"Sit…Duke, sit."

Head tilted, brown eyes locked on him, Duke slowly sat down. Chest warm, Carlos crouched and scratched behind Duke's ear before giving him a scrap of jerky. Careful not to get him, Duke snatched it out of his hand.

"Good boy."

Tail wagging, Duke chomped away at the jerky. Smiling, Carlos stretched out in the grass and Checkers perched on his chest. Once she settled, a purr rumbling into him, he idly stroked her back.

It had been a long week. A really long week. But it wasn't as bad as he thought it'd be. When the professors announced midterms everyone acted like it would be the end of the world. Life on the Isle would always be worse than anything he could ever face on the mainland, but midterms still sounded terrifying.

So he studied.

And studied.

And studied.

And midterms turned out to be straightforward. No tricks. No traps. Just a normal test and he wasn't sure why everyone made such a big deal about them. As tired as he was, he felt okay. The tests weren't easy, exactly, but they weren't hard either.

At least he didn't think so. He doubted Evie did either, though she'd never admit it.

The doors to the dorm slammed open and he winced a little as Checkers gripped him with her claws in surprise.

"Gods, if I didn't want to burn this place to the ground before, I do now," Mal muttered as she slogged down the stairs, Evie and Jay in tow. Walking over to him, she let Duke sniff her hand before idly scratching behind his ears. Carlos suppressed a smile as she kicked his foot. "Come on, Los. Dinner."

With a soft apology to Checkers, Carlos removed her from his chest, earning a disgruntled meow. Getting up, he rolled his eyes as she made her way over to Jay, rubbing along the older boy's legs until he gave in and pet her. But some of the tension in Jay's shoulders faded as he did and Carlos fought back another smile. Evie caught his eye and she giggled.

The cafeteria was louder than it had been all week, and he winced as two roughhousing guys bumped into him. If Jay hadn't insisted on sparring with him throughout the week, their main protector would be just as antsy. With midterms over, they were all free and he knew all too well the need to burn off excess anxiety.

Mal took full advantage of it, forcing her way through the crowd, growling under her breath, "Our table better still be open."

"Hi!"

Despite knowing better, Carlos relaxed at Rapunzel's greeting.

"How do you still have energy?" Flynn groaned, slumped forward to rest his head on the table, Pascal eyeing his ear with the same look Mal got before she started trouble.

"The tests weren't that bad," Rapunzel smiled.

"You and I both know you're the smart one in this relationship, Sunshine," Flynn pointed out, sitting up. "Those were brutal."

Mal and Jay both nodded along while Rapunzel frowned softly.

"You're very smart, Eugene. You know so much about the world."

"Those are street smarts, Blondie. Not book smarts."

"They're still smarts," she argued.

It was a familiar argument. One he had Evie had with Mal and Jay. It wasn't a common one, but neither one believed they were smart. Which was stupid. And he'd told them that several times.

"I'm sure we all did well," Evie smiled, cutting in before things could get too emotional or sappy between the couple. "Let's go get some food and celebrate the end of midterms."

With an effort Mal, Jay, and Flynn dragged themselves away from the table, but all of them perked up as they approached the buffet. Carlos carefully kept an eye out for trouble, as well as his pack. It wasn't likely that something would happen here–they never had trouble before–but it was better to avoid being ambushed if they could help it. Especially since everyone seemed rowdier than usual.

There was more food than they could eat, like usual, and he took full advantage of it to fill his plate with some of his favorites as well as food to add to their stashes. Like him, Mal and Jay were piling food onto their plates, but Evie…Evie wasn't. Her plate was barely half full at best.

That wasn't right. Thinking back, she'd been off for the past week. And every time, before he could say anything, something had distracted them. But he was sure that she wasn't eating as much as she did when they first arrived. Or as much as the rest of them still did.

Fuck. Was she getting sick? If she was…what would they do? Evie was the only one with any real skill at medicine and even then it was limited.

He needed to keep a closer eye on her. Make sure she was okay.

The rest of dinner was spent complaining about the different tests and how it was getting colder out. Something he hated. Being cold was the worst and he kept waking up thinking he was back at Hell Hall…So far he'd managed not to wake up the rest of his pack, but if it got worse he didn't think he'd be so lucky.

"I have a few ideas," Evie replied when Mal asked her to make some coats. "I just need to figure out the best materials."

"I can help if you want," Rapunzel offered. "I love to sew and the sooner the coats are made the better."

"So true," Flynn yawned and Rapunzel glanced at him.

"We should head back to our rooms," she smiled. "We'll see you later."

"We should be getting back too," Evie laughed as Jay and Mal both yawned.

Together they returned their plates and trays, before splitting up outside the cafeteria, Rapunzel waving goodbye as they went their separate ways.

"We should have a picnic," Evie commented as she threw a stick for Duke to chase. "Before it's too cold."

"Sure," Mal shrugged. "Why not?"

It sounded like a lot of fun. A chance to just hang out with his pack in the sun.

"How about tomorrow?" Carlos suggested as Duke came racing back over to give him the stick. "Since midterms are over."

"Perfect."

The rest of the walk back was spent going over what food they wanted and which stashes they needed to raid for it. For once, Mal didn't protest the idea of using the food for a nonemergency and Carlos didn't miss the slightly smug smile on Evie's face.

***Author's note: Hey everyone! I'm hoping everyone is enjoying the story so far.

I wanted to let you all know that I'm going to be taking a short break from posting (probably a month or so). I've gone through all my back log and the next few chapters are pretty important chapters. I want to make sure they're up to my personal standards and don't want to rush through them for a deadline.

THIS IS NOT BEING ABANDONED. My beta reader will never let that happen lol.

You guys are all amazing! :)