earceneaux5

[earceneaux5]

Final Entry

Overall, the story concludes with Danielle righting her wrongdoing to her sister and learning to accept herself for who she is. She learns to not compare herself to others and instead appreciate herself without having to use anyone else as a reference. As the story continues, her fairy guides help her to make better decisions and treat her sister better. Though she never physically changes, she grows emotionally and learns that putting others down will not make her feel any better about herself. I feel both of these messages are quite common in fairy tales. Despite the modern setting of the story, there is still the element of a moral purpose being given to the story; it still had that didactic feel that most fairy tales tend to have. 

While writing this story, I learned a lot. When I have written in the past, it has been very short stories that were mostly written in a single sitting. I have never properly written a story that needed multiple chapters or entries like this. Once I had the main storyline fleshed out, it was a bit easier than I thought it would be to connect the plot points together. What I had the most trouble with was trying to fit in the intricacies of a character without making them seem so laid out on purpose; it was harder to show and not tell than I expected it to be. Since I am used to writing shorter stories, having to stretch this one out over the span of at least ten entries was a challenge, but it showed me how to develop a story a bit more. It allowed me to give the plot more suspense and make the major developments feel as though they were natural parts of the story instead of me just throwing the events I wanted to write down into one chapter/entry. I feel like I could actually write the longer stories that I always tried to write in the past since now I have experience with creating a more developed plot.

[earceneaux5]

Entry 11:

Today is the day for me to make things right. I was able to catch a bus ride down to Stresa, where my whole family is back at home, so I get off at the closest station and make my way down into the city. When I am about ten minutes away from my house, it hits me that it might be better if I have some kind of proof that I will be able to turn Annette back to normal. Since I know the flowers work, I start looking around for a really pretty one. I turn around to see Angela holding a flower out to me. I take it with an appreciative smile. 

Lilith is also there, and she tells me one last time, “You know, it’s not too late to turn around and keep her that way. You’ll get to stay being the pretty one. She’s had enough time to do that.” 

“I’m actually feeling great knowing that I am fixing her back. Me making her ugly never made me pretty, and she does not deserve to look like this forever.” 

“To each their own, I guess,” Lilith finishes with an eye roll and pops away. 

“You’re making a good choice, honey, I promise,” Angela tells me in her soothing voice. “You know what to do now.” She pops away too, and now is my time to make things right. 

I knock on the door to my house, and I wait nervously for someone to come to the door. I can see my mother look through the glass of our front window, and she turns to go away. Before she can fully leave, I try to stop her. 

“Wait, please, I want to fix this. I am so sorry for what I did. I know I turned her into this, and I know I can turn her back. I promise I will fix this.” 

A long silence follows, and I can almost feel her trying to figure out what to do about this. Eventually, she opens the door for me and lets me into the house. As I pass through the kitchen to get to Annette’s room, I grab a small pastry off of the counter and make my way down the hall. 

I knock softly on her door and announce my presence. 

“Go away. I don’t want to see you again.”

Not surprising. I would probably be angrier than she is if she did this to me.

“Annette, I just want to fix things. I am so sorry. I never should have done this to you. I know I can fix this, so I just want to do what I can to turn you back.” 

I hear the lock turn, and she slowly opens the door. Her features are exactly like I left them that night, and I can’t help but feel really guilty again. I walk into her room and sit down on a chair at her vanity. I make sure that she is back on her bed and ready to talk before I start. 

“I just wanted to show you that I am truly going to fix this. Here is a regular rose, and now I’ll turn it ugly.” I shoot the sparks out of my hand and make the rose shrivel and turn brown. “Now I’m going to make it go back to normal.” I get the sparks going again, and this time the rose turns back to its brilliant shade of pink it was originally. I place the rose on her table and ask, “Are you okay if I do the same thing for you?”

“Whatever you need to do, just do it quickly.” 

With that, I grab the pasty and enchant it quickly. Annette eats a couple bites of it, and before she finishes it, I can already see her features changing back. Her teeth start returning to normal lengths, her hair smoothes down, and her face loses its splotches. By the time she finishes the pastry, she is fully back to her beautiful self. 

“I am so sorry for making you ugly like that. You did not deserve to be punished for my insecurities. I always felt ugly compared to you, so I thought making you ugly would make me feel better. That didn’t work though, and I realize now that your good qualities never took away from mine. It was never your fault, and putting that on you was wrong of me. I hope you can forgive me, but if not, that is okay. I just wanted to let you know.” 

“Of course I forgive you,” Annette tells me. “Now I won’t say that I’m not angry with you. I understand where you are coming from a bit better though, so I appreciate you telling me. I also appreciate the turning me back,” she finishes with a small laugh.

I reply with a small laugh too, and I make my way back to the living room to see my parents. 

“She is back to normal, but if you don’t want me here I understand. That was a really terrible thing I did, and I would understand if you didn’t want me living with you anymore.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Mom says to me. “Of course we are angry at you for taking your anger out on your sister like that, but we still chose to have you in our family. You still belong here.”

She pulls me into a hug that Dad joins in on, and I finally feel like I belong in this family. I may not be everything my sister is, but I know that at least I am around people who love me and that I love. As I break out of the hug, I see Angela in the kitchen window give me a thumbs up and mouth the words, “We’re here if you need us,” which makes more sense once I see Lilith poke around behind her. I mouth back a small “thank you,” and I head to bed feeling like I actually did something good with my powers. Maybe this magic thing could be more fun than I thought. I can do as much good or evil as I want, and now I want to do good.

The night ends well as well all go out to sit on the balcony of our home. The view is beautiful, and this time, it doesn't make me feel jealous of my sister or bad about myself but rather happy that there is such beauty in the world. And some of that beauty is in me too.

[earceneaux5]

Entry 10:

 I still didn’t feel like my mind was entirely made up when I woke up today. One thing I knew for sure was that I wanted to at least head back to Italy. I figured that if I make my way back home, I would at least be able to decide what I want to do along the way. 

I hop on the next train to Milan since I know there’s a connecting train from here to the station close to home. The ride feels longer than usual since I have a huge decision weighing on my mind. When I get off the train, I don’t feel any better than I did this morning. I make my way through the city when I come across the Duomo. I’ve been here before, but I never take the time to go inside. Today I decide to change that, so I push through the great wooden doors and emerge in the cathedral.

Right away, the view is breathtaking. The cathedral is all marble and full of beautiful stained glass windows that tell the stories of the Bible. The ceiling is higher than anything I’ve ever seen, and I can’t help but let my jaw hit the floor as I stare at everything around me. 

I somehow find my way into one of the pews, and I feel compelled to kneel for a bit. As I fold my hands over one another and close my eyes, I can’t help but feel different than the last time I was in a cathedral. This time, I don’t feel so much cursed by God as I feel the consequences of my actions. Instead of feeling like I was slighted of external beauty, I now feel ugly on the inside of my own doing. Before I know it, there are tears running down my face. I feel so guilty for ruining my sister’s beauty. It never had anything to do with me whether she was pretty or not. Her beauty didn’t take away from my own, and I never saw that until now. I know now that my mind is made up: I am going to head home and fix her back.

I walk out of the cathedral, and as I turn back to close the door, I see Angela shoot me a proud smile before the doors close. The pride I feel walking out is not in my looks, but in knowing that I am making the right choice to fix what I did wrong.

[earceneaux5]

Entry 9:

 I was feeling a bit bolder this morning, so I decided that I would hop on a train to Monaco. I’ve heard the scenery is beautiful, so I figured some time alone in nature would be nice right now. 

I watch the trees and cow pastures turn into hills and rocky beaches as the train barrels into the station, and I hop off at the station closest to the palace. A local in town directs me to the place where I can go walk around the coast and admire the landscapes a bit more privately. After a quick “thank you,” I make my way down to the path. I find a bench in a sunny area that overlooks the sea, and I sit down here to relax and enjoy the surroundings. 

I notice that some of the flowers around me have gone brown and shriveled, so I decide to try my powers out on them. A small amount of sparks shoot from my hands to the flowers, and almost immediately they perk back up and gain the most gorgeous red color. I guess my powers work that way too. My peaceful rest is interrupted by the small pop of Angela and Lilith appearing in front of me. 

“Well you can use those powers for good after all, can you?” Angela sternly tells me as she bores into my eyes. “I thought you only used them to harm other people.” 

“Don’t listen to her,” Lilith cuts in. “She just gets upset when people actually have fun with their powers instead of using them to save the world or whatever.”

“Fun? Turning someone into a hideous monster is fun?” 

“Maybe if you loosened up a bit you could actually appreciate the humor in it.”

“Oh, okay. We’ll see how you like having magic used on you like th–” 

“Can you two stop arguing for a minute?” I interrupt them. “I actually do feel pretty guilty about what I did. I feel good about my own appearance, but I can’t help but feel guilty about ruining her appearance like that.” 

“I’m glad you’ve come to your senses,” Angela says with a nod. “I thought you would never come around.”

“Personally I’m disappointed. I liked the dark side of you quite a bit,” Lilith retorts. 

“What can I do now? My family told me not to go back home because of what I did, but I feel like I need to make things right,” I propose to Angela. 

“If you can enchant something to make her ugly, then I am sure you have it in you to enchant something to make her pretty again,” she replies to me with a small smile. She turns and pops away like always, and Lilith is close behind. Before leaving, she looks at me with disappointment in her eye and says, “I thought you were one of the cool ones. I guess I misjudged you.”

After they both leave, I sit on the bench for a bit longer considering my options. I could just not return home and leave Annette the way she is. I could also try going back and making things right with them. I know that the former is the right thing to do, but I don’t know if I am ready to let go of being the pretty one yet. Turning her back would mean that I give up that feeling, but leaving her would mean I have to live without my family and with the guilt of what I have done. I’m not sure which one I could live with more easily, and that question weighs heavily on my mind that night as I fall asleep under the stars in Monaco.

[earceneaux5]

Entry 8:

After quickly getting dressed, I decided that today would be a great day to go to The Louvre. I have always wanted to see the artwork there, and now is the perfect time to do so. Now I get to do it alone and appreciate things by myself. 

I find myself wandering through the halls full of gorgeous paintings and sculptures. Each piece is masterfully crafted and has such an attention to detail that feels like the artists put their whole being into their work. I know that my sister must have felt like she was created with such a purpose like that, but that probably changed when I decided to change how she looks. I wonder when that feeling will sink in for me. 

As I climb the stairs to the next floor, I come across a statue that strikes me in a way nothing else has so far. The sculpture is of a woman with no head or arms, but she has wings and wind-blown fabric carefully wrapped around her. Even without a face, she was still beautiful enough for someone to take the time to sculpt the details of her body. 

The longer I stand in front of her, the more I realize that I sort of look like her. Her stomach is soft like mine, and her hips curve the same way mine do. I feel like the features of my body that I never really liked all that much were appreciated by an artist thousands of years ago, and that thought makes me feel so much better about myself. It hits me in that moment that this sculpture looks like me, and I have yet to see something here that looks like my sister did. Yesterday made me feel less ugly, but today truly makes me feel like I am actually beautiful. Now that Annette isn’t around or even pretty anymore, I really do feel like I am finally the pretty sister. It feels great, but I can’t help but feel guilty for feeling happy about her newfound ugliness.

When I turn around, I see my reflection in the marble of the building, and I catch a glimpse of Lilith’s proud smile. She flies up to me and whispers in my ear, “Good job on the wine. The confidence looks good on you.” She winks at me and disappears quickly, leaving me with a swell of pride at actually using my powers and making myself feel better. What I did was wrong, but if it makes me feel better about myself, then it can’t be that bad, right? 

[earceneaux5]

Entry 7:

Waking up alone in the hotel room this morning was a strange feeling. Despite missing my family, it is nice to saunter up to the mirror and not have to compare myself to anyone else. I can’t help but notice that I look different. There is a confidence to my face that was never there before. 

I figured today would be a good day to explore the city by myself. I made my way down to the metro station, and I sat myself down to wait for a train. The first one that comes is going to Versailles, so I jump on it and make my way down to the palace. 

Walking up to this palace feels like a surreal experience. It is so grand and so ornate that it is almost hard to believe it exists. My first thought is that people would tell my sister that she is more beautiful than this palace will ever be, but I suppress that with a smirk knowing that she is ugly now. 

Each room is more beautiful than the next, and eventually I find myself in the Hall of Mirrors. It is like nothing I have ever seen before. The glass twinkles in the sun, and the soft beams of light illuminate each of the colors on the tapestries and the walls. For once in my life, I feel the urge to stand in the light instead of move away from it, so I follow this and make my way into the middle of the room.

I close my eyes and lift my head to the ceiling as I extend my arms around me to bask in the sunlight. In this moment I feel the light warming me, and I feel less like I need to hide myself. My sister’s former beauty does not even cross my mind anymore, and I truly feel like I am something worth looking at. Something worth the sun’s rays. 

The metro ride back to the hotel is a satisfying one, but I feel a pang of guilt in my heart as I see Angela’s small form shake her head at me again. That doesn’t matter now though. Now Annette gets to know how it feels to be out shadowed all the time. I fall asleep that night with a feeling of resignation in my decision. It is done now, and my family isn’t around for me to try and fix anything anyways, so it is no use to worry about it now. 

[earceneaux5]

Entry 6:

In the morning, we made our way to Paris, and we got settled into our hotel. I told my mom I was heading out into the city to get some soap since I “forgot mine at the last hotel.” 

I find my way to a nice grassy area in the back of the Eiffel Tower, and since it’s midafternoon, there aren’t a ton of people there. It’s the perfect place to practice my magic.

First I try to turn a butterfly ugly, but that’s a bit of a bust. The sparks come out awkwardly, and at best I make them look like a dull moth. I decide that maybe charming something to feed to a creature may help.

I am able to shoot some sparks at a breadcrumb, and an unsuspecting pigeon hops by and eats it. In seconds, it is transformed into a bird with splotches of plucked feathers, a crooked beak, and a missing toe. This is promising. I walk back to the hotel with a new spring in my step.

After a break and a shower, we head down to dinner as a family. We sit down at the restaurant, and our waiter brings out some small wine pitchers for us. My sister gets up to go to the restroom shortly after, and I take my chance. 

I grab her pitcher of wine, and while my parents are laughing together, I aim my hand at Annette’s pitcher and watch the sparks swirl around the deep red liquid. I place her pitcher back on the table just in time as she makes her way back to her seat.

She pours her wine into a glass, and after the first sip, the changes start happening. Her silky hair turns dull, frizzy, and brittle before she even finishes the glass. Her smooth skin turns bumpy and splotchy almost immediately. Her front teeth grow twice their size and stick out of her mouth at strange angles. I am a bit disgusted with how much satisfaction I feel at her new ugly appearance. 

The gasps that come out of my parents' mouths are like nothing I’ve heard before. It takes a few seconds of them sitting in shock to realize that I must have done something with magic to make this happen. It’s as if a switch flicked within them both as they realize what has happened.

“What have you done?” My mother shouts at me. I am pushed out of the way as my mother and father rush to their true child who has just turned hideous in front of their eyes. 

“How could you?” Annette cries out to me, or she tries her best to through her now enlarged teeth. “What have I ever done to you?” 

“You’ve always been better and prettier and so much more than I ever was!” I find myself shouting before I can stop myself. “And Mom and Dad love you more than they’ll ever love me!” 

The hurt on my parents' faces is enough to bring me to my knees. I know they’re disgusted with me, but I can’t even look them in the eyes anymore. 

“I… I can’t believe you think that of us,” my mom whispers. “We’re leaving. We’re going home, and don’t feel like you need to join us.” 

And so they walk away from me, Annette between them. All I’m left with is myself and this strange feeling of satisfaction for actually having made my sister ugly. 

My fairies reappear, and their reactions are of course mixed. Angela gives me a disapproving shake of the head before disappearing again, but Lilith gives me a satisfied smirk and a thumbs up. 

“Good for you,” she tells me. “Who’s the pretty one now?” She disappears too, and then I’m truly by myself. As guilty as I feel, I can’t help but feel like I’ve won in some way. My family has just left me, but now at least I am the pretty sister for once. 

That night I go back to the empty hotel and admire myself in the mirror. I never realized how pretty I really was. Now with no competition, this is something I get to do all the time. Maybe my powers are worth it. 

[earceneaux5]

Entry 5:

This morning has been strange. I woke up with much more of an intense feeling of jealousy than I ever have, and it feels like it’s not going away. The bus ride to Mont Saint Michel was a long and tedious one, with most of us just too tired to do any talking. 

We reach the castle, and the view is just breathtaking. The water around us is so peaceful, much unlike my head right now. Anyways, our tour starts, and we begin the climb. 

After going through the arduous trek to the top, we reach the open air. Our tour guide lets us free to see what we would like, and I stick around on the top while the rest of my family goes down the stairs to walk around the inside of the castle and catch what we didn’t see. 

I make my way to the edge of the balcony, and I sigh as I place my hands on the barrier. I can’t help but get a bit pensive up here with this view of the land and the water that just flows so tranquilly. It makes me realize how much of a contrast there is between me and my surroundings. I start to think about what kind of plan I need to have if I really want to do something about my sister, and this makes my hands glow and spark as is my new normal. I spot a seagull nearby and flick my hand near him just to see what would happen if I used my power on an animal. I’ve only ever done these sorts of things on inanimate objects. 

He flies away as soon as I throw sparks at him, but that’s not my concern. As soon as the sparks leave my hand, two small flying creatures appear on either side of my field of vision. The one on the right, who is dressed in a fluffy white dress, speaks to me first. 

“Hello Danielle,” she says in a singsong voice. “We’re your moral compass fairies. With this new gift of magic, you get us included to help you figure out the good and bad ways to use it. I’m Angela, the good fairy. This is—“

“Lilith,” the one dressed in a black slip dress on the left cuts in. “I’m the fun one. Or as she likes to call me, ‘the bad fairy.’” 

I can’t help but stare at these small creatures in shock. I’ve never met fairies before, and honestly I didn’t know if they even existed. I surely never thought I would be presented with fairies just for me. 

Angela sees the look on my face and speaks again. “We’re here because you had some sort of dilemma that you need to figure out, so let’s hear it. What’s been on your mind?”

“Well,” I begin with a sigh. “I’ve been really struggling with being super jealous of my sister. She’s prettier than me, nicer than me, and just better than me in every way. I want to do something about it, but I don’t know what to do.” 

“That’s a very normal feeling to have,” Angela tells me in a soothing voice. “But her good qualities don’t take away from yours, you know? You can still be pretty and nice even if you think she is more of each of those things.” 

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell myself, but it’s so hard to not be so jealous of her. I guess I should just start working on myself.” 

“I think that sounds like a good idea. Just because you have magic doesn’t mean you need to use it all the time,” Angela tells me with a wink as she spins around and pops out of my frame of view. 

“You know,” Lilith slyly says as she saunters up to my shoulder. “She’s a bit boring. You’ve got powers, and I think you should use them. If you don’t want to do the magic on yourself, an enchanted potion can do wonders for the way someone else looks if you know what I mean.” She wiggles her eyebrows at me and then disappears just like her little counterpart did. 

As I stare out at the water I’m conflicted. I know my sister doesn’t deserve punishment, but I have these powers, and I feel like I need to use them. I think I’ll practice my enchanting and perfect it to use on her. What could a little change to her looks really do? 

[earceneaux5]

Entry 4:

Our next stop was Rouen, and there were so many things to see there. In the morning, it was still really hard to ignore the jealousy building in my chest and trying to make its way out of my fingertips. After shaking them out for a bit, we all got off of the bus and set out to explore. We got to tour the city, and we saw so many statues and artwork of Joan of Arc. The first church we saw had a statue of her outside, and inside there was the crucifix that she kissed before she was killed. The Notre Dame cathedral had a special chapel dedicated to her with another beautiful statue of her.

We walked down the streets some more after visiting the cathedral, and we saw a portrait of her in the stone of a nearby building. Then someone tells my sister how lovely she looks. My hands start to glow. The portrait of her shows her as a warrior unlike the statues. Another person compliments Annette’s warm tan skin. I can’t help but notice that no one seems to notice me. My fingers start getting sparky. I manage to calm myself down and focus back on the sites in front of me.

We make it back to the hotel, and it gives me time to think. Hearing so much about Joan of Arc and seeing her as a warrior reminded me of the courage she must have had to lead an army as a woman. I thought about how much she must have believed in herself to do something so against what was expected of her.

It makes me think that if she could have the courage to do all of that, why couldn’t I have the courage to do something about this jealousy and feeling of inadequacy? If she could lead an army, then why couldn’t I use the power I already have to do something about one person? And why should that person be me and not my sister? What could be so hard about that?

[earceneaux5]

Entry 3:

Today was a bit of a different day. We all made our way to Giverney to see Claude Monet’s home and gardens, which were absolutely stunning.

While passing through the gardens, we saw so many beautiful flowers and quaint streams bursting with life. There were so many colors of the flowers and foliage itself too, and it took my breath away a bit to see how nature can be so lovely and not know it. Between picture stops, people smiled and told Annette how gorgeous she is. My heart sinks a little with each person that pretends I don’t exist. I try to keep this out of my mind as we tour the rest of the grounds.

Despite how frustrated I am, I try to enjoy the walk through his house. His home was full of his paintings of nature done through an impressionist lens. It was so different to see paintings not focused on such specific details, but focused on the general idea of the figure. Landscapes were painted with softer shapes than real life, and the details are skirted to instead just give an impression, like the name says.

It makes me think about how that’s probably the way someone would want to paint me—without focusing on the details. A blurry image of me would be better than one where you can see every single part of my face. They would never paint my sister that way. They’d never be able to capture her beauty. I try to let that thought leave my head and keep moving along.

Passing through the gardens on the way out of his house again left me awestruck but still sad that such beauty exists in the world and somehow missed me. I feel so insignificant and so small in a world where my sister gets to feel so celebrated. The ride back to our hotel in Honfleur feels about as long as the list of things that is wrong with me and not with my sister.

My gaze out of the window is broken by my sister tapping me on the shoulder to tell me that I looked really nice and that the day outside made my complexion glow. This just made my cheeks flush even more, and I can’t help but feel like she’s pulling my leg. With this flush of my cheeks, my fingers start to tingle and small colorful sparks burst from them. I am sort of new to these enchanting powers, and they tend to come out of me when I get emotional. Most of the time I can target what I’m trying to get, but little random sparks do come out of my hands sometimes.

I know I keep getting so jealous of her, but I can’t help it. It’s hard growing up and already being different than the rest of my family, and her being prettier than me only makes me stand out even more. But I can’t help but feel a pang of guilt as I think these rude things about my sweet and lovely sister. She has never done wrong by anyone really, and it’s not like she goes asking for compliments. It’s just so hard to live in her shadow, and maybe taking her down a notch would help even the playing field a bit.

That night, I shake that thought out of my head again and lay down in the bed next to Annette snoring softly in her sleep. As I pull the sheets up over my shoulders and close my eyes to rest, that jealousy creeps back into my chest, and it feels a little less fleeting than last time.

[earceneaux5]

Entry 2:

Our family vacation starts off with a very long train ride from Stresa to Chartres in France. Annette has been sitting next to me the whole time, and we’ve made polite enough small talk about the weather, the excitement of the trip, and anything else that is easy to keep a conversation flowing. I’m in the window seat, and Annette is in the aisle seat. As people pass by our row they give her kind smiles and a couple of people even stop to mention how beautiful she is. I can’t even imagine what it must be like to have strangers call you pretty all the time. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not hideous, but I’m not my sister. Well, adoptive sister.

We’re heading to Notre Dame in Chartres, and before long we hop off the train and make our way into the city. A quick stop at our hotel relieves us of our bags, and we set out to spend some time at the cathedral.

As we pass through the threshold of this gorgeous building, we are surrounded by stained glass windows that tell the stories of Catholicism. It is here that I recognize how insignificant I feel. How could I have gotten so slighted by God? He made people who could build and create such amazing artwork and also people as beautiful as my sister. I mean, I have my powers of enchanting and can finally teleport myself wherever I want to be, but what good is that when I can’t get anyone to look away from my sister long enough to talk to me? What have I done wrong to miss out on this kind of perfection? And what has my sister done to earn it?

I gaze into a window scene depicting Jesus being crucified, and I can’t help but feel understood, as melodramatic as that seems. He didn’t deserve to die, but he did. I don’t think I deserve to be constantly overshadowed by my sister, but that still happens too.

I just wish there was something I could do to make myself look better. Or, maybe something to make my sister look worse. No, that’s wrong. I shouldn’t be thinking like that. But it would be an easy way to finally be the “pretty one.”

My sister has never done me any wrong, but what good has she done that I haven’t? Maybe losing her looks would teach her a lesson in humility. Maybe.

No, that’s too much. She doesn’t deserve punishment for something she can’t control. But neither do I.

[earceneaux5]

Entry 1

Hello! This blog is for my study abroad class focusing on the evolution of fairy tales. This project required us to creatively write as a fairytale character or an explorer type character. I chose to write as a fairytale character, so the rest of the posts onto this blog will be following her journey. The character I will be playing is named Danielle Corbin, and she is a young woman with dark, curly hair, green eyes, and fair skin. She is a witch who is talented with enchanting beverages and foods, and she can also transport herself wherever she needs or wants to go. This skill is limited to herself, so traveling with other people requires other means. She is a beautiful woman, but she always feels jealous of her adoptive sister, Annette Bellamy. Annette has light brown hair, warm, tan skin, and hazel eyes. Both of these sisters are daughters of a scholarly family, so they are well-off financially. Their parents are Bernadette and Pierre Bellamy, who are both from France but have moved to Stresa, Italy. Annette’s family adopted Danielle at a young age, and they have been very kind and loving to her over the years. However, Danielle has always felt as though she is not as beautiful as her sister, and she has always felt some resentment about that. She feels as though she does not fit in with the family, as they all look the same, and she does not look like them. The story will focus on the family taking a vacation through various cities in France, where it will eventually end in their hometown of Stresa, Italy. As they go through their vacation, Danielle’s jealousy of her sister grows and comes to a head when she feels as though she has been slighted or abandoned by God and seeks to curse her sister to be ugly. Her purpose is to first curse her sister and then to change her back to her original beauty after realizing that what she has done is wrong. Her character is meant to tame her sense of jealousy and realize that she was beautiful all along, regardless of if her sister was also beautiful. I think this story should be interesting to write, and I hope it is just as interesting to read!