Rivals (A Jelsa Story)

Chapter 11 - Targets and Arrows

A/N: The drawing attached is pretty much how I've been picturing Rapunzel's wardrobe to be in this story (with normal length hair though lol). Art is from the attached video by Mei Yu from Fun2Draw on YouTube.

Jack's POV

"Did you guys know the Disney Princesses are actually called the Disney Debutantes?" I asked the rest of the student council as we sat down for lunch.

"Um, yes?" Tooth looked at me questioningly. "You didn't know that?"

"Bunny's only ever called them the Disney Princesses," I said, pointing at him.

"Woah, hey." Bunny held his hands up. "That was a joke. I didn't know you thought that was what they were actually called."

"How was I supposed to know what they're called? I've never heard anyone else talk about them."

"Did that get you into trouble?" Tooth smiled at me slightly as she took a sip of her drink.

"Yes – no, kind of." I sighed.

Sandy raised his eyebrows.

"I might have said something about it to Elsa," I mumbled, not making eye contact.

"Oof," Bunny said. "That's not good."

"What's not good?" Hiccup asked as he and Astrid sat down at our table.

"Jack made a fool of himself in front of the girl he likes and insulted a club she's in," Bunny said before I could reply.

"Hey, I don't like her," I argued. Astrid raised her eyebrows at me. "I am interested in her. But I think she's mad at me now because I called the Disney Debutantes the Disney Princesses because I thought that's what they were called."

"Oh, yeah, no, they're the Debutantes," Hiccup said.

"How does everyone know that except for me?" I asked, exasperated.

Tooth shrugged. "I guess we thought you knew."

"Great." I rolled my eyes. "Now I have to go apologize to her for that too. I'm running two for two right now."

"I mean, you don't have to apologize," Astrid said, giving me a mischievous smile. "It sounds like you want to though."

I threw a grape at her.

Elsa's POV

I spent the meeting and lunch stewing over my interaction with Jack and realized I had probably overreacted. I did find what he said to be offensive – I didn't exactly appreciate someone referring to me and my friends as "princesses." But he seemed like he genuinely didn't know that's not what we were called, so I guess it wasn't really his fault.

"Hey, earth to the queen," Flynn said, waving his hand in front of my face.

"What?" I asked through a mouthful of food.

"We've asked you what's wrong like four times now."

"Oh." I cleared my throat uncomfortably. "Um, nothing. I was just thinking about something."

"Mmm hmmm," Rapunzel said, giving me the look. "And pray tell, what might that have been?"

"Bees," I blurted out.

"Merida, it's time to get ready." Coach Hood walked up to our table, successfully taking the attention off me. I silently vowed to pay extra special attention in his class from now on.

"Okay, coming." Merida packed up her things and swung her bag over her shoulder. "I'll see you guys after the match?"

"You bet," Rapunzel said.

"Good luck!" I called out.

Anna and Kristoff sat down at our table just then, and Anna started talking to Flynn about auditions for the play that were next week. I was left to think about the whole princess situation again. I decided I would apologize to Jack the next time I saw him. I figured it was the right thing to do.

Plus it gives you an excuse to talk to him, the treacherous little voice in my head piped up. I tried to ignore it.

Once we were all finished eating, we went into the gym. I saw Merida standing with the Disney team and waved to her.

"Hi! Is anyone sitting here?"

I looked up to see Tooth and the rest of the DreamWorks student council standing next to us.

"Nope!" Rapunzel said before I could reply. "Those seats are absolutely free. In fact, I think Jack in particular would enjoy the view from that seat right next to Elsa."

"What a coincidence!" Tooth said. "I was also thinking that Jack would enjoy sitting there."

I turned around and shot Rapunzel a death glare as Bunny pushed Jack over to me. "Sorry," he mouthed as he sat down.

Hiccup joined us not too long afterwards. "Hey! Where's Astrid?" I asked, leaning forward so I could look at him.

"Over there." He pointed to the floor of the gym, where I saw Astrid standing with the other DreamWorks archers.

"Oh, she's on the team?"

"Yup," he said proudly.

"That's cool," Anna said. "Our friend Merida is on our team."

"Ah, yeah, she seems like the type."

I glanced around the gym, acutely aware of how Jack was pointedly not looking at me. The seats were about half-full and filling up slowly. I noticed that there wasn't a huge divide between the Disney and DreamWorks students like there had been yesterday.

"Hey, um..."

I looked at Jack, who looked nervous. "About this morning –"

I cut him off. "Listen, I'm sorry. I overreacted. It's not your fault you didn't know what they were called."

"Oh." He sort of laughed. "I was going to apologize too."

"Oh." I felt a flush creep up into my cheeks. "Well, don't worry about it."

He flashed me a smile. "Okay."