Lunch was the only thing about this school that Astrid seemed to do right.

Not for long.

It had been a few days, and although her classes hadn't gone all that great, she'd met all her classmates, and she liked most of them. Ruffnut and Heather were still looking to be really good people to be with, and people like Vanellope and Taffyta weren't so bad either.

She stood in line, with Taffyta in front of her. "Ooh, they're serving Strawberry Swirl today!"

Astrid laughed. "You're such a sweet tooth."

"That I am, that I am." She handed Astrid a piece, before taking one for herself and going to sit down at her own table. Astrid made her way to Ruffnut and Heather.

Behind her, she saw Rapunzel and Anna talking, and for some reason Rapunzel took Anna's cake, and after a short explanation, pointed straight at her. Anna seemed to suggest something and she quickly denied it.

"Hey, guys!" It was Vanellope, with her hair done up in a ponytail, unlike her usual uniform oriented hair. Frankly, Astrid liked this one better. It suited her.

"Ready to hear our school spirit cheer?"

"Because the time to cheer...is here!"

Heather smiled politely. "That was great!"

"Oh. that wasn't the cheer!" Vanellope exclaimed, shocked, "This is the cheer!"

"Princess Charm School is the best!

"Royal skills put to the test!

"Where people come from far and wide!

"And take this princess business in their stride!

And with a finale of, "Go Princess Charm School!" they were done. The three girls clapped, Ruffnut a little dully until Heather nudged her.

"Thanks for sharing."

"Part of caring!"

After they left, Ruffnut suggested, "We should make up our own cheer."

"Yeah, right," Heather replied, rolling her eyes. Stormfly fell into the tea. "As if we could ever rhyme as well as them."

"We could! Astrid?"

She contemplated the thought for a while. "I suppose we could. Hang on, I'm gonna get a napkin."

And from there, lunch went kapoot.

As she stood up and walked off, she dragged half the table off with her, including poor Stormfly, who yelped and flew away before the mug fell on top of her. Astrid noted in horror that there was a part of the tablecloth tucked inside her skirt. She looked up and glared at Rapunzel.

Rapunzel, however, looked as surprised as she did. Everyone was staring in shock, except Gothel, who was smirking victoriously. She murmured something to Toothiana, who shook her head and continued her staring.

"I'm sorry." She swallowed a lump in her throat. Oh heck no, she was not going to cry. Not in public, anyway.

Lunch should have been the one thing no one messed up. Couldn't mess up. She felt a wetness prickling her eyes and threatening to spill out and she ran.

Safely in her room, she let the tears fall. Astrid cried. She cried because she missed her mom and Gustav. She cried because no one in their right mind would want her as a lady royal. It wasn't right for her to be here, she simply didn't fit in.

There was a creak and Ruffnut and Heather rushed in. The latter immediately hugged her, and Astrid attempted to wipe her tears away. It would not do well to cry in front of them.

Ruffnut sat down. "You okay?"

"No," she stated flatly, "Gothel's right. I'm not Charm School material."

"Seriously? Gothel isn't Charm School material!"

"What do you mean?" she asked curiously, sitting up and wiping her nose on her sleeve.

"Oh, I know this story!" Heather squealed, and then composed herself, "Gothel is Queen Valka's sister, right? So everyone assumed she would be her lady royal! She couldn't be the princess, because Valka was older than her. But Valka didn't choose her." Heather's voice dropped to a murmur.

"And Rapunzel's a year younger than us, too," Ruff added, "So, hypothetically, she should wait a year. Guess Gothel's just impatient."

Another knock startled them. Heather went to open the door to see Stormfly struggling with a package in her hands. "Help...please...now."

She smiled softly and picked it up. "It's for you, Ast, from...Gustav Hofferson?"

"Gustav?" Immediately she felt better as she reached for the package and opened it. There were quite few things in there, but one thing in particular caught her eye. Chuckling, she took it out.

"Ooh, that's a pretty drawing. Who made it?"

"Gustav," Astrid responded with a smile, "He loved the story of me being found on my mom's doorstep when I was one. Mom adopted him a few years later. I just wanna make a better life for the two of them. They mean everything to me."

And she thought she heard the door creak, but when she turned, no one was there.

"One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four."

Dancing. Another thing she was not so great at. And amazingly, her dance partner was better than her. It was amazing because her partner was Anna.

"Ow!"

Astrid winced as she felt something else come under her foot and mentally scolded herself for getting lost in thought again.

"Again, Astrid?"

The phrase, "I'm sorry," had become second nature to her. She said it at least ten times a day, and she said it now to Toothiana, who, thankfully, did not kick students out of class like Dame Gothel did.

"You've stepped on eight of my toes," complained Anna, "I only have four left."

"Two," Astrid sighed, correcting her, "You have two left."

Anna glared at her. "That's even worse."

The bell rang and the girls filed out, and just as she was about to leave, Toothiana called out, "Not you, Astrid. I'd like to see you after class."

She saw her roommates giving her pitying looks, to which she responded with a grimace. Who knew what Toothiana wanted?

"Is everything okay?" she asked nervously, approaching the table.

"No, it's not, Astrid," said Toothiana with a stern glare, "Yesterday, Dame Gothel suggested that we expel you."

"Oh."

She felt as though a dull blow had just been delivered to her stomach. Everything was spiralling downwards, Gustav would grow up the same place she did, and her mother would never get better, and their life was never going to improve.

"I can't say I blame her. I know it's only been a few weeks, but I have never seen a worse student in all my years of teaching here. To be completely frank, I was almost going to do it." The woman handed her a few books and instructed her to hand them over so that she could place them on the tables.

Astrid's head snapped up. "Did you say 'almost'?"

"Almost. Tell me, do you know what it takes to be a princess?" She began walking.

As Astrid hurried to catch up, she asked, "A crown?"

"No, not a crown," Toothiana corrected, "Character. All of our classes, dancing, grace, balance, they're not superficial. They build confidence. But confidence without character is dangerous. You on the other hand, Astrid, have a different problem. Character without confidence."

"I have plenty of confidence!" Astrid protested.

"No, you do not. Not in your lady royal skills, at least." She put the last of the books on the desk.

"So…you are going to expel me?" she asked, fearing the worst.

What she didn't expect was the headmistress to turn around with a huge smile and exclaim, "I'm going to tutor you!"

Astrid gaped.

"I'm sure, that with the proper guidance, you, Astrid, can graduate with your pick of any lady royal position that you want. What do you say?"

"Yes!" Astrid all but yelped, and she ran forward to hug her. "Yes, yes, yes!"

"Rule number one," Toothiana groaned out, "No hugging the tutor." She gave her a small smile.

Astrid composed herself. "Sorry. So, when do we start?"

If this woman could smirk, this was what it looked like.

"Right now."

I did a video for You Can Tell She's a Princess, and this is the link: watch?v=gOLGkgUCEFo
So, yeah, lemme know if you like it, and if you want me to make one for Top of the World! (For anyone who hasn't seen the original Barbie in Princess Charm School, watch these songs, they are BRILLIANT)