Summary: Amy, a solemn maiden who has to tend to her stepmother's and stepbrother's every whim, seizes an opportunity to go to a ball she had been "falsely" invited to. Being the eye of a handsome prince however, she gets more than she bargained for.

Rating: "K+"

Setting: AU, but still in Boston.

Warning: Cliché pairings, cliché storyline. 'Nuff said.

Pairing: Ian x Amy , Dan x Natalie

Disclaimer: I do not own the 39 Clues. Or Cinderella.

XXX

That next day, Beatrice and Dan had gone to a salon to get their hair done. If Beatrice hadn't been so focused on getting him and Natalie together – maybe he would've been intrigued at the fact he was going to get his hair done in a place filled with so many women. Amy stayed home, she had to perfect Beatrice's dress and Dan's suit – fixing any rips, wrinkles, loose buttons, or 'non functioning zippers.' After that, she had some free time on her hands, and since Beatrice and Dan weren't going to be home for the next two hours – she decided the time could be used on making her own dress for the ball.

Amy was a smart girl, and she knew that Beatrice had been spilling out her evil little plan to Dan. Otherwise, Amy would've been pulled along too, Beatrice never missed an opportunity to make her put some elbow grease on something Beatrice was too lazy to do. Amy was grateful that she hadn't gone for that reason, and she was even happier her brother was going to help her. They had always had such a great connection, sibling telepathy even. Beatrice had never been a fan of this, so in a lame attempt to break up the blood relation – which was quite impossible – she called Amy and Dan 'stepbrothers and stepsisters.' In truth, Beatrice was their aunt, but she preferred to be called 'mother' it gave her a feeling of dominance.

Amy had been halfway done with the dress when Beatrice and Dan got home. She gasped, running down to the cellar to open it – then she remembered – Beatrice had the key. She couldn't hide the dress anywhere, Beatrice would find it. She sighed and braced herself for impact. Dan came into the house first, his hair gelled up. For once, Beatrice was carrying all her shopping bags. Amy already knew what was in them – jewelry and make-up. Beatrice would never entrust her with something Beatrice would apply to her face. Yet ironically – ninety percent of the time, Amy did her make-up.

"Dan!" Amy said, panicking.

"What?" He asked.

"The dress! I made a dress! It's not finished yet, but I can't let Beatrice see it!"

Dan's eyes widened. "Why on earth would you do that!"

"Because, you said you were going to help me get to the ball so I thought if I made a dress it would help and now I don't know where to hide it and –"

"BUT AMY." Dan said, cutting her off, "I already bought you a dress."

Amy opened her mouth, but instead of saying actual words, a gasp came out. "You… what? Why? How? Didn't Beatrice, I-I mean stepmother, notice?"

"Oh, she noticed. She was all suspicious and interrogated me. I told her the dress was for Natalie as a gift. But we all know that's a load of –"

"Oh, Dan!" Amy said, giving her brother a squeeze. "Thank you so much!"

Dan squirmed, unable to breathe under her sister's bear hug. "Yeah, okay, please let go of me until I die."

Amy rolled her eyes, smiling. Her smile soon faded as she saw Beatrice coming back to the house with the last bag of makeup and jewelry.

"The dress I made! What are we going to do?" She was panicking. Again.

Dan bit his lip, thinking for a second. Then, he grabbed the dress, and threw it out the window. Amy frowned, but nodded, "Thanks."

"No prob." He said, smirking.

Beatrice, panting, ran up to the two youngsters with some nail polish. "Amy, the ball is in three hours. Got that? That's one hundred and eighty minutes to apply makeup, jewelry, fit dresses, and suits – and put on more makeup!"

"Didn't you guys try on your outfits last night?" Amy said; disliking the idea she would have to help them with their outfits.

Beatrice glared. "Don't even try to get sassy with me, young lady! I didn't have you perfect the dresses for no reason! We have to try on the REVISED versions now, and if they aren't perfect, we'll have you sew them again… While we're wearing them."

Amy's eyes widened at the horrific thought. "O-okay then."

Beatrice smiled at Dan, who gave a fake smile back.

"Well then, let's get started."

Beatrice led Dan and Amy up to her room. It reeked of perfume and breath mints, and clothes were sloppily placed everywhere. Beatrice didn't like Amy coming up to her room, so it was self-explanatory as to why the room was so messy. Beatrice stopped abruptly, right before the door of her closet, causing Dan and Amy to bump into each other.

"Here it is, my closet." She said breathlessly.

She opened it immediately and dragged them in there, relentlessly. The small space was filled with dresses of all sorts, they were all absolutely ostentatious, revealing, things a middle-aged women should NOT wear.

"Ah, here it is." Beatrice said, picking up a large, pink and white strapless dress. The top was shaped to fit her bosom, and the bottom was large and puffy, obviously to cover up her hideous figure. Bad eating habits and lack of exercise can really stab you in the back sometimes.

She grabbed Dan's suit, which was neatly folded on one of her shelves, then pushed the both of them out. "Okay, I'll get dressed, Amy, you make sure I look gorgeous in my dress. Dan, while I pose for Amy, you get dressed."

Dan grimaced, leaning over to Amy, "That sounded so wrong." He whispered.

She nodded vigorously while Beatrice shut the closet door and got dressed.

"It's going to take her a while to get into that dress." Amy said, "How about you show me mine?"

Dan smiled, running over to Beatrice's bags and leafing through the contents. He finally found it, and pulled it out. Amy's heart skipped a beat, it was…

Gorgeous.

Something about it made her feel really awkward though. It was just the right shade of blue, there were tiny sequins on it, but it was too… revealing. Maybe that was the way they made dresses these days, but the dress ended so abruptly, it put Victoria's Secret panties to shame. Well, not really, but it wasn't something Amy would wear.

The dress was actually pretty decent, she just wasn't one to show off her body though. She grabbed it and looked at it. "I wonder what Beatrice was thinking when you said this was for Natalie."

Dan looked away, embarrassed. The straps were so tiny you could barely tell they were actually there.

"Shut up." He said softly while Amy just laughed.

She quietly put the dress away, "Stepmother should be done by now." She said, grabbing Dan's arm and pulling him toward the closet door.

Amy had been right, as soon as they got back to their spots; Beatrice strutted out in her dress, striking a pose.

Dan bit his lip, trying not to laugh. "Well, you know what to do Amy." He said teasingly, running into the closet and shutting the door.

Beatrice smiled, fluttering her eyes. "My eyes will look much more beautiful as soon as you put on the eye shadow."

She then put her arm behind her head like all of those models did, as if she was posing for a photo.

"Sexy, right?" She asked. "I need to look glamorous," she then put one arm out, curling her fingers as if she were a cat, "for Prince Ian. I'll be absolutely irresistible."

She turned around, sticking her rear end out, "Who wouldn't want a piece of this."

"Anyone with eyes." Amy said in a tone that only she could hear, just about ready to hurl.

"Did you say something?" Beatrice said turning back around and cupping her hands around her face with a grin.

Amy shook her head, "Nope, nothing. Nada, zilch, nil."

Dan eventually came out in his suit, an emotionless look on his face.

"Oh Dan, you look like a little cutie!" Beatrice said, fixing his hair and buttoning up the parts of his outfit he didn't bother checking.

For the next half hour, Amy got them all fancied up for the ball. They had taken off their outfits to wash up, and then put them on AGAIN – and made Amy go through the process of making sure they looked perfect… Again. This included both Beatrice and Dan making ridiculous poses while Amy examined them. The process was strenuous, but Amy new that Dan was probably feeling a whole lot worse, which was her motivation to continue.

"Oh, I'm certain the ball will be absolutely divine." Beatrice swooned while Amy put her eye shadow onto her face.

Beatrice closed her eyes while Amy added powder to some parts of her face. The powder was named 'Timeless,' allegedly the same brand Isabella used on her face. It was supposed to make women look younger. But Amy wasn't putting it on a woman – she was putting it on Beatrice.

"What if we both fail to win Ian and Natalie's affections, then what?" Dan asked.

"Oh, nonsense!" Beatrice said, puckering her lips while Amy applied her cherry red lipstick.

"I am pretty sure mother will look absolutely wonderful for Ian." Amy winked, holding Beatrice's chin for support while she swirled the lipstick around her lips.

"Put some lip gloss over it to give it a shine." Beatrice said while Amy rummaged through the shopping bags.

"Hurry it up! We have less than two hours until the ball begins!"

Amy gritted her teeth while she got the lip gloss. "Yes mother."

She came back and glanced at Dan. "If Ian does happen to fall for a young lady, maybe we can persuade her to join our family. Just as long as it's nobody who is particularly part of another Royal Family. Although we have many enemies surrounding us, so the thought of getting the king and queen's approval would be very unlikely."

"Are you implying that I'm not young?" Beatrice said.

Amy's eyes widened. Crud.

"No! I wasn't implying that at all, I just meant that, well…Uh…" She looked down, twiddling with her fingers.

"Don't play finger games with me! It's time for my manicure and pedicure! First, clean my nails, and tell me what you meant."

Amy got a small bowl of water for Beatrice to dip her fingers in.

"I didn't mean to offend you, mother. But you and Ian have such a large age gap, one of about – twenty years! And, with all due respect, I don't think you truly love him. Isn't love about setting aside differences, and accepting somebody for who they truly are? Ian wouldn't be satisfied in a relationship like that."

Beatrice frowned while Amy scrubbed her fingers. "But I will look so beautiful! It doesn't matter, I can just pretend to love him. Then we will get married, and I'll be rich."

Amy scraped the outer layer of her nails off with a frown on her face. "And then, when his time comes, you two will be the king and queen. That's quite a big title to carry on, with authority, comes responsibility. What will you do for Boston that makes you worthy of being their ruler? What if they don't like the changes you make? I've seen it all before – they get assassinated because people don't like what they've done to society. Ian might as well just break off the entire relationship if –"

"SHUT UP!" Beatrice's voice boomed throughout the entire house. Amy silently gasped in horror as Beatrice stood up to her full height. "Listen young lady, I don't care HOW jealous you are of the fact that Ian is going to marry me instead of you, but I don't want to hear another peep of this nonsense! I forbid you to talk for the rest of the time. Now paint my nails and keep your big mouth SHUT."

Dan looked at Amy worriedly. "That's a little harsh isn't it –"

"Oh can it, you stupid ninja." Beatrice muttered grumpily.

Dan glared and said a few things about her under his breath.

Amy simply carried on stepmother's orders without upsetting her. That was just the way things went.

Amy had finished readying them up for the ball just in time.

"Well, time for us to be off!" Beatrice said, coated in makeup and jewelry.

Dan watched her walk off into – to his surprise – a carriage she had rented exclusively for them.

"This woman is going all out, I swear." He said. "Anyways, I have your invitation under the placemat. Go ahead and get ready, then head to the ball ASAP. It's going to be the highlight of Boston, you can't miss it. And don't worry about drawing attention. There's nothing wrong with being fashionably late."

With that, he left.

Amy sighed, grabbing her dress and rushing up to Beatrice's room to borrow some of her makeup. Poor Beatrice, she forgot to lock Amy up into the cellar.

Oh well.

School is dominating. Although I had a few months at the end of the school year – and the entire summer vacation to type of this bad boy, I wasn't necessarily procrastinating… I was prioritizing. And Fanfiction is completely optional, but since writing is my passion, I decided to finally update. Hope you enjoyed the tiny tints of humor, and no I am not going to change the rating to T for all you whiny readers. Just man up and accept the certain scenes and descriptions in this chapter.