Nefera was a little bit shocked that Cleo REALLY just broke up with Deuce! Honestly, she did not expect her to. But Nefera tried not to let her family see her feelings, and took her phone back.
Ramses seemed to be fine. "Finally! Now you will learn for school, Cleo, will you?"
That meant 'Cleo, you will learn for school because I told you so. I just ask you if you're okay with it because I don't want to appear so strict.'
"When you don't understand something or need help, you can always ask your sister. I am sure she would love to help you."
"Of course I would, daddy!"
"Fine, my daughters. If you need me, I am downstairs, taking care of my businesses."
A minute later, the two sisters were alone in Cleo's room.
Cleo just gave her dad a nod of agreement and reopened the book that was still balanced on her lap, completely ignoring her sister's existence.
She must have re-read the same passage at least fifteen times before she gave up altogether and throwing herself backwards to lie on the bed. She hated this.
"What did you tell me about true love again, little sister?" Nefera laughed. She was best at telling funny jokes.
Cleo folded both arms across her face. "Obviously royalty doesn't get that sort of luxury. Not even in this century."
She knew she was going to have to sit up and continue studying again soon enough, especially with her sister watching, but for now she was content to just lie there.
Nefera laughed again. "What a stupid comment. There is no true love, of course. And if you still believe in that, you are way stupider than I thought."
Again, a laughter. Nefera was happy. "Making you look bad is so easy, little sister!"
The crown princess made herself sit next to Cleo on her bed, and made her baby-voice.
"You are pretty dumb, aren't you?" She laughed again. Talking to Cleo like she was stupid was so funny because Cleo actually WAS stupid!
Cleo gave her sister an incredulous look. "It's a good thing daddy said you have to tutor me then, oh wise and intelligent older sister. Shall we get started then? I wouldn't want to further embarrass you with my stupidity"
Nefera made a critical face and raised an eyebrow. "Yes, you can start. If you didn't forget how to read a text." She looked in her sister's eyes and made a fake smile to hide her own insecurities. Hopefully the task was nothing too difficult…
Cleo thought about choosing one of her better subject just to show Nefera up, but then, would that just upset her and land Cleo in more trouble? And did she really want to be that kind of person anyway, and end up just like her sister? It had never worked for her at school in the past.
So she decided to chose subject that they might actually have some common ground in. Who knows, some kind of new relationship could sprout from it… yeah, right.
She rifled through her text books, eventually coming across the one she needed. "Well, I need to work on my hiss-tory, apparently." She flicked through the book for a few pages and then tutted, pointing at one particular section "Can you believe this Nefera? Now, I don't know about you, but this is not how I remember the last great Roman-Persian war."
Nefera took a look at the page in the book, not undersanding anything. "Ah, these people don't know anything! That's, of course, not how it happened! I can't believe the stupidity of some monsters! It's a shame, really!"
"Exactly my point. Now, do you really think its fair that I was only marked a C in this subject, because some monster who obviously wasn't actually there decided to write a text book? I think I know at least something about the conquering on Egypt, thank you very much." She stopped speaking abruptly and returned to quietly reading the text, feeling that she may be treading too close to similar, rather sore subjects.
"A C? Why are you wondering? The teachers know about your stupidity." Nefera laughed. She really wondered why she was the only one laughing at her jokes. It must be because nobody, except her, had any taste or humour.
Cleo glanced up at her sister for her comment, and shook her head, dismissing it entirely. Her sister could say she was stupid all she wanted, she knew she just needed to put more effort into revising. So much for connecting over old memories, though.
Cleo opened her (regretfully empty) notebook, and jotted down a few things that she remembered Ghoulia having told her to work on. She really did miss her ghoul, all of this would be so much easier with her as a mentor.
Cleo actually tried to focus on her work but Nefera's comments made that impossible…
"Ugh! How long do you need?! It is extremely exhausting to work with you! Daddy told me to help you when you have a question, but how could I know that you are too dumb to figure some things out on your own?! You are wasting too much of my precious time! Argh! I hate you! Your stupidity is a serious proof that you are adopted!"
Considering the fact that she hadn't asked any questions because she hadn't felt the need to, Cleo was rather insulted.
Closing her book with a loud slap and directed her attention back towards her sister. "Actually, I do have a question for you, Nefera…" she considered several different endings to that sentence, including 'why are you so self-centered?', 'why do you even bother pretending to help when you're obviously further behind on the curriculum than I am?', 'how can daddy not understand how wrong he is about you?' and 'how does your head fit through the door when it is so obviously over-inflated with your enormous ego?', before somehow finally settling on "I have some Fashion 101 work that needs doing. Would you model some designs for me?"
"Model? Of course I would! I am world-famous because of my flawless modeling! There is no one better you could have asked for this!
Why are we still here?! Show me the designs! Come on, come on!"
"Okay!" Cleo rummaged through her school bag to find her Fashion 101 portfolio. "Now, don't be fooled by my overall F in Home Ick. These initial design pieces were A+ material, plus they have the Clawdeen Wolf seal of approval."
She handed her sister several pages of her artwork - intricate and delicate egyptian patterns adorning several different dress concepts. A lot of work had obviously gone into the designs, more so on the accompanying jewellery and other accessories, yes, but the outfits themselves were well designed none the less.
"The only problem is… I don't know how to sew."
Nefera looked from the designs to her sister. "You stupid idiot!"
"I've never had to before! Do you know how to sew?"
"What a stupid question! Of course not! I am going to be Queen! Queens do NOT sew! Their sisters do it for them."
Again, Nefera was the only one laughing at her joke.
Cleo looked angrily at her sister, obviously not finding the joke funny.
"So what do we do now then? Ask the servants?"
Nefera turned to one of their servants. He walked towards the two princesses, waiting for his order. "Sew the designs here! And don't dare to make a mistake or take too much time! If you dare to disappoint me, I will call daddy and make him fire you! Understood?!"
The servant nodded and started to sew. He was not the only one afraid of Nefera; there were some servants too scared to take her orders.
"Well, I did mean to teach me how to sew for class, but this works too." Cleo shrugged and leaned back in her seat. Ah well, at least her sister was somewhat helping her to get an A.
Ramses allowed himself a little break. His daughters had been quiet lately and he wanted to check if they did what they were supposed to do: learn. He walked up the steps and came into Cleo's room. He found both of his daughters relaxing while there was a servant sewing. "What is going on here?!"
Cleo sat back up "Oh, uh, learning, Daddy. I didn't know how to sew, so I'm… watching… and learning! I have some designs for Fashion 101 that Nefera said she would model to show you, so that you would know I'm improving in Home Ick." She quickly grabbed the design that the poor servant had been working on creating. "See? Do you like it?"
"Cleo! You won't get an A in Home Ick for designing stupid clothes! I told you to learn the things you need! Sewing, for example! I know, I know. It is nothing royalty does. But still, it is something you need to learn to get an A; something to make me proud. Don't you want to make me proud, Cleo? It is not the servant that needs to learn sewing, it is you who needs to!"
Nefera immediately answered him. "That's exactly what I told her, daddy! But Cleo said she didn't care and the servants would be there anyway! She is completely out of control, father!"
Cleo looked at Nefera in utter shock and anger. "Daddy, that completely isn't true! Nefera asked the servant to sew the designs for me!" so much for her sister helping out.
"Besides, if I'm going to have to learn to sew, I need to watch someone else do it and have it explained to take notes and learn. This is necessary experience for me." she smiled sweetly.
Ramses sighed. He was annoyed, but already used to such a situation.
"Cleo, you will learn how to sew, I do no longer care how. Just learn it! I will give you two hours. When the time is over, you will come downstairs and sew something on your own to show me what you've learned. I expect absolute perfection."
Nefera, who never learned to sew and just cheated herself through everything in life, was not pleased by her father's reaction. Why couldn't he just punish Cleo?! Was that too much to ask for?!
Ramses continued, "Nefera, you will come with me. I am sure your sister is able to learn sewing without your help."
Cleo was left alone in her room with the servant that Nefera had previously demanded sew all of her designs. Was she really expected to ask the servants for help? To learn something from them?
There was a terribly awkward silence, before finally: "Sooo… can you teach me?"
