Chapter Text
Ella isn't very social, to say the least.
She never really learned how to poke out of her shell. Her step-sisters didn’t—and don’t, for that matter—make it any easier. Every time she tried in the past, she was shot down by the family that surrounds her.
“Mother says you look stupid in that dress!”
“There are rules in place, you idiotic little brat.”
“The dog stays outside, can't you listen? Or do you want to sleep outside with it?”
And so on and so forth.
Drizella waves to her mother with a tight smile as the limousine pulls out of the parking lot. All three of them think their mother’s method of traveling is presumptuous, even for Ella’s sisters, Anastasia and Drizella’s, standards. They know it’s just to flaunt her wealth. They aren't privy about bringing it up, however. It’s a death wish if anyone, especially them, criticize their mother for anything.
Anastasia and Ella wait for her. When Drizella turns, Anastasia is already stalking down the entrance into the courtyard, looking down at the pamphlets the school had sent her mother a month prior.
Ella plays with her blonde hair, twisting it and curling it around her fingers as she follows her two step-sisters without so much of a peep.
“What did mother say we were supposed to do first?” Drizella catches up to Anastasia enough to reach over and rip the papers out of her hands. Anastasia looks baffled for a few seconds before her expression sours. She whirls on Drizella.
“For your information, bozo—” the redhead snatches the papers back, giving her sister a nasty smack on the arm that echoes a little too loud and draws the attention of a student nearby. Ella’s ears redden. “—if you had been listening earlier, we’re supposed to be headed towards the lobby for our schedules.”
Drizzella sniffs haughtily, rubbing her arm where a red blotch now blooms. She continues walking next to Anastasia, but sticks her heel into the other girl’s path.
Anastasia gives a horrid yelp as she stumbles. Ella’s eyes widen and she automatically reaches out, grabbing her step-sister’s arm before her face can catch on the concrete.
Her sister yanks her arm away as Drizella snorts, holding back a grin. “Now look who’s a bozo, bozo,” Drizella cackles.
Anastasia’s face reddens.
If looks could kill, Drizella would be six feet under now.
Anastasia shoves the crumpled papers into Ella’s chest and rolls up her yellow blouse sleeves. Ella fumbles with the papers for a second before watching helplessly as Drizella pulls her hair into a messy bun.
Drizella glares at her sister with a mocking smirk that she knows will get under her sister’s skin. Anastasia lunges, clocking her in the face.
Ella flinches, biting her lip as more people turn their way. She steps back slowly as staff members rush toward the scene, trying to break the two sisters up.
Drizella lets out a war cry as she wrestles out of the grasp of a custodian and tackles her sister to the ground, taking down the teacher holding Anastasia along with them. They become a mess of tangled legs and precarious punches.
Nervously looking down at the crumpled pamphlets in her hands, Ella shrinks away further. Her step mother told them not to get into any fights while they were here and not even fifteen minutes later, they were already at each other’s throats. Literally.
She hopes the teachers experience the least of it and only come out with scratches and nothing more.
Ella mutters a small, “I’ll just go get the schedules then," before shuffling through the various papers and pulling out a map of the campus. She skims it briefly, turns on her heel away from the fight, then bolts toward the auditorium.
Ella stumbles up the steps of the auditorium not ten minutes later, panting and red-faced.
Two teachers are standing on either side of the open doors of the auditorium, looking concerned as they stare off at the small crowd of teachers and staff in the middle of the entrance. They pipe to attention as Ella approaches.
“Hey, are you okay? What’s going on over there?” One of the teachers steps forward to her side. Ella takes in her pale skin and white-blonde hair. A glimps at the name tag hanging on a lanyard around her neck reveals the teachers name to Ella: Elsa.
Ella nods slowly before words could form in her mouth. Her tongue feels heavy. “M-my. . .” she sputters, then purses her lips in frustration.
Elsa furrows her brows, confusion speckled across her face, before her attention is pulled towards the sound of new footsteps approaching from inside the auditorium, light and skippy.
“Elsa!” a preppy voice sings as a girl bounces out through the double doors. Three other students—at least, Ella assumes they’re students—trail after her.
Where Anastasia’s hair is ruby red, this girl’s hair is more ginger. She’s dressed in a long skirt that goes to her ankles and a matching green blazer. The first student is another girl, one that has her hair down, chestnut ringlets reflecting the autumn sun. She’s wearing a flowy blue blouse and denim skinny jeans. A white scrunchy hugs her wrist. The second student is a brunette boy wearing a green pullover jacket and jeans. His sneakers are dirty and worn, Ella notices.
The one that sticks out the most, though, scares her half-to-death.
Standing as the tallest in the group, almost a head taller than Elsa, is an anthropomorphic mouse. His long hair is tied up into a low ponytail with a bandana, though it does nothing to stop his fluffy bangs from hanging over his eyes. He pushes them aside with a paw, but still they remain. He wears an orange blazer with a red sweater over a button-down shirt. His slacks are baggy and dark brown. His tail twitches.
She can't help but stare.
He stares back.
Elsa sighs, straightening her posture. "What is it, Anna?" She regards the bouncy girl with the pretty green skirt—Anna—with sternness, but behind her eyes Ella can see the playful glint.
"I was just wondering if Kristoff had arrived yet," Anna chirps, looking around the courtyard towards the gate. Ella fidgets in her spot, missing the arched brow the anthro sent her way.
"Oh, wow," Anna comments once she notices the commotion.
Elsa shifts uncomfortably as the other teacher approaches them.
"I'm sorry, Anna, I haven't heard from Kristoff since the last time he had talked to you at Raps's party," Elsa says, looking exasperated as though this had happened more than once. Anna frowns, turning back to Elsa and looking disappointed at the news.
“So last weekend…” she mutters to herself.
Elsa opens her mouth to speak, but the other teacher speaks first.
"Yes, we're all sad over poor Kristoff's tardiness," the second teacher says, taking Ella by the shoulders. She tries not to flinch or shrink away from the touch as the teacher continues, "so why not do something while you're waiting for him? Why don't you tour the school with this one? The more the merrier, right?"
Ella wants to retch at the thought. Touring the school with complete strangers? In awkward silence? No thanks.
Anna sizes her up, blue eyes scanning over every detail of Ella's face, much to the girl's discomfort.
"Sure!" Anna smiles at Ella welcomingly, much to her relief. The teacher that isn’t Elsa smiles approvingly.
"Great! Vanellope is the tour guide this semester. She'll be by the cafeteria, you can't miss her." The teacher, whose name Ella learns with another sneaky glance is Tiana, gently nudges her to the small group. "Off you go now. We'll see you this Monday."
Ella shuffles after the group as they depart from the teachers. She squeezes the papers in her trembling hands, looking back once. The fight seems to have stopped and the staff is going their separate ways. Ella doesn't see any signs of her step-sisters, though.
It makes her extremely nervous. She twists the papers in her palms until her knuckles go white. What if her sisters get expelled? What if they send them home to her mother’s wrath? Ella dreads the thought, as she knows she’d get the brunt of the punishment, even if she had nothing to do with it. Her mother would probably blame her for her “terrible influence” and how she “takes after her father too much.” She’d probably be forced to sleep outside… again.
A voice interrupts her thoughts. From over her shoulder, a loud voice speaks into her ear canal, "What did those papers ever do to you?"
A jolt runs through her, shocking her brain into fight or flight. She whips her head in the direction of the voice, eyes wide. Her heart hammers in her chest.
The boy in the green pullover cackles, his impish features pulling back in a mirth-filled grin. "She's really jumpy, huh?" he shoots ahead of them.
Mischief glints in his eyes and Ella doesn't like it, not one bit.
She stumbles away from him, terribly flustered. He follows her in exaggerated strides longer than his skinny legs can handle. In the back of her mind, she's afraid he'll trip over his own feet, but he looks too much like a demented spider right now for her to truly care.
"Ooh, I'm gonna get'cha!" he taunts, chasing her to the other side of the anthro, hands held high above his head. His fingers are spread, imitating claws.
"Knock it off, Peter," the girl in the blue blouse scolds, smacking his shoulder.
'Peter' cackles, straightening his posture so that he looks human again. The anthro wrinkles his nose at him in disapproval.
"Sorry about him. He likes messing with people, don't pay him any mind," he apologizes to Ella with a crooked but soft grin. "He won't bother you anymore. We’ll make sure of it."
"Wanna bet?" Peter intercedes. The anthro gives him a look of which Ella can only describe as threatening. Peter shrugs, shrinking back next to the blouse girl.
The mouse-boy turns his attention back to Ella, his features softening again. "I'm Jacques, by the way."
Ella's shoulders relax only slightly.
Jacques continues the introductions, apparently not finished. "You've already met Peter. That's Wendy," He gestures to the girl in the blouse, who waves accordingly, "and the girl up front is Anna. She's the sister of the white-haired student back there."
Ella blinks in surprise. "Wait . . . Those weren't teachers back there?" she asks in soft bewilderment. Jacques gazes at her, startled for a second or two, probably caught off guard by her voice. Peter snorts.
"Elsa? A teacher?" he titters, hands covering his grin. "Blondie’s got jokes!"
Anna turns to playfully bap her friend in the shoulder, though her tone is insistent, "Hey! My sister could be a teacher if she wanted to!"
"Yeah, and her stare would freeze her entire class before it got the chance to start."
Anna glares at him. "That's not true!"
Jacques ignores them, his prime focus on Ella now. "So, are you going to tell us your name?" he prompts gently. His smile makes Ella's legs feel like jelly and her stomach squirm with horrid jitters with a little bit of nausea, but she supposed she could at the very least try.
"My name's . . . Cin—" Her tongue freezes in place, heat rushing up her neck. She'd almost spoken the horrible nickname her step-sisters had given her; it was so horrible that even her step-mother had chosen to use it rather than her given name. A lump buries itself in her throat.
"Sin?" Peter mutters, "That's a really weird name, but—" He earns a smack on the head by Wendy. Even Anna stops in her tracks to look back at Ella in the beginnings of concern.
Oh, god.
She felt the burning sensation behind her eyes, how sweaty her palms are getting. Her breaths come out shaky, and the world begins to feel like it’s about to be pulled from under her feet. Everyone is staring at her now and she hates it. She squeezes her eyes shut.
Finally, Jacques breaks the ice, ”Okay, guys, let’s give her some space.”
Wendy and Anna exchange a glance as they turn and continue down the path. Peter shrugs and follows close behind. Only Jacques remains, waiting patiently for Ella to catch her breath.
Once she does, and the sweat leaves her palms, and she can no longer hear the sound of her thundering heart in her ears, she quietly folds the papers, and grips them nervously. "Sorry about that," she says quietly, eyes cast downwards to the ground. Jacques offers her a small, cautious smile.
"It's no problem. I'm not usually one to stick my whiskers into other people's business."
"Whiskers?" Ella echoes as they begin walking again.
"Oh, it's just an inside joke with my brother…"
A breeze passes over them as they follow behind Wendy and Peter and Anna—and Ella feels a shift.
Maybe starting school again wasn't such a bad thing.
Maybe things could be different this time. Maybe she really can start fresh.