Thank you to everyone who's read, reviewed, followed, and favorited my story.
FlatFox - glad you liked my scary Anita.
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"I think I'll make Carlos some of that bruise salve tonight. Evie, think you can get me into the advanced chem lab?" Mal asked as she picked at her dinner.
Evie thought about it for a few minutes before nodding. "I think we'll have to wait till Mr. Deley leaves for the night, but it should be easy enough."
The girls spent the remainder of the evening procuring the various ingredients needed for Mal's special bruise salve. After the final curfew check at midnight they cautiously crept down to the chemistry lab that held the equipment needed. An hour later Evie's phone began to buzz on the lab bench. "Its Jay." she said, her tone a mixture of worry and curiosity. She quickly answered and talked to Jay for a few minutes while Mal carefully added aloe to her beaker that was serving as her cauldron for the evening.
"Its Carlos, he's having another nightmare." Evie explained to Mal.
The purple haired girl nodded "Go, I've got this from here, I'll bring it to the boys room when I'm done." And with that, Evie ran out of the room to the boys dorm. She sprinted down the halls hoping that others were in a deep enough sleep not to hear her pounding footfalls. When she reached Jay and Carlos's room she tried to enter only to be pushed back by the invisible barrier.
"Damn it Carlos, grounded or a nightmare, not both!" She hissed in frustration as Jay came to the doorway.
"I can't wake him." He said in a scared tone as he gestured towards Carlos in the bed who was tossing and turning, his voice already hoarse from screaming.
"I'm getting Mrs. Radcliffe" Evie announced and ran off towards the teachers rooms, she skidded to a halt as she reached the hallway and carefully read the name plates on the doors. Waking one teacher would be bad enough, she had no desire to wake more than was necessary. That lasted about 30 seconds till she found Mrs. Radcliffes door and began pounding on it. The door sprung open and a bleary eyed woman with disheveled hair peered out of the room.
With a bit of a yawn the woman looked at Evie, "I do hope it's an emergency."
"Carlos…. Nightmares…" Evie gasped.
Anita nodded and pulled on her robe "Right then, let's go." and the two made their way to Jay and Carlos.
Being a teacher Anita had no issues going into the room. Jay was frantic at not being able to calm the younger boy, and Evie paced outside the doorway. She was always the one that calmed Carlos on bad nights. Always. And being unable to cuddle the younger boy in his distress was breaking her heart. Anita scooped up Carlos onto her lap and cradled him in her arms, speaking soothingly to him till he calmed down. She was a little surprised that she could do that to a 14 year old, but Carlos was rather small. It didn't take long for him to wake up and in his sleepy state didn't seem to mind being comforted.
"Jay! Jay! I've got the salve for Carlos." Mal said rather loudly from the doorway before quickly closing her mouth when she saw Mrs. Radcliffe in the room as well. Jay was about to grab the small container from Mal when Mrs. Radcliffe beat him to it.
The woman looked at the jar curiously. "Whats this then?" she asked Mal, "and why is it so urgent that you give it to Carlos at… " she glanced at the clock "2:30 in the morning?"
"I… I … uh… " Mal really had no answer.
Mrs. Radcliffe narrowed her eyes at Mal and studied her for a moment. "I'll see that he gets it, please go to bed, both of you. And Evie, thank you for coming to get me."
Evie nodded and pulled a reluctant Mal back towards their room.
"Carlos…" Anita looked at the boy sitting stiffly on the bed "why did Mal feel this salve was so urgent?"
"It's just a salve to heal bruises." the boy responded looking a little uncomfortable.
"You have a bruise bad enough to require this at 2am?" Anita asked as she studied Carlos's face. She glanced up at Jay who was finding his fingernails fascinating.
"Its no big deal."
"Oh good, then you won't mind showing me."
Carlos's looked up panic written all over his face, he glanced at Jay who merely shrugged. Anita crossed her arms and postured in that 'I'm waiting' stance; Carlos knew he wasn't going to win. Defeated he stood up, turned around and lowered his pajama bottoms several inches. It was nowhere near the full extent of the damage but Anita gasped at what she did see. "Lay down on your stomach, I'm going to put some of this salve on you." She ordered the boy. He obeyed without complaint but did bury his bright red face in his arms, Evie was the only one that ever had taken care of his bruises and other injuries before. Anita pulled the pajama bottoms down further exposing the bruises that went half way down the back of the boys thighs. The woman could tell it was badly damaged as the bruising was deep and would take many days to fully heal. "oh Carlos." Anita gasped as she took in the damage.
*crack* Anita and Carlos looked up over at Jay who guiltily gestured at the wall. Seeing how bad of shape Carlos was in Jay lost his temper and punched a hole in the wall. Anita gave him a reproachful look but didn't comment before turning back to Carlos.
"Who did this?" she demanded.
Carlos just shook his head. Anita pressed her lips together as she began to apply the salve. She knew there were only 3 teachers at Auradon Prep that ever used corporal punishment, it wouldn't be hard for her to find out who it was even if Carlos didn't say.
"Um hum… and what did you do to warrant this?"
"Nothing!"
"Carlos, there had to be some reason, justifiable or not. I suggest you tell me the truth now, because I will find out why."
Carlos pressed his lips together and looked in the other direction, his mother tricked him with that before. He knew better than to be honest to an adult if there was even the slightest hint you were in trouble. What Carlos didn't know was how differently adults in Auradon handled children. On the isle villains didn't talk to each other about who's kid did what, but in Auradon teachers and parents were often in communication, and by breakfast time Anita would have all the information she would need.
"All right, I want the two of you to get to bed." she said gently as she tucked in Carlos, "if you oversleep come see me in the morning and I'll write you passes for your classes."
/
Carlos, Jay, Mal, and Evie managed to get themselves up and to classes a few hours later, and except for Willerstein sending Carlos to the corner again (he really had no idea what he'd done wrong), the day was fairly uneventful, until they were dismissed from Remedial Goodness class. The four teenager were just looking forward to catching a quick nap but as they exited the room they found Anita standing there with her arms crossed and a very displeased expression on her face again. Mal, Evie, and Jay looked at Carlos with sympathy thinking he'd done something they didn't know about. Carlos did look a bit worried.
"Come with me. ALL of you." Anita ordered and lead them back to her office. The teens reluctantly followed the short distance to the teachers office where she turned to them abruptly, "Carlos, in. The rest of you wait out here."
Carlos visibly paled but shuffled in and sat down. Jay, Mal, and Evie looked at each other nervously before taking a seat on the floor against the wall.
Anita crossed her arms and leaned back on her desk and gave Carlos a hard look for what felt like forever to Carlos as he squirmed uncomfortably on the chair. "I spoke to Mr. Willerstein this morning." Carlos glanced up, surprised. "He told me you were hung over in his class and that's why he punished you. Is that true?" Carlos slowly nodded. "Verbal answers if you please."
"Yes, ma'am." the boy whispered.
"And is that why you skipped most of your other classes yesterday?"
"Sort of, I slept through first period, and after Willerstein was done with me I couldn't sit so I went back to my room and fell asleep. I didn't mean to sleep that long though."
Anita looked thoughtfully at the boy, she was trying not to show how mad she really was. "Where did you get the alcohol?" Carlos squirmed but didn't answer. "I see. Well I should probably inform you that if Mr. Willerstein had not already been so thorough with disciplining you Roger would be on his way over to handle it in a very similar manner."
Carlos' head shot up, his eyes flickered with fear and uncertainty, and his jaw dropped open a little. Anita gave the boy a pointed look before continuing. "Mr. Radcliffes views on discipline tend to be more old fashioned, he's fair though and won't go overboard as I believe Mr. Willerstein has done, however if the offence warrants it you will not be in a comfortable position. So I warn you now, do not give him reason to have to punish you."
The boy closed his eyes feeling defeated, that would be impossible, he was always in trouble. Anita strode over to the door and opened it asking the other teens to come in.
Once everyone was in the office and seated, except Jay who leaned up against the back wall. Anita looked at the 3 older kids. "Evie. Mr. Deley found this in his classroom this morning, I believe its yours." She held up a small make up bag that Evie almost always had with her. The blue haired girl nodded and Mrs. Radcliffe handed it back to her.
"Thank you." she said simply.
"Why was it in the advanced chemistry lab in the first place. Mr. Deley said it was not there last night when he locked up the room. This morning it was there and the room was unlocked. Would you please explain."
"I was making the bruise salve for Carlos." Evie said.
"Yes, I figured that, but that begs me wonder why you waited till after curfew to start. You and Mal were both checked on at the midnight check. Why didn't you ask to use the lab in the evening. I'm sure Mr. Deley would have been ok with it, he says you are an excellent student in his class and would no doubt have allowed you use of the lab. He may have wished to stay in the room to supervise in case of an accident but surely that wouldn't have been a problem if you were only making a simple bruise salve. Why didn't you just ask him?"
Evie looked shocked, her head was spinning, could it really have been that simple. Could she really just have asked. The idea had never even occurred to her. "I guess I didn't think to do that." she admitted.
Mrs. Radcliffe inclined her head as she thought it over these weren't kids from Auradon that trusted adults, that went against their instincts entirely. "And why didn't anyone just go to the nurse? Nurse Flora has a variety of medical balms available to students."
"Oh." was all Evie could say, she hadn't even thought off that either.
Mrs. Radcliffe pressed her lips together giving both Mal and Evie a disapproving look on how they choose to handle the situation. "I hope the two of you make better choices going forward."
"Yes, ma'am." Mal and Evie responded.
"Now there is one more area I'm concerned with at the moment. It seems that Carlos was drinking alcohol sometime sunday evening, I know he didn't get it from my house, so that leads me to wonder where he got it from, its not exactly available in the cafeteria. Unfortunately he's not been forthcoming with that information so I was hoping the three of you could shed some light on it because I don't believe he acted alone on this little indiscretion. " Carlos wanted to just disappear, Jay shifted a little uncomfortably, Evie worried her bottom lip and wouldn't make eye contact, and Mal seethed at Mrs. Radcliffes successful guilt trip on them all.
Anita watched the four teens carefully, she already had her answers by their guilty expressions, even if they were trying to hide them. She had already reviewed the video footage from the dorm hallway that evening and knew exactly who was in Carlos' room that night. But Anita would rather have them confess, she didn't want to show her hand just yet.
Finally Mal gave in, she was their leader, and it had been her idea, she wasn't going to let Carlos take all the blame, "It's my fault. I gave it to him." Mal admitted finally.
"Thank you for being honest, Mal. Were you drinking too?"
Mal nodded.
Anita pursed her lips "Jay, Evie, were you?"
"Yes." said Jay while Evie nodded.
"And was anyone else involved in this stunt?"
Silence.
"I see, well I should warn you that I do not appreciate dishonesty and I WILL find out. Are you sure you don't want to tell me?" Mrs. Radcliffe looked at the four VKs who refused to meet her eyes. Anita sighed, "ok, you'll be serving a special detention Saturday morning and I'll be letting your guardians know what happened as well."
Jay wasn't sure how Aladdin and Jasmine would react, but he didn't think they'd be jumping for joy. Evie cringed at the lecture she knew she'd be getting next time she saw Snow. And Mal somehow lost even more color, Leah and Stefan had been very generous if a little standoffish, she didn't know how they would take the news and that made her more nervous than if she did know what to expect.
"But I've already been punished!" complained Carlos.
Anita raised her eyebrow, "You're grounded for missing classes. And Mr. Willersteins punishment I'll say is from the school. This is from me, as your guardian, for partaking in underage drinking. Any other concerns?" she said cooly.
Carlos quickly changed his mind about arguing, he didn't think it was fair but he wasn't going to win this. He quickly shook his head.
"Go to your rooms and stay there, Mrs. Potts will bring you up dinner soon. " Mrs. Radcliffe dismissed the group.
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