A revisioning of a classic fairy tale.
Once upon a time...
Once upon a time a young girl named Abby who was quite
pretty, had always wanted to become a cheerleader. She liked gymnastics and was
quite good at it – but this was different.
One day, she went to the cheerleading practice and talked to
the new volunteer coach and asked if she could join. The coach said, “First, I’d
have to talk to your Grandma and make sure it’s okay.”
“Okay,” said Abby. “I just need to ask my Grandma first.”
With great speed, Abby ran home to her Grandma and told her.
“Grandma! The cheer coach wants to come talk to you about me
joining the team!” she exclaimed.
“Okay, dear,” said Grandma. “That’d be fine.”
The next day, the coach came home with Abby.
“Ma’am, are you a part of the PTA?”, the coach asked Grandma
with one eyebrow raised. “We ask that our parents be involved in the school if
the student joins team events.”
It turns out that the volunteer coach was also the PTA
president.
“Well, no. I’m not. But I guess I could if it means Abby
gets to be on the team.”
Abby would join the cheer team with all of the popular girls
and Grandma would go to the PTA meetings.
At first, Abby really liked being on the cheer team. It was
just like gymnastics but with all of the popular kids – one of them being the
coach’s daughter, Emily. That started to become a problem because Emily would
always ask Abby to do her favors; hinting that she’d lose her spot on the team
if she didn’t do it. The other girls who were friends played along and were
always rude to her. Of course, Abby, not wanting to lose her spot would go
along with it begrudgingly.
Grandma wasn’t all that excited about the PTA but wanted to
make sure Abby was able to do those things she wanted to do; so, she made the
best of it. The president asked her to do a lot of things; bake sales, fund
raisers, concessions at games, and special events for the kids to name a few. Grandma
was getting gobbled up by all the responsibilities that came with her
participation. When Grandma began to show reluctance to help, the coach
reminded her of Abby’s position on the team and that she might just lose her
spot. She didn’t want that.
However, Grandma and Abby soon were both overwhelmed. After
talking about it, they both decided that it would be best if they both just
quit.
“If I ever go to another PTA event, it will be too soon,”
said Grandma.
“I agree. I don’t ever want to be a cheerleader again. It’s
not worth it. I’m sorry I made you do it, Grandma."
“It’s okay, dear. We know better now. The PTA is horrible
monster,” Grandma replied with a wink.
They went on to live happily ever after.