Yes, I'm also working on Ready For The Future at the same time I'm writing this. And another fanfic idea. And Miraculous. And a personal project.

Don't judge me.

If you head on over to my Wattpad account-same username-you'll see the sketch I made of my second OC in this fic, Kaitlyn Wiles. She'll be important.

I hope I wrote Jeremy's dad okay. This'll probably be his only appearance aside from phone calls.

Last thing, I swear I didn't intend to make this a slight Dragon Prince crossover. I had always meant to use characters from other musicals as the other competitors, but well, season three happened. I had to, guys. I fell down the hole. This won't be classified as an official crossover, but yeah, you'll see these guys a tad more than the other competitors.

Anyway, as always, please enjoy and review!

I walked into the kitchen, still sluggish after just waking up. It was 6:30 am, and officially the earliest I had ever woken up, the record previously being 7:30 am for school. But it was a twelve hour drive to the competition, and Michael felt more comfortable behind the wheel when it was light out.

Dad was sitting at the table, a mug of coffee in one hand, bathrobe partially open. He didn't leave for work for another hour, so we had some time together, a rare happenstance in the morning. "Mornin' son."

"Mm." I opened the fridge, looking for a yogurt. "Michael's coming by in 'bout half an hour to pick me up for the competition. I'm already packed."

"Good, that's good." Dad watched me gently kick the fridge shut as I turned around to get a spoon. "You know to call me once you arrive on Hilton Head, right?"

"Yeah, uh-huh." I took a seat at the table and dug into the vanilla yogurt I had found. "I'll call once we enter the town. Michael'l probably call his moms when we find our hotel and meet up with the girls."

"Good," Dad said again, repeating himself. "Okay, then."

We sat in silence for a bit, the only sound being the dull thunk of the spoon against the plastic yogurt cup. I was almost finished when Dad spoke up again. "You understand that even though Christine is rooming with you, you're not allowed to go to…certain lengths, with her?"

I nearly choked, yogurt spraying. "Ugk, agk—Dad, no! Christine and I broke up, remember?"

"Oh, that's right," Dad mused. "My mistake."

My face burned, and I pushed my yogurt away, my appetite gone. "Besides, Michael and Kaitlyn are rooming with us. Even if we hadn't broken up, do you really think I would've tried something with them there?"

"All right, all right, I get it." Dad stood up, making his way over to the sink to rinse his finished mug. "Sorry."

"It's fine," I mumbled, getting up as well. I threw my yogurt cup in the trash and joined Dad at the sink to dump my spoon. "I'm going to go get dressed. I'll let you know when I'm leaving."

"'Kay."

The thought hit me when I shut the door to my room. Why was I so angry? If anyone had insinuated…that…happening between Christine and I before we broke up, I probably would've flushed nine shades of red on the spot and stumbled my way through basic sentences while grinning nervously. But down there, I felt almost…not disgusted, no, but offended.

Why in the hell would I be offended at the thought of having sex with Christine? I rubbed my face as I sat down on my bed, mind whirling like a tornado. It's not like Dad had mentioned me doing it with Kaitlyn, or Michael—

The second Michael popped into my head, the butterflies that had lain dormant since last night took flight again. I felt my face heating up again, but in a more pleasant way, warm and bringing about a feeling of giddiness.

I shook my head, standing up and heading over to my closet. I needed to stop thinking like this. I mean, it's Michael, for God's sake! If I don't like Christine in that way anymore, I can accept that, but Michael is my best friend. That's all he is.

"You know what?" I said aloud to myself. "I'm overreacting. Christine freaked me out with that talk about me having a mutual crush on someone else, and I'm projecting onto Michael." I nodded, satisfied with my own logic. "Yeah, that's all it is."

Silence overtook the room again as I got dressed. After taking a quick pit stop in the bathroom to make sure my face had returned to normal, I grabbed my suitcase from my bedside and headed downstairs again.

I was sitting on the living room couch scrolling through Tumblr on my phone when Michael texted that he was outside. "Dad, I'm leaving!" I yelled, sticking my phone in my pocket and scrambling for the handle of my suitcase.

"Wait wait wait!" Dad hopped out of his room, tugging his pants up. "Hold on…a sec…" He finally settled, hands on his hips as he looked at me. "I'm proud of you, you know."

I smiled. "Yeah, I know." A faint car horn sounded. I chuckled. "I gotta go, Michael's getting impatient."

Dad nodded, grinning. "Good luck."

I returned the nod, walking over to the front door. I opened it and stepped out. "Thanks. Call you later. Bye, Dad."

I shut the door and took a deep breath, holding it for a moment. Remember. You were overreacting. You're fine. Letting out the air in one quick blow, I ran down the front path to the PT Cruiser. Michael was leaning against his car, glasses glinting in the weak morning sunlight. When he caught sight of me, though, nothing disguised the way his face split into a bright grin, eyes sparkling as he pushed himself off the car to meet me halfway. I felt my neck warming again at the mere sight and sighed internally. This is gonna be a regular thing until I calm down, isn't it?

"Dude, I'm so psyched!" Michael exclaimed when he reached me. He reached down and grabbed my suitcase. "Here, I'll put this in the back with my stuff."

"Thanks. I think I'm still half-asleep," I joked, walking beside him. "So, what's the plan? You drive the first half and I'll take over the rest of the way?"

"Sounds good!" Michael cracked open the trunk and heaved my suitcase in on top of his. "Bobby called me a few minutes ago before I pulled up, by the way. He and the girls are already on the highway, so they should be there when we arrive."

"Cool." Michael shut the trunk with a slam and we both headed around to the front of the car. Jumping into the passenger seat, I fastened my seatbelt with a quiet click. "So do you know anything about Hilton Head?"

Michael fastened his own seatbelt and started the car. "Other than it's an island in South Carolina and the AotD tournament is happening in it's high school? No."

"Good, 'cause I don't know anything either." We laughed as Michael turned out of my neighborhood and onto the road. "I know there's palm trees, but not much else."

"Let's look it up, figure out the place," Michael said. He gestured to my pants pocket with his free hand. "C'mon, get that phone out, let's get some knowledge!" He ended with a weird vocal guitar twang.

"Oh my God," I groaned, half-laughing even as I dug my phone out and powered it on. "Why, Michael? Why must you subject me to this cringiness?"

"Easy, 'cause you're my…" Michael leaned over to me as much as he could without losing sight of the road. "Favwite pewson!"

I felt my heart nearly jump out of my chest. Seriously, it was pumping along like normal, then Michael had to look all cute and call me his favwite pewson—not his favorite person, his favwite pewson—and then B-BUMP B-BUMP B-BUMP, my heart goes off like a racer at the sound of the starting shot.

Wait. Did I just call Michael cute?

I snorted, feeling the heat creep up my neck, as it seemed to do much too often lately. "Shut up," I say awkwardly, placing a hand in Michael's hair and shoving him back toward his own seat. Michael took no offense, merely chuckling as he took a right. Damn you, Christine, you're making me way too paranoid.

Opening Safari on my phone, I type in 'facts about hilton head island'. "All right, let's see what we can find."

"Whoa, Hilton Head has over 250 restaurants!" I exclaimed. Michael and I had been on the road for over five hours. We had been switching on and off from road trip games to researching Hilton Head. It turns out that the little barrier island is actually pretty cool. Michael and I had already made a pact to try and walk the nature trail on the neighboring Pinckney Island on one of our free days. And now… "At least we know we'll never go hungry."

"Sweet." Michael checked his GPS. "Hey, Jer, the rest stop is coming up. Get ready to trade."

"Yeah, man, no problem." I shut off my phone and slipped it into the cupholder. "Where exactly are we, anyway?"

Michael grinned at me as he took an exit. "Welcome to Williamsburg, Virginia!"

"Oh, is this the colonial place?"

"Yup!" Michael sighed wistfully. "I wish we could check out the town and stay the night. Apparently they do ghost tours, which sounds pretty fucking cool."

"Yeah, it does," I replied. "Maybe we do that on our way back?"

"Oh hell yes, please."

After a few minutes, Michael found the rest stop; a small, one-story brick building, probably filled with tour guides and pamphlets about the wonders of Williamsburg. Oak trees surrounded the area and gave it a cozy, warm feeling, though it was cold, being January. We parked and got out. I relished the feeling of being able to move my legs fully, and took full benefit of stretching my stiff limbs.

"I'mma head to the restroom!" Michael called, walking backwards toward the building. "You mind grabbing snacks out of my bag in the back?"

I gave a thumbs up as I walked around the car. Michael returned it, turned and headed in. Rubbing my face, I sighed. Despite having been wide-awake for a good while, moving around made me feel sluggish, like every bit of energy I had saved up was going into movement.

Popping the trunk, I dug through Michael's bag and got ahold of the soda and chips. I smiled as I saw what he had packed. Lays barbecue. YES.

I closed the boot, turned to head to the driver's side of the car and almost jumped out of my skin. A large dog was sitting calmly behind me, tail wagging ever so slightly. A smooth white coat, with bright blue eyes, it looked to be a husky mixed with…something else, I don't really know that many dog breeds.

The dog and I stared at each other. "Um," I said quietly, feeling awkward. "Hey there?" The dog cocked its head to the side, tongue lolling, panting. "Hey. Do you...do you have an owner?"

The dog didn't answer. Of course. I bent down slowly, but the dog didn't scare. It seemed remarkably calm, watching me curiously. I caught sight of a tag beneath the fur, catching the sunlight. Zym. "Zym?" I said cautiously. The dog instantly stood up, tail wagging faster. I stood up too, startled by the sudden movement. "Okay, so you do have a name."

"What's up?" I whirled around as Michael snuck up behind me. Zym barked. Michael stared at my new friend. "Where the fuck did you come from?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out," I said, getting on my knees again. This time, Zym came right up to me and flopped on my lap. "Hey, bud, where's your owner?" Zym whined and rolled onto his back. I chuckled as I began to scratch his belly. "You have no shame, do you?"

"Zym!" Michael and I looked up as a kid ran toward us. He wore a bright red hoodie with decals that looked almost golden, and brown jeans. His dark brown hair curled up into a cloud atop his head, and freckles dotted his dark face. He looked like he couldn't be older than nine or ten.

Zym barked and bounded over to the kid, winding around his legs and almost knocking him over. Despite trying to scold his pet, the kid was half-laughing at the display. "Zym, you can't run away like that!"

BARK!

"We have treats in the car, you don't have to bother these nice people!" The kid finally glanced over at us. "I'm sorry for Zym. He bolted once the car door opened and we've been looking for him since."

"It's okay," I said, smiling. "He's a sweet dog. Very polite."

"I just got here, but yeah, he seems nice," Michael said. "Very cute."

"Really?" The kid looked skeptical. He looked down at Zym. "You didn't try to get their snacks? You behaved yourself?"

Zym thumped his rear onto the concrete and gazed at the kid with pleading eyes. The kid sighed good-naturedly as he rubbed Zym's head affectionately. "Fine, I believe you. Can't really stay mad at you, anyway." He turned behind him and yelled out to the vicinity. "Callum! Rayla! I got Zym!" He turned back to us and held out his hand. "I'm Ezran, by the way."

I shook his hand, hiding a grin. "Jeremy."

Michael introduced himself just as two older kids caught up to us. The boy—presumably Callum—had a denim jacket over a red-brown shirt, a red scarf beaming like a beacon. A satchel thumped at his side, and he had the sort of face that made you sure it held a kind smile often. The girl—Rayla, did Ezran say?—had shock-white hair and a gray tank-top under a green and black unzipped sweatshirt over army pants and combat boots. She looked like the kind of girl who could flip me face-first onto the ground in two seconds flat without any effort.

"Thank God," Callum said, scratching Zym behind the ears. "Thanks for finding him," he said to Michael and I.

"Well, it was more like he found me," I replied. "I was getting snacks, then boom, this guy was stalking me."

Callum laughed. "He probably just smelled your food and got ideas. He didn't lie down on you, did he?"

"Hey, yeah, he did!" I pointed an accusatory finger at Zym. "You were trying to get at the snacks!"

Zym barked and ran off, jumping into a sky-blue Honda Accord across the parking lot. Ezran shook his head, giggling. "Shameless."

"That's what I said!"

"Alright, so we got Zym," Rayla said. She had a sort of Scottish accent, a pleasing lilt to her voice. "We've got at least six more hours until Hilton Head, so…" She jerked her head towards the car. "Shall we?"

"Wait, you're going to Hilton Head Island?" Michael asked.

"Yeah!" Ezran said. "Callum and Rayla are in a video game tournament and Zym, Bait and I are their support squad!"

Michael put an arm around my shoulders, smiling. "Well, it's always nice to meet competition. That's where we're going, too." I willed my face to stay cool and awkwardly crossed my arms. Michael glanced between the friends. "Hope you guys aren't afraid of losing."

"Losin'?" Rayla blew a raspberry at us. "Fat chance! I don't lose."

"I should know, I've lost to her many times," Callum jumped in. He glanced at Rayla, smiling shiftily. "Although there was that one time…"

"Oh, bug off," Rayla muttered, shoving him.

Callum laughed, bouncing back to her and catching her in a hug. "You know you love me," he teased.

Ezran threw up his hands. "Nope! I'm out!" He waved at us. "See you guys in Hilton Head!" Much like Zym, he took off and leapt into the car.

Rayla laughed, squeezing Callum briefly before letting him go. "Messing with him is way too fun. Well, we got to get goin' anyway. Michael, Jeremy." She tipped an imaginary hat at us. "Pleasure meetin' you, and good luck to you."

"Right back at ya," Michael said, giving an over-the-top bow. Rayla rolled her eyes, smiling as she turned and went for the car.

"See you guys on island!" Callum said, walking backwards. I saluted mockingly and he grinned before catching up with his apparent girlfriend.

Michael and I got back into our own car, this time with me in the driver's seat. I pulled out of the parking space and we waved one last time to our competition before leaving the rest stop. Silence reigned over the car, save for the occasional crunch of chips.

We were on the road for a few minutes before Michael spoke up. "So, we can take them, right?"

"Oh, totally."