{What is this, another new chapter? How many has it been now in the last few days? Who AM I? I feel like I don't even know myself…this isn't like me! I should be taking a couple months off between updates, come on now! Well, enjoy while it lasts… :p }

Chapter Fifteen

In the morning, Ariel smuggled me some toothpaste, a toothbrush, an apple, and some kind of biscuit for breakfast. She also brought me a black V-neck shirt which belonged to Phillip, her sister's boyfriend, and some of her dad's athletic socks. She said Phillip had random articles of clothing floating around their house in various places. I wondered if that meant that he was often stripping down for some sexy-time with Aurora but Ariel claimed they were all left behind from the many times he went swimming at their house. Apparently, the Triton household was equipped with an outdoor pool as well as an indoor pool, an extravagance which I had never gotten to experience in my other life. After a night of restless sleep, that other life was already beginning to feel further and further away.

I figured I would have to find some time to shower in the locker room and the world was just going to have to accept whatever my hair was doing after a quick application of water and some run-throughs with my fingers. In a realm of beautiful princesses and dashing prince types, I couldn't afford to be high-maintenance. Not yet, at least.

Phillip was coming by to pick up Aurora, like he always did. This year, Ariel was part of the package and we decided I could try to hitch a ride with the two of them also, despite my having never yet spoken to either.

Off on my own, I strategically positioned myself behind a large, well-manicured hedge of bushes next to Ariel's and Aurora's house. When I saw Phillip's white Mustang pull up, I got ready to stroll casually out into their path. I would be so friendly and charming that they would think nothing of allowing me to hop onboard. It would only be natural to invite such a pleasant, amiable young gentleman such as myself to ride along with them.

Of course, I wasn't planning on being attacked by the hungry raccoon who also happened to be hiding in the bushes. Unfortunately for me, I still had a little bit of my biscuit in my hand while I was peeking out at Aurora and Ariel walking down their driveway, and I didn't notice the chubby little bandit lurking in the shadows with big eyes full of lustful desire.

In an instant, I was screaming and spinning around, trying to shove the feral critter off of me, but he had pretty instantly devoured what was left of the biscuit and was now trying to get into my pockets for more. (And there was no more.)

"GET OFFA ME, YOU STUPID-ARRRRGHHFFFFFFF!"

I lost my balance and tumbled forward out of the bushes. The raccoon, for his part, managed to hop back onto the hedges with whatever sad little scraps of breakfast I had left and thus avoided my embarrassing face-plant.

Aurora and Ariel were only a few feet away from where I had fallen and Aurora had let out a surprised little shriek. Anxious to recover, I hopped briskly up to my feet, face red, hair wild and filled with twigs and leaves.

"What's up?!" I exclaimed, perhaps a bit too intensely.

I think there may have also been just a little too much crazy in my eyes, because Aurora responded to my innocent greeting with an ear piercing scream. She quickly pushed Ariel back behind her and took a protective stance in front of her little sister.

"Get back, Ariel!" she cried, shoving her hand into her purse to rummage for something that was most definitely not another biscuit to make up for the one that had been so cruelly stolen from me.

When her hand emerged, it was clutching a glittery pink can of Mace.

My eyes widened with horror.

"Oh SHIT-"

But she pointed it at my face and started to spray. Ariel, to her credit, lunged forward to try and thwart her older sister.

"Aurora, stop!"

She managed to grab her arm and pull it down but alas, Aurora's finger pushed down on the nozzle and released out a small cloud of peppery mist.

Now, if you know anything about Mace or pepper spray, you know it's absolutely no fun to get sprayed with. Nowadays, the Mace brand is actually pepper spray, and it basically inflames your mucus membranes, causes you to cough and choke and get nauseous, even causing temporary blindness. It gets on your skin too, and burns like a bitch. Altogether, it's usually formidable enough of a pain to take down people who are murderously psychotic or strung out on drugs like PCP. Another little known fact is that it can often get on more than just the assailant if used incorrectly.

Well, fortunately for me, Ariel succeeded in preventing Aurora from shooting it directly into my face, but unfortunately for the three of us, a deadly cloud still ejected out of the can and began to rise into the air in front of us. And it was every bit as potent here in Disney World as it was in the real one.

I don't know whose screams were louder, the two Triton sisters' or mine. What I do know is that the three of us all started running around in pain, howling and clutching at our faces.

Phillip jumped out of his car and slammed the door. "What the hell is going on?"

"Oh my God, babe, I can't see!" Aurora gasped, crying. "Help!"

"You're so stupid, Aurora!" Ariel yelled.

"I tried to save you, you ungrateful little brat!" Aurora wailed as Phillip ran to her and tried to pull her out of harm's way whilst staying out of the path of the gas himself.

"That was my friend, you idiot!" Ariel screamed back at her. "You tried to pepper spray my friend!"

"She succeeded!" I gasped.

Thankfully, our luck wasn't all bad, and because none of us had quite gotten a full-on blast of the foul stuff, Phillip helped us get back inside the house and rinse off our skin. Water by itself doesn't really do much of anything against pepper spray, but hand or dish soap works, as well as shampoo. I was the only one who knew this, so I instructed the others as best I could while trying to treat myself. I hadn't ever intentionally let shampoo get in my eyes before and it hurt just as much as you would expect it might, but after fifteen minutes or so, we had all washed off the remnants of the infernal irritant, and then wiped the skin of our hands and faces with baby wipes.

Needless to say, by the time we all squeezed into Phillip's car, first period was well under way.

"Oh my God, I look terrible!" Aurora groaned, staring into her reflection in the mirror of one of the sun visors. She quickly dug around for a compact mirror and looked into that, as though it would show her something different.

All three of us had bloodshot eyes rimmed with red and flushed faces. Aurora's usual flowing perfect blonde locks were less than cover girl-worthy now, though, and her resulting reaction would have been appropriate for someone finding out they had just been diagnosed with Stage 100 Face Cancer. (I'm a little iffy on the specifics of diagnosing fatal diseases so bear with me on the analogy.)

"Babe, you look fine," Phillip said unconvincingly. I had so far gathered that he was a pretty simple and unassuming fellow, quietly handsome in an unremarkable way. As he drove us to school, though, he looked a little frazzled. I couldn't really blame him.

"No I don't, Phillip, don't lie to me!" Aurora cried. "I look like I dowsed my face in boiling water! I look like a broiled chicken! This is completely unacceptable for a cheer captain!"

"If you ask me, I think it's an improvement!" Ariel said, rather snarkily. She too was looking much less perky than her typical self, her vibrant fire truck-red hair hanging a little more limply on her narrow shoulders than usual.

"Shut up, Ariel, this is all your fault!"

"What are you talking about? It's your fault! I didn't make you spray that stuff!"

"It's his fault!" Aurora snapped, turning around to look spitefully back at me. "He's the one who jumped out of the bushes like a total weirdo!"

I was crammed next to Ariel in the less-than-roomy backseat of the Mustang, trying not to get choked out by my own knees and hoping to quietly avoid any negative attention, which I knew was the only attention I was going to get after this latest screw-up.

"Hey, for the thousandth time, I'm sorry," I said. "Really. But I got attacked by a raccoon."

"Who gets attacked by a raccoon?" Aurora demanded, tears welling in her eyes. "I've literally never heard of that happening to anyone!"

"Apparently I did!" I retorted. "Maybe you people should have someone come and take care of that, because you've got rabid animals prowling around in your bushes trying to maul people! You're lucky I don't sue!"

"What were you doing in our bushes?!"

I didn't really have an answer for that so I played it innocent, if a tad overdramatic. "I was just taking a walk, minding my own business, when I was attacked by a giant bloodthirsty raccoon. It all happened so fast, like a furry bolt of lightning. It might have been a small bear, I don't even know. I'm just lucky I survived."

"There are no bears in Atlantica," Aurora snottily informed me.

"Shows what you know."

"Can we all just stop arguing," Phillip asked. "You guys are driving me crazy...you're gonna make me crash Samson."

"You named your car 'Samson?'" I asked him.

"Cool name, right?"

Debatable. But I didn't have the heart to say it. Ariel, on the other hand, had no such misgivings.

"You're so lame, Phillip!"

"Hey, do you want to walk to school?" Phillip demanded.

Ariel just crossed her arms and silently stared out the window.

"Thank you. As I was saying, Samson is a perfect name for a perfect vehicle. It invokes a strength and fierceness that is fitting of a Disney High Lion like myself!"

"Please stop bragging about naming inanimate objects, Phillip," said Aurora, closing her eyes wearily. "You're giving me a headache."

"I swear, I should make all of you walk."

"Hey, I think Samson is a greatname," I lied, earning a dirty look from Ariel.

When we got to the school, the four of us had to check in with Mrs. Potts at the front office and when we explained that three of us had been pepper sprayed, she immediately sent us all to Ms. Tweed, who was the school nurse. She was a pleasant gray-haired woman whose office was filled with pictures of foxes. While she was examining us, two men entered the office as well. The first, Jafar, looked incredibly irritated. The second, a strapping, shaggy-haired blond man with a goatee and some type of crisp security uniform, looked more amused than anything.

"What is this business I'm hearing about you all being pepper sprayed?" Jafar immediately demanded, bulging eyes scanning the room for an answer.

"Hey, I wasn't pepper sprayed," Phillip said quickly, as though this would save him from whatever trouble the rest of us were going to get into. "I had nothing to do with any of this."

Jafar wheeled around on him. "Then why are you still here?"

"Good question, sir," Phillip said, jumping up from his seat and ducking out the door so that he wouldn't have to meet Aurora's accusing gaze. "Bye, guys."

Aurora watched him depart as though he were Judas selling out Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.

Jafar, however, was more interested in me, of course. "Why am I not surprised to see you in the middle of this, boy?"

"I was an innocent victim," I said. "We all were."

"I warned you about not getting into trouble!" Jafar hissed. "Second day of school, I repeat, the second day! And you have already succeeded in macing both daughters of our school district's superintendent! Do you have any idea how this looks?"

"He didn't do it!" Ariel piped up, braver than I would have ever given her credit for. "Aurora's the one who sprayed."

"It was just an accident," Aurora said. "I was startled is all. It's just a misunderstanding, Mr. Jafar. We're okay. Well, I think we're okay."

Jafar glanced at Nurse Tweed. "Are they?"

"I think they're going to be fine," she responded. "Although their eyes may remain irritated for much of the day."

Jafar was still seething. "This is unbelievable. Our school is going to be the laughing stock of the district if this gets out."

"It's really not that big a deal," I said. "None of us are hurt, and-"

"Not that big a deal?!" Jafar screamed at me, spit flying from his mouth. "Not that big a DEAL?! How dare you try to undermine the scope of this to me, as if you have any idea what your actions may have caused!"

"I didn't do anything except accidentally get shot in the face with pepper spray!" I whined. "I didn't even do it at school!"

"This goes beyond my authority," Jafar continued. "Disciplinary code is handled by Mr. Frollo. We will have to alert him immediately. Your wanton conduct will have consequences at this school, boy, mark my words."

My stomach had already begun to sink at the mention of "Frollo." If there was anyone I didn't want to have the attention of, it was that guy.

"Well, actually, sir," spoke up the blond man for the first time, "since the incident occurred off campus, we really don't have any liability or involvement in it. So I don't see how we can really get off punishing any of them."

"It's not them I want to punish, Phoebus," snarled Jafar. "It's him. I've had a bad feeling ever since he arrived and I don't think it's a coincidence that something like this just happened to involve his miserable hide. I refuse to let the boy walk away scot-free from everything."

"That's not fair!" Ariel protested. "He didn't do anything, we already told you!"

"She's right, sir," said Phoebus. "It just appears to be a misunderstanding. We don't have any real authority over them off campus, and I don't think Mr. Frollo will appreciate being pulled into something that's ultimately unnecessary."

"These are the superintendent's daughters."

"I'm aware of that. We should really leave things up to him, if anyone. But if you're worried about this turning into a spectacle, we should just keep the whole thing quiet. The kid didn't pull the trigger. He was on the receiving end. And both girls say it was an accident, no malicious intent involved on either side. For all intents and purposes, it appears to be nothing more than just that. If you make this into a big deal, it'll be blown out of proportion and that's the last thing any of us want."

Jafar glared at us while he mulled over Phoebus' words.

"This kind of embarrassment is exactly what Disney High School takes pride in not allowing to occur."

"And we didn't allow it to occur," replied Phoebus. "It happened off campus. All we can really do is send them to class and tell them to shut their mouths. Speaking as captain of the campus police, I can assure you that we don't have much authority to do otherwise."

"I think considering the particular female students involved, we should at least consult Ms. Maleficent and Mr. Frollo," said Jafar.

"We don't need any special treatment," said Ariel.

"Ariel, be quiet," whispered Aurora.

"That is not for you to decide!" Jafar snapped at Ariel.

"Consult them if you want, sir," said Phoebus, "but until then, I think we shouldn't let them miss any more class than they have. If we let them out now, I think they can still make it in time for most of second period."

All Jafar could do was scowl and relent, much to my eternal relief. Before we were given passes to depart the nurse's office, however, he made sure to whisper to me so that no one else could hear, "I know you're not nearly as innocent as you're pretending to be. You were lucky today, but your luck won't last forever. I can promise you that."

I really shouldn't have said anything but he was getting on my nerves, so I asked, "How is getting pepper sprayed considered lucky?"

Jafar's face screwed up with utter hatred, which really made me wonder how anybody could think that that man would ever make a good high school guidance counselor. He was about as emotionally healthy as Hitler, but without the alleged love of animals to even remotely balance him out. (Although, he did seem to be pretty attached to that ugly parrot of his.)

"Mark my words, boy. You are going to misstep, and when you do, I'll be there to make sure you pay the full price."

The way Jafar pronounced words made him sound like a snake, and his breath had a sour, unpleasant smell to it. I was only much too happy to depart from his presence. As I left, though, I caught Phoebus throwing a wink at me.

Though I appreciated his getting me out of my undeserved trouble, I still wasn't sure that I trusted him. He worked too closely with a lot of villainous types and I imagined that if my current streak of consistently mucking up my time here carried on forward, I would probably end up in campus law enforcement's bad graces before long. It was only inevitable.

Plus, he probably had a thing for Esmeralda if canon was anything to go by and I didn't like the idea of any more competition for her body than I already had from the rest of the student body. (See what I did there? I'll wait…)

Aurora, Ariel, and I began walking towards the classroom buildings, grateful to leave the administration building in our wake. I'm pretty sure all of us felt a little uneasy after listening to Jafar's imbalanced tirade. I was worried that I would soon be facing the wrath of Frollo, and the two sisters had to be thinking of how their father would react when he found out.

"Hey, so I think we'll be okay," I found myself saying, perhaps more to myself than to them. "You heard Phoebus. They can't get us in trouble for something that happened off campus."

"You don't live with my father!" Aurora said to me, blue eyes flashing. "He's going to blow a gasket when he hears about this distraction!"

"Maybe it'll give him an actual reason to worry about us for once," Ariel said.

"Shut up, Ariel," snapped Aurora. "You don't even know what you're talking about."

"Hey come on," I said. "It was just an accident. I'm sure he'll understand."

Aurora just glared at me. "You just keep your distance from me, okay? I don't get into trouble, ever, and I've heard how you're already making the wrong kind of waves. You might think it's cool or funny to be a rebel, but I don't want to get caught up in any of your influences."

"All I did was fall out of a bush trying to say hello!" I objected. "Then you tried to shoot me."

But she was already walking as fast as she could to put some distance between us. Ariel and I watched her go in bemusement.

"Well, I can tell that she just adores me, doesn't she?" I commented, thinking about how next to impossible it would be now to try and get into her chastity belt.

"She is such an uptight little princess," Ariel grumbled. "I'm glad she got knocked down a couple notches today. Shook up her perfect little world."

"Yeah, well maybe she has a point," I admitted. "I do seem to be a magnet for trouble."

"I don't think you're trouble," Ariel said, smiling sweetly at me.

I shook my head, not wanting to get distracted by those big innocent eyes, and said, "Okay, go on to class. You should probably avoid my company for a while. I'm sure they're all gonna be talking about me. You don't wanna get caught up in that either."

"I'm not worried about what any of them say about us," Ariel assured me.

I didn't like the way she said 'us.'

"Okay, well, still. For my sake, put a little space between us. The faculty's probably gonna be looking at me under a microscope now and they won't like seeing you around me."

"Let them think what they want!" she declared courageously. "They don't have to own us! We're our own people!"

"Okay, see, when you say 'us,' it gives off the impression that there is an 'us' at all, and I'm not sure I agree with-"

"Oh, save it," Ariel continued, undeterred. "It's not like you have any other friends, right? Except for Belle. And she hardly counts because she probably just feels sorry for you. Face it. I'm pretty much all you have."

"No, you're not," I said. "Now go on and get to your class. I have to go to Senior History, you know, the one that you're not in because it's for seniors?"

Ariel pouted. "Keep rubbing in my face that I'm younger than you."

"I'm gonna keep doing it until you realize it's true."

"I'm eighteen at heart, if not in age!"

"You and me both, apparently," I said. "Now go."

Ariel started to walk in a different direction than me but made sure to call out as she went, "You can't deny what we have, Shane! We're in this together!"

"There is no 'this!'" I yelled back at her. "And no 'together' either!" But she acted like she wasn't listening.

Frustrated, I entered Building 4 and made my way to History. I had briefly thought about skipping it altogether but decided that my profile was just a little too high. I had skated by getting in trouble for the pepper spray incident by the skin of my teeth, and I knew I still might not be out of hot water yet if Jafar had his way about it. (How many clichéd phrases were just in that one sentence just now? Three? That might be my new personal record. Log it in the Mary-Sue books, boys.)

When I entered the classroom, I could feel all the eyes on me. I noticed Tiana, Pocahontas, and stoic old Glen Kocoum at the front, as well as Jasmine and Eric bickering somewhere in the middle. Of course, the class got all quiet once I walked in. Not wanting to make guilty eye contact with anyone, I handed Professor Porter my note and went to find a seat near the back. To my surprise, I saw one open by none other than Jim Hawkins, who I hadn't even noticed was in this class yesterday.

"What's up, New Guy?" he asked me with a grin. Fortunately, he seemed not to be hung up on whatever weird mood my mentioning of Meg yesterday had left him in. "I thought you might already be trying to ditch class like a boss. Were you?"

I just shook my head.

"Then why are you coasting in halfway through the middle?" he asked. "There's no way that note you had was legit, was it?"

I sighed. "Look, man, I don't really wanna talk about it because I want to try and keep a lower profile, but there was a little accident before school that made me late."

Jim looked at my bloodshot eyes. "Your eyes are pretty red." He glanced around and lowered his voice. "You faded right now?"

"No!"

He grinned and swallowed laughter. "Because I'm totally faded right now."

I stared at him. "Seriously?"

Still snickering, he shrugged. "I dunno. You want to keep secrets, I'll keep secrets too."

"I'm not keeping secrets."

"No, no, it's cool, dude. I mean, I lent you my extra gym clothes yesterday and got you out of trouble with Rourke, but no, don't worry about it. It's all good. You don't have to tell me anything, it's not like we're friends or anything. No, no, you just keep it to yourself."

I groaned. "You're really doing a good job of making me look like an asshole when I'm not trying to be one."

"Mr. Barrera!" Mr. Porter said suddenly. "It's bad enough you missed the first half of class due to absence. I would appreciate it if you don't miss the second half by talking to Mr. Hawkins the entire time!"

"Sorry," I said, sinking in my seat as Jim tried not to choke on his own sniggers. He certainly seemed like he could be stoned if his uncontrollable laughter was any indication.

I tried to be a model student the rest of class but it was a pretty futile effort. Porter already looked annoyed with me. When the bell rang, I walked out with Jim, who I figured probably had his own negative reputation. Tiana was waiting for me over by the lockers.

"Hey, so what's the deal?" she asked me.

I sighed. "With what?"

"Hi, Tiana," said Jim with a pleasant smile.

She paid him a brief sideways glance. "I'm sorry, have we met?" She looked back at me. "Belle said she got a pretty interesting text from Ariel…"

"Ugh," I said. "Can we just not talk about it?"

"Talk about what?" Jim asked. "Tiana knows and I don't? I'm offended. Did she secretly let you borrow some clothes too? Her bra or something?"

"You're disgusting," she said to him, then looked back at me again. "Well?"

"I thought you hate drama!" I said, annoyed.

"I do!" she retorted. "I'm just trying to confirm if the ridiculous story is true! I've heard a lot in my day, but this might be the most random."

"Why do you wanna know, so that you can spread it around the whole school?"

"No, so I can know to avoid you because you're a drama magnet!"

"If you wanna avoid me, then do it," I said. "The whole thing was just a misunderstanding and they're trying to crucify me over it."

"You guys are killing me!" said Jim, but he looked like he was very much enjoying the whole scene.

"Please, if you want to go die, be my guest, Hawkins," said Tiana. "Shane, if you don't want to tell me, that's just fine with me. But you know I'm not the type to spread rumors."

"It's true," Jim confirmed. "She hates drama. Everyone knows it."

"Oh, can it, Hawkins," she said. "Like YOU know anything about me."

"Hey, I'm part of 'everyone.'"

"You and YOUR crowd don't even qualify as students here. You're more like the bugs I set traps for at my restaurant. Unwelcome and too dumb not to poison yourselves to death."

"I'm sure the bugs can't resist. I bet your traps are just as delicious as the rest of your cooking."

"You wish you could eat any of my cooking."

Jim winked at her. "I wish I could eat any of you."

Tiana let out a loud noise of disgust and took a swing at him, but Jim was too quick. He jumped nimbly out of the way, giggling like a six-year old.

"Are you two finished?" I asked.

"Yes, I'm done!" Tiana proclaimed. "I've had it with your foolishness. The both of you. I know you're still new here, Shane, but try to find a better crowd to hang out with. Jim and Al are just gonna get you into more trouble."

I turned accusingly to Jim. "So you do hang out with Aladdin!"

"What, I never said I didn't."

"You never said you did."

He shrugged. "I tried to tell you he's not a bad guy, just misunderstood."

"I don't know who to trust around here," I said. "You got me talking about girls and then I went and talked about Meg and Esmeralda, and you got all weird. Thanks for telling me you actually dated one of them."

"Hey, I don't care about Esmeralda," Jim said. "I mean, she's a good friend, but go for it if you want to. Disney knows she doesn't care what I think."

"Nobody does," said Tiana.

"And yet you're still here!" he said, drawing out a frustrated noise from her. Unperturbed, he turned back to me. "So seriously, don't worry about that. I learned long ago that she won't let little old me stop her from anything."

I shook my head. "What about Meg? You got all weird when I talked about her."

"Tell me those aren't the two you're most interested in," Tiana lamented. "Those shady chickenheads stole your lunch and made you look like a total punk! Tell me you've got better taste!"

"I'm sorry, Tiana, are you jealous or something?" Jim asked her. "If you'd like to hang out with my crowd, you only have to ask. Really."

"Okay that's it," she said, turning. "I really am leaving now. Good luck with this one, Shane. You're gonna need it, you poor, misguided child."

We watched her walk away down the stairs.

"She really is pretty cute," Jim said. "You think she actually hates me?"

"Tiana doesn't seem like the type to mince her words," I said.

He sighed. "You get used to the hatred around here. Even though one of our core school platitudes is 'love and acceptance.' Or is that two school platitudes?"

"You never answered me about Meg," I said.

"It's a complicated story," he said. "Hey, it's break time. Why don't we step out of here and we can fill each other in on all of our little mysteries."

I did want to get a breath of fresh air, so I followed him down the stairs and out the door. But before he could start talking, I said, "Look, man, I think I need to go hide away somewhere alone. No offense, but it seems like you have a certain reputation, so if any of the teachers see me kicking it with you right now, they're probably gonna think that you're involved. I don't wanna drag you down with me."

At first, Jim looked like he wanted to argue, but then he stopped himself. "Okay, fair enough. Just a warning, though, if one person knows about it, the whole school will know about it by lunch."

"Why?" I asked, temporarily having forgotten how high school works.

Jim smiled apologetically. "That's just the way it goes around here. All the people at this school are too bored with their lives to not let every little scrap of gossip circulate around like a wildfire. If secrets were gonorrhea, we'd all be getting regular treatment for the clap by now."

"Maybe those of us involved will keep our mouths shut," I said, thinking about Ariel's bubbly personality and not really believing a word of it.

Jim laughed. "Not likely, dude. The only people who know how to keep secrets are the people with really scandalous ones. And those individuals all happen to be the ones I hang out with. So you can keep that in mind."

He started to walk off and I couldn't help but call after him, "If they're so good at keeping secrets, why are there so many rumors about them?"

Jim grinned as he walked backwards away from me. "That's exactly why! Nobody knows the truth so they make stuff up. We invented the art of keeping things on the D.L. Think about it."

Glumly, I went to go find a secluded spot to sit in and try to not be noticed. But I could see people looking at me, and the whispers already beginning to circulate, as Jim had predicted. It could have been just paranoia on my part, but I could tell by the way most of them were looking at me, that they had at least heard something. Or they were making stuff up at this point. Either way, it wasn't looking good. They say all publicity is good publicity, but unless all of the girls had a hankering for a bad boy (which I quickly doubted after seeing how Aurora had handled this morning's aftermath), I was going to have some serious trouble winning over some of the more conservative Disney heroines. And I could only imagine how much Aurora and Phillip were badmouthing me to their "popular" friends.

Not that I cared about being popular in a make-believe high school or anything.

The only thing I could really hope for at the moment was that Jafar hadn't mentioned anything to Frollo. Because Ethics was next. And I really wasn't looking forward to that.

{So, I just want to thank everyone for the really kind reviews. I must say, I'm feeling a bit humbled by the nice words that have been written. I'm very glad to be entertaining you guys and I'm glad you seem to like both Shane and Belle as characters. Their dynamic is fun to write.

Concerning the question about whether Peter Pan will show up, I will say that YES! Both Peter Pan and Tinkerbell are both going to be making appearances relatively soon. There are actually more than a handful of characters we haven't met yet who are going to popping up as the story progresses. And as for the concern about Jasmine "being bitchy," I feel you, but unfortunately because it is a high school story, some of the characters have to fulfill the snotty and popular roles. So the bitchiness is somewhat inevitable. However, that being said, do not fret! Everyone will get their due (mostly) and we will see other sides of characters.

That's actually one of the main running themes of the whole story, whether these characters are just one-dimensional archetypes or whether any of them actually resemble nuanced, dynamic, three-dimensional people. You'll have to hop on for the ride and see if any of them do!

Anyway, once again, thanks for taking the time to review. I really do appreciate each one, and I try to take questions, concerns, comments, etc. into consideration as I write (because ultimately a story like this is written to entertain.) So let me know what you guys think and I will try to get working on the next chapter. We'll see how long this "consistently-updating" streak will last. (I was actually pretty good about it originally until the end of the semester made me have to focus on other things, leading into the summer.) See you soon!}