She knew she’d messed up the moment she saw their faces. 

Ad— Charlie had been making mistakes all morning, and the sun barely up yet. 

They were not huge mistakes by nature, but each one was enough to put her on edge.

 

Her first mistake was— quite literally— getting out of bed.

When it was decided that Charlie was going out with her parents the following morning, she figured she might as well be ready for it. 

She had gotten up early— more out of force of habit than anything— slipped out of bed, stretched, then lit the bedroom lamp. 

Once the room was lit, she checked her face and started to get dressed. There were a lot of layers to put on and tie. Luckily, all the undergarments had been laid out for her the night prior or she'd have been completely lost. 

After putting on the undergarments (to call them "underwear" wouldn't be accurate), she proceeded to check the wardrobe. 

Charlene’s clothes were… cute, to say the least. Light yellows, baby blues, pastel greens— and a whole mess-ton of pink.  

Again— Cute. Adorable. Darling. And completely different from Charlie’s tastes.

Still, all the clothes were well cared-for. In varying degrees of wear, sure— but not torn or worn out. 

No sign of a coat though. It must have been downstairs. 

She finally settled on a blue dress that she found buried to one side of the wardrobe. Unlike the other dresses, this one looked fairly new. It was also not a pastel, but a rich shade blue instead. 

On the dress went, along with a pair of socks and black boots. 

She stood in front of the mirror in triumph… and then was reminded that her hair was a mess. 

Charlie’s hair hadn’t been done much in the past week. It had been washed out when she had been given the “OK” to leave bed and have a bath— Which had been an whole ordeal in itself (Showers, beloved: where art thou?)—  but it hadn’t been touched since.

The result: though braided down, loose hairs were sticking up and about, and it looked very slept upon.

She hesitated, then grabbed a stool and sat down. She unloosed the pins holding her hair and started unbraiding it, guiding the soft, unfurling locks down with her fingers. Charlene’s hair was long, but there was a familiarity to the rich coils… 

Charlie glanced up at the mirror. A little girl with gorgeous, springy hair looked back at her. The child tilted her head in confusion.

…Was this the same girl from the novel? She couldn’t be. This couldn’t be the same girl— the one that, as the author repeated over and over again: “was so pretty, but suffered from un-tamable hair”?

She inhaled slowly. So… it wasn’t that Charlene’s hair was actually bad, it was just Natural…

 

“Kyaaa~! Oh no! My hair! It’s so unmanageable and unruly! I can’t do a thing with this this rat’s nest! Oh my, look — one of the Male Leads has gifted me with a maaagic hairbrush, and now my hair is sooo pretty! Tee-hee-hee~!”

Oh, screw them! “Unmanageable and unruly” her ass!

 

She exhaled, then took up a large-tooth comb and got to work. 

 

There was a bit of a learning curve with using ribbons and pins instead of elastics, but she got the hang of it. And since Charlene’s hair was long, the possibilities were endless. 

Braids, puffs, buns, knots — she was trying as many styles that came to mind. It was actually while she was playing with her hair when a knock came at the door. 

“Come in,” she called, her attention mostly focused on fastening the final ribbon into place.

There was a moment’s pause before the door opened. In stepped Mrs. Bennett, Gran following close behind her. She saw them in the glass as they stopped, a look of surprise washing over their faces as they beheld her. 

The style for the day was a crown-inspired look. The hair had been braided down and around her head before getting tied off with the ribbon. Not salon-level quality, but it was a pretty good attempt.

… Apparently too good.

Charlie was up from her seat in an instant, fiddling with a hair pin as she regarded the both of them. 

“…Charlie,” Mrs. Bennett broke the silence. “Did you get ready all by yourself?”

Charlie blinked. That wasn’t the question she had been anticipating. Weren’t they more concerned about what she was wearing? That — out of all the dresses in her  closet — she had gone and picked something Charlene clearly never wore? And what about her hair (which was just occurring to her was a little too elaborate)? 

And just what kind of question was that anyway? It wasn’t like this was the first time she had been awake before someone had came to wake her, and it wasn’t like what she did was…

Wait… did Charlene seriously not know how to dress herself? Even if she couldn’t do it well, surely she knew how to do it!

“…Uh,” she managed at last. “…Yes?”                                                                               

Yep— she’d messed up. She fidgeted as she nervously glanced between the women and the floor. 

“Did… Did I do it ok—?”                                                                                                    

“Aww!”

The words had hardly left her mouth before she was swept up into a sea of hugs.

“Oh my goodness-- look at you! I can’t believe you got dressed all by yourself!”

...Eh?

Worry was replaced with confusion as Charlie squirmed to break free. Okay, so the answer was no then — Charlene didn’t usually dress herself.

 

Lucky for her, the mistake was met with a positive response. 

Okay, crisis adverted. Now just to act casual and blend in for the rest of the day. 

…A funny thing about mistakes: once you make one, you start focusing so much not to make another, that more become inevitable. 

She was figuring this out the hard way. 

1) Charlene was not an early riser. 

It wasn’t just that Charlene had never dressed by herself before — she had never gotten herself up before. 

She slept like rock from bedtime till morning. Even if Charlene did open her eyes before the sun was up, she was like a sack of potatoes: lifeless, and completely dead weight. 

So, every morning, in order to leave the house, her parents — sometimes one, sometimes both (and on the rare occasion, Gran would have to tag in as well) — had to get Charlene up and ready. 

The task could take anywhere from 15 minutes to upwards of an hour on a usual day. But since Charlie was ready, the family now had time to spare before heading out.

… Well, most of the family. Gran stayed home with the twins, and Benjamin got to sleep in before he had to get up to go to school. So the group actually consisted of Mr. And Mrs. Bennett, their oldest daughter Ada, and Charlie.

2) Charlene was a light eater.

Charlene was picky— that much she already knew. Children tended not to be adventurous eaters, and that was fine… 

So why did it seem like Charlene’s family was silently losing their minds whenever she ate anything?

She had been on her toes the past week, but this was getting ridiculous!

Because there was time before they left, Charlie had been able to have pancakes that morning. The pancakes were warm and buttery. Paired with the cozy meal nook, she felt a semblance of normalcy.

… Well, a momentary semblance anyway.

Though she was trying to be discreet, Charlie had noticed Gran glancing her way as she worked. 

Ok— that was enough. Out with it: what was it? Clearly she was doing something wrong, so just say it already!

“Gran?” was what came out instead. “You good?”

“Hmm?” Gran blinked, seemingly realizing that she’d been discovered. “Oh, yes, child — perfectly fine.”

“… Am I good?”

Gran hummed in thought. The question seemed to given the older woman pause. Charlie waited with baited breath. 

“…Yes,” Gran said decidedly. “I would say you are.”

Charlie breathed a silent sigh of relief. But then — why…

“You seem… brighter than before,” Gran continued. “Full of life.”

“’Full of…’— Ah, you mean like before The Incident.”

(The Bennetts started referring to that day as “The Incident”. It was strange the first, but Charlie quickly got used to it.)

Gran started to speak, then stopped herself. 

“Even before that,” she said. “Y—…There was a time where it seemed almost impossible to get Charlene to eat anything…”

Her heart sank. Ah, so that was it. Compared to Charlene…

“That’s not a criticism,” Gran took the young girl's hands in hers as she noticed her expression fall. “It’s a good thing. You're growing .”

Yeah… but the change was so noticeable, everyone was watching. 

Strike Two, Charlie. 

Strike Three came about 30 minutes later. 

3) Apparently, Charlene was a Disney Princess — Animals were absolutely crazy about her. 

Okay, to be fair— the mules did go crazy when they laid eyes on her. 

They brayed, they thrashed, and they tried to free themselves from the cart. it took both Mr. And Mrs. Bennett to wrangle and calm them down

It was a bit of an overreaction really. 

“What in the world has gotten into those two?”Ada wondered as the sisters watched the madness. “You’d have thought they’d seen a ghost!”

Charlie shrugged in reply. Perhaps they had…

“I didn’t know there were donkeys in Alaeria.” Charlie said, more to herself than aloud. 

Ada swtraighten at that. “There aren’t,” she beamed. “Those two are the only mules in the entire continent.”

“Oh…”

Beasts of burden were rare in Alaeria, to the point that only Nobles and rich merchants had them — and those were horses. Only horses were considered “worthy” amongst the Nobles, and they were bred and sold as such. Commoners either had to buy into the (ridiculously expensive) game of getting a horse — or go without. To get another creature imported would take a lot of care, and even more money.

… So just what kind of common-folk were the Bennetts, that they were able to own two cargo animals?

The mules were eventually calmed, but they still eyed Charlie warily as she was placed in the back of the cart. Charlie was giving them the side-eye herself as she pulled her coat tight around her. 

“Are you cold?”

“Huh?” Charlie’s attention snapped to Ada, who looked on in concern. “Er— no, just…”

Ada’s eyes followed her sister’s gaze. 

“They’re not usually like that,” Ada said. “Jojo & Gigi are super friendly.”

Ha— Tell that to them! 

Jojo & Gigi seemed to share the sentiment, braying loudly as they focused on the road ahead.  

Ada glanced at Charlie, then at the mules. 

“… Charlie,” she said, lifting up the blanket that was around her “Would you like to sit with me?”

Charlie hesitated, then nodded. It wasn’t like the mules were going to break loose and get her, but sitting by someone that the mules actually liked did give her some assurance. 

The sisters huddled together as Mr. & Mrs. Bennett climbed onto the driver's bench, and the cart started onwards. 

So animals could sense something was different… Good to know. 

Again— these were not huge mistakes. They all could be explained away without much trouble— the Incident had made her subconsciously want to live life to the fullest, she talked a bit more, and the animals were just having a bad day.

Coincidences, even when put together. 

…Except for this one.