THE NEXT DAY Miss Mallow told her class all about the history of the story of Cinderella. This was one of the reasons why Poppy thought she was such a brilliant teacher. Poppy loved knowing lots of little details – they made things that might have been boring seem really interesting.
“Did you know,” began Miss Mallow, “that there are versions of this story from every corner of the world, all dating back hundreds of years? But the most popular version was written by Charles Perrault in 1697. He added more details to the traditional folktale – like the pumpkin, the Fairy Godmother and the glass slippers. In fact, at first he thought of fur slippers, but then he realized they would be too stretchy! Can anyone tell the class the story as we know it nowadays?”
Poppy’s hand shot straight up in the air. She knew this tale inside out and back to front. She had so often imagined how sad Cinderella must have felt at the start of the story and how happy at the end.
“Ok then, Princess Poppy?” smiled Miss Mallow. “Come out to the front and tell us the story of Cinderella!”
Poppy stood behind Miss Mallow’s desk, cleared her throat and began to tell the story. When she had finished, everyone clapped, amazed at how well Poppy knew it.
That week the children could think of nothing but the school show – even the boys were becoming quite enthusiastic about being on stage. Everyone was dying to see the new hall, which was strictly out of bounds while the builders were there. No one was allowed in until the week before the show, so the rehearsals were going to take place in the gym instead.
At the start of the following week, Miss Mallow handed a script and cast list to each child in her class.
“Here we have the script for the Rosehip School musical version of Cinderella, and a cast list for auditions too. Please study these before Friday and come to the rehearsal with an idea of which parts you would like to try out for,” she said.
The whole class pored over the list.
“Oh, I hope I’m picked to be Cinderella!” said Poppy. “There aren’t really any other parts I like!”
“Me too,” said Sweetpea.
“And me!” said Mimosa and Abigail at the same time.
“Well, I hope I’m the Fairy Godmother,” said Honey, who loved fairies above all else.
When the end of the week arrived and everyone had finally brought in their permission slips, Miss Mallow’s class stayed behind after school. They had a snack in the classroom and then made their way to the gym. Lots of the parents had offered to help with the show – much to Miss Mallow’s delight, as she was beginning to realize that it was going to involve a huge amount of work and there was no way she could do it alone. Mr Melody, Abi’s dad, had offered to be the musical director. Poppy’s cousin Saffron, who was also Miss Mallow’s best friend, promised that she would help with the costumes and Poppy’s mum had volunteered to make any hats or headpieces. Madame Angelwing, Poppy’s ballet teacher, was very kindly going to lend a hand with the dance routines. It was going to be a real team effort.
The children sat in a circle as Miss Mallow explained how the auditions would work. She wrote the names of each character on a card and told everyone who wanted to try out for that part to line up behind the card, but when she looked up, she saw that every single girl – except Honey – was standing behind the Cinderella card and every single boy was behind the Prince Charming one. She smiled.
“Oh, dear! I thought this might happen!” she said. “You do realize that we can only have one Cinderella and one Prince, don’t you? There are lots of other brilliant parts. Playing baddies and meanies like the Ugly Sisters and the Wicked Stepmother is often even more fun than playing princes and princesses. Those are the parts that everyone in the audience will really enjoy!”
But the children weren’t convinced and no one would audition for the parts of the Ugly Sisters or the Wicked Stepmother.
“Come on, class!” said Miss Mallow. “It’s too late to choose another show – and may I remind you that a majority of you did vote for Cinderella. You can’t all have thought you’d be Cinderella or Prince Charming!”
But she saw from the look on their faces that it was exactly what they had thought!
“Please will you have another think about it – otherwise we’re not going to get anywhere,” said Miss Mallow, despair creeping into her voice. “There are lots of other parts, plus all the important non-acting roles. Come on, children. You’ve got five minutes.”
Some of the boys moved around a bit and one, Tom Worthington, volunteered to be Cinderella’s father. Honey had already said that she would like to play the Fairy Godmother. Gradually other children began to move around and stand behind different cards. For most of the parts there was no need for an audition as only one child had put themselves forward. But for the parts of Cinderella and Prince Charming there was still a great deal of competition. Poppy and several other girls, all of whom wanted to be the star of the show, weren’t budging. There was no way they were going to give up the opportunity of being their all-time favourite fairytale princess that easily.
The girls formed a queue for trying out as Cinderella, each doing her absolute best when her moment came. Poppy was second last in the line, with just Abi behind her. As each of her friends made a brilliant job of their audition, she became more and more nervous. By the time it was her go, she was sick with nerves.
Ever since Miss Mallow had given out the scripts, Poppy had been trying to memorize the part of Cinderella. But now she was so nervous that she decided to use the script again – just in case.
“Come on then, Poppy,” said Miss Mallow.
She walked to the front of the gym, trying hard to imagine how sad and lonely Cinderella must have felt without a kind mother like hers – and how tired after all the housework the stepsisters made her do. She only had to look at her script once during the whole audition and was quite pleased with how it had gone.
“Well done!” said Honey when Poppy had finished. “You were really good.”
All the girls, including Poppy, had done really well in their auditions for the part of Cinderella. Poor Miss Mallow had a tough decision to make. She scratched her head and looked back at the notes she had made about each performance. She liked Poppy’s energy and spirit, but she liked Abi’s singing voice – and it was lovely to see a shy girl blossom through drama. Lola had a beautifully clear speaking voice and Sweetpea had put so much feeling into her performance. All the other girls had been great in their own ways and all of them would make lovely Cinderellas.
Oh, dear. What am I going to do? thought Miss Mallow.
However, she didn’t have time to dwell on it – she had to get on and cast the rest of the play. But by the end of the session she still had no Ugly Sisters or a Wicked Stepmother.
When it was time to go home, Miss Mallow told her class that she would spend the weekend thinking about who was best for each role and would announce the cast on Monday. Poppy sighed – she couldn’t bear the prospect of spending another weekend without knowing if she was going to be Cinderella or not.
What if Miss Mallow didn’t choose her – who would she be? Poppy shuddered at the very thought of being made to play one of the Ugly Sisters!
