Cinderella gives up being a wimp

ONCE UPON A TIME, Cinderella lived with her wicked stepmother and two wicked step sisters. The sisters were very sporty spending days at the gym, playing tennis, swimming, biking. The step sisters, although having great figures could have used a bit of plastic surgery to improve their faces, unlike Cinderella who was one of those women who never had a pimple and whose hair always fell in just the right way including rainy days.

When her father was alive all was well, but he’d died leaving the stepmother as trustee for all three girls, his own daughter and his two adopted daughters.

With the lower budget after her husband’s death, the wicked stepmother had to reduce staff and insisted that Cinderella do the cleaning and cooking. Her real daughters were always off to the gym.

Although Cinderella thought this was unfair, her father had always told her how important it was for girls to be sweet and do for others, although he had demanded very little from her. She thought he would want her to help her stepmother so she did the chores in his memory despite part of her resenting it.

One day the girls came home from the gym all a twitter. The owner of their gym and many others was having a gym-a-thon and the rumor had it that he was also looking for a wife.

They went out and bought new sweat suits and bathing suits and the latest in sneakers.

Cinderella wanted to go to. Before her father died, she’d been a great swimmer and tennis player. She even had a three handicap in golf, but the family could no longer afford a club membership.

The day came when the girls were to leave for the gym-a-thon. Cinderella’s outfit was old but she still looked beautiful.

The older sister put her hand on the back of Cinderella’s neck and ripped the sweat suit so it was unwearable. They laughed as they went out the door.

Cinderella sat down and cried.

There was a tinkle of light and a fairy appeared. “I’m your fairy godmother,” she said. 

She didn't look like any fairy godmother that Cinderella had ever seen in picture books, but fairy godmothers are hard to come by, so she said nothing.

Whipping out her magic wand, the fairy godmother, created the most beautiful pink sweat suit.

And for sneakers, she created a logo-free pair that matched her costume. Nowhere in the world did another pair like that exist.

“The only thing is you must be back by 10 pm when the gym closes,” and in another twinkle the fairy godmother disappeared and Cinderella found herself in the center of the gym.

The owner noticed her immediately and they played a tennis double. Cinderella made every shot.

“How do you know this?”

“I read business reports on the Internet.”

She made him laugh with her sense of humor and stories. Until now he’d been so wrapped up in his business, he hadn’t had much time for fun.

The two step sisters were most annoyed and tried to barge in but the owner sent them away.

Then they swam in the pool to cool off before going to the juice bar to talk. He found Cinderella not only pretty, but she smart and understood how his business worked.

Cinderella was having such  good time until the clock began to strike 10. She rushed off loosing a sneaker.

The owner was shocked. He hadn’t asked her name. He recognized the sneaker as an original and the next day he took his guest list and started calling at all the houses of those that attended his event. When he came to Cinderella’s house, the two stepsisters locked their rival in her bedroom.

One said it was her sneaker, but the gym owner looked at her and said, “Your feet are too big.”

The owner left, but just as he was going to get in his car, Cinderella called from her bedroom window. Fortunately, the two step sisters weren’t that bright and had forgotten about the window.

Of course, the sneaker fit Cinderella, but that wasn’t all that important. The gym owner would have been really stupid not to recognize her.

They didn’t live totally happily ever after because they were normal people and Cinderella decided to use her back bone. She became VP of Marketing for the gyms. However, the owner respected her spunk and overall they had a good life.