Once upon a time, not too long ago, somewhere between Asia and Africa, probably close to Morocco, there were two kingdoms. The kingdoms were friendly and in fact very similar. They were both ruled by a king and a queen and both families were expecting new babies. The first family had a girl: Julianna Winifred Rosalin Baobab Thompletin or Jules for short. The second family had a boy whom they named Oglethorpe Pennington Penelope Rompleton III or Oggie. Jules was not what you would call a "typical" princess. She didn't like tea-parties and she wasn't quiet. She was terribly messy and didn't know proper etiquette and most of all she could NOT cook. Not even a little. She had trouble making cereal in the morning. So she spent her days, playing with the horses, or practicing with her bow or sword or spear. When she came home her dresses would always have a thick layer of dirt stuck to the bottom. This wouldn't have been too big of a problem if it wasn't for
two things. One, every princess was required to participate in a coming of age ceremony on her fourteenth birthday where she had to cook and cater over one hundred guest and as her birthday got closer and closer Jules got more and more worried. Two, she felt like she was constantly being compares to Oggie. Oggie is what many called the perfect prince. He helped old ladies cross the street. He could cook and clean and his princely outfits were always pressed and washed. Jules did not like Oggie at all. As the days went by  Jules spent more and more time in her room studying cookbooks and trying to figure out which fork to use for salad and which fork to use for desserts. One day, on a break from her studies Jules came across the newspaper. Normally she wouldn't read the newspaper, but at this point she felt like anything was better than her books. At the very top read in big bold letters. "DRAGON TO INVADE THE TWO KINGDOMS" 

 

Jules jumped off her bed and dashed out into the hall yelling, "MOM!!!!!! MOM!!!!!!! MOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" 
Her mom came running out of the sowing room. "My goodness, Jules, what's wrong?" she asked, "are you hurt?" 
"Mom," she gasped, trying to catch her breath. "Did you see this?" 
"Oh sweetheart, is that all? That's nothing to worry about," her mother said, turning to go back to her sowing, but Jules wasn't finished.

"There's a huge, scaley, fire breathing, man-eating dragon and I shouldn't be worried?!?!"

    "Dear, have you finished your book on the history of the serving spoon?" 

    "Not quite, but ya see- wait mom are you listening? There is a DRAAAAAAGOOOON!"

    "Yes, yes of course, but we have nothing to worry about. As is customary, the prince will take care of it." 

    Jules kept chasing her mother. "Whoa! Are you telling me that Oggie gets to go after this thing? Mom, I could totally take care of that dragon! Have you seen me with a bow?I mean I can shoot a mosquito, I can-" 

    "Julianna!" the queen said sternly. "That will not be necessary, it is not the job of a princess to concern herself about dragons. That is not your role. What you should be concerned about though is your ceremony and I suggest that you return to your studying."

    Jules sulked back to her room feeling defeated. She tried to practice her cooking but she would start to daydream about fighting the dragon and her eggs and toast just seemed to get more and more burnt each time. Finally it was the night before her ceremony and everyone including Jules was worried how she would manage to pull this off. At midnight Jules was still studying. She’d finally made it to “The Art of the Jell-O cake” when she heard taps on her window. She looked out and below her stood a very cleanly dressed young prince.

“Oggie, what are you doing here?” she asked.

“Jules, I need your help,” he whispered.

“You need MY help? Yah right. I’m going back to studying.”

She was getting ready to close her window when Oggie started screaming, “Wait! Wait! Jules, please! I really need help, please come down.”

Jules reluctantly put on her slippers and crept outside.

“What’s the problem, Oggie?” Jules asked.

“I have to fight the dragon,” he answered.

“Yah, so,” Jules said.

“Well…uh… ya see… I’m not so good at fighting.”

“What do you mean?” Jules asked.

“I mean I’m not so good with a sword… or a bow and arrow… or a spear.”

“Doesn’t every prince have to go through basic training with weapons?”

“Well, yes, but it used to make my outfits so dirty, so I just kind of stopped going-”

“You skipped your weapons class?”

“It sounds so bad when you put it that way,” Oggie said, looking down.

“So what exactly do you want me to do?”

“I was thinking that maybe you could show me some of your moves, I’ve seen you out in the fields. You’re really good!”

“Well, I guess I could show you a few things…”

“FANTASTIC! Let’s get started!”

Despite Oggie’s willingness to learn he was not a natural born fighter. They tried the sword, but Oggie said it was too heavy. They tried the bow and arrow, but Oggie said it was too springy, the tried the spear, but Oggie said it was too long. They even did martial arts, but that didn’t quite work either.

At the end they both laid down on the ground feeling very discouraged. When suddenly Jules got an idea; After another hour of planning a deal was made.

In the morning the cooking started and the prince rode off to slay a dragon.

The ceremony started promptly at six in the evening. The food was incredible there was Cesar salad as an appetizer, steaks and shrimps and pastas for dinner and for dessert crème brulee, cakes and pie. Lots of pie: chocolate, cherry, strawberry, blackberry, boysenberry… pretty much every berry. At the end of the evening everyone complimented Jules amazing manners and her even more amazing food.

Meanwhile, all dressed in knight’s uniform the prince rode off to fight a dragon. With sword in the air the knight chased the dragon out of town never to return again.

Everyone in both kingdoms was extremely proud of the day’s accomplishments. When the young knight returned there was a celebration waiting. Oggie’s father, the king, was standing looking very proud. In fact he was so happy that he yanked the knight’s helmet off preparing to poor a big jug of royal apple juice over his son’s head. But as soon as the helmet came off the celebrating stopped. A few people even gasped. Under the knight’s clothing was not the king’s son; in fact it was nobody’s son. Upon that horse sat a very guilty looking Jules. The king was flabbergasted.

“Well, if you’re here,” started the king, “then where is Oglethrope?”

“Uhh… here I am dad.”

Everyone turned to see where the voice was coming from. Just beyond the crows stood an equally guilty looking Oggie, still wearing the traditional ceremony dress and holding his chef’s hat over his chest.

Jules and Oggie’s parents were not at all pleased and decided to go off for a few minutes to talk about the proper punishment.

Jules and Oggie sat awaiting the verdict. “Hey Oggie,” Jules started.

“Yah, Jules,” answered.

“No matter what happens, I want to say that you’re a pretty cool guy and really different than I thought you were.”

Oggie smiled. “Thanks Jules... you too.”

With that the two sets of parents had returned. One of the kings started to speak. “We’re very sad that you lied to us,” he started “we’ve taught you both never to be dishonest and we’re disappointed. You’re both grounded for two months.”

Oggie and Jules looked at each other they were both regretting their choice not to tell their parents the truth.

“However,” one of the queens began, “you both accomplished great tasks today. Oggie the food you cooked was the best that I’ve ever eaten in all of my life and Jules you saved our kingdoms. We’ve learned that sometimes tradition isn’t the best way to raise a child and perhaps we should have looked at the amazing people you are instead of who we wanted you to be, and for that we are sorry. We hope you’ll forgive us and allow us to through a parade in your honor.”

Jules and Oggie looked at each other again and exclaimed, “DEFINITELY!”

From that day forward Jules and Oggie’s parents never tried to make them do traditional prince or princess things again and although Oggie and Jules still were very different people and would even argue sometimes, they grew to be very good friends and, for the most part, lived happily ever after.