applepiecrust

Title: Cinderella, Reworked
Rating: PG
Words: 8 * 100
Summary: I wrote this series of drabbles for hsm_100. The prompt was Cinderella (duh!). 

Chad's life is not a fairy tale, but that doesn't mean there's no magic. 
Second attempt at writing fanfiction. 
 

When Chad had been very young, his mother would read him bedtime stories every night. His favorite story had been Cinderella. He was obsessed with Cinderella -- he’d wanted to be like her, he’d wanted to have a fairy godmother like hers, and he’d wanted to live “happily ever after.” 
So he didn’t understand what he had done wrong when he told his mother he wanted to be Cinderella for Halloween, and hoped that a prince would kiss him too. He didn’t understand why his mother’s eyes suddenly looked moist, and why she told him to not say such things. 


When Chad was a little older, he realized he wasn’t supposed to wish for a prince to kiss him, he was supposed to be the prince for a girl. So Chad would go about his kindergarten class, asking girls if they were Cinderella and if they would let him kiss them. Sometimes, the girls would let him. And even though there was no magic, and none of the girls were really Cinderella, Chad thought it was still nice. 
That year, Chad was Prince Charming for Halloween, adorable in his little boy suit, and his mother was very pleased with him. 


When Chad grew even older, he knew Cinderella was not real, fairy tales were not real. There were no fairy godmothers, just like there was no Santa Claus or Tooth Fairy. He also realized that there were no more princes, at least not real ones. To be like a prince, he had to be an actor or a sportsman, so he would rich and powerful, and everybody would adore him, and all the girls would want to be with him. That is why Chad started playing basketball when he was in sixth grade -- to become a modern day prince. 


When Chad grew even older, he realized he was different from other boys. He really did not want to be a prince, he wanted to be with a prince. But he knew that was wrong, so he kept on playing basketball, hoping those feelings would just go away and he would become an NBA star, a modern day prince. 
First day of high school, though, he met Troy Bolton and Chad thought that Troy, with his gorgeous smile and beautiful eyes, must really be Prince Charming. But Chad could not have Prince Charming so they just became friends, best friends.


When Chad was a little bit older still, Gabriella came to East High. She was beautiful, all sunshine and rainbows, and Chad knew Troy was in love with her. Chad tried to fight to it, tried to keep them from getting together, because though he knew he couldn’t have Troy, he didn’t want anyone else to have him either. But they were so adorable and so in love, and so saccharine sweet, that Chad gave in. 
He realized that, yes, Troy was Prince Charming, but maybe Gabriella really was Cinderella (the names even rhymed!) and Troy was her Prince Charming. 


When Chad was working the summer before his last year of high school (and when, really, did he get so old?), he thought he had it all together. Troy was with his Cinderella, but Chad had his girl too, and though their’s was certainly no fairytale romance, he liked Taylor well enough. 
Then he played at the staff baseball game against Ryan Evans. Ryan, with his blond hair, blue eyes, impeccable clothes, looked like he was Prince Charming and Chad couldn’t help but wonder if that really might be his Prince Charming after all. But, no, it wasn’t to be. 


When Chad was finally grown up, a college student, he came out. Suddenly, everything felt right, better than it had before. Sure, there were evil stepmothers, the people that hated him for who he was, who hated him for being honest, but there was also magic. And there really was a fairy godmother, a most unexpected one, who helped him through everything, and became his pillar of support at U of A – Sharpay. 
And when he told his fairy godmother that he thought her twin brother was his Prince Charming, she didn’t get mad at him. She just smiled. 


At the New Year’s Eve party at the Evans’ house, Christmas break of freshman year, Chad confessed his crush to Ryan. He was pleasantly surprised to find that Ryan had had a crush on him since his freshman year of high school. As the bells tolled for Cinderella hour, the two exchanged their first kiss, and it was magical, as Chad had once thought kissing Prince Charming would be. 
Sure, living on different sides of the country would be hard, but because this was a Disney fairytale, Chad and Ryan both knew they’d live happily ever after. Together. 
The End.