Maybe it was just a really bad first impression.

Although I don’t know where a bad impression like that would come from.

But ever since I was little, I have never liked Snow White.

‘Skin as white as snow,

Lips as red as blood,

Hair as black as raven feathers.’

Her coloring always seemed a little…out there.

I mean, to have skin as white as snow, you would look like you’d been trapped in a sunless room for more than half your life and still putting on extra white powder.

To have lips as red as blood; well, that wasn’t even possible. Blood was blue. And even if you went by the standard ‘blood red’, to have lips that dark and red, you would look like a circus clown.

And the hair as black as raven feathers would be absolutely dull, wouldn’t it? Not a single other shade in your hair – just dark, dark black.

Altogether, Snow White probably looked like a clown or a pantomime. Quite honestly, I never really thought clowns and pantomimes were extraordinarily beautiful, let alone ‘the fairest of the land’.

And what was with her constantly getting tricked by her evil stepmother? She’s supposed to be this amazing, ideal girl that’s sweet and smart; and yet no matter how many times the dwarves tell her not to speak to strangers, she keeps letting an old lady in to choke her, attack her, and eventually poison her.

Who takes an apple from a complete stranger?!

One day, I fell in love.

Key – or so he liked to be called – was my (extremely popular) senior. I’d bumped into him at the library holding a big, worn out leather book. Which had fallen on my foot.

I didn’t quite mind, although it did hurt. And because it hurt, Key panicked and carried me all the way across campus to the infirmary and stood in a corner of the room, flailing and pacing as he waited for the nurse to come in and take a look at my severely injured foot.

And like almost any cliché romantic story, I fell in love.

At least my love at first sight – or pain – wasn’t as cliché as Snow White’s was. Wake up to a guy kissing you and you’re suddenly in love?

But even though Key and I spent time together, he didn’t seem to look at me the way I wanted him to. There was almost always another girl with him, shooting me haughty and angry looks.

What are you going to do, honey? Send a hunter my way to try and carve my heart out?

I wanted to confess.

But who wants to be rejected?

Now that was when my best friend told me she could help me. She took me to a shop I didn’t even know existed and told me I should get a ‘love potion’ so that when I confessed, my feelings would be sent to Key and he would accept them.

I didn’t quite believe it would work, but something about that round, red bottle just caught my heart and held on fast. I bought the bottle and its contents, which were labeled, ‘LOVE’.

The day I planned my confession came and I stood next to my locker with everything I needed.

All that was left was that bottle. I uncorked it, giving it a small and tentative sniff.

It smelled like apples.

Even though I hated Snow White, I didn’t really hate apples. Maybe if the potion tasted like apples, it wouldn’t taste as bad as it probably would otherwise.

Speaking of apples, the deep red color of the liquid reminded me of an apple, too. The round shape and glass shine only added to the familiarity and I chuckled. That was creative, to theme a potion after a fruit.

But that wasn’t my main focus at the moment. A peer out of the corner of my eye told me Key was rounding the corner of the hallway, coming down my direction.

I downed the drink in one gulp.

Maybe Snow White wasn’t so stupid after all.

Even though she was foiled over and over, she had seven loyal dwarves that always knew how to save her. And she had a ‘Prince Charming’ that saved her from what could have been permanent death.

She wasn’t so stupid to buy the apple from her evil stepmother. Hers was free.

Her evil stepmother wasn’t her best friend, and already dating the man she thought was her prince.

And Snow White didn’t eat the entire apple. 

758 words

Side note: The book that Key had been reading was a collection of some of the oldest versions of fairytales; before the Grimm versions. And when the book fell, guess what page it flipped to? Snow White's poison apple demise.

Credits to lieveheersbeestje.org for the amazing picture of the bottle of my inspiration ♥