23 | PEOPLE ARE IDIOTS 202

  WINTER stayed in her room for the next several hours, wrapped in her blankets and reading. Her frost magic did not get better until the evening when it finally began calming down. Almost as though the storm inside was dying.

It was dinner and Winter was hungry but decided she would not be going to get dinner tonight. Perhaps she would go to a vending machine later if she felt like it, but as of now, she could not bring herself to get up and leave. Not only that, but her hair had gotten worse colorwise, it now looked like she had white highlights.

She felt as though trying to suck in her powers and hold it would make it worse, especially when it was just starting to calm down. Winter was not sure how long dinner had been going on but her phone suddenly began buzzing and lighting up.

Winter was wrapped like a burrito in her blankets, the girl struggling to pull her arm free to grab her phone. She had been watching some rom-com that put a smile on her face and distracted her from the mini snow-storm happening in her dorm room.

She squinted her eyes at five different texts.

Evie:
Where are you??

Evie:
You better not be skipping dinner again!

Evie:
Winnie, I swear to god!

Mal:
You cannot seriously be skipping another meal

Evie:
I am about to stick Harry to come to get you, he's already offered to get you, Uma's the only thing holding him back rn

Winter groaned from her place in bed, seeing the newest text. She debated on what to tell Evie to get her off her back—the last thing she needed was Harry showing up now. Winter sighed as her phone flashed, but this time instead of a text, her ringtone rang as Evie's name popped up on caller I.D.

Answering the call, Winter breathed out hearing the sound of the lively dining hall in the background.

"Hello?" Winter timidly asked.

"Winnie, why aren't you here?" Evie immediately demanded.

"Evie put it on speaker!" She heard Mal shout before a certain Scottish accent came through the call as well.

"Yeah, put 'er on speaker!"

"There she's on speaker, you guys happy?"

"Hi, Winter!" Winter smiled as Gil's voice flowed through the call.

"Why are you not at dinner, I told you skipping so many meals is not healthy!" Evie scolded causing Winter to sigh.

"Duckling," Winter shrunk even more at Harry's voice, "I swear teh god if ya don't get tha' pretty little ass over here and next to me, then I be coming to yer room, throwing ya over me shoulder, bringing ya here, and forcing ye to eat..." Winter was glad no one could see just how very pink her face was.

"Well," Winter pulled herself together, "I'm not feeling the best, but I'll be at breakfast tomorrow—" she tried only for Harry to scoff a laugh.

"Oh, no, no, no, lass. Ye already did not have breakfast or lunch with me today. If ye really don't feel well though, I am more than willing to play doctor and bring ye some food—" Winter's eyes widened at the cheekiness, her heart racing when she realized he was dead serious.

Looking around the room, Winter took in a dramatic breath. There was no way she was letting anyone inside her room while in this state. Biting her lip, Winter also took note to her hair which was turning more white by the minute.

"I'll be there in a few minutes..." Winter finally choked out before hanging up the call.

Sometimes she really hated having friends that cared so much.

Hopping out of bed, Winter quickly made her way to her closet. Pulling out the leggings, converse, and thick socks she wore earlier, she put them on. In a matter of seconds, Winter had knotted her hair back in a bun and a large Auradon sweatshirt was on. Throwing her hood up, Winter sighed at the sight of her concealed hair.

Winter paused at her appearance, feeling as though she looked like some robber. As much as she hated it, at least she could go with the excuse that she was dressed like this because she was not feeling well. Plus, this was way better than revealing the weird frostiness of her hair.

Squaring her shoulders, Winter put her gloves on before forcing herself to not feel.

"Beware and never release," she mumbled as she left her room, locking the door behind her.

She trotted down the stairs, making her way across campus and to the dining hall. Winter's anxiety faded when barely anyone glanced in her direction, Winter extremely happy that the VKs joined. She knew the only reason people were not staring at her choice of clothing strangely was because of the VK children who had arrived and seemingly ripped the previous normality for fashion to shreds.

Winter would not lie, in the short time the VKs had been here, there was an obvious division between the AKs and them. Of course, there were the few people who intermingled, but there were also the ones who were so afraid of the VKs that they steered clear of them.

Winter realized it would probably be a division that was gone by the end of the year, but it was still interesting to see some AKs run away screaming if a VK so much as looked at them. If it were not for that fact that Evie and Mal wormed their way into being friends with her, Winter would probably be one of screaming AKs.

Along with that, Winter realized that if it were also not for the fact that she previously met Harry way back when on the Isle, she most likely would have actually screamed and run away when she saw him here.

As Winter pulled open the doors to the dining hall, she noticed that she passed by two girls—one who looked older than Winter and another slightly younger. The older girl had dark hair done in many braids while the younger blonde wore her hair loose. The one thing she noticed about both of them that startled her was their eyes were the exact shade as Harry Hook's.

The reason she had noticed this was that Harry Hook himself had a very rare shade of blue eyes. His eyes looked as though they were crafted out of the ocean itself, so seeing two girls with the same color threw her off.

However, she shrugged it off and continued on her way to the dining hall.

Winter did not notice the way the older dark-haired girl smirked in her direction, nudging the blonde before motioning to her.

Both of Harry's sisters were not blind to the fact that Winter was the girl their brother was hopelessly in love with. Even if she was wearing that hoodie over her head like some robber.

As soon as Winter stepped foot inside the dining hall, she was met with the familiar sight of dozens upon dozens of filled tables. The dining hall was rather nice and looked more like a restaurant than a technical high school cafeteria.

Bright red carpet with large tables covered in only the silkiest of table cloths and surrounded by preeminent wooden chairs. There was even a bar on the right side where few students sat. In Auradon, the legal drinking age was eighteen, so the bar generally stuck with serving sodas or smoothies.

Winter rose a brow noticing that a few teachers were sat at the bar—a clear sign they were stressed out from all the new students and chaos this semester. Turning away from the bar, Winter eyed the buffet table on the other side, the long table lined with many different foods. It appeared she was still early enough that dessert had not been served yet.

A worker approached the buffet with a tray, the worker quickly replacing one of the foods that had been running low with the new tray of food.

Winter's gaze soon fell on a table toward the back where she usually sat with the others.

It was filled with a very familiar group of people. Evie was leaning into Doug's side, Mal and Ben sitting next to each other as Mal spoke with Uma who was across from her. Jay and Carlos were sat next to each other, Gil on the other side of Jay and Harry Hook just next to him. Sometimes Jane sat with them as well, but other times she would sit with Audrey.

A quick flit with her eyes in the direction she knew the table Audrey usually sat at proved her assumptions of Jane sitting with her that evening. Even after Audrey's breakdown a few weeks ago, she still sat with the people she normally did.

Chad Charming, Emmett, Lonnie, and the oldest of the three sons of Hercules and Megara: Therimachus. These were only some of the faces that Winter recognized offhand. Sometimes Jonah would also sit with them sincs he and Emmett were such good friends.

Remembering Lonnie's words from earlier, she caught sight of Emmett and her staring at each other with lovey eyes.

For a second Winter seriously swore she saw Emmett's eyes change into literal hearts. She shook her head, not understanding how that was even physically possible.

Looking away from the table, she peeked back over to the one she normally sat at. Just as she was about to take a step, she paused.

What the heck was doing?

She literally looked like some robber and while she had been hungry earlier, the feeling of locking herself off from her abilities made her lose her appetite. Even if Evie ended up sending Harry to her room, all she had to do was not let him in.

Spinning on her heel, Winter intended to march right back to her dorm room, but she bumped into a rather hard chest. Reeling back, Winter scowled at the smirk adorning the mullet-wearing idiot's face.

Jonah stood with his arms crossed, a red button-up shirt with nearly half the buttons undone making his toned chest very visible. It was tucked into a pair of black jeans that flared over his heavy boots.

"Is your hair curled?" Winter narrowed her eyes, noticing the boy's long hair was far curlier than normal.

"Yeah, you like?" Jonah chuckled, shaking out his hair. "Just got back from a uhm..." he coughed almost awkwardly, "...date..." by date Winter knew he meant his normal hump and dump routine.

Winter did not even bother asking who he was with as she truly did not care. It was probably someone who did not even go to this school.

"Okay?" Winter nodded. "By the way, you should put in a good word to Emmett about Lonnie, they so like each other."

"Trust me, I know," Jonah snorted, "I've been trying to get him to ask her out for the past week, but he is so nervous. Eh, at least it's not like you who is just flat-out denying your attraction to Harry Hook—" Winter rolled her eyes.

"I'm not listening," Winter sourly said, cutting off Jonah's words.

Jonah himself was about to retort, but stopped himself abruptly, allowing his gaze to rack down her body in a questioning manner. It had just now hit him that Winter looked like she was about to rob a gas station or something.

"What the fuck are you wearing, and why do you look like walking-death?" Winter scowled at the blunt honesty in Jonah's words. "I do not think I have ever seen you wear a hood," he snickered at the end causing Winter to slap his chest in a lighthearted manner.

"Shut up, I'm not feeling the best so I was going to skip dinner, but Evie insisted I come and eat something. She threatened to send Harry to me if I did not come and I do not know how I feel about—"

"—About you and Harry Hook, alone in a room together?" Jonah smirked in a cheek manner. "I heard you have a new ship name from Lonnie earlier — Hinter, was it?"

"Oh my gosh, shut up!" Winter groaned as Jonah laughed while holding his hands up innocently.

"What? I ship it, but I put a bet in as to when you guys will get together, so if you could get together in three months — I would really appreciate it, I'll get like a hundred bucks—"

"What? You all have bets on us?" Winter gaped, her cheeks flaming.

"Yep. Evie, Mal, Lonnie, Jane, Carlos, Jay, Uma, Gil, Ben, and now me..."

"Well, you should all call it off because it is never going to happen!" Winter fumed, her voice rising ever-so-slightly as Jonah only laughed in reply.

"I knew that was your attitude toward it, so I put the longest time in the bet — I know I am going to win now," he smirked as Winter only huffed, moving past him intending to go back to her dorm.

"Hold up," Jonah grabbed her arm, spinning her back around, "I thought you were going to eat?"

"Changed my mind, I'll just ignore Harry if he actually ends up coming to my door — pretend I'm not inside or something..." Winter shrugged as Jonah's gaze hardened.

Jonah, alike to Evie and Mal, was aware of the girl's bad eating habits.

"What was the last thing you ate today?" Jonah demanded.

"I don't know, a chocolate scone this morning, what is with the hounding?" Winter sighed as Jonah scowled.

"Sorry, but I am on Evie's side with this one, go sit over there now," Jonah pointed toward the table holding the familiar people.

As Jonah and Winter were quite a few feet away, no one at the table noticed their presence. Plus with Winter's hoodie, it would only make her that much harder to distinguish. They were all talking it seemed, but it was apparent that Evie was getting antsy and Harry seemed to be waiting for her permission.

Winter was not completely wrong because as soon as Evie decided that Winter was taking too long, she would send Harry to go to her dorm with food. Harry already had a plate at the ready and the pirate would jump up the second Evie said so to go to Winter's room. He would find some way in (even if he had to break the damn door down) and spoon feed her if he had to.

Harry was not aware of Winter's horrible eating habits until Evie and Mal explained it to them that night. After, it occurred to Harry just how many meals Winter actually did skip and he practically kicked himself for not noticing sooner.

Real concern had flooded him for the girl's well-being, and now Harry was going to be just as bad( if not worse than Evie) when it came to making sure Winter fed herself properly.

From across the dining hall, Winter and Jonah stood in a silent face-off.

"Jonah, are you serious right now...?"

"Go,"

"You can't tell me what to do," Winter stubbornly hissed as Jonah smirked.

"Can't I?" He suddenly sprung forward, causing Winter to yelp and just barely dodge him.

Winter was not that big of a person, and Jonah himself was not a small guy. He was around Harry's size, and that was saying something as Harry was tall and lean with muscle. Meaning, Jonah nor Harry would have a difficult time at all picking Winter up.

Jonah was no stranger to doing this as there had been many occasions where Winter was so stubborn about something that Jonah would literally need to pick her up and carry her. As amusing as it was, Winter also hated it — a lot.

"Winter, I swear to God..." Jonah started only for Winter to shake her head.

"I am going back to my dorm room, period."

"Period my ass," Jonah rolled his eyes before turning to the familiar table, "EVIE!"

Barely anyone looked away from their own conversation at the noise, the only one to look being Evie herself as it was her name that was called. Evie tilted her head at Jonah, her eyes growing wide when he saw he was motioning to Winter who was glaring heatedly at him.

She did not need to be a rocket scientist to recognize what was going on. What she was wondering was what the hell was going on with Winter's clothes. Even people from the Isle did not wear anything like that.

Mal turned as well, deciding to see what Evie was looking at. Everyone else at the table was in the middle of their own conversation, Jay and Harry in a lighthearted argument over who was the better swordsman.

The purple-haired girl's eyes grew wide at the sight of Winter and Jonah having a stand-off.

Winter herself groaned seeing her two friends staring at her.

"Winnie, get over here!" Evie shouted across the dining hall, no one else apart from the table she was sitting at looking at her.

Harry himself nearly fell out of his chair from how fast he turned.

"Don't you da—JONAH!"

In seconds, Jonah had swooped Winter off her feet and tossed her over his shoulder. Winter yelped, pounding on his back, demanding that he put her down.

"Put me down right now, Jonah! This is not okay, do you hear me?" Winter continued as Jonah simply sauntered forward, holding onto Winter tightly as she mercilessly hit his back.

Ben rose a brow at the scene, everyone else sharing amused glances. Harry, Carlos, Gil, and Jay were just about dying of laughter, all watching as Jonah came to the table with a smirk.

"Delivery," Jonah sarcastically spoke while placing a scowling Winter in the chair next to Harry, taking the empty seat on the other side of her.

"I hate you," Winter said in a dry manner, turning her head to face Jonah who shrugged.

"I know," he spoke with a smile as Winter huffed, turning to face the center of the table with a sour look.

"What in the world are you wearing, Winter?" Evie was gaping. "You look like hell!"

"Thanks," Winter moaned, slamming her head down on the table so harshly that it actually nade Harry cringe, "I feel like hell..."

It was not exactly a lie. Casting away her abilities on bad days like this never felt good.

Harry wasted no time gently tugging Winter into an upright position and pulled her chair as close to his as physically possible. Winter scowled once more but knew there was nothing she could say to get Harry off of her.

Winter shivered as Harry ran a hand down her back lightly, using his other hand to grab her chin and force her to look him in the eyes. Winter gulped at the intensity of his blues, shrinking at the devious smirk he flashed.

"Nice look," he said with a snicker causing Winter's eyes to harden, "now eat,"

Harry pushed her a plate that had a bowl of steaming soup on it. It was chicken-noodle soup and a round spoon sat next to it. Winter's stomach growled and she sighed, easily giving in and grabbing the spoon.

Bringing the spoon to her lips, she hummed at the taste of actual food. Especially the heat that seemed to settle the internal icy feeling. Goosebumps erupted over her body at the warmth flowing through her.

"Good girl," Harry cooed as though she was a dog, "but I was hopin' you'd put up more of a fight so I could feed ye," Winter scoffed a laugh.

She may have let a lot slide, but there was no way in hell she would ever let anyone spoon-feed her. She wasn't that weak.

"Whatever, dad," she stressed the last word sarcastically, expecting Harry to scowl.

To her surprise, the pirate only smirked, leaning back in his chair — his arm brushing past Winter as he did so.

"Would ye like me to be yer daddy, duckling?" Harry said in a sultry tone, his eyes flashing mischievously as he looked down at Winter.

Winter fell into a coughing fit, flushing bright red. Soup splattered out of her mouth while Jonah burst into loud laughter along with Jay, both of whom were leaning against each other. Winter slapped Jonah's shoulder harshly, her burning face twisted into a glare at her friend's laughter.

"AH HAHA!" Jonah howled as Winter crossed her arms.

"Are you finished, because it was not that funny," she deadpanned as Jonah wiped a tear, looking to Harry.

Jonah nodded his head, holding out his fist to the pirate. Harry gave a smirk back, fist-pumping him while Winter scoffed.

"You're her daddy, Harry?" Gil questioned in the most innocent tone ever causing Jay, Jonah, Carlos, and Harry to burst into another round of laughter.

Winter's face went a brighter color, the girl hiding her face in her hands at this point. Gil looked honestly lost, but he let out a few chuckles anyway — still not getting why they were laughing.

Uma and Mal were shaking their heads at the two while Ben was trying but failing to conceal his own laughter. Doug smiled, wrapping his arm that was around Evie even tighter. Evie herself rolled her eyes but smiled and caught Winter's attention.

"Ignore them, now eat," she demanded as Winter huffed but listened to her.

The only one who Winter would listen to without much of a fuss was Evie. She really did not know why — maybe it was just Evie's persona — but Evie was someone she could never bring herself to be stubborn with.

Bringing another spoonful of soup to her lips, Winter nearly jumped out of her skin when one of Harry's large leather-clad hands landed on her mid-thigh.

"She's right," he rubbed her thigh with a knowing smirk — as though he understood exactly what he doing, "eat, my little duckling,"

Winter refused to look at Harry, staring straight ahead with wide eyes. She desperately tried to ignore the feeling of his hand lingering on her thigh, the girl continuing to sip her soup. Evie, Mal, and Uma delivered odd looks while Harry rubbed her thigh in a calming manner.

"Okay," Evie clapped her hands, "change of subject, who is Sonny White and what are the big five that everyone was talking about a few weeks ago?" She asked in a cheery tone, causing everyone who was not a VK at the table to go quiet.

Ben, Doug, Jonah, and Winter all gave each other similar expressions of panic. The VKs easily saw this, almost all of their faces shifting into one of suspicion.

Harry's hand tightened its grip on Winter's thigh, the pirate forcing her to look at him. "Whatcha hidin' lass? All of ye actually?"

"Yeah, Ben what is this, what are you not telling us?" Mal turned to the King, Uma raising a brow at the teen.

It was quiet for a few minutes, Winter melting in her seat and pulling her hoodie strings around her face tighter. Harry immediately gripped the sides of her hoodie, pulling it back so Winter's face was once again visible.

"Duckling..." Harry trailed, looking at her with those blue orbs so intensely that Winter just burst.

"FINE! Sonny White is Snow White's daughter who used to go here but her parents pulled her out and sent her to Dynasty Academy because of the villain kids coming — more so Evie because she is the Evil Queen's daughter. When she went here: her, me, Ben, Audrey, and Chad Charming were all known as the big five because our parents are the biggest royals!" Winter said in one breath, looking as though she ran a marathon once she was finished.

Yeah... Winter never had been the best at keeping secrets.

Everyone was staring at Winter with huge eyes causing the girl the bite her lip. Jonah was opening and closing his mouth like a fish and Doug was grabbing Evie's hand tightly.

Winter herself felt guilty at seeing Evie's saddened gaze.

"Winter," Ben exclaimed while Carlos cast his gaze in the other direction awkwardly.

"Her parents pulled her out of school because of us?" Carlos questioned, his eyes big and round as he motioned to himself, Jay, Mal, and Evie.

"Yes—" Winter was barely able to get out her blunt answer before Jonah slapped a hand over her mouth.

"—But it doesn't matter, we already told them that it was their choice if they wanted to pull her and you would all be coming here no matter what." Ben hastily explained as Doug piped up from next Evie.

"Yeah, and you guys need to understand that Snow White and King Florian hold an even bigger grudge than Audrey and her family. Just the trauma of it all really, but they've been coming around," Doug explained causing Winter's eyes to light up in understanding.

Doug was one of Dopey's sons, Dopey as in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. It is because of his affiliations with his family that Dopey had been a friend of Sonny White's while she was here, and Winter was relatively sure they were even closer outside of school.

"And Sonny is actually really nice, she was pretty embarrassed that her parents pulled her out because of such a superficial reason," Doug added causing Evie to look at him with furrowed brows.

"You know her?" Her tone held disbelief, all the VKs looking to him in surprise as well.

"Well yeah, she's like a sister to me, I am Dopey's son," all of their eyes lit up in understanding, "...not only that, but she wants to meet you, I've told her a lot about you," Doug said the last part shyly, Evie's lips pulling up into a huge smile.

Winter remembered that Sonny always had been extremely kind. She, alike to her mother, had the ability to talk to animals. Sonny also looked very much like Snow White, the only real difference being that Sonny's hair was much longer instead of styled into a bob cut like to Snow White.

"Yeah, Sonny's nice," Ben smiled as Winter tried to say something from beneath Jonah's hand.

All eyes turned to her as Jonah gave her a suspicious glance. However, when he did not let go of her mouth, Winter launched herself backward causing Jonah to let go of her mouth and her to fall back against Harry.

She looked up with wide eyes as Harry glanced down at her from where her head was lying in his lap. She blushed as Harry brought a hand down and stroked her cheek.

"I quite like this position, duckling," Winter breathed out before throwing herself upright and out of Harry's lap.

"Okay moving on, Jonah can we go for a spin in the Mustang?" Jay questioned as Jonah smirked.

"You were reading my mind bro," Jonah nodded. "You guys are welcome to come too," he looked to Gil, Harry, Carlos, and Ben.

It became apparent to the girls of the table that Jonah was intending for a guys night if anything.

"Sorry, I have a night council meeting to attend," Ben shrugged as Carlos nodded.

"I am so in!" The son of Cruella De Vil cheered while Gil shrugged.

"I'll come," Uma looked to Harry at Gil's words.

"You need to go with him," is all the blue-haired captain said causing Harry to nod.

It was a well-known fact between Uma and Harry that Gil should not be trusted to do certain things on his own. Uma, while she was getting better, still was not sure how much she trusted Jay and Carlos. Jonah was still too new for Uma to truly trust.

"Well," Winter took one last spoonful of her soup, "I am going to bed. I don't feel well so..." Winter slowly stood up as Harry stood as well.

She gave him a weird look while the pirate only gave her a smooth smirk.

"I'll walk ye to yer dorm,"

"Uhm, you're going with Jonah though..." Winter said as Harry's face fell as though he just remembered.

"Ah, I suppose yer right. In that case, I'll see ye later," Harry winked and leaned in.

Winter stiffened, her eyes going wide as Harry left a lingering kiss on her forehead. The girl squeaked, not even bothering to tell anyone else goodnight before rushing off. Winter vaguely heard the pirate's chuckles behind her but she ignored it, simply trotting even quicker.

What was Harry Hook doing to her?

——————

Winter was forced awake later that night by the sound of her ringtone. She furrowed her brows, checking the time.

It was just past two in the morning, who the heck was calling her?

Grabbing her phone, Winter answered the call hearing Mal's frantic voice come through immediately.

"We have a huge problem," she huffed causing Winter to adorn a confused look.

"What?" Winter yawned. "Mal do you know what time it is?" She ran a hand through her newly dyed hair.

She had managed to dye the quickly turning white locks back to brown before she went to sleep that night. Now, her hair was fully brown once again.

Along with that, Winter was thankful that her powers seemed balance out after a few hours of sleep. No longer did she feel as though she was about to explode from concealing them.

"Yes, I do," Mal grumbled, seeming even more irritated about the time than Winter, "but apparently it does not stop boys from acting like idiots..."

Winter shook her head, not understanding what was going on. "What? What's going on?"

"Evie, Ben, and I will be at your room in five to explain..." Mal said before hanging up the call.

When Mal, Evie, and Ben showed up, Winter was not sure what she was expecting, but she definitely did not foresee what they said. Apparently, the drive that Gil, Jay, Carlos, Harry, and Jonah went on somehow ended with them crashing into a restaurant. Something about them having too much fun or something.

Carlos was the one who called Mal asking for help as the four were too busy panicking and deciding what to do. The others wanted to hide it and run away, but Carlos was not letting them. Jane was a bigger influence on him than Winter had previously thought.

All in all, Winter ended up throwing on a robe and putting on some fuzzy slippers before they were waking up Uma to explain everything to her. Once they had Uma, Ben drove the four to the restaurant where the incident had happened.

Winter's jaw fell when she saw the damage done, her body freezing on the spot.

Winter now firmly believed that Jonah must have been dropped on his head (multiple times) as a baby. Actually — scratch that — Jonah, Carlos de Vil, Jay, Gil, and Harry freaking Hook all must have been dropped (multiple times) on their heads as babies.

Winter believed this because only idiots — complete and utter fools — could get themselves stuck in this type of situation. Winter was frozen in shock as she stood watching the five idiot guys run around like headless chickens.

Mal, Ben, Evie, and Uma stood next to her with similar expressions. Because how the hell were these five boys so stupid that they managed to smash Jonah's car through a restaurant.

Harry was the one to catch sight of them first because it seemed that whenever either Uma or Winter was around he had some sort of built-in sense for them. He stared both of them with wide eyes, more afraid of Uma's wrath than Winter's at the moment. Jonah stood next to Harry, catching sight of them all too, except he was far more afraid of Winter's reaction.

"Uhm, we can explain..." Jonah's words made the rest of the boys see the four.

Jay was afraid of Mal while Carlos shrank at the stare Evie was throwing him. Gil, alike to Harry, was scared of Uma and refused to look at her. It seemed the only one that no one was scared of was Ben— as he did not look angry but rather perplexed. Then again, it was rare that Ben got angry.

"You guys might want to cover your ears," Jonah said causing the other four guys to give him confused looks.

"Why—" Carlos never got to finish his sentence because of Winter's high-pitched scream that caused everyone to recoil.

"WHAT DID YOU DO!" Jonah shrunk at Winter's enraged expression, the others all looking at the girl in surprise.

Winter had never risen her voice like that.

"Maybe they won't notice...?" Jonah tried, scratching the back of his neck as Winter's eyes blazed.

"You smashed your car through a restaurant! What the hell were you all doing, how do you not see a whole goddamn building?" Winter's tone was like glass from how icy it was, Uma and Mal both giving each other smirks.

Perhaps they would not need to do any of the scoldings tonight.

"We were looking for a good tune and it just kind of came out of nowhere..."

"Came out of nowhere?" Winter scoffed throwing her hands up.

As bad as it was at the moment, Harry did not care. He shamelessly checked Winter out. Her hair was finally down and the way the robe hugged her was doing things to him that he could not say out loud. Not to mention his gaze kept trailing down to her bare legs which for once were not covered by stockings or leggings.

He smiled at the fuzzy slippers on her pale feet. However, he was taken aback when he saw the gloves still on her hands.

Did she really never take them off?

"You know what?" Harry snapped his gaze back to Winter's face in an instant, tilting his head when he saw her turning away. "I can't deal with this, it's literally almost three in the morning..." Winter let out a humorless laugh.

Winter's heartbeat was pounding, the girl honestly feeling like Jonah's mother at the moment.

"Duckling," Harry started smoothly, jumping in surprise when Winter turned to him in a fierce motion.

Jonah snickered at the pirate's startled expression: all the boys had gotten close on the long drive they had taken that evening. It was as though all five were the best of friends now.

"Don't you even start with me, Harold!"

Jonah laughed loudly causing Harry to glare at him but he was quickly shut up by Winter once more pointing a finger at him.

"This is horrible!" Winter's glare was directed at both Harry and Jonah now: Harry himself now having a slight wariness about Winter's anger. "What would Fairy Godmother do? I'll tell you what Fairy Godmother would do, she'd have a heart attack, that's what that she would do! I am going to march myself straight to her office right now and tell her—!" Winter turned around, fully prepared to tattle like the goody-two-shoes she was.

Evie, Mal, Uma, and Ben's eyes widened along with everyone elses. Mal and Evie were the ones to stop her grabbing her shoulders and spinning herback around.

"Okay, calm down, we can fix this..."

"Fix this?" Winter scoffed at Evie, motioning to the destroyed restaurant and steaming Mustang inside. "There is a car smashed through a building! Ratatouille's at that..." Winter had read the sign above the smashed car, seeing it was one of the nicest restaurants in the downtown area.

It was French and was known for its phenomenal dishes, but it was also quite pricey and fancy. The owner was the rat Remy, a successful rat who owned many restaurants around all of Auradon.

Ratatouille's was just one the rat's many restaurants.

"Duckling, I'll take you on a date here if you don't say anything," Harry grinned cheekily causing Winter to glare at him.

"What the heck does that have to do with anything? No one will even be able to eat here for months!" Winter exclaimed.

"Yeah, Harry — there is a car inside of it," Gil spoke as though Harry did not realize it. 

Harry turned to look at Gil, opening his mouth before closing it and shaking his head with a sigh.

"Okay, pause, guys," Ben finally spoke up, "I'll just pardon you all and pay for the damages to the place. Not a big deal..." he tried, he was doing a great job at staying calm.

"Yeah," Winter deadpanned, "I'm sure the Fairy Godmother will feel the exact same way," she dryly stated before trying to walk toward the direction of the school once again.

"No, no, no!" Evie and Mal held her back again.

"Ugh, Mal and I can probably do something better," Uma finally said causing Mal to nod.

It was then Winter noticed that the shell necklace Uma always wore was glowing gold. Everyone except Jonah and Winter let out a breath of relief as they knew what was happening. Jonah and Winter only delivered confused looks to each other as they did not know how powerful Uma and Mal were together.

They had not been present for the fight against Audrey where Uma and Mal teamed up and made an unstoppable force of magic.

As they grabbed hands, Mal's eyes glowed a bright green while Uma's necklace lit up even brighter. It always interested Winter when she saw Mal's eyes glowed as it only happened when Mal did magic, but Winter had to admit that it was wicked cool when it happened.

Looking at each other, Mal and Uma gave a nod before they spoke together.

"McReary-Time Reary," Mal and Uma spoke in unison.

Everyone watched in shock and wonder as the car backed itself out of the restaurant and went back into the street. Suddenly, the car transformed to the state it was in before hitting the restaurant — the Mustang now looking perfectly fine. The broken pieces of the building picked themselves up, converting back into the beautiful expensive restaurant it was known as.

Winter was only thankful this happened so late as no one was around to witness it.

"My car, she's okay!" Jonah happily screamed, racing to his car and hugging the hood of it.

"Still can't get over what you named your car, mate," Harry crossed his arms, raising a brow at the mullet-wearing boy.

Harry quite liked Jonah, he liked his careless attitude and his rocker persona. He was also a fan of his mullet. Not only that, but Jonah had introduced Harry to some music from Jackson 5 — the group having songs that Harry really enjoyed listening to. It made it even better when Jonah spilled that Jackson 5 was also one of Winter's favorite bands.

Harry gave himself a side-note to show Uma some of their songs as he had a feeling Uma might like them.

"What?" Jonah pouted. "Mami is a totally normal name..."

Jay snickered, "no it's really not!"

Harry nodded in agreement, sporting an amused look as Jonah ignored them in favor of hugging his car.

Winter rubbed her temples, the exhaustion beginning to creep up on her. This night had been too much.

Eventually, it was decided that the guys would all ride back in Jonah's car together — with the accompaniment of Ben as no one trusted the five on their own anymore. Uma, Evie, Mal, and Winter walked back.

As much as Harry insisted he stay to "protect" them, one order from Uma had Harry pouting but going with the boys nonetheless. Not much conversation happened between the four girls as all of them were exhausted, and by the time they got back to the dorms, they found Harry and Jay waiting outside the building.

They wanted to make sure the four got back safely.

Winter was silent as she walked back in, ignoring Harry's attempts at flirting with her. Though, he did manage to make her blush as always. Unfortunately for Harry, Winter denied him a "sleepover" and closed the door in his face.

"See ya' tomorrow, duckling!" Harry called before his footsteps faded from outside her door.

Winter groaned, feeling the ice walls she put up against the pirate being chipped at day-by-day. But she had to stay strong.

Beware and never release. Conceal—don't feel. Don't let it show.

Do not let him in.