The Princess's Sister

Chapter 6 - Pumpkin Princesses

Lottie hadn't slept well as she was trying to find out what secret the person was referring to. Lottie couldn't think of any secrets unless they were referring to her lying about being from a different country.
"I'm going to tell Binah and the others about the misconception, first thing today," Lottie had decided.
"Do you want to go to breakfast together, Lottie?" Her roommate offered.
"No, sorry. I have some.. uhh.. business to do."
"I can cover for you if that's code for 'I'm skipping class.'"
"What? No! Skip my first lesson? I'll be done before then. I'll see you in class."
She heaved herself out of bed, which is always hard to do in the morning - especially if you didn't sleep well. Then marched over to Stratus to find out that she couldn't get in because she was in Ivy, not Stratus. She was about to just head to breakfast when a teacher, carrying an armful of art supplies, tripped.
"Oopsy!"
Lottie recognised her as the House Mother of Stratus and her English teacher, Ms Kuma. She wanted to get on her good-side so she helped her pick the supplies up.
"Thank you.. uhh"
"Lottie."
"Thank you, Lottie. I need to get this to the art supplies cupboard before a meeting I need to go to but I don't have enough time," Lottie saw this as an opportunity to get on her really-good-side.
"Oh, I can get them to the cupboard for you so your not late."
"Thank you so much, that would be extremely helpful. If you follow the corridor to the end then go down the right set of stairs, it's the little wooden door on your left."
"Thank you." Sounds of Lottie's new school shoes were heard, echoing in the corridor. They slightly big for her because Beady wanted her to, "Grow into them." Hannah's uniform was also slightly bigger than her size.
Lottie found that it wasn't really a cupboard and more of a room you could walk into. She read the labels to see where everything went and found that the paint went on the highest shelf. A shelf she couldn't reach. She tried going on her tip-toes to put it on but a pot of glitter fell down as a result though the glitter floating down did intrigue her. She watched some of it land behind some other supplies and moved them to clean the glitter but found a hatch! Curiously, Lottie opened it and discovered there was plenty of space for her to crawl into. She had enough time to explore a bit.
There were lots of corners you could turn to but Lottie heard voices and followed them to behind a mirror.
"They look like they could be a princess.. you know? With all that pink, Lola? Plus, not only do they look like Princesses, they look like the Queen of Maradova!"
"I guess I did think Pumpkin was an odd name, Anastacia."
"Lottie and her sister Hannah has to be the undercover Princesses of Maradova. It's the only logical explanation, Lola."
"But I haven't heard of a little sister."
"They probably didn't want to announce her because she wasn't the heir."
Princesses? Oh no..

________________________________________

Hannah was woken up to the sound of an alarm clock, except, it wasn't hers.
"Sorry, I wake up early to practice fencing. You see those trophies in my pictures; I don't get them without working." It was 6:00 in the morning. Breakfast started at 7:30.
It was hard not to insult her; she hated being woken up. Especially after not sleeping well with that gift. What did it mean?
She ended up going back to sleep and woke up at 7:00. She changed into her school uniform for the first time. She had her own stand-up mirror and looked in it. She thought red looked good on her. She checked her timetable.
1st Period - Performing Arts, Theatre
2nd Period - Geography, Room 11
Break
3rd Period - Biology, Science Room 4
4th Period - Biology, Science Room 4
Lunch
5th Period - PE, Gymnasium
6th Period - Maths, Room 57
"Performing Arts on a Monday first Period? Now I don't have anything to look forward to in the week!"
The scent of freshly-baked pastries, yoghurt, sausages and baked beans filled the cafeteria. She couldn't see Aimee or her sister, but she saw Binah with some of her sister's friends.
"Guys, look! It's a younger version of Lottie because she ate a shrinking potion."
"Don't be silly Raphael. This is Lottie's younger sister, Hannah," Binah said.
"Hello!" Hannah greeted them. She saw a person who was wearing red uniform whisper into a person, wearing yellow uniform's, ear.
They introduced themselves as Lola and Anastacia. Then everyone else introduced themselves.
"What country are you from again, Hannah?" Hannah remembered about Lottie saying they were from a different country.
"Lottie and I are from-"
"Speaking of, where is she?" Binah interrupted her.
"She told me when we woke up that she had business to do."
Then the bell rang.