Disclaimer: I OWN JIMMY – wait – no I don't! Gosh this is so confusing. =P I wrote this in the same night as I wrote chapter 1. Don't expect chapters to come out this fast again – but you never know, right?

Chapter 2: Unsuccessful Planning

Victoria growled with an annoyed voice, "But FATHER! This is ridiculous – you've never made me talk to the masses before," she began pacing back and forth in her father's room as he lay in his bed with his illness beside him.

One of the maids and Victoria's lady in waiting, Miss Jones, whacked Victoria's shoulder with her feather duster, "Young lady – speaking that way to your father, let alone the King! We'd get whipped when I was your age for misbehavior like that."

Annoyed, Victoria flicked off a stray feather on her shoulder as if it were a stupid little bug. She turned casually to Miss Jones, "Well, you haven't given any press releases recently, have you, Miss Jones?"

Miss Jones make a 'tsk, tsk, tsk' sound and Victoria faced her father again, "Father, please," but she was interrupted.

Her father was in the shadows of his bed, too weak to leave, he interrupted in a hoarse voice, "Now Victoria – it's only a girl from a school newspaper- not the New York Times. I think it's time you were shown to at least some of the public, more preferably children your own age – you will be queen soon after all."

However Victoria shook her head, "No I won't be," she was near tears, "You'll get better- you'll see!"
Meanwhile – it was after school and Cindy was trotting slowly home. She had to figure out some plan to get an interview with Victoria. Prove that SHE should have been the one to be picked in the first place. That stupid Betty Quinlin – she gets everything, she has all the boys drooling after her – namely, Jimmy. She has perfect looks, perfect posture, perfect manners – and Cindy didn't know for sure, but probably perfect grades as well. She was a year older than them, so that'd be more impressive than Cindy's grades. The stuff would be more advance.

She needed a plan to make sure she was the one to talk to the Princess – but anything that popped into her head seemed completely fairy tale based. Sadly, she had to remind herself that anything from any sort of fairy tale story wouldn't help her here.

"Hey Cindy!"

She turned around, only to turn right back around when she saw Jimmy trying to catch up with her. She tried to quicken her pace, but her heart dragged her back to a slow walk.

Jimmy caught up with her, "Thanks for waiting," he smiled.

She grimaced slightly, "No problem," and she could feel her heart laughing at her, stupid heart! Why didn't she listen to her brain more often?

"You ok? You seemed sort of upset today," Jimmy was trying hard to be a good friend, really he was. Especially with all the April conflict going on between them. He could at least be nice to her – show that he was caring, somewhat.

Cindy sighed and shrugged, "I just really wanted to be better than Betty at something --," she paused and then shrugged, "Not like it matters now – I need to figure out a way to get in there -," why was she telling Jimmy this? Like he would really care – he probably thought she was some sort of annoying brat who liked to steal glory and thunder from anyone who had more of it than her. Yet somehow, it didn't seem like he thought that way.

Jimmy nodded and shrugged, "Well – is there anything I can do?" he adjusted his backpack a little.

What could Jimmy do? Well – she was certain Jimmy could do a lot. But what would be safe. She thought for a while, she didn't want to do anything too dangerous – but maybe Goddard could help. Yeah! Goddard was always helping Jimmy – but would he let her borrow him? He would care much more about the safety of his dog over anything else.

She scratched the back of her neck, as if still thinking, trying to think of how casually she could pull this off, "Well – you know, nah," she shook her head.

"What?" He asked, not looking up at her as he started to suddenly kick around a little ball he found on the sidewalk.

Her finger twirled in the curl of her bands, but she didn't realize Jimmy wasn't really paying attention, "No – you'd never let me," she sighed again, "there must be something."

"Well maybe I will help you out," he kicked the small bouncy ball a little further and the caught it with his other foot, "You just need to ask," Jimmy stared at the ball as he continued kicking it. He wasn't sounding like himself, since when was he so concerned about helping Cindy out? And since when did he get so easily amused by a stupid little ball?

Cindy shrugged, but figured that there was no other chance for her to stretch asking and finally said it, "I could always use Goddard's help-," she nearly tripped when Jimmy stopped so fast, "Neutron?"

Did Jimmy really care enough to be willing to let Cindy have the aid of his precious medal companion?

Oh jeez – like he really even had to ask that.

Victoria grabbed out of her closet a large and dark colored cloak. She walked to her mirror and stared at her self in various different poses with the cloak around her, hiding her identity. She smiled – all she needed to do was take her ring so if she got in trouble she could identify herself. Then she could sneak out of the castle and parade along the streets of Retroville as a commoner. It was a perfect plan – its not like anyone knew what she looked like. And who gave a damn about the kid from that school coming to interview her.

She didn't like talking to the press – last time she had was before her mother died. After that she never wanted to again. Who needed annoying and feeling less people asking her about how sad she felt about her mother's death? And now that her father was dying – they would all ask her how she could cope with having deaths at such a young age and if she felt she was prepared to rule her whole country.

But her father wasn't dead, at least, not yet. In her mind she told herself he could easily live many, many more years. But she knew somewhere in her heart – that she would have to become Queen soon. Who needed that pressure? She certainly didn't – she agreed with many of the workers around the castle. They didn't know it, but she overheard their quiet conversations in-between tasks. They all thought she was too young, too immature, and not responsible enough.

So what else to do but run away? It seemed very childish, true, but just at least for one day – it wasn't like anything crazy would happen. She wrapped her cloak around her and left her room quietly.

There was one person, at least one, who was easily the most horrid and evil person to ever work for the royal family. His name was Captain Peter Winston – he was the Captain of the Guards, and had, as most evil people do, a horrible plan. It basically involved dethroning the royal family so that his cousins who were the Baron and Baroness, could rule the kingdom. However – he had no way of being able to do such a thing.

That is – until a certain blonde showed up.

Cindy gave Goddard a look as she knocked on the huge gates of the castle, "Well – we have to at least try first, right? We could always get away with saying that I'm Betty."

Goddard whimpered uncertainly, this didn't seem right to him. Wouldn't it have been easier to just fly over? But Goddard didn't question Cindy as she knocked louder.

"Yeeah, what do yous want?" A lazy voice yelled from above.

Cindy and Goddard looked up and saw a guard reading some sort of magazine as he stood next to the thing that would open up the gate.

"Uhm, sir," A hand of Cindy's went into the air as if trying to get his attention.

The guard looked down and nearly jumped out of his pants with a shrik, "Aye! Yer highness, I'm terribly, terribly sorry – come right in before yous catch a cold!" He instantly pressed a button and a small door in the gate opened up. Cindy raised an eyebrow, but didn't question the guard's strange behavior, "uhm – thank you sir!" and she and Goddard walked inside.

The lazy guard bowed as she walked past, but Cindy didn't notice. The sight she saw flabbergasted her. Some how, with out the gate, the castle seemed more larger, vivid, and beautiful. It was sort of Victorian, and looked colorful even if there weren't many separate colors, she breathed out a 'wow'. Even Goddard's jaw hit the ground.

Cindy stared at the castle for another moment, but then realized, how were they going to find the princess?

Victoria heard a sudden and loud shriek. Before she fully made it out her own bedroom door, she spun around, tossed her cloak onto her bed and pushed open her window with both hands.

There she saw the Captain of the Guards holding up a young girl, "Trying to sneak in, are yah?"

The girl screamed something about tai chi, kicking his butt, and that someone let her in. The Captain was also holding something odd looking, it was like a dog – but light reflected off of it. Unable to stand to see the Captain treating a commoner like that, she yelled at the top of her voice, "CAPTAIN! "

The Captain stopped instantly, still holding both Cindy and Goddard, "Sorry your highness – trouble makers."

Cindy gasped and looked up as well as she could from her awkward angle, there was the princess, but it was difficult to see her because of the light reflecting off of Goddard.

"I will not have you treating anyone like that, please send the commoner up to my room, I wish to speak with them, immediately," she closed her windows.

The Captain snorted at the window and glared at Cindy, who was being held by her shirt in his grimy hands, "You hear that little commoner? The princess would like to see you," he tossed her to the ground which was suddenly feeling wet as she hit it face forward. It was wintertime after all, and it felt like snow was beginning to fall. But Cindy ignored this as she scampered to her feet.

She looked at the Captain who still held Goddard by the 'scruff' of his neck, "What about Goddard," she paused, "My dog."

The captain narrowed his eyes, "You'll see your precious mutt again after you come back – if you come back."

Cindy gulped, gave the whimpering Goddard a wave, and entered the castle. A butler pointed to a stairwell and mumbled something about the third floor.

She placed her hand on the handle of the stairs and she slowly made her way up, thinking, 'what have I gotten myself into?'

To Be Continued