The Cinderella Game

Chelsea

                  

Chelsea looked frantically through the notes in the back of the paper from the Princes who had found their Cinderella's dropped things. But her locket wasn't in there. Tiffany's was, and Lucy's, but not Chelsea's.

And it wasn't on any of the flyers taped to the walls in the hallways, either.

Chelsea wanted to walk past Ash in the hall, just to see if he'd stop her, give her the locket, but she knew if she did that, she'd be out of the game. And she was in the top four.

But after lunch, a flyer appeared, tacked to the bulletin board over the Coffee Grounds member list, and sure enough, it was for the locket. So Chelsea called the number, quickly, wanting to be the first one there, not wanting her necklace to go to some other girl pretending to be her.

Ash told her he was in the upstairs locker bay and to come there to claim the necklace. So Chelsea hurried up the stairs, rushing over to the arranged spot. Too late. There was another girl there, twirling her hair around her finger, chatting with Ash. His eyes slid past her and caught on Chelsea, and his eyes widened in recognition.

"Yeah, okay, what's inside the locket?" He asked.

The girl giggled nervously. "Um. A picture, duh."

Ash shook his head and waved her off, and Chelsea stepped forwards. "I remember you," Ash said with a little smile.

Chelsea's breath caught in her throat. "You-you do?" she stammered.

Ash held the locket out to her. "Here, this is yours. And where'd you run off to last night?" He asked.

Chelsea shrugged, not taking the necklace out of his hand. "I had to get home, curfew, you know?" She lied. Ash swung the necklace from side to side in front of her, trying to get her to take it. "Um. Aren't you going to ask me what's inside it?" Chelsea asked.

Ash raised an eyebrow. "Sure. What's in there?"

Chelsea smiled. "I don't know. I could never get it open."

Ash opened the clasp on the necklace and fumbled to put it around her neck. "Congrats, you win."

"W-what?" Chelsea asked.

"The game. You got the locket."

Was he talking about the Cinderella Game?

"Girls have been coming up to me all day asking for it. But you're the only one who answered right," Ash explained. "Anyways, I have to go meet someone for lunch, but I'll see you later?"

"Yeah," Chelsea breathed.

"Oh, I never got your name," Ash called, walking through the hallway, looking back over his shoulder.

"Chelsea," she answered at last.

"I'm Ash!" he yelled, turning the corner. "But I guess you already knew that."

She stood rooted to the floor for a moment before her eyes widened and she sprinted down to the Coffee Grounds newspaper room, where Alexis sat, waiting.

"I have it," Chelsea gasped, unclasping the necklace from around her neck.

Alexis smiled. "Just in time. My scouts tell me Tiffany is getting her car keys back right as we speak. Not that she remembers why, of course. Between you and me, I'm glad you got here before her. I didn't think she'd get this far, but frankly, she's not intelligent enough to handle the Cinderella job. She's super sweet, she just needs some more brains."

Chelsea gaped, not hearing half of what Alexis said. "I won?" She repeated, appalled.

"Yes, but we're going to wait until tomorrow to reveal it to everyone on the Coffee Grounds poster, so keep it between us for now. I'll tell the other contestants it's over, but otherwise, just tell people to look out for the new editor in chief on the poster." Alexis smiled. "Well, you'd better get back to your lunch, I have things to work on."

"Right, thanks!" Chelsea smiled,still in shock.

~~~

A/N: Only two chapters left! Should I write an epilogue, too?

Thanks for your support on this story, I honestly didn't think many people would actually look at it.

So what do you think of it so far?

And Chelsea and Ash, do you think anything will happen between them?

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to comment and vote :)