The Secret Singer

Chapter 10

A/N: Hey guys!! Thank you so much for reading and commenting! Can I seriously just take a moment and squeal over the fact that there's now 557 READS!!!!!!! Like, OMG you guys, I love you all so much, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! I want to do a quick dedication to two really awesome girls, @SHEYNAMILLIE for the awesome fan art you see above and @chermyshortcake for the awesome new cover of the book!!! I also wanted to let you know that I'm going to start a schedule of updating every Wednesday. Now, if I get 10 votes before Wednesday comes, I'll update sooner. Don't forget to comment cuz those just make my day. Anyway, here's your chapter!!!

P.s. There's a reference to a movie in here, whoever comments and gets it right gets a dedication next chapter! :-D

Stephanie's POV

"Mommy!" I yell. I run to the kitchen with sunflowers grasped in my little fist while giggling at my dad who's chasing me. I reach the backdoor of our house and run in looking for mommy. I expect her to be cooking or baking in the kitchen, but she's not there. I shrug, not really worried, and daddy comes and scoops me up, tickling my tummy. He growls and I laugh.

"How dare you laugh at me!" He says with a funny face on as he keeps tickling me until I beg for mercy.

"Alright, let's go find mommy okay," he tells me. I nod and we walk around the house hand in hand looking for mommy. We finally find her in the sunroom dancing and singing like an angel to her favorite song "I'll be". Daddy smiles and lets go of me to go twirl mommy. She laughs loudly as they twirl around the room, and I smile at the love between them. God, I pray inside me, can I please marry someone like daddy when I grow up? Thanks! I'm suddenly taken by my parents to dance with them to a more upbeat song, and we all laugh and sing with joy.

"Stephanie" I hear. I look at mommy and daddy, but they're blissfully dancing.

"Stephanie!" What is going on?

"STEPHANIE COLEMAN, get up this instant!"

I'm abruptly woken up from my amazing dream/memory, and I look to my left to see the she-witch that is my stepmother glaring at me with her hands on her hips. What did she have to be mad about? I'm the one who was woken up from the perfect dream.

"What's your problem?" I say grumpily. Here's the thing, I'm not a morning person. Especially not when it's the weekend. Honestly, if you ask me, sleeping beauty had a good thing going for her. She could just sleep for years, and she'd still look perfect when she woke up by a kiss from an equally perfect prince. I mean, seriously, how is that even considered a curse?

"Don't take that tone with me, young lady. Today is the first meeting of the dutiful debutantes, and you promised both your father and I that you'd go. Stacy has already woken up and gotten showered. You haven't even woken up yet and you only have an hour left to make yourself presentable and eat. Honestly, Stephanie, you need to learn to prioritize."she says with a disapproving frown.

I look at her like she's crazy. Is she for real? Who needs more than one hour to get ready? It's not like I even want to go, Amy guilt tripped me into it, because her mom made her go and she doesn't want to go alone. If it wasn't for her,  I wouldn't be stepping within 50 feet of that place. I shudder just thinking about the stick thin, 40 year old founder of the organization who'd looked at me and Amy up and down with distaste when we'd gone to register. She'd said, "well, making you girls into ladies won't be easy, but miracles have been known to happen." Let's just say that if Amy hadn't dragged me away after signing our names, I'd be in jail for homicide.

Anyway, here I am with Carrie who's walking around my room after I'd showered and shaved, as she picks out the dress that's "the perfect combination of ladylike and hot." I just sit on my bed with my silk robe on yawning, and trying not to think about the inviting Egyptian cotton sheets of my bed.