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“It’s-It’s not what you think—”

“Oh, shut it, Ivy! First, you say I’m crazy that I wanted a relationship before my story even started, and now here you are; cuddling up with a Charming. With the Charming I wanted!” Bella shrieked.

“How-How are you even here?” Filip questioned, unaware of the Princess's casual confession.

The Princess scoffed, “You think I’m incapable of following you? I thought it was pretty suspicious that you absolutely had to leave archery practice right before curfew ended. I knew you two were up to something!”

Ivy backed away from Filip. “Up to something? Bella, you’re jumping to conclusions! Filip just wanted to apologize for what happened in Ms. Evelyn’s class today.”

“Really?” Bella asked sarcastically, her face softened as she glanced to Filip, who had nodded in agreement.

She shook her head, “It still doesn’t deny the fact that you looked awfully close before I interrupted.”

“Yes, I know. We were about to… you know. But, if I’m going to be an actual friend to you and share my problems, I've actually been meaning to tell you that I have feelings for someone else.” Ivy confessed, her eyes tightly shut and her bottom lip bit under her teeth.

Her gut felt like it was about to twist into a million tiny knots.

“You do?” The Charming and Princess said in unison.

Ivy opened her eyes to confused and hurt faces. She let out a deep sigh, “I’m sorry to the both of you. Filip, I shouldn’t have gone along with all of your flirting, but I also wanted to see if I could actually give you a shot, and now I know that it’s not what I want.”

Her gaze fell onto Bella, who had suddenly changed to being on the verge of tears. “And Bella, I should have told you sooner rather than now. I know this is probably the worst time to tell you, and I hope you can forgive me.”

She took a step closer, “Ivy—”

“What is going on here?” A woman’s voice boomed from the trees. The lantern she held glowed gold against her pale skin and flowing red hair.

“Dean Marée,” Bella gasped,

The Dean tightened her robe. Her brows pinched close together, paired with a deep frown. “Girls, you should thank your lucky wishing stars tonight that I am not in the mood to deal with this. Especially you, Bella.” She scolded. “Filip, go back to the school, now.”

Filip straightened at her order, walking quickly back to the school.
“Don’t let anyone see you, for I will not be able to help you if you get caught.” She called to the Charming, who had nodded before bolting deeper towards the school.

The two girls looked at the Dean in awe, “How-How did you know we were here?” Bella asked.

Dean Marée raised a brow. “Just because you didn’t get caught by a human, doesn’t mean you didn’t get caught by one of my friends.”

Ivy and Bella watched together as a small hermit crab crawled from the Dean’s shoulder and down her arm, all the way to the tip of her finger before hopping to the ground.

Bella leaned into Ivy’s ear. “If I ever call a hermit crab one of my friends, you have all of my permission to turn me into one.”

As they followed their Dean back to the school, just like that, the two girls were friends again.

~

Ivy tapped her foot against the dark wood floors of Dean Marée’s office, slumped in one of the lush sea blue chairs. Bella sat next to her in a matching chair, chewing at hangnails with a perfect posture.

“She’s going to tell my dad,”

Ivy groaned, “Bella, I already told you a million times—she’s not going to tell your dad.”

Bella nodded with a frantic look still adopted into her green eyes. They had been waiting on Dean Marée for not even five minutes, and the Princess had already gone mad at the thought of her father knowing she was out after curfew.

The sun had barely started peeking out from the horizon of the splendid golden windows in the office when the Dean finally came back into the room.

She sat in the large blue chair across from the girls, resting her hands on the blond wooden desk. “I hope you both had a good sleep,”

Ivy glanced over to the girl beside her, who had definitely looked like she didn’t have a good night’s rest.

“Almost going off of school grounds past curfew? What were you girls thinking?” Dean Marée interrogated, her fiery hair heavily contrasting her fair skin in the semi-dim office.

“I-I-I didn’t mean to, Dean Marée, you see, I didn’t know what time it was—” Bella stuttered, interrupted by the Dean holding a hand up to halt Bella’s stammering.

“I don’t need excuses. You’re lucky enough that I decided not to tell your father about this… affair."

Ivy made a mental note to give Bella a big fat I told you so later.

The Dean sighed, “This isn’t a horrible offense, only wiping and mopping the cafeteria after dinners for a week is my only punishment that I am assigning you. But, if I catch you two out of your rooms after curfew again, the next punishment will be far worse.” she continued.

Bella sighed in relief. “Thank you so much, Dean Marée. I promise that Ivy and I will behave from now on. Last night was just a one off.”

Dean Marée let out one small chuckle, her gaze falling to Ivy. “You don’t have anything to say?”

Ivy shook her head. “No, Dean Marée. I’m sorry about being out at curfew.” She said, her head down.

Ivy didn’t feel terrible about the situation, but rather confused that Dean Marée let them off the hook so easily. Not even a letter to home about the trouble they caused seemed off.

“Apology accepted,” Dean Marée replied, putting on a pair of small glasses before resuming to signing written documents that had littered her desk. “You may go.”

As soon as Bella heard the words, she grabbed Ivy’s wrist and bolted out of the room before anything else could come out of the Dean’s mouth.

“Thank Godmother, I was so worried she was going to say something to my dad. Being out after curfew is one thing for him, but with a Charming? I would’ve been the next Rapunzel.” Bella chuckled, leading them away from the dorms.

“This isn’t the way back to the dorms, Bella.” Ivy said, her voice wavering. Anxiety sloshed in her stomach, making her nauseous.

Bella looked back at her worried friend, “I know, silly, we’re going to the library. We need to keep thinking of ways to get Filip if you’re not fooling around with him.”

“What?” Ivy stopped the both of them in their tracks, the sun slowly trickling its sunlight through the windows. “The library isn’t even open for students yet, it’s still technically after curfew!”

“And?”

“Did you not hear what Dean Marée said?! Our next punishment is going to be worse if we get caught again!”

Bella’s smile turned mischievous, “Exactly, key word is caught.” She replied, starting towards the library again.

Ivy rolled her eyes. Of course the daughter of the Dean was as rebellious as a rebel could be, but was clearly a coward when it came to actually getting caught.

The students walked up the spiral steps and into their little nook once more, thinking of different ways to catch Filip’s attention for good, now that Ivy had revealed that she was into somebody else.

“Why do you want to keep at this? Isn’t it a little risky, given the circumstances of him possibly not being your true love, I mean?” Ivy inquired, curled into her knees in the corner of their room.

Bella plastered more ripped pages from her notebook onto the wall, “It is risky, but I feel like there’s a genuine connection between Filip and I. Not like we have talked much, yet I can definitely feel that hunch that I get when I’m in the presence of something—or someone—that is going to be a part of my story.”

“Or someone?”

The Princess laced a pink ribbon through the tacks that she had placed into most of the pages. “Yeah, I get that feeling when I’m around you. Or, at least, I think I do. It’s complicated.”

Ivy rocked in her sitting fetal position. There wasn’t possibly a way Bella could tell that Ivy was going to be a part of her story, it felt against the rules that a Charming or a Princess could just coax that kind of information out of an ignorant Godmother.

“And… done!” Bella smiled, backing away from her collage. Ivy scanned the pictures that Bella had drawn, along with the notes she had jotted down on other pieces of paper that she connected with the lace ribbon and tacks.

It wasn’t some collage, it was a whole plan.

A plan that Bella thought up all on her own.

“First, I’ll start sitting—or standing—next to Filip during classes and assignments. Then, we’ll talk. Hopefully, by the end of the winter solstice, we will be very happy together and have a Happily Ever After when our story ends.” Bella explained, pointing to each paragraph and picture that correlated with her plan.

Ivy furrowed her brows, “That’s it? Bella, this is extremely difficult to execute if you don’t know if Filip even has this ‘hunch’ about you, too.”

“But what if he does and doesn’t want to reveal it with the fear of being too forward?”

Ivy was at a loss for words. They didn’t have much time left before class, yet Bella was adamant on following her exact plan of… talking. Nothing about going on dates, or studying together as a subtle way to spend more time together, just talking.

Ivy swallowed her slight pangs of jealousy. “Alright, fine, say he does have this hunch you royals get. We should practice on some topics of what you two can talk about during our classes.”

Bella lit up, “Yes! I knew you would get it eventually! Here,” she grabbed Ivy by the hands, lifting her from the corner and into the pool of sunlight that kissed the room. “you can be Filip.”

Ivy snorted, clearing her throat as she readied herself. “Hey, Bella, I’m Filip.” She mocked, her voice cracking as she imitated Filip’s deeper voice.

The Princess snorted, “Stop it, be serious.” She lightly punched Ivy’s shoulder teasingly.

Ivy smirked, rolling her eyes. “Fine. How are you today, Bella?”

“I’m great, how are you?”

“I’m good, I have an archery practice later if you want to watch me absolutely suck—”

She received another punch to the shoulder, but much harder. “Alright! I have archery practice later if you want to come by?”

“Sure!” Bella perked,

Ivy frowned, slumping. “This doesn’t seem forward enough. If we go at this pace, you’ll have Filip when you’re both on your deathbed. How about a little bit of touching?”

“Touching,” Bella repeated, her face twisting in disgust.

“Yeah, like a little bit of arm touching. Like this,” Ivy replied, lightly placing her hand on Bella’s arm, right below the shoulder.

Bella’s head nodded from side to side. “Or, I could be really forward and do this,” She said, grabbing Ivy’s free hand, rubbing her thumb against the top.

Ivy’s heart went to a full stop, her breath hitched. She had to say something, anything.

“We’re one step closer to being in a waltz position.” She blurted, panicking internally as she awaited her crush’s response.

Bella burst into laugher, “I guess we are!” She beamed, resting her own free hand against Ivy’s back. Ivy had two layers of clothes between the skin on her back and Bella’s hand, and yet she could feel the burning as Bella touched her.

“Dance with me, Ivy.” The girl giggled as she started to sway to two of them.

Ivy didn’t dance, but she wasn’t going to tell Bella that. She knew enough of the waltz, and apologized after every time she accidentally stepped on Bella’s toes.

Her blushing grew stronger with every twirling step they took in their small room, but she never took her eyes off of the beautiful girl in front of her, and Bella didn’t take her eyes off of Ivy, either. Bella’s fingers trickled their way down to the small of Ivy’s back, dipping her low.

The two girls scanned each other’s faces under the dazzling new day sunlight, their lips leisurely getting ever so close.

This was the moment Ivy had been waiting for since their night alone on that rainy night. The moment where Bella was going to find out her true destiny, a destiny they would share for eternity after their story ended. Their own Happily Ever After.

Minutes felt like hours, and hours felt like years as their lips were only centimeters apart--

Their lips had barely grazed before Bella pulled Ivy into a hug.

“Thank you. For the dance, I mean. It was fun,” Bella said into Ivy’s shoulder.

The world seemed to pause in that exact moment. They were about to kiss! What happened?!

Even though Ivy’s breath had halted in both shock and despair, the Princess’s breath was heavy, hot and fast against Ivy's chest.

Ivy hugged Bella back, “Anytime,” was all she could say.

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