Lonnie was up early. She was usually up early; her mother was fond of training in the morning and the habit was hard to break after doing it for years. She was, however, awake earlier than usual for a Saturday. Weekends were still weekends and Lonnie was still a normal student. But today, she would be training with Jay.

After sparring with him in class, she couldn't wait to face him again. Sure he was untrained and unskilled and she'd kicked his ass each time, but he never gave up. If anything, he pushed himself even harder. Unlike so many of their classmates, he invested everything into training. Fighting to stay alive did that to a person.

Hopefully, she'd be able to do more than just help Jay improve. If she did this right, maybe she could start building some trust with him. Flynn told Ben that sparring with Jay was the best approach and she agreed. A body couldn't lie. Not when it was fighting. The trickier part would be Carlos. The two males in the gang were rarely separate whenever the gang split up which meant the youngest would be with them today too. And Lonnie could not wrap her head around how to interact with him beyond the very basic common sense of "be kind".

Shaking her head, Lonnie tugged on her shirt and grabbed a ribbon to tie her hair back. No point in overthinking things. That only led to trouble and they'd know she was stuck in her head instead of being fully present.

Hair coiled into a bun, Lonnie left the locker rooms. Then she blinked. Jay and Carlos were already there. She'd assumed she'd have to wait at least a few minutes before they showed up, but there they were, Jay already changed and ready. Neither of them had noticed her yet, and she took a moment to watch as they wrestled on the field. When Ben said that Carlos could apparently fight, Lonnie called bullshit. Now she had to take it back. Obviously he wasn't stronger than Jay, but he was slippery, flexible, quick, twisting out of Jay's hold and she knew Jay wasn't holding back much either.

Carlos noticed her first. As soon as their eyes met, Carlos ducked away from Jay and retreated a few steps, causing the older boy to turn to face her.

"Hey, Lonnie!" Jay called, waving her over while Carlos merely offered her a nod and slight smile.

"Morning!" she smiled as she joined them, Carlos moving to sit on the sidelines with his cat shadow. "Ready?"

"Hell yeah," Jay smirked. "The better question is: are you?"

"Always."

Together, they started jogging around the field. Halfway through the first lap, Jay picked up the pace and she was more than happy to accept the challenge. It wasn't until Carlos stood and flagged them down halfway through lap seven that Lonnie realized she was panting. Jay's pace was almost brutal. She knew he had stamina, but she hadn't known it was better than hers. What the hell did they do on that Isle?

Silently grateful for the chance to catch her breath, Lonnie stayed back as Jay talked with Carlos. As she stretched, she eavesdropped, watching them as subtly as possible.

"I'm gonna go to the stables," Carlos said and Jay frowned.

So did Lonnie. Carlos never went off on his own. Why was he suddenly splitting off? A stupid part of her mind wondered what he was up to and she squashed it. Of all the VKs, she would trust Carlos the most. There wasn't a mean bone in his body, let alone an aggressive or mischievous one.

When Jay didn't agree, Lonnie caught a flash of exasperation in Carlos's expression as he pointed out, "It's right over there. I won't be that far. I can still take care of myself; you guys made sure of that. Besides, we're in Auradon."

Jay sighed and said, "Fine. If anything happens, you come back here. Got it?"

Well, that confirmed it. Carlos could definitely take care of himself. Taking care of oneself could really only mean one thing on the Isle and Jay was actually letting Carlos out of his sight…Interesting. She wasn't entirely sure what to make of that. Were they finally relaxing a little? That was good. All of them were so tense all the time.

"Lonnie?"

Blinking, she realized Jay was watching her, amused. "Yeah?"

"If a run like that can take you out, maybe we shouldn't bother with sparring," he teased.

"Very funny," she said, rolling her eyes and smacking his arm. "As if I'd be beaten by something like that."

His smirk became a grin and Jay shrugged. "Okay. Prove it."

With a grin, Lonnie went over to grab a pair of training swords and passed him one. "Careful what you ask for."

Unlike in class, today Lonnie wasn't going to show off…much. The whole point of training was to help Jay improve faster and while she knew he could learn from constant beat downs, it was better to give feedback and advice. Give him something concrete to work on rather than just trial and error.

"Watch my eyes, not my hands."

"Don't strangle the hilt. Relax your grip."

"Lower your center of gravity."

If she was honest, Lonnie expected more resistance from him. Instead, he listened to everything, adjusting his stance, movements, and strikes to match her advice. Usually when she trained or tutored a guy they weren't interested in taking advice from a girl until she'd knocked them on their asses a few times. Jay…Jay never acted like that, even during class. Was it an Isle thing? Were girls respected as fighters there? They'd have to be if Mal was the leader of their gang. No one would listen to her otherwise. Or was it just because of her mother?

A heavy strike from Jay vibrated up her blade into her arm, jarring her from her thoughts. She hadn't blocked that properly; she'd nearly dropped her sword. If Jay'd noticed, he didn't say anything. Taking a step back, Lonnie studied him, moving with him as he circled her. His guard was open on his left and she took the "invitation". With a lunge and quick twist of her blade, Lonnie disarmed him and sent him to the ground.

"Fuck," he muttered.

"Make sure to keep your guard up," she replied, a reminder to him and herself, as she helped him to his feet. "Let's take a break. Then we can start again."

"Sure."

As he sprawled out in the grass on the sidelines, Lonnie headed to the locker room to grab them both some water. When she returned, handing the water over, she sat beside him. Her gaze wandered to the stables. Carlos hadn't come back and everything seemed quiet and a quick glance at Jay told her that he was watching the stables too. Alert but not worried enough to go and check.

What was it that Carlos had said? "Besides, we're in Auradon"? Fights weren't common in any of the countries that were part of the Ascendancy, but Lonnie wasn't convinced that it would stay that way. Not at the University anyway. At least not while the VKs were there…

Actually, now that she thought about it, there hadn't been any fights. It was only the second weekend of school, but still. From what she'd been taught about the Isle, it was lawless and all the people there would do anything to get what they wanted. Fighting was the only way to survive and that would've been ingrained in the four. Even Ben had been prepared for a few fights to break out between the Ascendancy students and the VKs…

"Did you guys get in a lot of fights on the Isle?"

"What?" he frowned, rolling onto his side to look at her.

Meeting his gaze, Lonnie shrugged. "It's just you guys aren't as…" she tried to find the right word, "reactive as I thought you'd be. I mean, you haven't even retaliated against the idiots in your class."

For a long moment, Jay just stared at her, brow furrowed in a deep frown. He didn't seem angry, just…thoughtful. Finally he said, "We don't waste energy on stupid shit."

"Hm."

It wasn't a full answer. There was definitely more to it. But she didn't push him for more; he clearly wasn't ready to talk about it. Someday he'd tell her and that was good enough for her. The fact that he was willing to "waste energy" on her was plenty. They sat in comfortable silence for a while, lost in their own thoughts until, "Carlos!"

Startled, she looked up to see Carlos approaching them. Again, she'd failed to notice the quietest of VKs. It still unnerved her how easily he could sneak up on her, but what really caught her attention was the dog bouncing around his heels. Checkers was perched on his shoulders, watching the dog curiously. Even Carlos didn't seem to know quite how to handle his new companion.

Slowly, Jay got up, gaze locked on the dog. "Los, the fuck is that doing here?"

Awkward, Carlos fidgeted with the hem of his shirt, startling a little when the dog bumped its head against his hand. Jay's eyes narrowed. "He was hanging around the stables and Max, Rapunzel and Flynn's horse, kinda introduced us and…"

"Carlos. That's a…you know," Jay said slowly.

"I know," Carlos replied and Lonnie realized his hand was shaking as he pet the dog. That was weird. He wasn't scared of any animals. They were the only thing that didn't seem to scare him.

"And you're okay with that?" Jay pressed. Carlos swallowed hard and nodded.

Was Carlos scared of dogs? How was that even possible? His mother was infamous for "dealing" with dogs; her son shouldn't have any trouble with them.

"Los-"

"It's fine, Jay," Carlos interrupted. "Really. I-It's fine."

"No, it's not."

"Yes it is."

"No, it's not."

"It's fine."

"Carlos-"

"Jay," Carlos snapped, sharper than she'd ever heard him. "It's fine." For a split second, his gaze darted towards her and Lonnie froze. He really was scared, terrified even, but he didn't want her to know. It was a weakness, a big one. What the hell happened on the Isle to scare Carlos?

The older boy's attention flicked to her and he sighed. "Whatever."

Some of the tension faded from Carlos until the dog licked his hand, earning a slight flinch from the boy.

"I should probably get going," Lonnie said after a moment. Neither of them wanted her around and she was more than happy to get out of the way. "I promised to hang out with my roommate today. See you later?"

"Sure," Jay nodded, his attention still on the dog who was now hiding a little behind Carlos's legs.

Carlos didn't acknowledge her.

"Cool," she said before heading for the locker room, head buzzing with questions and no answers.