This is a Cinderella story

    Once upon a time, in a small village, where kids still played on the streets, and the shops weren’t too busy, lived an unhappy young girl, with her two step-sisters and cruel step-mother. Unaware of what was ahead of her.

    Stomp! Stomp! Stomp! The three warning steps before- SLAM! “Wake up you lazy hog!” Up went Serenity's head as a figure towered over her, drenched in hideous make-up. “The bills won’t pay themselves you know.” The figure stared down at her as Serenity's vision slowly came back into focus. A low sigh escaped her lips, she was not in the mood for her step-sister, Hazel, this early in the morning.

    Up the stairs came another set of footsteps. “Serenity, are you seriously still asleep? It’s already six in the morning, get up and make up breakfast!” There’s Gina, Serenity thought to herself. Swoosh! Hazel snatched up her blanket. “We said get up! You have ten minutes to get out the door before we tell mother.” Gina snapped as she worked her way back down the stairs, Hazel following her lead.

    Serenity fumbled out of her bed and over to her dresser, searching for her old ragged clothes. Clothes of every sort and color were everywhere, but not the ones she was looking for. Where are they?! Serenity tried to multitask and began to brush her hair and teeth. She searched the house in desperation. Under a thick blanket on her bed lay the very clothes  that had gone missing; black slightly ripped jeans, a navy 

blue shirt with collected stains from over the years, and a small hidden name tag close to the collar. A heavy sigh slipped through Serenity’s lips as she rushed to throw them on.

    “GET DOWN HERE THIS INSTANT!” Her step-mother roared from her bedroom.

     And in that moment Serenity reacted quicker than she had ever in her life. She flew down those stairs, grabbed her bag, and rushed out the front door, all in one smooth motion of desperation. Dinggg. Serenity looked down at her phone and read a text from her best-friend look up dummy. Out of confusion she looked up and noticed Paislee, her best-friend, sitting in her car with her feet dangling out of the window, just goofing off. The two of them laughed as Serenity hopped into the passenger seat. 

       Paislee checked the time and they were ten minutes behind. She hit the gas immediately which completely shook up Serenity. In the blink of an eye, they were already at the movie theater. Serenity snatched up their stuff and ran inside, behind the counter, and prepared for the daily crowd. Paislee opened the movie theater’s doors and everyone came rushing in. Little kids circled the arcade, adults walked up to the counter, and a young couple browsed through the candy options on display.

    And who knew after the longest twelve hours that Serenity had humanly endured, she and Paislee decided to have some fun. Instead of leaving as soon as their shifts ended, they grabbed a bag of popcorn and sprinted to the last streaming room where they were playing the last movie of that night. The two of them plopped down in two seats in the farthest row and waited for the movie to begin.

    Not too far into the movie a teenage girl and boy enter the room quietly. In seconds Serenity realized it was Maddix, easily the most popular person in her high school. While the girl gazed at Maddix, Maddix’s eyes were caught on Serenity’s dim face in the dark room. Thankfully the movie passed quite a bit of time and the room was filled with an awkward silence. 

    “You have to be home in 17 minutes.” Paislee muttered beside Serenity. In utter desperation Serenity jumped out of her chair. Both of them jumped into Paislee’s car and drove home as quickly as possible.

     Left astonished, Maddix noticed the employee sign outside and found Serenity's contact email. Serenity made it home just as Maddix emailed her.

Hey I saw you at the theater earlier.

How so?

You were in the back row, if I'm correct?

My friend and I were there.

    Over the next few weeks she and Maddix talked more and more, eventually getting to know each other very well. Then came the day that they found out they went to the same high school.

Is there any way you possibly go to Cape Hatteras?

Yes I do

No way. A beautiful girl like you has been under my nose this entire time without me knowing? Impossible. So that means you’ll be at prom this weekend!

Prom, yeah. I suppose I’ll be there.

Great, I'll see you there Miss Mystery?

     Serenity put her phone down, still processing that the most popular guy in her school just complimented her and talked to her.

    The next day at school she avoided everyone other than Paislee. Serenity wanted zero attention to be drawn to her. And she continued this for the rest of that week, dreading prom.             Until it was already the morning of....

    “I don’t have anything to wear tonight.” Serenity complained, attempting to get out of going to prom any way possible.