Drizella had decided to do a victory lap. Which meant that she stayed to do an extra year in high school to get more credits. I was really lonely in senior year. Talan and I hadn't hung out at all-mainly because he spent his free time making out with Anastasia. They had dated all year. It was disgusting. I hung out with Calvin and Will, mainly. Calvin also felt lonely since Natasha had graduated. I hadn't made any younger friends. They were all annoying buggers.
Anastasia was doing terribly in school, passing by with mere 58s and 63s. Her highest mark was a 72, in Biology. She bragged to me about how Talan had helped her study the male body. Eugh.
Step-mother now exercised in the mornings. I woke up to the sound of the T.V. blaring. It was my birthday! I lay, content, in bed, smiling to myself. Today was the day I turned eighteen, the day that I could leave home if I wanted! Technically, I wouldn't be eighteen until nine thirty-six, the exact time I was born. Legally, I was already eighteen. Adult! I was an adult! I didn't feel like one. I was taller, to be sure, and had grown in other areas, but I didn't feel any different... Some people told me that my face had changed a lot since grade nine, but how could they know?
I stretched my neck, climbed down my ladder and glanced at my step-sisters. They were still sound asleep. I walked into the bathroom and tripped over Lucifer, who hissed at me.
"Sorry, darling Lucifer!" I chuckled happily. "It's my birthday!"
I returned to the bedroom to change, feeling a little guilty about not cleaning the toilet. Drizella and Anastasia were still sleeping. Drizella muttered something about being Prom Queen. "Girls, get up," I said, after changing into my clothes. They didn't hear me. I shrugged. I traveled into the kitchen and prepared some eggs and toast. I ate mine sunny side up, with orange juice. Delicious! I put Anastasia's and Drizella's food out on the small wood table, facing each other. Then I walked back into the bedroom noisily, slamming the door against the wall. "GIRLS! GET UP!" I bellowed before leaving. I snickered as Drizella sat bolt upright and bonked her head on the top bunk. She muttered a curse under her breath.
By the time I had brushed my teeth and combed my hair out, the bus tooted and I walked aboard. To my surprise, we had a different bus driver. It was a guy with an orange sweatshirt with blue stripes. He had ragged looking jeans and a backwards green baseball cap over his shaved head. If it hadn't been for the slight wrinkles on his face, I would've thought him to be a kid.
"Hi! I'm Cinderella! It's my birthday," I said jovially, sticking my hand out.
He raised his thick eyebrows slightly before shaking. "Nice to meet you. I'm your new bus driver. Your past driver became ill, I'm afraid," he said gravely. As I walked back to my seat, he called, "Happy birthday Cinderella!"
Drizella and I now sat together all the time. In the front, too, because Drizella got carsick. Anastasia sat with Talan, near the emergency window.
Anastasia was doing terribly in school, passing by with mere 58s and 63s. Her highest mark was a 72, in Biology. She bragged to me about how Talan had helped her study the male body. Eugh.
Step-mother now exercised in the mornings. I woke up to the sound of the T.V. blaring. It was my birthday! I lay, content, in bed, smiling to myself. Today was the day I turned eighteen, the day that I could leave home if I wanted! Technically, I wouldn't be eighteen until nine thirty-six, the exact time I was born. Legally, I was already eighteen. Adult! I was an adult! I didn't feel like one. I was taller, to be sure, and had grown in other areas, but I didn't feel any different... Some people told me that my face had changed a lot since grade nine, but how could they know?
I stretched my neck, climbed down my ladder and glanced at my step-sisters. They were still sound asleep. I walked into the bathroom and tripped over Lucifer, who hissed at me.
"Sorry, darling Lucifer!" I chuckled happily. "It's my birthday!"
Lucifer snarled at me again and then raced into the next room, nails skittering on the hardwood floor. I walked into the bathroom area after him. "Lucifer, you silly cat. Scat! Scat, cat!" He was in the bathtub, mewling and pawing at the sides. I grabbed him and lifted him out, but he scratched me with his claws and tried to bite me. "You sure are in a foul mood," I muttered and shut the door. The tub was a mess. I sighed. Even on my birthday I had to clean up after everyone else's mess. I gave it a quick scrub then turned the taps on, warm and bubbly. While I waited, I seated myself on the toilet. I pressed the flush handle, but instead of getting rid of the wizz, the toilet regurgitated a number two. "Eugh," I said, "Eugh."
I left it alone and took a bubble bath, trying to ignore the wretched smell emanating from the toilet at my feet.
I returned to the bedroom to change, feeling a little guilty about not cleaning the toilet. Drizella and Anastasia were still sleeping. Drizella muttered something about being Prom Queen. "Girls, get up," I said, after changing into my clothes. They didn't hear me. I shrugged. I traveled into the kitchen and prepared some eggs and toast. I ate mine sunny side up, with orange juice. Delicious! I put Anastasia's and Drizella's food out on the small wood table, facing each other. Then I walked back into the bedroom noisily, slamming the door against the wall. "GIRLS! GET UP!" I bellowed before leaving. I snickered as Drizella sat bolt upright and bonked her head on the top bunk. She muttered a curse under her breath.
By the time I had brushed my teeth and combed my hair out, the bus tooted and I walked aboard. To my surprise, we had a different bus driver. It was a guy with an orange sweatshirt with blue stripes. He had ragged looking jeans and a backwards green baseball cap over his shaved head. If it hadn't been for the slight wrinkles on his face, I would've thought him to be a kid.
"Hi! I'm Cinderella! It's my birthday," I said jovially, sticking my hand out.
He raised his thick eyebrows slightly before shaking. "Nice to meet you. I'm your new bus driver. Your past driver became ill, I'm afraid," he said gravely. As I walked back to my seat, he called, "Happy birthday Cinderella!"
Drizella and I now sat together all the time. In the front, too, because Drizella got carsick. Anastasia sat with Talan, near the emergency window.
As the bus did a 360 spin, knocking over our garbage can, I thought about poor Lucifer. He had acted very strange that morning. I had seen him curled up in a ball, pawing around in his sleep. When I opened the fridge, he looked in as well, up at the fish. He had never eaten fish before. It was a delicacy to us, so of course Lucifer only got simple dried cat food. He had tried to eat the fish, and in my haste to close the fridge door, I accidentally closed it on Lucifer's tail. When I had freed him, Lucifer had yowled and scampered away. I now looked to the house and saw Lucifer scampering out. He raced along-side the bus. I hoped he would be okay-he had only been outside three or four times before.
I watched him run over to a pond as we turned the corner. He threw up a little. And not a ball of cat hair. Vomit. Poor kitty. But then I recalled that Lucifer had eaten out of the toilet and I felt even worse. I should've cleaned out the toilet.
Thankfully, it all escaped from my mind when some people stepped onto the bus. "Happy Birthday!" they shouted out. I grinned at them. A few minutes later, the bus driver was fiddling with he radio, changing the stations. Was that safe? Could he get in trouble for constantly changing the station? But then "Happy Birthday" came on and I smiled as my friends sang along. Thanks, bus driver dude.
That day, as I got off the bus with Drizella and Anastasia, coming home from school, two other people got off as well. One was August Woods, a freshie, Stardust Woods' adopted kid, and another was some strangely dressed lady. She had on what looked like a really poofy lavender bikini with dark purple straps. She matched that with big hoop earrings, large sunglasses and a white painted on design on her forehead. Bizarre. I thought that perhaps she was Nina Charan, but then I remembered that Nina was a magician. Could it be Jade Elenes? If that was Jade Elenes, then she must've died her hair. I shrugged and looked over at August, how was looking dirtily at Anastasia.
To my surprise, Jade (maybe) stopped me before I could walk into my home. "Are you Cinderella Casmin?" I nodded. "Just wait here, a special friend asked me to do this birthday trick for you." My heart stirred, raising its sleepy head and sniffing around hopefully. Talan? Could he have sent this 'birthday card'? I shushed my feelings. Maybe he did. But who cared. He hadn't wished me birthday last year, while I had given him a birthday card every freaking year. Talk about ungrateful. I'd be the first one to admit that the card I had given to him for his most recent birthday hadn't been fantastic, though.
I watched the act, enthralled. First she breathed fire while juggling flaming saws. Then she reached down onto the grass and pulled out a hula-hoop. She explained that she would've normally lit it on fire, but if she did it would probably light the grass on fire. I just nodded. She proceeded to spin around in the hula-hoop while juggling flaming torches with her feet. I cringed, always afraid that she would hurt herself.
When the spectacle ended, I whooped and cheered, clapping my hands. She bowed, then packed up her things. "Happy Birthday Cindrella! Happy eighteenth! Much love, Becky," she said, then ran away.
Okay. So I appreciated the lovely gift or whatever. But I couldn't help be a little disappointed that it hadn't been from Talan.
It was dark as I walked inside. Lucifer purred and ran up to me, rubbing up against my legs. I guess he felt better. I brushed his fur out, Lucifer purring the entire time. Drizella and Anastasia were talking.
"Just do it!" Drizella was saying.
"Should I, really?" That was Anastasia.
"Yes! Show him what he means to you!"
"Well, okay then..."
They embraced and then Anastasia set off. Probably off to do some mischief. I stood up, giving Lucifer's fur one last stroke, then cleaned out the brush. Lucifer mewed and then stretched out on the carpet. Cutie.
I went outside to visit my pets. "Hello, Pino darling," I said. Pino looked distressed. I glanced down. Aw! The poor bird's cage was a mess! I pulled out the tray at the bottom of the cage and then scrubbed it clean. Although it was my birthday, it was no excuse to neglect my poor birdy. Then I fed Gus and Jack, scrubbing their terrarium as well.
When I headed back inside, I found Anastasia being yelled at by step-mother. What had she done this time?
"FILTH! HAVE I TAUGHT YOU NOTHING? YOU ARE NEARLY EIGHTEEN YEARS OLD! IMAGINE! I CAN'T BELIEVE I HAVE SUCH AN IMMATURE DAUGHTER!" step-mother was shrieking.
This time, Anastasia getting yelled at didn't make me feel any better. I just felt bad for her. I noticed that Drizella was also scowling. She had changed out of her pajamas into her dress. She had her homework in front of her. She looked up at me, her face tight, as if she was sucking a lemon.
"Cinderella? Would you like me to do your homework?" Drizella said loathingly, as if every word was a knife stab.
I took advantage of this peculiar opportunity. "Sure!" I said, giving her my empty homework notebook. Drizella opened her own work and set it in front of her to copy off of.
I saw that Anastasia and step-mother's argument had ended, so I quickly heated up a bowl of soup on the stove and set it before step-mother. "Thank you," she said croakily.
I went over to Anastasia, who was sitting, pouting, in her bedroom. "So, what happened," I said, not even bothering to beat around the bush.
"Well, Talan invited me over to his house," Anastasia said, moving over so I could sit next to her. "He said not to tell anyone. I mean, I told Drizella. She can keep a secret. But I went over to his house, secretly, right? And then, like, well..." Anastasia blushed profusely. "He was naked! Completely nude! I couldn't believe it! And he met me outside of his house, and he was like, so what d'you think? I was stunned! I felt so bad, I couldn't stop looking! But anyway... it was pretty big! I think. I don't know, actually. In comparison. It was about this big," Anastasia mused, then demonstrated the length with her hands.
"Ew, Anastasia!" I said, making a face.
"Yeah, that was pretty much what I thought at first. And by the way, his house is massive!" Anastasia said, grinning.
"Yeah I know, Anastasia. I've been there before," I said through gritted teeth.
"The size of his house matches the size of his package, if you know I mean," Anastasia said, raising her eyebrows suggestively. I rolled my eyes.
"Get on with it."
"Not that much else happened. I was going to poke it, but then the police came. Talan ran inside and I went to follow him but the policeman had grabbed me by then! It was the same one as before-that Twit Dip or whatever his name is. He was super pissed. He told me that this would be added to my record. That's why mom was so mad. She said that now I can never get a job. Like that matters," Anastasia said, rolling her eyes.
"Hey, I feel kinda funny," I said suddenly, getting up. My legs were tingling and my back was suddenly in an abnormal amount of pain.
"You're about to mature!" Anastasia said, pushing me into the main room.
Step-mother was scooping dirty clumps of sandy gravel out of the cat litter. She looked up at us. "Mom!" Anastasia said frantically, "Cinderella's about to mature!"
"Oh my!" step-mother said, jumping to her feet. "Cinderella, happy birthday to you and all that jazz! Blow out the candles on the cake! The quicker you do it, the less pain there is! I'll go get some clothes for your new body now!"
I hesitated. "I like my body though," I said helplessly.
"You won't have it much longer! Unless you blow out the candles, you'll have to endure intense pain throughout the entire night!" Drizella said, jumping up as well.
"I know, I know," I said. When I was younger I had to go through this as well. The jump to teen-hood had hurt a lot without a cake, but apparently the stretch from teen-hood to adult-hood was the worst. I fidgeted nervously. I wanted to hang on to my last bit of youngness. I wasn't ready to be an adult yet!
"JUST DO IT CINDRELLA!" Anastasia and Drizella screamed in unison.
So I did.
"Nothing happened," I said, slightly disappointed, slightly relieved. The pain had stopped though, thank goodness.
"Just wait, silly!" step-mother said, running back with new clothes.
Anastasia and Drizella pulled out kazoos. "Happy birthday Cinderella!"
I picked up a clapper on the table, playing along. "Yeah, sure! Happy birthday to me-" I stopped and dropped the clapper.
An inexplicable feeling spread through my body, warmth and happiness and a glowing feeling. This hadn't happened when I had 'matured' before. But I guessed that this was the real thing... I looked down, and was amazed to see sparkles and light emerging from my body. "What-what's happening..." I said sleepily. I felt so nice and warm, as if someone had just laid a blanket on me that was fresh out of the dryer. I smiled blissfully. It was such a pleasant feeling...
My body was shining as brightly as a light-bulb, now, and my body started to lift itself off the ground... Drizella and Anastasia were yelling and cheering, but their voices dimmed... My eyes closed involuntarily, or maybe I just couldn't see. I couldn't hear or smell or taste or touch or breathe... I wasn't breathing... I didn't need to breathe in this state, did I? This was like the rainbow state. It was beautiful, perfect. Ah. Wait. The effect was going away. A giant wave of nausea swept over me and I fell the ground. Without realizing what was going on, I threw up. Then I was fine. I stood up, looking at my body. I realized that I was naked. My nightie had disappeared. I checked out new body developments before remembering that I was around my steps. Step-mother threw clothes at me and I hastily pulled them on. Baggy black underwear and a white tank top. The underwear looked used. Nasty. I could smell the sick in my hair.
I looked at my step-sisters and step-mother. My step-mother gave me the once over before marching into her room, slamming the door behind her. Anastasia and Drizella were seated on the couch with a slice of cake each. I realized that Drizella was now, once again, in her nightie. When had she changed? I shrugged and, suddenly realizing that I was starved, grabbed a giant slab of cake and sat next to them.
"How come I felt so good and then felt so bad?" I said, then felt embarrassed with my stupid question.
Drizella shrugged, shoving cake in her mouth. "Cake always makes people who're maturing feel awesome. It's like have an orgasm, people say," Drizella said. I frowned. "You probably felt bad after 'cause this is a cheap cake, and cheap cakes always have side effects."
I nodded and then shoved some of the cheap cake into my mouth. It was pretty good for cheap cake.
Here I was. Eighteen. Adult. Officially able to do whatever the hell I wanted. I smiled to myself. Drizella was older than me. But she hadn't 'matured'.
Aha. I was mature and Drizella wasn't. Suckah.
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