Hi and thanks for reading. If you read my story please leave me a review or PM.
Trigger warnings: mild child abuse
The next morning came with bright blue skies and birds chirping which of course resulted in Mal being perfectly miserable. Evie had been up for at least an hour getting ready while the rest of Auradon was just thankful that Mal took 2 minutes to brush her teeth. She was still full from dinner last night, some dish called "spaghetti" that all the children devoured. "Come on, Evie, hurry up." She tapped her foot impatiently.
"I'm ready. Let's go." The girls found the boys already in the cafeteria stuffing their faces. Carlos was drinking some brown liquid.
"What is that?" Mal asked making a face.
"They called it coffee, but it's not like on the isle. It's bitter, but not too bad if you add a lot of cream and sugar."
"You mean you added coffee to your cream and sugar." Jay teased, "Seriously you need to cool it with that or you'll just be a spazz and then crash." Carlos rolled his eyes and got more. He probably should have listened to Jay though.
Mal, Evie, and Jay walked into history class and took their normal seats to wait for Mr. Willerstein. The first thing he did as he walked into the class room was to glare at the three young villains. "Let's split up the dream team shall we. Jay take that seat up there, Evie, move over two rows." He ordered, Evie sighed and gathered up her belongings to switch seats with the girl he had indicated. Jay did the same, and Mal scowled at the man and his self-satisfied smirk. "Now then, let's begin." He drawled on about Princess Auroras living conditions growing up and how *gasp* horrible they were. Mal thought they sounded fairly luxurious. After all Aurora or Briar Rose as she was called then, didn't have to fight anyone for moldy food, or drink coffee made from dirt, she had a safe place to sleep for 16 years, and never once had to fear being beaten or being kicked out of the house at night where who knows what would happen. She didn't have to steal her dinner or turn tricks to get shoes that fit. Mal could feel her eyes glowing green as Mr. Willerstein continued to lecture and all the Auradon Kids made pathetic gasps of surprise in all the right places. Evie could see the conflict in Mal from where she sat, she wished she was right there next to her to grab her hand or help calm her down. When class was finally over Mal was out the door before the bell even finished ringing. The other two ran after her.
Carlos bounced he leg impatiently; four cups of coffee had been a really bad idea. When the bell finally rang and he gathered up his stuff Miss Daisy stopped him "How much of the reading did you get through yet?" She wanted to know. Carlos bit his lip and looked down, he had forgotten all about it. "None yet." He mumbled back sneaking a quick glance up, the disappointed look on her face made him flinch back slightly.
"Please work on catching up as quickly as possible. We have a test on this next week." Carlos nodded and hurried to make a pit stop before history. The halls were crowded and it was hard to move around, Carlos was glad to finally make it to the bathroom. He then heard some familiar voices; it was the older boys from yesterday. There was no way on earth Carlos was going to walk out of the stall now; he'd have to wait them out. He heard the bell and groaned, what was taking them so long. A few more minutes passed and the boys left and Carlos quickly rushed out to get to class.
He tried to walk in discretely and take his seat while Mr. Willerstein was writing on the board. "You're late, Mr. de Vil." Mr. Willerstein said without even turning around. Carlos sat down and looked at the board, Mr. Willerstein was writing an assignment down. Carlos quickly copied it down. "Class this is due end of next week. 5 pages about the government of Cinderellaberg… "Mr. Willerstein rattled on about specifics. When the teacher wasn't looking Carlos motioned to Jane next to him to get her attention, she looked over and he mouthed "Can you help me with this?" And was relieved when she smiled and nodded eagerly.
"Mr. de Vil," Carlos flinched and looked up, "Is there something you wanted to share with the whole class?" Carlos simply shook his head, no. Mr. Willerstein narrowed his eyes at the boy and gestured for him to come up front. Carlos swallowed, quickly glanced at Jane who looked as if she wanted to say something but didn't know what, and walked up front to where the man had pointed. "Turn around." And so Carlos did, for the first time seeing the whole class staring back at him, some had looks of pity or sympathy, others boredom, and a few snide smirks as if they were enjoying the show. Carlos felt apprehensive not knowing what would happen next. "Since you feel the need to disrupt my class twice now, kneel down, on both knees." Carlos looked up at the teacher confused. "I said kneel," Carlos carefully dropped down to his knees and rocked back to sit on his heels which was instinctively more comfortable. "No, don't sit back, stay upright. Hands behind your head." Carlos followed the instructions wondering what the heck this was all about. "Good, stay like that for the rest of the period." Mr. Willerstein said and went back to lecturing.
Carlos felt incredibly awkward kneeling down in front of the class like that feeling the looks of other students bore into him, which he immediately realized was the whole point. It only took a few minutes for his knees to hurt on the hard floor, it would have been bad enough with pants on, but he was wearing shorts which made it all the more painful. The remaining 50 minutes of class was agony. He tried to keep his eyes on the floor so he wouldn't see the looks of the other students. If he did glance up he usually caught Jane's eyes, she looked sad, and angry. Carlos flushed and looked back down, and tried to focus on the lecture to keep his mind off of his knees and the looks as the seconds ticked by. When the bell finally rang Carlos tried to get up, he found moving was a lot more difficult than he thought it would be now that he was allowed up. His knees were bright red and ached, his back was stiff and sore and his right arm had gone partially numb from being up behind his head. He winced slightly as he moved to get his things. Mr. Willerstein had a smug look on his face, as if he enjoyed it. The bastard thought Carlos as he left for his next class.
Evie didn't know what was taking Carlos so long to get to class, the bell was going to ring any moment now and then he'd be late. She checked her makeup, a nervous habit she'd picked up over the years. "Mirror, where is Carlos" she whispered, and it showed the boy just down the hall, walking much slower than normal but she couldn't see anything wrong in the tiny mirror so she put it away. She was relieved when he managed to slide into his seat next to her just as the bell rang. This getting to class on time thing really was annoying, she thought. She half-heartedly listened to Mrs. Cartesian about some sort of coordinate system while she sketched out a dress. Mrs. Radcliffe, her fashion and sewing teacher, had given her a special notebook for her designs and swatches of fabric, and that was far more interesting.
"Evie." The girl glanced up in surprise, maybe she wasn't listening that well after all. "Put it away." The girl nodded and shoved the notebook back into her bag. On the isle the teachers never cared what she worked on, they didn't care if she showed up on time. Actually, they usually preferred it when students didn't show up at all. A teacher had never taken her aside to show her where things were in the classroom like Mrs. Radcliffe had done yesterday. Well there really had never been a need to. There were only a handful of books for each class, most were missing pages. Paper and pencils were hard to come by. The younger children had small slates that could be used over and over, but once you hit the upper grades the only reason anyone still went to school was to get away from their parents. And Evie felt even more lost than the others since her mother castle schooled her until just last year.
Evie ate quickly and pulled out her notebook at lunch. She had the most amazing idea for a dress. Mal, Jay, and Carlos just ignored her; there was no point in trying to talk to her when she was coming up with a concept design. When the bell finally rang Evie couldn't tell if she was excited to be going to her fashion/sewing class or disappointed because she hadn't finished sketching out her creation. She was the first in class and picked her seat, not too close to the front, but not in the back either. This and advanced chemistry were the only classes where she got to pick where she sat rather than follow Mal to the back of the room. She pulled out her notebook and continued to sketch till the room filled up. A girl with a light pink dress and brown hair glanced over her shoulder; she pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes. Evie saw the look briefly before the girl put on a super fake smile and tossed her hair,
"Hi, I'm Princess Audrey. You're Evie right?" If Mal were there she probably would have punched the girl in the nose.
"Hi Audrey, yes, I'm Evie." The blue haired girl didn't really know what to think of the posh pink princess in front of her. The girl sat down and started babbling about classes and "Benny-Boo" which Evie guessed was Prince Ben, and dresses, and her big castle, and blah blah blah blah blah. Even Evie who normally loved that stuff was overwhelmed by the girls chatter.
"Audrey, that's enough, class is starting." Mrs. Radcliffe came in and began showing slides of various designs then assigned them a project of designing, budgeting, and making a gown for the upcoming coronation. Evie was ecstatic. She wasn't sure about the budgeting part but Mrs. Radcliffe said she would be there to advise them and they could always visit during office hours after dinner. Audrey wrinkled her nose at the idea of wearing a "self-made" gown.
Jay headed into the library where his "Reading Comp" class was. He really wasn't sure what kind of class it was or why it was in the library. The librarian directed him to a corner with several tables and a few other students sitting there.
"Hi Jay, so glad you could join us." Said a plump older woman "I'm Ms. Merryweather, welcome to Reading comprehension."
"Reading comprehension? What's wrong with how I read?" Anger and embarrassment flashed in Jays face.
"Oh nothing, it just that you seemed to need a little help with understanding what you're reading."
"I don't need this, I can read" Jay turned sharply and walked out of the library.
One of the girls at the table said "Let me try talking to him." And Merryweather nodded.
"Jay, hey Jay, wait up." She called as she ran after him. The Librarian gave her a nasty look as she ran by and pointed to the sign "Quiet Please – No Running"
Jay turned at his name ready to deck who ever came after him. He was about to swing but stopped himself when he saw it was Lonnie. He looked at her confused.
"Jay, its nothing to be embarrassed about. Lots of us need help in one subject or other."
"I know how to read" he said through clenched teeth.
"I know, but this just teaches you how to break down what you're reading so that you understand it better. I need help understanding too."
Jay was shocked, "really?"
Lonnie nodded, "Yeah, when I first came to Auradon I could barely speak English, let alone read it, now I still struggle to understand what I'm reading sometimes, but the class really helps. Come on, give it a try, I promise it's not so bad."
Jay rubbed the back of his neck a little and thought about it. Reluctantly he nodded and followed Lonnie back to class and took the seat next to her.
Mr. Boyle decided todays science classes would all be lectures; he simply could not deal with any issues resulting in either one student panicking or the entire class being evacuated, again. Carlos was thrilled to just sit and take notes, well as thrilled as you could be taking notes in science class. Jane slid a small piece of paper towards him.
-Want to work on that report after 6th period?
Carlos nodded and slid the paper back to her.
-Where?
-Library.
The boy looked at her confused; he had no idea where that was. Jane seemed to understand what he was thinking though.
-I'll come get you after 6th period. You have class with my mom then right?
Carlos nodded. FG was Jane's MOM?! That was so weird.
Mr. Boyle cleared his throat enough to get the children's attention; he raised his eyebrow at them, and continued with his lecture. Carlos glanced over at Jane before continuing to take notes.