I had a request for longer chapters, so I tried to make this chapter longer, but longer chapters take more time to write. The length of the chapters will probably depend on how much I can write and if you want the chapters to be long or short.
The girls decided that lessons would have to be taught to both of them. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Louisa would have her princess lessons and every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday would be put aside to teaching Courtney how to be a 'regular girl'. Since the plan was decided on Thursday, it would be Louisa's turn to learn on Friday.
Courtney holds a large pad on which she has drawn the layout of the castle.
"Wait, before we start the lesson, can you please explain to me why I have to sit with a tower of books on my head as I listen to you drone on for hours. I already have to do this for class, and now you want me to do it here?" Louisa complains.
"Well, you do need to know how to walk, stand and sit straight with perfect posture. Just because we learn it in school doesn't mean that your posture is perfect. There is a lot you can work on. Plus, it'll make school a lot easier too," Courtney points out.
"Then why do I feel like I'm a bookshelf with a towering stack of 15 books on my head?" Louisa questions.
"Well ... it does show that your posture is well and stuff like that. Headmistress Privet would have a better answer for you though," Courtney responds.
"Really?" Aria questions as she watches Louisa attempt to keep the books balanced."I think it's more of a source of entertainment, rather than a thing to indicate good posture," she smiled at the new thought. "Just watching you Louisa makes me feel like I'm at the circus watching a clown."
"Thanks for your vote of confidence," Louisa says dryly as she leans forward and the books tumble to the floor with a loud thump.
"Yes. It's defiantly a source of entertainment," Aria says, stifling a giggle.
"Well do you know…" Louisa starts before she was interrupted by Courtney.
"Can the two of you stop arguing about this so I can finish my lesson on the floor plan of the castle? It would be nice to have it finished by today," Courtney says exasperatedly.
"Okay. I'm listening," Louisa says with a sigh.
"Okay, the movie theater is over here. Sometimes we get to watch movies in there before they come out in theaters. There are secret passage ways all over the castle, but I haven't discovered them all yet. Its lots of fun to hide in them for several hours. The servants go into a tizzy trying to find you! It's so much fun to watch. Sitting room's here... Dad's office is the first door down the hall. You never have to knock, if you do, he'll think it's weird... Down here is..." Courtney continues to explain to Louisa.
Louisa and Courtney sit on Louisa's bed looking through a stack of photos, as the sun sinks behind them.
"I know that you've grown up with servants all around you, but at home we only have a chauffeur and several housemaids. This is our chauffeur, Hank," Louisa starts showing her sister a picture.
"Is he really old enough to drive? He looks like he could be our older brother," Courtney asks.
"Of course he is. He's an excellent driver! Apart from mom and now you, Grandma is my favorite person," Louisa states as she shows Courtney another picture.
"She looks ancient. What do we call her?" Courtney asks.
"Grandma," Louisa replies with a look that said isn't that obvious?
"That makes sense," Courtney states.
"Grandma is always telling me to bring my keys when i go out because I always forget them at home. So, she slipped a spare key inside the bird house by the door. You only have to lift up the bird, take the roof off and the key would be in the house. But, if you stick with mom or grandma, that won't happen. Now, back to actually talking about grandma."
"So if for some odd reason I'm out of the house alone and don't have the house key, I just look there?"
"Yup. Now, this is Grandma's bakery. She opened the bakery three years ago, and makes the best deserts," Louisa explains as she shows a picture of a big bakery.
"She owns a bakery? Does she make cupcakes?" Courtney exclaims.
"Only the best cupcakes in the world! Sometimes she lets me help her with the baking," Louisa says with a sigh.
"Um, Louisa? There's a small problem. I've never even gone into a kitchen in my life. Let alone tried to cook anything," Courtney says with a panic.
"Then I'll have to teach you. It's really easy if you follow the recipe correctly. If you don't, then it'll just be a total mess," Louisa explains as she looks for ingredients to make a batch of vanilla cupcakes.
An hour later, a very frustrated Courtney could be seen throwing out a batch of inedible cupcakes.
"Well, I guess turning you into me is going to be pretty hard, considering the fact that these cupcakes are inedible, badly burnt and can't even be feed to pigs," Louisa says with a sigh.
"Well, I did try my best here," Courtney exclaims. "But what if I never learn how to bake?! What am I going to say?"
"I guess you can always tell mom and grandma that you've unlearned baking. If that's even possible…"
"Come on, Courtney. I'm sure you can do better than this," Louisa points out as she stands in front of her sister.
"Easy for you to say," Courtney breathes out jaggedly, "You're used to training like this and I'm not."
"And if you don't quit whining like this and never practice, guess what? You'll never be," Louisa exclaims.
When Louisa had suggested that she should work on her skills, Courtney knew Louisa was planning on working on her fighting skills. Her father had taught her a little bit of fighting for self defense, but he would never get too far into fighting because the royal council would go crazy if they knew the princess could fight. Because of this, Louisa decides that she would give her sister the lesson of a lifetime. The lesson contains obstacle courses, fighting and core training. Louisa is putting Courtney's determination on the line with each new test she gave.
"Wow, Louisa's being very tough on Courtney with these practices," Aria points out as she sits with Rose and Trista to watch the lesson.
"But you do remember our training sessions with our moms right? They never go easy no matter how much you plead," Rose states as she watches the two sisters with interest.
"True, but don't you think this might be a little overboard with this being Courtney's third training session?" Trista questions lightly.
"Do you want to be the one to ask her that?" Rose inquires without removing her eyes from the sisters.
Trista looks back to see Courtney lying on the floor in an odd position as Louisa explains what that 'stretch' was supposed to do. "Um, I think I'll just hold that question for another day. I don't want my dress getting ruined."
"Smart move there Triss," Aria says.
Back in the center of the room, Courtney is going towards her sword to get it after her sister had flung it to the other side of the room. "Could you maybe go a little easier on me? I don't want to have to go home with a limb or several limbs chopped off from your deadly practices."
"I would if I could, but I can't. If you want to pass as me when you're with mom, you're going to have a dual with her eventually. And trust me, when the time comes, this will seem like a stroll in the park," Louisa utters with her hands on her hips, "Besides, I don't want you revealing our plan just because you can't take a hit."
"It's not that I can't take a hit," Courtney says defensively, "I just haven't had as much training as you've had. That's all. If I had been with mom my whole life, I bet you that I could've passed as an even better you."
"Well, we're going to have to work on that a lot more, won't we?" Louisa questions with a smirk. "But I don't think you'll ever be able to pass for an even better me. You don't have all it takes to become exactly like Louisa D'Artagnan. The most you can hope for is to become almost like her."
"Have you ever played the piano before? Dad's been trying to teach me for five years, but I can never do it. I hate the piano!" Courtney exclaims furiously.
"I've never tried it before. I was always too busy learning how to fight and bake to have time to play the piano. But I've always wanted to try," Louisa says with a smile.
"Well, you can have a shot with playing the piano. Just remember when dad's trying to teach you how to play the piano, don't be too enthusiastic about it. He'll figure out that it's not me," Courtney warns.
"So, I just press the keys and music comes out?" Louisa asks nervously.
"Yes. But don't pound on the keys though," Courtney warns a minute too late before Louisa was pressing very hard on the keys.
"Oh. Was I playing too loud?" Louisa questions when she sees her sister's hands on her head.
"Yes, you were. We could hear the noise from the outside the palace. We rushed to see what was wrong!" Trista exclaims throwing up her arms in despair as she enters the room with Aria and Rose.
"And then what we thought might've been danger was just Louisa attempting to play a piano?" Rose said with mocking shock.
"Here, let me do the teaching," Aria says, sitting down, "I might not be able to help Louisa with the princess stuff, but I can teach her how to play the piano. Or any instrument for that matter."
"Thanks. I'm glad that you're teaching her because I don't play the piano very well either," Courtney exclaims with a sigh.
The entire class is assembled for an assembly in the garden. Louisa and Courtney sit in the middle of the crowd, whispering.
"But I never chew on my hair! It's disgraceful you know," Courtney whispers furiously in Louisa's ear.
"But I always do when I'm nervous or scared. Mom and grandma will know," Louisa retorts.
"I can't," Courtney says as she twirls her hair.
"Want me to show you how to?" Louisa asks sarcastically.
Courtney rolls her eyes and starts nibbling away.
"Louisa! You're doing it wrong again!" Courtney hisses over the table at dinner.
"Doing what wrong?" Louisa questions.
"You're using the wrong spoon to drink your soup. Again. It's the sixth time this week. I didn't say anything earlier, because I was hoping that you would realize. But I figured if I didn't tell you, you would still be doing this when we switch places!" Courtney exclaims exasperatedly.
"Opps. So would you please enlighten me and show me which spoon is the correct one again?" Louisa states sarcastically.
"It's the one to the left of your right hand."
"So this one?"
"No, the one besides it."
"Courtney, you do know how to pin your hair up the correct way right?" Louisa asks as she sits in front of their shared vanity. "Mother had a dreadful time teaching me how to do it up in this bun, but I learned after practicing a bit. She always says that when I fight against someone, my hair should be up because I'm too reckless and that it'll get ruined or cut off."
"Well Louisa, for my whole life Shannon has been doing my hair for me. She's taught me more than a dozen hairstyles, but I'm not sure how you do your bun. I don't get how you manage to get the braid around the side of the bun without pins," Courtney concludes.
"It's easy. You just need to make the braid as you make the bun. Let me show you." Louisa says before demonstrating on the spot.
After several minutes of quietly observing, Courtney concludes that she doesn't get how her sister does it. "Louisa. I think you'll have to show me at least fifteen times how to do your bun. I still don't understand how you got it to look like that. But do you really think that I'll look as pretty with my hair up like that?"
"Of course you will look just as pretty. The two of you are twins!" Trista exclaims after sitting silently in the corner observing their lesson for a good half hour. "Let me show you how to do it. My mom says that she was the one who taught your mom how to do it up like that when they were girls. Louisa's teaching you how to do it wrong. Like when she tried to teach the girls in school how to do it three years ago. They ended up with knotted hair at the end of Louisa's lesson. Louisa, you have to make the braid as you go around making the bun. The version you're teaching works, but it's harder to learn. I'm going to teach Courtney the easiest way to do the bun."
Louisa and Courtney are standing in front of a mirror looking at their reflections.
"This is scary, we look so identical," Louisa exclaims.
"Wait a second, we don't look completely identical. You have pierced ears!" Courtney yells.
"Yeah... ?" Louisa says and then starts to panic. "Oh, no. Forget it! Uh-uh, not happening. Sorry. Wrong number."
"There's no way I could come to school with pierced ears and come home without them. I mean, come on. Get real," Courtney says exasperatedly.
"This isn't fair!" Louisa yells.
"Hey, can I help it if I'm a complicated woman with a look entirely of my own? Or at least a look that my hair and makeup artist have decided for me?" Courtney asks.
A match is lit and Courtney holds a sewing needle over the flame. "Okay, the needle is sterilized," Courtney calmly states. She then professionally carries the needle to Louisa, who lies on her bed, petrified, holding an ice cube to her ear.
"Y-Y-You sure you know what you're doing?" Louisa stammers.
"I've seen people get their ears pierced at the salon. Just close your eyes, it'll all be over before you know it. Earring ready?" Courtney asks calmly.
Louisa holds up the earring as her reply.
"Okay, just relax. On the count of three, remove the ice. One, two, three!" Courtney says.
Louisa shuts her eyes tightly, pulls the ice away as Courtney sticks the needle through Louisa's ear lobe. Both girls scream at the top of their lungs, shattering several windows.
Courtney then passes out and falls to the floor. Louisa is wearing one earring when she gently slaps Courtney's face trying to revive her.
"Courtney, are you okay? Wake up! Courtney!" Louisa screams.
Courtney opens her eyes and asks, "Are you bleeding to death?"
"I'm fine. It didn't hurt at all. But I refuse to go through life with only one pierced ear," Louisa holds up the needle, "Back to work, darling."
Courtney takes one look at the needle and passes out again.
"Courtney, are you okay?" Louisa asks after she dumps a pitcher of water on her sister.
Courtney immediately wakes up from the contact with water, her face now drenched. She sat up and growls, ready to pounce at Louisa who was now laughing uncontrollably. "Don't you ever do that AGAIN!" Courtney hisses.
Louisa grins and slowly nods before saying, "Since it seems like you won't be able to pierce my second ear, maybe we should go to the spa to see if they can pierce it there."
"Why didn't I think of this sooner?" Courtney complains as she and her sister exit the room.
"Because you aren't smart enough," Louisa teases playfully.
So, I hope you guys liked this chapter, because I had lots of fun trying to think of lessons for Louisa and Courtney.
Feedback is always welcomed and greatly appreciated.
Cheerio,
Lasting Violet