The Princess and the Pea

There was once a stroppy teenager who felt she didn't belong in her family. She struggled to understand them and they struggled to understand her. She always felt that life treated her unfairly and she was realy meant for more in life. One day it became too much for her family and they sent her out into the world to find her place in it.

She packed her bags and set off. It was a partucuarly cold and miserable night so she headed for a friends house. She thought she had found the right place and so knocked on the door. An old woman answered the door and upon seeing the girls soaked to the skin she invited her in. Now most people would be happy for shelter on such a bad night but not this girl, she humphed into the hallway and threw down her back packe and demanded a towel.

The old woman was very surprised to be ordered around but could see something of a glimmer in the girls eye and went to fetch one. The girl looked around the hallway and found it was rather gothic old fashioned place. She was quickly dried off and the old woman offered her some supper. As befitting the story the supper was a soup but this did not please the girl and she let the old woman know she was unhappy about it but still the old woman offered her a place for the night as she noticed something about the way the girl held herself.

The old woman made up a bed for her, there was no guest bed so she piled mattresses up and up untill they were high and then added quilts and sheets and blankets. The girl was ungrateful but the old woman heard something in the way she spoke. The girl tutted to see such a hothcpotch but decide to stay.

She did not sleep well. She tossed and turned and wriggled and wriggled but could not get comfortable. It was as though something were stabbing into her skin.

In the moning she was pale and drawn. The old woman took one look at her and smiled. She removed a pea from the very base of the bed and held it up for the girl to see. The girl turned and left the room.

There was the proof.

Her family should have treated her better, she was a princess after all!