Disclaimer: I own nothing. Everything belongs to Disney, Descendants, or Ginny's AU. I'm just playing in it. Any new OCs are mine.
Mindlink/Telepathy – Italics, no quotation marks
'Thoughts' – Italics, with quotation marks
Quotes from Ginny's series – Bolded
Normal Speech
I took some liberties with this. Didn't read the books, so if it's not canon, sorry. I don't really plan on reading them though, to be honest.
Ginnyrules27: Big Hero 6 is one of my favorite movies, I had to include him! And I'd be right alongside Harry complaining. I went to a psychiatrist once, as a kid, and boy was that annoying. I couldn't resist messing around with Hades xD His minions always around and worrying about the kids, they probably never got much alone time.
Danifan3000: Happy (belated) birthday! In the mythology, Asklepios was an amazing healer who had internal magic that was capable of bringing people back from the brink of death. I believe it's in PJO that he made actual cures that brought souls back across.
AmethystDragon14: Thank you! I really do adore him.
OceanBlueSeaEyes: Will in this case is Ginny's character for the son of Wasabi, hence the ability to borrow 'a' Baymax. However, as Hyperion publishing is owned by Disney, I do plan some overlap with referencing PJO! Hermes' Express specifically was from Riordan.
Katt Kiki: Ginny uses some of it in Truth or Fiction! And she's made a few references, such as in Last Bridge :D I work with her sometimes to make sure I follow along her series, so mine is just an extension of hers!
Enjoy reading, and don't forget to follow and/or review!
It'd been a few days since Hadie's meeting with Baymax and Asklepios. The nectar and ambrosia he had to take every morning already felt like it was doing wonders. With a brief yawn, Hadie deftly leapt from his loft, landing quietly on the wooden floor. Jay's alarm was due to go off in fifteen minutes, but Hadie didn't want to risk taking his medicine in front of them. He trusted his surrogate brothers, but just like Mal, they could be too protective. He didn't want to risk either of them accidentally taking any or throwing them out. Asklepios had been clear on the written instructions within the box. Meer mortals would die.
Hadie had gotten a small alarm from online that he'd hidden under his pillow. Instead of screaming for everyone to wake up, it vibrated. This allowed Hadie to take his medicine and have first crack at the bathroom before his brothers woke up. Quickly, he tossed back the nectar and ate the ambrosia before heading into the bathroom. Popping out after a quick shower, he heard the sound of Jay's alarm through the door. Grabbing his deodorant, he headed out of the bathroom. He didn't really feel like using the locker showers after gym, especially since he'd rather be one of the first to reach the cafeteria, but that didn't mean he had to stink either.
"Gooood morning!" Hadie cheerfully greeted Jay and Harry. Striding over to his desk, Hadie took a few of his granola bars and tossed them in his backpack with the deodorant. Even though his stomach was handling things so much better already, he wasn't going to take any chances. It also helped that the program he was on wanted him to be eating as much as he could to make up for the Isle. A luxury, he realized, that other kids wouldn't be able to recover as well from.
"Hey, good morning!" Jay gave Hadie a little shoulder bump. "You really sticking with the earlier schedule, huh?" They watched as Harry ran into the door knob to the bathroom, the pirate desperately needing a cold shower every morning in order to wake up properly.
"Yeah, I like getting to breakfast before everyone and leaving to class before them too. Less people crowding the halls, rushing around."
"Smart. You aren't going on your own though, are you?" Jay looked at Hadie with concern. "You know our rules."
"I haven't forgotten," Hadie smiled sadly. "We've only been off the Isle a week; it'd take a lot more than that to turn me soft. Anyways, Herkie rooms with his brother in one of the closer dorms, so he and I will head to breakfast together, instead of waiting for Melody all the time from the girl's dorms."
"Alright, as long as you're not without someone you trust."
"Not if I can't help it. See you later, Jay." Sharing another smile, Hadie headed out, finding a peppy Herkie, bright-eyed and ready to roll.
"G'morning, Hadie!"
"Good morning, Herkie."
"Have you looked at this week's general homework?" lamented Herkie. "Too many reading assignments this time!"
"I don't mind it," said Hadie, shrugging as he reviewed the growing list of assignments in his head. "Reading was how I spent most of my time on the Isle." He ignored the long side look Herkie gave him.
'Auradonians really don't know how to do subtle, do they?' thought Hadie as the boys followed the quiet halls towards the cafeteria. 'Every time I mention the Isle, it's so obvious they want to ask, it's just…they're so innocent here. Now I get why Mal is so protective of me. I don't want to be the one to burst their perfect bubble.'
Reaching the main hall, they found the final of their trio already waiting.
"Hey guys," yawned Melody, joining them as they entered the large hall. "You read to start the day with numbers, Hadie?"
"Your excitement is infectious," drawled Hadie, amused by Melody's sarcasm. He gathered up a plate of eggs. "Did you even finish like you said you would yesterday?"
He smirked when she only pouted in response.
"Did you bring your laptop? If you don't have too much left, I'll help you bang out the rest of the questions in time for class," offered Hadie, watching as Melody piled up her usual bout of waffles and dumped loads of syrup over them. "For a small fee of course."
"Have I said you're my favorite cousin yet? Because you're my favorite cousin."
"Oi!" pouted Herkie as they settled at a table. "He's not even doing it for free!"
"Get good at math and then we can talk, Herk," said Melody. "Besides, Hadie's been fair. Want me to get those sea salt caramels again?"
"That'd be great," Hadie grinned, digging into his food. "And my rates are an absolute bargain, Herkie! I'm not doing the work for her; I'm teaching her as I go, then she'll be able to do it on her own. Long term benefits for a minor onetime fee."
"Eh, don't mind our goody-two shoes of a cousin, Hads. I'll ask my parents to send two boxes this time under the pretense of sharing." Melody used her hands to put the last word in quotation marks.
"Already falling under the corruption of our VK cousin, Mel?" smirked Herkie, peering up from his food.
"Oh, don't pull that Herkie, I've always been like this. We just haven't hung out enough to really get to know each other."
"You guys didn't? We hung out with family all the time on the Isle."
Herkie gave a sideways glance at Melody, the girl returning an odd grimace.
"My dad had us living in Greece still for a while," Herkie began to speak. "We only moved into Auradon about a year ago after…after grandpoppy died. I primarily stayed around my siblings or the guys for a while. As for Melody…"
"I'm grounded." She deadpanned. "Like, still. On top of us not ever really meeting last year, I was grounded pretty much all summer. And probably till my next birthday."
"Wow, how can you accuse me of being trouble when clearly the girls in our family seem to be the most chaotic?" Hadie teased Herkie. "That's the Morgana mess, wasn't it? Aunt Vanessa mentioned it to me and dad, and mom filled us in since she was over here at the time."
"Yeah, but now my parents know to tell me things. It was even worse finding out Elle knew the entire time, what with her needing to swim to develop leg strength. We're all better now, but—wait, did you say Aunt Vanessa?"
"Yeah?" Hadie pulled back in confusion. "The Barrier caused her and Ursula to split, I think? Dad was confused over the whole thing too, but the human hooked up with one of dad's minions. Virgil is practically my big brother." Hadie tilted his head, trying to think on it more. "Dad decided that since Ursula is his niece, and Vanessa was part of her, that by extension she and Virg are now family."
"Well," Melody said after a beat, "I guess it's no stranger to our family that said family can be our villains."
Hadie looked down forlornly at his food. "I had hoped by being friendly with me, you wouldn't have the prejudices of our parents."
"No, that's not what I meant!" whined Melody. "Family is still family, even if we don't get along. Morgana was the only one to actually try to kill any of us, but, um…I'm just going to shut up now," she trailed off, realizing exactly who she was speaking to.
Herkie and Hadie stared at each other.
"Look," Herkie finally spoke after a minute, "You're not your father. That much is obvious. And you clearly love him, so I'm willing to not speak ill of him, as long as you don't speak ill of mine. Deal?"
"Now who's making deals?" softly smiled Hadie. "Deal. You've both been great to me, and I don't want to lose that. But not at the loss of my own family. Though you didn't say I couldn't bash Zeus, Herkie." He seriously wondered if Herkie knew about Asklepios' story.
"Mom and nonna bash Zeus plenty behind dad's back," chuckled Herkie. "Only once I started asking questions since I'd over heard plenty of things growing up, though. I think Hyllus and dad are the only ones with rose tinted glasses still."
"Well now that our first little tiff is out of the way, can we please get my math homework finished?" Melody's laptop clacked on the table, her tray of demolished waffles pushed off to the side.
"Alright," said Hadie, wiping his hands with a napkin before he moved closer to Melody to look at her questions. "Okay, so this one, we have to first solve for x before we can graph it…"
Gym was more physical than Hadie had ever been used to. There weren't exactly large open areas for groups of kids to play together on the Isle. He ignored Herkie who had started muttering something about Philoctetes and running through forests with swords.
"So we just have to have the most flags at the end?" Hadie said as he tied their team's sash color of pale green around his waist. The students had been divided into a multitude of teams, each with a different color.
"Yep yep," cheerfully said Melody, tying her long, black hair back into her usual ponytail. " We've got this bin here, to lap back to and drop them here. You can't take from the baskets, only worn sashes. So we get to play a few rounds."
"What's Herkie's problem?" Hadie quietly asked, eyeballing their final member as he continued to mutter through his stretches.
"I'm not totally sure to be honest. All I know is apparently his family visited a training camp and their variation of capture the flag involved magic and weapons."
"Okay, but that sounds awesome," said Hadie. "What was so bad about it?"
Herkie stood, dusting dirt from his shorts. "Maybe you can come one day. But trust me, it's hard, and Phil, the satyr that is, is ruthless. Didn't go over basics or even gave us light training, just had dad drop us off without even telling him what we were doing and threw us to the dogs."
"Oh, that does sound yikes. Mal's crew is pretty hardcore about making sure we're up to par, sword spars at least once a week is required for everyone."
"Dude, we should totally spar sometime! There's open gym times posted outside of team practices and we can borrow gear."
"I think Mal had mentioned something like that to Uma and Harry. I wouldn't be surprised if they dragged me to practice at some point soon to make sure I don't fall behind."
A shrill whistle halted their conversation.
"Game One! Countdown starting now!"
The trio of godlings looked at each other and nodded. It didn't matter if their friends were on other teams. They wanted to win.
"Two…One…GO!"
Hadie raced off towards the right, keeping close to the boundary lines. He still only knew a portion of his classmates' names, but he had paid enough attention to learn a few things. He chased after one of taller boys. Despite the kid's long legs, Hadie had seen that the boy's stamina wasn't great from the warm up runs. Less than a minute later and some close calls, Hadie yanked off the yellow flag and dashed back to his team's basket.
Sharing a high five with Melody who had brought back a red sash, Hadie turned to find his next target.
'No, not Ashaki. She's got boundless energy and dodges easily. Not to mention she and her brother are just as good at pickpocketing as Jay. Good for them for keeping up their dad's legacy though.' Hadie began to side step, his back to the perimeter. A moment later he dashed away, avoiding a few who had tried to corner him, nabbing a sash as he passed through the trio that made up the grey team.
The whistle blew again as Hadie stumbled over to his water bottle. They were about to start the fourth game, and while fun, he was beginning to feel worn out. They'd just narrowly missed winning the first game, but had taken the second after reviewing their strategy. After that, the three had decided to just mess around and challenge each other to keep things interesting. They'd only wanted the one win for the pride of it, but it wasn't something anyone felt the need to take seriously.
'It's so much different than the Isle. Everything there has a purpose to survive. Here, it's to be healthy and have fun,' lamented Hadie, thinking longingly of how things could've been all along. 'Though Celia would want to win no matter what.'
Hadie took a small bite of an energy bar and washed it down with a bottle of 'GodAide' that Herkie had brought instead of water. Something about replenishing electrolytes.
"This stuff is pretty good, cuz," sighed Hadie as he finished off the drink, gasping for air.
"Glad you think so," said Herkie. "A lot of people don't like it because there's no sugar, but as I've mentioned, dad is all about staying healthy."
"Your dad?" Hadie gave him a questioning look.
"Yeah, he founded GodAide. Drink of the athletes."
Hadie looked down at the now empty bottle. Now that he looked closer, he recognized the symbol of Olympus and Hercules name in small print on the label.
'Huh. How about that.'
"Next bout, let's go!" Mr. Reese shouted; he blew his whistle again as everyone groaned. "Quit your groaning, this is your last game and then you can hit the showers!"
Placing his snack back into his bag, Hadie jogged out with the rest of the class to the starting positions.
The moment the whistle blew, their group broke ranks and dashed towards their targets. This time, Hadie eyed the shining blue ribbon whipping through the wind as Alexandria dashed close, her hand just missing his own flag. She spun to the side as he made his own attempt.
'This is why I didn't go for their team, girls are always so agile,' Hadie mentally whined as he missed yet again due to Alexandria's evasive manuvering.
Their odd dance was interrupted by a scream.
"I'm so sorry!" came Herkie's voice from across the field. "Mr. Reese, please, someone get help!"
Hadie sprinted towards the commotion. He found the auburn-haired boy was crouched over another boy who was gripping desperately at his own arm. Herkie's own legs appeared to be cut up, blood dripping down his knees.
"Do you think you can stand on your own?" Hadie knelt by the fallen boy as he removed his flag and gestured to the other kid's arm. "I'm just going to make you a splint until a doctor can look at your arm. What's your name? I'm still learning everyone's." He made idle conversation, trying to distract him from the pain.
"K-ky," he grimaced, biting his lower lip as black hair fell into his eyes. "And I think so?" Grey eyes watched closely as Hadie took Ky's and Herkie's flag and folded them into stiff squares to pack either side of the throbbing arm.
"I wish we could've met under better circumstances, Ky," Hadie smiled gently. He wasn't happy it was necessary, but he was thankful for the rudimentary training the Isle gave him when it came injured crew. Especially with the unfortunate lack of proper resources.
"What happened here?" Mr. Reese's appeared above the gathering students, a frown set upon his face.
"It's my fault, Mr. Reese! I'm sorry." Herkie tried to stand but fell back against the grass, his legs patchy with dried blood.
"It's okay, Herkie, it was an accident," Ky ground out.
"I tripped and we collided," Herkie shook his head. "I wasn't trying to hold back at all and swung to grab Ky's flag, but he went to block and…well…super strength and all. I cut my legs trying not to land top of him and make things worse."
Mr. Reese nodded. "Let's get you up and to the bench Ky. I already called a doctor to campus and let Fairy Godmother we'd need the medical assistance more than the nurse could provide. Herkie, hit the showers and head to her office."
Hadie angled himself to better help Ky up as a couple of other kids approached. Recognizing them as those that Ky was normally seen around with, Hadie stepped away to allow them to lead him to the bench.
"But Mr. Reese, surely Herkie isn't in trouble!" Evan had appeared, Ashaki and Alexandria at his side.
As Herkie walked forlornly away, the teacher held a hand up at the rising protests.
"I know it's not his fault, but as it was a serious accident, we need to have an official report together for the parents and the doctor records."
Sliding up to Melody, Hadie whispered to her, "I'm going to ask if I can go with Herkie, he doesn't look like he should be left alone in this."
"Good idea," she nodded firmly. "Mr. Reese? Could Hadie and I go with Herkie? He looked like he really blamed himself."
It took a bit, but eventually they were able to convince him to let them go. Grabbing their things, they rushed off toward the lockers, hoping to wash up in time before everyone else came back, so they could sequester Herkie away from any stares.
Dropping his head, Herkie tangled his fingers nervously through is hair. He desperately wanted to hide. If he could crawl under the chair he was sat upon, he absolutely would. Run to anywhere that wasn't right outside Fairy Godmother's office.
At least he wasn't alone. On either side of him sat his, now very much considered his favorite, cousins. Melody, Poseidon bless her, was trying her best to be the voice of reason, attempting to comfort the son of Hercules with awkward words. Hadie was just as nervous as Herkie though. Not because the blue-haired godling was in trouble too, no. The son of Hades had decided to hang around to simply show support for his cousin-turned-friend. Hadie's nerves were only because Herkie's parents would be arriving soon on campus to meet with Fairy Godmother.
Herkie did his best to focus on Melody's monologue to distract himself from the screams that still echoed in his ears. Everyone knew it had been an accident. Even poor Kyrell told a profusely apologizing Herkie that he was forgiven.
"It'll be alright, I swear Herk." Melody rubbed her cousin's back. "It's not like you broke his arm on purpose."
"Please, Melody," Herkie groaned. "I'm trying to not think about what happened. Right now, I just hope I'm not in too much trouble."
"I doubt you're in any," Hadie said softly. "From what I overheard, Mr. Reese only had you sent to Headmistress' office because they want to find a way to avoid this from happening again. If you didn't have super strength, Ky's arm probably would've been okay."
"Hadie is right, Herkie. I'm sure it's just protocol for parents' to come when something happens, and in this case to also ask your dad for any advice to deal with your strength."
"Dad was worse!" Herkie snorted with a laugh." He's shared so many stories with destroying school property! Though…I guess people were rarely injured on his watch."
"That doesn't mean he shares the stores that he might've, though," Hadie said softly. "There've been loads of times that dad mentions something but refuses to elaborate because it's not something he or mom want me hearing."
They all looked up at the sound of footsteps coming down the hall. There was Fairy Godmother, and behind her…
Herkie and Hadie both audibly gulped.
"Hey, kiddo." Hadie stiffened as Hercules spoke, the god-turned-mortal thankfully ignoring him as he spoke to his son. That was fine by him, he was already tempted to run off and for once was disappointed to not have Mal to hide behind.
Especially now that the hulking figure of his cousin had knelt down, giving a direct line of site to Hades' ex-servant. A lighter violet than Herkie's eyes stared down at Hadie, unimpressed. Hadie shrunk in his seat and looked intently down at the floor.
"I was under the impression that only our son was in any trouble, shouldn't these two's guardians be here as well?" Megara spoke, pulling her husband's attention away from looking over their youngest.
"We're just here for emotional support, Aunt Meg," Melody grinned. "Herkie keeps blaming himself, even though it was an accident. Hadie asked permission for us to accompany Herkie, didn't you Hads?"
Hadie only nodded, too unsure of himself to speak.
He jolted in his seat as a large tanned hand rested on his knee.
"That's very kind of you, Hadie, thanks for being there for Herkie," said Hercules, his voice gentle. "You shouldn't miss lunch though, if it really was an accident, my son has no need to worry. I'll take him out to eat after this. If you don't mind that is, Headmistress?"
"Not at all, Hercules. I'm sorry if it came across as if he was in trouble. It's just school protocol to contact parents in the case of severe injuries. I wanted to discuss possible ideas, if you had any, to prevent it from happening again."
"That's probably for the best. With the move, going over safety measures had fallen to the wayside and only Hyllus has covered them." Hercules stood and looked down at his son, laying a hand on the top of his hair. "Don't worry, Herkie, I injured a fair few people even inadvertently before I was out of high school."
"Really?" Herkie glanced up. "None of your stories ever mentioned anything outside of, y'know, truning buildings into rubble."
An awkward laugh burst out from the hero, a hand flying upward to rub the back of his head. "I was a genuine klutz back in the day, people got injured from either the buildings, or from me accidentally smacking them. I'm surprised I wasn't expelled for all the school damages.
"Now I'm serious you two, nothing for Herkie to worry about. Go ahead, get lunch and make healthy choices!"
"They're kids, big guy, they don't have to worry about healthy eating for a bit, and I'm sure just burned a ton of energy at gym," Megara snorted at Hercules' hero voice. "Thanks for being here though, you two."
Hadie finally looked up, finding both adults with small smiles. He gave them a hesitant nod before turning towards his friends. They both stood, Melody moving to Hadie's side.
"See you later, cuz," whispered Hadie, ready to bolt away from the adults. The two godlings turned away to head towards lunch, stopped only by a dainty hand on either of their shoulders.
"You two should come visit for a weekend, join us for dinner during a break," said Megara as they turned to look her questionably. "Though it may have to wait till I can get permission from your mother, Hadie."
"I-I appreciate the offer, Lady M—"
"Ha, I'm no Lady, kid," laughed the woman. "Aunt Meg, or Meg is fine."
"Thanks, A-aunt Meg."
"See ya, Aunt Meg!" Melody looped her arm through Hadie's and dragged them off towards lunch.
"See you later, Herkie!" They both called back before they rounded the corner.
"Well, that wasn't nerve racking," Hadie said sarcastically, Melody giggling in response.
"I thought it went fine," she rolled her eyes. "Aunt Meg looks scary, but she's nicer than she looks. Just sarcastic. A lot of the time."
After a few minutes, they arrived at the cafeteria hall.
"Melody, Hadie, where've you two been?" Elle called from her seat at a table with Alexandria and her sisters. Ashaki sat nearby with Emir, which by extension included Akiho, Jay and Ben. "Sorry Hadie, you just missed Mal, she left about fifteen minutes into the lunch hour."
"That's alright, thanks for the heads up, Elle," said Hadie softly. "I'm used to Mal leaving so early at this point." He sighed internally. He'd only been around for a week, so he'd planned to give Mal time to work on her schedule, but it hurt to not see his sister as often as he used to. Especially after almost two months of not seeing each other at all. Her link was still closed off, so they couldn't even talk to make up lost time. He sat down his bags next to Melody's and wandered off to get food.
He hoped the rest of the day was quieter. He already felt out of energy, physically and now mentally. At least it was just science left, the practice modules were still simple. After that, he planned to either chill in the library or his dorm.
"Sorry about your brother, Qullana," Hadie and Alexandria settled down next to their class partner.
"Oh, Ky?" asked Qullana as she pulled her hair back into a ponytail. Since they were practicing how to use microscopes, her long hair kept falling in the way. "Mom called me, I understand it was an accident."
"You don't really believe that, do you, Ana?" A round-faced boy slammed a hand on their desk. "Now that Herkie is hanging out with a VK, he gets someone injured for the first time. No way that's a coincidence."
Qullana's deep eyes focused hard on the boy before them. "I don't believe I asked for your opinion, Darwin."
"Now, now, Darwin has a point." Another boy approached them, his hair a dark brown, contrasting greatly against his pale skin.
"No, he doesn't, Aaron," Alexandria bit out. "I thought you were just quiet, but I had hoped you weren't actually a jerk."
"See, mean words for such a pretty face. You'd never spoke to me like that till you started hanging out with this brat."
Hadie frowned. He never felt such need to play the God card before. He usually didn't, but now he felt a similar feeling to when he first met Celia. Indignant. Disrespected. Angry. Alexandria speaking again pulled him from his spiraling thoughts.
"You rarely ever spoke to me before to begin with, so you wouldn't know how I tend to speak in the first place. Your attitude is not warranted, nor is your present wanted. Please get away from our table."
The two boys glared, but walked away as Ms Gwen appeared to start the class. "Don't think you can cause trouble around here, villain. If you're raised by 'em, you must be one."
"Idiots," scoffed Alexandria. "My mom was raised by one, and so was Neal and Evan's. Ignore them, Hadie."
"Eh, I thought I'd run into someone like them sooner, to be honest. I imagine they've just been biding their time."
"Well, don't worry about me believing them. My brother told me it was a genuine accident and he shouldn't have tried to block Herkie's aim. We all know he's got super strength, it's why none of the classes he's set up in have actual physical contact. Even fútbol is out because they're worried how far he could kick a ball."
"Wait, if that's the case, why did Fairy Godmother want to talk to Herkie's parents about precautions still?" Hadie whispered as Ms. Gwen had started roll call.
"It's one of the things that was recommended by his siblings, from what my sister said, since their parents were too busy to prepare the school yet with all their usual safety measures," explained Qullana, doodling in the margins of her notebook. "He even rooms with his brother in case of any possible issues, though I don't know what he'll do when Hyllus graduates at the end of the year."
"Well, thanks for believing us, Qullana. I just want to do well in school, I don't want any trouble," said Hadie, raising his hand as his name was called.
"Feel free call me Ana. Most my friends do. Though those boys aren't on that list but unfortunately use it anyways," she smiled slightly. "Both of you. I know we never interacted much before, Alexandria."
"We appreciate it, Ana," beamed Alexandria. "You'll get along great with Hadie, he spends half his time studying for fun."
"Hey!" the godling pouted, standing as they were dismissed to prepare for their lab. "I thought you wanted my help here, not tease me." He stuck his tongue out as he walked away to grab some petri dishes. Alexandria returned the motion as she turned to set up their microscopes.
"I like to study in my spare time too, not for classes, but just things I happen to like," Ana pattered next to Hadie. "You should meet up with me sometime, whether for school, or we can help find material for personal projects. You're still pretty new, and I know where almost everything in the library is."
"Thanks, Ana, maybe we can meet up on the weekend," they returned to their station. "The syllabus mentions our next big project, so we can look into it ahead of time before it's assigned next Monday."
"That's a good idea," groaned Alexandria, she gave Qullana an apologetic glance. "Sorry you're stuck with me too. I'm not great at the science stuff."
"You're fine," a true grin spread across Qullana's face. "I've never had anyone study with me, so it'll be a welcome learning experience for all of us."
"Actually, could you come with me to the library after class, or after dinner if you'd prefer?" Hadie started, realizing something. "I-I want to find books to teach me about horticulture and different plants of Auradon or other regions."
The two girls peered at him. "Plants, Hadie?" Alexandria asked.
"W-well," he blushed. "I want to show my mom that I learned about what she does too, on top of doing my best in school. I like making her happy."
His face blushed brighter as the girls cooed at him.
It was worth it later, when he returned to the dorm with a pile of books and a student ID. Apparently, he'd missed the instructions for photos to be taken for such a thing. If it meant he could take books out of the library every few weeks, he was thankful.
Either way, he'd be using the hell out of it.