nce upon a time, there was a girl named who lived with her evil stepparent, , and her two evil stepsisters, and . When 's father died, the family came to despise her, and forced her to work slavishly for them. hated cleaning the fireplaces more than any other chore, and so her stepsisters tormented her with the nickname Cinderella.
One day during and 's awful singing lessons, an invitation came in the mail from the royal palace. The king was throwing a party for his son, Prince , and invited every upper class citizen of the kingdom to the party in order to help his son find a bride. To say the least, , , and were much excited, and the singing lessons were quickly forgotten. They began to plan what they would do to catch Prince 's attention. watched her stepsisters from a distance as she scrubbed the stairs, silently hoping to attend to party as well. did not learn of 's plans until the day of the party, when found the girl trying on her deceased mother's wedding gown. Enraged, ruined the dress and forbid Cinderella to leave the house.
was still weeping over the dress and her bad luck when the trio left for the palace. A bright light filled the room, then dimmed and her faerie godmother, Ginger, stood before her. "Now, now, child, don't cry. You will go to the ball tonight." At this, Ginger transformed 's ragged workclothes in to a beautful gown, a pumpkin into a shimmering horse-drawn carriage, and her pet into an attendant. The only catch: Cinderella's curfew was midnight, when Ginger's magic would fade and the objects under the spell would turn back to their previous state.
The palace was crowded with guests; was shy, and, to avoid being seen by her evil stepfamily, remained in a shadowy nook of the ballroom. Unlike her stepsisters, who were completely disillusioned and certain the royal heir would fall in love with them, was content just to remain there and watch the proceedings. After all, the only things she had seen in the last ten years were mops and dirty laundry.
Meanwhile, Prince , who was extremely annoyed at his father, was desperately thinking of some way to escape. He remained coldly polite to the guests, but responded brusquely to his parents' queries. He decided to chance sneaking out while the king was making a speech to the guests.
"Yeah, yeah, the good of the country, what crap," he muttered when he reached the side door. However, it just so happened that a long, cushioned bench had been pushed there, and had sat on one end. Her beauty made Prince fall in love with her instantly. Much to Cinderella's surprise he sat down next to her. The orchestra began to play a waltz and another dance began. "How is the party?" he asked nonchalantly. Before she could reply, added, "I, personally, was not having a good time... until now, that is." All could do was nod respectfully and glance fearfully at the clock.
"Well, may I have this dance?" asked after a few minutes. Seeing her hesitation, he added, "We don't have to join the crowd. I'm not a party person, either." With that, she agreed and they slow-danced a bit in the corner of the hall.
completely forgot to watch the time, and was completely startled at the first chime of midnight. Remembering what faerie Ginger had warned, Cinderella quickly said goodbye and bolted out the side door. Prince ran after her in futile pursuit, shouting, "Wait! Wait!" As Cinderella dashed down the palace steps, she tripped and left behind one of her glass slippers. "Will I ever know your name?" called frantically, realizing he could not catch the mystery girl. "It's ," she whispered to herself as tears fell from her eyes, "Locked in Cinderella's life."
Prince watched her dissapear into the night, and then noticed something catching the lamplight on the steps. He fell to his knees and picked up the glass slipper had left behind when she had tripped. He tucked it into his doublet and resolved to find the mystery girl he'd fallen in love with.
Prince and his servant immediately began visiting all the women who had attended the ball, searching for the girl whose foot fit the glass slipper. When he arrived at 's house, he endured and 's flirting and self-aggrandizing remarks in order to give them their chance to try on the slipper. Hearing the commotion, peeked into the room where her step-sisters and the royal guests were. The servant, spotting Cinderella, insisted that she try on the slipper, too. Furious, threw the shoe against the wall, breaking it to pieces. As was scooping up the remains of his only link to his dream, began apologizing for her sister, hoping to make look horrible and herself look good in the prince's eyes.
knelt next to Prince and said softly, "It doesn't matter, I have the other slipper." At this, she pulled the shoe out of her apron pocket.
As the prince knelt there astonished, his servant took the glass shoe from her and put it on Cinderella's bare foot. Of course, it fit perfectly. Prince could only stare at her, for although he recognised her then, he was shocked at the sudden turn of events. "My name," she whispered to him, "is ." Prince scooped her up, and the two lovers left the house for the prince's carriage, with the servant leading the way. I'll leave it to your imagination as to what happened on the way home, with and alone in the back seat (lol). Anyway, the two married the very next day which would be no surprise...
AND OF COURSE THEY LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER!!! THIS IS A FAIRY TALE!!! But...whatever is "happily ever after" to you...any of your wildest fantasies...you decide, it's your story.
all fairy tales by me, Ginger
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