Character(s): Jane French; Fairy Godmother; Anxelin Rider
Rating: G
Warnings: N/A
Summary: Before the VKs ruined Family Day, Jane helped run a successful Family Day.
Jane clicks her heels as she waits outside the courtyard doors. A pristine white clipboard is in her hair. It matches the white bow in her bobbed hair. A blue dotted dress sways in the slight breeze heading through. Most kids wear colors similar to their parents in order to imitate them. Jane models her look after her mother, The Fairy Godmother. She doesn’t wear the fall colors of her father, it brings back too many grieving memories
A crowd forms, students enter from her door; parents enter from a different entrance. The students are impatient, but the guards have yet to open the doors, so she can’t let them through. She’d rather be curled up in her bed, looking through the family photo album they stopped updating when her father died.
She checks her phone, lunchtime will be in an hour and she’s promised her mother that she’d overview the activities happening in the school’s courtyard. Jane checks the list, silently seeing if everyone who reserved is here. We don’t need any surprises.
The doors open and Jane steps to the side. After a minute or two she’s the last to leave. Ironically, on family day she’ll spend no time with her mother or father or her extended family. She’ll see them, in the cases of her mother and extended family, but she can only silently mourn the loss of her father. It’s the most she an do familywise today.
She sees the pink and white themed place, Queen Aurora and her family must be officially hosting the event (even if Jane spent more time then all of Aurora’s family actually preparing the event). She gives the courtyard a clean sweep, waving and giving the occasional hug out; she’s on a mission, but must maintain a friendly air around her.
Once she accounts for every family member in attending (even all seven dwarfs and Doug), Jane makes sure the refreshments table is sufficiently stocked. Towers of cupcakes and glasses of soda line a circular table. She hears a group of girls clamor around Audrey. They are congratulating her on her boyfriend (Prince Benjamin) or the party she didn’t even help in (spearheaded by her mother and herself).
Jane groans. She’s sick and tired of royal children. She is sick and tired of the entitled girls and boys who see themselves as better than she is, simply for being born into a family. Her family had to work their way to prestige. Most of their mothers sat on their butts while their stories played out. Her parents were side characters to other people’s stories. She heard the tales her mother and father told her and the lessons she was taught from them. She sees how side characters are treated and its sick (almost as sick as what happens to villains, but Jane won’t digress into that).
As the hour dwindles, she heads to the central gazebo. Jane collects herself and grips the clipboard as she reads off of it, “Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, and everyone else,” she laughs internally, “may you all please calmly head to the dining hall where lunch will be served.”
En masse, they all leave. Luckily for her, not many little kids came to this year’s Family Day. She follows suit, minutes later. She thinks to herself and looks at the abandoned courtyard, it looks almost exactly how it did when they were constructing the party (sans the food of course).
She doesn’t sit down to eat, Jane doesn’t get that luxury. Instead, she heads into the kitchen (luckily she gets to take a break and get some food). Grabbing the plate her mother set aside for Jane, she sits atop a stool and eats, careful not to spill anything onto her special dress.
Despite her mother being in one of these two rooms, she doesn’t get to see her. Fairy Godmother is watching over this event, instructing waiters where to deliver and making sure all of the cooking staff follows everyone’s necessary dietary requirements. Jane can hear her mother’s voice and the hint of stress over today’s event (she feels bad about it, but doesn’t want to potentially stress her out more by distracting her).
Walking out of the kitchen, avoiding the dining hall, she sets off for the library. Nobody will head there, they will be with their families inside of their dorms (unless they are preparing for the final event, the show Auradon Prep’s theatre department has been putting on). Jane should head to her dorm, try to participate in at least one of the events going on today, but the Li family will understand. They don’t need her there.
Walking through the walls of the library, she touches the spine of every book, just feeling how different they all. She hears faint sobs. Following them, she finds Anxelin Fitzherbert (who recently adopted her father’s criminal surname, Rider). Jane’s surprised to see one half of Rapunzel’s twins without the other, but she sits beside the shorthaired counterpart.
She looks up, tears streaming down her face. Her hair is a wreck, haphazardly cut even shorter than her sister’s hair. She’s wearing all black casual clothes (Jane is suddenly reminded that Anxelin is in the show, doing technical work). Anxelin asks, her voice hoarse form the crying, “Has my sister sent you to find me?”
Jane sits quietly, across from Anxelin, “No. I didn’t think there was anyone in here.”
“Why are you here?” Anxelin sounds a little less angry, a little less hurt, a little more relieved.
Jane sighs, “To be honest, I don’t want to deal with the Li family’s questions, acting like I am a valuable person to talk to.”
“Hey,” Anxelin responds, “you’re a great conversationalist.”
“I mean,” Jane comments, “I mean, while the Li family isn’t royalty, they are protagonists of their stories. Li Mulan, she saved a country; Li Shang, he was a military general. Li Lonnie and her family are fantastic, but they’re still protagonists. THey’re going to get their happily ever after and have a family dynasty spanning generations.”
“Not all royals are like that.” Anxelin wipes her eyes, getting a bit defensive.
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
“I know,” A weak laugh lets out of Anxelin, “though, not all of us will have big families.”
“Not going to find your Prince Charming anytime soon huh?”
“I never will.”
“Oh don’t say that.”
“Jane I’m,” Anxelin pauses, the words get caught in her throat, but she forces them out, “Jane I’m gay.”
Jane pauses. She’s never had anyone come out to her, but she knows how the LGBT community is treated inside of Auradon. They’re second-class citizens. If they are royal, they are treated like side characters at their best (Jane doesn’t think to imagine what treatment side characters would get if they were gay, they are barely treated above villains already).
“Is that why you’re crying?”
Anxelin nods, “I came out to my family and一and一and my mother and sister said no words while my father made a joke about it and I feel terrible because they didn’t react badly and I don't know why I’m crying in a library to someone who I don't even talk to and thank you for being here with me I don’t know what I would’ve done if you weren’t here.”
Jane is about to speak before an alarm goes off. It isn’t her’s so it must be Anxelin’s. Anxelin stands up and Jane follows suit. Anxelin pulls her into a hug, “Thank you for helping me Jane. I’ll see you around. The show must go on.”
Jane watches her walk out of the library and wipes away a tear she didn’t know she had. Taking a deep breath, she heads to the auditorium to guide people into the theatre. A renewed sense of vigour is in her; if Anxelin can make it through the rest of the with all she went through, Jane can deal with the snotty royals and not spending any time with her family.
