Chapter 2
❝A Familiar and Unfamiliar Setting❞

MELODY HAD EXPECTED that this year at Auradon Prep would be her year. She hoped that there wouldn't be as many catastrophes as there were in her first year; Now that Uma had been determined as not a threat, she could finally try out for the swim team as students were given permission to go in the water again, and now that the King and Queen and the original VKs were gone (the core four attracted trouble, whether it was intentional or not), maybe the next few months wouldn't be as eventful, even if the barrier between the Isle and Auradon had been brought down. The new VKs just wanted what the AKs wanted, peace.

But now after what the new Wonderland arrivals had done, Melody was coming to realize that this wasn't her year at all; quite literally.

The past few seconds before chaos had erupted at the ceremony was a blur. She knew she had been clutched tightly in her mother and father's hold safely off to the side. She knew that she and Mad Maddy were nowhere close to intervening when Chloe's mother, Cinderella, had been escorted off by the Queen of Hearts soldiers at the command of her daughter, Red, not because they didn't want to help, but because there was no way they could overpower them all.

And yet, somehow the panic in the crowd caused them to get shoved around a lot, and made Melody get separated from her parents, but she made sure she and Mad Maddy didn't lose each other. They were close to the front when they got pushed forward into an arguing Red and Chloe, the former oddly holding a large golden pocket watch, and then...

And then Melody, Red, Mad Maddy, and Chloe all fell down onto the freshly cut grass with a loud 'thump!'

It must've been a weird sight for the onlookers to see four brightly dressed girls rolling around on the ground, tangled in each others limbs. When they finally did get unstuck, neither of them looked happy in the slightest at their predicament.

Mad Maddy spat a piece of grass out of her mouth. She unfortunately had been at the bottom of the dog pile and had landed face first. It was a miracle her makeup and hair were still intact. "What the sword in the stone was that?!"

Red let out a loud scoff as she dusted off her jacket. "You tell me, you're the moron who pushed us!" She glared.

"Where are we?" Melody had seen Mads' eyes start to glow and was quick to interrupt the VKs before it could turn into a bloodbath. After she was got onto her feet, she was able to get a good look at they're (sorta) new surroundings. They were still in the courtyard and it was once again bright and sunny, zero storm clouds in sight. The Queen of Hearts' magic that had been controlling the weather was gone, and so were her soldiers. In fact, everyone and everything had disappeared. There were new benches and on one of them sat a young petite girl who seemed to be practicing her magical skills with a wand. Melody couldn't recall seeing her at the welcoming ceremony, yet she looked familiar to the mermaid.

"And where is everyone?" Melody met Chloe's eyes for the first time in a long time as she heard her speak, and she found that her eyes were already trained on her own. She forced herself to look away and awkwardly fiddled with the rings on her fingers, shifting uncomfortably on her feet.

"Don't you see?" Red scoffed and gestured around them like they were stupid.

"You're not going to see anything ever again if you don't get to the point!" Mad Maddy snapped. Melody nodded in agreement.

Red shot them an irritated look before continuing, "We're stuck in the past!"

The other girls exchanged dubious looks, not because they didn't believe her, but because they couldn't understand why she'd be so happy about such a thing.

"How?" Melody finally asked the million dollar question they were all wondering, as they impatiently awaited for Red's answer.

"This," Red dangled her pocket watch between her fingers. "My friend, Maddox Hatter made it. It's a Time Machine."

"And you just had to bring it to the welcoming?" Mads groaned as their situation finally seemed to sink in. "Why are you so happy about this?! What if we step on a butterfly and we never get born?"

"We need to get back!" Chloe agreed. "I have to save my mother!"

Red shook her head at them in both disbelief and annoyance. Didn't they get it? "Don't you see?"

When no one said anything, she sighed. "Honestly, it's like none of you guys have seen time travel films...Look, whatever caused Chloe's mother and my mom to hate each other, we can stop it! That way my mom never turned evil, and your mom doesn't get executed!"

"An execution that you ordered," Chloe snapped.

"Oh, come on, that was like, 30 years in the future!"

"Guys!" Melody fought to keep the peace, but it was no use. They had already started yelling, doing a weird fighting-singing thing.

She tensed up as they continued fighting. Out of anxiousness, she found herself fiddling with the rings on her fingers.

Mads noticed her best friend getting upset and had, had enough. "ALRIGHT," She snapped, rushing forward to get in between Red and Chloe. "Knock it off! You two are making a scene!"

It was true. The bell must've gone during their shouting and people were now entering the courtyard. Some students stood off to the side to watch them curiously while others walked past, unbothered.

"Besides, Red, how do you even know we're in the right year?" Mads turned to face the redhead. "We could be stuck in a time way before our parents."

Red's eyebrows furrowed. "'Cause of the Fairy Godmother."

They stared.

"The ex-headmistress," She clarified, probably realizing how crazy she must've sounded to them. "Her younger self is sitting right over there."

They followed her gaze to the same girl Melody had seen before practicing her magic. The brunette was sighing to herself in frustration as her wand once again seemed to be acting up.

"My mom was in the same year as her," Red explained. "And she looks...what, 15? 16? So, she's in her 3rd year. Whatever made my mom hate you're mom, happened during that time."

"Okay, Sherlock Holmes," Chloe said. "Say we do this, and make sure our parents never become enemies. How do we make that happen? I know it was during a school dance that someone pulled a awful prank on your mom, but my mom never told me who that someone was, or what the prank even was."

"We attend classes, of course," Red grinned, walking backwards and gesturing for the girls to follow her out of the courtyard, which they did. "Look for clues, befriend our parents, save the day—or couple of years, really. Piece of cake."

"Yeah," Melody muttered in disbelief as they headed inside the school. "Piece of cake."

———

This chapter is extremely late, but here it is

I'm on vacation rn as this comes out, hopefully this will publish on time, I'm still new to the whole scheduling thing but it's worked so far. I'm just worried being in a different country will change the original time I picked, cause I'll be three hours ahead of where I live, but oh well

I scheduled another chapter for Friday at 12 pm (EST) so look out for that!

I'm sure you've noticed that I've changed some things from the movie, and that's just because I've only seen Rise of Red once so I'm just going off of what I remember from it. While I also love the casting and the general main idea of the movie, I feel it wasn't written well so I'll be changing a bit