Ella woke up curled into her stepmother the next morning. The horizon glowed bright gold. She looked up at her stepmother-her blond hair curled around her oval face, her prominent cheekbones, her bright blue eyes-

That were looking straight into hers.

"Good morning, child," her stepmother smirked. "How are you feeling?"

Ella coughed violently. Her eyes turned glassy. Her skin pale and waxy. She groaned.

"No school today for either of us," her stepmother said and reached for the phone to call in sick.

Ella stared at her, her dark eyes wide in surprise. She tried to speak but her voice creaked and croaked unintelligibly. She could not even whisper.

"Come on," Lady Tremaine said. "You can take your medicine. Feel like eating anything?" She got up and put her leopard print bathrobe.

Ella just stared, gob smacked. The night before her stepmother rushed her to the hospital and today she was offering to make her breakfast. It was surreal.

Ella followed Stepmother to the kitchen. She put on the tea kettle and made Ella sit down.

Ella wrote on a piece of paper: "Why are you staying home too?"

Her stepmother smirked. "Too take care of you, silly. Did I not have to rush you to the hospital last night?"

Ella looked at her, confused. She wanted to believe what her stepmother said the night before. That she loved her. She wanted things to be different between them.

Her stepmother set the tea down and went to get the stepsisters up. After much grumbling about cereal for breakfast, they were off to school.

Ella wanted to talk to her stepmother about the night before. She wanted her to help her with her French. But she couldn't talk at all. A wave of fatigue swept over her.

"Back to bed," her stepmother ordered. "On the couch where I can keep an eye on you."

Ella lay down on the couch and wrapped herself in a comforter. Her stepmother sat down at the table to grade papers.

A while later, Lady Tremaine came into the living room and looked down at her stepdaughter. She was sound asleep, her chest rising and falling rhythmically. She was relieved-the night before she was truly afraid she was going to lose her. She covered her with the blanket she'd kicked off.

The doctor prescribed an intense, three week dose of prednisone for Cinderella. It helped her bronchitis, but it also had side effects…..

As she felt better physically, Ella began to notice everyone and everything was driving her crazy. She yelled at the birds for singing. She snarled at traffic lights for taking too long. Everyone and everything made her fly to pieces.

"Why isn't dinner ready yet?" Anastasia whined one night.

Cinderella bit the inside of her cheeks and breathed out her nose as she stirred the vegetables. The chicken was baking in the oven and needed about ten more minutes.

"Yeah, why?" Drusilla chimed in. "What have you been doing?"

Cinderella glared at them. "Shut up! The chicken is cooking! Do you want to eat it raw?" she shouted.

Anastasia and Druisilla looked at her, dumbfounded. Neither could remember their stepsister ever raising her voice.

"What's wrong with you?" Anastasia asked.

"Nothing!" Cinderella shrieked. "Dinner will be ready when it's ready! Now get out!"

The stepsisters retreated from the kitchen, fearful knives would start flying if they did not.

After dinner, Lady Tremaine made Ella sit down and go over her French homework. Under normal circumstances, Ella would have cherished this unexpected interest and kindness. But tonight she couldn't take it.

"Stop!" Ella bellowed after being corrected for the tenth time. "This is just a review for the test."

Her stepmother glared at her and Ella glared right back. Blue eyes narrowed but Ella didn't back down.

"Fuck!" she snarled. "I've taken French for two years! I don't need you-"

Her stepmother grabbed her and shook her. "Don't you ever talk to me like that again," she said with cold fury.

Ella calmed down, more out of fear than anything else. "I'm sorry, Stepmother. I didn't mean to snap at you like that."

Her stepmother's expression softened slightly. "Are you all right, Ella? Seems like you have been yelling at people a lot the last few days."

Ella shook her head. "I don't know what's wrong with me! Everything and everyone is making me want to explode. Ever since I started taking that medicine for my bronchitis."

Lady Tremaine retrieved the bottle. She knew prednisone had some side effects but she didn't know they were anything like this. It was turning her sweet, angelic little Ella into a psychotic dragon.

"You only have a few pills left. You can't go off this cold turkey. Can you hang on a few more days?"

Cinderella shrugged. "Do I have a choice?"

Her stepmother smirked. "The real question is can the rest of us."

Cinderella nearly laughed. She caught herself though, unsure if her stepmother was kidding or not. She didn't know how to act around her stepmother now. It was confusing, how she took care of her when she was so sick and then treated her like a slave when she was better, as if she had never driven her to the hospital or told her she loved her. She decided she better find out how her stepmother felt once and for all.