Heavy is the Head

Cinderella - 1

Chapter 4

Cinderella hurried down the hallway, cursing under her breath while squinting at the sheet of paper in her hand. She was carrying a large, blue travel bag and her blonde hair was falling out of her carefully crafted bun, a solid representation of her sanity at that precise moment. She paused for breath in the middle of a hallway with light blue wallpaper, finally coming to terms with the fact that she was hopelessly lost. Cinderella glanced at her watch, sighed and called over two younger girls who were standing nearby. One girl had short dark hair and was wearing a t-shirt that had the cutest design of a bat Cinderella had ever seen, while the other girl had long black hair that fell to her waist, brown skin and bright golden-brown eyes.

"Hi, do you know where I can please find my room?" Cinderella asked, showing the girls her sheet of paper.

The girl with long hair took the paper and then looked up at Cinderella curiously, "Are you new?"

"Yeah, I am." Cinderella took the opportunity to fix her hair and spoke in between the three bobby pins sticking out of her mouth, "I know it seems a bit silly, joining for just the one year, but it's a pretty complicated situation that I'm in. I'm Cinderella by the way."

"Oh, alright. Well these are the Wind dorms but you're staying in the Earth dorms which are down the stairs, then right at the back of the building. Just keep following the wall of paintings. Then, you can just follow the numbers until you find your dorm."

"Oh great, thanks... Uhm..."

"I'm Jasmine and this is Snow White." Jasmine said, pointing to her the other girl who was silently examining the wall behind them.

"Well thank you Jasmine, you're a life-saver!" Cinderella gushed, grabbing the sheet of paper back and sprinting off down the hallway.

It didn't really matter that she ran all the way there because she was still late. Cinderella picked up the note outside her door that said "I'll be back in 5", and placed it in her pocket before unlocking the door to her dorm room and gazing around what would be her room for the next year. A small smile crept up her face and she moved aside her two suitcases that had already been brought up to her room, and flopped down onto the bed to catch her breath, her eyes sliding shut.

"I take it you didn't come here to do anything sports-related?" A familiar voice said.

Cinderella jolted upright with a start and grinned at the dark-skinned girl leaning against the door-frame with her trademark dimpled smile, "Tiana! I'm sorry I didn't get here on time, I got lost."

"It's all good. I suppose you've already basically given yourself a tour of the place." Tiana laughed, "Imagine the odds of you being put on the same floor as me! It was all one messy situation too!"

"Oh? What happened?" Cinderella asked, crossing her legs and settling down in the bed.

"I'll give you your tour and tell you about it all on the way, then we can chill for the rest of the day. Believe me, you're going to want to get as much rest in this place as possible! I'm still recovering from last year!"

"You're doing culinary arts, right?"

"Yup. I'm loving every second of it, but it is definitely not easy work."

"Wait, wait! Before we go, Tiana, I just wanted to say how happy I am that you were at that open day a couple years ago otherwise I'd have never become your friend. I would not be the woman you see before you now if..."

"Stop stalling and come on." Tiana pulled Cinderella to her feet and they set off down the hallway. They had only walked a couple of steps when Tiana paused to brush her hand against the dark green wallpaper reminiscently. "I can't believe it's my last year here already."