The Stairwell Princess
By dcWilson
SmashWords Edition
Copyright © 2013 by dcWilson
Throughout the year, Paige Johnston has only one ambition; to go out with Gavin hunter; a popular boy in school. However, by year's end Paige discovers she has lost focus on her studies and has failed the 12th grade but a terrible fall and an enchanted nightmare foreshadows her destiny with Gavin.
PROLOGUE
TOO TIRED TO FIGHT - TOO JEALOUS TO WIN
Finally…The graduation dance
It was my last chance
I wore a pretty blue dress, my hair pinned up in a do,
Hoping we would meet again, I entered the ballroom...
But the minutes turned to hours and the day faded to night.
You never came, though I kept praying, you might
I was jealous... when you talked with those other girls
But you seemed so happy in your own little world
I pined and I stared with a pleading glance
But you walked passed me and asked “Cinderella” to dance
I knew it was over,
I didn’t feel sober
It should be me dancing in your arms
But it was clear; you were enchanted by her charms
I walked alone to the darkened stairwell,
To release the madness, I paced until I fell
I fell to the bottom most where the time became bent
Swollen and jealous until penance was spent...
It was prom night. Four floors below, in the gymnasium, her classmates cordially attended the Last Chance Graduation Dance. The music base pounded and shook the stairs.
Paige banged the stair railing with her fist, threw the crumpled paper in the corner near the door and lowered her head in her hands.
Her stomach tied in knots, and the concrete stair started to feel uncomfortable. Taking a deep breath she opened her blue leather purse and pulled out the golden mirror compact her parents gave her as a graduation present.
She stared at her reflection; the lump in her throat was getting thick as mascara coated tears rolled down her cheeks.
The music from the dance seemed to get louder, and then the door slammed. Footsteps and chatter at the bottom of the stairs were getting closer and closer. Paige panicked. She had to hide. Quickly she got up and smoothed her blue leather dress and raced into the hallway.
The hallway was deserted. Everyone was in the gymnasium saying their final farewells at the Last Chance Graduation Dance. The voices got closer, her heart fluttered. She couldn't let them see her like this. The ground felt like it was spinning, but she found her locker across from the stairwell. Fumbling with the combination, the lock cracked open. She squeezed inside the metal opening and closed the door.
The stairwell door opened. Paige held her breath. She was so afraid they would find her in the locker. What would she say? She was so afraid it was someone she knew, someone she had lied to about her grades and dating Gavin. Maybe it was the principal? Finally, she heard the stairwell door close, the chatter turned to a muffle and they were gone.
Relieved that she had avoided humiliation, Paige, opened the locker and paused to look in the magnetic mirror clinging to the metal door.
"Magnetic mirror on the wall am I the most stupid of them all?" she snickered as she fixed her mascara and pinned her hair.
She smoothed her dress,
"I am the fairest. “She giggled; slamming the locker door shut and walked back to the stairwell.
She opened the heavy door, only to find someone had taken her spot. She gritted her teeth in horror. It was Miranda the class valedictorian and favorite candidate for homecoming queen, kissing Gavin; the boy she had a crush on for three years, the prince she kissed in her dreams, the only reason she attended class.
Watching in silence with a wide-eyed fury, she grimaced, then she let go of the stairwell door so it slammed shut with a loud thud.
Frightened by the loud bang of the door, Gavin and Miranda stopped kissing. Paige froze, when Gavin turned and looked her way. Her anger turned to a dizzy infatuated trance; then everything went black; as she collapsed on the floor.
A few minutes later she awoke to the sound of Gavin's voice,
"I think she's waking up, keep fanning!"
Miranda nodded and continued fanning Paige with a crumpled paper.
Paige slowly opened her eyes,
"Gavin?" she said in a weak trembling voice.
Gavin kneeled and hovered over Paige,
"Are you okay?"
Paige sat up so she was sitting against the wall.
"What happened? Did I black out?"
There was an awkward silence. Gavin nodded his head.
Paige's stomach churned butterflies when Gavin touched her arm, but was humbled by Miranda's beauty.
Miranda looked up from reading the crumpled paper,
"Hey, is your name Paige?"
Paige nodded.
"Then this must be your purse and your letter."
Miranda stretched out her arm and handed her a blue leather purse and a crumpled paper.
Paige froze,
“Oh no,” She thought to herself. “They found the letter. They know I failed the 12th grade!”
Paige stood up, took the letter and purse.
Gavin touched her arm,
"Don't worry… We are just glad you are okay…”
Paige's head started spinning as she fantasized about dancing with Gavin.
Then her daydream fizzled and her eyes narrowed when Miranda tugged on his shirt. He turned away to take her around the waist. Feverishly he found her lips and they became lost in a passionate kiss.
Paige cringed as the reality slapped her in the face.
Finally they stopped. Miranda spoke,
“Come hang out with us? We’re going back down to the gym.”, she said with a dreamy dazed look.
Paige spoke quickly,
"You guys go ahead; I just need to sit here for a while."
Paige watched with a wide eyed disbelief as Miranda and Gavin descended the dark stairwell.
The sound of their chatter and footsteps became muffled. Then the heavy stairwell door slammed shut at the bottom of the staircase, and they were gone.
Her heart battled between jealous humility,
"And they lived happily ever after." She sneered while opening her purse. She pulled out the gold compact mirror and a tissue to wipe the uninvited tears that tickled her cheeks and smudged her make up.
Paige stared at her reflection. The stairwell was dark. She fiddled with the mirror in an effort to see better, but the mirror slipped out of her hand. She tried to catch it before it fell down the stairwell, but tripped and tumbled after the falling mirror.
She screamed in agony as each stair jabbed her sides. The mirror cracked and splinters of glass cut her forehead and hands. Then finally she reached the final flight of stairs and hit the door.
Paige remained swollen and motionless. She opened her eyes and sat up. The mirror compact had shattered to pieces, there was blood on her hands but she felt no pain, her dress was tattered, her hair was unpinned, her mascara smudged the sides of her face.
She stood up, limping towards the corner to retrieve her other shoe, but the heel was broken so she decided to walk bare foot.
Behind the stairwell door, the music base pounded as the Last Chance Graduation Dance continued. Paige, picked up her purse, and smoothed her tattered blue dress. She opened the door just a crack so she could scan the room. She saw Gavin. She held her breath and shut the door quickly,
“He can’t see me like this”, she decided walking up the staircase and then b
ack down again.
"...Last Chance... Last Chance!" She heard the muffled voice of the DJ announce the final song of the night.
The base of the music was so loud it caused the ground to tremble. Soon the music stopped. Chatter of the students clearing the gym turned to silence. The Last Chance Graduation Dance was over.
The time became bent, but Paige continued to pace up and down the stairwell. An uncontrollable urge bewitched her to continue to search for the glass pieces of the mirror compact. In an endless search she paced. She had to see her reflection, she had to pin her hair and fix her running mascara, and she had to set the records straight,
"Oh where is that mirror, I am the prettiest of them all." she giggled.
"I guess Gavin obviously wants Miranda ... but I can see why he likes her. No, she can't have everything... at least I should be the homecoming queen. Or maybe a stairwell princess until I find that mirror", her laughter echoed the stairwell.
Soon she fell tired and rested against the bottommost step. Her head leaned against the wall; her body slumped down to the ground, as she lay on the ground and drifted into sleep.
Her thoughts soon faded into a dream like trance as she saw herself opening the gymnasium door to find a masquerade ball.
The scenery is eerie yet beautiful. Dry ice filled the room as the guests wander about in their masquerade masks. Then a fairylike creature approaches, hands her a white rose and kisses her hand,
“Good evening Miss Doll,
My name is Paris – I am the host,
of the Masquerade ball.”
Suddenly, the air became filled with the smell of perfume,
And the Masquerade prince storms into the ballroom,
PRINCE: "I need to find the lady with the doll faced mask"
PARIS: "But your highness she is not the princess..."
"Please find her; she is who I need to ask"
Paris points to Paige and she is taken to the Prince's room
Where she is asked to remove her alluring costume
PRINCE: "Princess, please take off your doll faced mask"
PAIGE: "But your highness that would be a difficult task…."
..This is my real face I wear no disguise."
PRINCE: "That can't be true you are telling a lie!"
The prince moved close and kissed her tenderly on the lips
Then suddenly his kiss became rough and his hands grasped her neck with an angry grip....
PAIGE: "Stop! Why do you hurt me I did you no wrong?!"
PRINCE: "You are not a real princess...you failed the 12th grade! You will never belong!"
The Prince then grabs her arm and pulls her to walk across the ballroom
On the stage was a Green Queen surrounded by goat faced knights dressed in light blue.
The prince introduces her as "The Queen of the Land".
The ballroom is quiet as she speaks with a wand in her hand:
GREEN QUEEN: "Doll Face, child of Vanity, I bid you to leave your gift at the Alter and be gone from this land!"
PAIGE: "…why do you call me Doll Face, child of Vanity, I do not understand?"
GREEN QUEEN: "So you mean you have wasted your gift and you have nothing to offer?
In that case you shall be sent to the snake pits...where you will be broken and destined to suffer!"
A chariot arrives driven by 2 violet horses…
Guards wearing light blue goat masquerade take her into their clutches
Paris is close by and speaks in a whisper,
“Meet me at the stairwell we’ll talk English Literature…”
Paige jolts awake to find herself lying on the stairwell floor. She sits up. The stairwell door opens. Paige hopes to see her "true love" Gavin, but it is Travis from her English Literature class and the graduation decorating committee.
"Oh, wow, I didn't think there was anyone still here! Are you okay? You have a bruise on your head."
Travis bends to sit on the stairwell step in front of Paige and puts his hand on her shoulder.
"I'm okay", she said sheepishly.
"Is Gavin still here?"
"Gavin Hunter? I don't think so. Everyone is gone home. The dance is over. It's just the decorating committee in the gym taking down the decorations. I was going upstairs to my locker to get my jacket to go home. How come you are here?"
"Oh… I… it's a long story." Tears stream down her face as she lowers her eyes.
Travis puts his arm around Paige to comfort her and she buriers her head into his chest, and sobs.
"Oh, hey, it's going to be okay. Don't cry. Whatever happened tonight, it's all over, I'm sure everything is going to be okay."
Paige longs for Gavin as she sobs into Travis's chest, but soon she becomes tired and forgets about her crush, taking comfort in the presence of her new friend.
They begin talking and the conversation turns to a discussion about the upcoming English Literature exam, just as Paris creature had promised her at the end of the dream that awakened her.
***
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Other Stories by dcWilson
The Magical Balloon and The moon
Smartly Ever After
Doll Face
He Loves me He Loves Me Not Series
Book 1 After the Late Bell Rings
Book 2 The Stairwell Princess
Book 3 Chemistry
Book 4 On Top the Pedestal
Book 5 Waiting for You to Ask
Book 6 After the Storm
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