Sinderella

Chapter Thirteen: Happily Ever After

Cinderella and Elliot lived together with twelve orphan girls. They moved into one bedroom, but they slept on separate beds with a partition separating their sides of the room. Elliot's bedroom, the third bedroom, and the spare room were converted into bedrooms where multiple people can sleep in. Four of the girls would share one room, each girl would get her own bed, which was going to be hand built by Elliot. However, until the beds were completed, the girls would sleep on portable cots that were donated to Cinderella's orphanage by the Chief Official's office.

Many years ago, a great war struck Everglade and other surrounding kingdoms. There were so many soldiers trained to form the Grand Army of Everglade. With a lot of new soldiers comes the need to provide some form of hospitality for them when they are fighting. Instead of making tents for soldiers to sleep in, cots were built for each soldier. That way, each soldier had his or her own place to sleep without having to sleep on the ground.

Since the war ended, several spare rooms in the Chief Official's office became storage rooms for surplus supplies from the war. One of the main items taking up space in the storage rooms was cots. So, when Cinderella asked the Chief Official for help getting supplies for her orphanage, the officers graciously donated some of their leftover cots. Cinderella was able to buy blankets and pillows from a shop in the middle of town, but she made sure that they were made from the same materials that hers and Elliot's were made of. She did not want to enjoy anything that her orphans were not enjoying as well.

When Cinderella agreed to take the orphans in, she meant it as a way to help them find families that would adopt them. So, she planned events that would allow her to show these girls to families who could adopt them. The events she planned were inspired by the balls she and her sisters would play as kids. Her orphans would dress up in fancy clothes, and they would attend a ball that Cinderella would host. The general public would be invited to attend as well, but they would be well-informed of the fact that these girls were orphans. Throughout the event, the visiting adults would be given opportunities to adopt the girls if they so chose.

Cinderella's orphanage became a well-known project throughout the kingdom. Everyone in town supported her. The grocer provided free groceries for Cinderella to feed the orphans in her care. Over time, more and more orphans come into Cinderella's care, and soon her house was no longer big enough to house the orphans.

"We should build an official orphanage." Elliot suggested one night, as he and Cinderella settled in for the night. "The kids need a place where they can stay without feeling like they are intruding in our home."

"We do need more space for them." Cinderella agreed.

Cinderella and Elliot got together with a builder to begin planning a proper orphanage for the orphans to stay in. The plan was to build the orphanage directly next to Cinderella and Elliot's house. The buildings would be connected, so Cinderella and Elliot could have their own space, but would still be involved in the orphanage and could access it whenever they needed. Essentially, the orphanage would be an extension of the original house.

Since the extension would be used for the orphanage, the builder agreed to build the extension for a much lower price. Instead of charging nearly a thousand coins, the builder agreed to build the extension for only a couple hundred coins. He was a very kind man, and an orphan himself and would do anything to ensure other orphans had a place to stay.

Soon, it was time for Cinderella to host her second orphan's ball, but this time it was in her new orphanage, which had space to host a small event. At her second ball, Cinderella had fifteen orphans in her care. Eight of those orphans were still with her from the first twelve, and seven of those orphans moved in with her.