A Not-So Cinderella

Chapter 3

AVERY woke up with a yawn. She glanced over at her alarm clock—it was early. She shrugged and got out of bed.

Today she had a plan. Her cousins wanted revenge, so she would just take a shower quickly before they woke up, so they couldn’t interrupt her. Then she would do her chores. Unfortunately, destiny had a different plan.

As soon as her foot touched the floor she felt a sliding sensation and her feet flew out from under her. She landed, face-first, in something brown and wet. “What the—” She mumbled as she tried to stand up.

Long story short, she slipped. Again.

This time she landed on her butt. Avery yelped in pain. Then she heard laughter. Her heart falling down into her stomach, she looked up slowly. Her two cousins were standing there, laughing. And worst of all, Jace was holding a phone, the camera facing her—clearly recording the whole thing.

Avery’s cheeks flushed with embarrassment, but that wasn’t clearly visible through all the mud coating her. “What are you doing?!” She shrieked.

“And here is our cousin, new girl in the school. Remember how pathetic she is.” Jayden said, smirking at her.

“Stop!” She yelled.

Jace pulled back, tapping on the screen a couple of times. “Yup, all done and posted online.” He said.

“You didn’t.” Avery said slowly.

Jace smirked at her, mirroring Jayden’s expression. “Oh yes we did, little cousin. We warned you yesterday.”

“Oh, and it’s just going to get better.” Jayden said over his shoulder as they walked out, laughing again. Hot anger coursed through her, but she took a few deep breaths, calming down.  Finally she got up and went to take a shower, finishing in record time, before her cousins could barge in again.

She tried to avoid looking at herself in the mirror as she went in, but she could see how bad she looked—only in her black shorts and white camisole, mud—she hoped it was mud—smeared all over her.

She was finally dressed in ripped jeans and an ochre tie-front top. She tied her hair back in a messy braid and ran down, knowing she was late.

Avery sighed as she entered the room. Of course today was the day her aunt would choose to get up early and wait at the table. “Avery! Breakfast should be ready by the time I’m here!” Her aunt yelled.

Avery kept her head down as she started cooking, murmuring a low, “Sorry, Aunt Stacy.” She kept her real thoughts to herself. Finally breakfast was ready, and she left them to it while running up and grabbing her backpack. “Aunt Stacy, I’ll clean when I come back home, I don’t have time right now.”

“Fine!” Her aunt snapped crabbily. “Boys, aren’t you going to be late?” Jace snorted.

“Nope. We’re driving. It’s just that Avery here has to walk.” Avery rolled her eyes and went to the door. “Wait at our lockers. You better not be anywhere else, Avery, or you’ll see what happens.” Jayden warned.

“Fine.” Avery grumbled, and walked outside. Back to school. She sighed. Her new school life would probably be a disaster because of her cousins. The school wasn’t that long of a walk away, and she soon made it.

She took her schedule from the receptionist and found her way to her locker. Not many people were there yet. Hopefully the students wouldn’t have seen the video. Yeah, right. Her cousins would make sure everyone thought she was a fool.

She found her locker and put her books inside, keeping those she needed with her. Luckily, the twins’ locker wasn’t near hers, so she would have some free space. She found their locker too, and stood there idly, waiting for them to show up.

Kids began trickling in, and Avery watched as they hugged, squealed, and basically showed how happy they were to see each other again. No one really noticed her. It felt like a long time before the boys showed up, an identical smirk appearing on each one’s face when they saw her.

“So, Ave, you came. Good girl.” Jace said. Avery rolled her eyes internally.

“Alright, hold these.” Jayden grunted, dropping a couple of books on top of the ones she was already holding.

“And these.” Jace said.

Jamie just shook his head at her.

Avery staggered under the new weight, but regained her balance. “Really?” She asked.

“We said you should watch out. Now come on. We have to go somewhere.” Jayden said as they started walking.

“So I have to carry your books?” Avery said, stumbling after them.

“Looks like,” Jamie mumbled.

“For today?” She asked.

“No. Everyday.” Jace glanced back at her, rolling his eyes, as if he couldn’t believe she’d even asked that question.

“What about my classes? I have to get there on time too.” Avery argued.

“If you’re so concerned about being on time, I suggest you stop wasting ours and follow us, so you leave our books at our classes and make it to yours.” Jayden said testily.

Avery followed them silently, cursing her life. Finally they stopped again—near her locker. She furrowed her eyebrows, but relaxed when she saw them go to the locker next to hers, the one with a boy leaning in the door, his eyes furrowed slightly as he looked at something on his phone.

He was handsome. He had dark, messy hair and golden skin. Pretty tall, too, and wearing dark ripped jeans, a gray shirt and a leather jacket over it. His face was pretty typical cute high school boy. Kind of Avery’s type. He shoved his phone in his pocket when he saw them.

“Hey, Lucas!” Jace said, like he was a good friend. Avery c****d an eyebrow. So this was the Lucas they had been talking about. Lucas looked up at the boys, looking bored, when his eyes fell on her. His eyes were so dark they were almost black.

“Who’s she?” He asked.

 “No one.” Jayden and Jace said in unison.

 He ignored them. “What’s your name?” He asked her directly.

“Avery Wilson.” She said, caught off-guard.

His eyes flicked back to Jayden when he started speaking. “So, Lucas, we want a favor.”

Lucas raised an eyebrow coolly. “Is this about early soccer trials again? I already told you, no.” Avery’s eyes widened slightly when she heard the word soccer.

“Aw, come on, man.” Jace said.

“We’ve been practicing, just give us a chance.” Jayden added.

Avery watched curiously as Lucas said, “If you’ve been practicing, we’ll see it in regular trials. You don’t need special trials. Plus, I doubt you’ll make the team. You haven’t made it in the past three years.”

Avery let out a snicker at that last comment. She couldn’t help it. All four boys looked at her—Jayden and Jace giving her deathly glares and Lucas simply staring intensely, his expression unreadable. Jamie just looked tired.

“Sorry.” She squeaked, and hid her face behind the books she was holding.

“Come on, man, change your mind. We’ll surprise you this time.” Jace tried. Lucas shook his head.

 “I told you, no. Try out when everyone else does.” He glanced at Avery once more and turned around, walking away.