The Search For Cinderella: Season 2 ✔︎

c h a p t e r 10

The next round of eliminations was tonight and I was flipping nervous. My stomach was a queasy mess of anxious butterflies and I realised then that I did not want to go home. I did not care whether or not I lost or won, all I wanted was to get to know Noah and who he really is a person. I also wanted to learn from him, his techniques in the ring, any advice he had and how he managed to succeed so young.

To calm myself down I went for a walk down to the beach while listening to some chill tunes. Once I reached the sand, I took my journal out of my bag and tried to put some coherent thoughts down onto paper. I remembered years ago, a technique that my psychologist taught me to do when I was anxious about anything. She told me to list everything. Every word that came to my head and caused me to feel even a hint of stress, to write it out all down.

Finally, within maybe 10 minutes, one full page was a jumble of messy handwriting. So much for coherent. The beach was fairly busy, a few children running around and girls sunbathing early on in the day. It was your typical nice sunny day in Miami and I had fallen in love with this beach town, well more like a city.

I flicked to another page and was just brainstorming ideas from a new post on my blog. I always had these ideas running through my head and for split seconds its is like having multiple epiphanies at once, where everything makes sense and clicks together. However, the rest of the time, I have all these ideas but I don't know how to word them, or how to make sense of them. To help make sense of things, again, I list things out or brainstorm and put ideas together to try and figure out what is going on.

Maybe an hour past when I finally put my pen down and looked up and I breathed. The anxious butterflies were long gone and I felt peaceful in the midst of a now busy beach. I hurried back to the hotel and found that our room was empty. I quickly put on some light makeup; a little bronzer, mascara and of course my brows, and changed into a floral bardot sundress and a pair of Vans before heading out to the breakfast hall where everyone was sitting at chatting.

I saw Noah out of the corner of my eye sitting with the producers and it was quite funny watching all the girls try to subtly stare at him, even though I was probably more obvious.

Once I grabbed my muesli I started walking to Jasmine and Jordan who were sitting near the window along with a few other girls that I hadn't really spoken to yet.

I wasn't paying too much attention to my surroundings until two girls stood in front of me blocking my path.

"Hi Taylor," I cringed hearing the voices I haven't heard in a long time. I looked up and there they were frowning at me.

"What do you want?" I said without a smile. I felt the anxious butterflies in my stomach again as I saw some of the girls looking.

Stacey smirked, and my heart sank a little bit, "Mother wants you to go home immediately."

What the hell.

"She can't make me do that, I am here on behalf of the school," My face was heating up, and I could feel tears forming in the corners of my eyes, not because I was hurt but because I was frustrated and angry. I'm so sick of being controlled by people, especially them.

"Oh but she can," Bianca stated smugly, "and she will especially if you still want to go to college."

What the actual heck. College was my dream; it was my way to get out of the house I live in. A place where I can have friends without fear, live without fear and be who I want to be in a real home. I had to go to college.

They both laughed at me while I stared blankly at them, they knew they got me there. They walked past shoving past me making me drop my breakfast in a huge mess on the floor. Now everyone's eyes were on me, not hostile just curious.

I bent over and started clearing up the mess. A kitchen hand ran over with some cleaning supplies.

"I'm so sorry" I whispered to her, my cheeks were so red.

She laughed and said, "Don't worry honey, I know it wasn't your fault."

I smiled at her as we stood and she took away my bowl and the spoiled food. I didn't feel like eating anymore so I just walked over to the table where the girls were.

"What the hell was that about?" Jordan asked annoyed, obviously at my sisters. I rolled my eyes and just shrugged, "it doesn't even matter." She knew that I didn't like to talk about them, or even acknowledge them.

I think the rest of the girls got the idea and fortunately changed the subject. I tried to block the thoughts from my mind but it felt like someone was pushing down on my heart.

***

Once breakfast was over, the rest of the day was spent hanging out until 4 when we had to start getting ready for the eliminations broadcast. Instead of joining a game of beach volleyball I holed myself in the hotel room alone. The girls all went out, and Jordan knew I wanted to be alone for a bit. I honestly did not know what to do, I was loving it here. Despite my step sisters being here and a few other catty girls, the rest were so lovely and supportive. Most importantly I could breathe because I was away from my step-mum for the first time since my father left. I was learning to gradually be myself without shutting off. But now I had to leave, to go to college, to be away from my step family for good.

I grabbed my earphones and phone and headed out to the gym. I wasn't paying attention along the way but ran into Charlie, one of the crew members.

"Aren't you going to come play volleyball?" He questioned. I briefly smiled, "Maybe not at the moment.

"Is everything ok?" He asked, I just shrugged my shoulders.

I didn't know what to do, about the show, about my so called family, about college, everything was a muddled mess in my head and I think he saw.

"If you ever need to chat to someone, I'm here ok?" he said kindly and I just smiled at him as he walked away.

I took a deep breath and headed to the gym where I worked out till I couldn't think about about anything for the moment.

AN: Love you guys, and thank you for the continuous support. I am truly sorry for the delays and being inconsistent. 

xx