A.S.S.I.T.S 9

Jess, for the first time since she got there, was excited. She remembered the prince rolling around his Katamari, and she thought it would be fun to learn. How hard could it be? "How do I start?" The prince was glad to see she was finally at least a little happy.

"Well, first you need a Katamari. Usually my dad makes them but we have some extras you can practice with." While he was talking June had gotten one of the extra Katamaris from one of the prince's collections.

"Here, I got one." The white and blue cousin pushed the ball over to the prince.

"Thanks June." Said the prince while smiling at her. June blushed a little and then went to stand next to Jess. The prince gave her the Katamari. "Okay, now we usually practice in my dad's crown. Don't ask. But you'll have to try it out in the old practice room. While the other cousins dispersed to talk, mostly about the new "mortal" cousins, he and June led her to what looked like a small house. "In here." He opened the door and turned on the lights. Jess was surprised because the inside looked much bigger than the outside. Jess was a little dissapointed because it was simply a large, brightly coloredroom. The prince told her to stand in the middle of the room, then he stood behind her to give her directions, "Okay, now position it in front of you." Jess did so. "Push forward." She pushed the Katamari away from her. "Now try backwards." She pulled it toward her. "How about left and right?" She tilted it and took it in different directions. "Good." Jess smiled.

"That wasn't hard at all!"

"Because it was the easy part." Said the prince with a small chuckle. Jess sighed in disappointment.

"Oh…"

"Now, you need to learn to quick turn." When she heard him say this she thought it must be a faster way to turn the Katamari, so she positioned herself in a way she thought would make it easier. The prince looked at her and shook his head.

"Um…no. You're not going to turn it. You're going to jump over it to get yourself standing on the other side." Jess didn't do anything, being extremely confused. "Just jump over it." The prince stated. She thought it sounded stupid but tried anyway. She was incredibly surprised when she found herself easily flipping over the ball.

"I…didn't know I could do that." June giggled.

"You probably couldn't as a human, but all cousins can do it."

"Next you have to charge n' roll." Said the green prince. "This one's a little tougher because it won't just come to you like the quick turn did. You may have to try it a few times. See, what you do is run in place while "rolling" the Katamari. This will make it gain power and when you finally push forward you'll go a good deal faster." Jess thought there was no way doing such a thing was as hard as the prince had said. But, of course, it was. The first time she tried the Katamari would start rolling at the slightest movement. She couldn't seem to get it to stay still. Also, running in place was seemed to be quite hard. After many repetitions, and many "quests" to go retrieve the motion sensitive Katamari, Jess finally did a decent charge and roll, which led to her slamming into a wall. She fell to the ground with a smack. This all made June, who had fallen asleep in the time it took Jess to figure the move out, to wake up. The prince went up to Jess to make sure she was alright.

"Ow… something tells me I wasn't supposed to do that…"

"Naw. You running into a wall simply lets me know you did it right." The prince said in a faintly sarcastic tone. She rubbed her head. He helped her stand up. "And, that's pretty much it."

"Pretty much? What else do I have to do?" Jess felt exhausted, and didn't want to do anything else that would take a lot of time to learn.

"Well, you have to pick stuff up don't you?" He was right. She had completely forgotten what the Katamari was used for. The prince went over to a door in the room that seemed to be a closet. He took out a simple box of tacks and threw them randomly out on the floor. "Roll these up."

"Just those? Nothing else?"

"You have to start somewhere. Go ahead and roll them up." Jess pushed the Katamari over to the tacks. She wasn't surprised to find that they stuck to the ball easily.

"So, is that it?" The prince shook his head and smirked. He motioned to June and she stood up and walked right in front of the Katamari.

"Now, roll up June." Jess stared at him.

"But…won't she get stuck?"

"If she does I can pull her off." June nodded happily. "Just go ahead and try to roll her up." Jess hesitantly started rolling toward her. She gathered a small amount of speed before getting to her, which added to her surprise when she bounced off of her, knocking of one or two tacks.

"What the-?" June giggled, while picking up the dropped tacks.

"I must be too big." She said cheerfully. Jess looked accusingly at the prince.

"Then did you tell me to roll her up."

"To show you what happens when you try to roll up something bigger than the actual Katamari."

"Couldn't you have just told me?"

"Sorry, that was a little bit funnier." Jess shrugged her shoulders. The prince took the dropped tacks from June and put them back in the box. "But guess what?"

"What?"

"You're done. For now anyway." He got the remaining tacks from the Katamari. "Tired?" Jess nodded wearily. She desperately needed some sleep. June and the prince could tell. When they left the practice room June offered to take Jess back to her "place", which was the section of the meadow she was in when Jess and the prince had arrived. The new cousin agreed and the prince went back to his home planet. When the two girls were at the small field of flowers Jess tried to make herself comfortable. "June, how come you andtheother cousins don't live houses like the prince does?" June sat down next to her.

"Because he's the prince!" She answered happily. She didn't seem to mind living in a meadow. "You see, he lives there until he's king, and then he lives in the castle." Jess laid down.

"Why doesn't he live there?" She yawned.

"Well, I'm...not quite sure. The only people who live in the castle are the king and queen. That's just how it is I guess." As June was speaking, Jess drifted off and finally fell asleep.

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Okay, I admit that was kind of boring, but it had to be there. Jess wouldn't just know how to roll a Katamari. Oh and her name will stay as Jess from now on (or until I say so). The cousins are all going to call her that anyway. R/R! Please and thank you!