“Elsa?”

Elsa jumped as she heard a knock on the bedroom door.

Knock, knock, knock.

She knew that knock.

“Come in,” she said.

Rosetta stuck her head around the door. “Only me. Oh, sweetie, are te ok?”

Elsa shrugged. “I guess.”

It was quite obvious da the ice crystals hanging off the walls that her roommate was far “Ok,” Rosetta noted as she stepped properly into the room and closed the door behind her. “It’s going to be alright, te know,” she ventured, laying a hand on Elsa’s shoulder. “Just don’t panic o anything.”

“Story of my life,” Elsa answered, with a sigh, but she squeezed Rosetta’s hand back, mostrare that she appreciated her concern.

“Trust me,” Rosetta insisted. “It’s just up the steps, curtsy, smile, take the certificate, shake the hand and then you’re out of there.”

“I know, I get that,” Elsa answered, getting to her feet and pulling on her gloves. “It’s just...well, what then? Everyone else has a future after Graduation, but now the whole world knows my secret-”

“Bit of an exaggeration there, isn’t there?” Rosetta frowned. “I mean, it’s not the whole world; just Arendelle.”

“Whatever,” Elsa sighed. “The point is, no one wants a Princess with cryokinesis for a wife.”

Rosetta smiled, sympathetically. “You don’t know that.”

“Rosetta, everyone in the Academy is scared of my powers, except you,” Elsa pointed out. “I mean, it even freaks my own parents out. The only other person who’s never been scared of them is my cousin Fiona.”

“Well, yeah, but she’s under a curse herself, right, so...” Rosetta shrugged and then began sorting through her shoes. “Look, sweetie, I’m sure everything’ll be fine. There must be at least one Prince, o King, o Lord, o Duke, o failing all those, an Earl, who won’t mind. I mean, look at that play we had to read last week, te know that funny one written in that old fashioned language with all the poesia and stuff...”

“King Lear,” Elsa ventured.

“Right, te know, where the Princess Cordelia doesn’t get left with a dowry but that King marries her anyway because he’s impressed with her honesty and bravery,” Rosetta agreed, pulling on her rosa pumps and clicking her toes together to see how they looked. “That could happen to you. I mean, you’re pretty and graceful, and men like clever girls, well, some do.”

Elsa smiled. “Thanks, Rosetta.”

The campana, bell rang at that point and they both started. Rosetta sprang to her feet and Elsa quickly pulled on her gloves. “Oh, God,” she muttered. “This is it.”

“Hey, it’ll be fine,” Rosetta insisted, before grabbing her arm and pulling her from the room. As they made their way from their room, down the corridor and into the room where they were to wait before the ceremony began, Elsa could feel the eyes of everyone around them on her and hear the whispered mutterings of fear and distaste. Rosetta must have heard them to because she suddenly put her arm around Elsa’s shoulders and gave her a squeeze.

“Right, girls,” Anita Radcliffe, the school secretary, detto as she began to hand out robes and trofei to them all. “Here te go, and remember, te have to curtsey to Lady Tremaine before te walk and get your certificate.”

She smiled, kindly, at Rosetta and Elsa as she handed them their uniforms and they both felt a little brighter about the whole ordeal as they pulled them on. Taking a deep breath, Elsa returned the squeeze of the hand that Rosetta gave her and nodded. She could do this. She could do this.

She could do this.

The Musica suddenly swelled, signalling the students of Lady Tremaine’s Academy for Princesses and Young Ladies to sposta into the great hall. Automatically, Elsa glanced around the room and her eyes found her parents. They glanced at her and smiled, encouragingly, but Elsa could also see nervousness in their eyes. News had reached them a long time fa that her secret had been revealed, and Elsa was surprised that she hadn’t been expelled on the spot when she had accidently sent a stream of ice across the dining hall, causing Vidia Adlon to slip and sprain her foot, and had also caused a trolley of Cibo to go careering into the wall, courtesy of the new cook, Alfredo Linguini. Vidia had been viciously on the warpath about it ever since, convinced that Elsa had done it on purpose just because the two had had something of an ongoing rivalry since starting at the Academy.

“She’s just jealous of you,” Rosetta had said, and Elsa had a feeling that she was right.

It had been Vidia who had alerted the whole Academy to Elsa’s secret, the one who had spread rumours that Elsa was not to be trusted in case she suddenly turned on people and started freezing them, and she was also the one who had rather spitefully pointed out that no man with any ounce of sense would want a wife who was not only cursed but also potentially dangerous.

Elsa glanced at Vidia, who was looking rather smug as she made a small curtsey and crossed the stage to take her certificate from Lady Tremaine, the woman who ran the Academy. Elsa thanked whoever it was who had made Lady Tremaine a woman who believed in secondo chances, otherwise she might not be graduating here today. Then, to her delight, Vidia tripped as she made to leave the stage, not badly, but she did stumble and look rather clumsy, and a few people couldn’t help tittering. Elsa and Rosetta turned away to hide their giggles.

“Rosetta Chenoweth!”

“Oh, God, that’s me,” Rosetta whispered, squeezing Elsa’s arm. “Wish me luck.”

“Good luck,” Elsa whispered, faithfully.

It was strange, she reflected, as she watched her roommate walk the stage, to think that one good thing had come out of her powers being revealed, and that was that she and Rosetta had become friends. On first moving in together, they hadn’t got along at all, but after the whole Academy had gone into hysterics over Elsa’s powers and she had run to her room crying, Rosetta had gone after her and comforted her and they had become the best of friends. Elsa realised then that whichever way their lives led them both, she would miss Rosetta.

She smiled as Rosetta left the stage and gave her a “Mission Accomplished” look and waved her certificate at her. Elsa gave a small wave back and then watched the other girls, waiting patiently for her own name to be called.

“Elsa Menzel!”

Elsa felt worries twist in her stomach as she made her way slowly and steadily up the steps and dipped a small curtsey to Lady Tremaine. To her surprise, Lady Tremaine made a curtsey back, but then Elsa remembered that it was customary on such occasions for ladies to curtsey to princesses whatever the situation between them, so she realised that this was no special treatment she was getting out of sympathy.

She crossed steadily, her knees only just managing not to shake, and grasped the proffered hand.

“Congratulations, Elsa,” Lady Tremaine said, kindly, handing her to certificate. “You earned it.”

“Thank you,” Elsa whispered back and then made her way offstage, relieved that it was now all over.

“Well done, honey!” Rosetta whispered, hugging her and Elsa grinned as she hugged her back.

Once the whole ordeal was over, the girls were all ushered into the back room for photographs. Elsa Lost track of Rosetta momentarily, but it didn’t matter because the successivo thing she knew, her parents were being ushered towards her and a man with a camera was saying “Ok, look this way, everyone. That’s it.”

Elsa smiled all the way through the Fotografia deal, and then looked up at her parents. “I’m glad it’s over, but in a way, I’m sort of sorry too.”

“Well, we’re very proud of you,” her Mother told her, and Elsa couldn’t help wondering if she was referring to the fact that she had passed her final anno o the fact that she had made it across that stage without anything having gone wrong.

It didn’t matter, however, as her Father added, “Now, there’s something we need to tell you, Elsa.”

“Darling, I don’t think now is the best time,” her Mother whispered.

“For what?” Elsa asked, glancing between them.

“It’s too soon,” her Mother went on, barely hearing her daughter.

“He detto as soon as she’s graduated,” her Father replied, steadily, leading them both over to a quiet corner of the room.

“I don’t think he meant right now,” her Mother insisted.

“Guys, what is it?” Elsa asked. “Will te just tell me?”

Her Father took a deep breath. “Elsa, te know where Duloc is, don’t you?”

“Duloc?” Elsa frowned, trying to remember her Geography. “Well, sure, it’s about two hundred miles from Arandelle, and it’s roughly in the same area as Fiona’s tower. I mean, it’s within a five day’s walking distance of it, isn’t it? Why?”

“Well, Lord Farquaad of Duloc has...heard about your little...incident, shall we say, with your...” her Father dropped her voice even though he didn’t need to, “powers, and he wanted to meet you.”

“Lor-what?” Elsa almost dropped her certificate. “He wants to meet me? But why?”

Her Father gave her a look and her jaw dropped. “What? And he knows about...what I can do? And he still wants to meet me?”

“So he says,” her Father replied.

Elsa felt a sudden rush of both excitement and triumph build up inside her and she almost wanted to childishly run over to Vidia and shout something like “In your face, loser!” But she restrained herself from doing so and nodded her head, with dignity. “I understand, Father. I look inoltrare, avanti to meeting him.”

Then, when her parents were both caught up talking with Lady Tremaine, Elsa spotted Rosetta running over to her and she grabbed her hands. “Rosetta, you’ll never guess what!”

“What?” Rosetta asked.

Elsa quickly explained and her friend’s eyes widened to the size of saucers. “Oh, my God! Elsa, that’s so wonderful! Wait, do te even know what he looks like? For all te know, he could be a complete ogre o something!”

Elsa laughed. “Ogres aren’t all that bad, Rosetta! Anyway, I don’t care what he looks like! The point is that this morning I didn’t think that any man would ever give me a chance knowing what I am, and now it’s like, well, there’s hope!”

“I’m so happy for you,” Rosetta grinned.

“Thanks,” Elsa smiled, glancing over at her parents. “I am too.”