The Princess Pages: A Girl Like Cinderella

Song Fifty Nine

UPCOMING HORIZON. NEW SPARKS.

March 2, 2015. Monday Morning.

Outside, fluffy white cloud scattered on a blue background, a sign of threatening rain. The smooth streets of Oakley, California were lined with a river of cars, trucks, and vans, half of which are rushing due to a tight schedule, hence, the furious honking and incessant beeping.

The mellow weather seemed to match the air and ambience of Green Day High School. Students took their sweet time rolling into the driveway, and the way groups of teenagers chattered among one another, trading jokes, the laid-back manner of their texting and not even maiming the vending machine for their soda, emphasized the imminent event on March 13.Ah,yes.

Graduation Day.

The days leading up to this occasion meant a lot of things, both joyous and mournful for the Senior students; it meant no more quizzes and homework for the remaining two weeks. Only submissions of projects and requirements. It also meant no more waking up before the sun did. All graduating pupils needed to shop for formal attire and pay for their togas and caps.

It also meant it was time to say goodbye.

Anyway.

Entering college wasn't the end of the world. Hopefully. And besides, the seniors of Green Day High had one last hurrah before receiving their diplomas.

What is this, you ask?

"THE 2015 GREEN DAY GRADUATION BALL!" Jacqueline Jones screamed with adrenaline, her voice echoing through the entire third floor of the school building. Everyone who heard her let out a whoop of cheer. A dude even yelled back: "HELL YEAH, SENIORS RULE!!!"

"Time flies so fast, eh, Cart?" Jackie mused, slapping a poster on a random wall. She started wearing her purple hair down for a change, and today the amber-eyed half-Latina was dressed in a black blouse with a white peter pan collar, plaid gray leggings, and flip flops.

"Must have been the clock I hurled out the window yesterday," joked Carter, wittingly in a shirt that made him look like he was in Thor's costume. He taped three posters in one row as he followed Jackie towards a flight of stairs.

"Hilarious," the aspirant reporter flatly said. She halted after decorating a door with posters and swept her amber eyes around the black marble corridors.

"She wouldn't ditch," Carter said before Jackie asked the question.

Jacqueline shrugged her shoulders. They resumed their walk and stifled their snickers when they started making faces and emojis using the posters.

"Graduation practice starts tomorrow," Carter mumbled, taping a flyer on a water fountain.

A disbelieving sigh escaped Jackie's lips. "I can hardly register the enormity of it all. Today's practically a do-nothing day, then the next four days will be nothing but practice, practice, practice.." She smacked a poster on a locker. "...practice," she finished.

"Where will you take up entrance exams?" Carter asked, his brown eyes distant.

"I'm trying for Yale, Princeton, and Stanford. You?"

The brown-haired teen exhaled loudly. "Harvard, Duke, and Stanford."

"Wouldn't it be awesome if all three of us ended up in Stanford?" Jackie daydreamed.

"Lu said she's torn between Stanford and San Francisco Univ, since both aren't the closest to her roots.. the Diner, the mansion, the cemetery.. she's doing her best to make it work for her and Vance. After all, he's turning thirteen soon, and he has to enroll in high school."