38

The curly-haired girl was quite glad her shift was already over when John decided break the news, as she didn't have to pretend to be happy with customers for even a single minute. Instead, she was able to escape on her bike, while tears escaped down her cheeks while no one could see them.

She had failed. She had been so close to making enough money that she could buy everything she needed to adopt Estel officially, but now Margot was to hit a standstill on her ever-quickening life.

If only she had a better conversationalist, better at escaping those talks with efficient manners, but she hadn't been smart enough to figure it out. Instead, she had made all those tables wait for the service they should have gotten immediately.

Margot couldn't blame John. He had been a kind boss to her, and he had been right to want to switch her shifts, she just didn't have the time for it. Even though she had ultimately been the one to decide to leave, it still felt like she had been fired, and the word failure seemed to echo around her brain as she biked back to Auradon Prep.

Not wanting to see anyone, she immediately went down to the music room and began practicing her concert pieces. For a moment, she glanced at the sheet music for Beauty and the Beast, then looked away. Now more than ever she wasn't worthy of playing something so important to Belle, as well as to the whole kingdom.

It seemed, though, that nothing would be going right that day as she fumbled the fingering on the third measure of Clair de Lune for the fifth time in a row.

"Come on!" Margot exclaimed, feeling her eyes watering again. She only had 30 minutes to practice before she had to get ready for her next meeting, and, though she'd hoped it would help ease her distress, her ineptitude only made it worse.

She abandoned the instrument to get ready instead, distracting herself by fixing her hair into its tight bun that she always wore when conducting business and covering her red eyes with concealer. She also put in eye drops and added more blush to her cheeks than usual to make the red eyes seem more normal. After doing a few more adjustments to her makeup and putting on a midi dark green dress with long sleeves, Margot was business ready, and her eyes steeled themselves to show no emotion.

First was the meeting with Jane, who was stressed enough that she didn't notice anything different about Margot at all. Luckily, this meeting went smoothly, though Margot felt that her brain was working slower than usual, and any work they needed done was completed.

The second meeting was the problem. Margot had a feeling that if she actually looked Ben in the eyes, she might burst into tears again. He and Belle both seemed to have the effect of pulling out whatever emotions she'd hidden to the surface, and that was not something she needed to happen in the middle of a Council meeting after she'd worked so hard to gain their respect.

"Any new ideas today, Lady Margot?" Florian asked, a hidden smile on his face. Like many of the other old grouches on the Council, he had come to quite like the girl, and insisted on calling her 'Lady' despite her lack of a title.

Margot smiled perfectly at him, pulling out her new papers from her briefcase. "Not so much new ideas, but I'm hoping to get started on a final plan to integrate to program as soon as a few weeks after Cotillion, if possible. I've compiled a list of Isle children, organized by friendship circle, volatility, and how much they need our help. Those underlined in red are the most likely to act out, and so should come in small groups so we can give them more attention, and probably sooner than the calmer ones. The number of asterisks next to a kid's name represents how badly they are treated by their parents, from what I remember, so those should also be a priority. In terms of friendship, I have grouped together the kids I believe should be brought over together so that none of them end up alone."

All the Councillors nodded as they read the lists.

"What is this group here? Uma, Harry, and Gill? They are highlighted." One of them asked.

"Those are a special case. Not because of personality, particularly, but Mal and Uma butted heads a lot, and were, in a way, rival gangs. I highlighted their group because I do feel like they should be near the top of the list, but they can't be the first group because Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos likely wouldn't be very efficient mentors to them due to their history together." Margot explained. Despite her emotions, she seemed to have gone into a robot mode where she worked on autopilot without expressing any emotions other than her quivering left hand that she held under the table. "That's why I think having at least one group come before them that are old enough to be mentors afterwards would be the smartest, to avoid Mal and Uma butting heads."

One man grunted grumpily. "Who would've thought we'd be dealing with teenage drama in a Council meeting?"

Margot just smiled gently at him. "I understand why this might seem like a trivial matter to you, but I do believe that taking into account these details will minimize any risks to the program. I'm more than happy to write up a final list myself, if you'd like, but I do want to make sure I have all of your approvals before initiating the program."

The man puffed his chest up slightly. "Of course, Miss. We all want to be sure of the safety of the program ourselves."

The meeting continued on, and Margot maintained her perfect mask all throughout, even exchanging banter with some of the Councillors who were more openly approving of her. Unfortunately, her mask was not as perfect as she'd thought it was when Ben tried to speak with her afterwards.

"Well done, again, Margot." Ben told her, smiling proudly at her.

For some reason, just those words were enough to make her start to tear up, though she desperately tried to quell the sea of emotions welling up inside of her.

Ben didn't notice at first as he glanced away nervously. "So, uh, I had a question for you..."

"Mm-hm?" It wasn't hard to catch the way her voice broke.

"Hey, are you ok, Mar?" Ben wondered, examining her face. He just then noticed the layers of concealer under her eyes and the slight red tint. Quickly, he pulled her into an empty classroom before she could argue with him. "What happened?"

"I... I got fired from Red's." Margot forced out in a voice almost too quiet to hear.

"What? Why? Are you ok?"

Margot shook her head. "Now that people know who I am, all the customers started wanting full conversations with me all the time, to the point that I couldn't really waitress properly, cuz they wanted to talk about the program or rumours or something else always. John wanted me to work mornings, but I don't have the time to do that, so I had to quit. Even though technically he didn't fire me, I just..." She sniffled, and suddenly looking him in the eyes felt like too much for her, so she let her forehead fall onto his shoulder. "Sorry if I get tears on your suit."

Ben's hand reached to hold her head gently while the other one rested on her back. "It's not your fault, Mar. You're doing a million things, and that's impossible for anyone."

Margot just shook her head gently. "I could've figured out how to end the conversations quicker, or even before they began, I just didn't know how without being rude. I could've figured it out though."

Ben chuckled gently. "You are crazy, you know? You're harder on yourself than anyone I know, and one of the highest achievers I know too. Do you know how hard it is to get even one Councillor to like you? You got all of them to love and respect you, and some of them still don't really like me."

"That's not possible." Margot mumbled. "No one could dislike you." A moment passed before she stiffened. "Sorry for—"

"Don't apologize for mumbling, I've told you before, I can hear you perfectly well. And stop trying to be perfect all the time, you're amazing as you are, you don't need to beat yourself down for not being the best at everything." Ben interrupted.

"But... I've been given so many wonderful things, I need to earn them." Margot argued with a sniffle.

"You already have, Margot." Ben told her gently. "You've put way more work into this program already than what I put to bring you here in the first place. You've done so much volunteer work with Fairy Godmother, not to mention the dog shelter and tutoring. You're nice to everyone, even the people who have been mean to you. No one can say you haven't earned every good thing you've been given."

"But, you're all so nice to me. Everyone treats me well, and people respect me, and, I just don't understand how I'm so lucky."

Ben's hand rubbed up and down her back comfortingly as she melted into him. "You're not lucky, you just get what you give. You are kind to everyone, and you never take revenge, you never ask for anything, and so people act the same to you. I know you're still not used to being treated well, but you make other people happy, and they want to return the favour."

"How are you perfect all the time?" Margot wondered, her eyes still dripping tears but her face relaxed.

Ben scoffed. "Me? Perfect? Definitely not."

"No, to me, I mean. You always know what to say." It was true, the self-hating ache in her chest had eased, and left in its place a numbness that was gradually getting warmer and warmer.

Ben's arms pulled her closer, into a real hug that Margot finally returned, turning her face to bury it in his neck. "Maybe I just know you."

"No, you just understand people really well. That's what makes you such a great king." Now, the numbness had left, and only the warmth and a fluttery feeling remained in her chest. "I'm sorry if you end up late because of me."

"Don't worry, I have a few minutes."

And so they stayed there, until Margot insisted that Ben be punctual.