"You must know how they did it since you were part of the graduating ceremony committee, Drizella," I said, jumping over a crack in the sidewalk.
She nodded. "It's magic."
Anastasia laughed. "No, seriously, what was it?"
"Honestly, it was magic!" Drizella said, nodding her head furtively.
Anastasia looked dubious. "C'mon, guys, I'm not two. Magic doesn't exist."
"Um, have you ever seen our neighbour?" I jumped in.
"Who, Mitch Lee? He's kinda cute, isn't he?" Anastasia said dreamily.
"No, his wife you dope! She's a vampire!" I cried, laughing.
"What? No, she just has a skin condition," Anastasia said firmly.
"Anastasia," I said with annoyance, "What about her fangs? And the fact that she told Drizella she was going to suck her blood if she ever threw eggs at her house again?"
"Coincidence," Anastasia said uncomfortably. "Poppycock. She's probably just a 'vampire' wanna-be."
"What about that lady we saw at grad? With the two sons?" Drizella added.
Anastasia opened her mouth but closed it again. She frowned. "Okay. I guess I have been wondering for a while if magic exists." She looked at us more innocently, and spoke more quietly. "So it's real? You aren't joking?"
"Of course it's real, silly," Drizella said, as if talking to a small child. Anastasia smiled.
"Anyway," I said, rolling my eyes, "Explain the confetti please."
"Right. So basically, there's a local witches group in town. The head witch's daughter graduated with us this year-don't ask, because I don't know her name-so the head witch decided to do the whole school a giant favour! Normally witches don't do stuff like this because they know it'll just be one favour after another, but in this case the head witch thought it was okay. So she put a spell so that once the kids put on their graduation robes and hat, confetti would rain down. Pretty cool, eh?" Drizella said, grinning.
We reached our house and all went in to change, but a minute later Drizella darted out to the mailbox.
"Our certificates and awards!" she shouted, and ran back inside. She quickly hung up the awards on nails that she had placed earlier. "Awesome," Drizella said, laughing evilly.
The sink had been repaired by Drizella by the time I finished my nice little nap. I let out a content yawn, but found I was even more tired after my nap. The feeling of restlessness and drowsiness. I grabbed my beloved Swiffer and started wiping up the horrid water mess. It was so large. The wood felt weakened, probably from a combination of age, the water incident from two years ago, weight from us, and the new water leakage. At least it wasn't a big drop to the dirt underneath.
When I finished mopping, I yawned again. I still had a lot on my plate though... The bright red coffee machine beckoned to me. I turned my head away, but I could suddenly smell the coffee beans in the small packages very well...
I gave in.
The coffee was strong and cheap tasting, but the sensation that I received was pleasant and relaxing, but I felt like if I wanted, I could've run a marathon.
"I'm going to bed!" Anastasia yelled to me.
"AWESOME!" I shouted back, running into our room. "HAVE FUN WITH THAT!" I threw my hands into the air, smiling like mad.
Anastasia settled onto her back, in her crop top bunny t-shirt, booty shorts, and random pink ties. "Are you high?" she questioned, eyebrow raised.
I grinned again. "HIGH ON CAFFEINE, BABY!" I ran back out and did the dishes, then started cleaning all of the floors. I spotted food on the ground and jumped on it. "DOGGY PILE!" I yelled.
"SHUT THE HELL UP!" step-mother, Anastasia and Drizella yelled together.
I giggled.
After completely cleaning the house, I changed into my rags, grabbed the dirty paper from outside, tossed it into the recycling and stood still. What else was there to do? I sneaked back inside, and checked for anything else to do. It was quite late at night, but the bad effects of the coffee still weren't appearing. I had dusted everything, wiped everything clean... The only thing left was step-mother's bed. Crossing my fingers that she wouldn't hear me, I snuck into step-mother's room, and, ever so carefully, made the other side of the bed. Maybe I was OCDing, but the Prince's ball was soon and step-mother had told me that I wasn't allowed to go unless the house was absolutely spotless. This way, the house would be clean early on so that I didn't have to do as much cleaning later. I stretched my neck back, trying to think of more things to do.
The bills! I ran outside, checkbook in hand, and payed the bills. There were only a few, so I didn't have much writing to do. I licked the postage stamp and stuffed the envelopes back into the mailbox.
It was getting closer to the morning, so I ran back inside and began preparing breakfast. By the time I finished, Anastasia was crawling out of bed. She walked into the kitchen, cell in hand. "Yes? Hello. Uh-huh. That's right, Anastasia Tremaine. What? Not anymore? It doesn't matter anyway. I want all new. All new. You heard me, you twit! Stop whining. Yeah, well you'd have to anyway, wouldn't you? That's what I thought. Yes. Increased? No, ma'am, a reduced price. Yes sir. Uh huh. You better bet it's done by then. Okay? Fine. Okay. Good-yes, yes, good-day-what is it now? Yes, fine, of course. Good-day, sir!"
"What was that about?" I asked curiously, setting a plate of waffles before her.
Anastasia rolled her eyes. "Stupid dress maker. I ordered a new dress for the prince's ball, one I liked better. My old one was bought by someone by accident, so I demanded a reduced price." She started eating her waffle, but paused, chunk of waffle in mouth. "Also, Drizella just got up. She might be a little emotional-she found a piece of homework she hadn't completed."
I laughed. How perfectly ridiculous.
I took Anastasia's empty plate, and set another in front of step-mother as she came out. Anastasia made to get up, but step-mother stopped her. "We need to talk," she said. "About your future."
Anastasia nodded maturely. When step-mother was finally done her waffle, she asked Anastasia the most important question of all. "What about your career?"
"Well," Anastasia said, and I was shocked that she knew what she wanted to be, "of course I will marry a respectable husband. I will do the cooking and housework, and he can bring in the income."
Step-mother's face broke into a smile. "That's my girl!" she stood up and embraced Anastasia happily. Talk about sexist. I hated them both for it. How were we supposed to earn equal rights with idiotic women acting like this?
"Oh, Cinderella, the toilet's broken," step-mother said. Mleh.
To my intense relief, the toilet wasn't filthy, just broken. I fixed it up, and since I was there, used the toilet brush to clean the toilet. As I finished, I stretched. A small piece of confetti fell out of my pocket. I caught it in surprise. How was it still there?
"DRIZELLA!" I yelled. I heard her get off of her bed, the sniffling stopping.
"What?" she said in a pouty way.
"I'VE GOT A QUESTION!" I bellowed back. "COME HERE."
She marched into the bathroom, arms crossed over her minuscule chest. "What?"
I held up the piece of confetti. "When I went back into our room, I saw that the confetti had disappeared."
"Yes, it was only a temporary magic. That's the only kind witches can do for normal humans " Drizella confirmed, nodding.
"But then how is this piece of confetti still here?"
Drizella grinned mischievously. "That's a magic loophole, see. It's one of the rules of magic that something cannot change form unless it's against a solid, non-living surface."
"So if I dropped this on the ground, it would just disappear?"
Drizella nodded again. "That's right. The witches' spell lasted only until the end of graduation. That's why the confetti didn't 'poof' right away."
I put my hand to my forehead, trying to make sense of it all. "Okay... But does that mean that I kept this piece of confetti, it would never disappear?"
Drizella hesitated, then said slowly, "Technically, yes, but all magic drains a witch, so she'd be able to sense it. There is one spell that a witch can use to reverse spells, and that's a loophole to the form changing rule. The witch could also locate you and put the piece of confetti down. There's a lot of possibilities, but chances are you won't be able to keep the confetti forever."
"Right. Okay, uh," I said, taking it all in, "one more question. When I reached out for your confetti, I couldn't feel it. Why is that?"
Drizella took a deep breath. "These spells had to be personal spells, otherwise anyone could put on our graduation robes and get a shower of confetti. Plus, they're a one-time spell, so that would suck if you put on my robe and used up my spell or something. See, I can't touch that confetti you're holding. Magic is a complicated thing."
"Okay, thanks a lot Drizella," I said. Damn. I needed a witch friend.
I washed my hands off and then washed the inside of the sink. With the ball fast approaching, there was no time to lose. Next came Pino's cage. Clean it, wash it, scrub it, grab the freaking mess Pino made how could you Pino and toss it in the garbage can! Then I scooped out Lucifer's litter box.
I checked the paper only to find out that my application was denied. They put out another ad welcoming anyone who had had 'real' experience. Being the maid since you were young kid more than qualifies as having 'real' experience. I shook my head and tossed the paper down. "Pick it up," step-mother commanded from where she was working out. I groaned and complied.
I made step-mother's bed just as she shouted out, "CINDERELLA! Fix the T.V.!"
So I did, of course. Needed to go to that ball. Needed to meet the Prince. It dawned on me that I might not recognize him. But then, of course I would! He would be surrounded by at least forty girls. My heart sunk. I didn't have a chance.
I tossed out the kitchen trash in our new green garbage bags, and when I re-entered the kitchen I realized I needed to pee. Like, a lot. "Ooh," I muttered, clutching my bladder. Once I had relieved myself, I really felt the effects of the coffee baring down on me. I changed, made Drizella's bed (on reflex) and climbed into my own. A blissful sleep if I ever had one.
The night before the ball, I was too lazy to make breakfast, so step-mother and I noshed on some leftover cake. Drizella, who had taken to the habit of waking up early every morning to work out, sat in between us on the couch.
"Isn't this sweet?" she said.
"Just like a family is supposed to be."
