The Cinderella Dance

• Erin Appleton, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2022

“Mum can go check the letter box?”
“Sure.”
A young woman walked out of the cottage and up the drive. She had a long plat of auburn hair with a twine of purple. Walking up to the letter box and pulling out its contents, she went back down to the house, and dumped the letters on the table. As she did, she spied a letter marked Miss Alexandria Maree Eucalyptus. Alex picked it up and opened it. Inside was a blue card with a gold border saying:

The Annual Cinderella Dance
5pm Sunday 11th June – Morning
Mayor Skycloud

“I’m invited to the Cinderella Dance!” Alex shouts excitedly.
“Wow, that’s amazing! What is it?” Her Mum asks.
“The Cinderella Dance is a chance for the young men and women of Palmbale to find love. Every year one boy in the town gets selected to be the prince of the ball. The prince dances with every girl trying to find love, the other boys get to do it to but everyone has to dance with the prince.” Alex replies and then rushes to her room then she realized something: the ball would be on the full moon and go past midnight! This was a huge problem for Alex, you see she had a secret, at night she turned into a tiger. She could control on nights other than full moon. On those nights she could only force it down until midnight. She sighed.
Alex slept while a phantom rose from her body, slowly as it became more solid, it jumped out the window and ran to the woods.
When Alex arrived at a clearing, two tigers stood, one old with a green fur running up his tail, another younger with blue.
“Ah, young Storm,” the old one said.
“Where’s River?”
“Right here you doofus!” the blue tailed one said playfully.
“Well, I didn’t see you there, did I?” Storm challenged. The pair went happily into the woods for the night.
The Dance was close. Soon the prince of the ball was announced, all the girls went crazy because it was the son of the best director, Billy Smith. Suddenly it was Dance Day.
The party was ON! The dance had started, and all the girls couldn’t wait to dance. There was a crash as the doors opened, and a late arrival came in. She was in an orange dress with a belt around her waist. She had a crown of frangipanis, and her fiery hair was braided down one side. When Billy saw her, he was dumbstruck. He walked up to her and asked, “What’s your name?"
"Alex," She replied.
He took her hand and danced with her one thing breaking them up: the chime of midnight! As if he could hear what she was thinking, they went to another room, and in a puff of smoke tigers replaced them.
"River!?"
"Storm!?"
They rolled around laughing, and an old green-haired man heard them, "Gonna have to change my hair colour aren't I?" he said to the chamelon on his shoulder.
THE END.