I forgot to mention it, but Mabel also bought a red mask to wear to the ball. **************************************************************************** **************

That afternoon I went upstairs to give Ella back her shoes. I had finished all of my tasks and with Belinda no where to be found, I was free to do as I liked. As I approached her door, I heard crying from within the room. This struck me by surprise. Ella never truly cried, she just sort of screamed and tears came out of her eyes. But this sounded like someone was extremely upset in there. Opening the door a crack, I saw Ella sitting on the floor, her leg wrapped in bandages from her hip to her foot. I bit my lip. It looked like her leg was indeed broken. I was about to enter, when the air next to Ella started to shimmer and glow. I didn't move from my spot, just watched as slowly, out of nowhere, a woman appeared. Ella was just as surprised as I was- she gave a sort of surprised hiccup and fell backwards.

There was nothing normal about this woman. She was covered, head to toe, in an almost blinding light. She wore a pale blue dress that seemed to be covered with diamonds of all different sizes. Her hair seemed to be a pale blonde, almost white and her face held the look of a concerned mother. I couldn't decipher too much else because of the glare coming off of her. Ella wasn't to happy about this either. I suppose I couldn't blame her. If a glowing person randomly showed up in my room, I'd be annoyed as well. "Do you mind?" Ella snarled, covering her eyes. The woman gave an offended sigh and toned down the glow. She looked like something out of a fairy tale story. Had she wings, I would have guessed she was a fairy. Since not, I decided on nymph. Ella just sat there gaping at her. "Who. who are you?" she whispered.

The woman rolled her eyes. "I'm your fairy godmother, Tina. Who else do you think would care this much about you?" As much as I disliked Ella, that was no way to speak to someone, especially someone in pain. Ella glared at her. "Some godmother you are." Ella said icily. "If you really cared about me then you would have nipped this problem at the bud." The fairy examined her wand leisurely. "You mean when the prince visited? I don't have the power to make anyone fall in love." Her words took both me and Ella by surprise. Ella paled. "How did you know about that?" she breathed. Tina smirked. "I know everything about you. Like how you won't be able to see him tomorrow at the ball because you disobeyed your mother and broke your leg because of it." Ella looked helplessly at the her, then burst into tears once again.

Tina leaned in closely to Ella, her expression softening. "Do you love the prince?" Ella nodded miserably. "No I mean do you truly love him?" the fairy lifted Ella's chin, looking her in the eye. "Are you willing to sacrifice it all for him? If he wasn't the prince, would you still marry him?" Ella met Tina's gaze steadily. "Yes." She said. Tina let go of her face and slowly stood up. Then she clapped her hands. "Very well then, problem solved." Ella lifted her tear stained face to look at the crazed creature. "What are you mad? I can't go to the ball like this." She gasped, gesturing to her leg. Tina sighed. "I'll fix that. You will have from 9 till midnight with out a broken leg. That's all my powers can do. After that, you'll be on your own. I don't suggest hobbling around the dance floor." She smiled at her own joke. Ella regarded the fairy with suspicion. "What do you want in return." Tina stood up tall. "Oh you humans, you think that when ever someone helps you, they always want something in return. I'm your fairy godmother. I delight in helping my poor human subject." Ella giggled and she stopped her obviously memorized speech. "How about those gorgeous blue satin slippers and the string of opals?" "Done" Ella said, sitting up and brushing herself off. "And Tina, thank you." Tina smirked and disappeared in that awful glowing act.

I waited a few minutes before knocking on the door. Then I entered and gave Ella's shoes to her. Her eyes were dancing. I quickly left, questions in my head. Ella love the prince? She loved him enough to give away jewels and shoes for him? She loved him enough to cry over him? Did Ethan love me that much? Did I love HIM that much? And why didn't I have a fairy godmother?

The next day passed with out incident and eight o'clock came around much too fast. The house was filled with scathes and scathes of cloth, the cooing of polite thank yous, and an occasional shriek. Ella was the only one who actually remained calm and silent through all of this. She kept to her room, claiming she was ill. I knew she was probably just as busy as the rest of us, trying on her dress, fussing with her hair, but I let it slide, nothing I could do about it. Finally Ann, Nina, Madame and Sir were all on their way out to the coach. I held the door open, suppressing a snicker. Madame looked like a rather large, yellow-and-pink cream puff. She had difficulty waddling into the coach, but eventually managed to fit in. Then they were off, leaving me here. All the other servants had gone, so that left me with Ella and Belinda.

I decided to go to sleep. At 9 o'clock, movement woke me up. I saw Ella, her leg perfectly fine. She had on her dress, her jewelry, the whole ensemble. But something was missing. I looked again and realized she wasn't wearing any shoes. But wait, she WAS wearing shoes! The idiot was still wearing those god-awful glass slippers of hers. I wouldn't be surprised if she broke her neck while getting to the ball. I almost got up and told her about her stupidity, but something held me back. Besides, if she knew that I knew about her leg, I would probably be a corpse in the back alley by sunrise. I lay still and watched her slip out of the house. I waited ten more agonizing minutes until I was sure she was gone. Then I set about to get ready myself.

First I tiptoed upstairs and used Ella's bathtub to bathe in. I was careful to light only one candle and to not splash. I used all of Ella's different soaps, save for the one I had put dye into. Why she didn't use this one yet, I didn't know, but it didn't really matter. I didn't think she was that smart to figure out it wasn't shampoo, she just didn't notice it yet or something. Bath done, I slowly crept downstairs, stark naked, to get my dress on. I had just rounded to corner by the dining room, when I heard a loud snort. I instinctively jumped back behind the wall, waiting to hear Belinda's voice or footsteps come around the corner. When nothing happened, I peeked around the corner.

It appeared that Ella had already taken care of Belinda. She lay, snoring, at the dining room table, wine bottle in hand. I guessed that there was more in that bottle than just wine. I tiptoed back to my room, leaving her there as a nice surprise to Madame and Sir once they got back. Entering my room, I unfolded my dress, my gorgeous dress. Slipping the dress on, I felt giddy with happiness. It didn't matter now that I wasn't sure about Ethan. It didn't matter what I had done to get this far. What mattered was it had happened, and this was to be a night I wouldn't forget. Once the dress was on, I slipped back upstairs to do my hair. Braiding Ella's so many times gave me experience- in no time I had achieved a complicated array of braiding and curls atop my head. It wasn't much, but it let my head move freely and didn't look nearly as bad as my usual style. The touches of make- up came next. I didn't dare use too much as Ella was sure to notice, but I used enough to brighten my face. Not that anyone would see it, but oh well.

After that, the jewelry and the shoes were last. I decided to take a glance in the mirror. I turned, expecting the worse, but was met with a pleasant surprise. I didn't look half bad. Maybe even. pretty. I grinned foolishly and swept into a deep curtsy. "How do you do Ethan dear?" I cooed to my reflection. "So wonderful to see you. Then Belinda let out a snort that almost made me ruin my dress. Grabbing my mask, I quickly ran out the front door and onto the street.

Once outside, I stood on the front step, drinking in the cool evening breeze like a refreshing draught. Tonight was going to be amazing, I told myself. Then I started down the street. The castle wasn't too far away, but I had to hurry a bit. I had gone about a block when suddenly, I was met with insane laughter. Whirling around, I came face-to-face with an old crone. Well not exactly face-to-face. She only came up to my waist. She tipped a bit and spoke in a slurred voice. "Areeeeee you that *hiccup* one servant girrrl? Mabbbbeelllll?" she asked. "Um, yes, that's me" I said, not sure whether it was a good idea to tell her or not. The woman grinned and slapped me on the butt. "I'veee been lookin all over fer yerrrrr. I'm yerrr *hiccup* fairy godmather, Diane. I heard you's been wantin to go to the ball. Gonna help you some."

If I wasn't already running a bit late, I would have laughed and questioned her. So I did have a fairy godmother. She was a drunken lunatic on the street. Oh well, I suppose that servants get the lower ones. "Look, Diane, I don't need your help" "Sure ya do!!!" she yelled. "Yer not gonna win the prince's heart in THAT." I was hurt, amused and angry at the same time. I decided to be amused so she wouldn't try anything stupid. "Look, I really don't..." But that was as far as I got before Diane raised her wand. "Any guy who loooksss at yer *hiccup* face'll see his true love. That's the only way I can seee you gettin the prince honey." With that she tapped me on the head. Actually she hit me on the head. It hurt. I was about to do something about her, when I heard a yell form across the street. Looking over, I saw a man I had never seen before, running at me full speed. "Jeanette!" he yelled "My sweet, what are you doing here? Give your love a kiss!" I panicked. Running was not an option and of course Diane was no where to be seen, so I did the only thing I could think of. I quickly tied my mask around my head, stopping the man within an inch of me.

Scratching his head, he stammered an apology. "Dreadfully sorry miss, but you see, I thought you were my wife, Jeanette. I can't understand why." "It's quite all right. Perhaps I looked like her in this moonlight?" I asked hopefully. The man bit his lip. "No, that's the strangest. Jeanette is balding, extremely fat, and has mottled skin." I decided to make it my lifelong goal to find my fairy godmother and kill her.