Before The Glass Slipper

by Lily Ann

cloth.

  She picked up a pitcher of water and poured it along the edge as she made her way closer to the girls. When she was next to them she didn't stop pouring, and filled their plates up with the cold water, pouring it all over and ruining their food.

  "We were still eating." Noemie said to her annoyed. Both of the sisters still had food on their plates.

  "You're fat enough." Lucella said in a pleasant voice.

  "You're so mean." Jovette said as Lucella finished dumping the pitcher of water on her plate.

  "You're so ugly." Lucella said back to her and then threw the pitcher down on the table.

  "Now clean this up." She said with delight as she dusted her hands off together.

  Jovette and Noemie knew better than to argue with Lucella, so they did what they always had and cleaned up the mess.

  Lucella laughed at the two of them and then turned to leave, but stopped in her tracks.

  "Did you forget to make a mess of something?" Jovette asked Lucella when she noticed she wasn't leaving and then turned to look at her for the first time.

  Standing in the doorway was Lady Tremaine, with her arms crossed over her chest and her face was holding the strangest expression.

  "Mother!" Jovette yelped out in surprise. Noemie too stopped and spun around in a hurry.

  "We, were just... playing a game!" Lucella said as she stuttered in a rush.

  "A game?" Lady Tremaine questioned Lucella's choice of words with a steely glare.

  "Yes, a game. Right girls?" Lucella said and then turned around to look at the girls with an angry scowl.

  Jovette and Noemie starred at each other and with their eyes, agreed this was their chance and they would not cover for Lucella.

  Neither of the girls could say anything to their mother, they only had to look at her and she knew the answer.

  "It was just a silly prank." Lucella retorted as she turned back around to look at Lady Tremaine.

  "Do not lie to me Lucella." Lady Tremaine's voice boomed inside the large room.

  "I'm not lying!" Lucella yelled back and stomped her foot.

  Lady Tremaine's nostrils flared as she took another step into the room. "Leave the room." She roared, her voice hardened and cold.

  Lucella smirked triumphantly and looked back at the girls as she moved forward.

  "Not you." Lady Tremaine said staring down Lucella and placing herself in front of her path. "Jovette and Noemie, please go now." She told her two daughters and kept her eyes locked onto Lucella.

  The two girls left the room in a hurry and made their way to the stairs where they listened. It had been many years since they'd seen their mother this angry. She was kind and loving, that was always true, but she was a formidable woman. They had witnessed her anger toward others in the past but had never been on the receiving end of it.

  Lady Tremaine was known for her beauty and kindness, but she didn't earn her respect based on her looks. She was honorable and straightforward; fair and just and she did not take kindly to treachery, liars and thieves.

  "You will clean up this mess." Lady Tremaine ordered Lucella.

  "No." Lucella said back to her crossing her arms and jutting out her chin.

  "You will clean this mess now and you will not leave this room until you do." Lady Tremaine told her with finality.

  Lucella was stubborn, but she had met her match. Lady Tremaine and Lucella stayed in the dinning room until the next morning. Breakfast needed to be served, and the table had yet to be cleaned.

  "My Lady?" The kitchen maid asked in question as to what they should do.

  "Set up breakfast in the sitting room." She told the woman. "Place settings for three." She said.

  With a quick bow the servant excused herself and did as instructed and Lucella threw a fit.

  "I'm hungry!" She yelled and stood from the chair she had been sitting in all night. "I want to eat!"

  "Not until your chores are finished." Lady Tremaine said to her in a calm voice.

  "I will not clean this mess!" Lucella yelled again.

  "Then you will not leave this room."

  Lucella screamed and swiped her arm across the table, throwing dirty dishes and spoiled food across the room.

  "Lucella!" Lady Tremaine bellowed. "You may continue to act like a fool and make more of a mess or you may do as you are told and clean up after yourself, but you will not leave this room until you do!"

  Lucella did not like the ultimatum she had been given and choose to do neither one. She finished clearing off the table by throwing it all over the floor and then went on the trash the rest of the room.

  Lady Tremaine didn't flinch or waver. "When you are finished and have cleaned up after yourself, you may leave." She said to Lucella one last time before she closed the dinning room doors and locked her in with a key.

  Lucella stayed in that room until later that same evening. She had cleaned up her mess, picked up the chairs and put the room back together. She was given something to eat and then told to go to bed.

  Lady Tremaine was patient, but she could be harsh as she held true to her word. Lucella didn't learn her lesson that first day and as time went on she continued to show her true self, and each time her punishment fit her crime.

  After that day Lady Tremaine paid closer attention, and she watched and listened when the three girls thought she was gone.

  She witnessed Lucella be cruel and mean to the other two girls and heard her call them names and taunt them with laughter. She watched as Lucella destroyed and stole their things, and then lie to everyone after.

  Lady Tremaine noted and spied on Lucella for weeks and never said a word. She played along with her and her feigned innocence and soon she truly understood who Lucella was.

  Lucella was not the sweet girl she had always thought her to be. She had been spoiled by her father and had rotted to the core, while always getting her way and whatever she wanted. She never learned respect or kindness. She was instead cruel, deceitful; tricky and selfish. All these years she now knew what her daughters had gone through, and Lady Tremaine felt sick to her stomach.

  She needed to change her, she thought, there is still time. Lucella was a young lady but she could still be taught. So Lady Tremaine decided that that's what she would do.

  "Lucella." She said to the girl that night at dinner.

  "Yes?" She looked up at her with mock glee.

  "You will clean up the table after dinner." Lady Tremaine told her looking directly in her eyes.

  Lucella grit her teeth but didn't look away. "Sure." She said to Lady Tremaine with a tight smile. "I'd be glad to help Jovette and Noemie." She said to the Lady.

  "No." Lady Tremaine said holding her gaze. "I want you to do it by yourself."

  "Fine." Lucella replied through clenched teeth after a long while.

  "Thank you." Lady Tremaine said and then stood to leave the room. "Come along girls." She said to Jovette and Noemie.

  Lucella cleaned up the dinning room as she was told without another word or any fuss and Lady Tremaine thought they were off to a good start.

  They went to bed that night all of them happy. And then next morning woke with heartbreak and fury.

  Jovette and Noemie each woke up with a scream.

  Lady Tremaine ran into each of their rooms and found the same thing. Both of her daughters hair had been cut down to the scalp, and the locks scattered all over the room. All of their dresses had been ripped and torn to shreds and their beaded necklaces and jewelry broken and strewed across the floor.

  The girls cried and rocked in pain at the betrayal. "Why?" Noemie sobbed against her mothers chest.

  "What did we ever do?" Jovette wailed next to her.

  After what felt like forever, she helped clean the girls up and had the maids clear the mess in their rooms.

  "Follow me." She told the maids in a firm voice once they finished.

  Lady Tremaine burst through Lucella's door with the girls and the maids following behind her.
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br />   Lucella was laying calmly on her bed, twisting and playing with a ribbon tied around a lock of hair; a mix of both caramel and black.

  Lady Tremaine didn't waste anytime and went through all of Lucella's things. She marched over to the bed and grabbed Lucella around the arm.

  "Bring these and her bed and a blanket." She bellowed as she pulled on Lucella's arm, yanking her from her bed.

  "What are you doing?!" Lucella demanded. "Let go of me!"

  Lady Tremaine didn't respond to the wicked girl and kept pulling her as they walked. When they reached the attic she shoved Lucella inside.

  "This is your new room." She told her with a stony gaze.

  "You are an ungrateful, hate-filled and spiteful young girl and you will no longer be treated as anything but." Lady Tremaine hissed in cold blood.

  "This is MY house!" Lucella yelled back at the Lady. "You can't do this!" She roared.

  "Wrong!" Lady Tremaine seethed as she stepped forward further into the room. "This is MY house. Your father left everything to me. Including you!" She shrilled and then closed and locked the door.

  All of Lucella's things were cleared out of her room and given away in the village. She was left with only her bed and a blanket and two of her ugliest dresses.

  The house staff was instructed to treat her as one of their own. Lucella from now on would do chores and work and earn each of her meals.

  Lucella went to work in the kitchen and she was told to do the dishes and scrub the floors.

  She refused to do any work at all and instead sat on a chair by the fire.

  Lady Tremaine found out and Lucella was sent to her room without dinner as punishment.

  "You may try again tomorrow." Lady Tremaine said before leaving and locking the door.

  It went on that way for a several days until Lucella was so hungry that she finally did her chores. Lucella did her work for a few days, earning meals until her strength was back, and then she refused again.

  "You will learn." Lady Tremaine said to her as she locked her away one night in her room.

  Weeks passed and the same pattern continued. Lucella would do chores and eat, then refuse and go hungry.

  Months had gone by when Lady Tremaine noticed that Lucella had quit fighting. She kept to herself, did her work and ate her fill.

  Lady Tremaine wondered if maybe Lucella had learned something and thought to trust her with more responsibility. Since her punishment had started Lucella had only seen the kitchen and her room, but that evening was granted access to the house once more.

  Jovette and Noemie had not seen Lucella since she cut their hair that day and they were nervous as they watched her make her way into the sitting room.

  Lucella didn't smile and instead looked right through the girls as she took her cleaning bucket into the room.

  "How are you Lucella?" Lady Tremaine asked her step daughter.

  "I am well." Lucella answered her impassively.

  "Are you getting enough to eat? Are you warm enough in your room?" Lady Tremaine asked her more questions.

  Lucella was angry, the girls could see it on her face, and instead of answering their mother Lucella turned her back on Lady Tremaine and went to work cleaning the fire place.

  "Lucella, I asked you a question." Lady Tremaine said as she walked closer to the girl.

  Lucella kept ignoring the Lady and instead hummed a familiar tune. Jovette and Noemie recognized the song as one Lucella would hum when she was about to do something wrong.

  "Lucella!" Lady Tremaine repeated the girls name with an icy edge.

  Lucella continued to ignore her as she swept up the fireplace soot and instead began to hum even louder.

  Tension in the room rose as time ticked by until Lucella stood from doing her chore and turned around to face the three women.

  "How dare you not answer me when I'm talking to you!" Lady Tremaine scolded her young step daughter.

  Lucella squinted and smirked at the girls and their mother and then answered her questions with disdain. "Yes, I am getting plenty to eat and I am quite warm in my room." She said with hostility.

  "Good." Lady Tremaine said with bitterness and relief, she didn't really want to the girl to suffer.

  Lucella turned to face the two girls and gave them such a sweet smile. "I like your hair cut." She taunted them and bellowed with laughter.

  Jovette and Noemie's gasp was audible and Lady Tremaine was angry beyond words.

  "You boorish girl!" Lady Tremaine said immediately and moved closer to Lucella planning to lock her up in her bedroom.

  Lucella was quick and had already planned her attack so when she lifted the bucket of soot Lady Tremaine stopped in her tracks. She covered her face and threw up her arms in a hurry as she waited for Lucella to dump the black smut all over her.

  Lucella's plan backfired on her though, and as she moved forward to throw the soot on her stepmother, she slipped and tripped backward! Lucella fell on her bottom and landed inside the cold fire place with the bucket of grime landing on her head.

  She screamed and yelled and threw the bucket away from her and tried to brush the black smudge from her dress.

  "Well, it looks like you've finally gotten what you deserve." Lady Tremaine said looming over the rotten girl.

  Jovette and Noemie knew it was wrong, but they began to giggle as they looked down at Lucella all black and full of soot.

  "Don't laugh at me!" She yelled, which made them chuckle harder.

  Lady Tremaine tried her best but, she too, let out a small giggle. Lucella punished herself this time, and she deserved it.

  Lady Tremaine in that moment knew she was done playing nice with the girl. "You will never learn, will you?" She asked out loud as she looked down on Lucella. "No, I don't think you will." She continued to speak, answering her own question.

  "I hate you." Lucella seethed as she stood up from the floor. Black smoke billowed out beneath her as the dust and soot hit the floor.

  Lady Tremaine stood taller as Lucella's words hit her in the heart. She knew in that moment that the girl was speaking the truth, and it hurt her very badly. Lady Tremaine had always loved Lucella like her own daughter.

  Lady Tremaine grew cold toward the girl in that moment. Lucella's words and actions had caused her too much pain.

  She turned away from Lucella and began to walk out of the room. "Clean yourself off before you leave this room." She told her in a bitter voice.

  When Lady Tremaine reached the door she turned and stared at the girl with the cruelest eyes and called her for the first time by her new name. "Cinderella."

 

  And as the tale goes now you know; there are always two sides to every story...