Her New Disguise is Butterflies

The Prince was making it his task to invite the Princess to the ball. He knew that the King may disapprove, but he wanted the Princess to be there. He wanted her to see what all the fuss was around him. He knew if he wanted her to attend the ball he'd have to ask the King's permission.

I pulled at my school jumper. One day back and it was irritating my skin already. I'd once tried to use it as an excuse not to wear it, but our head of year hunted me down and sent me home to retrieve the stupid thing.

I was sat beside Joanne in the near enough empty shopping centre. Not many people had the sense to go shopping in the evening in the middle of the week, so that made it almost empty, meaning I didn't have to spend ages standing in queues, and it also meant that Oliver didn't have enough time to get bored and start screaming the place down, or crying because Joanne had refused to buy him a toy he'd seen.

Currently, Oliver was wriggling from Joanne's grasp, chocolate ice cream covering his face and his clothes. His sticky fingers were tangling in Joanne's hair and I don't think I was helping the situation with my continuous heavy sighs and glances at my gnawed fingernails, waiting for their commotion to be over.

I glanced at the clear plastic cup that was holding a pink coloured liquid that was Joanne's smoothie. I picked it up and held the straw between my teeth, sucking the liquid up it and letting it soothe my dry throat.

I was letting myself over think things as usual. I kept re-playing my most stupid moments of the day and every time I did something stupid, Josh had to show up. I hated the fact I could barely speak to him, how I blushed every time he spoke to me and how he'd seen me with toothpaste on my nose, a paper bag over my head and a slice of soggy tomato stuck in my hair.

"Ah brain freeze!" I winced, putting the cup down and placing my palm against my forehead, waiting for the ache to stop.

"That's what you get for drinking my smoothie, Bliss," Joanne said, matter of factly, as she wiped Oliver's face with a tissue.

I sighed. "Whens dad coming to pick us up?"

"He said he was coming after his lesson, so that should be soon."

I groaned. "I don't know why he bothers, I mean who wants a fat baldy in their band? Seriously? He'll never get anywhere with it."

"And thats the kind of attitude - "

My eyes swiveled away from Joanne's face, looking for some kind of escape. The pink and black sign that belonged to HMV caught my eye and I stood up. "Well, Joanne, that talk was fun, but I'm going to go and make a mental list of Cd's and Dvd's you can buy me for my birthday, or Christmas, since that one comes first."

I wandered off, walking into the shop and looking around. I never knew where to start in here, there were so many things I could pre-occupy myself with. I wandered along the aisles stacked with a variety of Cd's, of all music genres, until I came to the back of the shop where the posters were.

I began flipping through them, coming across football teams, footballers, bands, actors, actresses, cartoons, everything was here. But my walls were already covered in posters. According to my dad, I didn't need anymore. I knew he was lying to me, I know what I do and don't need.

"Hey, Bliss."

I spun around at the sound of my name. "Wha - " Josh was standing beside me, a Cd in his hand and a sheepish look on his face. Now, this is my chance to come across as semi-normal.

"I would've kicked myself if it wasn't you then," he said.

"Oh, well, you're in luck because it is me, so you don't need to abuse yourself." I mentally slapped myself across the face. Hard across the face, trying to knock some brain cells into my head.

He smiled. "I need to ask you something, about Sacha."

I should have known. I should have known this would happen. He liked her. He had to. She was a tart, yet she was perfect. She was surprisingly good at most things. She had brains and beauty, what with her perfect hair and clear skin and perfect make up and -

"Does she like Matt?"

I chewed my lip, trying not to let my expression look slightly relieved. I wasn't completely sure that he didn't like her, but at least he didn't ask me if she had a boyfriend or what boys usually ask me about her.

"Matt?" I asked, trying to jog my memory. "Oh, she said something about one of your friends, but not Max, some other guy."

"Yeah, Matt."

"Then she probably does, but tell him to watch out because she's a total tart."

He chuckled. "I'll pass that message on to him then. I also wanted to ask if you're coming to the show on Friday night."

I shrugged. "Good question. Sacha has some master plan to get us into this, but - " My eyes widened in pure horror at the sight of my dad walking through the shop, playing the air guitar to the rock song that was blasting through the speakers. "Oh good god. Pretend you haven't seen him." I opened the rack of posters and pushed my head in between two of them, ignoring his presence.

"Bliss, we've got to go before Joanne has a breakdown, Ollie's driving her up the wall," Dad's chirpy voice announced.

I wish someone would drive him up the wall.

"Bliss, who's Bliss?" I asked into the posters. I could hear dad sigh and then Josh chuckle.

"So, who are you then?" Dad asked, and I knew that question wasn't directed at me. I pulled my head from the rack and stared at dad as he was about to give Josh the third degree for standing within a five mile radius of me.

"Dad, this is Josh he goes to our school, but he's in the sixth form, Josh this is my embarrassment of a father," I made the introductions.

"And what are your intentions with my daughter?"

"Oh my god," I mumbled, slapping my head to my forehead. "Dad! Let's go," I began pushing him out of the shop, turning around and mouthing a 'sorry' at Josh, before making my dad leave.

So, if I didn't manage to make a fool of myself, my dad certainly did.