The Search for Cinderella

Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12 

We had the whole week off. Instead of our show airing at its normal time on Friday and Sunday evenings its spot had been taken over by the Football's Grand Final. And seeing as were a "reality" show which showed live events we didn't pre-record.

From what I heard, Xavier was on the other side of the country as he promoted his album doing signings and guest performances. But that night I had stalked him on Twitter on one of those Xavier Matthews update pages and there were photos of him at a famous New York clubbing with a pretty blonde girl with long tan legs and a short fitted gold dress and black heels. My self-esteem dropped about a hungred points as the page kept frequently updating with blurry pics of the back of his head and the blonde girl making out.

Slamming my laptop shut I sneaked out of my room with my iPod and ran downstairs and out the back door. I didn't care that I was probably on the security cameras or that it was dark outside. I was just beyond confused. The Xavier I knew wasn't like the Xavier in the media. I just couldn't piece it together.

I ran out and sat on the jetty looking over the lagoon. The full moon's reflection lit up the whole area. Sitting crossed legged on the edge of the jetty I plugged in my earphones and played the next Xavier song which came up. It was called Wanderer in Foreign Lands. Guitar strumming and percussion filled the background with sound effects of, I think, a train. His beautiful sang strongly without the need of auto tune to a slow melody. Which matched his personality. These songs were him, not the songs the world heard.

Four beautiful songs later, around midnight I walked back inside the mansion to my bedroom. Exhausted, I collapsed into bed and fell asleep right away.

There was ten girls left, including me. Unluckily for me I didn't really get along with most of them except for Rose and Taliah. The other girls followed Lindsay around and they all seemed to have a hatred for me. I knew that Elliot favoured a lot of them as arrangements must have been made with him and their rich parents.

Rose didn't really care and shrugged it off, so did Taliah. Instead we went out and walked around the busy streets of LA. Rose had her straightened to perfection and was up in a high ponytail. And her slim legs fitted into skinny jeans a loose white middriff shirt. I was wearing short denim overalls with a white middriff shirt underneath which had daisy's on it and my white Converses and Taliah was wearing a bright floral jumpsuit which looked like a dress.

I didn't realise how popular the show was and how much attention we were getting until today. Our car stopped at one of the main streets and when we walked out a few girls around recognised and started coming up to us for photos and autographs. Some were fangirling about Xavier and others were saying how one of us should win the show. I happily got photos with some girls but I still felt a bit odd about.

One girl, around eight years old, with golden hair which curled at the end and with big baby blue eyes looked up at me filled with awe, "Are you really a princess?"

I smiled down at her and knelt to her level, "No sweetie, but I think you are."

She giggled shyly and opened her arms up for a hug. I hugged her and her mum was taking photos to the side. Soon we were able to leave and walked through the streets stopping along to take some photos on the way.

We found a few cool shops where we bought some clothes but other than that we just chilled the whole afternoon. At some point we ended up at the beach and talked the whole time, getting to know each other and having a ball.

That was until I saw a certain brown headed boy in the distance walking our way. I didn't say anything but when he was closer I saw that he had recognised us.