No magic wand for this Cinderella

She stood again in the middle of that Amazon of grey suits and sharp heels. This time, a smile passed those lips, only quivering to try and conceal the secret she let show with her mouth. As the faces passed her by in the street, her human counterparts, a faint blush crossed her cheeks, embellishing that pale complexion if only for a moment. Her eyes, still wide, sparkled with a pleasant delight that could not be concealed, as could her smile, with the steady of a hand.

The phones were still ringing, the shoes still tapping, and the horns still beeping - this time, however, they did not entice a bedlam of sound in her ears. Instead, it created a beautiful rush of harmony, as the world turned in its glorious mosaic of life. This time, her not-so-perfect toes started drumming thoughtfully in her pair of worn-in sneakers. It was still raining, to be sure, but this time it seemed to fall in a rhythym that strung all the sounds of this scene into a perfect symphony of color and vitality. The smile in the corner of her mouth had not yet faded, but only grew bigger than the ability to conceal it, and she stepped into the rain..

and this time, she was dancing.

Alone

She stood in the middle of her concrete jungle, a gawky tower of pale flesh, mouth quivering, eyes wide. Her hands trembled a little and she unconsciously lifted one hand to her stomach and the other as if to steady her colorless lips from quaking.

There was no comfort in this moment.

She felt abandoned amidst the rush of people, estranged from her culture of cacophony; there were no friends here, only mankind churning through each other, shoes tapping the sidewalks, phones disturbing women's purses, horns beeping their own distainful tune.

She began to nibble on her left thumbnail, and her perfectly manicured toes shifted uncomfortably in her too-tight black heels. No matter how hard she tried, with her hair meticulously in place, her blush obsessively swept over her cheek, her shirt pressed three times for good measure - no matter how much she wanted to belong, to walk next to these human partners in society with that confidence she saw in seemingly every other face - no matter any of that, she could not feel what she wanted so desperately to feel; she just wanted to feel okay. She wanted to feel human, a part of her race, and not simply pressed over and over by its throngs.

Mustering all the strength she had left in her small, still-trembling hands, she opened her umbrella, and stepped out into the rain..