A sharp pain shoots through her shoulder and Georgie bolts awake on Saturday morning. She must've accidentally turned onto her left side in her sleep. She looks at the alarm which reads 6:00, way too early for her, especially on a weekend. She lays in bed for a moment, hoping that she can get back to sleep, but gives up as her shoulder throbs. It's sorer now than it was the day before.
Reluctantly, Georgie gets up—although quietly so as not to wake up Audrey—and takes a bottle of ibuprofen out of her medicine bag. She gives it a few minutes to kick in, but when it doesn't work, she gets dressed into some warmer and more comfortable clothes so that she can venture to the dining hall and ask them for some ice for her shoulder. She decides on a pair of leggings and a blue and yellow Auradon Prep fencing crewneck sweater—something nice and loose around her shoulder.
She begrudgingly closes the door as quietly as she can and crosses her arms over her chest as she walks through the dorm halls. No one in their right mind will be up at this hour on a weekend. Unsurprisingly, she does not run into anyone as she walks through the ornate wooden hallways, nor when she takes the cobblestone path towards the cafeteria.
Once in the cafeteria, she nearly thinks that it's closed until she sees a lunch lady she doesn't recognize preparing some of the meals. Her red hair is tucked into a hairnet as she lays out several of the buffet items. "Come in my darling, we're open."
Georgie reluctantly walks up to the lunch lady, once she gets closer, she can see that her tag says Nelly. She must be a new hire, thinks Georgie. "Do you think that I'd be able to get a bag of ice? It's for my shoulder."
"Yes of course dear, I can go into the back and fill a bag up for you." Nelly goes to walk back into the kitchen where the chefs are currently cooking more breakfast items en-masse. "What's your name again, dear?"
Georgie laughs sheepishly, how rude of her for not introducing herself. "Oh, I'm Georgie, I'm the Student Council President so you might be seeing a lot of me."
Nelly smiles back and disappears to get Georgie her ice. In the meantime, Georgie grabs a plate and piles on some eggs and a hash brown. Nelly comes back not too long after with an icepack and plops it onto Georgie's tray for her. Georgie thanks her for the ice and goes to find a seat in the sea of empty tables. She settles for something close to the windows and by the door so she won't feel as awkward if someone walks in and sees her sitting in the middle of the room.
She puts her tray down and grabs the icepack, putting it under her sweater so that it's held into place without the need of her other hand so that she can eat at the same time. She gets a few bites of food in before the cafeteria door opens and Chad of all people walks in.
He gives her a small wave and goes to get his food from the serving area. Georgie debates whether or not she should ask him to sit with her after the events of yesterday and the fact that he's now dating Audrey. Ultimately, she pats the seat across from her to show Chad that he can sit with her.
She isn't sure how he feels about it, but he walks over to her table with his tray and sits across from her. Luckily for her, Chad is the first one to speak. "What happened to your shoulder?"
"Oh, uh, I hurt it yesterday in practice," she lies. She doesn't want to tell Chad that his girlfriend is technically the one who did this to her and cause even more awkwardness and tension.
"Look, Georgie, things don't have to be weird between us—"
She breathes a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness you brought it up because—"
"—all you have to do is stop hanging out with the VKs and things can go back to normal. Maybe even go back to how things were before high school."
Georgie feels her mouth fall agape for a moment. "I'm sorry, what?" Chad goes to repeat himself, but she holds up a hand to stop him. "How can you ask me to stop hanging out with them? Can't you see that you're the one being mean here Chad? Just give them a chance."
Chad shakes his head. "Give them a chance? It looks like Ben gave them a chance and now it's turned him into a person who asks another girl out while he has a girlfriend!"
Taking a deep sigh, Georgie centres her thoughts. "Look, Chad, I don't know what Audrey told you, but Ben tried to break up with her the day before and she wouldn't listen. It was still wrong of him to ask Mal out when the school still thought they were dating but he did technically break up with her. And that has nothing to do with the VKs, that was all Ben's own choice."
Her words don't seem to be getting through to Chad however, since he merely rolls his eyes at her statement. "Just stop hanging out with them and I'll drop it and we can go back to normal."
Something about Chad's attitude saddens Georgie. Chad used to be a happy-go-lucky kid, a little dumb to put it frankly, but not capable of hurting a fly. But now it seems like he's become a bully. What Georgie would like to know is when he changed, or if he's been like this all along and she never noticed. She's heard rumours about Chad being cocky, but never did she think that he had gotten this bad. "I can't."
Chad seems to grow angry at that statement, a sea of emotion raging in his eyes. "My mother was considered one of the nicest people in the land, and you know what she got for it? Nothing. None of her own friends voted for her to be the ruler of Auradon. And just because 20 years ago they voted for Beast and Belle to rule, Ben gets to be king and decide all of a sudden to bring over a bunch of no-good villain kids."
"What does Ben being king have to do with any of this?"
"Everything. If I was king, I wouldn't have let this happen. I would've kept them locked up on that island where they belong," seethes Chad.
"Then that's why you should never be King of Auradon." Georgie knows as soon as those words pass her lips that she's only aggravated Chad more. She decides to double down, realizing that she's put herself into a hole anyway, and appeal to his emotions. "Chad, I never wanted to believe any of the stories I heard about you, but now I see that people were right when they called you a bully. I used to think that it was Audrey making you do bad things, but now I can see that it's been you doing them all along."
Chad is royally offended. "Georgie, look around! I'm not a bully. Jay is a bully. He likes to hurt people. Mal is a bully, she steals people's boyfriends! And Evie? She cheats on tests! They're villains Georgie! Evil. E-v-i-l. They were born villains."
Georgie shakes her head. "It doesn't matter who we were born, it matters who we become. And it works both ways Chad."
"What's that supposed to mean, hm?"
Georgie is livid at this point. Her anger has reached a point of no return, not to mention the extra irritability from her tiredness piled on top. "You exclude people because of where they're from. You talk about people behind their backs, and you're jealous of your best friend's crown. The only villain I see here in this school is you."
Pounding on the table, Chad gets up from his seat to look down on Georgie and points a finger in her face. "I am not a villain! I'm a prince! I don't know why I ever bothered with a stupid peasant like you. Oh wait, I do, it's because Ben said I had to. You are nothing to me. The only reason I ever talked to you was because Ben liked you, and I wanted to be on his good side." Georgie remains silent as she looks up at Chad. She's trying to keep on a tough face but his words are getting to her. "You will never know what it's like to be royal. You and your silly little social climbing dad can go back to wherever you came from. Audrey's been right about you this whole time you know, you're—" Both Chad and Georgie are made aware of someone coming through the doors of the cafeteria so he leans in closer so that only she can hear. "If you think I'm a bully, then I'll show you a bully. Oh, and have fun getting re-elected without my support."
"Is there a problem here?" Georgie's heart leaps when she hears that someone's come to break up the conversation but it sinks when she realizes it's Jay. This isn't a conversation Georgie would want him to overhear.
Chad puts on a fake smile so eerily well. "Nope, I was just leaving." Chad doesn't bother taking his tray but passes by Georgie, squeezing her on the shoulder as he passes. A shooting pain erupts in her shoulder, and she knows that he did it on purpose. A tear of pain rolls down her cheek. He knows that she hurt her shoulder. To an outsider it would look as a friendly enough gesture, a friend patting a friend on the shoulder as they leave. Georgie is just happy that her back is to Jay when it happens so he can't see her face.
Just as unluckily, Jay sits down in Chad's seat. She tries to hide the pain in her face and quickly wipes the tear away. "What was that about?"
"Oh, nothing, just Chad being Chad," she smiles sadly. "Anyways, why are you up so early?"
"Couldn't sleep because I was so excited about the win yesterday," he answers honestly. Not seemingly buying into Georgie's sudden change of conversation one bit, Jay keeps pushing and turns the topic back to Georgie. "What happened to your shoulder?" Georgie is about to feed him the same lie that she told Chad but he stops her, as if knowing what she's going to say. "Because I don't remember you mentioning anything after your practice yesterday."
Georgie stops herself and has to reconsider her lie. She knows that he's trying to trip her up to get to the real truth of the situation. "Fine, it was Audrey, but it was an accident. She was mad after what happened at the game yesterday and I guess she bumped into me at just the right angle. It's not a big deal though."
Jay crosses his arms over his chest. "And Chad didn't know that when he squeezed your shoulder?"
"No," lies Georgie. It makes her uncomfortable to lie to him but she doesn't want to cause any more tension between the two boys since they're on the same sports team.
"Was the giant icepack not big enough for him to notice?"
Georgie feels his gaze become more intense and she becomes uncomfortable under it. He's trying to catch her in a lie. "I—I guess not." She crosses her arms to match Jay's.
Jay totally does not believe Georgie, and she can tell. She tries to avert her gaze from Jay's stare until he finally speaks. "Why don't we go get you some stuff for your shoulder then? Coach showed me where to find the supplies if I ever need them."
Taking a breath of relief, Georgie gets up with Jay. He swipes a few pieces of food on their way. The halls are completely empty as they walk towards the sports buildings. Soon they reach the football storeroom which Jay opens with a key. Georgie has been in nearly every nook and cranny of the campus, yet she's never been in this room. The wall contains signatures of what Georgie assumes are players who have graduated and a team picture of every tourney team since the school's inception 20 years ago. Jay grabs a box from one of the shelves and opens it up, grabbing a dark red roll of tape. "Coach showed me how to tape the other day in case I ever needed to fix myself in a pinch." He motions to her shoulder. "Mind if I...?"
Georgie is glad that she wore a tank top under her crewneck and she takes off the over layer so that Jay can tape up her shoulder. It feels like it should be awkward, but honestly, Georgie is desperate for her shoulder to feel better; the pain medicine she took before hasn't been helping. Jay's cool hands touch her shoulder as he prepares to tape her up and Georgie winces. "Sorry, sorry," apologizes Jay quickly. Georgie assures him it's fine and he starts to work, putting the tape down like his coach had shown him. "Wow Georgie, your shoulder is messed up."
"Thank you, Jay, I didn't realize that," says Georgie sarcastically.
Jay chuckles. "What can I say? I'm here to help." He continues to tape her shoulder, and when he places the final piece she can feel the support that the tape has created. Georgie feels out her shoulder and moves it around—as much as she can at least—and throws her crewneck back on.
She and Jay lock eyes for a moment. On paper, Jay and Chad are so similar. Both are confident tourney players who like to flirt with girls. But in reality, the two couldn't be more different. She begins to think about Jay and how he is kind and sweet, and how willing he was to help her out with her shoulder. But Chad is cruel and fake, willing to throw people under the bus for his own personal gain. "You're a good person. You know that right?"
For once Jay doesn't look like he knows what to say. His mouth opens but no words come out.
Georgie's heart drops because she knows what that means: he doesn't know. And that breaks her heart. "I know Auradon can seem like one big perfect place, but it's not," she says. "There are bad people here just like there are good people on the Isle."
"How do you know?"
"I know because of you. Chad would never have helped me with my shoulder, not in a million years, and he's known me since we were eight. But you? I met you like two weeks ago and here you are helping me out. That's what being good is. You're a good person Jay. Don't let anyone tell you differently—not Chad, not Audrey, nobody."
Jay is stunned by his friend's confession. "...I don't know what to say."
Georgie reaches for his hand. "I can see it in your eyes that you don't believe me. But I know you're a good person. And I hope someday you'll see it too."
+++
Jay spends the rest of the day mulling over Georgie's words, mulling over how he found Chad and Georgie in a heated conversation. He keeps running the memory in his head from when he walked into the cafeteria. He was so excited about winning the game that he hardly slept. Eventually, he got really hungry and decided to just go get breakfast. He wasn't expecting anyone to be there, yet there was Chad standing over Georgie with a finger pointed in her face. He didn't like that. Seeing the always joking Georgie being yelled at like that made him angry. He wanted to beat up Chad. Yet for some reason he didn't go beat up Chad, he went to see if Georgie was okay.
It made his blood boil ever more when Chad laid a hand on her shoulder and whispered something to her. He could tell that Chad had squeezed her shoulder. Even though Georgie said Chad didn't know about her shoulder, he could tell she was lying. On the Isle he got pretty good at discerning when someone was lying, he just didn't think he'd have to use that skill in Auradon.
Auradon is a lot more messed up than he thought. People here lie, just like Georgie had. Her lying was different though, it was to protect Chad even though he didn't deserve it. But Chad? He's seen people like Chad before. People who hurt people. Like Georgie said, it's not perfect in Auradon. But what she said before that?
Jay can't help but play back what Georgie said just before that over and over. She said that he's good. Georgie Philips thinks that he's a good person. If only she knew of the VKs plan, she wouldn't think that. He could agree that people in Auradon aren't all good, but people from the Isle good? And him? He's a chronic player, who flirts with every girl he sees, and the guy who knicks everything he can grab. He hasn't stolen anything since he first got here, but still. He's rotten to the core. Bad to the bone. How could Georgie think he's good?
It causes Jay's brain to hurt thinking about it. Georgie is a good person, like a real good person, not a fake good person like Audrey. And he trusts her judgment on things. So how is it that she could be so wrong about this? Unless... unless she's right.
+++
It takes Georgie a while to track down Ben. After her Saturday student council meeting she goes on the search for her friend. She asks each group of students if they've seen him and no one seems to have spotted the prince which is odd since he's usually out socializing on Saturdays. She begins to think that he perhaps went home for the weekend without telling anyone but decides to check the one place left. His room. Although Ben is the type of person who loathes being copped up in a room all day, it's the only other place he could be since Georgie checked literally anywhere else.
She gives three quick knocks on the door and to her surprise, Ben opens the door. "Georgie, come in." She steps into his room and sees the sheet music scattered everywhere. Luckily, being the future king, Ben doesn't have a roommate and gets a room to himself. It's the room that the student council president is supposed to get—Georgie certainly isn't bitter about that at all. Ben smiles and grabs his guitar that she didn't know he had. "I'm so glad you're here! I was just writing another song for Mal. This one is going to be a duet though so if you don't mind I need you to sing Mal's part so I can see how it sounds together."
Georgie sighs. "Ben, you know I'm not a big singing person. Especially when there are other people around."
"Don't be silly you have a great voice. I've heard it, and your mom always talks about how good your voice is," points out Ben.
Georgie rolls her eyes at the prince. "My mom usually sings with animals so that's not saying much. Plus, she thinks everyone has a good voice."
"Well, you're going to have to sing at the Parent's Day for the opening performance Miss Student Council President." Ben goes back to strumming his guitar and writing down stuff on his sheet music.
"Ugh, don't remind me. When do rehearsals start for that again?"
"Tomorrow."
She puts a hand to her face and lets out a frustrated sigh. "Great." Ben plays the intro chords for his song and then motions to Georgie with his head, indicating for her to start singing, but soon he realizes his attempts are futile and stops. "We need to talk about yesterday. I don't know how to say this, but as your best friend, even though you already technically broke up with Audrey and you had a crush on Mal, I still think what you did was a bit mean to Audrey since the rest of the school thought you two were still together."
Ben nods, seeming to get her concerns. He puts down his guitar and runs his fingers through his hair. "I know it's just...I don't know what happened yesterday, but Audrey still wasn't getting the hint and being really rude and vain, and then I talked to Mal and...I don't know. I just got all this courage and confidence and I knew I couldn't spend one more minute without her."
"Woah, you've got the L word—" Ben nods before Georgie can finish her sentence. "Lice."
It is now Ben's turn to hit his hand to his face. "No Georgie I'm serious, I'm in love with her."
"Yeah Ben, I kind of got that from the song," states Georgie obviously. "I know you asked her to your coronation and everything but why don't you go out on a date with her or something? So you can get to know her better."
Quickly after, Ben asks her to start helping him make a plan to ask Mal out on a date. They decide that he should take her to the magical Enchanted Lake, one of the most private and romantic spots in Auradon City, and he should also bring a picnic basket of food that Ben makes himself. The lake is a popular spot for students to go, so they plan for Ben to ask her out on Monday because no one really leaves campus during the week.
Once Ben is satisfied with the plan, Georgie brings up one last final thing. "Ben...you need to apologize to Audrey—and I'm not just saying that because she's my roommate and I have to deal with her—but I think you really hurt her. And I know that wasn't your intention, but you should go talk to her. She deserves that at least."
Ben nods. He knows his friend is right. Audrey deserves an apology.
And that the end folks! A much more serious chapter here than previous, but the next one is much more light and fun.
Anyways, here's the thing that would've cured Georgie's shoulder pain, the chapterly memes: