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I typed the story up on my Acer laptop as I always did.

I was on the school newspaper, and, as usual, this story was about my step-sisters, Miranda and Kelli Stepp. They're the coolest girls in school. Miranda is the head cheerleader, and Kelli is the leader of the dance team. Miranda is currently dating the quarterback, Lance Lott, and Kelli is with the captain of the basketball team, Demetri Prince. The four rule the school. Why wouldn't they? Miranda and Kelli are beautiful, loaded, and mean like hell. Lance is a good six four and looks like he was sculpted out of marble. Demetri is everything you want in a guy. He knows what to say and when to say it.

But I'm just Ella Goodheart. My parents got a divorce when I was ten. They share custody because, even though I hate my step-sisters, I still love my dad, but it's only like a week or so every month or two. Mom is a successful designer, and she's in Madrid for the next few months because of that. She'll make it back just in time for Graduation. So, I'm stuck with Kelli and Miranda for the next three months. My mom's flight left this morning, and I just dropped off my stuff at my dad's this morning. And I was scared like hell.

I'm senior here at Camelot High, as are my step sisters and their partners. It won't be long until I'm out of here. My best friend, Eric, and I have both applied to the same colleges. There are three that we really want though. Princeton, Wofford (my parents alma mater), and Emory. That's all we've talked about for years.

"What'd they do this time?" Eric plopped down beside me at the lunch table, setting a Social Studies book in front of us. We've been friends since we were kids. He was my neighbor, except for when he was with his dad because they got divorced when he was five. Eric was there for me when my parents divorced even though I had to move. Ever since that day we met when we were five year old where his parents came over to tell us that they just moved in next door, we've been close. He's on the swim team, but, as we barely see each other anymore, he joined the school newspaper for me.

"They're just talking about the Valentines Dance," I shrugged. Eric smiled sympathetically. He knew I didn't like them, and it wasn't just because they were mean to me. The truth was that I still wished my parents hadn't gotten divorced, and seeing them strut through this school reminds me that they did.

"So, how's my new neighbor?" Eric nudged me, making me smile.

"Hey, I've been coming to Dad's every now and then. I just didn't want to have to spend a lot of time with the Stepps," I defended myself, but I don't think he really cared.

"You do know you can't stay at school for the next three months, right?" Eric cocked an eyebrow, and I wanted to argue that it was only an hour or so after school ended. But I see Kelli and Miranda enough at school. I didn't want to see them at home, too.

"I know. Can I stay with you?"

"No, Ella," Eric crossed his arm over a Bullfrogs Swim Team tee shirt. I closed my Acer and bit my lip. I wrapped my grey jacket closer around me, hoping it would give me some courage.

"Good luck, Ellie."

XXXXXXX

I turned off the car engine and stared up at the stone home. I had grown up here, and I loved it because it reminded me of the English countryside. The house looked the same as it had when I first moved most of my stuff out to my mom's new place. The lawn was still lush and green, and the tulips were as bright as the day my mom planted them. After the divorce, I didn't like coming back to this house too much. It reminded me of the messy divorce and the awful marriage between Dalia, my step-mom, and my dad.

I sat up straighter in the car when I saw two Audi convertibles parked in front of me, under the oak tree which was the best place to park in the entire neighborhood. I unbuckled my seatbelt and slid out my key from the ignition. Grabbing my grey tote, I got out of my Prius. It had been my mom's until she upgraded to a BMW after her fall line took off. She gave me her old one because my mom didn't want to spoil me or anything, and I didn't want to get a car from my dad just because he bought Kelli and Miranda ones for their sixteenth birthday.

I opened the trunk and brought out a lilac roller duffle. Once I closed all of the doors to the car, I began to pull the duffle up the stone walkway. The crisp spring air reminded me of how I used to run up and down the lawn with Eric when we were kids. I bit my tongue as kept walking.

I couldn't believe I was spending my last semester of high school with Kelli and Miranda in my old house instead of living in the urban loft above my mom's design studio where my neighbor and one of my best friends, Gwendolyn, got to hang around all the best celebrities. I looked up at the window of my old room before I walked up on the porch. The house was four bedrooms with an attic that had just been converted into a loft. My room used to look over the perfectly manicured lawn and the lines of houses throughout the neighborhood, but, when my ste/p mother welcomed a surprise baby into the family a week before their first anniversary, little baby was taken to my room as I barely came to see my dad anyway. While I do hate Miranda and Kelli, my half-sister Sadie is awesome.

I pulled my bag up the stairs and to the concrete. I wanted to ring the doorbell, but I didn't want to have to put up with the twins the second I got in. I pulled out the key from my right jean pocket and pushed the door open.

I felt my heart stop. It hurt to be in here. Dalia changed the walls to a pale blue from the sunny walls my mom had it as. It felt cold and formal instead of homey and warm like my mom had kept it. It felt so odd to see this house look so different from how I had seen it.

"Ella!" a four year old girl ran towards me excitedly. Her auburn curls bounced as she ran, and it made me smile. She was obviously dressed by Dalia because I couldn't imagine a four year old picking it out for herself. I got down on the ground to hug her and smiled.

"You are so grown up, Sadie," I kissed the side of her head.

"Ella?"

I moaned.

"Hey, Kelli."

"Ella!" another woman's voice sounded throughout the halls. I looked up to see a woman with bright hazel eyes looking at me with a smile. Her unnaturally white teeth smiled, and it looked like she may have gotten some cosmetic dentistry since I last saw her. She was a pair of crisp forever twenty one jeans, a black blazer, and a purple wrap top that maximized her C-Cups and minimized her waist. Her perfectly colored auburn hair had been professionally straightened and was being held in place by a pure diamond clip.

Dalia didn't look any different from how she had looked on her wedding day to my father. I didn't know if it involved Botox or any other cosmetic surgery, but I did know that I wanted to look like that at her age.

"Hey, Dalia," I got up from crouching on the ground to talk to Sadie. Dalia smiled warmly at me as she began to make her four-inch-high-heels-slow walk towards me. When the clacks of her high heels stopped echoing off the hardwood floors, Dalia pulled me into a hug. Her diamond necklaces hurt me in the embrace, but I hugged back anyway.

"You've grown up so much, Ella," she seemed to glow with pride as if she was to thank for all that, "You're father is out of town for the next few days, but he'll be back soon, I promise."

I simply nodded towards her. I didn't like doing this, but it had to be done. I had to make peace with these people eventually. It was then that out of the corner of my eye, I saw the four I had been dreading to see.

Lance was sitting in the Lazy Boy that my dad used to let me sit in with him while we watched some Disney Movie. His red hair was curly and messy in that cute boyish way. His dark green eyes looked at me, but I ignored it. Beside him, Kelli sat in a leotard that she had become known for throughout the school along with a high-waisted black mini over it. Her perfect blonde blowout had been fashioned up in a perfect ponytail that I could never seem to manage. Her stilettoes had been kicked off at the front door. She had her perfectly toned dance legs dangling over the side of the couch. Standing in front of her, Miranda had changed out of her Bullfrogs cheerleading outfit and into something that only she could pull off. Her black tank top was matched by a pair of dark wash skinny jeans. Her Prada heels made her look three inches taller, and her shrug went to her upper torso and was a scratchy grey tweed.

Then there was Demetri.

It was only natural to think he was hot. There was no way he was my type but still nice to look at.

"How's your mom doing?" Dalia smiled.

I knew it had to happen. She was her husband's ex-wife. It would be weird if Dalia didn't want to know how she was, but everyone knew how she was. Her story was everywhere. 'Girl gives up her dream of designing to be a lawyer so she could stay with her college boyfriend. After a messy divorce, she took her daughter and built a design company from the ground.' Every magazine had flocked around my mom. With how much People and Cosmo Dalia reads, I know she had to have read about Mom.

"She's doing great," I smiled.

I was proud of my mom. She didn't mope around or go searching for a new husband like some women do after a divorce. She lived her dream. Mom made a better life for herself and her daughter, and I respect that. My dad was the one to file for divorce. Three years after they broke up, he was remarried and with a new family. Oh and he took the house. I love him, but I'm not really proud of him.

"That's wonderful, Darling," Dalia smiled brightly.

"Ella, where's Eric?" Sadie asked, making me smile. When she was younger, Kelli and Miranda would never babysit her. So, Eric and I asked if we could. For about two years, until school took over our lives, we did just that.

"Oh, Eric! How is he?" Dalia looked at me as if to ask 'Is he finally your boyfriend?'

"Um, he's…Eric," I shrugged. It felt weird to talk about him in here. Maybe it was the fact that the 'royalty' of our school was standing about four feet away, but I didn't like it.

"What ever happened to him?" Miranda pouted like she was trying to remember something.

"He's lived next door since he was five years old," I looked over at her as if she was an idiot, which I didn't feel bad about. Her amber eyes hardened as she looked at me. Kelli was still struck in awe though. They haven't paid me any attention since I was thirteen, and I didn't look like that acne-infested girl anymore. While their designer outfits made my jeans and tee shirt feel inadequate, I didn't show it. I had spent enough time around models to learn how to not let stuff get to me.

"Oh right," Miranda smiled, but she kept giving me death glares as she did so.

"Ella," Dalia started. I could tell exactly what she doing. She didn't want a fight, but it was too late for that. Our fight started five years ago when she poured a flute of Champaign down my dress at their wedding, "You'll just love the attic. We went into overdrive trying to have it suited up for you in time."

"Thanks, Dalia."

"Girls, why don't you show her to her room?" Dalia smiled at her daughters, and all three of us looked at her as if she was crazy. Even Sadie noticed.

"Mommy, can I take her to her room?" Sadie asked nervously. I sighed with gratitude and smiled at her. Sadie smiled at me even though she didn't know what a great favor she had given me.

"Well, alright," Dalia seemed a little disappointed, but I was pretty happy with it. Sadie took my hand and started to pull me up the stairs. Pulling the duffle behind me, I followed the little four year old. I knew I wasn't going to like what I saw upstairs. If I got upset about a hallway, I knew the place that used to hold my old room wouldn't go well for me.

I took a sigh of relief when I was away from the Twins of Hell and pulled up the purple duffle. The walls were the same pale blue downstairs, but everything else was the same as when I left. Pictures of me with me with my dad and the some of the Stepps hung on the walls. Bookshelves held book after book, and I'm sure beyond belief that Kelli and Miranda have probably never read them. I paused by one bookshelf that held the Iliad and Odyssey. When I was younger, I loved Greek Mythology. My dad would read it to me sometimes when I felt anxious or needed to get to sleep.

Sadie walked by the first room by the large window that overlooked the neighborhood. It was my old-and her new-room. Beside it, two more doors led to Kelli and Miranda's room. My mom had used Kelli's as an office space, and Miranda's was a guest bedroom. I bit my tongue not to open the door and followed Sadie as she went to the door at the end of the hall.

When I was a little kid, I open the door quietly as if going up there was my little secret. I would climb the stairs, cringing when the steps creaked. When I got up there, it would smell like old people and moth balls. Just about every box that was up there had been opened by me during those visits. It was hard to imagine it not looking like that when I got there, but I knew Dalia would never keep it like that. I began to long for my dad to be there, remembering old times like me.

Sadie pulled the door open, and a chill ran down my spine when I heard the creak as it opened. I noticed that the stairs had been redone to match the hardwood floors whereas it had been old wood that matched the wood on the paneled walls. Instead, the walls were the same pale blue I had seen throughout the house. It smelled of apple-scented candles and open air. It was cold instead of the hot and musty atmosphere I had known before in this old attic. No steps creaked when we walked up them to get to the room. As we reached the top, I almost dropped my bag from shock.

It wasn't even close to the attic I had known before. Where an old desk used to sit, a bed had been placed in front of the window that overlooked the front lawn and the front lawns of all the other houses. A black duvet covered the bed, a huge contrast to the light blue. The sun shone in as if to say 'You'll be okay, Ella.' Dalia had a desk made to fit the corner and was painted pitch black with a lamp where you could plug in a laptop on top. Two beanbags sat in front of the bed where ere you could watch TV on the flat screen. There was a little nook where a window looked over at the neighbor's house and into Eric's room. As a getting on the swim team, just like his dad had years before, his dad let him move into his old office that was in the attic.

"Sadie, Riley's at the door!" Miranda's voice shrieked, and Sadie smiled.

"Go ahead, Sadie," I smiled.

"Thanks, Ella," she told me before she ran down the stairs to whoever the hell Riley was. I set my bag down and started to walk around the room. I began to miss my old room in the bustling downtown. If I ever got bored, I could walk downstairs to my mom's store. The front was the first store she opened, and, though she has some all over the world, she keeps it open for sentimental reasons. Then you go to the back to see a busy office. I could leave and head over to the sweet shop with Gwen. All it took was me going downstairs, taking a few turns, and pressing a buzzer to an apartment building to get to Gwen's to do whatever. I guess it's great to be by Eric though.

I bit my lip as if I was disgusted with myself, but I kept walking towards the window. Eric was in there, shirtless for who knows why. He was banging his head against a wall before picking up his phone. He stepped up to the window, looking down so he didn't see me. He dialed in a number and drummed his hands against the window.

"This is my last call to you-"

Last call by Plain White T's blared from my cell phone, making me grin. I took the phone from my tote and stepped back to the window as I pressed 'accept'

"Do you ever wear a shirt, Eric?"

His green eyes shot up immediately to where he saw me. At first, he was a little speechless, but, eventually, he unsuccessfully attempted to explain. I continued to smile though as if to say 'No way in hell you're getting out of this one'. He walked away for a moment and returned in a muscle tee shirt.

"You-you can see in my room," Eric stumbled.

"Ever considered blinds?" I smirked, and he blushed to the shade of a strawberry, which was kinda cute to tell you the truth. I'd never tell him that though. He ran a hand through his Beiber-cut black hair nervously and looked back down at the hedge between the two houses.

"Ever considered not peeping in on your neighbor?" Eric looked up at me. I shrugged as if the thought had never crossed my mind.

"So, you're there? Any fights with the twins, yet?" he smiled warily. Even if there wasn't one today, there'd be one tomorrow.

"Nah, they're too busy with their boyfriends to notice their arch enemy came to live with them for a few months," I sighed, wondering if the window still opened like it used to. I didn't like hearing the way the phone lines altered his voice when I could easily just talk to him. It sounded hollow and made me miss him for an odd reason.

"The 'Boy Toys' are down there?"

"They're not 'Boy Toys', Eric," I reprimanded him even though I had no idea why I did.

"You're defending them?"

"No, I'm not," I lied.

He was right, but I had no clue why I'd defend them. They were dumb enough to date my step-sisters. Why would I take a liking to people who were stupid beyond belief?

But I was.

"No, no," Eric looked at me as if he were disappointed.

"What?"

"You like Demetri, don't you?"

"I do not," I told him indignantly

"Oh my God! You do!" Eric stared at me. I didn't know what to say. I couldn't like Demetri. He was nothing like my type. The guys that I tend to like are like Daniel Dubois, the French exchange student who I dated before he returned home at the end of the last semester. I was not a 'Demetri' girl, and I was most definitely not his type. There is no way that this would really happen. And there's no reason for me to like him. He's never spoken word one to me, and, if he did, it would probably be him asking me to study or something.

Anyway, why would he want me when he could just as easily have Kelli.

Eric hesitated on whatever he was going to say. I knew he wanted to make fun of me for this, but I really wasn't in the mood. The look in my eyes told him to talk about something else and fast. I wasn't sure if he would though. The Eric I knew would make fun of me until he lost his voice, but there something else to him as I stood there. And I really like this side.

"Listen, I need some help studying. Maybe we could head over to the library. It would get you away from your family," he shrugged as if he wasn't being insanely nice to me. I nodded.

"I'll drive?"

"We get pizza afterwards?"

"Deal," I watched him hand up through the window and put the phone in my jean pocket. Grabbing my tote and the way out, I proceeded to run down the stairs and head back downstairs.

"Ella," Dalia stopped me as soon as I opened the front door. I froze as if she had thrown a paralyzing dart instead of her voice. I gripped the doorknob, hoping Eric would say me once again. I really liked it when he did that.

"Yes, Dalia?" I turned around, pretending to smile as if she hadn't stopped me from making a break for it.

"Where are you going?" her arms were crossed, and her perfectly tweezed eyebrows were knit in confusion.

"My friend needs some help studying for a Social Studies test in the morning. He just called to ask if I could help him study," I didn't remove my hand from the doorknob, ready to make a run for it. I ignored the stares from the four teenagers in the room over and kept my eyes on Dalia.

"Do I know him?"

"It's Eric," I smiled.

"When will you be back?"

"Uh, soon, I guess."

I wasn't really used to this. My mom asked me when I'd be back and everything, but she always did it in a friendly way. I felt like I was being interrogated.

"Well," Dalia didn't seem to know how to finish. I guess her kids always gave up, "don't stay out to long."

"Wouldn't," I smiled victoriously as I walked out the door.

Eric was smiling something-I have no idea what- as he stood by my white Pruis. He had slid an Atlanta Braves sweatshirt on, but he looked exactly the same as earlier other than that. He smile was wide, and I knew what he was going to say even before he said it.

"Go ahead. Get it all out," I told him as I unlocked the car.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Eric slid into the car. I got in after him and held the keys up in wager.

"You and Demetri sittin' in a tree…" he was about to continue the song before I pressed the radio dial and cranked it too high up for me to hear what he was saying. Kelli looked out the window, her face annoyed, and Demetri was looking behind her.

But his face was blank. My heart skipped a beat, but I knew it shouldn't have.

Eric turned down the dial to say one last thing.

"There's your Prince Charming," Eric told me with a cocky grin.

"High School isn't a fairy tale, Eric."

And if it was, I'd be the ugly step sister and Kelli would be Cinderella…

Okay, so I know that there are a lot of Cinderella stories out there, but I might as well have given it a shot. Keep reading :)