Disclaimer I don't own Mulan or the other characters in the movie, Disney does.
Chapter 1
The Matchmaker said is a disdained voice, "This is what you give me to work with, a girl with twigs in her hair and who isn't properly dressed. Fa Li, I'm sorry to say that your daughter with never be a lady. I bet she couldn't even be a perfect bride! She doesn't even know how to pour tea without spilling it and she speaks without permission!"
"But surely Matchmaker is there anyone whom you can arrange for my daughter to marry," Fa Li asked. The Matchmaker shook her head. Fa Li left and went to her daughter, who was waiting in the corner, and said, "You have disgraced us in one of the worse ways possible. Now no one will marry you. Are you happy now?"
Mulan waited until she arrived home before she ran to the lake next the forest was the borderline of the Fa property. She looked at her reflection trying to figure out what was wrong with her. Sure, she wasn't the prettiest of the village girls, but does beauty is all that matters? Is that what husbands want, someone who won't even speak to you unless give permission, someone who was bred to be a perfect wife? Mulan sighed softly and started to sing, "Look at me I will never pass for a perfect bride, or a perfect daughter. Can it be I'm not meant to play this part? Now i see that if i were truly to be myself, I would break my family's heart. Who is that girl I see staring straight back at me? Why is my reflection someone i don't know? Somehow i cannot hide who i am, though I've tried. When will my reflection show who i am inside, when will my reflection show who i am inside?"
Captain Shang was going to deliver the notices to the family of a nearby village to recruit more warriors. He noticed that there was a lake past the forest and he led his horse there to drink. He began to walk around the lake when he heard a voice that made him stop and take cover. Shang asked himself, "Who is that girl singing and why does she seem so sad." He longed to take the girl into his arms and comfort her. Shang edged closer to get a better view of the girl but he accidently went to close to the edge of the forest and was spotted. The girl turned and ran.
"How could I have been so careless," thought Mulan, "he better not show up here or else I will kick his butt." She hurried to her room and changed her clothes for she knew her father would want to speak with her about what had happened with the Matchmaker today. There was a knock on the door and a servant came in. He bowed to her and said, "Fa Mulan, your father wishes to see you now."
"Oh what fun," Mulan muttered to herself. She went to her father's favorite orchid tree and found him sitting on the bench. Mulan looked a her father, he seemed as if he grew older in the short moments that he had heard the news.
"My daughter you failed the Matchmaker's test and dishonored the Fa family name." "I know father and I'm s-"Fa Zhou interrupted Mulan and said, "It's not your fault my Little Flower. It is mine. I have given you too much freedom and I'm sorry to say but that will have to change." Mulan wasn't happy about but she agreed with her father. Fa Zhou said one more thing before he left Mulan to her thoughts, "You mother is not ashamed of you, she just wants you to be an exact mirror of who she was when she was growing up," and he turned and left.