Chapter One: For the First Time in September
Ariel was cramped in the back of her sister's car, stuck between Adella and Arista who had been non-stop arguing since their alarms buzzed at 6am.
"I can't believe you're actually wearing my pants!" Adella screeched while Arista motioned her hand mockingly, repeating "Blah, blah, blah!"
"Would you guys quit it?" Andrina called desperately from the passenger's seat, a look of utter irritation plastered across her growing pink face.
"They're nice pants! I had to borrow them! Get over it!" Arista tried as Adella still launched insults.
Andrina buried her face in her hands, giving up with the near-deafening noise levels of the car, but Ariel didn't mind too much. Sure, her sisters had argued all Summer and sure, she wished she hadn't walked in on Alana kissing that square-lipped lifeguard; but she had missed her friends. She had had missed school. She even missed the disgusting way that the cafeteria smelt like old bread buns and 'mystery meat'.
The seven Triton sisters had spent their Summer in one of their fathers many hotels, 'The Triton'. This year they spent their time in Spain on the seafront of a tourist filled beach. It was beautiful and the sun had given her the best tan, not to mention the penthouse was always so grand and they were well catered for. The first few nights were always the best. Warm evenings with the balcony doors open, the smell of sea salt and hotel popcorn. She and her sisters would flop around the suite watching 80's films as they combed each other's hairs and discussed all they could. Attina would usually complete her assignments first night and Aquata always, almost religiously, spent the first two hours locked up soaking in the huge bubble bath. It was bliss to be sure, but after spending ten whole weeks in practically isolation with her sisters, Ariel was relieved to be back home in Disney. She had grown sick of listening to Alana complain about acne, Arista's snoring was far too loud and Adella was always complaining that there was 'no cute boys!'. However, it wasn't like she had been cut off from the world completely. She had video-chatted with Anna and Jasmine over the Summer. Anna was excitable, constantly going off on tangents and talking quickly while Jasmine was a little less enthusiastic. She had tried to make conversation it seemed but Ariel heard her family in the background and knew Jasmine was probably getting sick of socialising. It wasn't personal, she knew that, plus the connection wasn't great from Spain but she wished they could have spoken more. Mulan texted her too as she wasn't a fan of video chatting but it wasn't the same.
Alana's SUV roared up the curb of Disney High and screeched slightly as it did so.
"Gosh, Alana! How the hell did you even earn your licence?" Adella cried,
"Shut up!" Alana shot back, "You guys have made me late for work with all your pointless arguing! Now get out!"
Adella, Andrina and Arista tutted and huffed, slipping out of the car and onto the sidewalk.
"We were hardly arguing" Arista commented. Ariel closed the door shut behind her and her sisters and Alana revved her engine before zooming off in an undoubted rage.
"Talk about dramatic" Andrina rolled her eyes "it's only a pair of pants"
"Only a pair of pants?" Adella repeated, "Only my favourite pair of pants! Ugh!"
The girls fighting flared up again like a nasty stain that just would not go away. Ariel knew that this argument would last until tomorrow at least. She headed off from her sisters' noise, certain she wouldn't allow the bickering to get to her today. She bounced on her heels through the crowds of teenagers and up the steps to her locker, ready for a new school year, for a creaky desk chair and for sticky chewing gum desks... and a social life that didn't concern her sisters.
"Ariel!" she heard a voice call. She whipped her bright red hair around, looking for the source... "Ariel!". Mulan jogged towards her friend with a huge, overdue grin and a quick hug. The two girls began chatting animatedly as they walked towards homeroom together, discussing their Summers, though Mulan's didn't sound riveting. After spending sophomore year joking around, she had let her GPA drop significantly and was lucky to have scraped passes. Not to mention, she had a serious lack of extracurricular and had gained barely any credit. This was enough to infuriate and even disappoint her parents who insisted that this year she sign up for several clubs and extra credit reading as well as keep an eye on her grades.
"So anyway," Mulan finished her little rant about her boring, studious Summer "I've got to sign up for some clubs"
Ariel practically shuddered. It was widely known that if you hadn't already found a club you liked by Junior year, then you'd most likely never find a club you like and end up doing something you either hated or was... well... geeky.
"Cheerleading?" Ariel suggested,
"Me? I'm not sure" Mulan scrunched up her nose
"Art?"
"They said no art... nothing 'fun'" Mulan made quotation marks in the air as she said 'fun' and sighed.
"You'll find something" Ariel said, usually the voice of positivity,
"Have you seen Jasmine yet? Or Anna?" Mulan asked, changing the subject.
"Nope" Ariel shook her head, "but remember Jasmine likes to turn up early to not draw any attention"
Mulan nodded, "How could I forget?"
Jasmine's dad had insisted that his precious daughter was driven everywhere by her chauffeur in the fancy car as opposed to getting a lift or a bus like most of the kids at Disney High. Even though most kids would see this as princess-like treatment and adore it, Jasmine absolutely hated it. She hated the attention, the fuss and the absurdity. Freshmen year was the longest year of her life. The car would pull up outside of the school causing crowds and murmurings. It didn't take Jasmine very long to devise parking a block away so not to draw unwanted attention or assumptions. Not only that, but it meant several stupid rumours flew around about her, "I think she's a secret princess of India" "Her dad was in phorbes!" "She knows the empress of China and Afghanistan!". Obviously, all of the rumours were completely fake and stereotypical. It was clear that people had noted that her rich, Asian dad and she lived down Pegasus Park and had money and so started making assumptions about them and their heritage. Didn't people know that Afghanistan didn't even have a royal family anymore? She met Ariel, Mulan and Anna later on in freshmen year after struggling to differentiate between who actually wanted to be friends and who just overheard that she had money. Her friends put her at ease, all humble, genuine and kind. None of them were concerned or questioned her once about money or standards- at least no until they were comfortable enough to joke about it- and by sophomore year the girls were tight knit, ready to embark on rest of high school together.
Jasmine walked the block down the road earlier that morning before most students had arrived. She passed a few early comers and headed straight to homeroom where she had been sat waiting for both her friends and for the teacher. Finally, as the time neared eight she heard the bell ring and a long-awaited but familiar cry of her friends.
"Jasmine!" Ariel said, bursting into the room with Mulan by her side. They all hugged and swapped anecdotes from over Summer. Jasmine hadn't done an awful lot besides visiting Agrabah with her father where she saw her aunts, uncles and cousins. She hadn't had the best time though. It was scenic and she got some great Instagram photos and an even better tan but the Agrabah villa walls were confining and her cousins had been irritating to say the least. It made her wonder how the hell Ariel dealt with all her sisters. The three girls sat around as homeroom piled up with more and more of their fellow Junior students when finally, Anna skipped in. She had trademark pigtails, a slightly pink face and her freckles seemed to have tripled in amount due to the sun.
"Guys!" their little freckled friend fell into a seat beside them, giddy and excitable. "My sister Elsa's here! She's joined the school! I'm so excited!"
Anna's friends immediately made noises of clarity, remembering how Anna had gushed to the group chat that her mysterious, older sister Elsa was no longer being home schooled and was joining Disney High for her senior year. Anna had spoken of practically nothing else for the past few weeks and her friends were waiting to meet the infamous Elsa whom was always holed up in her bedroom even when the girls visited Anna's.
"So, she starts today? For real? Whose homeroom is she in?" Jasmine asked, but as she did a voice echoed through the room, oozing a curt snarl.
"Everyone settle down" the math teacher and their homeroom tutor, Mr Jafar, glided in and sat at his desk "I know you all think your conversations are more important than me but believe me they aren't"
Ariel rolled her eyes and sighed. OK, so there was one thing she definitely hadn't missed.
"And the diet is also completely caffeine free" Esmeralda smiled proudly as she raised the plastic, Starbucks cup to her lips.
Pocahontas raised an eyebrow at her friend who slurped the coffee seemingly unaware.
"Well... almost caffeine free" she added with a slight frown.
"Esmeralda, you had pizza almost every day this Summer. How will you go cold turkey on carbs? And you totally live off coffee!"
"Oh come on! You're a vegetarian! All you eat is grass! Besides, it'll be a piece of cake cutting out some bread" Esmeralda said, not noticing the irony in what she just said.
"And pizza? Pasta?"
Esmeralda slowed in her tracks "I do love spaghetti"
Pocahontas giggled to herself again.
"OK... I guess I'll limit myself to one carby meal a month" Esmeralda newly declared
"I don't even understand why you're dieting" Pocahontas tutted "You know more than anyone you're just succumbing to beauty standards set by-"
"-by beauty companies and capitalist institutes that feed off of our insecurities to make money" Esmeralda finished for her friend. "I know, I know! But what isn't OK is my skin is becoming super oily and I know it's all that crap I'm eating!"
Pocahontas rolled her eyes as they continued to stroll up the road. It was a typical Esmeralda fad to complain and exaggerate about her near perfect appearance. Pocahontas and Esmeralda had met in middle school. Remembering it clearly, Pocahontas knew it was a stiff, November day when Pocahontas had poked her tongue out jokingly at Esmeralda who was taking her role as hall monitor very seriously. She wrote her up a detention slip but the two outspoken, justice-seeking girls bickered in the corridor until a passing teacher gave them both detentions. The friendship formed when they snuck out and giggled about the whole thing for the next week. Since that day, they had been inseparable. Sharing sleepovers, phone calls, crushes, clothes and most importantly, social and political justice rants. Esmeralda listened to Pocahontas' environmental opinions, pitching in about climate change, nature, animals and racial divisions while Pocahontas always agreed with Esmeralda's condemnation of the corruption of religion, conspiracy theories and marginalisation of ethnic minorities. The two also would team up from time to time (more so Pocahontas doing the ground work as Esmeralda could be lazy) and send politically correct, complaint emails to certain companies resisting their usage of plastic or meat or whatever it was- to Flynn's dismay.
"Why are you helping her close 'Piglets'?" he had cried as Pocahontas tapped away at her laptop keys and Esmeralda peered at the screen, "they have the best pork chops!"
"Flynn they underpay women and minorities and I've been doing my research and their factories don't cater to the animals at all-" Pocahontas was interrupted by a long and fake whimper from Flynn. "Stop trying to help animals and stuff" he pouted, but he came around to the idea of no more 'Piglet's' when they agreed to buying him a Papa John's every Saturday for the next month.
Pocahontas hadn't missed Esmeralda's impulsive new term tricks. Last year she wanted to cycle to school, the year before she claimed that she was going to start wearing her reading glasses. Both lasted less than a week. This year it was a diet. She had missed however, early morning coffees, new stationary and a new start. They enjoyed their summer together, they spent most days licking frosting from cupcakes and shoving cheesy Doritos in the microwave. Some days they managed to run a brush through their long hair and headed down to the mall with Phoebus, Flynn and Aladdin They would also sometimes try to make the most of the weather and go down to the beach but that was only when they had finally woken Esmeralda up and then pried the boys from the Xbox. They usually got down to the beach as families were packing away and an evening breeze began but they always had fun, especially when they were all together; but Pocahontas couldn't wait for the feeling of productivity that school gave her especially since it was now their senior year.
"So, I've texted Flynn and he's not answered yet... how much do you want to bet he isn't even awake yet?" Esmeralda laughed.
Pocahontas considered this for a moment, "I bet he misses first period"
"He'll be so glad to know we speak so highly of him" Esmeralda said sarcastically, a laugh in her throat. The two best friends smiled before turning into Disney High, ready for the first day of senior year.
Anastasia and Drizella cackled uncontrollably like some sort of terribly written villains as they pulled back the roof off their magenta convertible.
"Hey, Cindy!" they called up to her window. Cindy peeked out, not wanting to entertain them but equally wanting to know what they wanted now.
"Want a lift?" Drizella asked, hands on her hips as she knelt up in the passenger seat. Cindy didn't reply, knowing the offer wasn't genuine.
"Too bad!" Drizella shrieked when Cinderella didn't answer, "Let's go Anastasia! Poor Cindy's going to be so late!"
"And on the first day!" Anastasia laughed, and then the tired made a similar shrieking noise to the girls as the car sped off towards school.
Cinderella rushed around upstairs in her attic bedroom, listening to her step sister's car rev down the road. She pulled a loose shirt over her head as quickly as humanly possible before hastening to the tiny mirror above her bed where she tried to neaten her hair into some sort of acceptable ponytail.
"God- Oh dear... God!" she muttered angrily, never one to like even saying 'Crap' as it was a little obscene for her tastes.
Apparently, her step-sisters had thought it funny to sneak downstairs early that morning and take the time to alter every single clock in the house two hours early. Cinderella's old phone flashed 8:00am instead of 6:00am and she had barely any time to ready herself for her first day. Registration had started and Cinderella still had to get the 8 blocks to school. It didn't that her step-mother scolded her and said that the clock incident was only a 'Harmless joke!' and that Cindy had to 'grow up'. Then, she contradicted herself and proceeded to yell at Cindy for being late.
"If you're late who's going to make my breakfast?" she snapped "What shall I do? Starve?"
Cinderella bit her tongue in crying out that as a grown woman, she could make her own breakfast but instead she stammered an undeserved apology and promised dinner would be made an hour early that night.
She ended up half walking half jogging up the road, trying to make first period. She was already forming her excuses in her head but she doubted her rather cruel homeroom teacher Miss De'Vil would listen. She could hear her now, "Wretched girl! Late? What did I expect?". Admittedly, last year Cinderella had been late most days but never out of disrespect or carelessness. She was ready every day on time- or even early- but her step family always found some sort of reason to spit nonsense, make her late, drive off or instruct her into some stupid task first.
She always tried to remember the things that her mother had taught her before she died, 'Be Kind and have courage' but she was constantly faced with nasty and difficult situations and that without the added pressure of school. It was her final year and she was letting her horrid family get in the way of it already. Not to mention she didn't exactly have friends to fall back on, she was so lonely she even found herself talking to the pet mice.
Cinderella heaved her bag higher onto her shoulders, shook her head of lowly thoughts and began a slow run towards school hoping to make the bell.
The bell for first period of the year sounded throughout the school like an angry, vibrating reminder of reality. Students and staff alike shuffles and huffed from homeroom to their assigned classes.
"History" Tiana preppily read aloud her timetable "Mr Gray"
Entering Mr Hades Gray's classroom was like entering some sort of cave. The blinds were always down and it was the only class in the entire building to not have any new technology- fancy or not. No, Mr Gray insisted that scratchy chalkboards and ancient wooden desks were fine, in fact, he was probably inches away from using a cane and insisting on dead silence. The man lived up to his name. His skin was grey tinted as though he'd never seen the sun (Tiana wondered if he'd actually hiss at a clear sky) and his charcoal black hair was turning silver with age towards the back. He was tall too, almost brooding. Almost. The truth was, he was relatively scary, especially to the freshmen; a time bomb of a man who could be set off by the littlest thing. That was why most people despised having him as a teacher. Tiana shuddered walking through the dismal doorway. She had once heard Esmeralda say that he 'wasn't bad for an old guy', not that she saw the appeal. What was even remotely attractive about an old, dull guy who taught a subject he had just as much passion for as he had for teaching?
Tiana was the first to enter his classroom and she took any old seat in the front row. Mr Gray failed to even look up from his laptop at her and waited instead for more students to heap in. It wasn't until Megara Miratio, a loner and quite frankly, a bitch, walked in and sat down did he even avert his eyes. Soon enough, the class filled up and he closed his laptop, stood up and began smoothly talking in a very quick, natural and abrupt manner.
"Right, right, OK, so this year we're doing Ancient Greece. Whoop-de-doo" he finished sarcastically, barely taking breath or pauses "I know you all hate history and believe me it's not my favourite thing either-"
Tiana couldn't help but roll her eyes.
"-So anyway, I'm not gonna spend my lesson handing out name badges and asking you to tell me facts about yourself because quite honestly I couldn't care less"
The class blinked up at him, taking in everything he said with a pinch of salt.
"Any questions? No? Good. You" he clicked his fingers at the nearest student, "Hand out these books"
Tiana jumped from her seat, grabbed the huge pile of text books and began dishing them onto desks as quickly as possible.
"Answer the questions on Page 9. Information all on there will brief you, make sure to read the intro" he told them lazily and there was a simultaneous sigh as students flipped the old books open.
"Is he for real?" Esmeralda whispered to Pocahontas "Who even uses textbooks anymore?"
"Es... the guy has a chalkboard. He doesn't seem all that keen on technology"
"And in case it wasn't clear, no talking" Hades said firmly staring straight into the girl's souls with narrowed eyes.
Esmeralda opened her mouth to apologise... or to argue with him. She wasn't sure yet but she immediately closed her lips together when the classroom door flew open and rowdiness infected the quiet students.
"I swear! The whole show in four days!" Flynn boasted strolling through the door with Phoebus and Aladdin on his tail.
"Flynn, having watched Pretty Little Liar's isn't that impressive when you're not using your own Netflix" Aladdin said, earning a scowl from his proud friend... but the boys hadn't noticed an even bigger scowl emerging from their teacher.
"How nice of you boys to join us. I trust you have good reason as to why you're late?" Hades' eye twitched.
Flynn pulled his signature smirk and Pocahontas winced, recognising trouble was due any moment now...
"Well Mr Gray- Hades, can I call you Hades?" he started buy Mr Gray's grey skin was turning slightly pink with anger at the three troublemakers who had managed to anger him just seven minutes into the year.
"I was telling Al here that Pretty Little Liars isn't as terrible or cheesy as it looks! And the girls are hot! I mean obviously as if ABC would hire ugly, pretty little liars-"
"If you don't sit down in the next three seconds I swear to God I will take this textbook and I will not hesitate to whack you with it" Hades raised his voice and the students in the first show moved slightly backwards in fear while the three boys had scrambled to seats in the back, silencing their panicked laughter with pressed lips.
"Now turn to page 9 and don't let me hear another word" Mr Gray said curtly to them, but as Flynn stood up to get himself a text book (or to cause more trouble) the door swung open once more and Mr Gray's head turned slowly to the culprit with a grimace.
"He-Hello" the boy stammered, standing bulky in the doorway "Sorry I'm late"
"Another troublemaker" Hades stated, not even blinking an eye
"Troublemaker?" the boy shook his head, confused "Is this history?"
Hades looked at his laptop intently, "Are you Her-cool-lays?"
"Yes, Sir" the boys arms pushed him into the doorframe and he looked almost stuck.
"New kid?" Hades sneered with an almost gleeful look in his eye,
"No- well sort of, Sir. I moved here last year from Greece and attended Disney High for a few semesters"
"Great, thanks. What's your dad's name? And your star sign? Oh wait. I don't care. Now sit down"
Hercules blinked at his teacher's rude disregard and sarcasm before he studied the room for a spare seat. His eyes scanned over a girl with white hair, her eyes fixated on her desk and he figured she wanted to be alone. He also spotted a guy sat nearer the back, he was bulky for sure but something about his glare said he wasn't so friendly.
"Take your time" Hades said through gritted, sarcastic teeth.
Hercules' ears grew red from embarrassment and he darted to the seat at the far left of him.
"Thanks ever so much" Hades said, cutting the boy a foul look before sipping his coffee.
Hercules sighed, relieved to be out of the spotlight. He turned to who was saw beside him and ask to borrow the textbook but was shocked by what- no, who- he saw. He had sat next to the most beautiful girl ever... at least he thought so. She had gorgeous mahogany hair and almost matching violet eyes- who even had violet eyes? - her features were so chiselled like they'd been sculpted, a work of art, meaningful and sharp along with a smirk to die for.
"Do you have a name along with all those rippling pectorals?" she said, a guttural, alluring voice captivated him.
"I- er... H-Hercules" he stammered, he half expected her to roll her eyes at his awkwardness but she didn't. She considered his answer for a moment, her sharp cheekbones moved a little as her mouth twisted and then she turned back to her work.
"I'm Megara" she replied, not looking up "but my friends call me Meg"
She paused for a moment, her pen hovering above paper like a hesitant wasp. "At least they would if I had any friends" she added casually, and continued jotting down notes. Meg had to admit, she had seen this guy last semester. They'd been in math together but she remembered him scrawny and timid. It seemed he'd seriously hit puberty over the Summer.
Hercules just raised his eyebrows at her response. This way she looked so sharp, so pristine and pretty, he had not expected her to be nearly so feisty, so blunt. He stared her over for a moment, a little shocked. Some would say she had been bitchy...
He smiled. He loved it.
From the back of the classroom, the trio of trouble along with Esmeralda and Pocahontas had been watching in awe at their fellow classmate.
"Hercules! He used to be a tiny little guy!" Esmeralda whispered, "Now he's massive!"
"Puberty has clearly worked wonders for him" Pocahontas agreed "and possibly so has a personal trainer"
Phoebus stiffened his chest out in a clear attempt to display his masculinity, "Yeah well- he- he's probably on steroids" he scoffed.
"No way, I bet he's a total gym rat" Aladdin said
"Says the street rat" Flynn teased and suddenly the group began to chuckle silently,
"One time!" Aladdin said with a sigh "it was one time!"
"Honestly that was the funniest night-" Esmeralda began
"-Don't-" Aladdin tried
"-Night ever, Al! You totally lost it!" she continued,
"Please" he winced
"It was when you started talking to him like he was your friend!"
"I thought we agreed to never talk about this!" Aladdin said
"An hour you spent talking to that rat! You even offered it your beer!"
The four of them burst into laughter at the expense of their sulking, rat talking friend but they were followed by a bellow from the already, very angry teacher.
"ENOUGH"
They settled down and allowed a few moments before starting back up all over again.
"You guys promised we wouldn't talk about it ever again" Aladdin hissed,
"I crossed my fingers" Phoebus shrugged and then they all held up their crossed fingers, nodding and smiling in union.
Tiana's first period had been uneventful. As predicted, Mr Gray kept things boring and Tiana should have guessed that Flynn Rider would cause trouble. Her next lesson, however, was cooking and she couldn't wait to get back into Mr Remington's class. The teacher had a rodent look to him but that didn't take away from his remarkable talent. He was great at what he did, both practically and teaching and his assistant, Linguini, was the son of famous, late French chef Gusteau. Tiana counted herself pretty lucky in this class.
"Tiana! Good summer?" Mr Remington greeted,
"Hi, Mr Remmy! It's great to be back" she replied casually.
As students arrived, both seniors and juniors for this term, Mr Remmy began talking and eventually he split up the students into pairs to fill out first term questionnaires on health and safety in the kitchen. A standardised quiz completed every year, Tiana knew she'd pass with flying colours. She glanced up at who she'd been paired with and saw as Kronk, a somewhat dense Junior, headed towards her and took the seat next to her. She hated seating plans. He was sweet to be sure, but boy did he take away from her strict work ethic with his constant talking.
"My spinach puffs- OH BOY- they are the best!" the jock said, "I'll have to teach you!"
Tiana just nodded and sighed, ticking the correct boxes below her. She wasn't trying to undermine Kronk, in fact, she never doubted his cooking skills. He sounded passionate and clearly had been cooking since he was young just like she had but her head was overwhelmed with duties already. All that she could think about was work, work, and work. She had a shift later on at Duke's Café and then there was homework, studying, extra credit reading, Prom! Oh God! Prom! Not that she'd been asked to, but she very well knew she'd be member if not leader of prom committee. She figured Aurora might join and possibly Arista but none of them had seemed keen on Yearbook committee that they started last year. She and Charlotte had signed up last semester and were due to take it on as soon as possible. She had to work on finding photos, quotes and more members for help. If she wanted to get into Harvard she'd need all of these committees and clubs for a good reference. Tiana shook her head. She simply couldn't think about Harvard right now... not when she had a six-hour shift later.
"Hey, are you OK?" Kronk asked
"Oh" Tiana snapped out of her daze, "No sorry! Just thinking about Senior year! So, what else do you make besides spinach puffs?"
Jasmine sat in her last lesson of the day, her head propped towards the window as she zoned out of Mr Hawkins' lecture about senior year coming faster than they thought and how it was time to 'knuckle down'.
Ariel nudged her and Jasmine snapped back into focus, "Hey, you're ignoring Hunky Hawkins!" she whispered. Jasmine smiled at the nickname but faltered quickly, "Sorry I guess I'm just tired" but that wasn't strictly true.
Jasmine had just forgotten how boring school could be. It made her realise how boring everything was. She had sat in her house all Summer long and even when they went abroad, they sat in a similar house watching the same shows. The only difference was that her cousin would use all her makeup and make comments about the weather. Jasmine was bored. Bored. Bored of everything. Her dad was far too protective, even her chauffeur Iago made boring company. Her friends made things way better for sure, they enticed sleepovers that she was sometimes allowed to attend and even school wasn't too bad with them. They guaranteed a cheery time, a genuine, happy atmosphere... Still... there was always a sense of longing for more. Jasmine was just yet to find out what she wanted more of.