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If you looked at the big picture, Ginger Breadhouse had a pretty good life. Her mother was very supportive of her not following in her mother’s footsteps. Spells Kitchen, her MirrorCast, was enjoying a slow, but steady, increase of viewers. She had many good friends and she got along with Melody, her roommate. There really wasn’t much more that a girl could ask for. Yet, here she was, sitting in her room and daydreaming about the White Knight of Wonderland.
When they had met she had been overwhelmed by Wonderland and trying to warn her friends. She didn’t have time to think about her mysterious helper. Since then she had time to think about every moment, every word. As she turned them over and over in her mind she felt her heart grow lighter even as it filled with the earliest feelings of love. She really didn’t know anything about him. He could be handsome or ugly, human or beast, old or young. No matter how she imagined him she still felt that pull in her chest. It was like the feeling she had when she first met Hopper, only far more intense.
“Ginger! Hey, Ginger!” Faybelle’s voice called from outside of her bedroom door.
“Be right there, Faybelle,” Ginger cried out as she rushed out of her chair and threw open the door. Faybelle fluttered her wings as she walked into the room. She looked around, noting the tray of homemade pastries before dropping her bag on the ground.
The two of them were in General Villainy together. It was a required class for students destined to take the roles of villains. Faybelle was one of the best students in the class. Ginger, on the other hand, wasn’t doing too well. While she didn’t want to be a villain, Ginger still didn’t want to fail the class. So once a week Faybelle came over to her room and helped her review the material and Ginger always made sure she had the fairy’s favorite sweets on hand when they studied. The two of them had been childhood friends through their mothers but they had drifted apart as they grew older.
“This chapter is on traps for heroes. It covers general trap making theory, how to avoid being caught in your own trap, and examples of well-known traps from previous generations,” Faybelle said.
“Alright, sounds…fun.”
The two spread their textbooks out across the floor as they reviewed the material. Melody was out at a DJing gig so the two had the room all to themselves. None of the information seemed to penetrate into Ginger’s skull. Faybelle was forced to repeat sections over and over and Ginger still was having trouble remembering the information summarized within.
“Okay, tell me what’s up,” Faybelle demanded as she slammed her textbook closed.
“There’s nothing up!”
“No, something is fairy wrong. You are a pretty bad villain but you never take this long with the textbook portion of the course work. Tell me or I am taking all the cupcakes and leaving.”
“Fine,” Ginger said with a sigh, “do you remember the Spring Fairest?”
“Who could forget something like that?”
“Well, during it I was trapped in Wonderland. The White Knight helped me and now he’s all that I can think about.”
“Ginger has a crush,” Faybelle said in a sing-song voice.
“I-I guess. Maybe.” Ginger couldn’t help the blush that spread across her cheeks.
“I could help you with that.” Faybelle had an impish smile on her face.
“What’s it going to cost me?”
“Oh, I don’t know, how about you bring snacks to the next three cheerhexing practices?”
Ginger considered it. Faybelle was asking for a fair amount of food. But, Ginger enjoyed baking for others anyways and she was always making food to give people anyways.
“Alright, it’s a deal.”
“Score!” Faybelle said as she bounced to her feet, wings fluttering. She pulled her pom-poms out as she stopped to consider how she would word the spell. “Love, love far away, come find Ginger here today!” Faybelle finished her cheer with a cartwheel across the room. “There, if the person you like likes you back then they’ll confess to you today.”
“Thanks, Faybelle.”
“Just don’t let it get around that I did this. I have a reputation as a dark fairy to maintain.”
After that Ginger found it even more impossible to concentrate on her studies. She and Faybelle agreed to meet again tomorrow both to see how well the spell had worked and to try and finish with the review. Before leaving Faybelle told Ginger to stay around the campus but it didn’t really matter where she was. As long as the other person felt the same way they would find Ginger.
When she left her dorm room to go eat Ginger felt as light as a feather. She barely touched her food and she didn’t pay attention to the taste of texture of what she did eat. The conversation with Lizzie and Cedar couldn't keep her attention. Ginger ended up taking a long walk around the school grounds. Every time somebody approached her she would feel her heart tighten in excitement only to drop when they gave her nothing more than an everyday greeting. By sunset her feet had turned to lead and her shoulders drooped. The spell would only work if the other person felt the same way about her. No one had come to confess and so that meant that Ginger’s feelings were completely one-sided. Again.
Ginger dropped onto a wooden bench. She rested one elbow on the arm of the bench and her chin in her hand. There was a touch of envy in her heart as she watched Ashlynn and Hunter walk by with linked arms. Even if she wasn’t going to be a child eating witch like her mother it looked like true love just wasn’t going to be part of her story.
“Ginger, is everything alright?”
Ginger turned her head to see Darling Charming. She was the perfect picture of a princess in her silver and blue clothing with elegantly styled hair. Everybody knew that Darling was getting proposals and declarations of love everywhere she went.
“There is somebody I like and I don’t think they like me back.”
“I’m so sorry, Ginger. Hopper is so blind not to notice you.” Darling sat down next to Ginger on the bench.
“No, it isn’t Hopper. I mean I had a crush on him, but I understand that his heart is with someone else.”
“Then who is it?” Did Ginger detect a note of hope in Darling’s voice? She must have just been imagining things.
“The White Knight from Wonderland. We met back during the Spring Fairest and I just can’t get them out of my mind. It’s weird. I don’t really know anything about them, but I know the way he made me feel.”
Darling’s lips turned up in a soft smile. “Actually, I wanted to talk to you about the Spring Fairest.”