Chapter Eighty-Three

A few days later, the snow once again melted, and practice began for the equestrian team. Horse keepers were able to bring their steeds out of their stalls to begin getting in shape for the coming season.



There was a history between Devin Huff and Alexandra Vanderburg. Both attended Smuggsworth Prep School and both were on the national equestrian team. And there was no love lost between them.
That much was clear when Alexandra and her show horse, Princess Jasmine (named after one of the lead characters in the Disney movie Aladdin) arrived at the training facility to begin their first day of training for the new season.



"Well, look who finally decided to show up," Devin began snottily as Alexandra approached.
"I've been busy," Alexandra replied, "if you haven't noticed."
"Yeah, with your reality show world tour. If I didn't see you and your sister on the cover of every darn magazine this side of Bridgeport I almost died of shock."
"Hey. I joined the military and went to college. It hasn't been all glitz and glamour, fun and games. What have YOU been doing?"



"I've been keeping up with this team, since I've been the only consistent member." Devin continued to shoot barbs at Alexandra. "I had to tend to my personal horses. It's really been a lot of work."



"Look, Devin, I've been in training to become an astronaut. I enrolled in the royal flight academy here in Hidden Springs and then I enrolled in advanced technological studies at the university. I don't need to explain anything to you."
"You know, while you were off engaging in your little hero fantasy --"



Alexandra, noted as the more even-tempered of the twins, grew uncharacteristically hot. "I beg your pardon? Hero fantasy? What are you talking about?"
"This dream, Alexandra, of doing something heroic, being recognized as a hero. You're half a man, anyway. I was going to petition the board to let you compete in the men's division -- except there isn't one."



"You know, Devin, I'm way past letting the likes of you bother me. You made our lives hell at Smuggsworth, especially my sister. She came to me crying every day because of something mean you and some of your friends said to her. You used to make pig noises to her every time she walked past. She locked herself in our dorm room and at times refused to come out. It was terrible. Neither of us have forgotten."
"She deserved it, she was huge, did you remember how big she was --"
"Nobody deserved the way you treated my sister." Alexandra rose her hand up and slapped Devin across the face. Angrily she boarded Jasmine and rode off into the night.

Chapter Eighty-Two

Prince Renauld heard a knock on his door. "Come in!" he announced jauntily. It was Alexandra.
"Dad, I need to talk to you."
"I already know, Alexandra. I've known for a long time. I wasn't at the graduation in body, but I was there in spirit. Do you not know that in this form I can be everywhere at the same time?"
"Dad, I know that, but, don't you get tired of being a ghost?"
"Sometimes being a ghost is fun, but sometimes I miss being alive. Sometimes I miss the bear hugs I used to give you and your sister. But the two of you are not little girls anymore."
"Dad, you know I've been working on an experiment with the time machine that if successful would bring you back to life --"



"Alex, sweetheart, sometimes things don't need to go back to the way things were. Sometimes things need to change. Sometimes the people around us need to change. Like I told your sister before she got engaged, I know you do not want to end up alone. That basement below the garage, I had that special place built for the two of you. I bought the show horses, the athletic equipment, the chemistry set. The minute I said "I do" it became not about me but about we and the minute the two of you were born it became not about me and your mother but about the two of you. I understand that you're a free spirit and you like to do things your way and you're hard-headed and stubborn and independent just like your mother. I get it, Alexandra. I get it, I truly do. But to be truly free, you have to let some of your freedom go. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Chapter Eighty-One

Upon their arrival back in Hidden Springs, Anastasia and Lucian hit the gym in preparation for what was certainly going to be the wedding of the season.



Anastasia was huffing and puffing after lifting the iron bar over her head only twice.
"I don't know how Alex does it," she mused between deep breaths, "day after day after day. Hours upon hours at a time. Guess that's why it's her and not me."



Lucian, on a nearby treadmill, attempted to keep his balance. "Even Patrick has problems keeping up with her."
"We do have a long line of athletes in our family. I'm just not one of them."
Lucian laughed. "Annie, you don't have to be athletic to be special. Your gifts and talents lie elsewhere. I'm sure you know that by now."
"Still though -- it's funny, we have the same DNA, we were born 3 minutes apart and we're completely different." Anastasia left the weights alone. "I'm done with this."
"Annie -- Annie, don't give up! Annie!"
Anastasia was gone, now sitting on a bench outside the gym.

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.

Chapter Seventy-Nine

Anastasia's senior art project was designing the perimeter of a building for the school, under the watchful eye of Dr. Noetal.



Alexandra continued to conduct top-secret experiments in the school laboratory, unbeknownst to even her sister.



Only one person knew of the experiments -- her boyfriend and partner in crime, Patrick.
"Just how many forbidden fruit seeds do you have, Alex?"
"Just one," she replied, "I was only successful once with gene splicing."
"I see."



Meanwhile, Anastasia's new friend, Samantha Grey, came up to her. "Wow, congratulations, newlywed! Isn't this exciting!"
"I'm stoked!"
"Lucian is so handsome. Have you picked out the dress yet?"
"I haven't even given it any thought. Been so busy with school." Then she whispered in her ear that she went out with AJ Cheesman.
"Really?" Anastasia wondered. "I didn't think he was your type."
"We went out on our first date a couple simdays ago and I like him, a lot. He's cute and he's funny. Makes me laugh."
Anastasia shook her head. Alex's AJ... really? she thought. Wait till I tell this to her.





The twins' last days of college were filled with photo ops with friends and goodbye parties sponsored by the sorority.



"AJ's dating Samantha? Really?" was Alexandra's terse reaction to the news of her friend's new galpal, shaking her head in disgust and disbelief.
It was certainly a more frigid reaction than Anastasia was expecting, mirroring the weather outside.
"She's not even cute. He could do so much better. She's just another ditzy brainless sorority girl."
Glaring at Alexandra, Anastasia had to stop her. "She's my friend, and no, she's not. She's actually nice. You should give her a chance."
Alexandra shook her head. "She may be nice to you, Ana, but to me she's just another ditzy brainless sorority girl. They're all in a lump to me. Something's not right about this. I can feel it."

Chapter Seventy-Eight

"This is Gwen Glover reporting from the Sims University quad, the scene of a massive demonstration. Let's give a listen..."

 

Anastasia walked up to a desolate podium. Looking around, she was scared as she took a deep breath

 

.

"My name is Anastasia -- and -- and --" Her voice faltered a bit, and then grew more assured. "I was bullied."

 

 

A crowd gathered behind and around her, including her classmate, Derek Khan, who held a megaphone. Taking a deep breath, Anastasia grew more confident, more sure, of her words. "While I was a student at Smuggsworth Prep School, I was bullied relentlessly," she said, showing a photograph of herself during her senior year there. "I was painfully shy and eighty pounds overweight. I had no friends. It was four years of torture, and the school administration did nothing about it. The only thing that ended it was, frankly, when I graduated."

"What we have to make sure is that what happened to me doesn't happen to another individual ever again!" Her comment was met with thunderous applause.



"No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No!" The chants pierced the still cold air.





"We will not let bullies win!"

Chapter Seventy-Seven

The second semester for the twins wasn't nearly as eventful as the first.

In order to graduate alongside her sister the newly engaged Anastasia was forced to take a heavy course load, 18 hours as opposed to 6 for Alexandra. This seriously cut down on her partying time.

As expected, Anastasia's engagement was the talk of the campus.



Their public displays of affection were everywhere. Even Patrick was impressed with that one.



They took in a movie at the newly opened Le Cinema Plumbob.



Meanwhile, Alexandra was glad to see her friend Sasha again. So much so that she issued her a trivia challenge.
"What?" Sasha asked in disbelief. "You've got to be kidding me."
"How many Vanderburgs are buried in the royal plot...besides my dad, of course?"
"I've read a lot about your family, Alex, but this...this is insane..."



"Answer the question," Alexandra replied with a smug grin.



"I bet you don't know the answer."



"Ten?"
"You're real close, very good, it's twelve."



"Now for a real challenge, can you name all the Vanderburgs in the cemetery. You know three of them already, Renauld, Rudolph and Eloise. Can you name the rest?"
"You expect me to remember all those Dutch and German names?"
Alexandra laughed. "Well at least you know what language they are."
"Y'all got those crazy names like Wolfgang and Joost and Romijn."
"You got three of them," Alexandra smiled. "You're doing good. Keep going."



"Ah, this is no use! I can't remember all that! My brain is broken!"
"It's okay, I didn't expect you to. There's Gustav, his wife Marta, their daughter Christina, his brother Lars, Lars' son Karl, and Karl's wife Marieke. You did well, tho, Sasha, really, don't beat yourself up."



The next day, Alexandra delivered her senior thesis. Her professor nodded his head in approval.



At the same time, however, Anastasia met with her professor and major adviser.
"You got engaged over winter break," began Dr. Noetal, "congratulations!"
"Thank you, Dr. Noetal."
"Anastasia, I'm looking over your records, and you have a custom major in architectural design. The university requires you to declare a minor."
Anastasia shook her head. "Why?"
"It's a fine arts degree. We want our students to be well rounded."
"I see."
"Well, you have several choices. You can combine it with another program in this department or opt for something completely different."
"Such as?"
"Well, Anastasia, the best option for picking a minor is something that dovetails with your background and interests. Since you have a diplomatic background as a member of the royal family, I suggest perhaps coursework in political theory and public policy, so a minor in political science might be an option for you. That would give your major a practical application in, say, city planning. It's just something to think about."

Chapter Seventy-Six

"It's happening, girl!"
"What did you say?"
"What do you expect?" Anastasia laughed.  "How can I resist this?"  Proudly she showed off the five-carat diamond rock on her left ring finger.



Alexandra tapped her sister on the shoulder and gave her a hug. "I'm so happy for you!"



"She said yes! She finally said yes!" Lucian excitedly told his future father-in-law.
"That's terrific."
"You cannot tell your wife my secret though. Under any circumstances."
"That you're my daughter's favorite doll come to life?" Prince Renauld chuckled. "Well, I'm a ghost currently. Anything else unusual about this family we need to know?"



The next morning, the royal press corps went to work on the newly engaged couple. But Lucian, now dressed in a dapper tuxedo, could sense immediately that something was amiss with his fiancée.
"What's wrong, baby?"
Anastasia sighed deeply. "Even now, Lucky, that we're engaged, I can't be totally happy, because we're not complete yet. The four of us."
"Oh, you mean Alex and Patches."
"Yes, and you and I both know Patches was a girl. Alex will never be truly happy with Patches being a boy. She knows it, I know it, and you know it. Unfortunately, my mother is so incredibly close-minded that she'll deprive Alex of her true happiness, of her true self. Alex doesn't deserve that. And, Lucian, I will never do to our children what she's done to hers. Ever."

Chapter Seventy-Five

A few hours later, Anastasia met Lucian again in the bedroom they both shared. Slipping on the glistening diamond ring Lucian had purchased for her, she asked, "Lucian -- wha -- how -- how did you get this ring?"
"Annie, don't you know I know you by now?"



Anastasia examined the ring again.   In the center was a giant five-carat diamond in the shape of a heart.  She then saw the letters L and A, carved in two smaller diamonds. She realized it must have cost a small fortune.  "You designed this!"
"I did, Annie, yes."
"You're serious about this! Do you realize what marriage is?"
"Yes, Annie, it's forever. We've been together this long, let's make it permanent."

"Yes, Lucian -- yes, I'll marry you!"



She enveloped him in an embrace which said that for the first time that she completely, totally, and fully trusted him.