Coralville Public Library's Teen Zine
The Ugly Duckling, Sort Of by Connie
Once in a kingdom far, far, far, far… You get the point. Anyway,
in a different world there was a king who was very happy. He was
happy because he had just been blessed with a beautiful baby girl.
He and his queen were so proud of their little girl, so they had a
celebration and invited every duke, lord, and commoner to a splendid
banquet. Everyone, that is, except the gypsies. The gypsies were not
invited because they were known for switching a baby on the night
they are born. So the King took extra precaution to make sure that
the young princess was not taken (you know, hundreds and hundreds of
dudes in armor surrounding the palace). The gypsies were so mad
about not being invited they decided to come anyway. Now, you’re
probably like, “What? I thought the castle was surrounded with big
smelly dudes!” Well it was, but that’s not the point, the point is
gypsies were masters of disguise. Yeah you guessed it, they
disguised as rich merchants. Well, they went in and when everybody
was sleeping in the guest rooms, the gypsies crept into the royal
apartments. They carefully went into the Princess’ chambers and took
the baby girl. In return, they left an orphaned gypsy baby in her
place.
May, the gypsy girl, now a princess, was running through her
gardens. She was playing tag with a palace guard, who was supposed
to be on duty. She zig-zagged through the trees and was very swift.
The guard had trouble catching her. Then his boss, the captain,
stopped him short, “Fredrickson! Aren’t you supposed to be at your
post?” So Fred Fredrickson went back to his post leaving May to play
with her frilly dolls.