MEANWHILE, SPEAKING OF THE DANGEROUS DUO...
"Well, it looks like Mal and her little friends are trying to find our trail." Peter smirked as he sat behind the hotel room table they were in with his feet on it.
"Of course she would do that!" Audrey snapped as she grabbed a glass bowl filled with complimentary apples from the room.
"M-M-Maybe they won't know where to find us?" Chad suggested with a nervous grin.
Audrey soon dumped the apples out of the glass bowl before holding it in her right hand, ready to throw it at Chad. "And what is Uma doing here?!" she then glared at Chad.
"Hey, no, no, no, no, no!" Chad exclaimed and flinched as the glass smashed and he luckily ducked down before it could hit him as it hit the wall.
"Patience, Pinky... Patience..." Peter said as he took Audrey by her hands with a small smirk. "We'll just have to make sure that a lesson is learned, especially with tomorrow being the last day of The Summer School Games and the winner will be announced."
"Yes..." Audrey replied before Peter started to stroke her hair to settle her down a little. "We'll just have to make sure they don't get us in trouble too soon... Maybe we should inquire them in person?" she then suggested.
"We could do that..." Peter smirked and nodded. "I have a little score to settle with Harry Jones anyway."
"We've got to see where they end up anyway." Audrey then said.
"I'll go check!" Chad said and tried to scramble towards the door.
Audrey shrugged at him at first as she narrowed her eyes at him. "See that you do." she then said.
However, Peter had a better idea. "STAY!" he then commanded, making the blonde boy suddenly freeze in place, feeling very scared of both Peter and Audrey right now.
Audrey looked curious as to why Peter made Chad do that.
"My Queen, he might be trying to skip out on us~" Peter told Audrey with a small smirk.
"Yes... It's about to get ugly..." Audrey smirked as she began to pet Chad's golden hair like he was a lap dog to her.
Chad liked the hair petting, but then looked nervous.
"He should stay here for a bit longer," Peter suggested as he crossed his arms. "He can keep an eye on things for us and we'll come back for him later."
"What?! You can't just abandon me here!" Chad cried out.
"Sure we can," Audrey smirked. "You're powerless to the both of us, so you might as well stay here like a good little lap dog."
"Ooh... That's gotta burn." Peter smirked back as Chad winced at how Audrey talked about him like that.
"So... You're going after them?" Chad asked.
"Yes... Just a little confrontation is all," Audrey replied with a slow and steady nod. "You stay here and don't move from this spot until we get back."
"Erm... How long will you be gone for?" Chad asked.
"We'll think about it when we think about it," Peter replied as he soon began to leave the room with Audrey. "Come along, Pinky."
Audrey beamed and nodded. She was willing to put up with that annoying nickname if that was what he wanted to call her as she seemed to fall out of love with Chad and in love with Peter, despite the latter being so much worse than the former. At least by comparison, Peter was rather demonic and inhuman with humiliating and hurting others he viewed as inferior.
The boys soon went to look one way, traveling together.
"I'm a bit nervous, you guys..." Carlos said.
"Nervous? About what?" Gil asked.
"Seeing Peter Banning..." Carlos said in concern. "I mean... Sure, he was bad during that one game we faced against him and his team, but still... There seems to be more to him than meets the eye."
"Believe me, there is..." Harry muttered as he walked off with the other boys with steely-eyed determination. "Especially with what happened and what Banning did to me and made me feel worse before I met Uma and Gil."
"I'm sure whatever happened wasn't your fault before you transferred to our school, Harry." Ben said softly.
"I don't wanna talk about it..." Harry sighed sharply.
"Oh, you guys don't know about that?" Gil spoke up.
"Gil, don't!" Harry groaned.
"They're our friends, Harry," Gil reminded him. "At least your friends now. You told me and Uma, the least you can do is tell them too. Besides, that wasn't even your fault."
Harry winced before sighing sharply as he stopped in his tracks.
"...What exactly happened, Harry?" Ben asked. "We're all friends here... At least temporarily before we all go home after tomorrow."
"Okay..." Harry sighed. "I used to be a student from James Barrie School for Boys," he then added as he explained a bit. "My father wanted me to have the best education like he and my Uncle Liam did when they were boys since my grandfather dumped them away to boarding school after my Grammy Alice had passed away."
The other boys winced slightly as that sounded rough for Killian's childhood.
"Gramps wasn't the same after Grammy had died," Harry continued to explain. "So my dad wanted me to go there and become a refined young lad and since I was the only boy in my family, he thought it would be for the best. He enrolled me and I grew to love it there myself. I was a very great student and I even had the potential to graduate early."
"Harry, we had no idea you were so smart." Carlos commented.
"Indeed, I was," Harry nodded. "I wanted to grow up to be just like my dad. I really look up to him and have a high opinion of him. I was told about how he was one of the best students of his day in the school too."
"So what happened?" Ben asked softly, though he felt like he had a pretty good idea of what was going to happen next in Harry's story.
"Peter Banning happened..." Harry said in a grave voice. "I'm not sure what his problem was, my parents think that he was very jealous of me. However, one night, I was staying up all night for one of the biggest tests of the semester which could've made or broke my academic career and even get me into a good college like the ones Harriet told me about," he then added. "I soon went to bed after pretty much locking myself in my room that night and I even had my dinner in there, I was so focused."
"Wow..." Carlos whispered, surprised to hear Harry so passionate about his studies as he never would have guessed that in a million years.
"Soon, I went to bed that night after a long while of studying my butt off and went to get some well-deserved sleep," Harry continued. "However... When I woke up... My alarm didn't go off. It was noon and I had slept late and I had to hurry up and get to my class with the big exam in History... However, when I got there, my teacher told me that I had missed the test and had to take an automatic failing grade. I was emotionally crushed and I was really scared to tell my parents who were counting on me back home. I thought maybe, it was just one test, so I tried not to make a big deal out of it."
Ben winced as he could understand how painful that probably was to experience.
"Later, Headmaster Silver told us all to go to our lockers because something very valuable, several of the trophies in our sports case were stolen," Harry then continued to explain. "I knew that I didn't do it, but when we all had to empty our lockers... The trophies were in there."
"Harry... You didn't..." Roland frowned in concern.
"I didn't!" Harry insisted heavily. "You might think I did now, but I'm a changed man now after leaving Uma! No one believed me though and Headmaster Silver decided to kick me off of the fencing team for theft and lying about it even though I didn't do it!"
"Don't tell me it gets worse after that?" Carlos spoke up.
Harry looked over, looking a bit emotional and unfortunate.
"...Oh, man," Carlos groaned. "What happened that time?"
"I tried to figure out what was going on," Harry then said with a sharp sigh. "I soon went to my room to crash and burn and it went from bad to worse. My roommate Jim Hawkins then said he found my coat and it was soaked in the smell of rum and that there was spray paint dripping from it too and it turns out someone had vandalized school property and framed me for it."
"Dang!" The others winced and cringed as that sounded so horrible.
"Sure, my dad drinks rum all the time, but my mother always reminds us both that I can't drink until I'm 21," Harry then said. "Headmaster Silver had heard enough and decided to expel me and keep me away from that campus and banned me for life. My parents soon drove by and went to take me back home and... I felt fed up. No one believed me and I had lost all of the friends I've come to know in that semester and I missed my dream school. I swear that on my way away from those boys... I saw Peter smirking at me as they all waved goodbye. I knew that he had to be the one responsible for getting me into so much trouble, but I could never understand why... I wasn't proved right until our last game against his team."
"Is that why you weren't in school the next semester?" Ben asked with a small frown. "You just pretty much gave up any chance of being a good student again?"
"Well... Yes and no actually." Harry replied.
"...What does that mean?" Roland asked.
"Well, yes... I wasn't in school the next semester because I felt like giving up, but also because I picked up a bad habit." Harry then explained.
"What habit was that?" Jay asked.
"Well... Remember how I said I wasn't supposed to drink a full bottle of rum until I was 21?" Harry then prompted.
The other boys nodded, though they feared the worst about hearing more after that.
"Well... That night when I came home... I was so frustrated that I decided to break into my dad's liquor cabinet," Harry then explained. "I used his old hook to break into the lock and I decided to have a drink. I've seen my dad take a few glasses or a whole bottle to drown his sorrows... I was just going to take a sip of the stuff... But then that sip turned into a big swallow... And that swallow turned into a whole bottle."
The other boys winced and cringed yet again as this story was just getting worse and worse the more they heard about it.
"Eventually... I picked up the bad habit of becoming a teenage alcoholic," Harry then explained. "I didn't really realize it at the time, but I was breaking my mother's heart and crushing my father's soul... We would often get into arguments about what happened until I broke down in tears to say that I didn't do anything. We didn't have any proof about what happened at James Barrie's school, but my mother could tell that I wasn't lying."
"Because she's a mom?" Ben guessed.
"Probably that and she says she has this superpower that tells her whenever someone is lying," Harry explained. "I soon had to get some help that summer and sometimes later after school during last semester too until I began to recover. I still go these days whenever I don't work after school at Ursula and Dad's restaurant and I've been sober for about 10 months now."
"Now that's restraint," Carlos commented before nodding. "That's good to know at least."
"Yeah, I guess so..." Harry shrugged. "Soon, I drifted away from the kind boy I once was and soon began to join Uma and Gil to take away my frustrations. I didn't drink, though I was a troublemaker, though I was getting better at home and soon, after I met Mal, I decided to turn my life all the way around for the better after we fell in love and became boyfriend and girlfriend." he then added with a small smile.
"Gosh, Harry..." Ben said softly. "We had no idea about this whole ordeal of yours against Peter."
"I did." Gil spoke up with an oafish smile.
"Good for you, Gil." Carlos rolled his eyes slightly.
"So yeah..." Harry said softly. "You say Audrey ruined your guys' lives and even Chad? Peter Banning ruined mine all because he just hated me and my folks just say no matter what you do, no matter what you say, no matter what you wear... Somebody is always just gonna not like you. And that's up to them, not you... If they can't accept you, they need to change, not you." he then said.
Ben thought about that before nodding as that sounded like a pretty good lesson.
"I'm sorry that happened to you," Roland said to Harry as calmly as he could. "But if it helps, you are getting better and becoming a better person based on what I've been hearing."
"You really think so?" Harry asked with a small smile.
"I know so," Roland said as he smiled back calmly. "And I don't know how we'll all get through this, but I do know that we'll get through it together. You're not alone in this."
The other boys then shared smiles with Harry to show that they would be his friends no matter what.
"Oh... Thank you..." Harry beamed a bit at the other boys before narrowing his eyes with determination. "Let's go wrangle us a shitweasel." he then decided, using Mal's word for Peter.
"To the shitweasel!" The other boys proclaimed as they continued to stalk off to go and find the boy they were looking for.
Harry nodded with a small grin as he was quite excited. Albeit in a dark kind of way, but not in a mean way as he now saw that he didn't need to be a bully in order to be happy and he had Mal to thank for that.
"These things just grow everywhere." Gil said as he found some berries on a bush and decided to collect some.
Jay chuckled a little bit as he nodded.
"My dad takes me hunting with him all the time," Gil said before he looked at Jay, looking a bit hopeful. "Hey, we should play that icebreaker. Um, Jay, I like the way that you can bounce around and jump off things. These berries are free by the way." he then said as he took the berries.
Jay looked amused about how Gil saw wild berries as free food before he thought of something to say back to the other boy. "Yeah, um... I like that you can get a kick out of a berry bush." he then said with a weary smile.
Gil nodded as he continued to eat the berries as he was feeling pretty hungry right now.
"So... You don't know much about your mother?" Jay asked lightly.
"Yeah, but my aunts talk about her a lot whenever they come to visit," Gil then said. "...I think they were three twins."
"Triplets." Jay corrected.
"Oh, I knew that," Gil shrugged. "What about you? What's your mom like?"
Jay sighed a bit before smiling sadly. "I don't know much about mine either," he then said. "You seem to have known yours a bit though even if you can't really say much about her."
"Yeah, I guess." Gil replied.
"Mine died right after I was born," Jay said a bit lowly. "Dad never likes to talk about her and I don't have anyone who can tell me about her. Sometimes I wonder if my dad blames me for what happened."
"What makes you say that?" Gil asked softly.
"Well... He doesn't see me much as a son, but more as a tool for his success," Jay explained as best as he could. "I had a bit of a stealing problem until I met Lonnie and she helped me deal with it and take any anger I had out on sports with Coach Jenkins. Dad usually sends me out to look for things and stock for his shelves for his store to compete with Mr. Gold's pawnshop which seems to have practically everything."
"Oh, yeah... That guy has anything you can think of," Gil nodded. "And he knows exactly who buys what like some kind of wizard."
"...That and it's his store and keeps track of whoever visits and buys his things." Jay then decided to explain, trying to be patient as Gil wasn't all there in the head and was trying not to be mean.
"Yeah, I guess there's that too," Gil then said with an oblivious nod. "You must at least eat good, right? I hear Lonnie's mother makes excellent dim sum... Whatever that is."
"Yeah, not when I'm eating from vending machines at practice," Jay replied. "I'm on the football team after all. It takes up most of my time, so ya know."
Gil nodded before he suddenly had an idea. "Hey, you know what would be fun? To go rafting on a jungle river."
"Find a lost civilization." Jay added in heavy agreement.
"Oh, or maybe a penguin." Gil grinned.
"Well, you'd find those more of on an iceberg, but I'd love that." Jay smiled.
Gil grinned as that sounded like a lot of fun. Suddenly, there was screaming heard.
"JAY! GIL! THIS WAY!" Ben's voice called out.
Gil and Jay looked at each other in concern before Gil suddenly ran off. Jay followed behind, a bit farther behind though as he collected some berries before following along.
MEANWHILE WITH THE GIRLS...
"I feel like I've been walking down the same road forever." Maddy groaned a bit.
"I just really hope that we can find Audrey and I hope that the boys have found Peter by now," Mal said before rubbing her stomach. "I'm starving."
"So how is it, Mal?" Maddy asked her ex-best friend. "Being Little Miss Popular all of a sudden?"
"Oh... I don't know about all of that," Mal said before shrugging. "It's interesting, I guess... I mean, I liked Ben when he liked me, but... I guess I was just in love with the idea of him rather than having him being my boyfriend. I was a bit surprised myself when I didn't feel much of anything when he kissed me on that date we kinda had and that picnic."
"I don't think that's how Audrey saw it though." Uma said with a small smirk.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah..." Mal rolled her emerald eyes. "Let's not make this about me anyway."
"Sure seems to be all about you nowadays," Maddy replied. "You know, you pissed me off for flaking on me and going to live in Auradon Heights instead of staying back home and trying to run away with me, but no, you just had to listen to your mother just this once."
"Hey, I had a hard enough time with Dad leaving and Lily's death, give me a break." Mal scoffed slightly.
"Wah, wah, wah... I might as well call you a 'whambulance'." Maddy retorted with a smirk.
"You sure haven't changed a bit, Maddy." Mal grumbled.
"Lots of things have changed, but that hasn't," Evie added, even though she didn't really know Maddy that well, other than being Mal's best friend before she came around. "Besides, I wouldn't worry much about Ben anymore, M. It seems like Keela might have a chance with him."
Keela gasped before blushing at that possibility.
"Look, I'm sorry for leaving you, okay?" Mal asked Maddy. "If it's one thing I could agree with my mom, it was that we all needed a little change. Even if coming here almost ruined my life a couple of times... Especially with Uma wanting to do me in just for taking Harry from her, it was bad enough with Audrey on my tail for doing the same when Ben and I were interested in each other for a while."
"That boy toy's not even that cute," Uma scoffed a bit before smirking. "He was a pretty good dancer though."
"We'll make up for what happened some other time," Mal replied. "We just have to look for clues or something to go and track down Audrey and Peter somehow."
"Hmm... Where to look though?" Maddy wondered.
"Beats me," Keela frowned. "Sorry I'm not a very useful member of the team."
"It's okay, K..." Evie said before chuckling a little as that sounded kind of funny. "We'll think of something."
"Eventually," Mal added. "Teamwork is pretty important, even if we're all on each other's cases right now." she then said with a slight glare towards Uma and Maddy who just rolled their eyes in response.
"Whatever you have to tell yourself," Uma muttered before looking down as she thought she saw something important. She then stopped in her tracks and bent down to pick up a little pink book and saw a busted lock on it which allowed her to open it up and flip through the pages before smirking. "Oh, yeah... I think I just did good for myself~" she then said before catching up with the others as she seemed to have found Audrey's diary.
"Try to keep up, Uma!" Mal chided from the front of the group.
"Whatever you say, Lady Bossy." Uma rolled her eyes as she soon began to catch up with the other girls.
MEANWHILE, BACK WITH THE BOYS...
Jay and Gil soon ran over and caught up with Ben and other boys in their group.
"Get me down from here!" Carlos cried out as he was shown to be dangling from what looked like a net in a tree.
"Carlos... How'd you get all the way over way up there?" Jay asked in concern.
"He tripped over one of the tree roots and just fell, then he suddenly got up there." Ben explained.
"We need to get him down." Roland added.
"And hurry! I'm not really keen on heights personally!" Carlos cried out urgently.
"Who could've done this?" Gil pouted.
Jay looked around before he found an arrow and took it before he decided to use the sharp end of it to cut against the vine rope holding up the net. Eventually, the rope snapped and then Carlos fell down from where he was being held and soon ended up on top of Jay, both of the boys groaning as it hurt them both. Roland then took the arrow from Jay and began to cut the net to free Carlos and helped both of the boys back up on their feet.
"Carlos, how did you end up in a trap in the first place?" Jay asked.
"I dunno... I was just walking and suddenly I ended up there," Carlos explained with a shrug. "You don't suppose Peter set it up, do you?"
"It wouldn't surprise me," Harry narrowed his eyes. "Trust me, boys... He may look like a boy, but he's a bloody demon."
"I see my reputation continues to proceed me..." A voice soon said, making the boys flinch and look around before seeing him right there a few feet beside the tree. "And you refuse to let go of the past, Codfish Jr."
"YOU!" Harry snarled as he ran right in front of Peter once he saw him and pinned him up against the tree's bark, just making the latter boy grin at the former's anger, not even looking scared. "Why can't you just go on a boat in the middle of the ocean without any paddles and just swim out of my life?!"
"Temper, temper, Harry..." Peter smirked. "You're just like your pathetic father~"
"What do you know about my father anyway?" Harry sneered and narrowed his eyes. "What business do you have with him?"
"Well... That would be telling, wouldn't it?" Peter taunted. "All I wanna do is have some fun, especially during these fun and games I'm technically not supposed to be apart of since I go to a different school... A much better school... But you wouldn't know about that... Would you, Harry?"
Harry just snarled at the boy, feeling so fed up and frustrated with him that he could scream.
"What are you planning to do with Audrey?" Ben demanded as he came to help Harry.
"Again... That would be telling," Peter smirked. "Let's just say I want these Games to end with a bang. It'll be a night to remember, especially for The Queen of Mean."
"The Queen of Mean?" Gil asked out of confusion. "I thought we were looking for Audrey."
"Pfft..." Peter scoffed and rolled his eyes. "How does this one get dressed by himself in the morning? He reminds me of the twins I knew back in school. They share everything, including a brain."
"You're gonna share a grave with some skeletons if you don't tell me what I wanna know," Harry glared. "And you better stay away from Mal too. I'm going to be the hero she deserves."
"What's that?" Peter mocked. "An elusive school drop-out with a drinking problem?"
Harry snarled and growled rather viciously.
"So scary..." Peter smirked. "Almost as scary as a codfish in the ocean trying to outswim the hungry and frightening crocodile~"
"Quit calling me that!" Harry snapped before he let go of Peter, seeing that this was getting him nowhere. "Why don't you just get out of here?"
"Oh... You don't wanna fight me?" Peter smirked before shrugging. "Shame... I would've loved to see how much your swordfight had improved since we last had a fencing practice match before... Well... Ya know... You decided to hit the bottle."
Harry just growled in response.
"You all have a nice day now," Peter smirked before he walked away. "I have better places to be anyway."
"Yeah... Off of a cliff into the ocean..." Harry grumbled in frustration.
Peter chuckled to himself as he continued to leave.
"...I just wanted to get my father's sword and cut his head off..." Harry grunted to the other boys before sighing. "He just knows how to get under my skin."
"You're not the only one... But don't worry," Ben said as he tried to comfort Harry. "We'll find a way to stop him, someway, somehow."
"I hope so at least," Harry replied. "I don't even know what I ever did to him to make him hate me so much."
"Maybe it's because your brain functions normally enough to know that you don't have to put up with his shit like his other friends." Jay suggested.
"Definitely Felix for that matter," Carlos added as he put his hand on Harry's shoulder. "There must be a way we can find out what he's up to."
"I certainly hope so," Ben said. "Even if he's being cryptic about it."
"I'm not sure I like that boy..." Roland muttered to himself.
Suddenly, all of their phones went off and they took them out to see that time was up and it was time to head over to Aunt Em's Diner.
"Come on. Let's go meet the girls," Ben suggested. "Maybe some dinner will help soothe us after meeting that living nightmare."
"Agreed." The rest of the boys nodded before they turned around and went to head over to the diner as promised.
Soon, the two groups met up as promised and they split up to go sit and eat together to talk about their progress.
"So, wait, you actually saw him?" Mal asked.
"Aye..." Harry nodded. "It wasn't an easy meeting, I wish you could've been there, but he kicked me down again... Just like he always does."
"...Always does?" Mal asked curiously.
"...It's a long story," Harry said bashfully, deciding to keep his secret from her for the time being. "I'll tell you some other time, okay?"
"...Okay, Harry," Mal replied. "Well, whatever that shitweasel did to you, I'll be sure to make him pay."
Harry chuckled a little at Mal's nickname for Peter as it did make him feel a little bit better.
"I'm here for you." Mal said with a small smile as she took Harry's hand and gently squeezed it.
"...Thank you, Mal," Harry said softly. "You didn't find Audrey, did you?" he then asked.
"Nope, just her diary," Uma replied as she was looking through the little pink book. "Dang, Mal... Did you ruin Audrey's life." she then remarked.
"Okay. So did you find anything in there that we don't already know or...?" Mal then asked.
"Well, she and Peter actually have a room in the hotel somewhere," Uma replied. "Apparently they're making it their Honeymoon Suite or something."
"Sounds like someone's in love." Evie commented.
"That poor girl..." Harry sighed sharply and shook his head. "Peter's just gonna use her and treat her like a Kleenex: soft, strong, and disposable."
"Yeah... I remember what happened to Wendy..." Carlos frowned.
The others nodded as that had to be a very painful and depressing situation for Wendy.
"Say... Where did Ben and Keela go?" Roland soon wondered as he looked around suddenly.
MEANWHILE...
Ben and Keela were shown to be sitting across from each other. Aunt Em smiled as she walked over and soon brought over two plates of hamburgers and fries for them to share since they were very hungry and decided to eat together while everyone else was talking about their search on Peter and Audrey.
"They smell delicious, Ms. Aunt Em." Keela smiled.
"They are delicious," Aunt Em reassured with a small smile back. "So... Are you folks on a cute little hamburger date?"
"Just eating our dinner... Thank you..." Ben said while blushing nervously as he nodded at her. "They seem... Magical."
"Well, you kids enjoy then," Aunt Em told them before walking off. "Holler if you need anything else."
"Erm... All right..." Ben told her before blushing a bit.
Keela smiled at Ben before looking concerned. "Are you all right, Ben?" she then asked. "You look kinda warm..."
"I'm fine... It's summer after all..." Ben said bashfully before releasing a sheepish chuckle. "Let's just try to enjoy our dinner before we go back in our rooms for the night."
The others looked over and seemed to smirk as they saw Ben and Keela together, even if Ben didn't see it as an actual date.
"Well, okay..." Keela said before eating one of her fries then. "I just hope we can find out what Peter and Audrey are up to. I'm concerned that they might be dangerous."
"Um... I wouldn't worry about that..." Ben said to her before he reached out for a red bottle on their table. "You know... My uncle says that condiments are this world's most powerful magic." he then said, about to pass her the ketchup.
"Oh... Okay... Thank you..." Keela smiled as she took the bottle from his hands, blushing as their hands seemed to touch before she accepted it and went to put it on their fries.
The others looked at each other and chuckled a bit.
"...Let's get some dinner." Roland said to the others.
"Uh-huh..." The others agreed before they went to order their own food while Ben and Keela helped themselves.