Not Another Cinderella Story

Chapter 6 - The car just had to break down

~ When she ran down the stairs, her left slipper stuck in the pitch. The prince picked it up. ~

The band nodded furiously at Peyton's request to have her sing for them. Why was everyone always so eager to please him?

Mystery Girl grabbed the guitar that was left abandoned when the lead singer walked off stage and turned to the band members. "Play a mixture of the backbeat of that last song you sang and the guitar chords from the Peyton Charming song, Work of Art. Take it a little up tempo and try to follow along."

Peyton admired this girl's fire, but didn't know whether she'd be able to pull it off.

"Umm . . ." she tapped the mike. "I'll be singing the next song. It's a little something I made myself, I hope you like it." The crowd stared blankly back at her.

Peyton was seriously starting to regret his decision to let the girl play.

But then the band started to play and she sang

She sang and belted out lyrics that Peyton wished were his own. His first thoughts had been, man, this girl can sing!

He listened to the tune and lyrics and had a crazy idea. And then, as soon as she got to the reprise of the chorus, he started to sing along with her.

She was so surprised at his intrusion that she almost tripped over her own words.

Some people in the crowd immediately recognized his voice and started to jump up and down in excitement. Somehow a girl who looked like Evelyn's found him from the crowd and gave him a death glare.

Okay, maybe singing with the Mystery Girl while his crazy ex-girlfriend probably sat in the crowd with razor sharp claws was not the best decision.

The crowd hooted and cheered as he sang along. By the time they got to the third reprise of the chorus, the whole crowd was jumping around and singing along. Peyton was smiling and was suddenly happy for the first time in his life. He'd never done something so sudden and exciting before. He'd only ever followed his father's rules, which never let him do anything like this.

It was also then that his Mystery Girl slipped on a small marble and fell to the ground. Her hand smacked his face as she went down, causing his mask to fly off into the crowd.

The band stopped playing and someone in the crowd laughed. He looked to the ground and saw marbles covering the stage. Out into the crowd he saw the girl who looked strangely like Evelyn Queen smirking only a couple feet from the edge of the stage.

Leave it to people like her to ruin his chances with anyone that wasn't themselves.

"Are you alright?"

The girl looked up and gasped. His mask was off and she knew who he was.

Well, shit. There goes someone liking him for who he was on the inside.

"I - I'm fine." She managed to stammer.

He heard the bong of a clock and the girl turned to the wall opposite to them, where a large grandfather clock was currently showing that it was midnight.

Mystery Girl hurriedly got to her feet and jumped off of the stage.

"Wait, where are you going?!" Peyton yelled.

She still ran. Peyton cursed under his breath and went to follow after her.

He had to push through tons of excited fans until he caught up to her in the middle of the grand staircase. He grabbed her hand and spun her around.