[A young adult retelling of Cinderella - LGBT]
What begins as a failed date in a tea shop leads Jay to find his fairy Godmother, the one who could make love finally come his way.
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Jay struggles with being out of the closet to his friends but getti...
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When the Thursday morning of the Great Confrontation comes, I wake up late for class. No surprise there. Being a pile of nerves the previous night didn't make for the best night of sleep.
I jump off my bed, my heart a nerve-ticking bomb. I'll be late for math class for the third time in a month.
I throw a quick glance at the clock on the wall. It's 7:52 am when I start stuffing my backpack with whatever notebooks I set eyes on my desk. Then throw it to my back with a swing.
I bolt downstairs and out of the house. Somehow, I'm still hopeful the school bus that was supposed to be at the bus stop half an hour ago would be there.
The confirmation comes as soon as I step outside the yard: no sign of the bus. Even even cars pass by. 10th street is pretty much a desert.
I'm off for an anxious, thirty-minute walk to school. I rush my steps along the pavement, jumping out of my skin as soon as I turn at the intersection.
I spring back, almost involuntarily, my eyes wide with shock. Cindy is here.
"Hello," he says casually, like he didn't just give me a heart attack.
"Jesus," I can't help a yell of frustration after a heavy exhale, "can't you warn me when you're going to appear like that?" I ask with a palm against my chest.
"In need of some help?" he asks, slightly uneasy, judging by the way his fingers fumble with the tips of his hair. I can imagine a blush under the coat of make-up he is wearing. That surprises me.
A sharp snap of fingers follows, then his magic wand is trapped among his fingers, silvery light dissipating in the surrounding emptiness. He looks at me with his lips pursed, his wand raised, waiting for an answer from me.
There is no way to be on time for Mrs. Gilbert class if I walk. I don't want to risk having to bring Lia a written note from her for being late for the third time being this month.
I swallow hard, then nod bashfully. "Okay," I say. "Just-,"
Cindy swings his stick before I'm able to finish my sentence, drawing a gleaming light in the air that thickens until it resembles a veil covering me.
The brightness overcomes my vision and I'm light as a feather, vibrating and flying along a tunnel whose walls are stars upon stars in colors I cannot name.
The next thing I know, I'm at school. But instead of being in the classroom, I'm in the garden in the back of the building of Belfort High...I look around... inside a bunch of shrubs.
There are more leaves than I can count covering the brick-colored building from my view. Twigs stab me in all directions when I try to me.
The Contract, the magic, and Cindy being my fairy Godmother... All of them are real, but as I stay here, trapped inside the core of shrubs, I'm starting to think he isn't as talented with his magic as I first thought. That would explain the ruined bicycle episode.
