DM The Princess and the Pauper

It was early December. It was very cold indeed in the Gru residence. Winter was on the way. The snow was falling non-stop. Gru watched from the window with concern. He knew that at the other side of town, the people were getting ready for the upcoming big winter holidays.

But Scarlet and Herb Overkill had recently moved to America and were up to no good. Lucy Wilde and the rest of the AVL worked as hard as they could to locate them, but they weren't having very much luck.

In a castle on the outskirts of Despicableburg in a huge castle. There lived a good king and queen and their only child Princess Lily Rosecot who looked exactly like Margo, but neither of them knew it just yet.

Lily's clothes were the finest money could buy and she had an enormous bedroom. Her good parents had ruled the country wisely for many years, suddenly Lily's mother the good queen had become sick and bedridden. Lily kept watch by her mother's bedside anxiously, what would happen to the country if the queen died?

One snowy day, Lily was inside with her tutor learning Trigonometry. She looked out of the window enviously at the children being able to play in the snow while she was stuck inside studying all day long.

Not far from the castle, Margo and Gru were playing with Kyle when a royal carriage rushed past spraying snow all over all three of them. Kyle instantly started barking and chased after the royal carriage. ''Kyle no'' Gru barked ''Margo, can you try and stop him?''.

Margo did so, but Kyle and the royal carriage went right through a set of gates and they closed before Margo could get through herself. She knocked on the gates. ''Who is it?'' said a voice from inside the gate. ''What do you want''. Margo didn't say who she was, she just simply said ''I just want to get my dad's dog back''.

The gates opened letting Margo in. The voice that had spoken to her belonged to a dopey guard Herb Overkill!, ''the princess is dressed rather oddly today'' he thought ''When did her dad have a dog?''.

Someone grabbed him by the shoulder much to his surprise. It was his wife, Scarlet Overkill. ''Herb, you fool, why did you let her in? This isn't an open house!''.

''But that was the princess my dear Scarlet'' protested Herb. Scarlet glared at him and pointed to one of the castle windows. ''Well then who's that up there?'' she asked looking at the figure sitting by the window.

Scarlet quickly ran up to Margo and was about to throw her out when the window and the princess Lily Rosecot herself called out to Scarlet, ''Let the girl go and send her up to me! Even the lowliest subjects of this Kingdom deserve respect!''

So Margo made her into the huge castle and searched for Princess Lily. As she gazed at her refection in the shiny corridor floors, she didn't look where she was going and walked right into a row of suits in armours and sent them all crashing to the ground!

Lily came out to see what was the matter and helmets off the suits of armour landed on hers and Margo's heads and they bumped into each other as they couldn't see where they were going.

They peered through the visors of their helmets and they pulled off the helmets and nearly fell backwards in surprise. Margo and Lily examined themselves from head to toe. There was no two ways about it, they were completely identical!

''You look just like me!'' Margo and Lily exclaimed right at the same time. ''Who are you?'' Lily asked when they had settled down, ''I'm Margo'' replied Margo, ''Well Margo, I'm Princess Lily Rosecot, do you know what it's like to be a princess?''.

''It must be wonderful'' was all Margo could think of saying, But Lily thought otherwise.

''I never have a moment to myself'' she said ''Lessons all day long apart from breakfast, lunch and dinner and then bedtime. Lily led Margo around her massive bedroom, when Margo caught sight of Lily's double bed, she thought it looked warmer and cosier and bigger than any bed she'd ever seen.

''How I envy your freedom'' Lily continued ''Apart from going to school, fun and games and exploring new places the rest of the time, if only and if it was only a short time that I could take your place''.

''But you have lots of lovely food and warm bed too'' said Margo who had breathed in the smell of food, glorious food.

''So why don't we swap places for the time being?'' said Lily starting to undress to swap clothes with Margo, ''if you think being a princess is easy''. Margo thought this was a great idea even though she wasn't sure how to act and behave like a princess and soon they were wearing each other's clothes.

''If there's any confusion'' Lily added ''I'll just show these''. She showed Margo a royal princess ring and a pretty necklace with a ruby on it. ''Goodbye Margo'' she called leaving the room and heading outside.

Scarlet who was still there saw Lily and thought she was Margo and placed the princess in a catapult and sent her flying over the castle walls!

''And stay out phony princess!'' she ordered. Lily landed in a pile of snow and Gru and Kyle came running up to her. When Kyle sniffed and licked Lily's face, he knew it wasn't the girl he thought it was. So he went off to wait for the real Margo.