Not Another Cinderella Story

Chapter 9 - The Evil Queen always wins

It was absolutely horrifying.

Only Fanny knew her secret, so she was possibly the only other girl in school who hadn't tried to convince Peyton that they were his mystery girl. Except for, strangely, Evelyn and the two step-demons.

They were currently in theater, perhaps the only class that Cindy actually enjoyed. And, of course, the one guy that she wanted to avoid the most was in there with her.

"Class," Mrs. Hanson smiled a little too joylessly, "today we will be exploring Shakespeare." Which was followed by a couple cheers and tons of groans.

"Why art thou killing me?" said Brian, the class clown, as he fell to the floor, pretending to be shot in the heart.

"Brian." Mrs. Hanson sighed. "For once in your life could you actually be excited about something in this class?"

Brian got up, half the class laughing at his antics. "I am truly s'rry, I sweareth to nev'r act enchafed in thy class again."

Mrs. Hanson sighed in defeat and handed out the scripts. "Pick a partner and begin reading through the lines."

Since this was one of the only classes that Fanny was not in with her, she had little choices of a partner. Cindy could always choose Angsty Angie, but she feared that it would result in total social suicide.

Of course, half of the girls in the class rushed towards Peyton, hoping that he would choose them. But, to most everyone's surprise, he came straight in Cindy's direction.

Now, this is no fanfiction.net story where two people get partnered for a school project and end up dating by the end of the book. No, this is real life, so when he walks her way, she immediately tries hide herself in her handy book.

"Hello, you're Cindy, aren't you?"

Cindy nodded, still not looking up, wishing for him to go away.

"I bumped into you at the mall the other day and at school a couple days before that, didn't I?"

"Yep." She said, flipping a page in her book.

Peyton paused. "Do you, you know, want to be my partner for this thing?"

Cindy looked up, she hadn't taken Peyton for the type to actually be nice, well, except when she was dancing with him . . . no, she was not thinking of him like that. She had already decided that she wasn't going to tell him who she was. It didn't help to think of him like that.

She sighed. "Why don't you go ask someone from that hoard of girls over there, I'm sure any number of them would love to be partnered to you?"

It was his turn to sigh. "Look, I'd rather be in a group where I can get something done than answer twenty questions about what shampoo I use. And, going by your obvious distaste for me, we could get through this assignment and actually get it done."

Well, he wasn't wrong.

"Sure, Pretty Boy. But I don't hate you in particular, just your hoard of fans and your horrible songs." Cindy smiled, hoping to scare him away. Instead, Peyton sat down next to her and opened their scripts to page one.

Peyton looked up and smirked at her. "So do I, shall we begin?"

*

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*

"Thanks, Fanny. I'll see you tomorrow!" Cindy yelled as Fanny's car slowly drove away after dropping her off at her house.

Cindy was drained. She'd had a test that she had to retake afterschool, AP Chemistry, which meant that she was getting home much later than usual.