[Chapter: 03]

Carlos took a deep breath as he walked out of his last class before lunch, last out the door as he waited for everyone else to get out before him.

Sadly, he and the others didn't have the same schedule save for one class, much to some of their dismay due to the subject, which left the salt and pepper haired kid alone in the halls as he made his way to lunch break.

His first few classes before were basic subjects such as math, science and that weird pirate course, something which wasn't too bad in terms of the subject, but a little awkward due to the number of eyes on him.

Being seated at the front of the class so the teacher could keep an eye on you didn't make it better, and had the poor boy felt as if a dozen lasers were being aimed at the back of his head.

No doubt almost half if not most of the school didn't appreciate them coming here, evident by some of the stink eyes he was getting from a few of his peers in the halls.

"Ow, hey!" Carlos said as he felt someone bump into him.

Oh, and the amount of harsh nudges and pushes from a few others.

Doing his best to ignore it, Carlos imagined the moment this treatment would end when the bigshots of Auradon would be below the Villains heel.

They may have failed last night, but soon they would gain the upper hand and show all these goody two shoes who's boss.

"Hey, Carlos!" A familiar voice called out.

Taken out of his mental meddling, The VK looked to see the face of the platinum blonde kid who helped show him and the others around the school.

"Oh, hey there, um... Kiri, right?" Carlos asked, pronouncing it the girl way.

"It's Kiritsugu," The blonde corrected, a bit annoyed before shaking it away, "Sorry, just wanted to see how you're doing?"

He did?

"I'm, fine I guess."

"Classes doing alright?"

"Yeah, they're... Great," Carlos said, taking a second to figure out the words to describe his time in class.

"So, whatcha got now?"

"Oh um...," The salt and pepper haired kid said as he pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket, "Lunch."

The idea of being the only Villain in a room of hundreds of people, most of whom have no intention of making him feel welcome, didn't sit so comfortably with him. So Carlos wasn't exactly looking forward to it.

"Really. Well, It so happens so do I," Kiritsugu informed, "Wana join me?"

"Huh?"

"I asked if you wanted to join me for lunch," The blonde repeated, "I imagine the others aren't with you and wanted to see if you wanted to sit with me."

The salt and pepper haired kid looked up at the Blonde, wondering if he was serious or not, before realising that he indeed was, and not planning any sort of tricks.

"Um... Sure?"

"Great, follow me," Kiritsugu said as he led Carlos down the hall.

"Wait, isn't the cafeteria that way?" He asked as he pointed in the other direction.

"Yes."

"then where are you taking me?"

"You'll see."

A short walk later, the two teens reached a room near the far end of the school and walked in to see a small meeting room with a single table and few chars, with a beautiful window giving a good view of the surrounding forest and gym field.

They weren't alone though, as the one kid who helped show Carlos and the others around the other day was also there, sitting in a chair with an open lunchbox in front of him.

'What was his name again, Dodge?' Carlos thought.

"Sup, Doug," Kiritsugu said as he walked over to him, throwing his stuff at the end of the table and taking a seat in a chair next to him.

"Hey Kiritsugu, what took you-oh," Doug said as he looked up from his food to see Carlos was with him.

"You remember Carlos right?" Kiritsugu said as he patted the boy on the back, "Turns out he has lunch same as us, and I figured instead of going into the cesspool that is a public dining hall, he could eat with us. That alright with you?

"Oh, uh sure," Dough nodded, seemingly not bothered by it, "Welcome."

"Thanks," Carlos thanked as he put his stuff down and took a seat in a nearby chair, "So, you guys eat here?"

"Yep. The cafeteria nice and all, but I prefer not to be surrounded by the loud noise and crazy people," Kiritsugu admitted as he took a seat next to Doug, "Luckily nobody uses this conference room ever, so nobody minds that we use it to eat lunch."

"It' also got a nice view," Doug agreed as he turned his head to look out at the nice scenery.

"And, Is it okay if I can eat here? I mean with you guys at least?" Carlos asked.

"Why of course! Welcome to the cool kids club, Carlos," Kiritsugu said as he leaned back into his chair.

"If this is the 'Cool' Kids club, does that make you the King of Cool?" Doug Joke.

"Shut up," Kiritsugu shot back, but with a smile on his face, before the two let out a small laugh.

Carlos joined in, feeling glad to have made some more friends at this school. Maybe it wasn't going to so bad for now. At least he can enjoy himself while he and the others complete their master plan.

The three went silent and went to dig into their meals, and Carlos went to reach for his own, but then realised something.

He didn't have any lunch to eat.

"Something wrong?" Doug asked as he saw the look on Carlos.

"I, actually don't have anything to eat," He admitted, "I... I guess I should go get something."

"Nah, don't worry about it. You can have some of mine," Kiritsugu said as he took out a paper bag, "I made a bit much anyway."

Taking out a few plastic bags of food, Kiritsugu took one full of what appeared to be dumplings and handed them over to Carlos.

"Here you go," The blonde said as he handed the food over to the salt and pepper haired kid.

"Really. You sure about this?"

"Yeah, go ahead."

Looking at the outstretched bag of food, Carlos slowly took it from Kiritsugu and took out a dumpling from within and threw it into his mouth.

The taste of firmly mashed potatoes and perfectly cooked ham danced on his tongue. It was not a second later before Carlos began doing his best to shove every bit of food in his mouth, making his cheeks bulge like a chipmunk.

"Uh, Carlos. Maybe you should slow down," Doug suggested, noticing how more food was falling out of his hand rather than going into his mouth.

"Bu is su gud!" Carlos said, bits of potatoes falling out of his mouth.

"Well I hope so, I made it myself."

"Yau May dis?" Carlos muttered, his mouth still full of food.

"Carlos swallow."

Carlos did just that and used his sleeve to wipe off the remains of food around his mouth.

"You made this?" He repeated

"Yep. The food here is nice and all, but I like to make my stuff in the kitchen," Kiritsugu admitted. "It makes it even better since nobody ever uses it and that the school keeps it fully stocked."

"Fully stocked," Carlos muttered in awe as if such a thing was some lost mythological treasure.

Kiritsugu and Doug looked at each other for a second, each thinking the same thing before The Former opened his mouth.

"Carlos... how much do you guys eat on the Isle?"

"Hm? Oh... well... usually it's whatever you could get your hands on," Carlos admitted, "like last week, I managed to swipe a day old fish from the port."

"You guys don't really have any food on the Isle, do you?"

"No, not really. Most of the time it's an all-out brawl to get some crumbs and bits of leftovers thrown out by you guys," Carlos summarised.

Kiritsugu looked at Carlos with pity and bits of sadness and noticed the not so fond memorable look on his face. He already knew that the Isle was pretty much a third world nation.

"Hey, Carlos," Kiritsugu said, gaining his attention, "If you want, I can always just make another serving for you and the others."

"You'd do that?" Carlos asked, "I mean-"

"Carlos it's fine. Believe me, I enjoy cooking more than you believe," Kiritsugu interrupted, "I have no problem making an extra serving."

Carlos was in awe and be widdled at Kiritsugu's sincerity, and never imagined that someone would ever do something for a VK, him especially.

"Wow. I... I don't know what to say," Carlos muttered.

"You don't have to say anything, it's fine," Kiritsugu finished before dipping into the rest of his lunch.

Carlos smiled, feeling as if he was given the key to a new castle, before happily stuffing himself with the rest of the Dumplings given to him by his new blonde friend.

"So, you enjoying Auradon Prep?" Doug asked, hoping to strike up a conversation.

"It's alright. People can be a bit unwelcoming though," Carlos admitted, feeling a bit more open with the two, "I imagine the others are having just as much fun as me. I mean, Jay and Mal are probably fine, while Evie is probably trying to see who has the biggest castle."

"She's the Evil Queen's daughter, right?" Kiritsugu asked.

"Yep. Which is where she gets most of her 'charm' from, as you know."

"Yeah, she certainly does," Doug agreed, though looked as if he was in dreamland for a second at the mention of the blue haired girl.

The two other boys in the room took note in this, and while Carlos had a confused look on his face, Kiritsugu adopted a rather devilish smirk.

"Doug, my man. Do you have a crush on the Evie?"

"Huh? W-what?" He stuttered.

"Well. It' just that now that I think about it, you did seem rather 'hi-ho' when you first saw her yesterday," The blonde said as he leaned back in his seat with his legs crossed and his fingers entwined, "What do you think Carlos?"

Carlos was confused at first, before he picked up the tone that Kiritsugu was giving him, signalling for him to join in.

"Oh! Yeah, dude what's up? You think you can just make a move on one of us like that?" Carlos asked.

"What? No, I-"

"I can only imagine what Mal or Jay would say if they heard of this. Sorry I didn't get to know you, Doug. I'll probably not be at your funeral."

"What's that supposed to mean!?"

Carlos didn't get to say any more, as both he and Kiritsugu couldn't take it anymore, and let out their little buckets of laughs at the look on Doug's face, with the former realising what had happened to him.

"Aw, c'mon guys!"

"Sorry, sorry," Kiritsugu apologised while Carlos was taking a second to calm down, "I couldn't resist."

"Haha, very funny," Doug deadpanned, "How about we joke about your love life next time?"

"What love life?" The blonde asked with a raised brow, causing Doug to sweatdrop a bit, much to the confusion of Carlos.

"forget about it," The half-dwarf said before going back to his meal.

'Poor Jane.'

The blonde just shrugged it off, before he to as well as Carlos went back to get their fill for the day.

'I wonder how Mal's doing,' The latter asked himself, knowing she was the one who wanted to be here the least.

Unfortunately for a certain purple headed girl, she was not having any fun in class.

"And if we carry the square root of blah blah blah, then we get the blah of blah the blah blah," Was all Mal heard from the old wrinkly teacher's mouth.

'I wish Evie or one of the guys were here,' She thought as she felt an aneurysm coming on.

She figured classes would be annoying, but not borderline torture, at least in her mind.

As the daughter of Maleficent pretended to care about the lecture, her salvation soon came in the form of the school bell, marking the end of class.

"Well, I guess that's all for now. Remember to read pages-"

That was all Mal heard before she shot up from her seat to go to her next class, not bothering about something to which didn't matter in the long run considering her and the other's plans for this place.

Exiting the classroom, Mal sighed as she could only dread about the next class, which the only fortunate thing was that she and the others would be in it together.

"Riveting isn't it, public education?" An unfamiliar voice called out, "Then again, Mr Pops isn't exactly the most exciting person to teach."

Looking back, Jane saw a girl her age with shoulder length dark blonde hair and green eyes, her arms on her hips as she looked at her.

"Who're you?" Mal asked.

"No need to be hostile. Just trying to be one of the few friendlies you're gonna meet," The girl said as she held up her hands.

"That still doesn't answer my question."

"Right, right," The girl said as she put her arms down, "Name's Ingrid, and I just thought I'd say hi."

[To be continued]

[END]