* tHe TRUE c|nDeRe||a sToRy +

Once upon a time, there was a girl called Cinderella. Why was her name Cinderella? That's because she was always cleaning up and doing the dusty work(not because of the fireplace) that smeared her face and hands with dirt. As she was always so dirty, thus her name.

The legend had always been that she had a step mother and 2 step sisters who ill-treated her after her father died. But the truth was, those were her biological mother and sisters. It was just that Cinderella, or rather the person who wrote her story(is it Andersen or Charles?), just couldnt figure out and accept why and how a mother could show such extreme favouritism among her 3 biological daughters. Thus putting them as step mother and sisters was a much simpler plot.

Well, I had no idea why too!

Anyway, poor Cinderella was indeed treated very badly. But Cinderella dreamt of being financially independent one day, so that she could finally escape from their cluthes and ill-treatment one day. She would always go for part time jobs, and she got to save her money because she was entitled to it.

However, that was not easy, because her step-mother certainty did not wish for the loss of such a good and free maid. With Cinderella around, her house would always be clean and neat, and for free! Well, perhaps just for 3 meals and a bed! Hence she always came up with lots of ways to prevent Cinderella from doing part time jobs.

One day, the Prince was setting up a ball, and Cinderella's family was invited! Everyone was so happy about it, especially Cinderella. As the ball was a very big event, many helpers were needed. And this was certainly a great chance for Cinderella to earn big money! Because the Royal family was always very generous with the wages! And just imagine the juicy tips they could receive from the guests?

But the step-mother would not allow this. She didn't want Cinderella to go to the ball, as a guest or as a waitress, all reasons to her own advantages. Hence she purposely made things hard for her, and scattered all the beans and what all over the floor or something, and kept all the brooms to keep her too busy to go to the ball. She was to sort all the beans into their colours or something. And they left happily, leaving Cinderella fuming at home.

Problem was, Cinderella was not stupid! All she needed was a vacumn cleaner! Who needed a broom when a vacumn cleaner could do a much better and faster job? Crazy! And about the sorting of the beans, that's even crazier! She just threw all the beans vacumned away and opened new packets of different beans and poured them into different bowls according to their colours! Spend the precious time picking the beans one by one, or sifting them with a sift, or asking the birds for help? Madness!

Anyway, Cinderella was done with her 'tasks' in an hour. Smartly dressed and such. No gowns to wear? Fear not! Who need to wear gowns to work as waitress? Zzzz

No fairy god-mother, no glass slippers, no mice and no pumpkin, she wore her old sneakers and caught a cab to the ball.

Somehow, while working, she met the Prince and he fell in love with her. But before he could know her name, the clock struck 1145pm! Cinderella had to rush to collect her pay and dash off to catch the cab because if not, she needed to pay the double midnight charges! And she would waste a bit of her well-earned salary! Ok, maybe she's a bit stingy, but all for a greater cause!

Nonetheless, she dropped one of her sneakers in the ballroom when running out, and the Prince picked it up, knowing that Cinderella would certainly come back for it. ( of course! Since she was so stingy even to pay for the midnight charge!)

True enough, Cinderella came back the next day for it, and the Prince used the opportunity to confess to her. But the problem was, she had fallen in love with the cook instead! Though Cinderella wanted to earn money to retrieve her freedom, she still didn't want to marry the Prince just for the sake of money. Hence, she rejected him.

And well, she really got married to the cook and got her own home and freedom.

YAh I know the writer wrote that the Prince went through hard times to find Cinderella with one of her glass slippers and when he did, she married him and they lived happily ever after. But it was because the writer thought it was SO DUMB of Cinderella to reject a Prince with so much heritage for a stupid cook. Hence he altered the ending for the fantasy.

Well, but true enough, Cinderella chose love over money, but she still didn't live happily ever after. The stupid cook turned out to be real stupid, who seemed to belong to a different league from hers. But since she married him, she was stuck with him all her life. But another problem was, she retained the ill-treated and inferior feeling as when she lived with her mother and sisters. She was never truly freed from her traumatic experiences. She believed that she had came a long way to her status now, and it was how she was treated that time that made her how she was now. She believed she grew and became stronger in her mind because of that.

Hence, she treated her daugther the same way her mother treated herself.

The true Cinderella story, is actually a tragedy.