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Chapter 18

“I’m going to be late coming home today,” I said to Nick and Aaron as I grabbed an apple from the refrigerator.

“Uh, no you’re not. You’re grounded remember?”

I sighed, I hated lying, mostly because I was so bad at it. “Yeah, but there’s this club that I’m thinking about joining and they always have meetings on the first day of school.”

“What club?”

I pretended to look for the peanut butter when I said, “French Club.”

Aaron laughed, “French?”

I frowned at him, “it’s what I want to study in college.”

“Have you thought about what school you want to go to yet?”

I shrugged, “not really.” I grabbed my car keys, “see you later.” I didn’t wait for a response. The sooner I left, the sooner the afternoon would get here.




“Ally!” I turned and saw Chelsea running towards me. “So,” she grinned, “I heard about your night with Brandon!”

I glared at her, “I didn’t sleep with him Chels. I don’t know how you heard anything about it.”

She looked confused, “but Brandon said you did…”

I rolled my eyes, “well, we didn’t. I left him there. But my Dad saw the text you sent and now I’m in deep trouble with him.”

She giggled, “That sucks.”

“I’m grounded indefinitely.”

“It won’t be that bad, just be really good so you can get released and we can start partying again.” I frowned. I didn’t want to start partying again. After this whole fiasco, I was sort of content with being boring. “Do we have any classes together?”

We held our schedules side by side. “Dude, we have like four together! This is awesome!”

She giggled, “This year is going to be the best yet.”

I sighed, “I won’t be here in the afternoon.”

Her eyes got wide. “Are you skipping?”

I bit my lip nervously, “I’m going to Orlando for the afternoon. I’m meeting my mother there.”

“You are? I thought you didn’t want to see her anymore?”

I shrugged. That’s what I thought too.




I parked my car and just sat there for a while. I was nervous. I checked my hair in the mirror and stepped out into the Florida humidity. I had come to Disney once in my entire life. I was young and Nick and Alex had taken me for the weekend. Nick told me that I was so determined to meet Cinderella that I made Nick go to great lengths to look for her. I had scoured the entire park searching for her and burst into tears when I couldn’t find her. I wrapped myself around his legs and wailed. I refused to go on anymore rides or meet any other princesses. Then, as we were about to leave, I felt a tap on my shoulder, and there she stood. She waved at me and held out her hand. But I refused to touch her. I gripped Nick’s hand and even when he pushed me to her, I refused to let go of him. She was perfect, and I knew that if I had touched her, she’d crumble to pieces. But she hugged me, and gave me her autograph and afterwards she hugged Nick too.

From that moment on, I was convinced that Cinderella was my mother, and that she couldn’t be with me, because she had to be a princess inside the castle at Disney. Of course I was only fooling myself, but it had guarded my heart back then. I found it pretty ironic that I was walking through the gates of the castle to meet my mother. She wasn’t Cinderella, but my Disney fairytale didn’t seem so far off.

I spotted her restaurant and stopped in my tracks. If I walked into that restaurant, I had to be strong. I had to stick to what I came here for and not let anything she says affect me. I saw her standing by the hostess desk and she grinned when she saw me. She looked happy to see me. “Ally,” then she hugged me and kissed my cheek. I felt myself forget the pep talk I had just given myself.

“Hi Jen, thanks for seeing me.”

“You know it’s no problem. I told you to call me if you ever wanted to talk.”

“Thanks.”

“I’m surprised you said you could meet now. Aren’t you supposed to be in school?”

I shrugged, “yeah, but it’s the first day, it’s not like I’m missing much.” I looked at her as we sat down at a table in the corner. “I’m valedictorian you know.” I wanted to give her something to be proud of me for.

Her eyes lit up, “No way! That’s great!” She laughed, “Who knew. Why don’t you let me buy you lunch?” I nodded and smiled at her. “We serve the best club sandwiches here, would you like one?”

It’s like she knew I had a love for sandwiches, “Yes. I love them.”

“Great, just let me go put the order in.”

When she came back I asked, “So, are you like, the head chef?”

“The executive chef, yes. It’s my dream job.” She smiled, “I love it.”

“Nick can’t cook to save his life, so I’m usually the one cooking dinner at night.”

She laughed, “I see that still hasn’t changed about him.” She grinned up at the waiter when he brought out our food, “Thanks Frank.”

“That was quick.”

“Well technically the restaurant is closed. We only serve dinner, so they’re only prepping for tonight.” I nodded. “So Ally, I’m so happy you decided to call me, but I’m guessing there’s a reason behind it…”

“There is, actually.” I sighed. “I was just so shocked to see you the last time, I wasn’t prepared.” I looked up at her, “But I’m prepared now.” I took a bite of my sandwich.

“Okay,” she said, “you can talk to me about anything, and I’ll be honest okay?”

“How’d you and your husband meet?” I wanted to know what made him better than Nick.

“He was introduced by a friend.”

“Where’d you go after you left?”

“Here,” she said. “My former teacher told me about an opening here, so I took a job here.”

“I came here when I was five once, I was convinced that Cinderella was my mother,” I chuckled.

“I know,” she said. I looked up at her. She knew? “I saw you here with Nick and Alex. You ate here actually. Sat in booth in the back.” She looked towards the very booth. “I remember the day like it was yesterday. The waitress had come into the kitchen, giddy that Nick Carter and AJ McLean were in the restaurant. I asked if they had a little girl with them and when she told me that they did, I had to sneak out and see you.” She smiled sadly, “your hair was so curly back then, and so, so blonde. You looked exactly like him Ally. You had on this little blue sundress that made your blue eyes bluer if that’s possible.”

“You didn’t come and say hello?” I frowned at her. I knew the answer, but she was that close and had just ignored us?

“I couldn’t,” she sighed. “You were so young, and I knew that it would’ve only confused you. If I was going to reach out to you, I knew it would have to be when you were older, so you were able to make your own decision.”

That made sense, but she was so close, how did she resist the chance? “I spent my whole life afraid to ask Nick about you, because he always got so sad whenever you were mentioned. So I spent my life wondering who you were, what you looked like, what you were doing…”

“I’ve been here the whole time,” she smiled, “waiting to see if you would come.” Well I did come, so now what?

“Can I ask you a personal question?” She nodded. “Well, I don’t have any girls around me, and the one that I do is a little biased. So,” I took a deep breath, “there’s this boy that I’m sort of involved with. He dumped me at the beginning of the summer because I was going to Europe but I was with him at this party the other night, and things got kind of serious…” I blushed as I picked up a French Fry. “Nothing happened, but it almost did. Nick found out and freaked out, but…”

“Have you had sex before?” I blushed again and shook my head.

“Honey,” she put her hand over mine, “Wait until you’re absolutely ready. Don’t give into the pressure. Don’t think it’s not cool to wait. Don’t listen to what others say. If you give in, you’re going to make mistakes.” She looked down at her food. “I didn’t wait until I was ready, and I’ve made plenty of mistakes.” She didn’t look me in the eye and my heart rate sped up. Was she talking about me? “But when you find the one, it’ll make the wait worthwhile. You won’t have sex, you’ll have love. And that’s ten times better than what everyone else will tell you.” She sighed, “But if you’re serious about giving it a try, promise me you’ll be safe. That you’ll take precautions and know what to expect.” She looked at me, “and if you need any help, I’ll help you out.” I nodded and turned my head when she turned her head towards the door. “Shit…”

There was Preston and Jacob. I could tell. They were with their father, and walking towards our table. I followed Jen when she stood up and stared as she went to greet her husband and sons. I stared at them; they seemed so happy. She brought them over to me and I smiled, ready to meet the other people in my mother’s life. “Adam, this is Ally,” She introduced me. I shook his hand.

“Hi Ally, it’s nice to meet you.”

“You too Adam,” I smiled back.

“Are you two having a meeting or something? I can take them on a ride or two if you need to finish up.”

“No,” Jen said quickly, “we’re done here, right?” She looked at me.

I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t think we were done. Not even close. “…Yeah, I think.”

“Okay, great,” she smiled. “Thanks so much for your time Ally. I’ll call you if you’re hired for the position of dishwasher.” She then turned back to her husband and kids.

I froze. She didn’t want to tell him about me. Who I was; that I was her daughter. I bit my lip; if I didn’t leave right now, I’d start crying, and I wasn’t about to do that in front of her. I took one last look at her, holding her children and kissing her husband and looking happy that I was not in that bubble with them. I turned out of the restaurant and took her card out of my purse, dropping it in the trash as I walked past it.

She wasn’t my Cinderella.