Walt Disney College

Chapter 90

The rest of the week dragged on, but it was finally here. Tiger Lily was in the foyer, and there were just two minutes until Wendy arrived back at school. Tiger Lily hadn't asked Lilo to come since she sensed there was some bad blood between the two. She still didn't fully understand what Lilo's problem was when it came to Wendy. Did she just feel neglected? How could she feel neglected when Tiger Lily was her roommate? They spent a lot of time together as far as she was concerned.

She heard laughter not too far down the hallway, and she saw Hiro talking with Penny. That was weird. She'd never seen Hiro alone with Penny before, and last time she heard, they weren't really friends anymore. They were certainly acting friendly now.

"Hey, Tiger."

Tiger Lily groaned when Peter landed at her side, grinning stupidly. Christopher and Arthur weren't too far behind him.

"What are you here for?" she asked.

"Same reason as you. To see Wendy. She told me she was going to kill us if we weren't here to see her grand return," he drawled.

"We're also here for Alice," Christopher added. "She's nice too."

The sound of wheels rolling on gravel alerted Tiger Lily's attention, and she smiled when she saw the bus stop in front of the school doors. More people were in the foyer now, and Tiger Lily was reminded that other people were here to see their friends too.

Esmeralda rushed to hug Jane the second she stepped off the bus, and Tiger Lily waved wildly once she caught a glimpse of Wendy's ponytail.

"Lily!" Wendy gave Tiger Lily a hug, then Peter, and smiled at Arthur and Christopher.

Christopher didn't seem to be paying much attention to her anyway. Instead, his eyes were focused on Alice and Isabel, who were wheeling an invention into the foyer.

"Did it work, Isabel?" Eilonwy asked, looking the machine up and down.

"It did, actually. I mostly used it on birds, which is weird because those should be the easiest to differentiate..."

Tiger Lily tuned out of their conversation, focusing on Wendy. She seemed to be talking to the boys about something.

"Follow me to my dorm, will you?" She didn't wait for them to answer before dragging her suitcase in the direction of the dorms. "It was a lovely time in Africa, really. It would have been much lovelier if she hadn't been there."

Wendy jerked her head in Alice's direction, and Christopher frowned.

"Alice?"

"Of course, who else?" Wendy asked.

"I thought you guys settled things at Disneyland?" Peter said.

Wendy rolled her eyes. "We were just being civil. I don't like her very much, and she doesn't like me. But you'd think she'd be polite enough to at act friendly on the trip! I mean, I didn't even—"

"But Wendy, why would Alice be kind to you if you're not kind to her?"

Arthur nodded. "Christopher has a point, Wendy. If you're not interested in being friends with her, why would you want her to act friendly on the trip?"

Wendy glared at both of them, but Christopher ignored her. "Alice isn't the type of person to be fake. She's not going to act friendly if she doesn't want to."

"Well, Christopher," Tiger Lily said, smiling. "You seem to know Alice pretty well, don't you?"

Christopher's face darkened, and the others laughed.

"I do know her well. She's one of my friends, after all."

Peter nudged him in the side. "Sure she is, Chris."

◈▣◈

Periwinkle could hardly focus in class. She was waiting for the moment she'd see Tinkerbell walk through the door, but she didn't.

Tink was skipping class again.

This was the fourth time in a row, and Periwinkle couldn't help but worry about her sister. It's not as if when Tink came to class she would talk to her, but at least Perwinkle would know she's alive. Iridessa had told her that Tinkerbell hadn't come to the past few council meetings, and now she wasn't attending the only class they had together.

Tinkerbell used to look forward to this class all the time. They would sit together, having fun but still learning at the same time. Now she sat alone, wondering if her sister would walk through the door, even though the class was about to end in ten minutes.

Periwinkle tried to think about when her sister's odd behaviour had started. Sometime around the half-term break, when she had found Jafar's staff. Periwinkle shivered.

Had the staff done something to her sister?

◈▣◈

Mulan had spotted Philip in the halls, and she did her best to ignore him. She was waiting for him to say hi, or strike up a conversation like he used to do, but she wondered if it'd be different now. Just because he had broken up with Aurora didn't mean he was going to ignore all her friends too.

Or maybe it did.

Philip didn't look her way. Instead, he stared straight ahead, his eyes seeming slightly glossy. He looked like he was still asleep. Mulan stopped in the hallway and looked over her shoulder, wondering if he was going to bump into a wall or something.

He didn't. He made a sharp left turn, stumbling down the stairwell.

Mulan had an odd feeling. Something was telling her to follow Philip, just to check if everything was okay.

She tailed him for a while, but she couldn't help but have a feeling that she was being watched, rather than her watching Philip. Shaking the feeling off, she continued to follow him. After passing through the caf, courtyard, and common rooms, he finally stopped at the office.

Miss Daisy was there, speaking rapidly into her phone. Janitor Pete was not too far from her, also looking pretty worried.

Mulan's heart thudded in her chest. For Janitor Pete to be worried, something had to be pretty bad.

Philip was watching them, a vacant look in his eyes. She was about to go up to him, but then she felt a hand lay on her shoulder and almost jumped three feet into the air.

"Sorry for startling you, I just couldn't help but notice you're weird behaviour."

Mulan turned around to face Li Shang, and she could feel her face grow hot. Was he the person that had been following her?

"My weird behaviour," she laughed, avoiding his eyes. "You should look at your friend over there."

Shang looked past her shoulder and saw Philip. He still had that empty look in his eyes, but he had now turned to leave the office.

"So you were following Philip?" Shang asked.

"Yeah, he was acting weird."

Shang sighed. "He's been acting weird a lot recently."

Mulan studied him, wondering if he was going to ask why she was following Philip. He didn't.

"Miss Daisy seems really worried. Should we...ask what's going on?"

"Yeah, I think that'd be a good idea. There's a reason Philip came in here after all."

The two walked up to Miss Daisy, who had gotten off the phone and was now sitting with her head in her hands...or feathers, so to speak. Janitor Pete had wandered off, and Mulan was interested in what had happened.

"Miss Daisy," she began, "what happened?"

The duck looked up, worry clouding her eyes.

"Principal Mickey is gone."