The Prince

With much enthusiasm and diligence, Juanita drew. Her crayons were scattered on the floor and her paper was thin from too much erasing. She wanted her work to be perfect and didn’t mind what was going on around her. The time for recess had come and she still showed no sign of stopping anytime soon. Luis, the kid with whom she shared her table with, asked her to go play with him at the playground and she didn’t even bother to look up. Juanita has never ignored him before so it made him frown, emphasizing the heart shaped birthmark on the corner of his lips.

Being the curious little boy that he is, Luis asked what it was she was so busy with. He didn’t like being ignored, so he wanted to know what it was that got hold of Juanita’s full attention.

“I’m drawing my prince charming”, she replied. ”I need to make it really good so I’d know him when I see him.”

“Cool!” said Luis. “Can I help?”

Juanita just shrugged in response and said, “I guess.”

There they sat for the remainder of their recess. Juanita drew as Luis offered his thoughts. It was Luis who said that princes no longer wore crowns, but used multicoloured caps instead. It was his idea to have the prince wear blue because, according to him, princes don’t like red. It was also he who had said that sneakers were what princes wore nowadays. Luis would tell Juanita how to draw her prince and she’d simply follow like a mindless droid.

When they were done, they patted each other’s back for a job well done; just the way their teacher, Miss Chan, does. It was as perfect as they could hope. Proud of their work, they decided to show it to Miss Chan. But before Juanita could hand it to their teacher, Luis snatched the drawing from her to give it the “final touch”. After adding a little detail, he folded it and handed it to her.

Juanita walked up to Miss Chan’s table with a big smile on her face and handed her the folded drawing. As Miss Chan opened the drawing, she made a curious face before smiling so sweetly. Juanita wasn’t sure what Miss Chan had in mind and thought that maybe she didn’t think it was good enough. Before Juanita could open her mouth to ask for drawing back, Miss Chan patted her on the back and said, “Well done, Juanita. You even drew his birthmark.”

Confused, Juanita asked, “What?”

Miss Chan just smiled a little wider and said, “It’s so sweet of you to draw Luis.”