Cinderella (Makoto Tachibana X Reader)

Chapter 3

"(F/N)! (F/N)!" (F/N) snapped out of her daydream to the unpleasant sound of her stepmother's shrill voice. "(F/N)! Get our dinner up here now!" Shoot the dinner! (F/N) frantically heaved the smoking pot of vegetable soup off the fire. She plopped it on the table and hastily fanned the steaming pot with a cloth. "(F/N)!" "I'm coming now ma'am!" (F/N) called up the stairs. She quickly ladled the soup into the bowls and flew up the stairs. She hoped it wasn't ruined.

"Here stepmother." She gasped, setting the bowls in front of her stepmother and stepsisters. "What took you so long (F/N)." Her stepmother snapped at her "Yeah I'm hungry, you little selfish triumph! You were probably stealing some soup for yourself!" Regan shrieked. "You miserable, stupid, grubby little ash monster!" Sawyer snarled, rising from her seat. "Can't you do anything right for once!" She exclaimed and struck (F/N) across the face. (F/N) stumbled backwards with a cry of pain. Her stepmother stood up, her chair screeching on the wooden floorboards and stormed over to (F/N). She grasped a fistful of (F/N)'s hair and slammed her head back onto the wall with a loud bang echoing through the room.

(F/N)'s lips quivered as she bit them to keep herself from crying out at the sharp pain that shot through her scalp. Little tears beaded in the corners her eyes as she felt her stepmother's hot breath across her face and neck. "You useless piece of filthy kitchen wear!" She screamed at her face getting some saliva on her face. She threw (F/N) onto the ground and kicked her side hard "Your lucky we still put up with your lazy depressed existence! Little worthless pieces of ashes like you should be dead!" She kicked (F/N) again and stomped on her head. Her stepsisters chortled with glee as they watched as their stepmother beat her. "I don't want to see your ugly ash covered face for a while! Now get out!" Then she stopped and placed a finger on her chin, reconsidering "While your gone, we might as well make some use from you little disease." She snapped "Go collect the girl's new dresses from the shop. If there's even a speck of dirt on either of them, I'll cut your fingers off and feed them to the poor. Now get out!" She roared. (F/N) scampered out the door "Try to get yourself killed! You'll be doing the world a favor!" her stepsister's voices came after her. Then came loud laughter.

The little bell tinkled overhead as (F/N) left the dress shop. She sighed, as she walked along the street, being very careful to balance the two large packages in her arms. She could just barely see over them. Her face still stung from Sawyer's slap. She sighed again. Surprisingly, occurrences like that were pretty common for her almost. She was used to it by now. The town was even busier than normal today, because of the summer festival was in full flow. It was a festival for the lower and middle classes, although mostly lower class. Only the poorest in the middle classes joined in.

The upper class had their own festival in the palace, in a few weeks. This festival here in town took place over a course of two days. There was the market today, which was taking place right now, when they locals and travelers were selling their new products, all sorts of little trinkets and clothes and jewelry. Their little stalls were set up at the sides of the street.

Colorful flags had been strung up overhead in honor of the occasion. Tomorrow night was the dancing part, which took place in a huge field not far from the outskirts of the town, when all the lower class got together and played guitars, violins, piano, banjos, flute, basically any instrument anyone could play, and everyone had great fun dancing, and playing games. There were stalls selling food and drinks, and there was always a huge bonfire which everyone danced around. Usually the festivities lasted well into the night.

Unfortunately (F/N) had never been able to attend. Her stepmother always made sure she had some horrible task to do. (F/N) sighed again. Then her mind drifted back to the reason she had got in trouble, the reason why she almost burnt the soup. She'd been thinking about the brown haired man, she hadn't able to get to him out of her head for the past three days. She wished she knew his name. And that they would meet again.