A/N: Here's the second chapter. Please enjoy~!
The next day was very bright and sunny. Chelsea couldn't wait for the events to come this afternoon and tonight. What would happen later, she kept on thinking.
She immediately collected her crops and placed each in a crate, and slowly made her way to the shipping box to ship her items. It took much energy to do all this stuff, but she managed this time to control herself from losing consciousness.
It didn't take her much time either to collect the plants. She felt a lot better now that she was done with everything.
She looked at her watch. It was around lunchtime already, so she cooked some curry and finished the whole thing.
…
After a few moments...
*knock* *knock*
Chelsea heard two knocks on her door.
"A-aah!" she jumped in surprised and opened the door. "Vaughn! You're here!"
"Oh, hey. Are you ready?" he stared at her.
"Ah, yes!" Chelsea stepped out of her house and locked the door.
"Let's go to the forest then." Vaughn started walking to the direction of the forest.
…
On the way to the forest…
"Why did you invite me here?" he asked.
"Nothing. I just wanted to hang out with you a lot more…" she just couldn't tell him that she wanted him to like her.
Vaughn slightly blushed at this idea, but hid it from Chelsea. She didn't know she wanted to become close with him.
"Hey, Vaughn." Chelsea said, bringing up a conversation. "Do you know how to dance?"
"Nah, not really… no." he was embarrassed by his answer.
"Oh…" she fell silent. "I can teach you how to dance!"
"Well, thanks for the offer, but… I won't look good when I dance." He lowered his hat.
"It's okay!" she stopped walking and held both his hands with her hands. "We're the only two people here in the forest. So… shall we dance?"
"N-never mind me…" he quickly withdrew his hands from hers and placed them in his pocket. "You're a plain farm girl anyway; you're better at farming than dancing."
Chelsea got a bit hurt but started to walk and ignore dancing for a while. "Why don't we talk about another subject..?"
For the rest of the afternoon, the two talked about nonsense stuff, with Chelsea always starting the conversation. Still, she felt bad for some reason. After all, she really wanted to dance with him even just this once to prove that she was more than a farm girl.
…
At 6:00 pm, Chelsea returned from the forest, tired but a bit happy that she spent time with Vaughn.
As she changed into her dress for the night's party in Mineral town, she still can't remove that thought of Vaughn calling her a 'plain farm girl'. Why was she hurt when he mentioned this..?
After dressing up, she looked at herself in a mirror inside her closet. She whispered to herself,
"Do I look like a… Cinderella..? Can I... dance like a princess?"
She put on her glass shoes and strapped them tightly on her feet.
She then sat on her bed and thought about Vaughn and what Lanna said.
'You know that feeling that you get butterflies in your stomach and your cheeks start to tingle all of a sudden? That's how you should feel when you're in love!'
No matter how much she thought of that, she never got that feeling around Vaughn.
She wanted her heart to dance; she wanted the ticklish tingle dance on her cheeks. Why wouldn't any of these happen when she was with Vaughn? She even tried being close to him, but... still, she wasn't feeling 'love'. She wanted her whole self to dance, not just her body. When will she learn of that feeling?
*knock* *knock*
Someone was knocking on her door.
Chelsea slowly made her way to the door and opened it. There stood Pierre, wearing his usual purple top hat, but this time he wore some kind of tuxedo.
"Chelsea, are you—" he couldn't help but stare at her. She looked more beautiful than he could ever imagine.
"Aren't we going yet?" she asked, smiling.
"I..I… I mean, yes!" Pierre, doing a gentlemanly gesture, opened the door for her.
He then led her out of the house and walked her over to the boats by the edge of the island, and the two sailed over to Mineral Town.
While they were on the boats, Chelsea heard Pierre whisper something to himself. "Cen… Cen…" he uttered softly. Chelsea couldn't help but wonder what he was trying to say…
…
When they arrived at Mineral Town…
It was past 7:00 pm, and they were going to be late if they didn't hurry up.
The party was going to be held at the Rose Square, so they were dropped off the boat at the beach in Mineral Town.
"Hurry, Chelsea!" Pierre pulled her arm as they ran across the vast sand.
"I am, I am— ah!" Chelsea was trying to run when she tripped on some rock.
Pierre stopped in his tracks and went to pull Chelsea up.
When she finally stood up, she noticed the strap of one of her shoes had snapped and the shoe cracked a bit at the heel.
"Ahh… th-the shoe…" she stuttered. How could she go to the party now that she had no shoes to wear? It would be humiliating to dance barefoot there.
"Oh no… what should we… do?" Pierre also looked at her broken shoe.
Chelsea started to cry a bit. She really was excited for this night, most especially the part where they would dance with their partner around the rose square. Now it was all over.
She crouched down to pick up both her glass shoes. "I… I'll be heading home. I'm sure the Gourmet Chef would be kind as to let you in the party without a partner." She started walking the opposite direction, barefoot.
As she was walking, she noticed Pierre tugging on her dress, whispering, "Don't… go…"
He then gazed his eyes to her eyes, and said, "Can we be together for a bit longer..? So what if you're shoes are broken?" he smiled.
Chelsea couldn't believe what Pierre was saying. Was he implying this whole time that… he just wanted to spend time with her?
*driiing* *driiing*
Silver bells where softly heard from the Rose Square, then they could heard music starting to play.
The two looked up to the sky. Snow started to fall from the night sky.
Pierre suddenly took off his black shoes as well and put them aside. "This way, it will be warmer to walk around. Wouldn't it be fum to dance under the snow while barefoot? I don't find it humiliating at all~!"
Chelsea 's eyes lit up and she put down her shoes beside Pierre's. She now knew what she wanted this whole day.
"Shall we… dance?" he extended his hand to her.
Unlike Vaughn, she gladly accepted his hand.
Now the two started dancing on the beach under the snow, ignoring being barefoot. Chelsea's dress gracefully swayed the glittering diamond shapes were like snowflakes on her beautiful blue dress. Her hair was let loose and it, too, swayed.
"All this time…" Chelsea said, "I just needed a simple dance to lighten my mood."
She could feel her heart dancing along with the music, and the tingles on her cheeks were dancing, too. Was this the feeling Lanna said before? Was this… love?
"Chelsea, um… you look like a…" Pierre thought of something as they circled around, holding each other's hand. "a… Cendrillon."
"C-Cendrillon?" she couldn't help but ask.
"A… Cinderella. You're really good in dancing, even if you're a farm girl. I never thought you would be agile in your steps and hands~!." he swiftly moved his feet with the rhythm.
She immediately blushed. Most people would see her as a farm girl, plain and simple, like what Vaughn thinks about her. He was one of the few who saw her as a Cinderella.
"I'm…" she cried tears of joy as she danced. "I'm so happy. I feel so alive because of this dance… thank you so much, Pierre…" she danced some more, holding tightly to his hand.
She hadn't noticed that this whole time, she was waiting for something exciting to happen this day. She wouldn't think the climax of the day… would be at the last part of the story.
"Say, Pierre, I have something to tell you." she whispered.
"You're my little prince, while I'm your… Cendrillon, alright?" she sweetly smiled.
Pierre giggled, twirling Chelsea around the sand.
Chelsea didn't need to show everyone that she could be a princess or something more than a farmer; she was happy that at least someone acknowledged her as his, "Cendrillon" or "Cinderella." Sure, she couldn't convince Vaughn to dance with her, but at least she got to dance that day.
They danced for hours and hours under the snowy night sky, ignoring everything around them except themselves. The two felt like they were... a prince and a princess in a castle, dancing underneath a chandelier.
A/N: Finally! I edited this A LOT. It's done now! It was originally supposed to be just one chapter, but that would be too loooooong. So I made it two chapters!
Did you understand the story? Sorry if the characters were OOC! ;^; aaarrrggghhhh. And I'm so sorry if Vaughn here was kinda rude! *gets trampled by Vaughn fangirls* I think Vaughn is always serious and a bit rude (it's my opinion so don't argue with me .). Sorry!
P.S.: I derived the title of the story from the song Cendrillon by Vocaloid ((I like the Kasane Version better~!))
Okay, got to go now… bye!
=^w^=
This is Kira07, signing out.
Ja ne, minna!
