Glass Slippers [1st Draft]

3. The Four-Year-Old and the Frog

Chapter Three:

The Four-Year-Old and the Frog

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Three weeks later...

Though the sun shone outside, the weather did not reflect the mood inside the Corden family's home, that much was certain. Clara and Mrs. Landon were at their wits' end.

Amelia and Harriet had taken it upon themselves to be more than difficult, complaining and dragging their heels with everything. From breakfast where they were more picky than usual, to getting their dresses wrinkled and messy, and even probing their little brother to make him cry, they brought chaos in their wake.

That kind of behavior would've been fine on any normal day. They'd spend some time in the time out chair, and maybe get a few more chores, but today was not a normal day. Today was the day that the Corden siblings would finally meet their new step-family. Unfortunately for Clara, all signs pointed towards a terrible first meeting.

They'd found out a week ago that not only would they be getting a new stepmother, but also two new stepsisters. It was bad enough telling her siblings about the single addition to the family, but adding in two other variables just made things worse. Harriet and Amelia had taken to arguing with Clara endlessly over whether or not they should be getting a step-family.

They didn't seem to get the fact that it wasn't up to Clara to decide. If it was, she still wasn't sure if she wanted to have a step-family, but regardless she kept her opinions to herself. She didn't need her sisters to know that she was just as doubtful about their new step-family as they were. That would just encourage them, and Mrs. Landon was right. They needed to give their step-family a chance.

"I don't want to go meet them."

"I'm sorry, Harriet but you have to. We'll all be there, even James. It's only polite to greet them when they arrive; we need for them to know that we are happy that they are here and we are willing to accept them into the family."

"Why? I don't want to accept them into the family."

"I know you don't, but that's not a good enough excuse. Plus we need them more than you think," Clara said, thinking about her father's words on proper etiquette, as she turned to her younger sisters while still cutting up cooked carrots for James' lunch.

"We don't need them though! What could we need them for?" Harriet protested, throwing her curly-auburn-haired head into the crook of her arm while Amelia nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, we don't need them!" Amelia parroted, and Clara heaved a sigh, setting down the knife and scooping the carrot cubes onto James plate.

"We do need them, trust me. How else will you learn proper etiquette and how to be a lady?"

"You can teach us," Harriet protested. "That's what you've been doing all along." Clara shook her head, brushing off her hands on a towel cloth.

"I can't always be the one to teach you everything you need to know. Not even I know everything about it yet," Clara explained, ignoring Harriet's obvious look of doubt.

Harriet was at the age where she still believed that Mrs. Landon and Clara knew everything in the world, so the idea that they didn't was probably a strange concept to her. "I know neither of you is happy about this, but think of it this way, you'll get to have two more sisters to play with you. I bet if you asked them they'd help you make paper dolls."

"No, they won't," Amelia said, her small face set in a frown. Clara raised her eyebrows.

For the past few days, the girls had been spouting numerous statements about how mean their new family members would be. From how their stepsisters were supposedly identical twins (which, to be fair, no one really knew if that was true), to more ridiculous things like how their stepmother would lock the Corden children in the attic, their imaginations were running wild with possibilities.