Sorry for not updating Wednesday.

Chapter 10
"Rumors"

There had been noise around the school of the five children arriving from the Isle. It had only been a couple hours since their recent arrival, but news traveled quickly around Auradon Prep. The news was that Ryeka was showing them around.

"Are you scared, Annalisa?" a blonde, glasses-clad girl asked.

The dark redhead looked up at the girl asking her the question and shook her head; her determined blue eyed look revealing that she wasn't at all scared. Though she was a bit of a mixture between nervous and curious on how all of this would work out.

"I've learned during my fourteen years that you shouldn't judge people just based on how they look to you," she answered. "But based on how they act."

The blonde girl gave a half nod, as if she understood what Annalisa was getting at. Though barely hidden behind her spectacles was a half-there expression. Annalisa held in a sigh when she noticed this. The girl didn't get it or she didn't care to hear it. Either way, Annalisa's words fell on deaf ears.

Annalisa had gotten used to being ignored, though she didn't particularly like it. Most people would see her situation and just hang around her out of pity. Rarely were they ever truly "present" around her. And if they were, they didn't notice she was there. It was either one way or another. She has wanted to shout at people to get them to notice her; scream in their faces that she was there, maybe even run over their toes with her wheels. But she figured it was better for them to ignore her than to hate her, because doing that would definitely make them hate her.

It was then a rather tall, awkwardly lanky girl walked up to them. The tall girl's black waves bounced as she walked over to the two other girls. Her amber eyes were wide, like she just saw something she never thought she would.

"I saw them!" she said when she reached the girls.

"Who Antheia?" asked Annalisa.

Antheia was one of Annalisa's "friends". She wasn't a bad person, but was still merely a pit friend. Antheia and Annalisa never hung out or really talked. They just stood beside each other and gossiped every so often.

"Who else? THEM! The Isle kids," Antheia replied.

"Oh my! What are they like?" the blonde asked.

"Well, let's see," Antheia starts, grasping her chin as she thinks. "I couldn't tell who was who, but I was able to get a somewhat good look at them. One word; absolutely terrifying!"

"That's actually two-" Annalisa goes to say, but Antheia cuts her off.

"There is this purple-haired chick. She is really pretty and all, but she glares at everyone who just looks in her direction," Antheia continues. "I thought I was going to die just by looking in her eyes. And then there was this really tall boy. He was just as scary. He looked like he was plotting something."

"They're probably all plotting something," interjects the blonde.

"Probably, but he was truly cranking some gears in his head," Antheia states. "Then there were three other girl. Two of them seemed possibly normal, but knowing their lineage, probably not. And the last girl was trying to hit on Ryeka when I saw her."

"Good luck with that," laughed the blonde.

Annalisa just listened on as Antheia and their blonde friend continued the conversation. The problem with Antheia was she was scared of everything. Despite how she may come off in front of those she knows, she was actually lacking all sureness and nerve. So whenever she would say something scared her, she was probably just being Antheia. While there was nothing wrong with Antheia being that way – she was just being herself after and nothing was wrong with that – Annalisa could only take her opinion at face value.

"I'm going," said Annalisa.

"Oh, okay," said Antheia.

The two other girls waved as Annalisa rolled away.

I'm curious now, she thought.

❣^.^❣

Meanwhile on the Isle someone else was getting down to business. A woman rushed down a long, towering hallway draped in reds, blacks, and whites. The short-statured woman's steps echoed as her heels clacked against the titles with some force. It was obvious to all that looked on that she was angry. Anyone and everyone in the hallway quickly rushed into hiding as she passed them, only to glance at her from behind a curtain or hidden in a doorway.

She reached the end of the hallway where a two large doors sat closed. She coughed, signaling to the two people on either side of the door. They had been hiding as well, but with that single cough, they scurried out from their hiding place and swung open the doors for her. As she entered the room, the doors closed behind her.

Behind the doors was a small, playroom-style room. The ceiling was vaulted and had torn scarfs hanging from it. Every shade of red and pink was displayed in this room, from the scarfs hanging from the ceiling to the cushions that acted as furniture. In the center of this room were two teenagers. One, a boy, was lounging on a couple of oversized pillows. He looked rather relaxed, though also looked pretty bored with his surroundings. He was gazing at the other, a girl, who was reading a book. Unlike the boy, she sat straight up and held her posture to give off a lady-like air.

"This is appalling!" shouted the woman, causing the two children to jump due to the sudden noise. "Simply horrendous!"

The girl placed down her book and the boy sat up. They shared a confused look with each other and then towards the woman.

"What is wrong, mom?" asked the girl.

Her grass green eyes looked upon the fuming woman with true concern. The boy looked to the woman with equal unease.

"Those brats that left for Auradon!" the woman responded.

As if cued, boy teens sighed at the same time. The boy went back to lounging and the girl picked up her book and brushed it off. Both relaxed after her answer, though she remained raging.

"That still?" asked the boy. "It's been like how many days now?"

He turned to the girl, who was still brushing off her book. She replied without even looking up.

"Almost a week?"

"It sure feels like it," he said. "So why are you still irate?"

Their mother, the Queen of Hearts, had discovered that five teens would be going to the mainland after one of her servants brought her the flier. Much to her dismay, neither of her two children had made the list. She was tired of being stuck on the Isle. Even though she had a lot of power – owning the largest house on the island, ruling her own segment, and having indentured servants wait on her hand and foot – she still felt controlled while there. It would have been a good chance to get off the island if one of her children was chosen. They were both beautiful children. Either one could have seduced a royal and married, allowing her to get off the Isle through the marriage. It would have been a whole lot simpler than many of the other plans she had been cooking up. And so when neither of her children had been chosen, she went to the other parents houses to try to convince them to switch.

She at first went to Ursula. Ursula and her had had a good relationship before their imprisonment. Ursula wished to rule the see, while the Queen ruled Wonderland. They had their own separate domains and didn't infringe on the other. Respecting each other's set boundaries allowed them to get along. But since their imprisonment, both have been sort of secluded; Ursula to her cave-like dwelling and the Queen to her castle. Still, the Queen had hoped that their once "friendship" would make Ursula at least listen to her proposal.

Shot down.

She followed Ursula with Captain Hook. He refused to listen. The Queen knew he was going crazy, but after talking to him, she could confirm it. It was pointless to try to talk to him, so after only a couple of minutes, she left. Doctor Facilier listened, but refused to switch. He instead threw out rebuttals that made the Queen question her own motives. This only made her even angrier. And of course it was pointless to go to Maleficent; she was as tough and strong-willed as Ursula, Doctor Facilier, and the Queen combined.

With all the rejections, the Queen was quite pissed off. Her kids and even servants had been keeping their distance, afraid of having to deal with her. After a couple of days, they figured she would be calmer. They figured wrong.

"Quinn! Blaise! You should be just as angry as I am," snapped the Queen. "It was a once in a lifetime opportunity for either of you."

Blaise shrugged.

"I don't like Auradon," he said. "So why would I want to go there."

"To get off the island," said his mom.

"While I don't particularly like the Isle," he said. "I hate it a lot less than Auradon. Besides, why would I want to compete with all those snobs over there."

Quinn chimed in.

"I prefer it here," she said. "Here we're the royalty."

"Of a broken castle," replied her mom.

Her mom shook her head and scoffed at her two children.

"You two are pointless," she jeered. "It looks like if anything is to get done, I have to do it."

And with that, she turned and left in an emotional storm.

Quinn looked at the doors her mother, combing through her blonde locks nervously.

"I think we upset her," she said.

"She's always upset at one thing or another," said Blaise.

"But she was showing concern for us as our mom," said Quinn. "And we knocked her down."

"We didn't knock her down," Blaised rebuffed. "We merely said that there was nothing to be done about that route. We should be putting our energy towards something more useful, anyway."

"Like what? Lying about?" asked Quinn.

"I'm not just lying about. I'm thinking," said Blaise.

"Thinking?" she repeated.

"Yeah," he said. "Of a plan."

She just shook her head. She looked back at her book and then at the door. Placing her book down on a cushion, she stood up and began to walk over to the doors.

"What are you doing?" asked Blaise.

"I'm going to go apologize to mom – from both of us," she said. "I cannot stand when she is angry with us. You can keep thinking."

Quinn pushed open one of the doors and slipped out.

"We weren't mean to her," Blaise muttered. "Right?"

So I'm sorry to say I'm cutting this one to 10 chapters for the first arc/season/whatever. Now, I'm not ending the story whatsoever. What this means is the break that I was going to have at the end of October is just coming early. I have my reason for this early end, but I hope you guys are alright with this. This story will be coming back with The End come January, so I hope you guys can always wait until then.