Rosie, I found the perfect pic of Sabrina Carpenter as Rapunzel! (above)

-

Yawning, I wake up to the sounds of fairies laughing outside, the gnomes cackling mysteriously, and soon after, my mother screaming as she sweeps gnomes out the garden door again.

I really hope mother gives Blair a firm lecture about going out at night to see Phillip, to do God knows what with him. 

Probably have sex. Ew.

-

Slipping out of my nightgown, I pull a lilac-colored daytime dress off a hanger in my wardrobe and am about to pull it over my head when I catch glitter floating in the air from the side of my vision.

 Swinging my head to the side, I see Waterlily perched atop of my bedside table. I yelp in alarm and press my dress against my bare chest. "W- what are you doing in here?" I stutter.

"Please, princess there's really no need to be frightened. There's nothing you have that I don't."

It takes me a minute to process her words, "But you have wings. I don't."

"Nevertheless," she dismisses, flying up into the air, "We have things to do today!"

"We?"

"Yes, we! Queen Autumn requested that I meet you here, and have us spend the day together!"

Of course, she did. My mother, Queen Autumn wants me to hang around with Waterlily so she doesn't feel lonely. I was honestly hoping to spend time alone and read or do something else enjoyable, but this can't be any worse than that. Plus, a fairy is good company if you're on her good side.

"Okay!" I exclaim, "Just, can I please get dressed first?"

"Yes!" she flys back down to her perch on my bedside table, clasps her tiny hands in her lap, and stares at me silently.

"Um, alone? Perhaps?"

She sits there, unmoving. Unblinking.

"Fine." I sigh, turning my back to her, grateful for the cloth undergarments covering up my nether regions. 

I slide the dress over my head and pull it the rest of the way down with my hands.

I turn around and Waterlily is in the exact same position she was in before I turned around.

I do a "What?" motion with my neck and hands and she finally jumps, startled and flustered, "Forgive me, Avalon, I'm just so encaptured in your beauty."

"My ass?"

"Mhm. You have a very nice-" she stops, blushing.

"Can fairies be gay?" I stupidly ask her.

She looks offended, "There are only girl fairies what kind of question is that? Of course, we're lesbian."

Where did this attitude come from? "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you. I just didn't know."

She relaxes. "It's okay. I forgive you. We actually aren't allowed to be attracted to each other, as fairies."

"Why not?"

"It's written in the palace scroll."

I gasp, "That's so stupid! Fairies should be allowed to date each other!"

"I agree, Avalon, but rules are rules."

"Not unless they're broken or changed," I mutter.

We both gasp and look at each other at the same time.

"We can change the rules when I become queen!" I exclaim.

"We can go to war when you become queen!" she shrieks.

"What?" I ask her.

"Nothing. Your idea is better." she shakes her head.

Brushing the thought of war away, I pull the past plan thievery back out.

"Okay, I have a plan," I tell her.

She flies into my face, "What plan?"

"A plan to change what's written on the scroll."

She claps her hands together, "Let's go tell the other fairies!" yanking my arm and she zooms towards the window with surprising strength. 

I pull her back to me, "No no no! We can't tell any of them yet!"

She pouts, "Why not?"

I turn her around so our backs are facing the window, "Because if the other fairies find out, that plan could spread, and we don't want anyone else knowing about this!" I hiss.

Two high-pitched gasps come from behind us and we spin around.

Standing on the window ledge are two fairies, one pink and purple, the other green and yellow.

They look at each other and then back at us, their eyes get really wide and as their wings start to flutter, I pounce on them before they can make it back out the window.

Holding them just underneath their wing so I don't kill them, I stride back into the room, kick the window shut, and set them on my bed before running to my door and locking it. 

I whirl back around to face the two fairies who are clutching each other's arms and shaking.

"A- are you gonna kill us?" one of them whimpers.

I roll my eyes, "No. I'm not a murderer. What I am going to do is make sure you two don't say a word of what we just said or I swear to God I will actually rip your wings off."

They both squeak in fear and then one of them whispers, "But if you ripped our wings off, you'd be killing us."

Waterlily butts in, "Stop being so smart-mouthed! You two got caught, and that's that. Now, you're gonna swear to secrecy. Got it?"

"Got it!" they whisper.

I gently push Waterlily aside, "Why are you being so mean all of a sudden?"

"Because I'm mad." she crosses her tiny arms.

"That's no excuse," I say.

"But I get treated badly. Shouldn't I treat the people who hurt me as bad as they treat me?"

"It's actually the opposite, Waterlily." I answer gently, "If you want people to be nice to you, then you have to treat them nicely."

"All I do is be nice!" she wails, throwing her hands in the air.

"Then be nicer," the two captured fairies say in sync.

"SHUT UP!" Waterlily screams at them.

"Okay," I say, taking her hand and leading her over to the door, unlocking it, "You're going out here to take a break. And you can knock when you're calm, okay?"

"Mmmmphh!" she growls and hits the first on the doorframe on her way out.

I close the door and lock it again. 

I walk back over to the two fairies and tell them, "Do you two promise not to tell anyone about this plan?"

They both nod.

"Verbal, please."

"Yes," they both say.

"Good. Remember my warning."

I open the window and they both fly out.

BAM BAM BAM BAM! Comes from the door.

As I walk across my room to unlock and let Waterlily back in, I say, "You don't have to be that aggressi-" and stop when I see Blair holding Waterlily by her ankles in the air, a smug look on her face.

"Wha- Blair, hi, what are you doing?"

"Stopping over to say 'hi' to my favorite sister."

"I'm your only sister, and you hate me."

"Again, I don't hate you, I simply-"
I finish her sentence for her, "am just easily annoyed by the inconsiderate actions of younglings. I know."

She holds out Waterlily to me, "Here's your fairy. Why was she out here?"

"None of your business." I gently cup the silent Waterlily in my palms.

She smirks, "Oh well, too bad I already know your business," and sashays down the hall to the spiral staircase.

I stand there, dumbfounded.

What does she mean she already knows my business?

"You heard what she just said, right?" I ask Waterlily, still staring at the spot where my sister was just standing.

"Yup," she replies.

"Do you think she meant-" I stop talking as a palace guard walks by, tipping his head in acknowledgment. I do the same to him, and wait till he's gone down the spiral staircase to talk again, "Do you think... she meant the plan?"

"I don't know..." she says, but even then I know, that's exactly what she meant. 

-

After promising Waterlily that everything would be okay, I finally convince her to spend my leisure time with me.

We start in the palace library, to read.

I sit comfortably in a soft armchair and read my personal copy of Perfect Endings by Avalon Laurier. I love that she has the same first name as me, and her writing is absolutely amazing to be captured and engaged in. It's about a teenage girl named Estelle who meets a boy named Luca, and they eventually fall in love, with some sprinkled drama. The perfect story.

Waterlily has a very large fairytale book laid out in front of her, the pages are much too large for her to turn on her own, so I assist her with that.

She walks slowly across the pages to read the words and gasps out loud when I turn another page for her and it displays a very... wildered painting of a fairy, "This is not what we look like!" she yelps.

"It's only a story, Waterlily," I tell her, "just a figment of someone's imagination."

"It offends me." she shudders, her voice tremoring. 

"Do you want to skip it?"

"No. I want to see how ugly this is going to get," and she races across the page, moving further down with every sentence.

Shaking my head, I return to my own book and finish chapter 20, when Estelle and Luca spend the day together and Luca does some of his photography. 

As I turn to the next page to start chapter 21, a movement from the library doors catches my eye.

Turning my head, I catch a glimpse of a sunny yellow dress disappearing behind the half-closed door.

Blair.

-

I jump up from my chair, pick up the ends of my dress so I don't trip, and all thoughts of leisure time fly out of my head as I race to the doors and fling them open, whipping my head side to side in the hallway.

No one is there.

Growling in annoyance, I slam the doors closed, stomp back over to my chair and slump down in it and close my eyes.

After what feels like barely two seconds, I feel something tap on my forehead.

Blinking my eyes open, I see Waterlily's tiny face in front of mine, her feet on my collarbone.

I grunt and sit up, careful so she doesn't fall off, "What do you want?"

She grins evilly and whispers, "I finished the fairy story!"

"You did? Did you like it?"

She bunches her hands together, "No. None of it was true, it was all fake, that writer doesn't know anything!"

I yawn, stretching my arms out, "I'm sure they know some things."

She stomps her foot and I wince, "No. They don't."

Half awake now, I realize the light coming through the window has dimmed. I blink, "How long was I out?"

"Maybe an hour, I don't know." she shrugs.

Fully awake, I jump up and she yeps in surprise and quickly flutters her wings to stay upright.

I stare at her, waving my arms wildly, "Why didn't you wake me?!"

"You seemed so peaceful, I didn't want to disturb you."

She's so innocent. But it doesn't win me over, "Did Blair come in here at all?"

"No, not that I saw or heard. A few fairies squeezed through the window at the far end of the library because someone must have left it open, but all they did was read in their own corner." she points in the direction they must have been in.

I look over at the corner she points at and see that the window is indeed opened a crack.

"If you're worried about the fairy dust, they left none there, we only leave it behind if we're overly happy or very scared, but sometimes-"

I interrupt her, "I don't care about the fairy dust! I care that Blair didn't spy on us or sneak in here or anything!"

"Oh, well she wasn't here, those doors have been shut since you fell asleep."

I breathe a sigh of relief, "Good, that's good."

"Do you want to find her and question her?" she asks.

"Maybe. It's getting darker and I haven't eaten breakfast or lunch, which means supper be soon."

She pumps her fist in the air, "Let's get something to eat, I'm hungry," and she wizzes over to the doors, tugging on the handle, but can't open it because it's locked.

I close my book and set it back on a random shelf.

I walk over to her, and turn the lock, opening the door for her and she zooms out into the hallway and into the palace kitchen.

Closing the door behind me, I follow her trail of glitter into the kitchen and see her diving headfirst into an opened bag of sugar on a counter.

"What are you doing?!" I hiss.

"Having fun! I LOVE SUGAR- opps!"

Her sugar-covered head emerges from the bag which is now spilling sugar from the bottom where her foot kicked a hole in the cardboard.

"Come on out," I tell her.

Moping, she flies out of the bag and sits on the counter, trailing her fingers lazily in the sugar pile next to her. 

"Will you please help me clean this up?" I ask, grabbing a broom and dustpan.

"Yeah. I'm sorry," she flies over to me and tries to grab the dustpan but the weight of it sends her down to the floor where the dustpan clatters down next to her.

"It's okay, it was just an accident." I pick up the dustpan and watch her fly back up to the counter and somehow shove the half-full bag of sugar across the counter and press her small hand against the small hole to stop the flow of the sugar. 

I sweep up the sugar on the floor into the dustpan and slide the sugar into a waste bin.

"Now, we can patch up the bag!" I tell her.

"How?" her hand slightly losing pressure against the tear.

"We will have some of the other fairies mend it together. Will you go get two of your friends?"

"Yes! Yes, I will!" and she flutters excitedly out of the kitchen. 

As I wait for Waterlily and her friends to arrive, I make myself a small plate of saltine crackers and a tiny bowl of Nutella.

I am polishing off my crackers and Nutella dip when I hear them come through the door.

I am very disappointed when I see who her friends are. 

"These are my friends!" Waterlily shrieks, pointing at them exuberantly.

Who just happen to be the two fairies eavesdropping on our plan from before.

"You two again?" I ask glumly.

They nod.

"Why them?" I ask Waterlily.

"You said to bring two of my friends."

"But don't you remember you were screaming at them a few hours ago?"

"Fairies have mood changes often, princess," one of the eavesdroppers says, "it is very common for us to-"

"DID I SAY I WAS TALKING TO YOU?" I demand her.

She shrinks away, "No," she says meekly.

"Exactly. Go patch up that bag of sugar," I point at the ripped bag.

They both fly over to the bag and get to work.

Waterlily flies over to me, "Princesses have mood changes too."

I almost glared at her, but instead say, "Yeah. You're right."

"Did you eat?"

"Yes, I had saltine crackers and Nutella."

She makes a disgusted face, "You had WHAT!?"

"I'm a very picky eater, don't judge me. Hey! You had half a bag of sugar, you can't say anything!"

"Mhm," she mutters, "They're done!"

I look over to the bag which is now nicely patched with tape.

"That's all they had to do?" I ask Waterlily.

"Uh-huh."

"Oh. I thought they had to use like... special fairy powers or something?"

She blinks, "That's a stereotype. We don't have powers. We just are very good at arts and crafts, and leave glitter wherever we go."

"And you can fly. I can't do that." I point out.

"That too! It's very fun!"

"I bet it is. I'm jealous."

"We can teach you how to fly! she exclaims.

"What? How?"

"Well, you'd have to be somewhere up high, I hope you're not afraid of heights, and then-"

"Absolutely not. I don't want to fly anymore."

"Suits you right," one of the fairies says.

I glare at her, "Have you forgotten my warning?"

She goes pale, "No."

"Good," I say, and walk to the kitchen door. 

"Where are you going?" Waterlily asks.

"To find Blair," I continue walking.

I hear the rapid flutter of wings and know she's followed me "Why?"

"Weren't you the one who suggested finding her?" I look over my shoulder and see a worried look on her face. I stop walking.

She almost smacks into my shoulder. "What's wrong?" I ask her.

"I think Blair hates me," she whispers.

Knowing that feeling, I motion for her to hop on my shoulder.

I continue walking towards my destination with a grim expression. We reach the spiral staircase and I say, "Girl, I feel you."

A/N: Dedicated to Rosie :)

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