Dust Devils - A Girls Und Panzer Story

Chapter 59

Tuesday, August 20th 2013

It was the crack of dawn. People throughout Catalina's ship were still asleep as the day has not yet begun. Though, for one girl, she was already at work. Her focus on the fast approaching Friday, as on that day this ship will be receiving an important visitor. Viola Wilhelm, the great-great-great grand niece of Kaiser Wilhelm the second, the German monarch that lead Germany in the calamity of calamities that was World War I. She will be touring this ship as part of her plan to transfer to an American school. Without a doubt, her being here will be a huge deal, and as such the school's administration is going all-out to make Viola's visit extravagant. Madison has been tasked as the person who is to be with Viola all day to try and persuade the German princess to attend Catalina. Madison always figured she'd be the person responsible, but she still felt the great pressure to deliver. So, in the early morning hours in her dorm, she was at her desk reviewing the preparations. In the past few days, Madison has managed to learn a bit more about Viola. One is that she has never before left Germany, much less ventured out of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, for that is where she was born and and currently lives in. This fact initially perplexed Madison as Viola is part of a wealthy family, so she very much has the means to travel. From what Madison can gather, Viola seemed like a homebody, which piled on to her confusion as to why the girl now wanted to transfer to an American school. Though Madison could never find a concrete answer, she did happen to come across a social media account of a relative of Viola and after auto-translating the German to English, the relative said that a cousin of theirs just had a cancer scare and the whole family is immensely relieved that it was nothing serious. No name was mentioned in this social media post, so who it could be referring to could be anyone. Still, a cancer scare could explain why Viola would suddenly want to transfer schools. Especially to a school carrier. The experience could have made Viola want to have a change in her life, live in a different culture, and to see the world just in case she makes a premature departure from it.

Of course, Madison wouldn't dare mention cancer to Viola. That would certainly torpedo all hope of her attending the school.

What she also learned about Viola, this one more of the lighter side, is that she actually has a rudimentary understanding of the English classes. Though a translator, one being Natalie, will still be necessary, Madison fully expects Viola wanting to show off her English, and no matter how choppy, or bad it is, Madison is prepare to shower her in praise regardless. That was just the name of the game.

Then there was Valarie. Madison found it incredibly exciting that her sister would be joining her, even if she would be just hanging around. Though, she also understood that Valarie was somewhat nervous about the meeting. She had told Madison what can she possibly offer to help get Viola to transfer. What Madison told her assuaged her of all concern. To just be her genuine self. Plus, she was betting on the fact that since Valarie was in charge of a tankery team that is currently in the world tournament would be a beneficial factor to 'woo' Viola. Hopefully, she had at the very least a meager interest in tanks.

On the desk she sat at, her phone then lit up. Checking in, she learned that she received a text that soured her mood like nothing else. It was from Alice.

"Golden Gate has made port here in Hamburg. We both know why."

Madison groaned. "Goddamn it. This is *not* what we need. I should've known when we saw her at Spain. Like some harbinger of doom."

"She will be here to do what she does best. To steal Viola away from us."

"Ugh. Can't we just ban her from the ship or something?"

"You know we can't do that."

Madison sighed as what Alice said was true. They couldn't ban Juliana just because they hated her. Banning people from school ships, in fact, wasn't a thing that was really done, only in exceptionally rare circumstances. Whenever a school ship made port, it was expected of them to be open and allow people to come aboard as school ships were floating cities, and cities on land tend to be open to all. It was actually in a carrier's best interest to be open, mainly for economical reasons as it meant that whenever it made port, people would come on board to buy things that are not in their home country. For example, as the ship was currently in Germany, Germans have made their way on board and eagerly shopped for American goods, mainly food such as peanut butter, girl scout cookies, and root beer were commonly bought in bulk. What more, American restaurants were always crowded with hungry customers curious to try what Americans eat, with the on-board In-N-Out always the most popular destination. In cases where school ships were in the same port, it was not unusual at all for students of one ship to visit another.