Chapter 2: Arrival of the Reformees
The day of the St Luther Rose Academy competitors had finally arrived. Everything had been doubly checked: the building where the guests would be residing on campus along with spare lockers, enough food supplies in the cafeteria, and so on. Now everybody was waiting outside in the front of the school, with welcome flags and banners and the marching band ready. For the Auradonians, it almost reminded them of the day they welcomed the first group of VKs at Auradon Prep. For the VKs, it felt like judgment day.
"Are you feeling nervous at all?" Lonnie asked Artemis as they went to join their friends in the front position they were taking to welcome the guests.
"Why would I? I already know who were expecting and I can't participate along with Dia and Kaly because of gods being prohibited from participating in the Pride Games," the son of Nightmare Moon said calmly. "I'll still be cheering for you from the bleachers if you're competing."
"You're so sweet." Lonnie held hands with her boyfriend. "By the way, thank you very much for the new dress. I love it."
"It does make your eyes stand out, doesn't it?" Artemis blushed a bit, making it clear that not even the modern Asian navy blue dress with star glittering prints of magnolia petals could outshine his precious lover.
"They do make a lovely couple, don't they?" Evie winked at Doug, who grinned at her in agreement. The sun was shining on this bright Wednesday and the clock indicated the time being 9:55am. Only five minutes until the competition arrived.
Ruby glanced at her boyfriend, who stood stiffly next to her with his arms crossed and a frown that bugged her. It was pretty obvious that he wasn't looking forward to seeing a certain reformee and it annoyed her that, even after three months since Ruby got revived, he still didn't want to get into any context about with her, the rare person he opened up to the most.
9:56am.
"Let's hope they aren't as annoying as the ones I knew back in 7th grade," Gitane muttered while Charles got his camera ready for taking pictures to make his next UNHOLY GAZETTE issue.
"And that the ones I know won't have suddenly changed personalities ever since the Isle," Charles pointed out.
9:57am.
"They should be here in three minutes," Ben said.
9:58am.
"A flat tire would do just well," Martin grumbled.
"Martin! Not now!" Ruby hissed.
9:59am...
"BUSES AHOY!" Jane Hook spotted from the flagpole.
"They're coming!" Chloe Hook shouted.
"Wow. Right on time," Mal commented.
Finally, about six buses pulled in. The marching band instantly began to play and the students did the traditional welcoming cheer and waving. The buses parked in perfect alignment. They were really stunning because, unlike most buses used for school transportation in the U.S.A, these looked a lot like the luxurious kind a celebrity would take on a tour mashed with the driving style of the British driving on the right side of a vehicle, making it so that the opening doors faced the welcoming committee.
The roaring of a motorcycle introduced the arrival of a biker driving her way through the available space and parking her own vehicle just next to the buses. The biker wore a classic grey biker's jacket over a red and pink plaid T-Shirt, magenta skinny jeans, and grey biker boots with magenta and purple straps. Her skin was of perfect cream yellow value. The biker removed her helmet, revealing the face of a girl close to Ben's age with red and golden shoulder length hair pulled back by a beaded magenta headband with blaring sun patterns, cyan eyes, and honey lipstick. The sun symbol she had on her headband was also reflected on her earrings, and left black cuff bracelet. Her remaining jewelry was a diamond riviere necklace and a right rainbow bracelet.
"Déjà vu much?" Kory whispered to Mal. "Are you sure this isn't a VK?"
"Hi, I'm Dusk Shimmer," the girl said as she walked towards. "I'm the president of the student body staff at St Luther Rose Academy. It's a pleasure to be your guest."
"The pleasure goes to us being your hosts," Ben said. He and Dusk shook hands together. "Welcome to Auradon Prep."
"We've been looking forward to the Pride Games," Dusk said with a smile. "I'm sure that we'll be making some deep connections between our two schools." Her eyes then moved towards Lonnie. "We're especially grateful for you saving those who had briefly been in that sticky situation back on the Isle of the Lost, Fa Li Lonnie." Dusk respectfully bowed her head at her.
"Gee, the fame still hasn't worn out?" Lonnie chuckled nervously as she blushed in embarrassment.
"Long time no see, Dusk," Gitane said. To everyone's surprise, she and Dusk shared a hug. "I see that you've gone from the timid girl I knew back in middle school to the student body staff president. How's your mom doing?"
"Busy lately as the new principal of Canterlot High," Dusk admitted. Noticing the others blinking at her, she realized her mistake. "Oh, my mom's Sunset Shimmer."
"I already guessed," Artemis shrugged.
Somebody stepped out of the first bus: a Caucasian man around his forties, with fading brown hair that looked like they were trying to grow from a two week old shave. He wore a dark green costume over a white dress shirt and a black tie with matching shoes. His skin had slight hints of wrinkles, indicating that he was an aging man.
"Principal Melchior," Fairy Godmother greeted the man. "What a pleasure to meet you. Welcome to Auradon Prep."
"Wait, Balthazar isn't the principal anymore?" Ben frowned as Melchior gave Fairy Godmother a gentlemanly kiss on the hand and pulled back.
"The Three Mages have been assigned to take turns as headmasters of St Luther Rose Academy depending on whose immortality needs rejuvenation." Melchior's voice sounded unusually cold for someone living in Auradon. Like he had taken a very cold shower, stepped into the cold weather with no clothes on, and drank iced tea all mashed together. "As Balthazar succeeded Gaspard once the later retired, I took the position after Balthazar had to retire back in January."
"You definetly did...something as our headmaster," Dusk chuckled with a nervous smile that contrasted the bright one she had earlier.
"OK, LET'S MOVE IT, PEOPLE!" A muscular man shouted from the megaphone he held in his hands. "GRAB ALL YOUR BELONGINGS FROM THE LUGGAGE COMPARTEMENTS AND LINE UP! IF I SEE ANY SLOW SLUGS, THEY'LL BE SPENDING THE REST OF THE GAMES IN DETENTION!"
"What about for those who practically live in detention, Mr. B?" A redheaded girl asked from one of the buses' open windows.
"JUST GET OUT OF THE BUSES THIS INSTANT!"
"Now, now, Steven," Principal Melchior said soothingly. "There just children."
"I've been dealing with rascals like these since Middleton High, sir. Most people tend to forget that St Luther's stands right on the grounds of the destroyed Middleton High."
"Destroyed?" Mal asked.
"Alien invasion decades ago and Team Possible saved the day," Martin grumbled. "I still want to vomit about the fact that such good Mystical Monkey Power was wasted..."
"Martin!" Ruby hissed again.
"Eh, don't blame him. I still have to deal with the Stoppable Sequel the same way I had to deal with the First." He gave a rough shoulder pat on Martin's shoulder, nearly crushing him like an accordion. "Steven Barkin..."
"Dubbed the 'substitute teacher for almost everything'!" Dusk whispered at Mal.
"Just don't try impersonating any mascot like your old man did and you and I will get along just fine, Fiske."
"I'll keep that in note," Martin groaned as he tended to his aching shoulder.
The students from St Luther's proceeded to make their way out of the buses as fast as they could and grab their luggage before rushing to line up as if they had been trained to run away from a nuclear bomb. It was stunning on how, for students coming from another school in Auradon, they almost looked like lighter versions of the VKs: dark clothes, unusual skin color, odd hair, and nonhuman characteristics. One of the students opened the luggage compartment of the third bus and water came splashing out of it, releasing two yet teens onto the now muddy road.
"Della Octoposia! Less swimming and more photo shooting!" Barkin shouted.
"Aye!" The girl said in a thick Australian accent. She lifted herself from the ground, revealing that she had four arms.
"Four arms? Like Expertina?" Ruby said while blinking.
"Quite right, mate." The girl pulled out four cameras from her purse and began taking pictures of everyone at every angle. "Four hands are quite useful for shooting photos at different angles." She took a picture of Ben and Mal and another at her classmates getting out of the buses. She leaned on the floor and took a shot of the two headmasters and got up to photo-shoot the building. "Pieuvrella, daughter of the Octopus."
"Doesn't ring a bell," Evie said bluntly.
"Hardly ever does." Pieuvrella shrugged. "But they know my mom best because of..." Two shrill screams cut her off. Everyone paused what he or she was doing and saw that the Hook twins were the ones screaming as they hung on for dear life at the top of the flagpole.
"Ladies, get down from here!" Fairy Godmother demanded as she marched towards them. She then stopped when she saw a green reptilian teenager from the reformee students trolling the pirate girls from the bottom of the flagpole.
"Tick tock," he said in a raspy tone.
"SAVE US!" Jane Hook wailed.
"No, Chronos! Bad!" Dusk shouted. She and Ben ran and pulled Chronos Vonreptile away from the flagpole while the latter tried in vain to get rid of them and make a run towards the Hook twins, especially after Forkjølelse helped them get down and they were now cowering behind him.
"Othello! Handbag time!" Dusk shouted.
"Oh, come on!" Chronos whined as Othello Traviesa came and lifted Chronos by carrying him on his shoulder like a sack of flour. "Can you use any pun other than animal skin merchandise?"
"No, put you won another ticket to detention!" Barkin said. "No cannibalism, Vonreptile! We had this conversation over and over again! Traviesa, take him with you to the tourney field!"
"Right, boss." The son of Iago and Thundra carried Chronos Vonreptile, who was still pouting, on his shoulder.
"I'm terribly sorry about Chronos," Dusk apologized to Fork and the Hook twins. "He's the son of Tick-Tock the Crocodile, so...you know..."
"He thinks my girlfriend and her sister are like codfish meat?" Fork asked angrily.
"Uh...yeah..." Dusk admitted in embarrassment. "He does it to almost every pirate-related person. Even Jonathan Sparrow and Fillmore Barbossa can't escape him."
"I think I might faint," Jane Hook said.
Meanwhile, Lonnie was reuniting with Cassie and her other friends from home, Hu Xiongmao the son of Po and Tigress, and Meirong Dashi, the daughter of Master Shifu and Mei Ling.
"It's so nice to see you again," Lonnie said after hugging Meirong. "I'm still upset about missing you guys out during the Christmas break."
"We have been guilty despite the pleasant trip," Meirong said. "But now we have about two months for catching up."
"And of course, I've told you about my boyfriend, Artemis Nightmare." He bowed his head in respect.
"We are honored to meet you, son of Nightmare Moon." Meirong held her hands together and bowed at Artemis, with Hu copying her in pursuit.
"Ok, people! If nobody has anymore luggage to take from the buses, we will now proceed to getting the buses out of the way!" Mr. Barkin shouted.
"Would you like us to show you were..." Fairy Godmother began to ask until Principal Melchior cut her off.
"Not to worry, we got it all covered."
Just as he said that, colorful floating glitter surrounded the buses like auras and instantly shrunk them to the size of bus toys that Mr. Barkin picked up and placed in his pocket. "Good job, Trixie."
"Thank you, Mr. Barkin," a blue-skinned girl said. She was rather stunning, for she wore a star and mooned themed magician outfit consisting of a pink corset with only a brown sleeve to cover her right arm while her left was bare and exposed a tattoo of a blue moon and wand, a flowing brown ruffled skirt that exposed her navel, white knee-length leggings with purple star patterns, a magenta cape, and dark navy flat with golden moon clasps. Her white hair with magenta and yellow streaks was both tied up with a star hairband into a bun and pulled up by a bright headband with a small purple witch's hat sticking on it. Her jewelry consisted of moon earrings, assorted bracelets and a ring, a navy blue glove on her left hand, and a wand matching her tattoo.
"Maligna Trixie, daughter of 'the Great and Powerful Trixie'." Dusk waved her hands in exaggeration at the words 'great and powerful Trixie' as Maligna approached her. "Way to go with bus shrinking."
"It's the least I can do." Maligna shrugged. She then looked behind Dusk towards the Auradon Prep students and gasped as if an arrow had hit her. "Sweetie!" She pushed Dusk out of the way and ran towards a male student who rushed towards her with equal joy, revealing himself as...
"SPECIOSUS?" Mal, Jay, Carlos, Evie, and Sean exclaimed together.
"Angel, how have you been?" The son of Queen Narissa embraced the daughter of Trixie. People had to look away in disturbance when the two began to kiss.
"Am I missing something here?" Sean pointed in confusion at the couple. "Since when does he date a reformee? No, actually, since when does he date anyone other than poisoned apples and his own ego?"
"She's been talking non-stop about how they 'ran into one another during Valentine's Day when she went to see the Museum of Famous Magical Talented Beings during that special exhibit on the Sugar Plum Fairy and how it was like love at first sight'." Dusk pinched her nose in frustration. "And then she's gone as far as sharing emails, text, Skype calls, occasional weekend rendezvous, and God knows what for weeks!"
"Says the single one without a boyfriend," Maligna smirked at her.
"A royal boyfriend, if you want to add frosting to the cake," Speciosus added as he winked at his girlfriend, who giggled at his flattery.
"Forget I said anything," Sean muttered. "They're a match made in Hell."
Martin sighed. "Well, so far there's no sign of..."
"WE'RE HERE!" a familiar voice shouted right when a red convertible Lamborghini car pulled in. Five girls came out of it: Melgo Theodora Lipsky, the daughter of Dr. Drakken and Shego, Felindra Gru-Wilde, the daughter of Gru and Lucy Wilde, some green-skinned twelve-year-old girl in a red Christmas attire, a seventeen-year-old blue skinned girl with punk blue hair and a rock punk outfit, and...
"Sorry we're late," Ronilda said as she jumped out of her convertible. The last time she had been seen was during the Battle of the Villains Comet in a biker's outfit. Now she was wearing a dark red cropped topped with a naked mole rat and the words Watashi Wa Itoshi Teru imprinted on it, brown cropped pants, blue sneakers, a brown fingerless glove covering her right hand, a gold watch on her left wrist, orange earrings shaped like her rodent, a blue and beige scarf, and purple shades. Her ginger gold hair was set loose. "We had to pick up Grinchelda from the airport."
"I'll be assuming that you missed your flight," Martin said drily.
"Welcome to Auradon Prep, Ronilda. Glad you could make it, and yes, I missed you too," Ronilda said sarcastically, returning his dry tone with a sour tone of her own.
"Nothing's changed," Martin snarled. "And don't even think that the games will make me change my mind!" He turned his back and marched back towards the building. The other students, especially the VKs, made way for him because they knew from personal experience that Martin Fiske was somebody they did not want to upset.
"He still won't talk to me more about his issue with her," Ruby admitted to Dusk as they watched Ronilda and her group of friends make their way towards the field. A pink glow came out of Ronilda's hair and turned into a small Gladiola Trollkonge sitting on her shoulder like a parrot. "I wish he'd let me help him out."
"Well you're in for trouble," Dusk confessed, "because I'm afraid Ronilda still hasn't changed her feelings for him even after their breakup."
Minutes later, at the tourney field
Everyone had gathered at the tourney field while Gladiola's teen Troll subjects brought the luggage to the reformees' temporary residence. Each school sat in bleachers on different sides of the field, which made it easier for opposing confrontation. Sour glances seemed to be exchanged between the Auradon Prep students and those of St Luther Rose Academy, especially between the VKs and the reformees, while Mr. Barkin spoke on his megaphone from the center of the field.
"Now I know many of you teenagers don't want to be anywhere near one another at all during the Pride Games," he said. "And such accommodations can be made." Agreeing muttering came from both crowds for reasons we already know.
"Well too bad, people!" Barkin shouted. "These are the Pride Games, not the Hoboken Zoo! For the next two months or so, you will have to go to class together, eat together, live together, and share your own toilet water like you'd do at home! You'll be stuck with one another as you compete, so don't complain! It's part of the tough-but-fair laws of nature we live in!
"Through careful consideration and layout, the student of St Luther's will be assigned to take certain classes that certain students at Auradon Prep are taking in order to create bonding that will put an end to your pathetic family feuds and create one of those touchy feeling memories you won't forget by the time you retire. Meals will take place at the cafeteria, and to spare the agony of our hosts doing extra cooking for us, we have ensured that our personal young chef, Karl Pepikrankenitz, will take care of our school's nourishment." Multiple cheering came from the St Luther crowd.
"Barely a few minutes here and they already insult the food," Jay muttered.
"Gym classes will be taken care of by Coach Jenkins from Auradon Prep and Coach Sabertooth from St Luther's. Events of the Pride Games and who were those chosen for specific events will be mentioned on morning announcements. Detention will be held by me as usual, but most of you already know about it because you practically live in it. Are there any questions?"
"What about tonight's party?" Gladiola shouted from the St Luther bleachers.
"Ah, yes. As per tradition, the guest school is the one who throws a party on their first night here to celebrate making it to the Pride Games, and since we're the guests, we'll be setting up the party. Any other questions?"
Only a cricket was heard in the field.
"Then get back to your stuff! Auradon Prep, back to class, and St Luther, get those party preparations ready! These Pride Games need to be celebrated, people!"