Chapter Two

"I want to take the bus to school," Sora declared on the Monday before classes were due to start.

"Say what?" said Max. They were eating blueberry pancakes, courtesy of Goofy, for breakfast. "Sora, you know we can just walk there."

"But I want to take the bus!" Sora said, looking remarkably distressed.

"Why in the..." Max began, but Goofy, sitting down with a mug of coffee and his own pancakes, provided the answer.

"You don't have school buses over in Japan, dontcha?" he asked, and Sora nodded enthusiastically. "Well, there y'have it, Max! Sora just wants t'have the opportunity to a unique experience, a-hyuk!"

"Ah, I see," said Max. "But, really, are you sure?"

Sora nodded, again, very enthusiastically. "I've never been on a school bus before," he said. "I'm really curious."

"If you don't like it, you can just walk to school with me, like we were gonna before," said Max, sighing as he speared a few bits of pancake.

"I know, I know," Sora said, grinning. "Ah man, this is exciting!"

And what lay in wait for him the next day certainly was.

ºoº

On the first day of school, September 4th, Goofy walked with Sora out to the bus stop and waited until the yellow vehicle came rolling down the road and opened its doors for him.

Max, on the other hand, slept in until it was absolutely necessary to wake up, and met Sora at the school after tucking his skateboard under one arm and grinning.

"So? How'd it go?" he asked, and Sora gave a smile in reply.

"It was good!" Sora replied. "Not so fun getting up so early, though. So... maybe tomorrow I'll walk with you, and ride the bus sometimes?"

Max began to laugh. "Sure, that sounds good. Okay, so let's look over that schedule of yours and get everything right." The anthro boy had asked and received permission to be let out five minutes early from his classes on the first few days in order to meet with Sora and make sure he made his way properly to his classes.

Sora couldn't believe it at first that it was students and not teachers that rotated classrooms through the hours, and Max felt it was a good idea to offer some assistance, even though Sora claimed he understood a few days after arriving. "First hour: English, room 2319, with Mr. Genie. Let's head inside, okay?" said Max.

Sora nodded and followed Max into the hallway, where his host brother continued to talk. "Man, you're going to have such a fun time with Mr. Genie. I had him last year, and I hear he's a breeze compared to the other teacher." He grimaced at the word "other."

"Who's the other teacher?" Sora asked.

"Mr. Frollo," said Max.

"And who's Mr. Frollo?"

Mr. Frollo walked past, at that moment, glaring at them with his sharp red tie vivid under his purple sweater vest.

"...that's Mr. Frollo," explained Max, and Sora thanked his lucky stars that he wouldn't be having the ghoul of a man as a teacher.

Across the hallway, as Max led Sora up the stairs to his locker, two very excited girls that hadn't seen each other all summer were meeting up. They belonged to a clique colloquially known as The Princesses, for obvious reasons. Each and every one of them was well-mannered, well-dressed, and the fantasy of every bachelor and non-bachelor in the school. They giggled and squealed at seeing each other.

"Cindy! How are you?" Aurora said, hugging the girl in question and jumping up and down a little.

"I'm so good!" Cinderella (Cindy, for short) replied, and pulled out of the hug. "Oh, my gosh, you're so tan! Where on earth did you go for vacation? Tell me everything."

"Oh, I'm gonna wait until Jasmine gets here!" she replied. "I heard Snow's gonna try and find us too."

"Snow! Her! Oh, I can't wait!" Cindy said, referring to the freshman that had been a friend of theirs since elementary school, and unfortunately left out of many of their high school events until then. "I haven't seen anybody at all, outside of my family."

"How are they?" Aurora asked. "Your step-mom an' sisters an' all. Been treating you better since that Prom Night Miracle?"

Cindy blushed― prom night last year had indeed been a bit of a miracle, with her turning up unexpectedly in a gorgeous white dress after being grounded by her step-mother, and finally getting asked to be the girlfriend of her current beau, "Charming" Charlie. "Just a little. Drizella and Anastasia have been a little nicer, lately, but my step-mom... well, she's just herself," she replied, and smiled. "I've been hanging out with Charlie, mostly."

"Oh, that's so sweet," said Aurora, and gave a catlike smile. "Me and Phillip spent a lot of time together, too."

"You did? What'd you do?" said Cindy, and Aurora put a finger to her lips.

"Wait until Jasmine and Snow get― oh! There they are!" she said, and gave Snow, a tiny thing even for a freshman, a huge hug. "Hello, you!"

"Hi!" Snow squeaked. "Oh, my gosh, you guys, I'm so excited! And, and so nervous! But it's so good t'see you!"

"You too, Snow!" said Cindy. "And how are you, Jasmine?"

"Good..." Jasmine said, almost dreamily. But nobody really noticed, as Aurora finally had the opportunity to blab about her vacation with her boyfriend― classes didn't start for another fifteen minutes or more, at least.

"That's awesome; now, listen," she said. "Phillip and I... went to Europe!"

"You lucky thing!" gasped Snow. "I didn't go anywhere this summer..."

"Me neither," said Cindy. "Whereabouts?"

"Oh, all over," said Aurora, and giggled. "Germany, and France, and the UK, and then at the end we were in Russia. It was for ballet. Touring, y'know."

"How nice!" Snow said. "That's been keeping you busy, huh?"

"Sure has," Aurora replied. "Oh, but it was so much fun... Well! Enough about me. We have things to discuss."

"Let's," Cindy said, and smiled as the four became a circle-shaped ring of conversation. "What's going on?"

"You hear about that new student? The open-enrollment one?" Aurora said, and poked Jasmine on the shoulder. "C'mon, Jazz, you prob'ly know her."

"Open-enrollment? What's she look like?" Jasmine said, snapping out of her miniature daydream.

"Oh, you know: red hair, blue eyes. She's gorgeous, y'know," said Aurora. "Didn't catch her name, though. Emmy? Rachel?"

"Oh, Ariel!" said Jasmine, smiling once she recognized what they were talking about. "Yeah, I know her! The rest of the student council and I got to meet her and the foreign exchange students like a few weeks ago. She is really pretty."

"Where's she from?" Cindy said. "This Ariel girl, I mean."

"I think some private school across the lake," Jasmine replied, referring to the large body of water that separated Spoonerville from Mouseton. It was a rather popular hangout, and the subject of many an urban legend about mermaids living in its depths. "I dunno, she never really said. She's really nice, though! Odd, but nice."

"Odd like how?" Snow asked.

"I dunno how to describe it, really..." said Jasmine.

"Then why don't we ask her to lunch?" said Snow. "Wouldn't that be a good idea? I'd like to meet her."

"Snow, you are just too cute!" Aurora said, ruffling the top of Snow's head a little. Snow giggled and replaced her red plastic headband, loosened by the movement. "Sure, why don't we? Jasmine, see if you can do that?" Jasmine didn't reply, her eyes seemingly focused on something in the distance. "Hey, Jasmine!"

"Uh what?" she said, snapping to attention again. "What is it?"

"See if you can get Ariel to sit with us at lunch, okay?" Aurora said, and Jasmine nodded. Still, the girl wasn't satisfied. "Say, what've you been up to this summer? You look distracted."

"Not much... My dad's still trying to set me up with these... boring old sons of his business buddies," she replied, and crossed her arms.

"Any good ones out there?" Cindy asked, and Jasmine shook her head.

"Boorish and snobby, all of them," she replied. "Although... I did meet this one boy..." Her face turned red, and the other three Princesses giggled.

"Who is he, who is he?" said Aurora.

"Oh, I never caught his name," Jasmine said, slightly sadly. "I met him at a party a few weeks ago, but some idiot brought beer or something, and the cops got called, so we had to run. Oh, but he was so wonderful. I hope I see him again."

"What was he like?" Snow asked. "Tall, dark, handsome?"

"And more," Jasmine said, and they all laughed. "I should tell you more at lunch. Okay? We should get to class"

"Kay!" the other three girls said, and Jasmine waved as she went down the hall in the direction of her AP World History class, the mysterious boy from that night and his warm smile swimming in her mind.

Somewhere across the school, the man of her dreams was walking down the hallway to his Calculus class, his white and purple sweatshirt still a little dirty from a bug that had hit him as he flew on his carpet to school.

Directly across the hall from him, his tiny girlfriend perched happily on his shoulder, walked his rival and arch-nemesis. As they walked, they acknowledged each other.

"Pan," one of them said.

"Al," said the other.

And as they walked off, both of them knew that there was probably going to be a war that year, as both were seniors, and both of them strove for prank immortality rivaling that of their vice-principal's legendary escapades.

And it was gonna be intense.

ºoº

"I'll be waiting outside this door here for you when your class ends, okay?" said Max, after leading Sora to the right classroom. "I'll take you to Math afterward."

"Okay, thanks!" said Sora, and waved as Max vanished down the hallway. He took a breath, nodded resolutely, and opened the door.

The place looked like any old classroom at home, except maybe a bit more... lived-in, he supposed? Movie posters were everywhere on the walls, and the teacher's desk, which was at the front of the classroom and to the left, was full of assorted action figures and trinkets. Sora could have sworn he saw a small, scale model of an Evangelion amidst the things, and he smiled. He had a feeling he'd like Mr. Genie.

Students were already in their seats or near them (including a rather small elephant, who patiently sat at the back of the class with a pencil in his trunk), either talking or looking disinterested. Sora, not quite knowing what to do, tapped a female student on the back. He hardly noticed that she seemed to have a horse's body instead of legs. "Excuse me, where do I sit?" he asked.

"Oh, anywhere," she replied, and returned to her conversation.

"Thanks!" Sora said, and took a seat in the middle of the class. He sat there, cheerily drumming his fingers on the desk as he got out a notebook and pencil, waiting for the class to begin.

The bell for the start of the hour―something somewhat familiar to him, although the bells back home were less shrill and more like a song―tolled, and the students that had been standing around and talking got into their seats. However, the teacher was still nowhere to be found.

Suddenly, with a cloud of fuchsia smoke, Mr. Genie himself appeared.

He was a being Sora couldn't quite describe; he looked (mostly) human, but his skin was... bright blue. He was bald, and his ears, which were pierced with small gold loops, were pointed. Sora had never seen anything like him.

"Okay, class!" Mr. Genie said, placing the notebook he was holding on the podium. "Welcome to your first day of 10th grade English. With me. How're you all doing?" There were some half-hearted mumbles of "Good," and "Okay." Mr. Genie seemed to be satisfied with that, and continued. "Well, that's just great. Now, first thing's first―I'm going to call roll. Let me know if I pronounce your names correctly, or if you have any nicknames. Okay?"

Again, the students chorused half-heartedly, and Mr. Genie began.

"Kenai Aleut?" he said, looking over the list. "Kenai?"

"It's Bear now, actually," a voice said from the back of the class, and a host of heads all looked to see a bear (indeed!) sitting at a desk, wearing a football jersey with a smile on his face. Mr. Genie knit his eyebrows together, and looked at his roll call again.

"So I see!" he finally said. "I think I had your brothers before, Kenai. I'm really very sorry to hear about Sitka."

"It's okay," Kenai replied, shrugging his shoulders. "I think he's content where he is."

"So, you've obviously been up to something over this summer, Kenai," Mr. Genie continued, smiling as he folded his arms. "Anything worth… mentioning?"

A few students, who had known Kenai previously (and definitely not as a bear), nodded their heads. Kenai gave a thoughtful expression, as he tried to think of way to explain.

"I did a little… soul searching over break," he finally replied, smiling again. "Mr. Genie, shouldn't you be going on?"

"I'll decide whether or not I do that, thank you," Mr. Genie said, though he hardly looked serious with that grin on his face. "Okay, Kenai Bear. Check. Next up…John Darling?"

"Here," a boy in glasses said.

"Right," said Mr. Genie, and checked him off the list. "Andy Davis?" A boy in a blue t-shirt with a pattern of spaceships, here. "Dumbo Elephant?" Obviously, the elephant at the back of the room, who meekly raised his trunk. "Quasimodo Frollo?"

"Here…" a boy sitting near Sora said, and Sora nearly jumped in his seat upon noticing. His face looked absolutely disgusting! And was his last name Frollo? Was he the son of that awful English teacher Max was telling him about? A few other kids grimaced noticeably, and Quasimodo's eyes drifted downward.

"Nice to have you here. Mind if I call you Quasi?" said Mr. Genie, and the boy nodded meekly. "All right, then."

The door suddenly burst open, and the sparkling shine of gold necklaces filled the room as the owner of them cried, "BOOM, BABY."

"And you must be Mr. Inca," Mr. Genie said, smirking, and unimpressed. "You're late."

"Hey, man. Chill," said the student, adjusting the yellow baseball cap that fit snugly over his long, black hair. "Just chillax."

"Sit down, Kuzco," Mr. Genie said, "and hats off in my class, if you would please."

Kuzco looked appalled as he took the remaining seat on Sora's other side. "You're totally ruining my groove, man!" he said.

"Yeah, well, dude. My classroom. My rules. Hat off, pah-lease," Mr. Genie said, leaning over and plucking the thing from Kuzco's head. "Thank you."

The door, which seemed to have been left open, finally closed, and Mr. Genie yelled.

"Intruder!" he cried, pointing at a person dressed in dark clothes that was attempting to end as non-conspicuously as they could. "Halt, intruder!"

The offending student looked mortified. "Huh?!" he said.

"You, there. What's your name?" Mr. Genie asked.

"Uh... Jim?" the student replied.

Mr. Genie scanned his role list, sliding a blue finger down the list until he found something. "James Hawkins?"

"It's Jim," the boy replied sourly.

"All right there, Jim," Mr. Genie said, checking off his name. "I'd appreciate it if you show up on time from now on, all right?"

"Whatever," Jim replied, and took his seat.

"Good; now, where did we leave off?" Mr. Genie said, and role continued. There were two interesting incidents with two female students: a girl all in green whose name was supposedly Spring Sprite, and was taking an oath of silence; and a girl whose name was Lilo Pelekai, that asked a very interesting question.

"Mr. Genie, are you a djinn? Like, a real life one?" she had asked.

Mr. Genie laughed. "Well, little lady, you sure are sharp! I sure am," he said. "100 born and raised. Free, o'course."

"Well, of course you'd have to," Lilo continued. "Wow, it's cool to meet one!"

The rest of the class, however, had no idea what she was going on about.

Another girl, whose name was Ariel, made a bit of a scene when she didn't speak at first, upon hearing her name called—she was simply too excited to actually be in the class, which everyone thought unusual.

Sora was the last called, and felt a little on-the-spot when Mr. Genie called his name and asked how he was enjoying America so far.

"It's nice!" Sora said. "I'm having lots of fun."

"Great to hear, kid," said Mr. Genie. "Okay; now that that's out of the way, we can start. So, welcome to the wonderful world of English! It's gonna be a real wild ride of a year (well, maybe only a half, for some of you) so you'd all better hold on to your seats. All right?"

The students mumbled nervously. Mr. Genie nodded thoughtfully, and disappeared suddenly in a cloud of purple smoke. He reappeared wearing an unusually formal suit, replacing his jeans and polo shirt, a pipe in his mouth.

"Now, the world of the literary may seem like a very boring place..." he said, and disappeared in another cloud of smoke, returning in his regular outfit. "Not true! We're gonna have some serious fun this year. And I guarantee it. So, if you'd all get out the reading you had to do over the summer, we can get started with some discussion, all right?"

Sora smiled, and did so. He already felt like he was beginning to fit in.

ºoº

"So remember, bring that syllabus back by the end of this week signed by your parent or guardian, okay?" Mr. Rourke said, at the end of History class. "Now, I'll let you out early. Class dismissed!"

Sora gathered his things, met by Max at the door, and sighed. "Mr. Rourke sure is strict!" he said.

"Yeah, he is," Max laughed. "You know people sometimes call him Commander Rourke?"

"Commander, as in... the army?" said Sora, and Max nodded. "Is that a joke?"

"I guess," Max replied. "You ready for lunch?"

"Absolutely!" said Sora. "I can't believe how hungry I am!"

"Then I'll show you where all the choice lines are," Max said, leading Sora down a flight of stairs to the common area near the cafeteria. "Word of advice. Do not. Under any circumstances. Eat the spinach puffs."

"Spinach... puffs?" said Sora. Max nodded gravely.

"Yes. You'll regret it," he said, and Sora nodded, determined to stay away from these deadly spinach puffs, whatever they were.

Once they were in the line, however, Max went off to get something else, leaving Sora alone to shuffle forward and fill his tray. The cafeteria was filled with talking, but in the kitchen where he and the other students were getting lunch, there was music.

The cooks, it seemed, were singing.

"Oh, a whale of a tale I'll tell ya, lad! A whale of a tale or two! 'bout the flappin' fish, and the girls I've loved, and night's that I've sang to the moon above! Whale of a tale I'll tell ya, lad, a whale of a tale or two! Sing it with me, Kronky; it's your verse, lad!"

A rather large man with what appeared to be a machine-based arm placed a tray of corn dogs down as he finished his verse. Another man, equally large, but appearing to be made more of muscle than fat, emerged from the kitchen with a tray of something.

"John, I just gotta tell ya," he said, putting the tray down further in the line. Sora noticed that the students in the line ahead were avoiding it like the plague, "I just forgot the words!"

"Typhoon Tessie, then, lad," the man with the machine-arm said. "You surely know that one."

Sora took a corn dog with a pair of tongs, placing it on his tray and ogling at the cook's mechanicle arm as he went by. The cook noticed.

"Y'be likin' that?" he asked, and Sora quickly diverted his attention to getting a cup of grapes. The chef laughed.

Adding one of the yummy looking, pastry-like things to his tray, Sora went and paid for his lunch, and found Max sitting with PJ, as well as another boy he didn't know.

"Find your way through all right?" Max asked, and Sora nodded. "That's good! I got somebody to introduce to you." He gestured towards the other boy at the table, who was wearing sunglasses. "This is Bobby. Bobby? Sora."

"How's it smokin'-a?" Bobby asked, and Sora smiled.

"Good, I guess!" he said. "How are you?"

"Righteous, dude," said Bobby, and reached into his backpack for something. He produced a small can of something, and proceeded to squirt its yellowy contents into his mouth.

"What is... that?" Sora said, reaching for something to eat.

"The food of the gods," Bobby replied, smacking loudly, yellow staining his mouth.

"It's Cheez-Wiz," PJ explained.

"...oh," Sora said, and bit into the small pastry he had picked up from the line.

PJ just about exploded.

"SORA WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU EATING?!" he screamed. The entire cafeteria went silent.

Sora took a moment to stop chewing, and took a look at just what exactly he was eating. He was a little distracted by the man with the robot-arm, after all, and had more or less grabbed whatever was in front of him in the line.

It appeared to be some sort of... dumpling, or pastry, with a creamy vegetable center. And, to tell the truth, it was really rather good.

"I... don't know?" Sora said.

"I told you not to eat one of those!" Max said. "Those are Kronk's Spinach Puffs!"

"They're fatal!" PJ added, fearfully. Sora gulped, and stared at the offending food. Fatal?!

Whispers began to spread throughout the cafeteria—the kid had eaten one of Kronk's Spinach Puffs!

Sora put the food down and began to nervously look around at everyone staring at him, when Kronk himself came striding out of the kitchen with a look of utter shock on his face. Before he knew it, he was standing behind Sora, staring at the half-eaten puff on his tray.

"You... ate my spinach puffs?" he said, almost softly. Sora nodded.

Kronk then proceeded to give Sora the largest hug he had ever received.

"Thanks, kid! I tell you what, it seems like just nobody wants to try them, and I'm always trying new recipes! Tell me, how is it?" His voice was giddier than a kid's at Christmas. "Come on, be honest with me. Ol' Kronk can take it."

"It's... good?" Sora said, managing to squeeze the words out. "Nothing wrong with them?"

"Thanks, kid!" Kronk said. "What should I add? Some paprika, maybe a little bit of oregano-"

"Kronk! Get back here!" a voice called, as a rather angry cook (not the one with the mechanical arm) exited the kitchen.

"Sorry, Louie!" Kronk said. "Kid, what's your name?"

"Sora Watanabe," Sora said.

"Thanks, Sora!" said Kronk, and skipped back into the kitchen. The silence in the cafeteria persisted for a few moments more, before all conversation resumed.

"What was that all about?" Snow asked, from a table across the room. "Was it something about spinach?"

"Kronk's famous spinach puffs," Jasmine explained. "The first time he put them out, I think somebody got sick. Nobody's touched them since. Wow, that kid (whoever he is) must have guts." She sipped at her milk through her straw, and nudged the girl next to her. "Hey, Ariel. Are you okay?"

"Yes! Yes, I'm fine!" Ariel squeaked, smiling. "I'm sorry, this is just the first time I've ever been in a real cafe-torium! I'm really excited."

"You mean cafeteria?" said Cindy.

"Oh! Yes, that!" Ariel piped, and giggled. "I'm sorry."

"No biggie," Cindy replied. "So, you said you were home-schooled, right?"

"For the most part, yeah," Ariel said.

"So what brought you to enroll here at Disney High?"

Ariel bit her lip as she thought, and wiggled her fork between her fingers. "The choir system!" she finally said. "I just really love to sing! And there aren't any decent public choirs out there."

"So I see!" said Jasmine. "Are you liking Ms. Ursula?" Ms. Ursula was the choir director, a large diva of a woman that everyone referred to by first name.

"Oh, she's fun!" said Ariel. "She's the one that actually... showed me the choir system here! I'm very grateful." She gave another smile, but one that was slightly nervous, it seemed.

"Glad you found something you like, then!" said Snow. "I'm really excited about the choir program, too! I'm in the freshman girls' choir!"

"Good for you, Snow," Cindy said, rubbing Snow on the top of the head.

"Yes, I bet you sing beautifully," said Ariel.

Jasmine sighed. "Where's Aurora?" she said.

Aurora came stomping to the table with an annoyed grunt. "Hey, what's wrong?" Snow asked.

"Megara," she said, and groaned.

"...Megara?" Ariel said innocently.

"Yes! Her, and that... scumbag of a boyfriend of hers, Gaston!" Aurora seethed. "You won't believe what she's done! It's the last straw, honestly!"

"What did she do this time?" Jasmine asked, and Aurora crossed her arms, slumping in her seat. Honey-blond hair fell over the back of her seat.

"Barely five minutes into first period, and she's already onto me, the... slut!" Aurora said, frustrated enough to curse. Snow gasped.

"What did she call you this time?" Jasmine said.

"Anorexic Ballet Bimbo," Aurora said lowly. Snow gasped again, while Ariel listened on, concernedly.

"She didn't!" Snow said.

"Oh, she did," said Aurora. "I mean, honestly! I can't believe her! And seriously? If anyone's going to have to see someone about an eating disorder, it's her. You can practically see her ribs!" She angrily bit off the end of her corn dog, without dipping it into mustard first.

"That was really uncalled-for," Cindy said, in her gentle, concerned tone of voice. "What are you going to do about it?"

"I don't know!" Aurora said, her mouth full of corn dog. "It's just... this is the last straw, and... Jeeze!" She chomped on her corndog again. Jasmine was thinking.

"Well, maybe you should get back at her," she suggested.

"Like how?" said Snow.

Jasmine began to smile, very nasty ideas beginning to hatch in her mind. "What does Meg covet the most?" she said.

"Gaston?" said Cindy, and Jasmine nodded.

"Bingo," she said. "If we take away Gaston, then she'll never bother you again, I bet."

"Seriously?" said Aurora, and Jasmine nodded. "I suppose it's worth a shot. But... how do we do that?"

"Isn't it obvious? Find someone better," said Jasmine.

"But someone not obvious, right?" said Cindy. "I mean, Gaston's hit on just about every girl in the school at least once. The nice-looking ones, anyways," she added. "Drizella and Anastasia haven't had the honor, I think."

"A makeover-type-thing?" said Snow.

"Worth a try!" said Jasmine. Ariel began to look a little uncomfortable, as the conversation had strayed into material she wasn't very much interested in, nor were they including her in it.

"I think I'm going to head off to my next class," she said quietly, but was ignored, save for a small "Bye, Ari!" from Snow. And, so, Ariel disappeared indeed, to find another table.

Back within the conversation, the plotting continued.

"Who's our subject, then?" said Aurora, and Jasmine stood up for a moment to scope out the cafeteria. A few possible ideas hit her eye.

"Mia Thermopolis?" she mentioned, and the remaining Princesses all shook their head.

"That would be really tough," Cindy said. "She's a really sweet girl, though."

"Yeah, she is," said Aurora. "I don't think she'd appreciate it much, either."

"What about Gretchen Grundler?" Cindy suggested, pointing to the girl with hugely oversize wire spectacles on the other side of the cafeteria.

"Not really the type," Jasmine said.

"How about her?" Snow said, pointing to a cluster of students passing by.

"Huh? Which one?" said Aurora, craning her neck.

"The one in the blue sweater," Snow replied. "She looks pretty, but she's hanging out with some real computer nerds, isn't she?"

Aurora's mouth slowly dropped open, and she smiled. "She's perfect. Jasmine, do you know her?"

"That's the new head mechanic's daughter!" she gasped. "I think her name's Belle! She's seriously hardcore about studying. All AP or IB classes, I heard!"

"Wow, that's amazing," Cindy gasped.

Aurora continued to smile. "I think she's the perfect girl for Gaston."