Not Another Cinderella Story

Chapter 13 - Curiosity killed the cat . . .

~"This is not the right one, either," he said. "Don't you have another daughter?" ~

Cindy noticed the tension between Evelyn and Peyton at lunch. She normally never paid attention to school drama, but, for obvious reasons, she was intrigued as to why Peyton was being edgy around Evelyn.

A small part of her (Very small mind you) hoped that he'd found out that Evelyn wasn't his mystery girl. Or maybe she'd finally shown her inner demon around him.

But Cindy didn't hope for much – she couldn't hope for much. It was her fault that she never told him, not even that morning. Somehow, she couldn't even build up the courage to tell him in the two months since the dance.

Even Saturday afternoon, when Evelyn was screaming at her for what happened at the diner, she did nothing.

Evelyn was right, Cindy shouldn't even have answered his question at the coffee shop.

She looked over towards the popular kid's table. Peyton was sitting at the middle of the table, like a king. Evelyn was sitting right next to him, her chair practically merging with his.

Peyton was subtitling ignoring Evelyn. Every time she made a pass at him, he would turn his head and pretend to be in conversation with Duncan. Duncan seemed to be noticing the tension as well, but he did nothing about it.

"Cindy! Earth to Cindy!" Fanny snapped in front of her face.

"Hmm?" Cindy recovered, trying to act like she was listening.

Fanny wasn't convinced. "Why are you staring so intently at him? I thought that you decided that you didn't like him and were never going to tell him the truth. Don't go around making me hopeful that Pendy is happening if you don't plan on it."

"Pendy?"

"It's your ship name."

Cindy furrowed her brows. "You gave us a ship name?"

"That's not the point." Fanny brushed it off. "If you aren't going to tell him, there's no point in wishing for something that won't happen.

"But, that's the thing." Cindy glanced over at the popular table. "I think that he's starting to figure it out all on his own. Maybe he won't know that it was me, but I think he suspects that it wasn't really Evelyn."

Fanny didn't believe her. "Then how would he explain how she knew the charms and that owns the dress? Trust me, Cindy, there is no way that he's smart enough to figure it out."

Cindy pouted, but didn't argue.

"Besides, all couple have their problems. Maybe they just had a fight that was totally unrelated to the dance."

Sure, maybe Fanny was right. That small hope inside her shriveled up and died.

The lunch bell rang and it was time for them to part ways again. Cindy headed to theater, while Fanny headed to Home Ec.

Cindy took out their new project in theater. They had just ended the Shakespearian section of class a week ago, which Peyton and her aced by the way. The new project was to write and perform a play.

Peyton sat down across from her earlier than usual, like he had rushed especially fast today to get to theater.

"Cindy, I think I found something out."

Now that caught her attention. "What?"

"Well, would you think I was crazy if I told you that I think Evelyn isn't my real mystery girl? That she found out the charms from the real girl and is now blackmailing her into staying silent?"