The Princess Pages: A Girl Like Cinderella

Song Fifty

THE BITCH WARS ARE COMING

February 25, 2015. Wednesday Morning.

In the Science Building of Green Day High, Mrs. Taylor's 9-10 class was in session at the outstanding laboratory, with white unvarnished lab counters, linoleum flooring, and blinding fluorescent lights.

Katherine Taylor was a married, 39-year old half-Korean, half-American science teacher with degrees in Physics and Biology. She had short honey-blonde hair in a smart chignon, emphasizing her pretty exotic features, her eyes shrewd and brown with hazel flecks. She wore no jewelry, her face bare of makeup, and a white lab-coat thrown over a short-sleeved lilac blouse tucked into a black pencil skirt, with matching black heels, which clicked with every step she took around the laboratory, guarding her students' progress as they prepared the frog dissection.

Each group consisted of three or four people, and heaven smiled down upon Lucy because Mrs. Taylor let everyone form their own team.

Not having any friends or budding chums in her section--Jackie and Carter were in a different section,as luck would have it--Lucy felt a wave of relief tide over her when she was dragged by Genevieve Brooks to one of the work stations, a fair portion of a lab counter with the proper tools and a clean sink.

What had coaxed the mayor's daughter to take notice of her, the school freak and outcast?

Like all the students, Lucy and Genevieve were dressed in lab coats, safety goggles, and wore their hair back in a restrained ponytail.

"I can't do it," Lucy wailed, her voice low. Their frog was pinned to a wooden board, its slimy palms and feet punctured by colorful push pins, its sweaty stomach in full display.

Or was that mucus?

"It's do or die, Heartwood," Josh Mantle goaded. He was the third of their group.

"But.. he looks so sad," the pale brunette said, eyeing the poor animal.

"She," Gen corrected, twisting open the jar they were given to put the dead frog in.

"Doesn't that make it worse? She's on our side!" Lucy persisted, not having it in her heart to harm their assigned amphibian, who was breathing steadily.

"If you're not doing it, I will," the brown-haired girl declared, her gloved hand reaching for the sharp scalpel. She may have been raised in wealth and sophistication, but if it was for a grade,she would eviscerate a dozen frogs without batting an eyelash.

Lucy covered her goggles with her arm. She heard nothing, but a moment later, she lowered her arm and saw the frog's stomach sliced widely, its mauve heart visibly pumping.

"Look! She's making us feel guilty," the blue-eyed brunette garbled, shivering as she met the frog's beady black eyes blinking up at her.

"Here." Josh's voice was gentle. He was holding a push pin towards Lucy. "You stab the heart."

His brown eyes were flickering with mischief. Reluctantly, the girl took the push pin from him.

"Need a hand?" the blue-haired member asked, and Lucy only stared at him, wondering why he was so friendly. Surely, he had no idea that she was Cara, the mystery princess he danced with at the ball.. right?

"Okay," she finally replied and contained a gasp when Josh Mantle stood closely behind her and held her wrists in a gentle manner. His swimmer's body was warm against hers, and he was quite tall so his breath tickled her earlobe. In one motion, his hand in hers seized the frog, and Lucy flinched when she felt the needle touch the heart.