My my my. It's almost the one year anniversary for this story. How things have changed. For you, me, and these characters. Please favorite, follow, and comment. See you next chapter.
CHAPTER 6
"Thanks for helping me with this you guys." Doug, and several others looked up at Antoinette, back in her purple dress and heels. They all stood in an empty classroom. "Ben and I really appreciate this. Without your help-"
"Ben wouldn't be as prepared for any questions that the reporters ask, especially the ones that you think of off the top of your guy's head, which helps catch him off guard." Doug smiled at her as the sentence finished from him. Antoinette laughed, and scratched her neck.
"I guess I've said that one too many times before."
"Oh, just every once in a while," said one of the girls in the back. The door opened then, revealing the future king.
"Your Majesty!"
"Over here, Ben!"
"Prince Benjamin, why'd you break up with Audrey?"
"Did you write the song? Were you already thinking of Mal?"
Several voices merged together from the students turned reporters as Ben walked towards the podium (which may or may not have been taken from the Remedial Goodness classroom). Antoinette stood patiently next to the podium, making small notes here and there about things that her fellow students asked or did. He stood quietly, looking through his notes, before looking up at the temporary reporters.
"Thank you all for coming on such a short notice. The students who have come from the Isle have been affected positively through the new Remedial Goodness class taught by Headmistress Fairy Godmother, and through sports and club activities among peers who feel comfortable being around them." Ben glanced up. A hand rose in the air.
"Yes, you in the blue tweed jacket." Ben nodded. Antoinette glanced up to see Tyron stand. The son of Tiana and Naveen stood with a notepad in hand and fake, square glasses, something which made her smile. He was a goof most days.
"Tyron with Auradon Prep News. My question is: how have your parents reacted to the change in dates? And how has your new date- Mal- reacted to your parents?" Ben glanced at Antoinette. She flipped her notebook to a large word "DEFLECT".
"Originally, my parents were apprehensive to the idea of allowing several children from the Isle come to Auradon, much like several citizens, but they have started to warm up to the plan of allowing students to study at Auradon Prep."
Antoinette wanted to slap her forehead and applaud him at the same time. Ben did good deflecting, but did a horrendous job at the same time. She wrote something in her notebook quickly. Before she could finish her sentence, Ben had already called on another would-be reporter.
"Aaron, with Auradon News Outlet," said a boy with dark brown eyes, and dark brown hair stood up. The son of Princess Adella was attractive, according to many girls in Auradon. After dating him though, Antoinette didn't see it as much.
"We were curious on who were the next several villains to come to Auradon?" Antoinette began flipping through the pages, but Ben interrupted.
"As I have stated before we are not bringing villains nor anyone with whom we believe would cause harm to Auradon." Ben stated. Antoinette glanced at him. She herself couldn't help, but admit, that was good. Really good. This might actually go okay.
"Thanks again for coming everyone. We really appreciate it. We were able to narrow down any possible questions that we did not think of," Antoinette said, turning the recorder off.
"I'll send your pay in the next day or soon."
The room quickly became empty, and even Ben had an excuse on the tip of his tongue as to where he had to be. Antoinette waved him on. She was gathering several notes together. Taking a pair of headphones, she began reviewing the information from the meeting. She didn't like how many questions were focused on Mal and Ben's budding relationship. Antoinette hoped that more of the outlets she invited would be interested in the decree.
Looking at the ground, she gnawed on her bottom lip in worry. Not even her pretty heels gave her the encouragement she needed in that moment.
"Antoinette?" Turning to the sound of her voice being called she found herself staring in deep, dark brown eyes. Pulling her earbuds out, she smiled at Jay.
"Hi, how are you doing today?" His hair had been tied back into a ponytail. He smiled.
"It's been a little rough," Jay muttered, not really looking at her. He cleared his throat. "I saw you the other day, you know. The other day you were dressed differently."
Antoinette cocked her head.
"You mean, when I was wearing my shorts and yellow shirt? I do that every once in a while. It's a bit more comfortable to walk around campus," Antoinette explained, fiddling with the earbuds. A warm breeze danced around them.
"So, why do you always dress in dresses and heels? If you're more comfortable in your shorts and shirts?" Antoinette sighed, and bit her bottom lip.
"I represent the royal family most days, and a lot of times when the media gets me in my shirts and jeans they don't really respond politely." Her mind threw her back to when she was caught in the middle of a scandal for wearing short jean shorts and a yellow bikini top, which showed off her belly button. The media never wanted to hear once how it had been an outfit for the beach, instead they had slandered her for dressing so provocatively.
"Right," Jay said, nodding as if he actually understood what she meant," so… what days are you not representing the royal family?" Antoinette looked at him curiously.
"I can show you where I go, you know when I really don't want to be seen as a member of the royal family. We would just have to be back at a reasonable time seeing as how tomorrow is the news conference, and then after that I have to go to my dress fitting for the coronation, and my Aunt Cindy, Uncle Henry, and my mother and father want to do tea with me and Chad, and then I-" she had been counting each task on each individual finger, and only stopped when Jay brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. She felt her neck heat up at the endearing touch. Antoinette cleared her throat.
"Make sure you wear something that you're not afraid of getting wet, we'll be by a lot of water," Anotinette said, with a small smile. Jay nodded in understanding.
He was looking at how her nose was just a little bit more round at the bottom, and how she had a beauty mark under her earlobe. Jay liked the way her hair was more of a bright red, better than the strawberry blonde of her cousin.
Antoinette had been staring at him in turn as well. She liked the way he had pulled his hair up today, revealing his long neck. There were little flecks of green closer to his iris in his eyes, and his teeth seemed much brighter. A scar underneath his hairline suggested a story of possible adventure, or of theft.
"Antoinette!" Jane called down the hall. Both turned away from each other to see the dark hair brunette running towards her.
"Jane, hi, what's up?" Jane gave a quick smile to Jay, something seemed maybe a little colder than usual.
"May I have a word," she said, grabbing Antoinette's upper arm and nearly dragging her away from Jay.
"I just heard from Audrey, who heard from Chad, that Evie has a magic mirror that she got from her mother and is using it to get good grades in chemistry!" Antoinette blinked. She then blinked again. Then once more. Then burst into laughter. One which caused her entire body to shake, wiping a tear from her eye she glanced up to see Jane was not laughing with her.
"That's a good joke, now can you help me with some home-"
"It's not a joke! I'm being completely serious," Jane said harshly. Antoinette blinked once more.
"Alright, I'll talk to her, and tell her that cheating is completely forbidden within Auradon Prep," Antoinette said, trying her best to smooth her friend's worries away. Jane nodded. She then leaned in and Antoinette did as well.
"I would be careful around them too, I heard from Doug that Evie was very interested in knowing anything she could about the wand." Antoinette glanced behind Jane to Jay who was now looking out the window, out to the land of Auradon. Antoinette smiled at Jane and nodded her thanks.
Walking away, she approached Jay. "I have to go, but meet me in my room at five, it's three-thirty now and I have to meet with a few people. I'll see you then?"
She looked at him from under her lashes, and Jay would never admit it, but his knees buckled just a little. He swallowed his nerves and nodded. Antoinette smiled at him.
The halls of Auradon Prep was every architecture historian's dream. The high walls which stretched farther than any modern build, the windows snuggled tightly into their holes even years later, and the floors, despite being hundreds of years old, were polished and as clean as if they were new. Rumor was that after the curse had lifted off of the Beast, and his castles were left of something like a magical touch.
Sometimes, Antoinette would notice things that seemed magical. For instance, she had lost her favorite yellow polka dot two-piece bathing suit. She hadn't seen it for several months and she wouldn't have brought it to school, because she had worn the bathing suit only one time in the summer, at the beginning of summer. Then earlier that day as she was getting ready for the mock interview she saw it, clean and dry, peeking out from underneath her bed. As if someone, or something had placed the outfit there. Of course, Antoinette told herself she had to have packed it and it had fallen out of her suitcase when she had arrived on campus.
Although, as she was about to knock on Mal and Evie's dorm room door she remembered placing the two-piece into the back of her closet in her home, back in Cindersburg. Shaking her head, she then knocked on the door in front of her.
Evie answered, her dark blue curls falling gracefully over her shoulders, the little braids had been undone after a long day. Her shirt bore a red apple with a sickly green covering being spread on it, a face of a skull had been designed on the shirt to show the silent threat. Evie smiled at her.
"Antoinette, how are you?" She began. Antoinette smiled back.
"I'm good, but I wanted to talk to you about something that came to my attention." Evie stepped aside to allow Antoinette to enter the room. Looking around, Antoinette wanted to say that she was surprised by how normal the room looked, as if she had been expecting a potion cauldron in the middle of the room. However, a small part of her swelled with happiness and pride for she knew that this idea was simply ridiculous, after all, you never brew where you sleep.
"I received an anonymous tip that you were using a magical mirror to cheat on your school work," Antoinette said, once the door closed. She refused to hear the question mark at the end of her sentence. Evie raised an eyebrow at her.
"And what do you think about this anonymous tip?" Evie asked. Antoinette bit her lip.
"Honestly, it sounds a little far fetched," she began to look at a drawing book on a desk. Antoinette raised an eyebrow at the different sketches, including one of the wand. She continued, "I just feel that if you really had a magic mirror that you could be doing something more with it other than cheating on your school work. Besides, there are better ways of getting your homework done."
"Yeah, Chad's been letting me do his for the past few weeks, it's really helped me out in class, and freed up his time," Evie said, looking off in the distance. Antoinette's eyes widened, and then narrowed. She put a hand to her left temple, where she could feel a headache coming on. A rather powerful one.
"Evie, could you show me what you mean?" Antoinette asked, hoping that she misunderstood somehow. Evie smiled at her, before diving into her school bag and taking out some papers. Antoinette took them from her, and looked them over. At the top of the page was Chad's name, and below it was the answers to the homework written in pencil.
"I write in pencil so that way Chad can erase it easier and then rewrite it," Evie commented, carefully looking at the redhead. Antoinette glanced at her before clutching the papers in her hand as her hands fell to her sides. Antoinette cleared her throat.
"Right, well, just to reiterate, magic mirrors and copying are not allowed, this is a warning." She took a sigh and made her way to the door. Once her hand reached the doorknob, Evie spoke up.
"What about Chad's homework?" Antoinette turned around to see Evie looking pointedly at the papers. Antoinette smiled at her.
"Oh, don't worry. I'll give them to him. I'm going to go see him really soon," she explained to Evie. Then she left.
On one side, Evie smiled, as if she had already got the wand in her hand. If she had learned anything on the Isle, the easiest way to tear down a gang is by pitting them against one another; it would seem it worked for cousins too. She glanced down at the ground for a moment. There weren't too many families on the Isle that were still a unit.
On the other side of the door Antoinette was staring at the papers. Anger gripped her heart, she had thought Chad was done with these stupid schemes. Antoinette could feel a stronger headache coming into place, and her heart was already speeding up.
"Idiot." Antoinette left with those final words.
Chad Charming was considered by many to be handsome, and with his grades slowly rising he was soon going to be known as one of the smartest. He was currently sitting with some of his fellow tourney members at a picnic table out on the lawn. Audrey was sitting by him, playing with his fingers. He looked over at her, before kissing her on the top of the head. She didn't look at him, but she smiled as she talked to her fellow cheerleaders. He leaned his head on her as he listened to Taylor talk about Hercules vs. the Beast.
"Chad. A word." Many turned to see Antoinette walking up to them. Her face was red, and pinched, as if something had angered her to no end. He looked at his friends with confusion, and many looked back at him in the same confusion.
Antoinette and Chad stopped at a spot far enough from the table where no one would be able to hear their conversation. Antoinette turned to her cousin and searched his face.
"Three years ago, you convinced Doug and a number of other students to do your school work for you." She paused to take a deep breath to calm herself. Chad waited patiently, slightly nervous. Antoinette held the papers out in front of her, papers which were obviously homework from chemistry. "I'm going to ask this as kindly as possible. Are you or did you convince Evie to do the same for you?"
Chad sighed.
"Oh my God. You did, didn't you?" Antoinette exclaimed. Her hands fell to her side and she looked at him stunned.
"I can explain. I didn't have enough time in between my other classes and tourney and-"
"I can't believe you. You told your mother you wouldn't do this ever again!" Antoinette took out her phone from her purse.
"Ant, what are you doing?" He was panicking. If she contacted his mother, then he would be grounded for at least a month.
"What do you think, smarty pants? I'm calling your mother," she explained, as she started to go through her contacts. Next thing she knew though was that her phone was gone. Looking up, she saw her cousin holding it.
"You can't tell Mom," his voice came out in a panicked tone, and she simply stared at him. Couldn't tell his mother? Who did he think he was?
"Give me back my phone, Chad. This is annoying me greatly." Antoinette folded her arms across her chest. Chad's face turned red.
"What proof do you have?" Antoinette raised an eyebrow in defiance. She had her proof, his guilt was enough.
"What if I'm able to get an 'A' on the next test?" Antoinette looked at him, keeping her eye on him at all times. Trying to see any lie, or any fib, but there was none.
"You better get an 'A', nothing lower than a 100%. If you don't I go straight to your mother, and she can decide your punishment." Antoinette swiped her phone when his guard was down and walked away from him. Furious. How could he do something so idiotic?
Chad was pleased with his quick thinking. However, he needed to do quick thinking of how to get rid of that mirror. If he couldn't use it, why should the cheater Evie get to?
