Chapter 2 (Part 1)
(I don't think I need trigger warnings for this chapter, but if I missed something that needs one, sorry
“Once upon a time, there was a queen,” Pansy tilted the book up to Sunny, so her sister could see the pictures as well. The woman raised an eyebrow at her younger sister, unsure of where Pansy was going with this. “The queen’s name was Lola.”
“Is this another story about how mum won’t let you go to the night market?” Sunny put her head in her hands and sighed. “Pansy, I’m too busy for this right now.”
“Wait, you didn’t let me finish the story!” Pansy pouted. “And no, this is a different story.”
“Fine. But you have five minutes,” Sunny sighed, slumping a bit so she was more comfortable on her seat. They were currently in Sunny’s throne room, where she had been in a meeting before Pansy had come in and scared everyone off. She had promptly demanded Sunny’s attention with the newest picture book she had written.
Pansy grinned and flipped the page. The next page showed three smiling girls having tea together. The first girl at the table was the tiniest. She had long, brown hair that went all the way to the ground. She had bright, blue eyes and wore a purple dress. The second girl had short blonde hair and purple eyes. She wore a white and yellow striped dress. The last girl had black hair, brown eyes and wore a blue ball gown.
“Hey, why do I have purple eyes?” Sunny pointed to the photo. Each girl in the photo represented someone in Pansy’s family: the short girl was her, the blonde girl was Sunny and the last girl was Pansy’s mum, Lola.
“I couldn’t find a brown crayon,” Pansy said.
“And your hair is not that long,” Sunny gestured to Pansy’s hair, which was long but not as long as in the drawing. It went halfway down her back, not all the way to her knees, as she had drawn it in the picture.
“Let me have artistic expression!” Pansy huffed. “And let me read! I’m not leaving until I’m done telling you my story!”
Sunny leaned back on her gold and white throne. “Fine…”
Pansy squared her shoulders and read the words on the picture. “Lola had two daughters: Pansy and Sunny. Pansy was an amazing princess and everyone loved her.” Pansy flipped the page.
“Wait, what about me?” Sunny grabbed the book from Pansy and flipped through it. “Why does everyone love you? I’m the queen of Virelia!”
“Uh, not in the book, you’re not,” Pansy snatched the book back. “In the book, mum is still the queen. So everyone loves her because she’s the queen, they love me because everyone loves me, but no one knows who you are.”
Sunny raised her hands in annoyance. “Yeah, sure. I don’t believe that would actually happen, but please, continue.”
The next page showed Pansy and a blonde kid. Sunny figured the blonde kid was meant to be Pansy’s best friend, Nicky. “Pansy had a best friend named Nicky.” Sunny grinned. Called it, she thought as Pansy continued reading. “Nicky always got to go on super-cool missions. One day, Pansy asked if she could go on a mission as well.”
“Let me guess, mum said no?” Sunny put her head back on her hand, now getting a bit bored with this charade. If Pansy wanted to complain about their mum’s rules, why couldn’t she just do it in a normal way, instead of making all these picture books about it?
“Let me finish!” Pansy shrieked, waving a tiny fist angrily at Sunny. Pansy was sixteen, but she looked twelve. She was only 4’10” and everything about her was just tiny. Even her voice was still the high-pitched sound you’d associate with children. She flipped the page angrily. This next page had a sad-looking Pansy talking to a Lola with devil horns and a tail. “Pansy asked Lola if she could go, but Lola said no.”
“So what did Pansy do about it?” Sunny grinned, already knowing the answer to that.
Pansy flipped the page. “Pansy went to ask her older sister Sunny for advice. Sunny agreed to help Pansy and went to tell Lola that Pansy was old enough to go on super-cool missions with her best friend Nicky. Lola said yes and everyone had a party with cake and ponies and it was great. The end.” She closed the book and smiled up at Sunny, who was staring at Pansy with a look of pure befuddlement.
“You want me to tell mum to let you go with Nicky on his mission? This is your big plan?” Sunny rubbed your temples. “Pansy, you know she’ll say no.”
“She won’t!” Pansy stood up and showed Sunny the picture she had drawn of Lola agreeing to let Pansy go on the mission. “You’re her favorite! She’ll listen to anything you say! See? The pictures don’t lie!” She poked the picture a few times for emphasis.
Sunny burst into laughter. “Me? Her favorite? Ha! No, Pansy, if I ask her to do that then she will lock me up in the Gray Mile!”
Pansy gasped and shut the book. “Sunny, you’re a genius!”
“What am I a genius about?” Sunny raised an eyebrow, genuinely confused about this. But Pansy just hugged her sister.
“That’s an even better idea than having you talk to mum!”
Sunny just stared down at Pansy, even more confused than she already was. “Getting me locked up in the Gray Mile is an even better idea? What?”
Pansy put a hand to Sunny’s lips to silence her. “No! Be quiet, I need to work on my genius plan now!”
“Are you going to write me another children’s book about it?” Sunny pulled Pansy’s finger away from her mouth.
“Not yet. But I will once mum agrees to let me go on Nicky’s super amazing mission!”
Sunny laughed. “Yeah, like that will ever happen.”
“It will! Because I’m going to show her just how grown-up I can be!”
“By getting me thrown into the Gray Mile? I’m still not following here.”
“I’ll tell you later!” Pansy said. “But now, I have to get ready! This is going to be amazing!” she cheered as she ran out of the throne room. She threw open the large wooden doors, which slammed shut behind her with a loud BANG!
Sunny slumped down in her seat, exhausted. Every encounter she had with her sister took more energy out of her than it should have. Why couldn’t Pansy act like a normal sixteen-year-old girl for once? Obsess over shoes, or hair, or make-up, or boys, something other than trying to go on deadly missions that will end up getting her killed? Was that so hard to ask?
Sunny loved her sister, she truly did, but she felt sorry about whoever was going to have to clean-up the aftermath of Pansy’s “plan”. She just hoped that whoever it was, it was not her.
