“Cinderella, go clean the kitchen!” Ugg, I wish that stepmother would stop giving Cinderella so much work. Because whenever she does, guess who actually ends up doing the work?

“Fairy Godmother, get your lazy butt in here and clean that kitchen before that old hag gets back!” Yes, you heard right, my dear reader, it is actually I, the fairy godmother of Cinderella, who does all the work.

“Fairy Godmother, hurry up!” that is another thing, my name isn’t “Fairy Godmother”, it is just a title. I prefer people to call me by my first name, Java. Before you ask, no, my name is not weird. Fairies tend to name their kids after everyday items, and hey at least I did not get a name like Pumpernickel Bread or Meat Loaf.

“Fairy Godmo-“

“I’m coming! Hold your horses!” I did not even ask to be a fairy godmother. See, Cinderella’s father was a friend of mine, and it was his dying wish that I would be Cinderella’s fairy godmother and protect her. Once he had passed away, Cinderella’s stepsisters and stepmother set her to work. She was only 6 years old at the time, so, unable to resist Cinderella’ s cute looks and charm, I did the work for her. My advice: never ever give into the will of a cute little girl, they are conniving, little, evil masterminds who spend all their time thinking of new ways to sucker you into doing their dirty work. I sighed, if only the F.G rules did not state that you were not allowed to ignore your child’s wishes. I set myself to work, scrubbing the floors of the kitchen. There was a knock at the door.

“Open in the name of the King!” Cinderella rushed to the door to open it up. Right before she opened the door, she straightened up, fixed her hair, and turned her grimace into a smile.
“Oh gosh,” I thought, “she is going to start working that whole sweet and innocent look again.” Cinderella opened the door.

“What is it that the king wants from this house?” she asked sweetly.

“The king would like all the beautiful maidens in the kingdom to go to his castle for a royal ball he is hosting. Here is a flyer.”

“Thank you kindly.” Cinderella batted her eyes at him while holding the flyer. “Safe travels!” She called after him before closing the door. Her smile quickly turned to a smirk, ruining the sweet look on her face.

“You know, I think I might just forget to tell my stepmother and stepsisters about this ball. Hah! I am going to have all the fun to myself!” she finished in a nasty voice, her sneer quickly coming back. Just then the stepmother came into the room.

“Hah!” I thought to myself, “She must have heard the whole thing! That woman would never let Cinderella go to the ball!” my heart soared.

“What is that?” she snapped, looking at the flyer in Cinderella’s hands. The soaring feeling my heart had suddenly stopped. Cinderella’s sneer suddenly disappeared and was replaced with a woeful, innocent look.

“Nothing, stepmother dear!” she sang out in a dead voice.

“Gosh, if there is one thing Cinderella deserves, it is an Emmy award,” I thought rather grimly.

“Give it here,” the stepmother snapped, snatching the flyer out of Cinderella’s dainty little hands. She read it quickly.
“Cecelia, Angelica! Come here, I have something to show you!” She called to Cinderella’s two stepsisters. Both rushed down the stairs, hoping that it was a present. When they finally reached the stepmother, disappointment shown plainly on their faces, realizing that it was only a piece of paper she had to show.
“This flyer is an invitation to a ball the king is holding at the castle,” she rang out, turning to look at her daughters. Once her back was turned Cinderella’s features quickly became distorted by anger.
“All the maidens in the kingdom have been invited. It says here that it is tomorrow night.” The two stepsisters quickly perked up with joy. Cinderella quickly turned on her cute and pretty face.
“May I please go?” she begged sweetly, looking up at her stepmother with puppy dog eyes.
“Shun!” I pleaded silently from the kitchen. “Shun the request! Please don’t let her get her way for once in that evil little blonde’s life!”
“Of course not! How can YOU go to the ball? You would only end up embarrassing yourself. Why, you don’t have a dress, or even a pair of good shoes. Besides, we can’t waste all the warm water on trying to get you cleaned up!” At that point I wanted to run out of the kitchen, and hug that woman. Then, I guess my sanity came back and the feeling disappeared.
“Go back to cleaning the kitchen!” Cinderella turned and headed towards the kitchen, looking as if she wanted to boil the stepmother alive in a vat of burning hot oil.
The rest of the day went on as usual, except for the fact that Cinderella kept on thinking of new ways to torture her stepmother, rather than enslaving me. Finally it was time to go to bed. As I settled myself down in my cozy little bed inside the old abandoned mouse hole that was my home (I’m only a few inches tall, you know) I began to wonder what nefarious plot Cinderella was coming up with to get to the ball. Whatever it was, I hoped it had nothing to do with me.
The next day was spent creating beautiful dresses for the two stepsisters and their stepmother. I had to admit I did a pretty good job, so, of course, Cinderella did notapprove when she saw the three all dressed up in them, ready to go. Right after the stepsisters and stepmother left, Cinderella turned on me.
“You shouldn’t have made them so beautiful!” She hissed angrily, her face fully contorted with rage. “You know that I want to be prettier than they when I get to the ball! I hope you can fix this!” I should have known that I was going to be her whole means of getting to the ball. Cinderella went to grab me and crush me in her grip. I swerved out of the way. Not wanting to end up squashed like an insect I shouted,
“Don’t worry about it! You saw their dresses, right? They were spectacular, right?”
Cinderella, still angry snapped, “Get to the point Fairy Godmother!”
“ I had to make it so that there would be three very beautiful people there, so that once you got there in the beautiful dress that I am going to give you, you would outshine them and absolutely stun everybody! They were so beautiful, that no one would expect someone even MORE beautiful to show up!”
Cinderella thought for a moment about what I had said, than finally said,“I guess I will forgive you, but only if I look better!”
“Don’t worry, you will,” I said, relief surging through my body. I was not safe just yet though, I still had to come up with a way to make Cinderella look even more beautiful than the stepsisters, and fast. An idea quickly came to mind. I pointed my little wand at Cinderella and chanted:
Dippidy, dippidy, doppedy doo
As you can see so plainly
This is one heck of a gal
But I most confess so sadly
That she has nothing to wear at all
To the wonderful king’s castle ball
So give her a dress made of beautiful silk
Make it gold with ribbons the color of fresh milk
Make her wear that instead of her old rags
which are better suited for shriveled–up hags
Make her hair so short and dirty grow
And shine like freshly fallen snow
And as for her cute little dainty feet,
Give her glass slippers that no one can beat
Dippidy, dippidy doppedy tweet!

Instantly, Cinderella was completely engulfed by gold, shimmering mist. The mist cleared away to reveal Cinderella in the dress that I had described in my spell. I had to admit that my color choice was a good one, and the dress was exactly the way I pictured it in my head. The dress itself was gold, and fairly simple in design, with ribbon trimming that had a creamy, white color ( just like fresh milk, I must add) It also had a wide ribbon around the middle which came back to make a huge bow. Cinderella’s hair, which normally had a greasy shine to it, was now a gently glowing mass of big, silky curls that framed her face. On her feet of course, were little high- heel glass slippers. Now, just plain glass would not have looked right, so I made the glass have a gold- tinged, misted look. As for her face, it was filled with a glowing radiance, which would have filled me with awe if she had not been scowling.
“Well, how do I look?” she snapped impatiently at me.
“You look like you just came straight out of Heaven!” and that was the truth (besides the scowl) every part of her was softly glowing with a gold light.
“I need to see myself! Hand me a mirror!”
I sighed, “I don’t have a mirror.”
“Maybe that’s why you always look like a hag,” a clearly annoyed Cinderella muttered under her breath.
“Just make one already!”
I sighed, pointed my wand to the pond next to us and started to chant:
Dippidy, dippidy, doppedy doo!
You know the saying about the mirror
On a wall?
Well, though we haven’t a wall or mirror in sight
This beautiful damsel would like to see herself tonight
So peaceful pond, could you please go nice and still
And look like a mirror just until
This maiden has taken a good look
Do so quickly, so I can hurry home and read a good book
Dippidy, dippidy, doppedy look!

Instantly the pond went still so that Cinderella could look down and see herself. After two minutes of carefully studying her reflection in the pond, she looked up with a smirk and said.
“I’m done looking. Hah! No way can any of my stepsisters beat me now.”
“ All right, you have to go now before you miss the public carriage to the ball.” Cinderella stopped smirking and looked at me with disgust.
“ I want my OWN carriage, I am so not going to take one of those stinky, public carriages! Make me a carriage to ride to the ball!” At that point, I was starting to feel drained in the magic department. That, and I was tired of doing all the work so I said to Cinderella,“ I am getting low on magic, so I can notate a carriage out of thin air. I need some stuff to turn into a carriage and coach. Pumpkin carriages are the usual for this kind of thing, you know, with mice for the coach so-

“I don’t want something ordinary!”

“Alright, than get me two toy horses, the best you can find, two nice oranges, and a fresh egg.” Cinderella went off to gather the things I had asked for, and after a short amount of time, returned. She had two perfectly white, beautiful, toy horses ( both of which had been highly treasured by their owner, Cecilia) two oranges(which was meant for the stepmother’s breakfast) an a fresh egg (which came from Angelica’s prize winning hen). With a sigh I pointed my wand at the items and chanted:

Dippidy, dippidy, doppedy, doo!
Before my magic can be spent
I must say that this damsel cannot have a rent
So instead take this egg
And turn it into a beautiful carriage
Take these pretty toy horses
(of all sources)
And make them big white horses
Then finally take these oranges
And turn them into a foots man and coach driver
Do so with haste and make it quick
Sorry I forgot to rhyme
Due to loss of wit
Dippidy, dippidy, doppedy, doo!

Instantly the thing I requested appeared.

“Now hurry off to the ball already! Oh, and one more thing, all of this stuff wears off at midnight!” With that, Cinderella rode of into the night.

The next day I went to see Cinderella about how the ball was last night.

“It was wonderful! Everybody wanted to dance with me, including the prince!” She said dreamily. Suddenly the dreamy look disappeared. “Then that stupid bell tolled midnight and I had to leave! I even lost a slipper! Now I hear that the Prince is going to all the maidens of the kingdom to see who’s foot fits into the slipper. The maiden whose foot fits, they say, will be taken off to the castle as the prince’s bride!”

“Poor sap doesn’t know what he is in for, I thought to myself grimly. Just then there was a loud knock at the door.

“Open in the name of the King!” a familiar voice called out. It was the messenger from the other day, the one who had handed Cinderella the flyer for the ball. The stepmother rushed towards Cinderella.

“Quick! Get yourself out of sight; otherwise they might make you try on the slipper! No one wants to put on a shoe after your foot has been in it.” The woman quickly shoved Cinderella into a closet, locked the door, and went to go answer the door.

“Why, it is nice that you would come to my household! These are my daughters,” she said, gesturing to Cecilia and Angelica. “Cecilia, go try on the slipper!”
Cecilia grunted as she tried on the slipper, but she just couldn’t fit her foot into the tiny little slipper.

“Angelica, how about you try on the slipper?” The stepmother suggested. Angelica tried on the slipper, but as with Cecilia, she just could not fit her foot in.

“Are you sure these are the only girls of your household?” the Prince asked.

“Yes,” The stepmother said with a sigh. The Prince turned to leave when the messenger spoke up.

“I don’t think these are the only girls. The other day, when I was handing out flyers a girl answered the door whom didn’t look like either of these girls. Where might she be?” he asked.

“I am right in here can you help me get out!” Cinderella called from the closet.
The messenger quickly opened the door of the closet (which would unlock if you twisted the handle from the outside). Cinderella stepped out.

“Thank you for getting me out of there,” she said, casually sliding her foot into the glass slipper so that none would notice.

“Oh sorry- hey, look it fits!” she said, her face the picture of surprise. (Unmistakable actress material, there). The Prince swept Cinderella up into his arms and headed out the door. The Stepmother and the two Stepsisters just stood there, mouths open in shock.
The messenger said sheepishly, “Well, bye!” and quickly walked out the door.

A few days later there was a grand wedding between Cinderella and the Prince. During the HUGE reception party, Cinderella came over to me.

“Your fired,” she said flatly.

“What?”
“ I don’t need you any more, now I have all the subjects in the world to take care of me.”
“Oh!” I said, starting to feel elated.
“Umm, Java?” I looked up with surprise. Cinderella never called me by my first name. “I just wanted to say, thank you, for all the things you’ve done for me. Also, I just want say I am sorry for treating you the way I did. If it hadn’t been for you I would have never ended up were I’ve ended up. I’ve been a huge jerk, and I am sorry, can you please forgive me? At first I thought she was just playing with me, but then I saw that her eyes were brimming with tears, real tears, and I knew she was being sincere.
“I forgive you.”
“So” said Cinderella, straightening up “What are you going to do now that you are no longer a fairy godmother?”
“Well I’ve been thinking about starting my own dress making company, what do you think?” Cinderella smiled.
“I think that would magical.” I was starting to think that maybe, just maybe, Cinderella could turn out to be a good person.
In the end, Cinderella turned out to be a good person, the Prince had finally found his true love, the Stepmother and stepsisters finally get what they deserve, and I find my true calling as a fairy dressmaker. I guess that can count as a “Happily Ever After.”