Dani's POV
"Everyone up!" I jumped awake to the sound of Mrs. B shouting and clanging a large bell. Rubbing my eyes, I watched Belle walk out the bathroom in our train compartment, showered, dressed, and ready to go with a smile on her face. Our school counselor rang the bell again, and I could practically imagine her purple cloak swishing around, hood over her short white hair. Maleficent shot up this time, even more shocked than I was.
"What's going on? Are we under attack? I got this, don't worry I take martial arts." Maleficent was in a frenzy, grabbing all the weapons she could find, and I quickly spoke up.
"Hey, we're fine. I don't know what we're getting up for, but from the sounds of it it's nothing too bad," I calmed her and grabbed the objects from her hands. "Besides, anyone strong enough to go after Disney can't be taken down with a fuzzy, dark purple lamp." Maleficent blushed and giggled at this.
"Sorry, I just grabbed what I could find," she explained. Belle laughed with us and slung her backpack over her shoulder.
"Bye, I'm meeting up with Snow!" Belle said before closing the door gently. I waved back as I started to grab clothes to wear. I normally shower in the mornings, rather than at night, but yesterday Court had accidentally splashed me with mud while jumping in puddles on the way to the train, which I have constantly told her not to do after the age of 6, so I was already clean from scrubbing extremely thoroughly three times the night before.
The three sets of core teachers had come along so we still had to take those classes, but I changed into my dress (hey, calm down, we're all girls) quickly in order to leave more time to find where to go first, whereas Maleficent flopped down in bed. Mrs. B, whose real last name was too long like Bibbidi-Bobbidi-something-or-other, came down the hall again, especially loud and telling us it was our last warning. Aurora began to lazily stretch and open her eyes.
"Morning! Do we have to leave n-" Maleficent cut off Aurora's question with a pillow right to the face.
"Yeah, so get up quick, lazy," she joked. An offended Aurora sat up, dirty blonde hair already smooth and perfect.
"Um, excuse you, but you aren't even up either!" Aurora pointed out to her best friend as she began digging through her drawers. I smirked to myself while clipping my usual over-sized striped bow to the top of my ponytail, listening to the two of them tease as they always did.
"All right, all right, I'm up. Besides, it takes me half the time you take to get ready in the morning." The ebony-haired girl reminded Aurora as she changed in record speed. Aurora didn't even argue, only rolling her pale blue eyes and playfully giving her tongue a wobble. I quickly double-checked all the items in my backpack, grabbed a granola bar, then walked towards the door.
"Bye!" I waved behind me to Aurora, who was attempting to put blush on Maleficent, and the victim of her makeup attack who was strategically dodging the fluffy brush. I saw their distracted half-waves as I locked the door. I wish we still got to take electives. We still had to take core classes, but the two hours of electives was replaced with Disney Prep & Training class.
No one had really told us where Prep & Training would take place, just to go to your core car when it was your elective period. I knocked on the Court's door. Luckily for me, the CCDY (Calliope-Clio-DeVil-Yzma) core car was right next to the car my dorm was in.
My teachers were alright for the most part, except for De Vil and Yzma. Well, mostly De Vil, Yzma was easy to deal with if you got on her good side and obeyed her every whim. Ms. De Vil yelled at me on the first day for solving a badly worded problem wrong. It was something along the lines of "there are 50 puppies with 40 spots and 49 puppies with 34 spots. How many puppies are there in total?" I had said 99 because clearly the number of spots was a distraction and 50 + 49 = 99. Ms. De Vil, however, said it was 101 because the puppies had parents. I had been extremely annoyed because 1) the problem said nothing about parents and 2) even if it did, the parents would count as full-grown dogs and not puppies, so I was still correct. Then Ms. De Vil had gone on a full rampage on how I wasn't listening to directions she didn't give, and I swear I saw steam coming out of her ears. It's not just me she hates, but I'm certainly at the top of her hate list. Another kid got in trouble because she overheard him joking that she probably made her spotted fur coat by skinning all the puppies in the problem.
Calliope and Clio were really great, and a lot of their lessons went hand-in-hand, making workload easier for us. They used to be in an acapella group together, along with Thalia, the comedy teacher, Melpomene, the drama teacher, and Terpsichore, the dance teacher. The two still had a habit of occasionally singing fictional stories or historical stories in class. And damn, can they sing.
"Sorry!" Court said once she opened the door, Jessie following after. "I didn't hear Mrs. B ringing the bell and Jessie had to wake me up by yodeling in my ear," Court explained as we walked to Maddie's room, across the wide hall.
"I knew my yodeling would come in use some day when I'm not on the farm," Jessie said proudly.
"It sure helped me go deaf," Court complained with a light smile, just before Alice answered my knock.
"Hey, sorry, Maddie's in the bathroom making sure her skirt and shoes are the same shade of pink. She's certain the skirt is the tiniest bit lighter." I laughed, knowing that sounded exactly like something Maddie would worry about. Maddie came running to the door, steps surprisingly light for high heels.
"Same shade! We're all set!" I rolled my eyes and was about to laugh when Maddie stopped me. "Hey, you can't complain, 'cause you once made me and Court sit in a supply store for FOREVER just because you wanted to make sure the color of your file tabs matched the binder for each according subject EXACTLY."
"Touché," I gave in, smiling sheepishly. We were almost to the CCDY car when Court stopped suddenly.
"Oh, Jessie, don't you have to get going to the boys dorm cars for your brothers?" Jessie smacked her palm to her freckled face in realization.
"Aw, I bet they're mad I'm so late. Thanks for reminding me! Gotta gallop, gals, see you later!" the energetic redhead hurriedly shouted as she left with a wink and a tip of her cowgirl hat, running off amazingly fast. We laughed as we watched the dust settle behind her, her constantly contagious and cheerful mood waking me up a bit more.
"Well, I guess we should get going," Alice laughed. "Everyone had breakfast, right?"
"I mean, I could always go for more but- Ow!" Court abruptly stopped as a I smacked her in the arm lightly.
"Knowing you, you probably already ate a full lunch meal for breakfast, and I wanna get to the CCDY car early, so no more food!" I scolded the strangely stick-thin girl with the appetite of a black hole.
"Fine," she giggled, reassured by the knowledge that she would eat a ton during brunch break.
Once at the core car, we were greeted by the sound of Mrs. B shouting for all 1st period elective students to stand around her while she wove her wand like crazy, making me afraid she would accidentally shoot off some spell. She was a nice woman, but a little eccentric.
"Attention, please? Ok, settle down. Now, as you all know, this class is to help prepare for Disneyland. You are going to have to remember a lot of important tricks you may have to use to blend with the human crowd, so be listening carefully and writing things down." I grinned, while Court pouted at this news, always more prone to a good party or a game of capture the flag. "You will choose comfortable human clothes to wear at Disneyland and during prep classes, since we will be practicing defense moves." At this, Court jumped with glee ignoring my paled face. Anything movement related was not my thing. "All this awaits in your classroom," Mrs. B finished, then tapped her wand three times on the wall where a door was revealed.
Upon entering a large field of grass, we noticed other kids from other core sets arriving from doors to our right. Among them was Jessie, and a boy with a brown cowboy hat to match his hair who she dragged along with her once she noticed us, to his exasperation.
"Hey y'all! I didn't know we were gonna combine classes, did you?" I was about to reply when she continued. "I normally have art right now, but for obvious reasons I'm here. What do you guys have? Oh right, band. Court told me 'bout that, sounds mighty fun. I wish I could take that class, but I can't seem to make a single sound come out o' those squiggly instruments!" Jessie added to this statement by crossing her eyes and rolling them away from each other as if showing just how squiggly the instruments were. I could see why she and Court hit it off; her rambling could give Court a run for her money. "Oh, and this is Woody, my brother! My real one, not like Andy. Andy's family adopted us. Though I'm sure Court's told you 'cause I told her just the other day how this happened. Why do they say 'just the other day'? Which day? How do you know for sure? Well, I know I told Court two days ago so-"
"Jessie!" Woody lightly pulled on one of his twin sister's braids to get her to stop talking, probably because he noticed we were all extremely overwhelmed, besides Court. Although, I suppose Alice had it hardest, having not known Court either. Least I had experience.
"Sorry 'bout that, I get a little off track sometimes," Jessie apologized, a blush covering her freckles.
"But, uh, yeah, I'm Woody, nice to meet you." He held out his hand, a genuine smile on his face. "Thanks for puttin' up with her, she's a real hard bushel to lasso. I'm gonna go find Andy, he's got this period elective, too." With a smile and a tip of his cowboy hat, he was off. I watched him calmly walk away, saying polite "howdy"s here and there, my mouth gaping open.
"Are you SURE you two are related?" I questioned Jessie, not believing such contrasting personalities could be siblings, much less twins. The others seemed to be thinking the same thing, even Court.
"Yessiree! I know, we're so different. I mean, just look at my freckles!" We all blinked at her obliviousness until Alice awkwardly changed the subject.
"So, you only have two siblings then?" I zoned out for a bit as Jessie replied, scouting around for the teacher. We had been talking for a while and still no adults were present to take control. I tutted, extremely disapproving of disorganized staff. Well, disapproving of disorganized ANYTHING, really, but staff was even worse. I mean, they're adults who are trained to do things right! Sure, people make mistakes but- I checked my striped watch- by 10 minutes?! I shook my head and turned my attention back to Jessie.
"And I guess Hamm counts as a sibling, we treat him like a family member even though he's a pig, not human, and Buster, the dog, Rex the lizard- oh, Rex is the cutest. He tries to be all intimidating and sometimes opens his mouth wide and tries to roar like a dinosaur, but you can't hear anything, and if you try to get him to use his hands to grab something, he looks like a T. Rex with his short little arms, and that's how he got his name." We laughed, but our conversation was cut off.
"ATTENTION!" I jumped six feet in the air as a stern, broad shouldered Chinese guy appeared out of nowhere in front of the group of students. He was also shirtless, which Maleficent, who I just noticed, did not hesitate to point out, wolf-whistling and saying rather loudly, "Damn, I'd take a ride on him over a train any day." Aurora immediately shushed her, and the other girls around them tried to hide their blushes and snickers at her embarrassing bluntness. Lucky for her, he was too busy glaring at other girls who commented even louder on his abs.
The crowd settled and I began to wonder where the guy was from. Maybe he was just a DSD high school student I had never seen around before, because he was definitely older than us, but too young to be out of high school. That wouldn't make sense, though, since all the high schoolers were out on their continued Story training as well.
"When you're on the battlefield, anything sudden and unexpected, such as my appearance, must be reacted to with alertness, caution, and a calm yet firm stature." A girl on the far right of the field snickered at the way he described Disneyland as a battlefield, and earned herself a glare. I'm assuming she was Mulan because of the mass of thick orange curls next to her straight black hair that was Merida, and I knew the two of them were usually joined at the hip. "I'm Shang, and I will be coaching the combative part of your Story Development training. Humans may not seem capable of much, but avoid interaction at all costs, because even we suffer from knowing too much about the human world. It is set in a different time period in the future, and they know the endings of our stories. The certainty of your own story ending may very well result in the end of your existence. Any questions?" There was a pause between his nearly Court-paced talking as he glanced around the students whose moods had been dampened by his serious tone. "Alright, now the clothes should be here any moment, and choose wisely as you will need to be able to do all exercises in class in these outfits and in Disneyland." Right after, racks of clothes appeared before us, and a wide grin spread on Maddie's face, as picking out clothes was her home turf. The field filled with chatter again, students discussing options with their friends and joking about human clothes, as they seemed so odd compared to character outfits which were more extravagant, yet normal in our eyes.
"Guys, dresses over here! Human dresses sure are... Flat," she commented disappointedly as we made our way over. Sure enough, even the wilder human dresses would take some getting used to, as we always wore poofy-skirted dresses with trademark patterns. "This one or this one?" she asked, holding up two.
"By the way, you only have 5 minutes!" Shang shouted. We glanced at each other wide eyed,watching as each of our moods shifted drastically from casual and fun to panicked frenzy mode. Always one to take charge, I started ordering.
"I'll get shoes, Maddie will stay and get dresses, Court will get shirts, Jessie will get shorts, and Alice will get skirts. No time to pick and choose, grab everything you think is good." I said the last part pointedly at Court, knowing her to be very indecisive. After giving each other our sizes and style preferences quickly, we separated and joined together just in time, successful in choice. Shang blew a whistle, and the racks immediately disappeared.
"Good, good. You actually had 15 minutes, nice going." We all gaped at him, appalled he made us freak out and stress over such a small yet important thing when we could've taken our time. He ignored our grumbles and whispered complaints and continued. "Once you focus, you can accomplish what you think cannot be accomplished." He blew the whistle again and random outfits from our pile appeared on us. I bet Mrs. B just waves her wand every time she hears the whistle. "10 laps around the field, last to finish by an interval larger than 15 seconds runs an extra lap!" Everyone groaned loudly at this. The field was pretty big, probably a half mile around. Was he really going to make us run 5 miles?! Not wanting to waste air on complaining out loud, we all reluctantly began running. Next to me, Maddie scoffed.
"Let's see him try to run FIVE frickin miles when he's on his period." I could currently also understand Maddie's pain, and I just prayed my cramps wouldn't kick in.
"I think he is," I responded with an eye roll as we heard him yell at a kid for stopping to tie his shoelace.
After an hour and 5 pounds of sweat, blood, and tears had gone by, the whole class was done. By now I was cool, as my friends and I had finished roughly 10 minutes ago.
"Grandma, is that you?" Maddie joked, stretching her hand up to the sky as she lay on her back in the middle of the field. I smiled and rolled my eyes at her dramatics, pushing her arm back down.
"You're not gonna die from running Maddie."
"Wh-" she sat up angrily. "What did you just say? Do you see me? I am dead. DEAD. I will most certainly die from running! Making me run is like making an orange taste like an apple: it simply cannot be done without destroying the orange because it is not in its nature to taste like an apple, nor is it in the nature of humanity and all that is good in the world for me to run." With an exasperated sigh, she flopped on the field again. "Lord have mercy on the less fortunate and put me out of this misery that is exercise and health."
"Oh come on, it wasn't that bad," Alice noted.
"Easy for you to say, you're way more fit! If it weren't for the kindness of your heart you would've left me and Dani in the dust after the first lap." I nodded at this, remembering how Alice seemed to be holding back a lot when she ran with the two of us. I was also a terrible runner, but I just didn't mind it as much as Maddie.
"I could be nowhere near as fast as Court and Jessie though." We glanced at the two of them now, sleeping and using their arms as a pillow. "I can't believe they took barely over 30 minutes and had the time to nap afterwards." Shang began to stand after lecturing Mulan, who had barely made it under 15 seconds behind the second to last runner and I quickly nudged Jessie and Court awake. They shot up with a surprising amount of energy and seemed completely unfazed by the five miles they just ran and the nap they just awoke from.
"Good job... Some of you," Shang spoke loudly, pointedly staring at Mulan. "Last 35 minutes you will take notes with Mrs. B." At this, everyone cheered up. Sitting still behind a desk didn't sound bad at all compared to what Shang was making us do. "Don't think that just because we're getting to Disneyland tonight we won't keep running tomorrow! Mrs. B can recreate this field very easily and don't complain. It's for your own good I'm making you all man up!"
"Man up? You wanna see what a girl can do? Why you little-" I quickly covered Maddie's mouth as she fired off obscenities and dragged her towards the wall we came from, where Mrs. B had lined up chairs and desks.
Maddie, Dani, and Court's POV
"We're here!" Jessie shouted, waving the rest of us over to the floor-to-ceiling windows in their room where all the girls had pushed together seats in preparation for our first view of Disneyland. It was night, and the sky was a beautiful indigo, the stars twinkling brightly behind the large Disney castle. We were hovered above Main Street, but no one else could see the train or us, of course. The park was still rather crowded below us, as it was still just after 9 o'clock. More and more people began to flock into Main Street quickly, as if waiting for something. All of a sudden, the castle began to glow colors as an image was projected., and a woman's voice began to narrate of how Walt Disney had created this park 60 years ago, and of course, how it all started with a mouse, which Maddie smile proudly at.
All of a sudden, a large blast exploded and colors burst through the sky.
"FIREWORKS!" we all squealed. Color after color, all shapes and sizes, different heights, directions... It was a crazy mess of fireworks in the air, and it was beautiful. The fireworks were extravagant, but that wasn't the only thing that made the view amazing. It was that for some reason, the explosions represented all the ideas Disney had created, all the stories made into movies, dreams turned into reality. A spell had been cast on the train so we couldn't see images of movies that were no doubt being projected and the music was faded to protect our own story futures, but we could still hear the songs that had no lyrics and didn't give away explicit story details. That music was filled with stories, too. We may not have been able to know the stories, but we could feel the presence of moments in stories through the music: when the characters fall in love, when the villain is introduced, the exposition, and, of course, the happy ending. Those were all basic story parts we had learned, but hadn't really understood. No amount of notes, reading, or studying could teach me as much as watching the castle and the sky hanging over it light up.
I had never been to Disneyland before. In fact, I still technically hadn't been. The word Disney had always just been a family and school name to me. But in this moment, watching the last few sparkles shimmer down, I knew I couldn't end up sorting files in the school office as a cartoon mouse. I belonged here.
A/N: AHHHHHHHH GOING TO DISNEYLAND ON A BAND TRIP NEXT WEDNESDAY AHHHHHHH SO EXCITED! Fun fact: I used to go to Disneyland once every two years until 6th grade, when I started going once a year, and it's not planned or anything, it just happens that way ? also thank you so much dawgofdawgness for making sure I didn't turn each chapter into the length of a novel. Still kinda upset they split up the three biggest Disney fangirls into different buses on the trip though... ? oh well, the park is the important part. Another fun fact: Maddie, Court, and Dani are based on me and my co-editors. "Court" has left a message down below:
Editor's note: dis gr8 story OMG MY BROTHER IS PLAYING ZOOTOPIA OST ON FULL VOLUME *eats shit* do you guys hear the trash
See the resemblance? Thanks for reading!
Best Blue Fairy Wishes,
Coco