This is for my dear friend Lady Eva! The Funny, lovable Lady Eva, who is unwell at the moment, my Cinderella, Eva-this is for you. Get well soon!
I know its sound rather mean, the step-sisters description and all, but they are known as 'The Ugly Step-Sisters.' But they will redeem themselves in the end.
Ash scrubbed at her step-sisters oversized shoe, though a few sizes to small, it seemed to still be unnecessarily large. Prunnela's large foot squeezed into the leather footwear, making the sides bulge mercilessly.
"Get moving" she squawked "These'll fit fine." She finished, gingerly testing her toe on the polished marble, checking that her bruised foot could withstand such abuse. She hobbled to her feet, and tried, failing miserably to make a graceful departure, in front of her somewhat worthless sister, who had always been considered the servant of the family.
"Stuck-upMmrphpmffghmfhf" Ash muttered to the floor, as Prunella hobbled away, in a rather ungainly manner, out of the room. Polishing the floor was not an easy task, not when your step-sisters had stomped all over the sudd'ed floor with their sodden outdoor boots, having no care whatsoever that Ash had already spent her morning, washing it.
"EEEeepp! Ohh Eek! STELLA!" Came a screech from the hall. Prunnella came tearing into the parlour, despite her splitting boots. It seemed that for a moment she forgot about the wet floor, and only realized a moment too late, for she rushed into the parlour, and at the last moment skidded to a halt, alas, all in vain. She slid halfway across the room, before toppling over a sofa and crashing into the floor, sliding several more feet, before grinding to a halt, limbs and petticoats flailing in the air.
She sat up, amidst the pile of dresses, tablecloths, and legs, blissfully unaware, carefully set curls tumbling from her head. She screeched in her high voice:
"STELLA!"
At this point another ungainly figure bustled into the room, dress flapping, and making a remarkably similar landing to her sister, plopping down across the room.
"Stella, Stella, LOOK!" Prunella waved a now crumbled white envelope in her face, "From the Prince, Stella, from the PRINCE!"
"Give me that!" Stella snatched away the envelope, and held it before her eye's.
"Hey! Thats Mine." Prunella tore it back.
"Excuse me, but I believe I was reading that." Stella pulled at it, Prunella pulled even harder. "It's mine not yours, give it back!"
"If I remember, it had my name on it," Stella said, smugly, still attached to the poor envelope.
"Give it!" Prunella with one hand, pulled on Stella's brown curly hair as hard as she could (she always had hated that silky hair) and puling her fist away, before Stella could bite it, Prunella came away with a fist full of curls.
"AGHHHH!" Stella's eye's bulged, and then fury rose up in her, so enraged at the loss of so many curls, which she took so much pride in, setting them lovingly in curlers each night, and caressing her hair in the mornings with her hairbrush.
Now, I wish to not speak too much on what happened next; this I will tell you though, it turned into a full on fist fight in which the loss of much hair, and bitting ensued until both Prunella and Stella, sat exhausted, too tired to squabble any more, having many bruises and cut's, grieving the hair that now lay on the just polished floor, and rubbing their swollen feet.
Into the Parlour stormed a woman, with a bundle of grey hair squashed into a bun on the top of her head, looking ridiculously like a grey rabbit perched on top of her.
"Prunella! Stella! What do you think you are doing?" Her eye's flashed like snakes feeding on their prey.
"Ahhhh, Prunella bit me, Mother."
"No, Stella took my envelope, Mother." Prunella sniffed looking suspiciously like she might burst into tears at any minute.
"You girls are pathetic." Ash's Step-Mother spat. "Their are letters for all of you." She lifted her nose to the air and sniffed rather airily "Including" She paused and eyed Ash before continuing "Including you Ash."
Stella, and Prunella scrambled up, pushing and pulling each other, to get to the other two envelope's the Step-Mother held in her hand. Stella arrived at her mothers side before Prunella, and she snatched up one of the letters, and held it like a prize in her manicured hands.
"Hey, that one is mine!" Prunella whined
"No, You ripped yours." Stella said triumphantly
"Seeing that you are too pathetic to sort yourselves out, I will read the letters." The Step- Mother snatched back the letter out of Stella's hand, and started to read:
Calling All Eligible Maidens:
A Royal Ball Is To Be Held In The Princes' Honour,
As He Endeavours To Find a Wife,
All Eligible Maidens Are To Attend,
On The Evening Of Saturday, the 9th, at the Royal Palace
Year of our Lord.
"EEee! Thats TONIGHT! EECkk, Epp...!" Prunella danced around the room, though her bruised feet protested loudly enough.
"That's Tonight." The Step-Mother gasped. "Dresses, Dresses! Girls, we must get you dresses!" She called to them "Come along, Stella, Prunella, we must get you two some dresses."
"W-What about me, Step-Mother?" Asked Ash.
"You? You must finish all your work, before you even Think about going." She sniffed and left the room, the step-Sisters trailing haughtily behind.
Ash watched as her family left her kneeling over the floor, soaping the floor she had already cleaned three times. Her reflection stared at her, almost daring her to spit at them. She thought the better of it though, they might give her more work to do which would dash any hope of her being able to go to the ball tonight.
As Ash swept out the last dusty cinders from the fire, her Step-Sisters swept in the room, their oversized noses waving in the air. The wore long dresses that had a bustle at the back, that bounced every time they took a step, and had ridiculous feathers bouncing in their hair. Their shoes were as ill fitting as the one's they proudly wore earlier that day, their feet bulging from the top of the high-heeled footwear.
"Oh, I'm afraid you are too late to go to the ball now Ash, such a pity, isn't it girls?"
"Ghmphh." (Stella shoved her clumsy hand to her mouth to deter a giggle)
"Flesh, Muder" Snorted Prunella,(who I forgot to mention before, had large teeth, that protruded unkindly out of her mouth, that slurred all her words) saliva flying everywhere, meaning to say "Yes Mother."
"Of course." the Step-Mother said, wiping her hand with an oversized handkerchief. "We shall see you...tomorrow, most likely, Ash. We are now leaving to attend the ball, were Stella and Prunella will make marvellous appearances." She eyed them proudly."Well, good night."
She swept from the room, the two sisters trotting behind her.
Ash ran up to her room, in a turret of her fathers mansion, where she had to climb copious flights of stairs to get to the attic, where her Step-Mother 'graced' Ash with a 'lovely' bedroom. She watched as the carriage left the mansion, and trotted into the road. In the distance she could see the Palace, lit up for the Princes' Ball.
"Bibittey, Bobetty, Boo!"
Ash jumped. She turned around to see and old woman floating half off the ground, with some kind of a blue dress or cape on, with a hood draped over her head, and spectacles perched on her nose.
"Heloo, deary" She said squinting at Ash, and pushing the spectacles further up her nose, which promptly fell down again.
"Aaah, who are you?" Ash said pushing her back against the window, and very nearly falling out.
Oh, Me?" She seemed to take the question as an insult "I am your Fairy-God-Mother."
"I have a Fairy-God-Mother?"
"Yes, of course dear. Now if you want to go to the ball, we need to get you ready, because if you went in the state that you are in right now, then..." Bustling over she said "Now where did I put it? No, not there, no not there, is it under here...no not there..." She starting flapping around in her overly large sleeves, and lifting up her petticoats, and fluffing around under her cape.
"Um, what are you doing?' Ash asked looking more and more scared, as the Fairy-God-Mother, swept around the room searching under the bed and table.
"Well...pant pant...I'm looking for my...wand...my wand, you see. I seem to have...misplaced it. Ooh." At that moment she started poking and prodding her arm, and then suddenly her hand shot up and whipped out of her sleeve a long silver rod. She waved it in the air triumphantly, almost sending Ash out the window, as she tried to dodge the lethal stick that came flying at her eye.
"Now, if we give you a...and this..maybe if we add..there, no there..." The Fairy-God-Mother fluffed around Ash, waving her wand around, and using it like a tape measure, mumbling something about measurements and a dress.
Ash was altogether confused, and just moved and spun as The Fairy-God-Mother directed her by her poking and prodding all achieved by the multitasking wand.
"Ahhh" The Fairy-God-Mother stepped back and sighed happily "Now shall we give you a dress! Bibbety...Bobetty, BOO!" She flung her wand towards Ash, and all at once she was covered in glitter swirling around her head and body, weaving a gown.
It was white as snow, and glittered like a fountain frothing.
"Oh, it's beautiful! Thank You!" Ash breathed, squeezing the God-Mother into a hug.
"Oh ah, quite right, ahh, deary" Said the God-Mother squirming, and flapping her arms trying to escape Ash's bear hug and breath some oxygen.
"Oh, sorry". Ash backed away sheepishly, smoothing her flowing dress, which may have gotten creased in the process of expressing her thanks.
"Quite right." This phrase seemed to be the Fairy-God-Mother's favourite line "Now I shall make you some sort of transport, and then..." She lapsed again into an intranslatable mumbling.
"Bibbety...Bobetty, BOO!" Appeared a Pumpkin, with a intricate door carved into the side, with little lamps bobbing up and down inside.
"Oh, Thank you!" Ash squealed, and hugged the Fairy-God-Mother, and then jumped into the coach. Waving out the window, the carriage speed out the rickety window of the attic, and flew over the hills; and across to the palace.
Sound Familiar?
Good. Because that's where it ends.
The rest is a roller coaster of fairy tales, that you won't even imagine could ever be in Cinderella.
You will know them though, when you see them.
Thanks everyone! Eva, I hope you get better soon. I wrote this whilst listening Drew Ryniewicz - What A Feeling - X Factor USA. If you want to read this while listening to the same song, look it up on you-tube.
The next chapters will be coming soon, Dear Eva!
