𝑰'𝑽𝑬 𝑮𝑶𝑻 𝑨 𝑫𝑹𝑬𝑨𝑴 - 𝑫𝑬𝑺𝑪𝑬𝑵𝑫𝑨𝑵𝑻𝑺

𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑷𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝟏

"I cannot believe you!"

Audrey Beaumont's laugh floated through the speaker of Delphina Tremaine's phone, and the redhead could only roll her eyes as she approached her locker in the empty halls of Auradon Prep, books in hand and phone held between her shoulder and ear. She moved to open her locker, then paused as a sudden chill ran over her body, goosebumps rippling across her arms as her stomach began to flip in discomfort.

Delphina frowned for a moment, trying to remember the last time she ate as Audrey sighed over the phone, clearly amused.

"You are blowing this completely out of proportion. You know that, right?" Audrey teased, making Delphina scoff incredulously as she opened her locker, beginning to shove her textbooks inside and retrieve her planner and work phone, slipping them into her bag. It was early afternoon, and while everyone else at Auradon Prep was still in class, all of Delphina's independent study courses for the day had ended, which meant it was time for a slew of meetings and paperwork, training with Fairy Godmother, then a lab session with Varian, before ending the night with an ungodly amount of last-minute planning for this god awful event that Delphina had been dreading since she heard about it.

"You abandoned me right before my very first cotillion, yet I'm 'blowing things out of proportion'?"

"OK, 'abandoned' is a bit dramatic. I went on a spa retreat. A much-needed spa retreat, might I add."

"And you just left me here! Alone and desolate and helpless–"

"Remind me again, which one of us took down the world's most powerful dark fairy three months ago?"

"I...that's irrelevant."

Audrey snorted with laughter before sighing softly. "For what it's worth, I didn't mean for the retreat to land on cotillion season. Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather said they'd handle all the planning."

"And now you're just leaving me to fend for myself. How am I supposed to survive in these conditions, Audrey?"

"Delphina. You are seventeen years old. You are the royal advisor of the country and the ambassador for the Isle of the Lost. You can handle a cotillion."

"But I don't wanna!" Delphina whined childishly, and Audrey only laughed harder.

Where normal schools did things like Homecoming dances to commemorate the beginning of a new school year, Auradon Prep held a cotillion. It doubled as a school dance and a grand celebration for the nobility in Auradon. Of-age ladies were introduced to the court, noble statuses were reaffirmed, news was announced about any grand changes, and whatever else rich people decided to do. This year's cotillion was being held on a giant yacht off the coast of Auradon, and Delphina spent a hefty amount of her time wondering how dramatic it would be to throw herself overboard in the middle of the party.

She shouldn't have even been planning a third of what she was. Technically speaking, the planning of cotillion fell onto the king and his lady, and technically speaking, that was Mal Dracona; the bitter, purple-haired cunt Maleficent called a daughter. If it weren't for the fact that Mal had sent off half of Ben's soul three months ago, Delphina would have dragged her back to the Isle by the scruff of her neck like she was a feral dog.

But when the life of the boy you love is on the line, you have to make a few sacrifices.

On top of threatening Ben's life in order to stay in Auradon, Mal refused to do anything more than what was required of her as the perceived 'girlfriend of the king'. So, Delphina had taken over.

And it made her want to rip her hair out.

What made it worse was that Audrey, being the impossibly talented multi-tasker she was, usually headed up the planning for cotillion, but she had flitted off to Sherwood Forest for a spa retreat/impromptu school break, leaving the planning up to her newfound apprentice, Jane, the daughter of Fairy Godmother. As a result, Jane and Delphina had been supporting each other by the skin of their teeth, trying to navigate an event of such a high caliber.