Disclaimer: Not mine. If you sue, all you are getting is a cat and a Phantom of the Opera music box collection.

Authors note: What can I say? I heard a song, and was inspired. This fic contains a surprise paring. Not one of your normal ones. Let's see if you can guess who they are. This first part does not name them, so let the guessing games begin.

For all those who will ask about Rhapsody...yes, I do plan on continuing. The story is pretty much planed in my mind, I've just got to get it down on paper. Please be paitent.

WE WILL DANCE

The cafeteria looked like a different world. What was normally a large, bland looking space on any other day was now transformed into a wonderland out of a fairy tale. It was appropriate, she thought, as 'Fairy Tale' was the theme of this dance.

The Masquerade ball was the second largest dance of the year, next to only Prom, and this year it was thought to give a different spin to it. Each student was to draw a character from a fairy tale to dress as. It was hoped that no one would tell anyone else which character they had drawn, because masks where not to be removed until a set time during the dance. This rule was widely ignored by most of the student population, but she was one of the few who did not share. She found the idea of being incognito exciting.

She knew that Ryan was dressing as The Mad Hatter. She laughed when she found that out. How perfect. Ryan and his hats! His girlfriend Kelsi was to be Little Red Riding Hood. Troy Bolton and his girlfriend Gabriella, by a weird twist of fate, had drawn The Beast, and Beauty, respectively.

All had asked her to tell which character she had drawn, but she would not.

"You'll just have to wait and see." She told them. This night she wanted to be her character, not herself. At least, until the mask came off.

Until then, she would simply be . . . Cinderella.

Now, she was not the Disneyfied Cinderella. She found the way Disney had taken over well known fairy tales to be annoying. There where so many other different versions out there, why would everyone always lean toward the Disney versions. As she looked around the room, she saw a Snow White dressed in the garish yellow, red, and blue Disney dress. Ugh! Whoever had come up with that look must have been blind. Gabriella's Beauty dress was the golden ball gown of the movie and Broadway versions. She did look rather nice in it, though.

But she had decided on a different look. Her favorite version of Cinderella was from a musical version she had seen when she was younger. The movie had stuck in her mind for years. Happily, just a few months ago, she had found that very movie on DVD at a local video store, so she was able to study the costume in detail. What she had finally found was close, if not an exact match. The 18th century style dress was white, with iridescent sequins giving it sparkle. A pair of white satin slippers studded with crystal beads adorned her feet. She had swept her hair back from her face, letting curls flow down her back. A white mask covered her face from her forehead to the tip of her nose.

She was Cinderella as Cinderella should be, anonymous, but still the most watched girl in the room.

Strange couples where already dancing together. The Mad Hatter and Little Red Riding Hood, The Big Bad Wolf with one of the 3 Little Pigs, the Tin Man with Goldilocks. It was absurd. Obviously the plan, which was to have students mingle, and try to find the others characters from their fairy tales, had fallen by the wayside.

She looked a little sadly at the spot where Beauty and the Beast had their arms wrapped around each other. Troy's Beast mask was truly frightening, but she knew the handsome face that lay hidden underneath. She sighed. The Beast would not dance with Cinderella, as he should not. Oh, if only he had drawn Prince Charming instead. But then, she supposed, he would have just told everyone he was the Beast after he was transformed and still have danced with only Gabriella.

So where was Prince Charming? There where several Kings and Princes in the room, but which one was her, Cinderella's, prince. Well, one way to find out.

She tapped a white coated prince on the shoulder.

"You wouldn't happen to be the prince from Cinderella, would you?"

The boy was thin. A little on the short side, and his red hair made his skin look a little pink. "Uh . . . no . . . sorry . . . gosh . . . " the pink skin turned even pinker thanks to the blush that came to his cheeks. "I...I'm supposed to be with Sleeping Beauty."

He was a freshman, obviously, and she silently thanked god he wasn't the one. She gave him a smile, though, which made his eyes bug out from his mask, and walked away.

She was asked to dance several times, but it felt wrong for Cinderella to dance with a wizard, or a frog . . . even if he was supposed to be a prince!

Her gaze found Troy the beast again, standing among his usual group, all in their costumed glory.

She could guess which one was Chad. No one could really hide that hair, although it lent itself nicely to the Cowardly Lion. His arm was slung over the shoulder of a good fairy. Taylor was all pink and sparkles, a complete turnabout from how she usually dressed. Which was the point, was it not? To be a different person, if only for one night?

If only everyone had simply played along.

Oh well, she would enjoy the night, even if she never did find her prince. She would go talk to Ryan and Kelsi. They wouldn't tell anyone who she was.

"Excuse me?" A voice said behind her. "Who are you supposed to be?"

"Cinderella." She said with a sigh, without turning around. She had been asked that several times. Again with the Disneyfication thing. She did not look like their vision of Cinderella, so it confused them.

"Well, I guess that means I'm supposed to be with you then."

She turned, and looked right into the most beautiful hazel eyes she had ever seen.

HSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSM

He hadn't wanted to come tonight. A costumes party? That was for little kids. It was his senior year. He didn't want to dress up as a fairy tale prince and go to a dance, one to which he didn't even have a date. Everyone he knew was going with someone, even if they didn't draw characters from the same story.

And Prince Charming without a princess . . . embarrassing.

But his mother would not hear of it.

"There will be others there without a date. And you are going to be in disguise, no one will know you."

That's what she thought. He happened to know who quite a few people in the room already where, because they had told him. He had been too embarrassed to tell them what character he had drawn. What if they had laughed? He was hardly anyone's idea of a charming Prince.

His Mom had found the costume for him. She said it was representative of the time period in which the original story took place. It was a little frou-frou if you asked him.

A deep green coat, embroidered throughout with gold thread, over a white shirt with a bunch of frilly lace about the throat. Tight black pants tucked into high black boots. He felt ridiculous. He was happy for the black mask that covered most of his face. With any luck he'd be able to sneak out before the great mask removal. He didn't want to give any of his friends ammunition to use against him.

He had found, though, that the female population of East High seemed to like his costume. He had been accosted by every fairy tale princess in the room.

"You wouldn't happen to be Snow White's prince, would you?" A girl wearing a bad black wig and that horrible Disney dress asked him.

"Cinderella."

"Oh, too bad. Nice pants by the way." She winked at him. He didn't believe he had ever been winked at before.

He went through much of the same thing with Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel, but he didn't think it got out of hand until the Wicked Witch of the West asked him if he wanted to ride her broom.

He wanted out of the stupid costume after that.

He could see his friends gathered together. Lions and Beasts and sparkly fairies, oh my! He didn't go over there, didn't want them to know who he was, didn't want anyone to know who he was because it was really all so stupid. Fairy Tales! Who came up with these ideas?

A flash of white caught his eye. The girl was standing to the side, watching his group of friends. She wore a fancy, white dress. Like something from out of the 1700's, or something. Didn't his Mom say that the original Cinderella was written about that time?

Thank god she wasn't the Disney Cinderella. He hated that dress almost as much as the Snow White one.

Her golden hair fell in ringlets down her back, and he saw beading on her shoes as they peeked out from underneath the dress as she walked.

She had to be Cinderella, but he should ask, just to be sure.

"Excuse me? Who are you supposed to be?" he asked, coming up behind her.

"Cinderella." She sounded tired, like she had been asked that question too many times during the night.

"Well, I guess that means I'm supposed to be with you then."

She turned, and he fell into the deepest, brownest eyes he had ever seen.

HSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSMSHM

So, should I continue? Please be kind, and rewind. I mean review. Please review.