Butterflies » jarlos [HIATUS]

22: Colds and Cuddles

"What do we call a 7 point-"

"A touchdown!"

"What is the name of the Auradon-"

"The Auradon Knights!"

"Oh for Godmother's sake, Carlos, at least let them finish the question!"

It was already a few days later. The New Years festivities had been epic but now everything was starting to get back to normal. The second week of Christmas break had started and even though most of the students were gone, that didn't mean the remainder didn't have anything to do. Mal, Evie and Jay were gone for the day to visit their lover's family so Carlos' only company was Jane. Right now, they were practicing for the inter-scholar contest that opposed every school in Auradon. The contest was pretty simple, as someone asked them questions about different subjects and the students had to answer as quickly as possible. To avoid every student shouting in at the same time, they had elaborated a system where whenever you knew the answer, you have to press a button. The first one to press it gets to answer. There was ten subjects: sports, geography, english, history, alternative facts, maths, biology, chemistry, riddle and surprise question. Right now, the team, that consisted of Jane and Doug, were practicing with the newest member Carlos along with a few other students. One of them, Herkie the son of Hercules, was crossing his arms as he glared at Carlos.

"The point of the game is to answer the question, but it's an impossible task if you keep interrupting them!" He spat. Carlos frowned.

"Isn't that the point of the game? To answer the fastest? It doesn't matter as long as I get the correct answer no? Besides, aren't you guys the ones to complain that Auradon never won?" He wasn't wrong. Auradon has never won in these type of competitions. There was four competitions, one for each school year, and they were pretty good with the other school years, often finishing second or third. But their school year, the ones who were now juniors, didn't have much success. Many people wrote their names but few were the ones to actually show up. Jane and Doug often had to separate the different subjects in half, which wasn't practical. This year, they were counting on Carlos' help to maybe get a chance to win. So far, Carlos has been almost impeccable but it somehow annoyed the other contestants.

"You can do that at the competition! But now, at least let us answer!" Herkie complained as he crossed his muscular. This wasn't about the game, he knew it. Herkie just didn't like Carlos and wanted to make his experience as bad as possible. Ever since Carlos beat him as 'best student in English', the other boy was bitter. But Carlos had had a rough morning: he woke up on the floor, because he had fallen out of bed and had hit his head, he was tired and most of all, he didn't feel that well, with a sore throat. So he really wasn't in the mood to argue for useless facts right now.

"Listen, Herkie, I know you don't like me but that's not a reason to be like this. The important thing here is to win, so if you're here to ruin me, you can just leave" Carlos said dryly. The demi-god just frowned, which just made the the tension in the room even worse. Pin, the son of Pinocchio, who had been reading the questions, cleared his throat as his gaze went from Herkie to Carlos.

"Let's continue, shall we?" He said awkwardly as he flipped the paper in his hands. "What's Auradon's favorite sport?" Carlos waited until the question was finished before pressing the button as he gave Herkie a dark look.

"See? Now I waited for the question to finish before pressing, and even now I'm still before you. Are you happy now?" He said in a mocking tone, which made the muscular boy growl. "And the answer is Tourney" he added as he heard his voice crack slightly. He cleared his throat as Pin continued to ask questions.

"What is the-" he was suddenly interrupted by a cough. Herkie rolled his eyes.

"Really Carlos? Are you doing on purpose?" He asked in a discouraged tone. Carlos looked at Herkie furiously. "I'm not doing on purpose!" He defended himself as he continued to cough. He had taken medicine this morning and had drank a lot of water to avoid being like this but it seemed like it didn't work. His throat hurt even more and he felt like someone was squeezing his lungs. Carlos cleared his throat once again.