Tale as Old as Time

XII

Days blur together here. I'v been living here for only two months but everything still seems so new. The sun barely makes the horizon blush light blue these days. I haven't seen Belle as much this week and, when I do see her, she's tired and distracted. She has an important test for her school and Adam's been helping her study for it. Today's the day of her biggest test, the one she's most worried about.

While Belle is studying, I have my lessons with Kiara. She makes it very obvious that she doesn't like me every time we're together. She curls her lip and makes faces when I don't know things.

"Alright, well, that's it for today," Kiara says, closing the book in front of her. Her voice is dry.

"Okay," I reply softly. I cap the pen and set it down gently over my paper.  Kiara stares at me as if she's waiting for me to do something. 

"Well lets go," she says, waving her hand around in a motion of urging me along.  I simply shake my head. 

"You can go," I tell her.  "I want to stay here a little longer."

Kiara huffs a sigh.

"Suit yourself," she grumbles as she pulls together her things.  Kiara leaves the little room in a hurry, eager to get away from me.

"It was nice to meet you," I call after her.  Kiara pauses at the door and shoots me slightly less sour look compared to the one she usually gives me. 

"Good luck princess," Kiara replies.  She continues on her hurried path out the door.  I slump back in my chair once I'm alone in the little room.  I miss Belle. 

Her last test is today.  I don't have to feel like an ignorant child under Kiara's stony gaze.  Her blue eyes truly are icy. 

I tuck my pen into the back pocket of my jeans and scoop my notebook under my arm as I leave the room as well.  The room is tucked in the back of the library, closed behind a green painted door with gold trim.  Inside is a big table and several computers and a television that we haven't used once.  I feel incredibly small standing alone in the library.  Taking in a deep breath, I begin walking through the aisles. I wander my way up to the fairy tale section. Thomas and I have been reading from the thick boom filled with stories of princesses and magic and happily ever after. Not all of them are happy and the villains are often punished in gruesome ways but I love each one we read just as much as the last.

I trail my fingers along the smooth spines of the shelved books. I've fallen in love with the worlds these books hold. It's amazing that a single person can dream up people and lives and histories and put them all together to create a story.

The book dark spine of the book I'm looking for jumps out at me from the neat rows of decorated ones. I stoop down and pull it from the shelf, then slide down the shelves behind me, settling on the carpeted floor, and flip through the delicate pages of the book. The flutter like the wings of the butterflies that live in the greenhouse. Colored drawings break up the lengthy sections of writing. The depict men wrapped in thick furs and snowy landscapes and primitive structures. I flip back to first page and try to decipher the first page.

"Are you Princess Elise?" a girl interrupts me before I can begin reading. My head snaps up to see a girl with gleaming burgundy hair and a weary smile. Her pale eyes were almost nervous as she looks at me, despite her welcoming smile. I try to return a cheerier smile but I probably look just as odd. The girl looks my age and absolutely stunning. She wears a pair of soft green pants that balloon around her calves and tighten around her angles at the thin straps of her flat shoes that match the color of her skin. The thin grey sweater she wears doesn't quite meet the waist of her pants and shows off a bit of her stomach. Somehow her skin is kissed with sun, by much but definitely more than me. I didn't even know it was possible for sun to tint skin but apparently it does. Thick lashes frame her almond shaped eyes and bat against her sharp cheekbones.