Edward Is Cinderella
Dana Kay
Once upon a time, there was a young man named Edward, who lived with his evil step-family. He could have been handsome, had the soot from the fireplace and dust from the kitchen counter tops not covered him from head to toe. His family, you see, was evil.
His stepmother Esme sent him to work on the dusting and the dishes while his stepfather had him do some of the more dirty work, like cleaning the gutters and, as listed before, dirtied himself by cleaning the ash and soot from the fireplace each winter night. In summer, he was cut a break from this dirty job; he was set instead to pull weeds, mow the lawn, tend to the garden, and plow their newly bought farmland. To make matters worse, he was not allowed to use his vampire speed or strength to accomplish any of these tasks. His life was, needless to say, miserable.
The one freedom Edward had in his life was schooling. The hours he spent at school were the happiest ones of his life, even though the humans around him had fresh smelling blood that craved his thirst and drove him wild. But luckily, through his many years as a vampire, he was able to control himself enough to keep from killing those around him and life a somewhat normal school life.
And then there was Bella.
Bella, who had just moved to their town that year, was dubbed the Princess of the school. She was beautiful, funny and smart, and she was rich from the lottery her father had won earlier that year. She owned a fine mansion, equipped with the largest ballroom in the state.
So for her birthday, she held a ball.
All of the students in the school were invited, as well as Edward's siblings and even Edward himself. Formal attire was the dress code, and Edward couldn't be more excited. Finally, he would be able to meet the Princess!
When he showed the little invitation to his stepparents and siblings that evening, there was an uproar.
"Why must Edward go to the ball?" Rosalie whined. "He is hideous! And he is not like the rest of us. He is practically a servant!"
"I want a fluffy pink dress for the ball, mother, and if we have to spend money renting Edward a tux, then there won't be enough money for me to get the dress I want!" Alice cried to her parents.
"He is filthy," was all Jasper said.
"He is filthy and he has no chance with the Princess. As if she would look twice upon someone like him!" Emmett scoffed.
"Quiet down, quiet down," Carlisle hushed his four beautiful children. Edward stood silently, expecting the worst.
"Carlisle," Edward began. "I don't need a fancy tux or anything like that. I can make my own clothing, if need be. I just want to go, no more than that. I don't even need to show up with you, if you'd rather not be seen with me," Edward said to him.
Carlisle paused for a moment to think about this idea. Then Esme spoke.
"I don't mind if you attend this ball," she said to her stepson, to which the remaining four children immediately lashed out with complaints. "So long as you finish your chores. And you must purchase a tuxedo yourself, or make one, like you said. I will waste no money on you when a beautiful fluffy pink dress is awaiting my little Alice in the store."
"Carlisle?" Edward acknowledge, his stepfather still deep in thought.
"I will agree with your stepmother, but she missed one final point: you must not show up with us. I am embarrassed enough to call you family. To bring you along with us on this fine occasion would be a black mark on our record as a respectable lot."
Edward nodded, his eyes on the floor. "Thank you Carlisle. I will be sure to do exactly as you say." And with that he left and began to do his chores.
Edward worked harder than ever to complete his tasks in time for the ball. He used his vampire speed and strength to accomplish everything he was ordered to do in record time, being extremely cautious as to not let his family notice him doing so. Though somehow he couldn't complete his chores fast enough; there was always some new task to complete. It seemed as if his family were throwing more and more chores at him at a time, each and every one of them more difficult to complete than the last. And on top of that, the chores he swore he had just completed the day before need to be done again. And he still had yet to start on his outfit, if he was ever going to finish his chores at all.
Finally, the day of the ball had arrived, and Edward had finished all of his chores, but he still had no outfit, and he had no time to bathe properly, so he was still completely filthy. He spoke of this problem to Carlisle just as his family was about to leave.
"Well, then. I suppose you won't be able to go to the ball." And with an evil vampiric laugh from his evil vampiric family, they left the house in high spirits, eager to have a spectacular night without the nuisance of Edward to spoil it.
Edward ran to his room and cried for what felt like hours before someone appeared in the room beside him.
He screamed and backed into a corner before the man quieted him.
"Shh, you pathetic fool, I'm here to help you," he said loudly. The man was wearing a pink tutu and his hair was done up in a series of bow-shaped barrettes. In his hand he carried a magic wand.
"Wh-who are you?" Edward stammered, noticing the man looked somewhat familiar.
"Why, I'm your Fairy Godfather," the man said. "My name is Charlie."
"Wait, aren't you Bella's father?" Edward asked, now realizing where he had seen him before.
"Um, yeah. You might not want to tell her about this. . . . It may upset her," Charlie finally said.
"Oh." Edward paused for a moment before asking the inevitable question "What are you doing here?"
"Why, I'm here to get you to the ball. Even if your family hates you, I sure don't," he said with a grin. Edward returned it awkwardly.
"But how can I get there? I am filthy and I haven't got a tuxedo. Or shoes, for that matter," he said now that he thought of it.
"That's no problem at all!" Charlie cried. He waved his magic wand and all of a sudden, Edward was clean, his beautiful bronze hair reflecting the light miraculously as he stared and his shining, pure white skin. He was wearing a black tuxedo with no tie, the highest button undone at the top. His shoes were black and oddly comfortable. . . .
"Why am I wearing slippers?!" Edward exclaimed as he examined the fuzzy, wolf-shaped things. He scowled. How ironic, he thought, his hatred of werewolves growing.
"Oh, oops." Charlie waved his wand at Edward's feet, but nothing happened. "Oh, look's like I'm out of magic for the day. Looks like you'll just have to deal with them."
"What?!" Edward hissed.
"Hey, you just be happy I helped you in the first place," Charlie told him sternly. "Oh, by the way, you only have until midnight in that outfit. Then you go back to being all dirty and ugly and then my daughter will hate you forever."
"No pressure then," Edward mumbled before looking at the clock. "It's already eleven o'clock!" he cried out.
"Yeah, so you better hurry," Charlie said happily before evaporating into a cloud cherry-scented bubbles and popping loudly all over Edward's room.
Edward, realizing he had no form of transportation to get to Bella's home, ran at vampire speed so he could arrive before the spell expired. He made it there at eleven thirty.
All around him, couples were dancing. It took Edward a moment to locate Bella. She was dancing with a tall, younger boy. He was a werewolf name Jacob.
"Excuse me," he said to Jacob as he approached them mid-waltz. "But do you mind if I take over?"
Jacob scowled but let go of Bella and walked away.
"He seems quite the talker," Edward said cheerfully as he took Bella in his arms. They began to dance, as Edward was an excellent ballroom dancer and he knew exactly what he was doing. "I'm Edward, by the way."
"I'm Bella," she said breathlessly. Edward realized then he must have looked pretty damn attractive without all that soot and dust covering his face and dirtying his hair.
They danced for half an hour, completely enraptured with each other. Edward was fascinated by this beautiful young woman, and she smelled really good to him, too. He couldn't be sure of what she was thinking, but she never made a move to stop dancing with him, so they continued until their ankles were sore and their breathing was fast.
Or at least, Edward would have liked it to have gone that far. The clock chimed twelve times before he realized how late it was, and with a quick goodbye to Bella, he left unhappily before the spell wore off.
What he didn't realize, however, was that his family had been watching him the entire time.
"Get up," Esme hissed at him the following morning.
"What time is it?" Edward said drowsily.
"Time for you to get the hell out of bed," she practically yelled. It was then that Edward realized what must have been wrong.
"How dare you! How dare you! I feed you and provide you with a home and this is how I'm rewarded? You ungrateful boy! You're lucky I don't kill you here and now!" she shrieked.
Rather that angering her further by asking what was wrong, Edward instead apologized. "I'm sorry," he said.
"Oh shut up!" she cried. "You are never attending school again! You will do nothing but eat, work and sleep, and you'll be lucky if I let you do even that! Now go make breakfast!" she screeched before storming out of the room, slamming the door on her way out.
Edward rose out of bed, but he did not go to make breakfast right away. Instead, he moved to his desk, where a laptop sat and waited for him to use it. He wanted to check the school website, where the students posted the latest gossip, to see if there was anything about Bella and the ball.
Sure enough, there was news.
There was a photo of him (though it was hardly recognizable) dancing with Bella on the front page of their website. Edward grinned and began to read the latest bulletin.
"Last night, I was dancing with the most amazing man I have ever met in my life," Bella herself had posted. "But I only got his first name, and I don't think he even went to our school." Edward realized he really must have been completely unrecognizable. "All I have of him is this cute, wolf-shaped slipper. If you are the owner of this slipper, please email me. Thank you." Below it, there was a picture of the slipper Edward had worn last night!
I have to get out of here, he thought to himself, wondering how on earth that would be possible. His family surely wouldn't let him out of the house . . . yet it would be easy enough for him to jump out of the window and run to her home.
And that's exactly what he did.
Out of the window he jumped, and soon enough, Bella's house came in to view. He picked up his speed, wanting desperately to claim the slipper as his own.
Unfortunately, he wasn't the only one with this idea.
Outside of her house, there was a line a mile long of teenage boys waiting to try on the slipper and prove it was them who was dancing with Bella last night. Edward scowled. Even in the line, Emmett and Jasper were waiting their turn to try on the slipper, regardless of their current statuses as husbands to Alice and Rosalie. Edward made sure to stand far away from them as to not be seen.
Finally, after a great many young men had their turns (all to no avail), Edward stepped forward to try on the slipper.
Bella held it out and put it on his foot herself. To her surprise and Edward's expectation, it fit perfectly.
"It fits! It fits!" Bella exclaimed. "But you can't be the boy I was dancing with yesterday! You don't look anything like him!"
Realizing just how filthy he was, Edward proceeded to explain his current situation.
"So you see," he explained to her after a while. "I have very little time to do things other than work. I was lucky when my parents allowed me to go to school."
"You're not allowed at school anymore?" Bella asked. "What school did you used to go to?"
"I went to the same school as you," Edward replied.
"No way! But I've never seen you before!" Bella exclaimed.
"I guess you didn't recognize me," Edward said with a shrug.
"Is there any way your parents will let you come to school again?" she asked.
"No. I had to sneak out to get here. My family . . . hates me," he said with a sob.
Bella put her arm around him while he wept. "Here, you can come live with me," she told him. "I have plenty of room in our mansion. And just wait until you meet Charlie!"
Edward hiccuped. "You really mean it?" he asked.
"Of course. You can live here as long as you like. We'll live happily ever after!" And they did.
The End :)
