Not Your Average Fairytale

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen

Just over half an hour later, all ten of the teenagers found themselves huddled around Chinese takeout containers in the living room. The room had taken on relative silence, given that everyone was more preoccupied with eating that making conversation.

Sitting on the armrest of a chair that was holding Brent and Arabella, Rosalyn clutched a container of orange chicken while trying to keep her balance. She looked around the room and, seeing that everyone was mostly finished, decided to speak.

"So, I know Brent and Arabella began to explain everything to you, but I'm sure you all have a lot of questions now," she began, looking around to find 6 pairs of rapt eyes staring back at her. Brent and Arabella, of course, weren't as interested, given that they both already knew the majority of this, and Jasper sat in the corner, feigning disinterest as well.

"Sure, if you could tell us how this is all going to work out, that would be grand," he sarcastically said under his breath, but Rosalyn heard him anyways.

Arabella let out an overdramatic sigh at this and stood up. "I'm going up to my room; I'm good on questions," she announced as she left. Rosalyn watched her leave, withholding a sigh of her own.

She supposed she should be glad Arabella was interested for the small amount of time she was, even though her concern was really only for her sister's safety at the time. Rosalyn knew Arabella hated everything to do with the magic world she was a part of, and she avoided any acknowledgement of it at any cost.

"If you're wondering if I only befriended you because of who you are, I suppose there is a grain of truth to that. Many of you I recognized early on as what you are, and so yes, at first I was encouraged to get to know you because of that. However, I promise you that each of the friendships I have with you is real," she explained, looking down.

"I only had to know who you were; there was never any requirement to be your friend. Who you are is only the factor that brought you into my life, and I hope you realize that. I'm sorry I kept this from you for so long—it was your right to know, really, but I wanted to wait until this moment to be sure that everything was ready."

"So this is what we're up against: you probably already know that for each round of characters, there's one Dragon. This is a woman, likely someone older than us, who will play the evil witch or evil queen for each of our stories. Now there's ten of us, and only one of her—so we have a better chance of winning, but we have to work together for this to work."

"I'm not going to tell you exactly how the stories will play out, other than the original versions you already know. To be honest, I don't know myself. Playing out your story is considered a sacred right of passage amongst Specials, and so it's a closely kept secret of what will happen—plus, every generation is different."

"We don't have four of our people with us. Unfortunately, this all began before Brent and I were able to find them. It shouldn't be a problem—I think we have everyone we need for our stories to work, and besides, as the stories continue we may cross paths with them."

"Is there a chance that we could have the wrong people?" Sebastian asked, interrupting her.

"Well, yes," Rosalyn admitted. "But I'm hoping that's not the case."

"So if we don't know what's going to happen next, what do we do?" Ashleigh asked as well.

"Well, tomorrow I'm headed into Merida. We need to find my aunts, tell them its begun. I know we can't all stay together the entire time, but we need to keep in contact with one another. Other than that..." Rosalyn trailed off.