Chapter Text
Going back to classes after sharing a life altering journey with the HK is, at least, weird. Yes, no one expected them to be best friends after what everyone went through together, but perhaps now they can see eye to eye, after all, thinking like a villain was needed to save Cinderella and Bridget, but it seems that people forgot that rather quickly.
Hazel and the Smee’s continued with their lives, without much change, Felix and Robbie became closer, they barely talked before and now they exchange greetings and hang out. Red and Luis were starting to date, with Chloe helping Red to open up more and getting comfortable around other people, let’s not forget she just came back from 16 years of a corrupted Wonderland.
And as for Pink and Max, well, it was hard. Pink talked with her sister, and it seemed like she would change and be there for her, but that hasn’t really happened, or not in the amount that Pink was waiting, she still felt like the odd-one out.
Max got a chance to see his father at the Wonderland Jail, thankfully they didn’t send him to the Isle again, or even worse, the Isle Prison, but still, knowing that your dad wasn’t really crazy and you had a different life in which he was more present still hurt him.
A week had passed since the incident, classes resumed normally, the HK and VK got their dorms and to surprise of no one, Chloe and Red were together again, for their second year in Auradon Prep, but that meant that Pink got two choices; either go home to Wonderland everyday extremely late or stay in the dorms, but alone since the odd number in the first year class allowed her to.
‘’I do want to get the whole experience, perhaps someone joins later in the year, and I’ll have a new friend!’
From the Red that she knew, attending classes and spending everyday with friends was a dream come true, however, Pink didn’t really have people that she could really call friends, or human friends. Yes, she wasn’t alone in Wonderland, having all kinds of weird and magnificent friends, but none of them could attend high school with her, though she thought that maybe she could sneak a small dancing mushroom in her room to keep her company. Luis, Robbie and Chloe were all her big sister’s friends, is not like she could just follow Red around all the time, after all, it felt like they still weren’t like they were before, like one day she just changed and acted more like a VK rather than the HK she know and admired.
After settling in her room, she decided to go to the library and get the books for her classes, not expecting to see Hazel, she was streets smart, not so much book smart.
‘’Hazel!’’ She waved excited, noticing that she was alone ‘’Did the Smee’s got lost? Do you need help finding them?’
As Hazel turned Pink saw a pile of old books in her hands, and the hook attached to her hip. ‘No, they aren’t lost, do you think I don’t know where they are? Smees!’ As she called, they appeared from behind the tables, snacking on food that they snuck from the cafeteria ‘’They must eat every two hours, and we were stuck here because they put the slowest, oldest and most boring people to work here’’
She liked the Smees, they were friendly enough and if you gave the enough snacks they can do you favors, she thought, but never took her eyes off the books in Hazel’s eyes.
‘’What, you think that just because I’m a VK I can’t read?’ Hazel spat ‘I thought you already knew that we are not illiterate’
‘’No, no, I never said that! It’s just that so many books for yourself, I didn’t think you could take that many classes’’
‘’They aren’t for me; I can handle all the stuff that they teach here. They are for the Smee’s, if they keep failing so much maybe they kick them and I know I don’t want to be their part time teacher, I would rather work in Ursula’s diner again’
‘’Oh, here, let me help you, I can carry some for you!’ Before Hazel could answer Pink was already taking some of the books in her hands. She thought that maybe if she spends more time with her perhaps, she could be acquaintances, maybe even friends, after all, she does give good advice.
The walk to Smee’s dorm wasn’t that long, they talked a bit about what classes they were in and who they were paired with, to her surprise she was with an HK. Since Uma got her place in Auradon she wanted HK and VK to interact more in the hopes of breaking the barrier between worlds. If the HK knew that their life could be a lot worse maybe they would be more empathetic and if the VK knew that they had a chance at a new life they would work hard and achieve a lot.
As they reached the dorms, Pink saw Max and Felix talking while the latter played with his cards, it reminded her of her mom. She always wanted to learn card tricks, but she was a bit clumsy with them, summoning guards at tea parties because she used the wrong one.
‘’Look who I found princess made herself useful’ Hazel said. As soon as Max saw her, he took the books she was carrying.
‘’You toned it down a bit I see’ Felix pointed a card at her ‘A bit more peach, maybe?’
‘’Yes! I’m trying to diversify a bit, changing to different tones perhaps, it’s cute, right?’
Everyone nodded, the Smees chimed in their ‘’cute’’ in unison, but Hatter just, looked at her a bit puzzled, stared a bit like seeing Pink was something weird, and she noted that, but before she could ask a bell chimed, it was time for lunch and the group separated, Hazel going after the twins, Felix and Max going behind Hazel to the cafeteria. Pink, was again, left behind.
Perhaps it was her time to make her own path and find her own friends, people who like to look at the bright side, just like her.
That proved to be more difficult than she thought.
The VK were a closed group, and most of the HK knew each other from before Auradon, not so many of them were homeschooled like her and Red, but since her older sister was deemed cool, she didn’t have any problems making friends. Thankfully she sat with her and had people to talk to during lunchtime, hearing stories about Luis’ adventures and Robbie’s misadventures directly from them and no retellings from Red was something she enjoyed. However, the only time they shared was lunchtime, everyone had a different schedule and the little free time they had she knew Red would want to spend with his soon to be boyfriend, his best friend and her best friend, they were the perfect group. And she wasn’t so oblivious to think that she could just barge in the VK group and spend time with them, she was still a bit wary after the awkward nod they gave her before…
Still, when she saw Max at the chess table in the garden she didn’t hesitate to join him, startling him when she suddenly sat down, he looked like he was deep in his thoughts. She pointed at the table and without missing a bit he said
‘’It’s not really polite for a princess to just join a game’’ He fixed the pieces, choosing the blacks for himself ‘’Perhaps you missed that manners’ class’’ Recalling what she said to him a week earlier.
‘’Well, you seem bored and I thought that maybe a game would help you. You know, take your mind of things…’’ She trailed off, realizing she may be referring to his dad, wanting to ask but not knowing how.
He was silent, just waiting for her to make her first move on the board.
‘’How are you? You know, everything peachy?’
‘Well, you know, going from not seeing your father to seeing him behind bars is a bit of a table turner’ he said sarcastically, moving his pawn, “What about you, did your sister forgot you existed and that’s why you came here?’’
She froze. Yes, maybe she shouldn’t have asked knowing that was her mom that put the Hatter in jail, but he knew how she felt about being left out, it stings a bit the way he looked at her like waiting for a response.
‘’You don’t have to be a Jabberwocky about it you know’ She stood up, about to leave before he stopped her
‘’I know! I’m sorry, it’s just…I know you had nothing to do with it, and people like you don’t expect us to care about stuff like our parents…It’s just’’ He stopped, she accepted the apology and continued the game.
‘’I do expect you to care’ Carefully picking her next piece to move, almost as carefully as her next words ‘You did help us save our mom’
‘’I also made a bracelet that made Chloe evil though’
She knew that the bracelet was what pushed Chloe over the edge, she doesn’t really know why he made it. He heard that it was because of something Red and Chloe did so perhaps, they said something really mean? Who knows, maybe someday someone will tell her.
‘’But I heard it was a pretty bracelet! shiny and intricate, Red said you are pretty good with that stuff. Maybe you could make accessories here in the workshop!’ She had an idea: ‘Maybe if you make pretty things people here would see you in a different manner, like tiaras, bracelets, and even bows!’’
The way her eyes lit up made the Hatter feel a certain way, she could see the positive in everything, going from a wicked bracelet that made someone go dark to ‘why not do pretty things instead’, it was refreshing knowing someone so cheerful despite everything that happened. It almost made him forget that he knew she didn’t exist before.
‘’I don’t really think they would allow me to be near sharp objects and metals, after all, the family name is Hatter, for Mad Hatter’
‘’But you don’t know that. I bet we can talk to Uma, and she wouldn’t have a problem, granted maybe she asks for a sword or something in exchange’ She wasn’t really paying attention to the game, otherwise she would have seen that she was 3 moves from losing
‘’Wait, since when do you want to work with me?’ One move less, two and checkmate
‘’I think it’s a great opportunity for both! You can be creative and I get a bow in exchange’ Last move
‘’If you get permission to use the workshop, then we have a deal’ Checkmate
She was so happy, didn’t even care that she lost abysmally, one would doubt that she knew how to play, but she was always better at croquet.
The permission to use the workshop was easy to get, if you were a HK, but if you were a VK you would have a bit more trouble.
‘’It’s for creative purposes’ Pink was pleading with the Fairy Godmother ‘He won’t do anything bad, just accessories and pretty things’’
‘’Oh, I know, it’s just that maybe unsupervised access to sharp objects would not be advised. Not only for, you know, kids with troubled pasts, but any kid in general’
Maybe it was fate that wanted Max to make use of his creativity or pure luck, but Uma heard the two talking and intervened.
‘’What about sharp objects and VKs? I thought that we established a clean slate and all opportunities for everyone’’
‘’Well yes, obviously! It’s just that…I don’t want kids to get hurt’’
‘’I know’’ Uma sounded so confident, it gave Pink a bit of security that her idea was going to succeed ‘’but we need to give them chances to get hurt, so they learn and grow, otherwise we might as well pad all the walls and forbid Tourney’’ She stopped ‘’Well the coach almost banned Jay from paying because he was hurting people on purpose, but they redirected him and you know how far he came right?’’
Uma went to grab the keys to the workshop and give them to Pink
‘’No swords, nothing that can stab people, you know, the fun things’
As she grabbed the keys, she just couldn’t stop smiling, waved the Fairy Godmother goodbye and jumped to her dorm, tomorrow she’s going to give them to Max and maybe he would make her a bow. She never saw the bracelet that he gave to Chloe, but she saw drawings that Red made to show her and she was a bit jealous. Granted, it was made with ulterior motives, and yes, it was ‘’evil’’ but it was pretty, and no one made her a bracelet, or any accessory at all.
But most importantly, maybe she could be friends with Max, she saw the way he cared for his group, so he wasn’t all bad. Things looked pretty good.