Wendy was an older girl, walking past me, but I was crying and trying not to be noticed, so I turned to wipe my face with my sleeve; luckily I was wearing long sleeves at the time. "My name's Wendy," she said, sitting right down next to me anyway, like I was her best friend, or something.

'Boy, the sixth graders are kinda pushy this year,' I thought. I told her I was okay, hoping she would go away, but then she said: "how bout you tell me what's wrong," and I thought: 'okay she seems nice.'

"Those kids are laughing at me," I said, pointing to them. "And I'm scared because they're older and bigger and one of them called me weird."

"Do you want to hear something really weird?" she asked me.

"Sure," I said, hoping it would help me with the mean kids.

"Well, I know a story about a kid who was laughed at by her very own father and sister. You see, a very long time ago, even before toothpaste was invented, there was a land far, far away called Heartington. It was a pretty little kingdom, but a lot of the people there were very poor. The village was ruled by a short and chubby king named Herod Heartington. Everyone thought Herod was very mean because he spoke harshly to all of his people all of the time.

"No matter what?" I asked.

"No matter what." Wendy replied. "But the Queen, named Queen Mary, was a beautiful person and very kind; she spoke kindly to all of her people all of the time, so the two were opposites."

"What are opposites?" I asked.

"Opposites would be like: sink and float, up and down, big and small. It just means things that are as different as they can be. Anyway, they had two daughters that were opposites too. Princess Heavana, who was kind like her mother and Princess Hellana, who was harsh, like her father and as I'm sure you can imagine, this caused many problems at the royal palace. It was beautiful on the outside, but a lot of ugly things were happening on the inside. But the king wanted to show that things were well in the royal palace, so he would throw lavish parties (in case you don't know, lavish means that everything at the party costs a lot of money). He would tell the villagers he threw these parties as a way of helping to feed the poor, but he would always end up making them think badly of him anyway, by saying or doing something to turn their stomachs, (so really they could only enjoy the goodness of the food for a little while).

Like this one time, he said to the Queen during dessert: "Are you really going to eat that second piece of cake! You told me you would start your diet today!"

"But wait, it gets worse, sometimes he would even do the same thing to Heavana, like this one time he told a group of villagers that she wasn't a very good baker, so please excuse her dry and tasteless muffins, muffins that she had just given them that very afternoon. And maybe even worse than that, she overheard her own sister laughing and saying to the king:"That was funny Daddy; do it again." She would also catch them sharing a very strange little smile after something like that happened. She also had to deal with her sister laughing at her clothes or shoes in front of their party guests.

So, while Heavana was out in the kingdom, giving water to the thirsty, food to the hungry, help to the helpless and hope to the hopeless (like all good Princesses do), Hellana would be sitting in the royal palace, coming up with new ways to plot against Heavana, so she would have something to laugh at and be entertained by. She was even known to sing loudly, in her royal bedroom, "Heavana the good! Heavana the good!" She would sing that over and over again and in this really weird way that made goodness sound like a bad thing. All these things made Heavana feel bad about herself, but at night, before she would go to sleep, she would look at herself in the mirror and say:

"Just hang in there and someday a great life will come my way."

"That was really brave of her," I said.

"Yeah, but the story gets even worse. Are you sure you're ready?" Wendy asked me. I guess she was worried about me.

"I'm ready," I told her.

"Well, one day Hellana did go into the kingdom, but not to do good deeds. She knew how important it was to Heavana to be close to the villagers. She also knew that because of that fact Heavana would always eat a big bowl of peaches and cream before going out into the kingdom, so her breath would be sweet. (Remember, this was before the invention of toothpaste...) Well, I'll tell you if you're sure you're ready."

"Tell me!" I yelled.

"She told every one of the villagers she saw that day that Heavana started eating garlic and onions every morning for breakfast! She said it was her 'new thing.' Can you imagine? The villagers may not have even believed her, but they still didn't want to take the chance of getting close enough to smell her breath, just in case the rumor was true. So everyone felt it was best to stay away from her. Heavana was crushed and had no idea why there was such a sudden change in the way the villagers treated her. And even though she was not next in line to be their Queen, the villagers were still hurt that their Princess would actually choose to keep them away from her, just so she could gorge herself on a disgusting breakfast.

But soon after that even worse trouble came to Heavana, the king announced that she would marry a prince from a nearby land, a man she didn't even know. (That's how they did things back then). He was to come to Heartington that very day and the two were to wed.

Heavana spent that whole morning crying in her royal bedroom; trying to look like a princess when she felt like a scared little girl. She could only hope her wedding guests would think her tears were of joy and not misery. But what she didn't know was that something good was about to come of that mean lie her sister told everyone in the village. You see, the rumor spread to another kingdom that had a prince who became curious as to why a good princess could just change that, for no reason.

So he thought, 'I must go to Heartington. I am having a strong feeling about this so-called smelly Princess.'

So the very handsome Prince David Holybren was an uninvited guest at Heavana's wedding. Anyway, as Heavana came down the aisle of her beautiful garden wedding, she slipped and almost fell on a peach someone threw on the ground! (A lot of people ate peaches for good breath back then.) And guess who was there to catch her?"

"Hmmmm.....was it Prince David?" I asked.

"The one and only! He looked deeply into her eyes as he gently lifted her to her feet. His face was as close to hers as it could be, so he took a deep breath in and just as he suspected her breath didn't smell like garlic and onions at all. So he kissed her and when he tasted her sweet lips, he shouted as loudly as he could: "THIS PRINCESS SMELLS OF PEACHES AND CREAM. SHE DOESN'T HAVE BAD BREATH AT ALL!"

"All the people cheered, as the Prince kissed her again. Heavana; feeling swept up by the handsome stranger thought: 'now this is a prince I can really fall for!'"

"Wait a minute." I interrupted.

"What happened to the other Prince? And why wasn't he worried about the princess's breath?"

"When he saw what was happening, he just shook his head and walked away. "And the reason he wasn't worried about her breath was because the king told him the truth - Princess Hellana had made it all up."

"And what did the king think of all this?" I asked.

"He was embarrassed. Do you know what that means?"

"You mean he felt really bad, right?" I asked.

"Yes, but you feel that way in front of other people, so that makes it even worse, because the thing you feel bad about .... everyone knows. So anyway, the king felt so bad he kind of ran away from home and was never heard from again.

Princess Heavana and Prince David were married some time later and the queen appointed them the new king and queen of the land. (And Heavana made sure her people did NOT go hungry.)

"But what happened to the old Queen?"

"She moved into the royal mother-in-law quarters."

"What happened to Princess Hellana?"

"She ran off with the first Prince that came along and was also never heard from again."

"So that's the story. So tell me, what do you think you should do about those mean kids now?" Wendy asked me.

"Ahh.. I think I'll just stay away from them. Thank you for helping me with my problem. Maybe we can be friends." I said.

"I think we already are." Wendy replied.

"Great!" I said. And Wendy stayed with me the rest of recess and we've been friends ever since. And a week later, as my good fortune would have it, the teachers changed the mean kids' recess time so now I don't have to deal with them on the playground anymore. Now, it's just me and my new friend, Wendy.

This is meant to be a Christian children's story intended for ages 4-8 (due to the subject matter, may be appropriate up to age ten or eleven).