Before The Glass Slipper

by Lily Ann

took turns playing tag in the flowery meadow.

  It was when it was Lucella's turn again, that she went back on her word. She grabbed a long stick and used it to whip the girls.

  "Tag!" She said and hit Jovette hard. "But I'm still 'it'!" She laughed before running after Noemie.

  "You promised to be nice!" Jovette yelled at her. She had tears in her eyes as she held her swollen arm, the stick had left a bruise and it stung with pain.

  "You're a liar!" Noemie said, scared as Lucella came after her.

  The girls, once again, ran away. Lucella chased them and taunted them and told them to 'come out and play'!

  Jovette and Noemie kept running until they found a hiding place near the house. It was a dark shed filled with hay and gardening tools. They went inside, hid in the corner and hoped that Lucella wouldn't find or see them.

  "I know you're in there..." She sing-songed outside the shed walls. She scraped the stick against the wood and thwacked it as hard as she could.

  "Come out, come out, wherever you are..." She continued to taunt with a song.

  "I'm going to catch you easy..." She sang as she walked back and forth around the shed, scratching her stick over the wood.

  "You won't get away, so come out and play..." She said louder, as she stood right outside where the girls were cowering.

  "Stop hiding from me measle!" She yelled and banged as loud as she could on the wood.

  Noemie was so scared that she let out a peep. Jovette covered her mouth and put her finger to her lips. "Shh." She whispered as softly as she could even though she, too, was scared.

  "I heard that..." Lucella whispered through a crack in the wall, and then she turned and skipped away.

  "Is she gone?" Noemie asked after a couple of minutes.

  "I think so." Jovette said to her sister.

  The girls were about the get up and run back to the house when they heard Lucella humming her song again.

  "Oh no." Noemie whimpered in fear.

  "Just be quiet." Jovette said to her sister in a small voice.

  Lucella continued to hum her song as the girls watched her through the cracks in the wood. She rolled a small log a few feet way, and turned it over to sit on it as a stool. She picked up a basket they hadn't noticed before and reached in and shuffled around.

  Lucella pulled out a rock, and threw it against the shed, and then grabbed another. The girls hid in fear as Lucella threw rocks against the shed all afternoon.

  'Bang!'

  'Bang!'

  'Bang!'

  The rocks made a loud cracking sound as they hit the wood and Lucella kept humming her song.

  It wasn't until the dinner bell rang and the sun had set that Lucella put the basket down.

  "It's time to go in!" She said in such a sweet voice and they heard her skip away.

  Noemie cried with relief after Lucella had gone and Jovette held her close.

  "Let's go," She said. "So we can eat and go to bed." And Noemie agreed.

  Later that night as the girls snuggled tight they promised to always stick together. They could never trust Lucella, and they knew they couldn't tell, so they agreed to never believe her.

  As the years went on and the girls grew up Lucella's pranks became more viscous. She went from teasing, taunting and calling them ugly, to becoming cruel, vile and nasty.

  She stole from the girls, broke their things and ripped and tore their dresses. She would put bugs in their beds, rotten milk in their lotions and crept in their rooms at night to cut the curls from their heads.

  She cheated and lied her way out of duty and housework, making Jovette and Noemie do all of her chores.

  She tripped and kicked and punched and pushed, Lucella was always up to no good. She dumped and threw and smeared things in their hair, but she had fooled their parents, and they were never aware.

  Lucella was so sneaky that their parents never knew, and the girls said nothing, and believed that there wasn’t anything they could do.

  She was nice and helpful and always proper in front of their mother and father. It was when their parents were away, and the girls were alone, that Lucella's true nature was ever shown.

  They didn't think that, after hiding it for so long, their mother would believe them. So they quietly endured and kept Lucella's nasty secret; that she was rotten and a shameless creature.

  The years continued to pass, and Lucella never changed, she only worsened and so did her games.

  They were all young ladies when Lucella's father died. It was a sad and terrible time in the house they all lived in. Lady Tremaine was devastated, and all the girls were heartbroken.

  Lucella had withdrawn and become quiet and silent she was so sad and she stayed like that until a day after the funeral.

  That evening, during dinner, she looked up from her plate all of a sudden. "Get out of my house." She said to them all with such hate.

  "I beg your pardon?" Lady Tremaine asked her with shock and confusion.

  "My father is dead. This is my house now. I want you to leave." She said to her.

  "You're upset dear. " Lady Tremaine said giving her stepdaughter the benefit of the doubt. "Why don't you go up to bed and rest for a while."

  "I will not change my mind!" She stood, and shouted, but Lucella did as she was told and went up to bed.

  The next morning the girls and their mother were sitting at breakfast when Lucella came down and joined them.

  "Good morning." Lady Tremaine greeted her step daughter. "Did you sleep well?" She asked her with love and concern.

  "Yes." Lucella answered her in a clipped word.

  "Do you feel better this morning?" Lady Tremaine asked her, ignoring the girls harsh tone.

  Lucella looked up from her breakfast plate and smiled at Jovette and Noemie and then she looked over at her step mother. "Yes." She told her with a fake smile. "I do feel better, but I still want you to leave."

  "My dear," Lady Tremaine said to Lucella. "You are upset about your fathers death and so are we, but we are your family now. We will not leave you." She told her.

  "I don't want you here." Lucella said looking down at her plate.

  "Lucella, this is our home too. We will not leave you." Lady Tremaine said to the girl again with reason.

  "Get out! Get out, get out, get out!" Lucella yelled as she stood from her chair and pushed her breakfast plate away from her making a mess.

  "Lucella!" Lady Tremaine said in horror and shock. She had never seen Lucella behave like this before. "Clean up this mess this instant!" She told the girl.

  "NO!" Lucella screamed and then ran out through the dinning room door.

  Lucella ran to her room, screaming all the way, and slammed her door shut, knocking pictures off of the wall.

  "Girls," Lady Tremaine said to her two daughters. "Lucella is upset." She told Jovette and Noemie. "She has lost both of her parents and she feels alone. We will help her get through this." She told the sisters with a sad smile.

  As Lady Tremaine took her daughters in her arms she wasn’t' sure Lucella would ever get better. The girls knew that Lucella was sad about losing her dad, but they recognized this as her true nature.

  Weeks went by and Lucella's outbursts continued and worsened. Lady Tremaine was beside herself with worry.

  Lady Tremaine was convinced that it was Lucella's sadness that was making her act out in such a way. She told Jovette and Noemie to be understanding and gave Lucella all her doting and attention.

  Lucella had found a new way to torture the girls, and Lady Tremaine had become and unknowing accomplice.

  Lucella continued to get out of her chores, but she no longer had to hide or lie about it.

  "You two will do Lucella's chores until she is better." Lady Tremaine said to them one evening after dinner.

  "Yes mother." The girls said. They looked out of the dinning room and into the sitting room where Lucella was. She was smiling at the girls in her familiar and wicked way.

  They watche
d her as her face changed into that of an angel as Lady Tremaine went into the room and sat next to her. Lucella continued this way in her new spiteful game and Lady Tremaine was none the wiser.

  It was sometime later that Lucella was finally caught, and the two girls sighed with relief.

  Lady Tremaine had excused herself early from dinner and reminded them to clean up when they finished.

  Lucella was still eating when she left but soon after finished her dinner in a hurry.

  "I think I will take a nice hot bath!" She said in a happy tone as she stood and stretched.

  Jovette and Noemie didn't say a word to their step sister, instead they kept eating their dinner.

  Lucella circled the table when she didn't get a response from the girls. And as she paraded around the long wooden oval, she dumped and knocked over anything within reach.

  Lucella tipped over her glass of milk first. "Oops." She said in phony surprise.

  She took the flowers out of the vase and ripped them to shreds and threw them up in the air like confetti. Then she picked up the bowl of dinner rolls, smashed them with her hands and dumped them on the table. She tossed the salt and pepper shakers and spilled black and white flakes everywhere, then knocked over the candles, splashing red hot wax across the table