Alright! The last part of this thing (and soon I shall go back to scaring people even more with my ideas) And so.. drum roll Onto the show!

Kat always liked cleaning the floor, not for the work but from all the juicy gossip she would learn about people as they would talk inside the rooms; forgetting that Kat was outside listening and keeping it all in her head. But by the end of that week Kat was ready to kill the next person who talked about two subjects: the prince and the up coming ball for the prince. So far she knew every single piece of clothing that each step-sister and step-sister's friend was going to have on during the ball. Though Kat couldn't figure out why half of the most expensive things had to be hidden away from the world.

"Waste of not really earned money if you ask me," She grumbled as she scrubbed the dirty dishes from lunch. Around her the entire castle was in a fuss about the ball, as they had been for a week. Wondering to herself why people would stress themselves over something so stupid Kat began to dry.

"Kat, would you please be a dear and fetch my ruby ring for me? And my red fan.. also my golden slippers?" Laura asked in a fake sweet voice as she brushed her hair and turned her head from side to side to get a better view of herself in the gold plated mirror that covered half of the wall. "I do believe that no one has a french trimmed corset. So go get that along with my other stuff."

"Yeah, yeah," Grumbled Kat under her breath from where she was half buried with clothing already. For once in her life Rachel was being silent, fetching her own clothing and asking if Kat would help her with hair and make up. Kat wondered if her older step-sister was feeling sick from days of not eating then grinned to herself at the image that sprung to her head of both step-sisters fainting at the ball.

She still couldn't believe it took her sisters hours to get ready, even after years of helping them getting ready for one thing or another. Kat was usually nicer when helping her step-family get ready for something that would get them out of the castle, for then Kat would have much needed time to herself. Of course that didn't mean that Laura did not have to complain about her corset making it hard to breath more then usual after Kat had tied her up, for that her Step-mother couldn't find her gold hair beads (hidden under the coals in her fireplace) and so was forced to have on the lesser valued pearls as she stepped into the coach.

Breathing a sigh of relief Kat went to water her mother's tree then planned to curl up in the library and read until she went to sleep. Whistling happily as she walked up the path to the tree Kat felt as though nothing bad could happen to her that night.

As she drew near to the tree Kat saw that it was waving from side to side, even though not a breath of wind had come though all day. She slowed down just a little bit, though inside Kat cursed herself for being scared in the first place. Once at the base of the tree Kat stopped and crossed her arms, waiting for something, anything to happen. A twinkling sound, almost like laughter filled the air then something heavy fell upon Kat's head. Yelping in surprise Kat jumped back then looked closely at what had hit her.

It was a gown, one made of a nice cloth with silver and opals dotting it. Kat snorted, though she was very confused as to why someone would leave such a nice gown up in a tree. Maybe someone had grown tired of it and decided to leave it to birds?

"Use it." Came a soft voice as Kat kicked at the gown. The young woman's eyes narrowed slightly as she looked around for the voice. "Go ahead, my young one. You wanted to go to the ball, did you not?"

"Hell no!" Kat replied shocked that anyone, even a tree, would think that she would ever want to go to a ball. Balls where filled with empty headed people attempting to impress each other with lack of skills in any department.

"Are you sure?" The voice was now sounding a bit worried, almost as though Kat was now a manic who would suddenly pull out a axe and start chopping down everything. "But, the prince is hosting it, is he not? Well then, all girls should go to a royal ball once before they marry."

Kat snorted but the tree kept at it, telling her that it was a once in a lifetime thing. Kat finally agreed, if just to get the bloody tree off of her back. So she slipped into the gown, frowning as it tightened slightly against her chest. She began to stomp off down the path again when the tree stopped her again.

"What about your shoes? Or hair?" The tree demanded in a shocked tone. "You need to have something other then that!"

"Well then," Kat snarled back "Why don't you give me some shoes or something!" The tree seemed to think about it as Kat fumed then two clear slippers fell to the ground. Picking them up Kat noticed that they looked like glass, but when she flicked a finger against them the shoes gave a clearer sound then glass ever did.

Shrugging and making a mental note to see how much money she could get from the shoes and gown Kat again walked away from the tree, this time ignoring it's protests that she still had not dressed her hair.

The ball was in full swing, even though Prince Berto himself felt as though a grave would be more lively then his coming out ball. People chatted in small groups, all girls fixing their neck lines in hopes that they would catch the prince's eyes. Even though the prince himself kept his eyes as far away from the necklines as he could a few people did enjoy the sight. Such as a strange man from France who wouldn't give his name but would just cackle and look at the nearest female.

Sighing Prince Berto looked around the room for any sign of his best friend, but sighed as soon as he caught sight of the man talking to a blond haired guest. There seemed to be no hope for the poor prince to get away from having to dance with one of the girls, even though they had on about three feet of fabric between all of them. "Gee, which one should I choose." Berto wasn't stupid, he knew his mom wanted him to get married quickly and have lots of little grand children. She didn't really seem to care about the girl that the said grand children would be coming from, or maybe she did and just hid it very well from Berto and the king.

The sound of trumpets jerked the prince out of his thoughts. Everyone gaped at each other, amazed that someone has decided to be on time and not an hour early like all the rest. All eyes went to the staircase, waiting to see what kind of person it could be. And as she appeared the Prince felt as though lightning had just struck him in the spot.

Kat's feet hurt as she walked up some stairs after a footman towards the ball room. She hated heels, could never understand why anyone would want to have on heels. The gown was also to heavy to allow her to walk like she usually did, all in all Kat was in a very bad mood. As she stepped into the ballroom she could feel people's eyes on her and making her feel, for perhaps the first time in her life, Kat felt like running away to hid. No one spoke as she walked awkwardly down the stairs, her head held high and eyes looking everyone in the face so that no one could see how scared she was.

She felt even more awkward as everyone just kept looking at her, a few whispering things to each other as she passed them by. Suddenly a hand took her arm, spinning around to yell at who ever it was Kat found herself face to face with the boy she'd meet before. His eyes searched her face then seemed to light up. "May I have this dance?" He asked softly, almost shyly.

Kat nodded, deciding that it was better then just standing around and watching everyone watching her. As the hours passed she began to relax slightly, even allowed herself to talk to the boy she was dancing with. To her complete surprise she found out that he liked the same books as Kat. She was happily telling him about her favorite battles in "An Orc's Arrow" when Kat caught sight of her step-family leaving the room, all of them dressed in traveling cloaks. Swearing at herself for allowing her guard to go down Kat turned to leave.

"Wait!" The boy yelled as she dashed out of the room, the clock beginning to clime midnight. "I don't even know your name! Stop, please!" Kat didn't give herself breath to reply, as intent as she was to get home before her family did. Luckily for her, Kat knew every path though the woods and somehow managed to reach her house before her step-family. She could heard them talking in loud, angry voices about how the prince had danced with no one but that "funny looking girl" a statement which made Kat smirk slightly before turned over to get some much needed sleep.

The next day Kat was again forced to scrub the floor with a bucket of water and scrubber. Grumbling under her breath Kat wished that her step-sisters and step-mother would stop complaining about how the prince had taken no notice of anyone in the family. Gritting her teeth against Laura's pouting cries Kat made a note to find a snake as soon as she could, hopefully a giant one.

Some one knocked on the door, wiping her hands on her tattered dress Kat went to answer it, ready to start yelling at who dared to come over at such a hour. The boy she'd danced with last night looked up hopefully as Kat opened the door, his mouth twitching up into a smile.

"What do you want?" Kat sighed, hoping that what ever it was it wouldn't take up to much of her chore time. He blinked at her rude tone then launched into what he'd wanted to say.

"Mymotherwantsmetogetmarriedbutyou'retheonlyoneiwanttomarrysowillyou?" Kat blinked as his words sunk in then frowned at him.

"No."

He gaped at her.

"I mean it, no way am I going to marry someone I just met. No matter what his mother wants."

"Err...," He went bright red then looked down at the ground. "Then.. May I court you?" It was now Kat's turn to blink and gape at someone. "I mean," he began to wave his arms around. "You don't have to if you don't want to! I could just leave and never return." He looked depressed but ready to run if Kat began to come after him.

She couldn't help but smile slightly. "I'll allow you to court me, if you do something for me." Laura came rushing down the stairs, her mouth falling open at Kat's words in a most unbecoming way. "Tell me your name first."

"MOTHER! LOOK WHAT KAT'S DOING! MAKE HER STOOOOOOOP!"

"Berto.. Prince Berto..."

LOL, soor if the ending is a bit rished, but that's all I could come up with. That and it's almost 12 over here. So you'll have to exuse my poor endings.