A NEW CINDERELLA STORY

Town

"What was that?" Brandon asks with absolute confusion; we had been walking for a few minutes.

"What was what?" I reply in my innocent little girl voice.

"'Oh, I don't need any help,' 'Of course! I would love help'" Brandon says in a high squeaky voice.

"First of all, I don't sound like that. Second of all, I was just following Stella's advice," I explain. Utter lies.

"Oh, okay. If that's the case, I can carry your backpack for you," He offers.

"NO! I don't need help," I answer, he just laughs shaking his head. "What?"

"Oh, hey Isabelle," Alma calls, "Would you like me to carry your backpack for you? Since your arm is unusable."

"Of course! I would love some help," I answer with a cheerful ring in my voice. I hand her my backpack, and then I see Brandon's face, it looks like his jaw dislocated, "What?"

"Did I do something wrong?" Brandon questions, "I try to help and you say you don't need it, then Alma tries to help and, 'I would love some help.' Did I do something, anything wrong?" I stop walking for a moment, then he stops and backs up. After about a minute we start walking again, "Well?" he asks with an impatient tone. I look around to make sure no one can hear me.

"I have nothing against you personally. You did nothing wrong, I just have trouble accepting help from guys my age," I pause to breathe, "Don't get me wrong, you seem like a great guy, but I always feel like I have to prove that I can do anything they can do, just as good, if not better." He nods along with what I'm saying. Then he slowly smiles.

"Did you just say I'm a great guy?" He asks.

"Yeah, so?" I shoot back, and his smile widens to a point where the tips of his smile seem to touch his eyes.

"You complemented me, I feel so honored," Brandon laughs with a bow. I look at him for a second and start laughing. I roll my eyes. "We should probably catch up with Alma and your sister," He sighs away the rest of his laughs.

"Yeah," I breath in deeply, and let it go slowly. We run up to them. Braden and I have "small talk" on the rest of the way. Like what our interests are and stuff that's happened to us in our lives. The only thing that I was really interested in was when he mentioned that his parents died in a hover accident, coincidently, coming home from a doctor's appointment. They had found out later that their mom was going to the doctor to get their test results for how their unborn child was forming, and doing. Neither Alma or Braiden knew they were expecting, it was a handful of news to find out. I start telling him about my life when I forget what I'm saying by the sight in front of me. My mouth is shaped in an O, and I stop dead. There are houses everywhere, people seem to be dancing through the town, there is actually a crowd. I've never seen so many people at once. There are hover cars whizzing above us, and children playing on hover boards in front of us. There are huge stores around us labeled with names, like, Walmart, and Ross, and Circle K, and several other stores with names I've never heard of, like Super M, Rosier is Buzzzier, and 10k Ruler-mart. There are people streaming out of the two to three-story buildings.

"It's not much, but it's home," Braiden says, taking second glances at my reaction. "What's wrong with it?"

"Nothing absolutely nothing, it's just," I pause searching for the right word, "Incredible. I've never seen so many people before!"

"Just be grateful it's not Black Friday, we still have that," Braiden says, looking around. There's a roughness in his voice, so I can tell that he's not a fan of this "Black Friday". I forgot completely about Alma, until she comes up behind me and exclaims the only thing I could have registered.

"Welcome to town!"