****A few days later****
****Auradon Prep****

Harriet was almost sleeping in History class, the almost meant that she had her head down between her arms and her eyes closed but she was trying to keep up with the class by half-hearing what the teacher was saying.

She was tired, too tired to even pretend to pay attention to the class while sitting correctly. The training Audrey was giving the new members of her cheerleading squad was far too exhausting.

Oh, the raven haired girl had gotten into the cheerleading squad, she didn't know how but she suspected that it didn't have to do with the fact that she was stronger than most of the girls who tried out but with Audrey dislike of Tina.

The pirate wasn't a quitter but the training was so different from croc wrestling... and she was tired.

"Miss Hook" She heard a voice far away, it was Mr. Button.

"Maybe I should miss the next class and go to sleep" She thought almost falling sleep on her desk "Or the ones after lunch"

"Rhetta!" She heard Anthony's voice next to her and felt that he elbowed her side, why did he call her by her childhood's nickname? She was going to have a word with him after a nap...also, why was she sitting with him instead of Claudine?

Oh, today Zephyr was sat in front of the usual desk they shared and her blonde friend had decided to sit with Mal of all people, Harriet didn't really understand that friendship but didn't say anything as Claudine was in a desperate need of friends.

"Harriet!" She felt Hal kicking her chair and then she snapped her head up and by without a thought she grabbed her notebook and strongly hit him with it.

Then she truly woke up and realized that all the Auradonians in the class was watching her and muttered "Shit" while giving Hal and apologetic look, the redhead was just rubbing his cheek and waved her off.

"Never seen someone sleeping in class? Wait this is Auradon Prep, probably not" Harriet thought almost snorting and then realizing that it would be a good idea to say something, she turned to Mr. Button, who was standing by her desk, and smiled awkwardly while saying "Morning"

Jay and Mal stifled a laugh while Evie scrunched her nose, Diego turned his head to her and gave her a quizzical look, Anthony smirked while looking at her and Claudine looked at her with concern while giving a look to Hal who was still rubbing his cheek and muttered "I haven't been hit like this since I asked Gilly out"

"As now Miss Hook is up I can announce what is going to be the new project for this semester" Mr. Button said with a serious tone and looked disapprovingly at Harriet, then he walked back to the board and started to write while he said "You will do a monograph on any topic featured on the book I gave too all of you...and you will do it in pairs"

"Can we choose our pairs?" Audrey asked with interest and shared a look with Anxelin who was sat with her.

"No" He responded with what Harriet considered a smug smile "I already picked out the pairs and no, you can't change partners" He waited to see their reactions, most of them groaned in frustration "I'll read them five minutes before the class ends, now..." He trailed off on how the monograph would go, however most of the students weren't paying attention.

Harriet considered returning to her half dream but decided against it since she had kind of gotten away with it and she had the feeling that it wouldn't happen twice, and so she started scribbling down some notes.

"Now the part that everyone was waiting" Mr. Button said and looked at them with a small glint on his eyes before taking out a notepad and starting to read "The pairings are: Ben Bete and Hal Westergaard, Princess Audrey Rose and Evelyn Grimhilde* ... Zephyr de Chateaupers and Anthony Tremaine, Diego de Vil and Jordan bint Djinn ,... Mal LeFay and Princess Eisa Árnadalr, Kurt Árnadalr and Anxelin Fitzherbert , Jalil* bin Jafar and Li Lan-Ying*, Prince Aziz bin Aladdin and Doug Zwerg, Princess Valentina Thatch and Claudine Frollo, and finally Prince Charles* Charming and Harriet Hook" He looked up again and asked "Are there any questions?"

"Where are Eisa and Kurt?" Aziz asked raising his hand "School started around a month ago and they haven't showed yet"

"Who are Eisa and Kurt?" Anthony asked Evie, who was sat on the desk beside him with Mal, he had been sure that they had already met everyone who was in their year and wasn't sure if he could tolerate any more Auradonians at the moment.

"Eisa is the Snow Queen's daughter and Kurt is her cousin" Evie explained and added "Klaus, you know the guy who bullied Dizzy the first day, is Kurt's younger brother"

"Oh" He said remembering that his cousin had complained about some guys in her class and her saying that it didn't matter since Chad had a talk with them. The dark haired boy didn't know how to feel about their step cousin going to defend Dizzy, but since he had heard about that he had tried to keep far from the prince and pretended that he didn't exist...mostly.

"Princess Eisa was sick with chickenpox and Mr. Kurt was accompanying his aunt on a diplomatic mission to the Kingdom of Agrabah as you sure would know, Prince Aziz" Mr. Button said and then added "They will arrive during the afternoon according to Fairy Godmother and so there will be no problem"

Aziz frowned a little but nodded and whispered something to Jay, who was sat with him, then both boys started having a conversation in whispers.

"When is the deadline for this monograph?" Doug asked raising his hand, he was already making his schedule for this work.

"By the time you return from Winter Break" He said writing it on the board and added "You'll have to present weekly drafts; you'll have to get your topic approved first though…so I suggest you start reading"

There were some groans, it wasn't going to be easy for some since some of them didn't actually talk with their new partner. Their classmates started to leave the room but some stayed when they heard that Fairy Godmother was having an emergency meeting with the teachers.

Harriet, Anthony, Claudine and Hal stayed on their seats but didn't exactly speak, they were focused on their own business. Mal and Ben went to a seat on the back of the room as if they were on their own world even if Evie was with them, the blue haired girl didn't seem to mind as she was sketching something as her boyfriend had left with Jay.

"Well...you will have to work with Chad" Anthony suddenly said to Harriet making her jump a little "My condolences, I hope you get to have a decent grade on this work"

Harriet rolled her eyes, sure she had heard about the prince taking advantage of girls to make them do his homework and Evie had some input on that...but to her Chad wasn't that bad, he seemed an idiot but he didn't reek douchiness like the Gastons or Hal's older brothers.

Also, he always responded as kind as he could to her observations. That morning she had told him that he had dry toothpaste on his suit jacket and while he frets out a little before muttering something that sounded like a thanks.

The pirate just said shrugging "We'll have to see if I don't kill him before finishing" and then added "You are stuck with Claudine's crush"

If the boy whom she was referring to heard her, he didn't show it was he was packing up his things while making small talk with Diego, surprisingly they had become friends since both liked rock and both played guitar, though one played electric and the other classic.

Anthony snorted and said "I guess so; wouldn't it have been better if Claudine had been the one who get him?"

Harriet raised an eyebrow and joked "Do you think she would still be alive? She can barely look at him without blushing and losing her mind"

"Sad but true" Her ex-boyfriend conceded and turned to see if Claudine was about to lunge at them but instead she was drawing something on her notebook with great concentration.

After a more careful look, he noticed that it was a nightingale.

Suddenly he remembered a song his mother used to sing to his father when he was still alive and looked away, he didn't want to deal with the memories, he wasn't ready and wouldn't be for a very long time.

Then pushed his things on his back pack and left without saying anything.

"Do you think we should follow him?" Hal asked, it was so unlike his friend to leave without them and without carefully packing his things.

The dark haired girl bit her cheek and looked down before saying "It wouldn't be a bad idea" and turned to Claudine "Will you be okay without us? Or do you wanna come?"

Claudine just nodded and said "I will go and speak to Evie"

Frollo's daughter liked Anthony well enough to consider him a friendly acquaintance but she was more the type to let people have their own space till they calmed down instead of following them when they weren't in a good mood.

Harriet and Hal pushed their things into their own back packs and ran to catch their friend.

****At the ROAR training room****

Lonnie was polishing her sword, usually she would do this with Jay but things were awkward after the Cotillion even though they kept the awkwardness for themselves.

From the outside, they were acting totally normal but there was an aura of discomfort since she kissed him during the Cotillion.

She shouldn't have done that; Jay didn't exactly turn her down but didn't reciprocate the kiss.

The girl shook her head and decided that they didn't need to talk about it, the message was clear and they (she) had to move on.

"I thought there was no one else here" She heard a voice saying "But I was wrong, little sister"

"Usually at this hour we would be in class" Lonnie responded quietly and then asked "What are you doing here, Shanyuan? I thought that the teachers had a reunion"

Shanyuan chuckled a little before patting her on the head, which was something she hated, and then said "Teachers, not coaches"

"Technically you are a teacher, you technically now teach PE as they haven't found a replacement for Phil* yet"

"I'm just taking a gap year" Shanyuan huffed shaking his head "I don't want to spend more time down here...you know how much I wanted to graduate"

"Then why you stayed?"

He sighed and put an arm around her while saying "I just wanted to see how my little sister kicked those posh princes' asses"

Lonnie laughed and said "I'm captain now...something that you never achieved"

"But I was on the team for about three years, Lan-Ying" He made a pause "It wasn't easy, I had to keep my spot"

"Are you saying that I got in by luck?" Lonnie started to get defensive, she had trained hard all her life to master her sword technique and he knew that

Her brother sighed and said "You know how sexist Auradon can be, don't you think that Amelia andMoireachwanted to cheerleaders, or that Robbie liked to play Tourney? You being on the team isn't luck since you are good, better than half of the guys on the team...but do you think that if Jay didn't find a loophole in the rules you would have gotten into the team?"

The girl pressed her lips on a thin line and shook her head, then she sighed and said "Ben would have, Jay wasn't so sure at first"

"He didn't want to ruin his chance to show them that the kids from the Isle were good enough to adapt to rules"

"True" She said and then added with nostalgia "I miss Northern Wei"

Her brother said "I do too, but we have to be here…at least for a little longer"

"I wonder how is Zihao doing" Lonnie said "Surely he has a hard time adjusting to his new role"

"He has been Emperor for a while though, since he was a kid actually" Shanyuan pointed out, Zihao was the former Emperor's grandson. His father had died by the time Beast had sent the last villain to the Isle of the Lost about fifteen years ago and the Emperor died shortly after, so Zihao had "ruled" the last ten years with Princess Ting-Ting as his regent till he turned eighteen two years ago.

If women could inherit the throne, Ting-Ting would have been Empress instead of Princess Su's twin who was younger. Sure, Mulan had been the Imperial Advisor after Chi Fu retired, but there were some things that wouldn't change for women in a while.

"Do you remember that we used to be really close?" Lonnie started to remember with a nostalgic smile "We three used to go to the Imperial Gardens to practice archery with dad"

Her brother nodded and added "Yin-Mei didn't like that we usually went there to practice when she was with her friends having a tea party"

"Which was more often than not" Lonnie chuckled.

Both sibling fell silent and then Shanyuan said "I actually knew that you would be here"

"Really?" She cocked an eyebrow.

"Yes" He said nodding and added "I wanted to ask why have you been avoiding Jay"

Lonnie stood up and said "Goodbye"

"Lan-Ying"

"I don't want to talk about this" She said crossing her arms and feeling ridiculous.

"I just want to know why he doesn't come to train with us anymore" Shanyuan said "It's not like you two have history together, right?"

The girl hung her head and her brother facepalmed while saying "Why?! I thought you were dating Aziz*"

"Aziz and I are just friends, he may have had a crush on me but I'm sure he is over it…and I just had a little crush on Jay" She said huffing "And I may have kissed him during the Cotillion…"

"And?"

"He kind of turned me down"

"Oh" He said rubbing his neck "I don't know what to say…it never happened to me" The young man scrunched his nose when he noticed that his sister was shooting daggers at him "But I'm sure you two will get over it"

"Was that everything you wanted to talk about?" Lonnie snapped.

Her brother seemed to think for a while and said "What would you said if I told you that I heard that Qui Gong is sending a representative to negotiate with Zihao and that he has asked that you assist to the reunions"

She shook her head in confusion not believing that she heard well, then the girl asked "Why?"

"I don't know, he said that he wanted you to be there during the visit"

"I-"

"We both know that you don't want to leave the team now that you are captain but-"

"Duty is first" Lonnie interrupted him and asked "When are we going? How long will we be gone?"

"The Qui Gong representatives will be arriving during the first week of December so we have time, till then you have to choose your temporary captain substitute" Her brother seemed to think for a while "Zihao didn't say for how long but I'm sure that it will not be longer than two weeks"

Mulan's daughter sighed and put both hands on her hips and asked "Who do you think that would be good, Jay has left the team now that he is the Tourney team captain and I don't know who would be good to be captain"

"Put Chad up to the task" He suggested.

"What?!" She cried out not believing that her brother would suggest that "Chad is-"

"One of the oldest members of the team" Shanyuan said calmly "He has been in the ROAR team since his freshman year and one of the best on the team"

"Herkie is better" She argued, sure the prince was good but he didn't compare to Hercules' son.

"But he doesn't get along with the other members" Her brother pointed out knowingly "Chad can at least pretend, most of the time, that he is nice and can make the others not hate each other as much"

Lonnie had to admit that her brother was telling the truth, Chad was not openly antagonistic unless the other affected his interests directly and could play nice. Also, the jerk had been on the team for a long while and knew the rules by heart.

She sighed and said "I'll think about it"

Shanyuan smiled.

****The Enchanted Lake****

The king and his lady were having a picnic at the Enchanted Lake, it had been a while since they could have alone time and so they were treasuring this moment. Mal had arranged the picnic with Evie and Jane's help since she had handed her spellbook over and didn't know how to cook or bake.

She knew that Ben would appreciate even a peanut butter and marmalade sandwich but she wanted to have a good picnic, also she had received a box of strawberries from Rapunzel that she wanted to share with her boyfriend.

Also, Mal wanted Ben to relax as she had noticed that he had been getting stressed by something.

He had agreed to tell her everything that had happened with the High Council as they wanted to remove some people from their charges and make other changes in the administrative side, the side-kick council that wanted to discuss things about the tourism at Atlantica, the negotiation between Tangletown and Auroria…and finally his talk with Queen Leah.

Mal had known that Ben had been especially worried since his reunion with Queen Leah and Prince Eugene-Call-Me-Flynn-Ryder but she had thought that it was about the way they wanted to deal with the bandits or something like that, she didn't expect to hear what her boyfriend was saying.

"She wants you, her granddaughter's ex-boyfriend, to arrange a marriage for the princesses of Auroria?!" The fae asked/yelled as she dropped the strawberry she was eating.

Ben gave a bite to his sandwich without looking at his girlfriend before saying "Yes"

"Why?"

"Apparently there was a formal marriage arrangement between my family and the Roses" He explained "I haven't been able to actually ask my father about it..."

"And Belle?"

"She says that I should ask my father about the details but that...they were kinda expecting us to fall in love without any interference"

Mal rolled her eyes, even when she was about to steal Fairy Godmother's wand she had seen some awkwardness between them and while she felt bad about Audrey after starting to date Ben...she felt that Audrey had not been actually in love with him.

Sure, there was some affection but not love.

"But why do you have to find a new fiancé for her?"

"It's a strange tradition, if there is an engagement between royals and one of the parts breaks it without notice, the one to break it had to find a new marriage for the other" Ben explained and shrugged "It's a very old one, it hasn't been used in years…also as High King of Auradon I can suggest some matched to occur"

The fae was suddenly curious and asked "Has your father ever suggested a match between royals and other nobles during his reign?"

Ben seemed to think for a while before saying "One of Charming's cousins, the duke of Orlanne married one of Ariel's sisters…Arista, I think" He made a pause "Also he arranged the marriage of one of Aurora's cousins to a lord"

"So…you will arrange something for Audrey?" She asked curiously, if it had been on her hands…she would make Audrey marry Chad.

"Not really" Ben shook his head before leaning to kiss her "I think one should marry for love"

Mal blushed, even if they had been together for a while she still got flustered when he showed her affection. The fae kissed him and looked down to her hands, then she grabbed his hands and said "I love you, did I mention that?"

Her boyfriend smiled and said "I love you too" Then he chuckled and said "And you stole my line"

"I didn't" She laughed and then got serious again "What are you going to do?"

"About what?"

"Everything" Mal said "You have every kind of worry at the moment"

Ben smiled, Mal knew how to read him well and he said "I'll try to talk with my private council about the request of changes at the administration and I have some people on mind"

"Evie?"

"She is already in charge of the Isle affairs" He said "I was speaking about some other people"

"Have I met them?"

"Some of them" He said and offered her a strawberry "You'll see, just wait"

Mal raised an eyebrow while she took the strawberry "Sneaky you have learnt" Then she asked "About the side-kicks?"

"I'll have someone look into the issue and maybe I'll go directly to Atlantica" He said rubbing his neck and added worriedly "I resolved the matter before I was crowned, I don't know why it has arisen again"

"Things happen" Mal responded and then added quietly while sipping on her coffee "About Audrey?"

Ben sighed and said "The classic way, I will hold a ball"

Mal spat out her coffee trying not to laugh, her boyfriend patted her back while she coughed. When she finally calmed down and stopped laughing she asked "Are you sure it's a good idea?"

"It's just an idea" He said a little bit defensive "It worked for Chad's parents"

"More than twenty years ago" She said rolling her eyes amused and then added "And doesn't she know half Auradon princes?"

"It doesn't have to be a prince" Ben muttered "Also, everyone likes balls"

The purple haired girl had to concede him that, it seemed that everyone in Auradon liked to held balls, cotillions and tea parties. After considering it for a minute, she said "I'll help you organize that…with Evie and Jane's help of course"

The king smiled and said "Thank you"

"I just want to help…and see what comes out of this"

"Still, I have to speak with my dad first" Ben said "But…it would be interesting"

Both laughed softly before starting to pack their picnic up as one of Ben's assistants waved at them to tell them that their time was up.

****The Library****

Audrey usually avoided going to the library, most of the time she would do her research on the internet or let her partner do most if not all the work (reading wasn't her forte) but this time she would have to do her part since Evie wasn't going to accept her not doing anything.

And so, the princess was looking for some book that would help them choose their topic for the monograph. While she wasn't stupid, she wasn't one to know about historical events that weren't related to Southern Riding or Auradon Central.

The bookcases had so many books that she didn't recognize and couldn't remember their titles after she passed to the next.

This was ridiculous, maybe she should let Evie pick the topic

"Looking for something?" She heard a familiar voice behind the bookcase and she almost cried out but she recognized the voice and with an annoyed huff she said "Hello Chad"

"Hello Audrey" He said and moved some books to see through and Audrey for a moment almost chuckled, typical Chad.

"Any luck finding a topic?" She asked tilting her head.

"No" He responded deflated and said "I hope Harriet gets lucky"

The princess almost snorted, it wasn't like the VK's would be familiar with the history of the 18 Regions of Auradon. She had only let the pirate join her cheerleading squad for two reasons: She was fit and was pretty enough to be a cheerleader, still Audrey wasn't sure if she liked Harriet as much as she could tolerate the other VKs.

Audrey had been lucky be paired up with Evie for this work, it would have been totally bad luck to be paired up with Mal or Jay, she didn't know what to make about the others.

"Maybe I should suggest to make it about Auroria" She said grabbing a book that had the name History of Southern Riding: Auroria's Golden Years printed in silver letters on the side "It's about my great-grandfather's reign"

It was Chad's turn to almost snort, there was no way Mr. Button would let them do the monograph about their hometowns, but he instead said "It sounds great, maybe I will tell Harriet to make ours about Aurelais' before Auradon"

Audrey opened her eyes and scolded him "Your kingdom's name is Cinderellasburg not Aurelais" She looked around a bit nervous "Don't say that name out loud"

Chad rolled his eyes and said "Whatever, it's not like he is king anymore"

The princess frowned, it wasn't like Chad to talk that way and so she asked "What is happening to you? You have been acting strangely since the year started, treating that kid as if she was your cousin-"

"She is my step cousin" He interrupted the princess "My grandfather was married to her grandmother"

"It's not like she is part of your family" She rolled her eyes "Also you don't like Anthony"

"That's different"

"How is different?" She challenged him.

"Dizzy doesn't reek of the Isle like the others, maybe Hermie and Carlos are like her, she is nice and deserved better" Chad said lowering his gaze "Carlos mentioned how Lady Tremaine treated her"

"Like every villains treats their kid" Audrey buffed exasperated "It's not like she had it worse than the others"

"No, Audrey" He said looking away "She was treated like my mother had been…"

Audrey froze and trying to find the right words to say, while she was growing up she had heard about Chad's mother story but having to scrub a few floors and cooking wasn't as bad as growing up totally isolated at the forest away from your parents or being cursed by a witch. Still, she knew how much her ex-boyfriend loved his mother and so she simply said "Oh"

Chad raised an eyebrow and changed the topic by saying "Is Briony coming next term?"

"She is" Audrey said making a pout "I don't know why she couldn't stay castle schooled, she is grammy's favorite and surely she would love to spend more time with her"

"I thought you were your grammy's favorite"

"I was" She hissed "Until freaking Mal took Ben away"

He was about to say something when Jane appeared down the hall and scolded him in a way that reminded both royals of Fairy Godmother "Chad! I was looking for you; we were supposed to study for Physics with Carlos!"

The prince smiled a little, just like the way he did to try to get out of trouble, and said "I was trying to choose a book for Mr. Button class and I got sidetracked with Audrey here"

Jane looked at the princess suddenly realizing that she was there and said "Oh…hi Audrey"

Audrey got annoyed, since Jane make-over she had been treating her as if she wasn't just a fairy and she the princess. Still she plastered a smile on her face while greeting the fae "Hi Jane"

She should have gotten the little girl out of the team but she knew that people would see it as petty jealousy, also weren't they friendly with each other after the Jewel-BiLee?

According to some, she was even friends with Mal.

The fae squirmed a little reminding them of how she was before the make-over and dating Carlos, then she said "Shall we go?"

"Sure" Chad said and then looked at Audrey with a smile that didn't reach his eyes "See you around, Audrey"

After that the prince and the fae walked away leaving Audrey standing alone in that hallway and probably the library.

*I'm giving them full names: Jalil for Jay, Lan-Ying for Lonnie, Charles for Chad, Evelyn for Evie. Also, I didn't like that they named Mulan and Shang's son Li'l Shang so his name here is Shanyuan and Li'l Shang his Auradonian "nickname"
*Phil from Hercules being the PE teacher at Auradon Prep is my headcanon, but in this story he is now retired.
*Audrey and Ben were supposed to visit Aziz and Lonnie on the first Descendants novel so...my headcanon is that they had some romantic tension but was cut off around the time the VKs arrived.

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