Ch 25

"Come on, Dude! Sit still! Please?" Gabby begged, lowering the camera from her face.

Dude paused in scratching his chin with his back paw and looked up at her. "I am. It's only my leg that's moving."

Gabby rolled her eyes. "Carlos. You're dog has an attitude."

Carlos laughed from a couple seats over at the picnic table. "I already knew that!"

"Tell you what," Dude spoke again, regaining Gabby's attention, "I can be extra cute and cooperative for food. Particularly that piece of bacon on your plate."

Gabby turned around to look at her tray on the picnic table. There was one more piece of bacon left on her plate.

"Okay." she agreed quickly. "You give me a few extra cute photos, and it's yours."

Dude lifted one forepaw, and they shook on it.

Jay snorted, shaking his head in amusement as he ate his own breakfast.

But the deal worked perfectly. Gabby got several adorable photos of the little brown mutt before her first class even started. Photos of him resting his chin on her knees and looking up at her with big, brown eyes; looking down at him laying on his back; laying in the grass with a leaf on his head; and him hiding his face under a paw. All in all, Gabby was pleased with her morning's work.

Later that day, after leaving her fourth class for the day, Gabby was approached by a very excitable Evie, who practically ripped Gabby's arm off in her excitement.

"Gabby, guess what? You'll never guess. I was just talking to Ben. He got approval from the council to bring the next set of kids over this week!" Evie practically squealed as they stood in the hallway. "They decided on Harry and Jace, Yzla, and Hermie, and they could be brought over as early as Wednesday! Isn't that amazing?!"

Gabby laughed, partially because Evie's excitement was infectious, and partially because she was just as happy at the news. "That's amazing! You have to keep me updated! I want to be there to greet them when they arrive."

"Of course!" Evie agreed as if it were obvious. "That's part of why I'm telling you. Ben specifically asked if we could both be there, like when Dizzy and Hadie got here. And they'll know you better than any of us."

Gabby agreed as the two hurried off to their next class together.

*~0~*

The rest of Monday, followed by Tuesday and Wednesday, dragged on almost as slowly as her days on the Isle where she just sat around the hideout. She was relieved when King Ben confirmed that Harry, Jace, Yzla, and Hermie were coming Wednesday afternoon. If they'd come on Thursday, it would have interfered with her photography club. Of course, she would have chosen to greet her fellow Anti-Heroes over attending photography club, but she was excited to see what pointers Lilo and the others had about the photos she'd taken so far.

So, after classes on Wednesday, Gabby joined Evie, Ben, Mal, Jay, Carlos, and Fairy Godmother in front of the school. They waited eagerly for the limo to arrive. After what felt like ages, but was more like ten minutes, a long, black limo rounded the corner and pulled up in front of the castle.

Gabby waited with her breath held as the back door of the limo opened and four people stepped out into the sunlight. Yzla stepped out first, the blue highlights in her hair shining in the sun as she stared around in amazement. Hermie followed her out, barely coming up to Yzla's shoulders. Jace came next, towering over both girls in a slender, beanpole stature. His cousin Harry followed him out, looking like a shorter, pudgier clone of his cousin. They were both even wearing green beanies over their short, black hair.

The four teens were much more reserved than Dizzy and Hadie had been when they arrived. But they still all looked around with slightly-widened eyes, and gaping mouths in Jace and Harry's cases.

Hermie's face lit up slightly when she saw Gabby. "Gabby!" she exclaimed before wincing and glancing around at the others, clearly knowing she's not supposed to react in such a way on the Isle. But they weren't on the Isle anymore. Gabby grinned and approached them, giving Hermie a hug. Hermie relaxed and returned it eagerly.

"You look different." Yzla announced to Gabby when she finally pulled away from Hermie. Yzla stepped forward and hugged Gabby next, her arms not nearly as tight as Hermie's had been.

"Evie's been having fun redesigning my wardrobe." Gabby teased lightly, glancing back at Evie. Gabby was currently wearing a new black leather jacket that had red and green embroidered roses and stems down both sleeves, a red tank top, and black skinny jeans.

"Don't pretend you don't love it." Evie joked back, stepping forward to greet the new villain kids.

It was about five minutes of the typical meet-and-greet that Gabby, Dizzy, and Hadie received when they arrived in Auradon. King Ben and Fairy Godmother introduced themselves to the new kids. Harry and Jace were excited to be reunited with Carlos, and Gabby could tell their friendship would grow stronger in Auradon than it ever could have on the Isle.

After pleasantries were exchanged, the large group split up. King Ben and Fairy Godmother had business they each needed to attend to, and Mal had to go with Ben to assist him in his Kingly duties as his Lady of the Court. This left Gabby and Evie to show Yzla and Hermie to their dorm and give them a tour of the grounds while Jay and Carlos did the same with Harry and Jace. Hermie was also carrying around a large box of different plants she'd saved from her rooftop garden back on the Isle. Gabby and Evie both agreed to help her find someplace she could replant them.

As expected, Yzla and Hermie were amazed by their dorm room, though they weren't thrilled with the frilly, pink decorations. Evie assured them they could decorate their room however they wanted, and she would be more than happy to help.

*~0~*

Gabby waved a quick goodbye to Evie and Yzla at their lockers before hurrying off to Photography Club the next day. She got there about five minutes before 4:00 and greeted Tara and Aria as she sat with them. They were talking about an assignment in Enchanted Forestry they'd received that day when Lilo came rushing into the room.

"Okay, I'm going to start by apologizing for all this last minute bologna." Lilo announced, setting her bag on a nearby desk before moving around with a pile of papers that she passed to each of them. "This was not my idea. Fairy Godmother decided to randomly have a Photo Gallery, hosted by Auradon Prep. It's next Friday, a week from tomorrow."

"Jeez. Doesn't get much more last minute than that, does it?" Tara asked as she looked over the paper Lilo handed her. Gabby was also looking over her own copy while partially listening to Lilo speak.

"I know. Believe me, I get it." Lilo agreed as she finished passing out the papers and stood in front of them all. "Fairy Godmother just wants to host something here at the school. She'll be inviting people from all over Auradon, and she's hoping to bring in some donations for the school. An advantage of this event is that Fairy Godmother will be giving a portion of any profits to the Photography Club, to be used for equipment and whatever else we may need."

Aphrodite raised her hand. "Is the gallery just for show, or are we selling our work?"

"That's completely up to you." Lilo answered. "If you want to sell any, we'll discuss pricing and put a price tag on them. If you don't want to sell any, we just won't put a price tag. And Fairy Godmother has decided that the money brought in from selling the photos will be split 50/50. So, half the money your photos bring in will go to you, and the other half will go to the school, which also means some of it will go to the Photography Club."

"And we can submit photos of anything?" Aria checked.

Lilo smiled. "Yes. But a variety might be a good idea. So not too many photos of Dalmatians." she teased, making everyone chuckle at Aria's tendency to take photos of the Dalmatians at her parents' Dalmatian Plantation.

"Will we have time to take photos and frame them for the gallery?" Aphrodite asked worriedly.

"We'll certainly do our best." Lilo assured her. "I'm sure you all have a decent collection of photos to start with, and we can spend our time today getting them edited. I can get them professionally printed sometime this week. If you want to get any other photos taken during the week until we meet next, you're more than welcomed to do that. Our next meeting next Thursday will be dedicated to putting the finishing touches on your photos, printing them, and framing them. I will, of course, be here to help you all with that. In fact, I'll be coming in here at our usual meeting time everyday next week for anyone who wants to come in and work on their photos. And of course, if you don't want to enter anything in the gallery, that's perfectly fine, though I encourage you all to at least try."

Gabby swallowed nervously as she listened to all this and read over the sheet of paper describing the gallery's requirements. She'd discovered that she genuinely enjoyed photography. It was relaxing and she could be creative with little effort. And it was amazing how different everything looked through a camera lens, even the same photo from a different angle or time of day. But did she really want random strangers looking at her photos? It almost felt like an invasion of privacy. She hadn't even shown her friends very many of her photos. She'd shown Carlos the ones she took of Dude, after all it was his dog, but that was really it.

When Lilo finished speaking, everyone got up and sat at a computer, plugging in their cameras to download their photos and begin editing them. Tara helped Gabby with that, as she hadn't done it before. Meanwhile, everyone was talking excitedly about the coming gallery. Many were a bit annoyed at the last minute notice, but they were mostly excited. Gabby, on the other hand, wasn't. And Tara picked up on that quickly.

"Are you going to submit any photos?" she asked curiously as she began editing her first photo, mostly cropping it a bit.

Gabby hummed, trying to mostly focus on the computer program on her screen as she pulled up her first photo like Tara showed her. "I don't think so." she admitted quietly.

"Why not?" Tara asked, glancing over at Gabby's computer. "That's a good photo. You could make the colors a bit brighter and it'd be perfect."

Gabby glanced at her before looking back at the photo she was trying to edit. It was a close-up of Gingersnap's face, a bit of the background visible on one side. Under Tara's guidance, Gabby used the program to edit the vibrancy, making Gingersnap's red feathers much brighter, the few shadows a bit more pronounced, and the small background blurred out. When finished, Gabby had to admit to herself that it was beautiful. She was half-tempted to frame it and just hang it in her dorm. But it would probably make her beloved bird's already inflated ego even bigger.

"So, why don't you want to submit any photos?" Tara asked again after seemingly dropping the subject earlier. "You don't have to sell any if you don't want to."

"It's not that." Gabby admitted quietly, having moved on to edit another photo. "I'm just not sure I'm comfortable with people looking at my photos. Besides, they're not that good."

"Says who?" Tara asked, her wide blue-green eyes staring at Gabby in disbelief. Then, she scooted her chair a bit closer to Gabby's. "Let me see what you've got so far." she ordered, not even letting Gabby answer her first question. Gabby hesitated, but relented and pulled up the screen that showed all the photos she'd taken so far. Gabby expected Tara to do one of two things; tell her her photos weren't very good, or exaggerate how great they were, which Gabby would've taken as a lie. But she did neither. Tara sat with Gabby for several minutes, quickly going from one photo to the next and giving Gabby pointers. She made suggestions on how to edit some of the photos, or what to do next time to take a better photo. Tara also let Gabby watch as she edited her own photos, to give her ideas. Gabby appreciated her help immensely. By the end of the club meeting, there were a couple photos Gabby deemed good enough to maybe submit for the photo gallery.

Before everyone left for the day, Lilo had them send any photos they had completed so far to her, so she could have them printed during the week before their next meeting. She also convinced Gabby to send the two pictures Gabby considered good enough. Gabby was the last person to leave, still sitting at the computer ten minutes after everyone else had left. She was trying to look up ideas for some new photos she could take during the following week that would be better than the ones she'd taken so far. Those had been her…testing the water, so to speak. Practicing. But she wanted to have something better than that to show at the gallery.

When Jay wandered into the classroom a little while later, he found Gabby still sitting at a computer looking up random photos on the internet.

"What are you doing?" Jay asked curiously, making her jump as he placed his hands on the back of her chair and looked at the screen from over her head.

Gabby sighed after getting over the short fright he gave her. "I'm just trying to get ideas for pictures." she admitted quietly, closing out of all the screens so she could go. She made sure to save all her edited pictures before closing out of those, as well. She then grabbed her backpack and the camera bag she rented for another week before turning and following Jay out of the room.

"So, how'd today go?" Jay asked curiously after they walked a few moments in silence.

"It was…terrifying." Gabby finally answered, partially joking.

Jay smirked slightly when he glanced over at her. "Oh really? And what was so terrifying about it?"

Gabby sighed and passed him the sheet of paper that Lilo had given her earlier, the one describing the photo gallery. Jay read it over as they walked through the halls.

"You going to enter?" he asked, passing it back to her and focusing on her face.

"I already picked a couple photos I've taken to submit. We can submit up to ten." Gabby explained. "Everyone told me I should submit some, but I don't think I'm good enough compared to the others."

"It's taking pictures. Everyone in our generation does it. You aim the camera and shoot." Jay waved it off, not understanding why she was making such a big deal out of it.

"You haven't seen some of the pictures the other kids in the club have taken." Gabby argued. "They're all way better than me. It's like…like I'm wearing a sack surrounded by people in fancy dresses."

Jay stared at her as they walked. "You don't feel good enough." he summed up.

"I'm not good enough." Gabby reiterated stubbornly, crossing her arms over her chest defensively.

"You just need practice." Jay argued. "You'd never even picked up a camera before you joined the club, like, a week ago. Some of those kids have probably been doing it for years."

Gabby nodded silently, though she didn't look reassured. Jay thought for a moment before he got an idea. Hopefully, an idea that would benefit them both if he played his cards right.

"You said this gallery is next Friday, right?" he checked, to which she nodded. "So, Thursday is your last club meeting before the gallery. So, you need to have your pictures done by Thursday, I'm guessing." Again, Gabby nodded, now looking at him curiously. "So, you're best bet to get some good pictures is probably the weekend. What if I took you around to some places in Auradon that might be good for photos?" Jay offered.

Gabby's blue eyes lit up. "Really?! You'd do that?"

Jay laughed at her enthusiastic response. She never used to be like that back on the Isle. "Sure. I'll figure some places out and maybe we could go out Saturday."

Gabby nodded eagerly and they continued on down the hallway, Jay silently both relieved and disappointed that she didn't pick up on the double meaning in his term "go out".

*~0~*

As soon as Jay returned to his dorm that evening, his plopped down on his bed and pulled out his laptop, typing away. Carlos watched him curiously as he and Dude followed, approaching Carlos's own bed.

"Forgot about that essay for History of Woodsmen and Pirates due tomorrow?" Carlos teased.

"No." Jay scoffed. "…I finished that during Safety Rules for the Internet earlier."

Carlos snorted. "Then what are you looking up?"

Jay glanced briefly at his best friend. "I'm just…trying to get ideas on where to take Gabby this Saturday." he admitted quietly.

Carlos stared at him in shock. "You finally asked her out?"

"No. Not technically." Jay answered vaguely.

"Then what did you technically do?" Carlos asked, growing more curious by the second.

"She needs to take some pictures for this photo gallery next week. I thought I could take her around Auradon and get some good pictures." Jay answered, looking up good tourist spots in Auradon.

"Oh, Jane was telling me about that." Carlos remembered. "Her mom wants her to help plan it."

Jay hummed, not quite paying attention as he tried to find places that were nearby and could offer a variety of good photos.

Carlos tilted his head slightly as he watched his best friend. He'd never seen Jay this worked up over any girl. Except Gabby. "Hey," an idea popped into his head, "what about the Enchanted Lake?"

Jay paused and looked over. "What?"

"The Enchanted Lake. Ben took Mal there for their first date, remember?"

Jay paused before quickly looking up photos of the lake on his laptop. What he saw made his face light up.

"That's perfect!"

AN: Aw! Look at Jay getting all worked up over a girl!

Thank you to everyone who reviewed on the last chapter! Most of you who guessed who my OCs are got them right. Kaito is the son of Kida and Milo from Atlantis; I was actually surprised most people guessed that one since Atlantis is a pretty underrated film. Aria is the daughter of Roger and Anita Radcliffe from 101 Dalmatians. No one got Aphrodite, which didn't really surprise me. Someone came pretty close. Her parent/parents isn't necessarily a well-known or main character. If you guys want to keep guessing, go for it. I'll probably officially reveal it no later than chapter 27.

Anyway, feel free to review and let me know what you thought of this chapter! I really like hearing what you all think!