Ch 5:

Chloe couldn't bring herself to eat anymore. The food in Auradon was amazing. She'd never seen so many colors in food aside from the blue or green fuzz of mould. There were brightly-colored fruits, non-stale cereal, fresh bread for toast, milk that wasn't curdled.

The food wasn't the problem this sunny Monday morning. It was her nerves.

She'd been given the rest of last week, as well as the weekend, to adjust to Auradon and get settled in her new dorm, as well as heal. The infection in her leg was pretty much completely healed, now the wound just needed to finish healing. She could almost walk without a limp now. And her bruises were healing well, some of them had faded away, but most were still visible.

But the reason she was almost too nervous to eat was because today was her first day of classes in her new school. And she was slightly petrified. The only real relief was that she had almost every class with Carlos, and the one class she didn't have with him, she had with Mal.

"Chloe, are you going to eat any more?" Evie asked gently from her seat across from Chloe at the picnic table.

Chloe paused where she'd been poking at her scrambled eggs with her fork. She'd managed to nibble on some toast and take a few bites of eggs, but that was about it. Silently, she shook her head.

"Are you sick?" Carlos asked worriedly from his spot next to her.

"No, just nervous." she admitted quietly.

"It'll be fine." Evie assured her.

Chloe nodded, trying to believe her.

Sooner than she was ready for, everyone finished eating and it was time to head to first period. Everyone split up as they entered the school, as none of the five VKs except Carlos and Chloe had the same first period.

It was nice to have a variety of classes instead of only classes on how to be evil. But Chloe's first few classes were a bit on the boring side. Although, she did find History of Woodsmen and Pirates to be interesting, mostly because it was taught by the fairy Tinker Bell. They had to wear special headphones during the whole class to be able to understand her, but it was still interesting. Jane, the girl she'd met the week before, was in a few of her classes, as well.

After that, Carlos walked Chloe to her art class, where Mal was waiting for her, before he headed to his Basic Chivalry class.

The teacher was nice to Chloe, considering she was a bit behind due to starting the year a bit later than the others. She gave Chloe a few assignments to do within the week, just to help her catch up with the rest of the class. She then briefly explained the day's assignment to Chloe so she could work on the same thing the rest of the class was.

She was finishing up the shading on her sketch when the teacher called for Mal from the front of the classroom.

"Mal, could you take this to Fairy Godmother, please?"

Mal glanced up before standing and approaching the teacher's desk. They spoke for a few moments before Mal took a folder and returned to her desk. She packed up her things, glancing over at Chloe where they sat next to each other.

"Class is over in about five minutes, but this shouldn't take me that long." Mal told her. "I'll be back in time to walk you to your next class."

Chloe nodded. "Sure."

Five minutes passed faster than Chloe was ready for because she actually didn't want this class to end, which was unusual in her experience. However, as Chloe stood and packed up her things she realized Mal wasn't back yet. She hesitantly followed her classmates, but paused just outside the classroom door. She searched back and forth down the hallway, looking for a familiar head of purple hair amongst the sea of faces. But Mal was nowhere to be seen.

Chloe waited a couple minutes, all the while wondering if she should just try to find the class herself. Finally, she decided to try it. How hard could it be? Sure, the campus had a few different buildings, but her schedule listed what building each class was in, and she'd noticed the room numbers were in numerical order. So it shouldn't be too hard to find her next class.

Holding her books to her chest, Chloe left the safe alcove of the doorway and ventured into the crowded hallway. She stayed close to the wall of lockers, as it was less crowded there. Unfortunately, she soon ran into people getting into their lockers, forcing her to venture further into the crowd.

Surrounded by all the warm, pushy bodies, Chloe started to sweat. She was jostled back and forth by some particularly enthusiastic students. Her heart was pounding, and it was a struggle to breathe air in.

Something suddenly slammed into her, causing her to hit the lockers with a BANG.

Flashback

Bang! Chloe's back hit the locker and she winced, cowering into the cold surface as her personal space was invaded by a few hulking frames.

"Look what we have here." rotten egg breath hovered around Chloe's face as Gaston Jr. leaned over her. "A little lost De Vil. Where's your gang, runt? Your little guard dogs." he sneered.

Gaston the Third loosed a booming fake bark, making Chloe flinch violently while the Gastons and everyone watching laughed.

"They left her behind, of course." Ginny Gothel laughed. "Why would they bring her along? She's useless."

"The only thing she's good for is a punching bag." Gaston the Third added, emphasizing the word 'punching' by slamming his fist into the locker by Chloe's head, leaving a dent in the metal and making her ears ring as she flinched violently. She couldn't get away, though, with his twin boxing her in.

"Stop! Please, stop." Chloe begged, trying to keep her tears from falling.

"Stop. Stop" Ginny whimpered mockingly before cackling with the rest of the small crowd.

"No one's here to save you now." Gaston Jr. smirked before slamming his fist into her face.

End of Flashback

Chloe's heartbeat was pounding in her ears, which her sweaty palms were clasped over to try and quiet the noise. She felt like she was going to throw up, and she couldn't get a breath in.

A quiet sound trickled into her consciousness, barely heard over the pounding of her heartbeat. She tried to hold her breath, anything to quiet herself so she could hear this new sound.

It sounded like…music.

Chloe blinked open her eyes, blinking a few times to clear away the tears that blurred her vision. She found herself staring down at the top of her knees. She could feel herself trembling, and she felt like she was going to throw up all over her new shoes that Evie gave her.

The soothing, quiet music stopped, leaving the room in complete silence, which was almost worse than her pounding heart. Silence was rarely good. Silence was eerie. Like the silence of Cruella's rage before she started screeching and throwing things.

Chloe's trembling got worse before she felt something move in front of her. She gasped and instantly felt like she was choking, unable to get a breath in.

"Hey, are you okay?" a distant voice echoed in her head.

Chloe peaked up from beneath the black and white strands of her bangs and her eyes landed on a person kneeling in front of her. A stranger. She instinctively shrank back into the wall behind her, whimpering and once more choking on her breath.

The stranger held their hands up in surrender, and their lips were moving as if they were speaking, but Chloe couldn't comprehend what they were saying, too lost in her panic.

Then, more things started to come into focus about the person. They didn't seem to be talking much, but they were taking in exaggeratedly deep breaths before releasing them.

He seemed to do this a few times before Chloe started copying him. She forced herself to take in a deep breath, hold it for a second like he did, and then slowly release it. She stared into his kind eyes as she repeated the action, noticing that his eyes had flecks of both blue and green.

"There you go." the boy smiled encouragingly at her as her breathing became easier. He had a nice smile. It lit up his whole face.

Chloe took a few more deep breaths, wiping her sweaty palms against her jeans to try and dry them off.

"Much better." the boy smiled encouragingly. "How are you feeling? Do you need anything? Water?"

Chloe swallowed to try and wet her dry throat before shaking her head. "N-no thank you." she cleared her throat, looking down in embarrassment. She then glanced around, suddenly terrified she'd just stumbled into a classroom full of students. She didn't even know where she was or how she got there.

It was a bigger room than her other classrooms, or maybe it looked that way because of the lack of desks. Chairs were stacked against the far wall, and several kinds of musical instruments were spread around the room such as drums, cellos, and a piano.

"Are you hurt at all?" the voice pulled her back from her perusal, and she looked back at the boy, noticing he had strawberry-blonde hair, not quite orange, but like a golden blonde with a hint of red. Thinking about his question, she shook her head. Her leg was throbbing from having her knees pulled to her chest, but that was nothing compared to the pain she was used to.

"No. I'm okay." she whispered. "I-I'm sorry if I interrupted…I can leave."

"It's fine. I was just passing the time until my next class. I have a free period." the boy assured her calmly. He glanced over his shoulder before turning back to her. "Do you want to see what I was doing?"

Chloe chewed her lip anxiously, her palms starting to sweat again as she glanced past the boy, wondering what he was talking about. Was he going to attack her like her former classmates at Dragon Hall?

"Hey, you don't have to." the boy assured her calmly. "My name's Anthony. What's yours?"

Chloe took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down. "Chloe."

"It's nice to meet you, Chloe." Anthony smiled at her again. "I was just playing the piano. Do you want to join me? We can just hang out in here for a while."

Anthony slowly stood up, making sure to take a couple steps back so he wasn't towering over her. He casually held his hand out, offering it to her if she wanted to take it without making her feel pressured. Chloe stared at it for a few moments before hesitantly reaching out and taking his hand. He slowly pulled her up and she was temporarily struck by how tall he was. He had at least half a foot on her easily, almost a full head above her. But his height didn't terrify her in the way the Gaston twins' did, where they used it to tower over her and intimidate her. Anthony was more lanky, his stance casual. And his outfit of a brown sweater vest over a dark blue button down shirt didn't exactly instill terror.

Anthony released her hand when she was standing, and lead her across the room toward the large grand piano. She hesitated, but followed after him, and after he indicated she should sit next to him on the bench, she did so. He smiled at her before he began playing, his fingers gliding effortlessly over the black and white piano keys.

She watched silently for a few moments, letting the soothing piano music wash over her and calm the last of her trembling.

"What are you playing?" she finally asked after a couple minutes.

"Oh, it's just a song I'm writing." Anthony answered, giving a casual shrug.

"You wrote that?" she asked in amazement, her wide eyes fixed on his face.

"It's nothing much. I'm still working on it." he admitted modestly, his fingers still dancing over the keys. "Do you want to try?" he asked, looking over at her.

Chloe's wide eyes flew to his, caught off guard. "Oh, um. N-no that's fine." she stuttered.

"It's nothing too difficult. Try this." He played a few simple notes before indicating to her to try. She hesitated before lifting her hand and playing the same keys he did. She smiled slightly. They did this a few more times, Anthony playing a short, simple tune, and Chloe copying him. By the third one, Chloe was quietly humming along to the tunes without really realizing it. But Anthony noticed.

"Do you play music?" he asked curiously.

Chloe watched her fingers play a few keys as she thought of her answer. "Well,…my cousin is in a band…but he's not very good." she admitted with a small smile. "Other than that…the only thing music-related I can do is hum. There's a song…" Chloe grinned sheepishly, "There's a song me and my brother sometimes hum because it drives our mother insane, so we hum it to watch her freak out. That's probably really horrible, isn't it?"

"Not really." Anthony grinned, chuckling. "When I was younger I used to sneak into my father's music room and rearrange some of his instruments and things because it drove him crazy. My mother would scold me, but I could tell she found it amusing."

Chloe giggled, relieved he didn't think her a horrible villain kid to purposefully do something to upset her mother. It was the 'Cruella De Vil' song that her and Carlos would hum to make their mother crazy, and it was actually a catchy tune.

"Do you like music?" Anthony asked curiously. "Maybe you could take a class here, or join band or something."

Chloe chewed her lip, some of the carefree feeling slipping away. "I don't know. I think I want to adjust to being here before I try joining any clubs or anything. And I'm really not that great with music. The most I can do is hum."

Anthony glanced from her face to where her fingers were still playing with the piano keys. "And play the piano." he added lightly, grinning.

Chloe paused, a blush spreading over her cheeks. She pulled her hand from the piano to rest on her lap.

"So, what kind of things do you like?" Anthony asked after a few moments of silence. "There's all kinds of clubs and electives. Book club, choir, home ec, drama club,…"

"My friends signed me up for art class." Chloe admitted quietly.

"You like art?" Anthony asked with a grin.

Chloe nodded with a shy smile. "My friend prefers painting…Painting's okay, but I don't like spray painting." she admitted. She could never get the spray paint cans to do what she wanted. She never understood the amazing details Mal could get into her art with spray paint. "I prefer sketching."

"Maybe next semester you can look into art club." Anthony suggested, looking down as he played some quiet notes. "It's not like the class, you don't typically learn anything necessarily. I mean, you can learn from the other students, and sort of build off each other and what you already know. And they sometimes do events and things. Last semester the art club helped create sets for a play the drama club was putting on."

A smile started growing across Chloe's face the more Anthony talked. "That…does sound kind of fun." she admitted quietly. "Maybe I'll look into it. Next semester or something."

They talked a bit more, Anthony telling her about more of the clubs and classes available at Auradon Prep. She found out that last year Anthony, new to Auradon Prep, had joined both band and orchestra. He quickly learned being in both was too much for one person, so he had to drop orchestra. He still played the cello, and obviously he loved the piano, and he made time for both of those instruments. But most of his time was spent playing the trumpet in the school band.

"That's a lot of different instruments." Chloe noted as she once again mimicked his fingers playing over the piano keys.

"I can also play a few more." Anthony admitted. "But the piano is my favorite. It was the first instrument I learned to play."

Chloe opened her mouth to respond, when a voice interrupted them.

"I found her!"

Chloe and Anthony both turned around on the piano bench, looking toward the classroom door. Jay was stood in the doorway, looking over his shoulder. He turned and entered the room, and Carlos, Mal, and Evie hurried in after him. Well, Carlos hurried in, while the others just walked like normal people.

"Chloe! Where were you? You never showed up to Chemistry!" Carlos exclaimed, hurrying up to her and pulling her off the bench and into a hug. Chloe made a squeak-like noise at the sudden squeeze of his hug.

"Sorry. I…I kinda got lost." she fibbed. She didn't want to worry her twin, and she hoped Anthony wouldn't say anything.

"Sorry about that." Mal added. "I tried to get back before class ended, but Fairy Godmother wanted my help with something while I was there, and then I got caught talking to someone who needed to ask me a question. I think I just missed you by the time I got back to the art classroom."

Chloe nodded in understanding. As horrible as the whole experience was, she didn't blame Mal. She couldn't help that she got caught up with Fairy Godmother. She'd only had five minutes before class ended.

"It's fine." Chloe assured Mal, finally pulling out of her brother's hug. "I, um, wandered in here and Anthony helped me."

Jay narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "If he helped you, why weren't you in class?"

"She seemed stressed out. We were just talking." Anthony explained, not seeming offended or nervous in the face of the intimidating Arabian.

"He was showing me the piano." Chloe added awkwardly, hoping they would leave the other boy alone. Anthony had helped her, her friends didn't need to gang up on him.

But Jay's eyes were still narrowed as he looked at the other boy.

"I know you." he said suddenly. "You're in my History of Auradon class, right?"

Anthony nodded, starting to look slightly wary. "Yes, I think so."

Jay's eyes then widened slightly in recognition. "You're Anthony Radcliffe." he blurted out.

Anthony winced slightly, but Chloe suddenly felt like it was hard to breathe.

Anthony Radcliffe.

Radcliffe.

As in Roger and Anita Radcliffe.

The people whose Dalmatians her mother tried to skin.

Chloe stumbled backward, away from the others. Her heart started pounding and she felt like she was going to throw up. Turning, she ran from the room, ignoring her friends calling after her.

She somehow made it to her dorm room, slamming the door behind her and curling up on her bed. Beelzebub wandered over from her pillow and curled up against Chloe's chest, rubbing her head soothingly against Chloe's chin, which started to help sooth her racing heart.

Of all the things she pictured when being brought to Auradon, she'd never even considered running into the people her mother had hurt. Did Anthony know who she was? Why would he help her if he did? What would he do now?

How would this effect her life in Auradon?

AN: Well, looks like Chloe's first day of school could have gone better. What did everyone think of that little twist with her meeting Anthony? Let me know what you all thought of him. He's my own character I made up for this story, and he's going to be in it quite a bit. I know there's a VK character in the books named Anthony Tremaine, but they're completely different characters, I just liked the name Anthony for this character.