The Reluctant Cinderella

Dawn was on her bed, lying on her stomach with the remote in hand. She wasn’t watching anything but flipping through the channels. Her mind was still focused on the events from earlier and Jason’s response. “Then there’s no reason for me to have one,” he had said nonchalantly. The quote kept going through her mind and she placed her hands to her head to make it stop. But of course nothing happened. She sighed while turning off her television then rolled onto her back. She didn’t know why it bothered her so much. Sure she did like him but it wasn’t serious. More like a crush.

I guess I shouldn’t dwell on it too much, she thought. So what if he doesn’t like me? I’m perfectly fine with that and him going alone. He has every right to anyway. She nodded to herself then grabbed her cell to call Missy.

The phone rang for a moment before someone answered with, “Buddy the Elf, what’s your favorite color?”

“Purple,” she answered. “Wait, what?” She looked at the phone screen thinking she had the wrong number but she didn’t. “Connor is that you?”

She heard him laugh. He finally regained himself to say, “Yeah, I’ve been wanting to do that for a while and you just seemed like the perfect person to try it on.”

“Ahh, I’m honored.” She laughed. “So, why do you have Missy’s cell? Are you guys out somewhere?”

“Nope, just at her place. She’s actually in the bathroom and-”

“CONNOR GET OFF MY PHONE!” Missy yelled.

“Ay,” Dawn hissed from the sudden volume. She moved the cell from her ear and winced. Cautiously she brought the cell back to her ear and listened to the other end. Missy was still yelling at her cousin and he was repeatedly apologizing. Finally the yelling stopped and a door slammed.

“Hello? Dawn are you still there?” Missy asked.

“Yeah, what was that all about?”

“Connor knows he’s not supposed to touch my phone and yet did it anyway. He’s going to pay. Anyway, what’s up?”’

Dawn’s mood had changed since she called that she forgot why she did in the first place. It took her a moment to reply. “Actually I don’t remember why I called.” She laughed. “You’re cousin had a hand in that.”

“His forgetfulness is contagious. But it’s really good timing that you called because I was going to call you. I spoke with my aunt and she said all of our dresses are ready for the balls. All we need to do is pick them up and we’re good. Isn’t that awesome?”

“That’s great!”

“Speaking of the balls, did you find out if Jason has a date yet?”

Dawn sighed and Missy knew it wasn’t good. “I casually brought it up and he said-and I quote- ‘There’s no reason for me to have one’ and left it at that. Guess he’s not interested in me in that way.”

Missy couldn’t believe what she just heard. After Dawn and Jason would hang out, Dawn would call Missy and tell her about it. From what she was told they seemed to get along perfectly with each other. Then another thought hit her. Maybe he might have someone else in mind and didn’t want to hurt her feelings. But wait. Did he even know that she liked him? Obviously not, since he answered the way he did. “Oh, well. It was just a summer crush.”

“Yeah, I realized that. He can do whatever he wants and it doesn’t concern me. I really wasn’t that bothered by it but I just wanted to know what you thought.”

“That’s the spirit! Besides if you did go with him I’ll be left alone with… Connor! Stop listening to my conversation!”

Dawn was laughing again. She loved it when the two fought. She knew it was just playful and in the end they were still family and cared for each other.

“But I want to talk to Dawn,” she heard Connor whine.

“She called me not you. Go bug Aidan,” Missy replied.

Dawn didn’t get a chance to hear his reply because at that time someone was yelling her name. She got off the bed, walked to the door, then opened it. “What?” she called.

“Come down here,” her mother yelled.

“Okay,” she answered then closed the door going back to her cell.

“Hello? Dawn are you still there?” Missy asked. She didn’t manage to get Connor out of her room and glared at him from her bed.

“Yes, Mom was just calling me,” Dawn said after picking up the phone. “I have to go. See you tomorrow?”

“Definitely. Later!”

“Bye Dawn!” Connor yelled, reaching for the phone but was too slow.

“Bye Connor,” Dawn said before hanging up then heading down stairs.

The next day Dawn and Missy were at the mall, walking around holding smoothies, looking at the display windows. Dawn was holding a small bag that contained some new, and expensive, make-up. She had found some golden eye shadow to use for her lioness costume and just wanted to purchase that. But Missy had convinced her to buy the bigger palette that contained the golden color plus more that mach her other two costumes. She then wondered why she was even going to bother with eye makeup when she was going to wear a mask then voiced this out loud. Missy replied with, “For the unmasking of course.” Then grabbed Dawn’s arm and whisked her away.

The best friends where walking down the sidewalk, heading over to the food court, when Dawn noticed that her shoelace was untied. “Hey, I need to tie my shoe,” she said to Missy.

“Okay, I’ll be looking at the window in the shop over there,” she pointed to a store a few feet down then left.

Dawn hopped on one foot towards a small alleyway to get out of everyone’s way, for there were a lot of people around. She then crouched down and began tying her shoe. She stood up and tried to walk away but found that she couldn’t. She tried lifting the foot she had just tied then realized that she had stepped in gum. Just my luck, she thought while blowing her bangs out of her eyes. Once again she was crouching and began trying to pull her foot free. Suddenly she overheard some voices but didn’t stop until she recognized one. She looked up from her position and saw Jason with a bunch of his friends. Please don’t let them find me.

“So, what’s going on with that Rose chick?” one of Jason’s friends asked. Everyone in the group stopped, wanting to hear his answer.

“Yeah, you two been hanging out a lot lately,” another one added, with a nudge and wink. All of the guys began laughing.

“Knock it off guys,” Jason said but he was still grinning. “Nothing much is going on between us.”

“Sure,” the first guy said while rolling his eyes.

“Fine, if you want to know… I asked her to the balls and she agreed.” His friends began cheering and patting him on the back as they began to walk away.

Dawn couldn’t believe what she just heard. Jason was going to the balls with her older sister! Wasn’t it only days ago he had told her that it didn’t matter? Didn’t he basically express no desire to go with anyone? Now all of a sudden he was going with Rose! She was so surprised that she forgot about trying to get her shoe out of the gum. She fell back onto her butt, and stayed there until Missy found her.

“Dawn, what happened?” Missy asked worried as she knelt by her friend.

“I just found out that Jason is going to the balls with Rose,” she said while looking into her friend’s emerald green eyes.

Those eyes widened. “I can’t believe it. I thought he didn’t want to go with anyone?”

Dawn looked down at her shoes. “So did I.”