Clouds covered the sky in a patchy blanket as they pushed their way out of the dining hall. Shivering, Carlos burrowed deeper into the fur lining of his vest. The cold weather was the worst part of being on the mainland, with the obvious exception of the people. If the weather were nicer, he'd say the mainland was a paradise.

"See you later," Mal sighed, hiking her bag higher up on her shoulder.

"See ya," Jay waved as their leader headed to class.

"Come on," Evie said, pulling her shawl tighter around herself. "Let's get back to the dorm. I could use a warm bath and a fire."

Eyes narrowed, Carlos studied her. Some of his suspicions were confirmed a few days ago when he finally had a chance to get a good look at her body. Since then, she seemed to be avoiding any chance of being alone with him and he wasn't going to confront her in front of the others.

"Los!" Jay called. "Let's go."

"Coming."

Trailing behind the others with Duke at his heels, Carlos sighed. He really needed to find a chance to talk with her. Duke brushed against his legs and Carlos immediately reached out and scratched behind his ears. "Good boy…How would you talk to her, huh?"

Duke blinked at him.

"Yeah. Checkers would probably know."

A tail wag.

"I know. I'll figure it out. I just…I don't like it."

With a soft whine, Duke licked his hand. When Carlos grinned, Duke barked and pranced around his legs, nearly tripping him.

"You goof," he laughed, gently pushing Duke back to the side.

"The hell is everyone doing?"

Peering around Jay, Carlos frowned. A crowd of students clogged the entry hall, chatting and pushing to get to…something.

"I think they're at the mailboxes," Evie observed, stepping up beside them. When Jay just looked at her, Evie arched an eyebrow. "Doug and Lonnie showed us them on our first day. It's where students get mail from their families."

"Guess we just wait for them to fuck off," Jay muttered and Carlos groaned. Jay was right and Carlos really didn't want to push his way through that crowd. But he also didn't want to stay outside any longer than necessary. "Why is everyone there anyway?"

Good question. Usually Carlos never saw anyone at the mailboxes and he himself often forgot they existed in the first place. It wasn't like he or his pack were going to get any mail. Though…thinking back didn't Doug say something about…

"Midterm grades," he realized. This time Evie and Jay both looked at him in confusion. "Doug mentioned something about the University handing out information like grades using the mailboxes."

"Fuck," Jay groaned. "I was just starting to forget about those damn tests."

"Well, I'd like to know how we did," Evie said. "Let's just wait until everyone moves and we'll get ours."

It took far longer than they expected and Carlos was starting to lose his patience by the time the area around the mailboxes finally cleared out. Gods he hated the cold. Too many bad memories. Shaking his head, he followed the others inside, Jay leading the way.

"Uh, do you guys know where the key is?" Jay asked.

Key. Key. Did they ever actually get the key? They must have because Auradon was too organized to forget. But Carlos had no idea where it was. It could be lost deep in one of their drawers for all he knew.

"It must be somewhere in our room," Evie sighed. "I can go find it and-"

"Just let me do it," Carlos cut in. "Cover me."

Once Evie and Jay closed ranks around him, Carlos dug his lockpicking tools from his inner vest pockets. After another quick glance down the hall, Carlos crouched in front of their box. With a few seconds of fiddling, the lock clicked and he opened the small door to reveal four envelopes.

His stomach churned, coiling into knots. The tests hadn't felt that hard, but he could've just been too stupid to realize his answers were wrong. If he failed, what would happen? Would he be kicked out of the University and sent back? He couldn't survive the Isle with his pack. They were the only reason he had any status in the first place. Joining Uma's crew would be his only real option and that was if and only if Maleficent didn't just kill him.

No. No. If what happened when they tried to have a picnic wasn't enough to get them kicked out, a bad grade couldn't be.

Reaching in, he pulled the envelopes out–the rest of the mailbox was empty just like he expected–and handed them over to Evie. Smile soft, she accepted them and, once he closed the mailbox, she led the way to their room.

After closing and locking the door, Jay dumped his bag on the ground. Carlos carefully stepped around it and set his own bag on the nearest desk as Duke hopped up onto the bed to join Checkers. The cat blinked at them, meowed once, then returned to her nap.

"Jay, here's yours," Evie said, handing him an envelope. "And Carlos this one's yours."

With a shrug, Jay tore his open. "Huh," Jay muttered, dark eyes skimming over his grades.

"Let me see," Evie said. With a shrug, Jay handed it over and Carlos peeked around her. Two D's, a C, and an obvious A+ for Basic Training. "Well…It could be worse," Evie observed.

"It doesn't matter," Jay reminded her as he leaned against the wall. "I kicked ass in Basic Training and that's the only class I care about."

With a faint scolding pout, Evie set aside his grades and picked up her own envelope. Carlos didn't even bother looking at hers. She'd have scored high in Sewing and Embroidery and decently in English with mid-level performances in everything else. The "perfect" princess.

Fingers shaking, he peeled open his envelope. Grades didn't actually matter. He knew that. They were only here to break the barrier. He knew that.

But he really, really wanted to do well. School was better than he thought. Some of the classes were actually kind of fun. If he could score well, it would at least be proof that he was smart. That he was more capable than everyone thought.

Easing the paper out, he froze.

"Well?" Jay prompted. "How'd you do, pup?"

Wordlessly, Carlos handed over his grades. Taking the paper, Jay looked it over, Evie peering over his shoulder.

Carlos knew what they'd see: Animal Handling A+, Math B+, English A-, and Philosophy B-. At least that's what he hoped they were seeing. If it was, it meant he wasn't crazy.

With a squeal, Evie lunged at him, nearly tackling him as she wrapped her arms around him. "I'm so proud of you, pup!" she beamed, kissing his cheek. "You're so smart! I told you so. I told you you were smart."

Cheeks warming, Carlos ducked his head, forehead pressed against Evie's shoulder. "Thanks," he mumbled.

"Not bad," Jay said, dropping the paper onto the desk. Ruffling his hair, Jay walked past to start building a fire.

"I'm going to take that bath," Evie smiled. Kissing his cheek, she added, "I'm so proud of you, pup."

As she disappeared into the bathroom, Carlos sank onto the bed next to Checkers, grades back in hand. And he couldn't hide the small smile tugging at his lips.