Alia's eyes remained fixed firmly on Lonnie's, their swords pointed at each other. Then, Lonnie lunged forward. Alia brought her sword up to block the attack and the fight began. The clang of blade against blade echoed in the empty amphitheatre as they parried back and forth.
Finding herself stepping back as Lonnie continued her attack, Alia felt her foot bump one of the blue and yellow blocks that sat in a circle in the gym, ready to help or hinder any sword-fighters that entered the room. Narrowing her eyes in concentration, Alia lurched forward, slicing her sword at Lonnie and causing the other girl to step back. Now with more space, Alia jumped high backward, landing lightly atop the block. She then leapt high in the air, somersaulting clean over Lonnie's head. While directly above Lonnie's body, she struck her sword out toward Lonnie's head and neck, but she easily blocked the strike with her own sword. Alia landed and immediately rolled once across the floor, spinning in a crouch and knocking her leg into Lonnie's knees.
Lonnie fell but managed to flip herself right back up onto her feet. She came back at Alia, blade swinging expertly. Alia ducked and spun, hitting Lonnie in the back with her sword. She spun back the other way, bringing her sword up to strike for Lonnie's neck, only to feel the cool metal of a sword blade at her own neck.
"I yield." Alia sighed in defeat, lowering her sword hand.
A slow clapping made both girls look toward the doors, lowering their swords and standing straight. Li'l Shang was leaning his shoulder against the doorway.
"Nice. Both of you. I see you've been practicing." he commented, entering the room and approaching them.
"Just a bit." Lonnie grinned at her brother, resting her sword up against her shoulder.
"I suppose you've got pointers?" Alia guessed teasingly, even though she wouldn't mind pointers from Shang. He'd been the captain of the Swords and Shields team while in school, and that only happens to those who can beat the previous captain. For him to maintain his position as captain for three of his four years of high school proved he was next to impossible to beat.
"Only if you don't mind." he admitted with a grin.
Shang gave both girls some good pointers, explaining what Alia had done wrong that ended in her defeat. Unfortunately, their little lesson needed to be cut short in order to get to class on time.
At the end of the day, Alia plopped down on the grass in the shade of an oak tree, leaning back against the trunk to relax for a few minutes before she even thought about tackling her homework.
"You really like the outdoors, huh?" a familiar voice commented as someone sat down next to her. Alia felt someone's arm brush hers and opened her eyes to look over. She returned Jay's grin.
"Just a little bit. It might have something to do with how much cooler it is here than back home." she commented lightly.
"Just how hot is Agrabah?" Jay asked curiously.
"Well, it's a desert, so…it averages about a hundred degrees Fahrenheit most days. Auradon City is usually twenty degrees cooler or more."
"Jeez, and you like living there?" Jay asked teasingly.
Alia stuck her tongue out at him. "It may be hot, but…it's home." she explained simply.
She leaned her head back against the tree trunk, letting a cool breeze tickle her cheeks. Her eyes caught a flash of blue and purple. Looking closely, she saw Mal and Evie hurrying toward the dorms. Evie appeared to be messing with Mal's hair and clothes for some reason.
"What's up with Mal and Evie?" Alia asked curiously, her eyes not straying from the two girls. Jay followed her gaze and chuckled.
"Oh. Mal ran into me earlier asking where Evie was. Apparently Ben asked her out on a date and she doesn't know the first thing about that kind of stuff."
Alia smiled. "Sweet. Oh, did you hear how Evie did on her test?" she asked, looking over at Jay again. They'd gotten their tests back that day. Alia was proud of her 'B', given how Chemistry wasn't exactly her strong suit.
His smile faltered. "No. Why? Did you?"
Alia nodded with a grin. "Well, I don't know the exact grade she got, but Mr. Deley didn't try to hide how disappointed-and impressed-he was by her grade. So obviously she passed."
Jay sighed in relief. "So she won't get sent back to the Isle?"
"Probably not. Unless she gets caught cheating or something like that. She'll need to be more careful, especially if Chad's still out to get her."
Jay snorted. "Charming's clearly got nothing better to do with his life."
"Well, I could've told you that." Alia told him jokingly.
The next morning dawned nice and early for Alia. Not feeling like an intense workout or training session with Lonnie, she'd settled for jogging a couple miles along a path in the woods behind the school.
"Gotta keep one jump ahead of the breadline, One swing ahead of the sword…" the song 'One Jump Ahead' was playing through the one earpiece in her ear as she jogged. She picked up her pace slightly, seeing the pale light of dawn filtering through the rare breaks in the trees.
The song suddenly cut off when her phone started ringing. Alia slowed down to a walk, pulling her phone from her shorts pocket. Her brow furrowed curiously, seeing her dad's name on the caller ID. Why would her dad be calling her before seven o'clock in the morning? And why would he be video calling her of all things? Worried, she answered the phone. She wasn't sure what she was looking at when the screen changed. The screen was moving and shaking, as if her dad was running or something. She thought she caught glimpses of the marble floor and wall of the palace, and maybe a pillar.
"Hello?" she asked. "Dad?"
The screen moved again and Alia suddenly saw a brown face with a little button nose and a big eye taking up the whole screen. Alia started in surprise before chuckling slightly.
"Abu. Did you steal Dad's phone again?" she laughed, silently noting stealing phones must be a family thing.
Abu chattered happily, beaming at her as the phone shook slightly. Alia shook her head in amusement.
"You little bugger. He's going to be so mad at you." she told him, not even bothering trying to hide her amusement.
Abu just shrugged and continued to babble on. Unlike her dad, Alia couldn't necessarily understand what Abu said, but sometimes he was so obvious about what he was trying to say that it wasn't too hard to guess. This time, Alia wasn't sure what he was trying to get at.
"Did you mean to call me or was that an accident?" she asked curiously.
Abu merely babbled on in his high-pitched voice. Alia really had no idea what he was trying to say. There were no hints at all as to what he was saying.
"Abu?" a familiar voice called in the background. Alia grinned slightly when Abu very clearly squeaked an 'Uh oh'. "Abu, give me my phone back!" Alia's dad called, sounding frustrated. The screen shook wildly for a few seconds, and Alia laughed when she heard her dad scolding Abu and demanding he give the phone back while Abu squeaked in protest. Finally, the screen stilled. "Oh, great, who did you call now? It better not be Hercules or Zeus again. You were lucky on our last visit that Zeus found you amusing; you could've started a war when you tried to steal his lightning bolt!"
Aladdin's face suddenly appeared in the screen and Alia grinned. Her dad's graying, black hair was messy and he appeared to have recently woken up.
"Nope, no immortal gods on this end. Just me." she joked.
Aladdin sighed in relief. "Good. Well, sorry if he woke you up, 'Lia."
"He didn't. I'm on a run. What's he so excited about, anyway? I got the feeling he was trying to tell me something."
Aladdin's eyes widened for a moment before he glared to the side and down slightly, probably at where Abu was perched nearby.
"Oh, nothing important, really." Aladdin assured her, turning back to look at her through the phone screen. "He's just being his typical, mischievous self."
In a quiet whisper that Alia probably wouldn't have caught if it weren't for her ear bud still being in her ear, her dad hissed at Abu, "You can't ruin the surprise. And if you don't watch it, I'll change my mind. Jasmine already thinks I'm crazy."
Alia narrowed her eyes curiously, but she knew asking him would get her nowhere. The word 'surprise' clued her in that Abu was clearly trying to tell her something that she wasn't supposed to know. Yet.
"Well, I should probably go." Alia told her dad, interrupting his argument with Abu. "I've got to get back to the gym so I can shower before class."
"Right. Sorry about Abu bothering you." her dad answered.
"Don't worry about it. I love Abu." Alia assured him with a grin.
Abu popped up on her dad's shoulder. He then stuck his tongue out and blew a raspberry at Aladdin, who rolled his eyes. Alia giggled.
"Bye Dad. Bye Abu. Love you guys."
"Love you, too, honey. See you next week." her dad added, referring to Family Day approaching in the near future.
Alia hung up the video call, shaking her head in amusement as she picked up a fast-paced jog to get back to the school.
