"I give myself very good advice, but I very seldom follow it." - Alice In Wonderland
"UM, ALICE? I know this is gonna sound pretty weird, seeing as we don't really talk much and all, but I was just wondering - hoping, actually... that you'd maybe like to go out sometime? With me? It's totally understandable if you don't want to - but that new Disney movie is out, and I thought that maybe you'd like to go and see it with me?"
(Okay, I'll admit it - that was pretty cute. You know, that typical geeky date-proposal where the guy is almost too afraid to ask the girl out, and stumbles over every word as if it's a hurdle in a race? He's been crushing on her for a long time - it was love at first sight, wasn't it? Of course, as he said, they knew nothing about one another, and had barely ever spoken, either. No words had been exchanged until now - but somehow, he feels the need to ask her out. He stares at her intently as she ponders his question - wondering how she should word her answer to such an admittedly cute junior.)
"Patrick, that's really sweet, but I'm gonna have to say no."
(Too bad cute had nothing to do with my answer.)
Patrick stared at his feet, looking crushed. I pursed my lips as I stood with one hand rested on my hip, wondering if it would be horribly rude if I walked away right now. Sighing, I brushed my bangs out of my face, figuring I should say something to soften the blow as best I can. "Pat, I have nothing against you - really, I don't. I just don't want to go out with anyone right now," I tried, offering him a reassuring pat on the shoulder that didn't serve to do much more than make things even more awkward between us.
"Oh..." He still looked like I just ran over his dog.
I bit the inside of my cheek nervously. "See you in class, Patrick," I concluded in the most soothing tone I could manage, nodding my head in the other direction before Rachel - my friend from pre-school who'd been standing at my side the whole time - followed me as I retreated to my locker, staring at me in awe before breaking the silence.
"God, Alice, teach me your ways!" Rachel exclaimed, talking animatedly with her hands. That was the fun thing about being friends with a drama major like her - they were always overly expressive about everything. When she got fired up, you'd have to be sure to be out of the line of fire once she started gesturing for dramatic affect. "Seriously though, how do you get all the cute ones falling all over you while I'm just standing here, single-since-birth?" she lamented, leaning up against the locker beside mine and sighing theatrically.
"It's not exactly a good thing, Rach," I laughed uneasily while tugging at my lock, trying to get it open. "I'm starting to run out of good excuses for why I don't want to go out with these guys."
Rachel echoed my laughter, but her look turned to seriousness on a dime. "Why did you say no, by the way? I thought you liked Patrick."
I shrugged, paying more attention to my lock than anything else. "Patrick's fine - Disney isn't. I'm over those movies - I didn't want him to think I'm a monster just because I don't want to go see Frozen," I explained, the word Frozen coming out like I'd just said morgue.
Rachel's eyes lit up immediately. "But Frozen was amazing! Idina Menzel really outdid herself, and if you ask me, it was high time they made her the voice of Disney royalty. And Kristen Bell - who knew she could sing? Absolutely flawless - Disney at it's best," she gushed excitedly, her hands flailing about manically as she rambled on, prompting me to roll my eyes out of habit.
(If there was one thing that Rachel and I didn't have in common, it was our taste in movies. While she preferred the sappy, unrealistic romances and fairytales, I turned away from all of the above. For as long as I could remember I'd hated movies, especially the Disney ones - I'd rather curl up with a good book than suffer through The Lion King.)
I groaned, interrupting her Disney monologue. "Do you remember my combination? I can't get this lock open," I asked through gritted teeth, still tugging away at it after my sixth attempt at the thing. I had nothing all that valuable inside besides my phone - did I even really need a lock? If someone wanted to come along and take my textbooks, I'd leave the door wide open, for all I cared - but right now, all I wanted was to get to class in record time so that I wouldn't feel like Patrick was still staring daggers at my back.
(He was a pretty sweet guy. And Rachel was right - I did like him. Sort of. But I didn't know him. I wasn't about to open up my history of Disney with a guy who I'd never talked to in my life. If he knew the real me, he'd be running in the other direction faster than I could say "let it go".)
"Don't try and change the subject!" Rachel scolded me. "I know you're never going to warm up to Disney again, and after what you told me about what you went through, I wouldn't expect you to right away. I just wish you would've at least tried Frozen with me - it was really good. You would've liked it."
"I doubt it," I muttered under my breath, brushing off the subject. "Do you have a crowbar or something? I still can't get this stupid thing open, and we're going to be late for class-"
"Alice, just-"
"-or do you think a jackhammer would work better?"
"Earth to Alice? The world is waiting over here-"
"Maybe I should just get the janitor to cut the stupid thing off so that I can get my stupid phone already-"
"Alice! Come up from Wonderland and pay attention," Rachel raised her voice sternly. "You're not the White Rabbit - don't go worrying that we're going to be late," she joked, and I mock laughed at her. "I think you should tell Patrick that you'll go out with him - you can't let your fear of Disney movies stop you from going out with such a cute guy!"
I sighed again, still fumbling aimlessly with my lock. "I am not afraid of Disney movies, Rach. I just don't like them - and I don't want to spend my first date suffering through one. Falling asleep in a theatre doesn't really strike me as the best way to start off a relationship," I pointed out, trying my combination for a sixth time. "Besides, dating is the last thing I should be wasting my time with - I'm going to need to balance two or three jobs at the least if I'm ever going to pay for college next year, and so far, I've been on almost a dozen interviews and auditions for anything and everything, and nothing's panned out." I banged my fist against my locker angrily as my lock jammed once again, cutting my reasoning off. "Why won't this stupid thing open?"
"Here," Rachel offered, taking a go at it. I'd told her my locker combination years ago - I knew there would be many times where I wouldn't be able to get the damn thing to open, and on days like these, Rachel was a life saver. "You know, you've really got to work on your temper, or you'll wind up just like the Beast, pre-Belle."
I blinked at her. "Huh?"
"Never mind." She brushed it off and my locker door swung open in a matter of seconds. I reached for my phone right away (last time I leave that in there) and noticed immediately that there was a notification hovering above my mailbox. "You're welcome," Rachel joked, and I pushed her shoulder playfully as I opened my mailbox with slightly bored eyes, leaving her in her thoughts for a moment (I knew my best friend, and I knew that I hadn't heard the last of her on this subject just yet). Still, I was completely unprepared for what I was about to discover as I tapped on the unread letter with the subject line RE: MAGIC KINGDOM CASTING CALL, and the words unfurled before me.
To; Miss Alice Winters,
Thank you for dedicating your time and skills to us during our latest auditions for this year's Disney staff. We are pleased to inform you that you have been selected by our team to be our new Rapunzel for Magic Kingdom! We've attached the details along with this email, and we'll need you in at eight a.m. tomorrow morning to begin rehearsals - if there is a conflict, please let us know as soon as possible what your availability is. We'll work out a schedule that will not interfere with your schooling as best as possible, but we are prepared to offer a tutor with all expenses paid by the Disney staff, along with regular voice lessons and arrangements to drive you to and from work every day, as you are younger than most of our other staff members. Let us extend our warmest welcome to the Disney team - we are very excited to have you!
Sincerely, The Disney Staff at the House of Mouse.
I brushed a lock of blonde hair out of my eyes, reading the email over again with wide eyes. Rapunzel? Seriously? It wasn't bad enough that the only audition that worked out for me was one I didn't even mean to go on, but to give me the worst job on the planet? As a princess that I didn't even like, to top it all off - not that I was particularly fond of any of them. Why was Rapunzel even considered a princess, anyway? I didn't know much about her other than that she had long hair, and a guy saved her from a tower, or something like that. Did they get married in the end, or something?
(Then again, who was I kidding - everyone got married at the end of a Disney movie. I didn't know of a Disney flick in the world that didn't result in a wedding of some kind. It was like some sort of unspoken rule that every one of those fairytales had to end in holy matrimony.)
"You okay, Alice?" Rachel's concerned voice asked from behind me, startling me. She'd been admiring her manicure - thank God she hadn't been reading over my shoulder, or she would have been even more animated with her speech than before - and when she got excited, she got dangerous.
"Uh, yeah... fine," I replied absentmindedly, barely listening as my heart sped up with worry, only increasing as I read over the words again, hoping that they weren't real.
Rachel only smiled. "Well, I'm no White Rabbit either, but we're going to be late if we don't-"
"I'll catch up with you," I assured her, letting her run off to class as I packed my bag. I caught my reflection in the mirror that I'd stuck onto my locker door momentarily and stopped - I guessed that I kind of looked like Rapunzel - from what I knew about her, anyway. Same big green eyes, same thin pink lips and long blonde hair - even though mine was obviously no where near as long. Already I was cringing at the idea of wearing a hot blonde wig all day in the sun - not to mention the unnecessary amount of make-up they'd surely plaster on my face within minutes of my arrival at the Unhappiest Place on Earth. Why couldn't princesses go natural for a day? Not everyone is as drop-dead gorgeous as Disney princesses - some of us learned that the hard way.
It was time to give myself some advice - whether it would be good advice or not, I never could tell. Whether I would listen to it or not - that was a different story altogether. I knew I couldn't go to Rachel just yet to ask for help - she'd always loved Disney, and I had no doubt that she wouldn't understand just how hard taking this job would be for me. Sometimes I was surprised that she didn't already work at Disneyland - she was a performer, just like me, only she was going places, I knew. But for now, I had to fend for myself, and figure out how to survive working at Disney without her around to balance out my stubbornness with her voice of reason.
(I wondered for a moment if this job was even worth it - considering my troubles with Disney from the past. But it would be worth it - it had to be worth it - if I ever wanted to see my first day of college next year. This was the only job I'd been called back for - I need to seize this opportunity before it got taken away, or else I'd have to kiss my dreams of post-secondary education goodbye.)
Okay Alice, you can do this, I thought to myself determinedly as I made my way to class. You can be Rapunzel - how hard can that really be, anyway, pretending to be a perky blonde princess with hair problems? Certainly a lot harder than pretending that you don't hate Disney - and you've been doing that for your whole life. You can pretend you like Disney for a little while, right?
To keep my sanity, I had to keep telling myself that all day - even though I knew that there was no way in the world that I could follow any of my own advice. Still, that didn't stop me from reading through the email one more time before typing out my reply of acceptance, closing my eyes tight and sending it before I could stop myself - and, as expected, immediately regretting it.
There was no way in the world that I could pretend that I liked Disney.
(And just like that, my whole world felt like it was falling apart around me, and I realized that maybe Rachel was right - I really was Alice in Wonderland, and this was me, falling through the rabbit hole. But this time, I was never getting out.)
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a / n ~ SO I should really be studying for exams... but this felt far more urgent than that (Disney takes precedence over everything else in life, of course) and I couldn't help but write another chapter! What do you guys think of the story so far? Do you think Alice will be able to get over her bad history with Disney and work as Rapunzel? Will she ever go and see Frozen? Will I ever stop asking these ridiculous questions and just keep on writing the book? And hey, for fun, tell me your favourite Disney characters in the comments! Mine's Rapunzel, can you tell? I'm also head-over-glass-slippers in love with Tinkerbell, Peter Pan, Ariel, Tiana, Belle, and Stitch (I even have a soft spot for Carl and Ellie, and have my own Grape Soda pin!). Which Disney characters are your favourites? ~xoxo, sydney ♥