Ciderella woke up in an unfamiliar bed in a room she did not recognize. It was nothing like her chamber back at home... The bright morning light streaming inside through an unusually thin and bright curtain allowed her to see around easily.

No, she had never been in this place before... and yet it reminded her strongly of something. It looked like one of the illustrations in her favourite fairy tale book! A book her mother used to read to her when Cinderella was a little, happy girl, before she had passed away and her father remarried.

That book was full of fantastical stories from a fairytale land. A land where there were fewer kings and queens and many more normal people, who did not live in castles but in normal houses.

Cinderella looked around again, more carefully this time. This place looked very much like one of those houses...

All the furniture around her was weirdly ordinary, and, hmm... minimalistic. Simple shelves made of bright wood were lining the white, smooth walls. They were full of books and other objects she had never seen before.

Or maybe she had... That black thing placed on a weird stand looked very much like the thing called Tele... television. She had seen it in her storybook. Plants growing in small pots, statuettes, and some framed pictures filled every single free nook and gap among the books.

Among the pictures, there was one that intrigued Cinderella more than the others-- a little, framed portrait of a young woman who looked a lot like her. It wasn't a painting; it was the other things the people from her fairy tales used... A photo-g-something, she could not recall. Photograph! Yes, that was the word.

The frame of the bed she was lying in was made of iron rather than wood. It was unusually simple, but not ugly. The bedding was all plain white, soft, smooth, and comfortable. Cinderella decided that she really liked this place. Especially its peace and quiet, the absence of the omnipresent, noisy, and disturbing army of maids and servants her stepmother kept.

Suddenly remembering the funny clothes the characters in her stories wore, she peeked under the white sheet covering her body. Sure enough, the beautiful bright blue ball gown she wore the previous night was gone. Instead, she was dressed in something pink, a kind of a simple shirt and matching wide pants, all in blush pink. She hated pink! Her favourite colour was sky blue! Oh well, at least the thing was pleasant to wear, it didn't scratch like the clothes she had back at home.

Home, she mused, stretching in the bed lazily. She didn't miss her home, neither her annoying step
sisters, nor her unbearable stepmother. Was this place heaven? Did she enter the fairytale world somehow?

She needed to explore.

Cinderella sat up quickly and winced when thousands of stars burst in front of her eyes. The sudden, strong headache reminded her of the ball she attended the previous night. She groaned, remembering the beautifully decorated ballroom of the palace, the music, the drinks... She danced a lot. Then she sang. Then she lost one of her shoes... and... Nothing. Whatever happened after she had lost her crystal slipper was a mystery to her.

And now she was here. Who knows where... Oh well, she reasoned, maybe it was better this way. At least she wouldn't meet anyone who might have seen her having fun last night and remember more than she did. Now that would be embarrassing...

Rolling her eyes, she stood up carefully and walked slowly to the only floor-to-ceiling window, which the room had. What she saw outside took her breath away.

This place was precisely the same fairytale world she used to read about. The people in the street looked so bizarre, yet astonishingly beautiful in her eyes. All rushing somewhere, on foot or in cars and bu... buses. She was so proud of herself for remembering all those things and their names! There was not even a hint of horses and carriages. Instead, she spotted a long train in the distance and... no way... an actual aeroplane! Now, those were her absolute favourites.

She used to drive her parents mad when she was a little girl, repeating endlessly that when she grew up, she would become a Flight Attendant, like one of the characters in her fairy tales.

After a long while, she walked over to a little desk. It was buried under sheets of printed paper, hand-written notes, and reminders. Reading through them curiously, Cinderella found out that a girl called Cindy, who was the owner of this place and looked as if she was Cinderella's twin, was supposed to have a job interview. Today. In an hour. In a nearby airport.

For Cinderella, this was a dream come true. She didn't hesitate. She would go to that job interview instead of Cindy, she resolved. They looked so much alike that no one would be able to notice the exchange, she was sure.

Thinking about the girl, Cindy, and where she might be right now, Cinderella sprinted towards a chair where she had noticed a pile of some normal clothes. She chose a simple light blue shirt and a pair of slightly darker trousers.

Her little adventure was starting to look great; she was so excited!

Looking in the mirror that hung on the wall by the door and smiling at this new, happier, modern Cinderella, she hoped that Cindy would enjoy her worl if that was where she was gone. The daily life there wasn't great, but there was the castle, the balls, and the prince...

Cinderella brushed her long, blonde waves with a hair brush she found lying on a shelf next to a funnily-looking set of keys, and not quite sure what to do with them in this world, what was the current hairdo fashion, decided to leave them loose. Once she was ready, Cinderella rushed out of the house, carrying a few of the papers titled CV in her hand. She... just had a feeling that she might need those.

The airport was so close that, to her dismay, she didn't even have to get on a bus. Once she got there, some beautifully normal people, after glancing at the papers she carried in her hand, directed her to the right chamber. No, office was the right word, Cinderella corrected herself.

There were only two other girls sitting outside in the waiting room, and soon, it was her turn to go in.

Cinderella wasn't quite sure how to behave, so she greeted the man standing in front of her politely and sank in a little curtsy when he offered her his hand.

For some reason, he smiled at her in a bemused way... "Miss Cindy Perrault," he finally said, "I'm Jack Elliot. Nice to meet you. Take a seat, please."

"Thank you for your kindness, sir," Cinderella said, following his example and sitting down, her hands pausing in the act of adjusting the long skirt she wasn't wearing today.

She blushed, then smiled at the man called Jack shyly.

"So, tell me, Cindy, why do you want to join our company and become a flight attendant?" he asked, studying her intently.

The charming, young, blonde girl all dressed in bright blue reminded him of something, an illustration in his favourite book of fairy tales. A girl... no, not a simple girl. A princess. Cinderella!

Looking at her, Jack got completely lost in the memories of his childhood and wasn't paying much attention to what she was saying. Otherwise, he would have noticed how she compared aeroplanes to fire-breathing dragons and cars to horse-drawn carriages.

He only focused on what she was actually saying again, when Cinderella said how much she would love to become a flight attendant and how this whole situation was her dream come true...

He had never interviewed a more motivated young woman, Jack decided, hiring her on the spot.