Cinder Phoenix's Diary

This is the diary of that one girl who won't stop making characters', OC, Cinder Phoenix.

## This girl is on fire!!! Oh, wait, that's me.

My name is Cinder. And I'm gonna come straight out with this: I'M NOT A REBEL OR A ROYAL!!!! AND DON'T CALL ME A ROYBEL, EITHER!!! There, now that *that's* out of the way, we can talk. So, I'm a second-year student at Ever After High, I'm a proud user of fire magic, and I have a phoenix named Ash. These facts should be enough to get us started.

### Chapter 1

So, I'm sitting at my lunch table, eating. Today is a lot of new students' first day, so I'm supposed to be welcoming and such. I'm okay with that, I think.

"*Cindy, darling, is anyone sitting here?*" my cousin, Mera, asks. Her boyfriend's with her, as usual.

"*Yep, why? Can't you see Bob?*" I ask. I lean towards the chair and pretend I'm listening to someone talk. "*Yeah, you're right, Bob. She is rude.*"

Mera doesn't even roll her eyes, she just sits down. She's too used to my jokes to bother giving me any sign that she cares any more. Meh, not like I mind.

Forrest Wizard, her boyfriend, sits down next to her. "*Hey, Cinder,*" he says.

I smile back at him. "Hey, Forrest. You should know you're sitting on Bob's girlfriend," I say. Then I start eating again. The other two talk, but I just sit there and eat and read.

After a while, Mera's best friend, Lillian, sits down, too. It's funny; even though Lillian is a Rebel and Mera's a Royal, they almost never fight, not even when Apple and Raven are fighting. In fact, they're sometimes the ones who help Apple and Raven figure out what's bothering them and how to fix it without bringing the school down on top of us. And trust me, with the amount of power Raven has, that isn't too crazy of an outcome.

After lunch, I go to my Magicology class. "Hi, Cinder," Raven says. She's nice, but I don't think we're really friends. Don't get me wrong, we don't hate each other or anything, but we aren't really that close. Besides, her best friends forever after are Maddie and Cedar.

"Hey, Raven," I answer, before sitting down. I sit next to her, in front, and to her left. Another girl, Faybelle Thorne, sits next to me. We don't talk. And I'm happy with that.

### Chapter 2

"*Ash, I know I said I wish my thronework would burn, but I DIDN'T MEAN LITERALLY!!*" I say, pointing at the small pile of ashes on my desk. My phoenix chortles in response. "*What do you mean I'm over reacting?!?*" I say. "*You destroyed my work!!*"

"*Cindy, darling, could you stop yelling? You're disturbing Blizzard,*" Mera says, only just glancing up from her magazine before going back to it.

"*Easy for you to say!!! Your paper that's due tomorrow wasn't just destroyed by your pet!!!*" I say. Not that Blizzard could destroy Mera's thronework; all he can do is freeze it.

Mera looks up from her dance magazine. She stares at me for a bit, before saying, "*I don't understand; can't you just use your fire magic to fix it?*"

"*That's not the point!!!!*" I wail, slamming my head into my hands. Mera stares at me a bit longer.

"*Darling, I'll never understand you,*" she says finally, shaking her head. Then she goes back to her oh-so-important magazine. I just call Ash to my shoulder, fix my paper, and leave. "*Bye, darling,*" Mera calls cheerfully as I shut the door. I hate it when she calls me that. Really hate it.

"*Oh, hi,*" I say to a lost looking girl. She looks about my age, but I've never seen her before. She has a wild mane of blonde-gold hair and gold-to-brown eyes. Her skin's a warm, light brown. And the phoenix on my shoulder isn't freaking her out.

"*Um, hi. Hey, can you tell me how to get to the principal, um, I mean, the headmaster's office?*" she asks, looking helpless, like a lost baby kitten. She's clearly lost and confused and flip-flopped.

"*I could, but it would probably be easier to show you,"* I offer.

She nods, relieved. "*That would be as wonderful as a woozy!*" she says.

"*What?*" I ask, confused. That doesn't sound like anything an Ever After or Wonderlanian would say. Where does this girl come from?

"*Oh, it's a saying from Oz, my home,*" she says, smiling, like she's remembering something she loves.

"*Oh. Well, here, I think the phrase would be "spelltacular,"*I tell her. She nods, like she's considering the word.

"*Spelltacular,*" she says, testing out the word in her mouth. "*Huh. I guess I like that,*" she says, smiling.

"*Good,"* I say. Then, I turn to Ash. "*Go outside, sweet, okay?*" I say. Ash nods once then flies off. *"Anyways, come on,*" I say to the girl. "*What's your name?*" I ask.

"*Kowaly. Kowaly Lion,*" she answers proudly. Her tone says, 'I am who I am. Deal. Don't challenge me, because I will beat you **so** badly.' "*What about you?*"

"*Cinder. Cinder Phoenix,*" I say, mimicking her tone. It fits. She laughs.

We start walking towards Headmaster Grimm's office. By the time we've gotten there, I've found out that Kowaly is the daughter of the Cowardly Lion, who came with her to Ever After. Apparently, the Lions came with some others after Raven Queen un-poisoned Wonderland to see if they needed anyone to help. They came during the summer, so that's why the Ozians are just now starting school here. When we get to Grimmy's overly pretty office door, I knock.

Grimmy opens the door and sighs wth a frown when he sees it's me. "*Ms. Phoenix, do I want to know how you managed to get yourself sent to my office on the first day of school and before classes have even offically started?*" he asks.

"*Oh, the usual. Screamed in class, teacher told me to be quiet, shot a fire-ball at her, and burnt down half the school,"* I say casually, even going as far as to look at my nails, like I'm making sure they're clean. They are, of course, but it's still important. I hear Kowaly cough to cover up a laugh.

"*Ms. Phoenix,*" Grimmy says in a warning tone. He is not amused. Not in the slightest. *"I am not amused. Not in the slightest."* See? Told ya'.

"*Fine. Go ahead, ruin my fun. Actually, Kowaly wants to talk to you,*" I say, gently pushing the girl in question forward.

"*Um, hi, uh, headmaster,*" Kowaly says. "*Um, everyone's been asking if I'm a Rebel or a Royal. What do they mean?*" she asks.

"*Oh, that. If you really want to know, I'll explain it to you,*" I say. I mean, I guess right now it's pretty important, so I should explain it to her, but I can still be annoyed by it, right? "*Anything else?*" I ask.

"*Um, yeah. My schedule? No one's given it to me,*" Grimmy waved his hand conjuring a paper, and handed it to her. Cool trick, but a simple one. Well, simple assuming you're using actual magic and not just sligh-of-hand.

"*Here you are, Ms. ...?*"

"*Lion. Kowaly Lion.*" Kowaly says. Again, with the proud tone. I like it. So far, Kowaly seems awesome.

'*Well, Ms. Lion, let me know if I can help you with anything else. Cinder, since you seemed to have already volunteered to tell our new student about the destiny conflict, would you be so kind as to show her around and how things work here?*" Grimmy asks.

"*Sure, Headmaster Grimm. I'd be happy to,*" I say. *"Anything else?"* I ask Kowaly.

"*Nope,*" she says.

"*Well, goodbye girls. Enjoy the rest of your day. And, Cinder, please don't do anything resulting in too much injury,*" Grimmy says.

"*Yes, sir,*" I say.

"*Good,*" Grimmy says. Then he goes back to writing whatever it is he's writing. We take the cue and leave.

"*What did you think of Headmaster Grimm?*" I ask as we walk to the Castleteria.

"*He seemed ... up-tight. Kinda angry, like I had already done something wrong,*" Kowaly says. Then she giggles. "*He's probably right,*" she admits.

"*Nah, I was the one he was afraid of doing something wrong. Come on, it's almost dinner time*," I say. For the first time, I walk to the Castleteria with someone. It feels good. Kowaly and I talk along the way. I tell her about the Royals and Rebels and she tells me about her home. Oz sounds as wonderful as a woozy, as Kowaly would say.

### Chapter 3

Ashton Prince.

The second most annoying prince at this school behind Daring Charming.

Buyt the reasons they're annoying are totally different reasons. Daring's full of himself and Ash is ... nice.

Okay, I sound like a total jerk. Let me explain.

So in my tale, the Phoenix Queen ends up killing herself. Which sucks. Anyways, she kills herself because the jerk of a prince cheated on her. Why that supossedly causes her to kill herself, I have no idea. She doesn't even like the guy. Then again, she was trapped in a celler from the age of five to seventeen. That would drive anyone loopy. But I digress.

So, what does this have to do with Ash?

He's the prince I'm supposed to kill myself over.

So, logically, I should hate him,  right?

But he's NICE!! You can't hate someone who's this nice! It's just wrong!

So, I bet you're wondering why I'm whining about Ashton Prince anyway. There's a reason.

"*Um, Cinder, who's the boy who keeps staring at you?*" Kowaly asks. She pokes towards him with her french fries.

"*Ignore him. Just ignore him,"* I answer. I poke at my hamburger.

"H*e's coming over, you know,*" Mera says. "*You can't avoid Ashton forever,*" she adds unhelpfully.

"*Who's avoiding?!? I'm not avoiding anyone!! I just ... believe it would be best if I not get too attached to the guy I'm going to kill myself over,*" I object. Forrest snorts.

"*Oh, whatever, Cook out. We all know he likes you,"* he said. I glared.

"*Watch it, Greenie,*" I growled. "*He's just crazy!!"*  They stare at me. They're not buying it. Which makes sense, since I'm not buying it.

"*You like him, don't you."*Kowaly said. How? She's never met him and barely knows me!!!

"*No, and we are dropping this,"*Cinder declared.

"*She sounds like Fraid,*" Kowaly said to Forrest.

"*I know, right? I was thinking the same thing.*" Forrest answered.

"*Why did I think it was a good idea to make friends, again?'* I muttered as Kowaly's phone rings.

"*Westa, Easta!"* Kowaly said, smiling. *"How's it going?'"* *she asked.*

**Great,** came a reply from Kowaly's phone. **But we really miss you,**

**"***Aw, I miss you guys too. How's Honey?***"** Kowaly asked.