When Ella turned 18, her father had an important announcement to make.
He was remarrying!
Dame Olga, Ella's new stepmother, arrived with her two daughters, Hattie and Olive.
Hattie was very vain.
Olive was… a little lost in her own world.
"I thought you said you lived in a castle!" remarked Dame Olga, staring at the unimpressive-looking house.
"A man's home is his castle!" replied Ella's Father.
Hattie and Olive wasted no time in getting acquainted with Ella.
The three of them were going to be stepsisters.
"Didn't you hear?" beamed Hattie, looking as though she was about to burst with excitement. "Prince Char's opening a new mall in person!"
Olive could only squeal in delight, bouncing up and down like a bunny in a carrot store.
But Ella didn't share her stepsisters' admiration for the Prince, nor anybody from the Royal Family, for that matter.
"Char and his uncle are responsible for the segregation of the kingdom!" Ella scowled.
The Kingdom Of Frell was full of fantastical creatures who lived alongside Humans.
But one day, King Florian was suddenly and violently struck down.
His brother, Sir Edgar, blamed the Elves, Ogres, and Giants, then took over their homes and banished them to the forest.
Hattie and Olive decided to host their very own little fashion show with Ella.
They rummaged through Ella's wardrobe, trying to pick out the best outfit for their new stepsister.
"What's this?" asked Hattie, spying the necklace that hung from Ella's neck.
"It's so cute!" Olive gasped dreamily. "I want it! Give me!"
Ella, bound by the Gift, reluctantly obeyed.
"It was my mother's," sobbed Ella.
Hattie paused.
She saw how upset her new stepsister was and how much the necklace meant to her.
She quickly swiped Ella's necklace away from Olive, who'd been gawking at it, much too engrossed to really hold onto it.
"Hey!" Olive protested.
"Sorry about that," Hattie handed Ella her necklace back.
"Here," she smiled warmly.
Then, she and Olive made three more necklaces just like Ella's.
The third one was for Olga.
Ella's Father had to leave for Lamia, the capital of Frell, the following day in order to sell watches for money.
But before he left, Dame Olga and the girls put on their own fashion show for him that night as a sending off party.
Ella's Father felt on cloud nine seeing the four women in his life flaunting their gorgeous outfits whilst parading around and swinging their broad hips in wide arcs, all just for him.
And when it was all over, they all gathered around him and each gave him a sweet goodbye kiss.
Tired, but oddly happy, Ella lay on her bed as the stars twinkled in the sky outside her bedroom.
She missed her Mother.
Now she missed her Father too already.
But it wasn't all bad.
Dame Olga turned out to be a really sweet stepmother.
Ella noticed how joyful she was while at the fashion show.
Hattie and Olive can be a tad overexcitable, but they saw her as nothing less than as their own younger sister.
And if her Mother could see her now, Ella was sure that she'd feel happy too.
A/N
My main gripe about Ella Enchanted is the whole "evil stepfamily" trope.
I think it's unfair to all the good and kind stepfamilies out there, so I made Olga, Hattie, and Olive into much nicer characters.