TLC the Musical

I'm Not ... ON MY OWN!

Everyone got with the members of their cast to read over their lines together. Cinder quickly realized that she and Kai would be in every fairy tale. Either at the beginning, end, or both. The Cinderella story was the first to be shown. Then, just before the prince places the slipper on her foot, she makes a break for it. While Kai chases her, the slipper falls into Little Red's basket. Then, after all is made well in that story, Thorne steals the slipper from Kai, leading him into the tale of Rapunzel. Once that's all rebuild, the slipper it knocked out of Kai's hands and into the bag of a dwarf.

Before Cinder could read on, she heard footsteps from behind her. "Hey, Cinder."

"Oh, hi Kai." He stood almost directly over her.

"You sang beautifully with your friend. And I can see why my dad picked you for Cinderella." Cinder blushed at his compliment. She felt a wave of heat rush against her left side and saw Kai, now sitting beside her.

"Do you want to practice with me? Since it's your first time in theater, I mean." He blushed a little. He was kind of adorable when he did that.

"Uh .. sure. I guess." She averted her eyes to her papers. "Where do you want to start?"

"From where I come in, probably. So that's page ..."

"Four." She found the part where Kai came in. After she left her home to the market place, she was 'shopping for food'. She would 'accidentally' bump into the prince, and he would be 'taken by her internal beauty'. "Oh, I'm terribly sorry. I didn't see you there."

"No, miss. I should be apologizing to you. I wasn't looking where I was headed. Please, let me help you with those." In the play, he would bend over to help her pick up the food he made her spill.

"Thank you."

"Think nothing of it." Now, the script said Cinder would have to stare into his eyes, like I knew who we was. And that Kai would have to become uneasy. "What?"

"Nothing. It's just ... I feel like I've seen you before. Have we met?"

"I-I don't believe so."

"If you say so. Well, it was nice to meet you."

"May I ask your name, Miss?"

"Cinderella. But ... that's not what most call around here." She attempted to add a glumness to her tone.

"I'm sorry."

"It's not your doing. And it's almost a miracle to see that there are still good souls in this kingdom."

"You're not bad yourself. You're the first person who apologized rather than cursed at me when I bumped into you."

"So you admit you are clumsy!"

"I never said that!" The script then said they would have to laugh like old friends. Kai just skipped that and said his next line.

"Will you excuse me for a moment? There's a matter I must attend to. Can you wait here?"

"Alright. But only for a moment. Anything more and I'll be overdue for getting back to my ... duties."

"It won't take long. I promise." What would happen on stage is Kai would run offstage for a few seconds, a Harold would come out and announce the annual royal ball. And the new addition to the entry lists. Any maiden in the kingdom was invited to come. He would then come back and ask her, "Are you going to attend the ball?"

"Oh, I don't think I could. The dress alone would be more than I could afford. And, balls aren't really my event."

"You should go. The prince might even ask you to dance."