FAKE CINDERELLAS
AUTHOR'S NOTE/DISCLAIMER
Austin's POV of the carwash scene with Brianna and Gabriella. A Cinderella Story belongs to Warner Brothers.
I walked up to Brianna, who was in a green Volkswagen beetle.
"How are you doing?" I asked her.
"Good," she answered breathlessly and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Man, why can't people get it through their heads that I'm just like them? I wondered.
"Regular wash?" I queried.
"No. More like the royal treatment," she answered. "I mean, that's what Cinderella would want," she continued. Cinderella? Could she be…?
"What did you just say?" I asked.
"I'm her, Austin. I'm Cinderella, your dream girl," Brianna stated. "You see, I live in a world full of…" She's quoting my e-mails, I thought. How would she know what I said unless she really is Cinderella? my thoughts continued. I frowned. But it didn't make sense. No offense to her or anything, but she was always acting really stupid in school. But maybe that's exactly what it was: an act.
"You! What are you doing here?" her sister Gabriella interrupted. Brianna sighed.
"Well, I'm Cinderella," she replied. "Coming to meet my prince," she continued, caressing my arm. Please stop touching me, I thought. There was no way Brianna could be Cinderella. Cinderella hadn't touched me like I was a piece of meat.
"Well, that's a little hard considering I'm Cinderella," Gabriella insisted. Oh, really? I thought, crossing my arms. "I mean, I'm the most Cinderella-y Cinderella there ever was," she continued. You're definitely not Cinderella, I thought. Cinderella a.k.a. Princeton Girl, would never have used a word like Cinderella-y.
"Okay, ladies, ladies, ladies, ladies. I can settle this, all right?" I interjected. Unlike the rest of my friends, I've never been interested in what they call "chick fights". "The girl that I met at the dance, she dropped something on her way out," I continued. "What was it?" I wasn't sure what I was going to do if one of them answered correctly. I mean, neither one of them fit the picture I had in mind for Princetongirl. But wasn't that part of what we had talked about? Hating the fact that kids at our school based everything on looks?
"Oh, that's easy," Gabriella said. "A wallet," she told me.
"No," I answered. Well, it's not her, I thought.
"Uh, I-I meant a-a wallet-purse," Gabriella corrected.
"No," I said again. Give it up, I know it's not you, I thought.
"Oh!" Brianna exclaimed. I looked at her expectantly. "A fish!" I wasn't even sure how to answer that one. She definitely wasn't Cinderella. I walked away as they began to argue.
"Wow," I mumbled to myself. I can't believe this. Some girls will do anything to get close to me, I thought. Would I ever find the real Cinderella, or was I stuck with various fake Cinderellas?