Soumia Litim had always been an ordinary girl, there’s no disputing it. She never had a palace, she never had a glass slipper, definitely no Prince Charming – and she was okay with that. Her place in this world was established, and she knew where she stood. If she was anyone in the story, she knew it was Cinderella, under the thumb of the ugly stepsisters.
This didn’t stop Soumia from dreaming, though – why would it? She dreamed day in and day out, not unlike Cinderella herself, about the possibility that it could be different. She knew in her head that she would never be the princess of the story, but this didn’t stop her from wishing. Soumia roamed the streets of Paris on the outside looking in, staring longingly at the dresses she knew she could wear if things could just be different. When she got the bravery to step in one of these shops, she was met with gawks and glares. Girls who looked down on Soumia, girls who were sure they were the princess of their own story, would be sure to put her back in her place when she dreamed too big. But, one green dress teased Soumia, just like those girls. She knew that if she could have that dress, everything would change.
Soumia tried anything to make the world around her different. It’s not that she wanted to be someone else – far from it. She just wished things could change, people. She wanted to feel like the princess of her own story, but there was nothing she could do. She tried almost everything: wishing on a star, kissing a frog, singing atop a tower waiting for someone to save her. But none of it worked. Things were sure to never change. She’d always be the one that no one notices.
Dejected, Soumia would end days spent wishing by her favorite fountain. She watched people passing every night tossing in coins, hoping and waiting for their wish to come true. While she watched the world waste their coins on wishes, she fed the pigeons her leftover baguette. To her, wishing on a fountain was always silly – why would a tiny little coin ever be enough to change her fate? But, as she thought about it, she wondered why this was any sillier than the storybook solutions she’d been trying. So, in one last final attempt to change her station, she pulled out a euro from her pocket. Soumia closed her eyes, desperately putting all she had left in this little coin, and made a wish to be the princess of her own story. She paused, held her eyes closed, and waited; her head told her that this was just another try for naught, but her heart glowed, and told her to hold on to her hope. Her heart told her that her fairy-godmother was standing right in front of her.
What met her eyes when she opened them was a little different than what she expected. Instead of a wand-wielding fairy, she was suddenly flocked by pigeons, hundreds of pigeons. They seemed to come out of nowhere, appearing magically in the moment that she had her eyes closed. Soumia wondered if she had gotten her wish wrong, maybe she mixed it up in her head, maybe she missed her one chance. She hadn’t wished for pigeons! But, suddenly, the pigeons started to flock. She was in the middle of numbers of pigeons flying in circles around her, and she felt all at once swept away by some sort of magic, some sort of transformation. A beam of light felt like it was radiating out of Soumia’s heart. She started to glow from the inside out.
And just like that, the pigeons flew in synchronization around her, giving her room to breathe and come back to Earth. She lost all thought of the wish she had just made. Soumia looked around, the world hadn’t changed. The people hadn’t either. For a split second, she believed again that things were the same. But, as she looked around, she noticed that she felt… different. Her foot caught her eye. She hadn’t put on those shoes this morning. Almost too excited to look, she took a deep breath. Before her eyes was the green dress, the one green dress that she knew would change her life. She felt it – it was the smoothest and sleekest dress she’d ever felt. She had never felt like this in her life, so confident, so beautiful, so free. Soumia twirled around with the pigeons in front of her fountain, a smile beaming out from her that she couldn’t contain. As she looked around, she saw many people wishing on coins, the same way she wished every day before this. Why had she gotten her wish when nobody else had? She wasn’t confused though; Soumia knew that it was her heart and love that shone through to make her dreams come true.
Well, maybe the baguette helped a little bit too.
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