wishing on stars
CHAPTER 3 ! WELCOME BACK
FROM NUDIST KNITTING CAMP

raphael croakington fun fact !!
raphael is an og arianator. he has a secret twitter stan account and is moots w EVERYONE.

                    "HAVE A GOOD NIGHT MISS LA BOUFF." The flight attendants spoke in unison as Evangeline went down the plane stairs. The blonde ignored them as she noticed that the Sun's golden ripples in the sky began to paint with dark blue.

Evangeline took off the sunglasses on her head and placed them on the bridge of her nose—she could just feel the jet-lag creeping up on her.

She glanced at her phone, 6:00pm. Evangeline sighed, her heels tapping onto the floor as she walked by inside. The blinding cold lights screamed as she walked in.

Fortunately it wasn't crowded, the perks of being rich; you didn't have to go through commercial airline terminals (she couldn't believe that poor people had to deal with queues; truly discrimination at its finest).

The sixteen year old blonde had managed to go through security in what felt like seconds; one of the ladies in the checkout behind her asked Evangeline for a photo to which the blonde promptly snatched the woman's phone and took a quick selfie of herself.

Throwing the phone back into the woman's arms, she walked away. The woman and the group of girls behind her in matching shirts, all printed with 'Lily's Bachelorette Party', muttered something along the lines of "I meant of us...".

As Evangeline made her way out, she squinted her eyes to look for her chauffeur, presumably in a neat black and white suit. She began to push her trolley, a rush of people blocking her view—Evangeline 'accidentally' knocked her trolley into a guy's ankle who had obliviously obstructed her view.

She smiled sarcastically as the two boys looked at her bewilderedly, and pushed her trolley in between them. Not giving a second glance when she heard the whispers of both insults and compliments, the blonde continued to scan for her chauffeur until–

There. She saw it. A large cardboard sign, at least bigger than half her body, in big bold red marker.

WELCOME BACK FROM
NUDIST KNITTING CAMP!! ❤❤❤

   Odd looks and whispers pointed at the sign at question. Parents covered children's eyes at the sight of such provocative message. Even airport security stared at the sign incredulously, unsure of the protocol in such situation.

Evangeline's jaw tightened, blue eyes squinting at the sight before her. Her eyes squinted further as recognition struck her in the face. Coldness ran through her palms as heat struck through her body, boldly and hastily striding towards the sign holder.

"What are you doing here." She hissed, despite wearing sunglasses, every emotion could be seen clearly in her eyes. Her glare so dark, easily turning the bravest of soldiers into cowards retreating to their mother's arms.

The boy smiled at her beady eyes, his eyes half-lidded in amusement, "Do you like the sign?" A teasing glint in his eyes, almost appearing oblivious to the blonde's spiteful tone (he wasn't—he was more than aware) if not for his raised lips as an annoying chuckle. "I heard Paris was quite chilly, I hope you were wearing a scarf at the very leas–"

Evangeline snatched his sign, and with great effort, she tore the cardboard in half. She looked down at him (not literally, the boy in front of her had a head-height on her, even when leaning his arms onto the metal rail, he was still taller than eye level—a fact which bothered the blonde incredibly as only two years ago, she was the taller one out of the two. She would constantly remind the boy she was the tallest, then karma decided to bite her in the ass!). Her anger so focused on the idiot in front of her, the possibility of her nails chipping by the sign slipped her mind. Her mouth twisted with frustration as she dropped the ripped sign on the floor.

"Where's my chauffeur Croakington."

   The boy with rich dark skin let his eyes rest on the fallen sign, making his lips pout. Like the drama queen he is, he made his body rest completely on the rail like a sad plate of jelly with depression. "That took me two minutes to make..."

   The blonde snapped, her cheeks flushing a light pink. "Raphael."

   The boy snapped his head back up, smiling at her. Evangeline felt her body go frigid at his sudden movement. God, what a freak.

   The dark-skinned boy flashed his brown eyes at the girl. "Yes, my little cutie patootie?" He teased, glad that her reaction was exactly what he had expected.

   Evangeline held back the urge to roll her eyes as her nails dug into her palms. She enunciated her next words slowly, like an adult speaking to a child, "Where. Is. My. Chauffeur."

A large grin replaced the smirk on his lips, revealing all his perfect pearly whites. "You're looking at him."

   The blonde had known the brunet since they were young kids, at least six or seven (albeit begrudgingly). When your mothers are childhood best friends, it's practical law that your children are best friends too. So imagine their surprise only two minutes into the young kids' first interaction, both women hear high-pitched screams and loud cries. Both running to the living room, they paused in shock.

   They had expected to see a cute finger-painting session with both kids cooing over each others' creative artworks (which was a pretty stupid idea to leave them unsupervised with paint in the first place but that's just Evangeline's opinion), but instead witnessed a war zone with a mixture of colors and tears running down their small faces.

   It took them seven minutes to seperate the two very angry kids apart, both telling their own tall tales of who started it first. Both mothers had unknowingly caused the beginning of a war; a war of petty arguments and a newly attained habit of rolling eyes.

   They continued their war throughout elementary, both parents no longer surprised at the monthly phone call from the Principal's office—"you must teach your children that throwing things at one another during class is simply not allowed!".

   You would think that Charlotte and Tiana understood the message that 'Hey! Our two kids hate each other! Let's not force them to play with each other anymore!'.

   They did not.

   Once again Evangeline would like everyone to know that she thinks that her mother and her godmother were both incredibly stupid for enabling this. Just because both of them had been in a womb around the same time period did not mean they would get along for the rest of their joyous happy lives!

   The Croakington boy and La Bouff girl simply did not get along. I mean, what else did they expect considering the whole destiny situation?!

While Raphael Croakington (a laughable name she knows, she never lets him forget) was incredibly insignificant in all aspects of her daily life, he was her everything in her future.

   The Frog Prince and his female second lead... gee whiz gosh darn, what a wonder why they don't get along!

He was practically a knife that was aimed at her back and Evangeline was forced to stand and wait until the metal sliced ​​her skin. Why couldn't Evangeline just... dodge his knife? Small cracks began to form once more—no. Restraint. One problem at a time.

   Evangeline tapped her heel. "No." The boy smiled ever further. "What I'm looking at is an idiot who has a death wish. Where. Is. My. Chauffeur."

Raphael pushed his body away from the bar and crossed his arms, offense taken at her insult. The boy opened his mouth to protest in which Evangeline groaned at before the words could even escape his mouth. She continued to push her trolley and walk around the rail to Raphael, heels clicking as she did.

"Hey! At least I've got my driver's license." He began to shout as Evangeline walked away from him. "I actually passed my test, thank you very much."

Evangeline had failed her test four times. On the fourth attempt, she tried bribing her examiner... Let's not talk about it.

The blonde rolled her eyes at his snide remark. Evangeline walked towards him, retaliating back, "And what moron allowed a brainless fuck-wad on the road?"

The boy rolled his eyes in a similar manner, his eyes narrowed at her, "I don't know, probably the same moron that allowed you to wear sunglasses indoors. You weirdo."

Evangeline gasped, a sound of offense leaving her mouth as she placed a dramatic hand on her chest. She hissed loudly, she felt her cheeks go red. "It's a fashion statement!"

   Raphael leaned his back, meeting her blue eyes just above eye level. His voice had an infuriating 'know-it-all' sound to it, juxtaposing her enraged tone with his calm and smug voice. "Only assholes and blind people wear sunglasses indoors ."

   He moved closer, crossing his muscular arms together, "And last I checked, you had perfect vision."

   Both brown and blue stared each other down, a lingering tension bubbles with frustration. The brunet smirked at her lack of response. The blonde huffed, in fast movement, she took off her sunglasses, revealing the beautiful hue of her eyes. Its colors were hauntingly blue shades of storms and thunder as she stared down the boy in front of her.

   Stuffing the glasses quickly into the tight crevice of her chest, she leaned back, Raphael's eyes followed the glasses' path but quickly snapped back to her eyes when she pushed them into her revealing cleavage, he cleared his throat.

   "Tell me, when did you get your license?" Her eyebrow raised.

   Raphael blinked. "Uhh..." He drew out, his smirk dropped in embarrassment. He turned his head, his sharp jaw on for show. His chest puffed out with his first few buttons undone, the rest straining on his tight white satin button up. "Yesterday...?"

"I'm calling my chauffeur." Evangeline turned around and began to walk away. But before she could step far, Raphael swerved around her and grabbed her wrist. "Wait-wait-wait! C'mon! Hey."

   She raised her eyebrow, the corner of her lips threatening to turn upwards at his pleading nature, "My mom will actually kill me if I don't drive you home."

   Tiana Croakington, née Corbin, was a scary woman, brilliant but scary. Evangeline knew her as Auntie Tia. She was practically her second-mother of sorts, sometimes even more present than her first-mother. She had heard the stories from people all around her, from a poor life of collecting tips to owning her own three-star Michelin restaurant to franchising and becoming an international best-selling author, 'Rags to Riches: How You Can Be More Than Almost There!'.

Tiana was a fussy woman, much like Charlotte; if Tiana asked for something, you sure as hell better do it.

"Please Eva." He pleaded. Raphael quickly noticed the hint of a smile slowly cracking through the blonde's cold facade, making him pout his lips even further to see her pretty smile. "Evaaaa...!" He whined, clutching onto her arm and shook his shoulders repeatedly.

   "Evaaaa-"

   "No." She bit her lip to stop smiling.

   "Why nottttttt!" Raphael scrunched his eyebrows, playfully stomping his foot on the floor like a child. Evangeline scoffed as her eyes eased, her shoulders less tense as she relaxed in the boy's presence. His eyes shining at the blonde's reaction.

   The blonde flicked her hair back, turning her head, deadpanning, "I'm actually not in the mood to die. I'd rather take public transport than go with you."

   Raphael raised his eyebrow all-knowing, "No you wouldn't."

   Evangeline nodded in agreement, "No I wouldn't."

   Raphael gently pushed Evangeline away from his arms with pouty lips, emphasis on gently. Evangeline, obviously taking the action as offence, then proceeded to push him ten times harder. Unfortunately, since they were both competitive fucks, this continued until Evangeline pushed Raphael into a security guard who gave them both a nasty glare through his dark sunglasses.

   Both of them awkwardly smiled, shuffling away. Raphael cleared his throat, "-Look. I didn't want to have to do this but-" He paused for dramatic effect. He closed his eyes, placing the back of his hand on his forehead, a clear and beautiful spotlight on him as he declared his proposal loudly throughout the entire airport.

He continued to pause and even slightly sniffle, unbeknown to the blonde simply walking away from the conversation.

"I'll shout you Pepsi for an entire week!"

Evangeline halted, a smirk on her lips.

Evangeline looked out the window pensively, her blue eyes turning dark as she watched the sky reveal a beautiful formation of stars. She took a deep sigh, her arms crossed in front of her chest.

All she could think about was the upcoming days of school and it's inevitable annual event of Legacy Day. She could feel goosebumps traveling on the nape of her neck as she envisioned herself signing the Book of Legends, a visceral reaction to such thoughts.

Closing her eyes, Evangeline attempted to embrace the ambience of wind whistling past the sleek car and the warm hum of the car engine, forgetting what was soon to come.

Key word being attempted.

"This is!" Evangeline eyes snapped open, startled at the sudden squawk on her left. She turned her head to see Raphael steering with one hand while the other was used as a makeshift microphone. The boy continued to sing (scream), raising his car's AUX volume to the max. "-The part where I say I don't want ya!"

Evangeline stared at him incredulously, side-eyeing him entirely, this is the man I'm supposed to fall in hopeless and devoted love with...?

   He continued to shriek even louder, "I'm stronger than I've been before!"

Raphael suddenly snapped his head to Evangeline, his eyebrows wiggling as his shoulders danced to the beat. "This is the part when I break free!"

The blonde rolled her eyes, electing to simply ignore him and roll down her window. Wind brushed the hair out of her face as her blonde locks danced behind her. She closed her eyes, muffling the world around her as she focused on the one thing that had plagued her mind since the beginning of Summer.

Legacy Day.

Evangeline won't lie, LD had started as just a simple thought, a hole in her stomach, the planting of a little egg in the beginning of Summer holidays.

   Perhaps it was the fact she was isolated from everyone else around her that gave her opportunity to reflect. Perhaps it was the Snapchat groupchat comprised of Apple, Briar and Ashley (Evangeline wasn't entirely sure why she was in their groupchat exactly, Briar just invited her one day and everyone silently accepted it) who were discussing LD dress appointments. Perhaps it was the email she received about the itinerary for LD and future arrangements. Perhaps it was everyone in the god damn world starting to realize her legend and treating her differently — gone was the original fear, now a sad pity replaced it.

   All of which made the hole in her stomach bigger, sinking everything inside as she wanted to puke right there and then in the car and the egg in her starting to crack with an ugly monster emerging and oh god she was gonna be sick she-

"You're different."

   Opening her eyes, she turned to face Raphael who was already staring at her. She raised an eyebrow, he lowered down the music.

   "You've changed."

   She stayed silent.

   "Like, I don't how to explain it. You're more distant-"

   Evangeline chuckled breathlessly, "I'm always trying to keep my distance from you-"

   "-Not what I meant," Raphael rolled his eyes. "Like your mind is somewhere else. You seem lost," He shrugged, turning his head back to the road. "I don't know, it's just... different."

A pause washed over them, an uncomfortable silence. Evangeline's heart stilled.

   Raphael looked at her pale face, pausing slightly. He then blinked away, deciding to not press any further.

"Did you get fucked in Paris?"

   Evangeline blinked. "Ray."

Eva paused, so affronted by the boy in front of him that she didn't realize she had used her childhood nickname for the boy. "What the actual fuck is wrong with your head?"

   "I'm just saying!" He didn't realize either. "It makes sense if you got dicked down, I'd totally get it!"

   Evangeline scoffed, "I was thinking about school." Ray rolled his eyes. scoffing as well.

   (Well... She was! Kind of... Not entirely. Basically... Oh whatever, fuck off.)

   "It's actually this amazing phenomenon called using my brain." He retaliated in disbelief. She ignored him and continued. "You should try it out sometime, you know, thinking with your brain, instead of your dic-"

   BEEP.

   "Mister I-can't-answer-the-phone-right-now-cause-I'm-fucking-"

   BEEP.

   "I bet your brain got all messed up from all your STDs-"

   BEEP.

   "CAN YOU STOP HONKING THE HORN!"

     "TOOK YOU FUCKERS LONG ENOUGH!" A glamorous Briar Beauty wearing a shiny reflective jumpsuit greeted them as she opened her front door. You could tell the sixteen year old was tipsy from the unnecessary loud volume of her voice but she wasn't drunk to the point where she started huggin-.

   "Evaaaa~ I missed youuu~" Briar reached out her arms to hug out the blonde, immediately going stiff in the Afro-Latina's embrace. Eva grabbed the drink in Briar's hand before it could splash against her designers.

   Briar snuggled into Evangeline's awkward hovering arms. The bead-braided girl continued to babble her affections and how Eva wasn't available to hang all Summer. Evangeline turned her head to Raphael for help to already see him snickering. Raphael had been the one to ask if Evangeline had seen Briar's story and if she was going (she originally was gonna call someone to drop her off but the blonde instead forced Raphael to drive her there). The two first drove to the La Bouff Mansion and dropped off her luggage for the helpers to clean away, then straight to Briar's place fashionably late.

Evangeline patted her back similar in fashion as to how someone would pet an stray dog. With great difficulty.

(Raphael was now laughing).

The blonde was too sober for this.

Sniffing the drunk girl's cup, Eva shrugged. There was no way she was going to deal with... this sober. Evangeline chugged whatever the fuck was in Briar's red solo cup. Immediately feeling a rush and slightly buzzed, Evangeline threw the cup in the air and began to push Briar past the front door.

"Briar... Let's move inside, it'll be much better if we go inside."

"Nooo~" She hiccuped, "Y-you didn't answer any of my messages... and I thought you," She began to sniffle, "Got kidnapped by a french bearrr!" She began to wail.

The laughing slowly ceased as Raphael wiped a stray tear and moved towards the front door, mouthing the words "good luck", going straight inside. Eva could hear a range of greetings as soon as Raphael went in. Asshole.

After much convincing that she was fine and that "bear" was actually quite nice and instead helped her find the airport back home, Briar Beauty finally unwrapped herself from Evangeline and brought her inside her home.

Briar had two places, her castle and her house (mansion cough cough). Most Royals in the Fairytale Realm did; having an actual castle was an of course, fairytales and destines and all that. However, they lived in a modern world! A modern world that's always developing!

(Hey, when you're fucking royalty, you motherfucking act like it).

Loudly pushing past people that Evangeline didn't recognize, Briar immediately went to the kitchen to go make a Briar Special for Eva.

Evangeline took in the loud music playing somewhere around the house. The mansion was practically steaming with people; some were swaying their hips dangerously, some making out in hidden dark corners, some screaming "chug chug chug", some playing several rounds of beer pong. The party was full of life, something that brought a bit of relief to the girl's tense shoulders.

She wasn't alone. She wasn't behind a window. She was with the people. She smiled.

The blonde quickly took a seat in front of the kitchen island as she watched Briar bring out ingredients from her pantries (was that a blender?) . "Something-"

"-Something pink and sweet. Don't worry girl," Briar winked as she started mixing her concoctions, shaking liquids as if she were performing a spell. "I know your taste."

Continuing to mix and shake, she placed fruits into her blender. The brunette smirked at the blonde's amused expression. "I might be tipsy but that's not gonna stop me from making a bomb-ass drink."

Evangeline let her head rest on her hands on the table, enchanted by Briar's movements. "You could do this professionally, you know, if you wanted to, I mean."

Briar chuckled lightly. "I don't think me making drinks counts as anything professional."

Evangeline's eyebrows furrowed, cheeks a little pink from Briar's drink earlier. "Why not? You have the skills, you have the talent. Bartending! You clearly enjoy it!"

"Relax Jobseeker." The girl giggled, raising her eyebrow at the blonde's sudden passion, "It's just a fun little hobby."

"And besides," Briar faltered slightly, "I doubt they're gonna need a mixologist in like, a hundred years..." She began to mumble as her hands flailed in the air awkwardly, "Cus ya'know... robots and everything..."

Evangeline blinked. "Mixologist?"

The brunette's eyes lit up at the word, still focused on making the blonde's drink, "Oh uhm- yeah! Mixologists like create new drinks and come up with different recipes. They're the ones that come up with the drinks that become like super popular, and like, the bartenders are the ones who learn the recipe and serve it to the customers!"

Briar looked up only to see Eva's raised eyebrow, she cleared her throat. "Ahem- But uh- like I said... fun little hobby."

   "Bullshit."

   Briar blinked, take aback by the blonde's confrontation. The blonde continued, "You're good at what you do. You like what you do. You have fun at what you do! I don't understand why you can't–"

The brunette felt a weird shiver down her spine. Briar's jaw went tense, immediately sobering up. She suddenly became conscious of the people around her.

   They were whispering, staring at the two girls. Their mouths moving as they hissed. Briar pushed Evangeline's finished drink into her hands, interrupting the blonde's unknowingly dangerous words.

"Well... that's the life of a Royal for ya." Briar concluded in finality. Unspoken words were said between the girls' eyes.

Evangeline was hit by reality (and sobriety). Shame filled her lungs, suddenly finding it hard to breathe and hear. She wanted to fucking slap herself. Was she truly that much of a light-weight, that only one drink managed to loosen her lips? Eva tugged her hair, wrapping her finger around it as she composed herself. The light of passion in her eyes died as it was replaced with hard and cold.

   Briar pursed lips eased as she forced herself to relax, "I call it 'Destiny'." She nodded towards the drink in Evangeline's hands with a strained smirk. "Enjoy~"

The brunette walked away, joining the rest of the party. Everything became unmuffled, Evangeline could hear everything in clarity again. She looked down at her drink, fingers clutching the cup tightly.

Evangeline poured the stupid drink out as she walked across the stupid front lawn of the stupid mansion, leaving the stupid party. The pink fruity drink infusing with the green grass as the smell of alcohol wafted through the night air.

Fuck destiny.

She sat into her private car with her chauffeur in front, whom she had called earlier (and arrived in less than ten minutes, thanks to Eva's threats of unemployment). She drove off, staring out at the window. She twirled her disheveled hair (thanks to Briar's hugs) around her fingers.

The stars were bright tonight.

Closing her eyes, she wished about the dreams silently in her head, never daring to utter a word of it aloud. She wished about the thoughts that plagued and haunted her.

She wished alone. Soundlessly praying to whoever was listening behind a window.

AND WE'VE MET RAPHAEL!! he's a snarky little shit but so is evangeline so two negatives equal a positive. the character development for both their individual characters and relationship is INSANE YALL. like they're both self-absorbed AF but they learn so much (no rlly, they're fatal flaw rlly be their "me me me" attitudes). 🥹🥹

it's been a while i know, i've had so much writing block 😭😭 ALSO IM IN UNI NOW (which is wild considering i thought of this during high school) so obvi very infrequent updates😫

im gonna upload some content on tiktok so go check that out :)) don't forgot to vote and comment! (pls comment guys 😭 i need social interaction if begging)

ALSO THATS BRIAR IN THE THIRD GIF!! ISNT SHE ADORABLE i technically changed her fancast so it's different compared to the intro (i aint bothered to create a whole new gif 😭😭)

Published: 20/4/24
Word count: 3.9k