Descendants Central

“I can’t believe they expect us to wear uniforms,” Jay groaned, laying on Evie’s bed, eagle-spread, determined to put a few wrinkles in the starchily pressed uniforms. He could not be caught looking like a dork. He had to build his reputation from scratch, since his father was just a name here. He needed to look…disarming. A decent number of wrinkles and some knots in his hair would accomplish that.

“We know, we know, you only wear leather,” Mal snapped, picking at the hem of her skirt.

The four Isle kids were wearing the standard issue school uniforms for Auradon Preparatory Boarding Academy. As they had been ordered to by Fairy Godmother.

And unfortunately, this was the kind of order they had to listen to if they wanted to stay in Auradon long enough to get the damned wand.

Ben had profusely apologized about the clothes not fitting, promising he would send someone to get their measurements as soon as possible. But soon as possible definitely meant they were going to their first day of school in il-fitting clothes. He was well meaning but had no idea how things actually operated. He’d made that obvious by having a ‘welcoming’ party greet the already overwhelmed Isle kids for the transition from limo to dorm.

So, now all four of them were wearing sweater vests in an off-deep blue with the Beast’s head wearing a crown embroidered over the heart, and an aggressively butter colored button up. Mal and Evie were wearing pleated khaki skirts that didn’t have pockets, Jay and Carlos in full-length khaki pants that had very small pockets. Neither bottom was what they were used to, especially since they lacked place to stash anything. Awkwardly sized black loafers and baggy white socks adorned their feet—Carlos’ and Mal’s too large, Evie’s and Jay’s too small.

Carlos groaned, wiggling back and forth. He was particularly sensitive to fabrics, and the button up was definitely giving him a rash. He wasn’t sure he would make it through the day without having to strip.

Evie finally sat back in defeat, throwing her hands in the air.

“This material is worse than what we ended up with on the Isle!” she whined, looking at herself in the dorm-room’s full-length mirror.

She picked up another tiara from the pile next to her and held it up to her head before discarding it. None of her carefully created tiaras could ever match this ugly ‘royal’ blue and ‘belle’ yellow. It was simply a disgusting color combination. Where was the variety? The secondary color to compliment…anything? And god, khaki? She was sure that had died out long ago.

“Evie,” Jay said, lifting his head to look at her, forcibly tying knots in his hair. “You’re the only one who looks semi-decent. The rest of us look like we dumpster dived for this shit.”

It was mostly true. Evie had made the yellow and blue work as best she could, while the others just kind of floundered.

Carlos let out a soft whine, buttoning and unbuttoning the top button of his shirt. He didn’t like wearing anything other than black, white, and red. It made his mother angry. Mal hissed in response, also hating being out of her usual pink, green, and black.

In fact, all four of them were out of their colors, and it felt like betraying their parents to don the colors of Auradon instead. They were here to carry out an evil plan in their parents’ name. But how could they stay true to their roots when they were being forced to….blend in. Conform.

A shrill bell echoed through the dorm building.

Mal groaned deeply, and stood up, grabbing the generic bookbag they’d each been supplied with. She hated the lack of personality she’d been herded into. The uniform was grotesque, but the idea that she was wearing Auradon hand-outs in Auradon was even worse.

“Let’s just do this, okay? Don’t talk to anyone unless they talk to you first. Find out as much as you can about the wand, and how we can get it. We regroup after classes. Don’t do anything…evil?”

The other three nodded stiffly, also shouldering their packs. They’d survived fifteen years on the Isle under their parents’ thumbs. Surely they could survive a few days among some prissy pink princesses and perfect princes.

Evie, Chemistry:

“What’d you do, dig through the lost and found? Poison the wrong-sized prince?”

That was the only comment she got the entire day, since she mayyyyyy have slightly stabbed the commenter right above the knee cap with one of her brand-new Auradon pencils, careful to miss an artery. No one approached her after that. But she did end up sitting in Fairy Godmother's office, all writing utensils far out of reach, until Remedial Goodness.

Mal, History of Heroes:

“Well, it’s not like dragons are supposed to wear clothes.”

Mal closed her eyes tight, keeping anyone to see them flash neon, since Auradon didn’t like magic.

She’d never been a dragon, that was an exclusive Maleficent thing, as her mother reminded her constantly. She would never be her mother, never be that kind of evil. But, maybe in Auradon, since she could access her magic,she could be…but no. No evil. She was behaving, she was behaving, she was behaving… fuck it.

“What, do you wanna see me naked?” Mal offered, undoing her top few buttons with a wild smirk.

By the time she'd worked off her button-up, leaving the sweater vest, everyone in the vicinity had turned bright red at that, and no one bothered Mal about the damn khaki for the rest of the day. But that was mostly because Fairy Godmother ushered her to into her office, where Evie was sitting with a pout.

Jay, Algebra II:

“Would ya look at that? There’s a new street rat on the lose.”

Jay bit his cheek, hard. His father liked to call him that, like to make his own son out to be no better than the person who’d toppled him. But his father wasn’t here, and it was just some Auradon priss picking at his ego.

“God, his clothes are tight…you can just see everything…”

“Yeah, I mean, he had to have stolen that.”

Jay hunched down, fighting every impulse to break someone’s face, trying to ignore the seams popping as he moved. He was going to keep his head down, stay out of people’s way. He was going to stick to the plan.

Then a hand reached down, and pulled on the tag of his shirt, aggressively.

Jay spun, fist first, into Chad Charming’s face.

That’s how he spent the rest of his first day, until Remedial Goodness, in Fairy Godmother’s office, shifting around in his too-tight clothes, avoiding eye contact with Mal and Evie.

Carlos, English 101:

“Goodness, he looks like a stray dog.”

Carlos hunched over, nose nearly pressing the notebook he’d been given. He hated this whole scenario. Hated that his school supplies and his clothes came from an Auradon warehouse that was just full of unused things. Hated that he had disobeyed his mother, and that even though he was far out of reach, he still could hear her voice echoing in his head.

“Stray. Useless.”

Carlos slunk under a desk, hugging his knees to his chest. Everyone left him there until the bell rang, and the teacher coaxed him out.

That’s how he ended up in Fairy Godmother’s office with Jay and Mal and Evie, which was where they ended up holding Remedial Goodness.

Core Four, Dorm Room

Their first day was finally over. The four stood, exhausted, in Evie and Mal’s room, back where they had started.

“Okay,” Evie announced, hands on her hips. “Everyone strip.”

They all looked at her with blank expressions.

“We aren’t giving more fuel to the fire. I’m fixing our clothes right now.”