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The lockers at Ever After High are assigned alphabetically by last name, making it as annoying as possible for students with the same last names as other students. A brilliant example are the Charming siblings, who have three gilded lockers one right after the other, and no one can tell who’s is who’s.
Some lockers are easy to tell, though, especially further down the alphabet. Raven’s locker is magically enchanted, for example, and has a velvety violet exterior to protect it from pranks of any sorts. Cedar’s locker is at the very end, and is rather beat up and scratched from the impact of wood against metal. No one could ever mistake the two lockers, even when accounting for alphabetical order rather than looks.
As such, it’s a mighty surprise when they both go to their lockers between second and third period and find twin notes falling out, written on Charming branded stationary with royal blue ink. The contents don’t match, with one going in-depth about the glossiness of Raven’s raven hair and the other talking about how pretty Cedar looks when she’s painting out on the school grounds. The signatures, on the other hand, are one in the same. D. Charming.
This was already a shocking plot twist– no one has ever written either of them a love letter before. Well, one that wasn’t meant to mock them, anyway– but the signature at the end was the cherry on top. D. Charming. And judging by the handwriting, there’s no way either of them were written by Darling.
Raven and Cedar don’t have time to scrutinize before the bell rings, signaling their next class, though. One letter slips into a pocket, and the other between hextbooks as they hurry along. Lunch is fourth period, afterall, they can study the letters then.
Raven walks up to the lunch table with an air of false calm, gripping her lunch tray tightly. Cedar walks up with loosening joints, ready for disappointment. Both girls drop their letters on the table at the same time, only to find a twin letter directly across from them. Raven and Cedar look from their letters and back up to each other’s face.
Cerise breaks the eye contact, shoving their faces away from each other and leaning between them. “How the hex did both of the Charming boys coordinate love letters like that? Daring can’t even turn his tests in at the end of class.”
“You think they’re real?” Cedar sits down in her seat, rummaging through her bag for the tools for her joints. Raven sits too, staring at the letter like she’s waiting for it to change.
“I mean, who else would get that specific paper?” Cerise shrugs. Maddie reaches over, and plucks both the letters off the table, reading them both slowly. Then she sniffs the ink.
“Mhm, genuine Charming pens.”
Raven shakes her head with a tiny smile, and reaches for the letters. “Why would Daring and Dexter Charming write letters to us?”
“Crushes, duh.” Cerise sits down, and gently presses on Cedar’s shoulder until her loose joints leave her seated. “The real question is who wrote to who.”
“It’s whom,” Maddie hums, “And I think it’s quite obvious. Daring obviously wrote to– Oh, Kitty!” Maddie gets up and bounds after Kitty Cheshire, leaving her food tray behind and her friends in disbelief. Cerise facepalms hard enough to cause a skull fracture, in anyone without wolf-infused bones.
“And- she’s gone.” Raven looks down at the letters in her hands with a frown. “I wonder what she was going to say.” Cedar shrugs, tightening her shoulder joint.
“I think it’s obvious.” Cerise leans forward on her shoulders. “Daring is into Raven and Dexter is into Cedar. Simple.”
Raven blinks at her. “How do you figure?”
“Well, Apple and Daring are supposed to be together, right? So it would be totally rebellious for him to go after you. And Dexter is so into the sappy stuff that he wrote about Cedar’s paintings.”
Cedar mumbles “I don’t think it’s sappy,” and winces at over tightening a screw.
“I guess that makes sense.” Raven puts the letters down, and pokes at the Castleteria food on her tray. “And Daring’s… nice.”
“Just nice?” Cerise leans away from Cedar now that her joints are tight, and gives Raven a baffled look. “The guy wrote you a whole love letter.”
“Well, what do you think about Dexter?”
The response was immediate. All direct questions like that are with Cedar. Raven can’t help but wince, wishing she put more of a cushion around it. Like that would’ve changed the automatic nature of it.
“Dexter’s sweet. I think he’s a really great guy, and I’m happy to be his friend.” Cedar puts her tools away, wrinkling her nose slightly.
Cerise whistles, “That’s some bad news for Dexter.”
“What do you mean?”
“You just friend zoned him.”
Cedar blinks, then buries her face in her hands. “I hate feelings stuff.”
Raven lifts her cup of water in a mock salute, and sighs. “Me, too.”
“By the Writers.” Cerise rolls her eyes at the two of them, and points at the letters on the table. “You both need, like, romance help, or something, but first, we probably need to re-read those letters just so you know how to respond.” Cedar makes a dissenting noise through her hands, and Cerise glares over at her.
“Oh, do we have to?” Cedar lifts her head, and looks down at the blue letters. “Can’t we just let it rest?”
“That sounds great…” Raven sighs when Cerise glares at her. “And that means it's probably awful emotionally.”
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to write, though.”
Cerise tosses her hands up. “Then let’s brainstorm! Let’s get an expert! Something other than ignoring your feelings!”
Cedar nods, standing up and walking off. Cerise lets her forehead fall against the table, only peeling it off when Cedar returns with Cupid. “Expert acquired.” Cedar turns, holding Cupid by her shoulders. “Help me.”
Cupid pats Cedar’s shoulder, and smiles uneasily. “With what?”
Cerise explains it all, obviously amused. Cupid happily sits and gives the girls a crash course in love letter writing. Including Cerise, who tried making a getaway but it didn’t work.
–
Meanwhile…
“What do you mean you both didn’t sign the letters?!” Darling wheezes as she leans over, laughing into her knees.
Daring and Dexter stand before her, like sad puppies. “Well, technically, we did sign the letters.”
“We just… signed them the exact same way.”
Darling wheezes again.
“Are you just going to laugh or are you going to help?” Dexter crosses his arms, as Daring flops back against the heroics bleachers.
“I’m going to laugh, then help. Ha. Okay, now, what exactly did you sign the letters as?”
“D. Charming,” her brothers reply in unison.
“So your girls might think the letters are from me, too?”
“Your handwriting is very different from ours.”
“Hm, fair.” Darling straightens up a little, narrowing her eyes at them. “You used different paper, right?”
“I used the stationary Father gave us.” Daring says, tossing his arm over his face. Dexter looks over at him, horrified.
“Me too.”
Darling starts to laugh again, ducking her head. “You two are hopeless.”
“Not quite! You’re helping us!” Daring gives her a pointed look.
“And why am I helping you?”
“Because I saw Cupid at the girls’ table earlier,” Dexter grumbles.
“Ah, she’s been enlisted already. Alright, fine. Who are your girls?”
“Cedar.”
“Raven.”
“Interesting choices.”
“What’s that mean?” Darling rolls her eyes, and sits up.
“Nothing!” She crosses her arms. Daring glares, while Dexter winces, rubbing a hand down his face. “I just think it’s interesting. I’d have thought it would be the other way around.”
Dexter shrugs, flushed, adjusting his crown. “I dunno. I just think Raven’s super cool, and confident, and I think her dedication to goodness is really something else.”
“And Cedar…” Daring sighs wistfully. He dramatically throws an arm over his eyes, like he’s shielding himself from the sight of the world. All that’s missing is a rose in his hand. He doesn’t elaborate on his attraction, like her mere name explains it all. The good thing about his eyes being covered is that Darling and Dexter can exchange raised eyebrows, even if Dexter has more sympathy than amusement in his face.
“Right. Okay. So what are you two going to do about the signature thing?”
Darling peeks out from under his arm shield. “We’ll just correct it in the next notes.”
“Yeah!”
Darling rolls her eyes at them. “You’ll forget!”
“No we won’t!”
—
They did, in fact, forget.
The next day, Raven and Cedar both pass by the Charming lockers and triple-check who’s is who’s based on a list Cupid got from Blondie. Cedar shoves her letter, edited to the point of near illegibility, into Dexter’s locker. Raven’s best try goes into Daring’s. They hurry off to their own lockers, and find two new letters waiting. Again, signed D. Charming.
The second letter is a bit shorter than the first, nothing more than a couple of sentences, ending with a question and a signature. Would you like to go on a date with me? Lady’s choice. Yours, D. Charming.
Cerise tries not to laugh at them when they get to lunch and show her the letters. “You heard them, lady’s choice!”
“What do people do on dates? I wasn’t paying attention when Cupid tried to explain that part yesterday.” Cedar refolds the letter, and laces her fingers together, trying not to fidget.
“Talk.” Raven taps a pen against a clean sheet of paper. “Learn stuff about each other. More talking.”
“That’s all talking.”
Cerise leans her head against the table, and sighs. “She mentioned neutral activities that both people would find fun.”
Raven thinks, sucking her teeth. “People like star gazing, right? He likes my magic and that’s a magic sort of thing. And it’ll give us something to talk about.”
Cerise agrees, and they both turn their eyes on Cedar. She shrinks under their gazes. “Oh, um… I don’t know. I don’t really want to do something alone with Dexter, I’ll embarrass myself.”
Maddie leans over, currently being pulled off somewhere by Bunny Blanc, but passing their typical table at the most convenient time. “My dad’s Tea Shoppe will be open tomorrow, and I’ll be working the after-school shift!”
“Oh, that’s a great idea! Thanks, Maddie!” Cedar turns to smile at her before she passes by completely and then faces forward. “There’s always something to talk about at the Tea Shoppe!”
Raven smiles back, while Cerise snorts. “Well, that wasn’t so hard, was it?”
“It wasn’t after I received help from a friend,” Cedar replies automatically. Then nods, agreeing with her own answer.
“Too bad we have to do the dates on our own.” Raven jokes, scribbling a sentence down on her paper, and crossing it out immediately. “It would be easier that way.”
“You’ll both be fine. ” Cerise laughs. “It’s just one date.”
Cedar reads Raven’s scribbles and taps her fingers against the table. “What if it goes really badly, though, and then they never want to talk to us again?”
“That’s not going to happen.” Cedar gives Cerise a look, and she sighs. “I’m sure it’s basically impossible.”
“Basically?” Raven stops writing, and looks up. “So it is possible.”
“Anything’s possible, that would just be super unlikely.”
“I don’t like that,” Cedar mumbles.
“Maybe we should have someone we trust to coach us.”
“Cupid is visiting her dad tomorrow–” Cedar follows Raven’s gaze to Cerise. “Oh. Oh. That’s a good idea.”
“ I don’t like that, ” Cerise mutters, taking a sip of her drink and knowing fully well she’s about to be roped into some scheme.
—
Daring and Dexter are so excited about their date proposals being accepted that they conveniently forget to tell Darling that they forgot to sign the letters properly again. They also fail to mention that Daring got the letter from Raven and Dexter got the letter from Cedar. A mix-up they pay very little mind to, instead just switching the letters between themselves when they come in and cursing Grimm for giving them identical, close lockers.
“Okay, so stargazing is easy. You could just wear comfortable clothes, and you’ll be good to go. The only thing that would be different is boots, because it’s the woods.” Darling rummages through Dexter’s closet, and tosses a shirt at him. “Wear that one.”
Daring scrolls through his phone, switching between pictures of himself dressed in numerous outfits, and the online menu for the Tea Shoppe. “Is that the blue shirt with the stars? That’s his best one.”
“Yep.”
Dexter rolls his eyes, placing the shirt down. “I don’t see why I have to dress fancy to go stargazing .” Daring scoffs, not looking up from his place lounging on the windowsill. “I’m serious!”
“It’s a date!” Both his siblings say, in unison.
“It’s like you have no concept of the art of romance, Dex, oh my Writers.” Daring lowers his phone and gestures. “Have a little flare, a bit of panache-!”
“Just don’t be Daring, and it’ll be fine.” Darling snarks, ignoring Daring’s offended gasp.
“Rude. How many flowers do you think would be acceptable to bring on a first date?”
“One.” Darling considers Dexter’s limited bowtie collection.
Daring’s face drops. “I have to call the florist, then. Excuse me.”
He hurries out of the room and Darling throws the last bits of the finished outfit at Dexter. “You two are hopeless. Now put that on and stop complaining.”
Dexter rolls his eyes, waiting for Darling to dart out after Daring to start changing.
Darling hears most of Daring’s side of the call as she trails him back to his own dorm room. She’s repeatedly hit with the urge to facepalm as she puts together a mental picture of the bouquet he had intended for Cedar. Once he hangs up, Darling clears her throat. “The poor girl being made of wood doesn’t mean she wants to look like a flowering tree, you know.”
“I’ve seen the flowers she paints! They’re all as lovely as she is. I wanted to give her something equal to the beauty she puts out into the world, and give her something to muse about.”
“That’s so corny.”
“Shut up.”
“Never. What did you condense the bouquet down to?”
“A corsage of pink dogwoods. I thought they’d be lovely for her.”
This time, Darling gives in to the facepalming urge. “Did you come up with a bouquet entirely made of tree flowers?”
“No,” Daring lies. “Now– which shoes should I wear to the Tea Shoppe? The mauve suede ones, or the tan leather ones? The suede would probably match whatever dress she wears, but the leather ones are more formal–”
Darling tunes out, substituting any rational thoughts she can give him with nods and head shakes. He goes with the suede shoes and one of his more casual overall outfits. He even substitutes his suit jacket for his letterman jacket, since it's far more waterproof. Darling chalks the change up to his vanity. In reality, it's in case it rains. At some point, in a distant month, he heard Cedar complaining about rain making her wood swell. He noted it in the back of his mind, dredging it up whenever the weather is set for clouds and whenever he sees her outside without anything for a rain-mergency.
Darling returns to Dexter’s dorm to check on the overall look they picked out, only to find him about a quarter through a book titled Dummy’s Guide to Star-Effected Magic. She clears her throat to get his attention, having him play the proper model. He’s used to it, since their childhood was filled with fashion shows Darling found plenty of pleasure in setting up but none in modeling for.
“Do you really think Raven will care this much about what I’m wearing?”
“No. But you should care about it. Girls love effort.”
“Okay.”
“Like you reading that book. She’ll love that.”
Dexter smiles, “You think so? I saw her returning a copy of it to the library so I checked it out myself.”
“Absolutely. Maybe don’t mention that you were watching her returning books, though. That’s kinda creepy.”
Dexter nods seriously. Darling pats him on the shoulder and sends him on his way.
—
Raven’s waiting on the edge of the treeline, leaning against a tree, when she notices Dexter walking towards her. Dexter, who’s supposed to be making his way to the Tea Shoppe to meet Cedar, and is definitely not supposed to be coming to the woods.
“We must have mixed up the lockers.” She mumbles into her walkie-talkie, hiding behind the tree and watching him look around. “Dexter’s here. ”
“Okay, don’t panic.” Cerise sighs, lounging on her bed. “Cedar, what’s your status?”
“I’m- hi Maddie- hiding.” Cedar peeks around a corner, into the Tea Shoppe where Daring sits, worrying with one of her bracelets. “What do we do?”
“Talk to them, and tell them there’s been a mix-up.” Cerise sighs again, listening to both of them make noises of distress. “Then just switch places, as long as they don’t know you’re there.”
Cerise listens to both of them mumble about being excited about what they had planned, and facepalms, resisting the urge to toss the walkie-talkie. An urge that subsides to some degree when the scratching static breaks to a rather sweet voice. A familiar one she didn’t expect. “Dexter, you’re going to be fine.”
Cerise blinks, clicking the button. “Darling!?”
Raven and Cedar both send in “what?”s, which turn into a garbled mess. Meanwhile, Darling adjusts the settings of her own walkie-talkie, repeating her statement.
“Dexter, you’re going to be fine.”
“I don’t see her, though. What if I got the time wrong?”
“What other way is there to interpret ‘7 p.m.’?”
“There isn’t one, but–”
“Then relax. Maybe she’s running a little late.”
Dexter shrugs, then realizes she can’t see him. “Yeah, okay.”
“Okay. Now, Daring-” Darling switches channels to get an ear full of cheerful whistling. “Never mind, you’re fine.”
“Of course I am!” Daring folds his hands around the corsage box with a wistful grin. “I’m just waiting. Oh, never mind, there she is.” Daring shuts his walkie-talkie off, turning to Cedar with a brilliant smile. “Ce–”
“Raven would like for you to go out to the woods, to the spot with the pretty bench.” Before she can say anything else– before he can ask her any fatal questions– she runs off.
Daring switches his walkie-talkie back on. “Okay, I might have a problem.”
But Darling is already on the other channel, listening to Dexter trying to understand that Raven is sending him off to the Tea Shoppe. Darling is about to ask a probing question for him to feed to Raven, but she’s cut off by Cerise cursing through the feed. By the time Cerise’s interference goes away, Dexter is already making his way to the Tea Shoppe. Why is Cerise even on the line, anyway!?
In a fit of frustration Darling hisses, “Cerise, I’m trying to do something very important!” into the walkie-talkie and restrains herself from throwing it against a tree.
Cerise responds automatically with, “I can guarantee whatever you’re doing is nowhere near as important as what I’m trying to do here.”
“Wanna bet?”
“Bet.”
Darling scoffs, tightening her grip on her walkie-talkie. “ I’m trying to get both my brothers through their dates tonight.”
“And I’m trying to get my best friends through their dates tonight.” Cerise rolls her eyes. “Y’know, the ones with your brothers?”
“So?”
“So-” Cerise bites back a growl and rolls her eyes harder. “I love them both, but Cedar and Raven are awful about feelings. It was a fight to get them to respond to the first letter, and then to get them to actually figure out what dates they wanna go on. And now I have to deal with the fact their guys are in the wrong places–”
“What do you mean?”
Cerise scoffs. “Like you don’t know! Daring went to the Tea Shoppe and Dexter went to the woods.”
“... Yeah? So?”
“It was supposed to be the other way around, you know, Dexter to the Tea Shoppe, Daring to the woods. We even got Blondie to help with the locker situation so things wouldn't get mixed up-”
“Wait, you think Dexter wrote the note to Cedar, and Daring wrote one to Raven?” Darling laughs a little. “Why would you think that?”
“Well it’s not like they signed the letters, Darling! We just had to guess!” Cerise does growl this time, tossing her hands up even though Darling can’t see it. She lowers her arms when she remembers she has to hold a button down for Darling to keep hearing her. “All we knew was that it definitely wasn’t yours. Your handwriting is too pretty for either of those letters, and you’re smart enough to actually sign yours.”
There’s a beat before Darling sends a response. “You think my handwriting is pretty?”
Cerise starts saying something, but Dexter breaks into the walkie-talkie channel to try and screech about how he’s somehow found himself in the bathroom of the Tea Shoppe on a date with Cedar.
“Hey, Dex? We keep getting other conversations, can you change to channel, uh, four?”
“Yeah, totally.”
“Okay, he’s taken care of. What were you going to say?”
Cerise laughs, the noise cut up by static. “You aren’t going to run to another channel to help your brother?”
“He got himself into this situation. I’ll send Daring after him when he tries to come back on.”
Another laugh. “I’ll send Cedar and Raven there, too, then. They can figure this all out.”
“Serves them right.”
Another beat.
“Say, are you doing anything else tonight?”
—
Dexter paces around the men’s bathroom. Er, he thinks it’s the men’s bathroom. The signage at the Tea Shoppe is far from clear.
Darling hasn’t gotten back to him, so he’s on his own, pacing the room, and trying to puzzle the situation out. Cedar’s sitting at a table outside, waiting for him so they can talk. His brother would go on and on about ‘hiding’ and ‘leaving a maiden on her own’, but Dexter’s too busy thinking.
What is he supposed to say? Sorry, Cedar, I actually wanted to go out with your best friend instead! That would be rude. But, then again, isn’t it rude for him to lead her on like this? And isn’t it rude for him to go on a date with the girl his brother adores?
In the woods, there’s a similar crisis taking place, locked behind Daring’s eyes as Raven half-heartedly lectures him on the Pleiades and their effect on magic. The only difference is that Daring is better at picking his words. He calmly waits for Raven to peter off before taking a deep breath.
“Raven, I fear there’s been a miscommunication. Your date for the night was supposed to be Dexter, and mine was supposed to be Cedar.”
Raven blinks, and he lets a moment pass for processing before he opens his mouth to comfort her. Luckily, it’s unneeded. “Oh, thank the writers. I mean– that was rude, but, like– Daring, I don’t like you. Not like that. I mean, it was cool thinking that you might like me, but I hated the idea that Dexter liked Cedar.”
Daring’s expression softens. “So your feelings for Dexter are requited?”
“You’ve got no idea,” she chuckles, almost self-deprecatingly. “Also, Cedar definitely doesn’t have feelings for him, so you should probably get to the Tea Shoppe before she says something to upset them both.”
Daring jumps to his feet. “On it! And you stay put, I’ll send Dexter right to you.”
Before waiting for her to respond, Daring shifts into his mental hero mode and dashes off.
—
Dexter listens to the feedback from his walkie-talkie, and huffs, turning to finally leave the bathroom. Cedar’s sitting at the table, staring into a teacup she was given while he was hiding. He tries not to wince, putting on his best air of confidence as he walks. She blinks up at him, smiling a little awkwardly as he slides into the seat across from her, fingers clinking against the ceramic as she sits back up.
“Are you okay?”
Dexter nods quickly. “Of course! I just- I think there’s been a bit of a mix-up with the letters?”
Cedar blinks at him. “So you didn’t write the letter that was really sweet about me and my art?” He shakes his head. “Oh, thank goodness. I mean, you’re a great friend and all, but I don’t want to date you.”
“I don’t want to date you either.” Cedar smiles brightly, as Dexter stands up. “I’m gonna–”
The doors to the Tea Shoppe swing open dramatically, and Daring rushes in, jacket swishing around him in lieu of a proper cape.
Dexter snorts, waving at Cedar as he ducks past his brother. “Have fun!”
“You too, Dexter!” Daring turns towards her and smiles, putting on the charm. “Why, Cedar, you look simply charming this fine evening.”
Cedar’s face creaks into a smile. “Thank you. I could say the same about you.”
Daring laughs, producing a single rose out of thin air. He asks a soft “May I?” before pushing it in the grove between her ear and head, letting it stand out against her hair. He sits across from her, feeling infinitely better. He can’t help feeling like everything will go well with Cedar.
—
As Dexter runs– or, more accurately, breathlessly jogs– through Bookend to find Raven, he passes his sister and Cerise.
Darling gives him a thumbs up, before pulling Cerise into a small restaurant with a grin.
Dexter reminds himself to be mad at yet happy for her later, speeding up once he hits the tree line. He almost passes Raven entirely, skidding to a stop right before her blanket setup. But it’s on an incline, so he slides down a few feet anyway.
Raven laughs, smiling brightly. “Hey, Dex. Lovely night.”
“Yeah, it is.” He hurries back up the last few feet, nearly collapsing onto the blanket and trying not to make the exertion too obvious. She hands him a bottle of water. “Thank you,” he takes a sip. “And the night just keeps getting lovelier.”
Raven’s smile widens a little, and she tilts her head back, watching him calm down out of the corner of her eye. “What do you know about the Pleiades?”
“I’ve read a little about them.” Dexter looks up, and points at a cluster of stars. He looks back down and sees a glimpse of how she’s looking at him, and trains his eyes back up so he doesn’t get too flustered and shut down. He starts rattling off the magical implications of this specific star cluster, and he can almost feel her admiration for him growing on the air.
Back at the Tea Shoppe, Daring is listening intently as Cedar explains her various artistic processes, asking frequent questions. Because he’s interested, and because of the brilliant way she lights up before diving deeper into a topic. He’s trying to work up the nerve to hold her hand.
Over at the restaurant, Cerise and Darling are filling in the blanks of the situation, interrupting each other with frequent laughter and trailing off at lingering looks. The decision to call it a proper date didn’t need to be verbal, nor the confirmation that they’ll be going on a second one. They just nod at each other and start brainstorming. Much more elegant than Dexter sputtering through the idea and Cedar giggling endlessly at a lovely opportunity she never thought she’d get.
—
Between second and third period, three identical letters fall out of three very different lockers. The contents are nearly identical, gushing about the date, excitement for the next one, all the way down to the signature: Love, your D. Charming.
Cedar tucks her letter into her sketchbook, thinking of the single rose in a vase in her room and the corsage of pink dogwoods on the desk next to it. Raven tucks hers into her magic hextbook, and thinks about having to sneak back into the school after spending nearly all night talking under the stars. Cerise thinks of shared laughter, and warm smiles, and puts the letter in her pocket.
When they meet up at lunch, it won’t be a puzzle to know who to respond to.