Snow woke up in the morning to have all seven boys surrounding her yet again. They looked sleepy, their hair all tussled and clothes all wrinkled. Nick hadn't even put on his glasses, and Merlin had on some bunny slippers to Snow's great amusement.
"What can I do for you now boys?" Snow asked, stretching on the couch and rubbing her eyes.
"We have to go soon." Jameson said, yawning.
"Can you make us breakfast?" Zane asked.
Snow gazed up at his face, then at the clock. 5:15, way to early to actually be functioning enough to cook. "Why?"
"Because you can cook... Can't you?" Alex questioned.
"Of course I can cook!" Snow exclaimed, offended.
"Then make us some breakfast," JC demanded.
Snow glared at him. Did they think just because she was a female she would automatically be cooking everything? She had learned to cook from world renowned chefs, but who said she wanted to waste her outstanding cooking talent on these boys? He looked calmly at her as if reading her thoughts. "Please. It's the least you could after we let you stay the night," he finely said.
She was about to refuse again but then her stomach gave a loud growel and his logic made sense.
Snow, delivering him a sarcastically sweet smiled and threw off her blankets, pushing past the boys and into the kitchen where she started making pancakes for an army.
M * M * M * M * M * M * M * M * M *M * M * M * M * M
Zane, Alex, Nicholas, Jameson, Merlin, Lucas, and JC all walked out of their humble abode, waving goodbye to Snow who was standing, shivering, in the doorway.
"What time will you be back?" she called out. Merlin turned around. "So I can make dinner."
Merlin looked at the other boys who gave him a cautious look. "Don't wait up Snow, we'll be back late." He called and trotted up to his brother.
"You're lucky she trusts you bro." Zane said, clamping a hand on his shoulder.
"She trusts all of us. I think..." Merlin commented.
JC snickered. "Yeah right." He flexed his fingers, and continued walking.
"Well, I mean, she hasn't said so otherwise," Merlin answered naively with a blush.
"Dude." Merlin looked at Lucas who was frowning in his direction. "Don't get that close to her."
"She's a princess." Jameson added.
"She's a guest." Alex piped up.
"She's our responsibility." Zander said last. Everyone looked at him. "I was in town last night." JC turned around and his eyes blazed in anger at Zander. He knew the rules; no one goes into town unless necessary. "No one goes out at night, calm down," Zander said cooly to JC. "Anyways, Queen Penelope has a very high price for that girl's heart."
"You mean she wants her dead," Nicholas said.
"No. She literally wants Snow Whites heart on a gleaming silver platter."
The boys were silent as they walked deeper into the snow-covered forest. "Should we change-" Merlin started, but JC held up a hand.
"We split today. Zane you're with me. Alex, Luke, Nick; Jameson and Merlin. We'll meet at the clearing at midnight."
"Where we found Snow?" Zane asked.
JC turned around. "Yes."
They all changed and took off running in different directions. JC took off sprinting and Zane followed closely behind, pumping his legs to keep up with his fast pace. When they finally stopped near the edge of town, they changed back again and Zane leaned over, breathing heavily.
"Dude are you okay? You seem a little more upset than normal over Snow being here." Zane asked with lingering concern. He would never call himself JC's best friend, JC would strangle him if the words ever left his lips, but of all seven of them, JC leaned the most towards Zane in terms of a brother.
JC shrugged. "She's a rather large liability at the moment. We're literally harboring a fugitive. The Queen will kill us without thinking twice if she knows we have her."
Zane gave a curt laugh. "Since when do you care about being careful?" Zane ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "Besides, it'd be hard for her to find the house. I can't even count the number of spells we put up around it. It's still a wonder to me Snow managed to find it."
JC picked at the cuff of his jacket. "She touched the willow and it let her in."
Zane's eyes widened. The willow was a symbol to them; it's how they marked their territory. The willow near their house was the first set of precaution to block their house from unwanted visitors. If you touched it and the willow deemed you worthy enough, it would show you the way to the house. But the boys had made it nearly impossible for that to happen. They didn't have much magic, but the power they did have was enough.
"What... I mean... How?"
JC shrugged and started walking again. "I don't know." He stopped and turned around. "Are you coming or what?"
Zane rolled his eye at the obvious change in conversation. He had gotten used to his friend's cryptic attitude over time. "Yeah, yeah, I'm coming."
* M * M * M * M * M * M * M * M * M * M * M * M * M * M
Snow glanced around the silent and deserted house. She looked down at her not-so-white gown and sighed. "I'm going to need some new clothes."
Snow walked around the whole house, opening every door and peering into every room, but she couldn't find a feminine thing in the house, and nothing she wanted to sew into a dress (or anything to sew that dress with). So, she started checking behind bookcases, knocking on panels to see if it was hollow, looking under the rugs (the only thing there were dust bunnies), until she finally decided to check their bedroom. She didn't want to invade on their privacy, but she desperately needed something else to wear and it was the only thing she could think of. Besides, it might give her better insight into the personalities of her "roommates.'
At the foot of every bed was the first letter of the boy's first names.
"Merlin..." was the first bed with a big, painted blue, M. She checked under the bed but all she found was books and journals filled with odd scribbles that were certainly not written in any language she'd ever seen.
"Alex!" Alex had an army painted A, and under his bed where clothes and some moth-eaten blankets.
"Jameson..." He had nothing under his bed, the neat little guy that he was. His J was simply white with a gold border, and she liked the simplicity of it.
"Lucas." Lucas's L was painted different colors like he couldn't decide on which one he liked, all under the green category. Underneath his bed where more books and a box full of sharpened knives...
"Nicholas. One of my favorites." His N was a bright, obnoxious orange. Underneath his bed were extra clothes, blankets, and a box full of drawing pencils, erasers, and pencil sharpeners, but no books.
"Zander..." Snow smiled while looking at his bright yellow Z like the sun. "The drawing books!" Snow drew out 5 different drawing books, every page having a drawing on them; nature, people, rooms in the house, even some of her town. They were stunningly life-like in pastels, charcoals, and oil paint; she could have studied each one for hours. She bent over and tucked them under her arm. "I hope he doesn't mind if I borrow these..." Snow moved over to the last bed, JC's.
"Well let's see what you've got under your bed JC..." His J was black on light brown wood, sticking out like a sore thumb. And under his bed? Clothing trunks. Hauling all four of the trunks out, she stood behind them all to unlock them.
"Hmm... Clothes?" Snow looked into the first trunk. Shoes. And not just any show, woman's shoes. In all different patterns and colors. Looking down at her bare feet, Snow tried one on. "A perfect fit." she smiled and went to the next one. "Cloaks?" It was true. This trunk was full of capes and cloaks and wraps and some scarves. The next trunk held accessories like necklaces and bracelets and rings and earrings and hats and gloves, all packed away in little velvet boxes. "Ah, the last trunk." It was bigger than the rest, and had clasps on the side as well as on the front. Undoing all of them, Snow eased the lid up and gasped. "Oh my goodness gracious..." It was full of dresses. Simple ones for wearing around the house, elegant ones you would wear to a dinner or ball, all in a million different colors, none the same as the last. "JC why you have these I haven't the faintest idea, but I have to thank you."
Trunk by trunk Snow dragged them out to where she slept and shoved them into a corner, hidden from view.
"Now I need something to wear..." she reached into the trunk and drew out a yellow dress with a white ribbon around the middle, and tied in the back to fall all the way down to tickle the floor. She put it on, and seeing it fit perfectly, started about the house in a happier mood the she had been that morning.
* M * M * M * M * M * M * M * M * M * M * M * M *
JC looked around the woods, Zane sitting at his side in the snow.
"Dude, what are you looking for?" Zane asked forming a snowball at his feet.
"I'm trying to figure out where Snow came from."
Zander laughed. "That's a stupid question. She came from Marmalade. She's the princess..."
"I know. But she didn't just run from the palace. All kids are taught to never go into the woods, remember?" he snapped. Zander shut up, making his snowball bigger in silence.
JC was silent for a few more minutes. "We can go."
Zander looked up from sticking a stick into the side of his snowman. "But Winter and I have yet-" Zander saw the look on JC's face and knocked his snowman down in one kick. "Right. To meet the others?"
"No. To go into town." Zander gave him a strange look. "But you said-"
"I know, tonight I'm making an exception." He took off in the direction of town and Zander followed, still perplexed by JC's current mood.
* M * M * M * M * M * M * M *
Zander looked around the alleyway, and gestured forward to JC who stepped out of the woods calmly, looking around cautiously at the quiet town. They were bundled in coats and gloves they had hidden in some trees, though the cold didn't really affect them much, it was more to put up a façade for the towns people.
"So, can you tell me why you came into town?"
"I wanted to show you something." The two boys walked through the market silently, watching people drifting silently to and from the stalls, closing up and bringing home their goods for the night.
JC walked up to a wooden pole in the middle of the square that had news announcements among other things and pointed to a large poster.
On the front was a beautiful picture of Snow, beaming out at her people with a look of grace and innocence. Under her picture it read: WANTED FOR TREASON AGAINST HER COUNTRY. BRING ME HER HEART AND YOU WILL BE REWARDED FOR LIFE.
Zander gave a small snort; not the best picture to convince people Snow had committed treason, but it made him frown nonetheless. How could anyone ever believe Snow would commit treason? "You were right."
"I'm never wrong," JC said smartly.
Zander ignored the smart remark. "Are the other guys going to see this?"
"We've already seen it." Zander and JC whirled around. Alex, Jameson, Merlin, Nicholas, and Lucas stood there, hands shoved in their pockets and getting a lot of looks from the younger woman still strolling around the plaza.
"We didn't find anything in the woods, so we decided to come here and scope around. Looks like you did too," Nicholas said.
"Great minds think alike," JC said, smirking.
"Should we get some things for Snow?" Every turned and looked at Merlin like he had just turned into a wolf in the middle of the square.
"Shut up!"
"You can't just say her name in public!"
"Do you want to help her or get her killed?"
"Merlin, be quiet!"
"Call her Ma," JC said calmly, quieting the calm.
Now everyone turned to look at him. "Ma?" Jameson asked, puzzled.
"It sounds better than 'Marmalade'. Doesn't it?" They nodded. JC turned to Merlin. "Now, what did you want to get for her?"
"Clothes. All she has is her cloak and that dress."
JC's eye flashed as he looked away, thinking to the clothes under his bed and praying Snow hadn't gone looking. "Yeah. I suppose we should get some food too?"
They all nodded and split into two groups, one for food, and one for clothes; it was time to start treating their guest a little more properly.