Chapter 1
❝New Year, New Rules, New Problems❞

MELODY HATED WELCOME ceremonies, or any kind of social event, which was unfortunately very hard to avoid considering she was the only future heir to her kingdom's throne.

She was a mermaid/merman person, an animal person, a food person; literary any other person than a people person.

It was a shame her subjects weren't all just sea animals; there was no way she could possibly mess that up.

Melody gave a reluctant sigh before deciding to make her way out of the water when she heard Sebastian yelling at her from a rock closer to the shore of the ocean. Apparently, she was running behind on schedule.

She grabbed ahold of her necklace and closed her eyes till she felt the lower half of her body start to morph from a tail into human legs.

"I really do wonder where you got these habits from, because you're mother and father certainly didn't raise you to be a slacker," Sebastian was continuing to shout at her, his claws moving around in exasperation. She really didn't know why he always acted so shocked when she was running behind on time—it was like she hadn't been hiding at the beach from her responsibilities, or rather, him since she was a small child.

"Cheerful as always, Sebastian," Melody rolled her eyes, whilst grabbing ahold of the robe he had laid out on the dry sand for her, and tied it tightly around her waist. Disappointedly, her powers did not involve making her new clothes when she switched between a mermaid and a human, so she had to make sure she had something to change into beforehand. Fortunately, her and her best friend had gotten into practicing magic together near the end of summer, and in time she would be able to summon her own clothes.

Mad Maddy or 'Mads' as Melody called her, was one of those kids who had been banished to grow up on the Isle of the Lost all because she had a villain as a parent, and had only recently had she and everyone else from that dreadful place been welcomed to Auradon after Queen Mal, who was a villain kid herself, took down the barrier for good as her first royal decree at her crowning ceremony.

Melody will admit that she was one of the skeptics during that time, but could you blame her? She trusted someone more than once and it backfired in her face, and one of them was supposedly a 'hero kid'. She had pretty much given up on trying to make friends until she accidentally shoved a girl head-to-toe covered in blue, green and pink into the water below the bridge between the Isle and Auradon during the VK's welcome celebration, and Melody had quickly jumped in to save her. Let's just say, it was quite a sight for partygoers to see the daughter of the famous little mermaid dragging the trash-mouthed granddaughter of Madam Mim to shore. And somehow, since then, the most unlikely pair became inseparable.

Melody found Mads just where she expected; by the food table messing with the punch bowl.

"Are you trying to get my parents drunk?" Melody snorts, leaning on the blue-clothed covered surface in front of the dyed haired girl.

"Well, if it'd make them less uptight," Mads cracked a grin, her eyes lighting up at Melody's sudden appearance, before holding up the silver-tinted flask she had been pouring into the punch. Her turquoise nails tapped against the metal. "This is a Confusion Concoction. It makes the taker scared and oblivious about everything around them—thought it'd help lighten the mood."

"Where'd you learn how to make that?" Melody questioned her, lowering her voice when she caught Jadah's parents, Jasmine and Aladdin, looking their way. "I didn't see that in the book." The book was referring to a spell/potion-making book Melody had found at the beach near her usual weekly swim spot one morning, mysteriously laying out onto the sand as if it was meant only for her to find. Which was odd, since it was aimed for magic users that were already more experienced, particularly in Auradon Prep's banned list of things that students were forbidden from using. Of course, Melody knew she probably should have left it alone, but before she knew what she was doing, she was showing it to Mad Maddy, and they were practicing magic together for the rest of the summer break. But they had only gotten through half of the spell section, which was why Melody was feeling a little betrayed that Mads could have skipped ahead when she wasn't looking.

"This was in one of the potion books I had in the Isle of the Lost," Mads reassured, upon seeing the look on Melody's face. "Read that thing over a thousand times, I've got it all memorized in my brain now."

Melody relaxed a little, her shoulders slumping down in relief. "You know Uma won't like that, right?" Normally, she would not have cared, as Uma's been a pretty laidback headmaster so far while King Ben and Queen Mal were away travelling with the son of Jafar and the daughter of the Evil Queen, but with the Queen of Hearts and her daughter rumoured to be making a arrival soon, she wondered just how calm she would be if the villainous Queen started screaming in her face.

Mads laughed. "Since when are you scared of the sea witch?"

Melody deadpanned just as a trumpet sounded throughout the courtyard, causing several heads to turn in the direction of the sound, her's and Mad Maddy's included.

"The Queen of Hearts!" One of her soldier's announced, dawned in red and black knight armour. "And Princess Red!"

What was once a welcoming atmosphere became tense as soon as the new Wonderland arrivals entered the school grounds. Melody didn't know what she had expected from the infamous villain and her daughter, but it wasn't for them to sit down at one of the empty party tables without any fuss.

Unlike the stories Melody had been told of the Red Queen, her head was perfectly normal sized and didn't resemble a bobble head. The only thing that had been true about her appearance was the permanent sternness in her expression as she stared boldly at anyone who dared to look her in the eye, which caused them to cower and glance away as quickly as they had looked. The Queen didn't converse with anyone but her kid, Red, and judging by the joyful glint in Red's eye, she was the only one who was happy to be there.

Melody instantly felt bad for her when she saw her mother telling her off for smiling.

"She's cheerful," Mads muttered, having seen this as well.

Melody raised an eyebrow at her, "Were you expecting her to break out into song?" (Author's note: LOL)

"Fair enough."

Mads suddenly tensed as she caught sight of a certain blue-haired girl making her way toward them and without another word took ahold of Melody's arm and dragged her to sit down where Ariel and Eric were. Melody looked at her in confusion but after realizing, gave her a grateful smile.

Music started playing throughout the courtyard as the headmistress finally made her appearance, singing along to 'What's My Name' and when she was finished, everyone burst into applause.

Melody admittedly zoned out during most of Uma's speech, fiddling boredly with the multicoloured anxiety rings on her fingers. That's why she was so startled when the Queen of Hearts started to laugh as more and more of her soldiers suddenly appeared in various places around the crowd in a cloud of red smoke, causing several people scream and Ariel to grab ahold of her daughter and Mads' hands. The young mermaid didn't know what was more horrifying, the soldiers pointing their spears at people, or the Queen's smile.

"Mom, stop!" Red was appalled.

"You see, Bridget?" Cinderella stepped closer to the red-haired family. "Even you're daughter knows this is wrong."

That was when Melody knew she forked up.

Red glared challengingly at Cinderella and her bratty kid Chloe, declaring, "Off with her head!"

So much for having a peaceful welcome ceremony.

—

I'll be uploading more aesthetics in the introduction guys! You'll get to learn more about Mad Maddy, Hadie, and Melody's relationship with her love interests.

And yes, I stole Confusion Concoction from Harry Potter for those who were wondering.

This was originally a poly story, and maybe it still will become one, but for the plot I have figured out in act 1, it will only be a love triangle. Would you guys prefer it to stay this way in act 2, or would you like poly better? Act 2 will be going off script, unless they announce a fifth movie by that point, then I'll see if I can fit it into the plot I have in mind

Thank you so much to the people who have been commenting and voting, it really motivates me to write!! I wouldn't be posting this right now if it weren't for you :)

This is all unedited, so please let me know if you see a mistake and I'll fix it

1524 words