Carlos sat on the couch of his dorm with a controller in hand. He felt like a high school basketball team singing about how everything relied on this one single moment. He imagined them chanting the number of seconds he needed to complete the moves in.
Carlos starts the game, his fingers moving at record speed as soon as the timer begins. He starts performing the elusive super move under a street light. Crown, Candle, Teacup, Teacup, Wardrobe, Rose and then his mind starts to panic. How could he forget the last button?
A timer appears on the screen, the numbers getting closer to zero by the second. It was truly now or never. He scans his mind trying to recall what he read on the message boards.Candle? No, maybe it was crown? Carlos tries to picture the walkthrough praying it sewed its self into his memory.
He imagines the page but the last word of the sequence is blurred out. He hears the screen start to beep and the word suddenly becomes clear. It's rose!
Carlos swiftly goes to press the last button, his face glowing with a hopeful smile. Jay suddenly bursts through the door yelling out Carlos's name.
Carlos, startled, jumps with the controller falling from his grasp just like his hopes for the rare achievement.Why?! I was so close!
"Jay!" Carlos shouts annoyed as the timer reached zero. The screen goes black and the words you lost show in big bold white letters.
Jay looked at the screen feeling sorry for Carlos. He didn't know why Carlos was so obsessed with getting the rarest achievement in the game. The amount of time and effort it took just to unlock one useless super move seemed like such a waste. Carlos, being the ultimate completionist, had his mind set on unlocking the final achievement. However, to have all but one unlocked was the ultimate mockery, Carlos had said.
Jay just shook his head letting his friend fall deeply into an almost unbreakable obsession. Could've been a mistake on my part. I should have suggested we practice for Swords & Shields or something.
Ever since that day Carlos had been glued to their TV screen. Okay, definitely a mistake on my part. Jay's mind came back to the current situation at hand as he watched Carlos wishing he could turn back time.
Gotta play my cards cautiously for this one.
"Bummer, better luck next time, bro," Jay says sympathetically but it only contributes more to Carlos's frustration.
Carlos looks at Jay slack-jawed as he points to the screen. "I was so close I almost had it!"
"And I completely believe you," Jay replies as Carlos sets the controller down in a huff.
"I was! I bet I could even do it again!" All he had to do to unlock the bonus level once again was to replay the hardest chapter on expert mode.Dalmatians, I wish this game had manual saving. Then I could just go back to the part I was playing and replay all over again.
Carlos wanted to cry because all of his efforts were for naught.
Jay didn't notice Carlos's inner turmoil as he tunes Carlos out and answers with a simple. "Uh huh."
"Why are you back so early, anyway?" Carlos wondered.
"I found the perfect spot to eat lunch far from the eyes of the many cheerleaders in love with me. It's so hard being handsome. Who knew beauty could be such a curse? Anyway, as I was eating I spotted something. It was Mal flying overhead."
"Maybe she was doing flying lessons or something?" Carlos suggests but knew he didn't make any sense.
"Possibly. Or maybe something's going down. Don't you think Mal, Evie, and Ben have been kind of suspicious lately?"
"No, I mean...now that I think about it I haven't seen them in a while." Carlos furrows his brows in deep thought. Was there really something going on?
No, they could all just be really busy. Ben could just be doing kingly stuff. Evie probably designing a dress for a big client. Mal may have been commissioned to do someone's portrait. The possibilities could be endless. Jay's just overthinking.
"None of them have been in class. Besides, you know how Fairy Godmother is about attendance something must be happening."
Carlos starts to dispute Jay's claim, but remembers his encounter with Fairy Godmother last week. He had decided to walk his girlfriend Jane to class; they dawdled, staring into each other's eyes. The sound of the tardy school bell rang throughout the hall and Jane quickly ran into her classroom waving goodbye. Carlos in a love stupor hazily returns a wave goodbye, making his way to his own class.
Sweeping the hallways, Fairy Godmother greeted Carlos with a disappointed gaze. He sputtered out an explanation, but she still slammed a detention slip into his hand.
Carlos shudders as he remembers sitting in detention. Detention was watched over by Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather the always bickering fairy godmothers of Audrey's mother Princess Aurora. He wouldn't wish that experience on anyone.
"There must be an explanation, Jay. Mal, Evie, and Ben wouldn't have a story arc without us...they would never." Realization hits Carlos's face. "They're having a story arc without us!"
Jay nods, "I'm worried that whatever's going on is big. I just have this strange feeling I can't shake."
The son of Jafar had been having nightmares for days now. He would dream of being back on the Isle, walking along a long deserted part. There was no specific reason in his head for why he was there. He had pegged it down as mere curiosity even if there was an unheard voice in his head warning him.
He ignored it. Not because he wanted to, as he was internally begging himself to leave. This dream had other plans for him, however.
As Jay walked the area, it would delve into a path once stepped on, would force him back. He tried it so many times that it started to tire him.
Till, finally he would hear the rattle of a rattlesnake getting closer.
Turning around, he bowed up ready for a fight but a yellow cobra would always suddenly appear, pulling him down into the earth.
It felt so real. Jay would wake up feeling his heart beat fast as he swore he felt something tightening around his leg. He would then always pull off his sheet, his body wracked with heavy ragged breaths. There would never be anything there. It's all in your head, he would say to himself. Though, he couldn't quite shake the feeling that the situation he dreamed would transcend into reality.
"If it was that big Mal and Ev-," Carlos stopped himself,"wouldn't tell us at all. What do we do?"
"We should go check on them to see if everything's okay. Then we offer them our support and remind them we're a team. We can handle anything, as long as we're together. They'll see that."
"I really thought our girl talk worked. It felt like it bonded us all even more. Maybe, I was wrong?"
"No, you weren't. Whatever's happening, Carlos could just be super top secret."
"Top secret? What could be so top secret that they wouldn't tell us?"
"Maybe Mal found her dad or something, I don't know? What matters is that we go there and show them we care."
"Alright," Carlos agrees then glances at the digital clock next to his bed. His free period was almost over and soon he would have to head to his advanced computer science class. Carlos was practically teaching it at this point. His first day there the teacher had practically thrown out their syllabus declaring everyone to just watch Carlos. "Wait, Jay don't we both have classes this afternoon?"
"Oh yeah, okay then after school straight to Mal's we go."
"Swords and Shields meeting after school, remember?" Carlos reminded causing Jay to curse under his breath as he had forgotten about it entirely.
"Alright, then what about after that?" Jay suggested hoping there wasn't yet another time conflict.
"Okay, we'll head to her room straight after practice then?"
"Sounds good, I'll see you in a couple of hours."
Jay went to go grab his backpack but realized he had never taken it off. He then tells Carlos goodbye and leaves the dorm. As Jay walked the halls of Auradon Prep and took in the cheery warm faces, he thought of life back on the Isle. There his life consisted of searching for riches that didn't exist. His father had convinced him that one day he would find the big haul that would make all their wishes come true.
Jay felt foolish looking back at the things he valued in the past. Greed benefits no one, it only paves a way for their downfall. Jay realized that after he found the true story of why his father ended up on the Isle. His father, Jafar could have lived a content life just as a Royal Vizier. Yet, he wasn't satisfied. He ended up doing horrible things and hurting a lot of people to try to achieve something he would in the end never accomplish.
The story Jay heard growing up differed entirely, of course. It was his father's right. It wasn't. Agrabah would have been so much better under his rule. It was currently flourishing and Jay knew under his father's rule it would have descended into chaos.
Every ounce of his childhood had been a lie. Who would want to tell the stories of their failures? No one. Was it really that bad?
There it goes again. The voice in his head that tried to normalize and condition his pain. He wanted it to go away. Didn't it understand that the anger he held, the feelings that flowed like a violent energy about to explode is what kept him focus?
It made him remember who he never wanted to be. With it, he flourished under a sunlight of determination. Determined to keep this new version of himself intact.
He never wanted to go back to his past. A past that made him feel more like a henchman than a son. Oh, how he wished it would never haunt him but everyone knows wishes barely come true.
A.N. I decided to split up this chapters draft so there should be another update soon. Hopefully, I don't scrap it but I genuinely love the second part of this so doubt it. Did you guys see Dove on Agents of Shield? I won't spoil it but that plot twist! I'm really excited to see more of her character! I'm loving the current agents of shields arc just wishing ghost rider was back. (I love him.) Anyway, thanks for reading! I appreciate every review/favorite/follow/view so much! You guys are great and I want to thank you all for inspiring me to write these chapters! And special thanks to my friend/editor, Timothy! Till, next time!