This is Anthology 1

being the first part of the Disney Princess Anthology

PRINCESS BELLE

I kinda hate the folks at Disney Productions for giving us these awful stereotypes that weren't really us to begin with. They got it right that I loved reading books, but was annoyed at the way I would seem almost helpless, if not decently literate. It's like calling a complete fool calling a wise guy a fool. Well, guess who those fools are? Certainly not the "Fool on the Hill".

It is true that I am a great afficionado when it comes to French culture at large (that explains part of my dismay with the wacko EuroDisney concept). Anything Disney threw at you about my French-y side is correct except I wasn't born there.

Indeed, Bellene, myself, was born on a third day of a cold January in the year of our lord 1899 in a barren city of Los Angeles (it was called El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora de Los Angeles, a Spanish name, I don't know much Spanish, and yes Los Angeles was just a town before it became the second largest city in the States). My birth parents were a family that benefited greatly by the loss of territory the Mexicans experienced some years ago (Santa Anna blew it for the Mexican eagle) and a couple of southerners whose lives were ruined (and some did take it on the freed Negroes, quite unfair. They weren't even compensated like the freed Hebrews in the Bible). The family at large were very much in disdain about people of different races and colors (they tried not to be "assholes", as Ella would say).

They were also in disdain with me, at least my love for literature. I would read any book, filled with good, or bad, stories, anytime I could.when I was very young. The tradition didn't allow a girl to be such a stout observer. As for my part, I could never find a "proper" role to fit into my elders' tradidional society (by "proper" I mean what my elders considered what was right for any female to do, and that included me).

I did what anyone dissatisfied with their families would do, and that's to go away like it was described in "She's Leaving Home" (on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Gee, aren't Sgt Pepper's band great or what, especially Billy Shears!) I was in the dinginess of the west coast. I was curious on what was on the other side in which I could really go to. That meant the east coast, and that meant any of the eastern cities like Miami, Tallahasse, or New York City. I chose the Big Apple (not Snow).

Going there was like a dying person seeing for the first time the true nature of what the realm of Hades looks like (not the place in Hercules). It was new for me looking at stark nature. It was also very cold (unfortunately for me, I left during wintertime) and sometimes snowy (Sagii would have loved it. She never tells you this, but she loves snow). It was hell of a cold variety, a fight for survival. And worse, I went alone. I was therefore a target of unwanted attention by a couple of very eager young men (they think I'm the most beautiful girl to happen); as Ella would say, "These types of guys just wanna fuck you."

Eventually though, I had gone used to the flora and fauna of the midwestern landscape. I've even managed to rig through several farms with some of the harvest without getting caught (there were lots of farms in the late 19th-early 20th centuries). The greatest fun however came from sheer running around. I would brush myself against the wild grains, not knowing if the bumblebees would give me trouble or if something else would. On the wild, there was only the care for survival, perhaps. In the city, there is a lot of rubbish, or as Ella would say, "a whole lotta bullshit goin on".

I've managed to find the barely constructed towers of New York City (no Empire State Building yet). It was dismal then (but then again, it is still dismal, in it's own way). A good lot of beggars and leperous people living in the outskirts. I was thinking "OH MY GOD, I DON'T WANT TO CATCH THEIR DISEASE!" Of course, I was being fed a lot of nonsense especially from the "reigning" white men (I believe they still have control, but barely...). Around the same time, I began to hear about Saginelli's coffee shop in what would be a huge area someday (I had some contacts, they were very harrassing though). I had very little money, so I began working in the coffeeshop (I was too late; Sagii had left the coffee business so another guy was managing it).

The aura of the times was oppression. Oppression for most women, forced by their husbands/fathers to dress in very gaudy but "femenine" clothes (I can imagine Ella saying "HELL NO, I'M NOT WEARING THIS SHIT!"). I wasn't interested in that movement. And as I would later learn, so did my best friends.

The first time I met Sagii, I thought she was the craziest girl any boy would ever meet. She always walked around in bare feet (even though customs dictated for a girl to wear slippers at all times). She also wore very eccentric (at the times) clothing, like shirts, overalls, vests, and sometimes long white pants that somehow hanged loose. As for any corset, or brassiere, she wasn't wearing any of those (but to be fair, she had really small breasts. We were all still relatively young). It wasn't just in her dress, but also in her personality. Her english, while beautiful-sounding, was pretty bad (and I thought that most princesses would be good speakers, but no...). She spoke with a deep accent, and sometimes she would sound very sinister-like. But that was the young Bloody Snow.

She was also a great painter.

In the twenties, two more lassies came into my life, and they were perhaps the most eccentric group I've ever seen, and boy they were really scorned for this. Ella was very kind, if you were kind. However she could become aggressive if around with aggressive people (and that is why she has a habit of inserting swear words whenever possible, without offending anyone). Abbuderi was also quirky (not the word of the times) but also imaginative.

The four of us became the prototypical group. Me, Sagii, Ella, and Abbu. The other "princesses" would not come until later on (their stories will be covered on Anthology 2). For the moment were were just four relatively young girls (relative to how much we could age, if we ever could), nobodies. We would later become famous, and then really famous, and then really really famous (which by that time the constant girl screaming was just driving us up the wall). We weren't famous at the time, so we could have gotten away with anything.

That included drinking lots and lots of hard liquor. In fact, Sagii would often be the first to get drunk.

It was Sagii who turned us on to Walt Disney (I came here knowing little or nothing about American cartoons, but Sagii was big on this). At the time, most cartoons were refered to as "amusing crap". That was my impression watching a Felix cartoon some time ago. That was when Sagii invited us all to see a Mickey Mouse cartoon. I was like "who the hell is Mickey Mouse?" I would find out...

Author's note:

Owing to the workload of college, I will reduce the number of submissions. Likewise, the Anthology will get longer and will be spoken by multiple characters.