Courage || Carlos De Vil (Disney's Descendants)

Chapter 19

The first few weeks of school started off pretty smoothly. It wasn't a difficult adjustment for Meredith since she had also dived right into the Royal Cotillion preparations with Jane, Mal, and Ben almost immediately, which felt familiar and quite similar to doing school work already.

Meredith was by the docks with Ben and his parents on a sunny afternoon. Jane was discussing Ben's surprise gift for Mal with the artist back in the city, while Meredith was tasked with double checking the venue — one of the Royal Family's ships — for the highly anticipated cotillion. She walked down the deck of the boat, looking back and forth from the venue and to the large tablet she held in her hand that displayed the layout. She took note of possible adjustments and checked off whatever was already fine the way it was.

"All the food, drinks, and tables will be in the lower deck," Meredith reminded Ben.

"Got it."

"But, we'll begin with yours and Mal's grand entrances, so everyone will assemble here first," Meredith went on, turning around in place for emphasis.

"Right."

"You'll enter from that side, so the reveal of your gift for Mal should be over there."

"Okay. You know —"

"Do you want the royal blue carpet to run all the way here or only until the last step of the stairs? It would look nice across the floor all the way to the other side, but I'm concerned that it would get in the way of all the dancing —"

"Meredith." The redhead stopped talking and finally looked at Ben.

"What's wrong? Is there something you want to change in the layout?" she asked.

"No, that's not it," Ben laughed, clasping his hands together. "I was just gonna tell you to stop fussing over the cotillion so much. I purposely didn't make you the event head because I knew you'd stress yourself out over it as usual."

"Oh."

"This is supposed to be a fun occasion, Mer," Ben nudged her. "I want my best friend to have fun, too."

"And I will," Meredith insisted. "Evie's going to make me yet another gorgeous dress, and I'll be with friends. I'll have fun."

"That's great and all, but... have you even thought of bringing a date?"

"Date?" she repeated, suddenly flustered. "I don't think I need one..."

"I know, but come on, Mer. You, me, Chad, and even Audrey have all been going to fancy events like this since we were kids. Wouldn't it be nice to bring your own date of choice for a change now that we're practically adults?" Ben grinned.

"Is this your way of rubbing it in my face that I'm single?"

"That's not it," said Ben, but he was laughing.

"I can always just go with Chad," Meredith shrugged casually, but her mind was all over the place. "He broke up with Audrey recently, too, so we both wouldn't have anyone to go with."

"Do you really want to go with him, though?" Ben raised his eyebrows. He knew they were still friends, but ever since the VK's first began going to Auradon, Meredith and Chad hadn't been seeing things eye to eye as often anymore. Chad was also too preoccupied with Audrey when they were "dating," and even now that they were broken up and she had dropped him like it was nothing, he was still hung up on her. The whole thing just didn't seem like a good idea to the young king.

"Look, let's not talk about dates and stuff," Meredith brushed him off. "Why don't we talk about your present for Mal? It's quite complicated, so you should focus on that. Jane's been going back and forth with the artist a lot."