Princess for Hire

By Melanie Ezell

Daniel Henderson has managed to beat the odds and been accepted into Kingston Academy, one of the best private high schools in the country. However, when Daniel is invited to take part in a special program, he learns that there's more to the school than he had thought...

NOTE: This story is loosely -- as in VERY loosely -- based on the manga/anime "Princess Princess." After the initial concept, any similarities are mostly coincidental, unless they aren't. (Puzzle that out why don't ya.)

IN ADDITION, a special note for this chapter: at some point over the next couple of days I might go back and redo parts of this one. If I do, I'll post a blog about it, but it's pretty rough, sorry :(

Part 7: Princess Buttercup?

-19-

"Blossom, Bubbles, or Buttercup. Which one?"

"I didn't think you were serious about having us dress as the Powerpuff Girls!"

Julian just grinned, and held up the store-bought costumes again. "Well?"

Winston looked agonized, his eyes darting back and forth between the costumes, before closing his eyes and grasping one at random.

"Oh, good, you're Bubbles!"

"Aww, crap!"

We all laughed, though I could understand Winston's reluctance to wear the light blue costume and blonde wig. At the same time, though, I had little sympathy for him considering my own costume, and the fact that he at least would not have to suffer the indignity of being fitted for his by the tailors.

"Come on, Bradley, you next."

His eyes bulged for a second, before he blurted out "Blossom!"

Julian looked down at the costumes in her hand before grinning and tossing him the pink one with its matching red wig.

"What's gonna happen with the last costume?" Kirk asked from his perch atop the teacher's desk in the unused classroom we had been given to use for our Princess Program meetings.

"Why, do you want it?"

"NO!" He yelled, in a disturbingly high voice.

Julian gave a theatrical sigh. "Then I guess it's just going to have to go to our newest Princess."

The room was silent for a moment, before almost everyone began to speak at once.

"Who?"

"When?"

"WHY?"

"What?"

"Where?"

"And how!" Julian said, with a grin, then clapped his hands. "Come on in, newest Princess!"

I heard a timid shuffle from just outside the room's door, then a slow creak as it was pushed in.

"Come on, nobody here will bite you!"

In walked a boy I had never seen before. Most of the members of the Princess program were on the scrawny side, but the person who walked though the door looked as though they would disappear if they turned sideways. Mousy hair, freckles, and a pair of large, cheap glasses made it obvious why we had not considered him for the program earlier -- he was one of the most easily forgettable looking people I had ever seen.

"Um, hi," he said in a small voice as he walked into the room, watching his feet. Despite this, he somehow managed to trip over nothing coming through the door, and landed face down in the floor before any of us could catch him.

"Are you okay?" someone asked, but he simply nodded and pushed himself up off the floor.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to introduce you to the newest member of our little club, Rupert Jones, or, Ruby Jones, depending." Julian threw the last costume to our new arrival, who caught it clumsily. "Or, for Halloween, our very own Princess Buttercup."

"Hi," I said, amid a chorus of similar greetings from the other guys around me.

Rupert gave us all a small smile, then waved. Suddenly, he erupted in a blush befitting his new Princess name, and dashed from the room, gripping the costume to his chest. There was a small crash from the hallway, then the rapidly disappearing sound of footsteps.

"What was that all about?"

"We'll have to work on that shyness a bit, but I think we've got a good candidate there," Leslie said, looking at Sarah. "When is he moving into the "P" wing of the dorms?"

"Done did!" Julian said. "He was taking care of it with some of the Protectors while we had the first part of our meeting." He looked at Andrew. "He's got the room on the other side of your bathroom, I hope that's not a problem?"

Andrew shook his head.

"Good!"

After that, the meeting continued on as normal, or at least as normal as it could with everyone's attention turned to our newest member. Though we tried to return to business, it was quickly obvious that no more work would be done, so we spent the rest of the meeting discussing how Rupert/Ruby would do. The general consensus seemed to be that he would do well if we could get him to lighten up a bit.

Unfortunately, with Halloween only three days away, none of us expected to have him ready in time.

-20-

Again, I found my eyes inexorably drawn to Sarah's cleavage. The green of the Frankenwitch, or Witchenstein, I can never remember the name, actually looked good on her, and the choker with neck bolts attached was oddly cute. The rest, what little there was of it, was well made, if a bit... scarce.

I had trouble seeing Leslie's face through the wolf half-mask, but I was sure that under the foam rubber muzzle she had another one of her goofy smiles plastered on, since her eyes were pointed the same place as mine.

"Okay, you two, stop staring," Sarah said, wrapping her arms around herself in an attempt to cover up. She had an embarrassed expression, but it was tinged with a touch of what I thought was pride as well.

I looked down, then quickly regretted it. Looking down only served to draw my eyes to the overstretched bust of my own outfit.

Normally there was little to nothing that Princesses were required to do to simulate busts or other more feminine aspects to their figures unless they wanted to. A few of the other Princesses, like Amanda, used some padding and other helpers to enhance their look and draw away from their more masculine features, but I for one had never gone for it. With how many problems I had concerning my looks already, why would I?

Beside the few times I had gone out with Sarah as a girl and she had given me minimal padding to use, I had never had anything in the chest department, so the special cups sewn into the chest of my outfit filled with the same type of foam rubber as Leslie's mask had been made from made me supremely uncomfortable.

"They're 'C' cups."

"Oh, thank you SO much for that information," I told Sarah with a sneer.

"You look at mine, I look at yours," she said, coming forward and poking the padding on my left side.

"Hey!"

She giggled and stepped back. "Now you know what it's like."

Leslie wrapped her in a hug from behind. "Mr frflfr fr grwlfr."

"What?"

"Mr frflfr fr!"

Sarah spun around and slapped her on the shoulder playfully. "Take the stupid mask off you dope!"

Leslie reached up and unfastened the mask from the specially made strap behind her ears. "I said that I liked yours better," she said, grinning.

"Oh, shut up," Sarah complained, blushing.

"Alright, everybody, out!" I said, pushing the two of them still clinging to each other toward the door. "I need some sleep for tomorrow, and I'll be getting up early if I want to be able to get this costume on again in time."

We said our goodnights, and the other two left, leaving me to myself. I reached up to unfasten the cape from around my neck, but found myself stopping before I actually began. Instead, I walked over to the mirror on my closet door and looked at myself.

I had to admit, the outfit looked good. It was a bit different than the standard Vampwitch costume featured in the comic, but only in areas where it needed to be because of my unique situation. Instead of the low-cut top that would usually be worn underneath the decorative corset -- much more comfortable than the one sewn into my cocktail dress -- there was a light-fitting dressy blouse with something I think called a cravat attached. The cape was short, with a pattern on the inside picked out in a shiny black thread of spiderwebs, and on bottom I had the by-now almost ignorable short skirt, with fishnet stockings and a pair of knee high boots with some kind of odd cuff at the top. Close enough to the original that, when combined with the outfits of the other Princesses, there would be no question of who I was, and a lot more expensive-looking than I would have expected from the school.

Having around two months of occasionally dressing as a girl under my belt had at least allowed me to get comfortable enough with it to be able to identify what looked good on me and what failed, and the costume definitely looked good. As uncomfortable as they made me, the faux breasts did add a great deal to the overall effect. I still had no intention of making something similar a normal part of my costume, but the look was striking.

With a sigh I began the tedious work of removing the costume, glad that Sarah had agreed to wait until the morning to work on the makeup, meaning I did not have to worry about washing that off first. I was already expecting tomorrow to be a long and arduous day, and every second I had to sleep before then was precious.

As soon as I was stripped down, I slid into a pair of boxers and then into bed, to dreams of being Vampwitch and fighting the demons over New Salem.

-21-

For the first time since my arrival, I entered home room to the murmurs and whispers of the other students. I knew I looked different, even from my normal Princess attire, but I had not thought it was that different.

Soon, though, I realized that the murmurs were not for me. Instead, sitting there at the front of class, was...

"Ruby?"

The girl in the green outfit turned and gave me a timid little wave. Gone were the glasses -- was she wearing contacts? The wig looked like far better quality than the one that had been supplied with the costume, but had the same little flip to its style as the cartoon character, and the outfit itself was something to behold.

The store purchased costumes had been our idea as a kind of pseudo-hazing for the incoming freshmen, something I had luckily been allowed to skip, again because of my "unique situation." We had not wanted them to look bad, but we had wanted them to be obviously cheap. Her costume was fitted in such a way as to emphasize curves I was relatively sure had not been there when she had appeared before us in her boys' school uniform.

That, along with her makeup, which mimicked the rosy-cheeked look of the cartoon as closely as could be done in real life, added up to make her a far cuter Buttercup than I had anticipated.

The reactions of the boys around her proved it, as those sitting directly to either side of her seldom managed to remove their eyes from her face and legs. She stood up to come and greet me, her eyes still focused on the floor, when she tripped and started for the floor.

"Oof!"

"Ike!"

"Ow!"

Before she ever reached the tiles there were already three boys beneath her, cushioning her fall. With a start, she quickly pushed herself up and off of the pile, then covering her face dashed out around the desks and out the door.

I looked up to Professor Johnson, and without a word he waved me toward the door while rubbing the bridge of his nose. Without another second's delay I left the classroom.

She was standing just outside the door in the empty hallway, with her back against the wall and breathing hard. She glanced up at me nervously, with a look of fear in her eyes.

I hesitated to speak, afraid to run her off, but I eventually worked up my courage and asked as gently as I could, "is everything okay?"

She shook her head, but did not speak.

I was unsure of what to do, so to buy some time I leant against the wall next to her. "Is there anything I can do?"

She shook her head again. Finally, she seemed to work up the courage to speak. "I'm just scared, is all."

"Why?" I asked, then nodded. "Never mind, I think I know. It's a lot more nerve wracking than you thought it'd be, isn't it?"

She gave me a relieved grin.

"I thought so," I said so, smiling.

The grin faded from her face. "But it's so easy for you. Even on that first day, you were so... calm, and cool. I thought 'if she can do it, why can't I?'" She laughed nervously. "It wasn't as easy as it looked."

I passed an eye over her costume and makeup, and came to a realization. "This isn't your first time dressing, is it?"

She looked like she wanted to bolt again, so I gently laid my hand on her shoulder to calm her. "It's alright, you know. I don't think it's weird."

"...you don't?"

I patted her shoulder. "Nope! My dad's a drag queen, so he's told me a bit about why some people like to do it. What's your reason?"

She began to speak, but stopped herself before uttering a single syllable. Finally, after several more aborted attempts, she said, "I dunno. It's just something I have to do. I just feel so much more, relaxed I guess, when I'm dressed as a girl. I used to just do it when my big sister would dress me up in her clothes and we would play games, but then I started doing it on my own and..."

She sniffled for a moment, then looked up at me with sad eyes. "I thought, if I did this, it would help me fit in. Can you believe that? I did THIS," she gestured at her outfit, "to fit in."

I said nothing.

"It's pretty stupid, I know."

"No, it's not. Misguided, maybe," I said, grinning, "but it's better than my reason."

"Why did you join the Princesses?"

I shrugged. "Well, for the money, obviously."

She laughed. "With how you look I wouldn't think you had a choice." She saw the look on my face at that and blanched. "Oh god, I'm sorry, I didn't think."

I just shrugged again. "So, you ready to go back to class?"

We returned to class, and she gave everyone a smile, then returned to her seat.

"If the drama's over..." Professor Johnson said, and soon class was in full swing.

I spent the rest of the day casually looking out and watching for Ruby, shocked by how many classes of mine she was in and I had never noticed. At the same time, I found myself marveling at all the costumes, too many of them wonderful beyond description.

However, there was one person I found surprisingly absent.

I never saw her once all day, until at last dinner came around, and he entered.

"Hey, Julian, where have you been all day?"

He gave a loud guffaw, then pointed at all of us sitting at the table in our costumes. "I got to skip today, thanks to these great costumes!"

"What?"

"Why?"

We all wanted to know, but he happily strung us along all through dinner, until at the very end we pinned him in the corner and demanded to know.

With a final laugh, he waved his hand down his body. "Ladies, today I went to class... as Invisiwitch."

Those of us with food left threw it at him, while everyone else simply threw their hands in the air and groaned.

(End of Part 7)

END NOTES: As I said at the start, this part's really rough. I just finished it about ten minutes ago as of the time of writing this note, but if I wanted it up today I didn't have much choice but to post it as is. I'll probably look it over tomorrow and try to fix some of the problems, including how little focus there actually is on the Halloween aspect, but until then hopefully people will like what I've got.

If you think I need to rework it, let me know. If not, let me know too! Either way, always remember: if you comment, more will come. IF YOU COMMENT, MORE WILL COME.

Melanie E.