There was one thing that Meredith, daughter of Merida, could never be brave about: being open to change. In her defense, her grandmother did turn into a bear because her mother was bold enough to accept a deal from a witch, so she'd rather not let h...
A/N: Photo of Meredith's nightwear in the media section (edit again: it's 2020 and I've changed this outfit too lmao what was up with my fashion sense in 2015🥴)
The sun was setting when Jane and Meredith decided to leave Mal and Evie's dorm. Jane left Meredith because she said she would be going to her mother again, so it was just Meredith heading to her own room that evening.
Carlos and Jay obviously had a separate room from the girls, but they were asked by the girls to hang out in their room while they further discussed their plans of stealing Fairy God Mother's wand. While Jay was still making his way back from the field after a talk with his coach, Carlos had been in his room the whole time after his session with Ben and Meredith and was now leaving. On his way to Mal and Evie's, he spotted the aforementioned redhead leaving that very room, sparking his interest.
"Meredith?" he said reluctantly. He wasn't sure if he was well acquainted enough with her to randomly start a conversation.
Meredith looked up from the ground and spotted Carlos — who was carrying Dude, she might add — walking in her direction.
"Oh, hi Carlos," she said with a small smile. After the boy merely have a nod back at her greeting, Meredith patted Dude lovingly before she continued walking on her way back to her dorm. This was one of the rare times she had the chance to sleep early, so she wanted to take the chance.
Carlos, though, wanted to talk to the girl at least a little bit. She was the one person besides Prince Ben who had been nice enough to him, even though he knew in the beginning that she and everyone else were extremely wary of him and his friends considering they were the children of the most evil villains of all. Their recent interactions were giving him some hope that they could actually get along with one another.
"Hey," Carlos suddenly said.
Meredith halted in place and turned around to face the boy. "Yeah?"
Carlos wracked his brain for something to say.
"Have you uh, seen Jay anywhere?" he said. Stupid, stupid. That's all you can come up with? he mentally cursed himself.
"Jay?" Meredith paused, trying to think if she had seen him today recently. "No, sorry. Last time I saw him was in school earlier today."
"Oh."
A brief silence came over them, and before it could become uncomfortable, Meredith eventually said, "But I can tell Jay you were looking for him if I do pass by him."
Carlos nodded and smiled at her offer.
"That'd be cool — uh, I mean great. Thanks."
And when they turned their backs on each other, both Meredith and Carlos sighed. Meredith was hoping she could be more approachable, yet she probably seemed more closed off around people based on her previous conversation with Carlos. It barely felt like a conversation with how short it was. Meanwhile, Carlos was also disappointed that it ended just like that. He just wanted to make a friend, but the way he tried striking up a conversation was just plain awkward, and he wasn't sure how he was going to get better at it.
♚ ♚ ♚
"Chad, you are an idiot."
"What? I just need someone to do my homework since you won't do it."
Meredith fiercely glared at Chad, who shrunk back a little but still stood his ground in the middle of the hallway. It was already almost midnight and way beyond curfew, but in all honesty, majority of the students at Auradon Prep didn't even follow it. They more often than not would sneak around just to not get caught by the staff.
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Meredith was on her way to the kitchens for a midnight snack that day. It had already been hours since she visited Mal and Evie's dorm, and it had also been a while since dinner. She was having one of those cravings and badly wanted to get a snack, so she had tiptoed out of her room to go to the kitchens. On her way there, though, she finally bumped into the person she was planning on confronting — one of her closest yet daftest friends, Chad Charming. Since Meredith found out about Evie doing Chad's homework earlier, she wanted to talk to him as soon as possible.
Now, here she was after having just asked him why he was doing that at all, and the best answer he could come up with for her was that he needed someone to do his homework. Meredith was miffed, but she wasn't surprised; the boy had always been lazy and liked using girls occasionally, with the exception of Meredith since they've known each other for a long time. She was used to see him charming his way to get a girl to go out with him or fetch his water bottle somewhere in the room, but never did she think he'd actually trick a girl into doing his homework so they'd have time for a date.
"You have got to stop taking advantage of girls," Meredith said pointedly, resting her hands on her hips. Chad merely scoffed.
"They don't even get hurt. Everyone knows I don't stay tied down to one girl. She must know by now that we're just doing it for fun."
"But using her for homework? Really?"
"So?"
"You are impossible," Meredith groaned.
"Come on, Evie is, well, evil," said Chad. "And so are her friends. I'm sure she'll realize it sooner or later and the others won't care, too."
Meredith had to admit that that was her initial impression of Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos — that they were evil. That they were manipulative, ruthless, and cruel whenever they had the chance to show it off. But she was slowly trying to see the better side of them, and like she had been saying recently, she hadn't seen them do anything remotely bad so far. Because of this, she couldn't help but have the need to defend them.
"Just because their parents are evil doesn't mean they are," she told Chad. He laughed humorlessly.
"What happened to not wanting them in Auradon, huh?"
"Oh. Well, I'm changing my mind... I think."
"Do you really believe that?" he questioned in a hushed tone. "What do you think their parents teach them? Good manners and kindness?"
Meredith truly didn't have an answer for that.
"I don't know. All I know is, maybe that wasn't what your parents taught you considering you're being a jerk right now."
Chad glared at the redhead.
"Meredith, we've been friends for years, but you really are being a big —"
"Uh, hello? Who's there?"
Meredith and Chad froze upon hearing a new female voice come into the scene. Both heads turned to where they heard it come from, and from under the moonlight that peeked into the dorm building, they saw a shadow slowly approaching where they stood. Meredith only hoped that it wasn't one of the young staff members out to catch them outside of their rooms after curfew, and she desperately hoped it wasn't Mal or Evie either.
A/N: The length of this chapter makes me cringe... it's extremely short ahhh but I hope you all still enjoyed it somehow. Votes and comments are very much appreciated 😉 I just really want to know what you all think haha thank you!
