A Cinderella Story: The New Way by Sequoia Gallatin (graded readers txt) 📕

Ally Moore was sitting on her bed, tired after doing all the work for her evil Stepmother and sisters. Why did her dad have to marry THIS lady? And now he was gone. She threw herself back against her pillows and sighed. All she had left was her dancing and singing. Oh and her best friend Cici. She looked over at her clock.
"Oh shit." Ally whispered as she jumped off her bed and ran towards the door, pulling on her jacket. "Marina's going to kill me." Marina was her evil stepmother. She had two step-sisters too. Maizy and Alissa. She opened her step-mother's houses door and hit something. She peeked her head in to see a boy, maybe 17 or 18 years old, lying on the floor. "Oh my god!" Ally squeaked, horrified. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know that you were there." She tries to help him up but he waves her off.
"I'm fine." He says, standing up. She looks up at his face and gasps. His name is David Monroe. He is a famous actor, singer and dancer who used to go to her school many years ago. She remembered being in love with him when she was in 4th grade. He was a grade above her.
"You're- You're David Monroe!" She squeaks, scared out of her wits. This is horrible, she thinks to herself.
He laughs. "Last time I checked. And you are?"
"Ally." It rushes out of her so fast she starts to blush. "I mean, I'm Ally. Ally Moore."
"Nice to meet you Ally. I was looking for the restroom when you accidentally ran into me." He rubs his head. Her face turns even redder.

"Oh it's just back there." She says, pointing towards where the bathroom was.
"Thank you. Nice meeting you again." Then he walks off towards the bathroom. She stands there staring after him when she suddenly hears Marina's voice coming down the hall.
"And this is our beautiful hallway. You will see the pictures of my ancestors. And-" She cuts off when she spots Ally. "There you are! I've been looking all over for you. The cook needs help in the kitchen. Now."
"Yes Marina." Ally mutters as she walks off towards the kitchen. She doesn't even look at Marinas guests. She knows who they are. The Monroe family.
"I cant believe their back in town." She mutters as she enters the kitchen.
"Who?" Melissa, Marinas best cook asks. "The Monroes? I know. And of all places to come Miss Morona."
Ally cant help but laugh at this. She loved Melissa. Out of all of Marinas servants and house maids Melissa is the nicest and sassiest of them all.
"I ran into David Monroe with a door." Ally tells her.
Melissa's laugh bangs off of the walls. "Is he as cute as all these teenagers say now a days?"
"Even cuter." Ally assures her.
"Thats my girl." Melissa pats her on the back.
Right then Maizy and Alissa walk in.
"Ally mom wants to know what's taking so long." Maizy says, rudely. "Oh my god, eww." She says, staring at Ally's muddy clothes.
"It was raining." Ally spits back.
"Whatever. Just get the food cooking faster." They turn away and walk off. Ally can hear them arguing about who gets to sit next to David.
"I have decided I'm not into David Monroe anymore." Ally tells Melissa. Melissa shakes her head and chuckles.
"Oh I doubt that's true." She mutters under her breath. Ally hits her with her rag and they both start working on dinner again, laughing.

Ally walks into the dining hall about 10 minutes later, bringing out the food. She sees David squished between her two sisters and rolls her eyes.
"Foods ready." She announces.
"Finally." Marina groans. "What took you so long?"
"I'm sorry." She mutters while taking the trays around. David looks up at her and seems to be a little surprised that she worked for Marina. After serving dinner she heads back towards the kitchen.
"Why is she eating in the kitchen?" Says a voice at the table. Ally freezes.
"Why David." Says his parents, seemingly shocked that their son would ask such a thing. "She's a maid. Why would she eat with us?"
Ally could feel her heart fall just a bit. Just like she thought, nobody thought of her as just a regular girl.
"She's a maid?" David seemed shocked about that. She walked off before she could hear anything else. She knew that he was going to become one of those people who looked down at her because she was a servant.
Later that night she was lying in bed, thinking about when she accidentally ran into him with a door. She smiled at the part where she saw his face. Even if he was too good for her she still couldn't help falling for him again. But she knew that guys like him never ended up with girls like her. That only happened in books and movies. She closed her eyes and turned on her Ipod and finally fell asleep. Listening to one of her favorite songs. it was by him and it was called…

The next morning Ally rushed out of her house and ran down her hill towards where her best friend Cici's car waited. Her best friend drove a broken down car. It was her grandmas and she gave it to her in her will. Her parents wouldn't let her use one of their cars or buy one until she had the money. So now she had a job of her own. She was planning on buying a convertible in a few months. Ally told her that was probably never going to happen. Especially if she was wanting to get into that dance school she had wanted to so bad.
"Hey girl." Cici said as she got into her car.
"Hey." Ally said, as her friend started her car and they started driving towards school.
"How was dinner?" Cici asked, smiling at her. Ally laughed then told her friend about her great run in with David. "Oh my god. You hit him with a door?" Cici found that hilarious.
"Hey. I didn't realize that he was going to be there." But Ally laughed along with her.
"Is he as hot as everybody says he is?" Cici asked.
"Hotter." They both laughed and kept on talking about Ally's run in with David Monroe all the way to school. When they got to school they once again had to park in a bad parking place. Ally sighed as she got out of the car.
"Oh hey look girls. It's the nerd and her geeky friend." Maddie Clarince says, passing by their car. Maddie was the twins best friend. She was the popular girl at their school.
"That little bitch." Cici growled, hopping out of her side.
"Just ignore her." Ally muttered, glaring after the girls. "She's not worth it." They headed towards the school when a limo passed by them.
"Oh my god!" A girl screamed. "It's HIM!" Teenagers went rushing by them, trying to get at the limo. Ally spun around to see David Monroe getting out of the limo. Of course, she thought. It's him.
"Ohmigod." Cici whispered beside her. "Is that him?"
"Yup." Ally began to walk back to the school.
"Where are you going?" Cici squeaked.
"Um, class?" Ally replied.
"But don't you want to see him?"
"I'd rather not. I think I saw him enough yesterday."
Cici sighed. "Alright. Let's go."

Later that day at lunch Ally wandered over to her usual seat where Cici, her boyfriend Fred and their other friend Sam was sitting. People called the 4 of them "The Nerds" even though they didn't really look or act like nerds. As she was walking over there however someone ran into her, causing her to drop her tray.
"Oh, sorry." She squeaked, leaning down to pick up her stuff just as the guy leaned down too. Their heads bumped. "Ow." Then she looked up and her heart practically stopped. It was David Monroe. He looked up, chuckling then saw her.
"Wow. It seems like we run into each other like this a lot." He muttered. She looked down.
"Sorry." She whispered again, picking up her stuff. He stood up too.
"It's fine. Really." He assured her. "Hey sorry about last night. My parents were really rude."
She stared at him. "What do you mean?"
"I mean," He looked around, rubbing the back of his head. He's uncomfortable, she realized. "About the whole maid thing. Are you really Marina's maid?" She looked away, nodding. "Wow. You just don't strike me as a maid. Especially to that horrible lady." She couldn't help laughing at this. "Where are your parents?"
She stopped laughing and stared at he ground. "You've met her." She muttered.
"Marina?" He stared at her. She nodded.
"Well technically she's my step-mother."
"I'm so sorry." He said, catching her eyes. She looked away.
"Whatever. It doesn't matter to me. She gives me food and shelter and that's all that matters."
"I'm-" He began.
"Well I have to go. Sorry again. Bye." She didn't know what made her be so mean but she didn't feel very comfortable talking about this with him. She turned and walked away before he could even say anything.
"Hey guys." She said, approaching her friends.
"You were talking to David Monroe!" Sam squealed. Ally shrugged.
"She ran into him with a door last night." Cici told them. They all stared at her.
"Thanks Ci." She glared at her friend. Cici shrugged and continued eating her food. Ally sat down next to Sam.
"Tell me everything." Her friend demanded. "Leave nothing out!"
Ally sighed. Sam was obsessed with guys. She could get practically any guy, well if she wasn't a "Nerd" that was. Ally told her about what happened last night, Fred leaned in to listen too. Suddenly a shadow fell across their table. Well technically three shadows fell across their table. Sam groaned.
"Hello Nerds." Maddie Clarince said, looking around at them all, disgust clear on her face.
"Whore." Sam nodded at her.
"Oh you might want to watch out Ham. Your looking a little porky today."
Sam's jaw tightened.
"What do you want Maddie?" Ally asked, not even looking up.
"I saw that you were talking to David. Don't even think about it Nerd. He's mine. Plus, he wouldn't go for a maid like you." Maddie sneered.
"Then I don't get why you are so concerned. Obviously I don't stand a chance with him." Ally retorted back.
"Because I know that you trick people into thinking they like you. So just, stay away from him."
"Done." Ally growled. "Now go away Maddie. You've passed your message on."
"Bye Nerds." Maddie flicked her wrist in a wave as she walked away. The other girls following behind her.
"I would like to kill her." Sam snarled, her fists tightening.
"Don't bother. She's not even worth it." Ally told her. It didn't matter. He would never like a girl like her anyways.

That night she was sitting in her room, trying to work more on her singing and dancing but she couldn't stop thinking about David. She sighed and pushed away from her desk. What did it matter? He wouldn't like her. Just stop thinking about him, she told herself. He's not worth it. He's just some stupid pop-star. Suddenly her phone rang. She looked at the screen. Of course. Cici.
"Hello?" She said, answering it.
"Oh my god! The dance is this friday!" Cici squealed.
"Cici. I'm not going."
"Oh come on! You have to go! We've been preparing ourselves for this