Clive's Clover

by Madeline Sheen

Princess Griselda lived with her Dad in a magnificent, pink, fluffy castle at the foot of tulip mountain. Unfortunately, she was the ugliest person in the kingdom. She had a crusty, hairy and oozy wart on the end of her pointy nose...and that was her most attractive feature!

Princess Griselda was the most unprincessy princess ever .She hated tiaras, ball gowns, balls (the dances, not the spherical object!) anything pink and all royal duties. However, she loved toads, wearing black, messy hair, cackling and riding her horse.

Meanwhile at the edge of the forest, in a crumbly, draughty cottage, lived a witch and her uncommonly beautiful daughter, Daisy. Daisy was the most unwitchy witch ever seen. She hated dirt under her finger nails, cauldrons, spells and broomsticks. However, she loved floaty dresses, perfumed hair, anything sparkly and especially...pink .

One day, Princess Griselda was out riding on her horse, Clive.

Clive spotted a particularly lush bunch of clover and bent down to eat it throwing Griselda into a nearby nettle bush “OOOWW!," yelled Griselda.

The yelling caught the attention of Daisy who was washing her hands just upstream. She ran along the riverbank, saw what had happened and pulled up a handful of doc leaves and handed them to Griselda, "put these on your stings, they will ease the pain," said Daisy, "thanks," replied Griselda .

"You've missed a nasty looking sting on the end of your nose," said Daisy, "that's not a sting it's my wart," smiled Griselda,

"oops sorry" said Daisy .

There was an awkward silence for a few seconds then they both burst out laughing!

As the sunny morning merged into a lovely warm afternoon, the two new friends continued to laugh and play .They realised that although they were so very different, they had much in common too...they both felt like strangers in their own lives .

"Do you know what," said Griselda, "we should live each others lives. You love all things pretty and I like all things magical. I'd love to train as a witch!''
"Brilliant idea," said Daisy "but how do we explain that we don't look like each other?"

"I'll tell your mum that I've been enchanted to look more like a witch during my training and you tell my dad that you have been enchanted to look more like a princess," said Griselda .

That was exactly what they did and it all worked well for the first couple of weeks .The girls would meet regularly in the forest to play, swap stories and to check how each others parents were doing.

One day however, the King (suspicious of his daughter's new looks) followed her into the forest. At the same time the witch was following Griselda into the forest with the same suspicion .

The girls realised the game was up and admitted what they had done and why. Their parents understood and on meeting fell in love, were soon married and the two girls lived happily ever after as sisters.