Daring Charming was actually early to General Villainy on Monday morning. It surprised him that he was the first one in the class. He took his seat in the back of the class and flipped through his Advanced Wooing textbook. He didn't need to take the class, but he was all the same. It was an easy credit.

He had just gotten to the part about wooing non-royal damsels, when Cerise Hood walked in the class. He was surprised to see her in the class so early. She walked up to where Professor Badwolf was sitting and talked with him for a second before joining Daring in the back of the class.

"What was that about?" Daring asked Cerise as students began to trickle in.

"I just had a few questions," Cerise said.

"About?"

Cerise shot him a weird look. "This class," she said.

"Right," Daring nodded and resumed reading his Advanced Wooing book. He put it away when the bell rang and Professor Badwolf stomped to the front of the class.

"We have been studying famous villains for the past week," Professor Badwolf said, "And we will continue to study them, but we are going to take a break from that."

A small cheer erupted from the class and was quickly ended by Badwolf's glare. "Don't think that this means that you get a free week for the next week. You will be assigned a partner project. You will be reporting about all of the villains in your family tree."

A groan went up from the class. "The person sitting next to you is your partner. You will have a week to complete this project, outside of class. We will still be studying famous villains in class. You will be presenting on Friday. Any questions?"

Daring cautiously raised his arm.

"What, Charming?"

"What if you don't have any villains on your family tree?" Daring asked.

"I'm sure that your partner-," he looked at the girl sitting next to Daring, "Oh. Well, you two can do it on villains that your family members have faced, I suppose."

Daring nodded. It wasn't his fault that there weren't any villains in the Charming or Hood family trees. He picked up his pencil and started writing as Professor Badwolf started talking about evil sorcerers.

"I am so dead," Raven Queen groaned to Cerise and Cedar in their dorm room. Raven had been spending more and more time in her friend's rooms. Cerise thought that she was doing it to avoid Apple and her talk of destiny.

"Why?" Cerise asked.

"The project that Badwolf assigned us. I can't figure out what to talk about."

Cerise raised an eyebrow. "But you come from a really long line of evil queens."

"I know," Raven said, "I don't know how I'll fit that all of them in to one five minute presentation. I mean, you'd think that there was only so much evil that one family could do."

"What's the project on?" Cedar asked.

"We have to talk about our villainous ancestors," Cerise explained.

"But, you don't have any," Cedar pointed out.

Cerise almost said that she actually did, but she stopped herself.

"She's lucky," Raven said, "Badwolf gave her and Daring the option to do it on villains their ancestors faced."

"You'd have a problem if he'd let you do that too," Cedar pointed out.

Raven shrugged. "I suppose I would, but it doesn't mean that I wouldn't like the option." She flipped open a thick, dusty book. "I found this in the back of the library. It's the history of the Queen family. How am I supposed to memorize this in one week?"

Cerise just shook her head at her friend's dramatics.

A knock came at Daring Charming's dormitory room door. "Humphrey?" He asked his roommate without moving from his position on his bed.

"Yeah, yeah," Humphrey Dumpty said, "I'll get it." He opened it up and peeked his head outside. "It's for you," he said and turned around to face Daring.

Daring sat up. It was probably Apple or Briar. If it had been some fangirl, Humphrey would've turned them away. He walked to the door, slipping on his jacket, and stopped as he saw Cerise.

She was standing nervously in the doorway tugging on her hood like she could disappear in to it if she tried hard enough. She looked just like she did every other day; Plain. Simple. Cerise.

"What are you doing here?" Daring asked Cerise.

"Um," she glanced nervously at Humphrey, "I thought that we could work on the General Villainy project, but if it's not a good time-"

"No, it's a fine time," he surprised himself by saying. Usually, Daring's partner would do all of the work and he'd just sign him name on the project.

He was about to open the door to let Cerise in when he heard Humphrey shout, "No girls in the dorm room."

"Maybe we should go someplace else," Daring said and closed the door behind himself.

They walked in an awkward silence for a minute, then Cerise said, "I think we should go to the library."

Daring found himself nodding. "The library would be good," he said even though he hardly ever went in there. It was kind of like how he hardly ever did any of his own projects. People just seemed to want to do things for him. Apparently, it didn't work that way with Cerise.

They made their way to the library and sat down at ones of the tables in the back. Cerise took out her tablet and pulled up a diagram.

"What's that?" asked Daring.

"This," Cerise said with a bit of a dramatic flair, "is every Badwolf in the history of forever after."

"How did you get that?" Daring asked.

Cerise looked at him like he was stupid, which he might have been. "I asked Professor Badwolf for it."

"And he just gave it to you?"

"Yeah."

"But he's the scariest teacher in the entire school."

"So?"

"He's the villain of your story."

"And?"

"So, you should be terrified of him," Daring pointed out to Cerise.

"Right," Cerise nodded, "I am. I mean, he's pretty scary."

"But you still asked him for his family tree."

"His family tree is practically my family tree. Our stories are intertwined."

"Right," Daring nodded. He glanced at Cerise, hoping she wouldn't notice him doing so. She was a strange girl, stranger than any other girl he had ever met. The fact that she wasn't afraid of the big bad wolf was definitely another strange thing about her.

"So, what about your family?"

"What about my family?"

"What villains have the famous Charmings faced?"

Daring started to talk and then stopped. "You know, Cerise," he said, "there's a lot of them. It'd be better if I just showed you."

"There's an entire hall just dedicated to the Charmings at this school?"

Cerise looked around at the hall surrounding her. She didn't really know how they had gotten there. It had been a lot of turns and then Daring had made her close her eyes. Despite her great senses of smell and hearing, she really couldn't pinpoint where exactly they were. Somewhere in the west part of the school.

She took in the hall that she was in. It was more of a room, but Daring had called it a hall, so she would as well. There were swords and suits of armor all over the room. Paintings of past Charmings hung on the walls along with magnificent tapestries depicting battles.

"I didn't even know the school had this room," Cerise turned around to face Daring, who was staring at her. She felt a blush creep up her cheeks and hoped that it didn't show.

"Yeah," Daring's voice cracked, "Nobody does, except for my brother and sister. It's kind of like a secret Charming only room."

Cerise suddenly felt very awkward standing in the 'Charming only' room. She was not a Charming and shouldn't be in here. Maybe Daring showed all of his friends the 'secret Charming only room'. Cerise nodded. Yes, that was it.

"Do you come here often?" Cerise asked.

Daring nodded. "It's a surprisingly good place to think. Though, my brother hates it because the wifi it terrible," he sat down on one of the many long cushioned benches, "I'm fairly certain that my sister comes down here to fence."

Cerise's eyes widened in surprise. "Your sister fences?"

"Yes," Daring looked at Cerise, "Does that surprise you?"

Cerise shrugged and sat down on the floor, her back against the wall. "Well, she is a Charming, and you guys are all about your destinies."

"I wouldn't say that."

"Why?"

"My sister wants to be a knight, and I'm fairly certain that my brother is in love with the daughter of the Evil Queen."

Cerise laughed. "You've got that one right." She looked at Daring for a moment. "What about your other siblings?" she asked.

"Most of them are like me," Daring said.

"So, perfectly handsome destiny followers?"

Daring's mouth dropped open. "I'm not a destiny follower!"

"I'm pretty sure that you are."

"Am not!"

"Your favorite class is heroics."

"So?"

"You're practically dating Apple White."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Cerise shrugged. "Nothing. Just that you like your destiny and wouldn't make a very good Rebel."

"Well, I don't think that you're a very good Rebel, Cerise," Daring said, "After all, you're following your destiny."

Suddenly, the fun atmosphere disappeared. Daring stopped and Cerise tugged on her hood, wishing that it could make her invisible and hide her from the boy that she might possibly like. "Yeah," she muttered, "Well, some of us don't have such an easy story."

"What do you mean?"

"It's nothing," Cerise said, but she could feel her ears burning. What would Daring think if he saw those? She got up and sat down at a table on the other side of the room. "We should get to work," she said.

"Yeah," Daring said. He pulled a book off of a shelf and joined her at the table. When Cerise looked up at him, he was smiling.

"What?" she asked.

"You think that I'm handsome."

Cerise felt a blush climb her face. "I do not," she said and buried her face in her book.

"Uh huh," Daring nodded and opened his own book. When Cerise peeked at him from under her book, he was still smiling. She couldn't help but smile herself.