Chapter 1: One Year

One year. One year today, Mal and her friends had turned their back on their parents and their friends, Ben had become King, and Auradon had begun to finally accept them. Evie and Doug began to date after a few of their study sessions together revealed some feeling for each other, Jay became MVP for his tourney team, with a promising sports scholarship to the most prestigious university in Auradon and a spot on their team, and Carlos had begun a small dog walking business after he found that it wasn't only Dude who was a good dog, but most of the dogs on Auradon as well. In fact Roger and Anita quickly became his favorite customers, as he quickly grew close with the offspring of the originally 101 Dalmatian puppies his mother had pursued.

And Mal? Well she was doing just fine. She smirked to herself as she entered the Great Hall of Beast's castle. She and Ben had grown even closer than ever and where rarely apart. In fact, today she had decided to surprise him in honor of the one year anniversary of his coronation and her "goodness".

She was directed to the library by Chip, where she found Ben sitting one of the armchairs, lost in thought. She crept up behind him, covering his eyes. "Guess who?"

"Ugh, Carlos?" Ben laughed, pulling her hands down from his face. He looked up at her, grining. "Well hello there. To what do I owe this pleasure?"

She smiled. He was perfect and wonderful and dorky and everything she never knew she wanted in a guy. She rested her chin on his head and sighed, "Oh no reason, just dying of boredom over at the school and I thought I'd borrow you for a bit."

He laughed. "How's it going over there anyhow?"

"Oh you know, same old same old. Decorations for graduation are starting to appear, Evie's got a line of girls begging to have her design their graduation gowns, and Jay's beginning to freak out about leaving Auradon Prep. Just a couple more weeks now." She saw the concerned look he gave her. "Oh he'll be fine, he's just worried about not seeing us every day. We've barely been apart for so long before. But we've already promised him that we'd come to every single one of his tourney games."

She got up and walked over to the table in front of Ben, thumbing through the books that had been left there. "Had to believe that it's almost our senior year, huh?"

"Yeah," Ben trailed off, staring at the wall above her.

"Wait, I know that look." Mal waved her hand in front of his face. "Ben, what are you planning?

Ben sighed. He needed to tell someone anyhow and Mal would understand the most. "I want to bring more children over from the island." Mal continued to look at him, saying nothing. "I mean it's time right? It's been a year since my coronation, and you four have more than proven yourselves since that time. And we'll graduate before we know it. I need to do something before that. When I made my proclamation, I wanted it to be eventually extended to all of the children. They deserve a chance too, don't they?"

Ben slumped back down into his seat, head in his hands. He hadn't even followed through with that wish yet. A year had gone by, and he had done nothing. He was king! He should have brought more kids over, he could have helped them, he could have…

Mal's hand on his shoulder interrupted his thoughts. He looked up to see her perched on the arm of the chair. "You're right." A smile spread across his face. "But," she held up a hand, "we are not bringing all of them over at once."

"Of course."

"And you need to keep an eye on them. More than likely their parents will want them to continue with their evil plans." Mal scoffed, remembering her own "failed" attempted. "But no unnecessary restrictions. We want them to see that they have to choice to be good. Life on the island is hard for a lot of them, let's show them that they are not their parents."

"You're amazing you know that right?" Ben pulled her into his lap as she giggled.

"And one last thing." She looked him dead in the eyes. "They are to start school at the beginning of the year, understood? Having to jump in in the middle like that was not enjoyable, got it mister?"

"I love you," Ben buried his face into her hair, laughing. They stayed there in the embrace for a bit, before Mal got up and began to search the bookshelf for something.

His surprise would have to wait till another day, she thought. "Well, that means we have until the end of the summer to figure this all out then."

"We?" Ben followed her to the book shelf.

"Of course. You didn't think you'd be alone in this would you? Besides," she said, picking a book off from the shelf, "you'll need my expertise."

Ben chuckled and shook his head at her. Where would he be without her? He plucked the book out of her hand, labeled Villain Registry, and began to flip through it. She pouted at him before heading to one of the tables in the library. "Then," Ben said, following her, "we better get started."

Months Later

LeFou's was a dingy tavern located at the heart of the island, where customes tried to drink their endless troubles away. LeFou had opened it a few years into his stay on the island, deciding that they needed to have at least one enjoyable place on the piece of shit rock they had been forced to live on. Gaston had greatly supported the idea, encouraging many to pitch in and make the place a reality. Soon the tavern was open, with LeFou and Gaston as business partners. LeFou had insisted they name the place after Gaston, since he was the reason the place now existed, plus he assumed that's how it would be anyways, since Gaston always demanded to be the center of attention. But, in an extremely rare act of humility, Gaston insisted they name the tavern after LeFou, the one who had the wish to open the tavern in the first place. So now they ran the tavern together, Gaston handling the drinks and the customers and LeFou handling the book keeping and other such business affairs Gaston couldn't be bothered to deal with.

Over the years, the tavern became a sort of haven for people to laugh their troubles away, and Gaston was more than happy to entertain them. He had managed to get a hold of his old hunting trophies and the now decorated the walls, giving the place a sort of warm feeling. It had become Gaston's pride and joy.

Speaking of "pride and joy", that's where Helen LaRue found herself one fateful Friday night. She had begun working there as soon as she entered her freshmen year, serving drinks to the drunk customers and helping LeFou with the book keeping. It wasn't the best job, with late nights, demanding customers, and her over demanding father who believed that she should focus more on the tavern than on her pointless schoolwork. But she managed as well as she could. She wanted to please her father, as much as he never really seemed to care.

It was no secret that Gaston had wanted a son, but instead he was stuck with Helen. While disappointed, it didn't stop him from teaching her everything he felt she needed to know about hunting and bar keeping. But on those late nights when Gaston was finally drunk after drinking with customers, he would lament about how her mother had never given him a son before she left. It hurt, but Helen knew he secretly cared for her, as every time one of the customers became too rowdy or inappropriate with her, Gaston would quickly remind him of his place and the advances would stop.

The tavern was reaching its closing hours of the night, the crowd beginning to dwindle and leave. Only a few stragglers were left behind. Helen, now 17 years old, continued to clean the empty tables around them, counting down the minutes till closing. Her father was busy drinking with a group of his friends and LeFou had gone to meet with his Auradon smuggler about the next shipment. Helen pushed her brown hair back over her shoulder, wishing she had remembered her ponytail holder. She had been in a rush to make it to work on time and had left it in her room, and now her hair kept getting in the way. She sighed, looking at all of the work that still needed to be done before closing.

Suddenly LeFou burst through the door, scanning the tavern until he saw Gaston.

"Gaston! Gaston! You'll never believe this!" He ran over to the table, slamming his hands down.

"What, what LeFou! Can't you see I'm busy?" Gaston laughed, taking another chug of his mug.

"The King has made another proclamation. He says that more children are to come over from here and attend Auradon Prep!" LeFou pulled Gaston's drink down, a rare and dangerous move on his part. "The King's supposed to announce it tomorrow to the island, but my smuggler told me."

Gaston ripped his drink away from LeFou's grasp. "Yeah, what of it?"

"Rumor is your daughter has been selected!"

Helen's head snapped up. Had she heard right? Was she leaving the island? She had figured that after the events of the coronation, no other child from the Isle of the Lost would ever be allowed off. But could this be? She looked at her father, apprehensive of his response. Would he be upset?

But instead a huge grin broke out across his face and he let out a hearty laugh. "Well would you look at that. Helen!" He waved her over. "It's like I always said boys, those royals can never get enough of us LeRues!"

Helen made her way over, surprised. He wanted her to go?

"Helen!" He grabbed her into a tight side hug, "Go show those fools what they're missing. Do us proud."

"You really want me to go?" she asked.

"Of course! Us LeRues should be worshiped and we need to remind them of that." Oh, of course there was some sort of revenge motive behind this, but regardless it meant she would get to leave.

"Of course father! We'll show them!" She hugged him, grinning. He seemed slightly uncomfortable, but returned the hug.

"Good. Now quick," he pushed her back and lifted his mug into the air, "another round of drinks to celebrate!" There were cheers all around.

Helen smiled to herself and shook her head. Her father would never really change, but honestly that was alright. As she prepared the beers, she couldn't help but feel excited. Auradon, the home of the heroes and magic. And soon, just like her father wanted, the people there would regret turning their backs on them.

Here we go! Thank you so much to everyone who submitted a character. I had some many great choices, but unfortunately I couldn't pick them all. I hoping for maybe cameos at one point, but we'll see what happens. A list of characters can be found on my profile.

I hope you enjoyed this first chapter. Let the testing of loyalties begin!