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Chapter Text

The Isle of the Lost didn't really have holidays or celebrations. After all, the people living there didn't have anything to celebrate with, so there was no reason to mark certain days out as being special.

It took the children a while to understand that, though. Despite never having lived anywhere else, they knew that some days were supposed to be special. They had televisions; they knew what went on in Auradon, and they hadn't properly grasped yet that they were different.

They didn't quite know what it was, but the kindergartners were super excited about Valentine's Day. They knew it was coming soon, and barely a day went by without someone asking how much longer they would have to wait until it finally came.

Their teacher, Miss Scarlet, knew how excited they were. She also knew that nothing special would be happening on the island, certainly not for the preschoolers. Not unless she made it special for them.

Which she was going to do, because they deserved some special days in their lives. Even if it was just Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day, she thought to herself. It's not even meant for children.

The children came to school dressed in red and white, because those were Valentine's Day colours. Most of them didn't have many options when it came to clothes, so Miss Scarlet wasn't expecting that aspect of the day to work out all that well. Fortunately though, Carlos' wardrobe seemed to consist almost exclusively of red and white (and also black, but that wasn't important today), and he had lent clothes to anyone who needed them. Knowing his mother, Miss Scarlet wouldn't have expected him to share his things easily.

All lined up in a row, the class walked out of school and down to the docks to have a picnic. It was hardly an idyllic setting, and there was very little variety in the food, but that wasn't the sort of thing that would dampen their spirits. They were wearing special clothes, and it was different from what they were used to, and that made the day special.

Besides, none of these kids had ever been in an idyllic setting or had variety in their food. So they had no reason to think they were missing out on anything.

Harry had brought chocolate along. He knew that Valentine's Day was about love, and he knew that it was a day on which boys gave chocolates to their girlfriends.

He hadn't been able to get proper Valentine's chocolates, of course. He had had enough difficulty getting hold of any kind of chocolate. It wasn't wrapped in red or shaped like a heart. It was just part of a slab of chocolate. But it was for his girlfriend.

He asked Miss Scarlet whether he could give it to Mal, explaining that he had gotten it for her because she was his girlfriend. (He carefully avoided any mentions of love, because he wasn't entirely convinced that he loved her, but she was his girlfriend, so he could still give her chocolate on Valentine's Day.)

Miss Scarlet smiled softly and told him that, of course, he was allowed to give it to her.

Harry walked up to Mal and held the chocolate out to her. Her eyes grew wide.

"No," she said. "I hate chocolate; I don't want it."

Miss Scarlet told her it was unkind to speak to Harry like that. If she really didn't want it, she could give it to her mother later. That had no effect, but Miss Scarlet wasn't really surprised by that. Mal's mother was no doubt teaching her to be rude to other children on principle. She might even like chocolate and just say no because her mother had told her to.

Harry looked a little sad, but he turned away from Mal and looked at the other children sitting around them. It wasn't the first time he'd been rejected. After considering for a few seconds, he held the chocolate out to Uma. He didn't say anything; he just held it out to her.

Uma looked at him before taking the chocolate. "Thank you," she said quietly, putting it in her pocket.

Harry sat down again.

Walking home after school, Uma's hand kept travelling to her pocket. The chocolate there felt heavy and important. She considered what to do with it, since she really didn't like chocolate. It could still be valuable to her, though. Other people liked chocolate.

She wondered vaguely what it meant that Harry had given it to ger after Mal had refused to take it.

Valentine's Day was when boys gave chocolates to their girlfriends. Did that mean that she was Harry's girlfriend now? She smiled at the thought.

Chapter Text

Ben didn't understand why his parents insisted on only ever having Audrey over. It wasn't as if he didn't like her; in fact, they got along very well. But he had plenty of other friends at school. He would have loved to have some of them over, too, but his parents only ever allowed Audrey.

When he asked his mother about it, she said that it was important for him and Audrey to be friends and spend lots of time together. He thought they spent plenty of time together at school already, but apparently that wasn't enough. His mother wouldn't tell him why it was so important for them to be such close friends.

One morning in the school holidays, Ben and Audrey were playing tag in the castle. Audrey preferred to play make-believe, but Ben had gotten bored of that and convinced Audrey to do something else for a while.

Ben's mother entered the room they were running through, which came as a bit of a surprise to Ben. His parents didn't usually interact with him all that much, especially when Audrey was around. Audrey's nanny was always there to keep an eye on them.

Ben's mother smiled at seeing them playing and told them that there was something outside they should see. Ben was both confused and curious as they walked towards a window together. Then he saw what his mother had been referring to and was filled with wonder. At first, he thought it was snowing, in the middle of summer. Then he realised it was raining butterflies. Everywhere he looked, little white butterflies were fluttering along.

Audrey gasped and ran out to get a better look. Ben went after her and couldn't stop himself from grinning. He had never seen anything like it before. For a few minutes, they watched the butterflies in awed silence.

"It's such a pity," a deep voice spoke from behind them.

Ben turned to look up at his father in confusion. "What's a pity?" he asked.

"Do you see where they're going?" His father pointed into the distance, in the direction the butterflies seemed to be flying.

Ben frowned. They were flying towards the Isle.

"Oh no!" Audrey cried, rather theatrically. "Will the villains kill them?"

"They're villains," Ben's mother said sadly. "They're not the kinds of people who just admire things from a distance."

Suddenly Ben didn't know how to feel anymore. He wasn't very good at putting emotions into words yet, but as he stared out at the flurry of white, he knew he was... sad.

Everyone else went inside after a few more minutes, but Ben couldn't tear himself away. He just kept staring out at the Isle, unable to understand how there could be people who wanted to kill butterflies. It did fit in with everything he'd been told about them, but then it had felt like a story, a fairy tale about people who weren't really real. He'd never felt this close to them before.

He looked at the island, and he saw the white cloud descending upon it. It hurt him to watch, but he couldn't look away. If they were going off to die, he wanted to get a good look at them while he still had the chance. By now he'd noticed that they weren't all white. Some of them were yellow.

And then he saw them flying off the island.

The butterflies had flown to the Isle, they'd landed there, and then they'd flown on. They hadn't been killed; they had carried on. Ben was grinning again. Now he felt... good. No, happy was a better word.

He stood there on the balcony and watched the butterflies as they continued on their journey. They were real. And the people on the island were real now, too. And they weren't like the stories had said, because if they had been, the butterflies wouldn't have left the island.

He was vaguely aware that something special and important was happening to him. But he was young. So much was special for him right now. A week later, his birthday was more important than the day he'd seen the butterflies.

Chapter Text

It was a special day. Miss Scarlet was taking the class out to the field. The field contained the only real grass on the entire island. It was not very well maintained, but nothing on the island was. As Miss Scarlet had explained, the butterflies drank nectar from grass, so they all stopped off there before carrying on with their journey. This made it the best place to get a good look at the little insects as they passed through.

When the field came into view, it looked as though thousands of flowers had sprouted overnight. As they got closer, it seemed as though the flowers were taking off and flying to and fro. Eventually, they could see the butterflies for what they were, and Jay could no longer contain himself.

He broke away from the group and ran into the expanse of white, crying out in joy when the creatures took flight at his approach. He kept running, revelling in the feeling of power that rushed through him as the sea of butterflies parted before him. He paused from time to time to watch them excitedly. Then he would bound forward to see how quickly they moved to avoid him.

The rest of the class reached the field and the children dispersed, most of them impressed without really understanding how unusual this particular event was.

Mal stood, close to the edge, assessing the creatures critically. Miss Scarlet was walking nearby, so Mal posed a question: "How can they get through the barrier?" she asked.

Miss Scarlet smiled, doubting that any of the other children had wondered about that. "The barrier only stops humans," she explained. "Animals can pass through it."

Mal frowned, not satisfied with that answer. "But my mother's not human; she's a fairy," she countered. "And your father's not human, either."

"That's true," Miss Scarlet conceded, nodding and waiting a few seconds before elaborating, considering how best to explain something magical and almost arbitrary to a five-year-old. "It keeps out humans, and also anybody else who's as clever as a human."

"So, the butterflies can leave the island because they're stupid." Mal huffed. "That's... stupid."

Miss Scarlet chuckled. "Yes, it is, Mal. Well spotted."

Right in the middle of the field, Carlos was crouching and watching one particular butterfly closely. He could count its legs and see that there were six of them, confirming that it was indeed an insect like Miss Scarlet had said. He could see its antennae, which were so tiny, he feared they would break if he even touched them. He could see its eyes, which made him uneasy, because they looked nothing like human eyes. He watched its tongue uncurl as it drank from the grass. He could see that it wasn't just white. It had brown lines all over its wings, and a tiny bit of yellow, too. But from a distance they just looked white.

It flew away, and he looked over to watch another one. He noticed an orange butterfly nearby and started to watch it instead. He'd already noticed that some of them had a lot of yellow on their wings, but now he could see two orange ones.

Evie came and knelt next to him. She gasped when she spotted the orange butterfly and whispered, "They're so beautiful, aren't they?"

Carlos turned his head to look at her. He nodded, smiling. "Yes, they are."

They watched together in silence until Miss Scarlet told them it was time to head back to class. Jay didn't listen and carried on running through the field. Eventually, the whole class was shouting at him to come back to the group and Harry ran off as well, in an attempt to catch him. In the end, Miss Scarlet had to drag both of them away from the field.

After the migration had passed through, it would be ten years before any of them saw a butterfly again.

Chapter Text

Miss Scarlet didn't teach the children in her class to read, even though some of the parents might have liked it if she did. Reading was something they would learn in the First Grade, she said. But she did teach them to hear.

If they don't hear the words properly, they also won't be able to spell them properly.

As such, they spent plenty of time discussing words. How many syllables words had, which words rhymed, which words sounded similar, which words contained which sounds...

To this end, the class was discussing the beginning sounds of various words. They were all sitting on the carpet with picture cards in their hands. Except for Jay. Much to his disappointment, Miss Scarlet had taken his card away, because he kept bending it.

One after the other, they told the class what their card depicted and what sound that word started with. Sounds like a and o were quite easy for most of them, but some others, like h, were a bit more tricky.

Evie had a card with a picture of a house on it. She was quite pleased that she had gotten such a difficult word. It would give her a chance to show the class how clever she was. "This is a house," she began. "House starts with h." That wasn't quite enough showing off for her though, so she added, "Like Harry."

"That's right, Evie," Miss Scarlet said. "Very good." Evie smiled at the praise.

It was Claudine's turn next. Evie could see that Claudine's card was much easier than hers had been. "This is the sun," Claudine stated. "It starts with s." Not to be outdone by Evie, she shot her a glance and added, "Like Satan."

As soon as Claudine said the word, Mal burst out laughing. "Satan!" she cried out between laughs. "That's that bad guy God threw out of heaven, right?"

Claudine didn't know what Mal was laughing about, so she wasn't sure whether or not she should be offended. She decided that she probably should.

Luckily Miss Scarlet intervened before Claudine could come up with a suitably biting retort. "All right, Mal," she said over the continued laughter. "Calm down, it's not your turn. Let's move on."

Unfortunately, they moved on to Carlos, who had a picture of a door on his card. He informed the class that door started with d. He wend on to say that dog also started with d, and, since there were no dogs on the island, began to explain what they were.

Miss Scarlet was once again forced to diffuse the situation and calmed Carlos down hurriedly. He had managed to work himself into a panic surprisingly quickly.

As the children went outside for their break, she thought about the group she was currently teaching. They were five years old. What would they be like as teenagers, she wondered? What would they be like as adults?

She shook her head, thinking to herself that it really would be better if villains didn't have children.

Chapter Text

Celia had spent the better part of a month informing anyone who would listen that it was almost her birthday. In the week leading up to it, she stated how many more days she would have to wait at least once an hour. Finally, when most of the adults around her were thoroughly fed up with hearing about it, the prophesied day came at last.

On the evening before, Celia, Freddie and their parents had gone to the extravagance of baking little gingerbread people for the whole class. They even gave the cookies colourful cloting made of frosting.

At the end of the school day, after they had celebrated with songs and presents (or rather, a collection of pictures the children had drawn for the birthday girl and stuck together to make a book), she handed her gingerbread out and everyone sat down to eat.

Celia was sitting at a table with Dizzy and Mina. Mina had laid her pink-clad cookie in front of her and was looking at Dizzy with interest. Dizzy, unfazed, bit an arm off hers, at which point Mina cried out in a high-pitched voice: "Oh no! My arm!"

Dizzy's eyes grew wide as she stopped chewing. Mina grinned and broke off both her person's legs, shouting, "I can't walk anymore! I've got no legs!"

Dizzy giggled before she went on eating.

Celia eagerly joined in, scratching the frosting off her person while screaming, "My skin! All my skin is off!"

"Arggh!" Dizzy gurgled gleefully, rubbing bits off her cookie so they fell to the table as crumbs. "My blood! Urglh!"

Mina then bit her person's head off and fell silent. All three of them began to laugh.

None of them had ever seen a real person being killed, but they had heard all about it, from relatives, or friends of their parents'. It had sounded quite amusing to them.

Chapter Text

Once a week, the Evil Queen (whom the children addressed as "Your Majesty") would come around and sing with the children while playing on her harp. She was surprisingly good at finding age-appropriate songs to suit the class's current theme.

On this particular morning, they were singing about colours. The singing was a little irregular, because the Queen kept stopping to talk about each colour, as well as various things that came in that colour.

They had already sung about red (the colour of cherries and roses; oddly, but probably also fortunately, no one had mentioned apples), blue (like the sky and gentian (that one had come from Freddie)), green (like the field and trees) and yellow (like the sun and moon, apparently). At present, they were discussing the colour black. The children had already mentioned that coal was black, as were bats and the Queen's cloak.

"What about ebony?" she asked the children. "Ebony is also black."

"What's ebony?" Zevon asked.

The Queen fixed him with a stern gaze. "If you have a question, raise your hand and I will give you permission to speak." She then looked around at the assembled class. "Can anyone explain to Zevon what ebony is?"

The children seated on the floor gazed at her blankly.

The Queen sighed. "All right. Ebony is a kind of wood that's very dark."

"Black," Zevon said.

"Yes, black," the Queen agreed. "Now, let's go on."

They went on to sing about the colour white, mentioning daisies and clouds before the Queen stopped the song again to ask what else was white.

"Marguerites," Zevon called out. The Queen was so surprised, she didn't even remind him to raise his hand.

"Very good, Zevon," Miss Scarlet said from her seat at the back of the group. "Marguerite is another name for daisies, well done."

Then Freddie raised her hand eagerly. "Yes, Freddie?" the Queen asked.

"Snow is white," Freddie said happily.

The room's temperature seemed to drop suddenly. "That's right," the Queen said icily. "Snow is white." Luckily, the children didn't seem to notice her sudden change of mood.

CJ chose that moment to chip in. "But if somebody pees on the snow it goes yellow," she said seriously.

The Queen turned to face her. At this point, she had had just about enough of being child friendly. "Yes, CJ," she said curtly, "that's quite right. And if somebody cuts their arm off and throws it into the snow, the blood dyes the snow red."

Miss Scarlet laughed. It was out of shock, but it make the children laugh, too.

CJ had actually seen someone's arm being cut off once. It hadn't been amusing in the least. But the way everyone had started laughing around her was almost enough for her to forget that detail as she joined them.

Chapter Text

One morning, Audrey came to school looking very unhappy. When Ben asked her what was wrong, she told him that her cat had died the previous day, which had made her feel very sad. With the amount of time they spent together, Ben had already heard that Audrey's cat was old and sick. Nevertheless, the news that she had died was a bit upsetting to him.

However, both he and Audrey were quickly distracted from their moroseness by their friends and the routine of the school day. They played "carrot harvest" (in which one child had to "harvest" all the others by tugging them away from their friends), and no one could expect a five-year-old to stay focused on anything else while that was going on.

It was only after school, when Audrey's mother came to fetch her, that Ben remembered why Audrey had been so sad earlier.

"Audrey told me that your cat died," he told her after they had greeted one another. "It's sad when animals and people die," he went on. He paused, in thought for a moment. "But children, like us," he added, "we can't die."

Doug, who was playing within earshot, looked confused at hearing that, but chose not to comment. Audrey's mother, on the other hand, smiled. She found it quite adorable.

In fact, she found it so adorable that she told Aziz's parents, who had arrived just after her, all about it.

"That's just the way kids their age should think about it. Isn't it just too sweet?"

To her surprise, though, Aziz's parents seemed to find the interaction far from endearing.

"Children can die, though," Aladdin said quietly, looking at Aurora uncomfortably.

"But they don't need to know–"

"Children do die," Aladdin interrupted her. "Every day, children die. We've given our kids a good life, so they've never had to face it, but it happens. And they should know that it can happen."

Aurora realised in that moment that she had never given much thought to Aladdin's childhood and all the things he had no doubt had to face before he'd met Jasmine. In her mind, the business with the lamp was where Aladdin's story began, and everything before that was unimportant.

It was none of her business, she told herself. She didn't expect people she knew to be familiar with details of her childhood with Flora, Fauna and Merryweather, so she shouldn't be expected to know about their childhoods, either. Besides, it would be unwise to make assumptions, and it would be rude to ask, so it was best for her not to think about all of that at all. That was what she told herself.

But in truth, she'd just never thought about it. It wasn't her life, and it wasn't her daughter's life, so it didn't matter to her.

It didn't matter what Aladdin thought, Aurora considered it completely inappropriate for her daughter to hear about children dying. Dealing with the cat's death had been bad enough. And the boy her daughter would (fingers crossed) be marrying shouldn't be hearing about that sort of thing, either.

She just hoped Aziz wouldn't start talking about unpleasant things like that at school.

Chapter Text

Freddie walked Celia all the way to her class every morning. Her parents had told her that she had to and, while she found it a bit of a pain that she couldn't walk as fast as she'd like and she always had to walk to the pre-school before she could go to the school proper and see all her friends, she understood why her parents wanted her to keep an eye on Celia. She knew the Isle well enough to understand how dangerous it could be, especially for a child.

On this morning, they walked up the hill to the kindergarten classes and arrived at the gate, as usual. Freddie opened it to let Celia pass through and noticed a table a little way inside. The table had a framed photograph on it beside a lit candle.

Later, Freddie would think how remarkable it was that she understood immediately what it meant. She'd never seen a table like that before, and yet she knew straight away what it was for. On her way down to her own class, she hoped that someone would tell her she was wrong. But she wasn't surprised when no one did.

By the time Miss Scarlet opened up the classroom to let the children inside, Celia was in tears. Slightly concerned, a few of her classmates asked her why.

"My sister said that a child died," she told them, with considerable difficulty.

They all sat down on the carpet, like they always did at the beginning of the day, Miss Scarlet did her best to comfort Celia, and then they talked about what had happened.

The majority weren't especially interested in the discussion. Jamie had been a few years older than them, so they hadn't known her, and they couldn't comprehend what "death" meant, anyway.

Celia needed a while to get over the shock of realising that a child could die. It hadn't occurred to her that that was possible.

Squeaky and Squirmy, who were the youngest children in the class, had known her fairly well. Their parents had spoken to them the previous evening, and Squeaky asked if he could explain to the class.

"She was sick," he told them, "and then, because she was sick, her heart couldn't beat properly anymore, and that made her die then." It was clear from how he spoke that he hadn't grasped what that meant yet. "So now, they have to do a funeral for her."

Celia wanted to know what a funeral was, so Mina explained that Jamie's parents would put her in a box, and her friends could come and talk about her and then they'd put the box underground, or maybe they would burn it. Celia looked quite alarmed.

Squirmy asked if Jamie would come back afterwards.

Miss Scarlet shook her head. "No," she said, "she can't come back."

"Aw," Squirmy groaned, slightly disappointed.

Dizzy put her hand up. She had also known Jamie. Not very well, but her mother and grandmother had spoken to her the previous day, too.

"Sometimes, children can die," she said, focusing her attention primarily on Celia, who was next to her. "My grandmother told me that her brother died, and he was still a child. But he was sick, so he died."

"That's right," Miss Scarlet told her. "That does happen sometimes."

Later on, when they were doing puzzles, rolling playdough and building with blocks, Dizzy told Miss Scarlet, "Children can die if they're sick. My grandmother's brother died when he was a child, because he was sick."

She told her the same thing three more times throughout the day.

Scarlet walked through the door into her living room. She wasn't Miss Scarlet anymore, now that she was home. Now she was just Scarlet, and her brother was just Leopold. He was already seated on the couch, where she joined him.

"I went to see the family earlier," he said.

Scarlet didn't say anything in response.

"The parents are fine," he went on. "I mean... as fine as you can expect. They probably... they seem okay." He seemed tired. Far too tired for the early afternoon.

"Her sisters are managing fine. Harriet's sad, obviously, and CJ... she's managing quite well, I guess."

Scarlet still didn't say anything. She just looked at the cloth on the coffee table in front of them.

Leopold paused. He waited over a minute before speaking again.

"Harry's not doing so well."

"Harry's always been sensitive," Scarlet responded, thinking back to when she taught him. She remembered a day on which Jay had refused to play with him in the break. He had been almost inconsolable. Of course, over time, he'd learned to deal with that level of tragedy.

"He feels things very deeply," she said.

They sat in silence for a while, staring out their window. They lived very close to the harbour, so they had an almost unobstructed view of Auradon through their window. Scarlet wondered if, in that moment, anyone in Auradon was looking in their direction.

Or had they all decided not to see them?

Chapter Text

Fridays were always special in the kindergarten. Some Fridays, they learned new games and played them in groups. Other Fridays, they would leave the school grounds to explore another part of the island. Sometimes they did experiments, using soap to deflect grains of pepper, or making slime out of cornflour and water. And on some Fridays, Miss Scarlet brought something along to show the class.

This Friday, she had brought a small plastic box, which nobody had been able to look into so far. She said she wanted to discuss an animal with them, which lived underground and was practically blind.

Evie decided to hazard a guess as to what that animal might be: "A mole?" she suggested.

"No, it's not a mole, but that was a good guess, Evie," Miss Scarlet said. "What I have here is much smaller than a mole, and has no legs."

"A Snake?" Jay tried.

"Snakes don't live underground," Mal countered, rolling her eyes.

"A worm!" Gil shouted excitedly. "Worms don't have any legs, and they live underground."

"That's right, Gil," Miss Scarlet said with a nod. "We're going to talk about earthworms today. So, what do you already know about earthworms?" she asked the class at large.

They talked for a while about where earthworms lived, what they ate and why they were important for the plants on the island, before Miss Scarlet finally laid a piece of plastic out on the carpet and opened her box. It appeared to be full of dirt.

"Is that the compost they make?" Harry asked. He smirked. "I can see potato peels in it."

"Yes, Harry, this is the compost the earthworms have made."

"And where are the worms?"

"They're under the dirt, genius," Uma said, nudging him playfully.

Then, Miss Scarlet tipped the box so that the compost fell out onto the plastic, revealing the worms that had been hidden beneath the surface. The children gasped, some in disgust, others in delight as seeing dozens of worms squirming about in front of them.

For quite a while, they just watched them. Then Miss Scarlet asked, "Who'd like to hold one?"

A few children squealed and shrank back, but Gil was gelighted by the suggestion. "Oh, can I, please?" he cried out, reaching for the compost.

Miss Scarlet chuckled. "Of course you can, but be careful; they're very soft and don't have any bones, so you'll hurt them if you're not gentle."

Gil tried to pick a worm up, but found that he had a lot of difficulty with that task. They all kept wriggling away when he tried to grab them. Eventually, he just grabbed a whole handful at once. Feeling the way they moved on his skin, he couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Now that Gil had demonstrated that it was indeed safe, other kids were also willing to touch the worms, although most of them would only hold one or two at a time. Soon, the room was full of the sounds of squeaking and giggling.

Uma was one of the more hesitant children. She didn't appear to be scared, but she wouldn't get close to the creatures, let alone hold them. She just sat on the carpet and watched. She watched the other children, as well, as they handled them. She seemed to be working something out in her head.

Gil, meanwhile, was walking around the room, showing his clump of worms to his classmates. He would happily hand a few over, if anyone wanted them, but he was mindful that many of his friends were still a bit uncomfortable, so he didn't push them.

Carlos looked at Gil with wide eyes when he approached. He didn't say anything or wave him away, so Gil held a single worm out to him. Carlos just stared silently.

"They won't hurt you," Gil said, doing his best to be reassuring. "They're a little bit cold and slimy, but that's all. And it tickles a bit when they move around, but it's not sore."

Carlos moved his hand very slowly towards Gil, until his finger finally reached the worm. He blinked at the sensation.

"Do you want to hold it?" Gil asked.

"Okay," Carlos whispered. He turned his hand palm-up, and Gil carefully lowered the worm onto it.

Carlos gasped quietly.

"Is that okay?" Gil asked. Carlos nodded, almost imperceptibly, and Gil smiled before moving on to Uma, who was quite a bit less forthcoming.

After about twenty minutes, Miss Scarlet informed the class that the worms would dry out soon if they didn't get back in their compost, and they all helped her refill the box.

Gil's hands were thoroughly caked in muck, so he asked if he could go wash his hands. He and everyone else who had held the worms was sent to the bathroom with soap, while Uma, the only one who had absolutely refused to make any contact, sat back down on the edge of the carpet to wait for them.

Carlos was the only one who stayed by the plastic box, still holding a single worm.

"Come on, Carlos," Miss Scarlet said. "We have to put all the worms away now; they need a break from being held."

Carlos looked up at her. "But they're so cute!" he protested, his eyes full of sorrow.

"We can look at them again later, okay? But now they have to rest for a bit, and you have to go wash your hands."

Carlos put his worm down with a mournful sigh and joined his friends in the bathroom, leaving Uma shaking her head, alone on the carpet.

Chapter Text

Schools on the Isle of the Lost didn't have fire drills, at least not officialy. But then, they didn't have most things.

The teachers who taught in the pre-school and the lower grades weren't too concerned about this. One of the first things children learned at school was to listen to teachers. While they were little, they used those listening skills to determine what they should do.

The older children still knew how to listen to teachers, but they used that skill to determine what they wouldn't do.

One morning, the day after a small fire had started on board her father's ship, Harriet determined what to do if the school were ever to catch fire.

Miss Scarlet told her that the children would go outside, where it was safe, while a few adults put the fire out.

Then Anthony asked if they would be taking their bags along in this scenario. Upon hearing that they would not, Harriet went from curious to distressed. She didn't want her things to burn, she told them, her breathing becoming more rapid.

Miss Scarlet told her that it was more important to make sure the children all got out safely; they could replace their bags and other belongings if they needed to.

"But my parents don't like it when they have to buy me new things," Harriet gasped tearfully.

"Harriet, they won't be angry at you if your things get burned in a fire. It's much more important to them that you're okay."

Harriet was not convinced.

"Was the school on fire when you were at school?" Anthony asked Miss Scarlet.

"Well, I didn't go to school here," Miss Scarlet said with a grin, "but there's never been a fire at this school, or any school on the island. And where I went to school, there was never a fire, either."

"But if there is, we'll leave our bags here?" Anthony wanted to make sure he understood everything properly.

Miss Scarlet nodded. "And our parents won't get mad if our things burn, because we can still get new things. You see, Harriet?"

Harriet conceded that her parents would have to accept that reasoning. Because, after all, they could buy new bags, but they couldn't buy new children.

Chapter Text

It was an overcast Wednesday. The weather was fairly normal, although it had been unusually sunny in the past week. It wasn't raining or drizzling, which was fortunate, because it meant the children could go outside to play. They got restless when they had to stay indoors all day.

After coming in from the break, the class washed their hands, sat down at their tables to eat, and then seated themselves on the carpet for their next lesson. Before they could get started, though, the door opened and another teacher looked inside.

"Everyone, line up," she said, addressing the children; "we have to get out."

Miss Scarlet looked at her questioningly, but all the teacher said to her was, "Make sure all the windows are closed and bring the class book."

An inkling of understanding dawning, Miss Scarlet grabbed the book, along with the class's rudimentary first aid bag, and stood behind the children, who had already formed an orderly queue.

They followed the teacher out, a little confused, but cooperative nonetheless. Evie, who was at the front of the queue, asked if they should put their shoes on. They always left their shoes by the door when they came inside.

"No, no shoes," the teacher told her. "We've all got to get out quickly."

Miss Scarlet closed the classroom door as they began to squeeze their way through the corridor. This was no simple task, since all the other children seemed to be leaving their classrooms, too.

Mal, near the back of the group, asked Miss Scarlet, "Miss Scarlet, why are we going outside?"

"I don't know," Miss Scarlet responded. "Let's just get out, and we can find out what's going on when we're there."

Mal nodded, but she was not satisfied.

"I can smell smoke," Carlos said, frowning. "Miss Scarlet," he said, spinning around to face his teacher, "is the school on fire?"

"I don't know, so let's get outside first, and then we can discuss it," Miss Scarlet repeated.

Carlos carried on walking, though he seemed far less at ease now. "I can see the smoke," he whispered to Jay. "I think the school's on fire, Jay."

"What?" Jay looked confused. Carlos sighed in frustration.

Finally managing to get through the gate, they assembled in the playground outside, where Miss Scarlet made sure that everyone had arrived with them.

"Miss Scarlet, what's going on?" Mal asked after her teacher had had a word with one of her colleagues.

Miss Scarlet answered, loudly enough that everyone could hear: "There's a fire in the school, so everyone has to get out. It's just a small fire, and it's going to be put out soon, but there's a lot of smoke, so it's better if we're all outside."

Mal shrugged and turned away to bicker with Uma. Carlos nodded, vindicated. Jay sighed and began to swing his arms around him. Gil freaked out.

"There's a fire?!" he shouted.

"Yes, Gil, but it's okay." Miss Scarlet placed a hand on his shoulder. "We're outside, so we're all safe."

"And you can see the class from here," Carlos added, pointing to a window. "So you can see all our stuff is safe, too. We can't even see the smoke, the fire's really small."

"But..." Gil still seemed rather worried. "What if they can't put the fire out?"

"They will be able to put it out, Gil. Miss Scarlet said, it's just a small fire."

"But what if it gets bigger? What if the whold school burns down?"

"We're outside of the school, Gil," Evie said, "so we'll be fine."

"And that's the most important thing," Miss Scarlet reiterated. "As long as we're all safe, everything will be fine."

"Right," Harry said. "Our parents can buy new bags and books, but they can't buy new children."

Miss Scarlet raised her eyebrows. "Your sister told you that?" Harry nodded. Miss Scarlet nodded, too.

Mal, having grown bored of Uma, began tapping on her teacher's hip.

Miss Scarlet lowered her gaze to look her in the eyes. "I'm not a door, Mal," she said; "you don't have to knock."

Mal snickered. "Miss Scarlet," she said, "I actually really absolutely want to go see the fire."

it was Miss Scarlet's turn to snicker. "And I really absolutely want you to stay here. There's a lot of smoke and it's not safe. No children are allowed back into the school right now." Mal rolled her eyes, but stayed where she was.

"I'm cold, Miss," Harry stated, stepping in front of Mal and forcing Miss Scarlet to take a step back.

"You can do this," Jay said, demonstrating how he'd pulled his arms into his shirt.

"But that'll damage your clothes!" Carlos scolded.

"It's okay," Miss Scarlet sighed. "I'd rather you kept warm. I'm sure your parents will understand." She just hoped she was right in that assertion.

Now that he had permission, Harry followed Jay's example, pulling an arm up into his sleeve. "Look, Miss!" he called out. "Now I've only got one hand, like my dad!"

"Oh, no!" Miss Scarlet cried, feigning concern.

"And I don't have any hands!" Jay said. "And I don't have any arms, too!"

Evie grimaced at them from where she was seated on the ground. She'd picked up a stick and begun drawing in the earth.

"That's a really pretty bird, Evie," Gil said, looking at the drawing over her shoulder.

"Ugh!" Evie stabbed her stick into the ground. "It's a horse."

"Good news!" Miss Scarlet interrupted their diverting activities, having conferred once more with a few of her colleagues. "We're going to go play by the jungle gym. So, you can run around and get warmed up until your parents come to fetch you!"

"The jungle gym?" Claudine had been standing quietly since they'd arrived, but now her face lit up. "I love the jungle gym, let's go, please!"

And so, they went.

The next day was another normal school day. The fire had been put out, and the smoke dispersed.

The kids told Yzla, who had been sick for a few days, that they'd missed her when they'd been playing on the jungle gym the previous day. Also, there had been a fire, but they hadn't gotten to see it.

Chapter Text

When the class sat down to eat, they had assigned seats. Evie's seat was at a table with Harold, Hermie and Jay. She was not happy about it.

Harold was fine; he knew how to behave himself, most of the time. And Hermie was normally okay, too; they played together sometimes. But Jay was only ever up to nonsense.

All the time they were supposed to be eating, he was misbehaving. He loved to turn around and talk to kids at other tables, and when he did that, he'd drop half his food on the floor. When he was actually facing the right way, he still managed to get food everywhere, which Evie found really gross. He always spoke very loudly, even though they had a rule to only talk quietly.

Hermie also often misbehaved once Jay got started, meaning that Miss Scarlet would end up reprimanding their table, which was so much worse than when she just reprimanded Jay, because the table included Evie. And Jay also talked about things that weren't suitable for meal times.

Of course, though Evie was at this time still unaware of it, there was a good reason Jay had to sit at a table with her, rather than with his friends. If he were at the same table as Harry, for example, or Gil, the whole class would fall into chaos, no matter how well-behaved Evie was.

But she didn't know that, and she wished that she could swap out Jay for someone like Carlos. Carlos was nice and well-mannered, and Hermie would't get up to anything she shouldn't with Carlos at their table. If they were sitting with Carlos, they would just have quiet, pleasant conversations. But instead, she had to listen to Jay and Hermie talk about eating earthworms or wearing underwear on their heads, or making fart sounds, and she found it very juvenile; but she had to put up with it.

Hermie wasn't at school today, so there were only three of them at the table. On one hand, this was good, because it meant that it was only Jay being ridiculous for once. On the other hand, it meant Jay would probably speak direcltly to Evie, after Miss Scarlet reprimanded him for shouting across the class to Harry again.

Jay was in excellent form today, not even speaking in sentences. He just kept saying, "Winkie, winkie, winkie!" and laughing.

Evie started out just ignoring him, but he just kept getting louder, and it was really getting on her nerves.

Eventually, she decided to speak up: "Jay, there's no toilet talk in this class," she said sternly.

Jay just giggled in response. "It's not toilet talk," he said, "it's just winkie. Winkie, winkie, winkie!"

Evie scowled. "It is toilet talk," she said, "and it's called a penis."

Jay snorted, then fell silent.

Harold was looking at Evie curiously. "Miss Scarlet told us, it's called a penis," she explained sensibly.

She turned her head to the right and saw that Miss Scarlet was looking at them with a broad smile. Evie looked back, grinning triumphantly.

Chapter Text

It was Friday again, which meant the class would be doing something exciting. This Friday, the plan was to go out exploring around the field. There weren't any butterflies there now, but Miss Scarlet was sure that they would be able to find something interesting (and if they didn't, she was sure someone would imagine something interesting, and then convince the others that they could see it, too).

They were lining up to head out when Mal looked out the window. "Miss Scarlet!" she shouted, quite a bit louder than was usual for her.

"What is it, Mal?" Miss Scarlet asked.

"The sun's shining!" she yelled, as if this was somehow an emergency. Her expression suggested that she wasn't being entirely serious, though.

Miss Scarlet looked at her in bemusement. "Yes," she said hesitantly. "The sun is shining."

Mal looked at her teacher, waiting for her to understand. When she didn't, Mal elaborated: "I can't go outside."

"Why not?" Mal's words clearly hadn't managed to clear things up.

Exasperated, she informed her teacher, "I'm allergic to the sun!"

"No, you're not," Miss Scarlet said, trying to counteract Mal's cheeky expression by being sensible. "You were just outside, half an hour ago, and it was sunny then, too."

Mal frowned. Apparently, she hadn't noticed the weather before. "But," she stammered, trying to find a good reason not to leave the classroom. "If I go outside, the sun will make me melt... to ash!"

Miss Scarlet laughed at that. Mal laughed, too. "I'm just joking," she admitted, going to stand in line with her classmates.

As they began to walk, Mal mysteriously found herself at the front of the line and took her teacher by the hand. "If the sun's bothering you, you can always go to a shady spot," Miss Scarlet told her.

"Yeah," Mal said dismissively, already starting to forget her sun comments. "But will we find something cool?"

Miss Scarlet sighed. "Yes, I'm sure you'll be able to find something to terrify all your friends, Mal." Mal smiled broadly.

And Miss Scarlet was right. Mal was very quickly able to convince everyone that they could hear a rattlesnake in a hollow log. Miss Scarlet's assurances that there were no rattlesnakes on the island were steadfastly ignored by most of them.

Chapter Text

Most of the fairy tales told on the Isle of the Lost were not entirely accurate. While many of them were based on true stories, the facts tended to be twisted by the storytellers, much like they were in Auradon.

Nevertheless, Miss Scarlet enjoyed reading the children fairy tales. She found it fascinating to hear what they already knew about the stories and how they understood them. She also enjoyed discussing the morals with them, and hearing what they thought the morals were.

She preferred the ones that were completely fictional, because those stories never featured the kids' parents. They had already read and discussed The Twelve Dancing Princesses, Thumbelina, The Two Brothers and The Valiant Dressmaker, all of which most of the children were unfamiliar with.

Now they were on The Golden Goose, which Miss Scarlet was also reading for the first time. She found it quite an odd story, featuring a young man who acquired a goose with golden feathers and ended up running through town, trailed by people who had gotten their hands stuck to the goose. This sight was apparently so amusing, it made the glum princess in the story laugh, which meant that the young man was allowed to marry her.

It was at this point that Evie raised her hand, mouth slightly agape. "Why do the kings keep saying people can marry their daughters in these stories?" she asked. "They didn't even ask the princess if she wants to marry him."

"You're right, Evie," Miss Scarlet admitted. "They really should let the princess decide who to marry." Evie nodded. "But these stories were written long ago," she went on sadly, "and that's how it often was then."

Miss Scarlet was rather surprised that Evie had questioned this practice, considering her mother's priorities.

Evie seemed far less interested in Snow White. She probably knew it well already.

Carlos, who appeared never to have heard any fairy tales, was very upset by Snow White's mistreatment at the hands of her stepmother. Her successful escape helped him calm down, dut the dwarfs' daily routine of going to work while Snow White cleaned the house left him in a state again.

"She shouldn't do everything by herself," he said in dismay. "They can clean up their own mess."

Jay looked at him in bemusement. "Does your dad clean up himself?"

Carlos replied quietly, "I don't have a dad."

Miss Scarlet was not especially fond of Sleeping Beauty, but it had been requested by several children, so they read it.

She kept an eye on Mal, but, as was usual, Mal didn't seem to be paying attention to the story.

When they got to the part where Prince Philip kissed Aurora awake, there were many loud gasps. That was unsurprising; the children tended to make a huge fuss when kissing was mentioned.

Less expected was Mal's reaction. Her teacher would have wagered that she never listened to anything going on in the stories, but not only did she gasp along with her classmates, she also said, "He's not allowed to do that! Some people don't want to be kissed."

Miss Scarlet smiled. It would appear that there is hope for you yet, she thought.

Chapter Text

Mal stared at her half-drawn picture of a house. She had a stomach ache again. She'd been getting those often, as of late.

She told Miss Scarlet, who took her outside and sat down on a bench beside her.

Miss Scarlet wanted to know why Mal kept getting stomach aches. Mal didn't know how she was supposed to respond. She got stomach aches, that was all she knew.

Miss Scarlet asked about her friends, how they got along. They were great, Mal told her. Otherwise they wouldn't be her friends.

Miss Scarlet asked whether anyone was being mean to her at school. Or at home. Mal raised her eyebrows. No one would dare, she said. Miss Scarlet chuckled.

Miss Scarlet asked what Mal thought of the rules they had at school. Mal didn't say anything to that. She didn't like that she had to follow rules, but she judged it unwise to vocalise that sentiment.

"It's hard to follow the rules, isn't it?" Miss Scarlet asked. Mal still didn't respond.

"You know why we have rules?" she went on.

Mal looked past her teacher's shoulder and answered, "So that we can learn? Because if everyone does what they want, you can't teach us?"

Miss Scarlet nodded and added, "And to keep everyone safe. With so many children, and only one adult, I can't keep track of everyone all the time, and I don't want anyone to get hurt or lost."

She sighed and told Mal that she knew how hard it was for her, and that she didn't like to follow rules, either. That surprised Mal. "But you're doing really well," she added. Mal stared at the floor, trying to look like she wasn't paying all that much attention to her teacher's words.

Miss Scarlet said that she could see how hard Mal tried to be good, and that it didn't make her angry when she made mistakes. Mal started to cry, but she wasn't sure why. Miss Scarlet hugged her, but she didn't hug back.

"When I correct you, it's not because I'm angry with you. I'm never angry with you. I'm so proud of you, of how much you've learned and how hard you work to do even better." Now Mal was hugging back. She still wasn't sure why she was crying, because she wasn't really sad. Her stomach didn't hurt anymore, either.

She just didn't think anyone had ever been proud of her before.

Chapter Text

One afternoon, shortly before it was time to go home, the children were telling jokes about one another. Or rather, they had come up with one joke, namely that all the boys were girls, and the girls were boys.

"And is that true?" Miss Scarlet asked, going along with their game. "Are you a boy, Uma?"

"No!" Uma exclaimed, gesturing towards her long braids. "Look!"

"But boys can have long hair, too," Harry said, smiling deviously. "Like Jay."

"So, what's the difference between girls and boys, then?" the teacher asked.

"I know," Carlos said, raising his hand. He chuckled: "Boys are young and girls are old." The rest of the class laughed.

"Is that how it works?" Miss Scarlet asked. "Are the boys all younger than the girls?" Then, she frowned and asked whether that meant boys would turn into girls when they got older.

"No," said Carlos, shaking his head. He considered briefly and added, "Only if they want to."