Chapter 5: Visiting Royalty

"This is it!" SpongeBob excitedly told Patrick, as they came close to King Neptune's castle the next day. "Now, you remember the plan, don't you, Patrick?" he then asked.

"Uh…what plan?" Patrick asked, confused.

"Patrick," SpongeBob explained, "the plan is that you're going to ask Mindy for a tour of the castle. You'll get to know a lot about her there. And at some point, you'll ask her out on a date. Got it?"

"Got it," Patrick answered, confidentially.

Meanwhile, Princess Mindy was in her room on her bed, reading an article of her favorite magazine, Princess Monthly. Suddenly, a knock came on her door. "Come in," she said.

The person at the door was none other than King Neptune himself. "You have a visitor," the king told her.

The princess came up to the front door of the castle, and opened it to see SpongeBob and Patrick.

"Hello, your majesty," the sponge said, bowing down to her. "My friend Patrick here would like to take a tour of your castle."

"Hello, SpongeBob and Patrick!" she greeted them. "As you wish, Patrick. Come on in. Do you want to join us, SpongeBob?"

"Sure," SpongeBob answered.

They then walked in, to see the hallway. "First, we have our grand hall," Mindy explained, as they walked through it. "On the walls, we have portraits of every king and queen who's ruled Bikini Bottom so far."

"Wow," the two visitors remarked in amazement. SpongeBob and Patrick knew Mindy was right about there being portraits of every kind and queen – there were hundreds, maybe even thousands of them on the wall! Patrick's guess was 50.

"So, who are all the kings and queens in these pictures?" Patrick asked.

"Well, first, we've got King Martin I," Mindy said, pointing to the painting that was on the left wall, the closest to the start of the hallway, and near the ceiling.

"And then we have King George…" Princess Mindy then went through the name of every single king and queen, which took about ten minutes. SpongeBob and Patrick weren't focused very well, but they were both impressed that she knew them all, especially Patrick.

"…and finally, King Neptune," Mindy said, pointing to the farthest painting down so far. The tour then continued through all the other rooms of the castle, and it seemed to go on for an hour. Finally, they headed back to the hallway and were about to leave. "Well, that's all. See you later!" Mindy told them.

"Bye!" SpongeBob and Patrick said. They then walked out the door. But after about ten seconds, Patrick remembered something…

"SpongeBob, wait! I forgot to ask her out! Let me go back in for a minute…"

Mindy was soon surprised when there was another knock at the door. Another surprise when she saw Patrick again at the door.

"Hi, again, Mindy. I just realized I forgot to tell you something," Patrick explained.

"What is it?"

"Uh…it was…" Patrick tried to think of it, but he couldn't remember. "I don't know. Well, it probably wasn't something important."

"Okay. See you later, then," Mindy said.

But then Patrick finally remembered!

"Oh, now I remember!" Patrick suddenly exclaimed. "Do you want to go on a date sometime next week?"

Mindy was, again, surprised to hear him ask that. But it sounded just fine. "Sure," she responded. "I'm available tomorrow that night. Where do you want to go?"

"Uh…I don't know."

"Well, then, why don't I think of where we should go?" Mindy asked. "Does Johnny's Bar and Grill sound good?"

"Yeah!" Patrick smiled. "Let's go, then!"

"See you tomorrow, night!"

"Wait…where were we going again? And at what time?" Patrick suddenly asked.

"Hmmm…you seem to have a problem with memory, Patrick. But I think you're kinda cute that way."

Patrick smiled, blushing slightly. Mindy then wrote the details on a piece of paper, and handed it out to Patrick. It said:

Date with Mindy

Saturday, and 6:30 PM

Johnny's Bar and Grill

"Here, take this with you," she explained. "Then you'll remember."

"Okay, I will. See you tomorrow night!" Patrick said, leaving happily.

"So, did you get a date?" SpongeBob asked Patrick.

"I sure did! It's tomorrow!" he said, smiling.

"Great! I can't wait to hear how it goes!" SpongeBob answered him.

The two then walked back home.

Stay tuned!