Madder than a Hatter (Descendants)

Family Day Feud (Edited)

When Family Day finally did roll around, I had been up half the night composing a love sonnet to Lonnie as a joke and a heartfelt letter to my dad as an even bigger joke. I burned both papers in the fire and sulked in my room until someone knocked on my door.

"Maddie, you in there?" Evie asked.

"No, I died during the night, and now my ghost will forever haunt this stupid room. Leave my fragile corpse in peace."

"I'm going to come in." She opened the door a little bit and poked her head in. "They're taking attendance, you know. We have to attend, even though they know our parents won't show up."

"This seems needlessly cruel and like they're pointing out that we don't have any family coming to visit us," I grumbled.

"Yes, but you still have to go. Come on, get dressed. I can do your hair for you if you want."

I resigned myself to the day's activity and motioned for her to enter. "Thank you."

"Of course."

I wandered around, feeling rather comfortable in the suit Evie had gifted me, and was forced to occasionally smile politely at the groups I passed by in my search for Lonnie.

Almost right away, though, I found her. And she was...doing a dance number.

Good for her, I mean, she could do whatever she wanted, but a dance number? Really? And to a remixed version of 'Be Our Guest'? Her talents were wasted on these people.

No wonder she'd been busy after school these past few weeks. We'd barely gotten any time to hang out, and I was missing her deeply.

As I watched, all of the dancers (which included Prince Benjamin himself, the lovely lady Audrey, Chad Charming, and several unnamed and unidentifiable people) took the towel that had been draped over their right arms and flung them away. I wondered who would be picking that up, or if royalty was just okay with littering. I would pick those towels up myself if I had to.

I ignored the rest of the dancing and focused on Lonnie. She looked nice, I guess. She had a silver tiara thing on, brown multi-strap heels that couldn't have been comfortable to dance in, a bright blue-and-pink dress/vest thing, and a black belt.

She'd told me that she would be wearing blue, and in a poor attempt to match her, I'd asked Evie to make me an outfit with royal blue in it. She had gone above and beyond, like always, and I was adorned in an outfit nicer than all of my other clothes put together.

Evie herself was wearing a blue, green, and black dress, and she hadn't appointed herself the fashion designer for the other VKs' outfits, considering Carlos was in a plain black suit with a white dress shirt and a red tie.

I sidled away from the celebrations and helped myself to the chocolate on the tables that had been nicely set up by students. The food, like all the other food in this place, was delicious, and I couldn't help but feel a little bitter at how good these other kids had their lives. They would never have to worry about being hungry, or eating rotten food, or if they would have to fight to keep their meal from people who wanted to steal it.

I didn't want to attract any attention from the excess of people on the grounds, so I took a fistful of chocolate and attempted to make my way towards the woods. Unfortunately, I was intercepted by one Fa Lonnie.

"Maddie, there you are!" she said excitedly, flushed and out of breath. Likely from all her dancing. "I want you to meet my mom. My dad had a scheduling conflict and couldn't make it, so you'll meet him another time. Come on!" Before I could say anything, she grabbed my hand and dragged me back into the crowd.

Lonnie's mother, Mulan, was talking to some other parents by the hedges of the garden, and Lonnie had to wait for several minutes to get her attention.

"Mom, this is Madison-" she stopped in the middle of introducing me and asked urgently, "What's your last name?"

"Technically or according to the school system?"

"Whatever you prefer."

"Hatter."

"Is that your last name according to-"

"Yes."

"Okay. Mom, this is Madison Hatter. Maddie, this is my mom," Lonnie said, gesturing back and forth between us.

I put out my hand and smiled as politely as I could. "Pleasure to meet you, ma'am."

Mulan gave me an appraising look and shook my hand. "You as well, Madison. Are you and my daughter close friends?"

"I would like to think so," I replied. "She's my best friend."

From somewhere behind me came the raised voice of an elderly lady, and my mood immediately soured. Then I heard Mal's voice right afterwards and became defensive.

"Hold on a moment," I said, smiling at both of them. "I need to check on a different friend."

I darted away, Lonnie following behind me, and found the source of the commotion. Audrey's grandmother, Queen Leah, was being consoled by the Fairy Godmother, as Audrey, Doug, Prince Ben, and the VKs watched on.

Chad Charming got between Mal and the former queen, instantly confrontational. "Hey," he warned.

"Stay away from me," Mal said angrily.

"Don't do this, Chad," Ben pleaded.

"What?" Chad asked, clearly baffled. "They were raised by their parents, Ben. What do you think villains teach their kids, huh? Kindness? Fair play? No way, okay?" To Mal, he said, "You stole another girl's boyfriend."

"Hey-" Ben started, but Chad cut him off.

"Hey! You enjoy hurting people, and you, you're nothing but a gold digger," he said to Jay and Evie. "And a cheater."

Evie snarled and held up her pocket-sized magic mirror. "Mirror, mirror, in my hand, who's the biggest jerk in the land?" she asked, and held up the mirror, which showed a reflection of Chad's face.

Chad slapped the mirror almost out of her hand. Jay went directly for him and Doug held Chad back as Evie sprayed some kind of perfume in his face. Down he went, completely unconscious, and unable to be held up by the others. Ben had to wrestle Jay backwards, away from the sleeping prince, in case he tried to keep fighting him.

"Come on, now," I said quietly, and took both Mal and Evie's hands. I pulled on them and they ran with me, away from the mess.

"Guys!" Ben shouted, and I turned back to see Carlos and Jay running after us.

Good. Most Auradon kids were nothing but trouble, and we all needed to remember that.