A/N: Hello again. It's been awhile huh. I've been really busy with planning and preparing for my club's DCON, which was around two months ago. It's basically a leadership camp, but it takes so long to plan. Planning it takes a lot out of you, so I was kind of recuperating. Right after, I had to hit the books since May is AP Season (RIP my Chem score). After that, I had to focus on all the last minute tests and projects I was assigned. However, I am finally done with school, and I can update on a faster basis! So without further ado, here it is!

Book girl fan: Thank you so much for reviewing! About the King not really paying attention to the missing medical people. Keep in mind that as king, he really does have a lot on his plate. Also, remember that there is no way off the island, including contact. The people that have volunteered knew the risks. Sorry that I didn't explain that so well though, so thanks for pointing that out! A conversation about it may come in the near future ;)

Chapter 7

Carlos loves his friends, he really did. They've been through so much crap together, and they have a bond that can't compare with any other. Sometimes though, he questions why he became friends with them in the first place. Like now, as Jay was dragging him to the tourney field. Why on earth would Jay think that he would be able to do a sport? Give him a keyboard, and he can blow people's minds. But sport? Tourney no less. Start him out with something easier, like cricket.

"Alright, alright," Carlos huffed out in annoyance. "Release me already. I won't run off."

With that the boys released him, and it took all his dignity to right his shirt, playing it off like he wasn't struggling in the first place.

"I still don't know why I have to tryout in the first place," Carlos grumbled as Jay cuffed his head.

"Look at this on the bright side. It'll bring in the chicks," Jay said smirking.

Carlos rolled his eyes at that. "Only if you're, like, the star player or something. Besides, I've never played this sport."

Chad was in his element. This was something he was good at. "It's easy enough," he offered, "there are two types you can play. There's defensive position and an offensive one. Defensive protects the offensive from the other team as they try to get the ball to the other side of the field. They make sure the offensive don't get thrashed around too bad."

"Great," Carlos muttered. "Well, I guess I'll be defense. No way I'm doing offense."

Ben chuckled, "Don't be so worried. You'll get the hang of it."

With that, they bid Doug good-bye as he went off to his band practice. Carlos nervously chewed his cheek. This is gonna suck. He never thought of himself as an athletic guy. Sure, on the island there was running around and causing mischief or running from other bad guys, but that is different. That was for survival or just for fun. This, in his definition, didn't look like fun. Carlos would trade a computer and internet over sports any day.

Carlos was broken out of his thoughts as a man, the coach he assumed, blew the whistle.

"Stay here a moment; we'll talk to the coach," Ben instructed before walking off with Chad.

The team was gathering around the coach as he began speaking, probably to give instructions on what to practice. Soon, they dispersed into smaller groups to practice their technique and game plays. The coach himself began to head over to them.

"The name's Jenkins, and I'm the coach of the tourney team. I hear you guys are interested in joining?" Jenkins greeted them with a smile. He held out his hand which Jay and Carlos shook.

"The name's Jay. This is my friend Carlos. I wanted to see what all the fuss about this sport is for. We've never had tourney on the Isle," Jay explained.

"Well the game is simple enough," Jenkins began, "you get the ball and try to make a goal. There's offense and defense. There's a Kill Zone too. Now off with you boys; let's see how you played." With that the coach shooed them off towards Ben and Chad who were waiting with extra equipment for them.

"Kill Zone…?" Carlos muttered under his breath as he tumbled his way over to the two experienced players.

Ben handed them gear before going off in a spiral of explanation on what to do. Confused with all this armor he had to wear - there wasn't really anything else to call it - he failed to hear the instructions.

" ... and that's basically it," Ben finished. Carlos started. Did they already go through the rules?

"Any questions?" Chad asked. It seemed like a rhetorical question since they were already ushering them onto the field.

"Wait, I have a lot of questions," Carlos protested, but his words fell on deaf ears.

Within moments, the coach blew his whistle, and the game began. Rustling and thumping were heard as boys went head to head trying to defend or push past to their goal. Carlos frantically tried to decipher what was happening when a disk - why on Earth would they have that in the game - whiz past his head. He let out a yelp and ducked his head, although that would've been futile if it actually hit him.

"Get out of the Kill Zone, kid!" Jenkins yelled in his direction.

"Kill Zone?" Carlos repeated. Another disk flew by. He looked down at his feet and realized he was standing on a patch of painted red grass.

"Oh…" Carlos let out before running off as fast as his legs could carry him. Unfortunately, his luck didn't last as a disk grazed his leg and sent him sprawling into the grass, albeit safe once more on green.

Meanwhile, Jay was having the time of his life. Who wouldn't? He's bulldozing down guys and being as aggressive as he wanted. He pushed into Chad, knocking him down onto the grass. While they might be getting along, out here was different, and Jay used it to his advantage.

Jay remembered what Ben had mentioned about the Kill Zone earlier. It was the middle of the field and painted red. Basically, you'll be hit with disks in an attempt to knock you off balance. With a yell and a run, Jay began advancing towards it, ball in the stick and air. This is where life on the Isle helped you, he thought. He maneuvered and flipped his way across the Kill Zone, avoiding the disks like a ninja.

With a roar, he bulldozed his way towards the goal. In his distant, fog-fazed mind, he recognizes Carlos shouting at him frantically, but Jay paid him no heed, focusing on one thing: scoring a goal. With an enormous leap, hard swing, and gravity, the ball whooshed into the net. Jay roared in delight, flipping and jumping around. Finally, Ben, Chad, and Carlos were able to calm him down enough to realize the disbelief from the other players. Apparently, they didn't think he would do that well. Sucks for them, he thought.

Jenkins and another guy - probably an assistant coach - came up to the huddled group. For a second, Jay thought he was going to be sent to the principal's office because of the grim look on the coach's face. Do they beat up kids here too? Jay wondered, briefly. However, his thoughts were for naught as Jenkins started smiling and congratulating him.

"That was awesome! You're on the team. Later, I'll introduce you to something. It's called a rulebook," he chuckled, nudging the other coach.

"How about Carlos, coach?" Chad ventured to ask.

The coach hesitated. Jay knew what that meant.

"Hey," he said, putting an arm over a mildly-protesting Carlos. "We're a package deal. You take both, or none."

The coach grimaced, pondering over his options.

"I'll work with him, coach," Ben volunteered.

Jenkins sighed, "Fine. But you better get him into shape." With that, he blew the whistle, and the team was done with practice.

Jay let out a whoop. Finally, something he's good at. Tackling people and hitting things, and they were allowed it!

Meanwhile, Carlos let out a frustrated sigh. Truth be told, he was hoping that the coach was going to keep his first decision to not let him on t he team.

"Hey Carlos," Ben said, "let's stick around for some extra practice."

Carlos shrugged, "Sure. I need all the help I can get."

With that, Jay and Chad bid the two goodbye and went off in search of Doug, whose practice would end soon.

"As part of the defense, you need to be able to be strong enough to block the opposing team from getting to our offense. Now, we can work on building your strength another day. Today, we can work on your agility," Ben explained.

Carlos nodded, "Ok. Be agile. Got it."

"We'll start with some sprints. Go to the end of the field over there. You're gonna run from there to me as fast as you can. I'll be timing you," Ben continued.

Carlos began meandering to the other side of the field. Offhandedly, he wondered how fast he would have to be in order to cut it.

"Are you ready?" Ben shouted from the other side.

Carlos gave a thumbs up. Unbeknownst to him, a furry dog was making his way towards the field, eager to let out some energy.

Ben blew the whistle, and Carlos began running as fast as he can. A second later, he heard a sharp bark behind him and glanced back. To his horror, it was a dog, those evil, mangy beasts! Frantically, Carlos let out a short scream and began to run even faster. Soon, he past Ben, but the dog was still chasing after him, so he kept running.

Ben looked at him bewildered. Why was he still running? And why's he screaming, he questioned. Then, he noticed Dude hot at Carlos' feet.

"Oh no. Carlos!" Ben shouted after him, breaking into a run. Carlos didn't look it, but he could be very fast when he chose to be. It took a good minute for Ben to catch up, and only because Carlos had decided to run up and cling to a tree.

"Carlos?" he called out.

"Get it away from me! That thing's a killer! He's gonna chase me down and rip out my throat. That is a no good, vicious, rabid pack animal," Carlos hysterically shouted.

Ben crouched down and picked up Dude.

"What do you mean? Who told you that?" he asked.

"My mom, duh. She's an expert on dogs. She's a dog-yellerer," Carlos said a matter of factly.

Ben chuckled. Carlos on the other hand was still too frightened to pay him any mind. On the other hand, he noticed something else.

"Why are you holding him?" Carlos exclaimed, "He's gonna attack you."

"Have you actually ever met a dog, Carlos?" Ben asked.

"Well, no. We don't have animals on the Isle. Even if we did, we'd kill them for food," Carlos admitted.

Ben couldn't have a reply to that. While people did eat meat from cows and pigs, no one has ever eaten another animal. The thought made him cringe, but this wasn't the time to dwell on those facts.

"Well, Carlos, you can finally meet one," Ben declared. "Dude, meet Carlos. Carlos, this is Dude. He's a campus mutt."

"Well," Carlos said hesitantly, "he doesn't look like a rabid pack animal."

Ben nodded his head encouragingly, lifting Dude a little closer to Carlos. Carlos slowly climbed down from the tree and warily stared at the dog. After a moment, he hesitantly patted Dude's head. Ben smiled. Now they were getting some progress made on the Isle teens.

After a while, Carlos worked up the courage to carry Dude in his arms.

"Well," he remarked, "you're not that bad."

Carlos was happy that his mother turned out to be wrong about dogs. They were actually quite cute and adorable. However, his emotions are still running rampant as he tried to get them under control.

Meanwhile, Ben smiled at that comment. He briefly wondered if he should give him some space - he clearly went through an emotional ordeal, overcoming a fear and all - or talk to him about it. Ben wavered for a moment before deciding.

"Do you," he hesitated, "do you want to talk about it?"

Carlos looked at him. "You don't have to," Ben hastily backtracked, "but, you know, I'm here if you need to talk. The others are too, I'm sure."

"It's just, it's weird," Carlos remarked. "I've grown up to stories about them. How they were vicious and cruel. My mother, Cruella, had stories about them eating bad children as a way for me to behave as a child."

Ben mouth formed a small "o," and he didn't know what to say. There was no need as Carlos continued his story.

"It was always hard," Carlos said ruefully, "living on the Isle. They pushed for you to become villains. To be bad, but they always hated it if you rebelled against them, especially if they're your own parent."

"Was that the worse part growing up there," Ben quietly asked.

Carlos shrugged, "It's different for everyone, I suppose. I just hated the stories the most since they created a fear for something I didn't understand."

Before Ben could ask anymore questions, Carlos abruptly straightened his back and set Dude down, although the dog didn't seem to want to go anywhere, content to stay with Carlos.

"We should go find the others before dinner starts," Carlos said.

With that, he turned around and began the trek back towards the buildings. He did stop, however, at the end of the path to wait for Ben. Snapping out of his reverie, Ben jogged over to catch up.

On their trek back towards the dorms, it was silent as each boy thoughts turned, although with different subjects. Carlos was pondering about the puzzle of Ben, and how he seemed to actually care for their well-being. True, he seemed a bit nosy, prying into their affairs, but so far, it seemed to be good intentions. Not that Carlos can be a good judge of character, it'll be up to Mal, he surmised. She had it the hardest out of the four. If she decided they were trustworthy enough, then he'd be ok with sharing their story. If one of them decided to share, than the others would have to as well otherwise the Auradon preppies might become suspicious.

Meanwhile, Ben reflected on what he knew so far, albeit it was very little. One question seemed to continuously echo through his mind. Just what really happened on the Isle?

A/N: Well, that's the end of this update! Summer's here, and I don't have a life! There'll be more frequent updates, and that, I swear, is not a lie. Feel free to leave feedback and support. All the reviews make my day :)