When Carlos was coming to he noticed two major things; the first was that he was warm, actually genuinely warm, all wrapped up in something soft and fluffy.
The second was that someone was sitting very close to him, so Carlos remained very still even though he was awake.
There was barely any noise around him, just the sound of someone walking around in heavy boots, so very cautiously he opened his eyes the tiniest bit; without moving his head the only person he could see was Ben standing by the door.
Carlos saw that he was still in the locker room, suddenly the heavy boots stormed across the room and swung open the shower room door, nearly making the small De Vil jump.
A small, brown shaggy dog, sitting at Carlos's feet, suddenly looked up and he held in a scream; it was so close, so warm, he could feel it's stomach rising and falling on his bare feet.
The person who had been sitting beside him moved away, as had Ben, so Carlos quickly opened his eyes and shifted to move; the dog looked at Carlos and he froze.
"shh." Carlos breathed quickly as he continued to stand, towels falling off him.
To his surprise the dog stood perfectly still, eyes still locked with Carlos's and tail wagging furiously.
Grasping the last towel around his naked body he glanced up to see four people standing at the shower room door, talking softly, so as quietly and quickly as he could Carlos edged around the dog and out of the door without alerting any of them.
The halls of Auradon Prep were empty, just the soft whirring of the CCTV cameras, it was much colder outside than in the locker room and Carlos wished he had made a grab for his clothes on the way out.
"now, how to get home." Carlos thought, sighing deeply.
Carlos knew he could take his time going home, he was already later than late so his mother would punish him no matter what.
Tucking the towel more firmly around his waist Carlos set off back down the hall to the front door, then he heard loud footfalls behind him.
"Hey!" a male called through the dark.
Panic slammed into Carlos's stomach and without a thought he shot off across the Tourney field to his right; the grass was cold and course under his bare feet but Carlos kept his eyes on the woods at the other end of the field.
There was still the person behind him, catching up quickly, shouting for him to stop but Carlos refused to listen and soon he was in the woods.
It was much harder to see in the woods but Carlos kept on, twigs and brambles cuts at his skin, stones were uncomfortable beneath his feet but he kept on until he came to a very secret hiding place.
Even though the library and science lab were Carlos's favorite places to hide there was one last resort; roots of three trees had grown together to create a sort of hidden den and Carlos was just the right size to fit into it.
Gulping down air the small De Vil went through the roots feet first, twisting his slim body around the winding roots until his feet touched the soil beneath and no sooner than he sat down another body slammed hard into the roots.
"Dammit De Vil! Come out!" they demanded.
Under the pale moonlight Carlos could just make out Jay's handsome face scowling down at him, his long hair was hanging wildly around his shoulders.
Carlos just shrank back more, "leave me alone." Carlos managed to shout back, pulling his towel around himself.
"come out or I'll come in there to get you." Jay snapped.
"I'd like to see you try." Carlos challenged knowing Jay would never fit through the roots; he was too tall, too muscular.
All the same Carlos saw the tanned limbs trying to get through the roots, each getting stuck within moments and retreating to try again with another.
Carlos had to admire Jay's drive to want to get to him.
After several more attempts Jay let out an angry shout, "get out here Carlos!" and began pulling at the roots, which refused to budge.
Carlos wondered why Jay was so intent on getting him to come out, all the Arabian teen did was put him in lockers and it seemed a bit pointless to stay behind school for so long just to do it again.
Finally everything went quiet, "alright Carlos." Jay said softly, "you win."
Carlos smiled smugly to himself, for once he had gotten out of have the stuffing knocked out of him.
"but," Jay continued to speak, an uneasy feeling started to swirl in Carlos's stomach, "if you don't come out, I'll have to send the dog in."
"no!" Carlos shouted, suddenly noticing the small brown dog from before looking down at him.
"you're choice." Jay sounded very proud of himself.
Biting his lip Carlos weighed up his options; be in an enclosed space with a dog or walk straight into one of Jay's pranks.
Sighing deeply Carlos began to climb through the roots, feeling them scrap his skin as he wriggled past, "keep that dog away." He shouted to Jay the further he got up.
When he finally emerged Jay was holding the panting dog tightly under one arm and grinning a very cocky grim at Carlos.
"gave us a fright there De Vil." Jay said suddenly.
Carlos said nothing, just scowled at him and tried to process his words that made no sense; suddenly more people came crashing through the wood.
Mal and Ben appeared with twigs and leaves stuck all over them, rosy cheeks and panting.
"good, you found him." Mal snapped at Jay before approaching Carlos, who instantly flinched back, "you are a moron."
Carlos didn't meet her eyes, not knowing what she was going to do to him, but she kept talking, "do you have any idea what you've put Evie through? What you put all of us through?"
Glancing up Carlos saw a half angry, half worried look on Mal's pale face, "don't be too hard on him Mal." Ben came up behind her and smiled gently at the small De Vil.
Mal sighed deeply, "you're right. Let's get back." She said grabbing a jacket off Ben and draping it around Carlos's shivering shoulders.
Very confused, and a little afraid, Carlos followed them back through the woods, Jay's arm was clamped tightly around his own, almost protectively.
Upon coming back onto the Tourney field the dark figure of Evie came shooting at them, her eyes filled with tears and flung herself at Carlos, hugging him tighter than she should have done.
Then something strange clicked in Carlos's brain; why had these four been around after school finished, unless they had come looking for him and had actually been worried about him.
They had saved him, he realized that none of them had ever actually physically harmed him and the thought brought tears to his eyes and he couldn't stop he sob escaping.