Chapter 1: Mona's Origins
I do not own any of the characters, series, or anything involved with the story/overall arc. All of the characters, series, etc. belong to their respective owners.
Furthermore, this work takes place in the past. Any laws or viewpoints mentioned in this fanfiction are grounded in that time period.
Also, anything mentioned about the place takes place in the Mushroom Kingdom. Those names have been changed into what was originally called in Japanese due to lore-related reasons for an arc.
Thank you for reading this disclaimer and enjoy the story!
At the Kinoko Teikoku (Mushroom Empire) Hospital, Benjamin yells at Margaret to, "Come on Margaret, push! Push harder! Keep pushing!".
Margaret was trying to push as hard as she could. Margaret just felt tired of doing that, but she couldn't stop because… her doctor was yelling at her, "Come on, the baby's almost out there! You can do it!".
Margaret kept pushing until the baby came out. Margaret felt relieved afterwards and she rested on the hospital bed for a bit.
The doctor got the baby out and exclaimed, "It's a girl!", and the doctor cleaned up the baby. The doctor then handed a baby girl to a mother named Margaret with the blanket around her.
Margaret commented, "Aw…she's pretty cute…", and smiled after seeing her for the first time. Margaret then asked her husband Benjamin, "What should we name her honey?".
Benjamin thought about it and said, "How about Mona? I've recently seen a painting of Mona Lisa and it looks quite well done. Having seen the painting after that, the name sounded good to me sweetheart.".
Margaret immediately replied, "Yeah, I like that name. Let's call her Mona…", and the hospital had registered the name for the baby girl named Mona.
After being released from the hospital, the couple went to their home. Their home is described as a single story house that's common around the neighborhood.
Benjamin and Margaret were discussing how to take care of Mona within their schedule. Benjamin said to Margaret, "Margaret dear, you know I can't take care of her while at work. They need my opinions on where to take the next direction of fashion for the Kinoko Kingdom.".
Margaret replied, "Benjamin…I already have the time to take care of Mona as part of my day. You've got to take care of her after you're done working for the day. Besides, I have a part-time job as a cashier in the evening. I simply ask you to be there for her in the evening when I go back to work, okay?".
Benjamin took a deep breath over it and said, "Well…alright honey, but I can't guarantee that I'll be back home at the same time everyday though. Sometimes, I have to work overtime for the sake of being an executive for the fashion industry. We need money in order to feed not only Mona, but for ourselves as well. I need you to take care of her if I'm not really at home.".
Margaret thought about it and said, "...Fine. I'll take care of her most of the time, but you better be there for Mona when her special event comes up Benjamin…Mona doesn't want you to be a terrible father.", and Benjamin nodded in agreement with Margaret.
For the first year, Margaret had to ask for flexibility at her workplace as a grocery clerk to her manager because she had Mona. The manager understood the situation and Margaret got demoted from full-time to part time grocery clerk.
Margaret was understandably glad that she got more time to take care of Mona, but does acknowledge that her pay wasn't that good when asked for part time. As a result, Margaret had to sacrifice her lunch just so she could buy more baby supplies for Mona.
Benjamin on the other hand had got paid well, but he wasn't able to be around Mona for that much due to him being in a position as an executive that needs his opinions a lot.
When Benjamin was home with Mona, he did an okay job though, giving Mona some basic needs of care, but did have trouble with comforting her to an extent due to feeling a lot of emotions being drained out from work, thus couldn't provide more than just basic comfort.
Mona's second year has been that she was potty trained by Margaret and that Mona has been playing with her toys. Margaret has given some of her old toys to Mona while commenting, "Mona…here's some toys that I have during the old days. Please don't break it too much. That's all I have back in the day.".
And of course, Mona had to be rough with Margaret's old toys. Margaret understood what she was doing and thought, "I guess it's better if my toys were meant to be ruined by her than to keep them in my place and never use them at all. Besides, what purpose does the toys have that I can use besides playing with it?", and she nodded to herself for that idea.
Benjamin also had given up his old toys towards Mona before going to work explaining, "Hey…here's some more toys for you…I hope you can enjoy it. It's the best I can do sweetie. It's a lot of my old toys that I played with in my childhood and I'm not sure if I see the use of it. Have fun.", and he left for work as usual.
Mona had started playing with her dad's old toys and she found it to be more fun than playing with her mother's toys to an extent. Margaret notices it and she feels concerned about Mona's playing more with Benjamin's old toys...
When Benjamin came home from work, Benjamin thought, "Mona…I'm not gonna expect her to play with my toys that much. It's for boys after all and I guess I'll be expecting that she'll set it aside for my wife's toys.", and he looked real happy when he saw Mona playing with his toys.
Benjamin had noticed that Margaret on the other hand wasn't looking too happy when she saw him. Benjamin knew that Margaret can be troubling sometimes and so, Margaret commented, "Hey Ben…I need to have a serious talk.", and they both went into the dining room.
They're at the dining room without Mona in sight and Margaret starts with, "Ben…Mona's been playing with your toys instead of mine. I think there's something wrong with her.".
Ben looked unamused and said, "No, I don't think there's something wrong with Mona. Sure, I gave her trucks, cars, and farming, but I didn't give her my board games due to a lot of small playing pieces and paper cards. I don't see what's wrong with Mona at all, Margie.".
Margaret answered, "But Ben, that's the problem. Mona's playing with a lot of toys that were made for boys. She's going to be rough with other people and I don't want her to be that. She needs to be playing with more of my kind of toys where it's dolls, houses, and makeup.".
Benjamin and Margaret had started having arguments with each other over Mona's preferences of the toys that she plays with. Margaret had won the argument over the toys that Mona plays with due to her belief that making Mona stick with the toys that girls played with would help Mona have a better social life with other girls around her age.
Benjamin, on the other hand, had left losing the argument with bitterness because he hoped that Mona would be able to have good influence with other people when Mona needs to be rough with others when necessary. Benjamin feels like he has some influence over Mona when she plays with his toys, giving him an impression that Mona would have a better life.
That night, all of them ate dinner and Mona went to sleep. Both Margaret and Benjamin started having relationship problems with each other over influencing Mona's social life in the future.
When Mona was three years old, she started wearing pants with her shirt for the first time at home. Her parents were glad that they didn't have to worry about changing diapers anymore.
In particular, Margaret was glad that Mona was going to be wearing some of her old clothes. Margaret tells Mona, "Hey Mona. Since you're growing up wearing clothes, I have some of the old clothes that don't fit me anymore and…I want you to wear it.", and she made Mona wear some of her old outfits.
Mona likes her mom's old clothes to an extent. Mona likes how the dresses looked on her. However, she does notice that Margaret's old clothes has some wear and tear on it and worries that she might accidentally rip her clothes off one day.
Benjamin didn't mind Mona wearing her mother's old clothes. He similarly had concerns about Margaret's old clothes being worn out though so he plans to go to the clothes store one day.
Benjamin and Mona were shopping together at a clothes store because he noticed that Mona's clothes had been tearing little by little each day. Benjamin asked Mona, "Hey…what kind of clothes would you like to try wearing Mona?".
Mona pointed out the girl's clothes as usual…however, Mona also pointed out the boy's clothes. Benjamin agreed to do the girl's clothes first and see if Mona wants something over there.
Benjamin and Mona were in the girls clothes section and Benjamin pays attention to Mona on what she wants to wear. However, Benjamin also warned Mona that he can't buy every clothes that Mona wants because of financial reasons. Mona then chooses some of the dresses that she wants to wear carefully.
Once Mona got some of the nice dresses, Benjamin noticed that the girl's clothes were quite expensive and commented, "Oh dear…these kinds of girl's clothing were more expensive than ever before…their designs got more elaborate over the years…".
Benjamin tells Mona, "Okay…let's get you some boy's clothes too. It would help you have spare clothing that isn't just dresses all the time.". Mona then looked worried about his idea about her wearing boy's clothes and Benjamin just pushed his cart towards the boy's clothes section.
Mona wasn't feeling too concerned anymore when she saw other girls wearing "boy's clothes". Benjamin commented, "You see other girls wearing clothes Mona? That's what boys and girls wear in the old days. It wasn't too complicated back then.", and as usual, Benjamin let Mona choose her own clothes from the boy's section.
Mona got 3 shirts and 3 pairs of pants. Benjamin commented, "Huh…these boy's clothes are less elaborate on the shirts…yet, it's selling at a better price. Okay Mona, let's buy you some clothes and go home.", and Benjamin is standing in line for a checkout looking concerned…
When they're at home, Benjamin decides to hide the boy's clothes because he knows that he's gonna end up arguing with Margaret over ideal wear for Mona. Mona was able to show some new dresses to her mom while Benjamin shows the receipt to her that has girl's clothes only.
Margaret commented, "Oh…the kind of dresses that you got for Mona? I didn't realize that it's that expensive nowadays isn't it…".
Benjamin nodded and answered, "Yep. It's what Mona wants and I had to buy it for her. Those dresses that Mona's wearing were elaborate…", and Margaret agreed with him over Mona's dress having an overall elaborate design.
A few days later, Margaret caught Mona wearing what's known to be the boy's clothes. Margaret was not too happy about that. Margaret called, "Benjamin! Get over to the living room now!".
Benjamin came over and asked, "Hey Margie, what's going on?".
Margaret pointed to Mona and demanded, "Why is Mona wearing that kind of clothes that's meant to be for boys? You know that thing is sort of old-fashioned Ben.".
Benjamin answered, "Well it's because it was cheap and I don't mean the quality of the clothes itself. These were the prices that beat me into buying it. Besides, other girls her age are wearing one as well and their dads are fine with it.".
Margaret sternly explained, "But I don't want the other mothers to think I'm raising her socially behind or thinks that I'm cheap while you yourself worked in a fashion industry that makes us well off. Is this what we want Mona to be: a low-class idiot for the rest of her life?! I don't want to be a terrible mother that doesn't have modern social norms for Mona Benjamin!".
Benjamin got quite angry and rebuked, "HEY! You might not like how I raise Mona, but leave her out of this! I wanted Mona to have a lot of choices growing up in order to be able to make proper decisions and her wearing boys clothes is what she wanted to be! I don't care if Mona is either a proper woman or a rough bitch Margaret! She is our daughter at the end of the day you know!".
Margaret gasps and then said, "But I want Mona to be a feminine woman for the rest of her life just like my friends! You, on the other hand, have made Mona be left behind in social life…", and the two really got into a very heated argument about Mona's overall role in the society.
Margaret overall wants Mona to be able to socialize and have connections with a lot of women just so Mona can have a smoother life while Benjamin wants her to do whatever she likes for the rest of her life so long as she's following norms that aren't harming anyone else in society.
Mona hears them arguing and she's inside the room all by herself for all day when her parents told her to do so. Mona felt quite scared about the overall argument.
As a result of their following argument, Margaret and Benjamin's relationship has seriously gotten worse with each other over the years that's over their influence on Mona's lifestyle.
When Mona was four years old around summer, her parents once again argued about her preparedness to go to school. Benjamin starts off with, "Come on Margaret, I'm sure Mona is ready for preschool! She's able to befriend one kid at her age. You know Jimmy T.? Mona was able to learn how to dance from him and is pretty good at dancing now.".
Margaret thought about it and argued, "I'll give Mona credit for being a good dancer, but the music that Jimmy's family listens to was becoming old pretty quickly. From what I've heard at work, they just don't understand why that kind of trend has stopped. As a result, it makes them look ridiculous when they try to show off their dancing skills. Mona needs to know that once that kind of trend dies, don't go back to doing it for whatever reason, even for the sake of nostalgia. I don't want Mona to embarrass herself later on in the future.".
Benjamin said, "Come on Margaret, Jimmy T. was Mona's only friend for now. You worried about her because she'll get embarrassed? Mona needs to learn from her mistakes by sending her to preschool. That's the whole point about this. Why do you have to argue about this?".
Margaret takes a deep breath for a moment before going on to say, "You don't get it do you? I don't know how to tell you this Benjamin, but here's the REAL problem with Jimmy's family: they always seem to be flamboyant with their homosexual behavior for a child to be influenced by them. They also have a horrible sense of fashion. I'm thinking that Mona's not ready to go yet because of the way she acts from Jimmy's family. We should find a way to make sure that Mona doesn't act like that anymore and hope that she isn't ostracized from that.".
The two then started arguing about the perceived behavior problem that Mona has on her overall wellbeing. Mona as usual was told to go to her room whenever they're arguing because she knows that they don't want her around when they're arguing.
Mona…doesn't get why her mom HATED Jimmy T. and his family. She likes them because of how different her family is. Mona thinks that Jimmy's family is having a lot of fun while her parents aren't having a lot of fun when they're all together as a family.
Also, Mona doesn't understand why they're arguing about preschool. She thinks it's a fun place to go, but she couldn't because of her parent's constant argument that she noticed when she was 3 years old. Mona then got called up by her mom and she left her room.
Will Mona be able to go to preschool? How will her family answer her questions? What can Mona do about her behavior? Find out next time on Mona's Old School Days!
Thanks for reading!