Twisted Cinderella

The Ball

                Prince Maxton:

                He stood in the ballroom, bored, as each maiden came up to him and curtsied. He always bowed to them out of politeness, but none of them struck him the way Ella had. Ella. The one person that he actually came to the ball to see. Oh, it was getting to be so late. What if she hadn’t been able to leave her home? What if she was lost? What if…Hold on, who was this? A late-comer, a blonde in a dark gown the color of the sky before the sun vanished completely at sunset; and it was covered in gleaming silver threads that resembled the stars in the hazy heavens. Ella had made it! The Prince stood up and scurried towards the front of the ballroom as Ella descended the staircase.

                Ella:

               

                The music stopped as soon as I entered the room. It was so embarrassing! Finally, the orchestra started up again and I descended the stairs. When I reached the bottom, I searched for Maxton. I finally found him, but his attention was on a distant point in the room. Finally, the power of my eyes drew his to my face. He stood instantly and strode towards me, weaving through the throng of girls that were congregated around him. Right before he reached me, Marie and Gene stopped him in his tracks. They were cooing about how fabulous the ball was and how they couldn’t wait to find out who he was going to choose for a bride. Maxton was finally able to detach himself from them and he hurried over to me.

                He bowed when he reached me and I returned the gesture with a great, sweeping curtsy. We both straightened. I smiled at him and he returned it. Then came the next five seconds of awkward silence as we stared at each other. He finally came to his senses.

                “Oh, wow! You look amazing Ella,” he stated, looking me up and down.

                “Thank you, Maxton! You don’t look too bad yourself,” I complimented, and he straightened his jacket.

                “Yes I do clean up pretty well, don’t I?” He was getting cocky now.

                “Alright, before your head gets too big, let’s go dance!” I said, grabbing his hand and dragging him across the floor.

                Everyone else cleared the floor and the orchestra had started up a romantic waltz. Strange, what was going on? Oh well... Maxton put his hand around my waist and we started to glide across the floor in a perfect rhythm. After a few minutes the other partners joined us and we were a flurry of spinning color across the floor. At about the middle of the fifth song, Maxton took my hand and led me away from the ballroom and out into the royal gardens. There we danced to our own song until we came to a stop at the beautifully carved marble fountain. I sat down on the edge and traced my finger through the water.