Cinderellas

Cinderellas Chapter Thirteen (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather…*yawn… *No, really! I’m up! I’m up! Readers/Reviewers: I’m back and lookee! I wrote something!


“You look…wow.”
I think Jamie sprained something. “Uh…thanks. If you’re staring at my boobs, I’ll scratch you.” The dress was ridiculously thin, far too racy for someone my age. I heard my Gran’s voice in my head as soon as I saw myself in it, chiding me for going out in my underthings. It was not thin enough to see through, as I’d first feared, but it was thin enough to make wearing a bra and panties a bad idea. I had put on the dress and taken my pigtails down, then Jamie started staring. “Stop it!”
Jamie was as red as a beet. “Sorry…you’re pretty is all…” I felt very sorry for him as he rummaged around what little makeup I owned and came up with something that might have once been lipstick and something else that looked like dirt but Jean assured me was a color called “Mocha” and looked “very nice” on me. I thought it made me look like that guy from Rocky Horror. “Um…this is it?”
“Yeah. Why? You suddenly a make up artist?”
“No…I just think it makes you look like an old lady or something. Hold on…”
I didn’t want to know why he scampered off like that and had this horrid vision of him coming back with a huge make up bag and samples… “Jamie?” I called. “Um, I don’t have to have any lipstick or anything… Jubilee won’t mind…”
He came back with his art supply kit. “Why are you so sure this is Jubilee? I mean…what if it was some guy?”
Until then, the thought honestly had not occurred to me. I did toy briefly with the idea that it had been St John, trying to cheer me up or something, but he didn’t have the kind of money this dress cost nor did he have the wherewithal to do this. No guys at school liked me-liked me so… “Nope. Has to be Jubes.” I was as sure of it as I was my own name. She wanted to make it up to me. I look back now and see how pathetic I must have sounded out loud, but then, in that hour, I knew, just knew, it was her. Jamie just sighed and rolled his eyes. I chose to ignore it. I pointed at the art box and asked, “You’re not going to paint me, are you?” His little grin sort of worried me…

“I feel like a dork.”
“You look fine, sweetie.” Senora Malcolm was working the door, making sure no one was sneaking in livestock or something. She did not even comment on me arriving on a bike, out of breath, with my skirt damned near around my waist. I couldn’t take a car even if I could drive…Logan would have heard it for sure. I was windblown, covered in glitter in odd places like I’d walked into a flock of faeries, and my dress was a little too cool of the early spring. I think bits of me were a touch too perky to be decent at a high school prom. “Ticket?”
“Oh…um…” Damn it. Jubilee had given my ticket to Kitty after our last fight about me going. “I lost it?” I heard my voice in a question and winced.
Senora Malcolm smiled kindly. “I remember you buying two at the office a few weeks ago,” she said, which was absolutely incorrect. Jubilee had bought them, not me, but I did not correct her. “Things are going to be winding down soon…why don’t you go on in and this’ll be our secret?”
I gave her my best smile and hurried past her, my old flats clicking on the hotel’s floors. I could hear the godawful pop music before I even turned the corner to the hall where the ballroom was. Students spilled out in various stages of idiocy, laughing and talking and kissing, not caring that teachers and parent chaperones looked on. The note had said, I kept telling myself. She won’t stand me up… I slowed to a stroll and approached the doors as nonchalantly as I could. I couldn’t see her, not with all the people in the way, but she was not hard to find once I pushed past Duncan Matthews and his crowd of idiots. I heard some people whispering and even saying aloud the rumors about me and her, the words that hurt if I let them, but I did not care. I saw her, sitting at a table with Bobby and St John, looking very bored. I just stared for what seemed like the longest time. It was like one of those cheesy movie moments where the music fades off and the main character is standing there looking drugged. I caught myself before I actually drooled. I could see the swell of her breasts above the fabric of her dress, the way her bare arms caught the dim light, and all I could think about was how she looked the last time she was in my bed with the sheets tucked under her arms, her fingers tented over her breasts as she expounded on some finer point of a Johnny Depp movie. I only moved when Principal Kelly bumped into me, knocking me off balance. I had to walk or fall, and I was afraid of what falling would do to my dress. I moved forward, staring at her, knowing I was smiling like an idiot. She had not seen me yet. Part of me wondered why she was still sitting there if the note had said to meet her somewhere else, but… “Jubilee?”
All three faces snapped to look at me. She looked confused, then excited, then confused again before she asked, “What’re you doing here?”
I felt the first twinge of worry. “I…you…” I gestured to the dress. “You didn’t?”
“No, but I wish I had,” she muttered, standing and moving around the table so we could speak in lower tones. “What’re you doing here, really? I mean…is this…what is this?”
I had no words. I did not know if I should be disappointed or not. Instead I shrugged. I was saved from babbling by Tabby tapping on the mic on the stage where the DJ was. “Hey, guys? Yo! GUYS!” Her loud voice made the feedback seem almost bearable. “Before we start handing out the awards and junk, the Brotherhood of Bayville has put together a special presentation for all of you…”
Jubilee and I groaned as one. It was like watching a train wreck, unable to stop it but unable to look away.