Disney Chills: If The Shoe Fits

Lady Tremaine

"Cynthia? Cynthia, seriously, what's wrong? You haven't talked to me since soccer tryouts ended."

The girl in question still refused to give Stacie a verbal reply. She simply gave a hmph and sunk deeper into the car's leather seats, studying her own reflection in the window as if it were the first time.

She always hated looking at herself in reflective surfaces, that was true, faced with every facial defect.

But anything was better than looking over at her stepsister and being reminded what she lacked. What she never would be.

"Cynthia, honey! You've been sulking since you got in the car!", cried Leah from the driver's seat. "Did something happen at school?"

"Did something happen on the bleachers while I was playing soccer?", asked Stacie. "C'mon, Cynthia, talk to us! If something happened, you can tell us!"

"Nothing happened!", Cynthia growled back, finally speaking for the first time since getting in the car. And that was true. Nothing good today had happened to Cynthia. Nothing good ever happened to Cynthia.

But everything good happened to Stacie. Everything Cynthia wanted in life but was frequently denied, Stacie had fall right on her lap, from a spot in the popular crowd to the attention of the cutest guy in school. It was all so miserably unfair.

"Doesn't sound like nothing happened.", Stacie remarked, adjusting the strap on her backpack.

"Well, I don't wanna talk about it to you, so just drop it!", Cynthia hissed.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see hurt appear on Stacie's face in the reflection of the window, and for a moment, Cynthia actually felt guilty.

But that feeling quickly passed when she remembered their situations. Stacie was already the class princess. One little snap was nothing in her perfect life.

The rest of the ride home was silent. When they finally pulled up into the driveway, Cynthia swung the car door open, jumped out, and slammed it shut behind her, striding up the cobblestone path and onto the front step, tapping her toe impatiently as she waited for the other two to catch up so Leah could unlock the door. She just wanted to go up to her room, lock the door, and wait for this whole miserable day to be over.

As soon as the door opened, Cynthia made a beeline for the stairs. She was already halfway up, her speed amplified by the anger and disappointment of the day, when her father's voice came echoing from the living room.

"There are my girls! Come on in!"

Cynthia groaned. Somewhere between the series of bad luck that had befallen her today, she had forgotten that her dad had decided to leave his office early and finish his work from home today so he could check on her and Stacie, to see how her first day at her new school went.

She stood in the middle of the stairs, watching her stepmother and stepsister enter the living room, not in the mood to join them.

"Stasia! How was the first day of school?"

"It went great.", Stacie told him. "I made some new friends in science class, and they invited me to sit with them at lunch."

"That's great! Are they nice?"

"They are! I even saw them again at soccer tryouts! Oh! That reminds me! I made the team!"

"That's wonderful, honey!", said Leah. "I'm so happy for you! It seems like things are going great at your new school!"

Mr. Glass glanced around, only just noticing the absence of his biological daughter. "Where's your sister?"

Leah and Stacie looked back towards the stairs, where Cynthia was rooted to her spot like a statue, looking cold and emotionless.