Chapter 7

Aladdin waited impatiently in the living room. After Mr. Jafar and Jasmine's father had found her and Al in the closet, they had jumped to conclusions and Jasmine's father wanted to speak to her alone. It was obvious that her father was a decently strict man and would never be okay with his daughter sleeping around in a mental home and now Aladdin was almost certain that either he or Jasmine would get transferred. Jasmine told him before she went to talk to her father that she would come and get him after her father left, but she had said that over an hour ago and here he was, still waiting.

His head shot up as he heard footsteps, to his surprise it was only Esme. Probably snuck out of class, he thought.

"Hey," she said with a small smile, as she took a seat next to him on the couch.

"Hey," he mumbled. "Aren't you supposed to be in class?"

"Maybe…. but shouldn't you be there too?" she gave him a playful smirk.

"Long story." He sighed.

"Oh…" she said simply, looking down at her hands. "hey, I was thinking about asking Mistress Maleficent about Rapunzel….do you think I should?" she paused and looked briefly at his face.

"Yeah…you should…" he scratched the back of his head. "…you should do that."

"Is something bothering you, Aladdin?"

"Nah, I'm good. What about you? Is something bothering you?" he looked at her half-skeptically. With everything else that was going on, Al never had the chance to talk to Esme again about what was on her mind ever since the 'Rapunzel incident'.

"What do you mean? Of course I'm fine!" she said, slightly irritated.

"Okay, Okay. Just asking, jeez." He sighed, sometimes she could be so stand-offish. There was a slight pause between them before Jasmine came walking in, Aladdin guessed she had already finished saying good-bye to her father.

"Am I interrupting anything?" she asked in suspicious politeness. Esmeralda immediately stood up from her seat,

"Nope. I was just leaving actually, see you Al," she gave him a slight wave before leaving the room.

"See you." He replied half-heartedly. He then looked to Jasmine. "So…"

"He was pretty mad," she started, but he could see a hint of a smile on her face.

"Did he think we…" Aladdin trailed off as he looked down to conceal the blush that had worked its way to his cheeks. Jasmine bit her lip and shrugged.

"You'd think he'd know me better, I mean, he's a single father and I'm his only daughter," she said, with a hint of sadness in her voice.

"Single father? Are your parents divorced?" Aladdin asked, oblivious to why Jasmine's eyes were suddenly filled with sadness. She shook her head.

"No, my mom died in a car crash when I was 6," she sighed, suddenly feeling like she had swallowed marbles.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"-It's fine. Don't worry about it." she gave him the best smile she could come up with. "What about your parents?" Aladdin wasn't expecting that question, he knew it was obvious that she was just trying to avoid the topic by asking another question, but the particular subject of 'parents' led Aladdin into a whole new uncomfortable zone. He rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"My mom died when I was only 2, so I don't remember her. Then I lived with my dad until I was 10, but one day he dropped me off at a neighbour's house with most of my stuff, he said he had to go on a business trip with his work for a month, I never questioned it despite the fact he worked as a garbage man at the time. He never came back." Aladdin tried to shrug as casually as he could, but this small conversation had reopened deep wounds that all his life he had tried to fix. Never knowing if you still had a parent alive was one of the worse things, they could be long gone and dead, or they could still be out there alive, but either way, Aladdin's father had abandoned him, so he still considered himself fatherless . Jasmine looked at him, her gaze full of sympathy.

"Your neighbours, were they…were they nice?" she asked. Aladdin let out a loose laugh.

"Yeah, they were okay, but then they had 2 kids of their own and there was no room left for me. I was 13 when they sent me to the orphanage."

"Oh my goodness, that's terrible!" she locked her eyes with his, her eyes were ablaze with something like anger, mixed with some kind of regret and self-loathing that Aladdin almost found fascinating.

"Jasmine, it's alright, it's not like it's your fault, that kind of stuff happens to kids all the time. Unfortunately I had to be one of them." He paused, giving her a chance to speak, but she said nothing.

"…Anyways, we should probably get to class before they put me on a restraining order," he chuckled. Jasmine forced a smile as they headed to Mrs. Porter's class. All her life she had whined and complained to her father about how she was the unluckiest child in the world for losing her mother at 6 years old, it seemed like it was just now that she realised that there were kids out there who had it worse than her, kids like Aladdin.

"You coming?" Aladdin asked as he noticed Jasmine had stopped in the middle of the hallway. Jasmine nodded as they walked into the classroom, still consumed in their own thoughts.

Esmeralda knocked lightly on the door to Mistress Maleficent's office, desperately wanting answers, but frightened for what the answers might be.

"Come in," the voice was croaky and cold, and gave Esme the chills. She reached her shaky hand down to the brass doorknob and tried turning it.

"It's…It's locked…" Esmeralda said, still unsure if this was really the best idea. There was a pause and Esmeralda was about to turn on her heel and walk away, but then the door opened and there stood, much to Esmeralda's disappointment, Mr. Jafar.

"Do you have an appointment?" he barked, his voice jagged and demanding.

"No, but I..."

"Then you have no business being here," he hissed spitefully, narrowing his eyes at her.

"Mr. Jafar, that is quite enough. How may I help you Esmeralda?" Mistress Maleficent's voice came from somewhere behind him. It was sweet and sickly sounding, like it hadn't come from her at all, her voice seemed kind and gentle, too kind and gentle.

"It's umm…concerning Rapunzel," she cleared her throat, "ma'am." Esmeralda turned her eyes towards Mr. Jafar for a moment and gave him a sharp glare. Mistress Maleficent scanned Esmeralda for a moment with what seemed like glowing eyes full of fascination, but Esme thought it more probable that it was suspicion, it was like Mistress Maleficent was trying to detect something other than concern within Esmeralda's emotions.

"Hmm…Mr. Jafar, you are dismissed." She waved her hand, telling him to, for lack of better words: 'Get lost'. Mr. Jafar stared at Esme with pure hatred at that one moment, but it seemed like he didn't want to make a fuss in front of the big boss, so he wordlessly exited. As soon as he was out of sight, Mistress Maleficent gestured for Esmeralda to take a seat.

"Now then, tell me these 'concerns' of yours," she said a bit skeptically. Esmeralda calmed herself before answering, she couldn't let them know that she thought that they had murdered Rapunzel, that would just be digging her own grave- literally.

"I..I just want to know if she's alright," she said, choosing her words carefully. Mistress Maleficent seemed pleased with her question, and her skeptic smirk and beady eyes changed to their regular plastered on fake friendliness.

"You and Miss Rapunzel were very good friends were you not?" Mistress Maleficent said, with a touch of false empathy. Esmeralda nodded and tilted her head down, while still looking straight ahead with her green orbs.

"I can assure you that Rapunzel is very safe in her new environment. Mal house wasn't the right place for her, but she has been transferred to a new home that is more suitable for her needs." She finished with an almost believable smile.

"Can we call her?" Esmeralda asked, with a concealed note of challenging defiance. The pleasurable smile on Mistress Maleficent's face vanished in an instant, but quickly returned after she deciphered Esme's question.

"Pardon me?" her voice heightened half an octave.

"Once she gets settled.." Esme started again, hesitating, "…can we call her, just to make sure everything's alright?" Esmeralda tried to sound as concerned as possible, but behind her real concern there was also suspicion and a hint ofskepticism.

"Yes." Mistress Maleficent's voice was now cold and hollow. Esmeralda's face brightened up a bit, maybe her friend was okay after all. "…Once she is settled." Mistress Maleficent finished as she stared at Esmeralda with austere cold superiority. Now she was almost certain that the owner of Mal house knew of her suspicions, and instead of relieving her of them or confirming them, she was going to keep Esme on the edge of her seat. Esmeralda held Mistress Maleficent's authoritative gaze, not even daring to blink, her expression was almost as hard and emotionless as her opponent, except hers held a little pride as well.

"Thank you." Esmeralda said, with her chin raised, eyes still directed towards the Mistress.

"You are excused," she finally said, returning her proud glare down to the papers on her desk. Esmeralda nodded and exited the room, making sure to half-slam the door on the way out.

Belle and Ariel both slumped against one of the walls in their room, Belle knew what had to be done, but now she was more frightened to do it than ever.

"You don't have to do this you know, we already have proof," the redhead whispered to her discouraged friend.

"I know. But I need…" she sighed and shut her eyes tightly. "…I need proof for myself." She finished and turned to look back at Ariel.

"Alright. What book do you want to read?" Ariel asked.

"We should probably start basic," Belle explained. "Hmmm….how about the ugly duckling?" Belle wondered aloud. Ariel's face immediately took on an expression of enthusiasm, before changing to a somewhat sad smile.

"What is it?" Belle lightly placed her hand on Ariel's shoulder in a comforting matter, Ariel was the closest thing Belle had ever had to a sister-or sibling of any kind for that matter.

"My mom, when I was younger always read me that book. I live in a family with 6 older sisters, all who are pretty, talented and smart, I was always the ugly duckling of my family." Ariel said, a bit bitterly.

"I'm sure she'll be very happy to see you when you get out," Belle said, trying to lift her friend's spirits.

"She's dead." Ariel snapped in a harsh, cold tone that suggested there was maybe a bit more underneath the curious and innocent exterior she seemed to put off. "She died of Leukemia when I was 14." Ariel lifted her head and glanced in Belle's direction, who looked slightly frightened. The red-head's eyes were now glazed with remorse. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped like that, it's just…sometimes it stings you know, not having a mother to return to while others do." Belle felt like that last remark was almost an accusation directed towards her and felt the need to defend herself.

"I don't have a mother either, she left us when I was only 3." Belle said coldly. Ariel nearly looked stunned. "Anyways…" Belle continued. "Let's get the book," Ariel nodded and looked through Belle's personal stack of disordered books, there were paper-backs, hard-covers, novels, biographies, non-fiction, you name it, and she had it. Finally Ariel found it wedged in between a Sherlock Holmes novel and a biography of Marie Currie.

"Found it," she said as brought the Mother Goose fable's book over to her friend. Belle inspected the cover for a moment which had the title engraved in fancy gold calligraphy; she blew the dust off the top of it to reveal some of the covered letters of the author's name. She opened the book and hesitated before reading: "Page 1…."

Meg and Flynn were both gasping heavily in the bathroom in the boy's corridor. Flynn ran a hand through his sweaty hair and exhaled air.

"Oh man…. Next time you're on top," he said, leaning against the countertop, shirtless, with his thumbs hooked in the loops of his jeans.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say hot-shot." Meg sassed in reply, using her signature sarcastic charm, while tidying her now messy ponytail.

"We should probably give it a break for a while, I mean didn't Al and Jasmine get caught this afternoon?" Flynn said as he scrubbed his face with a cold cloth.

"Yeah, but they're amateurs. We're much more.." Meg struggled to find the right word. "…experienced."

"I don't know, I got a feeling they're on to us, I say we wait a week, give things the time to cool down." Flynn said a bit uneasy. Meg had gotten here around the same time as he had, and one day they were both in Flynn's room working on an assignment and well…stuff happened. They soon found out that the both of them had an extremely high sex-drive and they managed to work out this arrangement. It's not like they had any actual emotional relationship, it was more like friends with benefits. Not even, because if it wasn't for their arrangement, Meg wouldn't even have given Flynn the time of day; Acquaintances with benefits was much more befitting.

"So…" Flynn started, an all too knowing grin spread on his face, "…I heard an interesting story from Eric yesterday…." She glanced at him with an untrusting glare.

"Mhmm…" she mumbled, pretending not to care, but Flynn knew that on the inside she was biting for the information.

"…he said that apparently Mr. Macho has the hots for ya," Flynn smirked as Meg whisked around to face him.

"And who exactly is 'Mr. Macho'?" she questioned suspiciously. Flynn gave a long yawn, enjoying her impatience far too much.

"…Hercules. Poor guy, doesn't even know what he's in for," Flynn snickered which earned him a hard punch to the gut.

"Oh please," Meg rolled her eyes, "As if I'd even go for that," she looked back to Flynn who had a bemused smile on his face. "What?!" she snapped.

"Meg, Meg, Meg; Innocent little Megara, pretends to be all nice and sweet, avoiding guys. And then, when you least expect it….bang! She starts making out with you in a closet," Flynn broke out into laughter.

"Say whatever you want, but I can't count how many times you've tried to use the innocent 'smolder' on girls that have walked through this house," she shot back.

"Hey! Don't hate the player, hate the game," he clicked his tongue, flashing Meg his infamous cocky grin. Meg was about to either fire one of her sarcastic remarks or punch him in the stomach, but was soon interrupted as someone was knocking at the door.

"Someone's in here!" Flynn shouted to whoever was waiting to enter the washroom.

"Meg?" It was Esmeralda's voice. "I know you're in there," she said. Meg groaned.

"Ughh, we can't get anything past that girl," she muttered under her breath.

"I heard that!" Esme shouted through the door.

"Don't take it too personally, Phoebus and I can't figure out how she does it either," Flynn said with a half-chuckle tone to his voice.

"Listen, I don't know what you two are doing in there, bu-"

"-I'm coming!" Meg shouted realising she didn't have a choice in the matter, Esmeralda wasn't a snitch, but she didn't need her spreading gossip around to someone else who would tell on them.

"Catch ya on the flip side," Flynn mockingly saluted as Meg opened the door to see an impatient Esmeralda leaning against the opposite wall.

"Well?" Meg said in a rude, expectant tone of voice. "What do you want?" she said as she crossed her arms.

"Can we go somewhere private?" Esme lowered her tone.

"Like where? My room?" Meg scoffed sarcastically. To her surprise, Esmeralda nodded.

"Sure. Yeah. Whatever." Meg grumbled as she led Esmeralda to her and Jasmine's room.

Once in their room Meg shut the door and glared at the black haired girl with impatience.

"I don't know if this is some type of game or whatever, but I think y-"

"- No I came here for a reason," Esmeralda cut Meg off as she tightly shut her eyes and reopened them. "You can see ghosts right?" she asked, looking at the brunette hopingly. Meg rolled her eyes.

"Depends on who's asking," she replied slyly. Esmeralda bit her lower lip anxiously and lowered her head slightly.

"Meg," she paused. "I need to ask you a favor…"

Hey guys! Thanks for reading, if you have any questions concerning the story let me know!

Points for this chapter:

-You might notice that there's a lot of information about the characters' parents mentioned in this chapter, some of their parents might be important later on in the story so I wanted to explain their situations.

-I hope none of you guys are too taken back by the whole Meg and Flynn exchange, I think I explained the situation pretty well in this chapter, but if you guys have any questions about it, just ask

What do you guys think's going to happen next? Review/Follow please, thanks again, byeee :-)