Chapter Eighty

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The night before graduation, the twins' Bonehilda skeleton was put to good use scaring off a would-be robber.



On graduation morning, the girls talked about their future plans. "When we get back to Hidden Springs," began Alexandra, "back to our lives, we're going to invite the people we met here back to the palace for a tour."
"That's a great idea," Anastasia agreed, "but what's mom going to say about it? And how are we going to keep dad from scaring them off? And how are we going to hide Lucian and Patrick from them? We can't tell them about them, can we?"
"You know, Ana, if they're really our friends, they need to know everything about us, and that includes our lives."



The rain pelted the campus all day long. Alexandra scurried to get into the auditorium to change into the standard-issue university cap and gown.



Anastasia stood outside the gym wearing her gown but without the cap.





The twins had each graduated magna cum laude from the first Sims University graduating class. Alexandra received her bachelor of science degree in aerospace engineering technology with a minor in biochemistry and Anastasia received her bachelor of arts degree in architectural design with her minor in political science.



Alexandra Maria-Louisa Vanderburg, whose grade-point average was slightly higher than her sister's and was named class valedictorian, got up to speak.
"My sister is the better public speaker of the two of us," Alexandra began, laughing nervously. "This ceremony marks the end of this adventure here -- but only the beginning of the rest of our lives. Over our time here we've learned a lot about ourselves. Some have discovered new loves, some have reacquainted ourselves with old friends. Some of us have uncovered new passions, others of us have learned more about what we loved in the first place. All of us have discovered new things about ourselves, and it's time I revealed something that some of you knew and others of you probably suspected. Yes, I may be princess of Hidden Springs, but I'm also bisexual. I'm attracted to men and women.
"I knew this as a teenager at Smuggsworth Prep School, when the other girls in my class started talking about boys and I wasn't feeling the same feelings. It all started when I enrolled in a class and this new girl walked in and I thought she was cute and I wanted to get to know her. But I missed the opportunity because I was too shy to say anything. I started feeling the same things that the other girls were talking about, and it started to sink in that maybe, you know, this could be what it is. Then I was really confused when a guy showed up at my father's funeral dinner and I thought he was cute and I wanted to get to know him better, and I started feeling those same feelings all over again. So I said, you know, maybe it doesn't have to be either-or. Maybe I was attracted to both.
"It was hard for me as a teenager because I'm a person who's active and plays a lot of sports. I'm also interested in sciences and tech. My mother didn't like that at all. She wanted someone who was, in her words, a 'proper princess.'  Neither I nor my twin sister, nor my older sister, Francisca, fit the bill.  When I enlisted in the military back home, she was not very happy. But I told her there was nothing she could do, because I was following my dream.
Maybe I was just one of those people who didn't fit into this neat little box that my mother wanted to put me in.  Just what is a proper princess, anyway? When we go on with the rest of our lives, we will look back on this time with fondness and memories that will stay with us forever."
After she was finished speaking, her classmates gave her a standing ovation.  Anastasia, sitting in the front row, was clapping loudest and hardest of all.