Cinderella-Mary's Point of View

Ever since our mother married John Jones, our lives have never been the same. With a new house, new town and a new sister, we were in for a whole new start. Now, we're sure you know the story of our darling step sister Cinderella, right? And how we're supposed to be evil and ugly?

In reality, we're not. Cinderella is just a stuck up girl. All she cared about was herself. Before her father died, he would ask her politely to wash the floor, make supper, do the dishes, and do the laundry.

It was just for the first few months, because he wanted us to feel welcome. Cinderella had already finished her schooling a few months before the wedding, and we had to stop our schooling to help with the wedding.

But, she thought we were getting special treatment from her father, so she has hated us from the start. When her father died, three months after his marriage to our mother, we offered to help her with the chores, but she just yelled at us and told us that they were her job.

And the next thing we know, while she was out with her new husband she told the reporter of the Daily News and telling them that we forced her to do all of the chores. She also told them that when the mice made a dress for her-for the king's ball, that we ran up and ripped it apart. Did we really? No, not entirely. Alice just wanted the bead necklace around her neck because she had gotten it from our great grandmother before she passed away. As Cinderella and Alice fought I tried to reason with them, but when I found out that reasoning was no use, I ran and got our mother. And she sure straightened them out. Both of them ended up crying, Cinderella because her dress was ruined, and Alice because Great Grandma Erma's necklace was broken.

When we went to the ball with our mother, Cinderella had shut herself up in her room. We were worried, but our mother said that she would be okay in the morning. So, we put her in the back of our minds and thought of all the fun we would have when we got to the ball. When we got to the ball, a few boys came and asked us to dance, and we agreed.

We really didn't was to marry the prince, we were only sixteen. But our mother wanted us to have a good husband, and she thought that the prince was the best choice. Alice and I didn't want to disappoint her, so we went to the ball, and danced with the prince.

We were planning on having a good time, we were planning on making our mother proud, but one thing we weren't planning on was seeing Cinderella walk down the grand stair case in a bea-UTIFUL dress! All the boys' eyes were on her. Alice and I had recognized Cinderella right away, and our mother might have to, but at the time, she was to busy talking to the king.

The prince was completely baffled and ran away from Alice to Cinderella. Alice was left standing in the middle of the dance floor, surrounded by couples dancing. She ran over to mother and me crying and mumbling how Cinderella had ruined her dance. But she's gotten over it.

The day after the party, there were signs everywhere, saying 'Whoever's foot can fit this slipper, will be the prince's wife' or something like that. The women around town were going crazy at the thought of being married to the prince. It was a stampede to the carriage as it rolled down the street. As the carriage came to the last house on the street -our house- Alice and I heard a rustling above us. It seemed as if Cinderella had heard of the message and was getting ready for the prince and his companion to come into our house.

First the old man squished and turned, and squeezed the slipper onto my foot, but then it popped right off. He then went to Alice, who's foot was too long for it to fit, and then to my mother, who's foot was to wide for it to fit. Then, Cinderella came running down the stairs, and pushed mother off the chair, grabbed the slipper, and slipped it onto her foot. A perfect fit.

That was the last we ever saw of Cinderella. Sure, we saw her on the posters around town showing off the wedding of Cinderella and the prince, and in the paper's. But that was the last time we actually saw her. She didn't even have the courtesy to invite us to the wedding but, all the mice in the basement were invited.

Alice and I have read fairy tales, the ones about Snow White and Little Red Riding Hood. All of them have a happy ending.

Cinderella's life will end happy, and I'm sure that she will be the one praised in a fairy tale, of her very own. The fairy tale will be her side of the story. The side she makes up, it will not have this story, or more importantly, the truth. All it will have is lies, the ones Cinderella wanted to make into reality. How do I know this? Alice and I were spring cleaning one year, Alice and I found a little book entitled 'My Dream Life' written by Cinderella. The book turned out to be the life Cinderella always wanted and it turns out, it was the one she got.

By the time anyone finds this story, Alice and I will be long gone. No one will know who we are. Cinderella only calls us 'the evil stepsisters' when all we tried to do was help her and be kind to her.

In years to come we will find out that what we thought would happen, won't happen to us. We don't get married; we don't get a proper job. When Cinderella married, she made sure of that. We're just, the famous Cinderella's evil twin stepsisters.

Every fairy tale has a happy ending. And most people wish for one themselves. But in my opinion, in real life, there are no such things as happy endings, Cinderella's life will have one, but as hard as you try, as much research as you do, the story of Alice and Mary Jones doesn't have a happy ending.

Kaitlin Bronn