Chapter Nineteen

A/N: I do not own anything with the exception of OCs, who as always are free to play with.

Hey all, hope you're all doing good! It's been crazy here in the states, with COVID cases increasing. My state's been fortunate in that we haven't seen an increase in cases but there's always the risk of it happening since our beaches have reopened. Thankfully I live more inland and also hate dealing with real people so I haven't been out too much.

*sigh* So it looks like Cotillion is the next chapter after this. If there's a delay, it's because I have to fight every urge to run and hide that overtakes me whenever I watch that part. I get major second hand embarrassment so please, appreciate what I go through for you guys! :) It'll get done, I just can't promise a date.

AmethystDragon14: Oh I'm so glad you like it! Yeah Mitchell and that hat, probably one of the best parts of D2! Hopefully Ben takes your advice for what's coming up but who knows? This is the boy who dove into the ocean to stand between a dragon and a giant octopus woman.

61394: Mulan may not be the only one with a body count but she is the only one to have a body count in the thousands. Besides Tiana didn't know that destroying Facilier's amulet would lead to his death, Pascal was technically the one to kill Gothel not Rapunzel, and I'm pretty sure Jasmine doesn't have a body count.

estherramsayaa22: Yeah, all Lonnie wanted was to be on the team. But nice use of a loophole by Jay!

smc-smfan1: Another reviewer had requested the deleted song be added and it was short enough that I saw no harm in adding it. Honestly, I'm surprised it was cut just because it was so short.

Tracie: Oh trust me, I'm looking forward to Mal and Uma's face off too. I just have to get through the Spelled Ben scenes.

danifan3000: True but Chad doesn't really do much in the way of evil when he's partnered with Audrey and then gets locked in a closet. The viewing list for the third movie hasn't been confirmed yet, the only ones I know for sure are the Core four and Ben, the Sea three, and Emir and Akiho. I'm sorry, Yzma has a what now? Did the barrier reverse aging as well as prevent magic because I'm pretty sure it should not be possible for Yzma to have a kid, let alone two.

Hufflepuffgirl95: Oh I'm so glad you liked the chapter! Glad it was worth the wait!

The others do know about Hadie, the only ones who don't are the Sea 3 since they weren't in the first viewing.

manticore-gurl071134: I'm so glad you liked it!

twilightgirl587: Oh, I'm sorry you had a bad week but I'm glad you liked the chapter! Hope you like this one as well!

Technobabble1: I'm so glad you like Emir and Akiho-trust me I like writing them too! Thank you as well for the suggestion re: Eric. Honestly, with Elle being the girl in the wheelchair at Cotillion, I'm surprised no one commented. Especially with Ben and Uma dancing to 'Kiss the Girl'.

Grace: Oh I'm so glad you liked it! Yeah, I figure with Emir and the others seeing it from an outsider's perspective, it's a lot more obvious that something was up with Ben. Plus, when you consider Ben's history of dumping his current girlfriend at a public event, it's probably why no one really commented at Cotillion when Uma appeared. Hmm, I'd say my favorite scene in D2 would be when Mal transforms into a dragon. There really needed to be more Dragon!Mal in the movies.

Kaybugg1: I'm so glad! Hope you had a great 4th of July too and that you stay safe!

Guest999: Sometimes Harry Hook speaks what I think!

SlytherinAvengerPrincess: Don't worry, it's not Cotillion this chapter. I can't promise my sanity will remain intact by next chapter though.

Guest: Ask and you shall receive!

purpleprincess22: I'm going to do the same thing with Bridging the Gap and have a 'break' story between this one and watching the 3rd one. But there will be a Watching D3.

Good Fairies: I can't promise anything but I can definitely look into it!

LL: *whew* okay. So first of all I want to say I can understand where you're coming from. However my portrayal of Uma and Harry are based off of what canon has presented to me-from both the books and the movies. Uma and Mal's rivalry is skewed but more to make Uma look like the victim in my option as the movie mentions Mal giving Uma the nickname of Shrimpy but doesn't mention the fact that Uma left Mal to drown. At age nine. Both are horrible but one of these things are not like the other.

As well, as a character, Uma has attempted murder under her belt as well as attempted regicide by dangling Ben over the plank to what she claims is shark infested waters and promising Harry the ability to hook Ben if Mal didn't come through with the wand. Compare that to Mal, who's first evil act we see in D1 is taking candy from a baby. Yes Uma and Harry live on the Isle but so did Mal, Evie, Jay and Carlos and none of them tried to assassinate Beast to try to get the wand.

Maybe Mal acted like Uma when she was younger, but that needs to be something the media needs to show.

Hope you all enjoy this chapter!

Doug knocked on the door to Evie's room.

"Come in," Evie called as she straightened the dresses in front of her and Doug opened the door.

"I have a scout badge and s'mores!" The son of Dopey exclaimed

"And I have a jar of dirt!" Hyllus said, throwing his hands in the air in exasperation. "Are we just saying random things as we enter rooms now?"

and Evie turned around from the dresses she was straightening on the rack in front of her. "How could you go camping without me?"

"That makes more sense," Hyllus nodded and Macaria shook her head.

"We're sure I'm related to you?" She asked.

"What?" Evie asked, shocked that Doug was even asking that question.

"Well considering Carlos' bad attempt at lying when Doug saw him earlier, it is a fair question," Emma nodded.

"Are you seeing someone else?" Doug asked her, closing the distance between them. "Are you?"

"That, on the other hand, is not," Emma sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Oh look, a couple actually communicating their concerns to each other," Emir said, looking over at Ben.

"You're going to continue to give me grief over something my future on screen self has done and that I won't do, aren't you?"

"It's my job as your best friend."

"No."

"Is it Happy's son? Because let me tell you, he is not as happy as his dad. Kind of a dark streak, in fact."

"You did hear her say 'no', didn't you?" Elle asked. "Also, isn't Happy's son your cousin? Who talks about their cousin that way by saying who their parent is rather than just using their name?"

"We do," Melody pointed out.

"We have six aunts to keep straight and they all have kids," Elle defended.

"And Doug has six uncles."

"Doug, Ben was captured on the Isle. We rescued Ben and saved Auradon," Evie told him.

"That's the 'too long, didn't read' version of it," Akiho chuckled. "You left out the part where you fought off the pirates."

"I think we're all rather glad she left that part out," Rachel said, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, I don't think Queen Belle would be able to make it through another telling of that story," Rowyn said with a chuckle.

"So you're not seeing Happy's son or anyone else?" Doug asked to clarify.

"That's what you're focusing on?" Phillip Jr asked, shaking his head. "Never mind the fact that Ben had been captured."

"I think it's sweet," Evie said and gave Doug a kiss on the cheek.

Evie smiled and grabbed his hands. "Don't be dopey," she told him as she leaned in and kissed his cheek.

"Aww!" Emma sighed, happy for her step-Aunt. Evie deserved to be happy and Doug was a good guy.

"Besides, we have dresses to deliver. It is Cotillion day, after all. And you know what? I was lucky enough to have been given a chance, and now I need to give someone else a chance, too."

Evie smiled at Dizzy, knowing her future self was talking about the small red-haired girl.

"My Uncle Bashful used to say that," Doug said as he grabbed an end of the rack.

"Did he?"

"Yeah. But really quietly."

Many of the kids laughed at that, and Uma and Harry both smirked in amusement.

Evie laughed at that. "Let's do this."

"Yay!" Lucy exclaimed. She'd been waiting for her dress for what felt like ages and she was sure Evie did an amazing job on it. Now if only I had a date, she thought. She had been going out with Bobby Hood but the two of them broke up a couple of months ago, when Bobby transferred over to Sherwood. They remained friends so Lucy wasn't too upset about it.

The two of them took the rack of dresses out of the room to deliver them to the expectant clients.

"Umm," Audrey spoke up as she looked at the screen, "Evie, are the dresses supposed to be dragging on the ground?"

"Oh no!" Evie gasped, noticing that. It wouldn't do to have the hems of the dresses to be torn or dirty when they arrive to the client. "Thank you Audrey! I'll get a taller rack for when I deliver them."

"Or just take off the bottom part," Doug said. "You designed them with a tear away bottom half if they wanted to wear a shorter dress after the formal part of Cotillion was done."

The scene changed to the quad where Jane was on the phone presumably dealing with last minute Cotillion matters.

Ah, I have to say I do not miss that, Audrey thought with a small smile. I loved Cotillion planning, don't get me wrong but the constant back and forth on the phones combined with cheer practice, running for student council president, and classes…it's a good thing I don't have a roommate otherwise the four in the morning calls might have caused them to kill me last year.

"Mm-hmm. Uh-huh. Say no more."

"Jane. Jane. Jane!" Carlos exclaimed as he slid on the gravel path.

"Careful, Carlos," Jay chuckled.

"Hey, hey, uh… Would you go to Cotillion with me?"

"FINALLY!"

"You all know I already asked her right?" Carlos asked, looking at some of the boys in concern. They were a bit too invested in his love life. Jay was the one exception and that was just because he was the closest thing Carlos had to a brother.

"Yes, you asked Jane. But screen-you was still floundering around like a fish out of water," Elle told him. "That's why they're excited. Because the awkwardness is painful."

"I'm not even going to say anything," Emir chuckled. "She's got a point."

Anita couldn't help but smile at the scene before her. After what she'd learned about life on the Isle, she was happy to see Carlos have some happiness.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. We're all taking a stretch carriage over at 6:00," Jane said before turning back to her conversation.

"Oh no Jane," Emma shook her head.

"No, no, no. The pen toppers are in the port side cabin."

"No, I... I mean... with me," Carlos said gently as if to clarify what he had meant.

"Good man, don't give up," Travis nodded.

"Yeah, want me to swing by your room?" Jane asked before once again turning back to her conversation.

"I'm sorry Carlos," Evie giggled. "But your face there is just so confused."

"Well it's nice to know my confusion is funny to you," Carlos shook his head.

"No, no, no. So, when you're on the boat facing the left…Yeah, yeah. Right. No, no, no. Not right, left."

"Uh…This is gonna be tricky," Carlos muttered to himself. "Jane?" He asked, resting a hand on hers and brought the phone away from her ear.

"Oh gods, that's so romantic!" Rose exclaimed.

"I feel bad for whoever Jane's talking to," Aziz pointed out. "All she's trying to do is complete a phone call."

"It's not like Carlos had a lot of time to ask the question though," Ashaki said. "Cotillion's that night."

"He's had six months!" Emir chuckled.

"Like you're one to talk," Ashaki said, rolling her eyes. Though Carlos is another one Ben should make illegal to wear sleeves, she thought as she noticed the muscle definition on the DeVil boy's arms. It wasn't as defined as Jay's or Harry's but that was okay.

"Would you be my date for Cotillion? And if you don't absolutely hate me by the end of it, um, would you consider maybe being more than friends? Maybe?"

"Aww!"

"Do you guys have any other reaction to romantic scenes?" Kitty asked Emma, Lucy and Rose who had sighed at Carlos' asking Jane out.

"Like what?" Lucy asked. "A fist bump? Backflip?"

"I think your sister's asking for us to stop sighing at the romantic scenes," Rose chuckled.

"You said it, not me," Kitty said, shaking her head in amusement.

"Like boyfriend and girlfriend?" Jane asked. "Where we can hold hands instead of slugging each other all the time? And we can text, and I can tell you how great you are? Because, Carlos, you're really, really great. And I'm... I'm the luckiest girl in the world! You're so nice and cute."

"Nothing wrong with slugging each other," Kitty muttered.

"And that's why you don't have a boyfriend," Lucy muttered back to her. Sure it was a low blow when Chad said it but with her twin, it was just friendly teasing.

"Oh yes, and tell me how's your dating life Lu?" Kitty shot back with a smirk.

"Okay, I asked for that."

Meanwhile Jane looked over at Carlos and smiled. "Everything the on-screen me said, I agree with. I'm the luckiest girl in the world."

"Debatable," Emma called out, smiling at Emir. Chad didn't miss how Kitty's face fell a little and resolved to talk to his team mate. If anything, Emir needed to know what he was doing to Kitty. The next break, he thought with an inward nod.

"Me too! I am the luckiest girl...I mean guy. Luckiest guy."

"Something you'd like to share with the class, DeVil?" Harry smirked.

Carlos rolled his eyes. "Scraping the bottom of the barrel there, aren't you Hook?"

Jane quickly brought Carlos into a hug which startled the son of Cruella but he brought his hands around her to close the embrace.

Evie couldn't help but smile at that. Carlos didn't have the greatest childhood growing up on the Isle, and that was being generous. Getting a hug from a girl he liked was definitely a step up from a nest of fur jackets surrounded by bear traps.

"Jane? Can you hear me?" The person on Jane's call asked, ruining the moment.

"We need to work on that person's timing," Rowyn muttered.

"You don't even know who that person is!" Robin exclaimed.

"So? It was still a cute moment that was ruined because of her!"

"Oh, sorry. I'll see you later," Jane said and ran off. Carlos watched her before looking down at Dude.

"If either of you make a dog pun…."

"Good boy," the dog said causing Carlos to laugh and scratch him behind the ears. "Yeah, oh, yeah."

"Why am I not surprised?" Mal chuckled.

"Come on, Dude. Let's go," Carlos said softly before exclaiming, "Yes!"

Jane couldn't help but smile at the on-screen Carlos' reaction to her accepting his invitation. It was so genuine that she knew her Carlos would have done the same thing had they not been in a room full of people when he asked.

The scene changed to Carlos and Jay's room where Chad finished printing out a crown on Carlos' 3D printer.

Kitty and Lucy shook their heads in fond exasperation. They had grown used to it at this point.

"Finally," he whispered and pressed his lips to it. He walked over to the mirror and tried the crown on, tilting it a little like Maleficent had done to the crown at Ben's coronation. "Oh, what's that? Why no, Audrey, I haven't chosen my queen yet. Why no, Audrey…"

Audrey flushed—their break up had been four months ago. Yet it was clear that Chad still held a torch for her.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad, she thought. I mean, remember when we were at the beach after Ben's performance at the Tourney game and we saw Ben and Mal sitting next to each other so Chad tried to distract you with a story about Jaq and a wheel of cheese?

But I tried the whole 'date your friend' thing with Ben and look how that wound up!

Could it really hurt to give it a try though? An actual try, I mean, instead of trying to make Ben jealous?

Audrey sighed. It was clear that she wasn't going to grow un-conflicted in a day.

"Did he just kiss that crown?" Alexandria asked, raising an eyebrow. Her brother was weird.

Chad's phone rang, interrupting his little daydream.

"The only people who call me anymore are mom, dad and Alex," Chad said, looking confused. "Everyone else texts."

"So that's why you never answer my calls!" Alexandria exclaimed.

"No, it's because you call when I'm in the middle of class," Chad told her. "Phones are off."

"Who could be calling me?" Chad asked, looking at his phone before dropping it in shock. "Ohh! Audrey! Audrey!"

"Ooh!" Lucy teased while Kitty rolled her eyes.

"Don't Lu," she muttered, noticing a slight pink hue on Chad's cheeks. He had stuck up for her when it came to her crush on Emir, the least she could do would be to not give him a hard time about his feelings for Audrey. "I know he's our brother and we have the right to make fun of him for this but let's show we can actually be mature when it comes to Chad."

"You two are doing the 'Eldest Charmings stick together' thing again aren't you?" Lucy asked. "Well, it's better than the castle shaking fights you two had."

"You were just as bad!"

Carlos walked in to see Chad on the ground scrambling for his phone.

"Why am I even shocked anymore?" Carlos sighed, shaking his head.

"Chad! This is my room, Chad! What…"

Chad held up a finger as if to tell Carlos to hold his point and answered the call.

"Did you just do the 'one minute' move?" Carlos exclaimed. "It's my room Chad!"

"Audrey? Yeah. Yeah? Well, yeah. Oh, well, that's wonderful news."

"What's the news?" Neal asked.

He put his thumb over the microphone and turned to tell Carlos. "She got a flat tire in Sherwood Forest, and she wants me to go fix it."

"How is that wonderful news?" Kitty asked. "More importantly why didn't she call someone closer? Like Bobby?"

"Unless Chad's feelings for Audrey aren't unrequited," Lucy muttered with a smirk.

"Is the photo for my number a bluebird?" Audrey asked Chad, a small smile playing at her lips.

"That's six hours away," Carlos told him.

"Really? Only six?" Chad said before turning back to his call.

"Also, since when do you know how to change a tire?" Emir asked, looking at his team mate.

"Richard taught us when he taught us how to drive," Chad said, gesturing to himself and Ben. "Said everyone should know how to do it."

"Richard does know Ben's a member of the 50-50 club and so he already knew how to change a tire, right?" Akiho asked.

"That would explain why he was so good at it, now that I think about it," Chad said, shaking his head.

"The what?" Rachel asked with a chuckle.

"The 50-50 club," Akiho repeated, unaware of the amused looks coming from their parents. "You know, one parent who's born a royal, one who's not. Actually, you and your siblings would be in the club too."

"Anyway, Akiho, Ben and I try to meet as often as we can and teach ourselves a 'non-royal' trick," Emir said with a smirk. "Yes, that includes changing a tire."

"Well wait, mom wasn't born royal," Chad pointed out. "Er, no offense mom."

"None taken," Cinderella chuckled. "But Chad, I was born into the aristocracy. Your grandfather was a lord when he married my step mother."

"Yeah, you're more in the 75-25 club," Akiho told him.

"I'm sorry," Jay said, shaking his head. "But can we go back to on-screen Chad saying 'only' six hours?"

"The trip to Sherwood used to be eight," Ahiko said. "It's why Sherwood always has to rent a hotel room the night before we play them and vice versa when it's home for them."

"I'm gonna be there faster than I thought."

Kissing his phone, he ended his call and got up to leave the room.

"Stop kissing inanimate objects!" Rose exclaimed. "You don't know where they've been and frankly it's disgusting!"

"She's got a point son," Kit chuckled.

"The crown was freshly printed though," Chad pointed out.

"True," Kitty nodded. "But when's the last time you cleaned your phone screen?"

"Ah, ah. My printer, my crown," Carlos told him and took the crown off of Chad's head.

"Nice," Jay chuckled.

"Oh. Yeah, about that, I was j…Right," Chad said before leaving the room.

"Who are you and what have you done to my brother?" Lucy asked.

Kitty though gave Chad a knowing smirk. There was only one thing that could distract Chad to the point that he wouldn't even argue against Carlos telling him off. Or rather, one person.

"I'm coming, Audrey!"

Audrey flushed once more while Phillip Jr smirked in amusement.

"Looks like you have your Prince Charming after all," he said.

"Never make that joke again," Audrey told him.

"Wow," Carlos uttered as the screen faded to black.

"Wow indeed," Emir chuckled while Ben gave Chad a smile. It was nice seeing Chad so happy.

"Please don't get into an accident," Kitty told her brother. "You're so giddy there that I doubt you'll have proper control of the wheel."

"Well, I'll be sure to let my on screen self know he needs to be careful," Chad said with a smirk and Kitty rolled her eyes. Cinderella and Kit couldn't help but smile at the sight of their two eldest getting along.