A Cinderella Short Story

By: Emma Haines

There was once a girl named Anastazia. She lived in a village far, far away with her mother and sister. Everyone in that house was beautiful and poised, except her ugly step sister Ella. No one likes her. Anastazia wen-

“OOF!”, yelled Anastazia holding her toe. She looked up from her journal. “Ella, get out of my way I’m trying to write my autobiography. Why are you in the middle of the hall anyway? Move.” She shoved past Ella, who was crouched in the middle of the hallway with a sponge and bucket. “I’m trying to do my chores!”, shouted Ella, but Anastazia was already walking down the stairs. She went into the dining room where her mother sat, reading a book. She went and sat there with her. “Mom, why is Ella always in my way. Can’t she do something else, a little less… seen?”, asked Anastazia. Her mother looked up from her book and said, “Well sure, I noticed the fireplace getting a little dirty recently, she can clean that.” Anastazia beamed at that, “What a great idea mother.” She was about to get up when her mother said, “Oh, and dear will you please check the mail? I believe we got something from the royal palace.” Anastazia whipped around at that, “WHAT?! The royal palace? THE royal palace?” She put her journal down and sprinted outside to the mailbox. Nothing. She looked off into the distance and saw the mail-carrier coming in his carriage, slowly she might add. Ugh why does he have to go this slow, he’s not even the one walking, the horse is, she thought. After what felt like 20 years, he finally got to her cottage. “Do you have our letter?”, she asked frantically. The main-carrier looked at her, unamused, and grabbed a letter from his carriage. “Here”, he said. Anastazia ripped it from his hands and flew back inside. Once back in the cottage, she tore it open and gasped. “Mother! We are invited to the royal ball this evening!”, exclaimed Anastazia. Dusting herself off from the fireplace, Ella came over and said, “Oh that sounds like fun!”. Anastazia glared at her, then said through laughter, “Not you Ella, or should I say Cinder-Ella by the looks of it.” Ella rolled her eyes and walked back to the fireplace. 

“Drizella you’re going to have to pull tighter”, huffed Anastazia. She was holding onto the back of a chair while her sister, Drizella, was crushing her ribs fitting her into this corset. “What do you think I’m trying to do?” said Drizella, clearly over this. Anastazia elbowed her and she gave it one last tug and said, “There. You’re going to have to live with that.” They both strutted over to the mirror and beamed at themselves. Their mother walked in and said, “Well don’t you girls look exquisite. Surely the prince will be enchanted by you both and ask to dance”. “Well that’s kind of the point”, whispered Anastazia under her breath. “What was that dear?”, asked the mother. “Nothing!”, she beamed, and both girls waltzed outside. A carriage was waiting for them. It was brown and rusty, with a horse that looked like it couldn’t pull a couple of mice if it wanted to. “Seriously?”, said Anastazia, clearly unimpressed. “Hey missy you better quit your whining unless you want to walk to the ball”, shouted the horse from up front. Stunned and embarrassed that the horse just put her in her place, she reluctantly got in the carriage. 

By the time they got there, the ball was in full swing. Carriages carrying pristine, young women were all lined up to drop them off at the front of the castle. Music was playing and people were laughing. There were many eligible bachelors waiting around, but Anastazia was only looking for one. She kept gazing at the crowd of people as their carriage pulled up to the marble steps. They got out and started up the steps. Ok where the heck is this prince?, thought Anastazia, is he even going to be here?. She suddenly stopped in her tracks. Holy shi- “Anastazia! Keep moving!”, yelled Drizella from a couple steps above. Anastazia composed herself and hurried up to meet Drizella. “Look!”, she whispered harshly, “it’s the prince!”. Drizella glanced over. Her eyes widened. “Ok, we can’t freak out,” she said in a steady whisper, “he’ll never want to dance with either of us if we’re drowning in our own drool.” “Good point,” responded Anastazia. So they continued to walk inside the palace and into the main ballroom. It was magnificent. The ceilings were so tall you would think they reached the heavens. The floor was made of pristine marble that shined so clearly you could see yourself in it. And the crystal glasses filled with an assortment of bubbly beverages were forged from the depths of Agrabah. The two girls were frozen in awe. “Excuse me ladies”, said a voice from behind. They were suddenly snapped out of whatever enchantment that room held over them. It was a small man in a coat and tie. “May I escort you to a table?”, he asked. The girls nodded their heads and were carted off to their table. 

After many hours of eating, drinking, and dancing, Anastazia thought it was about time she got her prince. She took a spoon and looked at her reflection, making sure everything was still up to par. Perfect as usual, she thought, now where is my prince? She got up from her seat and began to look around when she saw a crowd of people gathered. She went over to see what they were looking at. Her heart sank. He was dancing with another girl. Wow, she really is beautiful though. She sulked back to her table and plopped back down in her seat. “Let’s go”, she said to Drizella. They both gathered their things and headed outside back to their dingy carriage. 

In the morning, Anastazia awoke to commotion downstairs in her house. That’s odd, she thought. So she put on her clothes and headed down there. When she got into the dining room, she was floored. Oh my god, she thought, it's the prince. Like the actual prince. What’s he doing here? In my house. Wait. Did I brush my hair? Oh great. She walked over as casually as she could and sat down. Her mother looked at her and said, “The prince has come because he wants to find his true love from last night. Apparently she was wearing this glass slipper when it slipped off her foot as she was running out the doors.” The prince held up a small glass slipper. “I know that whoever can fit into this glass slipper must be my true love and we shall get married at once,” exclaimed the prince. Huh, odd way of doing that but how hard can it really be to fit into that shoe, I mean it's a shoe. Drizella looked at her from the corner and shook her head. She had clearly already tried and it didn’t fit. Anastazia looked up at the prince beaming and said, “Well I would love to try that slipper on for you.” She grimaced after she said it. Great try a little harder, why don’t you, she thought, cheeks turning red. The prince handed her the slipper and she took it gingerly, it was made of glass after all, and proceeded to place her foot into it. It went about half way then stopped. Ok so apparently it IS hard to fit into that shoe. She sighed and took it off. She handed it back to the prince. They were about to leave when a small voice from the corner spoke out. “May I try it?”, said Ella. Oh great where’d she come from? “Aren’t you a little busy with that fireplace Cinder-Ella?”, smirked Anastazia. But the prince was already walking over to her. “Here,” he said as he bent down to put the shoe on her foot. I swear if this thing fits her. He slipped it on and BOOM, perfect fit. Then it all came rushing to her. The girl. At the dance. Oh my god. That was her. But how? It didn’t even look like her. But it didn’t matter. The prince had claimed Ella as his true love and was carrying her outside. Anastazia dragged herself to the window and watched them get in a beautiful carriage pulled by three white horses. Ella waved from the window and Anastazia just rolled her eyes as she got up to grab her journal. Note to self, she wrote, karma is a bitch.