“Where did you get to last night, excuse me, Miss-bugger-off-without-a-word, well?”
“Ah, shut up!” replied Meg, tossing a pillow at her. “At least it’s easier to style than Rapunzel’s! You alright, Belle?”
“Alright?” Belle repeated, stretching happily, “I’m so much more than alright!”
“Well?” asked Jasmine, sitting up properly in bed. “What happened between you and Adam? Did he kiss you?”
Belle blushed but she didn’t care. “He did.”
“Ooh!” Jasmine squealed.
“And he asked me out!”
“Aw, honey, that’s so great!” Meg smiled. “Looks like he finally saw sense at last.”
“Hey, where’s Snow?” asked Jasmine, looking around the bedroom. “She’s not up already, is she?”
“No,” Belle mused, “look, her bed’s not been slept in.”
“Come to think of it, I don’t think she came to bed at all last night,” said Meg, thoughtfully.
“I hope she’s alright,” said Jasmine, thoughtfully. “I hope Gaston didn’t have one too many and try it on with her. He’s always looking at her in that way.”
The thought was too horrible. Belle pushed the duvet off herself. “Let’s go find her.”
“Right!” Meg bounded out the door.
“Meg!” shouted Jasmine.
“What?”
“Get dressed!”
Sheepishly, Meg came back into the room, grinning. “Yeah, guess if I go to breakfast in my nightie, I’ll turn more than a few heads.”
The trio quickly dressed and raced downstairs, only to bump into Snow White, already dressed. “Morning,” she greeted them, cheerfully.
“Where did you get to last night, excuse me, Miss-bugger-off-without-a-word, well?” asked Meg.
“Is that meant to be English?” Belle muttered to Jasmine, who giggled.
“Oh, I went back to Aurora’s room and we sat up talking most of the night and I kinda fell asleep. Sorry.”
Belle had a feeling that there had been more to their night than just sleep, however she knew better than to spill Snow White’s secret. At any rate, suddenly the boys popped up out of nowhere. “Hey,” John grinned. “So, how’d you girls sleep last night, then?”
“Some of us slept better than others,” Meg teased, nudging Belle playfully.
Belle blushed. “Meg!”
“What’s for breakfast?” asked Aladdin, quickly making an awkward moment less awkward as he dragged Hercules and John into the canteen. “I’m starving!”
“Hey, wait for me!” laughed Flynn, following.
“We’ll save you a seat,” Jasmine said to Belle.
“Try and save us some food,” laughed Adam. “Before Aladdin eats it all!”
“Oh, I’ll keep an eye on him! Come on, girls!”
The trio scuttled into the canteen, giggling. “So, how did you sleep last night?” Adam asked Belle.
“Wonderfully,” she replied, slipping her arms around her neck. “And you?”
“Wonderfully,” he replied, before capturing her lips in a kiss of pure passion. Belle felt him slide his arms around her and she pressed closer to him, feeling the warmth of him and his own heart beating against her own.
“Hey, get a room!” laughed a familiar voice and they broke apart to see Phoebus grinning at them.
Belle smiled. “Come on, Phoebus; I saw you kissing Esme in assembly the other day. Speaking of which, where is she?”
“Still in bed, I think. But I’m not missing my breakfast.” Phoebus patted Adam’s shoulder. “Now, Adam, you’re a good guy and I like you, but Belle’s not got any older siblings, so I’m saying it in their place; you’d better not break her heart, otherwise you’ll have me to answer to.”
“Phoebus!” Belle hissed, embarrassed.
Adam, however, took it in good stride. “Message received and understood, Phoebus, but I assure you I have no intention of hurting Belle in any way.”
“See?” Belle flapped at her cousin. “Hop it!”
“Ok, ok, I’ll leave you two playing tonsil hockey!” Phoebus joked, going into the canteen.
“I do wish people would just refer to it as kissing,” Adam told Belle. “Anything else just sounds...wrong.”
“I know.” She smiled. “Sorry. He can get a bit overprotective at times.”
“That’s understandable,” Adam replied. “But you do know that I’d never want to do anything to hurt you, Belle?”
“I know, Adam. I trust you.”
He kissed her again before taking her hand. “Come on, let’s eat.”
She giggled. “Is that all you men think about? Food?”
“When we’re not flirting with girls, worrying about homework or sleeping...yeah!”
The whole mood in the canteen felt light and happy today and Belle had a feeling that it might be to do with the fact that everyone was, what did Meg like to call it, twitterpatted. Well, all but Gastone, but then he had the Bimbettes fawning over him, so he didn’t need love. Not, that Belle thought to herself, she believed that he was capable of such emotions.
“Oh, hey,” said Flynn, suddenly, “I heard that we’ve got a new R.E teacher starting this afternoon. It’s a woman.”
“What’s her name?” asked Merrida.
“I don’t know; I didn’t hear that part.”
“You’re useless!” she teased, swatting at him.
“I hope she’s not a stickler for discipline,” groaned Aladdin. “That’s all we need; a female version of Mr Phil!”
“She could be a female version of Mr Phil and Mr Jafar combined!” joked Rapunzel.
“Please, no!” groaned Aladdin. “That’d be too painful!”
However, it turned out that Miss Grimhilde, as she was called, was nothing like that. She struck Belle at first as looking like a queen in a fairytale, regal and with something of a haughtiness about her face. However, when she spoke, it was in rather a kind, cool tone.
“Settle down, please, everyone,” she trilled as they all filed in. Belle hesitated, unsure of where to sit. She usually sat with the girls, but was she now honour bound to sit with her boyfriend? She wanted to, she wanted to be beside Adam more than anything, but would that be seen as disloyal to her friends.
Meg, however, solved the problem. “Go on,” she smiled, “you go sit with your boyfriend, Belle.”
“Thanks, Meg,” she whispered, before taking a seat beside Adam.
“Now,” said Miss Grimhilde, “my name is, ah, Miss Grimhilde, and I’m your new Religious Education teacher.”
“Good afternoon, Miss Grimhilde,” chorused the class.
“Well, now, let me see. Can someone tell me what you’ve been learning so far in this class, so I can try and stay on top of it, please?”
The students glanced at one another. Finally, Jasmine put her hand up. “Please, Miss, we haven’t really been “learning” anything.”
“Yeah,” agreed John. “Mr Frollo just used to sit up front and dictate to us about the Seven Deadly Sins.”
“And the Seven Heavenly Virtues,” put in Snow White.
Miss Grimhilde frowned and pulled out a large Bible. “I see. Well, let’s try and focus on some topics other than sins and virtues, shall we?” She flicked through the book and found what she was looking for. “Ah, yes, now can anyone tell me what is meant by the phrase “You must love your neighbour as you love yourself?”
Ariel put up her hand. “Doesn’t that just mean that all people are equal so you should love them all equally?”
“Just so,” smiled Miss Grimhilde.
Meg put up her hand. “But there are people you don’t like, right? I mean, everyone can’t get on with everyone.”
“That’s a good point,” said Miss Grimhilde, “but if someone you didn’t like was in trouble, would you help them?”
“Umm...” was Meg’s reply.
“Let me see.” Miss Grimhilde found another passage of the Bible. “Here we have the story of the Good Samaritan; about a man who helps a man he shouldn’t necessarily help, but he does so anyway.” She consulted the register. “Let’s see, do we have a...Miss French in today?”
Nervously, Belle put up her hand. “Here, Miss Grimhilde.”
Adam squeezed her hand under the desk. “It’s ok,” he murmured.
“Well, Miss French, say that you were walking home one day and you saw someone you didn’t like lying in the road. What would you do?”
“Well,” said Belle, thoughtfully, “I’d at least stop to ask if he or she was alright.”
“And if they weren’t? What then?”
“Well, I’d try to help them.”
“Because..?”
“Because if I were in that position, I’d want someone to help me, no matter who they were.”
“Exactly!” Miss Grimhilde smiled. “Do as you would be done by! And that’s what the story of the Good Samaritan is all about.”
Actually, thought Belle, as Miss Grimhilde began to tell the story, I have been in that position before; when Gaston tried it on with me. If Adam hadn’t stepped in...I don’t know what I would have done.
With a smile, she squeezed his hand back and listened to the lesson...
“Do as you would be done by!"
