happy and sad at the same time

hearing the familiar name calling caused a small smile to form across her lips, knowing that she wasn’t in any harm. “if i’m a i r h e a d, does that make you b i g h e a d?” ariella teases knowing that whenever she put a m i r r o r in front of his face whenever they were l i t t l e he would get d i s t r a c t e d very easily by his a p p e a r a n c e. “no, just thinking out here, van.” she replies as she chuckles lightly, rolling her eyes playfully. “oh my.. h e r e we go a g a i n.” 

with a scrunched face and mouth agape he stuck his tongue out at the girl. “my head is beautiful, you love it.” it was big though, massive, both literally and figuratively. honestly he was never really sure which she was referring to, he likely never would. “wait -- here we go again. what does that mean?” his brow furrowed. “wait, double wait, wait again. we’re talking about you now, not me. what are you thinking about?”

“it’s not a waste! you’re exchanging it for fun,” she argued, offended at the insinuation of wastefulness even as she left behind a trail of red goop. at the suggest of a more specific target practice however all offense dropped from her eyes as she scooped a small amount up and formed a ball. “open wide, i’m going to get this on the first shot,” she cried, letting it loose only for it to collide with van’s cheek. 

“yeah, okay.” he feigned agreement, dragging a hand along the wall, collecting a pool of the red goop in his palm. licking his hand clean, he shrugged at the other. shameless. “i’d expect nothing le--” he was silenced by the slight sting and splatter of a raspberry orb against his skin. “ow.” he called out. “your aim sucks.” laughing, he tried to get his tongue far enough out of his mouth to lick his own face - to no avail.

giona furrowed her eyebrows, looking him up and down make sure she could see all of the stranger. he definitely looked like he’d grown past his teen years at least. “ aw, poor baby, ” she pouted mockingly. when he grabbed a pamphlet, her eyes flared. “ HEY – you can’t just TAKE IT–” she reached forward to try and grab it. 

“ what, you think i’d spend even more time and effort making fake maps ? they’re real. realer than you, manboy. ” she snorted at the mention of the fairy godmother. “ oh, she’s just on call 24/7, huh ? and you never, ever question discounts. it’s on a need-to-know basis and you don’t need. ”

“obviously, i can.” he shot back, quickly pulling his arms away so she couldn’t take it back. he side-eyed her as she spoke, she was weird. everyone was, but her special brand of weirdness reeked of the isle -- this whole map thing stunk of scams. her calling him, the great and lovable van grumpus manboy gave her away too. “i’m very real, thank you very much.” crossing his arms over his chest, he glared down at her. “the fairy godmother isn’t on call, she doesn’t need to be. she just knows when you need her. don’t be a dick, dude. i do need to know, tell me what you’re up to.”

kitty could, and would, write an entire essay on why raspberry flavoured jello was the best kind of jello. and how, if you mixed a little extra gelatin into the mix, it became just solid enough to form into balls to throw at people but still soft enough to splatter on impact. they would giggle each time one of these balls flew through the air towards random passerby, the screeching like music to their ears. “oh what a lovely day for a jelly-filled bucket of fun,” they remarked, skipping away from the place that they had been standing to avoid the glares of one particularly angered victim. 

“oh don’t you think it’s a wonderful day for a little bit of red?” she asked, setting up base not far from where another person currently was. “a beautiful, perfect day!” splat! the jello slid down the wall, staining previously white stone red as it moved. “would you like to try?”

“and waste jello? what do you take me for.” a vk? meant to be his following words, but he shockingly bit his tongue once realizing it wasn’t wise given the circumstance. reaching into her arsenal, he eagerly plopped a sphere of raspberry deliciousness into his mouth, staining his lips red. “think you can make it in my mouth?” he garbled, mouth too full of gelatin to sound human. “this is an old shirt, i don’t care if you miss.”

brown eyes reflect in the blue ocean water as the brunette sat still just getting lost within herself. overthinking as usual, she was so over her head that she didn’t see nor hear the other person approaching her. she often sat near the water to clear her head and destress herself whenever she was having a stressful day, however, today her brain was working overdrive so ariella was out there longer than she thought. it wasn’t until she heard a twig snap causing her to snap out of her state of mind. 

“oh, i’m sorry… i didn’t realize anyone else comes out here this late.” 

“whaddup, airhead.” van laughed, amused at his use of the playful nickname from childhood he refused to let go. something he was a tad too proud of. falling down beside her, he looked out into the water, squinting as if there were something particular he should’ve been seeing. “you fish watching?” his face immediately softened, realizing something magnificent. “i think i can see my reflection in the water.”

“ auradon maps, get your auradon maps, right here !! ” giona whirled her arm around, holding the ‘welcome to auradon!’ brochures and booklets she’d stolen off an information stand. a few streets away, they were free.  but on this pathway ? she was selling them for $5 to VKs and $10 to everyone else. 

the look was even complete with an auradon prep baseball cap and jersey ( also stolen ), but underneath these, she was still wearing her clothes from the isle. tattered leather and studded belts. “ maps to auradon !! don’t get lost !! or a VK’ll getcha !! ” she grinned innocently.

van’s lived in auradon a long time, like a long time - two whole decades, and not once did he get lost. all those hours he spent trapped in a hedge maze during his youth taught him a thing or two. okay, so maybe he did get lost. but it’s been at least six years and even then he didn’t need a map. “i might look it, but i wasn’t born yesterday.” he quipped, contorting his face when he realized what little sense it made. “these are fake, aren’t they?” quickly grabbing one from the other’s hands, he opened it just as fast as if to catch her in the act. “oh. they’re real. whatever, still not worth the ten bucks. you eventually find your way out, or fairy godmother comes to your rescue. what’s with the vk discount?”

“ gigi goof is a cutie, agreed. her attitude is extremely unacceptable in rehearsal, though. you cannot give others corrections if you still have your own corrections to work on. “ she commented, with a sigh. “ even our troy is a wretched performer. i keep suggesting another round of auditions, to no avail. what would you do in my situation ?? “

“what would i do?” he asked, brows quirked. when was the last time someone asked him for advice? for the life of him, he couldn’t pinpoint it -- perhaps it never happened at all. “uh.” he scratched at the back of his neck, searching for words. “honestly? another round of auditions might just be a waste of time. you know how bad it would suck if you went through that hell again only to not find anyone better? think you just gotta deal with hot ass gigi goof and your ugly troy and hope they can pull out something decent.”

theo let out a groan as she passed through the cafeteria before finally finding a place to sit, clipboard in hand. “ my gosh, that was a disaster. we just finished up one of our rehearsals of high school musical. i don’t know who cast gigi goof, of all people, as sharpay, but she missed all her cues and sung bop to the top in a completely different key. the girl wouldn’t know what professionalism was if it bit her on the nose. “ she rolled her eyes. 

singing, now van loved singing -- he had some serious pipes too. a little folksy, a little dreamy. as if he wasn’t already swoon worthy enough. if he thought there was any chance of him being able to memorize lines he would’ve tried out for the musical himself. hello, he was the perfect troy bolton. but he’d be far too distracted admiring his own musical prowess to study his lines, and no one could build a set quite like he could. it kept him close to the production at least. “hey, give her a break, it’s the hardest part in the show.” why was he defending gigi goof? because gigi goof was a hottie with a b-o-d-y. “at least she looks the part.”

LYRIC WAS TIRED. Not physically, the kid could go on for days without stopping. But he was just BORED of the talk around here. A stolen spellbook could spell trouble ( haha, he thought he was funny ) but without more information, it was a wild goose chase. He was finished classes for the day, the only place where he looked presentable and acted sober. He knew impressions would last and the effort would eventually be forgotten. That’s why he was always perfectly dressed. As soon as he stepped out of the side exit of the academic building, not wanting to dart around students to get to a smoking spot, he fished his cigarettes out of his pocket and started to spark one up. 

THEN, HE ALMOST ran into someone. ❝ WHOA !! Did I catch any on you ?? ❞ he said immediately, before taking a step back and offering a bright albeit sheepish smile. ❝ Sorry about that, been itching for one, wasn’t looking where I was going, all that. If you got any ashes or embers, don’t worry, I can get it fixed no problem. Perks of a credit card. You need anything ??  ❞

despite his name, van was slow. at least mentally. not a bit of horsepower in his tiny pea brain, especially not after a long day of classes. catch him in the morning, maybe you’d get the best of him, but any other time? you were in for it. he barely registered what happened -- lyric bumping into him, potentially burning him, then apologizing all before van could even figure out what was going on. “whoa.” he laughed. the two grew up together, but any closeness they shared in their younger years dissipated as they grew older. lyric was a far cry from the golden boy he was once thought to be. still, familiarity hung in the air.

“uh.” technically he didn’t need anything, but if lyric was offering it’d be rude for him to turn it down. van was many things, rude was rarely one of them. “i’m kinda hungry, i could hit a pizza buffet so hard right now. your treat. you down?”

Christmas sighed as he sat himself down at one of the picnic tables. “None of these stores have snakes or spiders that I can buy. I went to one store and the lady told me she would call the cops on me if I came back. I didn’t say anything bad…just that I was going to make a soup for everyone to try. I guess the only good thing about the Isle is that you could eat bugs, spiders and even snakes and no one batted an eye..”

“dude. ew.”

i’m auty, prepare for rambling.