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Glass Slipper by liahime

5 Slippers of Satin:

The Lovely Disclaimer Proclaims: Liahime doesn't own Digimon or Shakespeare at this moment. But she will. Buahahahahahahahaha!

Currently, Rika was not speaking to Ryo at all.

At all.

Ever.

After the run on the Iron Shoe, she had felt.. Confused? Angry? She wasn't sure. She remembered being caught in his arms after falling, being kissed on the cheek after running, and where she expected to be angry, she just- wasn't. Of course, she had slapped him-hard. Punched him- much more than the necessary twice. But there was just a confused feeling when she thought of it, as if - impossible, really- she wasn't mad at him. As if she had... liked it. So while pondering this, standing in the drama room after school, Rika practiced her lines for the play.

Sarawatari-sensei was rambling on about "capturing the essence of Cinderella", about "being one with the spirit of Cinderella, and "for Shakespeare's sake, smile more, Rika." Ayashi gave a blinding grin.

She wants drama. I'll give her drama. Rika gritted her teeth. Constantly, the people wanted her to be better at this, better at that, and smile. Constantly out to catch her and point out what was wrong. She got prepared to overdo it so much, cheese would drip from it. She got the tears to come to her eyes, and said those dreaded words again, getting ready for the drama teacher to blow up.

"But Stepsister! Please! The ball does means so much to me!"

She hated those words. So stupid. When being somewhere so you could just "watch the prince" and sigh over "lost hopes and beautiful dreams." How pathetic.

Elicia, a transfer student from New York, was surprised. This was not the same Rika who had read her lines like this a few moments before the teacher had finished ranting.

"Butstepsister, pleasetheballmeanssomuchtome."

Ayashi sneered at Rika. "Pathetic girl. You can not truly hope to go the ball in those ugly rags you're wearing."

Rika waited for the drama teacher to start ranting. She didn't. She was applauding. Why didn't things go right? Elicia, the other stepsister, chimed in with Ayashi's sneer.

"Look, Cinders, you'd make us, your fantastically lovely and beautiful and heart-capturing sisters, look just too perfect in comparison. The prince might faint."

Rika grumbled under her breath. "I doubt it," looking at Ayashi.

The door slammed open again. Sarawatari-sensei sighed. With all the slamming, it was starting to fall off at the hinges. Yet another late drama student rushed in. Kazu, she thought. What a surprise.

Suprisingly, Ayashi didn't say a thing. She just smiled with the rest of the cast, and even waved at Kazu. "Hey, Shidoa-kun!"

Shidoa-kun? This raised a couple of eyebrows. What was Ayashi up to? Normally, she didn't even bother to say his name. Elicia continued the lines, looking up from her script to smile at Kazu as well.

"Farewell sister. Have fun at your royal ball with the mice. I heard the broom dances beautifully." Ayashi and Elica exited to their seats. Kazu, the prince's understudy, pulled Ayashi's hair, something that was unforgivable. He braced himself for a slap. Ayashi turned around and smiled. "Did you need something?"

The world is falling apart, thought Rika, as she had to pretend to cry. First, I'm not mad at Ryo Akiyama. And Ayashi Fujiwara is smiling at Kazu. What's next?

Jeri the fairy godmother floated from her chair into her place in the scene.

"There, there, darling, don't cry." She patted Rika's head gently. She leaned down to whisper to Rika.

"Guess what? Ayashi Fujiwara," she said, acting out the fairy godmother, "Ayashi Fujiwara has invited you, Alice, and me, to her karaoke party!" She raised her wand and continued acting. From the look that Alice gave them, it was clear that Jeri had already told her.

And three, Ayashi Fujiwara has invited me to her karaoke party.

The world is falling apart.

Walking home from drama practice, Jeri looked over the invitation for the hundredth time. Getting an invitation from Ayashi, was the highschool equivalent to the Queen of England making you a Lord or Lady. You were welcomed into all society, by all people in general. Rika remained indifferent.

On scented paper, in perfect gel pen:

Rika, Jeri, Alice!

Hi! This is Ayashi Fujiwara! And I decided that I really wanted to get to know you, so if you don't mind, could you come to my karaoke party on Friday night, starting at 8:00 PM? Please? I'm sure we'll be great friends. Everyone from the cast is coming- it's a drama party! And since you three are in main roles, you have to come!

Hope you'll be there,

Ayashi

Rika laughed. "'Sure we'll be great friends?' I smell a rat. A blonde one."

Jeri frowned. "Don't be pessimistic, Rika, I'm sure she's nicer now."

"Hmph."

"Are you going to go?"

"No."

"I'm going."

"So."

"Alice is going."

"Does that mean I'm going?"

"Henry and Takato and Kazu and Kenta and Ryo and everyone in the drama cast are going." Jeri added.

"Fine."

"What?"

"Fine, I'll go."

"That's so great! C'mon, we need to find your clothes!"

"It's on Friday!"

"I know, so little time!"

"Friday as in three days!"

"That's only about 36 hours! 2160 minutes! 129600 seconds! No time at all! Now, do you think that you'd look best in white? Red? Blue?"

"MY WORLD IS FALLING APART!" Ayashi screamed at Asuka. Asuka, though expelled from school because of the "pants incident", was bribed back in by her rich stepfather with only one week of suspension. So, she was still in school as Ayashi's minion, her allowance gone forever. Asuka sat on the floor, painting Ayashi's toenails calmly.

"I can't believe it! That Ryo Akiyama, who was meant for me, KISSED Rika! KISSED! When he hasn't even eaten the chocolates I sent him! Or touched the cards! It's not fair, Asuka. The world is falling apart." She flopped back onto her huge bed, keeping her toes in place. The world can fall apart, but you should have a decent manicure if it does.

"Asuka, I want the shade a bit lighter. It'll look better. Add some glitter too." Ayashi paused for breath.

"I can't STAND to look at Rika now, ever! Or her perky friend with the puppet, or the gothic-clothes girl. I can't take this anymore! The magazine's counsel was RUBBISH!" She paused again. "No, Asuka, lighter. More glitter too."

"That stupid, stupid magazine! It said guys like Ryo like girls like me more when they're nice. Friendly to all. So I braved that horrible Shidoa. I sent those invitations to all of the drama-obsessed cast. I quit being nice. I will have revenge on that.. That.. Nonaka." Ayashi ranted.

"And I haven't heard a PEEP from Ryo-chan!"

"He asked you to call him Akiyama, didn't he?" Asuka looked up from toenail painting.

"It was code, Asuka. He meant that he was in love with me, just too shy to tell everyone. Honestly, you are so stupid." Ayashi walked off in a cloud of gardenia perfume and nail polish, leaving Asuka behind. "And Asuka, I need a line to my Ryo immediately."

Asuka sighed and started to clean up the drips of nail polish.

"This is Ryo," A tenor voice spoke into Ayashi's ear.

"Ryo, this is Ayashi-chan!" Ayashi sweetly giggled into the phone.

"Hi. How are you?" Ayashi squealed, thinking "He is so sweet! So adorable! So caring! Perfect guy."

"I'm doing horrible without you, Ryo-chan. Come over. I miss you." She giggled again.

"Really?"

"Of cours-"

Ryo interrupted her. "Well, I'm sorry I can't come to my phone right now, sorry about that.. Leave your name, your phone number, and a message after the beep. If you're still mad at me, Wildcat, you probably will track me down, so don't repeat yourself, darling. I miss you too. Beep!"

Ayashi's mouth dropped open.

REVIEWS

unknown: hi! Thank you! I'll write more ASAP.

GTKari-123: Thanks! I'll write more ASAP (in reason...)

Black: Thank you! I'll try to fix the stuff! (I am horrible with remembering stuff, so sometimes I just make it up so I don't have to look it up...;) The Tamers are around the contract age-limit age.. 16.. Thanks, I'll try to remember it all...

DigiChick: Sorry for getting your name/sn wrong.. I look at reviews through my e-mail, and they put it there... My e-mail and computer are teaming up against me. Thank you!

Jenni: Thank you for reviewing! I'm a bit sorry for Asuka too...

violetaurora- Thank you too! I'll write more soon!

Sparkling-Ruby Gem: Thank you! If you have any suggestions, please tell me!

aNiMe-AzN-aNgEl: thank you! Please review more!

Thanks for reviewing everyone! I love getting reviews... My Yahoo Messenger has this huge (I don't know what it is) popping sound and it says "You have a new e-mail," and it's from I love it! I'm still relatively new, but I think that I'm always going to love getting reviews. Thank you everyone!