Ch 8:

Chloe was sitting on a chair in the hallway outside the school's enormous ballroom. She thought it was weird for a school to have a ballroom, but then again this used to the Beast's castle. She was reading a chapter for her history class, waiting for Evie to finish in the ballroom. She'd had a meeting with the planning committee in the ballroom, getting ready for the Castlecoming dance next week.

Dude was sitting at her feet, sort of behaving himself. They'd gone on a short walk after classes so the little dog could burn off some energy. They'd had to steer clear of the tourney field, because the little dog had a habit of disrupting practices by stealing the ball.

Chloe heard the voices and shuffling of the planning committee finishing up and leaving the ballroom, so she marked her spot in her book and started packing her things up. She sat patiently, waiting for her friend to arrive.

Several people left the room first, mostly girls, and a few that Chloe recognized. She awkwardly looked away when Audrey, one of the cheerleaders, sneered at her as she passed.

"Hi, Chloe!" Lonnie greeted her with a large smile as her and Jordan left the ballroom. Both girls Chloe had met her first couple days at the school, and both were very welcoming. Lonnie was extremely warm and friendly. Jordan was nice as well, but also sassy and a little curt.

Chloe smiled in return. "Hi, Lonnie. Hi, Jordan. How'd the meeting go?"

"Fine. Apart from Audrey trying to make the dance all about her." Jordan answered, rolling her eyes at the departing cheerleader's back.

"Chloe!" Ally came skipping from the ballroom. Dressed in a blue and white dress with a black bow in her long, blonde hair, Ally looked very much like her famous mother, Alice. Being in the same year as Chloe and Carlos, Ally was in most of Chloe's classes. She'd steered clear of Chloe and the other VKs at first, but about a week ago they started talking a bit more after her and Chloe were partnered together in class for a day.

"Hello, Ally." Chloe greeted her. "How-"

"Is it true you have a cat?" Ally asked excitedly. "Evie said you did."

"Oh. Um, yes, me and Carlos have a cat. Beelzebub. We've had her for about ten years."

Ally clapped her hands together, bouncing slightly in place. "Oh, that's wonderful! I have a cat, too. Dino. We should introduce them sometime!"

Chloe smiled, finding Ally's excitement somewhat contagious. "Yeah, we should. Bee usually gets along with other cats. And she tolerates Dude, so another cat should be fine." Chloe joked lightly, reaching down to scratch Dude's ears by her feet.

"Oh, I can't wait!" Ally beamed, bouncing in place again. "I have to go. I'll see you in class tomorrow." she called, hurrying away. Lonnie and Jordan followed, laughing at the younger girl's enthusiasm.

Chloe giggled, shaking her head in amusement. She glanced toward the ballroom door when she heard two more voices. Evie was the last to leave the room, and she was deep in conversation with a girl in a wheelchair.

Chloe blinked, studying the girl that had to be Tara, the girl Anthony had mentioned. She hadn't seen any other people in wheelchairs around campus.

This girl had long, golden-brown hair in curls, and brown, square glasses. She was sitting in a simple, black wheelchair, pushing the large wheels with her hands while she spoke excitedly with Evie. Walking calmly next to the wheelchair was a large dog.

Chloe shifted nervously in her seat. Even though she knew, in her brain, that dogs weren't "vicious, rabid pack animals", there was still that lingering, deep-seated fear.

The dog was walking calmly next to the wheelchair, the leash connecting it's collar to the chair seemingly unnecessary. She didn't know what kind of dog he was, considering the only dog breed she really knew thanks to her mother was Dalmatians. It was big, with longish fur, almost making it look like a lion with the mane of fur around it's face and neck. It's fur seemed to be a dappled mix of reddish brown and black, with a black muzzle and ears and black covering most of it's back. It was wearing a black vest that had a handle on the back, and a small bag on the side, a sign reading SERVICE DOG across the side.

Chloe dragged her eyes from the big dog to the girl he was walking with. The girl glanced away from Evie about the same moment, and they made eye contact.

"Oh, hey Chloe." Evie greeted her. "You weren't waiting for me, were you? Our meeting went a little long."

"No, that's fine. I was doing homework." Chloe answered, standing and slinging her backpack onto her shoulders.

"You're Anthony's friend Chloe, right?" the girl in the wheelchair checked. "He mentioned I should talk to you sometime. I'm Tara." she greeted her, holding out her hand. Chloe shook it, smiling shyly.

"Yes, that's me. And I've only talked to Anthony a couple times so far. I doubt he'd consider me a friend."

"Oh, I don't know. Anthony's a pretty good judge of character. He wouldn't put in so much effort if he didn't consider you a friend."

Chloe didn't know how to take that statement.

"I have some time now." Tara went on. "We could talk now if you'd like. Unless you need to be somewhere. You might be busy."

Chloe glanced at Evie, who smiled. "I can tell the others you're busy. We'll see you later."

Chloe smiled gratefully at Evie before going off with Tara. At the other girl's insistence, the pair went to the cafeteria and ordered a couple cappuccinos before finding a picnic table near the sidewalk to sit at. Chloe watched how Tara smoothly ordered the dog to lay down under the table, which he did with no problems.

"So," Tara rolled her wheelchair up to the end of the table, resting her elbows on it with her cup between her hands. "you're thinking of getting a service dog?"

Chloe shrugged, sitting on the bench of the table. "I'm not sure. Anthony mentioned it, and Carlos and I have been researching it."

"Well, you can ask me questions if you want. Obviously, if you got a service dog it would probably have different tasks than mine. But I can try to answer your questions."

Chloe nodded slightly, looking down at her cup thoughtfully. "Anthony mentioned it can be expensive?"

Tara nodded slightly. "Yeah, it can be. We adopted Thor from a shelter, which helped with the costs a bit." she explained, reaching down to pet her dog on the head. "And the Radcliffe's were able to help us get a grant, and put us in touch with some professional trainers that were a bit cheaper than most. And Ben and Fairy Godmother actually put together a small fundraiser to help, too. But even with all that help, it still cost my family close to $10,000. But it could have been at least three times that much easily."

Chloe blinked. "$30,000." she whispered in shock.

"But like I said, Thor had to be trained in a lot more specialized tasks than I'm guessing yours will." Tara pointed out, patting the arm of her chair pointedly.

"I don't have…any money." Chloe pointed out quietly.

"I don't think Anthony would have brought it up if he didn't think it was an option." Tara pointed out gently.

Chloe nodded slowly. "So,…can you tell me about your dog?" she asked hesitantly. "Thor, you said?"

Tara beamed proudly. "Sure. I adopted Thor from a shelter a couple years ago, and he just passed a public access test, so he's officially a fully-trained service dog. He's a red sable German Shepherd. His usual tasks include picking items up for me, like maybe a book or my phone, carrying things for me, opening and closing doors, pulling my wheelchair if needed, turning lights on and off, and getting me in and out of my wheelchair."

Chloe blinked, glancing under the table at the dog, who was resting his chin on his paws calmly. "He can do all that?" Chloe asked in amazement.

"And a bit more, but I figured you got the idea." Tara explained.

Chloe nodded. "So, um,…how did you…?" she trailed off, figuring it would be rude to ask.

"How did I end up in a wheelchair?" Tara guessed knowingly, to which Chloe nodded sheepishly. "It's okay to ask. You're not being rude or anything."

"You've heard of Tarzan, the man who was adopted by gorillas?" Chloe nodded. "My parents are Tarzan and Jane. I live with them in a tree house in the jungle. I've been climbing trees since I could walk, practically. But a few years back I had an accident. I fell out of a tree I was climbing. And in the jungle some of the trees can reach heights of 200 feet." Chloe gaped at her. "Luckily, I didn't fall from that high up, and I think I might have slowed down my fall using some of the branches, but it happened so fast I can't remember for sure. I can't really remember much about the fall, to be honest. I just know I fell from the tree and woke up in a hospital. I'd broken my spine and was paralyzed from the waist down. There were some other injuries, other broken bones like my leg, and I had a concussion, but all that healed fine. But I'll never be able to walk again."

Chloe frowned, concerned. "But…couldn't they use magic to heal you? I know they don't use magic anymore, but…"

Tara shrugged. "I asked that, too. And I was pretty bitter and depressed for a long time when they said they couldn't. That I would just have to learn to live in a wheelchair. But I'm taking it one day at a time, and I've accepted that I'll never walk again. Or climb. It still sucks, but I'm lucky, too. I still have my friends and family. And getting Thor and working with him has helped me a lot, too." Tara added, smiling down at her feet as she petted her dog, who lifted his head to look up at her. "It's given me something to focus on, a reason to get out of bed in the morning. Which I really needed."

Chloe nodded slowly, watching the girl interact with her dog. Both were completely at ease, Tara smiling down at Thor, and Thor looking up at her and wagging his tail. Maybe this service dog idea was something she could really consider.

AN:

Fun fact: I looked up any German Shepherds in Disney movies so I could try to name Tara's service dog with some kind of Disney reference. The two most notable Disney German Shepherds I could find were Thunderbolt from 101 Dalmatians and Bolt from the movie Bolt. I found the similarities between their stories and names amusing, and I wanted to pick a name for Tara's dog to reflect both of their names. After debating several names, I chose Thor for the God of thunder and all that.

Also, I got a couple reviews last chapter noting that Kenny Ortega confirmed in an interview that the girl in the wheelchair is Ariel and Eric's daughter. I hadn't been aware of it being confirmed anywhere, only that there were fan theories that she was a relative of Ariel's. It was a possibility that I considered for this story before deciding having a mermaid with a service dog would have some complications, particularly when she goes home to Atlantica. Which is why I settled for the character that I did. But thank you to the reviewers for letting me know, and I hope you like the story as it is.

Sorry for the long note, and that the chapter is so short, but feel free to leave a review. Thank you to everyone who's reading!