Fairies and tails.

Around the world,everyday,little girls are shoved into the ideas of fairy tales,a forever after and of course,the man-prince charming. Guilty as charged, I was one of them. And with every morning that i woke up,this chimera turned more and more into a zest for, perhaps, salted peanuts.
Until,one night my eight year old cousin demanded that I tell her "The Sleeping Beauty" to put her to sleep. And the tired being in me succumbed to the pressure and I ended up saying this.
"Once upon a time, there was a king and queen. They had a kid. Something bad happened and she got cursed that she would sleep for forever until some prince came and gave her a kiss. So one day Prince Charming came by and made out with her. She woke up and they lived happily ever after."

What I found vaguely disturbing was the fact that if I were the princess, I would've probably punched the prince in the face and pounded him to the floor for waking me up. But that was just the sleep deprived me talking.

Only to realize,my cousin appalled,to say the least.
She went on to "fix my troubled mind" by giving me a detailed description of..well, absolutely everything.
It started off as "Once upon a time" and then what seemed like four hundred and seventy two hours and a spookazillion hallucinations later she said "Happily every after". Nobody ever really cares about the difficult "In-betweens". Do they? But that was my cue to go "Awww."

And although she fell asleep, i got to do what i do best (No, not play hangman),think.
I couldn't help but wonder the following:
1. Is the Prince's name actually "charming"? Or was he called that because he was charming?
2. How in the name of cactii is it forgivable for Prince charming to flirt around with Sleeping beauty AND Cinderella AND Snow white AND Rapunzel? Polygamy it seems.
3. Do i have to learn to dance? Will the Egyptian mummy dance or silly goose-ling do?
4. Did the prince consider morning breath when he kissed her? She had been sleeping FOREVER.
5. Does a girl actually have to kiss a toad to turn him into a prince?
6. If so, where could I find one?

And just as I wondered on how to catch a slimy toad, i realized some things.

1. As we were thrust upon finding a happy forever, boys were just discovering the magical world of play stations.
2. As we expected them to shower rose petals on us and ask us to the ball, they were being trained to burp louder.
3. Some of my best friends who are boys say they try. And they crib. Yes, they do.
They say "You're nice, not like mice" for a poem and bask in glory. Cute? Maybe.
They might not rescue you from your demise but it probably because they themselves are absolutely baffled.
4. Really,they seldom care about things besides soccer.
5. With every chick-flick or rom-com as our expectations raise the bar, the guys are trying to beat their doodle jump high score.

But when they tell you they like you, they probably really do.

And yes. Your eight year old cousin might just take offense if you call "the kiss of love" a make out.

In the end, the shoe fit Cinderella and the princess did wake up from a deep slumber. They rode off into the sunset on a saddled mare. Maybe it takes a Prince to sweep you off your feet.Or maybe, just maybe, the swagger loving teenager is enough. But between us, the fantasy of our childhood will always remain.