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Once upon a time, in a far away kingdom lived a king and queen (of course there was a king and queen, it is a KINGDOM after all.) It was a small but beautiful and prosperous kingdom, full of hard working happy people.
The king and queen were very happy, because the queen was having a baby. Finally the prince would be born to rule the kingdom after his father. The entire kingdom celebrated, for days. The celebration even carried over to Fairy Land™. The princes Fairy Godfather, Sal, even set off pink fireworks in honor of the prince (because pink was his favorite color). Of course this meant that all of Fairy Land™ thought that a princess had been born, so the Fairy High Council decided that a princess needed a fairy god mother. When Miranda, the fairy that the council had chosen, discovered Sal’s mistake she decided that she would find a girl to be a fairy god mother to anyway.
On the other side of the kingdom, there was a wealthy merchant and his wife; she was also giving birth to a baby. A little girl, that the happy parents named Eleanor. Miranda saw the family and decided that they would be the perfect family for her to practice being a fairy god mother on.
A few years later tragedy struck, the merchant died in a horrible banana accident. It was so tragic that we won’t discuss the details; just suffice it to say that no one in the small household could stand to see the color yellow again.
All is not lost for our troubled family, as Eleanor’s mother met the; grand duke’s, younger cousin’s, step nephew in-law, once removed (or was that twice removed, I can never keep that one straight)
Elly’s (yes everyone called her Elly) new step father had two boys a few years older than Elly they were bright, friendly, and active boys that loved science and fishing. They brought the new couple an octopus as a wedding present.
The Grand Duke even made an appearance at the wedding; he brought a beautiful young horse for the new couple.
Elly’s mother got a dog for the boys and her new step-father got a kitten for Elly, as there were no children nearby for them to play with. Elly made friends with the animals nearby, she would sit for hours, with seeds in her hand trying to tempt birds to land near her. Eventually they would land on her shoulder as soon as she stepped outside. She also made pets out of the mice that lived in rose bush in the garden.
The family was happy again, at least for a while.
Until (suspenseful interlude dun, dun, dun)
The family lost most of their money, and all of their servants when the value of cookies crashed, because the entire kingdom went on a diet at the same time. It was a tragic turn of events, the entire family had to learn how to cook and clean for themselves (with varying degrees of success).
Elly’s chores included cleaning the fireplace, so her brothers started calling her Cinderelly.
Cinderelly’s 13th birthday was quickly approaching, which also means that the prince’s birthday was approaching.
Across the kingdom the entire palace was alive, with the sound of music (oops, wrong story)
They were eagerly anticipating the prince’s 13th birthday party, his older sister Ariel (who was a well know singer) convinced the king and queen to have a dance contest for his birthday, obviously, she liked the idea better than the prince, but he liked that better than a stuffy dinner with all the old people his parents normally invited to their bridge club (every Tuesday night at 7:30, refreshments provided R.S.V.P. by Sunday: [email protected])
The entire kingdom was thrilled to get the invitations to the prince’s party. That it was to be a costume contest made the idea even better; especially for Cinderelly, she love to dance and has almost as long as she could walk.
Unfortunately for Cinderelly, mother came down with a bad case of the flu before she could make a costume for Cinderelly to wear to the party. Her brother’s offered to help (Commence cringing, now)
The family decided to wear superhero costumes to the party, so Cinderelly’s mother figured that there wasn’t too much damage the boys could do (shudder)
The boys could have easily just cut out a mask and tied a cape around her shoulders, but they decided that, that wasn’t good enough for their little sister. They wanted to make a superhero costume that everyone would recognize, one that would stand out. They were outside feeding the animal when the idea struck. “We could make her a Super-Chicken costume, for the party” they both thought that was an amazing idea (because teenage boys, apparently) so they gathered up chicken feathers and raced inside to get the glue and a paper sack.
When the mice found the monstrosity the boys had made they came up with an idea to destroy the sack. Some of the mice hid around the room, while a few ran a relay to lead the cat to the costume. The mice raced around the befeathered (is that even a word?) sack. The cats sharp claws tearing at the paper and glue as he chased after the quick little mice. The cat would try to pounce on one mouse, and spin as another ran across the paper. When the sack was finally torn to shreds the mice scattered and left the feisty feline alone.
The boys brought Cinderelly and their father to see what they had made. They were devastated to find the costume in shreds, Cinderelly and her step father were less devastated by the loss, but it was already the day of the party, and Cinderelly still didn’t have a costume. “go on” she told her step father “at least you guys can still go”
Cinderelly’s step father didn’t want to leave, but she made him promise that he would bring a large piece of cake. He kissed her cheek and told her he would throw her a party as soon as her mother was feeling better, and to be good and they were off in the family carriage.
When the carriage turned the corner Cinderelly went to the garden and stood by the fountain watching the octopus climb and swim in the clear water. She paced around and kicked the bench as hard as she could in frustration, she knew her brothers were trying to help, but she really wanted to go. She wanted to hear princess Ariel sing, and to show off how much she had learned at dance class. She wanted her family to be proud of how good she was. She wanted to celebrate her own birthday, even if she was just a guest at someone else party. When her mom got better she would make spaghetti and meatballs (Cinderelly’s favorite meal) and they would play board games and have a fun day, without chores, except feeding the animals.
She sat down and leaned against the fountain, and cried. The dog came over and flopped down next to her, wagging his tail trying to cheer her up. She wrapped her arms around him and sobbed into the soft fur on his ears. Until a sharp voice asked her “are you going to just sit there and mope all evening or are you going to get up and give me a hug?”
“Miranda” Cinderelly whimpered, “It’s awful, I can’t have a party, mom is sick, and everyone else is at the palace”
“Well, yes, that’s true” Miranda said warmly “but that is why you have a fairy god mother, isn’t it”
Cinderelly looked at her hopefully “you can help?” she asked quietly
“of course I can help, now let’s see you need a carriage. Do you have a pumpkin my dear?” Miranda asked
“a pumpkin?” Cinderelly asked confused “why do you need a pumpkin?”
“well, you see, it is in the Fairy Godmother training manual, the only way to travel to a party is by pumpkin, seems to me like that would be messy but who and I to argue with the training manual” Miranda replied
“um… Cinderelly replied, “rather short on pumpkins at the moment, but I think we have some watermelon growing in the garden.”
“hmm. Watermelon could work, let’s see” she pulled her magic wand out and waved it at the fruit and it turned into a beautiful carriage. Cinderelly opened the door and was immediately covered in sweet smelling fruit “well, now I see why they say to use a hollow vegetable” she waved her wand at Cinderelly and cleaned the girl up.
She walked over to the carriage and waved her wand again, “wingardian leviosa” she said carefully, the carriage lifted off of the ground “oh dear, wrong spell” she tried again and the carriage set down and the door opened to reveal a red velvet interior. Both of the girls sighed in relief at the sight “okay love a few more things and we should be ready to send you on your way
She turned the mice into horses, the horse into a driver, (begging the question of why she didn’t make a smaller carriage and turn a mouse into the driver and leave the horse a horse), and the dog became a footman.
“Now remember dear” Miranda said “you must be home by the stroke of 9”
“is that when the spell breaks?” Cinderally asked amazed by the magic she had seen already.
“of course not dear, that is your curfew, if you aren’t back by 9 you will be grounded for a week” her fairy god mother answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world “the spell won’t break until midnight, but that is far too late for a young lady to be out even if it isn’t a school night”
“um..” cinderelly started “not that I don’t truly appreciate everything you have done for me, but I don’t exactly have a costume to wear to the party”
“oh yes, of course” Miranda waved her wand and Cinderelly was suddenly wearing a perfect recreation of queen Elsa’s dress from the ice palace scene in Frozen. She spun around looking at the gown, it was beautiful. She was so excited that she giggled “I have to show mom, then we can go!”
“No dear, then you can go, I have to get back to Fairy Land before Sal burns the entire place to the ground. I will see you again next week, oh and Eleanor dear the dress and the shoes are your birthday present from me” she kissed Cinderelly on the cheek and the girl rushed into the house to show off her costume
At the palace the rest of the family was enjoying the buffet, while the boys talked to the princess. The dace competition was just about to begin and the boys were upset that their little sister wasn’t there. They told the princess that it was her birthday and that she was a fan of the beautiful singer but her costume had been destroyed
Cinderelly looked over and saw Superman standing next to the dessert bar, he turned around just in time to see her “Elly!” he shouted excited “how did you get here?”
“Miranda gave me my birthday present” cinderelly said walking up to her stepfather, “are the ‘dynamic duo’ around somewhere, I really want them to see me in the contest”
Her stepfather laughed and guided her to Spiderman and Batman, “look who managed to find a costume” he told the boys
“but it isn’t a superhero” one of them complained giving her a quick hug in welcome
“I want you to see me dance” Cinderelly told the boys, “and the dance contest is about to start”
The boys smiled and went to find seats.
The dance competition was almost over there were only four girls and one boy left, but it was getting late. This was the final round to determine the winner. Cinderelly was up, the music started and she put everything she had into the performance, just as the music stopped she looked up at the clock. It was eight forty five, she was going to be in so much trouble. As soon as she was off the stage she bolted from the room. All she could think about was how much trouble she was going to be in if she didn’t get home very soon. She wasn’t paying enough attention as she was running and one of her shoes slipped off of her foot, she fell to the ground her ankle throbbing in pain, she tried to ignore it as she ran to the carriage and jumped in.
She made it home at 9:05 her stepfather was waiting at the door for her, he looked concerned when he saw her limping. He lifted her into his arms and carried her upstairs, setting her gently into her bed. He looked at her ankle, “I think you sprained I” he said frowning “I will get you something for the pain, but you are going to have to stay off of it for a while”
She carefully took the beautiful dress off, and put her night gown on. She pouted looking at her one shoe “I lost the other one” she told her stepfather as her sat next to her on the bed placing an ice pack over her ankle and handing her a pill for the pain “it was a birthday present and I lost it” he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and hugged her tight “it really was an amazing birthday though” she smiled at him
The next morning the news that the winner of the dance contest had vanished before the awards could be passed out and all they could find was a single glass slipper, that the princess remembered seeing on the winner, was the talk of the kingdom. Everyone wanted to know who she was, and why she had run out, the palace even sent out the prince, and the grand Duke to find the girl who had lost the ruby slipper (oh wait, that was the other story about a girl, shoes, dogs, magic and oddly placed fruit)
When the grand duke got to Cinderelly’s house the boys had thought of a brilliant idea. Cinderelly was still stuck in bed with a sprained ankle so they were going to dress up like Elsa and try to trick the grand duke, because they couldn’t stand the idea of their little sister not getting her prize.
The duke entered the house and was greeted by both brothers dressed in identical Elsa dresses, they started to fight over the slipper and knocked the duke’s glasses off of his face, in a carefully planned attempt to keep him from realizing that they were not Cinderelly. They argued about who should try on the slipper and the fought about whether or not it fit. Their father just stood behind them shaking his head “Cinderelly is upstairs in bed, with a sprained ankle. Would you like to go upstairs and talk to her?” her stepfather said still amused by his boys antics.
“um yes, uh, yes, that would be, ah yes” the grand duke sputtered as the prince handed him his glasses back. The small group filed into cinderelly’s bedroom.
“You are in my Math class” the prince said “4th period, Mrs. Baker, wasn’t yesterday ”
“yeah, I sit behind Sarah” Cindrelly replied
The grand duke looked at the girl, her ankle swollen, “well this won’t do” he said sharply “how can we tell if the slipper will fit”
“well if that is all you need” Cinderelly said calmly “the other foot isn’t swollen”
“Be that as it may, this is the shoe I have” the grand duke huffed
“true” Cinderelly giggled “but this is the shoe, I have” as she pulled out the other slipper “oh, and can I please have by shoe back? It was a birthday present”
The end