Chapter 15 Cotillion Talk

School was in full swing and all the students were swamped projects, assignments and tests. This year the schoolwork was tougher, and Hadley felt overwhelmed with the workload. If she felt this way, she had no idea what her sister was going through. It seemed that with her being presented as an official lady of the court, she was more stressed out than usual. The once purple haired mischievous girl was now a shell of the girl she was with pastel dresses and blonde hair. She wanted nothing more than to fit in and show people that she is the girl for Ben and that she can be the princess that Ben should be with. Hadley understood the pressure she was under but didn't understand why she sacrifice herself for this. Ben fell in love with her full knowing who she and is and where she came from and it doesn't bother him.

All the buzz around the royal couple of the year has brought an endless number of reporters and photographers interviewing to Auradon Prep trying everything they can to interview Mal and Ben. Today was no exception, Mal was cornered in front of Beast's statue with a large number of people asking her a million questions. All everyone was talking about was her cotillion coming up in 3 days. This was a major event for her because she would become an official Lady of Court and literally everyone was excited about.

Besides the hordes of paparazzi everywhere, today was pretty boring. As usual there was a ton of homework to be done and Hadley was held up in her room trying to get everything done as fast as she could in between classes. Evie and Mal came bursting into room startling me. "you know I'll never get this assignment done with all this excitement, E" "its dress fitting time and you're up after Mal". Mal was getting fitted into a yellow strapless ball gown with blue accents "okay Evie I cannot breathe" "well you can breathe after cotillion" "I sincerely doubt that. There will be at least 20 events after that and I can't remember a single one of them is" Evie admired her creation "impeccable" By this time Hadley got up from her spot next to the window and sat at the edge of her bed "you look stunning, Mal. As always Evie you are a genius" "Evie, Hadley do you ever wonder what we would be doing if were back on Isle?" "ha that's funny". The Isle. It seemed like such a foreign place now. We've been so consumed of Auradon life we kind of forgot about our life on the Isle. The jingle of the news on the tv broke the three girl's thoughts.

Evie's head shot up at the noise and smiled "Look who's on tv!" we all sat in front of the tv that was talking about Mal "As the royal couple continued their tour around the kingdom. They dined with Aladdin and Jasmine" the clip showed Mal spitting her food out into a napkin. Really Mal? "6 months ago, no one thought Ben and his girlfriend from the wrong side of the bridge would last" "yeah no kidding" was all Mal could say. "Mal must be counting down the days until the royal cotillion where she will officially become a lady of court". The show ended and Mal instantly jumped up remembering she had to do something. It was my turn next for the fitting and I have to say the dress was perfect. It was a strapless ballgown that was covered in sequins. It went from black at the top to an ombre dark blue at the bottom. It was perfect! As my dress was getting altered by Evie, we both watched as my sister pulled out the spell book "read it fast at lightning speed remember everything I need" I rolled my eyes, a fast reading spell. Evie snatched the book from Mal's hands and gave her the Evie look. It was a look that terrified the sister because it meant Evie was not messing around and we should probably do what she says. "guys I need the spell book I was a complete disaster before using it" "personally I think mom's spell book belongs in the museum" Evie put her hands on her hips "don't give that face, put the pout away. You know were right".

Mal glanced at her leather jacket hanging on the back of the door then back to us "you guys don't miss running around and breaking all the rules" Evie looked confused "stealing and lying and fighting?" "yeah!" "no! why would we? M come here look at where we are, we are in Auradon and were Auradon girls now. This is the land of opportunity and we can be anything". Hadley got up and grabbed her bag "and we can be anything if we get to class and graduate" "good call".

With that we all decided to go find Jay, Carlos and PJ and walk to class. The boys like everyone else talked nothing except cotillion and who they were taking. Mal looked nothing but a stressed-out mess more so than usual. All Hadley could get out Jay and Carlos's conversation was that clearly Carlos was having girl troubles and Jay was being no help "Hey Jay if you were to ask a girl to cotillon how would you do it?" "listen all you gotta do is look like me" "oh ha ha" poor Carlos. "Hads were going to be late to bio" "see ya later guys" PJ grabbed my hand as we walked to class. This started to become a habit for the two, a habit Hadley was loving. Unfortunately, Hadley and PJ were not lab partners but that didn't stop the two from passing notes and trying anyway to mess with each other.

Hadley could barely pay attention to the teacher going on and on about what she thinks was photosynthesis. PJ would not stop making faces causing Hadley to try her hardest to suppress her giggles. She kept mouthing to him to stop which would make him mock back to her stop. Hadley pulled out a scratch piece of paper and wrote out 'if you don't stop, we are gonna get in trouble' after crumbling it up she threw it at PJ when the teacher turned to write on the whiteboard. PJ looked at the Hadley and gave her a mischievous smile.

Once classes were over Evie and I headed back to our dorm to get the rest of our homework done. Scratch that I was doing homework Evie was hemming and fitting everyone's dresses. Doug soon joined us and assisted Evie in everything that she needed. They really did make a great couple and brought out the best in each other. Chad of all people was getting a cape fitted for cotillion "what about peacock feathers?! I bet you no one is going to have those at cotillion." Cotillion cotillion cotillion that's all people talked about these days. Hadley rolled her eyes at Chad; he is so full of himself. Evie let out an annoyed sigh "Chad when I look at you all I can think of is king and fake fur. Fake fur says it all" Chad was clearly not getting Evie's sarcasm. Jay poked his head in the room to get Chad "Amphitheatre in 5" "why did coach make him captain instead of me I'm obviously better. King Chad though I rather do like that you know who else would like that, Audrey" "Chad lets go" Jay was growing more annoyed by the second. Evie and Doug couldn't help but laugh when Chad rushed out of the room "not a whole lot of there there". Hadley almost forgot about Lonnie and her secret tryout not to mention PJ was on the team and she wanted to see him fence. Fencing was another new sport to Hadley that they didn't have on Isle "shoot I'm gonna be late I'll see you guys later" "no you have a final fitting" before Evie could grab her Hadley ran out of the room to get to the Amphitheater before practice begins.