The first few weeks of school started off pretty smoothly. It wasn't a difficult adjustment for Meredith since she had also dived right into the Royal Cotillion preparations with Jane, Mal, and Ben almost immediately, which felt familiar and quite similar to doing school work already.

Meredith was by the docks with Ben and his parents on a sunny afternoon. Jane was discussing Ben's surprise gift for Mal with the artist back in the city, while Meredith was tasked with double checking the venue — one of the Royal Family's ships — for the highly anticipated cotillion. She walked down the deck of the boat, looking back and forth from the venue and to the large tablet she held in her hand that displayed the layout. She took note of possible adjustments and checked off whatever was already fine the way it was.

"All the food, drinks, and tables will be in the lower deck," Meredith reminded Ben.

"Got it."

"But, we'll begin with yours and Mal's grand entrances, so everyone will assemble here first," Meredith went on, turning around in place for emphasis.

"Right."

"You'll enter from that side, so the reveal of your gift for Mal should be over there."

"Okay. You know —"

"Do you want the royal blue carpet to run all the way here or only until the last step of the stairs? It would look nice across the floor all the way to the other side, but I'm concerned that it would get in the way of all the dancing —"

"Meredith." The redhead stopped talking and finally looked at Ben.

"What's wrong? Is there something you want to change in the layout?" she asked.

"No, that's not it," Ben laughed, clasping his hands together. "I was just gonna tell you to stop fussing over the cotillion so much. I purposely didn't make you the event head because I knew you'd stress yourself out over it as usual."

"Oh."

"This is supposed to be a fun occasion, Mer," Ben nudged her. "I want my best friend to have fun, too."

"And I will," Meredith insisted. "Evie's going to make me yet another gorgeous dress, and I'll be with friends. I'll have fun."

"That's great and all, but... have you even thought of bringing a date?"

"Date?" she repeated, suddenly flustered. "I don't think I need one..."

"I know, but come on, Mer. You, me, Chad, and even Audrey have all been going to fancy events like this since we were kids. Wouldn't it be nice to bring your own date of choice for a change now that we're practically adults?" Ben grinned.

"Is this your way of rubbing it in my face that I'm single?"

"That's not it," said Ben, but he was laughing.

"I can always just go with Chad," Meredith shrugged casually, but her mind was all over the place. "He broke up with Audrey recently, too, so we both wouldn't have anyone to go with."

"Do you really want to go with him, though?" Ben raised his eyebrows. He knew they were still friends, but ever since the VK's first began going to Auradon, Meredith and Chad hadn't been seeing things eye to eye as often anymore. Chad was also too preoccupied with Audrey when they were "dating," and even now that they were broken up and she had dropped him like it was nothing, he was still hung up on her. The whole thing just didn't seem like a good idea to the young king.

"Look, let's not talk about dates and stuff," Meredith brushed him off. "Why don't we talk about your present for Mal? It's quite complicated, so you should focus on that. Jane's been going back and forth with the artist a lot."

"Isn't there anyone you'd want to take?" Ben ignored her suggestion, trying to get some answer out of her. "Like, I don't know, a specific boy named —"

"Carlos?"

"Exactly."

"What's up? Yeah, I'm still here with Ben."

Ben stopped short when he realized that Meredith was talking into her phone — she had only said Carlos's name because she was answering a phone call from him. For a moment, he thought she had gotten his drift.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be there in a while," Meredith was saying before she ended the call and faced Ben again. "Sorry, that was Carlos. We're studying for the History of Auradon test in his room later. What were you saying again?"

"Nothing," Ben sighed in disappointment, running a hand over his face. It was proving to be much harder than he thought to set his best friend up on a date. "Let me just walk you back to the dorms, yeah?"

Later that afternoon, Meredith had put aside the cotillion preparations and decided to focus on studying for her upcoming tests. Like she told Ben earlier, she and Carlos had scheduled a study session for their History of Auradon test in three days. Thanks to her curious nature, Meredith genuinely enjoyed all her history classes and was actually excited to study for them even more with someone else. However, Carlos and Jay were still finishing up with R.O.A.R. training, so she found herself relaxing in their dorm before the they even finished. Carlos told her that he left the door unlocked, anyway, so Meredith entered with ease and plopped down on his bed casually.

She had been comfortably lying on her stomach and mindlessly scrolling through her phone for the last half hour when the door finally opened. Jay walked in, looking like he had just showered based on his wet hair and choice of more comfortable clothes in his usual maroon and yellow scheme.

"Hey," he said casually, grabbing a jacket hanging on one of the chairs.

"Hey," Meredith replied simply as Jay made his way back out the door. However, a second later, he was slowly backtracking and reentering his room. It took him a moment to realize that Meredith was inside, which had never happened before. The only other girls who stayed in his and Carlos's room were Mal and Evie.

"Uh, this isn't Mal and Evie's room, you know?" he said in amusement.

"I know," said Meredith. "I'm waiting for Carlos. We're studying for that History of Auradon test in a few days."

"There's a test?" Jay said incredulously before shaking his head. "Never mind. So, you two have a study date?"

Meredith felt her face grow warm all of a sudden. Why was everyone throwing around the word date to her today?

"Of course not," she said indignantly. "We're actually going to study."

"Sure," Jay dragged his words teasingly.

The door swung open again and this time, it was Carlos who walked in. He had also freshened up after training and was now wearing a white hoodie and black shorts.

"You're still here?" he asked Jay.

"I was just leaving. Evie wants me to try on the suit jacket she made but told me to bring one of my old ones for reference."

"Nah, man, I'm talking about Coach Jenkins. Didn't he ask you to go to his office tonight to tell him about your training program for the tourney newbies?" Carlos said with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, shoot, I forgot," said Jay, running to his side of the room. He searched through his bag for a few seconds before retrieving a crumpled paper. With a satisfied smile, he walked over to the door and patted Carlos's shoulder. "Thanks, bro. Have fun on your study date."

"What?" Carlos said, bewildered. Jay merely snickered, so Carlos pushed him out the room to prevent him from saying anything else. "Get out, Jay!"

"Alright, alright," he chuckled, his voice just barely getting cut off when Carlos slammed the door shut.

"So." Carlos turned back to Meredith with an awkward laugh. "What chapter should we start with?"

♚ ♚ ♚

As the date of the Royal Cotillion drew closer and closer and his duties as king became too heavy, Ben had to file for a withdrawal from the Swords and Shields Team, Auradon Prep's R.O.A.R. varsity team. That left an open spot for someone to claim as soon as possible, and Lonnie was practicing harder than ever to snatch it before any random guy with below-average skills in the sport would.

As a fellow athlete, Meredith had been helping Lonnie with her secret training to become a top tier R.O.A.R. athlete. Meredith wasn't as good as Lonnie, who had inherited both talent and hard work in the fencing and parkour departments from her parents, but she was decent enough to still be able to help her friend out in improving her skills. And so, it was about the tenth "secret" training they had scheduled that Meredith found herself walking to the gymnasium that day to meet up with Lonnie. Carlos and Dude, whom she had bumped into on her way there while they were in the middle of a stroll around campus, were walking alongside her.

"Why are you going to the gym with Lonnie, again?" Carlos questioned.

"She just needs a workout partner," Meredith lied. She didn't want to lie, but it wasn't her place to tell him about Lonnie's plans of making the Swords and Shields Team, especially since Carlos was already a part of it.

"Don't the two of you exercise enough?" Carlos wondered. "You have cheerleading and she does martial arts, right?"

"Well, you know Lonnie. She just has so much energy," Meredith said, glad that Carlos was busy making funny faces at Dude to notice that she was lying.

"If I were you, I'd use my free time eating or sleeping."

Meredith chuckled in agreement.

"Same. You have no idea how much I'm craving a green tea frappuccino right now," she sighed. "But, I already promised Lonnie to do this with her."

Carlos could only smile sympathetically at her. Eventually, they reached the doors to the gymnasium.

"I'll see you two tomorrow," Meredith told them, bending down to scratch Dude behind his ears. The mutt wagged his tail in satisfaction, but Meredith had to let go and straightened back up.

"Alright. Tell Lonnie I said hi," Carlos said, waving a hand at her as he walked backwards. "Come on, Dude."

Once Meredith was sure they were gone, she opened the gym doors. She barely had time to react when something long and shiny was thrown her way. Luckily, she caught it just in time, and her eyes widened when she realized what it was.

"Lonnie! You threw a sword at me?"

"What? You caught it," the black-haired girl shrugged nonchalantly. Her long hair was tied up in a high ponytail and a few beads of sweat trickled down her face, indicating that she had already been practicing way before Meredith arrived.

"It could've maimed me!"

"But it didn't," Lonnie retorted with a bright grin. Meredith could only sigh and shake her head.

"Let's get this over with."