Not Another Cinderella Story

Dear Diary,

It all started when my dad met her. We were doing just fine on our own. We had a nice house, Dad loved his job making art for a local gallery, and I loved my school and my friends. Sure, we missed Mom, but we had each other. He was all I needed, but I guess I wasn't enough for him. Heather, my step-mother (but I like to call her my step-monster) came with suitcase upon suitcase of useless crap, as well as two daughters just as awful as herself. Gabriella and Amanda would kiss a literal frog before ever showing me an ounce of mutual respect, even though I've been nothing but pleasant (okay fine, maybe neutral) towards them. They came storming into what used to feel like our castle, and made it feel like a dungeon. Heather made Dad quit making art and work as an accountant because it was "more stable" and he should "put his degree to good use." Gabriella and Amanda invaded my school and started spreading rumors and making up lies about me. Only a few of my so-called friends saw through their lies and stuck around. The three-headed monster has been around for ten years now, and it only got meaner after Dad died. I'm still mad at him for driving after drinking when he knows a drunk driver is what killed Mom. I can't believe that he would make such a reckless decision and leave me here like this, especially without at least figuring out what would happen to me if he died. He didn't leave a will and now I'm stuck with Heather as my guardian with her and her disciple daughters treating me like a maid.

"Ella, do the dishes!"

"Ella, clean out the gutters!"

"Ella, condition my wigs!"

"Ella, do my homework for me!"

They treat me like dirt and I'm sick of it. Today Heather sat us down and told us that she's sending me to Saint Ursula- a Catholic boarding school. The evil step-sisters snickered and shared looks of triumph. I know that I should be upset that they're just trying to get rid of me, and that Heather is going through with it, but I actually can't wait to get away from here and finally have some freedom. I looked the school up online, and it's actually beautiful. The grounds are huge and there are trees everywhere. I start next week and need a whole new wardrobe of uniforms. I have to make them, of course, but it should be pretty easy. Gabriella and Amanda are much taller than I am, and a little thicker (because Heather consistently gives me exactly half of whatever all of them eat), and they both have a couple of old uniforms from when they went to boarding school in elementary school. Heather has really never been the doting mother type- obviously. I think I should be able to scrape some pretty decent outfits together from their hand-me-downs. I can't wait to get out of here and start over!

Dad used to always tell me that Mom was looking down and protecting me, just like a fairy godmother. I swear it's finally starting to feel like maybe he was right all along. Maybe she was just waiting on him to join her. Or maybe she just couldn't interfere until a certain time or until things got too bad. I'll never know for sure, but I do know I'm grateful she's here with me now.

Well, Heather is screaming at me to do dishes again (god forbid she or her daughters ever touch a dirty plate) so I'll write again later.

-Ella

Author's Note: For this storytelling, I retold the story of Cinderella, or Aschenputtel, in a more modern way. I based it off of the Brothers Grimm story Aschenputtel, translated by Lucy Crane. I wanted the story to be more modern, but still have the same character tropes and overall feeling and concept of the original story. The original story by the Grimm Brothers is a bit different than the Disney telling that we all have heard countless times. I wanted to keep some of the more Disney-esque aspects- like the idea of a fairy godmother- but also keep aspects of the original- like the wickedness of the step-mother and step-sisters.

I decided to write this story in a diary format because I honestly had a lot of fun when I used a diary format for my retelling of the story of Athena and Arachne. Because it is in the form of a diary, you can really feel how upset and angry Ella is at her step-mother and step-sisters as well as her dad for leaving her alone with them. I also really enjoy the diary format because it is easy to slip in details that make the story more modern- such as Ella's parents dying in two different drunk driving accidents.

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