Serene's view

I lean against the wall, right next to the front door of Auradon Prep, and take out my book. It's worn from being read so many times, the spine falling apart but for the purple duct tape binding it securely. I 'read' with my eyes fixed on the pages, not really reading Hermione and Ron's fight (and Harry's peculiar momentary understanding of girls) after the Yule Ball. I'm paying more attention to the world around me, to teenagers walking in and out.

I'm waiting for two in particular.

My best---and pretty much only---friends. At least, the only ones who don't care about who my sister or parents are and only like me for me. First there's Brietta, the daughter of Audrey and Harry Hook. She's a year older than me, a sophomore, and is basically the epitome of cool. It's impossible to walk down the hallway without seeing every boy's head automatically turn toward her in awe.

She's vastly different from my other friend, Lucy. The daughter of Brit and Gil, Lucy is the quietest, sweetest, most innocent person in the existence of innocent people. You wouldn't notice her walking down the hall unless you accidentally ran into her, and then she'd apologize to you for being in the way.

"Hi, Ree." A soft voice says in front of me. I jump and look up, mentally chiding myself for letting my thoughts wander and distract me from watching for the arrival of my friends. Sure enough, standing in front of me, her head partially ducked and eyes flickering around nervously, is Lucy.

"Lu!" I greet, pushing off of the wall to hug her. She returns it without question, gingerly pulling away after a few seconds. She smiles at me, fully herself, a beacon of light even when it seems the world will never notice her.

"I hate that I never see you during the summer." Lucy says quietly, brushing a stray hair from her face. To her credit, Lucy doesn't try to go unnoticed. She wears her father's bandana every day, no matter if it's in her dirty-blonde hair, around her wrist, or tied like a scarf on her neck like it is today. Her father claims it's the one he was wearing when he came to Auradon for the first time, when King Ben invited him and Brit over. Right now she's in denim shorts with purple flowers sewn in by her own hand, and a white T-shirt with golden florals on it. Her embroidered bookbag hangs heavy at her side, probably filled with textbooks she'll finish reading by the end of the week. Her sun-tanned-freckled arms have dozens of hand-made bracelets on them. 

She digs the toe of her bronze sandals with purple beads dangling off into the soil. "Where'd you go this time?"

"Neverland." I say, my voice dull even to my own ears.

Lucy brightens. "I wish I could've gone with you. Did you get to fly? Meet Tinker Bell?" She suddenly gasps, her eyes alight. "Did you get to see Pixie Hollow or Mermaid Lagoon?"

I laugh at her enthusiasm. "Yes, yes, no, yes."

Lucy sags a little bit. "Oh, of course, Pixie Hollow's too small." She bonks herself, giggling. "Sorry."

"Technically, we had the option to let the fairies shrink us for a few hours, but I declined."

Lucy gasps, slapping my arm. "What is wrong with you, Ree? You passed up a chance to see Pixie Hollow?"

I laugh again, shying away from her. "Sorry, Lucy, I just don't see the appeal of being shrunk down to the size of a wasp."

Lucy shudders. "Okay, that's a good point. But still," she moans. "Pixie Hollow. Queen Clarion!"

"Please don't tell me you're back in that fairy-princess phase, Lu." A girl's voice complains. Brietta suddenly puts her arm over Lucy's shoulders. "I thought you'd moved on to something cooler."

Lucy giggles. "Hi, Bri."

"Hi, squirts." She rubs Lucy's head affectionately. By all definitions, Bri should be way too cool to hang out with freshmen like Lucy and I, but she seems to think we're better company than most in her grade. She has no accent from her father, but has his silvery-blue eyes and his affection for makeup. Except where his makeup earned him the name "Captain Guyliner", Brietta's is perfect, elegant winged eyeliner and silver eyeshadow, rose-red lipstick that keeps her heart-shaped mouth in a permanent smirk. She has long brown hair that curls, with a pink headband on her head. Like all of us, she wears something of her parent's more often than not. As of this moment, she had Isla create a jacket version of her mother's outfit from when Audrey tried to take over Auradon. It's black leather with an embroidered pink-and-silver phoenix on the back.

People kind of didn't know what to do with that. Audrey's attack has always kind of been skirted over. Just like nobody quite knew what to do when it was discovered that there had been magic left over in Audrey from the scepter's shockwave, and had transferred itself to Brietta. Bri can't use the magic without a source, like a wand or something, so that kind of calmed people down since you have to be issued a wand by Fairy Godmother.

Anyways, Bri wears that jacket, a stylish pink dress, and pink high-top converse. Her father also stole his old hook from the Museum of Cultural History a while back, shrunk it, and gave it to Bri on a necklace, which she's always fidgeting with using her pink-and-blue -nailed fingers.

Brietta jerks her head behind her, fingering said necklace charm. "Hey, Ree, since you're facing that way, is Max still watching me?"

I peek over her shoulder. Jenna and Isla are giggling loudly while Max is trying uselessly to fix his hair. He catches me looking and turns instantly to his friends, hissing at them.

"No. He's trying to get Jenna and Isla to stop laughing at him." I inform Brietta.

She grins. "So I'm guessing he's still crushing."

Lucy giggles. "You really should rescue him sometime soon, Bri. Ask him to Cotillion!"

Brietta snorts, shoving Lucy away. "No way. I'm lettin' him squirm. If he doesn't have the courage to ask a girl a year under him out, he has no business having a date to Cotillion."

Lucy sighs wistfully. "At least you have a probable date. I've never even had a crush on anyone besides Tom Holland's Peter Parker."

Brietta rolls her eyes, shoving Lucy again. Lu actually stumbles a bit but rights herself quickly. "Lu, you're one of the prettiest kiddos in your grade." Bri scolds, then brings her gaze to me. "So are you, Ree. You're both going to get dates faster than the Flash can catch a bad guy."

"So we have to wait an entire season." I summarize.

Brietta groans. "You know what I meant, smart-aleck!"

We all laugh, chatting loudly about our summers and what we're hoping for this year when Lucy suddenly goes from deadly white to tomato red in record time. She has her wide blue-green eyes stretched further than normal, staring toward the other side of the courtyard with her jaw dropped.

Both Brietta and I instantly swivel around to look.

"No. Freaking. Way." Brietta gushes, grabbing Lucy and shaking her joyfully. It takes me a second longer, but I finally see what Lucy's looking at. I smile at my shy, adorable friend who is suddenly speechless at the sight of Maira and Hans Jr's son, Finn. "Oh, Lu."

Lucy whimpers. "He's gorgeous."

A sound resembling a pig escapes from Brietta's mouth before she pinches her lips together, giving Lucy a side-hug. 

"That's Finn." I tell Lucy. "He and Eleanor, the daughter of Endora the Enchantress, you know, are coming over from Scotland this year."

"What year are they in?" Brietta asks. 

"Um..." I cross my arms over my chest, considering this. "I haven't seen them in a while. Last time I saw them, Finn was obsessed with Harry Potter, and Eleanor acted like a first grader. I think Finn is a sophomore, and Eleanor is a freshman."

"Ooh-hoo-hoo, so he's a year older, Lu!" Brietta crows, shaking our friend yet again. 

I remember the last time I saw Finn and Elea. It was maybe three or four years ago, and Finn did not look like he does now as he walks almost in slow-motion, with sparkling spotlights on him, across the lawn. His hair is like that of a fictional character, perfectly styled in a mess of red-brown waves. He has brown hawk-like eyes that notice everything but somehow slip over my friends, fixing on me.

Finn grins and walks over to me, sauntering like he's the coolest kid on Earth. "Hey, Serene, right?" he checks, shifting his grip on his bag. I'm sure it's full of hidden weapons.

I smile as civilly as I can. "Hi, Finn. Nice to see you again."

"Whoa, how do you know my name?" He teases, flashing a blinding white smile and laughing even though none of us do. "Kidding. Nice to see you again, too. Hey, have you guys seen a little pipsqueak, 'bout yea high?" He holds his hands at about his shoulder height. A normal human height, not the gargantuan we're staring up at. "Blonde girl, wearing a gown more likely than not, green all over?"

I sigh. "Eleanor? Didn't you come here with her?"

"Well, I was supposed to, but she ran off to explore." Finn says. "I stopped to talk to one of the teachers, and next thing I knew, I turned around and she was gone."

"Maybe she's already inside, then."

"Cool, cool." He grins another pearly white ray of sun towards Brietta, who is still holding Lucy. Lucy gives off an audible whimper that Finn ignores.

"You guys Freshmen?" He asks, turning to me again.

"They are. I'm not." Brietta sniffs. "I'm a sophomore."

"Cool, so am I!" Finn says. He finally looks down at Lucy, who is still staring at him openly. "Hi."

"Wh---Um---I---B-b..." Lucy mumbles incoherently.

"Cool." Finn flashes another smile, and Lu looks ready to faint. "Welp, I gotta get inside. Maybe I'll see you guys around?" he turns and leaves without another word.

Brietta rolls her eyes. "The only thing he'll see is my foot in his face if he keeps that attitude." She grumbles. "Lucy, I really think you could do better with someone else. Like, anyone else."

"But he's so..." Lucy sighs melodramatically, sagging on her knees. "Perfect."

I press my lips together, hard, to keep from laughing. "I mean, I'm sure he's got some good things about him." I reason. "I remember him being super protective of Elea."

Bri groans. "Great, he's got a girlfriend already. Move on, Lu!"

Lucy shakes her head, still staring at nothing, mesmerized. "Maybe he'll ask me to Cotillion..." She mumbles dreamily, swaying on her feet as she turns from us and walks inside.

Brietta stomps over to the entrance, closes the door, and then bangs her head against the wood four times. "Why. Why. Why. Why." She turns away, a red welt on her forehead. "WHY." She moans to me, rubbing her forehead. "That was dumb. Both myself and Lucy!"

I rub her shoulder consolingly, opening the door and letting us both inside. "She'll get over it."

"No, she won't." Brietta argues, smacking my hand away as we walk toward our shared first hour, . "She crushed on Tom Holland for, like, five years before she realized those movies were from, like, fifty years ago."

"He first appeared in "Civil War" in 2016, actually." I mumble. "So only 26 years."

Brietta sighs. "Smart-aleck."

"Pirate." I shoot back.

She laughs, tossing her hair behind her shoulders. "Too true." Smiling down at me, she links her arm through mine as we head to class.

Lucy likes a boy. Brietta didn't forget about us last year while she was a Freshman. Finn actually noticed me, and not Jenna, for once. And I only have one class with my sister. And I haven't made a fool of myself yet.

This year is off to a promising start.

_______________________________________

Hope everyone enjoys! One thing I kind of want to point out, however: 

The names in this book (At least some of them) are all pulled from the same thing. Can you guys guess?

(Isla, Janessa, Brietta, Danielle (who hasn't been introduced yet) technically Serene, technically Lucy (They are close but I twisted them). Guessed it yet?) BEAUTYBEASTROSE, YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO ANSWER!

If anyone does guess, it, YES I'm that big of a weirdo. What? The prettiest names ever are from this. I'm a kid at heart.  :)