Not Another Cinderella Story

Chapter 18 - Charming gets an idea

~ But the prince insisted on it, and they had to call Cinderella down. ~

Peyton hadn't been able to find Cindy all week.

You'd think talking to a girl would be easier than this for an international pop star, but no.

At lunch she would hide in her teachers' classrooms, using a different one each day. In the mornings she arrived to school straight on time, leaving no room for Peyton to find her before class started. In theater she would go off and build the set before Peyton could get close. And don't even get him talking about after school.

(Cindy would barricade herself in her house, and his father made sure that he had enough press interviews to fill that time anyways)

Peyton was convinced that there was absolutely no way he could get back to her.

Evelyn wasn't helping matters. She was planning on singing a cover of a Taylor Swift love song - a dedication to him - at the festival. The media was all ears for their 'romance'.

Peyton was going to make a guest appearance and surprise the crowd. He'd sing Work of Art while the judges were 'deciding' the winner and afterwards the winner would be announced.

Peyton was getting quite tired of that song to be honest.

In fact, he was tired of performing all the songs his management had given him. Work of Art was a single from his last album, a little less than a year ago. It was still surprisingly in the top 100 charts, even though it was a year old.

His fans were already expecting a new album, and a new single for him to release. Peyton knew that his father was already choosing those songs from the best songwriters that money could hire.

But Peyton had a different idea for a new album. Ever since he came back to school, Peyton had been building up the courage to tell his father his idea. He knew that he wouldn't like it, but Peyton was tired of his management and his father controlling all aspects of his career. For once, he wanted to sing something that would mean something real to him and his fans.

Peyton had been writing songs.

Now, just because he was a 'mindless celebrity' didn't mean that he didn't have any good ideas. In fact, the songs Peyton had been writing were real and personal.

After the incident with Cindy and Evelyn, he'd started to write his feelings out, and it became a song. Maybe if he hadn't been writing some of it in theater on Monday, he would've been able to fix the rift between him and Cindy already.

And after writing that song, he had an epiphany. It had been Thursday when he got the idea, and he'd called Duncan to his house straight after school.

"What do you need to tell me that you couldn't say over the phone?" Duncan asked, confused.

"I've got an idea. And let's just say that you're going to think I'm crazy."

Duncan's face fell. "Oh, no. Is this another thing about trying to win Cindy back? Because all you're other plans were horrible."

Peyton scoffed, "No."

Duncan stared him down and Peyton caved. "Maybe."

"Dude, for the last time, kidnapping her and running away to become alpaca farmers is not the solution."

"Yeah, I know – apparently kidnapping is illegal - but I have an idea for the festival, and I'm going to make sure Cindy is the last performer of the night to make it work. And I might need you to recruit her friend, Fanny."