She woke up that morning sweating from the heat of the cottage. Then the door flew open downstairs."Giselle!? Giselle where are you? You shouldn’t be in here you know that." a familiar voice called. Giselle groaned in irritation. Joseph came to look for me she thought to herself. Giselle got up from bed and began to dress.
She looked in the mirror her mother put in her room at the castle but Giselle moved it to her cottage. Her tan skin glowed because of the electric blue dress especially made for her at the castle. It was embroidered with gold and it had lace on the back.
There was a knock on the door. "Come in." Giselle said. Joseph came in with a relieved look on his face. "Giselle your father has been going crazy looking for you. Why are you here? It isn’t fit for a princess." Joseph nearly yelled.
"Calm down Joseph. I'm right here and I plan on staying here. Okay? Just say I was found eaten in the woods." Giselle said. Joseph seemed horrified at what Giselle just said.
"You know very well Giselle that if I were to ever say that to your father he shall have my head?! Your safety is my responsibility. You drive me crazy sometimes!" He said, and then he looked at her furious face.
"I'm sorry that I make your duty so difficult. But sometimes I do not have any freedom! I'm sorry if I like to have fun instead of other people. If you would want me to leave my favorite place in the whole village just so I can go to a boring castle with servants and my spoiled and selfish father then I will! Leave me for a moment while I pack. But you will always be the boring assistant to the King!" Giselle yelled. That must have really hurt Joseph because he stormed out of the room.
Giselle began packing her small brown bag with her hair brush, her 2 dresses, and her favorite pair of slippers and went outside. Joseph and Giselle walked the way back to the castle in silence.
Finally Joseph spoke, "Well if I'm such a bore to you and the whole castle why don’t you just convince your daddy to fire me so I can go on the streets. But always remember this Giselle; without me you would be in danger all the time with how mischievous you are." Giselle felt so angry.
She picked up rocks and started flinging them at Joseph. "I can take care of myself! If I had more freedom maybe I wouldn’t have to be so 'mischievous' and your job could be easier!" she yelled. Giselle always had good aim so she hit Joseph in the gut and the head.
"Giselle you are an aggressive, juvenile, mess! Ouch!" Joseph yelled.
"I'm an aggressive juvenile?! You’re my age and yet you would rather not have any fun at all?! If you haven’t noticed I've always been like this! Lonely, depressed, and aggressive! But apparently you never were able to take time away from your life to see it." Giselle screamed.
They were both so furious with each other they hadn’t noticed they were both bleeding because they were flinging rocks at each other.
They soon sat down. Joseph groaned in pain while Giselle wrapped a wet cloth around his scar. "Sorry about throwing rocks at you… But you have to understand I'm not a child anymore, I'm 17 years old. And so are you so why don’t you just have some fun sometime? It won't hurt." Giselle said.
"It's alright. I am acting like an old nagging maiden aren’t I?" Joseph replied. They both began laughing. "But if I do say so myself-"he began.
"No you may not say so yourself I know exactly what you are going to say.”
But if I say so myself, I think you should be protected by someone like yourself, my ass.
“COME HERE YOU IGGNORANT EXCUSE FOR A DAUGHTER!”
“Oh, what must you have from my life now?”
“Tell me, Giselle, why I should not cut off your head and feed it to the lions?!”
“Because if you do I’ll haunt you for the rest of your life and let everyone know you kill-“
“Leave it, Giselle!” Giselle’s father interrupted. “Just tell me why must you run away from you own father? The person that feeds you! Gives you the clothes off your back! Gives you tender love and care! Even a reason to live! Now why must you run away from that that?”
“Hmm,” Giselle thought for a moment while biting her pinky. “Well, you don’t give me any of that, so I suppose you should question me, why do I live for the next day, week, month, year?”Giselle yelled. She was furious with the way her father treated her. He never gave her any of that stuff. The cook gave her all of her food, the tailor sewed all of her clothes, and she had to give herself tender love and care.
A sudden movement interrupted Giselle’s thoughts. Her father was raising his hands, in defeat, maybe?
“Fine,” Started King Maxim, “You may go, be free as you like.” He said. Giselle’s face brightened, a smile spread across her face.
“Oh, thank you so much!” She hugged her father sitting on his throne. He did not return the hug.
She would’ve said I love you, but she didn’t.
“OW! Crap!” Giselle was walking through the woods, in search of her little cottage. She had tripped over a thick tree root which had extended far from its tree.
“This is a bad time to be clumsy!” She muttered.
“WAIT!” Giselle turned around to see a figure running towards her.
Joseph?
“GISELLE WAIT FOR ME!”
Oh, no.
Giselle had wanted to be alone. With no one, not even servants. To see someone, even a complete stranger, running towards her, it was a nightmare.
So she thought fast.
And without thinking
She pretended
To faint.
Giselle woke up to the feeling of warmth covering her, and comfort below her. She was on her bed, and someone had put a sheet over her. When she woke up, everything was a blur. Someone was looking at her. The world suddenly became visible to her and she saw who was looking at her. It was Joseph, and when she noticed how close their faces were together, she forced her body up with the little strength she had left.
It turns out she had fainted, because her head fell on the root. Luckily, she wasn’t injured, but she had to stay in bed for a while.
“I was just trying to fake it to get away from him.”
“Hey!” Joseph got up, and went out of the room. Giselle laid her head back on the pillow. She turned, and looked at the little gold bell with a wooden handle. Whenever you need me, just give me a ring, I’ll hear it wherever I am, was what Mimi had told her. Mimi was one of the servants.
Giselle always seemed to wonder why the servants here always love their jobs. It was just a thought that always randomly crossed her mind sometimes.
Soon after, everybody left, and Giselle was left alone, lying helplessly on her bed. She put her arm over the side of her bed and picked up the pen and notebook always left on the side of her bed for when she didn’t was to get up.
She started to draw. She drew a little girl, about the age of 3 or 4, playing with dolls, while on one corner of the page, was the girls thoughts. A princess was in the thoughts, running from a dragon, while her prince was trying to fight off the dragon. The rest of the paper was a garden, filled with wild grasses and flowers of all sorts. There was only one rose, and it was next to the girl. Giselle found herself wondering why it was only one rose, next to the little girl.
Soon enough, an hour had passed, and Giselle’s drawing book was almost full. She smiled at her accomplishment. Giselle reached under her bed and took out a wooden box. It was made by Joseph, as a gift to her for her birthday. And since he said she could do anything she wanted with it, she did. It was painted with all sorts of bold colors, some splattered onto the box, and some painted with obvious swift movements. She began to carefully place the pictures into the box, and when done, she put it back under the bed.
Then Giselle wished she had another notebook. Behind all of her thoughts, she had all of her wishes, right now; a new notebook with a leather covering and gold pages was the first of all of her wishes.
Drifting asleep, Giselle muttered, “Rose.”
Giselle was only half asleep when she heard a loud, screeching noise. It sounded like a long pair of nails scratching a chalkboard. Startled, she turned over and saw someone, something at her window, scratching it. She gaped at the window with eyes wide open.
And again,
She thought fast
And hid
Under
Her
Covers.
“Giselle how stupid can you be?” A voice yelled, playfully. Someone was poking her. All Giselle could see was the pink sheet covering her as protection. Suddenly a shadow appeared over her.
“Hello?” The voice said. It sounded like a little girl. She began poking Giselle, and it got annoying. Once the girl poked her face, Giselle had it.
“OK, if you’re going to poke me, WATCH WHERE YOU POKE!” Giselle yelled as she started to lift herself up from her bed. She saw herself surrounded by her canopy. A servant knocked on her open door and asked, “Are you ok, Miss Giselle?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Bad dream.” She chuckled. When the servant left, Giselle mumbled, picture of the little girl playing with dolls. “Weird dream.” She began to pull out her wooden box, and once done, she dug for the
She found it and stared at the rose. Really, what does this have to do with anything? Giselle wondered.
And before she knew it, everything was a blur.
And she was fast asleep again.
“Giselle, Giselle!” Giselle was being shaken awake by someone. The comfort of her bed was no longer beneath her. And the warmth of her sheet was wrapped all around her.
“Wake up Giselle! Are you ok?!” Giselle flung her head up, and it hit something hard and forced it back down. “Ouch.” Groaned Giselle as she lifted her hand to rub her head, but that hit something hard, too. When she finally opened her eyes, she saw her dresser above her head, and she began to force her head up again, but remembering what happened before, she was more cautious.
Once up, Giselle asked, “What is going on?”
“I don’t know,” Answered a voice, Giselle did not know who the voice belonged to, so she did not dare to turn her head. Looking forward, she asked, “Who are you?”
“Turn around.”
She woke up screaming.
She took her gold bell and shook it furiously.
“Yes, Miss Giselle?” A worried look crossed Mimi’s face as she looked at Giselle, who was sitting with her knees up to her face hugging her legs and her face buried in her knees. “Is there something wrong?” Mimi asked. Giselle quickly lifted her head and grabbed the bell and began to ring it again. She did not look next to her. But at the corner of her eye she saw Mimi there.
“Oh, Mimi, I need you to get me some tea.”
“What kind?”
“Any kind, just make me some tea.” Giselle spoke, still looking forward. Mimi simply nodded her head and went to do what she was told. Giselle then realized how much pain her head was in and began to rub it.
When Mimi came back, she exclaimed, “This tea will help you with your head, if it hurts too.”
“Thank you.”
In the middle of the night, Giselle did not feel well.
She got up out of her bed and went into the kitchen.
“Giselle,” She heard a sharp whisper say, “You should not be up out of you bed!”
“Ugh,” Joseph “I’m fine Joseph! Don’t worry about me!”
“It’s my job to worry about you!”
“Oh and why are you up so late?” Joseph didn’t answer that. And when he did, he said, “Can’t sleep.”
“Well, neither can I and I want to make some tea.” Giselle replied. She began to take out a small pot, and put water in it. She turned on the stove, and placed the pot on the water. Sitting down on the table, she and Joseph started to talk.
“How’s my box doing?”
“If you mean my box, it’s destroyed with paint.”
“Typical Giselle,” Mumbled Joseph and Giselle chuckled. A loud bubbling sound began and Giselle went back to her tea. She returned to the table with a mug of tea.
“Shoot I forgot the sugar,” Mumbled Giselle, and she began to get up when Joseph said, “No, its ok, I’ll get it for you.”
“Thank you.”
No reply.
When Joseph sat back down, he handed the sugar to her. Then while drinking the tea, her head flipped back. “Ow,” groaned Giselle. Then she got up, and went to the sink. She looked out the window above the sink, a sly smile appearing across her face.
“Giselle…”
“Don’t ask,” She began to open the window, and got up on top of the sink.
“Giselle,” Joseph was furious. Giselle already was sitting on the window pane when he grabbed her hand. She turned her head, and looked into his eyes, the look on Giselle’s face was indescribable, and it startled Joseph.
“GISELLE,” She slid off.
Purposely.
Joseph was still grabbing her hand, and he heard her yell, “LET GO,” and he stuck his head out the window and yelled, “WHAT?!” He was shocked Giselle wanted him to let go.
“LET GO,” Giselle yelled.
“WE’RE FOUR STORIES HIGH UP AND YOU WANT ME TO LET GO?!”
“YES EXACTLY! THANK YOU FOR UNDERSTANDING! KOW IF YOU COULD PLEASE-“
“SAVE IT GISELLE NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU WEIGH-UGH-I’M NOT LETTING GO!”
“HEY!”
“DON’T ‘HEY’ ME!” Joseph started to lift Giselle up. Joseph had to pull her really hard since Giselle wouldn’t help so they both ended up on the floor. Giselle’s head was in much pain. She quickly got up, took her tea and stomped back into her room.
“ARE YOU SUICIDAL?!” Joseph yelled after her.
Giselle quickly got on her bed and put her head down so her long hair covered her whole face. She pulled it up and then threw the mug to the side of her so it crashed into the wall. It was amazing how no one heard any of this.
She got up and stood in front of her body mirror. She was still wearing her electric blue-blood smeared dress which she had not noticed before but it was all covered in dirt. Tomorrow she would take a bath, and change into a nightgown.
“Yes, Miss Giselle?” It was morning and Giselle had wanted to finally take a bath, so she rung her bell.
“Can I take a bath?” She asked.
“Oh, well. I suppose so, if you are feeling better.” Replied Mimi.
“Much better Mimi, much better.” So Mimi helped Giselle up from her bed, and led her to the bathroom, walking cautiously.
“Would you like me to help you take a bath, Miss Giselle?”
“Yes please,” Giselle loved how her servants were always so nice to her, and were willing to do almost anything for her. “My muscles feel very weak so I would love it if you could help me.” Giselle exclaimed. Mimi simply nodded her head, like always, and began to take off Giselle’s dress.
“Miss Giselle! What happened to you? Your dress is all covered in blood and you are covered in scars!” Giselle had forgotten all about that.
“Oh, um I was in the woods, and I tripped a lot,” Giselle chuckled and said, “Clumsy me!” hitting her head which led to an “ouch.”
When Mimi was done taking Giselle a bath, she cautiously led Giselle to her room, and helped her get her nightgown on. When done, she left Giselle on her bed, and left the room.
“Thank you Mimi!” Giselle called after her.
“Your welcome, Miss Giselle.” She replied.
Giselle reached over her bed to grab her notebook, but feeling the cold, hard, wooden floor, she remembered that she had filled it all up.
Leather notebook, gold pages.
Lying in bed, staring up at the ceiling, Giselle wondered what she was going to do with herself. She was helpless, and could only lie in bed for how long? A long time, probably Giselle figured.
