A/N: Like a dork, I got The Princess Protection Program on DVD… I included some scenes from the movie but it's all jumble up and what not…

CHAPTER 5

"You're not blending!" Carter whispered angrily at Rosie.

Rosie stared at her blankly. "I am blending."

Carter rolled her eyes. "Listen, speaking fluent French in English class is not blending. You're not supposed to be drawing any attention to yourself."

"Oh, then I shall try harder." Rosie nodded, opening the doors to the cafeteria for Carter.

Carter huffed. "Grab a tray." She pointed to the table of trays. They both grabbed a tray and waited on the incredibly long line. "I have to teach you how to blend in."

"You may show me when we get back to your house." Rosie said eagerly, practically bouncing on her toes.

"American Girl 101 will have to wait." Carter grabbed a hamburger from the lunch lady. "I'm working at the bait shop." Rosie watched Carter's every move, and mimicked. She studied the foreign food, doing a complete 360 to inspect it.

"Then I shall help you!" Rosie smiled. "You may show me how to work like a typical American girl."

"No!" The entire cafeteria turned and faced the two girls. "You have to get your own job." Carter quickly silenced herself. From across the room, she spotted Donny looking towards her direction looking quite entranced. Carter's face turned beat red and Rosie couldn't help but notice.

"Is that boy, over there your boy friend?" Rosie asked innocently, holding the tray close to her chest.

"Pssh… no!" Carter snapped, averting Rosie's eyes. "Why would you think that me and Donny are together?" she shook her head.

Rosie rushed behind Carter, trying to keep up with her increasing pace. "You look at him as if he is very special to you."

Carter stomped towards the empty table and pulled the princess onto the chair. "Okay, I've been totally in love with him since he kissed me in the seventh grade. But like after a month, he acted like he didn't even know me." She took a bite out of her hamburger.

"If he treats you as such, why would you feel he is deserving of your love?" Rosie questioned.

Carter looked around and soon spotted Ed. "Ed!" she grabbed him quickly and pulled him into the seat next to her. "So how's your film project going?"

"It's going great but all the footage I can use is only of Chelsea and Brooke." He pulled out his camera and pointed it at both Rosie and Carter. "I'll get much better footage after filming you guys." He smiled.

"Put the camera away, Ed." She pouted, putting her hand over the lens. Rosie laughed.

Ed pulled away. "Hey, this camera's expensive."

"Then shut it off, Ed." Carter exclaimed. "It's bad enough that people already think I'm a freak show. I don't need my own half hour on cable access." Ed powered down his camera, safely tucking it into his bag.

Rosie looked up from her plate to see Donny still looking over in their direction. She gave him an involuntary glare and looked back down at her plate. She unfolded the napkin and placed it on her lap. Grabbing her fork and knife and began to slice through her foreign food.

"Ugh! No." Carter huffed, taking the fork and knife away from the princess' hands. "You look like you're having tea with the Queen."

Rosie squirmed in her seat, understanding she just screwed up after just talking about fitting in. "How should it be eaten?"

Carter began to pile the lettuce, tomato, ketchup, mayonnaise and pickles onto Rosie's hamburger. "Like how I did." She picked up her hamburger and took a huge bite. Rosie nodded and did the same.

She pulled the burger away from her face and revealed a large glob of mayo smeared across her lips. "Like this?" she smiled.

Carter couldn't help but laugh at the sight; the proper princess had white smeared on her lips. "Yeah. Just like that." Rosie triumphantly smiled, taking another bite of her burger.

"Can I have your attention, please?" The Principal shouted into a megaphone. "On Monday, we will be accepting nominations for homecoming prince and princess."

Rosie's eyes lit up. "So anyone can be a princess? Even you?" Her lips pursed, trying to hold back her smile.

Carter nodded. "Theoretically, yes."

----

"What shall I do while you work?" Rosie asked, stepping off the bus.

"Just wait in the room, okay? Or you can help my dad with some chores." Carter grabbed her red hat and threw on her "bait girl" apron. "I get off at seven so I'll see you then."

Rosie nodded. "Yes, and I shall start on that homework we were given." She struggled with the new word she learned.

Looking back at Rosie, she smiled slyly. "Yeah. That's a great idea, Rosie." Rosie's smile widened. "In fact, you can start mine as well." She tossed Rosie her heavy book-bag. "Just remember to write my name on my assignments. My assignments are listed in my schedule book."

"Yes." She nodded. "And when we are finished, you may show me how to be a normal American girl." Carter agreed and Rosie spun around and rushed into the house.

It seemed like it was going to be a long day at the bait shack. Carter shuffled through the paper work, making sure the inventory added up. A zip locked bag of bait was tossed onto her inventory book. "Hey!" Her eyes bulged out of her sockets. "Oh. Hi, Donny." She smiled up at him.

"Hey… um…" he pointed, trying to remember her name. "Carter?" she gave a forced smile. "So, I heard your cousin, Rosie is staying with you. Is she here? I want to ask her something."

"Her?" Carter's face fell. "Well, she's not here." She lied, looking back at the house, hoping Rosie was completely out of sight.

"Oh, well just tell her I stopped by, okay?" he flashed her a smile and handed her five dollars for the bag of worms/bait.

"Ya. Will do." Carter sighed, cursing Rosie's name.

----

Carter ran up the steps, exhausted from work. She found Rosie propped up on the bed, awaiting her arrival. "Hello, Carter." Carter threw her hat and apron onto her bed. "I have finished the assignments." She looked at the desk that had two separate piles of paper. One pile of papers was Carter's and the other belongs to Rosie.

Carter inspected the assignments, comparing between the two. "Wow. You're finished with mine and yours." She smiled, happy that she didn't have to do homework for the weekend.

Rosie shot up from the bed with her usual wide smile on. "Will you now show me how to be a typical American girl?"

Carter shook her head. "Not before I finish some chores." She lied. "I have to vacuum, wash the windows, clean up the bait shop, do laundry, and clean the dishes all before Saturday night."

"Then I shall help you!" Rosie said abruptly. "If I help you do some of the chores tonight, we may have the weekend for you to show me?"

She nodded. "Yeah. You can do half of these chores, okay?" Rosie gladly accepted Carter's task. "You can vacuum, wash the windows, sweep and dust in the bait shop while I do the rest, okay?"

"Of course!" Rosie looked at the vacuum as if it was a hamburger. "How do I use it?"

Carter demonstrated how to use it leaving Rosie to do the rest. "Just run it over on the parts with rugs." She yelled over the suction. "Just call me if you need me." Carter continued down the stairs, and spotted her father.

"Hey, Pal." Her father gave her a huge smile. "So, how's Rosie?"

Carter nodded. "She's good. Trying to blend I suppose."

"Just remember, she's new so I'm counting on you to treat her like she is your cousin."

"Yeah, yeah." She rolled her eyes. "It's really hard pretending she's my cousin when she acts like a royal pain." She spat. "Everyone goes around saying, how is she related to Carter Mason?"

"As long as she's acting like a normal American girl, it's fine." He smiled. "And since you're being such a sport, I decided to give you your present early."

Carter's face lit up. "What did you get me?"

"Come on, Pal." She followed him through the front door, and outside. Parked right out front was a red dodge pick up truck that she'd never seen before. "She's all yours, Pal."

Carter ran up to the truck, admiring every inch of it. "It's red!" she gushed, opening up the drivers seat. "I can't believe you got this for me!"

Her father appeared next to her. "So I guess that means you like it?"

"Dad, I love it!" Carter looked back at her father. "Now I don't have to take the bus to school."

"And now you and Rosie don't have to take the bus." He corrected her.

"Yeah." She looked back at the house, hoping Rosie wasn't quite finished yet. "Thank you so much dad." She tightly hugged her father, truly great full for her first means of transportation.

----

Carter sat in the kitchen with her feet up on the table, drinking a large glass of chocolate milk. She looked at the sink that didn't have a single dirty dish in it and laughed. She felt slightly bad making Rosie do pretend chores… but only slightly. I wonder how the princess is doing with all the peasant work.

"I'm going to check on Rosie, kay dad?" she announced, washing her cup.

He nodded. "Good for you, Pal. It's nice to see that you're lightening up on the whole princess thing."

She smiled. "Of course, dad." And headed upstairs.

Carter opened the door revealing the insanely clean room. "Wow…" Carter's jaw dropped. "You cleaned everything." Rosie smiled, adding the last few touches to the bed. "And you even dusted off the computer table…"

"Is it to your liking?" she smiled, proud of her first attempts at cleaning.

That's not the only thing that will be to my liking. She laughed to herself, shaking off the thought. "Yeah." Carter looked back at Rosie. "You know what, the chores can wait. I can show you how to act like an American girl."