The Cinderella

Ha-ha, well, this idea popped into my head at like ten-thirty at night for no reason at all, and I thought it was funny so of course I had to get my computer out to write it. Otherwise I would lose the *spark* and forget the whole plot bunny thing. Flames are welcome, as are reviews.

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I hate this, she thought, as a little girl in a frilly pink dress skipped up to her, holding an oversized lollipop to her tongue. I really, really hate this.

"Mommy, look, it's Cinderella!" The girl cried in delight, pointing a finger at Sam as she flushed steadily redder.

"Hi," Sam muttered, avoiding the shining eyes of the little girl and looking down at the ground.

"Can we get a picture with her, Mommy? Please?" The little girl was begging her mother. The woman behind her smiled.

"Okay, honey. Since you do love Cinderella so much…Do you mind?" She asked Sam, who's fists were clenched in her long white gloves.

Oh, no, not at all. Just like I don't mind wearing a poofy dress and blonde wig and standing in the middle of Disneyland all day long while people stare at me and take my picture every other second.

"Go ahead. Come here, sweetie," she said to the little girl, who wrapped her dark arms around Sam's middle and beamed at the camera.

"Smile," said the mother, and Sam tried her hardest not to grimace. They left right after asking directions to Cinderella's Castle, and Sam breathed a sigh of relief.

The sun was blazing hot, and she wiped the back of her hand across her neck, only to get it drenched in sweat. She sighed. It wasn't that she minded working; it's just that she minded working at Disneyland of all places. The happiest place on earth.

Sam Manson, ultra gothic recyclo-vegetarian, was working as Cinderella.

It's for the Prius, she kept telling herself over and over again. The Prius.

No way was she going to use her parents' money to buy her this car. It meant too much to her to just get with the snap of her fingers. She actually wanted to work for it, to see all those long hours of labor paid off in the car of the century. But how she got the job as Cinderella, well, even she didn't quite know how that happened. She thought she was just going to work in Cinderella's castle, but they handed her the wig and dress and said, "Parades are at eight, ten, and twelve. VIP dinner every Tuesday at seven. Be nice to the kids or your fired."

It was harder than it looked, just standing there, posing as a Disney character. She had to turn around whenever someone she knew walked by. She had to reapply sunscreen every hour, and she had to keep her patience with the hyper little kids who always seemed to swarm around her. The parades were alright, mostly because she got to sit at the head of her own float and wave.

The other characters didn't seem to like it much either. During a show, Jasmine stomped deliberately on Aladdin's foot and broke it. Tigger went crazy and chased a woman all over the park. And when a couple of Goofy's friends from school dropped by; well, all three of them were still in the hospital to this very day.

Perhaps it was coincidence, perhaps it was just Sam's usual rotten luck, but at that moment she turned her head to look at the clock on the highest tower of the Castle behind her, and when she turned back she saw a mess of black hair and a red beret bobbing through the crowd.

A word came into her mind that she would have never said aloud in front of her mother.

She whirled around in a flurry of skirts, breaking out into a heavier sweat and wringing her hands. What were they doing here? Didn't they tell her they were going to be studying extremely hard this weekend? She could not let her two best friends see her here, especially like this, or else her life and her reputation for being a dark, mysterious individual would be ruined by a fluffy blue dress and transparent heels.

Unfortunately, (or maybe not) the dress she was wearing clung to parts of her body that were slightly…noticeable. Let's just say that the first time she wore it, all seven dwarves had lumps in the middle of their pants when she marched past them in the changing rooms.

"Hey, man, check out Cinderella! Seems to me like she's in need of a Prince Charming-"

"Oh, please, Tucker, she is so out of your league! Besides, she'll ditch out on you waaaaay before the clock strikes midnight."

"That's what you think, Danny. Let's go talk to her."

Panic erupted inside the pit of her stomach, and she bit her lip. She had no idea what to do. Usually, when fighting ghosts, she was always the one who got them out of tight situations like this. Unfortunately, Sam wasn't the one with the freaky ghost powers, and she had nowhere to run to. But she point-blank refused to turn around and look at them. Utter humiliation and mortification would follow her everywhere she went if they found out about her job. If they came over, she'd just bluntly tell them to go away.

Their footsteps were right behind her, and she looked up at the sky, pleading why me? Her heart was about to jump out of her chest, it was beating so hard and fast. Feeling a flush creep onto her face, she remained stationary where she was. On no account was she going to turn around and look at those two.

Someone cleared their throat.

"Yes?" Sam asked in a phony, high-pitched voice, cringing at how much it sounded like Star's.

"Um, hi," She heard Tucker say uncertainly. "My name's Tucker, Tucker Foley, and this is my friend, Danny Pha- um, Fenton."

She could practically hear Danny glaring at Tucker behind her back.

"Oh, um, hi," She mumbled, still using her false, preppy, high-voice. "I suppose you want to take a picture? Or do you need directions?"

"Well, we kinda just wanted to talk to you. Could you turn around, please, so we can see you?"

"No, uh, sorry. Heh-heh. I, um, I-I have pink eye, and I don't want to get you two hotshots infected." Sam said lamely. It was the best excuse she could come up with under all that pressure.

"Pink eye? Really?" Tucker asked skeptically. However, with Danny, she could practically hear the gears turning in his head as he worked something out. She briefly wondered if he had his chin cupped cutely in his palm like he did whenever he was on some kind of breakthrough, but scolded herself afterwards for losing control over her feelings.

"You know," Danny said at last. "You seem kind of familiar. I think I know you from somewhere."

At that point in time, and it seemed to happen in slow motion, Belle walked by with Larry, the manager, and Sam's heart sunk, knowing what was about to happen. Waving to her, Belle called, "Hi, Sam! How's it going?" and walked on. Larry, following after her, yelled, "Manson, get back to work!" and scurried off.

Sam closed her eyes and scrunched them up as Danny and Tucker gasped and spun her around. Their jaws dropped when they saw her.

"SAM?!" Tucker said, bewildered. Then he started laughing.

Danny, however, was smiling coyly at her, like he had just discovered some great blackmail material (which he probably had). She scowled at the pair of them, crossing her arms and shifting her weight onto one hip.

"You see?" She asked, glaring at them. "This is why I didn't tell you guys I had a job, because I knew this was how you were gonna react."

"Well can you blame us?" Danny asked, as Tucker doubled over with laughter. "I mean, you, of all people, working at Disneyland of all places, dressed as-"

"As Cinderella, of all Princesses, yeah, I get it, okay? It was very unlikely that you found me here today. So, please, please don't tell anybody, alright? Because if you do, you'll wake up one day in a very uncomfortable predicament, alright? Same goes for you, Tucker," She said loudly, because Tucker was rolling around on the floor with laughter.

Danny smiled and shook his head. "Sam, calm down," he said, placing a hand on her shoulder. Her heart gave an involuntary sputter, and she forced herself not to blush. "You keep my secret, and I keep yours. Don't worry, we won't tell anyone."

Relieved, she smiled. "Thanks." Then she wiped the sweat off her forehead and rubbed it on his shirt.

"Hey!" He said, jumping back. "What was that for?"

"For lying!" She cried playfully. "You told me you two were going to be studying all weekend!"

Tucker, who was banging the ground with his fists, could not vouch for this.

"We needed a break!" Danny said, stepping back as she advanced towards him. "Do you know how hard chemistry is?"

She didn't answer, just kept coming at him, so he did something very brave. He lifted off his shirt, turned intangible, flew above a very confused Sam, and wrung it out over her head.

"EEW!" She screamed, drenched in sweat. And it wasn't even her own!

Tucker hooted and rolled around on the ground.

Danny materialized in front of her, looking smug. She flew at him, knocking them both on the ground a few yards away from Tucker, and their wrestling attracted many onlookers.

"Get off me, Sam!"

"No! You're gonna get it, Fenton!"

"Princesses aren't supposed to wrestle with their best friends on the ground!" Danny grunted, trying to push her off without hurting her.

"Do I look like a princess to you?" Sam screamed, and when she realized what a stupid question that was she growled in rage and pinned him down, sitting on his (rock hard) abdomen.

"Sam!" Danny struggled underneath her, while Tucker took out his PDA and began to record the entire thing.

"Don't you ever do that again, do you hear me?" Sam yelled, shaking his shoulders. In valiant response, or maybe he was just stupid, Danny swiped his hand across the back of his neck, and rubbed it on her forehead.

So furious that she was unable to speak, she gave him a shove and got up, walking over to the changing rooms and showers. She knew she was fired. The nervous crowd shrank back, and Tucker followed them with his camera, snickering.

"Sam!" Danny cried, scrambling to his feet. "Wait!"

"What?" She growled through clenched teeth. Danny stopped in front of her, breathing heavily.

"I'm sorry, Sam. That was out of line." He told her quietly, scratching his head nervously.

She shrugged, unable to resist forgiving him with that adorable face he wore. "It's okay," she grunted, starting to turn around. "I was gonna quit anyway."

"Wait!" Danny said again, grabbing her hand and spinning her around.

"Danny, I have to go take a shower." Sam said impatiently, trying to pull her hand back, even though she didn't really want to. Danny held it firmly.

"When we were – well, you know," he said, gesturing to the spot where she had attacked him. "Did you – I mean – do you ever feel - "

She looked up incredulously, her heart hammering, and met his eyes. Did he really mean what she thought he meant? Hadn't they silently agreed to never mention that feeling they got whenever they touched?

They stood there for a moment, trying to read each other's eyes, and then, quite suddenly, and without warning, Danny leaned in and crushed his lips to hers. Shocked, but extremely elated, she kissed back, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling his head closer. He responded by curling his hands around her waist and moving their bodies closer. The whole world seemed to disappear, and they both felt electricity fill them up to the brim, like it did whenever they had kissed before. They broke apart and ginned, resting their foreheads on the others.

"Wow," he murmured softly, touching his nose to hers.

"I know," she said, placing her palm on his cheek.

They were oblivious to the "aaaaaawwwwww" of the onlookers, and ignored Tucker's loud "YES!"

"Does this mean that I'm Prince Charming now?" Danny teased, squeezing her hand gently.

"Just as long as I'm not Cinderella anymore." Sam laughed and threw off her wig, leaning in and meeting his lips once more. He ran his hands through her hair.

Tucker watched them happily, knowing full well that by this time on Monday, all the bets he placed on them would make him the richest man in Amity Park.

*Fin*

Yeah. *grins* I hope you guys liked it, it took me THREE HOURS to write this thing! Haha, just kidding, I had fun making it up. Danny/Sam fluffy cheesy gooey goodness, hooray! Let me give you some advice, my friend; you are a brilliant, independent, beautiful, terrific, adorable, strong individual, and nobody can tell you what to do. 3 Now review my story.