ he says, after a moment. Bianca always knew he was a cool teacher.

‘I’d go for Option B, sir,’ Cory says.

‘Can you show me this fairy godmother?’ Sands enquires of Alexandra.

‘No,’ Alexandra says, ‘I can only summon her occasionally and I summoned her recently.’

‘Can you prove it any other way?’

‘Just listen to the way she talks,’ Scotty says. ‘If that doesn’t prove it, I dunno what does.’

Sands sighs. ‘I’m going to have to take you to the headmaster,’ he says, after a moment. ‘It’s up to him what to do about your enrolling yourself without permission.’

He stands up, turning to the others. ‘You’re welcome to accompany her,’ he says.

*

They step out of the school together, the six of them, a mismatched and oddly out of place group, ready to walk across the playground shared with primary school children and enter the headmaster’s office.

‘Can’t she just stay?’ Bianca begs, as they walk across.

‘I can’t have a child in my class who doesn’t belong. She should be in college, at least,’ Sands says. He sighs. ‘If it were my choice, she could stay. She’s a good student and not disruptive.’

Cory makes an annoyed sound. ‘Why do you have to be so perceptive, Sands? No one else noticed.’

‘That’s what makes me a good teacher.’

‘Hey, do you hear that?’ Daisy says, after a moment. She stops walking and turns around towards the exit of the school grounds. ‘It sounds like hooves.’

‘Definitely hoof-like,’ Scotty says.

‘I didn’t think there were any horses around here,’ Bianca says.

The gate bursts open at that moment, a chestnut horse galloping through, a brunette man mounted on its back, a sword held in one hand.

‘Princess! Princess Alexandra!’

Alexandra’s eyes widen. ‘It’s him!’ she exclaims.

The horse gallops right at the group and even as everyone else starts screaming and running away they stand their ground.  He stops a metre from Sands and turns to Alexandra. ‘Princess!’ he says, excitedly. ‘I found you at last!’

‘It’s you!’ Alexandra exclaims. ‘You’re Prince Charming!’

‘Michael, actually,’ he says, with a debonair chuckle and a small grin. ‘Prince Michael of Sabia.’

‘The neighbouring kingdom,’ Alexandra explains, quickly, to those surrounding her.

‘Are these peasants disturbing you, my princess?’ he asks.

‘No! No, they’re my friends.’ She smiles. ‘They’ve been keeping me safe for you.’

‘You talk in a strange manner,’ he says. ‘They have altered your personality.’

‘I talk like I always have,’ Alexandra says, eyes hardening a little.

‘So, you’re her Prince Charming?’ Bianca says, quietly.

‘I am,’ Prince Michael says. He turns to Alexandra and extends a hand, the one not clutching his sword. ‘Princess,’ he says, ‘would you do me the honour of accompanying me back to the kingdom and becoming my bride?’

Alexandra glances at the others, then back to him. ‘I... Yes...’ She nods. ‘Yes, of course. You’re my Prince Charming. Of course I will.’

Prince Michael breaks out in a grin as she places her hand in his and lifts her onto the back of his horse. She turns to look at the others but before she can speak Prince Michael shouts, ‘Onwards!’ and turns the animal around, galloping back out of the school and leaving a dust cloud in his wake.

There’s a long silence, broken only by the sound of the group breathing, and then Bianca whispers, ‘She left.’

Scotty reaches out and squeezes her hand. ‘Maybe she’ll come back.’

‘No, you don’t get it. That’s not the point. She just left.’  She looks at the broken down gate. ‘She didn’t even say goodbye.’

Part 2

Thirteen

‘Bianca?’ Daisy steps slowly into the public bathroom. She can hear the sound of a girl crying and she recognises the sound. ‘Come on, Bianca, it isn’t that bad.’

‘Isn’t that bad?!’ The door to the cubical bursts open and Bianca stomps out, emerging with a tearstained face, her long black prom dress brushing against the less than sanitary toilet floor. ‘He promised me he’d stick with me for the whole dance and the first chance he got he went off with Bradley Jacobs!’

‘Yeah, well...’ Daisy sighs and wanders across to her friend. ‘Jason is an idiot. We already established that. I told you he was the last person to choose to go to prom with.’

‘Bradley Jacobs, though!’ Bianca exclaims. She throws her hands up and lets her arms flop down to her sides as she leans against one of the sinks. ‘I know, I know; I should have listened,’ she says, after a second. ‘But it wasn’t like I could go with a girl and I wasn’t particularly interested in going with a boy under false pretences.’

‘I guess Jason was the only option in that case.’ Daisy nods and comes to rest beside her against the next sink along. ‘If only Alexandra was still here. She could…’

‘Let it go, Daisy,’ Bianca says. ‘She left two and a half years ago. We need to stop thinking about her and move on.’

‘Uh huh. Like you’ve done?’ Daisy sighs. ‘I know you’ve been asked out. By girls and boys. You just keep saying no.’

‘Most of ‘em weren’t my type.’ She fiddles with the bracelet on her wrist.

‘Sorry about Jason abandoning you,’ Daisy says, after a long stretch of comfortable silence.

‘Sorry Cory didn’t ask you,’ Bianca replies.

‘Least Jason could have done is ask you to dance before he buggered off, though,’ Daisy says, avoiding the subject.  She pauses as Bianca nods, then grins. ‘Me! Come dance with me! I have no one to dance with and I look epic in my dress.’ She gestures at her butter yellow dress.

Bianca gives her a small smile. ‘Nah, Dais, it’s okay. You don’t need to do that, I know you’re not—’

‘I am not offering this out of pity!’ Daisy exclaims, looking positively affronted. ‘I really do want to dance with you and I won’t take no for an answer.’

‘Okay, okay…’ Bianca smiles and nods. ‘You... go grab me some of that punch and I’ll fix my makeup.’ She turns to the mirror, already wiping at her eyes. ‘Then we’ll dance.’

‘Deal!’ Daisy gives her a big grin and leaves the bathroom.

Bianca sighs and examines her face in the mirror.  Her makeup is smudged down her cheeks and she realises, after a moment, that Daisy bringing Alexandra up was the first time she’s consciously thought of the blonde for at least a year. Now she misses her again.

For the first few months after Alexandra rode out of her life on the back of a horse, Bianca was convinced she was going to come back.  Tomorrow, next week, next month… she’d be back soon because it was all a horrible mistake.

And then six months passed. Seven, eight, nine. Twelve months gone and no sign of her. Not even a note to say she was alive and well. Married with a mini-prince by now. Happy. Without Bianca.

Logically, she knows she needs to move on. Take a deep breath, accept she’s gone and just… move forward. Without Alexandra in her life, things are so much simpler. No hiding her from her mother, no sneaking around in school, no coming up with excuses for the things she did. It makes studying easier, living easier and being friends with people easier; Daisy’s become her best girlfriend, she’s even closer to Scotty than ever before, and she and Cory hit it off and exchanged stories of the blonde’s antics over old episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer watched late-night with bottles of cheap beer, bought with Cory’s brother’s I.D.

But moving on is only simple in theory. In theory, it should be easy as pie. Deep breath, move forward, one step at a time. The journey of a thousand miles and all that. But it’s not. Until a year ago, she was mentioned so often, Bianca was sure her heart was going to break, a sick feeling of dread rising up from her gut every time she so much as saw a blonde on the street. She wished they’d been together and had had a horrible break-up. If they’d broken up, the pain would have been so much less throbbing.  It would have been a clean break, something to heal from. Instead, it was a knife being twisted at regular intervals, no pain to return to, to remember and realise why this is better. She doesn’t have the energy to pull out the weapon and dispose of it and she doesn’t want to forget. The pain just keeps on coming, a dull, constant ache of loneliness now, but pain nonetheless.

She folds some tissue in half and dabs at the dark stripe down her left cheek, wiping away the evidence of her latest bout of pain. She wishes Alexandra was here. They would have had such a good prom together. They’d have danced, Alexandra’s head resting on Bianca’s shoulder, and it would have been wonderful.

‘Bianca.’

She spins around and gasps, her train of thought broken by the appearance of Nissa before her.  She’s standing this time, instead of floating, a worried expression on her face.

‘Nissa, you’re about two and a half years late,’ Bianca says, sniffing and putting the tissue down on the edge of the sink, which she leans against again as she tries to hide the stabbing pain in her chest. ‘She left a long time ago.’

‘For you, perhaps, but to us she returned merely days ago.  I have been waiting ever since, for your mind to open back up to her and accept my presence. Until today you had blocked thoughts of her successfully enough to also block me from your mind.’

‘Eh?’ Bianca gives her a completely flummoxed look.

‘I need your help. Or, rather, Alexandra needs your help.’

Bianca shakes her head and takes a few steps towards the door. ‘Like I say; she left years ago. Cut all ties, got on Prince Hair Gel’s horse and left. She chose him, not us.’

‘He may be Prince Charming, but he is not the one she was destined to be with.’

Bianca sighs. ‘Good. He was a pillock.’

She turns around to leave, but Nissa calls after her, ‘Bianca, she needs you.’

Bianca doesn’t turn back. ‘No, what she needs is a marital counsellor. Or the right Prince Charming. She doesn’t need me. I was never anything but a cheap replacement.’

‘Do you honestly believe that?’

Bianca closes her eyes and bites her lip, hand still on the door handle. ‘Yes,’ she says.

‘Then why was it you who rescued her so long ago? Why did you protect her so successfully?’

‘I didn’t protect her from anything!’ Bianca exclaims, spinning around. ‘She was hardly being hunted or attacked at regular intervals. I gave her a place to sleep and fed her without my mother realising.’

‘How old are you now, Bianca?’ Nissa enquires.

‘I’m eighteen,’ Bianca says.

‘Do you still have the dreams?’

Bianca closes her eyes and says, ‘No.’

Nissa smiles. ‘Yes, you do,’ she says. ‘I can see it written on your face. You dream the same dream every night. The one that brought you to the hole originally.’

‘I…’

‘You don’t have to say anything. Just listen.’ Nissa steps a little closer, lets her palm ghost over Bianca’s cheek. ‘Alexandra is in terrible danger. Do you remember her telling you that she was captured by an evil enchantress?’  Bianca nods. ‘The Prince who ‘rescued’ Alexandra is her son.’

Bianca’s eyes widen. ‘What?’

‘The enchantress sent him to ‘rescue’ and thusly woo Alexandra. Once they marry and Alexandra bears an heir, the enchantress will end her life.’

‘Why?!’ Bianca squeaks. ‘What’s the point?’

‘The Prince will be supposedly heartbroken, but will already be in possession of an heir and the entire kingdom. Unable to be king alone, he will ask his mother to help him rule and together they will begin a reign of terror, something which the heir will be brought up into. By the time he is grown, he too will be a tyrant. The kingdom will fall but more importantly Alexandra will be long dead.’

Bianca blinks tears from her eyes and shakes her head. ‘I don’t understand,’ she says. ‘What am I meant to do about this?’

‘Rescue her.’ Nissa gives her a soft smile. ‘You’re the one she’s meant to be with. Her Prince Charming, if you will. You’re the one who received the dreams, the dreams that brought you to her, to take her hand and rescue her from the cage she was kept in by the enchantress.  If you’d realised this sooner and sealed the deal with true love’s kiss, she would have been safe from him.’

‘Are you trying to tell me that had I snogged her senseless, this wouldn’t have happened?’ Bianca says.

‘Practically, yes.’

‘So, it’s my fault for not being as horny as every other teenager ever?’

‘Not exactly. You did what you felt was right for your situation.’

Bianca sighs and turns away, looking at herself in the mirror.

‘How do I save her?’

Nissa smiles. ‘I thought you’d comply,’ she says.  She holds her hand out and clicks her fingers. A sword appears in her grasp. ‘I believe you once did fencing?’

Bianca reaches out and takes the sword from her, wrapping her slender fingers around the hilt. ‘Still do, actually,’ she says. ‘Scotty and I have been taking a class together since Alexandra left.’ She holds the sword up, watching it glint under the fluorescent lighting. ‘I can work with this.’

Nissa takes the sword back. ‘It will be returned to you when you come to the hole in the world.’

‘Do you mean the hole in the wall?’

‘Yes. It is a gateway between this and several other worlds.  From there, you can rescue Alexandra.’

Bianca nods. ‘I’ll meet you there.’

‘When you get to the hole, think of me and I will come to you.’ Nissa touches her face briefly. ‘Alexandra is lucky to have found you.’

‘We’ll see about that,’ Bianca replies.

Fourteen

The prom dress gets abandoned on Bianca’s bed, her makeup is removed swiftly and her hair is quickly brushed. She grabs her old school rucksack and starts stuffing things into it. Anything she thinks she may need gets shoved inside, even as she grabs clothes to wear and throws them on: a pair of comfortable jeans, trainers and a white tank top.

Into the bag, she stuffs multiple woolly hats, several pairs of gloves and at least six pairs of socks.  Hair bands go in too, accompanied by her dad’s old cigarette lighter and can of hair spray.  Other stuff gets rammed in, too, on the way down the stairs and into the kitchen where she raids the cupboards, shoving a whole bunch of food in the bag, along with multiple bottles of water.

Then, once the bag is slung over her shoulder, she opens the back door.

‘Can we carry stuff too?’

Daisy is standing there, still in her butter yellow prom dress, accompanied by the tux-clad forms of Scotty and Cory, both grinning idiotically.

‘How?’ Bianca says, blankly.

‘Overheard your conversation with Nissa. Seems my mind was open, too.’ Daisy gives her a grin. ‘Thought we’d tag along for the ride. See if we can’t kick some evil enchantress arse.’ She punches her left palm with a grin. ‘You better have enough supplies for four.’

‘I don’t think…’ Bianca stares at the little group, but fails to finish her sentence as Scotty shoves past her, pulling her bag off her shoulder and taking it with him back into her house.

‘Scotty, I really have to go!’ she exclaims, following him in.

‘She’s been gone almost three years, Yanks. I doubt five more minutes will hurt.’ He opens the cupboards and starts retrieving items. ‘Daisy,’ he says, over his shoulder, ‘do us a favour and grab a rucksack each from the cupboard under the stairs.’

Bianca mouths, wordlessly, for a moment, before finally exclaiming, ‘Those aren’t even mine! They’re Mum’s and Dad’s and Topher’s!’

‘I’m sure Topher would love an excuse to buy a new bag that isn’t pink,’ Scotty says, ‘and your parents don’t exactly go hiking a lot anymore.’

‘Got ‘em,’ Daisy says, walking in and dropping the three bags by Scotty’s side. ‘I bag the pink one.’

‘You’re not coming!’ Bianca exclaims.

Scotty smiles at her. ‘Yeah. Yeah, we really are.  We all love Alexandra, too, and Daisy filled us in on your conversation. You were given a sword, so you’re obviously going to have to fight. And ‘Evil Enchantress’ doesn’t really sound like a recipe for hugs and happy fluffy bunnies.  We need weapons and you need backup.’

He stands up, walks across to her and, towering above her now after a growth spurt the year before, plants a kiss on her forehead. ‘And that’s what we are: backup.’

‘You’re not backup, you’re very bad teenagers!’ Bianca accuses as Daisy heads for the stairs. ‘Where are you going?!’

‘To raid your house and make use of my talent for chemistry.’ She pauses at the bottom of the stairs. ‘Got any potassium nitrate?’

‘Let me just check my pockets,’ Bianca says.

‘Cory?’ Daisy says, with a glance at him.

‘On it!’ He grabs her purse off the table and she glowers at him. ‘What?’ he exclaims. ‘You expect me to pay for this myself?’ He steps towards the back door, then glares back at the group. ‘Don’t leave without me.’

‘Get lots of hairspray too!’ Daisy shouts after him. ‘And candles. And a tent. And… sleeping bags.’

‘How are you going to afford all this?’ Bianca says. ‘Surely it’s easier for me to just go alone.’

‘Cory’ll pay,’ Daisy says. ‘He’s a rich arse and there’s no money in my purse.’

Scotty snorts from by the cupboards, loading tinned beans and tomatoes into the backpacks, spreading the items out evenly between the bags.

Bianca sighs. ‘I don’t have time. Alexandra doesn’t have time.’

‘Honestly, Yanks,’ Scotty says, ‘you’re either going to go in half-cocked and get yourself killed, or you can take a step back, let us help you and rescue the girl you love. There isn’t a third option.’

‘But…’

‘Sit down, shut up, and let Daisy be the freak she is.’

Bianca sighs and does just that.

*

The sound of tin foil rustling wakes Bianca a couple of hours later.  Cory and Daisy are giggling together as they pour melted saltpetre and sugar into tin foil, shaping the mixture into funny shapes and attaching a wick.

Bianca gives them a disturbed look from across the room.

‘Yeah, they’re worrying me, too,’ Scotty says from beside her on the sofa, his lap previously having been her pillow.  She sits up and looks at him, wiping drool from her mouth and blinking blearily in the light of the lamp, the sun long since sunk over the horizon. ‘Apparently they’re making smoke bombs.’

‘We need smoke bombs?’

‘You never know.’

Bianca shrugs. ‘What time is it?’

‘Half midnight. The after-prom party will be in full swing right about now.’ Scotty sighs, wistfully. ‘And Angie probably thinks I’ve abandoned her.’

‘You have abandoned her,’ Bianca points out. ‘For me. Again. Wasn’t it this you fell out over last time?’

‘Yeah. I guess we’re over this time. Ah well.’ He gives Bianca a sad smile. ‘Best friends come first. Always.’

‘Even the ones involved with fairytale princesses?’

Scotty gives her a huge grin. ‘Especially the ones with fairytale princesses!’

‘Okay, we’re done,’ Daisy says, finally, dropping onto the sofa beside Scotty.  Cory drops down next to Bianca.  ‘We’ve made four smoke bombs for each of us. We’ve stuffed them in the fridge to cool. Once they’ve set, we can go.’

‘Yeah, and we have a whole bunch of hairspray each, lighters for setting them off, a nice big tent which I’m carrying because I’m the biggest…’

‘Since when?!’ Scotty exclaims. ‘I’m as big as you!’

‘You don’t go to the gym or hiking though,’ Cory points out. ‘Look, if you wanna carry the tent, you can. Or, you can carry my sleeping bag as well as yours and we’ll call it even.’

Scotty huffs a bit. ‘Oh, whatever,’ he says.

*

The hole in the wall looks exactly the same as Bianca remembers it. She’s got smoke bombs, hair spray and lighters strapped to random places down her chest and legs and must look like a terrorist or happy slapping hoodie as she walks towards the hole, her friends following behind, looking just as out of place as she.

By the time they get to the wall, Nissa has arrived. She’s smiling down at the group, knowingly. ‘You have loyal friends, Bianca.’

‘Loyal, annoying... same difference really, right?’ Bianca says, but she’s smiling.

‘Your weapons.’

Bianca is surprised when Nissa produces a sword since it’s different to the one she offered her originally. When she reaches for it, the fairy godmother extends the handle towards Scotty instead, who makes an awed ‘ooh!’ and accepts it, grasping the jewelled handle in his hand.

Next Nissa offers a jewelled bow and a quiver full of arrows to Daisy, who flails a little before accepting it.

‘Dais, have you ever even fired a bow before?’ Bianca enquires.

Daisy holds up a key-ring, on which is displayed a bow and arrow and the words ‘McLeans Archery Training School’. ‘Yes,’ she says, simply.

‘Huh.’

Nissa smiles, knowingly, and passes a large jewelled mace to Cory, who spends the next five minutes making whacking gestures and running around the place, practicing.

Finally, she turns to Bianca and offers her the jewelled sword from before. Bianca accepts it, gratefully, holding the heavy weapon in her hands and adjusting her stance to the weight. She looks up at the Fairy Godmother with a thankful smile, but Nissa’s not smiling anymore.

‘You will face many trials, child. The Prince is also going to be trying to get to the Princess. I have put blocks; trials and monsters, between here and there, but so has the Enchantress.  My magic will aid and assist you, but hers you must fight.’

‘Which is why we all have weapons, I guess?’ Bianca says. ‘We can fight.’

‘Exactly.’ Nissa moves and settles her feet onto the ground. ‘You must enter the cave and follow it until you reach the place from which you released the Princess originally. Once there, avoid the troll guards and enter the kingdom through the jewelled doorway at the north side of the cave. This will bring you into the kingdom by The Great Lake. From there you must make your way to the Tower of Thorton. Within that tower, you will find your Princess.’

‘Probably a kinda obvious question,’ Daisy says, ‘but why didn’t the Prince just lay one on her when he had her here?’

‘The spell would not have worked,’ Nissa replies. ‘It must be done within the confines of the kingdom for the action to be binding between two from the kingdom.’

‘So, different rules apply for the prince and Alexandra than for me and Alexandra?’ Bianca questions.

‘Correct.’ Nissa moves, as though to leave, then pauses, turning back to Bianca. ‘You will be gone many days,’ she tells her. ‘Be sure your friends know what this entails.’

Bianca turns to her friends. ‘You shouldn’t come,’ she says, after a moment. ‘Once we’re in the other world... time passes differently.’

‘I know,’ Daisy says. ‘I told these guys, too. I heard your conversation, remember?’ She smiles. ‘Alexandra is our friend too. It’s worth it.’

‘Your parents will think we’ve run away together,’ Bianca points out.

‘So will yours,’ Daisy says. ‘I don’t see you caring.’

‘It’s... different for me.’

Scotty looks at her, sharply. ‘You’re not coming back,’ he says.

‘I wasn’t planning to, no. By the time we’re done... years will have passed here. Decades, maybe.’ She shakes her head, slowly. ‘I left Mum and Dad a note... on my bed. I said I have other things to do and places to be but not to worry. They probably won’t even care.’

‘Bianca, how could you do that?’ Cory says, shocked.

‘How can I not? I either condemn the only girl I have ever truly loved to a life without love with a prince who plans to kill her once she bears his spawn or I leave for a life with her!’ She throws her hands up. ‘So you guys tell me which I should choose. Or, better still, just bugger off and let me do what I need to!’ She turns to the cave, about to climb in, when Nissa catches her arm.

‘A final word of warning, child,’ Nissa says, quietly. ‘Do not cross the gorge at night.’

‘I hear ya.’

She hefts herself up and launches through the hole in the wall, coming out into the cave inside. The tent poles on her backpack dig painfully into her shoulder when she lands and she groans as she clambers to her feet and follows the passageway along to the circular cave.  The many possible alternatives greet her once more, but she knows which one to choose: the one straight ahead.  As she steps carefully into the cave she notices what she hasn’t noticed before: the hat she owned when she was all but five years old is sitting in the doorway ahead of her, still white and untouched by the years. She bends down and reaches out, letting her fingers play over the cloth; an unspoken sign that her life was always leading her here.

Then she takes a deep breath and enters the dungeon.

Fifteen

The troll is on guard, carrying a bludgeon bigger than Bianca’s head but it doesn’t deter her. As she creeps into the cave at a crouch she ignores the heavy weight in her gut that says she didn’t even say goodbye to Scotty and moves to drop down behind a large rock.

The dungeon is how she remembers it; it reminds her of the inside of a volcano and, she ventures, is probably just as hot, causing sweat to bead on her forehead and to drip down her back. The walls are made of rock, large sections of the ground missing, lava showing through, with cages on the remaining floor. There are skeletons in a few of them and Bianca shudders when she considers that may have been Alexandra’s fate had she not rescued her.

Her eyes scan around the cave, watching the troll’s movements and patiently waiting for the creature to turn its back.  She’s been watching for five minutes by the time she realises the jewelled door is, apparently, on the north wall and she doesn’t have a compass.

‘Crap,’ she mutters. ‘Clever, Bianca. Remember everything except a compass.’ She idly wonders if Cory picked one up, but then remembers he’s back behind the hole with the rest of them.

The troll moves away after another five minutes of crouching, painfully, behind a rock, and Bianca watches him.  If he turns back while she’s moving for the other rock, she’s screwed.  She takes a deep breath, keeps her hand on the sheath of her sword as she moves to stand up.

A hand grabs her by the elbow and drags her back down. ‘Are you suicidal?’ Daisy. Daisy followed her in and is now sat next to her looking ever so proud of herself. Bianca gives her a small smile and Daisy grins at her, holding out a hand. ‘Give me your phone. It’s not like you’ll be needing it apparently.’

Bianca gives her a blank look and hands her the phone from her pocket.  ‘No signal,’ she comments as Daisy checks the screen and the other girl nods.

‘I know.’ She flicks through the menus until she finds what she’s after and hits a button.  Then, without a word, she lobs it through the air, towards the turned back of the troll and past, into the corridor beyond.

For a moment, there’s silence, the troll looking confused as he tries to work out where the weird flying thing came from. Then, from the corridor, music starts to play. John Barrowman, Bianca can’t help but notice, with a smirk.  The troll chases after the sound and disappears back the way they came.

‘Go, go, go!’ Daisy shoves Bianca and the two of them launch towards the wall and the small corridor running around it.  Once hidden, Bianca hugs the redhead.

‘I’m glad you’re here,’ she says.  Daisy grins at her. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘Well, those two were being total idiots, so I decided screw ‘em. You’re my best friend and I know my parents are gonna worry and I won’t see them again but... it’s my life. Alexandra’s life. Our life. My choice and I’m not letting you go without at least a goodbye. Plus...’ She holds up her bow. ‘Gotta give this a spin.’

Bianca smiles fondly at her. She looks terrified, but Bianca feels the same way. They’re giving up everything and they know it. ‘Have I ever mentioned how glad I am to have met you?’

‘Nuh uh! Don’t you go falling in love with me,’ Daisy jokes, ‘you have a princess waiting for you to rescue her from a tower.’

Bianca grins at her. ‘Come on then,’ she says.

They turn back to the corridor and follow the rock walls along until they reach a large archway, a wooden door set into it. The archway is decorated with large jewels in all the colours of the rainbow. ‘Here,’ she says. ‘This is the door.’

‘How do you know?’ Daisy questions. ‘We don’t have a compass...’

‘Well, there’s no way to be sure but...’ Bianca shrugs.  ‘What’ve we got to lose?’

‘Limbs. Organs. That kind of thing,’ Daisy says, but she’s not leaving. Instead, she’s reaching out for the door handle, pushing it down and pulling.

The door opens slowly until Bianca helps her, pulling too, and once it’s open the two girls step into the cave beyond.

‘More caves. Lovely,’ Daisy says, grumpily.

‘You can go back if you want, Dais,’ Bianca says, quietly. ‘I can go it alone.’

‘Nah. You couldn’t navigate Blackpool alone, let alone some strange other world.’ Daisy nudges her shoulder with her own and grins. ‘You’re stuck with me.’

Bianca laughs and the two girls continue their journey giggling, until they reach the mouth of the cave.  The opening is wide, leading out into grassland. It’s bright outside, the sun shining down from the sky and illuminating the landscape ahead.  They step out onto the rocks of the cave mouth and look around. There’s no lake.

‘This is the wrong opening,’ Daisy says, voicing Bianca’s thoughts.

‘Damn it,’ Bianca mutters. She points up ahead at the tower in the distance. ‘It’s going to take days to get there.’

‘Look at it this way,’ Daisy says. ‘They think we’ve come out in a different place. They won’t expect us from here. They also won’t expect us. Just you. So, we have the advantage. And Nissa is holding the prince back, who, by the way, is an ugly bugger and I really don’t see why anyone would think Alexandra – who is very obviously a raging homosexual – would choose him over you.’ Daisy makes a huffy sound. ‘Whoever thought she would is crazy.’

‘I don’t think she really has a choice. It’s whoever gets there first...’

‘Doesn’t matter.’ Daisy gives Bianca a determined glare. ‘She has a choice and she’ll choose you. Now, come on, we should get hiking.’

*

Half a day later the two girls are yet to meet anything that makes them think ‘trial’. Except, maybe, the mud Daisy stepped on that splattered up her dress.

‘I had a deposit down on this,’ Daisy mutters.

‘I doubt you’ll be able to get the deposit back after months,’ Bianca points out. She doesn’t think the word ‘years’, although that’s probably more appropriate to the situation.

‘Good point.’ Daisy points up ahead. ‘There’s a town,’ she says. ‘We should check it out; get supplies or something.’

‘With what?’ Bianca says. ‘We don’t have any money.’

‘I brought this.’ Daisy holds out her hand, on which a gold chain is displayed. ‘Might be worth a bit.’

‘Dais, I can’t let you do that...’ Bianca says, helplessly.

‘Shut up, it’s my choice. Cory and Scotty have the fire building supplies... Maybe we can get some wood and kindling. We’ll have to set up camp eventually and eat something, not just nap against logs in shifts.’

‘Okay...’ Bianca pauses and stretches, before they continue their walk down the hill towards the town up ahead.

It only takes them ten minutes more to reach the town and when they get there no one really reacts to their strange appearances or the fact Bianca is in trousers unlike everyone else.

It’s more of a village than a town, really, with a few little houses made of wood and a shop or two scattered around in a circle.

In the centre of the village is a fountain, which Daisy and Bianca pause next to, putting their bags down on the floor at their feet and turning towards the water.

Villagers are milling around, a couple washing their hands and faces in the fountain. Deciding this is an okay thing to do, Daisy and Bianca follow suit, washing mud and grime off their skins.

‘Okay,’ Bianca says, taking a breath.  ‘You go find somewhere to get some clothing and fire stuff from... and I’ll... mind our stuff.’ She gestures at the two bags by her feet.

‘All right.’ Daisy moves out into the crowd as Bianca settles down onto the fountain.

It takes Daisy about ten minutes to return, and when she does she looks angry.

‘Apparently gold means nothing to these people,’ she says, with a huff, settling down on the fountain beside Bianca. ‘We should probably head off... make more headway before it gets dark.’

Bianca nods. ‘Yeah, probably.’ She pauses as a screech pierces the air. ‘Do you hear that?’

People around them start running for cover, aiming for the inside of their wooden houses and shops as other people start to shout in fear.  The two girls get to their feet, looking around in confusion and fear as everyone disperses.

‘What’re you just standing there for?!’ a man bellows in their direction.  ‘Are you suicidal?’

‘What is it?’ Bianca shouts.

‘It’s Baivis!’ he yells. ‘Run and hide! Get away before they get you!’

The sky darkens above them and, as they look up, they realise why; the air is filled with reptilian creatures, as large as elephants with appropriate wing spans, their beaks extended downwards as they fly towards the village.

‘They’re here for us,’ Bianca breathes.

‘Jesus.’ The word escapes Daisy’s lips before she can catch it and then she’s reacting; one hand pulling her bow from her back and the other reaching for an arrow. The creatures are huge and descending fast. ‘Bianca, do something,’ she commands. She’s calm now; no longer scared, instead determined. She knows what to do and how to do it. She’ll freak out later.

Bianca, meanwhile, is freaking out now. ‘Why the hell are we here?’ Bianca squeaks. ‘Are we crazy? We don’t know anything about this world or what to do now we’re here! We’re going to die and our families, our friends, are never going to even know what happened to us!’

Daisy turns on her, rips a can of hairspray from the ammo belt she set up for her friend and thrusts it into Bianca’s hand. ‘Get your lighter out, aim and fire. Seriously,’ she tells her, firmly. ‘Or we really are going to die.’

The creatures descend and Daisy loads her bow, drawing it back and firing it at the first one. The Baivi screeches, a terrifying, pained, high pitched sound, as the arrow gets buried in its eyeball.  The others swarm around it, protecting it from Daisy’s aim as she loads her bow again, pulls it back and fires.  The arrow pierces one of the creatures’ wings, splitting it in two. The creature slams into the body of the one behind it and more screeching ensues.

‘Do something!’ Daisy yells, as the half-blinded creature launches itself at her, talons first.  She hasn’t got time to load her bow before claws are buried in her shoulder and she screams in pain.

There’s a blast of orange light and heat as Bianca sprays hairspray through the lighter at the Baivi. The creature’s wings ignite and it falls backwards, flapping up into the sky as it tries to escape the heat and pain.  Another explosion of fire courses through the air as Bianca aims again, this time at the one with the severed wing desperately trying to stay in the air.

Daisy claps a hand to her shoulder, the strap of her dress hanging limply down over her chest, the back of it having snapped, and winces in pain.

‘Li’l help?’ Bianca says, as the first can of hairspray runs out and she discards it at her feet, reaching for her sword.

‘You’re doing fine alone,’ Daisy says, through clenched teeth, as Bianca spins around, slamming the blade of her sword into the talons of a third Baivi, severing them from its body.

People are coming out of their houses now, standing just outside of their safe haven and watching what’s going on. Daisy recognises the one woman as the one who rejected her gold and refused to give her water and some clothing.

She loads another arrow into her bow, rips the strap off her dress and wraps it around the arrowhead before retrieving the lighter from her pocket and setting it on fire.

As quickly as her injured shoulder will let her, she loads the flaming arrow onto the bow, draws it back and fires it into the sky. It slams into the body of one of the Baivis, piercing its flesh and setting it on fire. The other creatures – the ones not attempting to kill Bianca – flock around it, setting themselves on fire in the process of trying to protect it.

One of the creatures plummets, flaming, from the sky, into the fountain and causes a splash, warm water drenching Daisy from head to toe even as she loads another arrow and lights it on fire, aiming it up at the wings of one of the few remaining creatures.

Bianca, meanwhile, is fighting four off.  She stabs one in the stomach, kicks another in the talon and jumps backwards onto the fountain, bringing the tip of her sword down on the head of the nearest Baivi. It howls in pain for the moment it has left alive before it tumbles downwards onto one of the other creatures, snapping its neck against the edge of the fountain.

The last remaining uninjured Baivi screeches into the heavens and the rest pull up, the group turning as one and flying back towards the hills.

‘If that was the easiest trial,’ Daisy says, panting and holding her shoulder as she lets her bow drop to her side, clutched in her other hand, ‘we’re screwed.’

‘Let me tend to your wound.’ It’s the woman who rejected the gold, stepping nervously up to the two of them. ‘You saved our village. It’s the least I can do.’

‘Any chance of a change of clothes?’ Daisy asks, gesturing at the fact her dress is likely to fall off at any moment.

‘I can provide that, miss!’ a boy exclaims. He’s around seventeen and is looking at Daisy like she’s the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen.

‘Someone’s got a crush,’ Bianca mutters in Daisy’s ear, as they move across to the nearest house.

‘Trousers,’ Daisy says. ‘And a shirt of some kind.’

The boy bows to her. ‘Of course. Of course. I will return shortly!’ He flits away as the woman leads Daisy to sit down and reaches for a bowl of water and some bandages.

Sixteen

The boy returns half an hour later with leather trousers, a leather jerkin, a leather cloak and some practical boots clutched in his hands. ‘Here you go, miss,’ he says, offering them to Daisy with blushing cheeks and a grin. He turns to Bianca. ‘Father says he, too, owes you for what you did. He offers two horses; the fastest in the kingdom!’

Daisy glances at Bianca as the other girl splutters, ‘No, we couldn’t!’

‘Don’t be a martyr, Bianca,’ she warns, ‘we need to get there faster and we can hardly hike the whole way if we want to get there in time.’

Bianca nods. ‘She’s right. We’ll take the horses. Thank your father from us, please.’

‘And thank you for the clothes,’ Daisy says. She turns to the woman who bandaged her shoulder. ‘Have you got somewhere I can change?’

‘Through there...’ The woman gestures. ‘Carlo will show you the way.’

The boy, Carlo, smiles at Daisy. ‘Come on,’ he says, stepping towards the doorway. ‘This way.’

Bianca stays in the main room, watching as the woman potters around. ‘Thank you,’ she says, after a moment, ‘for the bandages and the food.’ She points at the couple of pots of stew by her feet, ready to put into her bag.

‘You’re welcome,’ the woman says. ‘You saved our village. It is the least we can do.’

Daisy returns after fifteen minutes, dressed in the leather outfit and looking mournfully at the once butter yellow, now stained red and brown with blood and mud, dress in her arms. ‘I wanted to keep this,’ she says. Carlo exits the room behind her.

‘Let me take it,’ he says. ‘I may be able to fix it for you. For... when you return.’

Daisy quirks an eyebrow at him. ‘I’m not sure I’ll be coming back,’ she says. ‘We’ve got a long journey ahead of us and...’

‘Well...’ He reaches out and takes the dress from her arms. ‘It will give you something to come back for.’

Bianca watches on, amused, as Daisy blushes for the first time since she’s known her.

‘I... I guess it will then,’ she says.

*

‘You could have stayed,’ Bianca says, as they ride away from the village on horseback, ‘if you’d wanted to.’

‘You kidding? You need backup,’ Daisy replies. The sun is setting overhead and she points at a body of water up ahead. ‘Carlo says that’s the Great Lake,’ she says. ‘We should camp by there tonight. Then, hopefully, we can get to the tower in a day or two.’

‘Agreed.’ Bianca pulls on the reins of her horse, directing the pinto mare in the direction of the water up ahead. Daisy and her chestnut stallion ride ahead, leading the way down towards the water.

Once there, the two girls set up a tent and get out the sleeping bags, getting ready to spend the night.

‘Do you think we’ll get there in time?’ Bianca asks as they cook a tin of beans and a pot of stew over the fire Daisy’s lit.

‘Course we will,’ Daisy replies.

‘How can you be so sure?’ She pokes the beans as though they’re to blame for everything that’s gone wrong so far.

‘I can’t, but it’s good to hope.’

Bianca sighs and nods, the two of them digging into their warm tins and starting to eat silently in the light of the fire.

A twig snaps in the trees nearby and they leap to their feet, Daisy loading and pulling taut her bow, Bianca producing her sword, ready to attack.

From within the trees emerge a pack of lions, a large male leading the pack, his golden fur shining in the light from the fire. Daisy’s arrow wavers. ‘I don’t want to shoot him,’ she whispers.

They come closer, slowly, until the two girls notice the lioness beside the leader has something held in her mouth; a knife with a jewelled handle.

‘They’re on our side!’ Bianca hisses. ‘They’re Nissa’s.’

The leader, as though understanding, inclines his head slightly as the lioness drops the knife at Bianca’s feet.

‘Hey, we’ve got something you might like...’ Daisy turns around and reaches into the pack on the horses, retrieving a large amount of meat Carlo’s mother sent with them; something they hadn’t been sure what to do with yet.

She chops the meat up with the jewelled knife and, once it’s in several large portions, tosses it into the group of lions, who immediately go to eat it.

‘Looks like we have allies,’ Bianca breathes.

‘Looks like,’ Daisy agrees.

*

‘You know, Carlo was the first boy to ever show any interest in me.’ They’re in the tent, curled up in a sleeping bag each, facing each other in the darkness. It’s cold, so they’re hunkered down inside the bags, five seconds away from sharing one for body heat.

‘I thought Cory...?’

‘Ha.’ Daisy sighs. ‘He never... He doesn’t realise what he means to me. We flirt and we act like we’re together... but when someone else shows interest he’s off and leaving me behind. He doesn’t realise how much I love him.’

Bianca nods. ‘I see.’

‘I don’t think I mean that much to him.’

‘Yeah, you do,’ Bianca tells her. ‘You just... You’re always there. He’s never had the chance to realise what life would be like without you.’

Daisy sighs from within her sleeping bag. ‘He’ll probably find out,’ she says. ‘Do you really think I’m going to survive this?’

Bianca reaches out and puts her hand on Daisy’s wrist. ‘Yes,’ she says.

Daisy shakes her head. ‘No; I’m going to protect you. Even if it kills me.’

‘Not if protecting you kills me first.’

Daisy chuckles. ‘Thanks, Bianca,’ she says. ‘But you’re the one that’s important in this.’

‘We’re both important,’ Bianca insists. ‘So don’t go believing anything different.’

*

At first light, Bianca and Daisy leave the tent. The members of the lion pack are assembled in a circle around the campsite, ready to protect them from anything that may come their way. Bianca greets them with a ‘Good morning!’ she isn’t sure they understand as she wanders into the woods to find somewhere to go to the toilet.  Daisy, meanwhile, prepares some breakfast and once breakfast is eaten they head off towards the tower once more, the lion pack surrounding their horses as they walk.

They travel without incident for a long time – hours, Bianca suspects – until they reach a shining golden field. The lions pause and Daisy and Bianca follow suit.

For a second there’s silence, but then the cats begin to back slowly away the lion’s jaw opening as he lets out a wild roar.

‘What’s happening?’ Daisy whispers.

‘I don’t know,’ Bianca replies. Her horse tries to back away, but she keeps control of the reins, steadying her. ‘Whoa there.’

The grass parts and out of the yellow field swarm rats. Hundreds of rats the size of Jack Russels. All of them heading straight for the lions and horses.

‘Oh good god!’ Daisy squeaks, pulling out the hairspray.

‘Careful!’ Bianca exclaims. ‘You’ll get the lions!’

Daisy shudders. ‘I didn’t sign up for rats!’ she shouts.  They’re coming closer now, even as the lions prepare to battle the rats.

‘Come on.’ Bianca launches herself down from her mare, lands on the field below and draws her sword.  As the lions dive onto the rats, teeth ripping into the squishy flesh of the rats’ bodies, she starts slashing.  Daisy is making whimpering sounds from on top of her horse, aiming her bow into the crowd of rats and firing at random intervals.

‘Daisy, do something constructive!’ Bianca shouts.

‘I really hate rats!’ she squeaks.

The lions roar together as they rip rats apart.  Teeth sink into Bianca’s leg and she screams, falling down as rats gnaw at her, climbing up her body.

‘Bianca!’ Daisy yells.

The rats are climbing up the horse now, the lions doing nothing to stop them, and Daisy is screaming, even as the sheer number of rats weighs Bianca down against the ground, climbing over her chest and towards her face.

This was not how she planned to die. Death by rats wasn’t something she ever anticipated.

Seventeen

Out of nowhere, a sword slashes across her chest, knocking the rats flying and slicing a few in half.  Eyes previously squeezed tight shut now squint up. The light almost blinds her until a head moves in front of the sun.

A hand extends and she grabs it, allowing Scotty to pull her to her feet. ‘Scotty,’ she gasps. ‘Where did... how did...?’

Before Scotty can reply, rats are on them again and he’s fighting them off.  She turns to grab her sword from the ground in time to see Cory swing his mace, knocking several rats off the saddle of Daisy’s horse. Then, with a grin, he offers her his arm and lifts her down to the ground.  For a long moment, she just stands there, his arm around her middle, staring into his face, and then they’re both fighting, back to back, her with a can of hair spray and a lighter, setting fire to the rats she can get to without risking the lions, and him with his fancy mace.

When all the rats are defeated, leaving splatters of rat blood all over the place, the lions’ furs stained red and the humans’ clothes covered in bits of dead rats, the lioness launches herself at Cory, front paws slamming into his chest and sending him slamming backwards onto the ground.

‘Stop! Oh god! Stop!’ Daisy screams.

‘They’re with us!’ Bianca yells.

The lioness eyes Bianca for a moment before stepping back off Cory.  Daisy grabs him by the hand, helping him to his feet and putting herself, protectively, between him and the lions.

‘How did you... when did you...?’ Bianca splutters at Scotty, after a second.

Scotty grins at her. ‘It’s good to see you, too, Yanks.’

She throws herself at him, arms around his neck and face buried in his shoulder, holding him so tight she thinks he’ll probably have damage to his internal organs.

‘I thought you were staying there,’ she says into his shoulder.

‘What, and leave my best friend to fight off evil fanged rats all by herself? Don’t be silly.’ He hugs her back, as tight as he can, and looks towards Daisy. ‘You okay, Dais?’

She nods. ‘Am now. Thanks for the help.’

‘When did you come out?’ Bianca asks. ‘Of the cave, I mean... And where?’

‘We came out the wrong door.’ He chuckles. ‘And we got to this village place in time to see you guys ride away but Cory wouldn’t leave without making sure everyone at the village were okay in the wake of your devastation.’ He gives her a scowl. ‘We lost a couple of nights of sleep trying to catch up, but I guess we weren’t long behind you guys.’

Bianca nods.

‘We were ten minutes behind you guys. Tops.’ He smiles.

‘Where’d you camp?’ she asks.

‘Other side of those woods.’ He gestures behind them and she laughs.

‘We camped this side.’ She grins. ‘Silly! You would have found us earlier if you’d carried on for just five more minutes!’

Scotty smiles, but then it fades and he says, ‘I never would have left you to go on alone, you know. Sorry I was a bit of an idiot.’

‘Well, you’re here now,’ Bianca says, with a smile. ‘And we’re going to need your help if this is any indication.’

‘Okay then. Let’s head off.’

‘We only have two horses,’ Daisy points out.

‘We’ll just have to share,’ Cory says.

‘Okay,’ she says, quietly.

*

Cory’s on the horse behind Daisy, arms around her waist, and Scotty’s behind Bianca. He’s not acting as though he’s holding on for dear life like Cory is, but his hands are loosely on her hips to avoid falling off as they walk. The lions follow at the same pace, licking their wounds and looking as sorry for themselves as the group of humans feel.

‘The tower’s not that far off now,’ Bianca says. ‘If we just stay on the path and make camp up ahead we can make it there tomorrow.’

‘Where’d you get the horses?’ Scotty asks.

‘This boy’s father gave us them after we saved their village from these big winged things,’ Daisy says.

‘Baivi,’ Bianca interjects.

‘Sounds bad,’ Cory says. ‘Were you hurt?’

‘Just my shoulder.’ Daisy shrugs. ‘My dress will probably never be the same but Carlo said he’d try and fix it.’

‘Who’s Carlo?’ Scotty says, with an eyebrow raised.

‘He’s this boy who crushed on Daisy back at the village,’ Bianca chirps, in a sing-song voice.

Cory retracts his arms from around Daisy’s waist. ‘He is?’

‘Yeah, he was pretty cute,’ Bianca says.

‘How would you know?’ Scotty says, poking her in the side.

Cory spends the rest of the ride silent behind Daisy.

*

‘We should make camp here.’ The sun is setting as Bianca slides free of the saddle of her horse. They’ve stopped about sixty metres away from a gorge. There’s a clear path down the side but as the sun is going down, it would make more sense to cross it once the sun has risen once more.

Plus, Nissa’s warning still rings in her ears.

‘Why?’ Cory says. ‘There’s at least another half hour of light left. We can get a little further.’ He walks towards the edge of the cliff. ‘There’s a path down here.’

‘Cory, get back,’ Bianca warns. ‘Nissa said not to cross the gorge at night.’

‘And my parents told me not to skateboard without a helmet, but I’m still fine.’

‘Apart from your considerable brain damage,’ Daisy says, with a smirk.

‘Ha, ha.’ Cory turns back to the group. ‘Come on,’ he says. ‘What do you say?’

Before anyone can reply, a tentacle sweeps out from the gorge, wraps itself around Cory’s ankles and pulls him off the edge.

‘Cory!’ Daisy screams.

‘Oh my god!’ Bianca and Scotty run for the edge, pausing a foot from the edge to stare down in horror. No tentacle creature to be seen, no Cory to be seen and the lions have all retreated into the woods.

‘Cory!’ Daisy runs to the very edge and stares down at the chasm below.

‘Get back from the edge,’ Bianca says. ‘Or we’ll be next.’ She and Scotty start to back off, but Daisy doesn’t follow.

‘Daisy, get back.’ Bianca moves to grab her arm but Daisy shakes her off.

‘No, no. Look!’ She drops down until she’s lying chest down on the ground, shoulders hanging off the edge, arms reaching down.

Scotty and Bianca move around, slowly, to follow her gaze.

Cory is clinging to a shelf a metre down.  ‘Thanks for noticing me, Dais!’ he shouts.

‘Grab my hand!’ She reaches down but he can’t get to her and the tentacle is still trying to pull him down.

‘I really don’t want to die like this,’ Cory says, surprisingly calm for his situation.

‘You’re not going to die. Just get my hand!’

‘Scotty, there’s rope in the saddlebag of my horse; go and get it,’ Bianca commands. She drops down to peer over the cliff as well. ‘Cory, we’re getting you up.’

Cory snorts.

‘I meant onto the cliff.’ She stands up again, grabbing the rope off Scotty and looking for something to tie it to.  There’s a tree a few metres back, so she runs over to it and ties the rope to the trunk.

‘Hey, Dais?’ Cory says, looking up at her from below. ‘If I don’t make this...’

‘Oh shut up,’ Daisy snaps. ‘As much as I want to hear whatever it is you’re going to say; I don’t want to hear it because you think you’re about to plummet to your death or be raped by a tentacle.’

There’s a pause for a moment before Cory says, ‘I’m hoping for option A, personally.’

Scotty reties the rope to the tree with his Boy Scout wisdom once Bianca is done and they take the rope to the edge of the cliff and lower it down to Cory, a loop tied onto the end to make it easier to hold onto.

‘Come on!’ Bianca shouts. She drags Daisy to her feet and gestures at the rope. ‘We need to pull.’

‘Cory, are you holding on?!’ Daisy yells over the cliff.

‘Like my life depends on it, love!’ he shouts back.

‘One... two... three...’ Scotty says, and then they all pull.

The tentacle holds on to Cory but the combined might of three very, very determined teenagers pulls him up and onto the cliff.  The tentacle pulls back, the sound of a disgruntled hiss coming up to greet the friends as they run to drag Cory away from the edge.

‘Oh god, I thought we were going to lose you!’ Bianca exclaims as she, Scotty and Daisy throw their arms around Cory and hug him.

Cory staggers as his legs give way and the three of them support and lower him onto the ground to sit in the grass and tremble.

‘That...’ he stammers, ‘was the second scariest thing that has ever happened to me.’

‘Second scariest?’ Daisy says, as the others sink down to sit on the ground nearby and recover.

‘Second scariest,’ he confirms.

*

‘So, what’s the plan?’ Cory says, as they cook tinned spaghetti over the campfire.

‘Watches.’ Bianca sighs. ‘We’ll all take an hour watch. Since the lions left us, we can’t all sleep at the same time. It’s not safe.’

‘All right.’ Scotty pulls out his phone. ‘I have BrickBreaker. I’ll take first watch.’

‘I didn’t actually mean the plan for tonight – although I fully endorse Scotty being the one to stay up half the night – but for tomorrow.’ Cory eats some of the spaghetti and passes the pot to Daisy. Their fingers brush and she smiles, shyly. ‘We need to cross the gorge and we need to get to the tower. Which, I have a horrible feeling, won’t be as easy as we think.’

‘We’ll tackle the tower when we get to it... and as for the gorge; we go together and make sure we watch each other’s backs. And we are careful of the tentacle monster,’ Bianca says. ‘As long as we’re careful, we should be okay.’

‘Okay then.’ Cory stands up and yawns. ‘I bag the middle of the tent,’ he says.

‘Hey, you’re not coming in a tent with us,’ Bianca chastises. ‘Get your own tent!’

‘Uh... yeah... we lost our tents. Down a well,’ Scotty says.

Daisy gives him a look. ‘How?’

‘Don’t ask,’ Cory says, hand on his face. ‘Really. It’ll just embarrass us all.’

‘Yeah, it was a bad day,’ says Scotty. ‘We lost our underwear too.’

‘...and now I will stop questioning,’ says Daisy.

‘So, sharing a tent then,’ Bianca says, with a sigh.

‘I bag middle!’ Cory exclaims, diving into the tent.

Bianca touches Scotty’s head as a ‘goodnight’ as she and Daisy walk across to get into the tent. ‘You’ve still got it so bad,’ she mutters to Daisy.

‘I know,’ Daisy replies.

*

The sound of hushed voices wakes Bianca and for a moment she can’t remember where she is. The interior is dark except for a small light between the two figures at the other side of the tent. She suspects the light is coming from Cory’s phone put between them. From what she can see, Cory and Daisy are lying in front of each other, foreheads touching as they whisper.  Movement reveals Cory’s hand playing loosely against Daisy’s hip.

She closes her eyes and pretends to be asleep.

‘It was?’ Daisy whispers.

‘Yeah,’ Cory replies. ‘That was the scariest experience. When I looked back at that hole and I realised... I might not see you ever again and I knew I had to follow you.’

‘I had visions of Scotty making you come along.’

‘He tried, but it wasn’t really necessary. I was coming anyway.’

There’s the soft sound of a rustle and she suspects Daisy’s moved her head to smile, softly.

‘I’m sorry I haven’t treated you right.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean... I just mean how I act. Around you and around other girls.’ Another rustle. ‘I think it took this to make me realise just how much you mean to me.’

‘How much do I mean to you?’

‘This much.’

Bianca turns away and pulls the sleeping back over her ears. This isn’t something she’s meant to be hearing.

Eighteen

‘Someone’s chipper this morning,’ Bianca says as Daisy emerges from the tent with a grin spread over her face.

‘I am a bit,’ Daisy replies. ‘I need to pee. Back in a minute!’ She runs off into the woods and Bianca shakes her head fondly as Cory steps out of the tent next.

‘So,’ he says. ‘I gather we woke you up.’

‘Yeah, but I didn’t mind.’ She gives him a smile. ‘Good on you. ‘Bout time.’

Cory ruffles her hair and follows Daisy into the woods.

It takes Scotty another few minutes before he emerges, yawning. ‘How was watch?’ he asks, sitting down next to his friend.

‘Eh. Uneventful.’ She hands Scotty’s phone back to him. ‘I beat your high score.’  She pauses. ‘By a lot.’

Scotty glances down at the screen. ‘Ah, well,’ he says. ‘I’m rubbish at this game anyway.’ He pockets the phone and watches the woods, waiting for Cory and Daisy to come back.

‘Think they’re shaggin’ in there?’ Bianca says, after a moment.

Scotty gives her a perplexed look. ‘Why would they be?’

Daisy emerges from the woods a couple of seconds later and greets the friends by grinning broadly at them and pausing to stand by the long-dead fire. ‘So, are we heading across the gorge today?’

Bianca looks up at her, amused. ‘Sure,’ she says. ‘Sooner we get across there, the sooner we’ll get to the tower.’

*

An hour later, the campsite is packed up, the horses’ saddlebags loaded up and ready to go and the four of them are leading the horses slowly down the path into the gorge.

‘If tentacle boy comes at me,’ Cory says, ‘I’m screaming like a girl and running the other way.’

‘Don’t you always do that?’ She reaches over and slips her hand into Cory’s, who smiles and pulls her in against his side.

‘I missed a lot on watch, didn’t I?’ Scotty says, glumly.

‘Little bit,’ Bianca replies, bumping against his shoulder.

‘I don’t see tentacle guy anywhere,’ Daisy says, voicing all their thoughts a few moments later. ‘Maybe that’s why she said to cross the gorge during the day...’

‘The less I see of tentacle guy; the better,’ Cory says, with a shudder.

‘Maybe it’s a girl,’ Bianca says. ‘Like a cartoon female octopus with long eyelashes.’

Cory shudders. ‘Don’t even go there.’

*

They cross the gorge in due course, without any negative consequences and find themselves riding towards the tower, which seems bigger now they’re closer. Bianca swallows as she looks up at it; it’s tall and slender, looming like a dark scar in the sky.

‘We’re nearly there,’ she says, gesturing.

‘Let’s stop and eat quickly,’ Cory suggests. ‘I don’t think we’ll have chance again.’ He clambers down off the back of Daisy’s horse and the other three follow suit.  A few minutes later, they’ve handed sandwiches from home out between them and they’re merrily digging in.

‘Hey look!’ Daisy says, after a minute.  She thrusts the sandwich at Cory and breaks away from the group, running across to a staff lying on the ground. It’s long and thick, with ornate markings all over it in red and black.  ‘This is gorgeous.’

‘Daisy, be careful,’ Bianca warns, taking a step towards her.

‘It’s just a staff. Chill.’ She reaches out and takes it into her hand. ‘See?’ she says, holding it up. ‘This is gorgeous. I feel like Gabrielle!’

Cory chuckles. ‘You’re sexier,’ he says.

‘Prove it.’ She grins and puts one hand on her hip, letting the staff come to a rest by her side with her other hand. ‘Come over here and–’ She breaks off as the staff snaps up into an upright position, half embedding itself in the ground.  ‘What the...?’

A blue shape emerges from the staff and before she can react, it spins around her becoming a shiny blue tunnel of light, which surrounds and contains her.

‘Daisy!’ Cory runs across as Daisy lets go of the staff like she’s been burned. ‘What is it? Can you get out?’

She takes a step forward, as though to step through the light, but she stops as though hitting a wall. ‘I can’t!’ she exclaims. ‘Oh, god, I can’t!’

Cory reaches out to touch the barrier but his fingers go straight through. ‘I don’t get it,’ he says. ‘There’s nothing here.’

‘I can’t do that,’ Daisy says. She puts her hand against the barrier and they can see her muscles flexing as she tries to push against it.

‘Here, take my hand.’ Cory reaches out and links his fingers with hers. She smiles for a second before he pulls on her hand.  Her fingers smack into the barrier and she cries out in pain.

‘Oh, god!’ he exclaims. ‘I’m sorry!’

‘It’s fine.’ She cradles her fingers, gingerly. ‘I just really can’t get out.’

‘We’ll find a way to get you out, Dais,’ Bianca promises.

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Daisy says. She points behind them and they turn to see a horse and rider on the horizon. ‘That’s the prince. Has to be. You haven’t got long enough to get me out and still get to Alexandra first. You need to go. Leave me here.’

‘No way,’ Scotty says. ‘You’re completely defenceless in there. You can’t get out but everything can get in.’

‘Just go,’ Daisy insists. ‘I told you, didn’t I?’ She looks at Bianca. ‘Remember what I said?’

‘Remember what I said?’ Bianca retorts.

‘I said mine first.’ Daisy smiles at her.

Bianca steps forward and puts her hand out. Daisy links their fingers and smiles. ‘We’ll come back for you,’ Bianca promises.

‘I know.’

‘Come on.’ Bianca turns to Scotty, who nods, and the two of them take off at a run, only pausing when they realise Cory isn’t there.  They look back and instantly know he’s not coming.

‘Someone’s got to protect Daisy,’ he says.

Bianca runs forward and hugs him. ‘We’ll be back for both of you,’ she whispers into his ear.

‘I know,’ he replies.

*

The rest of the journey Bianca and Scotty make on foot, tents and half the food abandoned back by Cory and Daisy. They still have their weapons – both makeshift and otherwise – but they’re less weighed down.

‘Do you think we’ll be able to get Daisy out?’ Scotty says, breaking the silence.

‘Yes,’ Bianca says, firmly. ‘Even if we have to beg Nissa to do it.’

‘Fair enough.’

‘I love you, you know,’ Bianca says, quietly.

Scotty smiles at her. ‘I love you too.’

‘Just thought I’d tell you.’

‘I already knew.’ He bumps against her shoulder and she smiles.

‘I’m going to miss you. All of you.’

Scotty doesn’t reply.

*

‘This is too easy.’

They’re at the edge of a precipice; the tower is up ahead, about a hundred feet in the distance. It plummets down into the fog far below it and Bianca honestly doesn’t want to know what’s down there. There’s a bridge made of brick about a foot wide – supported by what, Bianca doesn’t know – leading from the edge to the window of the tower.

‘You call that easy?’ Scotty says, peering over the edge. ‘I can’t even see the bottom.’

‘I don’t think there is a bottom.’ Bianca swallows. ‘I think it just goes on forever.’

‘Well, that’s just nutty,’ Scotty replies.

‘I have to go across.’ She takes a deep breath. ‘It’s the only way.’ She moves to step onto the bridge but he stops her.

‘Are you crazy?’ he says. ‘You have no idea what might happen! The bridge could be an illusion or anything!’

She drops to a crouch and pokes at the brick. ‘Nope, definitely real,’ she says.  She turns to him. ‘I guess this is goodbye.’

‘What?!’ he exclaims. ‘I’m coming with you!’

‘I think this is my part,’ she replies, with a smile. ‘You never have Prince Charming and his best friend coming to put a shoe on Cinderella or kiss Snow White awake.’

‘Well, had he had the chance, I’m pretty sure he, too, would have a dashing blonde man by his side!’

‘Scotty.’ She puts her hands on his shoulders. ‘This is mine to do. You need to go back to Cory and Daisy.’

‘No.’ He shakes his head. ‘Look; I’ll at least come with you into the tower. You can do whatever you want after that. But we don’t know what you might be facing in there. Just... let me help protect you a little longer, okay?’

She smiles at him. ‘Okay,’ she says. ‘Agreed.’

She moves to step onto the bridge again but before she has chance a strong arm grabs her by the back of her shirt, dragging her back. It’s not Scotty.  She squeaks and reaches for her sword, but an even stronger arm stops her with a hand clasped around her wrist and pulling her backwards.

‘Scotty!’ she screams as she’s dragged kicking and screaming into a large group of trolls.

Before she knows where she is, there’s a hand on her ankle and another on her wrist, a hand still grasping her shoulder, painfully while another grasps her elbow.  They seem to be trying to decide what to do with her as they drag her ever further into their group.  There’s at least thirty of them, each as big as the one in the original cave.

She’s never been as terrified as she is right now as she struggles in their grasp, trying to grab her sword, lighter, hairspray... anything!

Hands push at her, pull at her, big mitts the size of dinner plates, fingers digging into her skin and causing her to howl in pain. ‘Scotty!’ she shouts again.

And then, out of nowhere, he comes running in.  Trolls fall down as he slashes them with his sword and the ones holding Bianca look around in confusion, unable to comprehend what’s happening. Before she knows what’s happening, the ground is coming up at her and her back slams down onto it with a painful crack sound when they release her. She gasps in pain as the trolls storm past, one barely missing stepping on her chest.

She curls into the foetal position, staring up at the battlefield in pain and horror as Scotty faces down all of the trolls by himself. ‘Scotty,’ she gasps out. She shoves down on the ground and somehow pushes herself into a standing position, wavering unsteadily on her feet.

Bianca draws her sword again once she’s regained her balance, gripping it steadily in her hands and looks up, squinting in the direct light of the sun setting over the hills, in time to see a troll about to stab Scotty in the back of the neck.

Her sword slides into the troll’s chest like butter and then she rips it out, letting the creature sink to the floor.

‘Thanks,’ Scotty says, turning around.

‘Thank you,’ Bianca corrects, in time for another troll to attack.

She spins around and slashes a troll, who falls backwards onto the brick bridge.  As soon as its weight is dispersed across the brick, the bridge crumbles and the troll – and the bridge – plummet down to the fog below.

‘I’m so glad you didn’t try that bridge!’ Scotty shouts, fighting off his own troll.

Bianca pulls a smoke bomb from her belt, lights it with her lighter, and throws it into the throngs of trolls in time to see a horse approaching from ahead with the prince on its back.

‘Scotty!’ she shouts, pointing towards the horse.

‘Damn it!’ Scotty yells back as the smoke begins to disperse, confusing the trolls.  They back towards the precipice, standing side-by-side as they fight, the horse getting closer.

A troll goes flying over them and lands on an invisible platform.  Bianca stares at it in shock and Scotty stops a troll before it can hit her with a club.

‘You should go,’ Scotty shouts over the din of troll-noise.

‘No!’ she exclaims. ‘I can’t leave you here!’

Scotty gives her an exasperated look and they fight for another few minutes, trolls falling into the precipice and howling in rage.  They don’t seem to be confused by the smoke anymore, which is a disadvantage.

The prince gallops by on his horse, leaps over the two humans and lands on the invisible platforms, hoofs hitting the emptiness in all the right places, crossing a hidden bridge. Bianca turns and watches him as she fights. ‘No!’

‘Go!’ Scotty shouts. He grabs her by the arms and shoves her towards the edge of the precipice. ‘I’ll hold them off! Just go!’

‘But...’

‘Go!’

She turns again in time to see the horse and rider plummet downwards towards the base of the cliff having missed one of the invisible stones.  She takes a breath and leaps onto the first one, landing firmly in the centre.  Then she reaches out with her sword to find the next one.  Two invisible bricks later, she turns back in time to see Scotty being carried into the throngs of trolls.

Knowing she can’t go back, she takes a deep breath and carries on.

Nineteen

She manages to leap across ten invisible stones before she notices the prince climbing up the outside of the tower.  That’s when she starts moving faster. She can see the barest of outlines of the platforms where the smoke from the edge of the precipice, having seeped across to the bridge, bends around them and she uses that to her advantage.

She leaps gracefully to the next one and manages to balance.  The next one is higher up, so she jumps to grab the edge and somehow clambers up.  She can see the prince below. He’s seen her too and speeds up his ascent.

‘Damn it,’ she mutters. She leaps for the next block and misses.

The result is her clinging to it by her fingertips, legs swinging freely as she struggles to hold on with one hand.  Her arms burn and she knows she’s going to feel this tomorrow. She’s going to feel all of it; her back, her legs, her shoulder, her arms... everything is going to ache and she can’t bring herself to care.

With a feat of undeniable determination, she pulls up onto the platform and scrabbles towards the next one up ahead. The window is getting closer; so close she can reach out with a sore arm and her fingertips almost grace the sill.

‘Alexandra!’ she shouts.

She scrambles up the last two platforms and jumps towards the window, grabbing the opening and dragging herself in.

She lands in a circular room and takes a moment of lying on the floor to appraise it. The carpet is plush and light blue; there are silken curtains on the windows – two windows at opposite sides of the room – and there’s an open trapdoor up ahead that, on first glance, Bianca would guess leads to a bathroom or a kitchen.  The main part of the room, however, catches her unawares.

She expected Alexandra to be trapped in a horrible dingy room in the middle of nowhere, but instead the whole thing is luxurious. She could happily climb into the bed and live there for the next week; the duvet is thick and looks so soft and the mattress looks so comfortable.

But, instead of retreating into a world of soft pillows and warm quilts, Bianca stands up and walks across to the trapdoor. ‘Alexandra!’ she calls out.

A blonde head appears out of the hole and her eyes widen when she sees Bianca.  Her hair is cascading down her back, wavy and loose with two small plaits around from her ears to the back of her head and she’s dressed in a beautiful, flowing apricot gown.

‘Bianca?’ she whispers, stunned.

‘Yeah.’ Bianca holds out her hand and helps Alexandra step off the steps and up into the room.

‘What are you doing here? The prince will be here any second to kiss me and take me to the kingdom to wed!’ Alexandra exclaims.

‘I’m here to save you! He isn’t a prince; he’s the enchantress’ son. He’s going to marry you; have you have his kid and then kill you.’

‘What?’ Alexandra looks sickened. ‘Oh my god!’

‘I’m your Prince Charming. I’m the one you’re meant to be with, not him.’

‘What do you care?’ Alexandra says. ‘Why do you want to be with me?’

‘Because... because those weeks you were in my life were the best of my life.’

After a moment of silence, Alexandra reaches out and touches Bianca’s face. ‘You’re older,’ she whispers.

‘Eighteen,’ she confirms.

‘Me too.’ Alexandra smiles, softly. ‘It was my birthday a few days ago.’

Bianca smiles back. ‘Happy birthday,’ she says.

‘Thanks.’ Alexandra smiles shyly, but then her face hardens, as though she suddenly remembers the circumstances. ‘But you still shouldn’t be here. If it’s my destiny to marry and be killed then so be it. I just won’t have his children.’

‘You have a large supply of invisible condoms then, do you?’ Bianca snaps.

‘What do you care?’ Alexandra repeats. ‘I don’t even know why you’re here.’ She turns away. ‘Just leave me to my fate.’

Bianca catches her arm and turns her back around. ‘What have I done wrong?’ she splutters. ‘What the hell did I do that deserves this?’

‘Nothing.’ Alexandra shakes her head. ‘Let go of my arm.’

Bianca removes her hand and looks at her imploringly. ‘Alexandra; I want to be with you. I’ve given up everything to be here with you right now. Nissa came to me; she told me what’s going on. She told me I’m the one you’re meant to be with. I’m the one who dreamt of that hole. I’m the one who came to rescue you!’ She pauses. ‘Don’t you want to be with me?’

Alexandra watches her, cautiously. ‘Why did you come here? Why are you so desperate for me to come back to you?’

Bianca’s next words are quiet, barely audible. ‘Because everything’s so empty.’

‘What?’ Alexandra breathes.

‘It’s like there’s a hole in my world when you’re not in it.’ She’s reaching out now, hands touching hair and face and neck, as though trying to remember, memorise and hold onto in case she gets ripped away again. ‘It’s like there’s a gaping chasm in my life and I just can’t... I can’t go on without you here with me. You might as well just push me out of that window if you won’t be with me.’

‘You let me go.’

‘What?’

‘You made it clear you didn’t want me. And then you let me go. Without a fight. Why didn’t you fight?’

‘I didn’t know you wanted me to,’ Bianca whispers, crying now, hot tears rolling down her freckled skin. ‘Did you want me to?’

‘Yes.’ Alexandra reaches out, taking Bianca’s hands into her own. ‘God, yes. I needed... I need you in my life. You’re the one who rescued me. You looked after me and made me feel so much love I never believed I could feel.’

‘Then why did you leave? Why didn’t you fight to stay?’

‘I wanted you to stop me.’

Bianca reaches out, arms widening, and Alexandra steps into the hug. ‘I missed you,’ whispers Bianca.

‘I missed you too.’

She reaches down, lets her hand rest against the side of Alexandra’s face, brushes her thumb over her lips and tilts her face up to kiss her like she wanted to do so long ago and yet never did. Why didn’t she?

And then there’s something around her waist; thick and strong and dragging her away, slamming her into the wall before she can even open her eyes.

When she does open her eyes, she stares down in horror at the creature beneath her; still mostly prince, but with a long tail – which is currently around her waist, pinning her to the wall and squeezing – and talons growing from the tips of his fingers, skin turning scaly and green.

Alexandra screams.

‘Kiss me,’ the prince demands. ‘Kiss me and I will be your handsome Prince Charming again. That’s all it takes.’

‘You’re not my Prince Charming,’ Alexandra hisses. ‘She is.’ She moves to turn away, but the prince grabs her by the arm, swings her around until her back is pressed against his chest, neck exposed to his lips, which he slides down her skin.

‘You taste so good.’

‘Let me go!’ she shouts. She wrestles in his grip and tries to hit him with her elbows, but he keeps a tight grip on her as he twirls her around to face him.  He holds her upper arm tightly as he releases her with his other hand, his fingers instead sliding up her body towards her face where his long, sharp talons pinch into her cheeks, pursing her lips together.

She shakes her head, twists and turns in his grip, trying to escape.

‘Don’t hurt her!’ Bianca shouts. ‘You’re not the one for her! I am!’

‘Shut up.’ The tail twists around her and slides up, squeezing her chest and constricting her breathing. She wheezes, helplessly, fingernails scrabbling against the scales on his tail.

‘Please,’ she says, through what little breath she has. ‘She doesn’t deserve this.’

‘Oh, I’m not so sure about that,’ he whispers. His words hiss slightly, sending a shiver through Bianca’s body. ‘She seems to deserve it; she waited in this tower for me, after all.’

‘She waited for me!’ Bianca tries to shout, but it comes out as a helpless wheeze. ‘She’s mine.’

The tail constricts further and Bianca finds herself completely unable to talk as she struggles in its grip.

‘Let’s see if she’s still yours once I do this,’ the prince whispers, and brings his mouth down on Alexandra’s for a kiss.

Twenty

Time seems to grind almost to a halt as the prince’s mouth hits Alexandra’s and the girl goes limp in his arms. There’s a long period in which no one moves, speaks or makes any kind of sound, then the tail starts to let go and the kiss deepens and Bianca sees – to her horror – that Alexandra is kissing back, leaning into the prince and wrapping her arms around his neck.

The tail pulls away and Bianca – previously practically up on the ceiling – slams down onto the ground face-first. The air in her lungs leaves her and she lies, helpless, on the ground as the prince – appearing to be human again now – pulls Alexandra in as close as he can. His hands are all over her, fingers slipping in through the lace of her dress.

‘Get off her,’ Bianca wheezes from the floor.

‘Or you’ll what?’ The prince looks around at her, humour dancing in his eyes as Alexandra steps in to lean against his chest, hands on his waist. ‘Pant me to death?’

‘I’ll kill you,’ Bianca promises. ‘I’ll kill you and spend the rest of my life proving to her why I’m the one she’s in love with.’

Something flickers and disappears in Alexandra’s eyes for a second, but then she’s turning back to the prince, smiling up and him and saying, ‘What should we do with her? We have a royal wedding to make preparations for and we’re running out of time.’

‘I don’t think she’s worth killing,’ the prince says, with a smirk. ‘I think we should leave her to suffer. Her friends are undoubtedly dead by now; if my mother’s trolls didn’t get them the assorted beasts of the wilderness will have and she’s lost you. She should live with that.’

‘You know,’ Bianca says, from the floor. ‘I’m going to enjoy killing you. You’re not human, so it’s not murder, and, whereas I didn’t enjoy killing the trolls, I’m going to really take pleasure in your death.’

‘Mm...’ He gives her a smirk. ‘Maybe I’ll keep you as a pet. With a bit of training, you’d make an excellent guard dog.’

‘We must leave,’ Alexandra insists. ‘We have plans.’

Bianca pushes herself to her feet using all her willpower and most of her leftover muscles and pulls her sword from its sheath. ‘Fight me,’ she tells the prince. ‘For the hand of Princess Alexandra.’

‘My dear,’ the prince says. ‘Haven’t you noticed? I’ve already won. There would be no point.’

‘Then I’ll kill you here and now,’ Bianca says.

‘You can’t. I’m unarmed and you wouldn’t kill an unarmed man.’

‘Watch me,’ she hisses.

He laughs and puts his arm around Alexandra’s waist, leading her towards the window. ‘Come, Alexandra,’ he says. ‘We shall leave now.’

He climbs out of the window, helping Alexandra to move with him, and Bianca just stares after them in horror, physically unable to follow.

*

By the time Bianca regains enough strength to climb down from the window and lands on the new bridge – red brick and six foot wide, leading across to the edge of the precipice – Scotty is there.

‘What happened?!’ he exclaims. ‘I was about to be killed by trolls when they just... gave up and went away. I just got here; your horse found me.’ He gestures at the horse up ahead. ‘So, did you kiss her? Is it over?’

Bianca shakes her head, silently.

‘What happened?’

She shivers and Scotty takes off his hoodie, helping her into it. It’s about six times too big, but it’s baggy and loose and comfortable and it smells of her best friend.  She wipes at her eyes with the sleeve and sniffs.

‘You need to talk to me,’ he says as they walk across the bridge towards the other side. ‘Tell me what happened.’

‘Prince got there first,’ she whispers. ‘I lost.’

‘What?’ Scotty says. ‘How can that be? You’re the one she’s supposed to be with.’

‘I know. She knew. Then he kissed her – he made her kiss him – and... and she forgot. She forgot me and she forgot how much... how much she cares about me...’

‘But she doesn’t love him.’

‘Yes, she does now.’ She sniffs, noisily, and wipes her eyes again.  ‘She does. I lost her. It’s over.’

‘It’s not over,’ Scotty says. ‘She doesn’t love him. She loves you.’

‘I told you; it’s him she...’

‘No, she’s been tricked into loving him; you she fell for all by herself.’

She looks up at him. ‘What?’

‘She loved you long before spells and kisses. She never kissed you and she still fell for you. She loves you. And you love her. All the prince has is a spell.’

‘But she’s gone...’ She gestures at the horizon. ‘I let her go... with the prince.’

‘It’s not too late. Bianca, think about it.’ He walks around in front of her and grabs her by the shoulders, staring deep into her soul with those green eyes of his that seem to stare straight into her, like he can read everything she’s feeling. ‘You’re giving up on her and letting her go into a world in which she isn’t loved and doesn’t love, to one day have an heir and be killed for it.’

‘Maybe she’ll have a daughter,’ Bianca whispers.

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Scotty says. ‘She’s still going to die. He’s going to smother her with a pillow or kill her in her sleep and it’ll be your fault because you didn’t stop it.’

‘You’re not very good at these pep talks,’ she whispers.

‘This isn’t a pep talk,’ he tells her. ‘This is the truth; the cold hard facts laid out in front of you. Now, you can either come back with me to sit with Daisy until she dies – because that’s what will happen if she can’t ever get out – or, we can ride until we find the prince and Alexandra and you can kill that S.O.B. and then we can get Alexandra to summon Nissa to help release Daisy.’

‘I guess option B?’ Bianca says, quietly, as though still not sure.

‘That’s the one I’d choose.’

She nods, slowly. ‘Okay then,’ she says.

‘Are you actually with me on this or are you just agreeing for the sake of agreeing?’

‘Bit of both.’ She’s finally coming back to herself, smiling just a little bit.

‘That’s the Bianca I know.’ Scotty walks straight across and climbs onto the horse, offering his best friend a hand up.  Once he’s pulled her up onto the horse and she’s got her arms wrapped around his waist from behind, he rides off in the general direction the prince and Alexandra left in.

*

They ride for a long time. Scotty suggests Bianca naps against his back, but she’s too nervous to consider sleep and in too much pain from her many bruises to manage to drift off.  Instead, she rests her cheek against his spine and watches the scenery flitting by, wondering how he even knows where they’re going and plotting her plan of attack.

‘When we get to the castle,’ she says, breaking the silence, ‘I’ll get off the horse and go for the prince.  I want you to get Alexandra and take her into the woods.  Find a clearing or something and just hold her there.’

‘Have you met Alexandra?’ Scotty says. ‘I’ll be lucky if I can hold her long enough to get her two feet away.’

‘Scotty, please.’ She touches his shoulder with her lips, looking at his face sideways. ‘I need you to do this for me.’

He sighs. ‘Okay,’ he says. ‘But on one condition.’

‘What’s that?’

‘If you get into difficulties... you call.’

‘You’ll be in the woods,’ she points out. ‘How will you hear me?’

‘Because you’ll set this off.’ He hands her his phone. ‘It’s got one of those sounds only teenagers can hear and it’s really loud on my phone.  I’ll be able to hear it and no one will know you’ve set it off.’

‘Unless there are teenager spectators.’

‘Do you really think they’ll know what it is?’ He gestures at the button on the side. ‘I set it up as a hot key earlier; press it once and the sound will start and it won’t stop until you deactivate it.’

‘Okay.’ She slips it into the pocket of his hoodie, zipped up to her neck now, and snuggles inside the soft material.

‘What do I do if I don’t get her back?’ she whispers, after a moment.

‘Don’t think about it.’

‘No, but really, Scotty... What do I do? I’ve spent the last two years of college wishing she was there... I failed all my A Levels because of it.’ She runs a hand through her hair. ‘I’ve been living for this and now...’

‘If you don’t get her back, we’ll all go home together. Daisy included,’ he says, before she can interject anything, ‘because we will find a way to get her out.  And we’ll find a way to have you retake your A Levels.  Even if we have to put up with you being our roommate or something.’

‘How long do you think it’s been? For everyone back there, I mean...’

‘I don’t know.  A few days here was, what, three years for us? And it’s been at least four days since we set off... Maybe even five...’

‘It’s been a long time then,’ she whispers.

‘Yeah, it has.’

*

‘I’m scared,’ Bianca whispers, as they trot, slowly and quietly towards the castle.

‘It’ll be okay,’ Scotty promises.

‘Okay; here’s the plan.  We go in full-tilt. All guns blazing and...’

‘Care for some assistance?’

She turns towards the voice and her eyes land on a horse approaching with two riders; Cory and Daisy.

‘Daisy!’ She leaps off the back of the horse and throws herself in the direction of the redhead.  Daisy squeals and half-falls, half-flails her way off her horse as she struggles to get a good hugging grip on her friend. ‘How?! When?! What did Cory do? He didn’t do something weird, right?!’

‘Hey!’ Cory exclaims. ‘What weird thing do you think I did?’

‘I don’t know... I just have visions of you sacrificing yourself for her but you’re both here!’ She squeals and launches herself at Cory, hugging him too.

‘So,’ Daisy says, after a second. ‘Wanna tell me why we’re a blonde short? A short blonde short, in fact.’

‘The prince got to Alexandra first,’ Scotty says. ‘He kissed her and she now thinks she’s in love with him.’

Daisy gives him a confused look. ‘How does that work?’ she asks. ‘‘Cause she sent Nissa to come and rescue me.’

‘What?’ Bianca says. ‘She did?’

‘Yeah!’ Daisy nods, vehemently. ‘Nissa turned up and she said that Alexandra had sent her to come and get me out of my prison... She did this wave thing... And I was free.  So, me and Cory got on our horse and came straight here because she pointed us in this direction.’

‘You know what this means?’ Scotty says to Bianca.

Bianca nods. ‘Alexandra still loves us. Or, at least, you guys. She remembers you and wanted to help...’

‘Nissa said something about it not being a conscious request, though,’ Daisy says. ‘So maybe her feelings for us are buried beneath layers of prince lip-mojo?’

‘Maybe...’ Bianca breaks out in a grin. ‘But you know what? It doesn’t matter because I’ll get her back. And even if she doesn’t remember me, I’ll make her. I’ll make her remember and love me again because... because we’re meant to be. We just are.’

Scotty smiles at her. ‘That’s the Bianca I know!’ he exclaims.

‘So, what’s the plan?’ Daisy asks, pulling her bow from her shoulder and grabbing an arrow. ‘Do we go in there and start slaughtering? Because I’m all for that right now.’

‘I think smoke bombs and arrows, followed by me coming in to kill the prince and Scotty gets Alexandra.’

‘Better idea,’ Cory interjects. ‘I get Alexandra.  I’m better on horseback – in case you didn’t notice – and Scotty hasn’t got enough upper body strength to scoop her up against her will.’

‘He has a point,’ Daisy says. ‘And Scotty can use his amazing sword-wielding talent to fight his way to the prince with you.’

Bianca nods. ‘Okay,’ she says. ‘Agreed.’

*

The crowds are cheering; men, women and children gathered around to watch the princess return to the castle on the arm of her Prince.  The Queen and King step out of the front doors, beaming, and they smile as Alexandra approaches them, curtseying.  ‘Mother, Father,’ she says. ‘I’d like to introduce Prince Michael; my fiancé.’

The Queen and King exchange confused looks. ‘Really?’ the Queen says. ‘This... man?’

Alexandra nods. ‘Is there a problem?’

‘No... I just... expected someone... different.’

‘See?’ Daisy says, from the small cliff overlooking the castle entrance. ‘Even her mother thinks she’s a dyke.’

Bianca smacks her around the head. ‘Shut up, Dais,’ she says.  She turns to Cory. ‘You ready?’

Cory nods. ‘As I’m ever going to be.’

She stands up and clambers onto her horse. Scotty climbs on behind her and Cory goes for the second horse, mounting up and, even as he reins in the bucking stallion, grinning in the direction of Daisy. ‘I’ll be back soon,’ he promises.

‘You owe me a burger,’ Daisy says.

Cory smiles. ‘I won’t forget.’ He kicks the horse and gallops off down the hill, towards the crowd, who shout in surprise at his approach.  He swings his mace, aiming to miss, and they all duck backwards, even as the prince and princess turn to look in his direction.

‘Come with me,’ he demands, stopping beside Alexandra and offering her his hand.

‘No,’ she says. ‘Why should I?’

‘Because we both know you don’t belong here; and there’s about to be a battle you don’t want to be in the middle of.’ He wiggles his fingers, invitingly. ‘Come on,’ he says.

‘Stop right there!’ the prince exclaims. ‘You can’t just come in here and try and take my princess away from me!’

‘She’s not your princess,’ Cory says.

‘No, she’s mine,’ Bianca announces, arriving on horseback at that moment. She smacks the hilt of her sword into the prince’s face and he staggers backwards as blood spurts from his nose.

‘Go!’ Bianca shouts at Cory, who grabs Alexandra’s hand and pulls her onto the back of his horse and rides away.

‘Stop immediately!’ a guard yells.  An arrow soars through the sky and slams into his stomach.

‘Score!’ Bianca hears Daisy shout. She dives off the horse and lands on the ground next to the prince.

‘Hi,’ she says, as she pulls a can of hairspray from her belt. ‘Remember me?’ She sprays in his face and he shouts in rage and pain, reeling backwards. ‘You pinned me to a wall with your tail.’ She turns to the Queen and King, who are standing behind at least a dozen guards, looking terrified, even as the citizens run inside the walls of the castle.

‘Did you know your son-in-law to be has a tail he doesn’t tell anyone about? Oh, yes. He’s not quite human.’ She kicks out and slams the heel of her trainer into his groin.  His eyes cross and he falls backwards onto the ground.

‘So, anyway,’ she says, standing over and glaring down at him, eyes flashing angrily, ‘you pinned me to a wall with your tail, you tried to choke me to death and, what was it? Oh, yes. You took away the love of my life.’ She stands with her foot poised over his crotch. ‘What do you have to say for yourself?’

The prince stands up, suddenly, and Bianca’s eyes widen when she realises he stood by pushing himself up with his tail. ‘I say I should have killed you in the tower,’ he says, before he slashes her with the sharp tip of his tail.

Twenty-One

Pain explodes across her back and she chokes out a sob as she falls forwards onto her hands and knees.  Her vision blurs and she just sits there, staring at the grass.  Her back burns and she knows it’s only going to get worse before it gets better.  She looks up at the prince who, eyes lizard-like, talons protruding from his fingers again, blood-stained tail swishing from side-to-side, looks down at her with a smirk. ‘I think I like you better on your knees,’ he says.

She can hear Scotty, shouting her name as he fights guards off for her. He’s protecting her even now, as she just rests here, waiting to die like an idiot. After all this. She takes a deep breath and forces herself to stand, hand on her sword in its sheath at her side. She looks up at him through her dark fringe falling across her eyes and blows upwards. It flicks to the side and she smirks back at him through the pain.

‘I think I’d like you better on your knees, too,’ she says, sweetly.

He grins at her. ‘You’d never get me on my knees. You’re just a little girl. What are you, twelve?’

She smiles at him. ‘I’m eighteen, actually. I’m glad you think I’m twelve; it proves I have the advantage.’

‘How is that?’

Another smile as she unsheathes her bloodstained sword. ‘Because it proves you’re a moron.’

*

‘For god’s sake!’ Cory exclaims, wrestling with Alexandra as she tries to get out of his grip. He’s walking her towards a clearing and she’s fighting him all the way. ‘I’m not going to hurt you!’

She grabs his hand and bites it.  He shrieks in pain and shoves her away from him.  She turns around, backing into the nearest tree and eyeing him with caution. ‘Do I know you?’

He sighs. ‘I’m Cory. We used to hang out at school. Remember school? Short skirts, shorter ties. But you always wore yours long because you wanted to stick to the dress code.  You’d wear your hair in a long braid down the back of your neck and I used to think you were so amazing. I wished I was Bianca because I wanted to be your Prince Charming.’

‘Bianca?’ Alexandra says. ‘That girl! The one who attacked my prince!’ She runs forward. ‘I have to go back!’

He catches her by the shoulders. ‘No,’ he tells her. ‘Bianca will be fine. She’ll kill the prince and she’ll come back for you.’

‘No!’ Alexandra exclaims, panicked. ‘She can’t kill my prince! I am to marry him and be his forever! For he is mine! I love him!’

‘No, no you don’t.’ He holds her fast, even as she tries to escape again. ‘He planted a voodoo kiss on you and now you think you love him. I get the feeling if I’d done it, you’d love me, instead, but that’s not love.’

Alexandra sags. ‘You will not let me go?’

Cory shakes his head. ‘No,’ he says.  He pulls an iPod from his pocket. ‘Here,’ he says. ‘This is Bianca’s. Go... listen to music or something.  They’ll be back once the battle’s won.’

Alexandra reaches out and takes the iPod, instinctively tucking the earphones into her ears and going to sit on a rock nearby.  Cory sighs and moves to lean against the nearest tree. He doesn’t want to be babysitting a princess; he wants to be in the battle; helping Bianca and Scotty and most of all Daisy. His Daisy.

*

Bianca’s sword clashes against the prince’s as they duel. She can hear Scotty fighting behind her, but she blots it out, instead paying attention to ducking at the right moments and dive-rolling away from the slash of the prince’s tail.  Her back throbs painfully and she can feel the shredded remains of her tank top blowing freely in the breeze behind her.  There’s blood seeping down the inside of her jeans as she does a dive-roll towards a dead guard and grabs his abandoned shield, holding it up in front of her, sword clasped in one hand, shield in the other.

‘I don’t need a shield,’ the prince taunts.

‘That’s because you have scales!’ she shouts. ‘How is that even fair?’ She tips her head sideways, pausing. ‘In fact; how do you even have scales?’

‘I am the son of the Enchantress: Maglen, and the Dragon: Soran.’ He thrusts out with his sword and the tip barely misses her shoulder as she dodges to one side.

‘That’s like a whole new level of bestiality,’ she exclaims, disturbed.

‘My father loved my mother greatly and she loved him back!’ He slashes at her legs and she jumps. She makes a move to behead him and he uses his tail to lift himself off the floor.  ‘She promised him I would be happy and that I would live as human. The princess is my only chance to do that.’

‘I don’t know if you’ve noticed, bucko,’ she says, as she dodges another hit, ‘but the spell seems to be wearing off. You have a tail again.’

‘The princess’ devotion to me is linked to my control over my true self,’ he explains.  He’s watching over her shoulder now, but it could be a ruse.  She stands her ground, hands on her weapon and shield, ready to attack at any moment. ‘But I can still show my scales.’ He grins and for the first time, she gets to see the fangs where his incisors should be.  She shudders.

Another arrow soars through the air and stops a guard from beheading Bianca from behind.  Her heart pounds in her chest and she swallows, convulsively.  She’s starting to wonder what the odds are of her winning this battle or at least getting out of it with all limbs still attached by more than just ligament.

‘You know,’ the prince says, as though sensing her thoughts. ‘You can still surrender. I’ll let you go without a fight. I get the princess and you get to go home to your family. With your friends.’

‘All of my friends?’ Bianca enquires.

The prince lowers his weapon. ‘Of course.’

‘That includes Alexandra then,’ she says, promptly. ‘She was my friend long before I realised I was in love with her.’

‘I can’t make that deal.’ He slashes out with the sword and she dodges too late.  White-hot pain shoots through her left shoulder, followed by the feeling of steel being ripped out from inside of her.  She claps a hand to the wound as her other hand releases the shield, somehow managing to keep a grip on her sword at the same time.

‘Hey,’ a voice says. ‘Are you okay?’

The prince spins around to find Scotty standing in front of him, unarmed.

‘Bianca, are you okay?’ he asks again.  He gives her a wink and she grins, ignoring the blossoming pain radiating from her shoulder and raising her sword up in the air.

‘Your death will be swift,’ the prince says, raising his sword.

Blood splatters as Bianca brings the sharpest edge of her blade down on his tail, severing it from his body.  He hisses and spins on her, hilt of his sword smacking into Scotty’s head and knocking him to the ground. She briefly sees blood splatter across Scotty’s face and then her eyes are ripped away as the prince reaches out with his hands and grasps her face with his sharp talons. They cut into her skin, leaving welts in her cheeks as he slides his hand – more of a claw, now, really – down to her neck and squeezes. Her vision blurs. She hurts all over and now she can’t breathe to top it off. Her hands shake as they grasp the hilt of her sword like a lifeline. ‘I’m done playing,’ he snarls.

‘So am I,’ she whispers.  She lifts her sword and slides it straight into his gut, right before she blacks out.

Twenty-Two

‘Bianca! Bianca, it’s over. Bianca. Bianca!’ Soft hands are poking and slapping at her face. ‘Wake up, for crying out loud! Now is not the time to take a nap!’ The hands get more persistent and Bianca becomes aware of the fact she’s in pain all over her body.  Her back burns, her shoulder throbs and the rest of her... god, the rest of her just makes her want to curl up in a ball and die.

‘Sit up. Sit up,’ Daisy hisses. Hands push at her shoulder, painfully, as they manhandle her into a sitting position. Her eyes are still closed and her neck is killing her. Her eyelids refuse to budge. They just stay closed no matter how much she wills them to open.

‘Bianca, open your eyes.’ Still nothing.  ‘Fine, don’t then. Just sit there and be still.’ There’s something behind her, pushed against her back; big, heavy and sturdy, taking all her weight and keeping her upright. She wonders if it’s Scotty.

Scotty. Blood. Prince. He fell down.  Her eyes open a little. ‘Scotty,’ she mumbles.

‘Don’t worry about him, we need to get you patched up.’ Something’s pushed against Bianca’s shoulder. Her bra strap hangs down by her elbow and she can feel the strap of her tank top resting against her upper arm. Something soft and oh so very painful pushes against the wound again.

‘No, no, bu’ Scotty...’ Her eyes still won’t open and she can barely move. She wants to find him, but she can’t even see yet.

‘Just sit back and let me look after you,’ Daisy snaps.

Bianca drops back against the sturdy weight and inhales. Her throat burns. ‘Where’s Alexandra?’ Even speech hurts. Why didn’t she notice that sooner?

‘Just stop talking. I know it goes against your nature but shut up,’ Daisy warns.

‘Why?’ Bianca says, woozily. ‘Wha’s goin’ on?’

‘Promise not to freak out,’ Daisy says, carefully.

‘Why’d I freak out?’ Her eyes open a little. They’re not outside anymore; they’re in a stone room, she thinks.  She blinks, blearily, but she can’t see properly yet.

‘We’re in jail.’

Her eyes focus, finally, and she recognises the distinct shape of bars up ahead. ‘What?’ she murmurs. She sits up a bit. ‘How?’

‘Well, we did kill Alexandra’s so-called fiancé... and we killed a lot of guards. And Cory kidnapped Alexandra.’

‘Cory’s here?’

‘No.’ Daisy shakes her head and finishes tying the bandage to Bianca’s shoulder.  She realises there’s already one on her back, absorbing the blood from her wound.  Finally, the world is coming back to her and with it, even more pain.

‘Ow,’ she complains. ‘Swords hurt.’

‘Do me a favour?’ Daisy says, after a moment, washing the bandages out in a bowl nearby. ‘Next time you fall in love with a princess; kiss her while you have the chance and save us all a lot of pain and trouble.’

For the first time, Bianca notices Daisy has a bruise around her eye and another couple on her arms, not to mention a cut on her hand and what look like rope burns around her wrists. ‘Sorry,’ she mumbles.

‘It’s fine.’ She squeezes the water out of the bandages.

‘They’re right this way, Princess.’

Bianca scrambles instantly to her feet at the sound of the guard’s voice, ignoring the pain shooting through her back.  The guard comes to the bars, followed by Alexandra and Cory.  Alexandra is dressed in a lemon gown in several layers, obviously having changed since Cory kidnapped her. She walks straight across to the bars and grasps them. ‘You killed the prince,’ she says. ‘But you protected me. Why?’

Bianca walks across and meets her at the bars. She puts her hands around the cold pieces of iron, an inch above Alexandra’s. ‘You don’t remember?’ she says. ‘Us?’

‘What is there to remember?’ Alexandra enquires. ‘You had your friend kidnap me so you could slaughter my husband-to-be in cold blood!’

‘You don’t love him,’ Bianca whispers through the bars. ‘You never loved him. You love me.’

Alexandra tilts her head. ‘I believe you are mistaken,’ she says, simply. ‘My destiny is to meet and marry my Prince Charming. It was prophesised and written long before I was even born. We have known of this for centuries.’

‘Then, if it’s destiny,’ Bianca says, ‘why is he dead?’

‘Because you altered the course of events.’ Alexandra shakes her head. ‘You changed everything for me. You ruined my life.’

Bianca slides her hands upwards and moves them over Alexandra’s.  The blonde gives her a shocked, wide-eyed look, but doesn’t move. ‘We are meant to be together,’ Bianca says, quietly. She keeps her eyes on Alexandra’s. ‘I am your Prince Charming. I killed Prince Michael because of his plans for you: to marry you, to impregnate you and then to end your life once your child was born.’ She pauses, realising she’s almost talking like Alexandra now.

‘Don’t you remember? You came through the hole in the wall with me. I rescued you. We went to school together; you lived in my room. You slept in my bed. I snuck food parcels upstairs and we danced to music when I should have been doing homework. I got you drunk at Cory’s party.’ She gestures at Cory. ‘And we argued. You asked why if I wasn’t your Prince Charming Cory couldn’t be instead and I couldn’t answer. But I know why now.’

‘Why?’ Alexandra whispers.

‘Because I am your Prince Charming. And he’s hers.’ She points at Cory and Daisy, kissing through the bars. ‘I love you. I. Love. You. Could Prince Charming say that? Did he say that to you even once? Did you say it to him?’

‘No,’ she whispers.

‘No,’ Bianca agrees. ‘And maybe I’m not a Prince or a Princess. Maybe I’m just a girl from the other world who’s in love with a princess but... but I do love you. What you felt for the prince... it was a spell, Alexandra.  He altered your memories and screwed us both over but he’s gone now. Now there’s just you and me.’

‘I don’t remember,’ Alexandra whispers.

For a moment, silence descends. Bianca stands there, leaning against the bars with her hands over Alexandra’s, fingertips resting against the cool metal.  And then she hears it; a steady beat coming from the pocket of Alexandra’s dress. ‘What’s that?’

‘Your... music device.’ She pulls her hands away from the bars and Bianca mourns the loss as she reaches down and retrieves it from the pocket, holding it up by the earphones. ‘I didn’t know how to turn it off.’

‘I taught you, remember?’ Bianca says. ‘But don’t turn it off yet.’ She reaches through the bars for the earphones and pops the left one into place.  She breaks out in a grin when the familiar song reaches her ears. ‘Listen!’

Alexandra follows suit with the right earphone. ‘Uptown Girl!’ she exclaims. Her eyes widen. ‘Uptown Girl... Isn’t this our song?’

‘Yeah!’ Bianca says, with a grin. ‘It’s quite appropriate, I always thought. You’re the Uptown Girl.’ She smiles. ‘Do you remember now?’

‘Vaguely.’ Alexandra looks at Bianca, blue-green eyes focussing on blue ones. ‘We danced in your bedroom and I wanted to kiss you so badly...’

Bianca smiles. ‘Yeah,’ she says.  John Barrowman’s voice and his accompanying chorus sing in her ear as she reaches out for Alexandra’s hand.  Their fingers link through the bars and she smiles. ‘You remember?’

‘You let me leave but then... then you chased after me... You said... you said there’s a hole in the world without me in it?’ Bianca nods, slowly. ‘But that’s wrong,’ Alexandra says, shaking her head. ‘The hole isn’t filled by me; it’s filled by you. And you... when you’re not here... you leave it empty...’

‘Yeah.’ Bianca reaches out with her other hand and strokes the side of Alexandra’s face, pushing her blonde hair behind her ear. ‘That’s how I feel too. About you.’

Alexandra steps back, suddenly, leaving Bianca’s hands cold and lonely without somewhere to touch or stroke.  She backs more towards the wall then looks to her left. ‘Guard!’ she shouts. ‘Release these prisoners immediately. They did nothing wrong by me.’

The guard comes over to the cell, keys rattling, muttering something about releasing dangerous criminals not being a good idea.  He pushes the key into the lock and twists. The door swings open and instantly Cory is inside, arms around Daisy, lips attached to hers as they stumble backwards into the corner of the room.

‘My friend...’ Bianca says to the guard. ‘Scotty: blonde, green eyes... Where is he?’

‘Hospital,’ the guard grunts. ‘Being treated. You can see him now, if you like.’

‘Come with me,’ Alexandra says, taking Bianca’s hand. ‘I’ll take you to him.’

*

‘Hey! You’re not in jail anymore!’ Scotty exclaims when Bianca walks into the room and runs across to hug him. ‘And you brought Princess Change-a-Lot with you!’  He moves his head to one side, looking around Bianca’s head at the blonde. ‘Do you remember who you actually love now?’

‘I believe so, yes,’ Alexandra says, softly.

Bianca moves back from Scotty and drops down to a crouch beside his bed. ‘You okay?’ she asks. ‘You’re being treated well, right? They’re not going to drill a hole in your skull and empty out the gooey stuff to heal you, are they?’

‘I’m fine,’ Scotty tells her, with a smile. ‘Where are Cory and Daisy?’

‘Defiling a jail cell, I think,’ Bianca says.

‘Fair enough. They deserve it.’ He sighs. ‘Daisy saved my life. I was lying there, watching the prince strangling you, unable to help, and Daisy came out of nowhere and kept me awake until the nurses could get to me. They work wonders in this place. The NHS could learn a lot.’

Bianca chuckles. ‘I’ll come back and check on you later, okay?’

Scotty smiles and nods. ‘Yeah.’

*

‘I have to admit,’ Bianca says, ‘when I’m not killing stuff that wants to kill me, your kingdom is honestly very pretty.’ She looks out of the window she’s leaning on the sill of and smiles. The sun is setting over the horizon, casting shadows and orange light all across the kingdom.  She can see the tower in the distance, and the gorge in which there’s a multiple-tentacled monster waving at her. She thinks it probably misses Cory and can’t help but giggle.

‘Do you think...’ Alexandra sounds nervous as she approaches the window and rests her hand over Bianca’s on the sill. ‘Do you think it’s pretty enough for you to... make a home here?’

‘Depends.’ Bianca turns around and lifts her hand slightly, slipping her fingers in between Alexandra’s and bringing them up between their bodies.  She watches them for a moment before continuing with, ‘Do I have something to stay for?’

‘Yes,’ Alexandra whispers. ‘Me.’

She reaches out with her other hand and slides it around Alexandra’s waist, resting her slender fingers on her hips and drawing her in closer, hands still linked.  Alexandra’s hand comes to rest on her upper arm, gentle so as not to hurt her injured shoulder.

‘Then I think it may be pretty enough.’ She’s not looking out of the window anymore. ‘In fact, I think I’d call it beautiful.’

‘Am I really the love of your life?’ Alexandra whispers.

‘You heard that?’ Bianca enquires.

‘It’s quite astonishing the things you can hear whilst being forcibly removed from a scene,’ Alexandra explains.

‘Fair enough.’

‘So, am I?’

Bianca smiles. ‘Yes,’ she says. ‘You are.’

She lets go of Alexandra’s hand and her fingers find their way to the side of the other girl’s head, tips sliding along the edge of her jaw, tilting it up until, finally, after so long, she can lean down and brush her lips over Alexandra’s. She shivers, presses down a little harder until it’s actually a kiss; a proper kiss. The proper kiss she’s been craving since forever. The kiss she’s needed for as long as she can remember and longer.

‘Do you feel any different?’ she asks, nervously. She’s not sure why she’s nervous; does she want Alexandra to love her, suddenly, affected by the spell? Or does she want her to continue her confusion?

‘I remember... properly now,’ Alexandra says, with a smile. ‘It’s not hazy anymore.’

‘So...’ Bianca bites her lip. ‘Does that mean you love me, or you don’t?’

Her fingers dance up Bianca’s arm and across her shoulder to brush against her neck.  Her fingertips play against the smooth skin she finds there, slightly marked by finger-shaped bruises, then they move higher, play around her ear and through her hair. ‘Yes,’ she breathes. ‘Yes, I love you too.’

‘This is you talking, right?’ Bianca says, quietly. ‘Not a spell?’

‘I think... I think if his kiss cast a spell,’ Alexandra says, ‘yours broke it.’ She lets her fingers delve deeper into Bianca’s hair, moving her fringe from where it’s hanging halfway down her nose and cups her hand around her head, pulling her down towards her. ‘Kiss me again.’

Bianca moves down, kisses her like before but doesn’t stop this time.  Instead, she slides her hand into Alexandra’s long hair, too, and uses the hand on her waist to pull her closer until their bodies are flush together, the kiss deepening more by the moment until Alexandra is breathless.

‘I love you,’ she says, looking up into Bianca’s eyes when they pull apart again, ‘my Prince Charming.’

Bianca just smiles and kisses her again.

Epilogue

The sun is shining through the window and illuminating the body spread out across the bed, face down on the mattress.  The sheets are slung lazily over her bottom half and her face is half-buried in the pillow, guarding her eyes from the light of the sun.  The duvet slips down a little, resting just in the right place to not be indecent, but reveal to the sun and the morning a mark spread across her lower back.  At first glance, one could think it was a tattoo, but once closer to it it’s very obvious that it’s actually a scar; thick and deep, a mark left from a battle.

To most, it would be disgusting and disfiguring, but to Alexandra, Bianca has never looked more beautiful.

She knows that long ago, when she slept beside Bianca in a bed not unlike this one, in a small bedroom with a conical hat in the corner, hidden from a mother’s sight, the darker haired girl would watch her sleep; attempting to figure out where she came from and where she was going; whether she was sane or not; whether she was a danger to herself or others.

Bianca doesn’t watch her anymore; she knows where she came from and that she’s never going anywhere ever again.

It’s okay for her, she thinks. She’s sure; she knows Alexandra won’t leave, but the princess isn’t so certain.  One day, Bianca could miss her world. She could miss her parents and brother and want to return home to them.

There are two rooms in the castle that keep her feeling safe; the one Daisy and Cory sleep in and the one Scotty sleeps in; the two rooms containing the second most important things in Bianca’s life.

Alexandra hopes she’s the first.

She reaches out and brushes her pale fingertips over the scar. Bianca complains about it sometimes, much like the ovular ones on either side of her shoulder. She says it’s an eyesore and wishes she could get rid of it somehow. But to Alexandra it’s the most beautiful part of her lady love.

It’s the proof that, for Alexandra, Bianca would risk life and limb.

‘Go back to sleep,’ the girl in question mutters, from where her face is pressed into the pillow. ‘You’re over-thinking again.’

‘I’m watching you sleep,’ Alexandra replies. ‘Am I not allowed to do so?’

Bianca looks up at her. ‘I’d prefer you wake me up and we can tire each other out and go back to sleep together, but whatever rocks your cradle.’ She turns onto her back and stretches out an arm. Alexandra settles into her embrace, head resting on the scar on Bianca’s shoulder.

‘I love you,’ she whispers.

‘I love you too,’ Bianca replies, kissing her hair.

‘Do you ever miss your family?’ Alexandra asks, quietly.

Bianca pauses. ‘Yes,’ she responds, after a moment. ‘But, if given the choice; I’d choose you over them. They packed me off to boarding school, they never even noticed I was harbouring a fairytale princess in my bedroom. I don’t need them if they don’t need me.’

‘If Scotty, Cory or Daisy were to return home, would you go too?’

‘Never.’ She kisses Alexandra’s hair again. ‘You’re my home and that’s never going to change.’

Alexandra settles down into Bianca’s arms. ‘I love you,’ she says again.

‘And I love you,’ Bianca replies.

And in that moment, Alexandra realises that’s what matters. For even if Bianca were to return to her world; Alexandra would go too. And they’ll never be separated again.

Fin

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