After Ever After

Kiss the Girl

Let's flash forward a year.

Allow me to give you a quick (not really) summary of what's been going down. After that fateful night with Harry and me on the water, I actually did choose good. I know right, shocking! Now, the change wasn't immediate, and it took some adjusting. I wasn't Queen of the Isle anymore, and that was just a fact of my new life. However, I started to pay attention in my classes, and I was eventually allowed in classes with other people. I've actually made some new friends and enjoyed myself a bit in school. Now, I'm in the first few months of my senior year at Auradon Prep, but let's stop talking about me. I'm not the only person this story's about.

Harry managed to get accepted into a program called Junior Armed Forces of Auradon Regiment (the acronym is, ironically, JAFAR). The idea behind this program is recruiting young people who exhibit the aptitude, talent, and dedication meant for the armed forces. School is accelerated for recruits, and as long as a recruit finishes with decent grades, they can leave school early and get thrown straight into training.

Harry never stopped striving to exceed expectations. Being labeled as a VK gave him a disadvantage already; he wasn't about to give the scouts of J.A.F.A.R. another reason not to let him in. He made sure he had no deficiency in academics, lacking in physical fitness, or any history of crimes (on record, anyway). Even after he was accepted, his engine didn't let up. He continued to plunge himself into physical training and schoolwork to make sure he completed–and in most cases, surpassed–the requirements.

I was there with him the whole way up, too. I stayed up with him at 3am with fresh mugs of coffee in the event that he needed to cram for a test or finish a paper. He wouldn't have been able to do it earlier that day because we would have been at the track, working to get his mile time down (I also ran. I didn't wanna just sit there with a stopwatch, that's boring!). My point is I've watched Harry work for this chance, and I truly believed he'd earned it.

So why do I feel so sad right now?

Oh, I skipped a part! Harry, like most J.A.F.A.R recruits, graduated early, and now he was being sent on a practice mission with the rest of the new Naval recruits on a destroyer ship (very big boat) for a couple months. Today was his send off day.

It was a sunny fall day in Auradon, and a light sea breeze blew over the docks. I was wearing jeans and a black tank top that had the words PIRATES LIFE FOR ME on the front in light blue letters. I'd also gotten my hair cut. The braids were out, and instead I had sleek black hair which fell just past my shoulders and ended in light blue tips. As it turns out, getting a haircut got rid of the shrimp smell. Who'da thought?

I was standing in a crowded space known as the 'Family Area.' There was a rope fence separating it from the main frontal part of the dock. Young men and women in navy blue boating uniforms with gold neck ties and white sailor's caps were laboring about on the dock. Whether they were hauling supplies onto the ship or organizing the equipment on the deck, every pair of hands was being put to use.

Back in the Family Area, I was watching the mission preparations with Harriet and CJ, Harry's sisters. We stood among family members and friends from all parts of Auradon, and each of them had a connection to someone on that dock. They were all looking for the sailor which belonged to them. I was trying as well, and it wasn't easy. Everyone looked the same! We were all anxiously waiting for the grace period right before send off when the recruits said goodbye to their families one last time before they left. If this was what it felt like when they were just going on a practice mission, I was not looking forward to an actual deployment.

"How much longer is this gonna take?" CJ whined impatiently as she looked at her watch (digital, of course). "My swim meet starts in twenty five minutes! If I'm late again, coach is sure to sit me next time."