Chapter Text
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*
This all started on Aria's thirteenth birthday. Her grandfather, King Triton, gifted her a magical necklace that allowed her to safely travel to Atlantis. The problem with said necklace is that it is just any old necklace, it was a transporter that was once used by Triton himself to visit the different realms of the world, before Auradon unified it. The necklace was then modified, as per Triton's request, to be gifted to his second granddaughter.
After one sleepless night, Aria was tampering with the necklace, unaware of the consequences that would happen after. The first time it "glitched" was when instead of seeing the usual castle she expected to greet her, it was a long table and it seemed the guests were in the middle of a tea party. Later, it was revealed that Aria had traveled to Wonderland. The second time it happened was when she somehow ended up in Nadia's bedroom in Agrabah.
Aria would've returned it back to her grandfather but she loved the unpredictability. It excited her that she wouldn't know where she would go every time the portal opened. Portal seemed to have been stuck the moment it opened to the Isle. She figured it had to do with the enchanted force field that was surrounding it. After that, it was history. She was aware that if anyone knew what she had been doing for the past 4 years she'd be in trouble. She had developed back-up plans, excuses, escape routes, basically any situation as to how her double life could possibly end.
When the four VK were chosen to study at Auradon Prep, Aria knew she had two choices, transfer to another school or stick to her feet to the ground and remain stubborn. Obviously, she went with the latter mainly due to not wanting to be seen as prejudiced and considering her parent's history, they were very much on board with giving the villain kids a chance at a new life.
Luckily, it seemed that Aria made the right choice. She actually got along with the new four students, on account of the amount of nights she bumped into them dead in the night sneaking around the campus. Aria remembered the first time she saw them step out the limo, she knew that she rarely interacted with them on her adventures in the Isle which luckily kept her secret safe for the rest of the year.
The only people who knew her secret were her sister Melody and her best friend Nadia. While her sister understood and supported her endeavors, it couldn't be said the same for Nadia, who was currently dangling her head at the edge of Aria's bed.
Their classes have ended, usually they would loiter around the field until dinnertime but with so many students around planning for the upcoming cotillion, Nadia proposed to hang at Aria's room. "I don't get why people are still making a big deal out of this, it's just another event, why is it so special than the previous ones." Nadia said, her face scrunched up in a frown. She doesn't have a fondness for social events, in fact if she were forced to pick between dances or jumping into a volcano, she would definitely choose the latter.
Aria stared at her dumbfounded, "Because, it's the first dance with the VKs and also the first dance after Ben and Mal announced their relationship?" Aria, unlike her friend, was a complete sucker for these types of events. She loved dressing up and feeling like a doll, another reason why she bonded with the VKs, more specifically Evie and Carlos. Their shared love of fashion made conversations fly naturally.
"It must be a dream to not go to these complete time wasters." Nadia dramatically sighed, she shared a look with Aria and after a beat of silence both girls burst into fits of laughter. "Do you even have a partner to go with?" Nadia asked.
"You don't really need a partner for these things." Aria deadpanned, causing Nadia to roll her eyes. "But it's a cotillion, that's the whole point of it."
"Listen, I'm really just going to look hot but after the announcements I'm escaping." Although Aria is a princess, her dancing skills were completely horrendous to put lightly. Her parents had joked around that she inherited her mother's sea legs on the matter.
Not wanting to speak of her skills, Aria shifted the conversation "Enough about me, what about you, who are you going with?" Before Nadia could even scoff at the idea Aria quickly interrupted her "And don't say you're skipping this one, I won't let you."
"I don't have a partner, and yes, it's because I'm skipping."
Even if Aria knew already what Nadia's answer was going to be, she was still annoyed at Nadia which caused her to pick up a pillow beside her and hit Nadia with it. "Come on! Jay is going to be there!"
"So? I don't care if he's there, why'd you even bring him up?" Nadia's voice tone and speed started going higher with each word, a sign Aria knew that Nadia was nervous. "Because, I saw you eyeing him up ever since I dragged you to the mid-year tourney match." Aria accused.
"Yeah, because I was curious what he was like considering my family's history with his dad." Aria started to giggle, seeing as her best friend couldn't even look at her, another obvious sign that she was lying. "Was your curiosity not satisfied that day that you went on to watch the sword's team every practice?" Aria said with a teasing voice.
"Just providing school spirit." Nadia answered curtly.
"Sure, if that's what you say, maybe I'll fix him up with Lonnie considering they'd make a good pair." Aria bumped her shoulder with Nadia and started to wiggle her eyebrows. It was no secret that Loonie and Jay had been spending time together recently but no one really knew why, causing a bunch of rumors to fly around the school. "Imagine them, two star athletes together. A match made in Olympus, don't you think so?" Aria continued to egg her friend on, making Nadia groan.
"Can we not talk about them? How's the Isle by the way?" Nadia asked, not wanting to hear Aria's teasing any longer.
Aria always had exciting stories whenever she came back from the Isle, exciting due to the fact that she wasn't even supposed to be there and also the cultural difference. Nadia still remembers when Aria entrusted her with the secret. It was during a terrible storm when their families were aboard a ship on their way to Arendelle. Nadia wasn't accustomed to the violent sea waves so Aria took it upon herself to distract her with her tales from the Isle. Even though Nadia grew worried whenever her friend would go to the Isle, she knew that her friend would be safe, based from the stories she told Aria's friend there were trustworthy, something that's rare in that Island.
"Uma's been pissed off more than usual these days, I figured it has something to do with the news covering Mal 24/7."
It was no sheer coincidence that the first friend Aria made from the Isle was the child of the woman who was considered her family's enemy. She always loved hearing the story of how her mother and father fought bravely to destroy Ursula and how her sister fought against her sister Morgana years earlier but after knowing that Uma had existed, the guilt ate her. Her family had made this girl an orphan. Initially, she befriended Uma to make up for what her family did but with more time she spent with Uma, the more she found herself getting tangled into her world.
Aria has met Uma's crew along with her right hand man, Harry Hook. She was initially put off by his zany behavior but now she found it endearing. It wasn't long after that she started to fall for him, no one knew of this, not even Nadia. It didn't help that as they grew up Harry started to become more attractive and turn into a big flirt. She was satisfied with secretly loving him, due to their social differences, but now that Mal's about to become queen, she wasn't sure if she could say the same.
"Oh, that reminds me, I'm going to the Isle later tonight."
"Keep safe, and if you ever come into trouble, I know absolutely nothing about this." Nadia got up from Aria's bed, hugging her friend before leaving to go to her own room.
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*