Letting out a silent gasp as the girl’s fist made contact with the stone, Ariel rushed over to her, taking her hand instinctively. Mouthing a silent apology, she dropped her hand gently, releasing the whiteboard from under her arm--her new approach to the whole writing instead of talking thing. “You okay?” she wrote, shoving the marker between her teeth.

“Yeah, okay. I’m the bitch. I’m such a bitch for wanting to make sure my sister’s okay. In fact, I’m probably the worst one in this school,” Tink grumbled, finding no release for the anger brewing within her aside from a quick punch to the stone wall she stood against. “Shit, bad idea, bad idea.” Taking a quick look at her reddened knuckles, she swore again. “Perfect.”

Nodding quickly at the girl’s questions, Ariel circled her pen around the words, etching out her words. “Can’t talk,” she explained through the ink, pad covering her face as she held it up. 

“Are you okay>”She asked when the girl wordlessly tried to speak. It looked like her throat wasn’t working right.She watched her scribble onto the page. Cat read the pad of paper before lifting her eyebrows up at Ariel.”Really?”

Shaking her head as if to disregard her disregard her silent comment, Ariel placed her hand to her throat while slicing the other in the air, as if to tell the girl she couldn’t speak. It was the easiest way to convey her condition without writing it, and to be honest, her hand had never been more tired. “Lost my voice,” she wrote, holding up the pad for clarification.

Looking at the scribbled words on the pad of paper, Lilo raised an eyebrow, not sure of what to say to the girl at first. “Wait… Look? Look at what?“ Lilo asked, still slightly confused. It was kind of weird how this girl was communicating by writing down; had she lost her voice or something? Of course, Lilo didn’t want to ask - Nani was always reminding her not to be rude to or too direct with people - but, still, she couldn’t help but feel a little curious about it all. Why couldn’t this girl just talk? It seemed like she had a lot to say. 

Covering her mouth to hide a silent laugh, Ariel shook her head in sympathy for the boy. “Someone stole it,” she wrote, unable to think of a better explanation. “My aunt stole it. Not sick.”

“Oh, the poor dear!”  Wendy exclaimed, watching the boy Ariel was gesturing to.  Then, glancing back at the other girl, Wendy couldn’t help but frowned.  “What did happen to your voice?  Are you sick?  Have you been to the nurse?”

“I was born, and magic. I don’t know,” she scribbled, lips curled into a frown as her shoulders shrugged. “It’ll be hard. How do I even do that?” It wasn’t the requirement she’d been anticipating, and if he could get his back, so could she, but the conditions were ones she wasn’t even sure how to ensure fulfilling.

“Why the hell would she do that? How did she do that? I mean, other than magic, obviously.” Kiara’s brows furrowed in confusion in concern. “Wait, what—” she stopped, holding up a hand. “That’s, like, out of a fucking movie or something. Good luck, though, I bet it won’t be hard!”

Pointing to the spectacle that was the boy in front of then, Ariel let out a silent laugh as he struggled to keep his feet on the ground, obviously enchanted or something of the sort. Pressing her hand to her throat, she sliced the other through the air, as if to indicate that her voice was gone before the girl could ask.

Wendy was almost certain that the other girl had tried to speak.  But, nothing had come out.  Thoroughly confused, she watched as she scribbled something on the pad, before glancing up.  “At what?”

“No, it was taken,” she shook her head with a frown, showing the boy her writing. Ariel mouthed a thank you, shoving the pad underneath her arm.

“Sick huh? Yeah, I live there.” He motioned towards the right with his head. “That way.”

“I think she’s my aunt, this girl, she took it away,” she scribbled, leaning the pad on her thigh before turning it for her friend to see. “When he falls in love with me or something?” The conditions were absurd, but it couldn’t be that hard. The two already liked each other, it was just a matter of getting him to like her even more.

Kiara watched her friend gesture with her hands before finally looking down at the paper, understanding dawning on her. “What?” she exclaimed, placing her hands on her hips. “Why didn’t he have a voice and did you really have to do this? When do you get yours back?”

Pursing her lips in a sheepish smile, Ariel attempted to explain by means of mouthing and her hands, finally succumbing to the paper tucked under her arm. “Eric had no voice, and I gave mine up so he could have his back,” she wrote, tucking the ballpoint pen in her ear.

Kiara cocked her head slightly, puzzled. “Wow, yeah, that’s great. Good for you!” she replied, giving her friend a thumbs up, a tentative smile pulling at her lips. “Wait, why don’t you have a voice?” she finally asked, her brows furrowing in confusion.

Heaving a sigh, Ariel scribbled on the yellow pad before holding it up again, reading, “Can’t talk--lost voice. Do you know the way to Slalom dorms?”

“Huh?” It called his attention to see the girl holding up a page. “What’s that?” He asked, pointing at said page.

Her thumbs up with a smile, Ariel mouthed the lyrics of the song silently to herself as she joined the girl in dancing.

Come, let’s have a dance party.

“--Look!” Ariel mouthed, finding her exclamation leaving her lips soundlessly. Though it’d been a few days since she’d signed her vocal chords away, the whole no talking thing wasn’t something she was quite used to yet. Pulling the pad out of her bag, she scribbled her thoughts on the page before holding it up, lips forming a silent grin.

“That would be nice. I’m sure they would enjoy that, yeah. Give him a few hours to himself. It’s not much, but it’s something,” she shrugged, brushing fallen hair out of his face. “I think he does. You know him, he doesn’t say much, but he’s at least found someone his age he likes, right? I think we should at least let him give it a try when he gets older.”

“That’s true.” Eric said with a laugh. “We coooould buy him something, or pay for a dinner for he and his husband?” He suggested. “Like a really nice dinner.” He couldn’t think of anything else that they could really do without feeling like he was misusing taxpayer dollars. “So do you know if Elijah likes it here? He hasn’t really told me anything.” He’d like to send him to D’Isigny, to be able to be around kids his own age when he got old enough, but he also knew that, if he didn’t enjoy it, it wasn’t worth it.

“Right? I don’t think mine’s old enough yet, but when he is, of course. None of us were, really; only the upper years were, I think. That was traumatizing. You go tell them that.”

“If I ever see any of my children doing that I will ground them for the rest of their lives. I was never like that when I was that age. I mean they are right out in the open.”

“I think we are, yeah. It’s a long ways away, but it’d be nice to have some continuity in this family. I know you have,” she nodded, lips forming a sad smile. “Aw, thank you. I’m trying, but it’s been hard. And you a fantastic princess, as you’ve always been.”

“I’m sure he will; maybe he just needs the right event for it. Do you plan to send him here for school?” she asked. “Thank you, I’m glad you think so. Yeah, I guess so, huh? We’ve been through a lot, with…everything that’s happened. Sounds like you’ve got a lot on your plate, but I’m sure you can handle it. I always knew you’d make a good queen.”

“I don’t know. How am I supposed to know your shopping list? You want Beyonce’s new album? Hm. I mean...” she heaved a sigh, sifting through her wallet feverishly. “Fine. You don’t tell Eric, and I get the copy to burn after you buy it. Deal?”

“Oh, yeah? What kind of things?—it’s not like I’m gonna spend the money on buying Beyonce’s new album or anything, even if it is really good and may get out of stock if I don’t get the money right noooow,” he ended in a sing-song voice.

While Ariel had a vague idea of what he was thinking of doing, her still oblivious self decided not to infer what he wasn’t intending to imply. “Some sort of reward for putting up with us. I don’t know how he does it sometimes, but he’s great.” Being queen certainly had its trials, but their Prime Minister truly worked his butt off to keep up with the two, and it was all she could do to outright thank him for it.

Rolling his eyes, Eric shrugged. “We’ll figure it out when we get there.” He told her with a wink, trying not to hint too hard in case anyone that could enter the hall would hear. “That’s true… something like that sounds good.” He didn’t know what he’d do, he didn’t want to use a bunch of tax dollars to give him a week off, but he had to make it up to him somehow.