Wow - I forgot to mention that this story is obviously based on "The Prince and The Pauper" - mainly the Disney version with Mickey Mouse - which I LOVED as a kid. Anyways - thanks to those of you who have reviewed!
3 Jess

p.s. Like I need to remind you - I don't own Jimmy -- not yet at least. smirk

Chapter 3: Awkward Encounters

Cindy's stomach churned as she continued up the steps as gracefully as possible. Was the Princess going to scold her? Send her to a dungeon? Do princesses do that? Did Princess Victoria do that?

"I'm sure they're allowed to," she sighed as she marveled her surroundings. Oh how glorious they were. So elegant, she couldn't imagine having even a corner of her house look as beautiful as just an inch of this place. The carpet even looked nice and trim – who has time to keep such a large place all nice and tidy? Even with all the maids, butlers, and whatnot, it all seemed too perfect to be real. On the walls were beautiful paintings, many of them were of people, and they reminded her of the art described in the Harry Potter books, except the people were not interacting with her, and of course the stairs were not moving. She stopped and looked at a mirror on the wall. She felt so dirty and pedestrian with her every day outfit, despite the fact it was new. She wore a pink tank top under her green hoodie sweater, and denim capris with her black shoes. For some reason, she wished she were more dressed up to impress the princess.

Victoria stayed in her room for a moment – adjusting her hair, hiding her cloak, and put on her tiara so that she could look somewhat professional. She rarely had spoken to anyone her own age within her 11 years, and felt somewhat nervous about the thought. What if she sounded stupid? Or did something wrong- the only people she had ever talked to where usually famous people, older than her, or people she talked to for charities. This seemed so nerving – but yet for some reason she felt even more nervous, but not about the fact she was talking to some one her age. It was something else, she just didn't know what.

Her train of thought was mildly interrupted when she heard a bit of a crash in the hallway. Her right eyebrow arched as she stared at the door through its reflection on her mirror, "What the-?"

Cindy finally made it to the right level; she looked down the hallway and saw a large row of armor, all nice and clean. The floor had probably recently been waxed, but it glowed brightly. Stupidly, she grinned and waved at her reflection in the floor, and sort of became enchanted. She began to do a little spinning dance, as if she were with some sort of Prince Charming – and with a loud THUD she landed embarrassingly on her butt. She laughed nervously, even though there was no one in the hallway to notice her. She tried standing up slowly and heard somewhere a door opening, she quickly turned around but her arm whacked one of the knights. She gasped and accidentally fell into the display – since when was she so clumsy? The armor began having a domino effect.

Victoria opened the door from her room and took a few steps into the hallway, looking around, "Where'd that crash come fr-," she suddenly screamed as one set of armor landed on her and she fell to the ground. One of the armor helmets landed on her head, covering her face. She was grumbling and trying to stand up slowly, "Hello? Who's there?" she felt around to find someone.

Cindy somehow managed to stand up, having a helmet over her head too, "Oww," she moaned as she held her head – realizing what was covering her view. "Um, I'm Cindy Vortex – I was called up here by the princess – and – erm," she struggled for a moment, "Could you help me out here? I can't see anything with this stupid helmet on."

There was a bit of a mumble and Cindy could hear who ever were with her that she was tripping over armor. "Trust me, I wish I could if I could see anything in front of me," Victoria sighed and added in a deep annoyed accent, "This is more embarrassing than when I accidentally knocked Prince Williams into the punch bowl of the Christmas Day party."

An arm that for some reason Cindy was holding dropped to the floor with a clang, "You're Princess Victoria? Oh! I'm so sorry about all this – I'm usually not such a klutz! I -," she stopped, eyes wide.

Both girls took off their helmets at the same time – and stared. Just – stared.

It was like looking into a mirror- except the mirror was showing the opposite of what they were wearing. They both had the exact same facial features, same hair even though Cindy's was more lazily put together, same emerald eyes – same everything!

"AAAHHHHHHHHH!!" They suddenly screamed at once, and they fell backwards. Suddenly sitting on the floor – again.

"You look just like me!" They both shouted at once, and this freaked them out more. The both took a deep breath and it seemed like they were trying to sort this out.

They both stood up and examined the other from their short distance.

Victoria shook her head in disbelief, "Fascinating – this is – unreal! Who are you again?"

"Cynthia," she paused, "Cindy Vortex – I live here in Retroville, and go to Lindbergh Elementary," she chuckled shortly, "I would ask who you are – but from the looks of the tiara, I guess you're Princess Victoria."

Almost instantly Victoria had a frown, "Oh – you're the girl who is suppose to interview me, right?"

But surprisingly, Cindy shook her head, "Actually – that's," she mumbled in a disgusted and high pitched voice, "Perfect Betty Quinlin's job," she sort of laughed while crossing her arms, "I sort of tried to get here so I could prove that I can do a better job than her. Silly, huh?" She paused to think for a moment, "Hmm – no wonder the guard called me highness."

"Hmm," Victoria was pondering this as she looked at Cindy still, "This could work to my advantage-," Cindy gave her an odd look, "Please, come into my room."

"Uh ok – but shouldn't we do something about King Arthur's buddies?" Cindy motioned to all the armor, twisted together on the ground.

Victoria simply shrugged in response, "Oh it's not like its never happened before – the maids will clean it up – probably figuring that one of the dogs caused it or something," she tossed her helmet into the pile and picked up her skirt and started walking over some pieces on the ground, "Now then – I have something to discuss with you."

Cindy nodded, hopping over the random pieces on the ground and following Victoria.

Jimmy stood not too far outside the castle, pacing back and forth. Something was horribly wrong, he knew it, but what could he do? Nothing, absolutely nothing, that's all he could do. Well, nothing except for the annoying fact he could pace back and forth and wait.

"Hi Jimmy!" an annoyingly cheerful voice was heard from behind him.

Surprised, Jimmy whipped around to see none other than Betty. Oddly, his heart wasn't looping like it used to, but he still smiled, "Hey Betty – what are you doing here?"

Betty blinked at him like he suddenly turned stupid or something, "Duh – I'm the one who was chosen to interview Princess Victoria – I'm heading over there right now. Why are you here?"

"Uhm, just looking at the castle – gorgeous isn't it?" He gave a convincing smile.

However Betty didn't look to convinced, "How did you get here? It took my mom a while to drive just this far, you couldn't possibly come this far just to look at the castle."

Jimmy wasn't used to thinking fast on his feet when it came to conversations with girls. If he was being asked about something science related, he would have figured it out instantly, Jimmy took a moment to thinking, "Oh – hover car," he grinned stupidly- how could he forget? He pointed to it, which was parked off not too far in the distance, "It gets here really fast, yeah, and I was bored so I thought I would just come by and see the castle," he said this way too fast for his own good. She gave him an unsure look, but then just proceeded to her destination.

"Whatever, see you at school Jimmy," and she continued on her annoyingly merry way.

"Pheww," Jimmy exhaled breath he didn't even realize he was holding. That had been way too close for his own good, obviously he couldn't tell Betty about Cindy being in the castle, trying to steal her thunder. Then his eyes widened, what would happen if Betty goes in and sees Cindy? Even if Cindy hadn't gotten to the Princess, Betty would be really mad. If only Goddard was with him so he could locate Cindy easier.

He continued pacing back and forth, it was the only think he could do until he got word from Cindy and Goddard.
Cindy practically drooled the moment she entered Victoria's bedroom, "This – is your BEDROOM?" Her eyes were wide with astonishment and admiration. The room was the size of her living room and kitchen, with ease. A large bed, a huge window, a mirror, a closet, drawers, a desk for writing, a desk with a high tech and up-to-date computer, a makeup desk, it was all there! Even in the corner of the room a canvas was set up – there were markings of a drawing and paint was barely on there, and the canvas was surrounded by plenty of newspaper covering the floor. There was another door, which probably lead to the bathroom, but the room itself was just breath taking alone.

"Hmm? Oh yes – this is my bedroom," she stood at her window looking out dully, "It has all my necessities- but I still have other rooms for my art, clothing, computers, books, those sort of things," she watched as Cindy looked in the open closet and admired the dresses.

It was hard to tell the nightgowns apart from many of the dresses. Victoria scowled slightly, "I wish they would let me pick out my own wardrobe – it's like I'm a five year old – not allowed to wear what I want."

Cindy was still amazed though, "I wish I could afford a wardrobe like this!"

Victoria thought this over for a moment and grabbed Cindy's hand and took her to the large mirror, "Have you – oh, I know this sounds silly, but – look at us! We're like twins, except we can't be."

Cindy looked in the mirror, "Yeah – it's so weird. We could switch places or something – like Hayley Mills or Lindsey Lohan!"

Suddenly a smile crept over Victoria's face, "Exactly."

"Hmm?" Cindy turned her head to face her, "Us? Switch places? We can't pull that off," she laughed, "Everyone would be able to tell like that," she snapped her fingers at the word 'that'.

Victoria took her tiara off of her head and placed in on Cindy's head, "Look – it's perfect! All we need to do is inform each other some necessity things – we switch clothes and do our hair right, and it'll be perfect! Haven't you always wanted to be a princess?"

Looking at the mirror with the tiara on her head, Cindy nodded, "Of course, what girl hasn't?" She turned her head sharply to Victoria, slightly surprised the tiara had barely moved, "But – why on earth would you want to be a normal person?"

There was brief silence and Victoria looked into the mirror again, "I have never dreamed of anything more than being a normal person. I have no time to laze about, no choices about how I act or what I'm allowed to wear," she tilted her head to the side, staring intently at her reflection, "And I'm afraid about becoming Queen – with my father sick, I may become Queen far sooner than I would have hoped."

Cindy nodded silently, never would she have imagined coming to the castle and end up switching places with the princess. It seemed like – well, like an unbelievable fairy tale. "I'll do it!" Cindy and Victoria exchanged a smile, but Cindy continued, "How the heck are we going to pull this stunt off?"

Victoria grinned, "Oh – it shouldn't be too difficult – and I have a perfect plan to be able to pull it all off. We spend just a day in each others lives – nothing could go wrong, right?"

Adjusting her new tiara, Cindy smiled gracefully and attempted a poor accent, "Of course nothing could go wrong darling!"

"Er -," Victoria blinked at her, "We have quite a bit of planning to do I guess then."

To Be Continued

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