“I am SO excited,” Harmony whispered to Elisa as they compared schedules under their desks. “I have art next. I wonder how many year fours are doing it.” 

“Ugh, lucky, you get art,” Elisa groaned. “I would love to do drama club, but power tutoring cuts into fashion class so I have to go to fashion office hours which doesn’t line up with drama.”

“Geez girl, your schedule is so complicated” Harmony muttered as Queen Cinderella looked at them suspiciously. 

“Tell me about it.” Elisa pointed at Harmony’s A-day. “It looks like we have magic, etiquette, and DID training together. I’m a little scared about having two practical classes instead of one this year.”

“That’s enough talking girls,” Queen Cinderella said sternly. “Now let’s begin our lesson. Etiquette class has been changed the least out of all standard classes. The majority of the coursework is the same, with the exception of Unit 6…”

Harmony stopped listening. She didn’t really need to listen, after all. Harmony wasn’t terrible at etiquette, but she had always had enough common sense to at least pass.

Besides, Harmony had other things on her mind. Such as the fact that at her age, Melody would have already graduated. She had one of the youngest Happily Ever Afters ever! Not including transfers. Somehow, no one ever seemed to include transfers. 

Melody’s career was “inspiring” and an “instant success” according to Harmony’s mom. But Harmony secretly thought that the happily ever after was a little strained in the shadow of Queen Ariel’s classic Happily Ever After. When Harmony had expressed this opinion to Melody, she insisted that Harmony was just jealous, and that it did not matter if Melody was a mere sequel princess. Harmony would be an even less of a success, and her Happily Ever After was almost guaranteed to be even more repetitive. 

“Uh, Harmony?” Harmony snapped out of her trance. Elisa was nudging her. The princess with a tambourine on her family crest who sat one row in front of them was dangling stack worksheets in front of Harmony’s face.

Harmony hastily took the worksheets, passed all but one to the table behind her, and began to scribble down the correct curtsy that was performed for each royal title.

Queen Cinderella had let the class out 10 minutes early so the passing period before her first art class, was a little longer than usual. Harmony wandered up and down the winding hallways of the Arts Wing, waiting for the re. Her locker was annoyingly in this wing (her mother had requested a room near her classroom), but she was immediately grateful for its position when a princesses walked by, mumbled,

“My textbook!” cursed, and ran back the other way. 

The girl reminded Harmony that she needed to grab her portfolio from her own locker. Harmony reluctantly trudged towards her least favorite classroom.

Harmony pressed her crest against her locker and the oval outline glowed pink, unlocking it. Luckily, family crests are slightly different inside of families or her mother would be able to poke through all of Harmony’s stuff.

She extracted her portfolio from her locker as quietly as possible as she leaned to the left to see if her mother was inside the classroom there. 

Harmony quickly withdrew herself from the doorway. Her mother was definitely inside the classroom. Did she dare to look again to see what the Singing Teacher was doing? She decided that it was worth the risk and peeked around the arched doorframe. 

A student stood talking to the Queen Ariel herself. The princess looked vaguely familiar, but Harmony couldn’t put her finger on it. Before she could ponder about the princess further, Harmony remembered that she wasn’t supposed to be seen, and darted out of the doorway again. 

Could she risk one last glance? Harmony carefully edged around the threshold. This time, the young princess was staring over Queen Ariel’s shoulder and straight at her. Harmony froze. Her mom’s back was still turned, apparently oblivious to the silent eye conversation she and the student were having. 

…

Are you eavesdropping?

No I swear I’m sorry Please don’t say anything,

Who are you anyways?

Does it matter? You know what, I’m just going to go now-

Don’t you dare

The princess’s frightening death glare seemed to keep Harmony rooted to the spot. Harmony prayed that the bell would ring and save her.

So? Who are you and why are you listening in on this conversation?

Slowly, Harmony pointed at her crest, and then to her bright orange hair, which was up in a high ponytail. A fruitless effort to tame the tight, frizzy curls. The princess looked at the queen in front of her, and then back at Harmony. As her eyes widened in sudden understanding, a soft wind chime sounded from the loudspeaker, signaling the end of class and Harmony’s escape.