Not Another Cinderella Story

Chapter 15 - the Evil Queen has an evil plan

~ The prince told him to send her to him, but the mother answered, "Oh, no, she is much too dirty. She cannot be seen." ~

Peyton was over the moon.

He'd never felt this way about a girl before. Believe it or not, his only real relationship had been with Evelyn back when he was a freshman. Everything after that were arraigned publicity stunts with other stars and the occasional model.

In fact, he was pretty sure that if he just showed his father the kind of girl Cindy was, he'd immediately find her just as perfect as Peyton did and this whole thing could have a happy ending.

But, of course, the rational part of his brain crushed that fantasy.

There was only one way to get his father to be okay with Cindy. He liked girls with talent and connections? Well, he was going to give Cindy just that.

"You want me to what?" She exclaimed.

They were currently in theater, the day after she'd officially told him that she was his real mystery girl.

"I thought I was being clear." Peyton titled his head in confusion.

Cindy sighed in frustration. "You can't be serious. I can't do that at the Charming Records Music Festival. I'll never win."

Yes, you heard right. At the end of the year, which was only a couple weeks away by now, his father wanted Peyton to sponsor a music contest. The contest was to get a new face signed onto the record label, hopefully a pretty young one with a good voice.

Peyton was also absolutely certain that the contest would be rigged. He had no doubt in his mind that after the merger with Evelyn's parent's record company, they were planning on Evelyn herself becoming their next big artist. It would explain why she was so confident that she could leach her fame off of him and launch her own career, even without her lies spreading about him. Their parents were already planning it.

But Peyton had something else on his mind. Somehow, he needed to find a way to make Cindy perform, expose Evelyn for the monster she is, and have everything go back to the way it should've gone after the dance.

"Sure you'll win, your voice is amazing."

She scoffed. "I only want to perform, not win. Besides, you've only heard me once, and that was a couple months ago."

"And so did everyone else, they all heard your voice." He pushed.

Cindy looked confused, so he tried again. "They know what my mystery girl sounds like. You sound like my mystery girl, Evelyn doesn't."

Her mouth turned into a big O as she slowly understood. "So, if you get the public on your side, maybe they can discredit Evelyn before she even tries to discredit you."

He smiled. "Yep, I'm a genius, aren't I?"

Cindy laughed and punched his arm playfully. "Sure you are."

"But we still need proof of what she did." Cindy pointed out after a long silence. "I'm the only witness, besides my family of course, but why would they help me? They're the ones who told Evelyn about me in the first place."

"Yeah, why did your sisters do that anyway?" Peyton asked.

Cindy almost laughed. "They aren't my sisters. They're my step-sisters. My stepmother hates me, so they hate me. Tracy thinks her daughters are golden, and I stood in the way of them getting their big break with you."

Peyton gave her a shocked look. "She thought that I would've chosen them if you hadn't gone to the dance?"

"Yep, they can do no wrong her eyes."