Disclaimer: This licence isn't mine. The opinions express by the characters are not mine. I do not support nor encourage the illegal or dangerous acts or words present here. I can make a distinction between fiction and reality and I trust in my readership's ability in doing the same.

Chapter thirty-eight: Revelation

Written with retro mania's collaboration

How could I start this chapter? I could tell you that Strawberry Shortcake had felt, since she had gotten out of bed, this morning, that something awful was going to happen; something that would definitively disrupt everything she took for granted, but something that could not be arrested nor modify, and the wiser thing that could be done would have been to stoically stand still and wait for the disaster… But, even thought that as far as I am the writer, I can arrest and modify everything in the story, this is not the way I imagine this scene. Well, try to picture a lovely morning of May in the Berry Bitty Café.

Angel Cake was experiencing new recipes in the kitchen while Strawberry Shortcake was polishing the tables and the counter, waiting for the first customers of the day, Berrykins and other kind of civil servants desirous of having a tasty breakfast before starting their day of toil. A cynic observer could say that Angel Cake took the perverse pleasure of relegating her to the most thankless task, in order to prove her new superiority on the one who had been for so long Strawberryland's pin-up, and who had now to mop the floor and to bear a sour-temper employer. But, you could confiscate her Café, you could treat her roughly, there were still something you could not broke at Strawberry Shortcake: for as long as she could see happiness on her customers' eyes when she serve them a slice of pie, for as long as she could see them give her a wink when she was doing the dishes, like if they were thinking "Hold on, it is just a rough time, we're all with you", well, Strawberry Shortcake was happy. At least, it was true until her phone rang, on this lovely morning of May during which nothing bad could happen. Its charming notes filled the empty and quiet Café with a joyful tone, but behind the customary ringtone Strawberry had heard so many times a thunderclap was hidden. Strawberry Shortcake picked it up, but before she could end her standard greeting her whole mind got overwhelmed by anxiety and lack of understanding.

-Angel Cake? She softly called.

-What?

-I have to leave he Café.

-Again?! Angel Cake cried, leaving the kitchen.

She was about to tell her that she had customers to serve and that she would be on duty until the closing time, but Strawberry Shortcake looked so touched that compassion was the only thing she could feel for her.

-I'm sorry Angel, but I have to go to Apple Dumplin's school. Something happened to her… or about her, I don't know. I have to pick her up…

In her office, Mrs. Milk Roll was extremely disappointed. She was teaching for thirty years, and it was the first time she was facing so much troubles with her class. Of course, she knew that teenage years were difficult, and her pupils of this ages often used to be rebellious and insolent; but vandalism and personal attacks were noticeably rarer. She did not react when she had saw the first tags, because, as a teacher, she always had to be unshakeable and even-tempered; but even though she forced herself to look contented in front of her class, her heart had been broken. Unlike that the little vandal was thinking, she was not here to torture the children nor to brainwash them, but she had vowed her life in educating them in order to make sure that, whatever choices they would make, they would always keep their freedom of thought. She decided to overcome this incident. Then, the reports about racketeering started. There were not so many, at the beginning; one every two months, and she had concluded that, unfortunately, it was just ordinary violence from children that would never be identified. But, in the fullness of times, she had noticed it was the first time these statistics were so high. She had started to suspect some of the eldest students to play the tough nuts in order to impress the others, and this at the cost of the school's harmony. And, the one she had in her sights was Mulberry Murmur, the ideal culprit, elder than the other students, repeating a year, having already shown her lack of consideration for the teaching body, breaking the rules as often as she could. However, Mrs. Milk Roll knew, at this moment, that she had no evidence yet, and she didn't want to take the risk to unfairly charging an innocent pupil, almost dropping out of school. Of course, it would have definitively disgust her from following any kind of lessons. And it was absolutely not the goal followed by Mrs. Milk Roll: by giving her life to the Berry Big City's Educational Center, she had sworn she would always do her best to save the children from the prejudices, the fatality and to the preordained life to which they could believe they were chained; but her, Mrs. Milk Roll, would always be here to give them a second chance, without taking in consideration where they were from, nor the mistakes they cold have done before, and if they really wanted it, she would do her best to save them.

Nonetheless, there were something she could not simply ignore: the day where the main building had caught fire. A such unexplainable fire had lured the police's attention, who had started an investigation. And their result was incontrovertible: the fire was of criminal origin. Their evidence was the video from the security camera, in which one could distinctly see two girls, both wearing pleated skirts and blazers, lighting a tissue and throwing it into a bin. The police officer had said, extremely proudly, that they only have to find which students had these kinds of skirt and blazer in their closets to find the culprits, but the Principal had answered it won't be that easy, because all the students were wearing these clothes which were their uniform. However, she didn't lose hope of identifying the persons at fault, and she asked all her teachers to comb their organization chart with photographs. And her, Mrs. Milk Roll, she had had the misfortune of recognizing the culprits' hair on her school year group picture.

She was so disappointed, and she didn't want to think about the fact the girl who had merrily trampled all over her convictions, turn the school into a lawless area for the youngest ones and into a danger zone to boycott for their legal guardians, was sitting at her desk, next to her.

Usually, Strawberrylanders were not troublemakers.

She didn't know what she was supposed to feel toward Strawberry Shortcake, the young red-hair, out-of-breath, in distress young lady who had burst into her desk, hardly daring to look at the stubborn blond young girl sitting on her chair, Apple Dumplin, who both embodies Strawberry Shortcake and Mrs. Milk Roll's failure.

-Miss Shortcake?

-In person.

-Thank you for being so fast. Please, have a sit.

Strawberry Shortcake obeyed, shaking. She couldn't understand what was happening, but, according to Mrs. Milk Roll's despondency and Apple Dumplin's disgruntled air, it won't be agreeable to hear.

Mrs. Milk Roll took a deep breath. She didn't want to overwhelm her with reproaches, but she needed to show her how intolerable the situation was.

-Well Miss Shortcake, you may have noticed your little sister, Apple Dumplin', to whom you are the responsible tutor, had a kind of… disruptive behavior, haven't you?

Of course, Strawberry Shortcake had. But she could understand Mrs. Milk Roll had not convoked her from Strawberryland for talking about Apple's bad report card! She settled for simply nodding.

-You may have heard about the suspicious fire that forced us to temporary close the school, right?

Strawberry Shortcake nodded again, but she started to break out in a cold sweat. This scene had a kind of air of… déjà vu. The Princess Berrykin charging Apple Dumplin of having deliberately hurt Berrykin Bloom… This time, she was innocent. And, even though it was perfectly irrational, Strawberry Shortcake prayed very hard for Apple to be, one more time, a scapegoat (cf. the twenty-fourth chapter).

-I'm sorry to learn you this, Miss Shortcake, but the investigation proved that Miss Dumplin' was involved in it.

Strawberry Shortcake was still standing still on her chair, but she felt like it had tipped over and she was falling into a precipice. The words Mrs. Milk Roll pronounced then hardly made sense to her.

-We know that Miss Dumplin had acted in concert with another students, Mulberry Murmur. Consequently, Berry Big City's Educational Center is no longer able of greeting them both, and this decision takes place from now on.

Mrs. Milk Roll had been as neutral as she could. She could have said instead: "Count yourself happy that we do not enter into judicial proceedings against you! Do you realize children could have been severely burnt because of your sister? The lack of limits you impose her is criminal", but she didn't. She could feel Strawberry Shortcake was not a careless nor irresponsible tutor, but simply a young lady, hardly elder that her sister, whom behavior escaped her. And, according to the tears she struggled for keeping in her eyes, she was as powerless as a child in face of so much problems she was not made for solving.

-Apple Dumplin is… expelled, Strawberry slowly repeated, as if it would help her to stand the piece of news.

-She is. I'm sorry miss Shortcake, but this decision had to be taken, for the other pupils' safety.

When Strawberry Shortcake stood up with Apple Dumplin' to drive her back home, she barely heard Mrs. Milk Roll assuring her that Mulberry Murmur had been expelled, too, and that she could come and talk about it later, if she needed more explanations. Neither she saw Apple Dumplin's face, between anger and worry. Her legs carried her out of the office, then out of the school, but her mind was conspicuously silent, trying to escape from this awful reality it refused to face.

Berrykin Bloom was watering the orchards alongside with Berrykin Daniel, when Princess Emerald cried:

-Look, Grandpa! Here are coming Strawberry and Apple.

Princess Tourmaline raised her head.

-School is already over for her?

Berrykin Bloom, who was watching quietly this scene, slowly said:

-They both look so upset. I am sure something wrong happened to them.

-What kind of bad thing? Daniel asked.

-We have to ask them, Princess Emerald said, and her twin sister and her were getting ready to dash off, but Berrykin Bloom stopped them.

-I'm afraid you could not, Your Little Majesties.

-But why?

-This kind of case is personal. Miss Shortcake and Miss Dumplin' will have to settle the problems in private, and it will be extremely rude to interfere in their business.

Berrykin Bloom was right. Strawberry Shortcake was living a true disaster. When she had learnt about Apple Dumplin' expulsion, she was too stunned to realize what she had heard, but the return had forced her to get out of her dizziness. And her incomprehension was moving on to anger, anger and guilt. Her sister was a criminal! She had raised a criminal!

-Angel Cake, take a day-off, she ordered to her workmate when they entered the Café. "Apple and I need to be alone".

Strawberry Shortcake wasn't supposed to be in a position to give orders, but she had used a so unusual tone, a tone full of authority and acerbity, that Angel Cake simply obeyed.

When they found themselves all alone in the Café, Strawberry Shortcake started by walking back and forth in the Café, carefully avoiding to gaze at Apple, trying to hold back the rage that was growing in her and could sweep away the whole dining room. Apple Dumplin's, sitting on a chair, was waiting for the tornado and didn't dare to move. But Strawberry Shortcake's agitation was nothing, compared to all the confuse thoughts which tumbled out in her mind, and which were too long for me to transcribe here. Strawberry Shortcake focused on her breath and forced herself to slowly and calmly inhale. It didn't sooth her anger, but it let her said with an audible voice:

-Apple, I can't bear you anymore, you're insufferable.

This accusation annoyed Apple Dumplin'. Of course, she was again the punching bag! Of course, everything was always her own fault! And, more by defiance that by real rebellion, Apple answered:

-You do remember you have a sister? Anyway, you never tried to understand me.

Strawberry Shortcake roundly turn over. Her eyes were glimmering with anger.

-What do you feel? She cried. "What kind of troubles can you suffer of, Apple? No one! But it doesn't prevent you from making my life a misery!"

This time, Apple was really hurt. Strawberry was the one and only responsible for her wrong choices!

-Do you really think I am a monster? She cried. "Is it my fault if you are, and will always be a victim?"

At this moment, Strawberry Shortcake restrained herself from slapping her sister.

-I am a victim, Apple? No! You are-as long as you will be blind enough to stupidly follow the… bad company around you.

-Mulberry Murmur is my only friend!

-What a good example of friend! Strawberry sniggered. "Where did it bring you, now? To be expelled from school! Everybody in town thinks you are a delinquent, and I can't rule against them!"

-This is not my fault!

-Not your fault? Whose, so?

Apple Dumplin' was no longer afraid by her sister. She had jumped up, and was now standing in front of her, with determination. Her eyes were glimmering, too, with a feeling of injustice.

-It is your fault, Strawberry Shortcake! It was tour fault since the beginning! I was feeling terribly alone, but you never took care of what I was feeling. Your Café was more important than me!

-I tried to get closer to- but Apple Dumplin' wasn't listening at her.

-No Strawberry, you weren't trying to talk with me, you were lecturing me! You spent so much time with helping everybody that you forgot your own sister. If, one day, you had simply asked me "What's wrong with you?", maybe things would have been different today.

Strawberry was almost foaming at the mouth.

-Sorry Apple, but you're not the only girl on Earth. I had other things to do-like ruling my own business instead of loafing around in my room like YOU use to do-than playing the psychologist for a rotten child like you.

-Yes, and you, tell me where it brought you, too! Your "friends" disdain you, exploit you, and they even managed to let you drop your own business, the one you are so proud of. So, I don't pretend to be a saint, Strawberry, but unlike you I know how to be respected.

Apple knew she had touched a nerve. Abandoning her Café in the hands of Angel Cake had been a true heartbreak to Strawberry, and her only compensation had been to think it would help Apple Dumplin' to feel better. But now, Apple was standing in front of her, showing her it had been vain…

But she was determined not to cry in front of her. She wanted to save the little credibility she had left.

-Respected, Apple? To you, being a delinquent, a pyromaniac, a criminal, is to be respected?! I don't think so! Apple, you can think everything you want about your so-called power, but me, at last, I can sleep without a worry.

Strawberry Shortcake got her breath back and added:

-You pretend you are wise, but you are just childish and selfish. At your age, I was already independent, and when I was only 6 years old, I was already maturer than you currently are… and a responsible citizen.

Apple Dumplin' didn't intend to let herself be pushed around.

-It is all very well for you to lecture me, Strawberry. But you don't know what it is to be all alone, so alone what you are ready to follow everyone, just to stay sane. And, for your information, I AM independent Strawberry-As I'm always left to my own devices.

-What do you want Apple? When I tried to take care of you, you said you are no longer a baby, and when I don't you say I'm a unworthy big sister!

-What did you do for me, except proving me I wasn't at my niche in Strawberryland?

After this last sentence, Strawberry and Apple, out of breath, scarlet out of both restlessness and anger, stood face to face, panting, their minds empty not knowing what to add.

It was Apple Dumplin' who talked first. This sentence, she had thought it many times before, but he had never dare to express it out loud. She knew how devastating its consequences would be, but at this very moment she was not thinking about the future. All that imported her now was to put an end to the verbal jousting, to get everything off her chest, to say it, at least, and to be able to start over, with a new virginity. She said, very coldly, very thoughtfully:

-I hate you. I don't want to be your sister anymore, and I wish you never were.

And she left the Café.

This time, Strawberry Shortcake allowed herself to sob.

Strawberry Shortcake had been forced to admit she wasn't the good person to raise Apple Dumplin'. This realization ad been like a cold shower, and had provoked at her plentiful bouts of crying, that Orange Blossom and Blueberry Muffin did their best to sooth. The painful conclusion they came to was that Apple Dumplin' needed rules, rules that Strawberry wasn't able to impose. So, for her own safety, it would be better for her to stay with other people who would know how to put her back on the right track. Orange Blossom took charge of everything. She managed to found a boarding school, in another country, that, fortunately, was ready to greet a young girl of Apple's age, where she would end her school years and in top of that to learn respect and good manners. This separation won't be an abandon, she explained. Strawberry Shortcake had done her best for her, but they could no longer use the soft-arm tactics. A full change of scene, life in community, inflexible rules, and no indulgent figures will turn the capricious and rebellious child into a mature and responsible young girl, she said, and she added that in one year at the most, Apple's dark sides will have disappeared.

-I bet this is just difficult time for her, Orange said. "But it is your duty to put a full stop to it."

And Strawberry was too depressed to think correctly by herself.

Strawberry Shortcake was still crying, after Apple Dumplin's departure. As of late, crying was her principal activity. The Princess Berrykin knew that, and she came as often as she could to the Café, to support poor Strawberry. Her daughters had understood, too, that she wasn't feeling well.

-Why is Apple Dumplin's gone? They asked their mother once, carefully using the Berrykin language.

-Because she was a naughty girl. You had notice it, hadn't you?

The twin princesses exchanged a look.

-Why was she naughty? Emerald asked.

-She was under bad influence, a bad influence that headed her for trouble like lying, robbing, destruction and, even worse, racism! In my mind, there's no bigger plague than racism. To classify living beings! To attribute them values due to arbitrary criterions! To say that some of them are innate masters, and the others are innate servants! And where does it bring you? To civil wars, divisions and anarchy; while we are drawing our strengths from unity! Berrykins, Bugs, Humans and Animals, we are all different, but all equals; and our differences, when they are properly employed, let us exploit all the Berry Bitty City's potentials, because it needs at the same time bugs' assiduity, humans' tactic, animals' strength, and Berrykins' magic. No, Strawberryland would have not been that flourishing if senseless laws were forcing a part of its population to live into shame, humiliation, and discriminations. Yes, racism can turn any place into a hell on Earth for its inhabitants, while Strawberryland is a haven of piece. And do you know why? Because we are all ready to greet anyone and to treat them as brothers and sisters, whatever the form of their body or the color of their skin are; and using such superficial reasons for dispossessing a citizen of its rights and dignity is criminal.

The twin princesses, extremely quiet, were paying a close attention to her.

-Remember it, girls: you may be princesses, you are nothing without your people. You may wear a crown, it won't be something else that a piece of scrap iron if your people refuse to accept it, and they will if you are not fair princesses, that is to say if you don't follow that your hearts say. Be good and fair with everyone, as much for the millionaire as for the beggar, as much for the model citizen as for the prisoner, and by this way all your people will be united by the love they will have for you. Don't be lax, my daughters, but don't be hatred, and don't have hatred in you, howsoever between you or for anyone else, except if they are a threat to your people's interests. You will see: a legitimate enemy gathers all the people for the same nation, while an illegitimate anger divides a nation and weaken it instead of making it efficiently fight against it.

The little girls took some minutes to digest that they had heard.

-Will you send us away if we don't do… all that you said? Tourmaline asked shyly.

-Of course I won't, darlings. You are still too young to reign, and when you'll grow up I will teach you how to be a good ruler before.

Relieved, the twins smiled.

-Can we go play now? Emerald asked. "Grandpa told us he would teach us how to do grafting."

The Princess agreed. She wondered what had gone wrong into Apple Dumplin' education. Not enough affection, to much permissiveness? She hoped that her efforts, combined with Berrykin Bloom's ones, will make them acceptable sovereigns.

To be continued…