Finding Yourself

Scene l: Dancing Free

Sofia stood, her posture sloppy, next to her three sisters. Livia was bragging about how she was going to win and trash talking them. Maya stood away from the group, her arms folded, hands tightly gripping her elbows nervously. And Amari gazed at the forest, a faraway look in her eye. Sofia made a clever but daring comeback to Livia, reminding her older sister that talk wouldn’t help her pass the tests. They both fired nasty remarks about the other like gunshots.

In the back of her head, Sofia knew she should act better than this, but she couldn’t let Livia say the last insult. Neither Amari nor Maya would stand up for themselves or Sofia, so she had to. Every time Livia said something cruel to any one of them, Sofia took it upon her duty to create a clever comeback. Sometimes she tried to be good and ignore her evil sister’s snide comments, but every time, she was unable to resist the urge to offend her. After all, princesses are supposed to be the best behaved in all the land, and if they didn’t follow directions just so, or if they forgot to curtsy even one time, who would?

While in the middle of slandering Sofia, her eyes darted to something over Sofia’s shoulder. Sofia turned to look and saw the queen, dressed as elegant as ever in a turquoise strapless ruffled skirt ball gown dress. Her straight silky dark chocolate brown hair was pulled back into a bun. She strode down the sidewalk towards her daughters. All four of them stumbled to get into a perfectly straight line, straightening to their full heights instead of slouching, like they normally did. The queen examined each one of the princesses, searching for any specks of dirt or any slight wrinkles in their dresses. She nodded slightly, expressing her satisfaction, and beckoned for an old man with gray hair to come forward. He bowed to the princesses, and his nose reached below his knees. Sofia held back a snicker at how ridiculous he looked. His outfit was very old-fashioned and his tiny spectacles stayed on the bridge of his nose, revealing his olive green eyes. His skin was so wrinkled that Sofia guessed he was at least 60 years old, most likely older by a few decades. He led them to a rose pink, velvet red, and maroon brick building where he held the door open, allowing the daughters to pass.

“Princesses first,” he insisted, slightly bowing to them, an unnecessary but formal gesture.

Sofia was not particularly fond of formal things, whether they were gestures, speech, ceremonies, or anything else. Unfortunately for her, almost everything in a princess's life was formal. In fact, the very tests they were taking that day were to see how formal each of them could be, so that way their mother could decide which one of them was best suited to be queen. Sofia also did not adore the term ‘princesses’. ‘Princesses’ meant pretty and elegant and perfect. Sofia was none of those things. Sure, some would call her pretty, but that was because she was royalty and had personal servants do her hair and makeup every morning to force beauty upon her. Honestly, Sofia was sick of trying to be beautiful. She was positive she could have a passionate conversation with someone about why she believed people should be allowed to have a say in whether they cared about beauty or not. (Sofia most certainly did not.)

When Sir Lionel showed them a majestic ballroom dance and asked for Sofia to demonstrate, she went wild. She was tired of pretending to be dignified. She let out the beast she had caged for all of her life. 

This beast of bravery and independence rarely appeared. Sofia was cautious not to let it out when certain adults were around (or certain tattletale kids). Only once did Sofia remember releasing this beast. She and Livia had snuck out of the palace and escaped to the sea (a place they were never allowed to go to). The two sisters had been friends back then, very uncommonly arguing. They had had a sandcastle building competition. Sofia had built a tall and intricate palace, which she was very proud of. It was not often that she and her sisters were able to express their creativity. But then Livia had come over and shoved it over, making the sand go flying. They had rarely fought, so Sofia had been willing to forgive her sister for her wrongdoings. But unlike most times they disagreed, Livia kept doing things to aggravate Sofia. Sofia now knew that the reason behind Livia’s uncalled for action that day on the beach was because she was jealous of how well Sofia’s castle was. But whenever Sofia brought it up, it would only make Livia even more furious.

“My goodness! One can not even look at your ridiculous dancing!” Sir Lionel turned the other way, shielding his eyes from Sofia’s wicked dancing. She tried a salsa dance, first trying out the moves before improvising. Maya seemed to search her sister’s face curiously. A smirk spread across Livia’s face, probably because she knew Sofia wouldn’t get many points for going against what their instructor had told them to do. But Amari confidently stepped up, right next to Sofia, and she started trying to copy Sofia’s moves. Sofia showed her how to do some specific skills, and the two danced like nobody was watching, but also like they were putting on a show at the same time.

Sofia closed her eyes and pretended she was dancing on a stage in front of judges, without a specific routine, just dancing and showing them how amazing she was, improvising. She could hear the music in her head, although her mother had never introduced her children to the kind of music salsa dances go to. It was like an instinct. Sofia felt so confident while dancing, like she could dance the world’s problems away. 

Then she realized she was still inside the building Sir Lionel had led them into, with her two sisters watching Sofia and Amari, one with an encouraging smile spread across her face, the other with a frown. Sofia turned to Amari, and the two flew gracefully across the floor, in sync. Then they both turned to their audience and bowed, Sofia deeper than Amari. Maya rushed over and hugged both of her sisters, so fiercely that Sofia thought that she might pop from the strength of her sister’s strong grasp.

Sir Lionel ran into the room, a disturbed expression plastered across his face. The queen slowly came in after him. She fixed her gaze on her daughters, her eyes lingering on Sofia longer than the others. Her stare drove into her, making Sofia feel sick to her stomach. The past few minutes were highly against everything her mother stood for, not formal or princess-like at all. Sofia gulped, realizing the trouble she was about to be in, as well as the lecture on representing her people. 

So you can imagine her surprise when her mother turned to Sir Lionel and said, annoyed, “My daughter does not seem to be doing any inappropriate dancing. In fact, she is only standing patiently, awaiting your instructions. So I suggest you do your job and teach these disciplined young ladies how to properly dance.”

Sir Lionel muttered an apology, accompanied with a halfhearted bow. The queen stalked out of the room, shutting the door behind her. Sir Lionel turned and shook his finger at Sofia, and she suddenly became very interested in her feet, her sparkly red high heels paired with rose nail polish.

“Let’s try this again, shall we?” His voice had an edge to it, like he was trying so hard to come off as friendly, but in his heart was a raging fire, burning with hatred for Sofia. She took a step back, away from this disaster waiting to happen.

He rehearsed the steps to the ballroom dance, and they ran through it three times before pairing up to try it with a partner, like how it would be when they danced with their future prince at a ball. Every one of them stumbled and messed up the dance. It was obvious that Sofia was only talented in dramatic and exaggerated dancing, not slow dancing with her soulmate.

By the end of the session, the queen’s trained servants scored the girls based on who they believed would make the best ballroom dancer as queen. Sofia’s stomach was in knots, wondering if she would be deducted points for her salsa dancing, or if the servants would be too scared to deduct for that reason, since the queen, whom they served, had not believed Sofia had done anything wrong.

Scene ll: Professional Photos

The queen motioned for her daughters to follow her out of the building and down the sidewalk to her fancy car. The five got in the car and the queen instructed her personal driver to head to her private beach.

They arrived shortly, where a professional photographer was waiting on the sand, close enough to the water where he could photograph people in the ocean, but not quite close enough to where his equipment and he would get wet.

The princesses changed into other clothes that weren’t dresses, and the professional photographer named Daniel instructed Sofia and Livia to go into the water. They tried a few poses, but they kept getting splashed with large waves. Soon, everything below their chest was sopping wet. Livia started to get upset about it, but Sofia tried to ignore it as she did a few more poses. 

Maya and Amari watched from dry land when suddenly Amari’s face lit up and she sprinted towards the cameraman. Sofia is too far out to make out what she was saying, but the man stepped away from the camera. Amari motioned for Sofia to come to the shore, which she does with a bit of difficulty, in response to the wall of water that restricted her leg movement.

Amari directed the expensive camera towards a grassy area, where she told Sofia to do some more poses. This time, Sofia closed her eyes for a minute and imagined she was on that stage again, this time posing for fans. She leaned into a sassy pose, making tattletale Livia to run to their mother, eager to find an excuse to get her competition eliminated. Sofia flashed a few more confident poses at the camera, which Amari was still operating skillfully. The professional photographer bent over Amari’s shoulder, and Sofia could see the panic in her eyes. But he only nodded with satisfaction, pleased with her skills and technique. After a few more photos, Amari spoke briefly with Daniel before she came towards Sofia, high-fiving her. A grin spread across her face as they both complimented each other’s skills.

“You are so good at posing, Sofia! You could be on the cover of a magazine! Are you sure this is your first time doing this?” Sofia laughed and fired back a compliment about her sister’s amazing photo-taking skills.

There was a moment of silence, and Sofia turned to face the forest. She stared longingly at it, wishing she could run into it and never come back out - at least not on this side. She would find a place where she could express herself, posing and dancing every single day, not only on a special occasion where even now, she would be in serious trouble if her mother found out. Amari caught her gazing into the mysterious woods.

“I know you want to run into that forest. Me too.” Sofia spun around to gawk at her. Amari chuckled. “I loved taking photos of you here on the beach, but I would rather take pictures of nature - no offense. You know how mother always has us locked up in town, forced to be inside buildings or right next to them. We never get to be out like this, with nature, appreciating its true beauty. It makes me want to capture it with a camera.”

“I totally understand what you’re saying.” And she did. She too wanted to be free of this weight her mother had cast upon her. Of this expectation to be perfect, elegant, pretty, and graceful. Because in truth, she was none of those things deep down.

Daniel took a couple photos of Maya and Amari before the queen’s servants scored them and they moved on to the next and final location.

Scene lll: Confrontation

The queen’s personal driver took them back to the palace, where a crowd was gathered. The queen explained that the final test was to see how well they meet their subjects. She went on to say that a good queen is kind and respectful towards their people, but they also needed to remind them that they were the royalty and the citizens were just regular people.

The four sisters exited the car with all of the knowledge they would be given for this challenge. They were back in their fancy dresses, and they approached the crowd of people slowly, walking like how they knew their mother walked. Making the others wait. Building the suspense.

Livia was a natural. She smiled and let the person she was talking to lead the conversation, but she stood up straight, and every once in a while, slipped in a sentence about how she was royalty, without making it too obvious.

Sofia was too awkward, and Amari forgot to remind them that she is royalty. Maya did very well, but not quite as well as Livia. 

Afterwards, when they were back inside the palace, Sofia ambled through the never-ending halls, admiring the artwork and photos on the walls. She found her way to her mother’s room. She found her mother out on the balcony, gazing out over her city. Sofia requested a discussion with her and her mother agreed.

“What Sir Lionel said this afternoon was true. I was dancing my own way, improvising.” Her mother’s jaw dropped open, and she struggled to find words. So Sofia continued talking. “I really enjoyed it. I felt free and in control. Sometimes me and my sisters feel too pressured by you and we wish we did not have to be formal and royal.”

“Where are you going with this?” Her mom’s voice was surprisingly soft. Sofia had expected her to be mad, and maybe she was, but she was just hiding it.

“I wish you would let me walk away from the life of a princess - or maybe a queen - and let me take dance lessons. I don’t want to be queen. I want to be a dancer.” Sofia was scared to speak the next few words, in case she was wrong. But she had come this far. “And I’m pretty sure Amari wants to be a professional photographer. She did really well today when she took over Daniel’s role of taking pictures of me and my sisters.” She paused and looked up at her mother, realizing she had been talking to the railing on the balcony. “Please, mom. Livia or Maya would be amazing queens. Dancing is my passion and my dream.”

Her mom nodded, bringing her daughter in for a hug. “Yes, you may become a dancer and Amari can be a professional photographer. Maybe I have been too hard on you girls. I am just so under pressure as the queen, and I thought that by being hard on you, it would be easier on you in the long run. I was wrong, but that’s alright. I am happy that both you and your sister found your dream and you are going for it.” 

Tears of joy streamed down both of their faces. Sofia buried her face in her mother’s shoulder.

“Your father has never been into being formal either. What if he took you and Amari to a city near here so you can pursue your passions? Me, Livia, and Maya can handle the royalty things here.” Sofia nodded, looking deep into her mothers aqua blue eyes, which were still spilling tears.

A sudden thought popped into Sofia’s mind, and even though she didn’t want to ruin the moment, she reminded herself that she wasn’t royalty anymore, and so she asked the question. “Is Livia or is Maya going to be queen?”

Her mother sighed and paused before answering. “Livia did better on all of the tests, so logically she should be queen.” Sofia’s head fell. She felt a pang of sympathy for sweet, loving Maya. “However, I understand that Livia is not always the nicest to you and your other sisters. I think that I will give her a chance, but I will still monitor her closely. As for Maya, I think that I will give her the same opportunity to step away from being royalty as you and Amari have been given. She should be able to pursue her dreams and find her passion.”

“Thank you. For everything.” Sofia hugged her mom tightly, and their eyes met. Her mom nodded before Sofia ran off to tell her siblings the exciting news.

The next day, Sofia, Amari, and Maya left with their dad to another city so they could pursue their dreams. They were bubbling with excitement.

Later on, Sofia did become a dancer and Amari became a professional photographer. Maya tried out a few different activities before discovering soccer as what brought her overwhelming happiness. She became a professional soccer player. Livia became queen and after a few weeks, the mean and cruel left her. She was no longer the person she had become that day on the beach, building sandcastles. She was the way she was before that. Changed, but her heart was the same. 

And every one of the sister’s hearts were overflowing with love. For each other. For what they did. For themselves.