Cinderella and The Shape Shifting Mice

Chapter Seven

Ella

I finished everything the hour before they got home. I just had time to go to the store and buy the fabric for my own dress when I heard the car in the driveway and I ran outside to grab their bags.

"Welcome back." I said with a smile as I opened their doors.
Anastasia and Drizella ignored me and ran inside gossiping about who might show up to the party.
Mary glanced around at the front of the house. She walked over to the fountain, around the bushes, and back to the car. "It's presentable."
I gave a small sigh of relief and grabbed a few bags. The man that drove them home grabbed the rest and followed me inside.
After we had all their bags in their rooms I met Mary downstairs in the kitchen were she sat looking through a stack of envelopes.
She pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to me. "This is what needs to be done before the party. It starts at 5. And the house looks much better." I stood there, looking around awkwardly.
"So can I go to the ball...?" I asked softly.
Mary stopped looking through her envelopes and looked slowly over to me. "Of course Ella. You have a dress?"
I nodded. Well, I would have one soon. I had already predicted half of the appitizers Mary would want at the party and everything I had guessed was right, which gave me some extra time to sew.
"Then get to work." She turned back to her envelopes and I unfolded the list. It was a lot of decorating and cooking.
I walked into the kitchen, took out all my ingredients and began to cook.

The Prince

I flipped another page of another document, rubbed my eyes, and signed the line at the bottom. If this is what my father did all day I would have gladly embraced that heart attack.
"Sir can I get you anything? It's five in the morning..." I dropped my pen and looked up at Sam.
"Did you say five IN THE MORNING."
He nodded.
I sighed and rubbed my face again. "So it's Friday."
"Yes sir."
"And I haven't slept at all."
"No sir."
"And neither have you."
"No sir."
I looked at Sam and started laughing. "Oh my god Sam, if I ever had a best friend who I could rely on for anything it would be you."
The edge's of Sam's eyes crinkled and a faint smile appeared on his lips. "Thank you sir, that means a lot."
I stood and hugged him briefly, a rare act of crossing our social lines. "Now I think both of us should get some sleep eh? What time does this thing start again?"
"Seven sir." He opened the door and I stepped into the hallway.
"Hmmm, well wake me up as soon as you think you should. I don't want to dwadle around when I could be sleeping. Same goes for you, give yourself an extra five minutes or however long you need."
"Thank you sir."
I stopped under a portrait of some foregin minister who's name I didn't care to remember, and faced Sam. "In fact, go now. I'm going to see my dad first."
"But sir-"
I laid a hand on his shoulder and smiled. "I'll be fine, go get some sleep."
He nodded and walked the opposite way down the hall to the wing where all the palace's servants were quartered. The people who served some of the higher ups, such as myself and the King and Queen, had the better rooms, or the option to sleep in a room off of ours. Sam himself had a family which is why he kept his privacy on the other side in one of the family suites.
I smiled thinking about his four year old son as I pushed open the door to my father's bedroom.

He was awake, sitting up in bed, looking through a photo album. I walked quietly to his side and peered over his shoulder. All of the photo's in the album that he was looking at were of my mother, myself, and Johnathen when we were only little kids. He kept flipping the pages, and soon the photo's were of ones Sam and Madame Pompee had taken while I raised Johnathen. I was kind of surprised they developed the pictures and stuck them in the album.
"How are you feeling Dad?" I asked, laying a hand on his shoulder.
"Better. I will be at your party tonight son, the Doctor told me I would be able to go." He said, not looking up from the album.
I hesitated before asking, "why did you pull that out?"
He heaved a heavy sigh and turned another page. Johnathen was standing on a ladder under an apple tree, trying to reach the apple in the highest branch. I was standing at the bottom, holding the ladder in place, with my back to camera. He hadn't been able to reach it, and had almost fallen off the ladder trying before I caught him. "Having that heart attack... I was afraid. I wasn't necessarily afraid to die, just that I never got to see you or Johnathen really grow up... I was holed up in my office, doing things Icould have easily made other people do." He looked up at me and for a second I thoguht I saw tears in his eyes. "I don't want to miss anything else. Your mother left me with the confidence that I could raise both of you. And I'm afraid I've let her down."

He looked away and I squeezed his shoulder. "I don't think she would be Father. You have a kingdom to run and two sons to raise? It's understandable. But Johnathen is still young, don't worry dad." It's not too late to raise him, even if it is too late to raise me.
He nodded and turned back to the book. I walked out and down to my bedroom with a soft goodbye I'm not even sure he heard.

Now I know when people think about the royal family members having nice bedrooms, super upscale and with jewel encrusted furniture... Well they're half right. I don't have any jewel encrusted furniture but my bedroom is pretty sweet. I have a large four poster bed, huge bookshelves covered in books, a heavy wooden desk in the corner, and a convertable game table by a large TV and leather couch.
I stripped off my clothes down to my boxers, pulled the curtains over the windows, and fell rather ungracefullly into bed.