Disclaimer: The plot and the characters do not belong to any of us. The characters belong to Joss Whedon and the plot basically follows 'A Cinderella Story'.

A/N: This story will be co-written with my really good friend and Buffy-Charmed fanatic,psycho-fangirl a.k.a. Aradhna. She's got a really good story up, but she hasn't updated in quite a while. (Hint hint!)As I said before, the plot belongs to 'A Cinderella Story'. This story is AU and we might change the characters' personalities as we go along.

Chapter 1

I used to believe in fairy tales. Every night my dad would read them to me. I had no mom. It was just me and my dad. My mum had died when I was very little because of cancer. My dad owned this quaint little café in Sunnydale named Jenny's named after my mom.

But apparently Rupert Giles, Faith's father,did not think so. There was still one person he felt Faith needed. Someone to be her mother. Enter Gwendolyn Post. After a few months they had gotten married. Faith wasn't too happy, but she had tried her best to get along with Gwendolyn and her two daughters, Drusilla and Harmony. Drusilla was the older than Faith and Harmony by a year, and sometimes Faith felt that she was crazy too.

Then it happened. Rupert died in a car crash. Faith felt as though her world had shattered around her, and she had refused to wear anything but black for a whole month. Her father had loved to read her fairy tales, and Faith's favourite was Cinderella. Now she felt just like the character in the story. A girl, orphaned, raised by her evil stepmother, made to do all the housework while her stepmother and wicked stepsisters looked on, laughing. It had started out with Faith moving her room to the basement, so Drusilla could have her room. Then, when Faith was twelve, Gwendolyn had made her start work as a waitress in the café, which she had renamed Gwen's.

Now, four and a half years later, Faith sat at the computer in her room, smiling as her fingers flew over the keyboard, interacting with someone she only knew as thebloody. She was CinderellasFaith, and she loved talking to him, whether it was texting, or e-mailing, or even IM. All she knew was that he was her dream guy. Perfect, sweet and someone who kinda knew what she was going through. Someone who…connected with her.

"Faith!" her stepmother's screechy voice drifted down the stairs, breaking into Faith's happy thoughts. "Faith! Get up here right now!"

CinderellasFaith: Ugh, stepmom's pissed agein. I really really gotta go…

TheBloody: A few more minutes… come on… she wont mind…

CinderellasFaith: That's what you think!

TheBloody: then later?

CinderellasFaith: Later….

TheBloody: Promise?

CinderellasFaith: Yes… Bye

"FAITH!"

She closed the window and shut down her computer, sitting in the chair for just another minute, still smiling as she thought of him. She didn't know who he was. All she knew was that she was in love.

She stood up and headed up the stairs to the hall before her stepmother got a sore throat yelling for her. Not that she cared.

"There you are. Where's my breakfast?" Gwendolyn snapped, dressed in a short orange tube dress that did nothing to hide the fat that stuck out from everywhere.

Faith mentally puked. "Working on it," she said, heading to the kitchen. She remembered that she had an algebra test during the first period, and she stopped and turned around to face Gwendolyn. "Oh, I can't go to the café now 'cause I got a really big algebra test this morning and-"

She was cut off. "I don't care how big it is, you are going to the café and that's that. Now get me my breakfast before I'm late for my appointment!"

Faith sighed again and turned, heading to the kitchen to whip up a delicious batch of pancakes. About fifteen minutes later, when breakfast was ready on the table, the Wicked Stepsisters floated down the stairs and into the kitchen, first the crazy one and then the peroxide-blond hairspray bimbo. Or Drusilla and Harmony. They were closely followed by their mother, whose stilettos clicked so loudly on the floor that Faith was glad she had to leave for the café then. She grabbed her bag from the table and started out the back door.

"Where are you going?" Gwendolyn demanded.

"To the café," Faith called over her shoulder, stating the obvious.

She got into her car – a run-down faded blue convertible – and drove off towards the café, thinking that maybe she could do some last-minute studying there since Gwendolyn wouldn't be there. Tara and the others would totally understand. She smiled.

A/N: Well. This is the first chapter. How'd you like it? Cookies are a big hit with the reviewers of my other stories, so help yourself to chocolate-chip cookies (with nuts) on your way to the little blue button that says 'Submit Review' okay?