Annelise

Chapter Two

THE CHICKEN BREAST SIZZLED and hissed on the pan as chopped-up pieces of chili and garlic were sprinkled on top of the meat. The scent of the food reached Pierce's nose almost instantaneously, and he inhaled the aroma of home.

"Ehm," was the sound of someone's throat being cleared.

Pierce looked up, quite obviously stunned by the sight before him. It was Annelise. Except... she was blonde.

Annelise, who wore nothing but a large business shirt (which Pierce had not used in quite a long time) and her short denim jeans, fidgeted awkwardly at the entrance of his kitchen. "Thanks for letting me use your shower."

Pierce kept on staring. Not at her legs, but at her hair.

After noticing his gaze, she blushed. "Oh, I was using hair-dye. It came off in the shower."

"Why dye it, anyway? Your hair looks fine as it is," Pierce stated nonchalantly, and resumed his cooking.

She tugged at her hair with her fingertips. "A friend of mine suggested it; said I wouldn't be as "easily recognizable.""

Pierce peered at her closely. Now that her hair was different, she seemed uncannily familiar. "You..." he uttered. "We did go to school together. I remember you. You were quite popular, weren't you?"

It was strange to see her now, as she was. It was disarming to realize how greatly things have changed.

She cracked a pained smile. "So were you." After a moment, she added, "I suppose the blonde hair did make me recognizable, after all."

Pierce shook his head. "Your hair helped, but it was your eyes that gave it away." It sounded silly when he said it, but it was undoubtedly true. He remembered those eyes. It was from a long time ago, but he certainly remembered a pair of innocent brown eyes always watching him.

She averted her gaze. "That's... So, where's Lila?" she briskly changed the topic.

"She's already eaten dinner. She really should get to sleep, but she's probably waiting for me to read her a bedtime story."

"If you want, I could go read it to her?" Annelise offered. "Since you're busy, and all."

Pierce nodded. "Her bedroom is over there. Lila can get the book she wants to read for you." After a while, Pierce decided to go check on them. He gently knocked on his daughter's door, hearing a soft "come in" before he decided to enter. Time and time again, he found himself struck with dizziness upon entering Lila's room, which was an array of pink hues he did not even know existed.

"The Myridian princess was unlike no other. She had a brother, a sister, a father and a mother. Not only that, she had pretty blonde hair, big blue eyes and skin so fair. She was lovely and gentle and pretty and kind, but all of these things still made her sigh," rhymed Annelise, who knelt by Lila's bed. It was eerily hypnotic to hear her read a children's story. Her voice was soothing and could make any child fall asleep peacefully.

"Why does she sigh?" Lila interrupted, having zero regard to the rules of letting one finish their sentence.

"Because she's unhappy," Annelise replied.

"Why is she not happy?"

Annelise teasingly pinched Lila's cute button nose, and said, "Why don't you let me finish and then we'll find out?" She took a deep breath before resuming the tale. "She was loved by her parents, her friends and many. Despite this, she still felt quite ordinary. She was loved because she was the princess of her kingdom, but she wanted to be loved for her wisdom. You see, there was a prince she liked from far, far away. He was smart and handsome in every way. But the prince didn't like her, not at all. He thought that she was a brat who had it all. Unlike him, who worked and tried for his dreams. The princess was born eating sugar and cream. She—"