Finally, it was the first day of the festival. Ella hurried to do all of her chores while her step-family worked on their make-up and hair.

"Cinderella!" They would scream every now and then. "Fix my ____!" (The blank is interchangeable between many words of vanity." Ella would pause her work and scramble to fulfill the wishes of whomever the caller was before she could continue the requirements for her attendance to the ball.

Jacquelyn meanwhile was perfecting her transportations spells. It was difficult because she would always just ride her broom, but no one in their right mind rides a broom to a ball. She thought back on the original story and remembered that Ella was supposed to go to the ball in a pumpkin-carriage but Jacquelyn was allergic to pumpkin and decided against it. 

She debated what to do for an hour. Horses? Too messy. Carriage? Too flashy. And walking would obviously take too long. At long last though, Jacquelyn figured out what to do. It was simple yet complicated and she would have to begin preparing the spell earlier. 

She drew a big circle on the forest floor and traced lines and patterns inside of it. She wrote the words "Portā terrum" at least twenty times around the edges in a special font. 

(Porta Terrum is Latin and roughly translates to something like "Gate of land")

Jacquelyn drew a pentagon around the circle and stepped back to admire her work. She carefully walked around it and looked closely to find any mistakes. She had misspelled the words at one point so she had to fix it. After that correction, her spell circle was perfected.

Ella walked into the clearing, she looked tired but when her eyes landed on Jacquelyn she immediately perked up. Ella walked over to her friend and was about to step in the circle before Jacquelyn yelled "wait!" 

She paused, her foot in the air. "What's going on?" Ella asked.

"A spell. Don't touch it, okay?" Jacquelyn answered. "It's activated by contact with bare skin."

Ella's eyes widened. "That's so amazing!!" She gasped. Jacquelyn chuckled and motioned for Ella to back away from the spell circle. 

"Have you finished your chores?" Jacquelyn asked.

"I have! I'm taking a short break before I go to tell stepmother that I'm done." Ella replied.

"Good. Let me know how that goes." 

The two ate a small meal together consisting of sandwiches and celery. Obviously it had been magicked up. The two chatted about what they expected from the festival, sweets, dancing, and a super hot prince.

"Why aren't you coming to the festival?" Ella suddenly asked.

Surprised, Jacquelyn took a moment to answer. "Witches are disliked by most people and I wouldn't be able to get in."

"How would they know you're a witch?" Ella asked with a grin, she thought that she had come up with a very smart remark. Jacquelyn laughed and patted the girl's head. "What?" Ella inquired.

"My eyes are a dead give away." Jacquelyn responded. "Normal people don't have such bright green eyes."

"Yea, but my eyes are completely grey, most people don't have such monochromatic eyes."

"That is true, but grey eyes are not a sign of witchcraft." Jacquelyn said with a giggle. 

"This is stupid. You can't go to the festival because of green eyes." Ella said. "Someday I'll change that. In fact, I'll invite you myself!"

Jacquelyn raised an eyebrow. "How would you ever be in a position to invite a witch to the king's festival?"

"Oh, I don't know." Ella said airily. "Maybe I'll take over the world or something."

"Good luck with that." Jacquelyn joked.

"Thank you!" Ella looked at the position of the sun in the sky. "Shit. I need to get home, stepmother will need to know that I intend to go to the festival."

"Have fun!"

"I'll try." Ella ran off towards her house.

.

She was fast, very fast. She arrived at her place of residence in record time and found her way to her stepmother's study. "Stepmother, I intend to go to the ball!" Ella said with a big smile. "I have finished all of my chores and I have a dress to wear!"

"All of your chores?" Her stepmother asked skeptically.

"All of them!" Ella said happily.

"You've swept the parlor and dusted the busts?"

"Twice over!"

"You've washed the sheets, cleaned the silks, polished the silver, fixed the creak in the door, drawn the curtains, made dinner, mucked out the stables and wound the clocks?" Ella's stepmother said while counting on her fingers.

"I did each one thoroughly!"

"You even cleaned the chimney?" (Eyebrow raised)

"Yes! I did!"

"I suppose it seems that you should go tot he festival then..." the stepmother said. Ella beamed. Unfortunately the woman wasn't done speaking. "Wait, you have cleaned up the lentils, right, Cinderlla?"

Ella's smile faltered. "What lentils?"

"You didn't clean up the lentils!? Then you can't go to the ball after all!"

"Wait a minute, I don't remember thee being any lentils!"

"We'll it's too late now, the festival starts in an hour and the mess is far too big to get done that fast." While she said this the stepmother pointed at the clock. Ella flipped around and saw that the time was later then she had thought. While Ella's back was turned the stepmother knocked over a jar from her desk onto the carpet beside her.

"I still don't remember any lentils!" Ella cried. Stepmother merely gestured to the mess beside her, millions of lentils in the carpet. "Those weren't the before!" 

"They were, Cinderella. You're just too dull too remember. Poor girl, it seems you won't be able to go." The stepmother said with mock sincerity. She patted Ella's back and exited the room to finish her own preparations for the festival.

Ella collapsed on her knees and looked with dread at the the lentils scattered across the floor. It really would be impossible to clean in a single hour.