Daisy exited the school building. She didn't feel like going back to her dorm room yet. All she would do was sit on her bed and stare at the ceiling. Alone with her thoughts. If she went for a walk, at least there would be a change of scenery as she thought.
The garden was the girl's go to place to wander. Most students stayed away from the maze of flowers from fear of not being able to escape. After she and Evie skipped first block on the first day of school, Daisy could navigate the garden with ease.
She breathed in the scent of the late September flowers. The freshman sighed contently. Two more weeks until fall break, and she'd be trading the flower garden of Auradon Prep for the woodland forest of home. The girl smiled as the sensation of freedom she gets when she's strolling through the mountains washed over her. She couldn't wait to be home.
"Who's idea was it to come in here again?" a voice grumbled.
Daisy jumped. She wasn't used to other student being here. It sounded like they were just around the corner and heading toward the dwarf.
"It was mine because I need to find some flower for that stupid gardening class with Fairy Flora." another voice complained.
Daisy's blood ran cold. She knew that voice all too well. It was Braxton Charming. Her heart stopped when the 16-year-old and a few of his friends turned the corner and spotted her.
"You!" Braxton growled at the girl.
After about a second of shock, Daisy took off in the opposite direction. She wasn't sticking around to see how mad Braxton still was at her, especially in a place where the average student would take thirty minutes to get to her.
"Get back here!" the sophomore yelled, running after the girl.
Daisy tried using her knowledge of the labyrinth of plants to lose her pursuers, but they were just as fast as she was, if not faster. The girl finally cut for the exit. Maybe if someone saw what was happening, someone would help her. Right? Right!?
"You don't have an Isle thug to hide behind this time, runt!" Braxton barked.
"Y-you're more of a t-thug than they are!" Daisy called as she looked over her shoulder. The bullies were closing in.
She was starting to panic now. Not that she was calm before this point, but now tears of terror were welling up in her eyes. The dwarf was racking her brain trying to think of some place she could run to find help.
Doug was away at lunch.
Evie was with him.
Mal and Ben always went to the Enchanted Lake on Saturdays after tourney practice.
Carlos and Jay were the only ones left.
But where were they? The boys' dorms? The workout room? The forest trails?
"Jay! Carlos! Help me! Please!" Daisy begged.
When she had met the boys, Jay had said that if anyone tried to mess with her, they would have her back. Currently the only ones who were close to her back where the bullies trying to mess with her! Logically they couldn't have her back all the time, but Daisy wasn't really listening to logic at the moment. She would be mad at the boys if she wasn't so scared.
With one last glance over her shoulder, Daisy bolted for the forest. She might not be as familiar with this area as she was the garden, but she sure as hell had an edge on this terrain. The beauty of growing up running through 20,000 acres of mountains, you learn how to maneuver unfamiliar territory without losing speed.
"Keep after her!"
"On it!"
"You got it, Brax."
Daisy stayed away from the trails. The rougher the path, the better. She jumped over fallen tree trucks, ducked under bushes, and bounced off of boulders. The dwarf was back in her element.
She heard yelling a ways off from her, but she couldn't make out the words. The girl kept running, not willing to slow down and risk being caught. She could feel something following her, catching up to her.
The trees in front of her seemed shorter than the ones she'd passed. The branches and leaves were right in her line of sight. It was like they were lower than the rest of the forest...
WAIT A MINUTE!
Daisy slid on the leaves that had already fallen from the still green treetops. She dragged her hand on the ground to slow herself, but she had been running too fast and had tried to stop too late. Her foot hit a rock on the edge of the cliff and shot her up to a standing position, like a baseball player coming up from sliding into a base. Her purple beanie flew off her head and fell over the cliff. Just like Daisy was about to.
Daisy screamed and closed her eyes. Before she could fall, a strong arm wrapped around her waist.
"I got you! I got you!" the hero picked the 15-year-old up and set her a few steps away from the cliff.
The petite girl was trembling. She clung to the arm around her waist, not even caring who it was at the moment.
"Are you alright, Daz?"
Daz? Only three people at Auradon Prep call her Daz.
Daisy finally started noticing the person who was holding her.
Muscular arms. Definitely wasn't Doug or Evie.
She relaxed slightly but twisted to face the person, just to be sure.
"Jay." Daisy breathed, so relieved to see her friend. Without hesitation, she hugged the boy. As her adrenaline finally slowed, tears of fear, relief, embarrassment, and happiness fell from the girl's eyes until she was shaking with sobs.
"You're safe, Daz. Those guys are gone. I'm here." Jay said softly. He held the girl close and silently smoothed her hair as she sobbed into his shoulder.
A twig snapped behind them. Daisy jumped, and Jay tighten his grip on her protectively. The boy looked over his shoulder and nodded.
Jay gently put his hands on Daisy's arms. The girl understood and released her friend. She wiped the stream of tears from her cheeks and glanced at the new person.
Carlos smiled sweetly at her. He reached inside his jacket and pulled out a black and white handkerchief.
Daisy signed thank you and dried her eyes with the clothe.
"I guess she kinda fell for you, bro." Carlos joked. Jay smacked the smaller boy on the arm and threw his hands up like 'really?'.
Daisy giggled through her tears. Carlos grinned smugly at his roommate. Jay rolled his eyes but smiled regardless.
"I think we need to get one of those alert systems so you can call us when you're in trouble. Then we can get here faster to save the day." Carlos put his fists on his hips and struct a superhero pose.
Jay and Daisy both laughed at that one. "Yeah. Maybe something like that." Daisy said, having stopped crying.
The freshman ran her hands through her hairs. Her hands flew to her head when realization hit. Her purple beanie was gone! She was so worried about falling over the cliff she hadn't noticed that her beanie did.
"My beanie! It went over the edge." Daisy gasped.
Jay peaked down the drop-off and whistled. "Here." he said, pulling something out of his back pocket. "I know it's not the same, but you can have mine until we can get yours back."
The boy handed her a red beanie. Since when did Jay wear a beanie? Daisy had never seen him with it.
Wait!
Red beanie!
Daisy's head shot up to look at Jay. He was confused by her shocked expression. She smiled widely and slid on the new beanie.
"Thank you, Jay. I'll get it back to you." Daisy promised.
"Don't worry about it. I barely wear it anymore anyway." He smiled.
"So... Daisy, we have pizza, candy, and a movie back in our room. Think you wanna join us? I know it's a little slower paced, but we'll try not to bore you." Carlos teased.
"I think that sounds incredible." she sighed.
The boys' dorm room had been turned into a movie theater. The lights were off. The pizza and candy were gone before the movie even started. The trio had every blanket and pillow in the room on the floor in front of the TV.
The movie was a romantic comedy, which surprised Daisy. She was expecting an action or horror movie. Little did she know that Jay and Carlos had set this up for her to cheer her up after they heard her in the music room.
They laughed and critiqued the cheesy and cliche lovey dovey stuff. Daisy made fun of the romance the most, to the boys' surprise.
They were making each other roll laughing with each joke. Some had Daisy laughing so hard she was crying again, but Dude was happy to lick away the tears, which caused the girl to laugh harder.
When the movie ended, the room was relatively quiet, except for some mild snoring. The group had had a long day and crashed on the floor and it was only five o'clock.
Daisy was curled up back to back with Carlos, who was holding an also asleep Dude. Jay had checked out leaning up against his bed. Daisy's head was resting on his leg, and his hand was on her shoulder.
When Daisy opens her eyes, she's lying on the ground in the forest. She slowly sits up and looks around.
The wind is cool. She goes to pull her beanie down on her ears, but takes it off to look at it instead.
A red beanie.
The girl smiles and puts it back on.
Dude runs to her and licks her face. She giggles and pets the dog.
Carlos smiles and offers her a hand. Daisy takes it.
Leaves rustles behind them.
"You wanna come, Jay?" Daisy asks without turning toward the noise.
A chuckle is carried by the breeze.
Daisy takes that as a no.
Jay isn't one to come forward right away. He prefers to be the silent watchman. She'll have to work on that.
Carlos always tries to make her smile no matter how goofy or childish it makes him look. That's what she likes about him.
The girl giggles at how much she's learned about her dreamworld. At how much she's learned about these boys. Her boys.
The second brother and the guardian.
She can tell there's still more here she needs to learn. Otherwise she wouldn't keep having this dream.
For the moment though, Daisy is content. This is all she needs.
Her boys.
Her best friends.
A/N alright I typed this up at 1 AM so I totally forgot about the author's note. Sorry. So a lot of things are finally clicking Daisy's mind. Jay's the shadowy figure that protects her in her dreams (and in real life for that matter). Carlos isn't a love interest but just someone who cheers her up and makes her smile, like another brother (who doesn't come into her room while she's still sleeping *cough* Doug *cough*) Jay doesn't wear his beanie very often because... just because so Daisy hasn't seen him wear and never made a connection his the red beanie and Jay until he gave her the beanie in real life. I don't know if I'm gonna write the mission to retrieve Daisy's purple beanie. I don't think I am. Umm... Braxton is a jerk... umm... what else? Oh I said this was gonna be a set up for a couple but it didn't turn out the way I originally intended. I hinted a little. At least I tried to. Tell me what you think. Next story I'll try to make it a little more obvious. Promise.