Disclaimer: I do not own the glorious Rodger's and Hammerstein's interpretation of Cinderella. So don't sue! Haha, that's my teacher's name. :D
AN: I want you all to know this has nothing to do with Disney cartoon Cinderellas. This is for the "real people" version with Brandy as Cinderella, Whitney Houston as the Fairy Godmother, and Bernadette Peters as the Step Mother. Whose name, in this story, will be Helenette.
Helenette had not always been the way you see her in the movie. Vain, selfish, uncaring - ask anyone who knew her a decade previous. Five years, for that matter. That was the farthest down on the list of adjectives to describe Helenette. She had once been a person who was very selfless, loving, and could care less about what she looked like or what others thought of her. This is a story from the past. This is the story of Helenette's downfall from possibly the nicest person you could meet to the meanest.
It all started when Helenette was seventeen. The year she met James. The father of her two children. He'd been so sweet, gentle, and caring in the beginning. He treated her like a princess. Helenette's parents liked him, all her friends liked him, and she had fallen completely in love with him. When she was a legal adult at the age of eighteen they got married. As the cliche goes, that's when things went wrong. The night of their wedding something about James changed. He started to treat her differently. The smallest things would set him off.
"James, I can walk," Helenette stated while James attempted to carry her through the threshold. "Really. I don't want to spoil the evening but, please, put me down," she politely requested of him. James unceremoniously dropped her to her feet. Helenette landed in an uncomfortable position. "Geez, you trying to kill me?" she asked as she slowly got to her feet. The look on James' face scared her. She'd never seen him look so angry before. "James?" she asked while wrapping her arms around him. "Honey?" she asked looking up at his face after getting no response. James shoved her harshly away.
"Get off me!" he yelled. Helenette staggered over to the bed, shocked. Tears were pricking at the corner of her eyes.
"What's the matter with you?" she asked in a choked whisper.
"Just take that ridiculous dress off and get it over with," James ordered menacingly. Frightened of what he might do if she didn't do as was told Helenette obeyed.
Their wedding night was not a happy one. It was brutal and painful. It felt to Helenette almost as if she were giving birth when in reality she was actually in the process of getting pregnant. When it was over James turned his back to Helenette before he slept. If nothing before had been enough proof, Helenette was now sure that the man she had just slept with was not the same man she had married. A tear trickled out her eye. What have I done? she wondered.
James abandoned Helenette halfway through her pregnancy. Helenette had never felt so alone. Even worse, she had to lie about his absence to her family and friends. She also had to lie about the numerous bruises found on her body by saying she'd slipped or fallen or whatever. He'd said he would kill her and her unborn child (children, little did he know) if she ever told anyone about him abandoning her. Through it all, Helenette's bubbly personality was there. If she could have nothing else, she would cling to her optimistic view of life.
When the babies came, two girls whom she named Minerva and Calliope, she could no longer hold in the secret. She told her parents about all that James had done and the result was him being arrested for life, plus on restraining order on Helenette and her two children. The children would have their mother's maiden name as their own and her married name would no longer be. Except for the two children as constant reminders of her marriage, said marriage was legally anolled. It never happened. If only that were true.
Years later, when Minerva and Calliope were ten, and Helenette was twenty-nine, Helenette met and married Stephen who was recently widowed and had a ten year old daughter of his own. Stephen was much better to Helenette than James. Much better. On their wedding night Helenette was overwhelmed with the horrible memories to her wedding night with James and was shaken with tears. Stephen held her and calmed her. When he later asked what had got her so upset she poured her heart out to him. He listened intently and felt deep sympathy for her. Helenette had never felt safer. This man, she knew, was her true love. Not only that, he was her brick wall, support system, security blanket, whatever synonym-similies you could think of, that's what he was to her. Everything in her life was finally perfect. He loved her and her daughters, she loved him and his.
Five years later when the children were fifteen Stephen just collapsed to the floor. Helenette ran over to where he had fell and knelt next to him. "Honey, are you alright?" she asked worriedly, stroking his face, trying to get him to look at her.
"Call a hospital," he requested of her. Helenette's heart caught in her throat. Don't you dare die on me! she thought. Don't you dare,
"Okay, honey, I'll be right back," Helenette ran to the kitchen and called a hospital. An ambulance was on its way. She returned to Stephen. He didn't look to good. Helenette gripped onto his hand. "Please be alright," she pleaded. "Please be alright," she repeated. Tears were streaming down her face.
"Bring me my daughter," Stephen requested. Helenette left to do so. When she returned she knew that the ambulance would arrive too late. He was going to die, right there. His daughter, now just as distraught as she, was at her father's side. "Please, Ella. Stay with them as a family," he told her. "I love you," he whispered faintly. Then he was gone.
Helenette couldn't take it. She was overcome with sobs and was completely broken. That was the day she changed. She would never again be the kind person of years before. Her true love, her brick wall, her support system, and her security blanket died. He hadn't even said good bye to her or told her that he loved her one last time before he left. He'd said goodbye to his daughter though. That was just the last straw. That girl hadn't been through as much as Helenette had - and she got Stephen's last words when Helenette hadn't gotten any. She didn't deserve his goodbye and Helenette did. He had been her savior and without him Helenette's world came crashing, spiwhirling down around her. That was it. No longer could Helenette be nice to anyone in the world. All it seemed to do was cause heartbreak.
That, dear reader's, is how Helenette came to be so mean and heartless. She gave her heart to the world, who abusively used it and gave it back so badly damaged it couldn't again be repaired.