Frog Princess

Frog Princess, originally uploaded by esmereldes.

I'm just going to hijack my Pinky page briefly, because I need somewhere to host this...

This is Aramina's background story...

Aramina is a headstrong girl with a bit of an anger management problem. Her parents were always trying to make her into a "proper" young lady, but it just didn't work well. She couldn't sit still, she didn't want to eat daintily and with her pinky pointed outward while drinking tea, and she hated dancing. As often as she could, she ran away from her tutors and went outside where she would spend hours tramping around in the forest and swamp nearby. It was modern times, for heaven’s sake! Girls shouldn’t have to wear pinafores!

One day, while trying to escape from her hated piano lessons, Aramina was hunting thru her parents room looking for a decent toy. She couldn't find anything suitable, but she did find her mom's golden ball, where it sat in a place of honor on the dresser. Although gold isn't too helpful for playing sports, Aramina decided to "borrow" it temporarily and at least go play catch. Sadly she would have to play catch with *herself*, because there was noone near her age around, but anything is better than nothing. Unfortunately, throwing a ball into the air and catching it can be amusing for only so long, and so she stuffed it into her pocket and went back to her favorite project - making a map of the forest and swamp.

As she was stomping around the outskirts of the swamp, she heard someone calling her! She thought it was her piano teacher at first, because of the hoarse voice (that old man had such a scratchy voice...) but when she looked all around, it was coming from a frog! After she recovered from the shock, she and the frog had quite a pleasant conversation - of course the frog was very helpful about filling in some of the holes in her map. No one knew the swamp better than the frog! Aramina was feeling quite pleased with the frog, when he suddenly asked for a kiss! Now Aramina might be a tomboy, but she had her standards! Kissing was gross! And kissing a frog was worse. He was getting quite pushy, so Aramina scrambled back and looked for something to throw... Of course she found only the gold ball in her pocket. Without thinking (because that's what happens when you have a bad temper) Ara chucked the ball at the frog. Unfortunately the frog ducked, and the ball went splashing into the water!! Aramina suddenly realized what she had done and was horrified. Her mom would be so upset!

Sensing an opportunity, the frog offered to get the ball back for her - for a price. Aramina flat out refused to kiss him, of course, but said she would agree to take him home with her and be his friend. He seemed pleasant enough, except for the kissing thing, and any friend was better than no friend.

All went well for a while, but he was always after her to kiss him. Often this resulted in her throwing things at him. One day he made her so mad, she threw HIM. And he went *splat* right against the wall. Aramina was horrified, once again, by her impulsive behavior, but it turned out the frog didn't just squash - he turned into a boy! Aramina's parents came rushing in at the sound of Aramina's screams. They knew right away what happened.

"Mimi," said her mom (her mom called her Mimi), "We have something to tell you..." Her dad and mom exchanged a slightly guilty and slightly mushy look, and her mom said, "When I was young, that golden ball was my favorite toy. I lost it in the swamp one day, and a frog offered to retrieve it for me. I promised to be his friend in exchange, but one day I lost my temper with him and threw him against the wall. That broke the spell. It was traditional in those days for enchanted princes to marry those who break their enchantment, so we were soon married, and have been happy since that day."

"But," broke in her dad, "you are still much too young to get married, so let's just see who this boy is."

Unfortunately, Philip was pretty hazy on where he came from. Geography wasn’t his strong suit, and he’d been under a spell after all. So, after months of searching, Mimi’s dad figured out who the boy’s parents were. They were very grateful to have their son back! In the meantime, Mimi and Philip, as it turned out the boy’s name was, had grown very close. Mimi was thrilled to have a companion, esp. now that he wasn’t asking for a kiss all the time. (I mean, yuck! Cooties! Philip had just thought that was the way to break the spell…) He taught her to play soccer, which Mimi thought was the best game ever. Mimi’s mom, seeing all this and being a traditionalist was lobbying Mimi’s dad to arrange a bethrothal. Finally he agreed, and so did Philip’s parents. They arranged that Philip would stay with Mimi’s parents and learn the ropes of running the kingdom, while Mimi would go away to boarding school to learn ‘deportment and diplomacy’ in NYC.

Of course, Mimi hated that, and after a mere two weeks, tried to run away. She ended up outside a club where Talia’s band was playing (Philip had said she liked them, and that Talia was pretty. Altho she’d never admit to being *jealous*, Mimi wanted to see Talia for herself….). Talia caught her trying to sneak in, and when she heard Mimi’s whole story, she brought her back home with her. By a very strange coincidence, it turned out that Mimi was a distant cousin of Janet’s! Not being very knowledgeable about Janet, and how she would probably be the *last* role model Mimi should have (Janet’s temper being none too certain either), they agreed to let Mimi live with Janet and learn deportment from her.

Janet tries to take her responsibilities seriously, but often she and Mimi just end up fighting. (Enna and Smilla probably do a better job of teaching her manners) Mimi writes to Philip regularly. Philip is always sending her frog-themed gifts. Mimi says she’ll never marry, but the fact that she keeps all the gifts that Philip sends probably indicates she doesn’t really mean it… ~.^