Victoria sighed, absently drawing hearts in the dirt in front of her. Lately she had been daydreaming more and more about a certain tuxedo tom. But she was too shy to say anything to him, and I mean anything; when she saw his sparkly pelt, she turned from white to pink and became suddenly mute. She could tell he was confused and hurt, and she wished that they could have their friendship back.

Coming of age certainly had its downsides. For one thing, she had lost her close friendship with Mistoffelees due to awkwardness. For another, she started becoming very concerned about her appearance- if her fur was sticking up, if her collar was on straight. For an entire week, she danced without eating, convinced that she was becoming clumsy and fat. She started eating again when she realized that her ribs weren't very attractive.

Compared to the other queens, Victoria felt plain. Especially when she compared herself to Bombalurina or Cassandra-

"It took almost a week to get all of the gum out!"

Victoria's head snapped up, breaking her thoughts. It was Cassandra and Bombalurina. They must've been friends this moon, because they were laughing and talking about all of the horrible things they did to Tugger and his mane while he was sleeping.

Victoria watched them silently, slinking onto a large pile of junk to see them clearly, and pondered what it was that made them so beautiful. Cassandra's braids? The way Bombalurina swished her tail? The white queen leaned forward to get a closer look. Her movement caused a Cheerio's box to slip out from under a steering wheel, and with a crash Victoria fell with the entire pile of rubbish, landing right in front of her shocked aunts.

"Are you ok?" asked Bombalurina.

"What were you even doing up there?" Cassandra demanded.

Victoria shook pencil shavings off of her arm. "I... I was just trying to figure out why everyone loves you," she admitted, turning red.

Cassandra's eyes narrowed. "Is that meant to be a compliment or an insult?"

"A compliment!" replied Victoria quickly, looking at the ground. "I... I really like this tom, and I wanted to see if I could do something to make myself more attractive. I only wanted to learn how to-to impress him!"

Bombalurina snorted, but said softly, "If he doesn't like you already, braiding your hair and shaking your arse aren't going to change that."

"But-"

Cassandra sighed. "It's useless arguing with a kitten, Bomba." She gave the red queen a meaningful look. Bombalurina understood.

"This isn't going to work," she warned Victoria, "but if it means this much to you, we'll try it."

A/N: Sorry it took so long to get up! Between CATS rehearsals and studying for midterms this week, I haven't had a lot of time. But it's up and midterms are over, so hopefully it won't take too long for the next chapter to be up. I'm planning on three chapters.

Hugs and butterfly kisses,

- Rose Weasley