Chapter 9 - Time Goes On

I successfully returned to my room without incident. I spent the night reading my new collection and having nose bleeds.

Sigh. I wish I could be a character in this book instead. Adult books are better at character development and drama. Not to mention they always seem to end tragically. They are just more realistic.

Unfortunately, most of the romance novels are all fluff and no substance. But that in itself can be refreshing. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I don't really remember a lot about this novels development.

If I recall, William and Mary are engaged and married at the end. I think it was a happy ending. At least for the main characters. I can also remember snippets of events in the book. Ilene's bullying, Seri's death, etc.

Oh well, I'm sure my memory will come back as time goes on.

In the meantime, I need to focus on getting older. That way I can fence all this stuff and start my own life. I just have a feeling I won't be able to have a relaxing life if I stay here.

So, time went on. My life was pretty monotonous. I would stay up all night reading, then when I got to class I would always try to skip, but William always caught me. On the positive side, at least I'm finally getting in some cardio.

During class, I spent the time catching up on my sleep. At first the teacher scolded me, but after a while he gave up since I could easily embarrass him. I realized I was standing out due to my past experience already learning all of this, so I made sure to get a question on each test wrong. Problem solved.

Before I knew it, days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months.

I was in my room napping after getting home from school, when my mother walked in. I looked towards the door a bit surprised. She had stopped asking me for my apology a while ago.

She crossed her arms, "Your father will be home tomorrow. I expect you will clean up and be a good girl."

She still needs to learn a lesson if she thinks I'm a good girl. Or at least the kind she wants.

"Does that mean I'm no longer grounded?"

She scowled, "Only for the time being. I expect you won't bother your hard working father with this either."

Heh. You clearly don't know the new me.

I smiled innocently, "Of course mother."

"Good. It would only trouble him. And you wouldn't want that, right?"

"No, mother."

She nodded as if she won and left the room.

You evil f*cker. How dare you speak to your daughter that way? That's like abusive parenting 101. Make the child think they're all alone and a burden. Jokes on you, I'm not a gullible child.

The next day the maids made sure to clean my room and make sure I looked presentable. It was the first time they had done this since my grounding started. I watched them carefully to make sure they didn't find my stash of books. I need to find a better place for them.

After they finished, I almost didn't recognize the place. It smelled so fresh and clean now. A girl could get used to this.

A maid walked in interrupting my appreciation. "Little Miss. Your father is now home. Come with me to greet him."

"Yes, thank you." I followed the maid down the hall and to the room that is specifically for greeting people and speaking with them.

I had almost forgot that I had a father in this world. I'm not even sure what he does for a living. It must be something that is well paying since he has such a big house with expensive decorations.

We walked into the room and the maid stood off the side bowing. I looked at my father. Then did a double take to make sure that he was the only man in the room.

What is such a handsome man doing as my father?! More importantly, why did I look like my mother more than my father? This is too unfair.

I nodded at him, "Hello father-"

"There's my beautiful girl!" He quickly rushed over to me and twirled me in the air. I tried to refrain from puking. He pulled me in a hug and began planting kisses on my face.

Ugh. What fresh hell is this?

I'm not entirely opposed to such a handsome man fawning over me, but he's technically my father.

He laughed and beamed at me, "Daddy has missed you so much!"

Ugh. I can practically feel the jealous glare from my mother stabbing me in my back.

I forced a smile, "Your daughter has missed you as well."

Is this what it means to be a daddy's girl?

He finally put me back down after staring at me attentively. We sat down on the lounge couch.

He smiled at me, "How has school been?"

"Boring."

He chuckled, "I see. When I was your age I also found it very boring."

Yes, but I'm sure we had different reasons as to why we both found it boring.

He looked at the maid who accompanied me, "How is she doing in school?"

My mother interjected herself into the conversation, "Shouldn't you ask your wife this question?"

He glared at her, "Oh? Do you actually know the answer?"

D*mn. I can feel the animosity. He is like a totally different person. I feel kind of bad for my mother now.

"Of course I do. She isn't very good at school. She can barely pass her tests and I'm always getting complaints about her from the school. She lacks discipline."

Okay, I don't feel as bad now.

He noticed the maid flinch at this. He looked at her with a threatening glare, "Is this true?"

Oh my. Does he have multiple personalities?! He's so serious and scary right now, even I'm shivering.

The maid glanced at my mother. I recognized this maid as the one who was constantly taking care of me. She wore such a serious expression constantly. Except now, she was showing traces of worry.

My father spoke in a low voice, "Don't look at her. Answer me. Don't forget, I'm the one who employs you."

She looked down shaking, "Actually, Sir. The teacher always brags and says she's an excellent student."

Wait, he does?

She continued, "She has near perfect grades now. Many call her a natural born genius. They believe she could easily compete with Prince William."

He looked shocked, "Really?"

Time to go on the offensive. I started sniffling as if I was holding back tears, "I just wanted my parents to be proud of me. But, it seems like no matter what I do, mother always is disappointed."

*Sob*

She looked at me furiously, "Why you-"

My father grabbed me and pulled me into his embrace, "Oh, baby girl! Don't you cry! Daddy's here!"

Ack. I really can't handle this personality switch.

Despite my wishes, I hugged him back and sobbed into his chest.

He looked at my mother angrily, "Just what have you been up to while I was away? Maid?"

She answered, "The little Miss has been confined to her room for a few months now."

He looked back at the maid, "What? Why?!"

She answered politely, "Madam was upset over something that happened at the tea party with Queen Luna."

He looked at me with tender eyes, "What happened?"

I pretended to be hesitant, "Well. All I did was point out to Queen Luna that mother gets to buy all these nice clothes and mine are so old that they're ripping."

He looked stunned, "That's all?"

I grabbed on his sleeve and forced a few tears out, "Please don't be angry with me Daddy! I was upset because everyone was making fun of me for being so poor. I didn't mean to lash out."

He smiled as if pleased to hear me say Daddy.

Ugh. Is he a lolicon?

He kissed my forehead, "There there. Daddy's not angry at his cute daughter."

My mother tried to defend herself, "Husband! You can't believe her over your own wife!"

He shot her a nasty look, "Really? So if I go to her closet now, you're telling me that I won't find old out of style clothes?"

"T-thats-"

"Enough. You should be ashamed to call yourself a mother. I let you spend all of my money because I assumed you would use it to take care of your own daughter. I can't believe you've acted so selfishly! How dare you blame your daughter for telling Queen Luna the truth. You clearly deserve what happened."

I watched my mother's lip tremble. Heh. That's what you get. Although, I don't think she's completely at fault. How can this man not even know what's going on in his own house? That's almost as bad if not worse.

My father's personality switched as he looked back at me, "You aren't in trouble anymore. How would you like to go shopping with daddy tomorrow?"

"Oh daddy!" I threw my arms over him, "I would love to!"

As a 26 year old, I find my own behavior somewhat revolting. I need to keep reminding myself that I am in a child's body. After the situation calmed back down, I looked at my father.

"May I ask something Father?"

"Yes. Anything."

"Why did you come back home?"

Seriously. I want to know. I haven't seen you since I appeared in this world. It's been months.

However, judging by the surprised appearances, I realized I asked something that should have been a no duh statement.

"Why? It's your birthday next week."

What? Oh sh*t.