LJ Idol Season 20, Open Topic
Once upon a time…… oh no wait you’ve heard that haven’t you?
How about, a long time ago in a land far far away….. no chances are you know that one too. My grandfather used to start his stories with ‘and so it began’, but he said the editors never thought it sounded right, and so they changed it to Once upon a time but I always liked his beginnings best.
You get used to that, living here, you get used to things not always being exactly what you think they are.
When you live in the land of make believe, where fairy tales come true and happy ever after is the accepted norm, you would think that life would be that little bit easier right? After all in a world where dreams come true, and wishes were horses, what can possibly ever go wrong? Well let me tell you even in the land of happily ever after, there isn’t always a happy ending. My name is Melody Manners, I am a scribe and a story teller as my father and grandfather before me, and this is my story.
And so it began……..
~*~
Melody bit down on a startled cry as her toe hit the end of the bedpost, grimacing she fell down on the bed, rubbing at her toe as she glared at the offending post. She so didn’t need this today, a sore toe meant forgoing her usual Ella ‘Sparkle’ pumps in favour of some flat cinder slippers, meaning she would reach the total of her full five foot three inches, never a good thing when you were trying to impress people with your new authority; the Ella pumps added a good five inches to her height but the glass fit was unforgiving on injured feet, so they were now out.
Sighing she opened her wardrobe pulling out her new suit, Emerald silk, hand tailored by elves it had the exact right cut to flatter her figure without showing it off, pretty but business-like it was the perfect choice for her first day as Assistant Editor, or it would have been it if didn’t have several huge splotches all over the lapel of the brand new jacket.
“Mother,” Melody yelled as she headed down the curved staircase of the small family home.
God she hated this place, she could remember a time when they lived in a beautiful house, full of light and air with a garden full of vegetables and animals that at the drop of a hat would begin a friendly chat or burst into song. But that had been before, before the scandal that had cost them the house, their family, their reputation.
In an instant everything changed and they had moved into one of the shoe apartments on the outskirts of town, a place for people with too little money and too many children.
Melody may have been young, but she had been smart enough to know that their station, their position in society had changed. What Melody didn’t figure out, her classmates were always quick to fill her in on. They were poor, they were trash, their father had been a witch lover, they deserved to live in the slums.
The taunts had only spurred Melody on, without the burden of having friends any more, she had worked harder at school, even with the teachers ardent dislike of anyone from the Grimm family she had excelled, leaving school with handfuls of accolades and grades good enough to take her anywhere, even the palace. But for Melody there had only ever been one choice.
Despite the anger, the recriminations the ‘How dare she’, she had headed straight for The Big Book, the towns newspaper, once owned and ran by her own father, before he had swindled it and ran it into the ground, almost taking the land of Ever After with it.
Melody had been sharp and determined and as luck would have it, Amelda Banks had recently taken over the paper. Sharp ruthless and with very little time for sentiment she had seen the fire in Melody’s eyes and had known she had a talented, capable writer with ambition and something to prove, which meant she would work for far less than the going rate.
Melody hadn’t even had to hand in her writing samples, of which she had plenty.
After all, when all was said and done she was still a Grimm, telling stories was in her blood. To some people that still meant something.
It had taken seven years of hard work, late nights and low pay to get Melody where she was now, and now it was ruined because her bad-tempered, lazy, selfish sister had no concept of leaving other peoples things alone.
Finding her mother in the kitchen washing up whatever mess Lydia had left last night Melody’s anger flowed out like a torrent.
“Mother she ruined my suit,” Melody waved the emerald green material in her mothers face, trying not to let the look of helplessness on her mothers face dampen her anger.
“Today is my first day as Assistant Editor and thanks my brat of a sister I can’t wear my suit.”
“Melody darling,” her mother voice was soft and worn, already working at the tight knots of tension in Melody’s body. “You have a full wardrobe of nice close, your sister needed something to wear.”
“Needed something to wear?” Melody asked, her voice tight. “What for, she doesn’t work so what on earth would she need an Elf tailored suit for?”
“She had an interview,” her mother supplied happily, the smile on her face growing, showing a trace of the once beautiful girl she had been. “Down at Mother Hubboard stacking shelves.”
“She wore a ten ruby suit to an interview to stack shelves?” Melody exclaimed. “Mother do you have any idea how many late nights I worked for this? How many meals I missed just so I could look perfect on my first day?”
“Oh Melody dear, please stop being so selfish, it’s not like anyone at the paper doesn’t already know you. Your sister needed a hand and as you are far better off than her, I think you could show a little kindness to her.”
A million responses flew through Melody’s head. She wanted to scream at her mother, to lash out, to remind her that they only had a roof over their head and food on the table because of how hard Melody worked. That Lydia despite having no job, or money was never in on a weekend, never seemed to suffer from the same hunger pangs that Melody and her mother had become accustomed to. She wanted to scream that it wasn’t fair, none of this, that it was her mother and fathers fault that she went to work every day with a fire in her belly to prove herself different from her lying cheating father, her flighty sister and her helpless mum.
But of course, she didn’t, one look at her mothers face, her eyes carefully avoiding the stain in Melody’s jacket, her mouth turned down, the wrinkles at her eyes deep and scored and the fight went out of her.
“Just, please mum, tell her not to touch my stuff.”
Taking her mothers quiet sigh as a sign of consent Melody heading back up stairs. Pulling out a flowing white stop she put it on with her emerald skirt. Without the suit jacket and wearing the flat pumps Melody looked all of sixteen years old. Her blonde hair curled in soft waves adding to the look.
Checking the clock she groaned as she registered the time. It was already twenty minutes to nine and it was a forty minutes’ walk to the office, it didn’t take a goblin to work out the maths. She did a quick calculation in her head of her current gold situation as she headed out the door, a hasty good bye shouted in the general direction of where her mother still stood.
If she skipped lunch for the rest of the week she could just about afford a carriage ride.
It took ten of her precious minutes haggling with the horse over the price before it finally headed off with a neigh of discontent, bloody horses were getting greedier by the day. Melody could still remember the days when a horse ride across the city would cost you less than half an apple and some bramley seeds.
Sighing she leaned back against the faux pink leather upholstery grimacing at the tackiness. Every man and his dog wanted to pretend to be Cinderella nowadays.
Reaching the office just before nine, Melody skipped up the steps, running through the schedule of the day.
Pushing down the mixture of nervousness and excitement, she reached for the door handle/
This was it, it all started here, the first day of the rest of her life.
~*~
Have to admit im being selfish in deciding to go with this one as this idea has been living in my head for a long time and I want to get it out and I wanted to know what people thought of it
How about, a long time ago in a land far far away….. no chances are you know that one too. My grandfather used to start his stories with ‘and so it began’, but he said the editors never thought it sounded right, and so they changed it to Once upon a time but I always liked his beginnings best.
You get used to that, living here, you get used to things not always being exactly what you think they are.
When you live in the land of make believe, where fairy tales come true and happy ever after is the accepted norm, you would think that life would be that little bit easier right? After all in a world where dreams come true, and wishes were horses, what can possibly ever go wrong? Well let me tell you even in the land of happily ever after, there isn’t always a happy ending. My name is Melody Manners, I am a scribe and a story teller as my father and grandfather before me, and this is my story.
And so it began……..
~*~
Melody bit down on a startled cry as her toe hit the end of the bedpost, grimacing she fell down on the bed, rubbing at her toe as she glared at the offending post. She so didn’t need this today, a sore toe meant forgoing her usual Ella ‘Sparkle’ pumps in favour of some flat cinder slippers, meaning she would reach the total of her full five foot three inches, never a good thing when you were trying to impress people with your new authority; the Ella pumps added a good five inches to her height but the glass fit was unforgiving on injured feet, so they were now out.
Sighing she opened her wardrobe pulling out her new suit, Emerald silk, hand tailored by elves it had the exact right cut to flatter her figure without showing it off, pretty but business-like it was the perfect choice for her first day as Assistant Editor, or it would have been it if didn’t have several huge splotches all over the lapel of the brand new jacket.
“Mother,” Melody yelled as she headed down the curved staircase of the small family home.
God she hated this place, she could remember a time when they lived in a beautiful house, full of light and air with a garden full of vegetables and animals that at the drop of a hat would begin a friendly chat or burst into song. But that had been before, before the scandal that had cost them the house, their family, their reputation.
In an instant everything changed and they had moved into one of the shoe apartments on the outskirts of town, a place for people with too little money and too many children.
Melody may have been young, but she had been smart enough to know that their station, their position in society had changed. What Melody didn’t figure out, her classmates were always quick to fill her in on. They were poor, they were trash, their father had been a witch lover, they deserved to live in the slums.
The taunts had only spurred Melody on, without the burden of having friends any more, she had worked harder at school, even with the teachers ardent dislike of anyone from the Grimm family she had excelled, leaving school with handfuls of accolades and grades good enough to take her anywhere, even the palace. But for Melody there had only ever been one choice.
Despite the anger, the recriminations the ‘How dare she’, she had headed straight for The Big Book, the towns newspaper, once owned and ran by her own father, before he had swindled it and ran it into the ground, almost taking the land of Ever After with it.
Melody had been sharp and determined and as luck would have it, Amelda Banks had recently taken over the paper. Sharp ruthless and with very little time for sentiment she had seen the fire in Melody’s eyes and had known she had a talented, capable writer with ambition and something to prove, which meant she would work for far less than the going rate.
Melody hadn’t even had to hand in her writing samples, of which she had plenty.
After all, when all was said and done she was still a Grimm, telling stories was in her blood. To some people that still meant something.
It had taken seven years of hard work, late nights and low pay to get Melody where she was now, and now it was ruined because her bad-tempered, lazy, selfish sister had no concept of leaving other peoples things alone.
Finding her mother in the kitchen washing up whatever mess Lydia had left last night Melody’s anger flowed out like a torrent.
“Mother she ruined my suit,” Melody waved the emerald green material in her mothers face, trying not to let the look of helplessness on her mothers face dampen her anger.
“Today is my first day as Assistant Editor and thanks my brat of a sister I can’t wear my suit.”
“Melody darling,” her mother voice was soft and worn, already working at the tight knots of tension in Melody’s body. “You have a full wardrobe of nice close, your sister needed something to wear.”
“Needed something to wear?” Melody asked, her voice tight. “What for, she doesn’t work so what on earth would she need an Elf tailored suit for?”
“She had an interview,” her mother supplied happily, the smile on her face growing, showing a trace of the once beautiful girl she had been. “Down at Mother Hubboard stacking shelves.”
“She wore a ten ruby suit to an interview to stack shelves?” Melody exclaimed. “Mother do you have any idea how many late nights I worked for this? How many meals I missed just so I could look perfect on my first day?”
“Oh Melody dear, please stop being so selfish, it’s not like anyone at the paper doesn’t already know you. Your sister needed a hand and as you are far better off than her, I think you could show a little kindness to her.”
A million responses flew through Melody’s head. She wanted to scream at her mother, to lash out, to remind her that they only had a roof over their head and food on the table because of how hard Melody worked. That Lydia despite having no job, or money was never in on a weekend, never seemed to suffer from the same hunger pangs that Melody and her mother had become accustomed to. She wanted to scream that it wasn’t fair, none of this, that it was her mother and fathers fault that she went to work every day with a fire in her belly to prove herself different from her lying cheating father, her flighty sister and her helpless mum.
But of course, she didn’t, one look at her mothers face, her eyes carefully avoiding the stain in Melody’s jacket, her mouth turned down, the wrinkles at her eyes deep and scored and the fight went out of her.
“Just, please mum, tell her not to touch my stuff.”
Taking her mothers quiet sigh as a sign of consent Melody heading back up stairs. Pulling out a flowing white stop she put it on with her emerald skirt. Without the suit jacket and wearing the flat pumps Melody looked all of sixteen years old. Her blonde hair curled in soft waves adding to the look.
Checking the clock she groaned as she registered the time. It was already twenty minutes to nine and it was a forty minutes’ walk to the office, it didn’t take a goblin to work out the maths. She did a quick calculation in her head of her current gold situation as she headed out the door, a hasty good bye shouted in the general direction of where her mother still stood.
If she skipped lunch for the rest of the week she could just about afford a carriage ride.
It took ten of her precious minutes haggling with the horse over the price before it finally headed off with a neigh of discontent, bloody horses were getting greedier by the day. Melody could still remember the days when a horse ride across the city would cost you less than half an apple and some bramley seeds.
Sighing she leaned back against the faux pink leather upholstery grimacing at the tackiness. Every man and his dog wanted to pretend to be Cinderella nowadays.
Reaching the office just before nine, Melody skipped up the steps, running through the schedule of the day.
Pushing down the mixture of nervousness and excitement, she reached for the door handle/
This was it, it all started here, the first day of the rest of her life.
~*~
Have to admit im being selfish in deciding to go with this one as this idea has been living in my head for a long time and I want to get it out and I wanted to know what people thought of it