Vigilante Green (#OnceUponNow)

Chapter 3

Fifteen minutes.

There were fifteen minutes and twenty-four seconds left until morning assembly, and Gracie was stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

Never mind that her soon-to-be date was waiting.

Never mind the fact that the first and biggest day of prom picks was about to start without her.

Gracie was going to be late.

At least, at this rate.

Thanks to a less than convenient accident on the freeway, she'd ended up crawling through the backstreets in her dad's rusty, sputtering Pinto. 

Gracie gritted her teeth, gripped the wheel, and willed herself to stay positive despite the royal jerk-wad riding her tail.

She shut her eyes and imagined that her overheated Honda was a pumpkin carriage and the stream of cars in front of her were lines of lords and ladies waiting to attend a ball. But there were no balls in Los Angeles, just private parties for pretty people and proms for the prestigious.

Gracie stopped looking prestigious the second she stepped out into the ninety-degree heat and into a car with no air conditioning.

Her royal curls were unravelling into rats' nests, her make-up was melting halfway down her face, and her clean-cut clothes were sweat-soaked. She hadn't even had anything close to a magical moment yet, and she was a horn honk or two away from turning back into a pumpkin.

Cinderella didn't have to deal with freeways.

Cinderella didn't have to struggle through backstreets.

She bibbity-bobbity-booed herself right to the castle, while all Gracie could do was wait.

Three blocks away from school, Gracie's phone pinged in her pocket. She scrambled to unlock the screen the second traffic slowed to a stand still.

Text Message from Unknown at 7:30 AM:

Unknown: Where are you? I'm waiting ;).

Five Minutes.

Gracie had five minutes and forty eight seconds to blaze through a jungle of at least fifty cars and into her school parking lot. So she pulled her Pinto to the side of the road, slipped out of her shimmery flats, and sprinted down the sidewalk.

Never mind the parking ticket.

Never mind her bare feet.

She had a locker to get to and a prince to impress.

***

As soon as Gracie kicked open the doors of Sherwood High, she assumed she'd be the center of attention. With her wildly windswept hair and her clean cut clothes ruffled into a disaster, she expected every single person in the hallway to stop and stare down her flaws.

But no one was around to notice. No one was around at all. 

Her locker stood a half a hallway away, empty, and prince-less. Gracie dug her feet into the floor and dashed for the assembly hall, desperate to find the beginning of her fairytale before it started without her.

Not a person in the school auditorium batted an eyelash when she barged in through its big red doors. The future prom goers were too busy holding their breath waiting for a certain green-eyed, blonde-haired prince to take the stage and make his big announcement. 

Gracie glided down the stairs, her body suddenly weightless--floating towards the boy who'd kissed her on a night that nobody knew about.

Wayward Smile Wesley cleared his throat and stared out at the crowd, searching for the face of the girl who's name was dancing on the edge of his lips.