Okay, so here's a well overdue update. So sorry for the wait. Just been busy. Enjoy

Summary: Carter felt like she was wasting her time Costa Luna. She hated it and missed her home. That was, until she met a girl that changed her perspective. She wasn't any ordinary girl though, she was far from it...she was the Princess of Costa Luna, and she introduced Carter to A Whole New World.

Chapter 4-A Day Full of Upsets

"Carter!" She rolled over in her "bed". "Carter Mason!" She flipped off her mattress on to the floor. Her father's shouts had shaken her from sleep. She lay on the floor for a minute, waiting for her dad to call her name again. His voice didn't ring out through their small home. Carter climbed back under the covers and tried to go back to sleep.

Not even a minute later she felt herself being tugged out of the warmth, by her foot. She squinted at the figure towering over her. "Yea Dad?"

"It's two in the afternoon." He walked to her window and opens the curtain, letting the sunlight flood her room.

"Why have you been so tired lately pal?" Carter just shrugged. She wasn't about to tell him that she had spent every night of the past week out with the Princess.

"Well c'mon, get up. We've got to go to the palace today." He left the room, but popped back in a second later, "Five minutes pal."

Carter gladly got out of bed. She was going to the palace. She'd get to see the princess again…her princess.

"But she can't know that it's you. You're not supposed to even be near her. Your dad would kill you if he knew you were jeopardizing a mission like this."

"Carter!" Uh-oh…

She walked into the kitchen and her jaw dropped.

"Why is there a horse at our window, eating our plants?"

She just smiled sheepishly.

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"Listen Pal, just follow me, and don't talk to anyone here. You know we would only be inside the palace incase of an extreme emergency."

Joe Mason led his daughter down one of the vast corridors in the massive royal home. They were both dressed as servants. Joe had been watching the palace without his daughter for the past week or so.

The Queen was no where to be found. The word around the palace was that she had left on official government business. But he had received a message via the PPP Comm. Lines. Sophia was still in Costa Luna; still inside the palace in fact. She had been imprisoned by General Kane.

Joe's job as of now was to get in the palace and keep a close watch on things. He needed to find out why General Kane had the Queen imprisoned. He didn't have enough forces to take down General Kane just yet.

Major Mason and Carter finally came to a large oak door with gilded trim. There was a sign next to the door that read 'Royal Offices'. Joe knocked on the door and gently pushed it open.

The queen was seated as well as many others were seated at a very long table. One man stood from his place at the table and welcomed the Masons. "It is very nice to have you two with us. We appreciate 'your services'?" He gave Major Mason a questioning look.

Joe nodded his head and handed him a slip of paper. Three identical letters were scrawled in messy handwriting on the page.

The man turned to the queen and nodded. She too rose from her seat. "Will you all please excuse us?" She addressed the rest of the people in the room.

After they took their leave, the queen spoke again. "Mr. Elegante, will you please retrieve Princess Rosalinda?"

The man curtly nodded and left the room also, closing the door behind him.

"Thank you Major Mason for agreeing to do this for us. I would have like Rosalinda to be left in the dark, but the situation no longer permits that."

Joe almost forgot his daughter was with him until she chose this moment to speak. "Do what? What did you agree to do dad? And what situation?"

The queen answered her before Major Mason had a chance, "We will explain everything when the Princess arrives." Joe received an angry look from his daughter.

Mr. Elegante returned to the room with the princess behind him.

Sophia took Rosalinda's hand. "I would like you to meet Joe Mason and his daughter Carter."

The Princess politely nodded to them both, "It is very nice to meet you. I am sure you will make a fine addition to the staff."

Sophia corrected her, "Rosalinda, they are not real servants. Major Mason is from the Princess Protection Program. They are here to protect you."

Rosalinda's expression turned sour, "I do not need outside protection Mother. The protection here, inside the palace, is enough."

"Listen dear." The queen walked to her daughter, "For the past week, I have not been away from Costa Luna. I was right here, in the palace. In a jail cell to be more specific. General Kane had me imprisoned. He is trying to overthrow me and take control of Costa Luna."

The princess's face contorted in fear, "Why has he not been arrested?" Her voice wavered.

"Not everyone in Costa Luna is still loyal to us dear. Some are very afraid of what General Kane may do, so they chose to be behind his plans than in the way of them."

Rosalinda had one lone tears rolling down her cheek and the queen continued speaking.

"The Masons are here to protect you. As long as nothing happens to you, General Kane cannot take control of Costa Luna because you will still be here to rule."

More tears had joined the one that was streaking down the face of the Princess.

"So until we can figure out what we are going to do, Major Mason and his daughter are here to protect you."

The queen turned back to Joe and Carter, "Do not worry. All of your things will be moved from your home into the palace. Carter, you will be sharing Rosalinda's room. She will show you where it is."

Major Mason watched his daughter and the Princess leave the room. "Joe, your room is on the same level as Mr. Elegante's." He nodded and followed the man out of the room.

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Carter followed Rosie into her room. It was nice to enter her room through an actual door rather than the balcony window. Carter sat down on Rosie's bed the same way she always would. She laid on back, with her feet draped over the head board. "This is a pretty nice room you got here, Rosie. You don't mind if I call you Rosie do you?"

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Rosie stared at Carter. The way she was sitting was so familiar…Only one other person called her Rosie. But she did not like the fact that her mother thought she needed protection. She was not going to get along with this Carter girl.

"As a matter of fact I do mind!" Rosie snapped back at her. She tugged Carter's feet from her head board.

Carter stood up and scratched the back of her neck.

Again, Rosie found this gesture too familiar.

"Sorry, I was just making small talk."

"Well you do not need to! I do not need some stranger whom I do not know to make "small talk" with me!"

Carter put her hands up in mock surrender, "Alright, alright. Chill out."

"And I do not need a complete stranger to protect me! Why would you want to! You and your father are just in it for the money…"

Carter's face became red and her body tensed up. She slowly crossed the room and approached Rosie.

"You!" She poked Rosie in her chest. "Know nothing about my dad! If we were just in it for the money do you think we would have been staying in a crappy three room shack while we could have stayed in a nice cushy pad like this?!"

"My dad dropped everything that he was doing just to come here, and protect your pompous butt! You need to step down off your pedestal for one moment and realize what people around here are giving up for you! Me and my dad! Your own mom! She was thrown in jail for you!"

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Carter couldn't tear her eyes away from the shocked look on Rosie's face. She felt a bit ashamed to have just blown up on her. But truthfully, she had deserved being yelled at. She didn't even know them! Well…she kind of knew her…But she didn't know her father. And they way she just talked about him put her over the edge.

She had no clue what would cause her sweet, quiet Rosie to burst like that. For as long as Carter had been around her, even though it hadn't been that long, Rosie had never yelled at her or let anything offensive slip.

Rosie fled from the room. Carter could have sworn she saw tears on the face of the princess before she left. But she was too angry to even bother to go after her. She sat back down on the bed with her head in her hands.

"What now? She likes me, but she hates me…"

"Actually, she likes someone who doesn't exist. Cason remember?"

"But that's still me…"

"Not really."

"Well, even if I wanted to tell her who I am…or who I'm not…. It's too late. She hates me regardless."

"She only hates who she thinks you are…well, its still Carter really…but if she knew you were Cason, then she'd know the real you…"

Carter shoved a pillow over her face. Even her own mind was confusing her. She figured the best way to clear her thoughts was to throw herself into work, she was after all a servant at the palace.

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Later That Night

Carter walked into the room that she shared with the princesa. It was almost eleven. If she weren't living in the palace she'd have been climbing up to Rosie's balcony right now.

The lights were off so Carter assumed Rosie was sleeping. She tiptoed over to her own bed and collapsed on it. From this morning's drama and all the crazy errands she'd been sent on today, she was dead tired.

As she was about to drift off to sleep she heard a quiet sniffle come from the princess's bed. Carter lifted her head, but the sound didn't come again. She laid back down and rolled over.

Sure enough, as soon as she felt sleep trying to overtake her, there was that darn sniffling again. This time she got up and went over the Rosie's bed.

Carter hesitantly reached out and touched her shoulder. "Rosi- I mean… Princess? Are you alright?"

Rosie turned to face her, and Carter saw her face. It was a heartbreaking site. Her eyes were swollen and red. The makeup she hadn't bother to take off was streaked from crying.

Carter did what she normally did whenever Rosie was upset, though, it had never been this bad. She scooped up her princess and sat her in her lap with one arm wrapped around her back, while she ran her fingers through her soft chocolate brown hair with the other.

Rosie began crying harder. It was hard for Carter to make out what she was saying through the sobs. "S-She *hiccup* didn't show u-up!"

Carter was confused at first but then she realized what Rosie was talking about. She was talking about her…She'd forgotten that she'd promised to see Rosie every night. But Carter said nothing, for fear of giving away how much she actually knew. She just let the princess continue talking.

"She promised she'd come see me! What did I do wrong? Why would she break her promise?" she buried her face in Carter's shirt, "What if she doesn't really like me…"

The last part was muffled, but Carter still heard it. She felt the tears build in her eyes too, but she blinked them back. It hurt her to know how she was hurting Rosie, even if by accident, but there was nothing she could do.

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Rosie had promised herself that she wouldn't get along with this Carter girl. But whenever she was around her there was just something so familiar about her, that made her relax.

Even now, just the way Carter was holding her. Only Cason had held her like that before. She loved the feel of her fingers running through her hair…She wanted to pull away so badly, she refused to let anyone take Cason's place. But everything was just feeling so right.

Rosie pulled her head away from Carter's shirt. It was stained from wiping her eyes on it.

"I am so sorry Carter. I did not mean to ruin your shirt."

She laughed a little, "Don't sweat it." She flashed a smile at her.

Even her smile looked familiar. And the way it made her feel inside…everything about her was so familiar…

"I also want to apologize for my behavior earlier. I did not mean to offend you, or your father."

Carter just nodded and tucked a stray strand of Rosie's hair behind her ear. Rosie blushed and bit her lip.

"Carter, may I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

"Have you ever, met someone, and even though you have only know them for a short time, you…you feel like….you've known them for so much longer?"

Carter's face showed she was deep in thought. Then she smiled, "I can't say that I personally have."

"Oh." Rosie looked down at her hands. They were playing with Carter's shirt.

Carter put her fingers under Rosie's chin and tilted her head up to look her in the eyes. "Why do you ask?"

Rosie shook her head. She really felt like she knew Carter from somewhere. "I was just…curious."

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Carter knew why Rosie was asking her this. It must be confusing for her to feel so close to Carter when she liked 'Cason'. But she couldn't tell her the truth. Not now…

Rosie buried her face back into Carter's chest. And that's how they fell asleep. With Carter holding Rosie in her lap one arm protectively holding her close, while the other stroked her curly locks. And Rosie cuddled close to Carter still confused, but content for the moment.

Gahh….i feel like this chapter is pretty junky… I'm so tired. And my brain is frying out. So I'm really sorry for any errors in grammar/spelling and any other parts of the story that just don't really string together well, or if this chapter is just completely off the mark.

Please feel free to let me know if you think this chapter is junk (i think it is). Review…and that's pretty much it.

And again, I dunno when I'm going to update again. But since I cut a little out of this chapter I know how the next one is going to begin. But yea…