I drummed my fingers on my desk and kept glancing down the hall as Mrs. Auble rattled on about The Civil War. Then I saw her, Sadie walked down the hall. She pointed to Marco, then to me. “Can you two come with me?” she asked. I smiled at Lindsay as I left the classroom. We picked up more people as we walked down the halls. We entered the T.V Production room. “Congratulations!” Jessica exclaimed, “You have all been nominated for Forthcoming Royalty.” I smirked as the preppy girls squealed and hugged each other. You see my little brother in StuGo, and he told me that I was one of the nominations for Forthcoming Princess. My name is Maggie, I’m 17, I’m “chubby”, short and VERY weird.


I skipped back to class with a smile on my face, feeling beautiful. All day I flitted through the halls showing off my painted Burger King crown to all who would listen. I dressed up all week, and I just felt happy. I felt beautiful, graceful, and loved all week. Wednesday arrived and my happy mood crashed. I learned that the only reason that I was nominated was for a joke, a joke meant to annoy all the preppy girls who were meant to be nominated. I felt dirty, used, and ugly. I was depressed in History, and was past functioning in Math, then I walked into Chemistry. My mom asked me what was wrong, I told her and she told me that I needed to tell everyone else to shove it.


All Wednesday and Thursday, people told me, “Good Luck on Friday!”, “I voted for you!”, or “Hope you win.” Until then I had it in my head that I wasn’t going to win, but these voices coming from my friends, my classmates planted a small thought in the back of my head. I have a chance of winning. All day Thursday my hands and my knees shook, my mind wandered too easily. Thursday night, I couldn’t sleep. I paced all night getting ready, checking and rechecking my bag. I finally fell asleep about 3:20 am.


Friday, the big day came. I spent 20 minutes trying to look perfect, trying to look like a princess. All of first and forth hour, my mind wandered and I started to feel nauseous, I was nervous, second hour rolled around, then all too quickly third hour arrived. I paced nervously and stayed close to Hannah, so I could sit next to her. As we entered the gym a StuGo member shouted “Maggie! Maggie! Go sit with the rest of the royalty!” “Great.” I muttered. So I picked a spot in the middle, hoping to be inconspicuous. But of course Claire had to sit next to me. Tyler’s word echoed in my head “She’s your biggest rival.” My stomach clenched, I stood up and walked over to mom, I wrapped my arms around her and suppressed the urge to shake. “Are you nervous?” she asked. “Yes.” I blubbered. Then the pep rally started, before I walked back to my seat mom asked me, “Are you going to be alright if you don’t win?” I walked away and whispered, “No.” I sat down and tried to stop shaking. The only time my stomach unclenched was during the dance performance, it made me laugh.

Then it was time to announce the winners. The Lord and Lady were announced, then the Duke and Duchess. Then they started calling up the nominees for Prince and Princess. They called my name and I took a deep breath, as I walked up. They announced the Prince; Corbin Smith. I clapped nervously, then “And the princess of 2009 is…” I heard a whole group of students stomping and chanting “Maggie! Maggie! Maggie!” as I silently chanted in my head almost willing her to say my name. “…Claire Fischer.” I sucked in a breath. As everyone cheered and clapped for Claire. I sat back down and tried my best to hold back tears, but I was unsuccessful. As the tears spilled down my face, I stood up and walked over to Hannah, I couldn’t get to her, because as usual she was surrounded by our friends. But Mrs. Hann saw me, she sat me down next to her and tried to cheer me up. I was numb and didn’t hear half of what she said.

When we left the cafeteria, Hannah caught up to me and rubbed my back as I walked out of the hall. As we reached her class I cried as she hugged me. I ripped the crown off my head, and threw it in my mom’s cabinet. I took my Chemistry test through blury, tear filled eyes. I felt as though something was different, so I changed into my black dress. I went to fourth hour, not feeling any better, but putting on a good face. I was cheered up by the parade. The tailgate party was fun and I had fun running around with my sister, That night I realized something, this would not make a good story, because everybody likes Cinderella, but nobody cares about the ugly step-sisters.