Jay sat at a table in the library, he had pulled his beanie down over his eyes and plopped his forehead into the middle of the English book he was supposed to be working on. This had been the longest hour of his life.
"Jay, come on, we need to work on this. You're still not getting it." Colin, son of Cogsworth, pleaded.
Jay ignored the boy who was only a few months older than him but two grades ahead in school.
I could kick his ass. Jay thought but then realized that really wasn't saying much. Colin sighed loudly "Listen, our time is up anyway for today. But if you're not willing to work on this tomorrow I'm going to call Jasmine and tell her the deal is off. I'm not wasting my time if you don't want to learn. And between you and me, if I quit, she's going to pull you from the team."
Colin walked off while Jay clenched his fists he really wanted to smash something right now. Colin was right, Jasmine told him he needed to work with a tutor or no Tourney. He just hadn't realized his tutor would be a little snitch too.
"What was all that about?" Carlos asked as he and Aziz walked over to the table and pulled out homework to work on.
"It's nothing" mumbled Jay.
Aziz raised an eyebrow, "yeah sure, nothing, whatever you say." he chuckled as he looked across the library to another table where Evie and Doug were studying "chemistry" apparently through each others mouths "think they're doing it yet?" he asked as if it was anyone's business.
Jay and Carlos looked where Aziz was; Jay smiled mischievously "I don't know, you wanna ask, Carlos?"
The freckled boy blushed a deep crimson, "Shut up, Jay" he growled and Jay laughed loudly.
Back on the isle when Evie had just turned 14 and was beginning to learn the value of her newly acquired assets she liked to play around a little with the various boys who showed her interest Carlos had been brazen enough to ask the blue haired girl about it. At just 11, he had been at that annoying preteen age where he didn't know how to keep his mouth shut and at times Jay still wondered how the three of them hadn't snapped his scrawny little neck during those few years. It was the one and only time Evie had ever started a fight with anyone and no one dared ask her about her exploits again.
Azis looked between the two other boys confused "I seem to have missed something." he said casually hoping they'd fill him in.
Jay snickered and Carlos scowled at him, "Carlos made the mistake of asking Evie about that once and she kicked the shit out of him." Jay supplied.
Aziz looked at Carlos incredulously "Really?" he asked, Carlos was small but he was still tough.
"I was 11." the younger boy said defensively and with a bit of a pout that made him look younger than he was.
Aziz still looked surprised, "I didn't think you guys fought, at least not with each other."
"Of course we do, not as much here, but on the isle you settle differences physically, even among allies." Jay explained.
" 'not as much'?" Aziz asked, "so you still do? Fight, I mean."
Carlos shrugged and looked a little guilty, he generally tried to avoid it but he and Jay had gotten into a few scuffles, usually over something stupid like who got to pick the video game or movie that night or who got the extra piece of food if there was any left; Jay always won unless he really didn't care and just wanted to make Carlos fight for it. He unconsciously rubbed a large bruise on his upper arm from last nights 'disagreement'.
"So do you fight with the girls too? Do they fight each other?" Aziz couldn't help but be curious, the four VKs always seemed to get along well, but he realized that behind closed doors they might be very different kids than what they showed to Auradon and he was intrigued.
Jay chuckled at his foster brother, "Evie avoids it at all costs, on the isle she and Mal had a couple scuffles, but nothing here that I know of. Mal likes to spar though so we head to the gym for a few rounds. But sometimes we do that just for fun." Carlos rolled his eyes at that last bit Mal and Jay beat the stuffing out of each other at least three times a week, for fun or otherwise, he didn't see the difference.
Aziz couldn't hide his amusement at the new information about the four peculiar students. "So, um what was up with Colin? He seemed a little, uh, frustrated." Aziz decided to change topics.
Jays smile vanished immediately, "He's not the only one frustrated. Jasmine hired him to help me with some of my classes."
Aziz nodded "He's a really good tutor, sometimes he helps me out too. But for now, maybe I can help?" he offered and pulled Jays book over so he could see what they were working on.
/
Evie was enjoying Doug, his lips were surprisingly soft and his mouth tasted a little bit like coffee but in a good way, he gently brushed his fingertips along her arm and she shivered involuntarily.
"Ahem" someone clears their throat in the near vicinity to where she and Doug were "studying" Evie tried to ignore it but senses that who ever it was did it to get their attention and wasn't going away. Annoyed the blue haired girl pulled away from Doug and looked up.
"Snow!" she gasped in surprise as she looked up to see Snow White standing there, one eyebrow raised expectantly. "What are you doing here?"
"We need to talk."
Evie looked at Doug who nodded "I'll see you tomorrow" he whispered as he squeezed her hand. While Evie quickly packed up her books Snow handed the boy a tissue, apparently he had more than a smidge of Evies Lipstick on his face.
"Evie, you know better than to make out in the library." Snow scolded, although she didn't sound overly mad, after all she'd been 16 before too.
The girl gave her a sheepish grin, "sorry"
Snow lead Evie outside to her little car, and they drove off to the little village Belle was from that Evie had admired so much on her first trip to the cottage b&b. After finding a table at a bistro Evie's curiosity finally won out "So, what did you want to talk about?" hoping desperately it wasn't Doug.
Snow smiled and handed the girl an envelope. Evie opened it to find a card with flowers printed on it.
"Evie, I know the last several months have been quite an adjustment for you. A new way of life, new people, new school, and new expectations, it couldn't have been easy but you're doing great. I am so proud of you for your hard work in school. Getting all A's at Auradon Prep isn't easy no matter how smart someone is, it takes hard work. I'm so very proud of you for doing your best. Love Snow." and along with the message was a gift card to the local fabric supply store.
Evie looked up at Snow with tears in her eyes, it took her a few moments to regain her composure, "You're proud of me?" she asked incredulously.
Snow smiled and squeezed Evie's hand, "Of course I am, I'm very proud of you. You worked hard for those grades and I think you should be rewarded for them."
Evie couldn't wrap her head around the idea of being rewarded for doing what was expected anyway. She had always done what she needed to do to avoid punishment, not that she thought Snow would have been too hard on her if she didn't do well. And having Snow say she was proud of her, even after finding her and Doug in the library like that, Evie was so shocked that she just started to cry. No one had ever said they were proud of her before. No one ever cared if she did well in her classes or not, mother only told her where she fell short.
Snow was a bit concerned that Evie suddenly started to cry right there in the middle of the restaurant, she silently slipped onto the bench next to Evie and pulled her into a hug so that Evie could finish her cry.
"Evie, please don't cry."
"It's just that.. No one ever told me they were proud of me before." the girl sniffed while quickly trying to compose herself as the waiter brought them their soups.
Evie couldn't help but smile all through dinner as she and Snow talked about fashion, her classes, Doug (without the annoying lecture on propriety), and the inn. Then they headed to the fabric store so Evie could use her gift certificate.
"Thank you so much. For everything." Evie gave Snow a warm hug after their evening out and headed up to her room to put her new fabrics away.
/
Mal sat on her bed, stared at the laptop screen and narrowed her eyes at the email she was reading. Queen Leah wanted her to come over for dinner on Friday. She really didn't want to go and was trying to think up an excuse to get out of it. She narrows her eyes as Evie enters their room, humming of all things, it makes Mal cringe inwardly at how happy Evie is, All. The. Fucking. Time.
"Where'd you go?" she asks with a hint of disapproval and annoyance mixed together.
Evie is too happy to notice Mal's mood, "Snow took me out for dinner and to the fabric store." she exclaimed happily as she put away some of the fabrics "Look at this one, isn't it just gorgeous!" Evie held up a length of royal blue organza to her body and looked down at it as if it were already a dress, "and guess what, Snow did it because she said she was proud of me, for getting all A's! Can you believe that?!"
"That's great E." Mal said flatly, her eyes flashed green with jealousy. She didn't care about the fabric, obvi, but she would have liked for someone to be proud of her. Of course, she knew Leah and Stefan wouldn't be for a B average. She sighed and lay back on the bed thinking. She didn't usually feel sorry for herself but it was really frustrating being the only one not really getting attention. Then again Leah DID just email her. Mal sat back up, her mind made up, "I'll be happy to come." she typed and hit send before she had time to change her mind.
Evie put down the latest fabric she was holding, a rose colored chiffon, "Mal, what's wrong?".
Mal rolled her eyes "Nothing."
"Whatever it is, I know it's not nothing. Come on, please tell me." Evie sat down next to Mal. Mal shook her head and turned away, she didn't want to 'talk about her feelings' right now, what she wanted was to numb everything, why did they have to screw up so badly with Jays birthday, getting a drink would be far more difficult now.
"I'm going for a walk" Mal stated and was out the door before Evie could decide to follow. Mal found herself back by the enchanted lake, it was soothing somehow and if she was completely honest with herself she was hoping she might run into Ben again. She wasn't disappointed.
"Hey stranger." Ben smiled at the purple haired fairy as she approached the rock he was sitting on.
Mal gave him a coy smile "Mind if I join you?"
/
"No, I won't do it!"
"Carlos, you are acting like a child." Anita scolded as she stood in front of the TV while Carlos strained to look past her and continue with his game. He was giving his best effort to ignore the tall woman in front of him but it really wasn't working that well. Anita narrowed her eyes spun around and pulled the plug of the TV.
"HEY!" Yelled Carlos, "I was playing that!"
On the other side of the room Jay was trying very hard to not laugh out loud, he'd never seen Carlos be so impertinent and he couldn't help be curious as to the outcome of this little scene playing out in front of him and he was trying desperately to be as invisible as possible so that Anita didn't notice him and kick him out of the room.
"Carlos, if you don't get your history grade up, you'll have to go to summer school for it." Anita tried to reason.
The white haired boy looked up at that he didn't mind school for the most part "Will there be other kids here for classes too?" it would be weird without Jay, Mal, and Evie he thought, knowing that his friend would be with their new guardians for all the school holidays.
"Auradon Prep doesn't have summer school classes, you'd have to take it at the local high school near us." Anita tried to explain. Carlos seemed unphased "Its four hours a day, five days a week, for six weeks." Carlos still didn't seem daunted.
Anita sighed "Mr. Willerstein is the teacher at the local school in the summer." That got the boys attention and Carlos's head snapped up.
"You've got to be fucking kidding me." Carlos groaned he had been all too ready to say "sign me up" in hopes of skipping history for the rest of the year.
Jay bit his tongue hard to keep from saying anything as he heard Carlos let loose a string of obscenities that would have made Cruella blush, well maybe not, but with Mrs. Radcliffe right there it was clear Carlos had lost his damn mind.
Anita marched right into the bathroom and started looking around for something, Carlos glanced back at Jay with a confused look and the older boy shrugged. It didn't take long for the woman to find what she was looking for, a new bar of soap. "Open your mouth." she ordered.
"What? No!" whined Carlos as Anita gave him a dangerous look that resulted in the boy obeying.
"Two minutes. And if I ever hear any of those words out of you again the next time it will be five. Jay stop laughing." Anita turned on the older boy who had now buried his face in a pillow in amusement at his younger friends expense. Anita glanced at her watch to keep time while Carlos squirmed uncomfortably for what he thought was forever before the bar was removed and he ran to the bathroom to rinse.
Carlos emerged from the bathroom, his face shamefaced red. Anita crossed her arms and gave a significant look "Now then, in order to avoid summer school, you will meet with Mr. Willerstein twice a week after your normal classes until you have successfully brought your grade up to passing. Have I made myself clear?"
"Yes'm." Carlos whispered.
"Good, now go to bed." Anita ordered gently and ruffled Carlos's hair affectionately. "Good night boys."
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