Chapter Text
C.A. Cupid had fallen head over heels in love. Only problem was, the handsome prince she’d fallen for hadn't picked her up. Instead, he had been busy falling head over heels in love with someone else entirely, and now they were dating and, well, who was she to stop them? The future goddess of love wasn’t really the sort of role that inspired homewrecking.
So Cupid had been left to pick herself up and try to move on from Dexter Charming, despite constant reminders of just how big her crush on him had been. One such reminder, unfortunately, was a class she had chosen at the beginning of this chapter of school, when she was still desperately in love. The class she was sat in right now, struggling to pay attention to.
When she first signed up for Running A Kingdom 101, she was wrapped up in a daydream, marrying a prince would mean becoming a princess, and it didn’t hurt that Dexter would almost definitely being taking the class too. All around Cupid thought that it would be not just the perfect catalyst to getting together with her crush, but useful preparation for when she got her own happily ever after with him. However, once the haze of romance had faded, C.A. Cupid saw what the class really was: BORING!
Her eyes wandered across the room, as Mrs Miriam’s voice droned on. Something about crown weight. She'd previously spent most of her time either actually paying attention, or staring into Dexter’s gorgeous... blue... dreamy ey- No! She needed to snap out of it! But what was she going to look at now? She could look at Dexter’s brother, Daring Charming. He was sat just in front of him, sharing a desk with Rosabella Beauty. They didn’t seem to be paying too much attention either, constantly stealing glances back and forth, smiling and giggling. It was hard not to giggle herself when she noticed how many sour looks Mrs Miriam was shooting them for being so distracted. Cupid sighed happily. She couldn’t help it. She just loved love, whether she was involved or not.
“I’ve got it!” she whispered to herself.
“Got what?” she nearly jumped when the girl sat next to her, Blondie Lockes, replied.
“Oh! Um... Nothing!” but it wasn’t nothing. Cupid knew exactly how she was going to distract herself from Dexter. She was going to help someone fall in love!
But who? Cupid looked around the room again, this time with more intent. First she saw Apple White, diligently taking notes in the front row, hand gripped so tight on her pen that her usually flawless cursive handwriting was uncharacteristically covered in ink splotches where she had pressed too hard. Every few seconds, she reached up to readjust the crown sat atop her head. Cupid supposed it made sense that she seemed so out of order. Everything with Darling and Daring, and now Rosabella was bound to take a toll on her. It was definitely a love problem, but maybe a bit messier than Cupid was ready to handle.
Next her gaze fell on Farrah Goodfairy, who seemed lost in a dream, staring down the rows of desks to a head of ginger hair. No one else seemed to notice, but to Cupid, Farrah very obviously liked Ashlynn. Ashlynn, however, had gone though quite a few crushes on boys, now finding herself dating Hunter, but never had shown much interest in any girl, let alone Farrah. Cupid knows as good as any that the heart wants what the heart wants, and much as Ashlynn considered her a good friend, there was no chance of her looking at Farrah any differently.
It was as she pondered this tragedy that her gaze slid to the desk just in front of her and Blondie. Briar Beauty sat with her legs up on the table, clearly more invested in her mirror phone than Mrs Miriam. Beside her sat Hopper Croakington, sat straight up and stiff as a board, head turning quickly back and forth between Briar and Miriam, as the latter began to walk between the desks, ruler in hand.
“Briar...” he whispered, and just as she looked up-
THWAP! Mrs Miriam’s ruler crashed down onto the desk. Cupid jumped and Briar dropped her mirror phone, as Hopper turned into a frog with a puff of pink smoke.
“Miss Beauty! What in Ever After could be on that mirror phone more important than learning to run a kingdom? You are a princess. Act like it!”
Briar reached down to her phone on the floor. She paused briefly in confusion as a small green frog jumped toward her. After grabbing her phone and setting it on the desk, she scooped up Hopper and gently set him on his chair again, winking before turning back to her teacher, still looking at her expectantly.
“Well, for one, there’s going to be a totally wicked party at Poppy and Holly’s dorm this Saturday!” She began, as if she hadn’t a care in the world.
Cupid turned with the class to look at Holly O’Hair, who was desperately trying to hide her face, but Mrs Miriam’s stare stayed right on Briar.
“There’s going to be punch, and chips, and music... and everyone’s invited!” Briar rambled on, seemingly oblivious to just how angry her teacher was, though now Miriam’s face began to slip into confusion.
Cupid’s eyes shifted to Hopper, who had calmed down just enough that he was back to his usual, human self. He stared at Briar, spellbound, and Cupid remembered that it was only a few chapters ago he had asked for help to woo her. If he still had a crush on her... This would be the perfect little matchmaking project for Cupid!
Briar was still talking, and by now Mrs Miriam seemed to have lost all sense of rage and was simply looking at her dumbfounded.
“so obviously I had to make sure no one missed out, and it’d be a total fairy fail if I forgot to invite someone, considering, well, you know... so I was checking I hadn't forgotten to text anyone their invite, see?”
“Yes... Yes, well, perhaps we do that outside of class, Miss Beauty?” Miriam returned to the front of the class, frowning. She had barely finished the next sentence of her lesson before the bell rang. Somehow, Briar had talked her way out of trouble, and managed to eat up nearly 20 minutes of class time in the process.
Cupid eavesdropped on the conversation in front of her as she packed up her (completely blank) notebook at a snails pace.
“You could have told me she was coming!” Briar grinned and elbowed Hopper lightly
“I- um, I tried, it just- you didn't-”
She giggled. “Don’t worry about it Hops, you know I can get myself out of trouble with Miriam. If she gets confused enough, she just forgets why she was ever angry,”
“Hops?”
“Yeah... like, short for Hopper”
It was nice that he wasn't as nervous around her as he used to be, Cupid thought. He used to just turn into a frog the second she even looked his way, and here he was, still a human and chatting away!
“Hopper like... as in me?”
“No, the other Hopper Croakington,” Briar said sarcastically rolling her eyes. Hopper puffed into smoke, becoming a frog once more.
Nevermind.