The Search For Cinderella: Season 2 ✔︎

c h a p t e r 8

I love waking up in the morning by the sound of a flipping air horn. Especially at 6am in the morning after a sleepless night on a bumpy ground. So you can imagine my enthusiasm when all fifty girls including myself were being herded to the main area. Not to mention Marcus' loud cheery self with his booming voice. Like please, why do you do this? Majority of us were groggy and grumpy and you could see the amusement in all the producers faces. Their half smirks and humoured eyes just because they were used to waking up at unholy hours with terrible sleep.

It wasn't much better when the ranger of the park laughed at all of us, who all stayed because everyone wanted a chance to see or even talk to Noah James, because we were going hiking!

Me and hiking are not friends. Running fast paced with no weight on me is enjoyable. Hiking, slowly with a big pack is not. You could literally hear all the groans, me included and the bloody chuckles from the producers. We all shuffled back to our tents to put appropriate clothing on rather than pyjamas and ugg boots.

Once we were fed and our packs weighing bricks Noah James decided to grace us with his appearance. Somehow, he managed to look alive and awake despite camping in the middle of nowhere and carrying a heavy bag of bricks. Some girls were swooning but many were trying to just stay awake in general.

We began our hike, shuffling through the forest while grumbling. The camera men were having a field day laughing at us while having to carry their big heavy equipment themselves. I laughed at my step sisters who were a few metres in front of me. They were wearing denim skirts and a tight singlet along with sandals and struggled to carry the pack on their back because they kept tripping over everything, not to mention constantly kicking sticks and dirt out of their sandals. Jasmine and I were near the back, just starting to wake up and keep up with everyone. I was grateful for the free day we had in the forest yesterday, where Marcus and the producers ran through everything and we had time to just chill, otherwise I would be dead today.

Finally, we fell into a rhythm walking. We were literally just following one another through a trail, some girls were talking others were just embracing the silence and a few were lucky enough to talk to Noah.

Hours and hours of walking later we reached a summit and the view was breath taking. It was clear of any trees so you could see the water and the surrounding forest along with scattered parts of civilisation. It was somewhat therapeutic being up the top and feeling small compared to the rest of the world. It puts everything in perspective and suddenly everything, all the problems suddenly felt so small and futile.

We stayed up the top for a while to eat lunch. I was enjoying my packed sandwich which I soon forgot about when Noah came and sat with Jasmine, Tara and I. I forgot how to function in general. Especially when I realised how flushed and sweaty I was from the walk.

I was able to get my words and thoughts together when he directed a question at me, well more a statement, "Your sandwich is about to spill everywhere – wait there it goes."