Sisterly Love

Next part of the alternative Cinderella story 🙂 Happy reading

Ella’s hogging the bathroom again, covering her face with a mask of make-up. I knock on the door and she yells, “Get lost, Cinder!”

    I glare at the wood and swear at her under my breath. Dakota comes up behind me and brushes her long blond hair out her face. “Hey, Lu. Having bathroom troubles?” she asks sweetly.

    I don’t bother looking at her. She’s not going to help me. “No.”

    “Hey Kody! I need you!” Ella calls.

    “Coming!” Dakota, or Kody as she’s now called, coos back at Ella, unlocking the door. She slips in and I hear the door click again. Great.

    Ella and Kody start whispering and laughing. Probably plotting how to ruin my day, I think angrily. What seems like an eternity later, they finally burst out of the bathroom. Ella’s brown hair is messily swept up onto her head, some tiny hairs hanging loose. Looks like snakes, I think. She could be Medusa. Ella bumps me as she leaves and offers an overly sweet, “Sorry, Cinder.”

    I roll my eyes and walk into the bathroom, dropping my clothes on the floor. I scowl at the amount of makeup containers scattered all over the counter and lock the door, wary of Ella and Kody’s pranks. I glance at myself in the mirror and sigh. My hair is an explosion of brown and blond, like someone just dumped the colors onto my head without any care at all. My light skin is slightly tanned, mostly from my days out in the greenhouse where I work. Then there’s my eyes. I don’t like them one bit. The shape and size are just about normal, but the color… ew. Murky brown with a ring of blue twisting through and tiny specks of gold splattered all over.

    Quite judging yourself, I scold. I walk over to the shower and turn it on. Then, as I let it warm up, I strip of my pj’s. I kick them into a corner and put my clothes for the day in front of the counter. I lean into the shower and test the heat with my hand. Just hot enough. I smile and step into it, immediately rubbing shampoo into my hair. As I rinse out the shampoo, I notice the water getting hotter. I glance at the temperature control: it hasn’t moved. I swear at Ella again and move away from the water as it continues to grow hotter.

My legs are still being burned when the temperature goes back down. I move back under the water and groan as I realize the water gets colder. For the next few minutes, I try showering through the continual hot-cold-hot-cold water changing. Finally, I can’t stand it anymore and I climb out, grabbing my towel. I leave the bathroom and holler, “Ella! Kody! It’s not funny! Ari’s going to be here soon!”

“Oh, the Little Mermaid? Aw, how cute!” Ella replies.

I go to the end of the hallway and say, “That joke is old. He’s been teased enough about his name!”

Ella comes into view, smirking. “I hope you don’t plan on seeing him in person,” she says.

“Why? Of course I do. He’s my best friend,” I snap.

“Well, I hope he doesn’t mind your lack of clothes,” she laughs as Kody darts past me, snatching the towel from around me.

As the two of them run off to their rooms, I realize Kody’s carrying all the towels and my clothes. I rush after them, only to find their doors locked. I go to my room and tug on the handle. Locked. I hear them giggle from inside.

“Wow, Lu. You’ve got some cute panties,” Kody snickers. “Look at the swirls.”

“Oh, Cinder!” Ella squeals. “We really should take you shopping.”

“Why don’t you let us pick out some clothes?”

They laugh and I hear them tossing clothes across the room. “Let me in there!” I shout.

“We’re still looking!” Ella says in a sing-song voice.

I grumble and stomp my foot, then hug myself. I’m naked and standing in the middle of the hallway. I glance down toward the kitchen, windows are closed, thankfully. And it’s a good thing there’s no windows at the end of the hall either. The only other thing I’m dreading beside Ari coming right now, is what Ella and Kody are picking out.

“All done!” Kody announces.

The door opens and Ella pulls me into the room. Kody grins as I survey my now trashed room. Ella shoves a bundle of clothes at me and pushes me out of the room. “Go get dressed, hon,” she says. “We’ll clean this up.”

I turn to protest, but the door closes and locks before I can. I look at the clothes and grimace. The clothes are horrible. The bra is the bra I’d stuffed into my closet for fear of upsetting Mom. It’s itchy and neon polka-dotted. The underwear is a pair that Ella and Kody had stained by dropping it in the toilet. The little kiddy design is hard to make out. I examine the shirt and pants and find them to be ones I’d also hidden. A transparent green shirt with the ugliest design possible and the pants, actually aren’t pants. It’s a skirt, made for old women.

I shoot a glare at the door. They know I hate skirts.

Then I hear a knock on the door. My heart jumps about fifteen feet. Oh crap. I look between the clothes and the bathroom.

“Lucy?” Ari calls.

Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, I think. I’m not wearing these. I hurry to the bathroom, careful to duck around windows. I slam the door and lock it.

Ari lets himself in. Ella and Kody must have unlocked the door to make sure he caught me, I seethe. I hear him kick off his shoes and walk into the house, closing the door behind himself.

“Lucy? Where are you?”

I bite my lip. “In the bathroom,” I reply.

“Oh,” he says. I can hear the embarrassment in his voice. “Were you taking a shower?”

“Yep. And they stole my clothes,” I say.

“Oh,” he says again. “So, do you want me to go grab some?”

“They locked my room and their rooms.”

“Towels?”

“They took them.”

“Okay… do you have anything?”

“Just some really ugly clothes they handed me before locking me out again,” I growl, glaring at the clothes I’d thrown on the floor.

    Ari sighs, “Try them on.”

    “What?” I ask, surprised.

    “Try them on. I mean, come on. We’re best friends, Lucinda. I don’t care, as long as you’re dressed,” he says coolly.

    “Ari, the shirt is transparent.”

    “And? Lucy, I’m your friend. I thought we were going to watch a movie. Nobody’s going to care.”

    I scowl at him through the door and let out a breath. I grudgingly get into the clothes and glance at myself in the mirror. Ugly. I play with my hair, eventually deciding to put it up. It makes the clothes less ugly, I tell myself. “Alright,” I say. “I’m coming out, but you can’t laugh. If you do–”

    Ari finishes the sentence for me. “…then you’ll run right back in the bathroom and cry.”

    My hand hesitates on the handle, then I throw open the door and close my eyes, waiting for the worst. Ari is quiet for a moment. “You can open your eyes, Lucy,” he says.

    My eyes open and he’s standing right in front of me, arms crossed. He raises his eyebrows and smiles. “You think it’s ugly? Well, it is. But not really.”

    “What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask, my heart sinking.

    “That you look fine. Not ugly, just fine.”

    “Not cute either,” I grumble.

    Ari grabs my face and makes me look at him. “Hey, you look adorable, okay? Can we watch the movie now?”

    I kick his leg, lightly. “All you care about is that movie,” I say, unable to stay mad at him.

    He brushes back his longish dirty blond hair and beams. “Yup. Where are the snacks?”

    I point to the kitchen counter and say, “Should be some popcorn on there.”

    Ari nods and walks over to it, whistling. I watch him go and sigh, padding into the living room and plopping down onto the couch. I hear Ari tossing the popcorn into the microwave and pressing the buttons. “Where’d you put the bowls?” he asks.

    “Bottom cupboard, right side,” I call, scanning the movie titles.

    “Thanks,” Ari says.

    I finally get up and pull out Snow White, kneeling down to slide it in. Ari returns with the popcorn as the main menu appears on the screen. He sits down next to me and offers the bowl. I smile at him and grab a handful, stuffing the popcorn into my mouth. I press the play button and the movie starts. I let out a breath and settle into the couch, focusing my attention on the film, trying to ignore my expository clothing.