Baby Sophie was crying in her crib all alone when Kirsten walked in. "Oh dear, I'm so sorry Sophie." She reached in and gave her- her pacifier. She stared up at Kirsten with watery eyes as if she was pleading with her to save her.
Emily walked into the nursery, "Finally the fussy thing stops crying."
"Emily!" Kirsten exclaimed, "This is our baby sister, what are you talking about?"
"Yeah, no one really cares for her. We just give her things and hope she shuts up. We don't have time for babies." Emily turned around and started to walk away.
"How could you say that?" Tears started rolling down Kirsten's cheeks, "You love Sophie!"
"Pffft," Emily stopped halfway down the hall, "I don't know what fantasy world you've been living in, but it's time for you to snap back into reality."
"I wish I could," Kirsten tried pinching herself, "Don't worry Sophie, I'll take care of you."
The queen was laying on her bed like a gigantic slug and stuffing her face with candy and cookies as Kirsten peeked in from around the corner. She lightly knocked on the door and braced herself for the yelling and insults that would follow. Instead, the queen replied in a sickeningly sweet tone, "Who is it?"
Kirsten cleared her throat as she shook with nervousness, "It's Kirsten, your highness."
"Oh, the maid.." Her tone significantly dropped, "Well now that you're here, why don't you make yourself useful and bring me some chocolate pudding? And quickly!"
"Well, you see, I was here to let you know about Soph-" Kirsten tried to finish.
"I said quickly!" The queen sounded furious now and Kirsten scurried away.
"Do we even have any chocolate pudding?" Kirsten thought as she walked into the kitchen, panicking.
Ginger walked in behind her, "Oh good, you're here. I need you to bake me something."
Kirsten could hear baby Sophie crying from down the hall. She had to go get her a bottle as soon as possible, but everyone seemed to always need something from her. Kirtsen sighed, "What is it?"
"Well now, Sour Sally, I want you to be a little more enthusiastic about baking me stuff. I mean, it's a privilege after all, these cupcakes will be presented tomorrow in front of my class as my project. I'd say, you should be quite honored that I'm choosing you to bake me something."
"Yes.." Kirsten went along with it, "So what kind of cupcakes?"
"Oh, chocolate of course! What a silly question! You know I love chocolate. Or rather, you should know." She shot her a look of concern, "Anyway, I need them baked and ready for tomorrow morning." With that she skipped out of the room and left Kirsten alone to her work.
"Great, now I have to make pudding and cupcakes.." She frantically searched the kitchen for pudding mix, but all she found was vanilla pudding. "Oh dear, well I'll just make this and let her know it's all there was.."
When the pudding was finished and the cupcakes were baking in the oven, Kirsten hurried upstairs to the queen's room to deliver her bowl of pudding.
Fearful of her reaction, Kirsten walked in and quietly set the pudding bowl down on her bedside table and hid behind the door. She quietly watched as the queen stepped out of the bathroom wearing a robe, "Thank you, dear!" She chanted when she saw the bowl.
Kirsten quickly made her way back down the hall and to the kitchen.
"Vanilla?!!" The queen's loud thundering voice echoed down the hallway and made Kirsten flinch in terror.
"Oh no.." She thought as she pondered on a hiding spot. Wasting no time, she ran and hid inside the pantry behind barrels of grains and flour.
The smell of burning cupcakes suddenly infiltrated the air. "Oh no!" Kirsten had forgotten all about them. But there was no time to take them out now, she could already hear the queen furiously coming down the hallway and then Sophie's cries joined in too. "Sophie's bottle!" Kirsten had too much on her plate and now she was about to suffer a terrible fate.
The queen stomped into the kitchen and stopped to sniff the air, "What's burning?" Then she noticed the oven was on. "Who left this on?!" She demanded.
Just then, Ginger walked into the kitchen and exclaimed, "My cupcakes, they're burning!"
"Why did you let them burn?!" The queen scolded Ginger. Sophie's cries could still be heard from down the hall.
"But mom, I wasn't-" Ginger quickly spoke up and was interrupted.
"You useless imbecile, go fetch that whiny baby a bottle! It's giving me a migraine!"
She scanned the kitchen, like a hawk hunting it's prey. "And where's that good for nothing maid of our's?" Kirsten stayed hidden in the pantry, shaking from fear. "How dare she give me vanilla pudding, when I specifically asked for CHOCOLATE!"
Kirsten gulped and thought to herself, "I have to find an escape.."
Camille came in from the backyard and started to stretch and take in a big breath of fresh air, when she caught whiff of the burnt cupcakes. "Oh yuck," she held her nose, "That is so not what I want to smell after a good work out.." She hurried out of the kitchen still holding her nose and nearly bumped into Ginger who was groaning.
"The little scoundrel won't take it.." She slammed the bottle down on the counter, "Isn't this Kirsten's job anyway?"
"Well where is Kirsten?!" The queen demanded, "Quickly, go look for her!"
"She probably won't take the milk because you're giving her old expired stuff!" Kirsten wanted to yell out at them. When she had checked in the fridge for milk earlier, there was a lot of old expired milk cartons as if they rarely bought any milk for her, much less fed her. Sophie was practically skin and bones. And where was their father?
"Father's coming home! I just got word of it!" She suddenly heard Emily pipe up. Everyone cheered, except for the queen who seemed a little worried.
"When is he coming home?" She momentarily was distracted and walked out of the kitchen.
"Well he has just arrived from his expedition and is traveling back home as we speak, so most likely tomorrow." Emily said in a cheery tone.
"Great.." The queen mumbled, "We have to go to market to fetch some more milk and send that little wretched Kirsten to her room in the attic.."
"The house is still filthy though.." Esmeralda pointed out.
"Didn't I tell Kirsten to tidy the place up?! What a good for nothing child she is!" She stomped down the hall in search of her, "We must find her, now! I will have her pay with a wooden spoon to the bottom!" The girls snickered and followed her down the hall.
"Oh dear, I must find a way out now!" Kirsten quietly crawled out from behind the barrels and peeked out from the pantry. The coast seemed to be clear, she could hear everyone going down the hallway, away from the kitchen. "This is my chance!" She made her way across the kitchen towards the hallway and stopped before entering.
She could hear them going up the stairs now, "Fee fi fo fum, I smell the blood of a little one!" She heard the queen chanting as her step sisters sang along after her between giggles. Kirsten ran across the hallway to the entrance leading to the big main room with the grand palace doors that led to her freedom.
"I'll just have to hide out somewhere till father comes home and then I'll tell him everything!" She accidentally spoke out loud to herself.
"Oh, he won't believe you," He heard a voice say then chuckle. "It's practically one against six.. I mean, they'll just cry and plead and make him believe that you're the evil problem child and he'll ban you to your room in the attic." The voice paused, "Don't you know already? I mean, you've been suffering this fate for years now, since your father married the queen."
"Who are you?" Kirsten quietly called out, "This must be a mistake, I don't recall any of this.. I just want everything to be normal again.."
A little fairy fluttered out of the shrubbery that decorated the room, "I don't mean to frighten you, Kirsten, but I've been watching you for quite some time." She noticed the surprised look on Kirsten's face, "Oh allow me to introduce myself, dear. My name is Lydia, and I'm your fairy godmother." She was small with long blonde hair and wings that looked like they were made from a million tiny crystals.
"Now I know I must be dreaming," Kirsten shook her head and ran to hide in a corner. "I just want to go home," she kept repeating as she sat curled up in a ball rocking back and forth on the ground.
"Oh you poor thing," Lydia flew over to her, "Well if that's what your wish may be then I guess I'll just reappear you in another room, I mean, this is where you live after all.."
"No wait," Kirsten stopped her, "Just reappear me back in my bed, sleeping, like I was before this happened. And have me wake up before my mother and sisters find me, please!"
"Okay..." Lydia lifted her wand and 'poof!' before Kirsten knew it, she was back in her bed all snug. She could hear angry footsteps and voices coming towards her room. She looked around and noticed she was in an old dusty attic, spiders weaving webs above her. She closed her eyes and whispered "Please don't let me down, Lydia.." Without further warning, the door slammed open and the queen stood there holding a wooden spoon in one hand.
"There you are, you little weasel! And just who gave you permision to take a nap?" She stomped over to her, her sisters close behind her waiting for the daily 'Kirsten gets tortured' show. They had an evil gleam in their eyes and in their smirks; these weren't the sisters that Kirsten knew and loved. This cold hearted woman wasn't the same caring, kind hearted mother she knew.
"Please wake me up," she closed her eyes and whispered as the queen neared her, now smiling an evil smile.
"Get out of that bed, now!" The queen ordered, smacking the wooden spoon on the side of her bed post. Kirsten hesitated, waiting to be awoken any second now.. "I said, now!" She smacked the spoon a second time, but this time louder so that you could hear the 'pang.'
Kirsten shuddered, panicking, "Why can't I wake up?"
"Wake up?" The queen started to laugh, "What you think this is a dream?"
Loud laughter broke out and Kirsten started to worry, "What if this isn't a dream?"
"How do you like your nightmare, Kirsten," the queen scowled and raised the wooden spoon to smack her on her bottom, but luckily Kirsten reacted quickly enough to roll over and have her miss. She hit the bed and growled, "Gahhh! You little weasel!" She chased after her.
"Come on, wake up!" she pleaded with herself, as she rolled around the attic floor, dodging every hit. Kirsten stood up and began to run, but tripped and fell back down. The queen stood above her and raised the wooden spoon up high and swung it down over Kirsten's bottom, but just as she did the spoon dissolved into thin air and dissapeared. And then shortly after, the queen's hands began to crumble away into nothingness as she stood there shrieking and panicking at the sight. Then her sisters began to perish into thin air as well, as they screamed, but the void of nothingness sucked that in as well until there was just silence. Slowly, everything around Kirsten began to twist and morph back into her old bedroom again. And she rubbed her groggy eyes before looking around. "I-I'm home!" She happily exclaimed as she jumped out of bed and ran to find her sisters. Camille was in the living room doing aerobics when Kirsten ran in and nearly tackled her on the ground, "Oh Camille, it's you! You're back to normal!"
"What do you mean?" Camille looked confused.
"I had a horrible dream that you and all my other sisters were evil mean step sisters that treated me like Cinderella and mom was the wicked stepmother and oh it was horrible, Cami! I'm just so glad everything's back to normal!" Kirsten ran out of the room, leaving Camille a bit bewildered.
"Emily, Esme!" Kirsten called out to her sisters as they sat in the family room, eating chocolate pudding and playing checkers.
"Oh no," she stopped and noticed the pudding, "So there was chocolate pudding!"
"Um, yeah.." Emily looked over at her, "Want some?"
"Oh, please no. No thank you," she responded as a trail of goosebumps went down her back.
Emily and Esmeralda looked over at her with confusion "Okay then..."
"I'm just so happy to see you two are back to normal again!" Kirsten smiled.
"Were we not normal before?.." Esmeralda questioned.
"Oh, you know.." Kirsten winked.
And she left the room, leaving Emily and Esmeralda speechless as they looked over at each other.
"Hey, what's up with Kirsten?" Candice walked over to them after being hug attacked, "She's acting a little strange.."
"I mean, isn't she just strange?" Emily pointed out and they all had a little chuckle.
"True.." Esmeralda responded.
Kirsten ran into the nursery and noticed Sophie fast asleep mumbling "Noo, no mowdy mewlk.." She leaned down into her crib and kissed her on the head. "No moldy milk, ever again." She whispered and smiled.
On her way out, she bumped into her mother. "Oh Kirsten, sweetheart, there you are!"
"Mother!" Kirsten jumped up to hug her, "I missed you!'
"Oh, but we haven't been apart for long." She leaned down to hug her, "Aww, Kirsten, you're a sweetheart."
"Mother, I had a horrible dream, everyone was evil and mean to me! I was Kirstenrella!"
"Oh I see. Well it was only a nightmare, so don't you worry your little head about it." She patted Kirsten on the head. "Oh, by the way, will you do the dishes and sweep the floor for me?"
Kirsten was momentarily filled with fear again, but then noticed her mom smile. "I would really appreciate it."
Kisrten smiled and said "As long as you don't yell at me because I gave you vanilla pudding instead of chocolate. And as long as I don't have to make Ginger cupcakes for her school project. Oh and as long as no one calls me Kirstenrella."
Her mother chuckled, "Oh silly Kirsten, was that all part of your dream? Of course you're not Kirstenrella, you're my little special helper. Just like your sisters. Ginger is doing laundry right now and Emily and Esmeralda are going to help fold and put away the clothes. While Camille and Candice prepare dinner."
Kirsten seemed relieved, "Okay, good. I'll go get started on those dishes then." She skipped off as her mother smiled behind her and shook her head.
"Oh Kirsten," she said to herself as she walked back into her room, "Pudding does sound quite delicious right now.."
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