The Real Disney Princesses(On Hold)

Chapter 2

The Real Disney Princesses

The girls woke the next morning to the church bells ringing in the distance. They grumbled and moaned and complained about the light streaming in through the lightly dusted window. Suddenly, Cassie shot up, panicked.

“Guys, wake up! Get up now!” she screamed.

There were rounds of “Shut up Cassie” and  “I’m trying to sleep,” ‘s, but Cassie had already jumped out of bed and was running around the room shaking them while pulling clothes up from up the floor and stripping her pyjamas off.

Mia shot up and practically shouted “What the hell are you doing, Cassie? Are you mental or something? Now let us sleep please!” and with that she landed with a heavy ‘poof’ back down onto the tangled mess of cushions and blankets she’d been sleeping on.

Cassie stopped and stood still for a moment. “Guys, we have to be in town in half an hour.” It was her sudden calmness that shocked all five girls spread-eagled across the floor.

The next five minutes was equivalent to an earthquake scene in the madness and hurry.

*****

All six girls clambered onto the bus panting and searching for six seats together. They had no such luck. There were five seats left at the very back of the bus. Something caught Mia’s eye. The next minute, she had slipped down next to James, and launched into an animated conversation that seemed mostly driven by Mia. As each of the girls passed, James managed to slip in a friendly “Hi” or a smile. When Alice passed by though, he managed to stop Mia talking for a moment.

“Hey Alice, I was at your sisters concert last night. She was really good,” he said, while Alice nodded quietly and gave a small smile.

After a moment a bit too long, she replied, “Yeah, did you get to hear her new song?”

“No,” a hint of red swept across his cheeks, “I came kinda late. I must have missed it,” he smiled apologetically at her.

Alice’s face became distant and even worried for a moment. She returned his gaze and took a silent but deep breath before her lips parted. It was just on the tip of her tongue, when the bus jerked impatiently and turned a sharp corner.

“Woul-ooooooow!” Alice grabbed onto the nearest seat as she struggled not to fall. Then she scrambled to her seat with the rest of her friends.

“Well I’m still all red from that run,” Murin blurted out, touching her face.

“Your always red Murin,” Latika kindly pointed out.

“Well now you’re extra red!” Clíona smirked, looking up from her phone.

“Shut up Clíona, I’m proud of my redness..and gingerness and my beautiful red face. I’ll never need blusher!” Murin pouted. The truth was, that although sometimes her friends called her ‘ginger’, she wasn’t actually, she had deep red hair and a pale as cream face with a couple of freckles dotted across her nose and cheeks. Although she didn’t really see herself as beautiful, she was. She was striking. She just focused so much on having fun and doing any crazy thing that came to mind, that she barely had time to notice.

So when a woman in her early thirties, dressed in well fitting beige trousers, cream heels, and a light green tailored blouse came up to her in town that day, she was surprised. She was even more surprised when she asked her if she would consider doing some model work for First Option.

“What’s that..like, an insurance company?” Murin looked up at the woman, her face scrunched up. For a moment, the woman looked shocked, slightly appalled.