12 | BACK IN AURADON

   THAT morning, Winter woke with a smile. She had a fantastic dream, one she could not remember all that well, but knew it has something to do with racing through the forests with a certain ocean-eyed pirate.

It was some of the best sleep she had in a while and when she checked the time, she saw that it was nearing thirty after ten. She could not remember the last time she slept-in for so long, she was usually awake around seven in the morning, sometimes even earlier.

She figured it must have had something to do with her late-night, and Winter found that if having late nights gave her that good of sleep, she may just start staying up later and sleeping in more often.

Rolling over, Winter threw a lazy arm over her face with a blissful sigh. A few drops of sunlight streamed through the cracks in her blackout curtains, shining across the carpet floor. Her stomach gave a small lurch of hunger causing Winter to frown.

Over the summer, she had gained a few pounds putting her at a much healthier weight than she was before. She was still skinny, but now she did not have bones sticking out. Her family made sure of that by ensuring that she was eating properly at every meal and not skipping any.

Even Winter had to admit that she liked being at a healthy weight as it gave her much more a figure. However, she also knew she would lose the weight she gained within the first few weeks of school because she would delve into studying, classwork, reading, and other things so much that she would forget to feed herself.

But then again, some sacrifices had to be made to keep her grades.

It was then that Winter's mind snapped at her, reminding her that today many new faces would be arriving.

At noon sharp.

Winter had never jumped from her bed so quick, now wide awake. Any remnants of her dream were forgotten as she rushed to make her bed. Tucking in the blankets tightly, she smoothed out the duvet before making her way to the bathroom.

A quick shower (where she made to shave), brushing her teeth, and blow-drying her hair mapped out the first twenty minutes of her morning. Going to her closet, Winter easily grabbed a crisp white button-up shirt that was long-sleeved and collared. She rolled up her sleeves slightly before tucking it into an equally as formal black and white plaid skirt.

Tugging her stockings on, Winter was quick to shove her feet into some black flats before making her way back to the bathroom. Immediately, Winter pulled her hair up into a bun, tying it off with a black ribbon.

The dark locks were now out of her face, but the bun was so tight it pulled her eyes up ever-so-slightly. It was uncomfortable, but Winter was used to uncomfortable, so she ignored it. As long as she looked respectable and nice, that was all that mattered.

She needed to be the epitome of scholarly.

Winter did not bother with makeup as she never wore it (unless Sitara made her, but that a whole different scenario), and she waltzed back into her bedroom. The last touch of her outfit consisted of one of her many pairs of gloves, these ones being silk black.

Winter stood now ready for the day, looking nothing less than a respectable A-Class student. She turned toward her brown satchel, placing her phone inside along with a small number of other things (including a book that recapped everything she learned the previous year in school) with the intent to head toward the office to get her schedule early.

Normally, the schedules for that year were to be brought to students dorms the night before classes, but Winter did not want to wait. She wanted to know who she had for this year so she could potentially visit them early and grab her work ahead of time.

She did it every year, and Fairy Godmother was more than willing to help out as she loved how on top of her work Winter was. Fairy Godmother also always said Winter should hang out with her daughter, Jane, as the two were very similar personality-wise. (Winter was just much dryer and somehow even more strict about schoolwork than Jane).

It was not like Winter disliked Jane at all (quite the opposite really) but Winter simply had not got close to her for the same reason she didn't get close to most people (Evie, Mal, Jonah, and now Lonnie being the exception).

Thinking about Jonah, Winter smiled wondering when he would arrive. The thing about Jonah was he owned a car, a car that was his absolute pride and joy. It was a smooth and quick 60s' styled Mustang with racing stripes and an incredibly loud engine. Many (especially the guys) at Auradon Prep admired it, something that only added to Jonah's cockiness over it.

The girls, in particular, thought the car only made Jonah hotter.

However, Fairy Godmother hated the car as it was not unoften Jonah would take girls out to it in the middle of the night. Unfortunately, as cars were allowed on campus, there was not much she could about it.

The biggest thing Fairy Godmother hated about Jonah's car though was the entrance he always made with it, whether it be coming or going. Jonah and Fairy Godmother had a rocky relationship as Jonah, while he was not from the Isle, was from the city, so his personality heavily reflected that of a VK—even if he technically was not one.

But back on point, the matter was that when Jonah arrived in his mustang, he would race up with his loud engine, windows down, and his rock music blasting louder than hell itself. It always drew everyone's eyes, and that was not even the worst part.

The worst part was when Jonah proceeded to exit his car, with his denim jacket and that mullet while smoking a cigar. (Yes, Jonah had a terrible habit of smoking, but the Fairy Godmother always had a hard time catching him in the act).

Girls would gasp and whisper to each other, all delivering flirty eyes at him while guys simply stared at his car.

Even Ben, who had a bunch of cars himself, could not deny he was envious of the Mustang with racing stripes.

And so after arriving and drawing the attention of the entire campus, Fairy Godmother would storm up to him demanding he put out his cigarette. Jonah would then drop it and stomp on it (but Fairy Godmother could not actually do anything because classes did not start until the next day) and Jonah would smile condescendingly toward the Headmistress before sauntering off.

It was the same every freaking year.

That was probably why he and the VKs got along so well. Mainly it was Carlos and Jay (Winter was eighty-percent sure Jonah took Jay street racing on some weekends, something she did not approve of) as those three would often talk and joke around.

Winter snapped out of her thoughts by a knock at her dorm door. Leaving her satchel in its place on her desk, Winter quickly opened the door coming face-to-face with a brightly smiling Evie.

Evie had changed quite a bit over the summer. Usually, she had worn her hair in some type of down half-up braided style, but now it was simply loose and much longer than before. Not only that, but Evie allowed her natural dark roots to grow in creating a look where her hair started dark and went to blue.

Her outfit style was the same as always—perfect. Mal was behind her, holding a smile of equal excitement.

Mal changed as well, her hair now shorter and completely even at the bottom. Along with that, her bangs were gone and her hair had a much darker purple base with blue highlights woven throughout.

Of course, she still had on her purple leather outfit, though this one was newer and slightly different. Winter suspected Evie had made it over the summer.

"Oh my Gosh! Hi!" Evie cheered, pulling Winter into a hug causing Winter to chuckle slightly.

Mal was next, her grip tight before they both walked into her room.

"So..." Winter awkwardly started, "how was summer?"

Mal scoffed crossing her arms. "Have you not seen the news?"

Evie rose a brow, "or have you not looked at the Isle?"

"Yeah," Winter rubbed a gloved hand down her arm sheepishly, "I just wanted you guys to bring it up first."

Mal and Evie both laughed, Mal taking a seat at the desk chair while Evie and Winter sat on the bed.

Over the next hour, Mal, Evie, and Winter talked about what happened. Winter received the full details which she had previously not known from the news.

"Pause," Winter said once they had wrapped up their hectic summer, "have you started planning the wedding yet, Mal?"

Evie squealed excitedly, falling back onto the bed as though she had been killed. Mal groaned, her face turning pink.

"Sort of, we—" Mal was cut off by Evie.

"Oh tell her, Mal, tell her the day you picked! It's so romantic!" Evie was giggling putting a large grin on Winter's face.

Mal rolled her eyes playfully. "I was getting to that if you would have let me finish! Anyway, we decided to do it on—"

"On the same day they met!" Evie burst, jumping up and down on the bed as though she truly could not contain herself. "It's so sweet."

Mal scoffed playfully as Winter "awwed". Winter, who was a real sucker for love stories, started freaking out with Evie.

"Oh my God! Oh my god, it's just so sweet! What day was it that you guys met again? Sometime in April? Holy crap the wedding is in April! That's only like a few months away, I'm so excited for you!" Winter was jumping with Evie, Mal shaking her head as both her female friends freaked out over her engagement.

"What color will the flowers be?"

"What about the party favors?"

"The dress, you cannot forget about the dress!"

"The shoes?"

"The bridal gowns!"

"The honeymoon, where are you guys planning on going?"

"Ooh, how many kids do you want?"

Mal got dizzy from the questions Evie and Winter were throwing at her at what seemed to be the speed of light. All of these questions which she did not have answers to.

"Slow down guys!" Mal stopped them. "I have no clue to any of those things yet, we're taking it slow with the planning.

"Aww, Evie, her and Ben are just like Bella and Edward from Twilight, isn't it so cute?" Winter cooed, Evie, nodding in agreement.

Any romance books were a favorite of Winter's, including the Twilight Saga. Mal, on the hand, had looked as though Winter personally insulted her.

"Alright, I am going to pretend like you did not just compare me to the worst fictional couple of all time." Winter opened her mouth to argue, Mal immediately cutting her off.

"No, if anything, that would be you and Harry Hook, but even that is a huge stretch..." Mal trailed off, a disgusted look on her face as she thought about Twilight.

"Harry Hook!" Evie jumped, Winter's face flushing. "Oh my Gosh, how could we forget to tell you! Literally, the second he, Uma, and Gil got to Auradon, he was all like 'where is my duckling?' and then I started screaming and was like 'I knew it!'  then everyone looked at me like I was crazy and..." Evie was panting, out of breath from how fast she was talking.

Winter, on the other hand, was gaping, looking to Evie with huge eyes of disbelief.

"What?" Winter spluttered, none of what Evie had said made sense.

Mal snorted before explaining what the blue-haired girl was trying to. "When Harry first arrived, he was wondering where you were. Unlike you had thought, we were right and Harry remembered you. Eventually, after Evie stopped screaming, she told him your name was Winter—"

"And Uma was like, 'the King of Winter and Snow Queen's daughter'—" Evie once again interrupted.

"That is beside the point, Evie," Mal cut her off, "anyway, all in all, Harry is hardcore pining after you."

"Yep," Evie was grinning so big Winter wondered if it hurt, "and once he gets here, Mal and I have a bet as to how long it'll take you guys to get together..."

"What?" Winter exclaimed as though it were the most absurd thing she had heard.

"Yeah, but we're not telling you when we think, because like no screwing with the fairness of it,"

Winter had enough of this, the girl standing from the bed and shaking her head. "Guys, seriously no, I've seen the guy one time. Last year I was being stupid, it was some idiotic crush and this summer has cleared my head, I don't have time for this..." Winter explained as Mal and Evie gave her a deadpan look.

Especially Mal, as Mal was the only one who knew about the soulmate issue.

Mal suddenly got a mischievous look on her face causing Winter to be wary and Evie to tilt her head curiously. "You know, maybe you're right, Harry did dance with Audrey yesterday when the barrier opened..."

Evie smirked, understanding what Mal was doing, "oh yeah, you're right..."

Winter felt as though her head was dunked underwater, a sort of ringing in her ears. Harry and Audrey? And like that, a feeling that Winter had rarely felt before exploded inside of her as though a bomb went off.

Jealousy.

Winter's face went blank, the only sign she was not a statue being the twitching of her right eye. She was sitting pin-straight, her gloved hands clenching.

"Um..." Evie looked to Mal nervously, not expecting this type of reaction, "I think we might have broken her?"

Mal bit her lip, opening her mouth to try and get Winter's attention, by the sight of something crawling up the wall caught her eye. Turning her head, Mal gasped at the sight of frost twisting and twirling up the walls.

Evie's eyes were wide as well, her breath leaving her. The room temperature suddenly dropped dramatically and it was then Mal noticed the door to the room was actually freezing over.

"Oh my God, Winter! I was kidding!" And like that everything went back to normal.

The temperature climbed back to normal and the frost went away instantly. Winter breathed out, finally feeling the painful clench of her heart go away.

"Sorry guys," Winter apologized with red cheeks, unable to believe she actually lost control like that.

"Ha!" Evie and Mal did not seem to care that much, though both of them were silently impressed by the show of magic. Winter had never really used her powers in front of them, but they also did not want to embarrass her, so they did not say anything about it. "I knew you were lying, you are still hung up over him!"

Winter was unable to say anything, so Evie started talking again.

"Harry did dance with Audrey, but it only lasted a minute before she was back with Chad and Harry was already irritated with her..." Evie laughed as though it were the funniest thing in the world, Mal laughing as well.

"Yeah, it was pretty funny, he was all like," Mal paused before speaking in a horribly fake Scottish accent, "I can't bloody believe how irritating Princess Pink over there is! If we were on the Isle, she'd be walking the plank by now!"

Winter snicked at Mal's accent, and secretly her heart slowed at the information. She was more than relieved at this fact.

"Anyway, I am so setting you guys up..." Evie grinned as Winter groaned, telling herself to stay strong.

"Shoot, is that really the time!" Mal shot up, seeing that there were only ten minutes left until the VK children all arrived.

Yesterday, after the huge celebration, there was a paper for any VK child who wanted to attend Auradon Prep for this school year to sign up. There were around thirty or so names, Uma, Gil, and Harry included on the list.

All thirty of those students went back to the Isle to pack before they would be brought to the school today. Mal, Evie, Carlos, and Jay were meant to be giving a big speech of welcoming to them along with Ben. After, the Fairy Godmother would introduce herself and set some rules.

Following that, there was going to be a few people introduced, Winter being one of them. (Mal and Evie still had to tell her about it). They were going to introduce her as the one who held the highest grades.

After, Ben, Mal, Evie, Carlos, Jay, Jane, and they would ask Winter too, were supposed to give a large group tour before splitting into smaller groups to show them to their dorm rooms. Later that night, they were all supposed to help them choose and sign up for their classes.

"We're supposed to be down there for the arrivals like now!" Mal rushed as Evie stood up.

Winter was shocked when Mal turned to her. "Okay, so Fairy Godmother and Ben want to introduce you in the welcoming ceremony since you have top grades of the school, and we were also wondering if you would help with the tour and signing them up for classes later?" Mal was biting her lip and bouncing on her toes.

Winter was hesitant at first, but she knew it would be extremely rude for her to decline. There was no doubt a large sum of new faces coming in, they were going to require all the help they could get.

Sucking up the fact that she was actually going to see Harry Hook in person again, Winter nodded her head.

"Sure, yeah..." she agreed, causing Evie and Mal to sigh in relief before they all rushed out of the room.

———————

Minutes later, Winter stood with a crowd of people around the front gates of the school. As everyone had not yet returned from summer vacation, there was not nearly as many people here to greet the incoming students as there had been for the first four VKs.

However, it was still a good amount. Many spoke excitedly of the new people coming, all wondering if the rumors they had heard about them would be true. Sure, Mal, Evie, Carlos, and Jay had been fine, but everyone still remembered how they were at first. This time around, the number of VKs was to be much larger meaning more chaos.

Winter was standing near the front of the roundabout next to Jane. Fairy Godmother, Ben, and Mal stood center, all of them being the most important for the greeting. Evie, Jay, and Carlos were at their sides as everyone thought all the original VKs should be the ones to greet the new ones first.

She and Jane stood feet away, Chad and Audrey not too far from them either. Winter had noticed right away that Audrey now gave off a much different aura than she had before, she could immediately tell that Audrey was more humble than ever. Not only that, but it seemed she was clinging to Chad Charming every chance she got, something that Chad was not complaining about.

Winter clutched her brown satchel tight to her, biting her lip waiting for the sound of the vehicles. They should be arriving any moment now.

"Are you nervous?" Winter looked to Jane who had questioned her.

Jane with her sweet blue eyes and dark hair.

"Kind of," Winter answered honestly, in a much shyer tone than the one she used with Mal, Evie, Lonnie, or Jonah, "it's just so many new students, you know. Things around here are going to be much different than we're used to."

And those were her honest thoughts. The truth of the matter was, while Winter did not think any of the Isle kids to be particularly evil (maybe crude or mean, but not evil) they were all still born and raised on the Isle. They had grown up needing to watch their backs constantly. As Mal had put it before—it was only kill or be killed on the Isle.

That is definitely not how anyone from Auradon was raised. When Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos first came, it was only the four of them. It was four of them against the entire population of Auradon Prep, so it was fine. Now though, there would be over thirty Isle children here, while it may have been a small amount in comparison to the rest of the Auradon kids, it was still enough to make somewhat of a scratch.

At this point, anything was possible. When she was home, Winter loved exploring and racing into the unknown, but that was not how she was here at Auradon Prep. Yes, in the last year she had got much better from her original tendencies of staying to herself and sticking to the schedule, but Winter still had a long way to go.

"Yeah, I agree, but it's exciting..." Jane said with a smile, a look of understanding on her face, "it might be hard to adjust at first, but I think eventually it will all work out for the better."

"Yeah, you're right," Winter smiled, and before anything else, the sound of trumpets rang around.

Everyone's attention snapped to the front gates opening up. Winter shuffled nervously as the members of the band who were here played the school fight song. The second the sight of the first SUV limousine began coming through the gates, Winter's breathing picked up as she clenched her gloved hands into tight fists.

At that moment she knew, this was the second everything changed.