◇☆◇

No. No. No. No. No. Ivy couldn't accept the fact that Bella was going to be her Cinderella. Her hands trembled against the marble counter of the sink in the girl's washrooms, knuckles white. Tears stung her eyes again, sobs begging to escape as her throat bobbed.

"Ivy?" Reign's voice called from the door. It was the middle of the night on the day after all of the God-students had found out their destinies. Ivy had since not told anybody-not even Reign-about what had happened.

Ivy sniffled. "Come in," She said, her voice hoarse.

The boy walked in, unfazed at the fact that he was somewhere he most certainly was not supposed to be.

His grey eyes fell onto Ivy, whose nose had gone red and her own almond-shaped eyes went puffy and glazed from holding back her tears.
Reign pulled her into a hug, "Oh, Ivy, tell me what happened."

She let her cries free. "Cinderella, it just had to be Cinderella."

He held her shoulders, pushing out of the hug as he examined her tear stained face in confusion.

"Why-"

Reign's face softened at the realization, pulling her back into their hug. She had tried her best those past 24 hours to keep her composure around Reign, who had nonstop gloated about being a future Merlin.

Ivy wiped her eyes as Reign stroked her short black hair. "If I had any chance to get her to like me like that, it's surely gone now." She chuckled,

Her friend tutted. "Don't think like that. Imagine how powerful it could be for Luminaire to have basically their first ever cross-destiny gay couple. Would be a pretty legendary tale for your future kids..." He nudged her with his elbow, winking.

Ivy rolled her eyes, washing her hands and face to get rid of the redness. "We have classes in a couple hours, we should probably get back into our dorms before somebody sees us."

"Please, if anyone thinks we're ever in some kind of relationship, you can turn me into a frog."

"You're telling me you'd rather I turn you into a frog than somebody thinking that we're together?" Ivy furrowed her brows.

Reign smirked, "Yup!" he replied, opening the bathroom door for her. She scowled in his direction before they parted ways down the hallway.

Their quiet intimate moment made Ivy the slightest bit better, but she still felt as if she had a whole carriage on her chest.

That night, she didn't fall back asleep, and it didn't feel very long before the sun shone through her window. Her mind still raced and spiraled, looking for some kind of way to prepare for her inevitable loss of what felt like her true love. Who could possibly be her true love if she tried.

Now, she was stuck in a class full of girls who all desperately needed to know the difference between Appleroot, a fatal poisonous plant used by malicious villains, and Twiggle, a simple weed. Ivy also couldn't tell the difference, and neither could any of these other future Godmothers and Princesses.

"Appleroot has thistles, Twiggle has purple safflowers, Portia." Madame Racida sighed, pinching her slim nose bridge.

A student's hand rose up.

"Yes, Xia?" Madame Racida dragged, exasperated.

The tiny Princess gulped, "Both of those plants on your desk look the same." she said plainly.

Their teacher gripped both sides of her light coloured desk, dark hair falling in front of her face. In all fairness, Ivy couldn't see a single difference between the potted blue flowers either.

Madame Racida could recite any contrast between any poisonous flora or fauna and their safer counterpart, as it is what helped her defeat her villain on her own as Briar Rose.

She now found it vital that Princesses-and even Godmothers-can defend themselves against their story's villain with the same knowledge she had. Her problem was that it felt like talking to a wall with these particular Godmothers and Princesses.

"The Appleroot is the one on the right."

Every head in the naturally lit classroom whipped to the voice, and a sheepish Bella hid her beautiful face behind her notebook.

Madame Racida raised a brow behind her gold-framed glasses. "That's correct. Tell us how you came to that conclusion on your own, Miss Therion."

Bella slowly placed her notebook onto her marble desk, green eyes darting around the room. "Well, anybody would have a fifty-fifty chance of either picking a weed or a fatally poisonous plant to the naked eye, but I read in a book in the library that Appleroot actually has prominent white veins in the petals of the flower. Twiggle, on the other hand, has darker blue veins."

The classroom collectively sighed in relief, some were even approaching the plants to examine the veins up close.

Ivy snuck a peek in Bella's direction, who had gone back to her notebook, which had scribbles of castles and fairytale weddings mixed within her notes.

Bella glanced up, sensing Ivy's hard staring. "Oh, Ivy! Can I talk to you after class at lunch? It's something pretty important."

Ivy nodded as her heart beat faster. Did Bella know that Ivy liked her? "Sure, what did you want to talk about?"

The Princess bit her rosy glossed lips, "Something about Filip, but I'll elaborate at lunch."

Ivy felt the bile rising in her throat. Filip must have told Bella about Ivy's feelings for her, there was no other way it could go! Ivy never told Filip about her admiration for Bella when they were in their younger years, but she hadn't made her feelings very secretive these past few classes, either.

"Okay, girls, your homework for tonight is to read from pages 215 to 245." Madame Racida wrote on her chalkboard as groans littered the room.

"Do not worry, as the pages have very many diagrams for you to study as opposed to writing, where the actual substance is. We will have a quiz on these pages two classes from now and I will be able to tell who studied the pictures and not the paragraphs. Class dismissed."

Girls immediately rose from their seats, bolting out the door for lunch. Ivy placed her textbook under her arm, dreading her lunch period that would be full of reading and studying. Being next to Reign for the entirety of it was going to be the worst part.

She sauntered to the cafeteria, which was already filled with chattering students with heaping trays of food. Ivy's stomach growled at the sight.

She plopped her book at an empty round wooden table, opening to the first page her teacher had assigned. Resting her head against her chilly palm and fingertips, Ivy jotted each and every word into her notebook.

Her focus snapped when a tray full of lunch smacked onto her table, "For the love of all Godmothers, Ivy, that was one hell of a class." Reign sighed.

"You don't say." She grumbled,
He raised a brow, shoving a spoonful of stew down his throat. "What went wrong in yours?"

Ivy's stomach churned, creating a loud noise that sounded as if it escaped from the deepest depths of gluttony itself.

"Tell me when you get back, I'll save your spot."

Ivy let out a deep breath, "Thank you, Reign." she hugged his head. Reign waved her off, slurping more spoons of beef stew.

She snatched a plastic blue tray, nodding at just about every fruit that the lady pointed to.

"Avoiding me, are we?" A friendly voice chimed from next to Ivy.

Ivy's breath hitched as she turned to see Filip, who had a Cheshire-like grin plastered on his face. "N-No, you just seem busy, like, in the sense-"

"That I'm suddenly considered the new handsome Charming that all of the Princesses want as their true love?"

Her face deadpanned. "That's one way to toot your own horn, I guess."

He chuckled, sparkling white teeth showing as he nodded to the salad that his own lunch lady pointed at.

"You were always this grumpy kind of funny that I really liked. I know I've been busy with all these new friends just because I look new, but that doesn't stop me from remembering who were my friends before the summer." He continued, glancing to the corner table that Reign occupied for him and Ivy.

"Aren't we still your friends?"

"Of course you are, Ivy." Filip's face softened, and Ivy's heart warmed at the affirmation. Charmings from a table behind them were calling Filip in rude impatience, doing their usual hoots and hollers that could be heard from every corner of the school.

Filip's smile turned into a slight frown, "I should go before they get any louder. Would you maybe want to come by our archery practice later?"

"That'd be great, Filip, I'll be sure to bring Reign, too." Ivy lightly smiled as the handsome prince walked away. She thanked the lunch lady and her mood seemed to lighten as she approached back to her table.

"That looked like a cute interaction, what'd you talk about?" Reign simpered with a suggestive smirk, his deep grey eyes contrasting against his tan brown skin.

Ivy scoffed, "He invited us to his archery practice later. Now, if you don't mind, I have a spare class after this and would like to use lunch and my spare to study. I can't do that if you're going to scribble poor illustrations of you as Merlin on my homework."

"Hey, they're amazing illustrations!"

She shrugged in response, alternating between bites of food she oh-so craved that entire morning and cramming information from her textbook.

The topic of plants intrigued Ivy, but by the way she could barely tell the difference between a very deathly flower compared to its weed lookalike, she knew she wasn't going into any kind of botany later in life.

Time passed on as students filed to their next classes, leaving Ivy almost alone in the cafeteria.

Almost.

"Can we talk now?"

Ivy's eyes struggled to focus on the partially blurry figure of Bella as she looked away from her books, and had completely forgotten that they were supposed to meet that afternoon.

"Hey! Yeah, sorry, I got a little carried away with the studying for this quiz. I know it's a couple days from now, but-"

Bella grabbed Ivy's shoulders, which had sent jolts down Ivy's spine. "It's fine, remember what I said about Filip?"

Ivy's eyes had widened, very aware of the close distance between her and Bella, whose let-down wavy hair smelled like pumpkin purée and vanilla. Was this the part where Bella tells her that Filip told Bella about Ivy's feelings for her? Could she be interested too?

Ivy nodded, "Well, I've been getting these foggy dreams about my prince, and he had dark hair-which I know is a far stretch-but what if it's Filip? I mean, I like him and all, but..." Bella continued, but her voice faded miles away from Ivy's darkening mind as she had neglected to confront the feelings from finding out that Bella would be her Cinderella. She hadn't even figured out a way to try and prepare herself from basically marrying off the love of her life!

Ivy's heart pounded in her ears as her vision went hazy at the thought. She didn't care that she was young, she had felt her connection to Bella the first time they had met. It didn't matter if it was because Bella was some kind of social butterfly that could make anyone's heart melt with just a smile, Ivy felt that they were meant to be connected someway and somehow the day they met.

Now she knew, though, and it surely wasn't a true love connection on both parts.

"So, will you help me?"

Ivy blinked hard, "I'm sorry?"

"Will you help me get with Filip, I mean. You two just seemed pretty close before the summer and I'm hoping that your friendship with him could help me potentially get him as my prince?" Bella blushed, giving Ivy her green puppy dog eyes.

Ivy's heart dropped to her stomach, but this opportunity was possibly the only way Ivy can move on from Bella for good and live a life without the stress of wondering if the gorgeous Princess ever liked her back. On the other hand, it just seemed too close and personal for Ivy's sake.

"I'll have to think about it, I can't just pawn my friend off to somebody simply because she thinks he is her true love when we aren't even in our stories yet. But, if you're certain, I'll consider it." Ivy answered, her stomach twisted into a knot.

"I am certain, we would pair together so well, wouldn't we?"

Ivy ran a hand down her face, "I guess. Like I said, I will consider it."

The Princess shrieked in delight, hugging Ivy from the side. "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!" She beamed before skipping off to her next class in glee.

Tears stung Ivy's eyes, as the thought of giving away both her friend and her crush to be with each other seemed to become more and more realistic with each passing day.

She didn't care that it was Filip, what mattered most to her is that if it wasn't Filip, she would have to witness Bella falling in love with somebody else twice.

She wiped her eyes, shuffling to her final class of the day as the sun was starting to set. Ivy knew Reign was going to have a field day with this proposal that Bella had given Ivy, and would probably offer to help her, too.

Time passed on quickly while Ivy's mind scrambled itself into a small ball of overthinking anxiety. Soon enough, she didn't realize that she was sitting on the outdoor bleachers with her best friend watching the man her princess loves miss just about every target with his arrows.

"Go, Filip! You're doing great!" Reign hollered and clapped. He clearly wasn't watching Filip if he was cheering for the poor sap who still kept missing.

Ivy snorted, "Let's hope Bella never sees this side of our perfect Filip."

Reign turned to her. "How so? If they are each other's true loves, does it matter?"

"He hasn't made a single shot."

Her friend chuckled, "Alright, alright. So what, though? No one's ever that perfect."

Ivy pondered the thought. Deep down, deep, deep down, a malicious idea swirled at the deepest depths of her mind and soul. If Bella wants a perfect Filip, who knows how she'll react when she sees how perfectly un-perfect the Charming was.

"I'll-I'll be right back, save my spot."

Before her friend could even ask why, Ivy darted around the school and through the courtyard. Step after step, her heart beat faster as she leapt towards the girls dormitories.

Halting right in front of the door, Ivy had to catch her breath and soak in the golden hour that seeped through the windows before knocking on the door.

The familiar Princess opened her door. "Ivy? What are you-"

"I'll do it."

And so, a plan was born.

◇☆◇