A/N: Got lazy to actually put together an outfit so I just gathered some pegs from Pinterest for Meredith 😆
Various students, faculty, and staff busily ran around the school. Auradon Prep was currently preparing for the arrival of the four kids from the Isle of the Lost. From Ben, Meredith learned that they were the children of Cruella De Vil, Jafar, the Evil Queen, and Maleficent respectively. Their names were Carlos, Jay, Evie, and Mal, and Meredith couldn't help but have an unsettling feeling at the pit of her stomach as Ben recited his research about them.
It was a bright day and early in the morning when Meredith was out again for another walk. She decided that today, she would skip her daily routine of exercise and just assist others in the preparation, because even if she didn't particularly like the whole idea, Ben was still her friend.
However, she found that the welcoming party, or whatever Ben wanted to label it as, was way too over-the-top. There were streamers, posters, banners, food, and even the school's band was practicing to play a background song when the four new students come. So, all Meredith really did was put up a few banners before she ended up cringing at how festive it was. Eventually, she left to play with Dude outside the school, just nearby the dorm building. Out there, the grass was soft and the field was wide with many big trees to give the students shade. Lots of people liked to eat and hang out here, but considering the majority of them were helping out with the decorations, it was empty.
Meredith was reading a book when her phone suddenly rang loudly in the silence. She quickly fished it out of her pocket and answered it right away after seeing the name on her screen.
"Ben?"
"Mer, aren't you going to be part of the welcome committee?" Ben's voice filled her ears. "The four kids from the Isle are almost here."
"Oh, well I was just planning to meet them after they were given a tour, maybe," Meredith lied. In truth, she wasn't sure if she actually did want to meet them. She was still suspicious of them. They were and still are the sons and daughters of the people labeled most evil in all of the lands.
She heard Ben sigh on the other line.
"Why do I feel like you're lying?"
"Because you know I already am."
Ben chuckled lightly, but he was still hoping that one of his best friends would soon understand why he found it so important to start bringing children from the Isle of the Lost to Auradon.
"Will you at least meet them for real later? I won't force you to talk to them too much."
Meredith sighed as well, but she couldn't say no
"Fine," she gave in. "I'll be back inside the dorm building soon, so maybe I'll see you there."
"You better be."
"Whatever." Although she didn't exactly confirm if she was going or not, both Ben and herself knew that she would come anyways. She didn't like disappointing people, and really, what was the harm in introducing herself to some new students? If they were as bad as she guessed, she could always just ignore them afterwards.
Meredith ended the call and pocketed her phone. She was about to get back to reading when from the corner of her eye, she spotted her roommate briskly walking away from the entrance of the building, seemingly in a rush.
"Jane!" Meredith called out. Once again, the redhead had surprised Fairy Godmother's daughter.
Jane abruptly stopped walking and looked in Meredith's way in surprise. "Meredith! You sc —"
"I scared you, I know. Sorry," said Meredith sympathetically. "Where are you going?"
"Running away from the children of the villains."
Meredith cocked an eyebrow in interest.
"They're here already?"
"Nope, but I want to get away as fast as I can —"
A honking noise in the distance cut Jane off. Instead of finishing her sentence, she squeaked and jumped in fright.
"Oh, they're here. Goodbye, Meredith. I'll see you later."
Without giving her roommate a chance to speak, Jane hurried away from her to who-knows-where — her mother would be the first to welcome the new students, so Jane couldn't possibly be going to her at the moment. She probably really was going off to hide somewhere.
Meredith could now hear faint cheers from her fellow classmates and the pumping music from the marching band playing outside. She was very curious, so she couldn't help but finally get up from her place under one of the trees and make her way to the front of the school. She didn't want to be one of those overenthusiastic people waving flags in the air — maybe if it were her favorite celebrity visiting, then she would do just that — so she opted to watch behind a shrub and see what would unfold.
From her spot, she could see Ben and Audrey conversing behind the marching band. Behind the band also stood Fairy God Mother, looking happy as always and ready to welcome the children who were now pulling up in the driveway, all being concealed as of now in an sleek, shiny, black limo. The joyful shouting became louder for a few moments as the band drew its song to a close.
Finally, the chauffeur, all clad in black including some cool-looking shades, stepped out and opened the door. Meredith, and probably many of the others watching, were probably expecting to see four evil-looking girls and boys donning dark clothing and makeup. Instead, two boys came tumbling out of the car, one dressed in a mustard yellow and maroon outfit and the other in a red, black, and white ensemble. They were fighting over what like a piece of cloth — or was it some kind of box? From her view, Meredith wasn't sure. All she was sure of was how amusing and entertaining this whole thing was, and it completely ruined the mood for a formal and peaceful gathering that she knew everyone was going for. It felt comedic at this point.
"You got everything else!" the boy on the ground yelled. "Why do you want whatever this is?"
"'Cause you want it!" At that unreasonable answer, Meredith couldn't hold back a giggle.
"No!"
"Give it to me!"
The wavy-haired girl continued to chuckle lowly, using her hand to cover her mouth. Everyone was silent as they watched the boys fight and as two more girls stepped out from behind them. One was all in blue, including her hair, and she was smiling as she took in the entire sight before her. The second was slightly shorter and this time all in purple, and she was the one attempting to separate the boys fighting next to her with an unamused expression.
The marching band made way for Fairy Godmother, flocked by Ben and Audrey, to walk to the front, only to be met with that unpleasant scene.
Meredith saw the purple-haired girl whisper something to the boys when she noticed the scene they were creating, but she couldn't hear exactly what she said. Whatever it was, it slowly made the boys stop what they were doing.
One of the boys, the more muscular one with long hair who was not on the ground, laughed casually.
"Just cleaning up," he grinned before pulling the shorter boy up to his feet. Meredith also noticed that the boy who spoke was holding what looked to be a DVD player. If she remembered correctly, he was either the son of Jafar or Cruella De Vil. Based on his appearance, he must be the son of Jafar because he looked and dressed similarly to him if she remembered how he looked like in her history books. So, the other boy would be Cruela De Vil's son.
"Leave it like you found it," Fairy Godmother said in a sing-song voice as she eyed the items the two boys were clinging onto. "And by that, I just mean leave it."
The one Meredith guessed was Jafar's son reluctantly threw back the electronics and piece of cloth into the car, then he shut the door. When he turned back around, his eyes landed on Audrey and his lips turned up into a smirk.
"Hello, foxy," he said, walking over to her. "The name's... Jay."
Meredith smiled slightly to herself both because she had guessed correctly and because he was hitting on Audrey of all people. If only he knew what a pain she was to be around with.
Audrey stared at Jay for a moment and laughed awkwardly. Luckily, she was saved by Fairy God Mother who said, "Welcome to Auradon Prep! I'm Fairy Godmother, headmistress." She gave a little bow and the next one who spoke was the girl in purple — she must be Maleficent's daughter, so that left the blue-haired girl to be the Evil Queen's daughter.
"The Fairy Godmother?" she questioned. "As in, 'bippity boppity boo'?"
"Bippity boppity, you know it."
"Yeah, I always wondered what it felt like for Cinderella when you just appeared out of nowhere," she continued with a laugh. "With that sparkling wand and warm smile and that... sparkling wand."
"Aw," cooed the Fairy Godmother. "That was a long time ago. And as I always say, don't focus on the past or you'll miss the future." She added some interpretative gestures and Meredith was sure the four new kids were weirded out.
At last, Ben stepped in.
"It's so good to finally meet you all," he said, moving forward at the same time as Audrey. "I'm Ben."
"Prince Benjamin," Audrey emphasized for him giddily. "Soon to be king."
The girl in blue bravely stepped forward.
"You had me at prince," she told Ben dreamily. What is it with everyone hitting on each other today? "My mom's the queen, which makes me a princess."
"The Evil Queen has no royal status here, and neither do you," Audrey informed her.
Noticing the tension, Ben interrupted with an awkward chuckled
"This is Audrey."
"Princess Audrey. His girlfriend," she went on and grabbed his hand. "Right, Benny-boo?"
"Ben and Audrey are gonna show you all around," Fairy Godmother cut in, smiling sweetly. "And I'll see you all tomorrow. The doors —" She separated Ben and Audrey's intertwined hands in a big motion, slightly taking aback the new students before her. "— of wisdom are never shut. But the library hours are from eight to eleven and as you may have heard, I have a little thing about curfews."
With a small snap, Fairy Godmother left the scene with the marching band following right behind her. Everyone, including Meredith, took this as their cue to leave since the little welcome ceremony that took too much time in preparation was over. The crowd dispersed with some students reentering the dorm while others crossed the road to head to the school building. As for Meredith, she... well, she walked away from the shrub. She smoothed out her light green polo and white skirt, and instead of walking back to her previous spot with Dude still lying down there on the bench, she also reentered the dorm through the back door. She might as well wait for Ben to come in there to meet her since she did promise to get acquainted with the transfer students from the Isle of the Lost. She hoped it wouldn't be as horrible as she was picturing in her mind.