A/N: Hey everyone here is my latest story. I was going to wait until after I finished When Worlds Collide (Which will be finished sometime within the next week! Promise!) but I couldn't wait.
And yes, y'all read correctly. This is a SIMONETTE story! I feel like it's my first real Simonette, even though I've already written two. (Er, well I guess I Need To Find You doesn't count...)
Anyway the idea for this came when a good friend of mine, Simon wanna be, said in one of his reviews for When Worlds Collide that he wasn't surprised Simon and Jeanette and Theodore and Eleanor weren't together because of my other stories. And that's mainly because I hate cliche happy endings and always try to make my stories different, which many times mean that the main couples don't end up together.
So, I mentally challenged myself to write a story unlike my others and I got the idea for a Cinderella type story starring Simon and Jeanette! I hope you enjoy and please read and review!
"And then the Prince swept the Princess off her feet and they danced the night away. Then, they lived happily ever after. The end." John Miller closed the book and looked at his daughter, Jeanette, who was curled up at his side.
"Are fairytales real, Dad?" The six year old asked her father, her green eyes filled with curiosity behind her glasses.
John sighed. "Yes and no."
"What do you mean?" Jeanette asked.
"Well fairytales are all about happily ever afters, correct?" He asked.
Jeanette nodded and her father continued. "Happily ever afters can happen but you can't just count on a fairy godmother to make all of your dreams come true, Netta. You have to work for what you want in life. And that means going to college and getting an education."
"Where do princess go to college?" Jeanette inquired.
"They go where the princes go. Um, they go to Princeton."
"Really?"
"Yeah, of course they do. Just promise me that you'll go to college one day Netta and get a good education. Then, marry a good guy, even if he's not a prince."
Jeanette held out her pinky. "I promise Dad."
John wrapped his pinky around his daughter's. "Good. And remember this book holds some important things you'll need later in life."
A faint rumbling noise in the distance caused Jeanette to let go of her father's pinky. "What's that?"
John scanned the room, his brow furrowed. "I have no idea."
Suddenly, the room began shaking as many items fell to the floor.
"Earthquake!" John exclaimed as he jumped out of the bed, Jeanette right behind him.
"John! Help!" Jeanette heard her stepmother's shout in the distance followed by her stepsisters' screaming.
John stepped to go help them but Jeanette grabbed his wrist before he could. "Don't leave me!"
"I'll be right back Netta. I promise. Stay safe. I love you."
"I love you too." Jeanette said as she watched her father race down the hall, unknowing that it would be the last time she ever saw him.
"Jeanette, bring me my breakfast!" Fiona's voice yelled.
Seventeen year old Jeanette Miller woke up breathing heavily, still dressed in her clothes from yesterday and her glasses crooked on her face. That night had happened eleven years ago, yet she was forced to relive it almost every night in her nightmares.
Before then, everything had been perfect. Jeanette spent almost every day hanging out with her dad at the diner he owned. Back then, it had been a family orientated sports diner where everyone wanted to go eat, and were always treated like family.
Then, her father went and married Fiona, thinking that a mother was the only thing Jeanette was missing her life. The marriage had been more a curse than a blessing for Jeanette. Fiona wasn't fond of Jeanette and made sure they hardly saw each other and Fiona's two twin daughters, Carolina and Gabrielle, also wanted nothing to do with the bespectacled chipette. Jeanette didn't mind though. Fiona made her dad happy and that's all that mattered.
That all changed the night she lost her dad. And since John Miller hadn't left a will, everything had gone to Jeanette's stepmother. The diner, all of the money, everything else he owned, and much to Fiona's displeasure, Jeanette.
So now Jeanette was sitting at her desk in her small attic bedroom that Fiona had immediately moved her to, claiming Jeanette's old room was needed for some necessities. This had turned out to be a craft room for Fiona, although she never used it.
"JEANETTE!" Fiona's voice screeched over the intercom. "WHERE'S MY BREAKFAST?"
"I'll be right down, Fiona." Jeanette promised before she turned off the intercom, not wanting to hear the horrid voice anymore and straightened her glasses so they sat properly on her face.
She scurried around her room throwing on her purple sweatshirt over the t-shirt she had worn the day before and sliding on her black converses.
Jeanette grabbed her bag and paused at her bulletin board. She looked at the smiling face of her father in the picture taken of the two of them at her last birthday party before he died. "I'm so close to Princeton, Dad. Only a couple more months then I'll be there. Just like I promised you."
She kissed her pointer finger before she pressed it against her father's face in the photo. "Then I'll work on that great guy. If there's one out there these days."
Knowing she was late enough on serving breakfast, Jeanette left her sorry excuse for a room, dreading the day ahead.
Jeanette carried the tray of food out to the pool deck, spotting her stepmother lounging in one of the pool chairs. Even though it was early in the morning, Fiona was already dressed in pink high heels, a pink dress with a very low cut to show off her obvious boob job, and sunglasses that cost more than anything she would let Jeanette own, over her eyes.
Fiona was skimming through her book titled, "The Salmon Diet," as she barely paid attention her two daughters' synchronized swimming lesson. Something Jeanette didn't think they needed to waste the money on, since both of her stepsisters stunk.
"Alright girls," Pierre, Carolina and Gabrielle's coach, said as he clapped his hands excitedly. "Now, lady liberty, lady liberty!" He exclaimed cheerfully as he demonstrated the move for the girls to repeat. "Now around the harbor, around the harbor! And hurricanes!"
"Can you believe how gifted my girls are?" Fiona asked Pierre.
He bit his lip before he quickly nodded, used to lying to Fiona. "Extraordinary talent."
Jeanette giggled as she watched the twins crash into each other while they were spinning. She crossed the deck and passed Pierre who was shaking his head in disappointment. Jeanette knew for a fact the only reason he had coached the girls this long was because of the huge paycheck he received from Fiona. That was again, more than almost everything Jeanette owned.
"Here's your breakfast, Fiona." Jeanette said as she placed the plate down on the side table.
"Is that the Norwegian Salmon I asked for?" She asked.
"Only the best." Jeanette replied.
Fiona gave her stepdaughter a look as she took a bite out of her breakfast, making sure it was what she requested. She nodded after she swallowed. "I can tell. I can't believe how much it cost to fly that stuff in from Norwegia."
Jeanette bit her lip as she exchanged a look with Pierre, who also was looking like he was about to burst out laughing at Fiona's stupidity.
"Mom!" Carolina suddenly exclaimed.
"I can't help it, C. I have a spastic colon." Gabrielle protested, and Jeanette considered herself lucky she didn't know what Gabrielle had done.
"Yeah, well you also have a spastic brain." Carolina retorted before she pushed down on her sister's head, causing her to go underwater.
Pierre blew his whistle, although Jeanette knew it'd be no use. After living with the twins for about twelve years she learned that once they start fighting it's hard to break them up.
"Girls, stop it!" Pierre yelled.
Fiona looked up from her book and pursed her botoxed lips. "What are you doing just standing there? You have to get to work at the diner!"
Jeanette sighed. "I can't go in this morning. I have this huge test at school and,"
"Listen Netta," Fiona interrupted her. "People go to school so they can get jobs. You already have a job. So you get to skip the school step. Now get to work."
The teenage chipette turned around knowing the battle was lost. "Good luck Pierre," She muttered as she passed him, sneaking a glance at the twins who were wrestling in the pool.
"You too kiddo." He whispered back. "You sure are going to need it."
After hearing his words of encouragement, Jeanette raced out to the front yard where her dad's old baby blue mustang was waiting. It was the only thing Fiona had allowed her to have.
Half way across the lawn, the sprinklers came on catching her off guard. She hurried over to the control box and began trying to turn them off.
"Leave it Jeanette! The lawn's looking a little brown!" Fiona ordered.
"We're in the middle of a drought, Fiona! We're supposed to be conserving water!" Jeanette yelled back.
"Droughts are for poor people. Do you think J. Lo has a brown lawn?"
Jeanette let out a frustrated breath before she made a rash decision and quickly cut off the sprinklers.
She sprinted towards her car, hearing her stepmother's yells behind her but not caring. She jumped in her car and drove far away from the only green yard for miles.
Ever since Fiona took over her dad's diner, its business had kind of gone downhill, and Jeanette and everyone else who had worked there when her dad ran it hated what the diner had turned into.
Instead of Hal's Diner, named after John's brother who had died in an unfortunate car accident before Jeanette was born, the diner was called Fiona's and had a cliché fifties theme that always made Jeanette want to vomit.
The once brown walls that held her father's motto was replaced by pink wallpaper and the sports equipment and newspaper articles that had once scattered the walls were replaced by fifties memorabilia.
The waitress were required to wear black poodle skirts with pink sweaters and roll around on roller skates, including Bethany, who was in her late forties and couldn't get around as well as she used to.
Bethany's husband Ernie, an old friend of John's and the chef of the diner since it began, was the only male staff member but also required to wear a pink chef's coat while in the kitchen. The only person who didn't wear pink was John's old friend Rhonda, who got away with wearing yellow and white sneakers when she worked.
Rhonda had been working at the diner since it opened. Working her way up from bus girl to manager and also became part of the family. She was the only one who stood up to Fiona on a daily bases and if it weren't for her, Jeanette's life would be much worse than it already was.
"Alright Ernie, that's enough with the salmon!" Jeanette could hear Rhonda exclaim from the kitchen. "You've already made salmon omelets, salmon soup, and salmon pudding!"
"I'm just following Fiona's orders. She wanted salmon and I'm delivering. You know how she is when she doesn't get what she wants."
"I don't give a rat's tail about Fiona." Rhonda retorted. "Nobody wants to eat salmon in all of their foods."
Jeanette looked up from clearing away the dishes from one of the tables just in time to see Ernie pick up a ginormous salmon and in a high pitched voice say, "Help me Rhonda! Fiona wants to eat me!"
"That's nasty." Rhonda told him with a grin as she began to leave the kitchen.
"Help me!"
"Stop that and get back to work!" She exclaimed.
Jeanette giggled at Ernie's goofiness as she placed the used dishes in her bucket before she skated over to the next table trying to stay steady on her skates. Since Jeanette was only a bus girl she wore black pants with vertical pink stripes and a pink apron over her black shirt.
"What are you still doing here?"
Jeanette froze for a second after hearing Rhonda's voice behind her. She quickly went back to picking up the dirty dishes.
"You have school young lady." Rhonda continued.
The teenage chipette turned to face the African American lady. "I'm almost done then I'll go."
"You're going to be late Jeanette."
"I know but if Fiona finds out I didn't finish,"
"You let me handle Fiona." Rhonda cut her off as she grabbed the bucket containing all of the dishes in it. "You go ahead. Your father would want you in school right now. So go."
Jeanette sighed as she watched Rhonda walk to the kitchen. She knew she was in for hell if Fiona found out she didn't finish her shift.
"Hey Netta!"
She turned to see Matt Pulmer, a regular customer, sitting at his usual table.
"Hey Matt," She greeted as she skated over to him.
"Would you mind checking on my order for me? Bethany took it about twenty minutes ago." He requested.
"No problem." She said, knowing Rhonda would also be after her if she stayed much longer. "Let me guess, scrambled eggs, bacon extra crispy, blueberry muffin, and a coke?"
Matt shook his head. "Nope, diet coke. I'm trying to watch my weight."
"Trust me, it's not going anywhere." Jeanette thought as she skated over to the kitchen relieved to find his order already finished.
She picked up the plate of scrambled eggs and began slowly making her way back to Matt, trying her best not to trip.
On her way, she spotted some kids she attended class with sitting at a nearby table. The group consisted of the most popular kids in school, who all happened to spend most of their free time picking on Jeanette and adding to the misery called her life.
She didn't even need to listen in on their conversation to know what they were talking about though. They came in every morning before school and on each day had a different topic. Today was Tuesday so they would be talking about the bands Alvin and the Chipmunks and the Chipettes.
Alvin and the Chipmunks consisted of three brothers Alvin, Simon, and Theodore Seville and almost every girl Jeanette knew was completely in love with one of them, except herself of course. Her father had taught her better than to go crushing on some big headed rock star.
The Chipettes on the other hand, consisted of two sisters, Brittany and Eleanor Moore and every guy Jeanette knew agreed that they were both hot.
The brothers had always been famous since they were younger as far as Jeanette knew, while the girls became famous when they were in the fourth grade. Of course the two groups weren't really lumped together until they became under the same management and Alvin and Brittany began dating.
Jeanette realized she had been too absorbed in her thoughts and the next thing she knew she was on the ground right by the popular table, with egg all over her and a shattered plate shards scattered around her.
The kids burst out laughing as they got up to leave.
"Nice going Diner Girl." Kelly Morto told her.
"Way to go Klutzo." Derek Monty added.
"Are we all agreed that when the Sevilles and Moores get to our school she is allowed nowhere near them?" Jeanette heard Kelly ask the others as they exited the diner.
Of course she knew what they were talking about. The whole school did. The Sevilles and Moores were coming to their crappy high school for the last semester of senior year. Jeanette didn't care though. Right now, she was too embarrassed to think of anything else besides what had just happened.
"Oh dear, are you alright?" Bethany asked as she grabbed onto a chair to keep herself steady as she helped Jeanette to her feet.
Jeanette nodded, feeling the hot tears fall down her cheeks as she remembered them laughing at her and their cruel mocking words. "I'm fine."
Rhonda rushed over to them and wrapped an arm around Jeanette's shoulder comfortingly. "Go wash up then go straight to school. We'll clean up here and deal with Fiona for you."
"Thanks Rhonda." Jeanette managed to get out before she skated slowly to the bathroom, trying her hardest not to fall.
She held herself steady at the sink as she looked up to examine herself in the mirror. She had egg in her hair and her eyes and nose were red and puffy, clear indications that she had been crying.
Jeanette's dad had told her fairytales were only partly true and he was right.
She had the evil stepmother, the horrible stepsisters, and a crappy life. All she was lacking was a fairy godmother to make everything better.
Jeanette knew there was never going to be anyone to fix everything for her. She knew she'd just have to suck it up for the last couple months until she was eighteen and could go off to Princeton like her dad told her too.
Oh, and there was one last thing she was missing in this so-called fairytale. A handsome prince to sweep her off her feet.
And where in the world would she find one of those?