Love, Cinderella

Three:

When I got home from school and the park, I found Sandy in the sitting room drinking the lemonade that I had prepared in the morning, and reading through a very colourful magazine. She did not even glance up at me as she stood up.

"Bella, is there something you want to tell me?" I shook my head.

"No." She frowned disappointedly. She wanted me to tell her something. But I had nothing to say.

"Your sisters told me." They were not my sisters. "Why did you injure Mr Princeton? You do know how important he is for the company, right?" Of course I knew. He was my father's company's biggest client. If anything bad was to happen, there would be dire consequences. I knew that.

"I didn't do it on purpose. I was pushed." She scoffed seeming to get angered by my reply. She took a step closer to me and I instinctively took a step back, which angered her even more.

"Stop making excuses for your clumsiness, Bella." She scoffed as she flipped her fake hair back. "You disappoint me sometimes." She turned around, looking away from me. I felt the sadness spread inside of me. I disgusted her. I shifted uncomfortably. "Go clean the attic. It's very dirty." She sat back down again and flipped through her magazine, forgetting all about my disgusting existence.

I nodded sadly as I went to my room to change. I put on an old dress of mine. It used to be my favorite, but then one day during a party, grape juice was spilled on me, and of course, the dress.

It was a simple pink dress. It did not have any patterns nor did it have any type of shape. It was just a plain pink dress, but whenever I wore it it seemed to change, and looked very stunning yet simple. But now it had a large purple splash at the front. It was unwearable in public.

I also wore blue slippers that I usually wore around the house. I forced a smile and then went up the attic. When I smiled, the work seemed better, and was more doable.

Every time that I cleaned Sandy seemed to get happier. So I was going to do that. I'll clean for her, and make her happy. But when I climbed up to the attic I stopped halfway up. The light was on. The gloomy room was a mess. It looked like someone got in and ruined it, just so that I could take longer to clean the whole place up. And so that I could watch all of my favorite stuff broken on the floor. The things that belonged to my mother. They were all up there, now ruined.

I sighed. I won't let that bring me down. I took in a couple of deep breaths as I picked up the first thing that was on the ground: a picture of my mom and dad on their wedding day, two years before I was born. It hard a large crack now, I couldn't even properly see my mother's face.

I really missed her. I really missed my father too. If they were both still in my life, I would be much happier and would not have as many miserable thoughts.

I wiped away the lone tear that slid down and carried on working. I had no time to waste. I had a lot of homework to do and I also had to make dinner.

~•°•~

Dear Cinderella

Don't mind me answering to the letter that you wrote.

I love how we use Cinderella and Prince when we communicate. It actually feels like we are in some weird letter focused fairytale. The only thing left is for the fairy god mother to pop up and grant you three wishes.

I have some solutions to your problems :).

For the evil step family one, that will be easy. You cook for them, you clean for them, and on rare occasion you get close enough to trip them accidentally (do not do that though, it's too risky). Put laxatives in the food that you make them, and when they are *busy, you sneak into their bedrooms and put itchy powder in their sheets. Go to sleep and watch them suffer the whole day tomorrow. *Queue evil laugh!

No, just kidding.

Stand up to them and tell them, no. They are in your father's house which will be yours soon. Don't give them the finger or anything. Even though that would be great. Just tell them that you are tired and you don't want to hate them, unless if you do. Then tell them that.

I'm not very useful, am I?

On the school matter though, just try to stay away from too crowded places and too empty places. That would help, wouldn't it? I know that it will, because no one can see anything when it's too crowded. Everyone is minding their own business, well except for the person trying to murder you in front of the school. And in empty places no one will notice you plummeting to your death.

I'm really bad at giving advice, but try to smile whenever you can. Maybe when you turn eighteen I will pick you up on my white mustang and we could ride into the sunset.

Sincerely
Prince

~°•°~

I found the letter at the gate when I woke up. It was rolled into a cylinder shape and was kept like that by a red ribbon, that also tied a red rose to the letter. I instantly smiled when I saw it and almost laughed when I read the content. This guy wanted to get me murdered.

The walk to school was not as depressing, because this time I was smiling the whole way, almost skipping too. I did not feel as lonely as I did before, because now Prince was answering back.Maybe my luck was finally turning around.

Or maybe I thought too soon.

When I got to school everything was normal. I arrived five minutes earlier than the twins, as usual. They did not spare me a glance though.  I walked like I always did, keeping my head down trying not to get noticed.

Periods one to four came and went, and before I knew it it was break, which was a relief for me until I heard my name called through the intercom.

"Bella Mnisi, can you please come to the reception. Thank you."

I was confused but I went non-the-less. I left my bag near my following class and hurried to the reception wondering why I was actually called. Did I do something wrong? Was it Sandy, angry at me again?

I stopped on my tracks, because chatting the receptionist up was a very important looking person. A very important sounding person. An important person in general.

He seemed to sense me somehow, so he turned around and when he saw me he smiled, but I gasped as he came closer. I couldn't help myself when my hand went up to touch his cheek. He seemed to like me touching him, but I ignored his suggestive look.

He had a red scratch there on his cheek.

"Was this because of me?" He thought about it, but then shook his head.

"No, I doubt it." He smirked as he held on to my hand. I looked at his hand that was holding mine. "Good morning." His voice was deep as he spoke, making me feel differently... Like I have never felt before.

"Um...hi?" To say that I was confused would be an understatement. I was confused and worried at the same time. Charles Princeton did not just speak to anyone that was not interesting. So why was he speaking with me? Nothing about me was interesting. I did not even look interesting myself.

"You're so cute." I stared at him still confused. Was that a complement? "I know how you can repay me for me saving your life."

"How?" I asked very curious. I would do anything to show him that I was grateful for what he did.

"Be my girlfriend." I glanced up at his eyes to see if that had been a joke. It was not. He was serious.