Chapter Text
Hazel had a problem: she had a crush on Chloe. Truly awful feelings that made her want to talk to the other girl despite the way their interactions made something twist in her guts. Staring at the ceiling of her dorm while thinking of Chloe instead of sleeping had become a daily routine and she hated it. Why did Chloe have to take up space in her mind even when they were not in the same room?
Hazel turned in her bed, a vain attempt at making the thoughts go away. Was it not enough that everytime she knew Chloe was near she scanned her surroundings to catch a glimpse of the girl? Apparently not.
She closed her eyes, but her mind kept replaying their interactions of the day. She opened them again and the only thing she could make out in the darkness of the room was the wall. Not that the landscape was very interesting; there was no body of water in sight, only Auradon. At that time, the sea must have taken the dark blue shade the sky sprinkled with stars gave it. Chloe's hair was blue, though a much lighter shade; more like the sea on a bright day. But it apparently darkened when she turned evil, maybe then it was like the ocean on a cloudy night, lit by a shy moon Hazel could only imagine from her bed.
Ugh, too may deep thoughts about Chloe. Hazel had to do something about her feelings, this whole thing could not go on any longer.
The Hat Trix had been sitting here for 10 minutes now, in complete silence. Hazel had called them to her dorm but after they had all arrived and she had closed the door, she had only been pacing around the room.
"So, why did you call us?" Max asked, taking off his hat to inspect it.
She stopped, sighed, and finally turned to face them.
"Okay, I..." she groaned, "I might like Chloe."
Max, Squeaky, Squirmy and Felix all looked at each other before turning back to Hazel, way too nonchalant about the bomb she just dropped.
"You made us come here at 7 AM to tell us something we already know," Max stated, putting his hat back on.
"We noticed!" Squeaky exclaimed.
"Yeah, you talk about her a lot," Squirmy agreed.
"It is kind of obvious," Felix added.
Hazel frowned. She had not let any sign show and she was not going to let them say otherwise.
"It's not that obvious! It's really just a slight crush!"
"Oh come on! Ever since we came back from Wonderland you're always looking for her," Max said.
"And when you're not, you're talking about her," Felix added.
"Oh, and you sigh dreamily!" The Smees chimed in.
"No, no, and no! I don't do any of that."
"Okay but admit that when you're with her you tend to-" Felix started.
"If you say anything that implies that my very slight crush on Chloe is obvious you'll meet my hook." Hazel glared at him, holding her hook under his chin.
Felix gulped.
"Then, again, why did you call us?" Max intervened, pushing Hazel's hand.
She straightened up and fidgeted with her hook, her index pressing on the end of it, but not with enough force to pierce her skin.
"So, as I said I like Chloe and... ugh... I don't know what to do about it."
They stared at her, frowning.
"You're asking us for love advice?" Squirmy asked.
Hazel groaned. She was the person who gave advice, not the one who recieved it, but this time was a bit different.
"This is gonna be so embarrassing," she mumbled. Then louder, "Yes, I need advice."
"Just confess." Felix shrugged.
"No! That's the last thing I'd do. Why would I confess?"
"Because maybe she likes you too?"
"There's no way she likes me and even if she did, she's a princess, our relationship wouldn't last a day."
"You don't know that."
"I don't need to try. Next one."
"Oh! Make her walk the plank!" The Smees exclaimed in unison.
"I said I like her, I'm not gonna give her to the fishes."
"Aw, not fun." Squeaky pouted.
"Yeah, the plank is cool." Squirmy insisted.
"Normally I'd agree with you but not this time."
"Oh, you must really like her, huh?" Max teased.
And he had the audacity to smirk. He must want to die. Hazel's hook threatened his throat but that did not wipe off the arrogance on his face.
"You really want to play with me on this, Hatter? You wanna talk about your crush on Madrigal?"
Max's smile dropped.
"You know it's not the same."
"Because he's with Red?"
"Wait, you didn't deny that you have a crush on him." Felix pointed out.
Hazel huffed, sitting down on the ground. They did not know?
The Smees gasped, eyebrows raised, they looked at each other. Max lowered his hat, covering a part of his face, but it failed at hiding the faint red coloring his cheeks.
Okay, apparently they did not know. Why did that elicit more reaction than Hazel's crush? Especially when Max's feelings were way more obvious than hers. No, she was not biased thinking that, it was simply an objective truth.
"Yeah, whatever," Max put his hat back in its place. "You can just burry your feelings and try to avoid her or something."
"I like that more."
Hazel took a second to fully consider the advice.
"Yeah, I'm gonna go with that."
Felix's gaze flickered between Hazel and Max; he let out a sigh.
"Okay. Were you really asking for advice or did you just want us to confirm that you shouldn't do anything about your feelings?"
Hazel stopped breathing for a second. When she thought about it, Felix was not wrong. Did she ever plan to actually do anything about her feelings for Chloe? Well, she did not but was that so bad? What did Felix know about love confessions anyway?
"I didn't call you to lecture me about my decisions on my crush."
"Okay, but unlike you, I have conf-"
A scream from Squeaky interrupted Felix. He and Squirmy had stopped listening a while ago and had decided to, instead, fight each other, which resulted in them tumbling to the ground and Squeaky hitting his head against the frame of Hazel's bed.
"Smees! Quit fighting and go back to your places." Hazel snapped.
The twins stiffened at the order before scrambling back to the bed.
Hazel turned back to Felix who started playing with his cards, seemingly uneasy. He did not continue his sentence and did not look particularly eager to do so.
"So, you were saying?" Hazel urged him.
Felix looked up at her and took a deep breath.
"So, you know I had a crush on Robbie..."
"Yeah, because of your separate adventure in Wonderland, what about it?"
"Well, unlike what you plan to do, I confessed to him, even though I didn't know whether he liked me or not and now we're dating."
First shock of the day.
"And you didn't tell us?" Max asked.
"I was going to, eventually, but it happened yesterday."
"That's good for you-" Hazel started.
"Yeah, good for you!" The Smees repeated, giving Felix a thumbs up even though Hazel was not sure they were entirely following the conversation.
"But there's no guarantee it'll work out as well for me." Hazel finished.
"Yeah, you might be right," Felix sighed. "You know what, do whatever you want, it's not my crush after all."
"Thank you. Now, tell us, how come you're dating an HK?"
Felix told his story to the group who was eager to find out how he managed to ask out Robin Hood's son. They then kept talking for a while, until the bell signaling the imminent start of class rang and they reluctantly got up to prepare themselves for the rest of the day.