Cinderella's Tears

Cinderella's Tears ~ Chapter 13

The next couple days were a blur to me. I hadn't seen Dylan since I chased him away. Everything seemed so boring, nothing would excite me. I simply stopped caring. Lisa kept trying to approach me but I was mute. My hair was getting worse and worse. I spent a whole day behind my locked door, combing it down and taming it. It worked but little by little it became wilder as time passed by. Other than that nothing had changed. Zoey kept pulling pranks on me and bulling me. This time I had no energy to fight back. Two weeks passed by before I had a chance to realize what was going on.

I was helping Zoey in her dress. Lisa was already dressed, it took less time to finish her since she requested something simpler today. She now waited quietly watching me fix Zoey's dress.

Zoey pumped her hair up and fixed her makeup a million times before she was satisfied. Smirking at the mirror she said:

"Ok, we are done here. Let’s go before we are late."

Zoey didn't even look at Lisa as she walked out.

"Actually I will be going with Diane," Lisa called after Zoey.

Zoey looked back in the room with a look of disbelief on her face.

"What?"

Lisa looked down on the ground nervously, "I'm going to help Diane get ready and then go with her." She looked at Zoey, not knowing what to expect.

Zoey stared at Lisa for a while before answering:

"Your loss," and with that she left the room.

Lisa and I stood in the dressing room alone. Lisa avoided my eyes and grabbed a bucket with water and soap. As I had been the last two weeks, I was expressionless and calm. Lisa took my arm and brought me down to the floor. She started to wash my arms and face. She noticed that my hair had been already cleaned and combed. She lifted up her eyebrow and looked at me but didn’t say anything. I looked away, embarrassed at the childish hope I had earlier that I would go to the ball; otherwise I wouldn't have spent the time preparing my hair.

Lisa took out a gorgeous, green ball gown and helped me into it. It wasn't as glamorous as Zoey's puffy, big dress but beautiful, mature and skinny. It fit me almost perfectly since it was a little loose and a little long. The fabric over lapped each other with different shades of green. There was a single strand that was tied around my neck to the center of the top of the dress.

Lisa then put different shades of brown and gold eye shadow on top of my eyelids, softening my intense and scary eyes. She took my hair and started putting it in a bun.

"What if they laugh at me again?" I asked.

"They wouldn't dare. All the guys will regret laughing at you and the girls won't be able to recognize you. I'm going to make you look fabulous and sexy," she managed to say with pins in her mouth.

"Incredible. And you thought of that all by yourself?" I smiled.

Liza frowned and jabbed a pin into my hair.

"OW!" I exclaimed.

"Sorry," Lisa said sweetly.

I frowned and waited patiently as she finished my hair.

"There."

As a finishing touch, she put a soft brown lipstick, with a hint of pink on my lips.

"Can you wear heels?" She asked me.

I nodded and she handed me a pair of brown heels to me. I put them on and looked in the mirror. The dress looked amazing on me and now was proper length because I was wearing heels. My makeup and hair looked way better than it did last time. Lisa even let two strands of hair on either side of my head hang making it look cute.

Lisa gave me a simple gold bracelet and started heading out the door.

"Let's go."

I finished admiring myself in the mirror and ran after her as best as I could in heels. When I caught up to her, she was already outside walking.

For a while we walked and talked; mostly about Rachel and Zoey. I laughed at the fact Zoey only tried to sing because she has no talent and she thought it would impress guys. Lisa gladly fed me more embarrassing things about Zoey. I told her about the servants and what they did when no one was looking. Together we talked as if we were best friends.

I could see how beautiful and mature Lisa really was. After she stood up to Zoey, she seemed more confident and free-spirited. She was smiling and walking in long strides, tall and proud. Taller than me, for sure.

Lisa was wearing a blue and turquoise dress that layered if self like a rose. Like Zoey’s, it made the waist look extra slim and then it went out, with a poof.

She turned to me as we entered the richer part of the city:

“We are near the ocean,”

I sniffed the air, “It seems so.”

“Behind the mansion, if you walk a bit there is a small beach near the docks. Mom would take us once in a while but now she is too busy,” Lisa said sadly.

“My mom also took me once. I wanted to swim but it was too cold. Usually we took long walks in the forest.”

Lisa smiled at me, “That’s nice.”

I nodded.

“Have you ever been to the castle?”

Surprised at the sudden question, I answered, “No.”

She looked down, “Oh.”

For a few moments we didn’t say anything.

“It’s really big and beautiful,” Lisa said informatively. “It is not far at all. We live quite close to the capital. Maybe a day away, on carriage of course. It’s nothing like the duke’s mansion. It’s more special and has a whole different feel to it. It gives you a sense of importance. And there are towers, a bunch of them but I never went inside one. I wish I could have though, and then I could see the whole country and see the towns and garden,” she concluded.

I touched her arm, “We are almost here.”

We drew near the gate and came up to the guards who stood in front of the gates and allowed people to come in.

“Lisa and Diane Flay,” Lisa said boldly to the guard.

He looked at us suspiciously for a few moments but let us in. i stared at him until the doors closed behind us.

I clutched Lisa’s arm but put on a mask of confidence. She tapped my hand reassuringly and led me to the main corridor.

Together we entered to Great Hall, greeted by a crowd of dancing and chattering people.