so i was watching cinderella while doing my nails and waiting for them to dry which was clearly a Mistake because now i canāt help but think -
the evil stepmother was always evil, okay. say her abuse of her own daughters was different than that of cinderellaās - but it was still abuse. giving them impossible expectations, telling them they were never good enough, never pretty enough, never smart enough. and then she gets married, and anastasia and drizella are ecstatic because this man seems kind and warm and maybe just maybe he can temper their mother, maybe with him around she wonāt be so cruel. so theyāre on their very best behavior in the beginning, they do just as their mother taught - they trot out their best upper court manners in an attempt to get their new stepfather to like them. but it just comes off as cold and snooty and theyāre trying, they are, theyāre just bad at it. and they see how he is with cinderella, the smiling girl their own age, and they are jealous. they donāt mean to be, they try not to be, they know it isnāt becoming of young ladies. but she gets hugs and kisses and affection and they get rulers slapped on their hands when they reach for desert and sharp jabs to their sides when they slouch and - soon they hate cinderella, not for anything sheās done, but for what she has and they dont
but then her father dies. and itās all a tumble of things and cinderella is crying and theyāve lost their only chance at escaping their motherās clutches and itās terrible. and everything settles and thereās no reason to be jealous anymore but resentment is hard to let go of and they donāt know what to do. theyāre only kids too after all. and theyāre so terribly bad at comforting people, they can do flowery words and know all the right bows but cinderella is so sad and they just donāt know what to do with that, because theyāre supposed to be sisters but theyāre not even friends
and slowly but surely their mother starts abusing cinderella, starts making her a maid in her own home, and sheās their mother, what are anastasia and drizella supposed to do? she rules them with an iron fist, and cinderella doesnāt even like them anyway, itās none of their business.
except one night anastasia crawls into her sisterās bed in the middle of the night and wakes her up. āi was thirsty,ā she explains, eyes wide and shiny, and theyāre bad at this with other people but drizella has no problems with pulling anastasia into her arms. the younger girl clutches her sister and continues, āi was thirsty and i went down to the kitchen to get some water and - and cinderella is still up! sheās doing the dishes, and she should be asleep, mom is going to make her make breakfast in the morning and -ā she cuts herself off with a hiccup and whispers, āitās not fair.ā
ālife isnāt fair,ā drizella says, echoing one of their motherās favorite phrases. but her sister is staring at her with wet eyes, and itās not like their mother is likely to get up before sunrise anyway, she hates waking up, so she pulls herself and anastasia out of bed and off they go.
