Chapter 7: Day In The Life

By Dory/Jessie

Victoria wore Cindy's backpack on her back, holding the handles incredibly tightly; her fingers were starting to turn white. She was rocking back and forth on her feet, unable to hold in her excitement and anxiety. She had never been to a real school before, and she felt like she was a little girl going to her first day of kindergarten. Only, she wasn't crying about leaving her parents, but she had no idea what to really expect. TV shows had been her only guide to that once unattainable world – and she rarely had the chance to watch TV in the first place so that was as much help as anything else. She was waiting right outside Cindy's house for the bus that would be rolling along any minute.

BOOM – a sudden explosion was heard from across the street and a cloud of black smoke emerged from behind a clubhouse she assumed belonged to Jimmy since it was apart of his property. The sudden sound caused her to jump in shock and run over to the other side of the street. Unsure of what to expect, she ran behind the clubhouse to come to a sudden halt and bump into someone – suddenly finding herself on the ground.

"Vortex? What are you doing here?" A voice asked her as Victoria slowly opened her eyes to look up and see a Jimmy Neutron with soot and dirt all over himself. Victoria thought of a snobby comeback that possibly Cindy would say.

She looked at Jimmy as she attempted to sit up, "Wow Neutron, that's the cleanest I've seen you in ages."

Almost slightly shocked at her completely random insult, Jimmy held out his hand down to her, "You want help up or not Vortex, cause I have no time for your half-wit comments. My new hover car is having technical difficulties, and I need to fix them before school starts."

She took his hand and he helped her up, she suddenly ditched her Cindy-act and went slightly wide eyed, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Jimmy raised a confused eyebrow at her – she was being way to confusing for any boy to handle, as Victoria pushed some dirt off her outfit, he shook his head, "I don't need your help, I need to get ready for school."

With that he turned and headed for his house, Victoria simply shrugged, "Ok – see you later Jimmy," Being oblivious to how un-Cindy like she was acting.

"Hey Cindy!" A different voice called from across the street, Victoria turned to look at the girl and almost choked on her own spit. It was – could it be? The girl who owned the turkey in the downtown area yesterday!

She would have jumped behind the clubhouse and hid, but she figured Cindy obviously knew this girl – she must have been the person she talked to online the day before – Libs – or something.

"Hi Libs," hoping that was her real name, or at least a nickname, and she walked across the street to the girl, "What's up?"

Libby shrugged, "I decided I would wait for the bus with you today. Did you get to see the princess? I heard Betty was kicked out," she laughed lightly.

"Yeah," she laughed a bit, "I met the princess – but she was too busy to give an interview."

"Pft – figures," Libby shook her head, "Royalty – never has time for us normal people," Victoria arched an eyebrow and was about to tell her off, but thought better of it, and Libby continued, "Of course I would know, being related to royalty anyways," Victoria arched an eyebrow, but Libby didn't see it, "Well – now no one has an interview with the Princess."

Victoria just nodded her head and sort of shrugged, "Well – she said she would give me an interview today if I come back."

"That's great!" Libby turned abruptly to Victoria and smiled, "You can tell the journalism class that, and you'll get your well-deserved article in the paper," Victoria smiled in response, and then Libby popped on her headphones due to 'Cindy's' lack of responses. Usually she was much more talkative, something must be on her mind, was all Libby could figure.

The bus slowly rolled in and settled to a stop a little ways in front of Victoria and Libby, giving two beeps of their horn. The two girls were about to turn to head onto the bus when Jimmy's door burst open and a clean boy genius was literally struggling to get his pants on as he hopped towards the bus screaming, "Wait! WAIT!"

Even being someone as nice as Victoria, with in a second she and Libby gave each other a shocked glance and broke into hysterical sobs of laughter. They quickly boarded the bus and sat next to each other with a perfect view of the poor struggling genius that was in such a hurry he had put his shoes on before his pants. He hopped slowly, but surely – and eventually made it to the bus, hands holding up his pants, his shoes untied, and smelling strongly of soap – in fact there was still a little smear of it on his forehead from trying to clean the soot the hover car threw on him from barely five minutes ago. He saw Carl and Sheen snickering quietly near where Victoria and Libby sat – and made the biggest mistake of his elementary school carrier.

His face turned completely red as he accidentally relaxed, thinking his pants were tightly secured on, when they fell to his ankles, revealing his plaid boxer shorts to the entire bus. He quickly grabbed his pants up and made sure they were correctly buttoned this time, but not fast enough for the whole bus to roll into complete hysterics, luckily there were many people on it at this point, but never the less, Jimmy's face was redder than his shirt. He quickly sat down next to his best friends, but he could have as easily sat next to Cindy, for his friends were laughing as hard, if not harder, than the rest of the bus. The bus continued on its way to Lindbergh Elementary.

"Miss Kingsley, I trust you studied your notes on Medieval Concepts, 3rd Century Technologies, geography of the Middle East, studies and theories of the Jewish religion, and current art history?" Miss Jones asked with barely pausing for a breath.

Cindy sat there, completely flabbergasted, staring at five thick and heavy books in front of her. Those books made the Harry Potter books look like small, fast reads. She just blinked from the books and back to Miss Jones, "When am I suppose to study all this cr-," she paused, staring out of the corner of her eye, she saw Josh organizing some books. They were after all in the castle library.

"Miss Victoria Sarah Elizabeth Mezzanine Kingsley!" Miss Jones yelled, thinking Cindy was about to say a bad word, Cindy winced slightly and the long full name of the Princess, coming to her senses as Miss Jones began ranting, "How can you tell me that you know nothing of this? We spent seven hours every day last week going over your studies, and you tell me you haven't seen them since last week?"

"Last week?" Cindy huffed, now noticing at the corner of her eye that Josh was looking over his shoulder at them, "I must say, ma'am," she cleared her throat, "With my father being so ill, it's quite difficult to concentrate on my studies," this was where her acting lessons should kick in as she gave a deep sigh, pushing off a tear and giving small and barely heard sniffle, "I will try harder Miss Jones, I sincerely, sincerely will. I'll try to place my father's illness out of my mind for now," she gave an innocent sigh and tried to pull the first book off the pile, but as hard as she tried it wouldn't move. She continued trying to yank the damn book off the pile, but it was impossibly and unbelievably heavy and wouldn't budge.

Miss Jones stood silently, her mouth was partly open and it seemed as if Cindy's words had kicked a place in her heart.

Josh paused from his work and walked over to Cindy whom had her feet pushing against the table as her arms pulled against the book, making grunting sounds as she attempted to do what felt impossible.

"Need help?" He picked up the book with ease, causing Cindy to fall backwards, turning over her chair and landing on the ground. Josh laughed at the bewildered Cindy and stretched his hand out to her, "Someone hasn't been working out recently, hmm?"

Cindy laughed embarrassedly, her face slightly pink, and then grabbed Josh's hand as he helped her up. At this point Miss Jones was not paying attention to them and was pacing back and forth. Even with Cindy standing straight up, Josh still held her hand for a moment and they stared at each other for another second before abruptly letting go and ignoring what had happened. Cindy placed the chair back up and put the book back on the desk, it was now suddenly a little lighter. Josh pulled out her chair and she sat down, Cindy's mind was racing and she felt horribly confused.

Miss Jones stopped pacing and looked at Cindy, "I shall post-pone your test for now, why don't you take a break Miss Kingsley?"

Cindy nodded and sighed as Josh went back to his work without a word. Miss Jones left the room briefly, and having nothing else to do, Cindy took out a piece of paper, grabbed a nearby pencil and began to draw a bit. Some minutes passed and she had a silly little stick figure drawing of her dancing in a pretty little outfit. It wasn't very impressive, unless you were seven years old, maybe. She was completely unaware of someone behind her looking at her drawings.

"You usually draw more – imaginative – is something wrong?"

Turning around, Cindy saw Josh holding three heavy books while looking at her sketches. Cindy was no way any sort of artist, but knowing that everyone can randomly doodle once in a while – even the great artists, she simply shrugged, "I feel more like sketching randomly today."

Josh arched an eyebrow, "Yes well, you looked like you were really into it –," he didn't conclude.

Cindy turned back to her drawing and waved it off, "I told you all, I'm having an off week. Deal with it."

He narrowed his eyes, Victoria was rarely this moody, and never moody when it came to her drawings. Even with her father so ill, she was always a proud girl, and rarely gawky. But she seemed so out of place the past day – barely the day before she didn't seem at all like this. He shrugged it off and went back to work again.

How boring this class was, Victoria knew each answer, every answer – and so did Jimmy know each answer it seemed. Victoria found Miss Fowl's class an impossible bore, and didn't even argue with Jimmy when they both raised their hands. She had no idea how un-Cindy-like she was being, but Cindy only had competed with Jimmy because she secretly was in love with him. Cindy enjoyed having the attention from Jimmy, even if it was sarcastic or mean, but Victoria only thinking Jimmy was a nice guy had no reason to compete with Jimmy.

"Yes Jimmy," Miss Fowl sighed dully, "You are correct – again," she looked at the class which seemed to be even more dead than usual, and more students other than just Sheen were ready to drift to sleep. The only things that kept this class exciting were the constant marriage-like-bickering that came from Jimmy and Cindy on a regular daily basis. But with Cindy letting Jimmy win today – well that was no fun!

"Would ANY ONE ELSE like to answer?" Miss Fowl mumbled as she asked another question, suddenly the whole room stared at Victoria and she sighed as she was drawing on her paper, pretending to write notes.

Victoria pushed a strand of hair behind her ear and replied, "The answer is sixty-four, Miss Fowl," she went back to drawing as everyone began to whisper and pass notes back and forth. Jimmy only gave her a strange facial expression, but she didn't notice as she drew.

Jimmy watched who he thought was Cindy as Miss Fowl sighed, "correct Miss Vortex," something was wrong with Cindy – he knew it – but what ever it was, he wasn't really sure. He couldn't do anything unless he wanted everyone to point fingers at him, accusing him of liking Cindy more than they assumed. Not that it'd be incorrect, but Jimmy wanted to avoid any of those complications as long as he could.

The bell for lunch, noon sharp, rang loudly, but before the students could even get up, Miss Fowl stated exasperatedly, "Thank goodness, it's about time!" and literally ran out the door with her lunch.

The class got up and there was instant chatter as everyone rushed to the door for lunch. Victoria stood up and suddenly the back of someone's hand hit her forehead – but it wasn't anyone trying to knock her out, it was just Sheen feeling her forehead.

Victoria stared at kid with his hand on her forehead, "May I help you?" This kid looked coincidentally like the character on those help books known as the Dummies series, she wondered if this was attached to his personality, and she figured so.

"Sheen, what are you doing?" Libby walked up to the odd kid that Victoria figured was named Sheen since Libby had called him that.

Sheen took his hand off her forehead, "Duh – Cindy must be sick or something to not be arguing with Jimmy through all of class!"

"Actually Sheen," Jimmy started as he got his lunch out, "Class isn't over yet – Cindy has plenty of time to attempt to humiliate me before school ends," He glared sharply, "Though I'm certain that she won't."

Victoria blinked in response, and then Carl walked up next to the rest of them, "Hey gang – what's going – OH MY GOSH!" Carl suddenly gasped.

Everyone turned his or her heads to Carl who was looking at Victoria's drawing that still sat on Cindy's desk, he stuttered, "This – is – the GREATEST llama drawing I've ever SEEN!!!" He literally screamed, causing everyone to be taken aback a little. Libby walked over and looked at the drawing and her jaw dropped.

"Girl, I didn't know you were so artistic!" She shook her head in disbelief, "It looks like you had a real llama to look at."

"WHERE?" Carl jumped up; all excited, and started spinning around as if expecting to see a llama in the classroom.

Sheen rolled his eyes, "There's no llama in the classroom Carl --," he looked over at Victoria's drawing and gasped.

Victoria looked back at her drawing and smiled, "Thanks," she suddenly felt a little bashful. Plenty of people had told her she was a great artist, but she always assumed they were just being nice cause she was a princess.

Jimmy was the only one who hadn't seen it yet, and as he walked over to see it, Sheen smiled at Cindy and asked, "Could you draw me a picture of me and Ultra Lord – and Queen Libby?"

Libby smiled at Sheen's comment, but still looked at the drawing of the llama, as well as other sketches, "Dang – this is amazing. Last I checked you were doodling silly little stick figures."

"Is it really that – whoa," Jimmy's eyes went wide when he finally saw the drawing, he never knew that Cindy had so much talent – fact was that she didn't have a talent in art, and it was actually Victoria who had drawn it, but its not like they knew that.

"Sure – I'll draw you a picture Sheen," Victoria smiled, figuring that all she had to do to remember Sheen's face was pick up one of those Dummies books, "Uhm – can we go to lunch now? I'm starved," she was glad her drawing had distracted them long enough for them to forget her odd behavior and lack of willingness to argue with Jimmy.

Libby nodded, "Sure, sure – lets go," she looked at the picture one last time and headed for the door, Victoria followed, and turned back to the three guys, "Are – you guys," she paused, "Coming with us?" There was instant head turns at this question, all three guys looked up at once and hit heads painfully.

"Who us?" Carl asked as he held his head.

"Who them?" Libby arched an eyebrow at Victoria, she wouldn't mind having Sheen come along, but it was odd that Cindy was so accepting to the others.

"Well there's no one else in here, is there?"

The three boys looked at one another and shrugged, Jimmy was the first to speak, "Sure – let's go, we're already late."

The other two boys and Libby shrugged, and the five of them headed for the lunchroom.

Cindy sighed and twiddled her thumbs, waiting for Miss Jones to come back, which literally felt like it was taking forever to happen. Every few moments she would glance at Josh, but not so long as for him to realize she was watching him. She sighed as she put her face in her arms, oh how she longed to be in Miss Fowl's class at the moment. Competing with Jimmy, gossiping with Libby, and making mean jokes about Sheen and Carl. Oh how she wished she were in her everyday clothing instead of the heavy and annoyingly fancy dress she was forced to wear.

She thought about it, and when just the other day all she could think of was, 'anyone other than me!', now she was thinking, 'anyone other than Victoria!'. She pressed her lips together and felt like crying, she wanted to be with her friends – it was almost time for lunch right now – how she wished, how she wished. But everything was absolutely ok, she told herself that she would be with her friends tomorrow as if nothing had occurred.

Provided, of course, Victoria does nothing drastic that makes people question her tomorrow. Provided, as well, that they are able to make smooth transitions in exactly five hours. Oh would those be long five hours.

The door slammed open and Cindy jumped up in shock, bumping her knee against the table. She gave out a squeal and held her knee, closing her eyes and mumbling as she brought her knee as close to her as the dress would let her.

Josh turned his head and walked over to her, "Are you all right your majesty?"

Cindy took a deep breath, simply nodding and eventually opened her eyes to see a very distressed Miss Jones at the door.

"Miss – miss Kingsley," she paused for breath and looked down gravely, "Victoria."

Cindy's eyes went wide as she stood, "Miss Jones?" her voice was questioning, more or so for the fact this stubborn lady was calling her by her first – well, Victoria's first name.

Josh stood next to Cindy, "Mother? What's wrong?"

Miss Jones sighed, "Your father, Miss Kingsley – is deeply, deeply ill. He – he," she stuttered at the words, professionally holding back tears, "He doesn't have – much time – he requests to speak to you before –," she held her hand to her mouth, as silent tears traveled down her cheek.

Cindy's jaw quietly dropped, oh how horrible she felt – here she was to say goodbye to Victoria's father when it should have been Victoria saying goodbye. She felt another hand embrace hers and squeezed it tight before letting go. Cindy looked up and saw Josh walk away, realizing he had just held her hand.

Feeling completely helpless she started to babble, trying to hide her stutters, "We – we need to tell the princess -," Josh turned back suddenly and stared at her as Miss Jones took her into the hall way.

"You are the Princess my dear, and you must pull yourself together for this," was all Miss Jones reply before pushing Cindy into the King's room and closing the door shut. Cindy turned around to go to the door handle when a soft voice reached her ears.

"Victoria? My daughter, is that you?" The King's voice came.

Cindy slowly turned around, shaking, and saw her surroundings of a nearly dark room with a large bed. The King was in the shadows of the bed and all that lit the room was a candle that seemed to be dimming.

"I'm not -," she started, but the King interrupted.

"Come closer," and all Cindy could do was obey. She kneeled by the bed and had her head down, holding back her tears.

"I shall be passing on soon, my dear, and that will make you Queen. I know many people doubt your ability, that you are too young to rule our country. Never the less, fate has bestowed the responsibilities for you far sooner than any of us had imagined. But let me tell you one thing," he breathed a sigh, "I believe in you – and know you can do good. Just promise me one thing," Cindy looked up to the shadows as he continued, "No matter how hard things get, how difficult they seem, I want you to always rule – from your heart. When you do that, no choice you make can be a bad one," his hand came out and touched her heart as he said the word.

Cindy nodded and held Victoria's father's hand and whispered in response, "I promise."

His hand returned next to him – and with that, the light of the candle flickered out.

The King was gone.

To Be Continued