Cinderella and The Shape Shifting Mice

Chapter Three

The next morning I woke up and repeated the same thing all over again. There was another knock on the front door, and this time it was a package for Mary. I took the oppurtunity to include the letter with the package and handed it to her when I came back into the dining room that at one point could hold over 50 guests.
"What is this?" she asked when I handed her the letter, perfectly replicated from the one I opened yesterday. It was a little trade craft of mine.
"A letter from the palace." I said, setting the box down on a small, dusty table.
She tore it open and Drizella and Anastasia stood and peered at it over her shoulder.
"We're going to a ball!" They shouted in unison, and squealed in excitment, jumping up and down.

Mary looked up from the letter at me standing silently in the corner. "So does your step-sister."

Drizella stopped jumping and shot me a cold look. "Why does she get to go, she's the maid. The Prince would never be interested in her anyways."
Ouch. Wouldn't be interested in you either the moment you opened your mouth, I thought.
"Yeah, not like she could afford a dress anyways." Anastasia spat out.
Yeah, cause $523 couldn't buy me a nice dress or some good fabric to make one.
"Quiet ladies, the ball isn't for another two weeks. We have time. In fact, how about we go dress shopping next week?"
The girls began to squeal again and I rolled my eyes. Why were they even making such a big deal out of this anyways? It wasn't like they were going to have a chance with a prince.
"The three of us?" I whispered. I might hate the palace, but that doesn't mean I didn't want to get out of this house and see it. I had only been in there once, a very, very long time ago...

Mary gave me a slow look and nodded. "Of course my darling. You can come only after you've mopped the house and scrubbed the floors, vacuumed all bedrooms, dusted all the tables, cleaned out the chicken coop..." She went on for what seemed like five minutes until she finally finished.

I gapped at her. "Seriously? You want me to turn this entire house basically back into its original state on my own in a week?"

She nodded, grinning a malicious smile. "Yes. And to keep out of your way we'll leave tomorrow morning to stay in town so you will need to pack our bags as well."
I bit my lip and picked up their plates hastily. I couldn't believe this. I was 21 years old and she was keeping me at home like I was five. As soon as my father had passed away she had taken over this household with an iron grip and with it my life.

I went from the most beautiful bedroom in the house overlooking the rose garden and the hills in the distance to the small attic room that was still half stuffed with boxes. I used to have lovely outfits and bows of ever color, and now I have six pairs of jeans I've had for over three years and the same hand-me-down tshirts and two ratty old pairs of shoes. Even when I was younger, I had friends at school. I'd play with them and they would play with me and we would share cookies. After my father died they all left me and I was alone with my stuffed bear and my beloved books. Soon after, Mary pulled us out of school and I've been homeschooled ever since. I never even got the chance to go to college.

I almost threw the plates in the sink and began to scrub with a passion. I never really knew my mother. The only soft, loving touch I ever knew was that of my father, and then he joined her in whatever afterlife greeted us after death. I wasn't bitter about either of them dying, just that he left me with.... Them. Why couldn't he have seen how awful they were?

"Cinderella!" Drizella called through her speaker from her bedroom.

I jumped, wiping the tears threatening to spill from my eyes and set the plates on the drying rack and made my way up to her room. "You called." I said flatly, standing in her doorway. There were clothes strewn all over her room and two suitcases laying empty on the bed.
"I don't know what to bring! I'm staying there for almost two weeks and I can't look ugly. I can't wear..." She looked up and pointed at my ripped jeans and t-shirt. "That."
"So you called me up here why?" I snapped, crossing my arms.
"Help me pick out clothes!" she said in a panicked, shrill tone.
I spent the next couple hours helping her pack, then helping Anastasia pack, and finally neatly folding all of Mary's outfits and laying them in her suitcase by the day she wanted to wear them.

After dinner I was laying up in my room when there was a knock at my door.
"Enter." I mumbled, sitting up and rubbing my sore shoulders and thinking I could go for a back message.
Mary opened the door and stood in the doorway, observing my room with silent, judging eyes.

"We're leaving tomorrow at twelve. Please have all of our bags in the car by then. We're going to the usual hotel. Pick us up a week from tomorrow and I expect everything to be done by the time I get back, then I will decide if you can go to the ball."

I crossed my arms. "Why do you do this to me Mary? I'm still your daughter, do I not deserve privilages?"

She reached for the door handle as she answered, "I do give you privilages Ella. I've kept you under this roof." She closed the door with a small amount of unnessecary force and I heard her footsteps down the stairs.

"Yeah, such a privlage..." I mumbled, getting off the bed and over to the window. I pulled myself up to the windowsill and crossed my legs, starring at the clock tower and lavish grounds of the palace I could see from my room, lit up like nothing I'd ever seen. "One day, you will either make or break me." I hopped down, put some cheese in front of the hole for the mice, and climbed into bed with my favorite children's book. Fantasy in my books was always better than reality. Where the wicked witch always lost and the girl in the tower got her prince. Or at least, got her freedom.