"Mer, please do this favor for me."

"What do you even need me for? You'll be fine without me."

"No, it'd be better if you'd help."

Meredith sighed, frowning at Ben. He was currently insisting that she be the one to help out the one and only Carlos De Vil with his sport. Tryouts ended the day before, and for some reason Meredith had yet to know about, something happened that made Ben feel the need to teach Carlos a few things about it, hence his persistence as he spoke to Meredith.

"I'll just do the timing and recording of progress, and you can actually help with the stretching and running," Ben went on, walking faster to catch up with Meredith as she tried to walk away.

"Why can't you just tell him what to do?"

"That wouldn't be very effective."

"Why can't you ask one of your teammates?"

"Most of them have class at that time while you'll have free period."

"How do you kn —"

"I checked your schedule in your locker."

"Stop breaking into my locker!"

"And," the prince continued as if he didn't hear her words. "You don't have cheerleading practice until later this evening. So, you're completely free when I need you to be."

Meredith sighed, wanting to throw a tantrum right then and there. Reluctantly, she said, "When do you need me to help?"

Ben grinned triumphantly. "So, that means you'll help me?"

"I just asked when," Meredith muttered irritably.

"Preferably today, in the afternoon. Coach said the field is free since tryouts already finished yesterday."

"What exactly happened in tryouts that told you that Carlos needs extra help?"

"Well..." Ben paused, not knowing exactly how to explain. He could still vividly remember how amazing Jay was at the sport despite his ruthlessness in it — all he needed to do was learn the rules and practice a bit more with some control — and then there was Carlos. He was fast, but when it came down to it, he froze and didn't know what do anymore whereas Jay would continue showing off his natural talent. Ben believed there was something more to Carlos, so he wanted to help him as much as he can. He wanted one of his closest friends, Meredith, to help out as well. He knew she didn't really like the idea of making new friends (especially since she knew most of the people at Auradon since she was a kid and claimed to not 'vibe with their personalities'), so he thought that maybe by befriending more unfamiliar people like Carlos, she'd start to be more open to others.

"Well, what?"

"He just wasn't very comfortable with the sport yet," Ben tried to explain. "But I know he has some potential."

"Uh huh."

"So, will you help this afternoon?"

Meredith walked faster, not because she was running away but because her next class was about to start. She knew Ben had a free period next, which was why he was pestering her without worrying about being late.

"Maybe."

"Come on, Mer."

"I have cheer practice later," Meredith tried.

"I told you, I only need you for a while in the afternoon, so please?"

"You know how Audrey is when people are late."

"You won't be late," Ben insisted. "It'll just be for a short while. Please?"

"We'll see."

"It's just a tiny favor. Please?"

When Meredith reached her classroom door only ten seconds before the bell rang, the word, "Fine" just slipped out of her mouth.

Before she knew it, she closed the door and entered her classroom, but not before seeing Ben's triumphant expression. Meredith thought it was unfair; he was rushing her into making a decision. Then again, it wasn't actually a hard one... All she was asked to do was help out a new student, but Meredith still felt nervous just thinking about it.

♚ ♚ ♚

Carlos was doing his homework outside the dorm building alone while waiting for three o'clock to arrive. He was previously with Mal and Evie and didn't know where Jay was. He had also learned that Mal had cast a spell on Jane to make her hair nicer, so now both of them and Evie were hanging out in their room. Carlos didn't mind being alone in general, but because he was in a new school and was still expecting some big and scary mutt to come out and attack him, he didn't like the feeling of being left on his own.

After her last class, Meredith was already on her way to her usual spot that she stayed in when she played with Dude, but there were two problems: the campus mutt was nowhere to be found (probably off playing with some other students), and secondly, someone was already on her usual spot, which was under the huge tree next to a picnic table and bench.

Meredith gulped, hugging her books to her chest. It was Carlos, and she was still supposed to meet up with him and Ben at the field later on at three. He was already wearing clothes fit for exercising whereas Meredith was still dressed in a pale green summer dress and white sneakers. She debated on the pros and cons of taking the risk to go over and sit next to Carlos to get acquainted with him, until finally, she decided that it wouldn't hurt to go over to him. He was the least suspicious among his friends anyways, and he'd been nice so far. Plus, he was doing his homework, so that gave Meredith a reason to not have to talk to him much.

The redhead pulled her wavy hair to the side before finally striding over to her spot where Carlos sat.

"Hi."

Carlos had a frown on his face as he did his Chemistry homework. Besides learning that Mal had gotten on Fairy God Mother's daughter's good side, he also heard that Evie had gotten the answer to the homework correct during that class because of her magic mirror, but he himself didn't know how to answer it. He would have asked Evie, but he hadn't seen her since the class they shared in the morning and he actually wanted to know how to solve the problem on his own— he wouldn't admit that to his friends, though. It seemed like they were still always looking for the easy way out. So, when he heard a new voice break the silence, his concentration diminished and he looked up to find Meredith there.

"Oh, hi," Carlos replied in surprise.

Meredith took a few more strides towards him until she could see what he was doing on his paper. It was the Chemistry homework given that day, and she had already done it right before coming here to finish up on some reading for class the next day.

"Need help?" asked Meredith.

"You know how to find the average atomic weight of silver?" Carlos questioned.

Meredith shrugged and nodded.

"There's a formula for it. It's really simple once you remember it. It just gets confusing if you don't know what the terms mean and end up mixing the numbers up."

Carlos made space for Meredith to sit down. The redhead had to admit that she was mildly surprised at the polite gesture, but she didn't question it and sat next to the boy, setting her other books down on her side.

"You know what isotopes are, right?"

"I guess so," said Carlos. He did learn it during class today, but seeing as he never really had a good education besides his occasional reading and street-smart intelligence, he wasn't completely confident with himself.

"Good. So, first, you have to find how many isotopes there are for silver."

Both Meredith and Carlos felt a strange sense of déjà vu. But, instead of Carlos giving Meredith the answer to the question like he did when she was doing her schoolwork on the stairs the other day, it was the other way around this time.

Many minutes later, Carlos was successfully finishing the equation for the average atomic weight of silver. Meredith was proud of her own teaching skills and how quickly Carlos caught up, adding more to the reasons why she shouldn't judge him and his friends right away.

When Carlos wrote down the correct number, Meredith nodded in approval while she added the amu to finish it up.

"And that's the final answer," she told him, a slight smile on her face.

Carlos raised his eyebrows. "One hundred and seven point nine amu?"

Meredith couldn't help but laugh at how he said amu. "You don't exactly say amu."

Carlos flushed in embarrassment and chuckled sheepishly.

"Oh. Oops."

"It's alright. You know, you're a fast learner."

Meredith's compliment caused Carlos' pride to swell. His face lit up as he turned to face her in shock.

"Really?"

"Really," the redhead laughed, seeing his disbelieving expression. Her eyes traveled to the huge clock on the wall of the building in front of her, and when she saw that it was nearing three, she realized she needed to leave. "Okay, I have to go now and get ready. I'll see you later, Carlos."

For some reason, Carlos liked the way she said his name. It wasn't with an irritated tone the way his mother did, or the tired way his friends said it sometimes (of course, he still loved his friends and they felt the same way for him, but he knew they didn't see eye to eye all the time and got annoyed with him). So, when Meredith said his name out loud, it unintentionally caused butterflies in his stomach.

He didn't know that Meredith was going to accompany him and Ben later on for a private training session, but the thought of spending more time with this girl made him look forward to it.

So, with a small smile, Carlos said, "See you, too."

He didn't know that he was going to embarrass himself further and reveal his number one fear when Meredith would bring along the campus mutt, Dude, later that day.