The princess was 'having one of those days,' as the Americans put it. Fist of all, she was assigned a major project in her government and economics class, to build a house of fifty-four bicycle cards, she only had one week to finish (one school week meaning five days, this American school system was reached.). Adding to her already high stress, she was paired with the laziest kid in class (not to mention clumsy). She hated the fact that she had to let him go on this one, not wanting him to ruin her grade, she took the project on herself. If it were to be done correctly she would work on it alone.

If that wasn't enough, a Mutraddi creature HAD to show up! Despite her desperate pleas for Octus and Lance just to take care of vile thing. Octus managed to literally drag her along on the mission. Lance favored Ilana staying home, but the creature was rather large to put it bluntly. With much pulling,so much pulling! Ilana was forced to come along. She was pissed, so the battle went fairly quickly, she let Lance do all the ridiculously rambunctious battle tactics she was so scared of with a clear mind.

But it was more than that project bugging her, soon her father would be sixty years old and that much closer to death. Unless of course he was already dead,which Ilana was frightened of. She would no longer talk to Lance about missing him, since his father was dead, or talking about how he might of been dead. She wouldn't make that mistake again, she didn't want Lance to hate her. Not only was the fear of never seeing her father again getting to her,it was her responsibility to save Galaluna if he was dead. But she couldn't, she was to far away to go back home, she was failing her people who needed her. She was letting them down, they needed her and she wasn't there.

Perfect, she must be perfect at everything, she couldn't let anyone down, no one. That was her biggest fear, to be useless, to be nothing but hindering nuisance. That is what she really feared most of all. Being royalty wasn't as easy as everyone thought it was, especially for a benevolent leader such as herself and her father. He always told her that beautiful planet would belong to her, but when she was kid she was ignorant to know how hard that would be. The only reason all of this was bothering her, was because she drilled in her mind that as a future queen she must do everything perfectly or she would let everyone down, that was what her mother told her.

Ah yes her mother, the prostitute that won over the prince's heart, faking her sincerity for him. She always treated Ilana as if she were the character Cinderella from the earth fairytale, she was the evil step mother. But as much as Ilana hated to say it, she was her birth mother, yet they were far from the same. Her mother wanted the perfect princess daughter, she realized Ilana was much more interested in the politics her father was dealing with, than picking out dresses or any other vanity item, she thought Ilana would be her excuse for sucking the king dry of his wealth.

She hated her, for every minute she was alone with her,she made it hell for her. She couldn't of been happier when the witch died, the feeling wasn't mutual to her father though. She didn't want him to suffer when she only hated her mother, as much as it pained her to follow what her mother told her,she had to,for her fathers sake. She would be perfect at everything, to make her father proud, to shove it in the witch's dead face.
She would be perfect, and nothing would stop her from achieving that goal.

After the battle with the Mutraddi creature, Ilana went back to her project, and to finish it perfectly. With four hundred points on the line, how could she not? Lance had the very same project but chose to blow it off, even though his partner took it home with her, he wouldn't help her.
Simple as that.
Part of Ilana desperately wanted to be as laid back as he was with these things, instead of worrying about doing everything perfectly like her mother forced her to do. It would absolutely put less stress on her already complicated life.

But she was a princess, that would soon be a queen, she must be perfect. Envying laziness is not what a perfect queen would do, she reminded herself. As she began from the beginning, for the fourth time, she carefully placed the bicycle card to the tower. The moment it touched the other cards, her tower had toppled down, for the fourth time.
"Augh! Why can't I get this right!" she cried out in frustration, not liking the misery of failure. For the first time in her life she wanted to quit and say 'Screw it,'.

Octus heard her outburst and checked to see if she was still breathing, "The project again?" The princess's eyes narrowed as she started to grind her teeth, she wasn't being perfect at all! She started shaking and Octus became worried, "Ilana?" she stopped shaking and faced Octus.
"I would have been finished if that THING didn't show up! And if you didn't make me come with you!" she yelled at Octus. He backed up a bit, almost afraid that she would try to hit him. "Maybe you should take a break..." he said with an uneasy smile, trying to make peace with the pissed off princess.
"A BREAK! THEN I'LL NEVER FINISH!" She screamed, Octus backed away a little bit more, becoming cornered.

"I'm-I'm sorry Ilana!" He quickly muttered before Ilana threw a book at him. "Great! Now I have even less time to finish!" Octus sneaked back into the kitchen and filled a glass with water and dropped a sleeping pill into the glass. Yes, it crossed his mind that what he was doing was completely cruel, but it was the only way to shut her up-calm her down, he corrected himself. He understood the poor girl was under pressure,but she was terrifying, Even more than Kimmy! He had to silence her.

He came out of the kitchen into the living room and set the glass on the coffee table, "I hope I didn't ruin your day," he managed to say before running upstairs. Ilana started again, a few cards were successfully put into to place , then came the thirteenth card. The very same card that ruined her tower four times before,she swallowed dryly before putting the card into place. The card touched the others and the tower was destroyed for the fifth time. She slammed her head into the coffee table.
"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME!"she yelled and slammed her head into the coffee table again, scattering the cards around the room.

Lance came running down the stairs, thinking that her yell of frustration was a cry for help. "Ilana are you-" he cut himself off seeing the princess sulking over the coffee table, her arms crossed to cover up her face . She didn't want anyone to see her crying over some stupid project.
She sat up and leaned against the couch, the water works were gone before Lance could see, she crossed her arms over her chest and sighed.
"I'm worthless, what kind of leader am I if I can't even put a house of cards together." Her eyes nearly misted over, she couldn't cope with failing such a simple task.

She threw her face back down to the coffee table, tearing at her blond hair. Lance(like Octus) felt unsure of how to deal with the situation.
He decided to just wing it, as always. "Want to take a break?" he asked as kindly as possible, he never saw her this torn up over such a simple task, there must of been something else bothering her. Ilana lifted her head to respond to Lance, instead of throwing a book at him like she did to Octus, she narrowed her eyes as they misted over,"whats the point? I'll never finish this stupid thing," She put her head back down to the coffee table covering her face with her crossed arms.

Lance sighed, this was awfully uncharacteristic for Ilana, usually Lance was the one with the pissy attitude and Ilana tried to cheer him up.
He hated seeing her like this... He took a deep breath before his reply.
"I could help you,if you want," he finally offered, giving into the princess's mental agony. She lifted her head for the last time and wore an uneasy smile, "Thanks Lance, but I really should do this myself, "she frowned, 'help would be really nice though' she thought and sat herself on the couch.

Something was on her mind, something besides the project. She took a sip of the water Octus gave her, also swallowing the pill. Lance plopped down down on the couch just right beside her,"I can't stand seeing you like this, it's just not like you." Ilana smiled slightly, it felt nice when he cared. Her smile turned into somewhat of a frown, now to try for the sixth time, she gathered the cards, and began AGAIN, she placed a few cards until Lance interrupted, "Your doing it wrong," Ilana narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms, "Excuse me!" she pouted, "I'd like to see you try!".

Lance smirked,"Gladly," Ilana was a perfectionists, no way around it, her mother impacted her whole life. She couldn't bring herself to thank her for showing her an example of what she didn't want be, a gold digging whore that was obsessed with the pretty picture of having the perfect fairytale kingdom, with their girly princess that indulged herself in vanity. No, she would be a benevolent queen, a queen that heard her people, rather than marrying a general and let him rule.

She convinced herself Lance would fail like she did, How would he surpass her if he didn't even pay attention in class! She couldn't of been doing it wrong, what did he know! "You didn't put enough cards on the bottom," Ilana rolled her eyes. Arrogant boy, trying to show off to her, soon he would fail. When he got to card thirteen everything would topple down, She thought in satisfaction. Once Lance actually did get to card thirteen (yes Ilana was counting them.) an evil grin spread across her face, 'There's no way he'll make it fit,' she echoed in her mind, feeling superior.

Low and behold he did indeed make the tricky card thirteen fit, perfectly. Ilana's grin was immediately wiped off her face. Each card after that fit perfectly as well until all fifty-four cards were in place. She wasn't jealous that he could do it and she couldn't, it was more of feeling that she wasn't living up to her royal expectations. Her mothers expectations, it had nothing to do with her father, it was all about showing her dead mother she could beat her. Which was what she promised herself she wouldn't do.

She promised she wouldn't sink down to her level, and she did.
"I should apologize," She admitted "For what?"
"For being arrogant, I guess I-I-n-never mind,"Clearly this wasn't about the cards, he knew that from the beginning.
"Your not perfect," hearing that felt like bullets penetrating her skin, she failed..."So just relax, you shouldn't get so high strung over these things,"
She let him do all the work for her, she didn't even say 'Thank you' to him. Least she could was help a little, she failed him...

Then the tears came, just thinking about how useless she felt must of brought them up- two more came strolling down her face. Lance noticed she was crying as she quickly tried hide them. He didn't want to address it, but he had to, if he were to cheer up the princess.
"It's your dad isn't it," Even though his father died when he was just a little kid, he felt sympathy for her, he understood how hard it was to lose someone so close to a person. What he didn't understand was the hate of a parent, which Ilana had to endure for the bulk of her life.
The witch tried to kill her.

"Not only my father," she responded wiping away her tears,"But my fate-my destiny as heir to the throne. I am terrified of letting my people down... (I am terrified that I already let them down!) I can't explain it all, but- I must be perfect, for my peoples' sake," she felt relieved for finally saying something to someone, but she didn't feel comfortable talking about her mother, at least not to Lance. She knew his past, and the scars it left behind, she wanted him to believe in her, not to know the scars that were left behind on her. Which brought her to her next statement,
"And that includes you Lance,"

Her scars were just as severe as his were. The last time she talked about it she learned about Lane's past, she wasn't going to bring it up again, she would never tell him about her mother, never.
"Like I said before," He broke the silence, "Relax, what matters is that day isn't today, you should enjoy your time here," Odd how he could say all that but not abide by it.

His words did help her though, she knew he was right. Behind his knuckle headed corporal brain lied a nice guy, though it wasn't often anyone saw that part of him. Speaking of a nice guy, she felt she needed to apologize to Octus for screaming and throwing a book at him. Before she could even move a muscle exhaustion fell upon her. She thought it was only the stress of the day wearing her out, she stood up but nearly fell on the coffee table.
Lance caught her by the arm and pulled her into him, "Are you okay?" the sudden exhaustion was odd, what could possibly caused this?

"I'm fine,"She responded with her chin resting on his shoulder blade. If Ilana was fully awake she would of asked Lance why he was still holding her like that, but instead she said:"Thank you, you've really helped me," She was drifting away into sleep,"Your a good friend,"She added before the drugs put her to sleep, still wrapped in his arms. He accidentally kicked the coffee table, when Ilana fell asleep she leaned into him, startling him. The impact knocked the cards down, well she still had four days to complete it.

It was getting late, Lance was starting to get a little bit tired too. But one word kept him awake 'friend?' Lance thought holding the sleeping girl in his arms. How long was it since he had one of those? During the process of protecting her, they grew closer, she began to know more about him, and vise verse. However brief it may of been, being with her gave him back him an emotion he hadn't felt in so long, happiness. That girl actually cared for him, and he knew she did. Although he would never admit it, she was the best friend he ever had.

He would never of thought being on Earth would be one of the best things that happened to him. before he could think anymore about it, sleep got the better of him as well.


I started writing again,

anyway, o how I love dis show, and I think, I think Ilana is my favorite character just cause she so ridiculous.
Shes the bomb,but those school girls are too STUPID TO REALIZE HER AWESOMNESS!
I'm a freak, get use to it.

So I guess I should talk about the story, you can make up the reason how the cards fit into a government class.
cause I pulled that out of my ass.