Lousy Little Pest! | Sequel to Gothel's Greatest Gift

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

"Dinner time!" Gothel called to her two daughters. Usually, Rapunzel ate dinner with her parents, but since they were away for their anniversary, Gothel offered to have Rapunzel for dinner so she didn't have to eat alone with the chefs.

"We're coming!" the two girls replied while running down the halls.

The sisters were met with two bowls of dinner, one for each of them.

"Do you girls want to play a game?" Gothel asked the girls cheerily.

"Yes!" they both exclaimed, excited as ever for dinner.

"Whichever one of you finishes their dinner first, gets an extra cupcake for dessert!"

"But, mom-" Cassandra began to protest.

"Ready, set, go!"

The two girls devoured their dinner as fast as they could, with Rapunzel in a strong lead. They ate and ate until Gothel called time.

"Rapunzel wins!" Gothel declared, Rapunzel beaming with pride.

"But mom, Rapunzel didn't have as much food as I did! And you know I don't like spinach!" Cassandra complained dejectedly.

"I love spinach!" Rapunzel happily squealed in response.

"That's quite enough, Cassandra. Rapunzel is younger, and you lost fair and square," Gothel reprimanded her older daughter.

Gothel looked in the cupboard for the desserts, to find only two cupcakes left.

"Sorry, Cassandra, but I promised Rapunzel an extra cupcake, and since there's only two, she'll have both of them tonight".

Little Rapunzel took both of the cupcakes, but felt bad for her sister. It wasn't her fault she didn't like spinach! Rapunzel offered her second cupcake to Cassandra, but was reprimanded by Gothel for it.

"Rapunzel, honey. Cassandra lost the game. I need you to eat both cupcakes yourself, please".

So Rapunzel ate both of the cupcakes, feeling guilty the entire time. Cassandra, however, realized that if she wanted to survive her mother's attempts to destroy her, she'd need to be tougher. She couldn't be friends with anyone, other than Rapunzel, who'd need protection growing up. She needed to be competitive.

–

"I can't express just how much this time in Vardaros has meant to us," Rapunzel gushed to the people of Vardaros, who crowded around her in anticipation of her upcoming announcement. "We may have come here as strangers, but I like to think we're leaving as friends". Rapunzel could think that all she wanted, but that didn't make it true. Still, she tried to push the friendship narrative onto the Vardarans. "So, in the spirit of that friendship, we would like to share a Corona tradition with all of you. I am proud to announce the First Annual Vardaros Goodwill Festival!" Rapunzel, being the happy-go-lucky princess that she was, expected a more lively response than the one she got, which was dull and unimpressed. Needless to say, the people of Vardaros weren't exactly the 'celebratory' type of crowd that Rapunzel was used to back in Corona.

"Boo!" a townsperson sneered at Rapunzel. While Rapunzel could choose to be upset about these people's reactions, that wasn't the point of goodwill. Rapunzel was going to bring joy into Vardaros whether Vardaros liked it or not.

"Yeah, I got booed at last year's festival, too," Rapunzel laughed. "Don't worry. This is gonna be fantastic".

"It's great that you wanna do this, Raps, but this town isn't like Corona," Cassandra interjected into Rapunzel's fantasy, knowing better than anyone that happiness wasn't everyone's cup of tea. "They don't feel the need to celebrate something every six seconds".