Once Upon a Time: Ever After High (Book 3)

Ch.18 Friendship hope

As the sun was getting lower, Elena walked down the sidewalk clutching the cup of tea that was too hot for her to drink. But when she turned around a corner, she almost bumped into a man.

"Oh" she said as she smiled "Hey dad".

"Hello Elena" he smiled.

He was known as Mr. Jones, the mayor of Storybrooke, who was really the Good King and Elena's dad.

"How you been?" he asked her.

"Good" she smiled.

"How's school?"

"Good, there's a new girl".

"A new girl?"

"Hey name's Taylor, and today she actually offered to tutor me in math".

"Really?"

"Yeah, in fact, she got this tea after it was over".

"Well that's nice of her" Mr. Jones smiled.

"Also, she tried to give me this wand that was suppose to be my Thronecoming gift from mom".

"What?"

"Apparently Mr. Gram forgot to give it to me after I found out his little plan to try to get me to follow my destiny".

"So where's the wand?"

"I told Taylor to give it back to him, I wasn't gonna use it".

"All right then".

"Well it's getting late I should get home".

"Okay" he smiled "Goodnight".

"Goodnight" Elena smiled as she used her free arm to hug him.

But as she started to walk, Mr. Jone saw that one of her boot laces was loose.

"Uh Elena your-" he started to say, but stopped when Elena tripped on the loose shoelace and toppled forward spilling her drink on the ground.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah" she said "But my drink is gone now".

She sighed as she tossed the empty cup into a trash can.

"I gotta go now" she said "Bye".

"Bye" he said as she walked off.

The next day, as Ginger walked down the hallway, she saw that everyone was giving her dirty looks. She knew it had to be about the nightmare punch at Briar's party last night. But when she walked into the Castleteria, she noticed that Hopper was sitting by himself. He usually sits with his close friends, but today she was sadly playing with his oatmeal with a depressed look on his face. Ginger decided to talk to him so she went up and sat in front of him.

"Hey Hopper" she said.

"Oh, hey" he said dully.

"Let me guess, people aren't hanging out with you cause of last night?" she asked with a sad look.

"Yeah" he sighed "I just don't understand how it happened, I was certain we did everything right".

"Actually, I know what really happened?"

"You do?" he said surprised.

"When we were getting the cupcakes out of the over, Faybelle poured some dark fairy dust into the punch and that caused everyone to see their nightmares".

"Faybelle?" he gasped "Oh I knew she was up to no good".

"But please don't tell her I said that".

"Why?"

Ginger gave a sigh "It's hard to explain, but just please don't tell her".

"Okay, but what are we gonna do now? No one want's to hang out with me now".

"Actually" Ginger said as she got an idea "I think I have an idea. I just need Blondie's help".

She then got up and went out the Castleteria to find Blondie. She was able to find her at her locker.

"Blondie!" she called as she went up to her.

"Oh" Blondie said dully to her "Hey Ginger".

"Look, I know you're mad and all about what happened last night, but I need to make an important announcement on your Mirror Cast".

Blondie gave a sigh "Hurry up".

Soon Ginger was able to make herself appear on all the mirror screens over school.

"Is it on?" she asked herself "Yeah it's on. So everyone listen up".

Everyone around the school watched Ginger on the screen.

"So I know a lot of you are mad about the punch incident last night" she said "And I also know that you all are blaming Hopper since it was his idea. But I need to tell you all, it wasn't his fault, he had nothing to do with this. And it's not my fault either. I know who really did it, but-" she sighed, thinking about what Faybelle said to her last night "I won't say who".

Faybelle's eyes widen as she watched the screen in the hallway.

"Because that's not what friends do" Ginger said "And no, I's not Raven if you're thinking that. But I apologize for this, I promise it wont happen again".

And with that the video ended. Ginger gave a sad sigh as she lowered her head.

"You know who really did it?" Blondie asked surprised.

"Yeah" Ginger sighed again "But I'm not telling you who is it".

"But-".

"Sorry Blondie, but I can't betray a friend".

Ginger then walked away with a sad look. But as she headed down the hall, she looked up and saw Faybelle looking at her with a sad look in her eyes. The two stared at each other for a moment, until Ginger spoke up.

"So" she said "You saw that huh?"

"Yeah" Faybelle said "Why didn't you tell everyone that it was me?"

"Because" Ginger sighed "I can't betray a friend. That would be...evil".

"Oh".

They then had an awkward silence.

"Faybelle" Ginger spoke up "I've been thinking about what you said to me last night, and I have to admit, I do miss spending time with you. We did have a lot of fun when we were kids, but now that we're grown up, it feels different".

"I know" Faybelle agreed "I just wish things would go back to the way they were, you know in the good ol days".

"But we could still be friends, I mean, even though we have different opinions now, but we could still make it work. If Apple and Raven could make it work, so can we".

"But how?"

"Well for starters, stop pressuring me into following my destiny".

"That's gonna be kinda hard, but I can try".

"And second, why don't we find something that we have in common and bond over that? We can do it at the Beanstalk Bakery?"

"I'm in" Faybelle smiled.

So with that, they headed towards the bakery, hoping that this will build up their friendship.