NovTh     November, 2349    

Cinnamon Shay was in the middle of her newest creation when she got the phone call that changed her life forever.

    She clenched her teeth together in frustration as she stared down at Violet’s uncontrolled mop of curly black hair. Most girls she knew with curly hair had tamable curls, but of course her best friend had to be different. She had to inherit the crazy, almost stereotypical afro curly hair from her african american father. Really, and she wondered why most people didn’t even want to go near her tresses with a hairbrush.

    Lips set in fierce determination, grabbed three sets of curls by the roots, holding onto them tight so that she wouldn’t pull on Vi’s hair when she brushed out the knots. She lowered the brush slowly-

    -And that was when her little brother, Charlie came busting into the room, her ringing cellphone in his hand.

    “Cinnamon!” he called out her name, as if he couldn’t already see her, “It’s for you!”

    “Oh really?” Cinnamon hissed sarcastically, snatching the device out of his hands, “Why did you have my phone?” it was a rhetorical question-mostly due to the fact that he didn’t have time to answer.

    She turned it over in her hand, before raising an eyebrow at the number. It wasn’t one she recognized which meant that on any normal occasion, she would just ignore it and go back on one of her rants that went in one of Charlie’s ears and out the other. But something-she wasn’t sure what-compelled her to slide the answer button over.

    “Hello?” she said, holding the phone to her ear.

    “Am I speaking to Miss Cinnamon Shay of South Dakota province?” a professional sounding female voice came from the other end.

    Cinnamon’s voice momentarily caught in her throat. She couldn’t fathom why somebody who sounded so important would be calling her and for a second she feared it was because she had done something wrong. But then she remembered that she was practically a model citizen, apart from the constant bashing of the royal family-which, since they lived in America, was nothing wrong with and certainly no reason for someone to be calling her-so there was really nothing to worry about.

    “Um.. yes.” however, her voice still sounded uncertain as to what she should say.

    “Miss Shay, I am the head adviser of the royal family. I wish to speak to you.”

    Yupp, there was the lump in her throat again. The adviser of the royal family was calling her? This couldn’t be good….

    “Am I correct to assume that you are alone, Miss Shay?”

    “No…” Cinnamon glanced at her two friends and little brother, “My brother and a couple of my friends are in the room with me….”

    “Is your little brother Charlie Shay of South Dakota province?”

    Um… duh. “Yes.”

    “And do your friends happen to be a Miss Violet Parker and a Miss Sapphire Smart of South Dakota province?”

    “Yes…” wait… were they all in trouble or something? What was with the third degree she was suddenly getting? Were they checking her alibi or something that was happening downtown? “May I ask to what end this call is being made for? I mean… are we in any kind of trouble?”

    “Oh, no. Have no worries, Miss Shay, I simply wish to speak to you and your acquaintances.”

    Her acquaintances? Well, that certainly sounded professional. Cinnamon liked to think that she had a pretty good vocabulary, but “acquaintances” would probably end up being the last word she’d think of when asking to speak to someone’s friends or family. This girl definitely was the real deal.

    “Oh, um, would you like me to put my phone on speaker?”

    “That would be most appreciated, yes.”

    Cinnamon lowered the phone, before hitting a button with a megaphone on it. Her friends and brother were staring at her in confusion, clearly waiting for her to explain what was going on, but she just shook her head and pointed down at the device before saying; “Alright, we’re all listening.”

    “Am I now speaking to Mr Charlie Shay, Miss Cinnamon Shay, Miss Violet Parker and Miss Sapphire Smart of South Dakota province?”

    Sapphire raised one brown eyebrow at Cinnamon before saying, “Yes.”

    “Good,” the voice sounded vaguely pleased for a second before continuing, “As you may have already heard from Miss Shay, I am the head adviser for the royal family, and I wish to speak to the four of you.”

    The room visibly became tense, as the same thoughts that had plagued Cinnamon began to shoot through the others. Charlie was only thirteen-almost fourteen-but even he realized it was really bad when someone so high up took the time to personally call a mere commoner.

    “As I’m sure you all know,” the lady was continuing, “Our dearest Prince January will be coming of age here within the next month, which means that we will be holding a series of events on television in which he will pick his bride to be.”

    Cinnamon froze. She’d completely forgotten about that. In exactly five weeks, January Pendergus, the eldest of the royal family would be turning twenty-one, and therefor coming of age, which meant that every girl between the ages of eighteen and twenty would be asked to live at the palace where he would pick and choose which girl he would want to marry. However, she was seventeen-and the oldest of her friends-so she hadn’t thought much of it, considering that they were under age. Were they suddenly so desperate for girls that they lowered the minimum age limit?

    “And it has come to our attention that you are the best hair dresser, makeup artist, director, and fashion artist in the country-” heh heh, yeah right. Cinnamon was certain that there were others out there, highly more skilled than them, but she wasn’t about to argue with a compliment, especially one from someone so much higher than her, “-And so the royal family would like to offer you the opportunity to be the heads of making our chosen girls look good.”

    Cinnamon almost dropped her phone in shock. All around her, she saw her friends and brother copying her wide eyed, open mouthed look.

    “Um…” she wasn’t sure what to say. This was too amazing an offer-what was she supposed to say?

    “Of course, we’ll be paying you a generous sum, and your family will get a compensation as well, as it will require you being away from home for a good month.” the voice finished off.

    “Um…” Cinnamon was still unsure of what to say.

    “Um, ma’am,” thankfully Sapphire-always the more outspoken one of them-took over there, “Do you think we could have some time to think this over? It’s a lot to throw at us all of a sudden, and I think we need to discuss with our parents first.”

    “Of course,” the voice didn’t seems surprised by this, in fact she seemed to find it humorous, “I’ll call you back in two days. I’m afraid that’s all I can give you, as we have to get this going quite quickly.”

    And with that, the line went dead.

    For the longest time, the four of them just stood there, staring at the phone in Cinnamon’s hand in shock. That had been the last thing any of them had been expecting.

    “Did that really just happen?” Charlie asked, running a hand through his dirty brown hair.

    Cinnamon shook her head, causing her own golden blonde tresses to shift slightly around her shoulders, “I… I think so.”

    “That girl sure had a weird way of bringing it up to us,” Violet looked as if she had deflated in her chair. The three curls that Cinnamon had been prepared to brush were now lying in a clump on top of her head but nobody made a move to fix them.

    “It was kinda fast,” Sapphire agreed, “I think I got whiplash just from that conversation.”

    “You’re not the only one,” Violet rubbed the back of her neck, as if to prove her point.

    “But you guys,” Cinnamon cut in, moving so that she stood beside her little brother, “We still haven’t answered the big question, yet.”

    “Should we do it?” Violet gave her a cocky smirk, clearly proud that she’d known what Cinnamon had been thinking, even though it wasn’t surprising for two reasons. One, they’d been best friends for almost a decade, so it was only to be expected that their minds ran on the same track. And two, it was the question that had to be on all of their minds at that point.

                    “Of course.”

2: I'm Not Snow White, either

Hey guys, sorry it’s been so long. A lot has been happening on my side of this story, making it hard for me to write. Hopefully I should be updating a little bit more from now on.

    The Shay family almost never ate around the table together, they were all always too busy doing their own things, namely watching television in their own rooms. That night however, Cinnamon suggested that they had a family dinner and made their favorite meal so that they would hopefully be in a semi-good mood when her and Charlie broke the news to them because even though it was an amazing chance to get their work out there, chances of them being completely in with the idea was next to none. She didn’t know how Violet or Sapphire was going to talk their own parents into it as they were even more overprotective than hers.

    She picked at her meatloaf, her stomach fluttering with butterflies. Well, actually, they were more like bats. Dammit, why did she have to be the oldest? If Charlie had been born first, then it would’ve been his job to ask instead of hers. How the hell was she going to bring it up? She couldn’t just be straight forward as ask right out-that would cause a huge panic. But she knew that if she started beating around the bush, she would keep putting it off and would probably never get around to actually asking the damn question.

    “They can’t say ‘no.’” Violet had said. “This is the royal family. If they say they want us, then they’ll have us. It’s as simple as that.”

    Yeah right, Vi. Had you never met her mother? The woman would send the king on the run for his mother! She took too much after Cinnamon’s grandmother, who did just that with the king’s father.

    “Okay,” her mother sighed just then, her fork landing with a loud clank onto her plate, and gave Cinnamon and Charlie each a pointed look. “What do you two want?”

    Cinnamon and Charlie shot each other panicked glances. Dammit, why did she have to be so good at reading them?

    “Nothing.” Cinnamon lied, turning back to her, making sure her eyes were just slightly wide as if she couldn’t understand why she would think of something.

    Her mother gave her another pointed look, showing just how much she wasn’t falling for it. “The longer you put it off, the higher the chances that I’m going to say ‘no.’”

    Cinnamon and Charlie glanced at each other again, having another silent conversation through their eyes. After a second, the Cinnamon turned back to her mother, and immediately began to repeat the call from earlier on. Her expectation of how her parents would react was just about as she suspected. Surprise, disbelief, anger, then…

    “Do you two want to do this?”  her father asked, leaning forward. “I mean, you know how we feel about the royal family-not that I’m going to say you can’t just because of that.”

    That was true. Their family had always hated the royal family-or just royalty in general. True, it wasn’t like they publically hated them but still, she knew it was going to be tough for her parents to allow them to go. Hell, it was going to be hard for her to allow herself to go.

    “Dad,” she laughed. “It isn’t like I’m going to be marrying him. The chances of me ever meeting the royal family is next to none. I’ll be working on the girls.”

    “Plus, it’ll be the perfect chance for us to get our work out there.” Charlie added.

    “It’s true.” Cinnamon nodded. “Very few people get this chance. Plus, you guys’ll be getting paid while we’re gone. So really, all we’re doing is gaining.”

    Their mother sighed. “If you’re sure about it, then I suppose it’s okay. However, I would feel much better if I was able to speak to this ‘advisor’ chick.”

    “Uh…” Cinnamon didn’t like the thought of that. “I don’t know… I mean, it’s the royal family. We may not like them, but I still don’t know if you can do that.”

    “I’m your mother, and if they want to take my children anywhere, I will be talking to her.” she held out her hand. “So give me the phone or else it’s a big fat ‘no.’”

    Cinnamon sighed, before digging her cellphone out of her back pocket and handed it to her. She then began to rub her hands together nervously, causing her mother to roll her eyes.

    “You can leave now, so you don’t have to be embarrassed listening to your horrible mother bitch out the royal family.”

    Cinnamon shot up from her chair and ran out of the room. It wasn’t as if she didn’t trust her mother, she was just insanely nervous as she always got when her parents got protective-even if they were just calling up Vi’s or Saffie’s parents. She sat on the couch in the living room and focused on keeping her breathing at a normal pace. Hyperventilating wouldn’t do any kind of good to help her get what she wanted.

    A few minutes later, Charlie came out to join her, placing a hand on her back. She glanced up, letting out one more final big breath even as he gave her a comforting smile even as his eyes wondered how she could be the eldest of the two of them. Which was actually something a lot of people wondered.

    “C’mon, it’s over.” his voice was laced with amusement.

    Cinnamon sighed and followed him back into the kitchen where her phone was waiting for her on the table in front of her chair. Before sitting down, she stalked over to her mother and placed a kiss on the top of her head. “You’re not a horrible mother.” she murmured into her hair.

    Her mother smirked. “Oh, I know. And you’re about to love me even more.”

    Cinnamon felt her eyes grow wide. She dropped to her knees and stared up at her mother. “Are you serious?”

    Her mother laughed. “Don’t get too excited. There’s still some conditions.”

    “Oh yes,” Cinnamon hugged her mother tightly. “Anything you want.”

    “The answer is going to turn to ‘no’ if you don’t shut up soon.”  her mother laughed. “Now go sit down so we can explain it to you.”

    Cinnamon detached herself from her mother and sat down on her chair, grabbing her phone and slipping it into her lap. She usually wasn’t so affectionate with her family, but she was really excited for this. If she could impress enough people, she may be able to set up her own salon early on. This wedding could end up just being the beginning of a long and successful career-and who cared if she had to spend a few weeks with stuck up girls, one of which would end up being the princess? A small price to pay for a future so big she almost got lost just trying to look down it.

    “Alright, so here’s the deal.” her mother leaned forward on her elbows. “You guys can go, but only on a few conditions.” Cinnamon couldn’t help but wonder why parents seemed to find it necessary to repeat themselves. “First of all, we will be going with you all the way to the palace.” Cinnamon held back a groan, but apparently Charlie didn’t have the self control she did. “Don’t worry. We won’t be helping you get settled. We’ll just go with you up to the gates and then go home. Secondly, I am expecting a letter from one of you everyday. If even one day go by without a proper excuse in a letter the next day, I will come and embarrass the crap out of the both of you. Understand?”

    Cinnamon and Charlie nodded, both of them already making plans on when they were going to find time to write and mail off their letters every day-right before bedtime for Cinnamon and right away in the morning for Charlie. Because she would sure as hell do just that too, if they didn’t.

    “And finally,” their father made a show of making eye contact with Cinnamon. “No boys. If I find out you’re near anything with a penis that isn’t totally unavoidable, especially alone I’ll come and embarrass you.”

    “Don’t worry dad.” Cinnamon laughed, oddly not as worried about this condition than the others. “The only reason I’m going is to do hair.”

    “Absolutely no boys.”

    She nodded. “Absolutely no boys.”