Rise of Red Re-written (Book 1)

Chapter 3

The world seemed to have been spinning around them as time reversed itself before they both let go, stumbling apart. They look around as they find themselves now in an empty courtyard. "What just happened? Where did everybody go?" Chloe asks. Red notices the colors on the school banners. "Whoa." She looks at the pocket watch in her hand. "It works." "What works? Where are we?" Chloe demands. "Not where. When." "Bibbidi, bobbidi, boo." They spot a young girl sitting on a bench practicing magic. "Bibbidi, bobbidi, boo! Ah!" The book in her hand flies onto the ground. "No, i wanted to speed read not for my reading to speed off." She goes after it and picks it up, only now noticing Chloe and Red standing in front of her. "Hi, excuse me, where did everybody go?" Chloe asks her. "Every who?" "All the royal families of Auradon. They were just here." "What's Auradon?" Her book flies off once again. "I gotta go catch my homework." She hurries after it. "Everybody's heard of Auradon. And the only person that says bibbidi bobbidi boo is Fairy Godmother." "Maybe she's not a godmother yet?" Red points out. "What do you mean?" Chloe asks. "Look around you. Fairy Godmother sucks at magic. Auradon doesn't exist, which means....?" Chloe just stares at her. Red swears this girl will be the death of her, either from attraction alone or frustration, probably both. "Really? I thought you were smart." Chloe scoffs. "We're back in time." "No." Chloe shakes her head before she looks around. "Wait, no." She soon comes to the realization that Red is telling the truth. "How?" "This," she holds up the pocket watch, "is a time machine." Chloe scoffs once again. "You're joking." "Does it look like I'm joking?" Red points to her very serious expression on her face. "Why would you take us back in time?" Chloe asks her.

"I didn't take you. You just grabby-grabbed your way in. Which by the way, if you wanted to hold my hand, you could have just said so." Red smirks. "And this is not what i had in mind." Chloe blushes for a moment as she stares at Red, confused. "I just wanted to stop my mom." "What about my mom? You sentenced her to death." Chloe shouts. "Maybe not my finest moment. But I'm gonna fix it." Red's heart starts beating intensely as she notices how Chloe has gotten to her. "How?" "I thought the watch would take me back a couple minutes so that i could steal my mom's deck of cards. Not a couple decades." She points out. "Well we need to go back and save my mom." Chloe insists. "No, the watch sent us back to this time for a reason." Red starts thinking. "Give me that!" Chloe lunges for the pocket watch. "I don't need the help of some princess goody two shoes. I'll handle this myself." They circle one another, Chloe's eyes clearly on the watch.

They soon battle it out in a game of cat and mouse for the pocket watch. "Give me that watch!" "You're out of you're league princess." Red twirls to get Chloe's grip off the pocket watch. She hurdles over a table with Chloe right behind her. She tries to run when Chloe pulls out her sword and points it at her. Red slowly backs away. "What are you gonna do? Run me through and steal my watch? I think there's a word for that actually, starts with a V? Oh right, Villain." Chloe wasn't thinking of that, in fact she was thinking about something entirely different, but let's not get into that. Yet. She quickly uses her sword and takes the pocket watch back from Red. She walks away as Red watches her. She eyes the pocket watch in her hand, quickly stealing a glance towards somewhere else behind Chloe, but let's not get into that either. She jumps on top of the table and tries to reason with her. She quickly jumps down and pulls her back from walking away. "Got too much at stake to go home." "That's not true." "Guess I'm gonna do this on my own." "I'm here too." "You're not gonna catch me if i fall." "Maybe." "Got me running on these walls. Dipping, flipping somersaults" "Stop!" Chloe rolls her eyes. "Bout to risk it all!"

Red grabs a flag off the wall and runs towards Chloe. She strikes wild and fast as she tries to smack the pocket watch out of her hand. Chloe dips, bends and turns, escaping ever hit she tries to land. She counters with her sword every hit before she tears the flag off of the pole that Red is holding. Chloe runs up the stairs as Red catches the pole in her hand and runs after her. They spare back and forth, both evenly matched until the watch is caught during the fight and goes flying, landing on a unicorn wall mount. "Let me ask you something. Why should i trust you? Your mom just staged a violent coup, for all i know you're gonna stab me in the back too!" Chloe stares at her. "Think what you want to boo, I'm nothing like my mom." She throws the pole on the ground as Chloe puts her sword away. Wait, did she just call her boo? "Her power trip was way too strong, i knew that she was wrong!" "Well, maybe we'll get along. Maybe we're not that different, maybe we need each other to complete the same mission." Chloe slowly starts to open up. "I'm glad you put your pride aside to make the right decision." Red walks towards her. "We'll work together until history is rewritten!" They rest their foreheads on one another. Chloe quickly glances at Red's lips, the deep color of her lipstick drawing her attention, before they both pull away. Chloe jumps over the railing as Red runs down the stairs, both of them heading towards the pocket watch that's caught on the wall mount. Damn it, too high. Chloe takes out her sword and tries to reach for it. After still falling short, no pun intended, she tries jumping. Hoping that will give enough height. Red crosses her arms as she watches Chloe jump up and down amusingly. She won't admit it, but she may or may not have glance at a few certain areas as Chloe jumped. Certainly not her chest or her behind. Red soon realizes this is getting nowhere so she gets under Chloe so her legs were sitting on her shoulder and boosts her up so she can reach the pocket watch with her sword. She knocks it off the wall mount before Red quickly puts her back down. She grabs it off the grass before they both start walking towards the school.

"So you really wanna stop your mom?" She asks. Red nods. "Yeah, i do." "Why? If she takes over, you'll be next princess of Auradon." Chloe tells her. "And if I'm the next princess of Auradon, it's only a matter of time before she tries to turn me into her mini-me. Dress like her. Talk like her. Rule like her. Love like her. If you can even call meaningless sex love. Don't get me wrong, sex is great. But apparently not when it's between two women." Red mumbles. "I'm not gonna let that happen." Chloe stares at her for a moment. Her mom doesn't approve of her sexuality? She snaps out of it and tries to focus on the task at hand. "Ok, i accept your mission." She walks ahead. "Mission?" Red mumbles to herself as she follows Chloe. They make their way from the courtyard to the main campus and the front of the school. Red soon realizes that they kind of stick out like sore thumbs with their choice of clothing but nothing they can do about it now.

They take in everything as they walk around, passing some students along the way. "Hey! I'm Chloe C-" Red quickly stops Chloe from saying her full name. Chloe quickly stops as she realizes what she was about to say. She walks with Red before they reach the sign in the front of the school. "Of course. Merlin Academy. That's what Auradon Prep used to be called. Before Beast united all kingdoms to create Auradon." Red looks at her. "How do you know all this?" Chloe smiles. "I love History, don't you?" Red shakes her head. "Uh-uh." They walk inside the school while looking around. Some students were practicing magic, others were reading, studying. "No way, Castlecoming! That's where my parents fell in love." Chloe smiles as she looks at the animated sign. "It's like the biggest event of the year." "Sorry, I'm busy changing the world over here." Red looks around some stuff. "Ok, remember what your mom said about being humiliated at her first dance? This must be what she meant." Chloe points to the poster. "And if someone did some horrible prank to her...." "Maybe that's what turned her into such a terrible dictator?"

"That must be why the watch sent us back to this moment in time. It's before my mom turns into....my mom." Red shrugs. "Great. Now, how do we stop that?" Chloe asks her. Red sighs. "By figuring out who's gonna do the prank that ruins her life." They hear the bell ring as they continue to walk around. As they walk further into a hallway, they hear Merlin's voice from upstairs. "Late for class, ladies? Stay right there." Chloe smiles. "Oh my gosh, it's Merlin." He quickly comes down and Chloe walks up. "Actually, we're not students. Well, we are, but we think that we've been sent-" "Sent from another place!" Red glares at Chloe. "We're transfer students." "Well, I'm principal Merlin so i should have received papers." He continues to search for them in his coat, proceeding to pull out everything but papers. "Ah, well I'm sure it'll turn up eventually. Now, i founded this academy to be an educational institution for all. But uh, you must know that we have a no-swords policy in the classroom." He takes out his wand and magically takes Chloe's sword off her belt and transfers it to their new dorm. "I've transported it to the Stardust room, which will be your dormitory." Great, now they gotta share a room, Red thought. She wasn't sure if she should be relieved or annoyed. Why not both? "I'll settle you both in after school, but first i teach Honors Alchemy in my office. Right this way." He turns around and starts walking before he suddenly turns around once again. "Sorry, it's this way. This way." They both follow him into his classroom. "What was that? Auradon code of conduct forbids lying, especially to teachers." Chloe whispered. "Good thing this isn't Auradon yet." Red tells her. She's got a point. Merlin pulls out the key from behind his ear and unlocks the door.