Once there was a nice girl called Ella. She was an orphan and lived at Mothers Orphanage. There, she was barely given enough to eat. She and her orphan friends worked from sunup to sunset in either the fields or lifted stones for construction of buildings. Though this was tiring, this made Ella stronger and she was able to soon stop crying and walk around with a set face, even when the matron (they were supposed to call her mother, but she said she’d only respond to matron or stepmother) beat her so hard that the stick itself broke! Even through all this, she sometimes had some happy moments. Sometimes, the orphans were allowed to have part time jobs, and were paid for doing them. Ella was apprenticed, against her will, to a chimney sweep. Because of this, sometimes when the matron wanted to spite her, she was called Cinder Ella. Once, for her birthday, her friends had bought her a gold chain for her locket that had belonged to her mother. She actually had a small engraved chest that her father had made for her keepsakes. Her favourite was the locket, and when the chain had broken, she cried for weeks due to the matron’s beatings without the company of that small, hollow, golden pendant encircling her throat. Her greatest dream was to be adopted, and that wish was about to be given a chance. When the next adoption circular came up, there was a family with 3 children, all boys, ranging from the age of 2 to 16 who wanted a 7 year old girl of slight stature, a good disposition and considerable mental strength. Cinder Ella and the new girl Monique were competitors for the position. Monique was slightly strong willed and quite like Ella. They had become fast friends, and both promised the other, whatever the family’s decision was, they would support one another. They had become so close, they called themselves MEBFFs (Monique and Ella Best Friends Forever)
When the family came, both girls liked them immediately. They too liked the girls. Their second child, 7 year old Deepak, played with the two of them while the parents signed the checkout papers. As was the custom, they were to take the girls outside to see their behaviour and if they suited the family. Aditya, Ella and Monique were in the middle of a spirited game of tag, when the eldest boy, Karthik, who was holding Ajith, the baby called them over. He gestured for them to get in the car. Monique and Ella who had never been in a car before were positively glowing. Glowing, until the saw their other 2 opponents. Anastasia and Drizzela. Anastasia and Drizzela were sisters. They called themselves the Awesome Duo or AD for short. They glowered at one another then sat down.
Soon they were going to the zoo, after listening to some scathing remarks from the ADs directed at them to Mrs. and Mr. Shani. When they got to the zoo, Anastasia began to rap on the glass of the snake enclosure, and Drizzela immediately threw a tantrum for ice cream. Ella and Monique tried to be patient, but ended up covering their ears, as Anastasia joined in with Drizzela and howled to make the snake MOVE, and they didn’t come to see an empty cage with a toy in it. Finally, Mrs. and Mr. Shani had had enough and they and Karthik dragged the screaming girls outside. They were making such a scene, even a policeman came up to them and asked what was wrong. Mrs. Shani pulled the girls into the car after giving Karthik strict instructions on where to go. Ella’s ears ached so bad, she became slightly snappish. She stuck her head through the car window and screamed at the ADs to shut up and that they weren’t being murdered. Deepak added that if they didn’t, he would likely murder them. That shut them up.
Ella and Monique had a spectacular time with the Shanis while the ADs sulked away. They had ice cream and brownies, they went to see a cinema, and at the end of the day the MEBFFs were dropped off at the orphanage with the promise that they would be notified who was adopted the next morning. When they entered their room, to their horror, all their things were scattered all over the floor. Their clothes were everywhere, some with fresh holes in them, and Ella’s keepsake box had the lid torn off. In middle of all the chaos sat the ADs smirking. Ella began to see red. She raced out of their room, into the ADs and began to wreck it. She found Anastasia’s new dress and ripped it in half. Breathing deeply, she went back to her own room, where Monique was picking up, and the ADs were sitting and still smirking at Ella. “Had a good cry?” were the first things out of Anastasia’s mouth. Ella only smiled and picked up her box. It was quite easy to fix, really. She merely had to bend the hinges into place. The ADs left and began to shriek when they saw their own room. Ella shook her head, put the last of her things into place and went to sleep.
Next morning Ella and Monique rushed into the front office, where the Shanis were sitting. They stood up and smiled. The 2 girls held their breath. The front desk lady smiled and said ”Congrats girls! You’ve both been adopted!”
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