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Red shouldn’t have left the dorm in the first place, she should have just walked to the cafeteria, and grabbed a snack while she waited for night to fall.
After all, if she still planned on breaking into Headmaster Merlin’s office, she would be doing it on her own. Even if Chloe did somehow change her mind, (which Red doubted she would) she was a complete no show. She hadn’t seen her since they parted ways after their argument.
Maybe Red had gone a bit far with the last thing she had said to Chloe, but the choice they had to make was a no-brainer.
Breaking and entertaining wasn’t even in the list of the worst things she’d ever done, and Red had never been in a life-threatening situation like this before.
Not that her literal life was in any danger really, but everyone in Auradon, including Chloe’s mom on the other hand… Let’s just say, that last scene they’d gotten from the looking glass left little to the imagination.
She had been in this position before, though.
People she cared about being in danger thanks to her mother’s horrible actions, and Red feeling completely powerless to stop any of it.
The pit in her stomach felt all too familiar… except that might have been because she hadn’t eaten a thing except for cupcakes in the last few days.
Could you blame her? For the last sixteen years, she hadn’t even tasted a real cupcake! Besides the few treats resembling cupcakes she’d managed to sneak in Wonderland. Surprisingly, the ones Bridget made were somehow even sweeter.
Nevertheless, if we circled back to things Red probably shouldn’t be doing, she shouldn’t have strolled all the way to room 303. She shouldn’t have peered around for any witnesses in the hallways, and she should have definitely not picked her own mother’s bedroom lock with a paperclip.
In her defense, opening the door had been embarrassingly easy. Merlin Academy needed to invest more in their security. If Merlin’s office was as unprotected as their dorms, then the next step in her plan should be a piece of cake… cupcake.
Red wasn’t sure what she expected she would find when she opened Bridget’s dorm, perhaps a pink haired girl screaming with terror at the intruder she thought might be a new friend… or possibly a looming side eye from a confused Ella after Chloe’s little stunt from the day before.
However, she absolutely did not expect an empty bedroom, no one there but a bunch of cookbooks.
And a whole lot of items that owning would get any otherwise law-abiding Wonderlandian sent to the dungeon.
Was that a lava lamp? Red couldn’t even remember the last time she’d seen one of those.
It was a bittersweet memory, especially since Red had been partially responsible for those becoming outlawed after she accidentally tipped hers over and spilled its liquid on her mother’s favorite chair.
A small cooking machine? If it fit on top of Bridget’s desk, it was probably not allowed.
Any colors not including red, black, white or gray were practically illegal to wear or paint anywhere.
All those wonderful things Red had either never heard of, or had to go without were just lying around in her mother’s room. It was as if her restrictions didn’t mean a thing.
I’m getting distracted. Where could it be?
Red almost threw the towel and decided she might come back later, until she spotted the very item she had come here to see. The looking glass.
In the eyes of the unaware, the object may have appeared to be nothing more than a kooky hand mirror, yet it was so much more than that. A window into the future only Wonderland royals got to enjoy, and thankfully for Red, she was one.
For better or for worse.
She was actually shocked to discover Bridget had left this precious item unattended, sitting mindlessly by her dresser for anyone with clammy hands to grasp for themselves. Luckily for her mother, Red was no thief, she was only planning to borrow the mirror’s special abilities for a few seconds.
Red only needed a tiny, itsy, bitsy peak. In Bridget’s words, spoiling surprises took all the fun out of them. However, there was nothing fun about her possible future. Which explained perfectly why her present day mother despised surprises and had banned them in Wonderland accordingly.
And so, she picked up the mirror from its designated location and placed it near her face for a better angle. Almost immediately, the image of her grown mother appeared before her.
She sat on a gigantic red throne with the citizens of Auradon, including other royals, bowing before her.
“I finally rule Auradon and Wonderland, and it is all thanks to my darling Red,” her mother spoke, finally acknowledging her daughter. “Wherever she is, I’ll be sure to show how proud of her I am!”
She lowered her gaze, viewing the looking glass in her hands, showing a terrifying future Red had seen before. Her hair was styled straight, and a majestic crown was placed on her head. Evil mother and daughter, governing side by side.
Exactly what her mother wanted.
“We shall rule for a million years, together.”
A shiver went down Red’s spine.
Was that real?
Is that really still my future?
Was Maddox wrong? Is the future set in stone?
Does it always end the same for me?
Were the past, present a future nothing but a permanent self-fulfilling prophecy with no end?
Red moved backwards, pressing her back against the wall. There’s no way to change it, is there?
I’m bound to be evil.
Just like my mom.
She fell to the cold embrace of the floor, hugging her shaking knees together.
Look at Bridget, she was the nicest girl possibly ever and she still became… well, my mom.
Why did I ever think I could be any different?
Even outside of Wonderland, she was a lost cause.
Red couldn’t hold it together anymore. She didn’t know if she would be able to save Auradon from the coup, or her mother. She didn’t even know if she would be able to get herself and Chloe back home in time. It was futile to even keep trying.
In the heat of her desperate hopelessness, a few rogue tears streamed down her already puffy face.
Oh, how Red hated crying.
It was weak.
Weakness. What a hard thing to define.
Red used to believe being weak meant missing strength, lacking power to rule over the people around you. In turn, to the Queen, crying was weak, indulging in pleasures was weak, even hesitation could be weak in certain circumstances.
It was almost as if there was no escaping being weak. Except Red couldn’t afford to be weak, she needed to be strong for Auradon, for Chloe.
Red didn’t want to be anything like her mother, and she claimed to be the strongest Queen that had ever ruled Wonderland, beyond expressing any emotion besides anger. But old habits die hard.
She wept into her sleeves, doing her best to muffle out the sound of her senseless crying.
Perhaps she had been a bit too loud, because before she knew it, the dorm room door swung back open and pink heels began to trot about.
“Hello? Ella, is that—Oh, Red!”
A beautiful young girl, blissfully unaware of the horrors she would one day bring upon an entire realm, and her own child. She stood over her future daughter, completely clueless to the fact the tears she shed were all brought upon by her.
“Hey! What happened?”
Red completely broke down at the sight.
Bridget came rushing to her side, trying to reach out without invading Red’s personal space too much. Her moves were delicate, they were somewhat calculated. They were caring.
“Why are you crying? Is everything alright?” She asked slowly, her reaction being the complete opposite of Red’s mother barking demands whenever she caught her crying in her bedroom.
Not that that happened often, or anything.
Bridget hadn’t even asked what Red was doing inside her dorm in the first place.
Red sniffed twice before responding anything close to coherent. “No,” she choked out. “Not really.”
Bridget settled in a spot on the floor next to her. “Do you want to talk about it?”
Red peered from the corner of her eye. “Why?”
Bridget fidgeted with her heart necklace. “I know we don’t know each other very well, but I’ve always thought it was good to talk out your emotions with somebody else, even if they’re difficult ones!”
Red couldn’t believe her own ears.
She wanted to laugh at the painful irony. How could a younger version of her mom be so… emotionally mature? The thought of her mother being worried about anything other than her laws, her power or herself was completely unfathomable.
Am I dreaming? None of this makes any sense, and I’m not in Wonderland anymore! Even nonsense makes more sense than this.
“Are you serious? You think that?”
Bridget cocked her head, already questioning her odd behavior. “Of course!”
Oh. Red had almost given herself away there.
She needed to be careful—really careful. Time continuance and all that. She better not accidentally delete herself out of existence!
Where did you even go when you weren’t?
“So…?”
Red scoffed, was she actually going to do this? Give in to the temptation and spill the metaphorical beans without revealing anything of substance?
Maybe…
She smirked. “I just royally screwed up my life. And everyone else’s along with it.”
Bridget offered a small smile, it would’ve been more comforting if it hadn’t come off so painfully stinging from where Red was sitting.
This is your fault, Red wanted to yell, but she wouldn’t. Because deep down, she knew it wasn’t her fault, Bridget couldn’t hurt a fly… or even her own vicious bully.
And the next thing that came out of Bridget’s mouth proved just that, “I doubt that’s true. Sometimes, we think our feelings mean the end of the world. But they don’t, they’re just feelings.”
“Now that sounds like you,” Red murmured under her breath, perhaps a bit too loudly.
Very loudly. “What was that?”
Spades. She needed to shut up.
Thankfully, besides Red’s constant close calls to revealing her true identity, Bridget actually seemed pretty unbothered. Well, as unbothered as a person trying to comfort a classmate she had only known for about twenty-four hours could be.
Either the young version of her mom was not very observant or just that naive. Red would put money on the ladder, ironically enough. Hex, her life was so strange.
“—I mean…” she attempted to backtrack, “that sounds like something my mom would say.”
Bridget pouted. “Is that why you’re all curled up in a corner? Your mom?”
Red cringed. “You could definitely say that.”
Bridget hummed, curious. “What’s the matter, then? I remember you told me how bad she is to you, but how can she bother you all the way over here?”
Shut up, Red.
Do not say another word.
This is going to mess things up even further!
It was bad enough that she and Chloe had revealed their real names to their future parents. That ought to cause enough of a mess for their present already.
Which probably involved Red’s name actually being Alice instead.
Despite it, Red couldn’t resist the urge to say anything other than the truth to her. How could she make up more lies when Bridget seemed actually interested in her story? When was the last time someone actively worried about her well-being?
Red didn’t need to answer that.
She already knew.
The deck of cards by Bridget’s bright pink drawer was an even bigger reminder of what she had lost thanks to her. What Red would never get back.
Who she would never speak to again.
I wonder what Chester would say about all this.
Red figured he’d probably think it’s cool she had managed to defy space and time, not to mention she was using it to rebel against her mother by literally changing history. A big step up from their little make-shift parties back in Wonderland.
If Ace were here, he’d definitely have a better plan to save everyone.
Red still saw him around the capital from time to time with the rest of the card soldiers, but it was not really him. He was gone, just as Chester was.
Red sighed, giving in completely. “I messed up really badly. Which admittedly I have done a million times, but this is different.”
“Did you fight before coming to school?”
Red only shrugged. “Kind of.”
“Then I doubt she’s still mad, silly,” Bridget surmised.
“The problem isn’t exactly her being mad.”
Red couldn’t imagine what her mom would think about the position she’d put herself in. The Queen would probably scold her for hours on end about the etiquette of knowing her place as a princess, and not meddling in grown folk’s business.
As if Bridget could read Red’s mind, like the older version of her seemed to, she began to share a story of her own. “I’ve fought my mom too, you know. It can get pretty wacky back in Wonderland.”
Red finally turned her head. “How so?”
“It’s not uncommon for moms and daughters to fight. Then again, I guess my mom can be… controlling sometimes? But not always!”
“Seriously?” Red sounded a tad too surprised for the topic at hand, and still, she couldn’t help but wonder about her grandma, her mom had never told Red much about the late Queen.
Apart from the fact she’d been named after her.
“What does she tell you to do?”
“She doesn’t love how I dress or any of my hobbies. She didn’t even want me to come to Merlin Academy in the first place.”
Red bit the inside of her mouth, she guessed history had a tendency to repeat itself. Over and over, and over again. It never ends.
“That… sounds rough. Seems like we have more in common than I thought.”
“No, it’s not like that… like with your mom,” she laughed nervously. “I completely understand why my mom does it. Now, I don’t mean to brag, but I am sort of… set to be Queen of Wonderland?”
That makes two of us, Red wished she could tell her. Instead, she huffed, “So I’ve heard.”
“I’m a princess, I can’t afford to fool around like people our age do back home,” Bridget tried to explain with a grin, “she can be hard on me, but I know she does it because she loves me!”
Red swallowed whatever way she felt about that statement, there was no time to get into all of that.
Whatever lets you sleep at night, B.
Bridget took a strand from her bright pink hair and began braiding it. “When we’re arguing, sometimes I’ll stand there and think. ‘Don’t you remember what it was like to be young, mom? Why are you being like this with me?’ You get what I mean…?”
“To be honest, before recently, I never thought about what my mom might’ve been like at my age.”
“I know right! Same!” Bridget finished fixing her hair and moved over to Red’s, which she reluctantly allowed her to do.
Now who was comforting who?
She didn’t know how or when exactly, but at some point, the unparty the two girls were having turned into a pity party for two. Two of Hearts.
Was this what regular girls did with their mothers? Chit-chat as they lay on their colorful rugs? The only times The Queen ever entered Red’s bedroom was to scold her about something or other…
And suddenly Bridget was humming again, probably the melody to that card song she was talking about. It didn’t sound half bad.
“Do you find it weird that our parents had completely different lives before they had us?” She prompted, finishing her final touches on the double braids she had made on Red’s head. They looked just like the ones her mother used to do on her when she was a little girl. “As in, your mom was someone else before being your mom?”
Red did her best to not stare. “You have no idea.”
“A trick that helps me when I’m having a bad argument with my mom is to remember that she wasn’t always The Red Queen of Wonderland. She was once a girl, completely confused by the world around her. Like me. It brings me back to earth.”
“Wow, that’s almost insightful.”
“Still, I’m pretty sure if my mom could have it her way, I’d just be her perfect little red topsy-turvy princess,” Bridget went on, the girl was really into talking. Red didn’t remember ever having a conversation this long with her mother. “What about your mom? She’s really controlling, right?”
“Well, yeah. But it’s a lot more than that. She loves making up… rules… a lot of them, and I don’t follow very many of them. Or I go out of my way to break them. I personally think if my mom had it her way, I wouldn’t be the daughter she’d want.”
Bridget paused. “You don’t mean that, do you?”
Staring straight into Bridget’s frightened expression made Red want to run for the races. She understood why her caring, selfless young mother was so shell-shocked at what she had said.
She doesn’t understand, Red thought.
No. She doesn’t know.
Red was aware that was not something anyone would reveal about themselves quite so easily.
Diamonds! It just slipped out.
She hadn’t thought it would come off so serious. “I’m sorry. I don’t even know why I’m telling you any of this. It’s not… your problem.”
At least not yet.
“No, no, no! It’s fine! It’s very shocking to hear you say something so mean about yourself.”
Mean or not, it was the truth. “What?”
“I think you’re really cool!” Bridget let out, not as a compliment, but more of a confession. “The way you carry yourself, how you talk, and how you fought back against Uli yesterday. I do want to be her friend, and I’ll keep trying to be but… sometimes, I wish I could be less nice and maybe a bit more like you.” She looked puzzled for a few seconds, considering her next words. “I've never met your mom, but I don’t doubt she loves you or ever wants any daughter that isn’t exactly you!”
“You’re just saying that… You don’t know—”
Bridget put up her manicured hands, interrupting her mid sentence, “—I know, maybe I don’t think like your mother would, but I told you before, I have this inkling in me that screams out… If one day I just have a daughter, that would be enough for me. I’d love her, no matter what she’s like.”
Had… had she really just said that?
Huh.
Would just being the Queen’s daughter ever be enough for Red? Or for her mom?
Am I enough for anyone?
Oh. Here came the waterworks once again.
Red couldn’t catch a break? Could she?
Bridget quickly noticed. “Hey! Don’t cry! Here, want to see a trick? There’s a few I haven’t shown you. Watch. Oh, spades. I keep messing up—”
Suddenly, Red, wiping the last hurdle of tears falling from her eyes, did something unexpected.
An action she hadn’t done in many years.
She hugged her mom.
A real hug. Not a side hug. Not a lame excuse for familiar contact. A full on emotional embrace.
What a special treat.
Red didn’t care if the scene seemed strange to anyone who might have encountered them.
She didn’t only want a hug from Bridget, she needed it, even if she wasn’t really a hugger. She needed it as if it was air to her lungs, blood to her veins, just like any girl needs her mom.
Maybe she couldn’t ever get the mom she wanted in The Queen of Hearts. Perhaps, even after she returned home and everything went back to normal, Red and her would revert to their usual selves.
Not a mother and daughter, but a tyrant, and her heir.
If Red wouldn’t have a mother like Bridget, she could at least give herself this brief moment. Her consolation prize.
“Oh, there, there!” Bridget soothed, wrapping her arms around Red, slightly surprised at the abrupt request for physical comfort.
She doesn’t even know me, Red thought to herself, she’s not my mom yet, and she already likes me!
She let herself sink further, clinging to her warmth, getting the smallest bit closer to understanding what Chloe’s ‘mama’s girl’ act was all about.
Regardless of Red’s clear appreciation, Bridget still asked in a small voice, “Is this helping?
“Sure,” Red replied, a smile creeping to her lips, finally whispering to herself, “Sure is, mom.”