Once Upon A Time... (Lottie)

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...there was a beautiful young girl, who loved her parents very much...
That was how it started, of course, Cinderella had even actually read it. She wasn't sure if you were supposed to go and read your own stories, but then it wasn't like it would give her unrealistic expectations, she already knew that they could be wrong - the very first sentence was always wrong.

A beautiful little girl. Baby girl. Young girl. Sweet and kind and lovely girl.

Cinderella didn't deny it, technically, she supposed perhaps the stories were just seeing inside her heart, just seeing the person she knew she truly, truly was, and so they didn't need to go through all that bother of physical form, through the years of muddy little Daniel trying desperately to fit in before realising the truth of the matter after the tragic death of the most wonderful mother a child could hppe for. That wasn't part of the story, that didn't make a difference to the growing up and the happily ever after - right?
The stories, at least, confirmed that her lot in life was part of her fate, that she had done nothing wrong to deserve such a cruel and wicked stepfamily, and she definitely shouldn't be ashamed of who she really was. She was free of them now, free to follow her destiny and her heart and find her handsome prince - because, of course, that part of the story just had to be right.

It wasn't that she hated her family, Cinderella was too sweet for that, she didn't know what hate was, really, she just wanted them to love her, she tried so hard to be perfect for them and it had never worked.

All of this was going through her head as she wandered through the hallways, looking for somewhere to practice her dancing - after all, if she was going to meet a handsome prince it would probably be at a ball, that was what all the stories said, so she would have to make sure she was extra wonderful at ballroom dancing, so that she definitely found her true love.

The thought of her true love buoyed her again, and she brushed away thoughts of her old life just like cleaning away the cobwebs in that big old house, she wished she could find love with her family, she really did, but it wasn't to be and she just hoped they were getting on fine without her - she wondered, for example, if they had worked out how to make breakfast yet, or if they had simply hired another maid.

Stumbling across the ballroom, thoughts once more turned to dancing and princes, and she stepped inside, immediately taking off in an imaginary waltz around the room, humming along with the music in her mind.
She didn't pay any attention to whether or not the room was already occupied, hadn't even noticed the sign on the door that explained when the room was booked and who by. She was a great believer in destiny (one would have to be, to assume that a girl forced into being a scullery maid was going to marry a prince) and it seemed perfectly fitting that, just as she had been looking for a place to practice, she had happened upon a ballroom.

As she spun around the room, she imagined a prince was holding her in his arms, her mental picture furnishing her with a beautiful ballgown and peopling the room with other dancers, the music swelling in her mind as she began to sing along.

"I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream..."

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In fact, the room was occupied, although technically the class had already ended. Not that Lottie needed ballroom dancing lessons, mind you, but she had thought that it might be a wonderful place to meet boys, particularly boys of the royal persuasion. So far that theory hadn’t quite panned out, and during her first class she had gotten paired with a pimply-faced little first year who stepped on her feet more than he stepped on the floor. Lottie could still feel a damp spot on the waist of her dress where his sweaty little hand had rested.

“Ew,” about summed it up. “If it stains I’m gonna track that disgustin’ little...” she ranted to herself as she packed up her things, but her words trailed off when someone entered the room and began dancing about and singing.

Gosh, did every female here wander off to deserted places to sing to themselves? If that was a requirement, Lottie had luckily missed the memo. Instinctively ducking her head and looking around rather wildly, she breathed a sigh of relief when she noted that there at least didn’t appear to be any gathering vermin this time. Her nerves just couldn’t handle that after the last hour of torture.

“You know dancin’ is usually better with a partner, sugah, not ta mention a bit of music,” she spoke once she felt particularly safe.

Maybe the singing was just a requirement for princesses... which wouldn’t bode well for her at all since that was what she aspired to be. While she could certainly dance, and charm her way into many a boy’s heart, she couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket. Not even a bucket with a lid.

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When the voice came, Cinderella was so startled she almost fell over. Instead, she ground to a halt, her skirts whirling about her legs as the momentum carried them.

"Oh! I'm so sorry, I didn't realise there was anybody else in here, I do hope I'm not interrupting anything!" She blushed, mentally scolding herself for interrupting whatever it was that Lottie had been doing here. She really ought to check that she wasn't interrupting people before she went into a room, she did so hate to be rude and that was a terribly rude thing to do.

"And I was practicing," she added "For when I do have a partner..." she stopped just short of the dreamy sigh, but it was definitely implied in her tone.

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So as well as singing and dancing about when they were alone, princesses were also apparently easily flustered and terrified of being rude. This girl could have been Giselle’s sister the way she reacted. Twin sister, or someone who was somehow exactly like her. It was eerie.

“It’s quite alright, I’m just finishin’ up,” Lottie replied, grabbing her bag from chair where she had flung it earlier. It only contained old school books anyway. Not wanting to sling it over her shoulder and risk further wrinkling and damaging her dress, she instead held it at her side with a put-on sigh. Taking a few steps toward the door, she stopped and smiled at the girl, laughing a little at her words.

“Aren’t we all...” she said, shaking her head a bit. Maybe she would be better off practicing on her own instead of with little Mister Sweaty-palms, but then again she didn’t exactly need practicing. “And I suppose you’re holdin’ out for a prince as well, hmm? Well let me tell you, sweetie, ya ain’t gonna find one in this room. Prince Charming must already know how to dance, ‘cause I ain’t seen him in any of my classes.”

Yes, classes plural. While this had been her first class, it hadn’t been her first class. It had been the first in a growing line of firsts, but after seeing the boys in each one, she never made it to a second class before transferring into another one. Frankly she was running out of dance classes to join.

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"Yes! How did you know that?" Cinderella asked with wide eyes. Despite having already met Giselle, the idea that she might be only one of many looking for the same thing never crossed her mind - though, if it did, she wouldn't find it that strange. After all, who didn't want a handsome prince?

"Oh but of course he can already dance," she smiled dreamily "And he's probably a wonderful dancer... that's why I came to practice, you see, I wouldn't want to disappoint him - why, then we might not fall in love and that would be just terrible!"

While she was content to let destiny guide her and for love at first sight to occur, there was no harm in a little preparation.

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“Just a lucky guess.”

Maybe it was just born princesses that had to be this naive and innocent. Lottie would be different, she already had it all planned. No, she wasn’t of royal blood, but she would find a prince who was tired of all these brainless, simpering little girls and was looking for a real woman, that would be her way in.

That, or she would pretend to be just like Giselle and this girl until she snared her prince, then once they were married she could drop the act and be herself, only with a crown. She was perfectly fine with either option. Either one landed her her own Happily Ever After with her own Prince Charming.

Of course, when Lottie spoke of Prince Charming, she meant in a more general sense, but this girl seemed to be speaking more literally, as if there was an actual prince called Charming that she had her sights set on. But that was just silly, so it obviously just sounded that way.

“If he ain’t gonna love you just cause you can’t dance, then he just ain’t worth it,” Lottie said, and normally she would have believed it, but this was a prince they were talking about, and wouldn’t he just be worth anything? “And besides, I find tha air just don’t make a very good partner. Now dancin’ with someone, feelin’ his arms around you, leadin’ you around like you’re walkin’ on air...” Now it was Lottie’s turn for a dreamy sigh, and she didn’t hold back. “There just ain’t no practicin’ for that.”

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The very idea sent Cinderella into so strong a spell of sheer giddy delight that she stared into space with dreamy eyes for several long seconds before blinking back to reality and smiling sweetly at Lottie.

"Oh I'm sure you're right, but what else am I supposed to do? I'm so used to doing so much work at home that I need things to keep me busy while I'm waiting to find my prince."

She still wasn't certain whether she was supposed to be actively looking or just trusting in fate to bring her prince to her. All the stories she read seemed to involve the latter, if not waiting for the prince himself then at least waiting for the right opportunity. She only hoped she'd know it when she saw it.

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Hmm, she had a point: what else was she supposed to do? If she wanted to practice dancing it was either she find a partner or the air would have to do.

“You could take a dance lesson,” Lottie suggested, then she remembered the possible sweaty hand print on her back and shuddered. “Actually, forget that. Ya ain’t gonna find a partner worth your time in any of these classes, believe me, I’ve looked. I swear the boys in them only joined ta meet pretty girls.”

Which is completely different from the reason she joined, which was to meet princes. Not the same at all.

“Don’t all these classes keep ya busy enough? I swear, I ain’t never been so busy in all my life,” Lottie sighed. It wasn’t like she hadn’t gone to school, but she hadn’t come here to go to classes, so why did they all expect her to actually learn? She had more important things to think of and focus on!

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"Well I don't think I'd meet him in the lesson," she said thoughtfully "Although perhaps that would be sort of romantic too.... no, it's not right, it has to be a ball I think, or maybe getting saved somehow..."
All the stories said ball, but then there was a lot that the stories didn't mention, so maybe she should be a little more aware of other possibilities.

"Well, the classes do take up a lot of time," she agreed "But they start much later than I usually get up, and, well, cleaning the house and doing the laundry and making meals and feeding the animals, well, that keeps my day terribly busy, I'm almost at something of a loss since coming here!"

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Of course it had to be at a ball; that was how Lottie had always pictured it... why, she was just going about this thing all wrong! This girl had the right idea! She just needed to doll herself all up like Cinderella and attend a ball! But fate had been working against her because she had already missed one, the Prom, because she had been ill and bedridden. Luckily Caz had been there to keep her company, but she had missed her chance!

Maybe she should put herself in some sort of mortal peril...

“Ya mean like from a dragon or somethin’? I heard there’s been a lot of attacks lately, and tha authorities are just beggin’ for knights and princes to fight them,” Lottie said, tapping one finger to her cheek and staring off into space as the plan began to take shape in her mind. “We could go out there, when we hear they’re leadin’ an attack against the dragons, and put ourselves in ‘danger’. Oh, it’s the perfect set up!”

Nothing else the other blonde said even registered in Lottie’s head. Had she been listening she might have questioned whether the girl was a princess at all, or just some scullery maid with silly dreams of marrying above her class.

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"Oh, but I think if we deliberately put ourselves in danger it's not the same at all..." Cinderella said carefully, happily adopting the plural pronouns - after all, it was perfectly understandable that perhaps Lottie would be looking for a prince as well. She wondered if she was looking for one she'd already met, like Giselle, but wasn't sure if it would be rude to ask.

"I think perhaps then you might end up with the wrong Prince, because you were supposed to be rescued from some different mortal peril that you haven't gotten yourself accidentally in because you were too busy getting deliberately into other mortal peril..." she trailed off, frowning slightly as she puzzled over what she just said, before fixing Lottie with a beaming smile when she realised that, yes, it made perfect sense - at least to her.

"Oh! I haven't even introduced myself! I'm Cinderella."

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Hmm, she had a point. Damsels in distress were only in distress because someone put them there, they didn’t just go around putting themselves into the path of danger. That was a quick way to make themselves dead damsels rather than distressed ones.

“So... destiny then? Like if I was ta try ta control my own destiny, I might end up just derailin’ tha whole thing?” Lottie replied, pursing her lips and looking rather troubled herself. She didn’t like the sound of that at all. She wasn’t one to just sit back and wait for things to happen to her; she was one to go out there, grab life by the horns and make things happen! If she couldn’t do that here then... Gosh, she might just go crazy!

Speaking of crazy... did the girl just say that her name was Cinderella? Staring at her a moment, Lottie played the words over in her head a few times. Yes, that was exactly what she had said. Cinderella. Cinderella.

After a moment of staring at her with wide eyes, the southern belle burst out laughing.

“Oh sugah, just how cruel were your parents?” she gasped. Honestly, what parents would name their child that? Quite a namesake to live up to!


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Cinderella was startled when her name caused Lottie to burst out laughing, and for a moment her forehead crinkled in confused hurt, wondering just what was so funny about her name it would cause immediate mockery.

"My parents? Well my mother was just wonderful, and so was my father..." she wondered if maybe Lottie knew her story, and she was referring to her stepmother, but then she wondered why that would be funny at all. After all, her stepmother had been just awful to her, and she didn't like to think anybody so mean that they would find that funny (despite having grown up with evidence that people could be cruel for no reason, she still didn't expect it of anybody).

"I'm sorry, I don't get what's so funny..." she ventured hesitantly.

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The poor thing just seemed so completely and utterly confused, but that somehow only made it even more amusing. Lottie supposed she had probably been teased about the name her entire life and was probably pretty sick of people laughing at her about it, though she was playing dumb quite well.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean ta be insultin’ or anything, but honestly!” Lottie replied, holding in her laughter but just barely. “Of all tha fairytales to name you after, they picked tha one with one of the most unique names. You musta had quite the childhood with that handle.”

Just how many kids in her classes had asked her to fix their clothes or wash their socks? ‘Oh Cinderella, where is your fairy godmother today?’ she could just hear them asking. It was a rather cruel thought, really. Lottie was glad that she wasn’t named after anyone. She didn’t like being compared to others. She was unique, like a star or a snowflake, and she could focus on more important things in life, like finding her prince, rather than constantly fighting to live up to a moniker.

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"Name after?" Cinderella repeated, still not quite getting what it was that Lottie was thinking, and just wondering if there was perhaps something she didn't know.
She could, however, respond to what Lottie was saying, and even though she wasn't sure what sort of insult was or wasn't being levelled at her parents, she felt sure she ought to set the record straight.

"It's more of a... nickname," she explained "My real name's Danielle, but my stepmother and stepsisters have been calling me Cinderella for so long that I'm really quite used to it..."
In the grand scheme of things, she'd actually been 'Danielle' for the shortest of all the names she'd ever had, and it wasn't like she could even really claim that as her real name if she was being entirely honest, so Cinderella made more sense.

"As for my childhood... well... it was very lovely at first."