Anna022406 - He sure is! But like so many has gotten away with it for years.

EroSlackerMicha - or maybe the author didn't know what to do about Mal either. hahaha thanks for your review.

preciouslittletoonette- I know, how could anyone do that to our Bennyboo

bookreader282- wow, thank you so much for all your kind reviews. I'm thrilled that you've enjoyed my story so far.

As always thank you to everyone that has favored, followed, or reviewed. It really gives one motivation to write when you learn others are enjoying your stories.

I hope you all like this next chapter, and please leave me a review or PM.

Saturday morning found Carlos head first in a gigantic pot that he had to half crawl in to scrub the bottom of. He and Mal were the only ones small enough to get in to the bottom and she wasn't about to do it. Dude barked loudly into the pot and the echoes amplified the bark; Carlos hurried out covering his ears "Shhhh, not so loud." he scolded the dog. "Mal, aren't you going to help us?" he asked when he noticed the purple haired girl pretending to sweep the floor.

"I'm supervising."

Carlos rolled his eyes and climbed back into the pot.

Jay threw down his rag that he had been using to clean the stove and went over to Mal, "come on, this will get done a lot faster if you actually helped us." he crossed his arms and looked down at her with a look that said he wasn't happy she wasn't helping.

Mal threw up her hands " Ok, fine. Evie what do you need me to do?"

Evie looked over from the stack of dishes she was washing. Evie was amazing at organizing and figuring out who was good at what task. She looked around and pointed to the far corner where a pantry was that was in complete shambles. Mal mock saluted and started to organize the area.

"We need some music" Mal whined about 2 minutes later and the others just shook their heads. Music would certainly be more fun, but they all knew they wouldn't get the work done if they were dancing to whatever was on the radio all day. Fairy Godmother and Mrs. Radcliffe had brought the 4 teens down to the Auradon Prep Kitchens at the ungodly hour of 5am and told them to make it spotless. When they thought they were almost done around 9, the used breakfast dishes and cooking pans magically appeared along with Fairy Godmother. She gave them a disappointed look as she looked around the mess, "I thought it was clear that this needs to be cleaned up before you can leave?"

Four jaws dropped at that because it HAD been nearly done.

"But Fairy Godmother, this JUST showed up." Mal protested.

Godmother nodded knowingly "yes that does happen after meals, well best hurry, lunch dishes will arrive around 1."

And with that she turned to go and the four exhausted teens just stood there for several minutes. They weren't exactly ready to cry, but if they had been a few years younger they surely would have. It was good Carlos and Evie were there because if it were only up to Mal and Jay nothing would have been done, both Carlos and Evie had grown up with chores being routine and for Carlos he probably wouldn't have flinched at the idea of having to do the whole kitchen alone. Evie had to show Mal how to wash dishes and Carlos instructed Jay on how to properly clean the ovens.

Shortly before lunch the 4 managed to get the kitchens cleaned up to standards to be released back to their rooms for the remainder of the day. No one complained at that, they were far too hungry and tired to want anything but food, showers, and their beds.

/

Later that afternoon:

"Fairy Godmother, I simply do not know what to do about the girl." Queen Leah said in frustration. She had never really raised Aurora, and only had Audrey for school holidays, and she never had to punish the girl, her parents did that. In short Queen Leah had no idea how to be a parent.

FG nodded, "well I think the trick is to find the child's currency, figure out what matters to them. For example Jay loves playing tourney, so Aladdin and Jasmine took that privilege away from him for a couple weeks."

Leah sighed, "she has no currency. She's not involved in anything we could take away from her, she's not interested in acquiring stuff or spending time with anyone, and I seriously doubt that grounding her would do much good."

Leah's first instincts were to just completely ignore who ever wronged her, but Stefan kept insisting that they had to confront the issue at some point, and the sooner the better. When FG called and expressed her concern that out of all the children involved in the party and drinking, Mal had been the only one not even contacted it spurred Leah into coming in for a meeting.

"Where is she?"

"In her room."

Leah nodded and went to go find Mal. She still hadn't figured out an appropriate punishment, but a long winded lecture was her speciality.

Several hours later an even more exhausted Mal went back to her room.

"Well? What happened?" Evie said as she looked up from a dress she was working on.

"She didn't shut up. For what must have been at least two hours. I thought my mother could lecture, but I was so wrong. I'm also supposed to research and write an essay about why it's a bad idea for teenagers to drink." " Mal chucked for a moment "I think Carlos got the easiest punishment, his was over in less than 15 minutes." she stated as she threw herself onto her bed.

Evie looked at the other girl in shock, "Mal, he couldn't sit for 2 days, I hardly think that's getting off easy."

"No, I suppose not." Mal agreed after remembering just how bad the after effects were and decided to stop complaining about her lecture and essay.

/

"Ahem. Children…" Fairy Godmother tapped her pointer on the podium at the front of the room trying to get her small classes attention after several failed attempts she finally raised her voice "CHILDREN."

The four VKs were so shocked to hear Fairy Godmother above their chattering that they instantly stopped what they were doing and looked up in a mix of surprise and apprehension, Carlos dropped the chair he was leaning back in back to its proper position, Evie sat up straight, Mal at least glanced up before returning to her drawing, and Jay let go of Carlos' shirt (he had been a second away from yanking the smaller boy onto the desk).

Fairy Godmother sighed, after 10 weeks she had hoped their behavior in her class would have improved more than it had but for the most part the other teachers seemed satisfied with their improvement over the weeks.

"Thank you, please pay attention I really don't appreciate having to raise my voice," FG gently scolded "first, thank you all for the excellent job you did cleaning the kitchen on Saturday." The four teens grimaced, they were still a bit sore from the hours of scrubbing and cleaning they had done.

"Second, as you may not be aware last friday was the end of the first marking period. So I have your quarterly report cards for you to see. Copies have also been sent to your guardians here in Auradon as well as your parents on the Isle." Fairy Godmother explained as she handed envelopes to each of the teens. Report cards weren't exactly a foreign concept to them but everything about Auradon Prep and Dragon Hall was completely different. On the isle their parents might glance at it, criticize something about it and then send them on their way, if they were lucky with only a cuff to the ear. None of the teens thought their parents would care one bit about how they were doing in Auradon, and in fact were a little apprehensive of their parents reactions to positive comments on their report cards. If they ever saw their parents again that is, they were after all supposed to be evil and "plays well with others" and "follows directions" weren't exactly things their parents would be proud of.

Then there was the whole 'how will my new guardian react'. They'd had their new guardians in Auradon for exactly 3 weeks now and there was a lot they still didn't know about what to expect, none of them had ever even had a discussion about grades they had been to busy getting to know each other and finding out that having a party after curfew with alcohol was something they'd at least think twice about before trying again.

Evie opened up her envelope and eagerly looked at the grades. Straight A's in every class, all the comments said that she was a good student, and how happy they were to have her in class. The blue haired princess couldn't help but smile to herself. She was smart; she was more than what her mother told her she could be, she had also worked hard on her homework and studied and was quite pleased that she did so well.

The fae opened her envelope and read it to herself, except for art which she had an A in all her other classes were solid B's. Most comments said something like "not working to full potential" and "is often distracted in class" probably in reference to her drawing while she listened to lectures. Mal rolled her eyes Leah would probably lecture her about how a proper young lady needs perfect grades or some other such nonsense.

Jay sighed as he opened his up, he really struggled with school, the reading comprehension class was helping, but he still felt behind and lost most of the time. His report card mirrored his own feelings with C's for all but PE and goodness class and comments like "Good effort". Back home his father probably would have had it just tossed back at him and told to go find something for the shop. He kind of felt like Aladdin would be ok with the grades, they were good enough to stay on the Tourney team but Aziz had made comments about Jasmine being a stickler when it came to school. By the end of the week Jay would learn how true that was when Jasmine insisted he have a tutor, he had tried arguing against it but shut up quickly when she said he could kiss the Tourney team goodbye permanently if he kept it up.

Carlos just stared at the envelope sitting in front of him for a while, he had no idea what to expect and felt a little nervous about it. At the moment it was both perfect and horrible and he knew once he opened it that would change. 'Schrodinger's Report Card' he thought to himself. He finally sighed and opened it. English, Math, and Programming all were A's with positive comments. Fairy Godmother had given him a B in Goodness class and said he had put in a good effort but that there was some room to improve. Biology surprised him, a D. He had gotten A's on all the homework, tests, and labs that he'd gotten back so he wasn't sure how that added up to almost failing. "Missing Lab Assignments" was the only comment. Carlos sighed, he'd go talk to Mr. Boyle after class got out to understand the poor grade. And then finally Auradon History, a big fat F and comments like 'disruptive, hands in poor work, and attitude needs improvement' . He stuffed the report card back in the envelope, grabbed his bag, and ran out of the classroom while the others just watched him leave.

"Oh dear." Fairy Godmother said looking worried.

Jay was about to follow but Mal shook her head no. If Carlos wanted to talk he wouldn't have run off.

/

It had been a long day and it wasn't even over yet, the bell signaling the end of biology rang. Carlos slowly packed up his bag and trugged up to the front of the classroom.

"Mr. Boyle?" he said shyly, unsure how to start. "Got a minute?"

Mr. Boyle stopped what he was doing and looked up at the freckled face in front of him. "Ah, yes Carlos, I was wondering when you'd come see me. I assume it's about your grade."

Carlos nodded and gulped nervously, "I was wondering why it was so low, all the papers I've gotten back were A's."

The man nodded. "You missed 3 labs. Now let me explain" he said as he saw Carlos was about to interrupt him, "Auradon education standards require 35 labs completed to pass the class. So that means even if you got a 100% on everything but had only 34 labs done you would not get credit for the year. With me so far?"

The boy nodded, still confused what this had to do with anything.

"I've had in the past, students that did exceptional work and did not pass because of the lab portion, so I have adopted a policy that is if you are missing even 1 lab, you get a 0 for all of them until they're all turned in. Otherwise, you see, you would have a B+ in this class and wouldn't even have realized there was an issue."

"But I didn't know about that." Carlos argued.

Mr. Boyle pointed to a poster on the side of the room that very clearly explained the lab policy, Carlos had never noticed it before, but there it was.

"Can I make up the labs? "

"Of course. I have sessions every other saturday morning for students to make up labs or get extra help. Once the missing labs are turned in the other ones will be reinstated. See you this Saturday then Carlos? 8am?"

Carlos nodded and smiled, 8 am was earlier than he prefered but at least he had a chance to fix this he thought as he walked out the classroom. And that's when he realized that one of the labs he had to do was dissecting the frog and he felt like he might be sick.

/

Carlos was beginning to wonder if finding himself in Anitas office was going to be a regular thing. He studied his shoelaces, mentally following the path the knots took to distract himself from the fact that Anita was standing in front of him looking madder than a march hare.

"Well?" she asked.

Carlos glanced up, saw her face and quickly looked back down and shrugged.

"A shrug is not an answer, Carlos. Why did you run out of class yesterday and go missing for 4 hours?."

"I was upset." the boy mumbled.

Anita sighed, "Yes, I figured that much out. But why?" she waited again but received no reply, "is it the report card?" she finally asked.

Carlos nodded.

"Well I can't say I'm thrilled with your Biology and History grades. What happened? Biology first."

"I'm missing a couple labs, but I talked to Mr. Boyle today and he said I can make them up on the weekends." Carlos explained.

Anita nodded, she knew the man's lab policy and was pleased Carlos had already taken care of finding out how to fix it. "And History?."

"Mr. Willerstein hates me." Carlos answered flatly.

"I'm sure that's not…"

"It IS true! He only ever yells at me even if other kids are doing the same stuff. I AM trying. And no matter how hard I work on the essays he still fails them. Jane and I even swapped papers once and he still gave me a D and she got a B."

"You did WHAT?!" Anita couldn't believe he and Jane would do that.

"Fairy Godmother already knows about it, but it was to prove a point, that he'll fail me cause its me and not for my work." Carlos was quick to explain. He pulled out his folder and handed an ungraded copy of the Cinderellasburg paper to Anita.

"This is a copy of a paper I handed in, what grade would you say it's worth?"

Anita read it over and looked up "This is well researched and thought out, you backup all your arguments with facts, I'd give this an A"

"Mr. Willerstein failed it." Carlos said angrily.

Anita sighed again, "Have you tried talking to him about it?"

Carlos looked at the woman like she grew an extra head, "No, I don't want him to punish me again."

"He wouldn't…"

"Yes! He would!" Carlos interrupted with such conviction that it surprised the woman.

"Alright, come on."

"Where are we going?"

"We're going to go talk to Mr. Willerstein, right now, together, to get this all sorted out and figure out what you need to do to get that grade up."

Carlos paled and grudgingly followed Anita out of the room, 'this was not going to go well' he thought.

/

"Mrs. Radcliffe," Mr. Willerstein said warmly, "and Mr. De Vil… what a … surprise." the man said doing his best not to sneer at the boy as Anita ushered Carlos into the mans classroom.

"I hope it's not a bad time Mr. Willerstein, but we're here to discus Carlos' grade in your class." Anita smiled warmly at her colleague.

"Not at all, please come in. Have a seat." the man waited till both his visitors sat down. "Now how can I help?."

Carlos wanted to punch the man in the face, he'd never been this civil in class. He opted to cross his arms, slouch in his chair, and glare at the man.

"Well first can you explain your comments on the report card, you say he's 'disruptive, hands in poor work, and attitude needs improvement' yet all his other teachers say he is a good student. So I'd like to know what's happening in your class that's causing the issues."

Mr. Willerstein nodded his head understandingly and glanced at Carlos. "Well to start he is late for class at least once a week…"

"By like a second! And you never say anything to anyone else!" Carlos interrupted.

"Mr. De Vil, we are not discussing your classmates right now, we are discussing you. Late is late, be it one second or 50 minutes." The man said sternly, "When I call on him in class his answers are sarcastic or it is clear he hasn't read the assigned reading…"

"What assigned reading?" Carlos interrupted again not having any idea what the man was talking about.

Mr. Willerstein ignored Carlos and kept talking to Mrs. Radcliffe, "Also interrupting my lecture with smart aleck comments."

"That's cause your information is wrong."

The man raised his eyebrows and gestured with his hand towards Carlos as if to say "see what I mean" . Carlos wanted to kick himself for proving his teachers point, he was starting to lose his temper about it so he decided to stare at the wall and try to ignore the whole conversation.

"Continuing on, almost daily there is a disruption of some kind, interrupting, talking to a neighbor, he brought Dude to class once, falling asleep, or just a defiant or surly attitude. Carlos and that corner over there have become well acquainted so far this year."

Carlos stole a glance at Anita, she didn't look happy, Carlos was fuming the way Mr. Willerstein made it sound he was the worst kid in the school, but the man was the one that always picked on him, and now he was spinning it to make it his fault.

"The corner is a bit childish for high schoolers, wouldn't you agree?" Mrs. Radcliffe asked.

"Normally yes, but it seems to work the best and at least he's not disruptive for a few minutes. The only other thing that seems to make any impression is physical persuasion and I don't enjoy paddling the boy."

At that Carlos snorted, and the two adults just looked at him as if they were actually going to let him speak, he knew better and looked back at the wall as if it was fascinating to him.

"How many times?" Anita asked.

"A couple." the man admitted.

"Five." Carlos spoke up. The adults once again looked at the boy. "Five times." he said again hotly.

Anita looked at her colleague "what could he possibly have done FIVE TIMES that resulted in that?" she only knew about the most recent event, and that punishment was reserved for extreme cases.

"Carlos, would you like to answer? If I did my job right you'll at least have remembered the reasons, although I've stopped hoping that it will deter you from future events."

Carlos took a breath "The first time you didn't like what I wrote in my paper on Cinderellasburg. The second time for disagreeing with you during your lecture when you told me to be quiet. Third time for starting a debate about the relevancy of the crown. Forth, for pointing out you were wrong about the Evil Stepmother and apparently I'm not allowed to do that; but you were still wrong" Carlos quickly added that last part, "and the last time because I had a hangover and fell asleep in class you also claimed I was late, but wasn't" Carlos spat out angrily.

Anita just sat there shocked to hear this, the whole situation was far worse than she had imagined she needed to talk to Carlos alone to understand his side of it, she could tell that if she had the boy talk now it would just end up making it worse.

"Well, I think Carlos and I have some things to discuss regarding his behavior." Anita said,

Carlos' jaw dropped open, "Wait, don't tell me you just believe everything he says! He picks on me constantly and no one else. This isn't fair!" Carlos finally lost it and couldn't hold it together anymore, he jumped up from his seat and ran out the door, letting the door slam shut on its own.

Anita got up and yelled for him down the hall but he was already gone. Mr. Willerstein stood there smugly believing he had fully proven his point about the boy. Anita rounded on him as soon as the door closed. "You know, Paul, a little understanding about Carlos' situation would go along way. That child is brilliant and you refuse to give him a chance… no, MY turn to talk now, I've heard from the other students how you pick at him until he snaps at you. I've read that report on Cinderellasburg that he wrote and it's an A paper, not a failing one, and its deplorable that you punished him for it simply because of your personal beliefs about villains. That attitude he has that you're complaining about is what kept him alive on that cursed isle for 14 years, it's not going to just disappear in a few months."

"I will not coddle him, he needs to behave and be respectful."

"I agree, but you also need to be fair to him." Anita looked fiercely at the other teacher "And if you have any more issues that you think is severe enough to require a trip over your desk, I expect to be notified FIRST. I will determine if its justified or not. I saw the aftermath of your handiwork last week and you went too far. "

"Maybe the boy will learn not to get drunk. " Mr. Willerstein shrugged.

"I mean it, Paul, you don't lay a finger on him without my consent to the punishment."

The man nodded, he didn't dare disagree the way Anita was shooting daggers at him.

"Now, tell me what Carlos can do to bring up his grade." Anita said calmly.