Glimmers of Glass (A Glimmers Novel #1: Cinderella)

Chapter 2

Living as a Glimmer in a Humdrum world was a constant act of subterfuge. I went to intern at Wishes Fulfilled and pretended I was working as an usher in the performing arts center that took up most of the building downstairs. I went to the annual Oregon Forest Faeries Festival and pretended my parents were shipping me off to summer camp in Maryland. Today, I looked at my godmothering case file in study hall and pretended I was reading an essay and making important notes in the margins.

A photograph of a pretty girl with a blond ponytail, aquamarine T-shirt, and sardonic expression had been paperclipped to the first page inside the purple folder that held the details.

Client Name: Elle Ashland

Age: 17

Occupation: Student, barista

Hiring client: Greg Ashland (father)

Case summary: Elle is in her senior year of high school and struggling to fit in. Father requests Faerie Godmother arrange for his daughter to attend prom with the most popular boy at her high school. Father expresses wish for daughter to "forget her day-to-day life for a while and get swept up in the romance of a great teen movie."

I held back a snort.

Elle's father, Greg, is a non-magical being (hereafter "Humdrum"). Her deceased mother, Genevieve, was an enchantress from the Portland area. Elle's parents jointly made the decision to raise Elle in the Humdrum world and Elle knows nothing about her ethnic background. Hiring client has expressed a strong desire to maintain this lack of awareness, citing Elle's fragile emotional health and volatile mood swings, which he fears could be triggered by the shock of learning about the magical world.

Like all faeries, I had a couple gifts, of which empathy was—if not the greatest—not the least. I looked at her photograph for a moment and waited for my initial impression to be confirmed by an even stronger following impression: Whoever this girl was, "fragile" was not the first word I'd use to describe her.

Objective: Arrange for Elle to attend prom with the most popular boy at her high school.

Recommendations: Full aesthetics, high drama.

Relevant Archetype (subject to change at Godmother's discretion): Cinderella

After that was a two-page essay from Greg on why he wanted his daughter's dreams to come true. I scanned it, but there was nothing new there. Everyone wanted their own dreams to come true, and most people wanted the same for their kids. It was followed by the usual contracts, waivers, and personal details. I jumped ahead to these, trying to figure out where this Elle person lived.

I found the name of her school immediately. The letters jumped out at me: the newly-opened Lincoln Charter School, the very one I happened to be sitting in.

"Psst," a voice said to my right. Imogen bounced her foot into the aisle between the desks. I looked down. A slip of paper had appeared out of nowhere onto my desk.

Omg. Have you seen the new guy?

I stared hard at the paper, then, when the no I wanted to send back was clearly in my mind, touched my hand to the flower-shaped handle of the magic wand tucked into my hair. That was enough. The paper disappeared and reappeared on Imogen's desk. She wiggled her butt in the uncomfortable chair, barely suppressed excitement all over her face.

Imogen's face was always just a smidgen too expressive. I loved this about her. She would have been too pretty if it weren't for the odd wrinkled nose or puffed-out cheeks.

I glanced at the clock, which showed I had fifteen minutes left. I went back to Greg's essay and actually read it. It was obviously why the Processing Office had pegged this one as a Cinderella. Elle's mom had died when she was nine, and her father remarried when Elle was twelve. She even had two stepsisters, and now a faerie godmother was being called in to help to get her to what was basically a ball.