Ever After was just gradually slipping into chaos. That was how Apple White was seeing things. Nothing made sense anymore, it was clear Raven didn't want to be Apple's evil queen and now she couldn't be poisoned and wake up to her prince. For a couple of weeks, she convinced herself that someone on campus may have hated her enough to poison her without her asking. There must've, there just had to be someone who would've been willing to poison her. But then again, why would anyone want to poison Apple White? She was the poster child of perfection but without an evil queen, all her efforts would've been wasted. All her good grades, all her work as student body president, all for nothing. For a little bit, the current lack of an evil queen didn't bother her as long as she'd still have some way to get poisoned (for a moment, she thought of poisoning herself) she would still have her prince and her happily ever after.

For awhile, Apple would constantly turn the other cheek whenever she saw Daring flirting with a mass of girls on campus. She knew deep, deep in her heart that the only one Daring truly loved was her. She knew some girls, many girls actually, envied her for Daring but now, it appeared they had someone to give the green-eyed glare to.

Apple stared into the screen of her Mirrorphone and let yet another sigh escape her lips. On the Mychapter page she opened up, she found at the top of her news feed was a blown up picture of Daring and Lizzie Hearts on a secret date! The two of them were at Wonderland Grove behind a tree having a picnic. It hurt Apple so much seeing this picture, she could feel her heart sink just by looking at it. But it wasn't only the secret date that got to her, it was the look Daring held in his eyes. Daring typically seemed smug and a little unresponsive in a majority of pictures he's take with Apple, like he wasn't interesting. But here, he had this head-over-heels expression as if he was lovesick with Lizzie. He never looked at her like that!

Apple turned off her Mirrorphone and collapsed onto her bed, with her Mirrorphone falling onto the floor. Her story was ruined, it was never going to happen at this rate! She had no evil stepmother, no prince, all she had left was the seven dwarfs. But it wasn't like they could do anything about this fairy-fail. She curled up into a ball and felt tears finally rolling down her cheeks. There was no one who could understand, no one there to listen. Briar surely wouldn't have understood, and Apple just hated burdening people with her own problems. She couldn't tell Raven of course, she'd try and tell her it's for the better but there was no way Apple would bring herself to believe that. Not because she was stubborn or selfish, she just knew she needed to follow through and play Snow White like her mother did and then she could receive the happily ever after she worked so hard for. It seemed like no one knew how important her story was to her and it almost felt like nobody cared. There had to have been someone who could understand, someone who knew how much this story really meant to her.

Apple shot up as she thought of just the person. None other than Snow White herself. She could just send a hext to her mom and maybe she'd give some comforting advice that wasn't 'it's for the best'. She reached for her Mirrorphone from the side of her bed and turned it on. She checked through her address book and searched for Snow White. Of course, her mom was a bit outdated when it came to technology but hopefully she could've managed a simple little hext. When she finished typing her message, she hit send without any worries. But then, her message didn't seem to have been sent. Beside her message was a red little 'x' so she decided to type up her message again; only to receive the same signal. She resent and resent for three minutes straight before going into her settings app to see what the problem was. When she opened her settings, a window popped up that said 'connection failure'.

"What the hex?" Apple asked with complete confusion. She pursed her lips and tried to think of why her phone was acting up. Was this happening with everyone? Was this another incident like the time Professor Rumplestilskin was messing with the school's internet access? She looked outside her window to see if people were in panic fiddling with their phones to see if they worked or not.

Everything seemed to be in order beyond her bedroom, people were on Mychapter and surfing the internet. So that meant she was the only one cursed with a connection failure right now. She crossed her legs on her bed and threw her phone to the other side of her bed.

"Hm.." She sounded as she tapped her fingers against her legs. If she couldn't get to the bottom of this, there had to be someone in Ever After that could. Thankfully, she thought of just the egghead who could help her.

Apple wandered into the hall where the boys' dorms were and looked for Humphrey Dumpty's room. She scanned each room for him and finally found her little tech-wiz. She knocked on his opened door in a dainty manner and watched him play video games. Without even taking his gaze away from the screen he said, "Come in."

She slowly walked in and looked around Humphrey's room. One could obviously tell Humphrey and his roommates were polar opposites. Humphrey's side of the room was ridiculously organized, like Apple's, but also adorned with game consoles, video games and textbooks on his side table. His side was also a little plain in colour. A hint of blue and yellow could be seen but the rest of the room was egg-shell white.

"Hi Humphrey," Apple greeted as plastered on a small smile. In that instant, Humphrey stopped playing his game and looked towards Apple's direction to see if his ears were playing tricks on him.

No tricks. Apple White was standing in his doorway as pristine as ever. He grinned a large grin as their eyes met and he quickly dropped his controller and stood up walking towards Apple.

"Um, hey Apple.." Humphrey said shakily. He seemed to improved his ability to talk to Apple without sounding like a total moron since last time. Apple waved a tiny wave to him before she spoke up.

"My Mirrorphone's connection seems to be down, do you think you could help?" Apple asked as she held out her phone.

"I'll see what I can do," Humphrey replied as he took Apple's phone from her. He went over to his desk and turned Apple's phone on. Apple walked over and stood beside him as he examined her phone.

Humphrey felt himself reddened as he felt Apple's sparkling bright blue gazing down on him. He never felt so pressured in his life. Though he honestly did enjoy Apple's company. She was always so cheerful and while she may been a manipulative flirt from time to time, he believed she carried a soft spot in her heart for him.

"You know, this might take a little while.." Humphrey stated, quickly regretting what he just said.

He expected Apple to sigh a giant sigh of relief and leave as fast as she could. But no, she just stood at his desk side and didn't even move an inch after Humphrey's prompt.

"It's fine, I don't really have anything else to do." Apple said in forcefully cheerful tone that Humphrey could see right through.

"Are you sure? For a future queen you usually have to deal with such a jam-packed schedule." Humphrey pointed out.

"I just need a..break from all that right now." Apple declared, now sounding a little gloomy.

As Humphrey put Apple's phone in reset mode, he asked:

"Did something happen?"

Apple's eyes opened widely, she would've never expected anyone, let alone Humphrey, to ask about her well-being right now. Thinking about it now, she must've been delirious to think nobody would be concerned about Apple's well-being.

But Humphrey's concern felt, different. Everyone else seemed to only ask but never seemed interested in listening a lot of the time. Maybe Apple was just hearing things, maybe Humphrey was just like everyone else and was hung up on her only for her looks.

Apple didn't realize it, but she zoned out and left Humphrey without an answer from her. He was staring right into her eyes now and Apple could feel herself redden a bit, which felt almost unusual.

"Did it involve Daring?"

"Humphrey, it's none of your business!" She snapped. The two of them flinched and Apple expected him to be horrified of her considering she was never angry and that he was the type to do so. But instead, Humphrey went back to trying fix Apple's phone and the two did say a word for a while.

Finally, Humphrey spoke up again.

"I'm not sure what you see in him." Humphrey thought aloud. That got him a glare from Apple he could feel penetrating him but he still spoke.

"He's down-right flirt and self-centered. I know for a fact the only reason he's ok with being your Prince Charming is because you two look good together." Humphrey lamented as he raised his tone.

Apple looked down and thought to herself, "so what?"

"Apple, you deserve better and you know you do." Humphrey concluded.

"But he's a Charming! No one beats a Charming!" Apple finally shouted.

Humphrey was surprised with Apple's response. He didn't expect her to be so, shallow. There was no way she was thinking straight. Or maybe she was, maybe she always believed this. Maybe she refused to believe that Charming's weren't the best.

"Maybe to you." Humphrey finally said. As Humphrey kept on working, Apple thought long and hard about what Humphrey just said. She hated to think of Daring as a player but that's all she ever saw him as. He was always flirtatious and generally whenever he was with Apple, he never gave her that look he gave Lizzie in that picture. The more she thought about her incomplete story the more she began to wonder if Daring even cared about the story. With him so in love with Lizzie, it made her wonder if he ever cared about her.

"I've known Daring since I was eight." Apple began," We were introduced by our parents and they originally planned to have us engaged. But whenever the topic was brought to Daring, he'd shy away from it. His dad knew he was uncomfortable with the idea so it never happened. We tried, well I tried to become friends with him. It was hard in the beginning, he always seemed so detached and I couldn't understand why. But as we grew up, he grew more invested in himself and I just stood there waiting for him to stare at me rather than his reflection."

The whole time she spoke she wasn't sure whether or not Humphrey was listening.

"Go on." He simply said as he continued to play around with her phone.

"You know how at the beginning of the year I said me and Daring weren't dating because we had all of Ever After to be together? That wasn't actually the reason behind it. I honestly don't know how I feel towards Daring, I don't think I ever did. At first, I felt uneasy around him but I just assumed that the uneasiness would turn into love over time. But the more time I spent with Daring, the more empty I felt. I knew if I just pretended I loved him, everyone would believed and then the problem would be solved, all that mattered was our happily ever afters..and now we don't have either of those.."

Humphrey acted like he was more invested in fixing Apple's phone than listening to Apple so he wouldn't screw up and turn into a total dork but in truth he was listening intently and paid attention to Apple's story. He could tell Apple felt nervous about sharing this just by her voice. He could also tell by the end of her tale that she was about to break down.

He looked over to Apple, who was now in tears with her eyes red and her mascara running. He stopped working with her phone and went over to hug her.

Apple didn't honestly expect Humphrey to hug her, but she was thankful he did.

"It's alright, you honestly don't need a Prince Charming for your happily ever after." Humphrey assured.

"If I don't have an Evil Queen or a Prince Charming, how can my story happen?" Apple sobbed.

"I don't know." Humphrey said, "But.."

He broke the hug and looked Apple right in the eye once more.

"Is it worth it having your story take place while your Evil Queen is your friend and your Prince Charming loves someone else?" Humphrey asked.

"But what is we disappear?" Apple sniffled.

"Everyone else is willing to take that chance, and it seems like it's not going to happen.." Humphrey responded.

"But I liked my story! Why couldn't every one else just follow suit?" Apple said between sobs.

"Apple, not everyone was guaranteed a happily ever after. And thanks to Raven, they can get their own happily ever after. Wouldn't that be better anyways?" Humphrey asked in a persuading voice.

"Everyone has a role, it's like a play. Some have bigger parts than other, some have to play the bad guy. Because without them, the play can't happen." Apple explained. Humphrey surely wasn't convinced.

"Apple, this is a lot bigger than a play. This is a decision they have to make, they have to choose whether or not they're ok with losing themselves to their 'destinies'. No can assure them this is just a role they're playing, no one can tell them for sure they'll be the same old Raven or..them after their story is done." Humphrey explained.

"Which would you rather have? Your story fulfilled with Raven turning evil and you marrying Daring? Or no story and you make own path?" Humphrey asked.

Apple stared towards him, bewildered with Humphrey's question. If he asked her this weeks ago, she would've said have her story fulfilled. At least, that would've probably been her choice if the whole Raven turning evil and marrying Daring thing was absent.

"Look, it's getting late so..I'll have your Mirrorphone fixed in a day or two and I'll bring it back to you ok?" Humphrey offered.

"Alright. Good night.." Apple said as she left Humphrey's room.

" 'Night." Humphrey said as he returned to fiddling with Apple's phone. When Apple left his room, he crashed on his bed and looked up at the ceiling with a vacant look in his eye. Never in his life did he think he would ever get to have Apple open up to him, his heart was still racing just from the thought. But still, he never realized Apple was so hung up on her story and her happily ever after. Just what did happily ever after mean to her? All these thoughts of Apple were making his heart pound irregularly so he finally decided to take his out his own Mirrorphone and listen to some music.

He went on to Yourglass and searched up a singer he had gotten into lately. He typed up 'The Spellbnd' (pronounced the spellbend). He put in his headphones and listened to the song. The more he thought about it, the more the song made him think of Apple.

After another minute in, Humphrey realized the song just became background music while his thoughts began to spawn out of control. Apple was the only thing on his mind and who could blame him? The future queen of Ever After had just appeared and dished out all of her worries to him. Did that mean she trusted him? No, that was ridiculous. Why would she? Then again, she did confide in him. But even so Apple was so perfect, her biggest and only flaw weighed her down hard; her need to fulfill her destiny. What would matter to her so much about the completion of her story that had her in tears before him?

Humphrey knew for awhile to some of the Royals, their story meant a lot to them, but it was a whole new level with Apple. It appeared as if she couldn't go an hour, let alone a day without thinking about her story.

Humphrey on the other hand disliked his story, it wasn't even a story, it was a nursery rhyme! He remembered in nursery rhyme school he begged his mother to let him have his tale run it's course then while he was still a kid. But every time he asked, his mother declined each time and told him to not even think of such a thing.

But, lately he tried interpreting his story different, more figuratively.

"Humphrey Dumpty sat on a wall..." The wall was between the Royals and Rebels.

"Humphrey Dumpty had a big fall..." He was falling for Apple White. He never thought of the last two verses figuratively, they were his least favourite part of the nursery rhyme.

But the last line he thought of actually made him feel unnerved. Everyone loved Apple and Apple loved that everyone loved her. As future queen, she was supposed to love everyone around her. But would this be the same if Apple wasn't the daughter of Snow White? Maybe. It was hard not to picture Apple not being the wonderful person she was today but it was even harder picturing her falling for Humphrey. He wasn't much of a catch, he didn't stand out in a crown, but..he knew very well there was more to him. But it was hard to tell whether or not Apple knew that.

"Apple White, your beloved fairytale is beyond repair.." He said aloud.

"..Why is it so hard for you to see that I'm the the one truly cares?"

Brownie points to whoever can guess who "The Spellbnd" is a reference to