AN: Hello everyone, so excited to start on my next castle fanfic! A manhattan cop's love story is still going on and i'm going to continue with it but i had this idea for the story and had to write it down! this is a AU story and doesn't really go with the show just the characters. This first chapter is kind of short but that is due to my time right now and setting up the story. Mostly from Kate's point of view. If you're expecting Kate to be a typical Cinderella archetype, it may seem that way at first but I have a plan and will turn the tables on you later, until then enjoy!

A Castle's Cinderella

Chapt 1

Sunlight rose over the horizon in New York City, showing the dawn of a new day...or it least it was until my Paulina started barking orders at me in the midst of a beautiful dream. "KATHERINE, WE NEED BREAKFAST NOW! I DON'T PAY YOU TO SLEEP ALL DAY!" she yelled. You don't pay me at all I thought,rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. This was what I've had to deal with ever since Paulina took me in. When my parents died in a car crash when I was 11, my mother's boss took charge of me from what she like to call "the charity of her heart". I didn't have any other living relatives so no one contested her for custody of me and therefore my life of servitude had begun.

Ever since the first day I entered her household, Paulina treated me as part of the hired help. I do all the chores, cooking, not to mention I have my own work from school to finish when I get home from school. It seems I never stop going and that I'm just a robot programmed to follow everything I'm told. My mom always told me when i was younger to always stand up to others when they were in the wrong, but every time I threatened to leave, Paulina would tell me that I was better off where I am and that I was in her debt since she took me in because my mom was her employee. So I stay under Paulina's roof doing whatever she orders, besides she let's me go to school and I'm almost ready to graduate so I'll finally get out of the evil witch's grasp and start living my own life.

If the work i had to do for "mommy dearest" wasn't bad enough, I also had to contend with her demon spawn as well; Gina is the oldest and probably the most cruel of the two girls. She was vicious and did everything in her power to make sure my life was a living nightmare, from putting hair dye in my shampoo to convincing her mother to add even more chores on my list of things to do so I couldn't go to the movies with my best friend Lanie; Gina was a pure devil child. And then there's Meredith, she's your typical dramatic brat and gets whatever she wants by just whining like a little two year old. She follows Gina's lead everywhere and did exactly what her sister did. I remember watching an old movie called "Mean Girls" and if the dumb blonde ever had a twin sister, I'd imagine Meredith would be the one to play the part. Both girls did everything in they could to make sure I was never happy and since they were the most popular girls at school, you can just imagine the turmoil I had to endure there, ugh and today was Monday which meant…

"KATE, BREAKFAST NOW!" I snapped out of my reverie and moaned then dragged myself off the little bed in my room aka the attic on the top of the building complex we lived in. It was shabby at first, but it was the only place I could escape from everything. All the work, drama, hurt that existed outside that door never made its way into my sanctuary. Here, I was safe and comfort and if I could. I would never leave this place ever; but we live in the real world and I had to move along with it. "KATE!" my guardian yelled. I quickly out on my robe and wandered downstairs, time to enter the gates of hell.

AN:...So? REVIEW PLEASE!