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Another day in Princessology class. Today, the students were in pairs of two and assigned to make cakes. Which seemed like it should have been easier than it was.
“Darling!” Apple coughed as she pulled the cake out of the oven, her head surrounded by smoke. “The cake is totally flat!”
“Oh dear!” Darling rushed over to check. “I thought I put everything in it.”
Apple set the cake down on the stove. Totally unusable. There was no way they were passing this assignment. She took in a deep breath and put on a confident smile. “Let’s go through the ingredients together, okay? I know we had the flour, because I did that. What about the sugar?”
“I’m sure I added that,” Darling mused.
“And the eggs?” Apple continued.
Darling’s eyes got wide. “Let me look,” she said nervously, walking over to the fridge. Reaching her hand in, Darling pulled out three completely unused eggs. Her eyes darted around nervously. “It seems I… forgot those.”
Apple pressed the smile more firmly on her face. It wasn’t very princesslike to be visibly upset. “Well, we’re out of time to redo it. We’ll just have to try again next time.”
“I’m sorry.” Darling bent down and put the eggs away. “I’m just not very good at baking.”
Apple picked up the cake and shook it out in the trash can. “Didn’t you bake when you were little? With your mom? My mom always made the most beautiful desserts.” She trailed off, fantasizing about those wonderful apple pies.
Darling looked visibly nervous. “I’m afraid my attempts usually turn out like this. You know what they say though… everyone has different skills.”
Apple had moved over to the sink, scrubbing out the pan. “Well, in order to be a princess, you’ll have to just work on some of those skills. No one ever heard of a princess who can’t bake.” She laughed a little, before noticing that Darling was deadly quiet. Apple glanced over at her. “Oh, come on. It can’t be that bad.” She dried her hands on a towel and approached the other girl. “I’m sure there are lots of parts of being a princess you’re good at.”
Darling nodded. “Yes… definitely.” She sounded less than confident.
Apple ran through some of the class lessons in her mind. Definitely not baking. And Darling wasn’t very good at being a damsel in distress. She was very restless. And she wasn’t amazing at needlepoint…
While she was thinking, Darling had started looking fairy freaked out. Time for some emergency comforting. Apple reached over and put a hand on Darling’s shoulder. “Well, I know one thing.” She smiled again. “You’re very pretty. That’s a good trait for a princess to have.”
Darling’s cheeks suddenly got very flushed. She looked down at Apple’s hand, then suddenly walked away to the sink, picking up the pan and the dish towel. She coughed a few times before speaking, and her voice seemed a bit high-pitched. “Well, I can also clean up my own mess,” she laughed, with a very airy tone.
Something seemed off, but Apple didn’t really know what was going on. She walked over to the sink and began joining Darling in cleaning. “Well,” Apple continued, “cleaning is a good trait for a princess too. And there’s other things, like knowing how to ride a horse, and being able to…”
As she continued talking, Darling’s mind was far away, still thinking about what Apple had said just a few minutes ago. She’d called her pretty. And for some reason, that made Darling feel fairy flustered.