I feel as if I'm trapped in an endless cycle. My small life consists of going to school, doing my homework, taking care of chores around the house, and working a side job meant to help me survive the first steps of adulthood.
I have to endure all of this in a foster home together with about ten other kids. Soon, though, they'll kick me out of here, because my birthday is dangerously close—the one that will also mean becoming an adult, since I'll be turning eighteen. As the noose around my neck tightened, I tried to work alongside school. But I have no qualifications, so I had to take a job that was completely foreign to me and that I had absolutely no taste for. Still, I needed the money to support myself once they throw me out. This "dream" job meant taking care of farm animals. I worked on a farm for starvation wages for an old man who wasn't as fit anymore, so he hired helpers like me. Most of the work involved shoveling manure, feeding the animals, and spreading fresh straw under them. For that little bit of money I sweat every day of the week for a few hours. No one at school knows that I work—let alone that I clean up after animals and feed them.
I don't have friends at school. Somehow I just couldn't deal with that after learning what life in foster care really meant. I tried to take on more work, but unfortunately this was the only job I could keep while going to school, so at least my grades wouldn't suffer. Of course, like in every school, there were boys who tried to court me, and some of them were even somewhat sympathetic to me. But somehow we never got further than a simple "hello." Either something is wrong with me, or the guy just wasn't decisive enough—and I need a determined man in my life. I do have a "girl friend," though I keep her neither close nor far. She only knows just enough about me that she can't hurt me or stab me in the back. So my romantic and social life isn't exactly rich.
At school, the subject where I stood out the most was physical education. The teachers constantly signed me up for competitions so I could bring the school big, shiny trophies. Naturally, if something appealed to me, I accepted it—but I made sure it didn't interfere with my work. I wasn't very tall, and I don't even know who I inherited these curves from. With my barely 160 cm height, blonde hair, and ocean-blue eyes, I managed to charm both my competitors and the members of the jury. I'm satisfied with my figure—my curves included. They're perfectly proportionate to my height and weight, so I've never had any complaints in that regard.
From my miserable childhood, I only remember a little. There was a woman with the face of an angel holding me in her arms, her flawless skin soaked with tears. There was also a deep but gentle voice nearby, stroking my head while holding its breath. The owner of that deep voice was probably a man, most likely my father. A name was whispered faintly above my head. I remember it dimly, but they said it together in agreement: Heidi. That tiny fragment of memory is all I have, but it was enough to know that my parents loved me. I must have been only a few years old, yet somehow I understood that it was the last time I would hear their voices or feel the warmth of their bodies.
Years later, I was only told that my parents died of some illness. What illness it was, I still don't know to this day. But one thing is certain—it didn't spread to the children. As an orphan, I was placed in a home until eventually they transferred me from the institution to a more family-like two-story house with several rooms, where I live my daily life until I turn eighteen.
Honestly, I'm looking forward to adulthood. I won't have to depend on anyone else anymore, and I won't have to live with ten other kids. And of course, I can leave my farm job behind and find something that pays better.
Sometimes I dream that I'm dancing with a prince, like Cinderella. Of course I know that's impossible for someone like me, but it's still nice to fantasize about.
Back then I had no idea what fate had in store for me—that I would meet not one but three princes, and that one of them would become the prince of my dreams, the one I would one day dance with. And I couldn't know yet that this person would turn my whole world upside down.