Disclaimer: Ever After High is owned by Mattel.

Author's Note: I've never written anything for this fandom before, but the muse has recently latched onto it, and isn't going to leave me alone unless I at least get started on one of the freshly-spawned plotbunnies. I've actually started several, but finished a chapter for this one first. (The reason it ends where it does is that this chapter was just getting too long, so I had to split it in two.) Hope you enjoy it!

Class Confusion Redux

This was absurd.

First, Raven had rejected her evil heritage, going out of her way to be nice and friendly. Apple had been able to deal with that. She and her destined Prince, Daring Charming, weren't even dating because they were only in high school, after all. If Raven didn't want to be evil until their story properly began, that was fine. (She'd privately admitted to herself that it would certainly make her impulsive decision to convince Headmaster Grimm to let her be Raven's roommate easier to take, as having an outright evil roommate could have been... difficult to endure.)

After that, Raven had refused to sign the Storybook of Legends, denying Apple her Happily Ever After and splitting the school into a hostile mix of Royals and Rebels. Because she didn't want to be evil. Because she didn't want to follow in her mother's footsteps. (Apple could almost agree with the latter part, given how the Evil Queen had gone completely off-script and begun invading other stories, trying to conquer... well, pretty much everywhere, really.) Because she wanted to write her own destiny. Nevermind that she was placing the lives of every single other person in their story at risk, as well as her own. That had been harder to take, but Apple supposed such selfishness was only to be expected from evil villains, so in a way, it was a good sign, she'd told herself. Clearly, for all her kindness, Raven did have some evil in her. Also, that very kindness would surely motivate Raven to change her mind and sign the book, to keep them all from being erased from existence, wouldn't it? She just had to be patient. Even as more and more time slipped past, and her patience began to strain, Apple clung to her hopeful belief that Raven would do the right thing.

This, though...

At first, she honestly hadn't thought she'd heard Raven correctly. She'd been standing a good distance away in a large, crowded space from where Raven and Maddie had been talking, after all. She knew that she'd only caught parts of their conversation, so it could have had a perfectly innocent explanation. (Or a perfectly evil explanation? Was that really too much to ask for?) So she'd turned around and walked over to them to ask. Unfortunately, it turned out that she had heard what she thought she'd heard. Everything else had been bad enough, but this was just the golden straw that broke the camel's back. Raven actually wanted to take... to take...

"Princessology," Apple repeated slowly. "You want to sign up for Princessology?" She couldn't quite keep the blatant skepticism from her voice.

Raven, who could hardly have missed that if she'd tried, didn't seem to appreciate it. "And why shouldn't I? I am a princess, remember?"

That was true, Apple had to admit. She'd hardly forgotten that Raven was also the daughter of the Good King, especially since she was fairly sure that he was a large part of the reason Raven didn't seem to have any interest in being evil. As such, she knew she needed to be careful, here. One thing Raven would not tolerate was someone disparaging her father, and Apple didn't like fighting with her friends. (Or anyone, really.) Not to mention the fact that she knew from experience that approaching conversations with Raven like that never worked. When Raven got angry, she simply stopped listening, instead just blindly clinging to her beliefs, deciding that she was right and everyone else was wrong. "I know that, I just... I'm afraid that they won't exactly... accept you, or make you feel... at all welcome... you know?" Whether or not that was the primary reason for her objection or not, it was entirely true. In the many (many, many, many, many) times her mother had lectur- er, talked to Apple about the subject, she'd pointed out that one couldn't be the Fairest of Them All if she went around lying.

Raven clearly realized that Apple meant what she was saying, as her expression softened. "I know, and I do appreciate your concern. But nothing will ever change in how people view me if I just stick to the status quo. People are already afraid of me, so it's not like I really have anything to lose in that respect."

Okay, this approach wasn't working. Time to try something else. "Do you even know what Princessology is about?"

One corner of Raven's mouth quirked up in amusement. "How to be a better princess?"

"Technically, yes," Apple admitted. "But probably not in the way that you're thinking. That would be more like... Kingdom Management, maybe? People might have less of an issue with you signing up for that." Even Evil Queens needed to know how to run their prospective kingdoms, after all.

"I did actually think about that," Raven told her. "Unfortunately, it was full."

It was a pretty popular class among the royal set, Apple privately agreed. Especially since, unlike Princessology, it wasn't limited to just girls. "Aw, that's too bad. You should be okay, though. I don't really know your father myself, but from everything I've heard, he's really good at his job, so I'm sure he could help you out there. Ooo! Father-daughter bonding!" she squealed. She only needed Raven to poison her, after all; she had no problem with the other girl learning how to be the kind of queen her people deserved. Surely she could do both?

Raven smiled, presumably pleased by Apple good opinion of her father. "I probably will. In the meantime, though... I'm not quite good enough at getting my magic to do what I want to sign up for Good Magic Mastery, and Debate doesn't really appeal, so Princessology is really the only choice left."

Personally, Apple thought Debate class might have been a better idea. If Raven had to try and argue things from an evil point of view, maybe that might have helped her want to embrace her destiny? Saying that would only start the fight she was trying to avoid, however, so she insisted, "I just don't think it'll work out. I mean, I honestly don't see you even making it through the smiling practice."

Raven blinked. "The... what?"

Apple sighed. "Honestly, Raven, shouldn't you at least find out what a class entails before signing up for it?"

"There wasn't exactly a lot of information available at the table," Raven defended. "And Mrs. Her Majesty the White Queen was signing me up for it almost before I even said anything."

Apple just barely stopped herself from sighing again. (Once was excusable, if only just, but twice in less than a minute would be simply unacceptable for a princess.) Even for Wonderlandians, the White Queen was rather... odd. She would sometimes react to things before they happened, but not at all afterward, as if she were experiencing them backward. It made a kind of sense, given what little she knew about the Looking Glass Land (which may have been an alternate world, a subdimension of Wonderland, a specific location within Wonderland, or, impossibly, all of the above), though honestly, the fact that she understood it at all was somewhat worrying to Apple. If the White Queen had signed Raven up for the class before her roommate could ask, there was at least one timeline in which it was a foregone conclusion that Raven would be taking Princessology. That made arguing against it harder, but Apple could be fairly stubborn herself, when she wanted to be. "You could have asked me. I had that class last semester. This isn't going to end well, Raven. It would be like me randomly signing up for..." She wasn't quite sure what an appropriate comparison would be, but seeing Madam Baba Yaga passing by in the background and running through her mental list of which teachers taught what classes gave her an idea. "...for Home Evilnomics! It just wouldn't make any sense!"

"Ooo, I'll say it wouldn't!" Maddie interjected happily. Apple had almost forgotten the Wonderland girl was there, as intent as she'd been on getting Raven to understand that she was making a mistake. Given her coloring, outfit, and personality, that really shouldn't have been possible. She also didn't like how excited Maddie sounded about the insane idea of her taking a villainy class. "Maybe I should sign up for it, too! Oh, wait, no, that's when I'm taking Riddling. Oh, well, you'll have to have fun without me!"

"I'm not going to be-!" Apple broke off, taking a deep breath. "That was kind of the point of the comparison."

"Maybe you should sign up for it," Raven said. Apple eyed her warily. She'd occasionally wondered if Wonderland madness was contagious, and this certainly seemed to argue in favor of that theory. "Don't look at me like that, I'm serious," Raven continued, noticing the stare she was getting. "It might just help you understand, if only a little, why I refuse to follow in my mother's footsteps."

Except that ignoring her story and trying to write her own destiny was exactly what her mother had done. Though... It might give her some inspiration as to how to get Raven to be her Evil Queen. "If I did," Apple began slowly, "then you wouldn't get to quit Princessology, no matter how much you hated it, or deliberately flunk out. You'd have to try your best, and give it everything you've got."

If Raven resented the implication that she might have done otherwise, it didn't show. "You know what? You're on. It'll be worth it to help you get why evil is not something to aspire to."

Apple frowned. She got that just fine, she thought, she just wasn't sure goodness could even exist without evil. Like darkness and light. She also wasn't sure how things had gone from her trying to talk Raven out of signing up for a class she didn't belong in to her signing up for one herself. "Fine. I've never quit anything in my entire life." She didn't miss Raven's muttered "Tell me about it..." but chose to ignore it. "But you have something of a history of changing your mind about things mid-way through," she continued, discreetly alluding to the events of Legacy Day. "So you swear to me on your father's Good name that you won't do that this time."

It was as serious of an oath as she knew how to request of her roommate, and it did give Raven pause. Apple hoped it would be enough to get her to reconsider and realize what she was doing before things went too far, but to her mild horror, Raven nodded slowly and, with appropriate seriousness, quietly proclaimed, "I swear, in the name of my father, the Good King, I will not quit Princessology, and will do everything I can to pass."

Oh, Fairy Godmother, Apple thought, torn between alarm and dismay. What had she just agreed to?

For no evident reason, Maddie giggled and clapped her hands excitedly, proclaiming, "You're right, Mister Narrator, this is going to be so much fun!"

Apple paused, blinked, then shot Raven a bewildered look. Raven just shook her head. "No, don't ask. Trust me, you don't want to know."

That, at least, was one thing they could agree on completely.

Something told her that this semester's Home Evilnomics was going to be a bit... different... than usual. It might have been that it had been moved from early afternoon to mid-morning. It might have been that the number of students had dropped to the point where almost everyone got to have their own lab table.

Or it might have been that Apple freaking White had just walked into the classroom.

Jaye knew who she was, of course. Even if she hadn't been forced to attend Legacy Day, she would have recognized the future Snow White. Everyone did. Most popular girl in school, nauseatingly sweet and perky, and as full of herself as any of the royalty (good or evil), White was pretty much the poster girl for the Royal set. If there was one advantage to not actually having a story herself, it was that she hadn't been forced to choose between siding with White and her stuck up Royals, or that embarrassment to the forces of evil everywhere, Raven Queen, and her "Rebels". Honestly, they could both go jump in a lake, for all she cared.

So why the hex was White walking into the Home Evilnomics classroom like however much she didn't want to be there - and her "little girl lost in the Dark Forest" expression made it clear that she didn't - she was supposed to be?

Jaye wasn't the only one wondering that. "Miss White?" Madam Baba Yaga asked, raising an inquisitive eyebrow. "Is there something you need?"

White's expression shifted to one of almost relief - not exactly the usual reaction to having to go talk to Baba Yaga - and she immediately shifted directions and hurried over to her. "I have this for you," she said in her usual irritatingly chipper tone, withdrawing a folder from the notebook she'd been clutching protectively to her chest and handing it over. Jaye couldn't see it clearly from where she was sitting, but the powder blue color reminded her of the time she'd needed... to transfer into...

Oh, no. No no no no no. This was not happening. Since Queen had dropped the class to embark on her little quest to rehabilitate her image, this was supposed to be her refuge from the ridiculous Royal/Rebel nonsense. Princess Perfection was not part of that plan.

Baba Yaga's eyebrow only rose higher as she accepted the folder. "And why, precisely, are you here?"

White drew in a breath to answer, hesitated, then let it out slowly. "It's... complicated," she said, grimacing daintily. How she managed that contradiction, exactly, Jaye wasn't sure she even wanted to know. "The short answer would be: Raven."

Baba Yaga blinked, then clapped her hands and cackled with delight. "Forcing her fairytale princess to attend a class for villains? How wonderlandifully wicked of her!"

White beamed. "I know! It's the closest she's come yet to finally embracing her destiny." Her smile collapsed as she added, "But... that still means I'm stuck here for a semester." She drew herself up. "But if that's what it takes to ensure that our story goes forward the way it should, then I'll do it!"

Jaye rolled her eyes, having a sneaking suspicion she'd be doing that frequently as the semester went on. Ugh. Gag me.

True to form, White was still talking. "I asked, but the person at the sign up desk didn't know what books I might be needing for the class." She sounded mostly apologetic, but also mildly put out. The former was only common sense for someone showing up to one of Baba Yaga's classes in any way unprepared, while the latter...? Well, if that Rasputin kid was still manning the table, Jaye could understand. He was exactly the sort of guy who'd lie right to your face about not being able to give you the much needed information he was supposed to, just to get you in trouble.

He'd stopped doing that to Jaye after having to dodge a few of her fireballs.

Fortunately for White, Baba Yaga clearly also knew who she had working for her, because her sole reaction was to hand the blonde a list of what she'd need. "Here. The only one you'll need for tomorrow is Dumont's Spells and Curses, but I suggest you have them all by the end of the week. Now, take a seat. I was just giving out our first assignment."

Nodding agreeably, White turned, scanned the room... and promptly began heading for Jaye's desk.

"Oh, happy day," she muttered acerbically under her breath. Whoever after had she royally ticked off to be forced to endure this?

Fortunately, Madam Yaga turned on the large monitor behind her and pulled up a video of the Enchanted Forest, then began speaking before White could do more than sit down. "I'd like each of you to go into the Enchanted Forest and find an animal..."

"That should be easy enough," White said, quietly enough that Jaye realized the girl was talking to her, meaning she hadn't dodged that particular cursed arrow after all. "Animals love me! The minute I walk into the forest, they start converging on me."

Jaye rolled her eyes again. Yep, she thought, that was definitely going to become a thing.

"...and turn it evil," Madam Yaga finished gleefully.

White deflated. "...oh."

Jaye smirked. She couldn't quite help it... and didn't bother trying.

White had barely managed to collect herself when Baba Yaga told the class to gather up their belongings and prepare for an expedition to the Enchanted Forest. "Wh- Now? But... But I haven't had a chance to go... book shopping, or anything..." It was, at least, a legitimate objection.

Baba Yaga barely spared her a glance. "Miss Black, you'll share your copy of Spells and Curses for today."

Jaye quietly seethed. Was it Baba Yaga that had cursed her, then? She couldn't think of anything she might have done to annoy her teacher, but there was no question that the woman knew - and loved - her curses. She'd ask later, just in case. She owed dire retribution to whoever after was responsible, but she needed to be sure of her target. Going after Baba Yaga was a daunting prospect already, but for something she hadn't done...?

Yeah, no. That was pretty much suicidal.

White turned to blink at her, and Jaye realized her grace period of being able to try and ignore the girl was over. "Wait, your name's-"

"Jaye," she sighed as she stood up. "Jaye Black. And if you even think about making any "cute" comments about our names, I will make you regret it."

White jerked slightly, apparently taken aback... though not much. Maybe she'd practiced dealing with short-tempered and homicidal people in preparation for rooming with her future Evil Queen. Who knew? Or, for that matter, cared? "Um, o-okay. Well, I'm-"

"I know who you are, White," Jaye interrupted, following the rest of the class toward the door. The sooner they got this over with, the sooner Princess Prissypants would go away. "Everyone knows who you are."

"That doesn't excuse me from the obligation of making a proper introduction," she said primly, and Jaye was starting to feel an ache in her jaw from gritting her teeth so tightly. She made herself unclench before she started shattering any of them. "And I don't know you. Which story are you from?"

"Some of us don't have a story, White."

"Oh. Um, I'm... sorry...?" She sounded uncertain, so at least she wasn't automatically assuming that everybody wanted a destiny to pledge themselves to.

"Don't be."

"You can call me Apple, you know."

"I can do a lot of things. Like set you on fire."

The implied threat washed right over White without making a dent in her positive attitude. Evidently, she didn't rattle easily. (Of course, Jaye didn't impress easily, so that didn't really mean all that much to her.) That, or she was just too airheaded to register it. Jaye would believe either one, really. "You have magic, too?"

"Yeah." Fortunately, the halls were empty aside from the Home Evilnomics students, or she knew they would have been drawing a lot of confused stares as to why the school's golden girl was walking around with a crowd of future villains. She really didn't feel like dealing with that. "The closest I come to my last name having any kind of meaning is being a black mage, and I'm the first one in my family in ages." She didn't enjoy talking about herself, per se, but she also didn't exactly mind it. Besides, how often did one get a chance to remind the school's elite that the lower classes were people, too? (Well, if White did manage to stick around for the whole semester, she supposed she'd get lots of chances, so she should probably pace herself, she decided.)

There was also the little fact that Baba Yaga had pretty much told her to work with White for today's class. If she didn't at least try to get along with her, Madam Yaga might think she was being uncooperative, which could be potentially... unpleasant for her. She could last for one period.

Probably.

"Oh," White said, sounding at least somewhat interested. She clearly recognized the term, so that was one thing Jaye didn't need to explain. There were so many different types of magic users - witches, wizards, mages, and fairies were only a drop in the bucket, and even they had multiple sub-classes each - that they'd be there all day if Jaye had to go through them all... and her patience wouldn't last that long. "Does that translate well to, um, cursing animals?"

Jaye considered that. "It doesn't hurt it, I suppose. Magic that affects the mind is more of a white or red mage thing. Elemental magic is really more my game. But the spell we're using today doesn't require you to have any kind of magic at all. Madam Yaga never gives assignments to the whole class like this unless everyone is capable of doing it."

They'd made it outside the school by this point, and were following the path toward the Enchanted Forest. "Well, that's... fair of her, at least." White didn't sound terribly thrilled, though. Obviously, she wasn't at all looking forward to cursing one of her little animal friends.

If nothing else, watching her squirm would provide enough enjoyment to compensate for having to deal with her at all.

There wasn't much more in the way of conversation on the way to the forest, which was just as well. Even if she needed to play nice, Jaye had her limits. The longer it took for her to reach them, the better. When they reached the Enchanted Forest, Jaye simply gestured toward the woods and said, "Alright, Princess, do your stuff."

White blinked, evidently more from her comment than the fact that the entire class was now looking at her. Being the center of attention was something she was no doubt used to. "What happens to the animals afterward?" she wondered as she walked into the forest proper, the others following at a slight distance so as not to spook the animals. (Turning them evil might have been new, but they had needed to collect specimens from the Enchanted Forest before - also from the Dark Forest, which Jaye preferred, honestly - so they knew to be careful in that respect. They also knew collection tended to be a lengthy process - their fastest time so far was two hours, and that had been sheer luck.)

Jaye honestly had no idea what became of their animals post-experiment, and had never really cared. Fortunately - if only because it prevented any kind of righteously indignant response and made sure White kept cooperating - someone else did. "Baba Yaga takes them to the Good Magic Mastery classroom, so the Fairy Queen can show her students how to lift evil curses," Erica said with a shrug. "So look at it as you helping the "good" students and get back to work."

Erica Fell was probably Jaye's best friend, by virtue of being one of her only friends. (If anyone ever asked about her last name, she would proudly point out that it traced its meaning back to the adjective definition of the word: of terrible evil or ferocity; deadly.) Truthfully, making friends did not happen very easily among the evil (or even semi-evil) students, and not just because most people were afraid of them, or just avoided them completely. No, it was the ruthlessness, ambition, and drive to accomplish one's own goals by any cost. (She didn't like the term selfishness, but she supposed it fit.) Had one of her evil classmates started being nice to her, she would have known immediately that they were up to something and trying to trick her, stab her in the back (literally or metaphorically), or use her for something. Ironically, she and Erica were friends because they had almost nothing in common. Erica had no magic at all, unlike Jaye. Erica's favorite (non-villainous) class was History of Tall Tales, while Jaye had hated that one when she'd been stuck in there. (Unlike the princesses, she didn't get to just transfer into or out of classes on a whim. It had taken work to get out of that one.) Erica preferred plots and schemes that no one knew about until it was too late, while Jaye preferred the direct approach. (What could she say? Wreaking havoc with her magic was just more fun than politics and meetings and all that boring governmental nonsense Erica liked so much. Erica being part of the Student Council meant she had two classes with White, now, which Jaye thought just proved that hers was the way to go.) Because of those schemes, Erica was naturally the more social of the two - though most people knowing that she was a corrupt government official in the making meant they were understandably wary around her, and obviously weren't about to try becoming friends with her - while Jaye typically only went places when Erica dragged her out to them, and would rather curl up with a good book or be practicing her magic. It wasn't like she was going to be dating, after all. Not since-

No, she wasn't thinking about that. She refused to think about any of that. (Though she still appreciated Erica helping her enact a more subtle kind of vengeance than she would have typically engaged in. A certain someone that she was not thinking about hadn't seen it coming at all.)

While she hadn't been thinking about that, White had apparently accepted Erica's explanation and 'gotten back to work', as requested... not that she'd ever actually stopped. She'd taken Erica's attitude in stride, too, possibly due to knowing her from the Student Council. She passed some kind of invisible boundary line in the forest, and seconds later a squirrel was bounding up to her. Followed by several more. A fox. A ferret. Three rabbits. More and more animals, until there were dozens of the things.

For a moment, Jaye just stared. (So did the rest of her classmates, so she didn't feel too bad about that.) It wasn't like she wasn't aware of the "Princess Adoration Phenomenon" displayed by most woodland creatures, so she wasn't surprised by that part. She'd even seen it in action before, though not up close like she was now. This kind of response time, though, was fairly unheard of, as far as she knew, to say nothing of the size of the crowd she'd gathered. Was that connected to the strength and/or popularity of her story? Maybe there was some kind of correlation between how beloved the princess's story was and how much the animals adored her? She was honestly tempted to conduct some kind of research to try and find out... until she realized that doing so would mean voluntarily spending an unknown amount of time with not only White, but some of her fellow princesses, and without even something like turning the animals evil as an end goal.

She promptly pushed the thought out of her mind, and set to selecting an animal.

Her classmates were already doing so, the creatures still oddly docile. Even putting them into the cages Baba Yaga had supplied them with didn't seem to raise much of any alarm. Because White was still there? And if so, would taking them out of her presence alter the animals' temperament? Another interesting experiment, and this time one that would entail going away from the blonde. She picked up a squirrel and gently secured it in her cage, perfectly happy to let someone else find out if treating them roughly would provoke them to break free of White's calming influence.

Erica, having claimed a ferret, wandered over to her. "I have to admit, she's kind of handy to have around, sometimes," she said, gesturing toward White, who was crouched down (somehow avoiding getting any dirt on her dress), cooing at the rabbits. Was she deliberately avoiding looking back to see her animal friends being captured? Or just distracted by the bunnies? Neither option would exactly improve Jaye's opinion of her.

"Sometimes," she agreed. Whether she liked White or not, this was easily the fastest specimen capture in the history of Home Evilnomics. "Feel free to suggest to Madam Yaga that she should make using a princess as a lure a standard part of the collection process. Might help her forget about that little comment you made last week."

"She took that totally out of context," Erica defended.

"No, I really don't think she did. Saying someone would make good plant fertilizer only has so many potential meanings."

"You know full well that I meant she could use some of the things in her store of potion ingredients to make a better fertilizer than the school currently uses!"

"Uh-huh."

"So, anyway," Erica began, blatantly changing the subject, "what should we do now? We're not hexpected to have our specimens until tomorrow's class, since it usually takes so long to get them. Wanna go back now and get it over with, or have something of a free period and bring in our hexperiments tomorrow?"

"Honestly, I just want to get this over with," Jaye replied. "Then I can go back to ignoring- What the hex is she doing?" She looked on in disbelief as White continued stroking the rabbit she'd apparently picked up when Jaye hadn't been looking.

"I stopped asking myself that question a long time ago."

Well, that was fine for Erica. She could get away with it. Jaye was the one who'd been more or less assigned as White's temporary lab partner. Madam Yaga would not be pleased if she let the girl bring a cute little bunny rabbit back with her. Grumbling to herself under her breath - and ignoring Erica's muttered comment about how 'the more things changed...', whatever that meant - she stalked over to White, having to be careful not to step on any of the animals, which were more numerous the closer she got. "White," she snapped.

"Hmm?" White replied absently.

"What. The hex. Are you doing?"

If nothing else, the genuine anger in her tone at least caught White's attention. She blinked in confusion, then stood up, still holding the rabbit. "Um, I'm petting a bunny?" she said, as if wondering why Jaye would be asking something with such an obvious answer.

"You are not bringing that back with you," Jaye said flatly. "No one is going to be able to take an evil bunny rabbit seriously." She didn't know or care if Baba Yaga would accept any animal being turned evil or not, she had her pride!

"Oh, I wasn't planning on it," White assured her breezily. "I mean, come on, how could I turn this cute little guy evil? Look at him!" She held the rabbit out toward Jaye.

Jaye sighed, then reluctantly reached out and very briefly pet the bunny. It wasn't like she was immune to the cuteness of the thing, though she had no intention of letting White know that if she could help it. "Fine, it's adorable. Now grab an animal so we can get back to the school and get on with this, already."

With an agonized expression on her face, White put the rabbit down as requested, then looked around the small clearing they were in. The rest of the class - including Erica - had already begun heading back, leaving the two of them alone with the critter brigade. She looked from one animal to another, clearly unwilling to choose any of them... then froze, attention captured by something down in the brush. She gasped, face lighting up, and proclaimed, "Oh, you're perfect!"

Jaye followed her gaze, eyebrows shooting up as she realized what White had seen. Well, she decided, this would be interesting, if nothing else.