The Reality of Fairy Tales
by Pareathe

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction, and any similarities between actual people and/or events is strictly coincidental.

Acknowledgments: Several of my characters' personalities and mannerisms are based loosely off people I know. Everything else is totally made up-names, ages, financial status, etc. At any rate, I will leave these people nameless, but I would like to thank them for giving me such...colorful material to work with.. *laughs*

Author's Note: Well, this is my first posted piece of original fiction, so I'm not exactly sure what to say, LOL! First, thanks for checking my story out. ^_^

Okay, a little background maybe? You can skip this if you want, LOL. At any rate, I actually started writing this longhand when I was around sixteen (meaning this idea is almost ten years old now and from a time when I thought people from opposite ends of the scope made the best romantic stories). I played with it on and off, nearly finished it actually, until I got married, then sort of forgot about it. At some point over the years I typed it up and saved it on a disk, and here it is. ^_^ When I stumbled onto it again, I decided though it certainly wasn't something I'd try to get published, I'd done a lot of work on it and wanted to go ahead and see it through to the end. As I write this, the story's thirteen chapters long with only two I'll have to write from scratch to finish it up. So there you go...that's where this came from. ^_^ Any other questions and comments, as well as constructive criticism, is more than welcome either by review or by email. Thanks everyone!

Prologue

"Chase, you should never underestimate the truths which lie hidden within the pages of an old-fashioned fairy tale."

I was a freshman in college when my professor passed on that bit of wisdom to me. At the time such a concept seemed ridiculous, a ploy to encourage my participation in the assignment she'd given the class. We were told to write a thesis diagraming the various symbolic and stylistic parallels between a romance novel of our choosing and one of several classic children's stories she was fond of. I hung back after class and asked her to explain the point of the assignment.

From a strict literary standpoint, I read an occasional love story now and then, and the idea of comparing one of my favorites books to Sleeping Beauty felt like an insult to both my chosen author and myself. The books I enjoyed most were those I could relate to or identify with in some way. I read stories about realistic characters in realistic situations. In contrast, my reality lacked anything resembling a fairy godmother or fancy castle. There were no balls to attend, no evil curses to thwart, and I wasn't expecting a handsome prince to knock on my door with a declaration of love and one of my old tennis shoes.

Although I completed the assignment to the best of my ability and was satisfied with the result (I got top marks in case you're wondering), that paper did nothing to change my admittedly low opinion of fairy tales. As for the professor's advice, it was filed away and sat dormant in the very back of my mind alongside names of old rock bands and other useless trivia-type knowledge for nearly two years.

I've wondered since then whether or not that teacher gave me a fair grade, or if she just took pity on my genuine inability to discern the assigned topic.

You see, if I'd known then what I know now, I could've written her a much better paper.