[THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN REVISED]
ღ Finding Cinderella- 8 ღ
-Kylie-
Oh.
My.
God.
You just have to breathe deeply, I told myself for the millionth time, just like Mom does in her yoga lessons. Just breathe... deeply...
I could feel my intestines doing knots, but then again, it was understandable. H ow on Earth could I be calm while unexpectedly doing a waltz in front of hundred s of people?
Not to mention I'd been freaking paired with Erik!
Okay, so maybe it hadn't been me, exactly. Lacey had been his original partner, but with the whole "fainting" incident, things had turned out totally different from the plan. In my head, I begged my whole life to Steven and his angels that I wasn't going to dance and they said okay and I went home to play some Outlast and that was the end of story.
Sadly, things never worked out the way they did inside my brain.
So here I was, dancing before Erik in disbelief, taking small steps in time with his and trying to break eye contact, even though I couldn't do it.
I really couldn't.
I'd been rendered completely awestruck at how handsome he looked in his white tu xedo, and with his hair fixed, his thick lashes, and his pearly whites flashing as he smiled, he certainly looked like a King.
Some part of me wished the dance would last longer, but the rest wished time wou ld speed up and we would finally stop. All I really wanted was to run and hide, since nobody, especially not him, could know this was me.
Although it had been totally against my will, I had agreed with those student co ordinators to do this, just as long as nothing got out about the big switch. I d idn't want the whole student population to think that I, a girl whose outfit of choice was jeans and a sweatshirt, would willingly put on a ball gown. That's wh y I had forced those girls back in the dressing room to let me wear a mask and a wig, and thankfully, they had agreed.
After I begged on my knees.
Now my face was starting to itch, and I couldn't let go of Erik's hand to scratc h it. Just great-not only had the makeup made my face smell like Play-Doh, but i t had induced an allergic reaction, too.
"Hey, are you okay?" Erik whispered, startling me as I danced. Oh, no. He had to have seen my face scrunching up from the itch!
I quickly shook my head, face burning red.
"Don't be nervous," he replied with a light chuckle, voice preferable to the son g playing around us. "Just follow my lead, and everything will go smoothly, okay ?"
Aah, wasn't he a gentleman? Erik's chivalry had always been one of my favorite t raits.
As the song played on, we circled around the room a few times, making my brain s pin. I tried my best to follow his lead, just as he'd instructed, but the routin e was starting to get trickier, and I found myself growing more and more confuse d. Finally, when Erik stepped to the right on a complicated move, I anxiously fo llowed, only to tread on his foot in the process.
Erik hissed under his breath, and I panicked.
"I-I'm so sorry!" I exclaimed, my words tumbling out rapidly. "I didn't mean to do it, I swear! I'm just a complete klutz at dancing, and I-"
His eyes widened, and he interrupted me with, "Whoa, whoa. Wait a second... this may sound weird to you, but your voice and that kind of reaction are seriously familiar to me..."
Then, after another moment, his eyes went even wider, and he murmured: "Kylie?"
I nearly had a heart attack.
Shoot, he actually noticed me, what am I going to do, what am I supposed to say-
Erik was squinting at me now, giving me a once-over, and I swallowed hard.
"Oh, yeah, I can see it now!" he finally cried out as if he'd won the lottery. " You really are Kylie! If it weren't for your voice, I couldn't even tell this is you. You looked like such a different person! But wait," he added, confused, "w hy are you wearing a wig and a mask?"
Crap.
This was so not happening. My secret was out, and it hadn't even lasted an hour!
"Erik," I whispered hurriedly, voice as desperate and pleading as a child's. "Pl ease, please try to keep quiet. I don't want anyone to know this is me, and I'm begging you not to tell this to anyone else, ever. I swear I'll do anything you want. I don't care, just plea-"
Erik laughed, and as we moved across the dance floor, I stopped talking just to stare at him.
"It's fine, Kylie," he said, "I get it. I'm not one to tattle, anyway, so chill out. You can consider your little secret safe with me."
Then he winked, and I could feel my cheeks heating up as I processed how adorabl e he'd looked while doing it.
"Really? Really?" I said in a rush. "Like, you'll never tell anyone about this? Do you swear it? Cross your heart, hope to die?"
He nodded his head and grinned. "Just for you Kylie, I promise. Cross my heart, hope to die."
I broke into a broad grin, and I couldn't help but picture myself running around after the event was over, dancing in the road like a total wacko. I was practic ally dying with happiness. Hallelujah, I'd been saved!
Now Erik really was the nicest person in the universe. Take that, Tristan!
"But Kylie," Erik was saying, eyebrow raised, "don't you hate dressing like this ? This is the first time I've seen you wearing a gown, I think..."
At the thought of my dress, I scowled, remembering an argument I had with the gi rls back in the dressing room:
"C'mon, Kylie, change into these clothes! We're already running out of time!" Kr ystelle, the blonde girl, said.
"No! Why did you even pick that gown, anyway? I wish you give me something with sleeves or a hood or whatever, because I'm so not wearing that kind of outfit."
"Huh? But Ky, when it comes to being a Queen, the get-up has to be like this!" L en was practically crying as she begged.
"Are you kidding me?" I said. "If I wear something like that, everyone's going t o say, 'Divert your eyes! That girl looks pathetic!'"
"Well said, Kylie," Krystelle responded, shoving the dress on me, "but you reall y don't have a choice, do you?"
"Ugh. Don't even talk about it. This dress is totally embarrassing," I muttered, shaking my head. "Whatever, you can laugh all you want, I guess. It'll be worse for me if I act humiliated, so I've been trying to seem confident in the dress so I don't look self-conscious. Besides, I'm doing this for my sister's sake, no t to mention the well-being of our Valentine Ball-if it's not obvious, this thin g isn't about me at all."
Erik laughed and said, "Oh, is that so?" Clearing his throat, he continued: "But it's all right, Kylie, just hold your head up. You do want everyone to see how pretty you look tonight, don't you?"
What?
Did he just call me... what?
"P-pretty? No way! Y-you have to be kidding," I stuttered, sounding like a start led chicken.
"I'm telling the truth, Kylie. You look gorgeous."
Yikes!
I had no idea what to say in return, so I just removed my gaze from him, heart e xploding all the while. Hopefully, the orange lights around us were enough to hi de the redness in my cheeks. Inside my gloves, my palms were sweaty, too, as if all the water inside me were being pumped out during this single waltz.
I couldn't believe it. All my first-time experiences had occurred this very nigh t. My first dance, my first compliment from a boy, my first time being close to a guy that wasn't Tristan...
And all of them because of Erik.
My eyes scanned the room as I followed Erik's footsteps. Whoa, many people were gathered around us, all gossiping, apparently. The discomfort started to get to me, what with all these students acting like I was a billboard or something.
Then, as Erik and I circled the dance floor for the millionth time, my gaze fell on a conspicuous person in the crowd. He was staring at me intensely, too, as i f I were a-
Holy Shih Tzu.
Face turning pale, I snapped my head to the other side. I'd just seen something-or rather someone-whose identity hadn't registered until now, someone whose gaze could be imprinting itself into my brain cells for good.
The person staring had been Tristan.
I'd seen him. He'd seen me. From the look on his face, I gathered he was secretl y plotting something, just like all the antagonists did in the movies.
But worst of all, he might have recognized me!
"Everyone, please give a round of applause for the King and Queen's wonderful pe rformance!" the emcee exclaimed over the microphone.
Ha, thank goodness, it's over!
I could've jumped for joy and shouted hooray! That was, if it wouldn't have made me look insane... But seriously, this was fantastic. The emcee must've heard my prayers and finally ended the waltz, meaning I didn't have to dance anymore!
The auditorium erupted with claps and cheers, and Erik released me from his grip . Before long, he was bowing courteously to the crowd, and it took me a couple s econds to understand what was going on. When I finally put it together, I grabbe d the skirt of my dress, bent my knees ever so slightly, and bowed my head, hopi ng I was doing the right thing.
At last, the clapping began to fade out as the host read from our program, "And now, ladies and gentlemen, it's time for the Fate dance!"
Everyone began to talk amongst themselves, and Erik and I made our way to a dark corner, where we could - hopefully - not be bothered. As we walked, I heard him whisper, "So, uh, good luck?"
"W-what? Why do you say that?" I asked breathlessly, eyebrows knit together. I w as still so freaked out by Tristan's presence, my heart refused to stop pounding .
"Well, I just wanted to wish you luck with your Fate Dance. I can see we don't h ave matching strings," he replied, pointing to the red ribbon laced through my f ingers. "Mine's gray, so I guess I don't have a chance to dance with you again."
"You were given, too?" I asked, noticing the thing around his wrist, with the wo rds written "The Mask", just now. "What's this all about?"
"All participants who have the Fate strings, come to the center please!" the hos t called through the noisy crowd. The voice was saccharine, and I recognized it belonged to Steven.
"And that's our cue." Erik smiled. "I hope you got a good partner for the dance! " Then he proceeded to the center, joining the other chosen ones.
"Make sure you both have the same color and pattern!" a female host announced. " We'll give you five minutes to search, and when time's up, you should all be pai red by string!"
I just stood there for a couple minutes, wondering if I should participate in th e event or not. As I held up my Fate string, I studied the heart designs on it f or a few seconds and sighed.
It looked like I was calling it a night, since I'd have more fun spending my tim e in a cozy bed rather than in a hot school with all these drunken, nocturnal pa rty animals. I didn't care if my partner would end up alone during the dance-he could just do boogey all by himself or whatever. Moreover, there was Tristan, wh o I needed to avoid before he could actually locate me this time.
My eyes searched for the exit door, and I perked up when I spotted it...
...on the other side of the auditorium. Fantastic.
Groaning, I hitched up my dress and edged around the room, distancing myself fro m the crowd as much as possible. Luckily, I'd chosen to wear my sneakers under t he ball gown. I'd refused to wear Lacey's stilettos, which had made me feel like a monkey limping across the sidewalk. Now I was still grateful for the comfort my shoes were providing. Yeah, they looked ridiculous, but no one had even notic ed, so I was probably in the clear.
People were pushing past each other in frenzy that their ear-piercing howls mixe d with the loud music were enough to shatter a glass.
Meanwhile, I was focused completely on the exit, as if it was the most fascinati ng thing in the world, which it was, since I desperately needed to go home and t ake a pee. Seriously, I wasn't kidding-if I spent another hour in this horrible place, I didn't want to think what horrible things would happen to me, and my bl adder.
But with thousands of steps to take and hundreds of kids to push away, I'd be ou t in no time at all! Yay!
Not. This could take hours.
I felt like I was walking through the Amazon Rainforest. For the love of Peter, Paul, and Mary- why couldn't they just clear the way already? I needed a clean t oilet!
Then someone in the crowd tapped my shoulder. I jumped. Oh, come on! My bladder was about to explode!
Totally pissed, I spun around, ready to shoot daggers at the culprit, but my bod y went tense as I saw a familiar figure taking a step closer to me. Heart beatin g fast, mind racing, knees shaking- if this kept up, I was going to collapse any minute now.
"Uh, excuse me?" he said, eyes locked on mine.
Bloody hell...
Somebody. Please. Shoot me now.