Chapter 11 - How Far I'll Go
The VKs gathered in Uma and Quinn's room, discussing their goal. "The big game against Olympus High is in two weeks. There's a big dance that nice, which is the perfect time to strike." Uma explained. She had a whiteboard covered in squiggles, detailing every step of her master plan. "We need to infiltrate it and make sure I'm the only one who dances with Ben that night."
Harry raised his hook hand to ask a question, but before he could say anything, there was a loud knock. "Surprise inspection, open up!" Someone shouted, immediately trying to open the door. The VKs all panicked, but in very different ways. "This is Lonnie, with the school safety committee. Let me in!"
Harry put all his weight behind the door, trying to keep the intruder out. Quinn rushed to hide the whiteboard in her closet, which was too full of clothes for it to fit, while Dante set himself on fire, ready to fight. Uma, naturally, stood perfectly still and put on a fake polite voice. "We weren't informed about any surprise inspections."
"That's what surprise means." Lonnie said. Mulan's daughter was the head (and only member) of the school safety committee, and took her job very seriously. There was so little crime in Auradon that no one really knew why Auradon Prep even had a safety committee. "I don't tell people when I'm trying to catch them doing something against the rules!"
"But we're exchange students!" Uma replied, nervously playing with her hair. In the background, Quinn was hitting Dante with a fireproof pillow, trying to stop him from setting the whole room on fire. Harry continued to press his body against the door, which Lonnie was still struggling to open. The two seemed equally matched in terms of strength. "We don't know all the rules yet!"
Lonnie paused for a second. "You are new to school..." She shook her head and took a step back. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a small but very wide book, and flipped through it. "There's nothing in the rules about this... but I just started doing surprise inspections this year... You win this time!" Lonnie slammed the book shut and huffed, walking away in defeat.
"We won!" Quinn clapped, as soon as the rules obsessed girl was gone. "I think?" She dropped the pillow she had been trying to smother Dante with, as he gasped for breath. Harry fell onto his back, exhausted from struggling with the door. Uma just sighed and buried her face in her palm.
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The Auradon Prep party planning committee was much larger than the safety committee. There were 12 members, but the most important one was Flynn Ryder Junior, Rapunzel's son, who took after his dad in pretty much every way.
Quinn dramatically entered the room, doing her best to channel her mother. "Listen up, fives! A ten is speaking!" She marched up to Flynn Junior's desk at the front of the room, and slammed a poster down in front of him. "Can we talk? One ten to another?"
"I'm an eleven, but go on." He said, grinning like an idiot. Finally, someone at Auradon understood the importance of drama! Quinn smirked and unrolled her poster. It depicted a silhouetted couple dancing against an undersea backdrop.
"The theme of the dance is going to be Under The Sea." Quinn explained. "No more of this Tale As Old As Time garbage, you guys have done that ten years in a row! It's time for a change!"
The other eleven members of the party planning committee murmured, debating about changing the theme. "Are we even allowed to do that?" Pin, Pinocchio's child, asked. "I don't think the headmistress would approve..."
"The headmistress is too busy to worry about parties. She's got... headmistress things to do." Quinn's charisma was faltering slightly, as she realized that she didn't even know what the Fairy Godmother did. "What's important is that this is what the students want!"
"I agree with Quinn!" Jane spoke up, startling everyone. "I'm... really tired of doing Tale As Old As Time every year. Under The Sea sounds like fun..." She stammered, but everyone seemed to agree with her. Quinn smiled and immediately took Jane's hand, pulling her into the middle of the room. Jane looked like she was going to feint.
"Under the sea! Under the sea! Under the sea!" Quinn chanted. Jane soon joined in, followed by all the other students on the committee. Flynn Junior shrugged and wrote down that they were officially changing the theme of the dance.
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Uma had never been good at cooking. Her mother never taught her how, and the slop shop didn't even really "cook" its food. But today, she was trying her best to not mess things up.
Kronk was walking around the Home Economics class, making sure everyone was doing something. He stopped to check on Uma, who normally spent the class sewing buttons onto things for an easy grade. "Cookies? That's unexpected, coming from you, Miss... uh... Uma."
The blue haired girl wiped some sweat off her brow and stirred the dough with all her might. "Yeah, well, I don't have enough closet room for another hat, so I'm doing this now. You got a problem with that?" She scooped a spoonful of dough out and plopped it down onto the baking sheet.
"No, I'm excited to see you putting some effort into this class!" Kronk said, lifting a hand. Uma immediately tensed up and averted her eyes, only to be surprised by a friendly pat on the back. "Good job!"
The VK sat there, confused by the positivity for a second, before returning to her work. She reached into her pocket and took out a cookie cutter shaped like a seashell, pressing it down on the blobs of cookie dough she'd made. "If these cook just right, no one will ever be able to tell the difference..."
In Uma's other pocket was a picture that she was desperately trying to copy. Ursula's seashell necklace. It was an essential part of her plan, if she could just get it out of the museum without getting arrested first. The thought of having that much power was intimidating. Ursula's necklace and King Triton's trident were supposed to be gifts from their father, Poseidon. Could Uma handle that kind of magic?
She shook her head, trying to focus. "Villains don't doubt themselves." She muttered. "My plan will work. I will get the necklace, I will make Ben fall in love with me, I will..." Uma paused for a second. How long would the love spell last? Would Ben still be following her around, head over heels, when Ursula and the other villains took over the world? That felt needlessly cruel.
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Dante was having a rough time with his part of the plan. He needed to make sure he was in charge of the music for the big dance, but first he needed a band. Back on the Isle, his band, Parental Advisory, played all the time. In Hades' garage, but still. Could he even find three Auradon kids who liked rock and roll?
"What are you up to?" Aziz asked, stopping to stare at Dante's little booth. He had set up in the middle of the school garden, where all the school clubs came to recruit new members. The baking club, the fencing team, the mathletes; they were all outdoing Dante. Even the safety committee!
"I want to restart my band, Parental Advisory Warning." The demigod explained. "But all the students here seem to be..." Two girls with blonde hair walked past his booth, whispering to each other, and quickly walked faster when they saw Dante looking at them. "That."
"Well what's your music like? Maybe you're just playing for the wrong crowd." Aziz sat down next to his boyfriend and stared attentively. "Play me something!"
"Yeah, you'll love this!" The flames that made up Dante's hair grew brighter to match his excitement. He pulled his guitar out from underneath the booth and started playing. "This is my favorite song." He strummed a few notes, which were on key but incredibly loud, and began to sing.
"The government sucks, the establishment sucks, society fucking sucks, but the devil's fucking sick dude!" Dante's music was loud and aggressive, just like him, and it caused several nearby small animals to run away in fear. (There were always small animals in Auradon. They were everywhere.)
Aladdin's son quickly put his hand on the guitar. "Yeah no, it's the music." He shook his head. "You're too scary for Auradon, you've gotta tone it down. People here actually like their parents, and trust authority figures."
Dante stared at him like he was speaking a different language. "Are you saying I can't play my own music?!" He asked, hurt. His boyfriend was the last person he expected to hear this from.
"No, of course you can! Just take out the swear words and try being angry at something else. Like... homework. Or write happy songs!" Aziz quickly thought of a recovery. "We've got rock music in Auradon too. Maybe you could listen to some of that for inspiration?"
Dante pouted and sighed. "Alright, I'll start working on new lyrics." Aziz kissed him on the cheek and promised to take him to dinner later, leaving to meet up with the other Tourney players. Dante slumped in his seat, upset that his boyfriend didn't agree with him... even if he was right.
"Hey, was that you singing about hating the government and stuff?" Someone asked. Dante looked up and saw a tall girl with pale blue skin and long black hair that had pink highlights. Judging from the fact that she wasn't human, and her harem pants, he guessed that she was Jordan, the Genie's daughter. "That was cool."
Hades' son sat up and grinned from ear to ear, clasping his hands together. "You, I like. Keep talking."
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Harry, meanwhile, was trying to blend in with the Tourney team. Being a team player on the field wasn't that hard to learn, but when it came to actually becoming friends with them, that proved much more difficult.
Chad, Gordon, Miguel and Artie had little to no interest in Harry. Bobby, Whitley and Tyrone were friendly enough, but left Harry alone when he brushed them off. But Ben and Aziz were always trying to get Harry to open up. Inviting him to after-game parties and double dates or asking him questions. It was bizarre.
Pirates were pretty much the friendliest people on the Isle, but their idea of friendship was very different from Auradon's. Harry considered Uma to be his closest, and only, friend, but he saw her as more of a boss than anything else. Dante, Quinn and him were all part of Uma's crew, even if half of them weren't pirates.
"So are you coming to the after party?" Ben asked, tossing a ball to Harry. "We're about to play the biggest, and final, game of the year. I would hate for you to miss out! There's music, dancing, food..." He smiled the same awkward smile he had given the VKs when they first arrived in Auradon. It was disarming, and Harry couldn't help but think how screwed Ben would've been back on the Isle. They would've eaten him alive...
"Yeah, of course I'll be there." Harry replied, catching the toss but stumbling. He actually really liked parties, mostly for the free food, but didn't think Auradon parties would be any fun. Hook loved to talk about his days growing up in high society, before he became a pirate and ended up in Neverland, and it all sounded incredibly boring. But Uma's plan needed Harry to be at the party, and for everyone to trust the VKs.
"Are you gonna bring Jane?" Aziz asked, tackling the pirate from behind. Harry cursed, grabbing for his hook necklace, before Aziz let him go. "She really likes you, dude. I saw her writing your name in her notebook during study hall."
Harry couldn't help but feel a twinge of remorse. He'd been avoiding Jane ever since their date; manipulating her was easy, but not very satisfying. She didn't have any of the information Uma was hoping to get, and she seemed very fragile. Girls on the Isle weren't like this at all. And Harry wasn't sure he even liked girls to begin with. Or guys, for that matter.
"Yeah... Jane's me hen, we'll be there together." He answered. That was what they expected, so it was the best response. Right? So why did he feel so bad about it?
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Join us next time for the first Ben focused chapter, Friend Like Me!