Black Hearted Cinderella [KH/FF]

4

You woke up bright and early a little before 7am and started your day. You took a quick shower and changed into a black band tee, blue jeans, and a pair of knock-off Vans.

Usually when you left the house on Saturday mornings, you were the only one awake. But this morning you were surprised to find Cindy sitting at the kitchen table reading a gossip magazine and painting her nails.

"What are you doing up?" you asked.

"My Professor agreed to give me an extension on my report if I can get it done this weekend." Cindy replied, "So I'm waiting for the nerd to show up so he can do it for me." she added as she started to blow on one hand to dry her sky blue painted nails and used her free hand to flip a page in the magazine.

"Oh...okay, well, I'm going to work." you said awkwardly.

Cindy raised her hand over her head and lazily waved you off which only made you want to roll your eyes at her, but instead you just stepped out the back door and walked to the bus stop.

The bus arrived and you boarded. You chose a seat near the back of the bus and sat down. Unlike your weekday bus route where you took several buses that took about half an hour or less, you were only taking one bus to one destination today - your weekend job - which was your second favorite job out of all of them.

You pulled your very old MP3 player out of your pocket and plugged your earbuds into it. You would be traveling on this bus for about 60 minutes and listening to music seemed to make time slip by faster. You popped in your earbuds and got comfy as Africa by Toto started to play.

I hear the drums echoing tonight
But she only hears whispers of some quiet conversation
She's coming in 12:30 flight
The moonlit wings reflect the stars that guide me toward salvation
I stopped an old man along the way
Hoping to find some long forgotten words or ancient melodies
He turned to me as if to say,
"Hurry boy, it's waiting there for you"

It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had...

X----------X----------X----------X----------X----------X

About an hour later, you got off the bus in front of a little place known as Universal Studios Hollywood. Here, you worked on the movie backlot.

You walked up to the backlot security gate and flashed your backstage pass to the guard before you walked onto the lot.

Just to the right of the entrance was a golf cart parking and charging station. You climbed into #13 and swiped your backstage pass where the ignition should be to start the engine and reserve the vehicle for the day.

You drove half way across the backlot before you parked in front of a small café. It's size was surprising, being it was the only café on the production backlot.

You got out of the golf cart and entered the café. Inside it looked worn and torn, tired and in desperate need of repairs. The floors were covered in 1in white tiles which easily showed dirt and mud and fake blood and whatever else was tracked in and needed to be mopped often. There were a few small collapsible tables with two or three white folding chairs set up at each table.

You noticed 4 people were waiting in line to make their orders, but you passed right by them, going straight up to the counter.

A guy who was second in line yelled out, "Hey! There's a line yo! You need to wait your turn in line just like everyone else!"