Chapter 10: Reality Show, Episode 1
It was still Monday, only classes were now over and everyone had gathered to the auditorium to watch the Isle of The Lost live from the crystal ball that the villainous kids got from their friend Proserpine. At first, Fairy Godmother was a bit hesitant about having students watch how villains lived in their prison island, but with over a hundred students signing a petition with adequate explanations of how it could be helpful and educational, she granted permission to show the Isle of the Lost live on screen only on Mondays, which was fine for everyone. Well, not everyone: Eleanor and Chad were the only ones against it and decided to remain in the library rather than get 'brainwashed by evil influence'.
Mal, Jay, Carlos, and Evie were sitting on a platform with Ben, Doug, Jane, and Audrey. The first four felt nervous: they'd been living on the Isle for almost their entire lives, and now, they were going to watch with a hundred Auradonian kids the place where they grew up, the alleys were they ran amok, the junkyard where they hung out with their old friends, and Dragon Hall, their old school, as if it were all part of a live, soap opera. Even their six comrades felt nervous.
While Xaos and Kory placed the crystal ball under a large screen with the Headmistress, Haya, Macy, Charles, and Gabriel sat in the front rows with Lonnie, Finius, Gitane, and Avery, who managed to get permission to come down with the gargoyle teens in order to watch the show.
"I sincerely hope the crystal ball doesn't show my father," Charles muttered, placing his hands on his face. "It's already hard to forget about him."
"With all the fear he sends to magic-users, children, and non-whites?" Gabriel scoffed. "I seriously doubt that, bro."
"Will you shut up for once, Gabe?" Lonnie said, giving a big frown at Gaston's son. "Your comments are becoming annoying."
"Finally something we can agree on!" Haya exclaimed in relief. She held out her hand in front of Lonnie, indicating that she wanted to do a high-five. Unsure at first, Lonnie gave back a high-five. Hopefully it would help clean the slate a little bit between the two.
"Relax, you guys," Gitane said quietly. "I'm sure the show won't be as bad as you think it is…"
"I'm sorry, Gitane, but do you happen to know my father?" Charles asked in a stoned voice.
"Technically, it's your fault if you were too scared of him to even try making friends with other people," Macy replied. "I'm mean, even I disobeyed my mother when she grounded me for months."
"You? Disobeying?" Finius asked, as if he couldn't picture Macy being naughty.
"Yes, I was." Macy straightened her shirt. "It's trendy for teens there to disobey their parents in order to go out and have fun."
They stopped talking when they saw that the Fairy Godmother had managed to set things up so that they could see on the screen whatever the crystal ball was seeing. So far, it was nothing put voodoo symbols floating in a black void full of red smoke. Some voices shivered in the rows.
"Proserpine will never stop amazing me," Haya chuckled.
"Can she do magic?" Victoria whispered.
"Eh." The villainous kids motioned with their hands.
"Attention, everyone!" F.G clapped her hands. "We are all here to watch a live documentary of what is happening currently on the Isle of the Lost. Please remain quiet and respectful while watching this. Questions will be asked after the show." She motioned the lights to turn off as she sat on a chair near the crystal ball with Xaos. Kory in the meantime was using one of Macy's Dragon Hall yearbooks in order to link the crystal ball with their old home. She held out her hands and pronounced the following words: "Dark spirits from this double dome, show me whatever is occurring in my old home!"
Thunder was heard and the screen was zooming out an image that ended up showing a neighborhood in the Isle of the Lost.
Lonnie couldn't believe that she was seeing the actual isle of the Lost. It wasn't full of dark houses and evil forests like she imagined from the bedtime stories that her father told her when she was a little girl. Instead, it was full of cramped houses made of broken stones and scraps of metal. There were a few tall, large houses, but they were rather narrow compared to those in Auradon, and makeshift. The streets and alleys were dark and dirty. Many people were walking in crammed groups in order to move about as much as they could. Merchant stands with old wood and torn cloth were gathered in the streets, with the salesmen shouting out loud for special products worth special prices. Everyone was dressed in ragged clothes, leather outfits, or attires with odd motives.
"This is where you grew up?" Lonnie asked Haya quietly.
"Yep. Welcome to the Isle of the Lost, Auradon's biggest dumpster for villains."
The image suddenly zoomed towards an old, yet scary-looking dark house with crooked bricks and a wooden roof. Lonnie noticed that Charles was shaking terribly when he saw the house; even Gitane's gentle touch couldn't reassure the boy. Then, a man came out of the dark house. Lonnie got the shock of her life when she saw that the grey-haired man with the torn black robe, tired, angry eyes, deep cheekbones, and medieval styled dark shoes looked like someone she knew. Of course! Charles was shrinking in fear at the sight of the man. And the adult audience was gasping in horror as if they knew him.
"Charles…is that?" Avery asked in horror.
"Judge Claude Frollo. My father."
Frollo stood in the middle of the street in front of his house. People stopped moving and made way for him in fear as they saw him. They watched as he called out for a squad of grey-skinned men wearing fur clothing and carrying jagged swords and daggers.
"HUNS!" Frollo called out in an angry, rude tone.
Lonnie noticed that Haya was making an angry face. Obviously she didn't like the way Frollo was talking to her people.
"What do you need, old man?" one of the Huns asked.
"First of, respect from your soiled mouth!" Frollo snapped. The Auradon audience gasped in shock at the exposed racism. The villainous crowd on the Isle was cringing in fear before Frollo. "Second of, I've been robbed and I need you to go after the unholy thief who stole my property."
"And why do you need us to get it back for you?" another Hun asked flatly. "Why don't your men go fetch it themselves? Or maybe they're too chicken in fear of being violated?" The Hun squad began laughing, irating the minister.
"Really? Because your dirty skinned master is too lazy to execute orders himself?"
The Hun who mocked Frollo first suddenly got mad. "You will not mistreat Shan Yu in front of us, Frollo! He's our leader and we only follow his orders, not yours! He's the one in charge of the police on this Isle, not you! So shut your mouth!"
"Hypocrites! What has he done ever since the last batch of our rascals left to Auradon? Nothing!"
"Well, unlike you, Minister, he's grieving for Haya's departure. All of us Huns are," another Hun retorted.
Lonnie looked at Haya, who was fighting back tears at what she was hearing: her father and clan were missing her terribly and here she was watching them argue with Frollo with their lives at stake. Lonnie held Haya's fist in comfort; the Hun girl didn't pull away.
"Yeah! After all, it's not like you've done anything ever since your chew toy of a son left as well!"
"Who knows, maybe he finds the heroes' disgusting, soft food of tantalizing goodness much better than your sharp whips that you gave him at every single meal!"
Frollo's face burned with red anger as he shouted and black men came out of his house, confronting the Huns.
"If you dare mention that ungrateful, ghastly demon that I was doomed to father, I vow I'll...!" Frollo began screaming.
"Hey, old man!" a voice shouted.
Everyone looked on top of Frollo's house. Two girls were standing on the roof, shaking bags full of coins and jewels as if they were tantalizing the crowd with candy. One of the girls was recognizable to Lonnie: it was Jane Hook, Captain's Hook youngest and nerdy daughter. She looked prettier alive than on a yearbook picture. The other girl was unrecognizable to Lonnie: she was much taller than Jane Hook and had a messy ponytail made of different tones of brown and a bang on the side. She was wearing a strapless golden dress with green sleeves, a green belt, golden-green fingerless gloves, light green leggings and dark-and-light green knee-high heeled boots. A green choker with a golden coin was strapped to her neck. Lonnie noticed that the girl was wearing earrings shaped like spinning wheels and carrying a bag with a spinning wheel motif.
"Who is the girl with Jane Hook?" Lonnie whispered.
"Amanda Von Stiltskin," Macy whispered. "The daughter of Rumplestiltskin, the only villain besides Maleficent who uses spinning wheels."
"Did you forget what today is?" Amanda asked in a taunting way from the roof.
"Don't you dare, imp!" Frollo threatened.
The girls didn't listen. They held the bags upside down and all the coins and jewel fell to the ground like a waterfall of gold. Villains shouted and pushed one another as they tried to get a hold of the treasures. Frollo kept shouting as he and his men tried to stop the others from taking his possessions. The Huns squad laughed as they watch the two teens run on top of the houses in order to avoid capture.
"Teens these days will never stop amazing me," a Hun commented.
"Yeah." One of the others sighed. "It's a shame I can't get younger like Gothel did before. How fun it seems to see those kids jumping from building to building, creating mishaps, going to school at Dragon Hall, and holding parties at the Junkyard!"
The scene shifted to Amanda and Jane, jumping recklessly on top of all the buildings, not even bothering to rest. They laughed as they kept running above the neighborhoods.
"I love this life!" Jane said as she held out her hands in the air as if she were flying. "Off I go to Evil Land!" They made a big jump towards the top of an electric tower, causing the thing to fall and crash-land, causing bystanders to get electrocuted.
Amanda chuckled. "C'mon, Jane! You adore this life! This is the Isle of the Lost! A villain's paradise! What more could you ask for?" They finally stopped to rest a bit after running over 20 blocks away from Frollo's house.
"Uh, I'd ask for more supplies to fix the JOLLY ROGER," Jane pondered.
Amanda looked unamused. "You're kidding me, right? Every time I ask a rhetorical question, you just need to answer it?"
Jane's smile faded. "Sorry. I just can never tell whenever you're gonna ask a real question. I can never tell the difference."
"Well, what would you have said if your dad asked you what way you take to go to Neverland?"
"Seriously? Just use pixie dust, faith and trust to fly to the second star to the right and straight on 'till morning in order to get there. C'mon! Even Sean's ten little sisters can answer it quickly!"
Amanda looked dumbfounded. "OK…this wasn't a rhetorical question."
"Oh."
They climbed down a fire escape and landed in an alley. Amanda pulled out a sewer lid and the girls got in before Jane pulled the lid back on top of her head. They walked in a tunnel full of pipes, trickling water, and darkness.
"Seriously, though," Jane said. "I'd want more supplies to fix the ship."
"Your dad and crew were still unable to fix it?"
"What do you expect? With all the junk we get from Auradon's residents, the JOLLY ROGER wouldn't survive the termite invasion."
"Bummer."
"What about you? What could you possibly ever ask for?"
"I'd ask for nothing. I'm rich, I've an imp who spins straw into gold for a dad, I'm going to Dragon Hall, and soon there will be the back-to-school party that Napoleon's hosting. What on earth could I possibly ask for?"
"Because you never want more?"
"Excuse me, but Hannah South's house is on the other side of the Isle. Don't you dare tell me that we have the same hairdo," Amanda said sarcastically.
Jane laughed loudly. Amanda followed her as well as they walked through the tunnel and the image disappeared from the screen, ending the show.
Everyone in the auditorium was quiet and speechless.
"Well, that was interesting!" Finius said with a weak smile.