Red's Decent
The next morning, it doesn't take long for Red to discover another difference in this world. As she and the princess find their way to their lockers, people smile at Red. They say hello, a few actually reaching out to touch her arm in a friendly way.
Apparently, with her mom being Bridget, Wonderland was never at war with Auradon or boarded up. Red was never cut off from the outside world. She grew up in Auradon as much as she did in Wonderland. Red had friends.
Friends that Red has never met before, and wouldn't be able to pick out from a sea of faces or know the first thing about.
Red's smile is more strained with each warm greeting, and she's not in a good mood- she hardly ever is- so when the third person tries to hug her, she doesn't just hold out a hand to halt them in place.
She snaps.
"Get off me!" she spits, not able to stop herself as she throws the arms away. Her skin is crawling and her heart is everywhere and her fake smile is long gone. She's done pretending.
"Red," Chloe says warningly, reaching out to grip Red's jacket. Red yanks herself away.
"No!" she snaps at the princess, before whirling around when another hand lands on her shoulder.
It's the girl she already threw off, but instead of running for the hills or snapping back, her face is creased in hurt and worry. Worry like her mother had shown yesterday, too, about Red's reactions.
"Red, are you okay? What's wrong?"
Everything is wrong. She snapped at a girl and her response is concern, and Red doesn't even know her. She doesn't know Red, either- not this one, the one in front of her, bubbling under her worried gaze. Red feels a mixed swell of panic and disgust.
Is this who she is here? A friendly, outgoing girl with a bunch of friends. A girl who doesn't snap or push people away (physically or metaphorically) when she feels so very overwhelmed? She can't be that girl. She's not that girl.
"Don't touch me!" Her hands automatically come up to the too friendly girl's chest, and she shoves her so hard that she and her books go sprawling. Everyone in the hallway turns to stare.
Chloe's hand latches onto hers, and she's bodily dragged into the nearest restroom.
Red immediately shrugs her off once the door closes, pacing across the tile and running her hands through her hair. The princess reaches for her again, and Red bats her hand away, backing up and trying to catch her breath. She feels like she just battled Ursula's eels again.
Blue holds up her hands placatingly.
Red has gotten used to Chloe touching her during their very strange week. She's the first person to ever touch Red casually- even Maddox didn't touch her outside of what was necessary. (She actually kind of likes it, but she can't handle it right now.)
"Red, calm down."
Red pivots when she reaches the end of the room and paces back the other direction.
"I'm trying," she hisses irritably. She's tired. She's so tired.
She didn't sleep well last night, or at all the night before (because of their excursion for the book), and all the other nights the past week have been restless with nightmares and worry of- what if they don't change anything?
Well, they definitely changed things.
"What's wrong? I know things are a bit different, but that's what you wanted, right?" Chloe asks.
"It's everything I ever wanted," Red agrees. So why does it all feel very wrong?
Blue falls quiet and just watches Red pace. Back and forth, back and forth. Eventually, her blood stops boiling. The crawling sensation over her skin fades, and the rest of her energy leaves her. She stops dead, facing the wall, and tilts forward until her forehead is pressed against stone.
"...Okay," she sighs after a moment. Grudging. Tired. "...I'm good."
"Can I touch you know?" Chloe asks.
Red doesn't know why she would want to, but she nods her head against the cool stone and feels a hand slide into hers. It's tugged, and she allows herself to be turned around and look across at the princess.
Blue looks at her with such concerned eyes. They are the only ones that feel real in this new world. The only ones she thinks might actually know her. "What's going on, Red?"
"I don't know," she growls weakly. She searches for something to say. Something she can put into words. "I don't know them, I'm not her."
Chloe nods slowly. "They don't know that though. If we aren't telling anyone what happened, you can't let them know you aren't."
"I can't handle them touching me, Blue," Red argues.
"Okay. Okay, we'll just-" she presses her lips together, and Red follows the lines of uncertainty. "We'll figure something out."
Both girls grimace as the bell rings, signaling that they won't have time to stop by the cafeteria to eat.
"Come on. Let's get to class." Still holding hands, Red is pulled out of the bathroom much gentler than she was yanked into it. She clings to the princess's hand- this one familiar thing. The halls are eerily the same as Merlin Academy, but even they have small things that make it a strange bizarro version of what she's come to expect.
Red didn't think to prepare herself for classes. She figured it wouldn't be that different from the classes she'd already been forced to attend the past week, but even in that she is wrong, because they don't have alchemy or magic study.
They have chemistry and math and history.
Stares follow her throughout the day. Whispers pass behind hands. Red would be okay with that if it was enough to keep people away, but a few still come up to her. Well, more of, they come up to Chloe, but they inevitably turn to her with concern written on their faces as they inquire what happened, is she okay, what's wrong.
She wishes people would stop asking that.
It's all very strange, and Red doesn't know how to deal with it, so she just crosses her arms and glares at the ground until Blue nudges her, and then she gives short (borderline antagonistic) answers until they go away.
She doesn't want to pretend to be someone she's not.
And she suddenly realizes that maybe that's why this world is sitting so wrong with her. The people of this world have an expectation of how she should be- good, happy, nice- just as her mother had expectations of how Red should be- mean, hardened, cruel- be just like her.
"Who are you loyal to, Red? These strangers? Or your mother. Now make me proud, for once."
Red closes her eyes against memories that never happened. Not here. Not in this timeline.
Red jumps as a hand lands on her shoulder, and she whips her head up to stare into brown eyes framed by a mane of unruly blue curls. It takes her a moment to notice the other students already making their way out the door.
"Why don't we take our lunch back to our dorm?" Chloe suggests, expression soft.
"Don't you want to catch up with all your friends?" Red asks. Because no matter how many people approached Red, they were clearly part of the same group. A group Blue had no problems immersing herself in, so probably was part of before the time travel.
"Nah," Chloe shrugs, an incredibly soft look in her eyes as she looks at Red. "I wanna talk about what we learned today. I didn't notice anything very different, except Wonderland being a part of Auradon. Ben is still king, and he still brought the VKs over from the Isle, and Mal is still Queen."
"Everyone loves my mom," Red utters that glaring, obvious, difference, climbing to her feet to follow her friend as she laments everyone's inquiries about how the Queen is. If she's going to bring cupcakes the next time she visits. Maybe cookies? Apparently she visits Red some weekends and brings all her friends treats. She's the perfect mom- they're so jealous- Red is just so lucky to have a mom like her.
Red's only luck is that her head remained attached as long as it did- long enough to get her hands on a time machine and actually change things.
"Do you think I have a dad now?" she asks abruptly as they make it to the cafeteria.
Chloe glances over and curiously asks, "What happened to your dad before?"
Red shrugs uncomfortably. "You know," she mimes swinging an ax, "'Off with his head!'"
Chloe stops walking, making Red have to stop as well as she turns, and she's confused by the look of stunned horror frozen on her friend's face. "She killed him?"
"I mean," Red shoves her hands into her pockets. "She kind of killed everybody."
"Yeah, but it was your dad," Blue insists. She reaches out to grip Red's elbow.
"So?"
Chloe stares for several more seconds, and then tugs on the arm she's already gripping. "Pull out your phone," she demands. "You have it, right?"
"Sure," Red rolls her eyes and pulls it out of her pocket. She only has one contact saved in it. But she freezes as Blue snatches it, absently inputs Red's password, and starts scrolling, and scrolling- and she has many contacts. Her mom is in her phone. And an 'Aunt Ella,' and 'Chad,' and 'Chloe'. Her phone is full of names and numbers, and she's reminded of all the people who tried to come up to her today.
She's brought out of her frozen state when Chloe sighs. "I don't see a 'Dad' in here."
She tries not to let herself feel disappointed. It's one more person she doesn't have to convince she's the Red from this timeline. She doesn't even remember her dad. But she thinks he might have been kind.
"Whatever," Red grunts and snatches her phone away to shove into her pocket. She sees 'Mom' flash on the list of favorites as she hides it.
"Hey, guys," a boy comes rushing up, "I heard what happened in the hallway this morning, and-"
"Go fuck yourself," Red snarls, turning on her heel and stalking toward the food line.
"Sorry, Shane," she hears Chloe apologize behind her, "She's just- sorry." Red can hear her hurrying to catch up, only slowing when they come shoulder to shoulder. "First of all: language. Second-"
"Not now, Blue," she growls, face feeling hot and stomach bubbling again. She's back to feeling off balanced, even though she was managing fine a few minutes ago.
"Right, sorry," the princess apologizes again, for the millionth time today (though the majority of those are said to others in regards to Red's behavior).
Red doesn't pull away or look over when a hand quietly slips into hers. She just threads their fingers together and holds on tighter.
A/N: The chapters are all ordered and mostly written, so now it's just a matter of rereading and editing them a million times. Updates should be at least once a week if not sooner.
Please let me know what you guys think!
~Silver~