"Dunbroch, Merida, please report to the office. Dunbroch, Merida."

This. This is why she was dreading the first day of school. Because it was the first day of school with her mom.

Merida grabbed her bag, trying to ignore the stares of the students in the quad, all giving her questioning glances, seeming to say, what did you do so wrong already? She wasn't in trouble, it was just her mom calling her to the office, probably to tell her about something stupid, like "you were slouching in class" or how she "made her a healthier lunch to eat".

It was probably the first one. During first period, her mom, the principal, had come in just as she was passing Rapunzel a note. To be fair, the note was in French, the class that they were in. (That class was another one of her mom's brilliant ideas)

"Sorry fer leavin' ye Punz," Merida said, frowning. "Hopefully this'll be fast."

"Don't worry," Rapunzel said with a grin. The grin quickly faded as she whipped her long braid around to look behind her. "I, uh, have something else to do anyways."

Merida followed Rapunzel's eyes, leading her to...popular guys?

"Erm...well...bye!" Merida quickly turned away before Rapunzel could tell that she was extremely confused. Did Rapunzel already get a boyfriend? She didn't seem like the type. Merida shook her head and tried to clear the thought out of her mind. Sadly, ignoring that prospect brought up the next topic that was on her mind: her mom.

After her dad lost his leg in a car crash (to a shaggy-haired man named Mor'du) when Merida was three, her family decided to move away from Scotland. Merida didn't really remember Scotland, but her parents' accents, memories, and tastes was all she needed to feel like she was living there every day of her life. She had tried time and time again to tell her mother that nobody cared about her being a proper lady at her new schools, but Elinor wasn't known for being a listener. At least to Merida.

Merida now stood in front of the office door, and begrudgingly opened it. Opening the door used to be a symbol of safety and wonder: safety from the scary high school students, and wonder from back when she thought her mom's job was cool.

"Good afternoon, how may I help you?" The office attendant said without looking up from her computer monitor.

"Hello Maudie," Merida said, pressing onto her mother's section of the office.

"Oh, Merida, so nice to see you! How was your summer? Well, hopefully we can catch up soon-"

Maudie was a family friend. Once she couldn't handle being the DunBroch family's au pair anymore, Elinor had offered her a place at the school. She accepted, and now seemed to be trying to reconnect with the wild redhead.

"Hello, mother," Merida said, slinging her backpack off her shoulder and sitting down in the chair.

"Thank you for arriving, Merida. And on time, for a change!" Elinor responded curtly.

"When have I ever been late? I haven't even gone here a day!"

Elinor frowned. "Well you always seem to be late for our mother-daughter bonding time."

" I don' think tha' a tea party counts as 'bonding' for anyone over the age of six." Merida replied, crossing her arms.

"It wasn' a tea party, it was a mother daughter social!" Elinor said, banging the papers on the table a bit harder than she initially intended.

"Either option involves me wearing a frilly dress." Merida shrugged, and then leaned forward to put her elbows on her mother's desk. "So why did you summon me?"

Elinor smiled, sat down, and put her hands on her lap. "Well, as you know, the Homecoming Ball will be coming up soon."

"Mum, ye know tha' it's August, right? and that Homecoming isn't until October?"

"Yes, I know, but ye should start working on yer campaign. An empire isn't raised in a day!"

"Remember tha' this is over a plastic crown within a group of teenagers who would rather be dancing or eating."

"But being a Homecoming Queen -the Homecoming Queen, I should say- is so much more than tha crown! It's about having respect, it's about school spirit!"

Both of which I have none of, Merida thought as she bit her tongue. "Even if I wanted to run, which I don't, freshmen never win! Heck, you usually haf'ta be a Junior or a Senior to win."

"Tha's exactly why ye need to start early," Elinor smiled. "I'm not going to easy on ye just because yer my daughter ye know."

"Wait, but wha' about tha fact tha' I don't even want to run in the first place?" Merida said, only to have her intentions drowned out by the sound of the end-of-lunch bell, followed by a quiet, but unanimous groan from the student body.

"Sorry fer keeping ye! Have a nice end of the day!"

The door slammed shut.