Fifth Destiny // Ever After High as Fifth Harmony Fanfiction

Chapter Two: Miss Moving On

{Chapter Two POV: Cerise Hood}

It's been two weeks since the finale of season 2 of the Hex Factor. Two long weeks spent retreating in my family's cottage in the Hood Village, trying to make sense of my unreasonable, risky actions that night. But oh, what a wonderful night it was- I'll never forget the moment that us five girls, Lizzie, Apple, Duchess, Holly and I, stood up on that stage and were announced as the third place winners. I'll never forget the looks of hexcitement on my friends' faces. I'll never forget the call I received from a boy unexpectedly before I stepped up on stage that night, and I definitely would never forget the way I felt answering the call and hearing what the boy had to say to me.

I still could feel the words sliding into my ears and sticking to my brain, even traveling as far as my heart, taking hold and never letting go. My head wouldn't register the fact that he thought I was the most interesting, talented, beautiful girl he'd ever seen. It was hard to believe for myself, so I wouldn't expect my friends to understand. It was why I still hadn't told them yet, hiding from their royal highnesses in order to spare myself from misunderstood embarrassment. I'd received countless voicemails and texts from each of them, sounding and seeming concerned but I just couldn't face them yet. My own actions were unrecognizable from the old me, as unconceivable as a human wolf, once in a lifetime and challenging Raven Queen's Legacy Day debacle for the most risky thing any student had ever done. Only nobody could know why it was so truly on the verge of unforgivable.

Imagine walking into your school's front door, the most normal of normal days and a fake-confident expression glued across your face. As you open up your locker everyone is staring at you, and you check the mirror only to find out you're completely naked. Yeah, that's how I felt on the stage that day.

It isn't as easy as it sounds to picture the whole audience in their underwear because in a few seconds the moment will pass, while my attempt at declaring my confidence could majorly impact the rest of my entire life. At the end of the song I couldn't tell if it had, so I'd ran and here I'd stayed for two weeks, rolled up in a fuzzy blanket with a few sleeves of chocolate chip cookies or tubs of ice cream. I passed time by writing letters to the people I knew knowing that I'd never send them, listening to anything but what had come to be known as Fifth Destiny through headphones, or plowing through a stack of books. Sometimes my mom would convince me to watch something on Hexflix that she'd hoped would keep me busy for a while, but I usually ended up watching short shows that made me even more hungry, like Chopped or Cupcake Wars.

"Cerise?" My mom called, entering the house and fishing a fresh-baked apple pie out of the warm, toasty oven.

"Mmmhmm," I grumbled lazily, not feeling in the mood to even get up right now.

"Apple's mother mailed me the finale on DVD," she sing-songed, cutting me a slice of pie and leaving the plate on the table in front of me, "you should watch it."

"Nooo," I tried to protest, but maybe my mom was right. I'd missed a whole week and a half of school.

My mom walked around my settlement on the couch and popped the DVD into the player. "You're watching it."

I groaned but wasn't that upset that I was being forced to watch it. There was a side of each of us out on that stage that night that none of us had ever seen. Apple's normally perfect curls were brushed out and puffed around her in a fluffy natural-curled mop and she wore black-rimmed glasses I hadn't even known she needed. That fearless Apple I'd grown used to in rehearsals and such was becoming the closest friend I had. Lizzie smiled with bursting confidence, proud of what her one little song had done for us. Holly left her hair down for the first time during any of our performances, her princess crown replaced with a large pink bow- it was who she was on the inside more than the label she'd been given on the outside. Duchess didn't look any different but her attitude toward everything that day was just a pinch sweeter, showing us the victory she'd had against the bitterness she used to hold for all of us.

There were my shining silver eyes, framed with the straight brown hair with whitish streaks I'd learned to accept as unique rather than different over my years alive. My short black dress with neon green, pink, blue and yellow patterns, purple glittering leathery jacket, and tall tan boots were a more edgier look than anything I'd tried before. But it wasn't my outfit that was the most standout thing.

I stood on the stage without my hood for the first time in a public place- in fifteen years. My ears were not visible, hidden behind my hair, but were easily exposed and vulnerable to even the slightest breeze.

I stared at myself while the DVD played through. Not one ear slip. No one could see, nobody knew. Nobody but myself and that alone was all too much.

At that moment, Apple requested my attention in the form of a phone call, and I flipped the script and answered.

"Hey Cerise, this is Apple again. I just wanted to make sure everything's..." She started. "Wait, you answered! You did! Oh my gosh! Cerise! Ahhh! We missed you, sooo much! Are you okay? How have you been?" Apple shouted.

"I'm okay, I'm okay. Just... Needed a break, I think, that's all," I laughed happily, overwhelmed with an appreciated feeling that I'd never felt much before with anyone but my immediate family.

"Please come meet us at the studio," she pleaded. "Lizzie wants us to all write our first single together. We can't write it together without our Cerise!" Apple's voice was genuine and soothing- each night before we took the stage on the Hex Factor, my nerves would try to get the best of me. If Apple hadn't been there with her encouraging words (and a few cookies) I probably would have howled and run for the hills and without return that first night.

"Okay, okay, I'll come," I agreed, giving in and breaking down my paranoid thoughts.

Suddenly I got the perfect idea for a song.

"Actually, I have an idea," I stated, grinning.

My dad hadn't been home much, but we communicate through texts constantly. One text I opened but never responded to undid and highlighted itself in my confusing tangle of thoughts. He was never upset for what I did, just proud of what I'd been able to get up there and accomplish. The name my dad had called me glinted and shined like a million bright stars... Miss Moving On.