The semester was flying by quickly, and then there were only two weeks left until the Royal Cotillion. The Auradon Prep students were being bombarded with a mixture of academic requirements and extracurricular activities. Meredith was one of those many students who were busy doing all of them, having to keep her grades up while simultaneously attending her frequent cheerleading practices (and helping Lonnie train so that she could get into the Swords and Shields Team) and planning the Royal Cotillion.

So, it wasn't a surprise that Meredith found herself in Carlos's room again, doing some last minute studying with him for their Mathematics exam the following day since it felt like she hadn't learned the coverage enough. While Meredith was already a bright student, Carlos seemed to be particularly good in math, so she needed his help for that subject.

"There are too many x's and y's," Meredith groaned, face planting on Carlos's bed. "Why can't we just get to the answer already?"

"That's literally what we're supposed to look for, though," Carlos pointed out in amusement.

Before Meredith could retort, the door abruptly swung open and Jay came running in, closing the door behind him as quickly and quietly as possible. He let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding and turned around to tell Carlos what happened, but he was taken aback to see that Meredith was still there.

"You guys do know it's past curfew already, right?" was the first thing Jay said.

"What?" said Meredith, switching open her phone to check the time. "Oh, shoot. It is."

"I didn't realize," Carlos said apologetically, helping her pack up her things.

"I should get going. Are the supervisors roaming right now?"

While Auaradon Prep was more or less a lenient school and there weren't many strict rules to follow in the dormitories, some staff members were still assigned with roaming the halls past curfew to make sure students weren't sneaking out or up to no good. It wasn't that hard to get past them in all honesty, but that didn't mean they shouldn't be careful, either.

"Unfortunately, they are," said Jay, walking over to his bed and plopping down on it. "That's why I came running in here. I lost track of time at the gym and almost got caught downstairs. You better hurry before they get to the second floor and catch you."

"I can walk you back to your room," Carlos offered.

"You might get caught, too, though," Meredith pointed out.

"I'm a master of stealth, remember?"

She rolled her eyes at Carlos's words but didn't argue.

"Come on," he said. "Let's go before it gets too late."

And so, both Carlos and Meredith tiptoed out of the the room and into the dark hallway. Carlos gestured for her to follow after him down the corridor, always keeping a hand behind him to signal her when to stop or keep going.

Meredith's dorm room was straight ahead, almost on the exact opposite end from where Carlos's and Jay's room was. Carlos peeked out from behind a wall right next to the staircase, looking down the staircase. He could see from where he stood near the balcony that one of the dormitory supervisors was still searching the lobby. If he and Meredith ran now, they could make it to the other side of the dorm before the woman went up the stairs.

Carlos motioned for Meredith to move. He had just stepped out from behind the wall when he saw a shadow from the other end of the corridor — another staff member that was already roaming that floor. Carlos stopped abruptly, grabbed Meredith's arm, and pulled her along with him behind another wall that lead to a different corridor. She made a sound to protest, but Carlos raised his finger to his lips to remind her to be quiet. Meredith forced herself to obey, but her heart was suddenly racing. Was it because she was afraid to get caught? Or was it because of the suddenly extremely close proximity between her and Carlos? She was pressed up against him and could feel the soft fabric of his red hoodie as well as his arm that had found its way around her waist to prevent her from moving. She could hear him breathing, and she briefly wondered if he could hear her heart beating at an abnormally fast rate.

For a while, Carlos didn't seem to pay attention to the position they were in. He was straining his ears for the sounds of footsteps and his eyes were trained on the shadows on the walls. When he was sure that the dormitory supervisor had moved back downstairs and heard him tell the one on the first floor that the coast was clear, he finally let out a breath of relief. He waited until the sound of the doors clicking shut before finally looking back at Meredith. Coincidentally, she had done the exact same thing at the same time.

They found their faces directly in front of one another, just inches from touching. They both held their breaths again, but it was different from when they were doing it earlier with the intention of not getting caught. This time, they were doing it out of surprise. Carlos found his eyes gazing at her lips, but he didn't have time to process what he was doing when Meredith acted first, stepping to the side to get out of the awkward position. Her lips grazed Carlos's cheek when she moved, and he felt his face grow warm at that accident.

Meredith cleared her throat awkwardly.

"I think they're gone," she announced. "I can head back on my own. Uh, goodnight."

Without another glance, Meredith briskly walked away from Carlos, leaving him in the dark.

♚ ♚ ♚

It was almost like an unspoken agreement that Meredith and Carlos would not bring up what happened that night — whatever that even was. They didn't even know what to describe it as, but it seemed that they both just knew that they'd rather not talk about it.

Ever since they established their friendship, Meredith and Carlos both learned that they bonded a lot over very simple and mundane things. They didn't need to eat out in a restaurant or even go to the movie theater to watch a film to hang out. They were fine with just chilling at each other's rooms or studying at their favorite table under the large tree in the gardens. It was a nice afternoon with clear skies that they had agreed to do the latter since, as usual, they were drowning with their academic requirements.

Meredith was there first. Her books and tablets were already laid out before her and Dude was just relaxing on the empty space on the table. She was in the middle of multitasking, both doing homework for her Safety Rules for the Internet class while doing some more planning for the fast-approaching cotillion, when she heard familiar laughters ring through the silence.

It was Jane and Carlos, walking down the same pathway right before the gardens. Meredith couldn't explain it, but she felt herself tense up at the sight. They were laughing together and looking like they were having such a good time. It looked like Carlos said something funny and Jane had found it hilarious. Then, they exchanged a few words and bid each other goodbye. Meredith turned back to her work and pretended that she didn't just watch the whole thing.

Why do I even care? she scolded herself. He can be friends with whoever he wants.

"Hey," Carlos greeted, sliding into the bench across her and patting Dude as he did.

"Have you started on the Safety Rules for the Internet project?" Meredith asked, trying to ignore what she saw earlier.

"I'm already done. I just started hacking some sites for fun," Carlos grinned, opening up his laptop and tapping away on it.

"Hacking? That's easy for you?"

"Well, I may have already done some hacking the moment I got to Auradon," Carlos said sheepishly.

"You never told me that," Meredith said accusingly.

"I told you some of it. You know, how Mal, Evie, Jay, and I went to the Museum of Cultural History? Don't hit me!" Carlos raised his arms up in defense, causing Meredith to roll her eyes in amusement. Before she could say anything else, another voice came into the picture.

"There you are, Mer."

Chad was walking — or, strutting their way. He stopped before their table, placing his hands on his hips.

"I've been looking everywhere for you."

"What do you want, Chad?" Meredith asked tiredly, more than used to the blonde boys antics.

"Do you think you could change your dress for the cotillion? Evie's making me a faux fur cape and my suit will be yellow and blue, so we need to match if we want to look good."

"Evie made my outfit before she even started on yours," Meredith scoffed. "I'm not changing my dress."

"But we won't match," Chad whined. "Make yours yellow!"

"That is not my color. I'll wear what I want."

Chad huffed and flipped his golden curls away from his face.

"Fine," he gave in. "But you better be ready on time. By the way, I want to take a fancy carriage, not a boring old limo."

"Go away, Chad."

Chad merely beamed, clearly not sensing Meredith's disinterest in whatever he was saying. It was either that or he was just used to her treating him that way like she had done from the moment they met each other.

"Alright, bye Mer! You too, little guy."

"Little guy?" Carlos said incredulously as Chad left. "Come on, I'm almost 5'7!"

Meredith merely laughed under her breath, entertained at how worked up Carlos got over that small comment even when Chad had already disappeared from their sight.

"I'm like, 5'2, Carlos," Meredith reminded him. "Now, that's short."

"Are you really going with Chad to the Royal Cotillion, though?"

"I think so?"

"You always complain how Chad's too self-centered and yet you're going with him?"

Meredith suddenly felt annoyed at his questions.

"So what? It's not like I have anyone else to go with."

"Yeah, but really? Chad? Couldn't you have asked someone else to the cotillion?" Carlos huffed. He wasn't sure why he was so irritated all of a sudden, but something just snapped inside of him when Chad was talking to Meredith about their plans for the event.

"Why do you care, Carlos?"

"I'm just saying that you don't have to go with Chad because he's your only option."

"Why don't you mind your own business? You still have to ask someone out anyway, too, right?" Meredith said indignantly. She slammed her book shut (which caused Dude to jump up, startled by the sound), scooped up her belongings, and stood up.

"But I —"

"Stop bothering me about who I'm going with and go ask Jane to the cotillion already!" she said angrily. She stomped away, smoke practically coming out of her ears with how furious she was.

Dude whimpered at the scene, making Carlos look at him.

"Why'd I get so mad, Dude?" Carlos asked him with a sigh.

Dude barked in response.

"You're right. She got mad first, didn't she?"

Dude whimpered once more, making Carlos shake his head in defeat.

"Nah, I started it."

Carlos slumped in his seat, placed his elbows on top of the blue table, and rested his chin on hands. Dude crawled over to him to give him comfort.

"Why did we even fight?" The mutt obviously could not answer him. "I wish you could talk so you could tell me what to do, Dude."

A/N: Ooo a chapter filled with drama between Carlos and Meredith 🥵 We're almost at the start of the second movie in this book hihi I'm so excited for it!

P.S. Dude is so cute but this was the only clear picture I could find of him :<