Thirteen year old April Kanker smiled eagerly and began bouncing in her seat as her teacher announced that they would be drawing lots for parts for their upcoming play. She looked forward to this every year, she and Shelly both did, they loved how every year, every class would do a play. Except the fact that, nearly every year, she got a role like 'princess' or 'fairy' or 'mermaid' or something similarly boring, but this year would be different!

This year, she was gonna be the dragon in the play! She was so confident, as soon as she heard there would be a dragon in this play, she had asked her mom and brother to help her make an awesome dragon costume. It was truly a work of art, with bottle cap scales that they (along with her dad) collected from the local junk yard as well as from the restaurant where her dad worked and claws that made clicking noises when they touched the floor. It was still in the middle of construction, but it was shaping up nicely and she was looking forward to wearing it on stage… or anywhere, really. It would make a cool Halloween costume too!

She looked around the room and watched as her friends and classmates picked their parts from a large top hat their teacher was holding, still bouncing on her butt and making her glasses hop down the bridge of her nose.

She watched as Antonio and Angel Garcia took their sheets and looked at them. Antonio brightened, "Guard #3! Sweet!" His older brother pouted, "Prince? Again?" April gave him a sympathetic look, much like she disliked always being cast as a beautiful creature with a typical pretty dress with only sparkly wings or tail or something not as cool or strange as a costume, Angel hated being cast as any kind of pretty boy. Most girls in the school acted like he was the handsome prince from a fairy tale on a regular basis, the last thing he needed was a proper excuse for them to do so. He and April often would moan and complain about why couldn't the world cut them a break and make them something different and cool. He looked up at her with a downtrodden expression, sighed, then mouthed, 'Good Luck'.

Not that many of the other girls noticed his disappointment, they simply smiled broadly and giggled amongst themselves before crossing their fingers to be the princess to his prince.

April looked to one of her besties, Judith, who was crossing her fingers as well, her eyes closed tightly. Judith had a crush on Angel since last year when they had been accidently locked into a museum together after hours and spent some time together (April, Oliver, Antonio and their friend Martin had been stuck in there too, but they had gotten separated into three pairs and they had no idea where the others were until they had been found by their parents.). But she had no confidence in herself since she was a bit overweight and wore thick glasses, April thought she was wonderful just as she was, but she knew some girls teased her behind her back. She never actually heard any of them say it out loud, but that was probably because they knew if any of her friends heard any of them say anything about her weight, they'd have to address to a rampaging April. (Not that she really remembered much of what happened whenever she got really angry, but usually when she snapped out of it, there was often massive property damage and people horribly injured, but still…)

No one wanted that.

Nope.

No, they did not.

She looked over towards Oliver, who had his fingers crossed as he reached in and pulled out, "Narrator! Yes!" he cried, nearly jumping from his seat, some of their classmates chuckling before Martin Mash(Maggie's second eldest brother) took his paper out and jumped up to join him as he cried out, "Guard #2!" and high fived him. Antonio and Angel got up and high fived them, starting a thing for each person to get up and high five each other announcing their parts to the teacher.

So far, most of her friends had gotten the parts they wanted. Oliver loved being the Narrator, even though his mother was a famous and skilled actress, he didn't inherit her mastery of the art, but he was still a pretty good actor and he did get her skills when it came to voice acting and he had more fun telling a story then portraying one through acting on stage or on film. And as for Martin and Antonio, they often enjoyed getting background parts so they could goof off during rehearsals without worried as much about getting caught (since they hardly had any scenes, they could mainly do as they pleased and didn't have to worry about messing up their few lines since they were usually pretty simple and straightforward.)

April watched as, one by one, the parts written up on the board were taken, leaving only two left as the teacher made her way to her and Judith, 'Princess' and 'Dragon' being the only options left. Judith seemed to be just as anxious as she was as the teacher offered her the hat.

'Come on, please let me be the monster this year!' she pleaded silently as Judith pulled out a sheet of paper and opened it, her expression relaxed into a somewhat relieved expression as she looked at it, but there was a hint of sadness in her eyes.

Did that mean she got the Princess role? Did that mean April could finally be the monster who plagued the kingdom with disaster and flames? Oh boy! Oh boy! This was gonna be so much fun!

April eagerly dove her hand into the hat and grabbed the last slip of paper and pulled it out.

'Princess'

Her heart sank. Seriously? Again? Why? Why did she always get the same boring parts!? Her costumes were always nice thanks to her mom and Aunt Jamie, but she'd gotten these stupid not fun roles four times straight in the past seven years! (she was a human main character for two out of the other three years and a tree for the first play one, but she was an awesome tree according to her parents) GEEZ! What would it take for her to be the monster for once?!

"What part did you get April?" Oliver asked her, eager to know what she was.

"Uh, it's kinda smudged…" she lied, trying her best to keep a somewhat believable poker face on, "Hey Judy, can I see yours?" She said, quickly rushing over to her desk and hovering over her. "Uh, sure." Judy replied, obviously confused as she handed the paper over to her best friend. She read the paper, yup, she had gotten the Dragon. So the teacher hadn't written the same part twice like she had been hoping was the case.

So why did Judith seem relieved, yet somewhat sad?

Hmm… well, Judith always had one line parts with simple costumes and the least amount of time on the stage, and the dragon was a big step up from that, so that was probably why she looked relieved. After all these years of being a background character, it would be nice to be one of the stars. The hint of sadness was probably because she had wanted to be the Princess to Angel's Prince. April's heart stung for the girl, Judy was one of her best friends and she truly admired her. She was smart, she was sweet, she was gentle, she was cute as a button and graceful and she was the best friend a girl could ever ask for! She totally deserved to be the one in the princess dress and the sparkly tiara for once. To be the prettiest one in front of someone she admired and the center of attention! A smile curled up April's cheeks as an idea dawned on her, she had just got a good idea how to give her friend that chance while allowing her to be something different for once!

"Cool!" she cried as she quickly swapped the papers between her fingers and held up her own as she rubbed the dragon one with her fingers, smudging the ink a bit so no one would question how she had a hard time reading her own paper as she announced that, "Look! Judy got the Princess!" the class looked at the two red heads, surprised.

"So I'm the dragon! Awesome! I can breath fire and bring despair and destruction to everyone!" she cheered, too busy high fiving their other friends and then the rest of the class to notice that Judy's face was drained of color by her friend's announcement.

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Judy looked at her fellow red head, stunned as the teacher smiled at her students before she wrote her name by the word 'princess' and April's name by the word 'dragon' on the chalkboard and had their classmates call out their parts again so she could write them down and pass out their thin script packets before the last bell rang and they were all dismissed to go home.

She couldn't believe this, she couldn't be the Princess! She wasn't pretty like a princess, she didn't deserve to wreck a pretty dress with her ugly, fat body. She'd ruin everything! April was obviously the better princess here! She was pretty and everyone liked her, her clothes always complimented her blossoming figure, she never really gained weight and ate what she liked and she was so sweet and kind and everyone liked her! Why the heck would she make it so she would be the princess and not her?

She paused as she packed up her things into her backpack, thoughtful. Could it be that April had been trying to help boost her confidence again? She held back tears at the thought, really, she didn't know what she did to have such a thoughtful and wonderful friend, but she really shouldn't have given up her chance to be the beautiful leading lady just so she wouldn't be a monster. Especially since it didn't suit her to be in pretty clothes and being Angel's leading lady.

She needed to talk April into switching back with her, for the good of the play…

In private...

She didn't want to reveal that April had lied and make her lose face for trying to be nice to her, so she'd need to talk with her alone. Which means she'd have to ask Oliver if he could not walk home with them today. She felt her chest ache when she asked him if he could walk home with Antonio, Angel and Martin today, saying that she wanted to ask April some private girl things and apologized profusely to him. Everyone knew that Oliver has been in love with April since they were all six and that he adored every second he spent with her, but he thought she was too good for him so he was contented with being one of her best friends and admiring her from the friend zone. Before the museum incident last year, Judy did her best to try to help him stay close to her because she felt that there was a chance that they could end up together and the hopeless romantic in her wanted them to get together and live happily ever after and have lots of adorable little babies…But after she got a crush on Angel and realized how painful it was to be crushing on someone who you felt was totally out of your league, she worked way harder to help him become closer with her since he had a much better shot with his crush than she did with hers! They were such good friends already and they were so perfect for one another! He was really nice and sweet and understanding and so was April. They had lots of similar interests, got along almost better than Judy's lovey dovey parents, and could finish each other's sentences when working on a comic. They were completely in sync with each other's thoughts and feelings and suited one another.

Completely unlike her and her crush.

Angel was really cool and handsome and fit, she was fat, lumpy and ugly. She was one of the smartest kids in school, Angel barely managed to scrape by academically. They didn't have any similar interests, nor had they ever been in sync. They'd had a nice time in the museum and (she'd feel foolish for this afterwards) and at that time her crush on him blossomed and (she REALLY felt foolish for thinking this later) thought she actually had a shot with him. But the moment they left that building full of wonders, she realized that she didn't suit him and he didn't suit her.

She didn't know why she still bothered to hold onto these feelings when she knew that he'd never return them, especially because it was so painful when she thought about it... but she couldn't help it, every time she saw him smile she felt like she truly was in the presence of a beautiful celestial being, her body felt light and her heart soared, her day always became a little brighter whenever she saw his laughing face. And she really did enjoy talking to him about anything, and while he was not as smart as she was, his views on certain things was often so different from hers that it usually ending up as an interesting debate or discussion that left them both with new opinions on the topic at hand. Plus, they both liked baking together whenever the others were busy, which wasn't very often, but it was still really fun.

Oliver did his best to hide his disappointment when he said it was fine, but it was still very clear that while he understood that there were some things that the girls would want to talk about alone, he still was upset that he couldn't walk home with them today.

But that was when Martin saved the day, he quickly grabbed his shoulders and suggested that he, Angel, and Antonio practice their lines at his house and the four of them were off, she mouthed a 'thank you' to him as they left, to which he simply nodded. Out of the four of the guys, he was the one who could see who liked who easily and did his best to help get the individuals together as fast as possible to cut down on drama… It was probably because he found watching his older brother, Malcolm, attempt to woo his oblivious crush, Norma, to be so painful to watch…

Yet he didn't like that his little sister, Maggie, was totally in love with April's little brother, Sheldon…

Judy shook her head as she watched the boys dash off, laughing and chatting, 'Boys.' She thought, 'Such complex and confusing creatures…'

"Judy!" April called, "Come on! I bet my Aunt Jamie has the perfect dress for ya!"

Judy doubted it, but she quickened her pace to join her before she over heard any girls make nasty jokes about her weight again. "Where's Oliver? I woulda thought he'd come home with us." April asked, a little disappointed he couldn't come with them as well.

"Uh, Martin invited him to his house with Angel and Antonio to practice their lines."

"Oh!" she said, then looked at her, pensive, "Is something wrong, Judy? Cause, I woulda thought that you'd be happy to get the Princess."

"That…" she stopped herself, she couldn't beat around the bush but she didn't want to talk about her insecurities either, so she sucked in a breath and said, "I'm not suited to be a Princess…"

"Why not?" April asked, sounding legitimately confused at her friend's confession. Judy couldn't believe this, surely April could see that, out of the two of them, she'd make the prettiest princess?

"Because I'm not…" the words got stuck in her throat as she felt her eye burn with tears, did she really have to say the painfully obvious out loud? "I'm.. I'm not beautiful. I'm fat and homely and I'd wreck any pretty dress your aunt could design for me with my stupid, ugly body!"

April scowled, "What are you talkin' about!" she demanded, "You're pretty and smart and nice and…"

"Oh come on, April!" Judy blurted, throwing her arms out, "Look at me!"

"I am!" she insisted, "You're just as pretty as anyone else in our class!"

"NO, I'M NOT!" she shouted, tears beginning to pour down her face, "I'M NOT PERFECT AND BEAUTIFUL AND HAVE A NICE FIGURE LIKE YOU! I'M FAT AND GROSS AND UGLY! MY ONLY GOOD QUALITY IS THAT I'M SMART! AND THAT WON'T WIN ANGEL! I'M BETTER OFF HIDING MY FACE AND NOT WRECKING THE PLAY AS THE PRINCESS!"

April watched her cry for a moment, stunned by how little she thought of herself.

Then her face shifted into an angry pout, her eyes bright with rage, her face red and her buck teeth sharpening as she shook, "I am not perfect." She said, her voice stern.

Judy looked up at her friend and felt her blood go cold, it was the same face she made right before going on what would later be identified as a Kanker rampage the last time some nasty girl made fun of Judy's weight and destroyed most of the school and sent that girl to the hospital.

Judy stood there, stale tears sliding down her face as she looked at her friend, frozen with fear. April grabbed her arm and dragged her to the local junkyard, steaming and scowling silently the whole way there.

When they arrived, she kicked one of the fence posts so hard the board went flying across the lot, before Judy could wonder why she had been brought here, April dragged her into the depths of the junk yard until they reached a large mirror covered in garbage, pollen and other unsavory things.

She then wiped a long streak in the grime clean with her hand and pointed to the two of them, "YOU SAY I'M BEAUTIFUL AND YOU'RE NOT? LOOK IN THIS MIRROR!" she ordered, pointing to it with her gunk covered hand. Judy winced at the command, but looked into the mirror. "WE AREN'T THAT DIFFERENT! WHAT DO YA SEE IN HERE THAT'S UGLY?!" she demanded to know.

Judy trembled as she pointed to her glasses in the reflection, April moved her hand so she was pointing to the pair on her face. "Try again." She said darkly.

Judith pointed to her freckles, April repositioned her hand again and pointed to the ones that graced her own cheeks, "Nope." She said sternly.

Judith pointed to her hair, April shifted her finger to point to her own hair, her face slowly sliding from rage to pain, "Come on, Judy," she said, her voice softer now. Judy pointed to her body, her finger shaking. April began moving her hand towards her own reflection when Judy blurted that, "NO! YOU'RE NOT FAT!"

April lifted her shirt up with her dirty hand to reveal her slight jelly belly and poked with her clean hand, making it jiggle, "Well, it ain't muscle wiggling like that." She said plainly, then poked it again and giggled before pulling her shirt back down.

Judy looked frantically in the mirror, trying to find something that could prove her point, "Judy…" she said softly, her reflected smile pained and her eyes filled with hurt, "If you really were ugly, you wouldn't hafta try this hard to point it out to me, now would ya?" Judy looked at her, her eyes watering, "I just… I can't…"

"Yes you can." April cooed as she pulled her friend into a hug, "Yer just as pretty as anyone else, and if you can't see it, I'll just hafta prove it."

The two stood there for a moment, nothing to break the silence other than the sound of some flies buzzing around a nearby pile of what was probably (?) compost.

"So we have to go to your Aunt's?" Judy squeaked, unable to prove to her friend that her painful perception of herself was correct, but also unable to keep herself from hoping that she truly was wrong about herself.

"Well, yeah, but only because we'll probably need to wash your sweater anyway…" April said, sounding a bit guilty near the end of that sentence.

"Why?"

"Cause I forgot to wipe the stuff on my hand on my skirt before I hugged ya." She said sheepishy, holding up her much cleaner hand. Judy pulled at the cloth of her sweater and saw a dirty hand print on her back and smiled, "Pfttt…" she snorted, "At least you didn't pat me on the back and get more of it on there!" April started to laugh too, "Or I could've made a smiley face!" Judy then burst out laughing with her best friend for a few minutes before they calmed down.

"I think you'll make a great Princess Judy." April said confidently, "And if you can't see that, then this Dragon will be your Fairy Godmother will show you!"

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Judy stood with her arms wide open, wearing only her t-shirt and her skirt and feeling a bit exposed without her thick, oversized sweater, her face pink as April's Aunt took her measurements with tape measure, "Well?" April asked eagerly as she bounded back into the room after swapping the stained sweater from the washer to the dryer, her shirt still dirty despite her Aunt offering her one of her new designs to wear while they threw that in the wash with Judy's sweater earlier.

The pale woman scribbled the last measurement down on a note pad and took a quick pick of Judy's face with a digital camera and put it on the table beside her, "I don't have any samples here that will suit her skin tone, I have samples at my studio, so bring her by tomorrow so I can compare which color looks best with her complexion. I should have a few sample dresses ready for her to try on in three days." She said, her tone cheerful and light as she put the camera back down.

"A few dresses?" Judy echoed, "In only three days? Is that really okay? April told me that you're on maternity leave…"

"Oh, don't you worry about that, I have a sweet little angel helping me!" she sang, her voice filled with pride and motherly affection. It took Judy a second to remember the one of the girls she had did her best to instruct on how to be a big sister a few months back...

"You mean Jasmine?" she asked.

"MOM!" A loud female voice cried, making Judy jump as the two other females in the room simply turned towards the door, where a pale haired child wearing a pink t-shirt and a pair of jeans was holding a baby in a cute little white sundress covered in pink stars who was quite fussy and struggled in her arms, "Stella's upset, but she's not wet or stinky and she keeps wiggling and I can't burp her when she's wiggling like this to see if it's just gas or I might drop her, can you help me?"

"I'll do it, Jazzy!" April offered before her Aunt could reply, rushing over to the girl and careful picking up the infant and gently patting her on the back, making her spit up on her back, "There ya go!" she cheered, ignoring the spit up sliding down her back and adding another stain to her shirt as she handed the baby back to her, "Now I'll give ya back to your big sister." She cooed.

"Thanks April." She said as the baby snuggled into her sister's embrace, joy radiating off the infant, "Yeah, Stella, your big sissy's got ya." She said softly as she gently rocked her back and forth.

Judy then watched as April's Aunt snatched the camera off the table and began snapping pictures of the little girls like a mad woman, making Jazzy increasingly more nervous as her mother took more and more photos of them.

"Mom!" she cried, "No pictures!"

"But you're both so cute!" her mom insisted with a broad smile, "My little princesses!" Jazzy's expression became one of shame and pain for a moment before rushing out of the room, baby in tow. "Jasmine?" The woman called, worried as she quickly rushed out behind her children.

Judy knew that expression all too well. It was the same one she had been making for years whenever her mother insisted she was 'cute' or 'beautiful' or looked 'so wonderful' in something. It was painful because, while a mother would always see their children as beautiful, the world was never so kind. That little girl was just like her, insecure in herself for some reason or another. However, Judy's reason was obvious as her large, chubby body, but why did that girl feel insecure? She had such pretty hair and skin, she was fit, she would look great in a pretty dress.

She looked at her best friend, bewildered.

"Jazzy feels like she doesn't suit her mom's dresses, that she's not pretty or lady-like enough to wear them." April explained softly.

"But she has such pretty hair and skin! She's thin and…"

"She's a lot like you." April said, giving her friend a smile that held a hint of sadness in it, "She can't see what everyone else does, she can't see how beautiful she really is."

Judith looked at her reflection in the mirror once more, her surprise that such a sweet looking, caring little girl would be so insecure about her appearance was very clear on her face. She then decided to look at herself as a whole in the full body mirror on the wall in front of her. She still didn't see much that she liked, but after seeing how such a cute child could feel the same way she did about her appearance, maybe, just maybe, she wasn't as ugly as she had been telling herself she was. Maybe she just needed to help herself by doing something that would make her like what she saw in the mirror.

"Hey April?"

"Yeah?"

"I still don't really like what I see…" she looked back at her friend, "Can we really change that?"

"Sure we can!" April assured her, "What is the thing that you're least confident about?"

"Well, I'd like to lose some weight, and I've been getting some bad acne…"

"Hmmm…" April said as she squinted through her glasses, as if trying to see exactly what faults her friend was referring to, but struggling.

"I want to be a little healthier, you know?" Judy said, trying to say it in a way that could help April see her insecurities. She smiled vibrantly, "Well, if ya just wanna be a little healthier, we can ask my dad about portion sizes and healthy alternatives. We can go to classes at my Uncle Tee's studio to work out and we can talk to my Aunt Ann about what to do for your skin."

"Really?"

"Yeah!" April said cheerfully, "After your sweater is dry, how about we go to my house and if my dad's home, we'll start with him. My Aunt and Uncle won't be home for a bit, but in the mean time why don't we talk to my dad and ask if he can write down some recipes for your mom to make?"

"That'd be great, thanks April!" She beamed as she gave her bestie a big hug, being careful to avoid the spit up on her back and being quite sure that the gunk on the front of her friend's shirt would end up on hers as well, only for her to jump when a beeping sound came from the direction of the dryer, informing them that her sweater was now dry. She looked back to the doorway, and said, "I need to do something really quick first, can you grab my sweater from the dryer?"

"Yeah, sure!" April agreed as they both exited the room, April headed towards what Judy assumed was probably the laundry room as she went towards the opposite direction to follow the direction April's Aunt went to apologize to her eldest for taking so many pictures. When she spotted them, she saw Jazzy hold her pouting sister tight as her mother tried to assure her how cute she was to no avail. She felt a pang of pity for the woman, because she knew that no matter how much she tried her best to assure her baby of how beautiful she truly was, it was always seem as if the love she had for her children blinded her to what Jasmine perceived herself in the mirror.

"Um!" Judy called, catching the three other female's attention, "She's right, you really are cute! I think your hair is really pretty too, your baby sister is lucky to have a sweet, cute big sister like you." She said loudly.

Jazzy looked at her, her cheeks flushed and her eyes wide with growing tears of gratitude ready to leak from them, although it was clear that her opinion of her looks hadn't changed much, it was just as obvious that Judy's kind words made her feel just a tiny bit better about herself. Her baby sister wiped at her sisters falling tears with her pudgy little fingers. "T-thank you." She studdered to her. She then looked at her little sister, her eyes filled with warmth, "And thank you too, Stella." She said before snuggling her sister, who followed suit, her mother silently taking photos of her babies while they cuddled. April came up behind her friend, sweater in hand, "Awww…" she murmured.

"Hey Mom?" Jazzy finally said.

"I WASN'T TAKING ANY PICTURES!" The mother cried, hiding the camera behind her back, making the children look at her funny before her daughter went on to say that, "There's some leftover pinkish-purply colored cloth in my closet left over from making Stella's blanket, I think it would look really pretty on her." She said, pointing to Judy. Her mother's eyes widened and she hugged her babies, "THAT COLOR WOULD BE PERFECT! I'LL GO GET IT!" She then nuzzled her precious little angels, cooing compliments for a minute before racing up the stairs to get the fabric and singing how fabulous Judy would look and how spot on her daughter's observation had been, beaming with pride and glee.

"Thank you." Judy said softly. Jazzy nodded before she bashfully hopped up the steps to 'put Stella back into her crib.'

April smiled at her friend, "Well, now that she has the fabric and your measurements, let's go to my house and ask my dad for some new recipes for your mom!"

"Okay!" Judy said, starting to get a bit excited. She was gonna do her best to become healthier and like herself more, not just for herself, but so that one day she could help that beautiful little girl who had just run upstairs see just how pretty she was too! She was gonna be the prettiest princess ever!

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Natasha glanced at the clock, it was 6:29pm and Judy still hadn't come home yet. Now, her sons would often spend time late with their friends and come home late, however, Judy always called if she would be coming home later than four o'clock. She nervously rocked from her toes to her heels, unsure if she should call the police or not. She talked to her beloved Issac about it a little while ago, he suggested that she wait until 6:30 and then start calling her friends' houses and ask them to tell Judith that it was almost time for dinner and she needed to come home, if none of them had seen or heard from her in a while, to try the library and if she wasn't there, to then call the police.

She looked down at her cell phone, it was finally 6:30, she could start calling now. She was about to begin typing in An and Jay Kanker's home number when the number for An Kanker's cell phone popped up on her screen as an incoming call. She threw it into the air in surprise before juggling it in her hands for a moment before accepting the call, "Hello?" she blurted into the phone, "An?"

"Yup, that's me!" a familiar voice cheerfully replied, "I'm bringing Judy home right now! We're on speaker cause that's the safe thing to do when driving!"

The concerned mother let out a sigh of relief, her nervous worries ebbing from her mind and letting her ignore a soft, nervous voice in the background pleading with the driver to, "WATCH OUT FOR THE DUCKS!" only for her to be snapped out of it by the sound of loud quacking.

"Were those ducks?" she asked, confused.

"Yup!" An replied, as if that were not strange at all, "Judy asked me to call you on the way back 'cause she said you'd be worried."

"I was. She normally calls either me or her father when she's going to be home later than four."

"I'm sorry, Mother. I was preparing for the play…"

"Oh! What part did you get?" she asked excitedly. Oh, how she hoped her sweet little girl would be a star this year, not that she didn't do a wonderful job at any of the small roles she had done over the past few years, but it was about time her baby got a bigger part.

"I…" Judy's voice trailed off. Natasha gripped the phone, her fingers crossed for her Judie Cutie Pie. "I'm the princess. I'm the lead." She said, sounding both overjoyed and terrified.

"THAT'S WONDERFUL!" she cried, apparently surprising her sons, who scurried over to the kitchen doorway as Judy explained that, "April's gonna be the dragon, and since we're gonna be two of the leads, she wanted me to have the perfect costume, so we went to her Aunt Jamie…"

"Aunt Jamie?" she asked, confused. April's father, Jay, had been nice enough to let her use his kitchen to make her pastries and confectionaries when her bakery had a gas leak and needed to be repaired. During that time, she had enjoyed many a conversation and learned plenty about their family. She knew Jay only had two brothers, one of whom worked with Issac at the university that she had met before, Larie, and the another one, Tee, ran a dance studio-slash- fencing center in town that some of Tommy's friends went to during the week. Both of their wives were also named An, (Ann and Anny respectively) so she must have been An with one N's brother's wife. She had heard that she'd had a baby not to long after Ann had Emma. Was her name Jamie? She strained herself for a moment, trying to remember if that was her name.

"She's my brother's wife." An informed her, "Jamie Hudson."

"Oh! The one with the fairy tale fashion line?" she recalled.

"Yup! She said Judy will need to come back to her house in three days to try some dresses on."

"Could you give me her address?"

"She lives a few houses over. It's the pink house."

"Oh! The one with those cute little rose bushes shaped like unicorns?"

"Yeah, that's it!"

"WATCH OUT FOR THE TREE!" she heard Judy cry, "Whoops!" An said as the sound of swerving tires shrieked into the phone, making Natasha move the phone away from her ears for a moment before shoving it right back by her ear. "Sorry." An apologized, although if it was to her or Judy she had no idea.

"Are you both okay?"

"We're okay Mother," Judy nervously assured her, "Miss An just is a very… creative driver…"

"Thank you Judy! Oh look, we're here! We'll see you soon!" the phone clicked off and Natasha ran to the front door and practically threw it open, her sons right behind her to see An skid in a circle in front of the driveway and rumble in before slamming to a stop before they slammed into front of their garage. An seemed perfectly fine, which was a very drastic contrast with the terrified Judy in the passenger's seat, clinging for life to any surface in the car she could hold on to, which apparently happened to be what looked like a brown wig and an open lollipop. An waved cheerfully as she opened the door, let out a boisterous, "HIYA GOLDSTEINS!" and hopped out of the car with her classic dopey grin on her face and headed towards the backseats while Judy's exit from the car was more slow and shaky, her face paler than usual as she carefully pulled herself out of the car, holding the wig and lollipop close to her chest as she tried to take deep breaths.

Natasha quickly helped her daughter walk up the driveway and towards the front porch while An rummaged around in the back for a bit before emerging with a thick binder with a few pieces of paper on top, "Here ya go!" she said as she passed it to her, her sons quickly relieving her of steadying their sister so she could take the offering her friend had so joyfully given her.

"What is all of this?" She asked.

"It's all part of the plan!" An replied, not really doing much to answer the question.

"Plan?" Tommy echoed, confused as he gently tugged at the candy stuck to his sister's hand.

"What plan?" Isi asked, just as clueless about what the woman was talking about as his brother and mother as he managed to unclamp his sister's fingers on the wig and hand it back to An.

"April and I want to be the best leads ever," Judy explained, her voice soft with a hint of dizziness that diminished as she continued talking, "So we came up with a plan to do that. We need to be full of energy and extra nourished, so we made a meal plan that we'd both follow with Mr. Jay's help."

Natasha held up the binder, "This?" Judy nodded in confirmation, "April's Uncle Tee owns the local Dance Studio and he said it was okay if I joined April's regular dance class with her on Monday, Wednesday and Friday until the play for free and if I liked it and wanted to keep doing it, he'd be happy to welcome me to the class." Natasha looked at her friend, astonished, "Thank you…" she said.

"You're Welcome! Oh, and we have a carpool!" An added, "Judy can walk home with April and we'll drop her off at home after class for you and Tee said if you all want to come and dance too, that's fine, but he'll want to talk to you first."

"That sounds wonderful!" She blurted, imagining her husband twirling her around on the dance floor while her babies did ballet nearby in perfect sync.

Isi brightened, "That sounds like a blast!" he then pulled both his younger siblings close to him, "We could be a dance trio!" he declared. Tommy rolled his eyes, but said nothing to burst the happy bubble the rest of the family was in at the moment. Natasha beamed at binder and pages in her hands, proud of the amount of effort her daughter and her best friend were willing to go to be the best they could and how sweet it was for them to include Isi and Tommy as well. She felt tears begin to sting her eyes as she looked at the dance class schedule… only to see one more thing. She pulled it from the stack, "Is this a prescription?"

"Hm?" An said as she leaned in and got a good look, "That's Double-N's handwriting…" she observed. Natasha opened her mouth to ask who was this 'Double-N' person, only for her to remember that Ann told her that the children she grew up with called her that because she and her sisters-in-law were all named 'An' and they needed to be able to differentiate between her and An with one N.

"I, uh…" Judy looked at the ground and began drawing shapes on the concrete with her shoes, "My acne has started to itch a lot and I'm scared that if I scratch them too much, they'll pop and leave scars, so I talked to Dr. Kanker today and she gave me that to get a cream to help with it." she explained sheepishly.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Natasha asked, "I would have scheduled an appointment right away if I knew."

Judy looked up at her mother, a bit embarrassed, "It only started happening this week and I was afraid that if I waited until we could get an appointment, I'd scratch and pop them, she said if they got itchy again to call her and she'd come over and take a look, even if we don't have an appointment set up."

"Well, that's good!" She looked at her fellow mother, "Thank you, An, for dropping her off. I'll drop this off at the pharmacy on my way to work tomorrow."

"Okay, see you Monday!" An said with a wave before climbing back into her car and driving off, swerving a bit too fast and nearly crashing into Issac as he slowed down to pull into the drive way, Natasha pulling her babies close as they narrowly avoided a collision. An called out, "Sorry!" before speeding off home.

Issac was shaking as he left the car and quickly walked to his family and held them close. "Are you alright, Darling?" She asked.

"Yeah… I just… need a second…" he managed, shaking as he squeezed them tight.

Natasha's phone rang, surprising all of them. She picked it up, "Hello?"

"I am so sorry." Jay Kanker gushed through the phone, "I was getting the keys and An had already left with her, is Judy okay?"

"Yes, she's fine, we're all fine." She assured him shakily.

"I'm so sorry." He repeated, "We'll let other people drive her home after the dance class, I promise."

"Okay." She agreed, the whole family calming down, after chatting with Jay a bit more, she wished him a good night and hung up, "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm pretty hungry, why don't we see if we can find a recipe in here," she held up the binder, "That's quick and easy?" Her family nodded eagerly and headed inside, Natasha stopped her daughter by the front door and gave her a big hug, "I'm so happy that you're so excited about this." She said softly, "You'll be the prettiest princess ever, I know you will." Judy hugged back tightly, "Thank you Mother." She said, her voice wavering with emotion a bit, "I'm honestly really nervous, I've never had a part this big before, but I think this will be good for me."

"I think so too." Natasha purred before giving her baby girl a kiss on the head and leading her into the kitchen while flipping through the binder, "Now which one shall we have tonight?"

.

.

.

For the next two weeks, April had practically been attached to Judy by the hip. Besides the dance classes and practice with their friends (which had been a little difficult for Judy since she had to be so close to Angel in a few of the scenes), April had started coming over every weekend morning, bright and early, for jogs. She brought her over to her make up artist's neighbor's house (after confirming with her mother that she was not allergic to any kind of make up) and she went shoe shopping with her. She was over at her house after they'd practice with their friends, both going over their lines as she tried different hairstyles on her. She'd nearly hidden all kinds of sweets in their house so Judy wouldn't be tempted.

Isi and Tom had a feeling that this was a little more than about being the best lead roles ever for the two girls. But, how could they confirm this?

Tom came up with a few theories and convoluted plans to find out, but Isi decided to just go the simple route and offered to walk April home one day when they had learned that her dad's car broke down and that her mom was the only one who could pick her up. Naturally, April accepted, thanking him before calling her mom and telling her that Isi was going to walk home with her and to focus on getting her Dad home, looking a bit guilty when the call ended (probably from encouraging her mother to drive her dad around in an attempt to save herself).

On the way back, Isi just got straight to the point, "Aren't you two being a bit extreme with this whole, 'best leads ever' thing?" he asked her.

April looked at him, surprised by the question, "what do you mean?"

"I mean, the costume and make up and shoes thing, I get, but why the special diet? Why the early morning jogs? Why hide all the pastries in our house? Why go to all this trouble for a part?"

He watched as she glanced down at her shoes as they walked, her buck two front teeth biting into her lower lip, as if she was trying to bite back the words that wanted to tumble out of her mouth.

"Is it a boy?" Isi guessed.

April rubbed her shoulder awkwardly, her lip beginning to bleed.

"Please, April, I just want to know why you're doing so much for my sister for this."

She looked up at him, obviously hesitant as she finally let up on her lower lip, "It's not as simple as that…"

"Then what?"

April looked back and forth around them, as if making sure they wouldn't be overheard, once she was satisfied that the cost was clear, "If I tell you." She said softly, "You promise not to tell anyone?"

"Promise!" Isi assured her. April sucked in a breath, a guilty expression on her face, "Okay… so… where do I start…"

"From the beginning would be good." He offered.

And she did. She told him about how Judy actually got the role of the Princess. She told him about how Judy told her that she saw herself as ugly while putting her up on a pedestal of prettiness. She told him that, after meeting her little cousin Jasmine, who also didn't think of herself as pretty, that Judy had decided to change a bit so she could like herself more. When Isi demanded to know what kind of changes April meant, she clarified that the choices were to improve her health by losing a bit of weight with good diet and exercise and addressing to her acne with prescribed medicine. She then told him that while Judy's goal was to become a little healthier, her goal was to help her become happier with herself.

"It just hurt so much that she couldn't see how great she is." April explained, her voice cracking with emotion as she spoke, "I mean, she kept making it sound like I'm perfect and she's not." She kicked at a loose stone, "Like I don't have any flaws."

"Well, you are popular and good looking, you're strong and kind to everyone and you're always happy…" Isi said, listing her traits off his fingers, "I can see why she'd put you on a pedestal."

"But I'm not always happy." She argued, "I can be sad, grumpy, mopey and angry, although I can't really remember much about what happens when I get too angry…"

Isi momentarily considered making a joke about her being like Dr. Banner, but the thought subsided as she went onto say that, "I may be strong, but I don't really know just how strong I am and it's kinda hard to control my own strength. Judy is always gentle with everyone and never has to worry about crushing them or nearly breaking people's ribs when giving them a hug. I'm clumsy, Judy's always very careful and calculated with her movements. I'm not very smart while Judy's been gettin' As for as long as I can remember. I've got a short attention span while Judy can stay focused on anything with no problem. I've never had a crush on anyone before so I always feel weird when the younger girls in my cul-de-sac ask me for advise about boys. I'm messy and… and…" tears began flowing down her cheeks as she shouted that, "I AM NOT PERFECT!"

Isi didn't know what to say to that as April then sported an irritated pout as she wiped at her face, Isi pulled a hanky from his pocket, "Here." He offered.

"Thanks." She managed before drying her face and then honking her nose it. She then looked at the wet, snotty cloth in her hands and then back at him, "Uh, can I wash this before I give it back? It's kinda gross right now..." Isi chuckled before giving her a gentle pat on the back, "That's fine."

"Sorry fer yellin' at ya." She said softly as she stuffed the snot covered cloth into her pocket.

"It's fine, everyone has their own insecurities, I'm just sorry for bringing them up." He said.

They continued to walk silently for another five feet until he whispered, "Thanks for telling me about this, April. While it hurts to know that Judy can't see just how wonderful she is, I'm glad she has someone like you as a friend to help her with that."

"…Even if I'm a klutz?" she asked.

"You could be the worst clown ever and I wouldn't care." He joked. April shivered at the comment, "What, afraid of clowns?" he teased. April glanced around nervously, not even listening to him as she frantically searched for the over gleeful creepos.

"Are you serious?" he asked, laughter in his voice.

"What? They're so creepy!" she blurted, a little upset that he found her fear so funny, "And their laughs are the sounds of nightmares!" Isi burst out laughing as she scowled and insisted that she was telling the truth, her words making his fits of giggling worst each time until she started laughing too.

When they got to her house, she thanked him for talking to her about all this, "I really needed ta get it all off my chest."

"No problem." He said with a wave of his hand. April waved as she pulled a key from her pocket and unlocked the door.

"Hey April?"

She stopped and turned to him, "Yeah?"

"You may not be perfect, but I think you're the best friend my sister could ever ask for." April smiled and opened her mouth to thank him before he added, "Even if you're afraid of clowns." He then booked it before April could give him a good sock in the arm for the comment.

When he arrived back home and walked towards the bathroom to wash up for dinner, Tom blocked the door and looked at him expectantly, "So?"

He opened his mouth, ready to give all the information he had just gained to his brother when he stopped himself, instead of spreading the word around the house that Judy didn't think she was pretty, which would most likely make matters worse, he should encourage the family to help this plan a little more.

And he knew exactly how to do that.

"The play is graded for them, it's the first year they're trying it and Judy was scared her grades might drop if she messes up, so April is doing her best to make her feel more confident about this so she won't become a nervous wreck and get a bad grade."

Tom looked at him, his eyes narrowed as he processed the information his older brother had just given him. Isi silently prayed that his brother would believe him, after all, he had never really lied to him before (except that one time he asked where babies came from and he said he didn't know) and he just wanted to help their sister.

"Understood." Tom said simply, "Perhaps next time they are practicing their lines, we should offer to help them. It may help us with our own upcoming performances as well."

Isi smiled and ruffled his younger brother's hair, "That's a great idea, Tommy!"

Tom winced a bit at the nickname but did not push his brother's hand away and grumble while trying to re-tame his wild purple curls with a handful of clear green goop. Instead, he waited for his brother to remove his hand and start to re-wash them before he fixed his hair. The eldest Goldstein child walked out of the bathroom and had just started down the stairs when he saw his sister in her room, practicing her lines while putting her books in her backpack for the next day, she spoke a little louder than she usually did and was even smiling a little bit as she tried different tones of voice with it, testing it a bit more before he piped in, "Say it like you did the first time, just a little louder."

Judy jumped, turned, spotted him, blushed, but instead of fleeing to the bathroom to wash her hands and recover from embarrassment, she stiffened a bit and repeated the line in a slightly louder voice in the way her brother had instructed her to.

When she finished, he clapped for her, "Bravo! Bravo!" he cheered.

It was at that point when she fled into the bathroom, bashfully excusing herself as she passed their younger brother on her way in.

Tom gave him a flat look, his arms crossed, "I certainly hope that's not what you thought I meant when I said we should help her with her lines…"

.

.

.

Today they were doing their dress rehearsal, Judy nervously rubbed her arms as she stepped into of the girl's dressing room with a cheerful, humming April, their book bags and costumes in hand. In all honesty, she hadn't lost all that much weight, she felt more energetic and happier, and she was a little stronger physically but she hadn't really lost too much weight. Dr. Kanker explained that when you are exercising, while you are burning off fat, you are also building muscle, which weighs more than fat, so she wouldn't lose too much weigh at first. She looked at her arms, they were more muscular than before, and they didn't jiggle anymore when she moved them, so she decided to accept that as another step forward as a healthier, happier Judith Goldstein.

She pulled the dress out of the garment bag her mother put it in after it went through the final fitting yesterday as she nervously went over her lines in her head. Even though her brothers had helped her practice so much at home that she had a majority of the play itself memorized by now, she had learned a long time ago while playing her meager, lacking parts that practicing stuff at home with your brothers while one wears an old blanket as a cape and holds an empty toilet paper tube as a sword and the other one tapes a picture of a dragon onto an old wool cap and holds his hands up to his chest like a t-rex and your mother gushing praise after each scene was way different from being on stage practicing her lines in her costume. She help up the dress and held it up to herself, her hands shaking. She had felt way more confident in the safety of April's house when her aunt brought it over for Miss An to compare the color to the stage jewelry she was making for her and for her final fitting. Jasmine and Stella had come too, Sheldon entertained the two little girls and her mother while Miss Jamie made the final adjustments to the dress. She sucked in a breath to calm herself as she remembered how proud her mother had looked when the last pins had been removed and she was urged to twirl a bit to make sure the dress wasn't too long or short while she moved.

"You look so pretty, Judy!" her mother cheered as she had spun around for her. To be honest, it fit in a flattering way on her figure and the color looked good on her. Later April's make up artist neighbor explained how to put make up on, explaining that since she was so young that she not use very much of the makeup her mother had bought on Tim's mother, Miss Julieta's suggestion for her, to only use the simple foundation to hide any reddened acne and taught her how to carefully blend it so it wasn't very noticeable and how to use blush and eye shadow to accent her features, even going as far to say that her face was nicely shaped and even gave her a tube of lipstick that matched her outfit and told her she would be great.

Judy let out a long breath and murmured the mantra she had been repeating to herself over and over again ever since she had made the choice to become more confident in herself, she pulled her new make up bag out of her bag and put it onto a nearby counter before quickly changing into the outfit so many people had put so much care into:

She would be fine. She would be pretty. She was pretty. She would not think of herself as ugly or fat anymore. She was going to be great. She had no reason to think such negative things. She had practiced. She had trained. She was armed with a pretty dress, nice shoes and tights (which her mother bought for her) and make up and April said she would help her with her hair. She was ready to take this first step to self love and confidence and she would no longer be held back by her own doubts or insecurities because she had not forgotten anything… oh wait… she had forgotten something…

"Hey April?" she called as she exited her small stall of the department store like dressing area on the opposite side of the mirrors, lights, seats and counter where her make up bag sat and hovered outside one right beside it.

"Yeah, Judy?" April replied from the stall, one dragon claw hopping on the floor, making the tail bounce against the ground while she seemed to struggle putting the other claw foot on.

"Um, your mom finished the tiara and stuff, right?" She asked. She could see two dragon claw feet now firmly planted to the ground as her friend's cheerful voice replied that, "Yeah, hang on, let me get it out of my bag!" she emerged with the lower half of her costume on and boxes stacked up in front of her to hide her upper half. She placed the four jewelry boxes into her friend's hands, "Yer gonna love it!" she assured her proudly, "It matches the dress perfectly!" Judy smiled as she thanked her friend and turned to go to the counter to try them on, when she noticed something in the reflection. Something that was April's bag that was very out of place in the paper filled mess.

"What's in the jug?" she asked, indicating the jug full of orange-red fluid poking out of the bag in the mirror.

"Oh, I asked Andy if he could get some of his Aunt Tiffany's special hot sauce." April said, trying to make it sound as if it was no big deal and failing.

"Why?" she asked. April gave her an awkward smiled and squeaked out a "Nothin'! I just like it and I wanted some!" Judy got a slightly bad feeling about what this surprise was, but she decided to ignore it, feeling a little guilty for doubting her friend's words. Her friend had put faith in her and was doing her best to help her change her perspective of herself. She had pulled multiple members of her family to aid her, two of whom recently had babies and were recovering from it (one of whom's four year old was also swinging from a chandelier when called upon and did her best to give Judy good advice and suggestions while convincing this child to come down off the ceiling via a spider silk gun and scolding this child for doing something so reckless when all they had to do to show their cute baby sister their new Urban Ranger Badge was to walk up the stairs like everyone else) As well as personally taking the time to stand by her side and give her a confidence boost whenever she felt as if she should give up. April really had been her Fairy Godmother and beyond, why should she doubt her words now? Besides, for all she knew, April had gotten the hot sauce for Sheldon or her parents or something and was told to keep it a secret. "Oh, okay." She said, before indicating the boxes in her arms, "I'm gonna try these on." She announced as she walked across the room, plopped her horde down and opened the box on the top of the pile… and gasped loudly when she saw a beautiful tiara that looked as if it was made from real silver and amethysts sitting in the box.

"The gems are made of glue!" April explained, "back in the old days, some girls would wear gems made out of glue so they could still look fancy while their actual jewels would be safe and sound in a safe!" Judy just stared at them, her eyes wide. T-this… this was the prettiest tiara she'd ever seen, let alone was near or able to touch. "This… this is mine?"

"Yup!" April confirmed, "Want me to braid your hair before you put it on?" Judy nodded, too amazed and touched as she admired the fake crown in her now sweaty hands. April happily waddled out of the dressing room, her tail dragging on the ground and her fake claws clicking as she walked, her impressive dragon-like bottom half looking almost comical with her slender friend's top half sticking out of it. Judy pulled out a brush and a ponytail holder from her make up bag and nodded in confirmation that she heard her fellow red-head say 'Thanks" as she took the brush and holder and began helping her with her hair, "If you like that one, you'll love the others! Like the necklace! My mom made it so it was shaped like…"

" April?" Judy finally spoke, her voice warped with emotion, surprising her bestie. She had been so focused on trying to make Judy's hair perfect to help improve how she thought of herself that when it sounded like she was about to cry, she was worried that she didn't like it. That concern faded when she saw her friend's amazed smile in the mirror as she peered over her shoulder, making sure Judy knew that she was giving her her full attention.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you..."

"Fer what?"

"For being the best friend a girl could ask for!" she blurted. When she saw the stunned look and the pink cheeks on her friend's face, she further explained that, "To know that not only do you think that I'm not…." She stopped as she noticed April's frustrated pout and remembered the mantra. After a quick run through of it in her head, she took a breath and said, "That I'm actually pretty. That you've helped me every step of the way so I feel like I can do this. That I can be more than a background character, not just in this play, but in my own life…" She turned around and hugged her, tears beginning to fall down her cheeks, "I couldn't ask for a better friend." April beamed and hugged her back for a bit before suggesting that she put the rest of her jewelry on and went back to working on her hair.

Judy was so wrapped up in admiring the fake jewels, that she didn't notice April's eager expression whenever she glanced back at the jug in her bag.

.

.

.

Oliver murmured his lines on the stage, wearing a jester costume and honestly feeling like a total loser next to Angel, who was dressed like a prince. He pulled at the neck of his festive shirt, murmuring under his breath about how unfair it was that two of the characters on stage the most got lame costumes with puffy sleeves, stupid hats and tights while Martin and Antonio got to wear cool armor and hold spears. He looked down at his costume and sighed, while they both looked pretty lame, at least Angel's costume wasn't designed to make him look like a literal fool. It was supposed to be… charming? Maybe?

He didn't know, but it was still better than his own. He felt a bit of envy for his attractive friend, silently wishing he had inherited his mother's charm. Maybe then he'd have a shot with April, or at least get to play opposite of her for once. But he was always the narrator to her love stories in these plays and this would most likely be how it end up when they got older. He felt his heart ache at the thought, he bit his lip as he put his script higher up towards his face, just in case he broke down in tears.

He liked her so much…

Ever since he first met her on the bus for kindergarten, he had been smitten, she was everything he wasn't, she was attractive, she could make friends easily, she had plenty of confidence in herself, and she always looked on the bright side. They also liked making up stories and creating their own comics, board games, and costumes. Making a mess out of her dad's kitchen to make odd food combos for their movie nights and either eating their misshapen failure snacks together and joking about how they shouldn't try mixing certain foods again or enjoying their culinary masterpieces. Everything was more fun together; board games, video games, cosplaying, heck, they had even gone LARPing before with their families and they all loved it (even though Madeline would deny it in public). They liked swapping theories about what would happen in the next episode of their favorite shows, nerding out over comics and novels and getting all exciting when one of their favorite characters was going to have a movie soon. Anything could become more fun when April was around! Even he had gotten his appendix out, April came to visit and they'd had a ball playing with a blown up glove and bouncing it back and forth while trying to keep it off the ground and pretending to be different animals by making noises while holding up blown up gloves and guessing what each other was.

But, despite all the fun they had together, he doubted she would want him as a boyfriend. He was dorky, clumsy, a complete nerd and didn't seem to fit into his family, even though he did try his best with his clothes (white dress shirt, tan slacks and his needed glasses) and he tried to style his hair so it would look cool, but the style he got ended up making him look like a stereotypical nerd from the eighties instead of stupid Justin Beiber. (Last time he'd use him as a hair model…) He wasn't attractive or charming like his family, he knew that well enough from overhearing his mother's co-workers or the leech-like paparazzi that stalked around his house, or simply turning the TV onto a celebrity talk show whenever his mother was photographed with him, his sister and his dad. 'The kid is so plain, how can that beautiful, charismatic woman have given birth to that boring thing?' 'Was he adopted?' 'He obviously doesn't take after his Mama, if you know what I mean…' He felt his teeth sink deeper into his lip as pain pulsed through his chest with each recalled slight at his appearance.

His mom often would immediately demand that the people who slighted her baby publicly apologized to him, her agent and lawyers right behind her, ready to make sure those who spoke ill of him would suffer for their cruelty. His mom also would withdraw from going onto their shows, sometimes even getting in trouble with studios for not going onto certain shows that had claimed her baby wasn't as wonderful as she saw him to be, or, if they really had laid in about him, she would go on the show alright, but only to tear them a new one about talking badly about her family and even getting the audience on her side and nearly starting a riot on set more than once.

His dad, a famous director, made sure that those people didn't get exclusives about his films, people who worked for him stayed away from those shows, or that the actors that made comments never had chances to get into his movies until they apologized to Oliver personally and even then they were usually given a small role where they were paid way less than they would usually and usually died in a horrible way… And that one scene where they'd die taking about a week on set to make perfect because it usually wasn't bad enough the first hundred times.

Madeline wasn't famous, so she didn't wield the power their parents had, but she had no problem telling off anyone who dared to say anything bad about her brother, she'd even swung at them a few times, with Oliver holding her back and struggling to drag her away so their parents could take care of it. Although, there had been incidents where stink bombs would go off in the middle of filming these shows, actors who made fun of him had horrible wardrobe malfunctions, super spicy hot sauce being poured into any lingering paparazzi's coffee that dared to insult him within earshot and tabloid magazines' offices windows being completely destroyed on the same days that Madeline would ask their driver, William, (who treated and cared for them like family and had even joined them when they were all LARPing) for a ride to the mall or would be seen asking Andy Kanker (son of their mother's agent) something in private on the playground, the boy's blue tooth gleaming as an impish smile would crawl up his face as she spoke. No one could prove anything, but William was well versed in military tactics and was faster than most would think of the mild mannered 60 year old in a sweater vest and slacks, and Andy Kanker had no problem helping his mom address to any jerks who tried to hurt one of her clients or their families in any way he could. But even if they were caught, he doubted that either one would give her up if caught, even if threatened (even though Madeline and Andy didn't always get along so well).

While he appreciated his family having his back… those people weren't really wrong about him…

Oliver paused as he heard Angel groan as he picked at his costume, obviously uncomfortable in the classic Disney princely garb of puffy sleeves and tights while the girls stared at him and sighed, not caring that the object of their affections was unhappy wearing the dopey looking thing.

He then remembered how he had become friends with him in second grade; He had been called 'plain' again by the media and had been feeling down about it, April and Judy had tried their hardest to try to cheer him up, but failed. Martin, who he had befriended near the start of the year through their love of superheroes and comics, was giving it a try when they saw Angel having a hard time with girls who would claim that he was 'so cute' and were arguing over who would spend time with him while tugging on him as if he were the rope in a game of tug of war. Antonio was tugging on the back of his brother's shirt while crying out for the girls to "LEAVE HIM ALONE ALREADY! JEEZ, WE JUST WANNA GO TO THE BATHROOM!" but his cries feel on deaf ears as the girls continued to tug and Angel crossed his legs tighter, looking as if he was either about to pee himself or cry… or both.

"If those girls don't stop, he'll have an accident…" Martin observed, feeling pity for him. Oliver felt a bit of dread accumulating over them, the similar kind of dread he'd feel whenever his family's private family fun time was interrupted by nosy reporters or photographers, the dread of being surrounded by people who were only drawn in by a person's beauty or fame and who didn't really care about the person themselves.

"We should help him." Oliver said, the horrible feeling beginning to thicken in the air.

Martin looked at him incredulously, "And how can we do that? There are way more girls there than boys, and by the time we could get a teacher, he'll have already peed himself."

Oliver looked at the crowd of girls, noted their arms being outstretched and then looked back at Martin and whispered into his ear, "You tickle the one on his left, I'll tickle the one on his right and when they let go, we tell them to run." Martin nodded in understanding, but before they could start, he said, "Wait, which one is left again?" After explaining which side was left and which side was right, the two went to work, after a few moments of tickling, the girls squealed and released Angel.

"GO!" They cried, "GO!" Angel was stunned for a moment, probably surprised that their plan had worked, before his brother pushed him forward, "You heard them, go! Hurry!" he shouted. Angel then seemed to remember his current dilemma and quickly scampered off to the boy's room.

He was saved.

But Antonio, Oliver and Martin? Yeah, not so much.

The girls were furious. They began pulling at their hair and yelling at them, ready to scratch and slap them for releasing their prisoner when to Oliver's delight, a familiar voice called out, "LEAVE 'UM ALONE!"

And there, standing ten feet down the hall, were April and Judy.

Now they were saved.

April told Judy to get a teacher as she stomped towards the other girls, not noticing that Judy hadn't moved from her spot at all, curious as to what was going to happen, "I DUNNO WHAT HAPPENED, BUT YOU NEED TO STOP PICKING ON THEM RIGHT NOW!"

"But they made us let Angel get away!" one girl whined.

"Only 'cause you chicas wouldn't let him go to the bathroom!" Antonio argued, making the girls freeze.

"He had to go to the bathroom?" one echoed.

"YES!" the boys cried in unison, "Why do you think he was crossing his legs like that?" Martin snapped. The girls all released them, half of them crying out, "Ew!" and the other half crying out, "We're so sorry!" before scampering away.

Judy and April inspected them for injuries and declared them fine when Angel finally came out to thank them for helping him and asking if they could eat lunch with them today. They said it was fine and the rest was history.

Oliver heard a loud squeal followed by giggling as Angel struggled to resist the urge to pull the tights near his rear, despite his discomfort. He felt bad, even though it wasn't all that great to be plain, it obviously wasn't all that great being handsome either. It was like his Dad had been telling him for years, "Everyone has something that they wish they could change about themselves, but instead of focusing on that, they should focus on what makes them special and embrace it."

Oliver sucked in a breath and let his script sink down from his face towards the floor, he might not like that he was plain, but he was good at storytelling and envisioning scenarios, so how could he best get his attractive friend away from the spotlight… He saw the boy pick at his arms and legs again and smiled as the idea dawned on him, 'Time to put this stupid costume to good use.' He thought as he carefully put his script on the ground.

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.

Angel was done with this stupid costume. He was just done with it. This sucked, he was the lead in a play but he had to look like how Robin Hood might have dressed in the eighties? How was this stupid thing ever considered 'heroic'? He tried squishing the puffy sleeves down again, but to no avail, they popped right back up. Urgh! He hated this! Who was the moron who told his mom that 'Princes with puffy sleeves, tunics and tights' were the way to go with his costume!? He was supposed to save the princess right? He didn't get a sword until halfway through the play and he didn't get to change into armor for the dramatic final battle between him and the dragon! He might as well ask his friends to help him change the ending to what it actually would be like realistically: that when the prince came to save his beloved, the dragon and princess laughed so hard at the Prince's stupid outfit that he could sneak into the tower and save the princess while she laughed hysterically at his clothes without the dragon needing to die and when they got back to the kingdom he finally got to wear something cool without tights or puffy sleeves, the end.

"You think it would have killed them to not make us wear these." Oliver said loudly, catching Angel and his admirers' attentions as he motioned to his own striped tights.

"Yeah, these things are tight!" Angel agreed, happy and relieved that someone had noticed how displeased with his costume he was and hopped over towards him, pleased that he could finally have a proper excuse to ditch the maidens and actually talk to a friend. When he arrived, he pulled at the thin fabric that was tight on his legs, then paused, "I guess that's why they call them 'tights', huh?" he said, his voice softer so the girls couldn't hear them and use anything he said as an excuse to butt in and relentlessly flirt with him.

"My mom called them pantyhose." Oliver enlightened, his voice much softer now too, "It was really embarrassing when she asked the lady at the store to get some for her son." Angel held back a chuckle as he then grumbled that, "If it wasn't for my dad, there would be tabloids about how famous actress Meredith Hill's son likes wearing girl's clothes…" Angel bit down on his lower lip, doing his best to suppress his snickers at the thought of that headline and a photo shopped picture of Oliver looking like he was going for a 'Little Miss' something pageant. Oh geez, that was NOT a good look for him! Oliver quickly tried to move the conversation away from his mother's nice attempt to try to help him with his costume nearly causing him to be a controversial discussion in the media. "I dunno why Madeline would want to wear these so much, they are such a pain to get on and tear so easily!"

"I know, right?" Angel said, "I can so get why Laura hates these things! I ripped through five pairs of these stupid things before finally managing to put it on all the way!"

"Same here! Did you find out you put it on backwards?" Oliver asked, the two picking up sympathetic steam.

"Yes!" Angel blurted, overjoyed that Oliver understood his misery, "how the heck can you tell which side is the front and which side is the back?!" he asked, "There's no tag, no obvious thing that tells you which is which!"

"My mom and sister had to put a mark on the inside of the part that supposed to be a back so I wouldn't do that anymore!" Oliver laughed. "Hey, you mind if I take a look at that after rehearsals so I can try that too?" Angel asked. "Sure!" Oliver replied.

Martin and Antonio finally emerged from the dressing room, looking gosh darn heroic in their costumes, "What are you guys talking about?" Martin asked.

"Why tights suck." Oliver plainly replied.

"You have to wear those too?" Antonio asked, laughing, "Aw man, and I thought Angel had it bad!" Martin scowled at him and nudged him with his spear, "I had to wear those last year, they really do suck. I kept putting them on backwards…"

"You too?" Oliver and Angel blurted out in unison. The four were quiet for a moment before they began laughing like mad for about ten minutes. They finally started to calm down when April and Judy walked onto the stage, the chuckles dying down as they looked at their friend's costumes. In true Princess-like fashion, Judy was the one they looked at first. She wore a dress that really looked nice on her in a shade that someone as unskilled in fashion as Oliver would call, 'uh, pinkish-purple, I think?' and what seemed to look like a real tiara on her head along with some other what looked like real jewelry on her arms, fingers and neck, her shoes matching her dress. (Which he guessed was good or maybe impressive? Ugh, he didn't know much more than it being a positive.) Half of her hair was up in a fancy braided bun with the rest going down her back and… Was she wearing make up? She never so much as dared to so much as look at make up, even the kind to make her look like an old school vampire with blood trickling down her mouth for Halloween last year so April just grabbed some pomegranates and squished the seeds to make the fake blood and smeared it on her face ('cause she would have none of that stupid glittery fake vampire stuff). But what struck him most was the way she was holding herself. Her head was held high, not nuzzled deep in the fabric of the turtle neck of a thick sweater, her shoulders were back and her chest was puffed out with, he didn't know, pride? Confidence? Gas? He didn't know…

What he did know was that she and April had been working hard to be the best princess and dragon ever, but it had obviously paid off. Judy was walking with a bit of a skip in her step, her script held up towards her chest and a big (abeit, nervous) smile on her face. That alone was a rare occurrence saved for mainly science fairs, girl only weekend long sleepovers and birthdays. Oliver smiled at her proudly, they both were not ones with much confidence in their appearances, but the difference between them was that, when he tried, he usually failed. But Judy hadn't really tried until recently and she was doing a great job and he was glad for her. He gave her a slight nod and a thumbs up, which helped lessen the anxiety on her face and her smile a little brighter as she nodded in response to him.

"Ow! OW!" Antonio called as they came closer, "Lookin' good Judy!" Martin jabbed him in the side again with his spear as she flushed and seemed to sink back into her usual 'shoulders up like defensive walls and head down to hide' body language and told him to stop making her feel embarrassed while April quickly smoothed over her frazzled nerves and helped her resume her confident posture as they continued walking over to them. "You really do look great, Judy." He then said, his tone soft and comforting as he then turned to April, "You, on the other hand, are terrifying. Get back, you horrifying monster." Oliver scowled and nearly smacked his arm, only for April to bashfully start to rock back and forth on her toes as she waved her hand at him, "Oh stop, you'll make me blush!" she gushed, obviously pleased with the compliment. And Oliver couldn't blame her. Her silvery scales actually shined when the stage lights hit them and her claws that made clicking sounds when she moved. The wings resembled a bat's, with a leather like cloth spread out between where the beast's wing bones jetted from it's back on either side of the bone like spikes that sat above where April's actual spine was all the way down to the tip of the tail, which was round like a wrecking ball and covered in spikes to resemble a medieval mace. The only thing that was missing from this amazing costume was the head.

"Hey April, what happened to your head?" He called, noticing Antonio nudging his brother and murmuring for him to 'say something nice to your friends, weirdo!' while Angel seemed to recover from a slight shock and wipe at his mouth, embarrassed, in his peripherals.

"My mom had to fix some teeth and a horn after Penelope knocked them off her workshop table downstairs." She explained sheepishly, which was understandable since none of the rest of their classmates had issues with their pets messing up parts of their costumes… or maybe it was because a chicken got the better of a dragon's horns and fangs that embarrassed her. Hard to tell.

"Isn't that your pet chicken?" Antonio asked for clarification, since smacking your puffy prince of a big brother kinda made it difficult to make sure you were clear on what wrecked a part of your friend's costume.

"Yeah…Dad came home late so dinner was a little later than usual last night and Mom, Shelly and me were too busy putting the final touches onto the head and Shelly's musketeer costume that we forgot to feed her dinner…" April explained, now obviously embarrassed as the Garcia brothers began to chuckle, "So she knocked it over to get our attention..." Judy gave her a sympathetic pat on the arm while the brothers began laughing loudly while Martin did his best to stifle his chuckles before he smacked them for it.

"She can fix it before the play tomorrow night, right?" Oliver asked. April nodded, still looking embarrassed that her costume was incomplete simply because her pet chicken got hangry. "Yeah, my mom made extras of those just in case and we hadn't put those in yet anyway, so we don't have to remake the parts, but we ran out of Mom's special glue anyway, so she took it to work and will use some of the glue she has there to finish it, so that's why I couldn't wear it today."

"Oh well, look on the bright side." Martin said, "How many kids have pet chickens who are so tough, they can take on a dragon?" The group chuckled a bit before the teacher walked out so they could see her in front of the stage, clapped her hands and called out for everyone to get to their places for the first part of the play.

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.

.

"So, Martin? How was your dress rehearsal?" His mom asked while they ate. His siblings and dad turned towards him, waiting. Malcolm had already bragged about how being lead role in his class's production of 'Arsenic and Old Lace' was awesome before admitting that if it wasn't for Norman (Lorna's brother) playing Teddy and running up and down the stairs whenever he messed up a line while shouting 'CHARGE!' to lighten up the mood, Norma (Norman's twin sister) would have ripped him a new one. Then when Max asked him and Maggie about how their dress rehearsals went today, he had offered to go after his sister. To which she gave a shy 'thank you' before saying that apparently the 'The Three Musketeers' play they were doing was based off the second book in the series (when questioned further about it, she said that Double-L explained that the first book was actually about four musketeers despite the title being 'The Three Musketeers') and she still wasn't comfortable with playing a bad guy, especially with people she personally found frightening (Ty, Tom and Tim) but her character switches sides during the play and that Matilda and the Kanker cousins were very helpful whenever she struggled with a French term in the script.

He had listened carefully, and urged his siblings to continue to converse about their plays, but Martin had delayed his turn long enough. It was time.

"Fine." He replied, "Dress rehearsal was fine." He took another bite of his pulled pork sandwich, "feel bad for Angel, though, he got the puffy sleeved tunic deal." The males at the table shuddered, only for his mother to pipe up with, "Your Uncle Manny wore tights. As did most of the men he wrestled."

"Not puffy sleeved tunics." Malcolm countered, "Those things should be banned from life."

His mother narrowed her eyes before turning back to Martin and asking, "How puffy and short are we talking here?"

Martin silently motioned his answers with his hands, his family wincing a bit when they saw how bad it was.

"Okay, that's way too much puff." His mom conceded.

"Too much puff, not enough cover." His father agreed.

"C-cover?" Maggie echoed, confused.

"Yeah!" Max replied, pleased he could answer a question one of his older siblings asked, "they're not long enough to cover your…" Martin covered his younger brother's mouth, "Mouth before you finish that statement. Hey Mom, speaking of Uncle Manny, is he coming to our plays this year too?"

"Of course!" she said cheerfully, "Your uncle would never miss something you kids do! He's really excited for tomorrow, so is your Uncle Yurik!"

"Leela's coming tomorrow too." Maggie said softly, " Madeline and Laura are going to be there as well… So… um, c-can I ask them to sleep over tomorrow night?"

"Of course, Sweetheart." Their dad said, gently ruffling her hair. Maggie looked blissful at the response, "Thank you!" she gushed, "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

"You girls are going to the movies on Sunday with Matilda and Lorna, right?" Her mother asked, she nodded, "It's a new romantic comedy movie starring Miss Meredith, Madeline got us all outfits similar to the ones her mom wears in the movie again, so it'll be fun." She said with a big, but soft smile.

Martin smiled and nodded, pleased that the subject had been changed to Maggie's weekend plans. He hadn't been lying when he said dress rehearsal was fine.

Most of them remembered nearly all of their lines or at least managed to remember it with just a little help from one another, and they managed to get the props on and off the stage quickly without tripping or smacking into each other like they had when they first tried it. April did her best to be intimidating as the dragon, even without the head of her costume, and Judy had done flawlessly. Angel had managed to keep his act together and not become a total awkward, clumsy, loud mouthed mess like his brother, Malcolm, and screw up royally while trying to show off for Judy. (Who he still had no idea how she could not see how much he liked her when it was so obvious.) Then again, since Angel had literally seen a few of Malcolm's fails up close, he was probably making sure he would avoid that kind of thing entirely, which was wise.

Oliver had enjoyed his time as a wise-cracking narrator a bit too much, but it worked in his favor. He and Antonio managed to not spend the scene where they stood motionless in front of a closed door that their classmates passed while Oliver briefly told parts of what had happened since the last act along with some of their classmates who had no other lines to let them have a chance to speak, none of them noticing that they were making faces at each other to see who would get caught laughing first. Although, when one of their classmates farted loudly (and proudly) while passing when Angel was in the middle of one of his lines and scampered off to the other side of the stage, chuckling, well, it took them about five minutes to stop laughing.

Finally, it was the scene where April and Angel would face off, and he was kind of excited to see how it would go. The battles with April making angry faces while on all fours, growling and pretending to fling her tail at him or breathing fire at him and Angel trying not to crack up and avoid her 'swings' was comical, but they could actually see how it would look without April looking just plain old silly.

April was on all fours, which was far less goofy with most of her costume on, but still kinda funny when you saw her make monster noises to seem scary. Angel found it funny too, and April pouted as the teacher called out to him to not laugh at her.

"I'm sorry, but she makes the funniest faces when she makes those noises!" he said.

Martin agreed, but he also knew that April really wanted to do this role well, and laughing in a dragon's face just seemed kinda rude to him... As well as kinda stupid. After all, dragons were not creatures who took well to insults. Antonio just bit his lip and tried to stifle it because this was the coolest scene in the play and he wanted to picture the cool spectacle without being reminded at how funny the faces his friend made when she actually wore the head that weekend. (he wouldn't be able to resist cracking up on Saturday otherwise) Judy was peeking from behind the curtain, softly calling out to April that she thought she was a really cool dragon and to keep going. Oliver just looked torn between getting mad at Angel or trying to convince April that she was the most ferocious dragon ever.

When they finished, changed back into their regular clothes and began cleaning up so if another class wanted to practice, they could, April asked the teacher if she could talk to her for a moment.

Martin watched as April pulled a jug from her bag and chattered on excitedly to the teacher, who looked less then thrilled at her idea the more she talked about it. When she finally stopped, the teacher talked to her with a look of sympathy, April was upset to say the least, but nodded in understanding as the teacher bent down and tried to console her afterwards. April sniffled and tried her best to hide her disappointment, only for Angel to think it was because he had laughed at her earlier and apologized profusely. Martin said nothing, mainly cause he doubted April would try the idea once the teacher had vetoed it, but he decided to keep his eyes open, just in case…

"Martin?" His sister called softly.

"Huh? What?" he replied, a bit dazed.

"Are you okay?" Max asked, concerned, "We've tried to get your attention for a while now…" Martin looked at his younger siblings, who were worried about him, and felt awful. He never liked worrying them, he was older, it was his job to worry about them.

"Sorry," he apologized, "Zoned out."

"Nervous for the play?" Malcolm asked, a bit of teasing in his voice. Martin scowled, "No! I'm just tired, I had to help move lots of stuff since I'm a background character and don't have a lot of lines."

"Well, why don't you take the first shower tonight?" Max offered, "Then you can go to bed earliest!" Martin and Malcolm looked at each other with knowing expressions. The three brothers had to share a bathroom while their sister had her own and their parents had their own, so Max, being the youngest, would usually bathe first since he went to bed first. However, he'd often offer his spot to his older brothers in an attempt to stay up later. Martin was fine with this since he actually wanted to go to bed early and thanked him for the offer, much to Malcolm's surprise, since he had plans to play a new video game with his friends that night on the TV in the living room and usually Martin joined him or played another game on a handheld device upstairs while Max went up for a bath.

"… Is this so you can watch that Spiderman movie later?" Their dad asked.

"Isn't that on at ten? That's way past your bedtime!" Their mother scolded, which was Martin's cue to quickly dump his empty plate in the sink and race up the stairs to bathe and get ready for bed before his pouting younger brother retook his early bathing time slot. Malcolm right behind him, but their dad and sister stayed at the table, most likely trying to find a middle ground before someone got grounded.

"But Mooooommmmm! Tomorrow's Saturday and Martin's play starts later in the day! And I promised Milly and Rayen I'd watch it since their moms won't let them stay up that late so I can tell them about it tomorrow!"

"What about that Libby girl?" Malcolm asked, trying to delay any potential argument that could arise.

"She doesn't like Spiderman!" Max blurted, "She says there aren't enough birds!"

"Seriously?" their parents commented in unison.

"I know, right?" Max agreed, "Of course there aren't birds in a Spiderman movie! He's SPIDERMAN!"

Martin was at the bottom of the stairs, ready to dash up before his younger brother had a chance to reach the bathroom so he could sulk in the tub for far too long, like he normally did when their parents vetoed a late night.

"W-why don't you just record it and watch it together during the day?" Maggie suggested, "It's more fun to watch with your friends during the day than it would be at night by yourself anyway, right?"

"Agreed!" Martin called from the bottom of the steps before hopping to the second floor.

"Definitely!" Malcolm seconded as he dashed to the TV and quickly looked up the movie and pressed the record button before turning on the Gamestation 5 and put on his headset.

Martin had reached the top floor when he heard their mother squeal that, "That's a great idea, Maggie! I'll call up their moms right now! Afterwards, we'll call your friends and invite them to stay the night tomorrow!"

"Oh, hey Mom, Milly said Sheldon wanted to see it too, can he come over tomorrow too?" Max asked. Martin froze. Ugh. While he was all for his friends and his older brother and their crushes to just kiss and stay together so the drama stops, that did not extend to his younger sister's crush on Sheldon Kanker. However, if Sheldon came over tomorrow, he could find out what was in that jug that April was so excited about…

Before he had time to try to decide between his desire to defend his sister from her too-oblivious-and-nice-crush (which, while obviously pointless, was a natural instinct that neither he nor Malcolm could reject, despite Oliver insisting that they were being silly about it) and trying to make sure his friend stayed in line, his mother said, "Sure, I'll call Milly's house on my phone, your dad can call Rayen's house on his phone and Max, why don't you use the house phone to invite Sheldon?"

"Okay!" his younger brother cheered as he ran into the kitchen, not noticing his sister's crimson face as he passed. A few moments later, she pulled out her new flip phone from her pocket and quickly dashed up the stairs and past him to her room, most likely to call her friends for romantic advice. Martin sighed. Oh well, at least he didn't have to make the decision on that one. And he could figure out what was up with that jug.

He wondered if knowing what was in it would make the sinking feeling he was getting to go away or make it worse. Either way, he'd find out tomorrow when Sheldon came over to watch Spiderman with his brother.

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Antonio and Angel walked into the school, the play would start in an hour and they were eager to get inside quickly, at least, Angel was, since his costume was doofy looking. Antonio took his time getting into the building with his awesome costume, helmet and spear. His hands resting behind his head as he walked at a relaxed pace, his spear parallel to his shoulders and his helmet hanging off his fingers, he was in no rush. They were dropped off early to help set up and go through one more practice before it would be open to their friends and families tonight.

He watched his brother scramble as fast as he could towards the male changing room, despite Oliver's efforts yesterday to make him feel better about how stupid he looked, he still didn't want to be seen in that ridiculous outfit longer than was necessary. And he definitely didn't want to hear those girls talking about how being a prince in the play suited him.

Antonio used to think that girls gathering around his brother to admire and adore him to be annoying and stupid. Mainly 'cause his mother told him and his older brothers that if they ever so much as raised a hand towards a girl, she would kick all of their asses around the neighborhood for all to see, so they could never fight back against them, no matter how much they clung to Angel. But it was also because the job of saving Angel from his admirers was usually plopped on to him so he had to endure the most beatings and screeching. So many years of getting scratched, hissed and occasionally bitten, people often thought he was simply messing with some random cat he'd found instead of trying to rip his brother out of the mighty jaws of his fans as if they were on a survival show on shark week.

But now… now he had noticed that many of the girls around them had started changing... Or maybe it was how he was looking at them that was changing, he couldn't really tell you which it was.

Their hips stuck out more when they put their hands on them to tell him to move out of the way so they could get to Angel, their chests were larger due to something other than about to let out an agitated huff at him when he said no, and when he'd watch them stomp away in defeat, instead of looking at the backs of their heads, he was looking at their slightly bigger rear ends.

He knew girls physically matured faster than boys, he knew parts of them would grow and round out, but he thought it wouldn't change how he saw the opposite sex;

Fierce.

Love crazy.

And, with the exception of his female friends and family members, really annoying. (Although his female family members could be trying at times, when it came to saving Angel from hordes of crazed school girls, they were on his side, so yeah, way less annoying.)

But now, he was finding himself admiring a few girls in his class without realizing it until Martin, Angel, Oliver, Judy, April, or (the worst case) their teacher managed to catch his attention and snap him out of it. He understood that there would be a time when he would start to admire girls his own age, but he had no idea how upsetting it would be to see how, compared to Angel, the girls his age considered him to be little more than the 'ugly, loud mouthed little brother' who got in their way all the time. In fact, one of the girls in class had actually pointed to his name on the board and whispered to the girl next to her, "Who is Antonio?"

"Oh, that's Angel's brother." She explained.

"Oh… " the girl replied, obviously unimpressed.

That kinda really hurt. In more ways than one. Luckily, he had good friends who cheered him up afterwards and that he could talk to about it to, but frankly, he tried not to complain too much about it around Oliver. Mainly because he knew Oliver had it worse than he ever would. After all, his mother was one of the prettiest actresses in the world, and it was hard to not hear the mean things that was said on TV about him, or miss the cruel headlines on various magazine racks mocking his appearance whenever he went to the store for something. And while it was good that Oliver understood exactly how he felt and probably would be way better at making him feel better of giving him a pep talk on the subject, he also could make his friend feel worse about it.

Martin was the one he mainly confided these feelings to, with Judy and Oliver as close seconds due to their understanding of how he felt, but due to their lack of confidence in themselves, they were not consulted very much on the topic and Angel and April being dead last in that department for being two of the most popular kids in school and knowing NOTHING ABOUT THIS SORT OF THING (he also didn't want his brother to feel bad about something that wasn't his fault). But, then again, Martin was his best friend, he told the guy everything, actually most of their little group did that due to his thoughtful, sage-like nature.

He let out a small sigh as he finally arrived at the changing room door, he knew he shouldn't let it get to him, but it did anyway. Martin often told him not to pay any attention to those girls, and that if he truly had to ogle them, to pick a nice girl who actually cared about him for him.

"But Oliver has dibs on April and Angel's got a thing for Judy." He had reminded him, "They've got two of the best ones right there." Martin shrugged, "Then we both can start looking in high school." He offered. Antonio had slapped his friend on the back, "Sounds good, amigo." He said, then added a, "They should be way rounder by then anyway, if you know what I mean." Thus earning himself a slap upside the head from his calm companion.

He remembered the slap and rubbed the back of his head, that actually had really hurt, but then again, Martin came from a family of wrestlers… "You okay, Tony?"

He turned to see Oliver standing there in his jester costume, holding his hat in his hand with Martin behind him wearing his cool costume, holding his spear and helmet, both of them looking concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine, sorry." He apologized as he moved out of the way and motioned that they could go in ahead of him.

"Are you sure?" Oliver asked, "You've been standing there for a while now…"

That was a surprising bit of news to him, but the surprise dulled very quickly, "Yeah, just wondering if we should have some escape routes for later so we can get Angel out of here with as few pictures of him in his costume as possible."

Oliver looked thoughtful at that while Martin's face was still one of concern, "Yeah, well, we might have bigger problems if we're not careful." He said gravely.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

Martin looked left and right before saying, "Not out here, inside." And quickly scampered inside the changing room, leaving Antonio and Oliver to stand outside for a moment, exchanging 'what was that all about' looks before following him inside.

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.

Tom sat between his brother and Sheldon Kanker in the dim auditorium, both were bouncing on their seats with their bums like children, making his seat jump a bit along with theirs.

He wished, once again, that Maggie and Madeline hadn't quickly taken the seats beside Laura, and that her brothers hadn't taken up spots behind her so he could see the show and watch her. He was glad that Leela sat on Maggie's other side or else she might make the girl pass out by reminding her that she was within five feet of Sheldon Kanker in a dimly lit room every few seconds (last time the poor girl ended up fainting and smacking her head on the floor pretty hard, so he assumed Leela had learned to be less of a gushing wannabe matchmaker). He glanced to the side and saw the four girls chatting amongst themselves in hushed tones, giggling every once in a while. He held back a sigh as he looked back at the curtain as a loud voice announced that the play was going to begin in five minutes, and asked everyone to take their seats.

He could hear his mom let out a soft squeal of, "I'm so excited!" as she most likely pulled out the brand new camcorder she had bought the moment she heard that Judy was going to be the star of the play and had started recording.

The bouncing intensified as the lights dimmed to darkness, it got so bad that not only did his goggles nearly bounce off of his head, but he nearly fell off his chair too!

He was grateful that the bouncing stopped when the curtain opened to Madeline's brother in a jester costume. He chuckled a bit at the sight, he hardly ever saw the guy wear color and when he finally saw it, he was literally dressed as a jester.

He settled into his seat as Oliver began, as ridiculous as he may have looked in that get up, the guy was a good story teller and his sister and April had the best looking costumes and were immediately introduced by the Fool.

Tom actually enjoyed the play as it unfolded, feeling pride whenever his sister was on stage (which was a lot more than she had been in the past). She really did look beautiful, he finally understood why his mother had been so adamant about not letting him, Isi or their father see her all dressed up, she wanted to surprise them with how she'd changed. Not just with her clothes, make up and… what looked like real jewels but he knew they couldn't be real jewels because this was a school play, not a multi-million dollar movie shoot. But she looked beautiful and strong on stage, her head held high, her shoulders back, her voice loud enough that he could hear it from somewhere other than the front row.

"She's beautiful, isn't she Tom?" Isi whispered to him, he glanced at his brother and gave a soft smile and a nod before looking back on stage where Judith was trying to bargain with the dragon for her freedom and before the curtain closed for an intermission right after the dragon laughed and said there was no point trying to haggle since she'd never leave it's castle and laughed before walking away, leaving her in a little prison cell to weep. After that happened, the curtains fell and the lights brightened so the audience could go to the bathroom or stretch in the lobby, etc. Tom stretched, finally noticing that Maggie's older brother and Isi's friend, Malcolm, had been sitting on his brother's other side while Max, her younger brother had been sitting on Sheldon's other side. (which was good, the bigger buffer between Leela, Maggie and Sheldon, the better.)

"That was so cool!" Max exclaimed excitedly, "I should have invited the others to come too!"

"I know, right?" Sheldon agreed eagerly before asking if Max wanted to join him in getting some snacks. Max nodded vigorously and the two were about to leave when Sheldon turned around, "Hey, you guys want us to get you something?"

"… Water." Malcolm replied after a moment, "Please." He added.

"Water for me too, please!" Isi answered.

"…" Tom pondered this for a moment before noticing Laura and the girls getting up to go to the bathroom (all together for some reason) while her brothers stayed behind.

"I'm not sure, why don't I go with you and see what they have?" He finally said, "I do know I want to get some flowers for Judith and I saw some being sold in the lobby…"

Isi brightened, "Oh! Get her white roses, you know how much she likes those!" Tom nodded and motioned for Max and Sheldon to lead the way, which they did, happily, as Sheldon asked his two companions what kind of flowers he should get for his sister as well. (Since it was such a good idea and he was glad that Tom had mentioned it!)

"Snapdragons!" Max declared joyfully.

"I agree, it would be quite fitting for her since she's the dragon." Tom confirmed.

Sheldon smiled as they made their way to the small flower stand, after quickly glancing at the prices, Tom went up to the counter, leaving Sheldon and Max still looking at their options. "What will it be, boys?" the young lady behind the stall asked.

"Half dozen of the white roses please." Tom requested, holding out the exact amount for the blossoms.

"Any color preference in the paper?" the clerk inquired as she quickly placed his money into the register.

"Purple or pink is fine." Tom replied.

"Alright! Coming right up!" the florist announced as she began gathering white roses from a bucket beside her and started working.

"I don't see any snapdragons…" Sheldon said, a bit disheartened. "Me neither…" Max said, defeated.

"Sorry." The woman behind the counter called as she began to wrap Tom's flowers in a pink-ish purple paper that amazingly matched his sister's costume and was cutting a long strip of dark purple ribbon, "We just ran out of cut ones at the shop before I could pack up the van…" she then brightened as she handed Tom his flowers, "But if you just want something unique, I think I got just the thing!" she said before grabbing a nearby tray of sixteen 4 inch plastic pots with what looked like pink-ish and blue-ish orb plants inside.

"Ta da!" the shop keep sang as she placed the tray in front of them.

"What is that?" a female voice called from behind them, the three boys turning around to see Laura, Leela, Maggie and Madeline standing almost right behind them.

"These are balloon flowers!" the clerk announced cheerfully, "They blow up like balloons as they grow and when they bloom, they make a popping sound like a balloon and blossom into a beautiful flower!"

"Seriously?" Laura asked as the girls came a bit closer to get a good look at them.

"Yup, we have them in pink and blue."

"You don't have any that are already cut?" Madeline asked, unimpressed.

"It's not as cool or fun when it's cut, plus the stem isn't long enough to make bouquets. I mean, it might be okay for an arrangement if it's not too big, but not bouquets." The shop keep explained, Madeline nodded in understanding before looking at the boys, "If you don't mind me asking, what are you three doing over here?" Tom looked at Sheldon, who was looking thoughtfully at the orbs on the table and decided that since he wouldn't explain, then he would.

"Sheldon and I are buying flowers for our sisters and Max and I are buying bottled water for our brothers afterwards."

"I'm helping with the flowers!" Max said proudly. Leela chuckled and gently threaded her fingers into his curly black hair and rubbed his head while she and his sister complimented his kindness for helping them. Laura quickly pulling the boy away from them into a headlock and rubbing the top of his head with her knuckles as she and Madeline joined in the chorus of praise being rained down upon him.

"I know what I want!" Sheldon finally announced, surprising them as he pointed to the tray in front of him, "I'll take a blue one and a pink one, please!"

"Great! Want me to wrap these up for you too?" the clerk asked.

"Yes please." He said cheerfully as he picked out some nice paper and ribbon and the florist got to work.

"I-I'll take one too, please." Maggie said softly, after picking one and having it wrapped, she explained to her friends that it was for her uncle's wedding anniversary, leading Leela and Max to panic for a moment for forgetting how soon it was before deciding to buy some as well, Max exclaiming that they should have one from each of them and that he'd help pick out the ones that would be from his brothers.

After that, the seven of them bought their snacks and returned to their seats. Tom noting that Laura quickly and quietly snuck over to the flower booth again while her friends were ordering snacks to purchase a single white rose as well and handed it to her passing mother like a secret agent might pass along secret info before joining her friends to watch as Max quickly pulling Malcolm over as the girls presented the gift to their uncles, who loved them and gave the children big hugs before the lights dimmed and a voice informed them that the play would resume in a few minutes and to please take their seats, sending them all scurrying back to their spots, where their uncles were teased by their sisters for a bit.

After passing Isi and a returning Malcolm their water, Tom plopped into his seat, Sheldon doing so right behind him with Max.

"Popcorn?" Sheldon offered to the boys on either side of him. Tom thanked him and took a handful and began popping in piece after piece into his mouth as the lights went out while Max thanked him and stuffed his handful into his face and began munching his way through it as the lights on stage turned back on. And Sheldon dumped a huge portion of the popcorn into his mouth and started chewing as the actors began to walk onto the stage.

Tom watched as Angel, Martin, Antonio and Oliver went back and forth for a while before the curtain closed so they could move some stuff around on stage for the next scene, for, if he remembered the script right, the battle scene between Angel and April… He momentarily pondered how an actual fight between the two would fair…

And that's when he heard it.

"Ugh, whose idea was it to have the fat chick as the princess?" a girl asked, disgust clear in her tone.

Tom bristled instantly at the insult and nearly lunged for the fool who dared insult his sister, he could tell she was sitting in a row in front of them, and it probably wouldn't take him long to pin point the location of the soon-to-be-maimed individual… Only for Isi to put his hand on his shoulder, he turned to him and opened his mouth to demand that he release him only to be met with a rare sight of Isi's face pulled in an angry scowl, "She's wrong. We both know that." He said, his voice quiet, but his tone stern. Tom looked at his brother, his eyes pleading with him to let him at least dump his newest sticky liquid onto the nasty wench who would dare utter such a thing about their sister, but Isi's glare persisted, wearing down Tom's desire to maim until it was nearly nothing. (Nearly. It was still a low blow to his sister's fragile self esteem)

Tom was about to flop back into his seat, when a blood thirsty roar echoed through out the auditorium from behind the curtain.

"April?" Sheldon whispered.

"April?" Isi and Tom echoed as screams and shouts came from the stage as half of the curtain flew open and they turned to look up at the chaos.

"Not good…" Sheldon murmured, "Not good…"

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Judy hadn't had time to react to the insult from the mob of people that sat in the darkness in the auditorium, because as soon as April heard that noise, she ran into the girl's dressing room and came out chugging some orange stuff from the jug she'd seen yesterday (through the mouth of the dragon head), throwing the empty jug behind her with a roar and slicing the ropes that kept the curtains closed with her claws, making them fly open, revealing the stage and sending some of their classmates scurrying behind the curtain on the opposite side of the stage April was on. She stomped onto the stage, the ground shaking from the force of her feet slamming against the ground as she moved her body as if she had been born with bottle cap scales and a tail, she glared at the audience so fiercely through the special yellowed plastic of the eyes and roared at them with such fury, bloodlust and an actual fireball, for a moment, Judy nearly forgot her best friend was in there. For a moment, all that stood before her was an actual dragon, ready to unleash it's fury onto an unsuspecting public.

But only for a moment.

"April!" She cried as she, Angel, Antonio and Oliver dashed out onto the stage with her as she scanned the crowd for the culprit, "April, it's fine! I-"

April roared once more, turning to her, the yellow eyes turning orange as she quickly closed the distance and grabbed her by the neck of her dress and pushed hard against the ground, her wings moving due to the force of gravity trying to keep the two girls firmly rooted to the ground, making it look as if she actually was pushing off the ground with just her wings. April gently dropped her on the far side of the stage and put herself between her, the crowd and their friends, snarling a challenge to any with the courage to face her head on.

"She's lost it!" Martin cried, his grip on his spear tight as he stared down his furious friend. Antonio and Angel followed suit with their fake weapons, both putting on stern faces.

"No!" Oliver cried as he grabbed Martin's spear, "If you challenge her while you're armed, it'll only make it worse!"

"What do you mean?" Antonio cried, panic evident in his voice despite his best efforts.

"When she gets mad like this, it's better to drop your weapons and show that you mean no harm or else… well…" April's newest vicious roar was enough of a hint of what might befall them if they dared challenge her at that moment.

Judy's mind raced as the boys put their weapons down and held their hands up, to show that they were unarmed and meant no harm as they all took a single step backwards away from their weapons, but their expressions were mixes of frustration, fear and sympathy as they stared at their only weapons on the floor. When they finally looked up at her, the looks they gave her were both apologetic and fearful. Although, if the fear was for her safety or their own or both, she couldn't say. Which was fine, she had other things to worry about, like her BFF shooting fire from her mouth and looking ready to start rampaging through out the theatre. April going on a rampage was already as horribly dangerous as jumping off a plane without a parachute, over a place with sharp rocks, whirlpools and piranhas that hadn't eaten in weeks and would gladly partake in human flesh to ease the pain of starvation. And with her costume, dragon-like mindset and now magical fire abilities, it was like someone gave the piranhas chainsaws and flamethrowers, taught them how to use them and poured some acid on you before you even got off the plane.

Judy needed to calm her down… but how? Her mind raced to find something, anything that could help her friend go back to being her sweet, smiling self again...

When something April had said rang out in her head;

'I think you'll make a great Princess Judy. And if you can't see that, then this Dragon will be your Fairy Godmother will show you!'

'Fairy Godmother'

'Fairy Godmother'

Fairy Godmother? Fairy Godmother… In fairy tales they would help with a transformation to change something plain or unpleasant into something pretty and wonderful… something unpleasant… dragons… pretty… April…

Judy's eyes lit up as her brain processed how she could stop April's rampage before she did something she would regret.

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Angel felt powerless. But then again, what else was new?

Once again, he was facing a powerful female opponent who wouldn't back down and he couldn't defend himself.

Although, instead of it being a girl who had a crush on him, it was one of his friends… And that she was only defending another of his friends (who he kinda actually sorta had a crush on… kinda…) from a nasty comment from the crowd in the darkened abyss of the auditorium… and that his friend seemed to take on her role as a fire breathing dragon to an entirely new level by drinking that hot sauce that Martin had warned them about earlier and was now letting out jets of flames as she glared down at the audience, daring the person who insulted (his lovely little) Princess to come out so they could face her wrath.

April's normal rampages were bad, like, really really bad. But add how she often lost herself in her fantasies when in costumes and she was currently dressed as a dragon and had found a way to breathe fire… This was way worse than his usual problems when dealing with the opposite sex. Way, way worse.

He looked to his friends, who were just as clueless as he was about what to do here, and then to Judy and the Dragon formally known as April. April was on all fours, her body coiled around Judy as she growled at the crowd. Judy was shaking like a leaf, but her body had not sank back to her (cute) classic turtle pose. No, she was still as straight, tall and (beautiful) regal as she was before April's first bloodthirsty roar, although, her face was pulled into an almost elegant pensive pout.

Then she did something that made his heart feel light;

She smiled with an air of solution. She knew how to stop April without anyone getting hurt. She knew how to save them all.

"Fairy Godmother, I know you want what's best for me, but I believe this rouse has gone far enough now, don't you?" she said.

April seemed surprised and then confused by her statement, tilting her head at Judy, her anger momentarily subsided.

"I mean, to put on this ruse, you had to spend all this time pretending to be a murderous, blood thirsty dragon and build up a bad reputation, all while helping me with my hair and clothes." She said, her voice beginning to waver, "Reminding me that I am beautiful and wonderful when my subjects jeered at my portly appearance. To tell me that you would make sure that this prince truly does love me for me and not for the power my kingdom holds." April lowered her head, concerned as tears began to fall down Judy's cheeks and even gently nudged her hand with her head as a comforting gesture.

"You are the best friend I have ever had." She choked out through tears as she hugged the scaled creature, "You've had faith in me when no one did, you worked by my side and always have my back. While helping me find someone who can love me for me, you've helped me learn to love myself too." She pulled her head back as she trembled with emotion, seeing through the yellowed plastic, that April's eyes were tearing up too. "Please, Fairy Godmother, please take off that mask and come back to me!" She pleaded. "Please!" she sobbed as she leaned her head against the dragon's scaly shoulder, "Please come back as my beloved best friend so we can spend our time enjoying picnics and books and dancing instead of breathing fire and causing harm! PLEASE GIVE ME APRIL BACK!" She then fell to her knees and collapsed, sobbing hysterically as she continued to hold her friend.

The dragon sank onto the ground in a sitting postion, unmoving, as Judy held her and looked from the crying girl holding her to the crowd, as if making sure everyone was done picking on her. The theatre was silent, save for the sound of Angel's anxious heart beat as April sat still and motionless for a few more minutes before taking off her head, revealing a reddened face with tears and snot barely escaping from her eyes and nose before hissing into steam from the heat of the hot sauce. "I'M SO SORRY JUDY!" April wailed as she returned her friend's hug, "I'M SO, SO SORRY! I JUST COULDN'T FORGIVE THAT MEANIE IN THE AUDIENCE FER MAKIN' FUN OF YA WHEN YOU'VE WORKED SO HARD FER THIS!"

The two then began apologizing to each other over and over again, each time explaining to one another how what the other did was understandable or excusable before apologizing for something they did. Angel smiled at them, relieved, before turning to his friends, who obviously felt the same before turning back to the two girls crying like crazy in front of them.

After another minute of crying and 'I'm sorry's, Oliver decided to step in and ask April if she still planned to test Angel's intentions.

April looked at him with several salt trails on her cheeks and a thoughtful pout on her face, before nodding to her jester admirer and gave Angel a stern look, "What is Judy to you?"

"An awesome girl who can take on a dragon with just her words." Angel said without missing a beat.

"That is the right answer!" April declared loudly as she pointed to him, chuckles streaming in from the audience.

"Excuse me, Fairy Godmother," Martin called, "What would you have done if he gave you the wrong answer?"

April gave him an impish grin before lifting her head to face the ceiling, opening her mouth and unleashing a large, powerful flame into the air.

The boys let that soak in before Antonio murmured, "I'm glad that he got the right answer, but I think it still would have been pretty cool if he'd got it wrong…"earning himself a slap upside the head from Martin and Oliver and another bout of laughs from the audience as he yelped and scowled at them for a moment before cracking a smile.

Oliver then began rewriting the play on the spot and wrapped it up quite nicely. Before they removed the bulk of their costumes for the ride home, they agreed to meet by the door to the lobby to meet their friends and families together.

Angel hung back when the other guys left, his friends and brother promising to throw his fan girls off his scent with false intel and asking him to wait a five minutes after they left before sneaking out so they could get the word out and clear the fan girls out so he could meet up with them without too much hassle.

He kept his eye on the big analog clock by the door until his five minutes were up and quickly shoved the door open and was ready to make a run to the doors… only to nearly run into Judy as she was exiting the girl's changing room, making her jump backwards when she finally saw him.

"Sorry!" he blurted, "Are you okay?" Judy blushed a bit, bent her head down a bit, stopped, then looked back up at him, and squeaked, "Yeah, I'm fine."

He let out a sign of relief before noticing that, "Are you leaving without April?" Judy's eyes widened with horror as she shook her head and hands wildly, "N-no! April left first!"

"So she ditched you?" he asked, confused, since April would never do such a thing, especially after what happened tonight with the sob-and-sorry fest they'd had on stage.

"No! After drinking all that hot sauce, her mouth was starting to hurt, she wanted to wait for me to finish taking off my make up, but I told her to go ahead to the water fountain in the hall and I'd meet her there when I was done." she explained.

"Oh, okay." He replied, his own cheeks turning pink as he racked his brain, unsure of what else he could really say at this point in the conversation but wanting to keep it going anyway...

After about ten seconds of awkward silence between them, Angel finally offered to take her to April and she gave him a small (cute) smile and thanked him. He turned on his heel and was ready to lead the way when Judy blurted out, "Um, Angel?"

He turned around to face her, "Yeah?"

"U-um…" she glanced down at her hands, her face now a bright scarlet, "That- that thing you said on stage… the thing about me being awesome…" she looked up at him, her eyes wide and sparkling, "D-did you really mean it?"

Angel felt his face burn brighter as he awkwardly rubbed the back of his head and said, "Yeah, why?"

A broad smile brightened her expression in a way that made his heart rate spike, "Just curious." She said, unable to hide the happy pep in her voice.

"Hey guys!" Antonio called from further up the hallway, surprising them, "Come on! Let's go out there, get our admiration and go home!" The two chuckled a bit at their own jumpiness before running up the hallway to join them.

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Tom stood between Sheldon and Isi once more, searching for his sister in the crowd of children that exploded from the back, his roses in hand. When he finally spotted her, he saw Laura's mother slip something to Angel while Laura smirked and gave him a thumbs up. Angel panicked a bit as Judy and her friends waved to their group and rushed over, Angel looking like he was about to have a panic attack before Laura and her mother exchanged glances and his beloved pink haired menace quickly zigzagged through the crowd until she got to him and held up the white rose, "Hey Tom, can I put this into the one for Judy?" she asked.

Tom, who was simply overjoyed that she actually said his name for once before Isi thanked her, "Who is this from?" he asked her. Laura thumbed back to Angel, "He wanted to get her something for all her hard work, but couldn't think of anything until he saw the flowers on the way in." she rubbed the back of her neck, a faint blush on her cheeks, "Even if he's too nervous to give 'um to her, she still deserves it if you ask me."

Tom was nearly overwhelmed with joy by the statement and gave her a wide, happy smile, "Thank you, Laura, I'm quite sure that she'll appreciate your praise." Laura's expression became more bashful and embarrassed at his words as she quickly pulled her hat further down her forehead in an attempt to hide her flushed face and nodded before dashing back to her gal pals, who were hugging their brothers and cousins and gushing praises for their performances.

Sheldon leaned over to Tom and Isi, "I think Angel likes her, guys." He whispered.

"Good to know he has good taste." Tom replied without missing a beat. Sheldon and Isi both gently ruffled his hair before agreeing with him and the three of them went to join their parents in congratulating their sisters on their breathtaking performances and give them their flowers. April and Sheldon embraced tightly before April asked Sheldon about the plants and Isi gave Judy a big hug while Tom presented her the white roses.

Judy thanked him and looked at them, only to suddenly become confused, "Why is this rose not with the others?" She asked, holding up the single white rose. Laura and Angel overheard her words and looked to the brothers, silently pleading for them not to tell them who provided the seventh rose.

"It's from a secret admirer." Tom and Isi replied in unison. Judy looked down at the seventh rose, looking pleasantly surprised and then crying out, "I've got to tell April!" before dashing over to her best friend, flowers in hand with glee glittering in her eyes.

Tom and Isi smiled along side their parents as they watched as she and April began bouncing up and down excitedly and squealing with delight. All of them very grateful that their beautiful, wonderful princess had such a caring Fairy Goddragon by her side.

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Hi everyone and Happy Valentine's Day!

I bet you're all wondering why I made this story about loving and accepting oneself instead of love, angst and beating the snot out of invisible cupids. Well to be honest, I had the basic storyline in my head, but didn't start really writing it out until a good friend of mine texted me, she was really upset and in such a horrible funk that she saw herself as a failure. When I actually read the word 'failure' I felt as if someone stabbed me in the gut, then made me stub my pinky toe super hard, then stab me again. This girl is one of the sweetest and kindest people you'll ever meet and don't get me started on how talented and creative she is. But at that moment, she couldn't see that. She could only see a negative haze I actually battled myself when I started writing fan fictions. That haze that good people like this girl and all of you who read my stuff helped clear away.

And well, when I heard her talk about herself like that, I just needed to write this story. I needed to show not only her, but all of you wonderful people out there that you are all beautiful. You are all wonderful. You are all talented. You are all strong and kind and brave and just perfect in your own ways. And you should never let anyone or anything make you think otherwise. So this year, remember to love your family, love your friends and love yourself, and if you feel like you can't do that, you're not alone and you can do it, I promise.