Chapter Two: Nursery Rhyme School
In his earliest memories, Dexter was rather resentful of his destiny.
People treated him differently than Daring or Darling. He wasn't as daring or darling as they were (was he even dexterous?), so he wouldn't be a favored child, but on top of that the Good King had a reputation as a dope. How did he not notice his wife was evil? How could he not be stupid if he was so easily manipulated? Never mind that the Good King had been aware of this for generations, but permitted it to preserve the story. People thought he must be a lovesick fool and the Evil Queen's tool. (That was, actually, a quote from a song that Dexter's siblings would sing when annoyed with him.)
Besides being treated like an idiot when he was actually the smartest of the Charmings, the royals were also wary of trusting him. They thought that his primary allegiance was to the Queens (which was more or less true) and that everything they confided in him would be reported back to them (which was not). The current Evil Queen's attempt to take over other stories only made this worse, and Dexter was a bit of a pariah: good for congenial smalltalk but not much else.
Because of all this, Dexter went in to nursery rhyme school very prepared to hate Raven Queen. It's not like he wanted to try to redeem himself by being mean to her, he was just angry because he saw her as the root of his problems.
However, almost as soon as he stepped inside, he was bowled over by a raven-haired girl. She embraced him tightly, saying exuberantly, "My daddy says you're going to be my friend!" Her lavender eyes were bright. "I've never had a friend before!" She then went on to do her best to make him happy: she played any game he suggested, even the ones she didn't like (she much preferred musical chairs to build-your-own monster truck sets), she gave him all her sweets during lunch, and whenever she looked at him she was beaming, and looking at him with big hopeful eyes like he was her hero.
He'd never felt like a hero before.
It was hard to dislike somebody who tried so hard to be nice to you, and as they say, misery loves company. It felt better to be two pariahs together than one alone.
Needless to say, they were fast friends.
