Golden Princess ◄ Chad Charming ►

◄Chapter One►

Adelaide was sitting at a picnic table that sat just outside the school classrooms. Sitting under the sun, she smiled and laughed. She reached over the table and shoved one of her best friends in the chest.

Ethan laughed at her, trying to shoo her away and called for help from Roma, who only giggled in her sit at the two. She shook her head at him, saying she wouldn't help him.

The three friends sat at the table, their table. They had carved their names into the table top to claim it as theirs. It was theirs and everyone knew it. It was theirs first and that was unarguable.

"Addy, come on, stop it!" Ethan laughed at her, swatting at her hands. He smiled at her as she stopped hitting him. "Thank you," he sang, causing Roma to throw her head back and laugh.

Addy leaned against the table and smiled as she watched the two of them begin to squabble about what is considered funny and what is not. She rolled her eyes and looked to the school.

Lockers lines the walls under the awning. Blue metal lockers, some decorated with stickers. Others were mostly plain. It was some of the only color that decorated the outside of the school that faced the tourney field.

Under the awning, Addy saw three fingers standing near one particular locker. It didn't look like anything special, but Addy knew that locker belonged to someone more important. It was her brother's locker.

Her brother stood against the wall of lockers, looking at his two best friends as he spoke to them, both standing in front of him. To his left was the son of Cinderella, his longtime best friend who always claimed to stand by his side. To the right was the daughter of the Sleeping Beauty, a small, pink clad girl who always walked with an attitude but was always smiling.

Ben flashed a smile as he shook his head, letting out a laugh a moment later. Chad pat him on the back and started laughing himself, using his best friend as support so he wouldn't fall over in his fit. Audrey rolled her eyes, but she smiled. She pushed her sunglasses back onto her head as they had threatened to fall down onto her face.

Addy smiled their way and a certain Charming looked her way, seeming to know that she was looking that way. He smiled at her, that classic Charming smile. He waved to her and she waved back.

"Oh! Chadley Charming is looking at our Adelaide Bête," Roma let out in a chirpy tone. She clasped her hands together. "Whatever will we do, E? She's falling in love! She'll be whisked away from us!" she cried out, dramatically putting her hand to her forehead as if she'd faint.

"What are you going on about?" Addy asked, crossing her arms. She shrunk back some, shaking her head. "We're just friends. Not even that. He's just my brother's best friend."

"And don't you know how those stories end?" Roma asked her suggesting a happy ending of romance.

"Happily ever after?" Ethan asked, playing into her act but his tone sounds as if he had no idea what they were talking about.

"Exactly," Roma said and smiled. She pointed to her friend with a purple painted nail. "And you and Chad will have happily ever after."

"I'm not gonna marry Chad Charming," Addy spoke with a sneer. She rolled her eyes. It was as if the idea of marriage at all was going to burn her life on the stake.

"We didn't say anything about marriage," Ethan said, leaning forward and smirking smugly. "Wouldn't you just love to marry Chadley Charming?" he teased.

"Oh, she does. You know she does," Roma said and smiled. She clapped her hands together. "I should go get him!" She stood up as Addy's eyes got wide. Ethan reached out and grabbed her shirt sleeve and pulled her back.

"And what would you tell him? That he's a ladies man, chasing all the wrong ladies when there's a perfect princess waiting for him to realize that she's had a crush on him since she was young?" he asked her, pulling her back down into her seat.

"None of that is true," Addy said, her tone flat. She stuck her tongue out at them and glared. She snarled at them playfully. "You're wrong!"

"We're right!" Ethan cheered.

"Wrong!" she screamed.

"Right!" they yelled right back.

Audrey looked over at them, then rolled her eyes and turned back to Ben and Chad. "When are they going to grow up?" he scoffed and shook her head. Ben nudged her arm lightly. "Sorry, but let's be serious, Addy and her friends are just too immature. I mean, we're almost out of school."

"They still have another year," Ben said and looked over to his sister. He smiled gently. "I'm glad they're still immature."

"Why?" Chad asked, purely out of curiosity.

"Well, I mean, I'll be king in a few months," Ben said shrugged a bit. "It's a big responsibility, one she doesn't have to deal with. She hasn't had to grow up as fast, you know."

Audrey thought about it for a moment, then nodded some. She looked back at the table where the younger royalties were at. "I suppose you're right. I mean, taking on the title of king is a pretty big deal. I don't think Addy could become a queen at her age."

"She could if she wanted to," Chad said with a shrug. The other two looked at him. "She could. I mean, she ran the entire school magazine last year."

"And gave up on it," Audrey said.

"To focus more on her track runs," Ben continued, his tone a little protective. He looked at his two closest friends. "She's better at track, anyway."

"I'll say. That story she ran about me dress sizes was uncalled for," Audrey said. Chad rolled his eyes. "What?" she asked him.

"Get over it already, she already told you that she was just filling space," he told her with a shrug. He looked out to the table, not surprised to see the three younger students in a dog pile on the grass.

"Let me go!" Ethan yelled.

"Should we go help him?" Audrey asked, pointing to the pile.

"No, he'll be fine," Ben said and shrugged a bit. He smiled a bit and leaned against the wall of lockers. He looked out to his sister, seeing the wide smile on her face.

"What are you thinking about?" his best friend asked. Ben looked at Chad.

"What Addy will think," the future king said. He sighed as he closed his eyes. "I don't know if she'll even like what I'm thinking of doing for my first proclamation."

"Which is?" Audrey asked. She was curious. She knew that he had been thinking on something for a long time now. It had come to consume him.

Ben looked between the two, then nodded. He had thought it all through, at this point. So he supposed he could tell them now.

"Well, I'm planning to give the children on the Isle of the lost a chance to come and live here in Auradon," he said.

"What?"