It had been a week since I had been banned from leaving the house and I hadn't seen Anthony at all in that time. Laney still spent most of her time at the castle in the library. Lele would help me with my chores whenever my stepmother wasn't around or whenever a task could be fulfilled without my stepmother discovering her working.

At the moment, I was cleaning the entry hall and Lele was working in the stables. All of a sudden, I heard a knock on the door and rushed to answer it. I pulled it open and a young man stood there.

"Hello" I greeted him.

"Hello. I have come to deliver an important letter from the castle" he said handing me the letter.

"Thank you" I said taking the letter from him.

"You are welcome. Now I must go to the next house" he said.

"Goodbye then" I said. I watched as he walked away and then I closed the doors. I looked at the letter and saw it was addressed to my stepmother. I went off to try to find her.

I eventually found her in the drawing room. I walked over to her and waited for her to acknowledge me.

"Yes?" She finally said staring at me.

"A letter from the castle just arrived for you, ma'am" I said handing it to her. She snatched it from my hand and ripped it open. I watched as she scanned the letter. Her eyes widened in shock once she finished.

"Leonora! Delaney! Come here!" She yelled. I heard Laney rush down and into the drawing room.

"Yes, mother?" She asked.

"There is to be a ball at the castle. Every eligible young maiden is to attend. It's being held to find the prince a bride" my stepmother asked.

"I'm not eligible though" Laney said confused.

"That is true, but the duke is bound to invite you" my stepmother said.

"I suppose so" Laney said.

"Then we must get you ready for the ball" my stepmother announced.

"The ball?" Laney asked.

"The ball" my stepmother stated.

"The ball?" Lele asked coming into the room.

"The ball" my stepmother said.

"The ball!" Laney and Lele screamed.

"Now. Go pick out dresses and Cinderella will fill you in along the way" my stepmother said passing the invitation to me. We all left the drawing room and went to Laney's room.

"What does it say?" Laney asked as soon as the door was closed.

"Hear ye, hear ye. All eligible young maidens are required by royal decree to attend the upcoming ball in order to find a bride for prince Anthony. Disobedience shall be considered treason. Any and all who do not follow this decree will be caught and punished. The lawbreakers will be presented to the prince and if he deems it necessary, they will be executed. The ball will take place at the end of the week" I read.

"This means that you have to go to the ball" Laney squealed.

"She'll probably find someway to keep my here" I said.

"Even our mother can't go against a royal decree" Lele said.

"That means I'll get to see him again" I said.

"And you'll dance all night and he'll pick you as his bride. Then you'll have children and you'll be queen" Laney said.

"He won't pick me to be his bride" I said.

"Why not?" Laney asked.

"Because I'm me and he's a prince" I stated.

"Exactly" Lele stated and I felt my jaw drop in shock. I never thought that she'd agree with me.

"You deserve someone better then a prince. Good news, he'll be crowned king a week after the ball" Lele said. I sighed. What was I going to do with these two? They were both jumping around the room in excitement.

"I can't go to the ball" I protested.

"Why not?" Laney asked as she finally stopped jumping.

"I don't even have a dress" I said.

"Then we'll get you one. You're coming to the ball" Laney firmly stated. I gulped and nodded. She could be scary at times.

"Now that that's settled. Come help me and Lele pick our dresses" Laney said once again jumping up and down. We got to work and an hour later, we finally had found dresses for the two. It turns out that Lele didn't have a horrible sense of fashion and really just dressed in whatever her stepmother deemed to be fashionable. So, in the end we found two gorgeous dresses.

"Now I need to get back to work" I said.

"But we haven't found a dress for you yet" Laney protested.

"You have to stay till we find one" Lele agreed.

"I have to go work, but I'll come back to look for one when I'm done" I compromised.

"Fine" Laney reluctantly agreed.

"You'd better come here the second you're done" Lele threatened. I laughed and nodded my head in agreement. Then I left the room and got to work. Before I started working again, I realized that I was finally starting to enjoy my life instead of fearing and worrying about my stepmother.

Hey everyone! I know you're all dying to know what the dresses look like. Okay, so you probably aren't that excited. Either way the reason I haven't described the dresses is that I still don't know what they look like myself. I can't really describe them when I don't know how they look. Anyways, I'm sure you're just skipping everything in the author's note except for your username. Thanks to everyone who reads the whole thing. Please vote and comment. Hope you keep reading this story

P.S. It's actually very difficult to work the word panda or pandas into every author's note