Fiction by Teens

The Froggy Prince

by Alexa Schnee
Alexa is sixteen year old homeshooled, aspiring author. She participates in tap dance and plays the violin (though badly). She loves hanging out with her animals and reading books that make her laugh.

Installment One:

Once upon a time, yeah, yeah, yeah, you’ve all heard that before. And let me guess, it ends with a “Happily Ever After”. Not this story. You see reader, not all is always well in fairytale land, no matter what you read in the storybooks. Once in a while there is a mess-up, and there is nothing the brothers Grimm can do about it. First, Cinderella’s slipper was made of wood and Hansel and Gretel were middle-aged moochers that still hadn’t gone to college and gotten a real job. Then, Sleeping Beauty was having a good dream and decided that she would rather not wake up no matter how insistent the prince was. And Snow White decided she wouldn’t like to be so innocent and joined the mafia in the Ernerian galaxy along with Captain Trann. But that’s a different story.

Our story starts out with a frog. A simple, warty frog with a goal that would make going to the moon in a tin can look easy. He had to kiss a princess, and not just any one, but the most beautiful princess to come out of the Princess Academy of Princesses. Yeah, no small feat. Her name was Princess Amelia. And she was the Valedictorian, Homecoming Queen, Head Cheerleader and organizer of the “Give Elves their Rights Club”.

And he was just a frog. A frog that had joined the chess team in high school, but it’s hard to move your rook with webbed hands. Even the local geeks, Pinocchio and Rumpelstiltskin were safe to call our frog a nerd. He wasn’t even able to give the chess team a win. He was banished from the high school social scene.

Anyway, he graduated and set out to do something with his life. After he found out that no college would accept him because his grades were too low, (that’s what you get for having a giant as your study partner) he decided to follow his dream and become a prince. A handsome prince. He knew that the only way he could succeed in life is if he could be something he wasn’t, and if that meant becoming a prince, he was okay with that. So he sat by a well, waiting for Amelia to come by and maybe give him a kiss.

Well, one day, it actually happened. Princess Amelia came by the well with a basketball. Now, this is a little known fact about Amelia. Her dream in life was to become a professional basketball player for the Fairyland Hoopsters. Her parents, however, wanted her to be a lawyer, but who wants to listen to their parents? Anyway, Amelia took a jump shot and aimed her favorite basketball at the well. It fell in nicely, creating a slight splash at the bottom.

“Dang it!” Amelia exclaimed, using the words that she was famous for. “That’s my only basketball!” She ran over to the well and looked down into it. There was her beloved ball, floating ever so nicely on top of the water.

“Nice shot!” A voice said croakily.

Now, Amelia, who was very concerned about her ball, did a little jump. She hadn’t seen anyone at the well. Was she hearing voices?

Suddenly a frog jumped onto the rim of the well and looked her straight in the eye. He was warty, he was ugly, and he was green, so Amelia immediately felt like running. But her mother, the queen, always said that when you met up with a talking animal, you had better listen up. But who wants to listen to their parents? So Amelia began to run.

“Wait!” the talking frog cried, hopping on the edge of the well. “I can get that ball for you!”
Amelia stopped. It was her ONLY basketball. Turning around she slowly walked up to the frog.

“You can help me?” she asked trying not to flinch.

“Yes. But you have to do something for me in return.” The frog said.
Amelia thought. It was her ONLY basketball.

“Okay,” she said. “What are you thinking?”

The frog smiled.

Check back next Thursday for the next installment!