ღ Finding Cinderella- 14 ღ
-Kylie-
I was so lost.
Not physically, but mentally. The fact that Tristan just couldn't move on from the masked version of myself and he was bent on finding "her" just filled me with this sick, horrible feeling. I could hardly concentrate on my immediate surroundings, thus I had failed to see the wet floor sign earlier and I had slipped, my butt literally hitting the tile.
Everyone in the hallway had seen my performance—clearly—so here I was now, in front of my locker, wishing to be invisible and banging my forehead against the metal door.
"What the hell are you doing?" Julianne asked behind me.
"Putting myself in a coma so I wouldn't have to deal with embarrassing situations and seeing the face of my enemy."
"Intense. So, how's your butt?"
I stopped what I was doing to give her a deadpan look. "I can hear it complaining why you didn't come and help me up."
She snickered. "Come on. You're a big kid. And stop slamming your head. You're gonna destroy a school property."
"Thanks for the concern," I grumbled and opened my locker. A heap of random junk began to tumble down as I shoved my books inside.
"Jesus, those pictures. You still have them," she remarked as she saw the scary clown pictures that I had pasted on the back of the locker door.
"Yeah. They're pretty outdated though, so I'm planning to print new ones. Scarier ones." I grinned to myself as I slammed the door shut.
Those pictures were supposed to be some kind of protection against Tristan. The jerk had serious coulrophobia, you see. Once I had tried to chase him with a picture of Pennywise in my hand, and he actually fled like a rat. I wondered if telling everyone about his little secret would finally make him stop causing me problems.
"I honestly can't tell which one of you is more juvenile," Julianne muttered.
When we reached the cafeteria, we grabbed our trays and coasted along with the long line. Julianne was chatting with a girl behind her—probably a member of their club—so I was stuck in the middle of the line with nothing to entertain me while I waited. I glanced around, trying to find inspiration, but when I saw Tristan and his crowd in the designated "popular" seats, I turned my head away.
Forget inspiration—having to look at the devil felt more like exasperation.
In front of me was a guy with a black wool cap on his head. He was drumming his fingers on his tray as if matching the movements to music. When I snuck a glance at his side, I saw a pair of white cords dangling in front of his neck and leading into his ears. Hmm, he seemed familiar...
"Hey!" a voice from the crowd called.
"Oh my God. My crush is coming," Julianne suddenly gasped under her breath.
A guy with curly ginger hair came into view, jogging to the earphones guy in front of me. He caught us staring and he grinned.
"Hey, you're that girl back in the ball, right?" he asked.
Right away, the earphones guy spun around and pulled out his earphones. I almost staggered backward. Oh shit. It's Erik. Why was it that every time we met, I looked at my worst? I should've at least combed my hair earlier.
"Oh hey, you girls," Erik greeted.
Keep calm. Don't act like you're meeting Santa Claus or anything. He's just Erik, there's nothing to worry about.
Half-looking, half-avoiding, Julianne answered the carrot top guy. "Y-yeah."
"Nice to see you around here," he chirped. Carrot Top was kind of cute, with his soft blue eyes and laid-back smile.
"Hey! Who's holding the line?" someone from the back yelled.
Carrot Top raised his hands and backed away from us. "Dude, grab me some tarts. I'll pay you later," he said to Erik.
"Fine." Erik stepped to the side and cocked his head toward me. "You go first, Kylie."
"Oh, thanks," I mumbled, sounding like I was munching a tissue.
The lunch lady, Linda, was staring at me with her wrinkly eyes half-shut and her dry lips nothing more than a thin line. She always looked bored. I was positive she hated her job not just because she was stuck behind the cash register almost all day, but she also had to deal with us problematic teenagers.
After clearing my throat, I said, "Tuna sandwich, please."
Linda grabbed one from a silver container and slapped it on my tray. "Anything else?"
"Uh... and a can of Coke," I added, "Yeah, that's all."
"Why, Miss Harris, what's the matter?" asked Linda. "You usually order everything on the menu. You on a diet?"
"I don't feel like it," I said aloud. Oh boy. Did she seriously have to go and say that? Now Erik might be thinking that I'd been such a greedy pig.
I tried to act cool as I reached for my wallet. A hand stopped me. I looked up and saw Erik shaking his head.
"It's on me."
I blinked at him in disbelief. "No, no way. You really don't have to do that."
"Kylie, I insist."
"But—"
He quickly pushed a roll of money to Linda and said, "Oops, too late. I paid for it already."
Why was he so cute?
I felt myself blushing so I shut my eyes for the briefest of moments to calm myself. It might have been a small act of kindness, but it had been enough to make my day a little less crappy.
"Thanks. I owe you for this," I told Erik as we exited the line.
"It's cool. Don't worry," he said. He had only bought himself a burger and a bottle of water. He looked at me with a warm smile. "Just expect there to be a lot more in the future."
"What do you mean by that?"
Before Erik could answer, Julianne and Carrot Top approached us.
"Oh, I almost forgot"—Erik put his arm over the other guy's shoulders—"meet my pal, Peter Parker."
I almost blurted out 'Please don't tell me you're Spiderman' if I hadn't bitten my tongue just in time.
As if reading my expression, Peter laughed. "Yeah, I was named after a Marvel Hero. Blame my parents for being such huge comic book fans. Mind you, I had friends in middle school named James Bond and Moe Lester. Harsh for boys. Anyway, just call me Pete."
"Nice to meet you, Pete. Name's Kylie," I said and gestured to Julianne. "And I reckon you already know my friend's name?"
"Yeah, we met at the ball." He grinned. "Right, Julianne?"
Blushing, she went catatonic on the spot.
I patted her shoulder. "Sorry about my friend here. Sometimes, she goes beyond the line between proper fandom and severe obsession when she encounters someone in particular."
Pete just shrugged, apparently oblivious about Julianne's obsession over him, and turned to Erik. "Dude, I didn't know you're friends with these chicks."
"Kylie and I have known each other since freshman year," Erik replied. "And I think we hit it off because of—what—Minecraft?" He laughed.
I suppressed a smile. I couldn't believe he still remembered that. Back in the old times, we two had been talking non-stop about the game even during classes, until our teachers had to scold us.
"Cool. Hey, I have an idea. Why don't you girls join us and meet our friends? We're eating outside," Pete said.
Erik nodded at me in an encouraging manner. "Yeah. You two should. It's better to hang out there anyway, away from the crowd."
Lunch with Erik? I mean, it was a great idea. This might be my chance to get close to him. But why did I feel so uneasy? Like it was wrong...
Julianne gave me a questioning look, and I pulled myself together. Okay. I was just nervous about hanging out with my crush when I shouldn't be.
I was about to answer when a hand gripped my shoulder, making me yelp.
"Sorry." It was Tristan, and his face was completely grim as if he came to fight. "But they're staying here with us."
Erik's smile turned cold.
"Hartford," he said.
"Taylor."
Pete started to take steps backward, intimidated by the weirdly strong energy radiating from the two. I swallowed as I shifted my eyes between them.
Erik looked back at me and returned his nonchalant smile. "Maybe some other time, then, Kylie. Such a bad timing that someone's on a lookout duty today."
"Whoa, what was that about?" Julianne exclaimed after Erik and Pete set off.
I glared at Tristan before I walked past him.
"Hey, hey, why are you looking at me like that?" he said, rushing after me. "You should be thankful I saved you back there."
"Saved from what?" I bit back.
"I know you wanted to refuse their invitation, but you weren't speaking back there so I came to answer them for you."
"Well, I don't remember calling 911 for a superhero to come and rescue me," I mocked.
"Superheroes don't need an agency to save a damsel in distress. Most of them just work on their own accord," he said proudly.
Julianne snorted a laugh. I set my tray on the table and rolled my eyes.
"Good to know. Now, scram." I waved my hand like I was brushing the dust off my shoulder. "Go entertain your concubines or whatever."
Tristan shook his head. He was full-on smiling like an idiot. "I may have a long string of exes, Kylie, but I never dated them at the same time, remember that. Nice hair, by the way." He gestured at my bird's nest of hair.
"And nice face you have. Very punchable."
"Yeah, I know you like it," he said and trotted away.
I slumped in the seat and sighed. "He's so annoying."
"Aaannnd that's the thirty-second mark of this year. Wow, Ky, it's a new record," Julianne said. Every year since tenth grade, she'd been tallying the times I'd said those exact words.
I rolled my eyes again and bit into my sandwich.
"He wasn't lying, though." She picked a potato wedge and dunked it into the ketchup. "We've never seen him date those girls simultaneously, so you can't exactly call him a player."
"But the way he dumped them, Jules," I said. "It was incredibly inconsiderate and rude. Okay, you know the flow chart of his dating game. It's simple. He flirted with them. Dated. Got bored in their relationship. Dumped the girl like a damn toy. And then moved on to the next one. How—it really baffles me how easy it was for him to move on like that. It's crazy. If he knew the cycle would be the same with every girl, why did he have to go out with her in the first place? What does he think a relationship is, a free thirty-day trial? For shits and giggles?"
"Wow... for someone who says love is pathetic, you surely possess a zealous insight into relationships. His, specifically." Julianne gave me a thoughtful glance.
"I... I'm just pissed, and he's a jerk," I stammered. Damn, I quickly lost my poise. "You know, I wouldn't be shocked if he's secretly hooked up with a college girl or two. It isn't far-fetched, given that he had a fling with Clarissa Higgins, who was two years older than him, and he was—what, fifteen at the time? He's so... gross, for lack of a better word."
"Maybe not as gross as those senior boys who hit on freshman girls." Julianne wiggled a piece of potato in front of me. "I gotta say, Kylie. Whatever you think about him or no matter how many times you push him away, one thing stays the same: you'll always be his favorite girl to annoy."
"And should I be proud of that?" I exclaimed and she laughed.
"Oh, young love," she sang to herself. "You're pleasant to the heart, yet most of the time, you're miserably dangerous."
I made a face. "Yeah, tell that to his ex-girlfriends. Anyway, about that Peter guy, is he an addition to your never-ending list of crushes?"
She smiled slyly. "Nah. He's the real deal."
A loud clapping erupted from the center of the cafeteria, and everyone else shifted their attention toward the source. Julianne stood up to see what was going on.
"Kylie, you gotta see this now," she said. "I think Tristan has something to say."
Him again?
I headed over to the crowd and craned my neck so I could see well. Tristan and his ridiculously tall friends had gathered in the center in all their glory, managing to grab the attention of every student without breaking a sweat. The students around us were whispering wildly. I just shook my head. Normally the last person in the world to care about them would be me, but due to a sudden peculiar sensation that had hit me, I stayed standing there and waited for one of them to speak up.
"Hey, can you hear me over there?" Grey's voice called to the crowd at the back. "How about you folks on the other side, am I clear? Yeah? Okay, listen up!" He paused, waiting for everyone to keep silent, then continued: "We're probably holding up your lunch, but our friend Tristan here has something important to announce. Anyway, this wouldn't be long, so just sit tight while he does the talking."
Tristan stepped out from behind Grey, and I was sure what came next wouldn't be good.
"Let's just cut to the chase," Tristan announced, his voice authoritative. "Almost everybody showed up at the Valentine Ball last week, so a lot of you witnessed the opening dance, am I right?"
Several affirmations followed.
"You see, it's been bothering me lately—well, maybe not just me since some of you might have been bothered by it, too. It was the fact that the person we expected to be the Queen"—Tristan tossed a knowing glance at Lacey, who was standing with her friends in a corner—"didn't show up. Instead, someone else took over the role. Someone wearing a mask. I don't think there was ever a case in the history of Broadway Heights, where they let the Queen of the Ball wear a mask. So the big questions I have right now are: one, why did she put it on? And two, who was she?"
Almost immediately, the place began to buzz as everyone started discussing the topic, though the only feedback I could see were shrugs and shaking heads. Swallowing, I began to move backward, one step at a time.
"Jeez. This issue still hasn't died down since Friday, huh," I heard Julianne whisper.
Tristan swept his eyes over the crowd, his face full of anticipation. When no one stepped forward to answer, he heaved a sigh. "Isn't it strange that nobody knows the root of this matter? Or perhaps there are a few people around here who do know but were sworn to secrecy. But then, I won't pressure them into coming forward since I came up with an idea, and all your help will be very much needed to make this effective..."
Great. Fantastic. He was officially desperate and wanted to double up the size of his minions to do the dirty work for him. Why was my life so good at becoming danger-prone?
"I, together with my team here, propose a challenge to the entire student body of Broadway Heights. The rules are simple: look for the girl, bring her to me, and—"
"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?"
An eerie feeling suddenly fell upon the crowd, and everyone spun around to see a tall girl standing in the back, her arms crossed over her chest. The mob parted around her as she charged at him like an angry bull, with her eyes flaring with rage. The loud clicking sound of her heels on the tiles was enough to wake the underworld.
I snuck a glance at Tristan and noticed that his pale face was displaying the most petrified expression I'd seen in a long time.
"Tristan, please tell me I heard you wrong," she said. Her sweet voice was tainted with bitterness.
Holy crap on a cracker.
Here came Fiona Ryder from the dark side, back in action again.
Only this time, she was more sinister than ever.