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Dude had been acting weird for a while now. Everyone else said they didn’t really notice, but Carlos had gotten to know the dog so well over the last couple of weeks that even when the little guy sneezed randomly the boy would know what caused it. Multiple sneezes all in a row? Those meant Dude had been sniffing outside too much and now his allergies were bothering him. One really loud, hard to get out sneeze? That only happened when Dude had gotten a sniff of Jay’s body spray.
So really, everyone should be listening to him when he said something was wrong with the dog. He had been pacing around Carlos and Jay’s dorm room all afternoon and, no matter how many times Carlos took him outside, Dude kept walking impatiently around the room and whimpering lightly.
The little dog had even growled lightly earlier at Jay when he tried to pet him. It had startled the younger teen, but Jay had just chalked it up to the fact he had taken a sock away from Dude earlier. Carlos wasn’t convinced. What if something was really wrong? Magic had returned to the Isle, so what if Cruella had paid someone to enchant Dude to teach Carlos a lesson?
Mentioning that had been when Jay told Carlos to just go to bed and if he thought Dude was still acting weird in the morning they’d go to Fair Godmother and see what she suggested be done. However, when the younger teen had gotten in bed, Dude refused to get in with him only causing Carlos to worry more. And now, even though the thief was sleeping soundly in his bed, Carlos could not get himself to relax enough for sleep to take over.
And now Carlos was staring up at the ceiling in their darkened dorm room. He missed the little dog sleeping next to him. The thought that Dude might never sleep in bed with him again then crossed the teen’s mind and he choked back sob brought on by all the frustration and worry.
As he turned on his side to try and force himself to sleep, Carlos heard Dude let out a much louder and pained whimper. Hearing that caused the teen to bolt straight up in bed and look over in the direction Dude’s whimpering had come from between the two beds. That was when he saw Dude laying down in Jay’s dirty clothes pile, looking back at him and panting for no obvious reason.
Carlos jumped out of bed quickly and when he got closer to the tiny dog he saw that he was also shivering. Dude was very clearly not okay. As fast as Carlos had gotten up, he bolted over to Jay’s bed and jumped onto the edge of the mattress before starting to shake the other teen awake.
“Jay! Jay, seriously, something’s really wrong with Dude!” He was trying to keep his voice down because of how late it was, but Carlos couldn’t help how panicked he sounded.
The thief groaned and wasn’t even bothering to open his eyes as Carlos hovered over him in worry. “Carlos, seriously, it’s late-”
“No, Jay! He just made this really weird pained sound and now he’s shaking and out of breath too!”
Jay continued to lay there for a moment and just was Carlos was about to shake him again, he felt the older teen shift on the bed to sit up. The dark brunette then rubbed his face to try and wake up some more before looking back at Carlos.
“Dude, are you sure you’re not just seeing things because it’s dark?”
“What? No, seriously, get up and look for yourself!” Jay rolled his eyes at Carlos before the younger teen moved off the bed so the thief could throw the covers off himself and get up. The black and blond boy crossed his arms and watched impatiently as Jay walked over to Dude. Carlos could see Jay frowning, even in the darkness and threw his arms up.
“Do you believe me now?!” Carlos exclaimed in a harsh whisper loud enough for Jay to hear from across the room.
The older teen turned back and gave Carlos an apologetic look. “Okay, I’m sorry I said you were imagining things. Look, I’ll keep an eye on Dude while you go get the girls and The Fairy Godmother. I don’t want you just sitting here worrying while I go get them.”
Carlos frowned. He really didn’t want to leave Dude, but Jay was right. If he just sat here and waited while the older teen went and got everyone he’d probably start to panic even worse. With a sigh, Carlos nodded and headed for the dorm door.
“Alright, I’ll be as quick as I can.” Carlos said before hurrying out of the dorm, not even bothering to put shoes on.
It hadn’t taken Carlos too long to get everyone. The girls were in another wing of the academy, but it was still only virtually down the hall from his and Jay’s dorm. Once he had woken them up and told them what was happened, Mal had even grabbed her spell book just in case this was an evil curse that needed to be broken.
From there, Fairy Godmother’s room was right next to the girls. Even though she was the principal, she would oftentimes spend the night at the academy as a monitor to keep an eye on her pupils and make sure they were safe and Carlos had never been so glad to have adult supervision in his life. Once she had opened her door to the boy and he had begun rambling off what was wrong, she wasted no time in grabbing her housecoat and slippers before they were all heading back down the hall to Carlos and Jay’s dorm.
When the four reached the door to the dorm room, Carlos quickly opened it back up and started to hurry back into the room. However, the group all stopped in their tracks at the doorway when they saw Jay sitting on the end of his bed with a look of utter horror on his face.
“Jay,” Carlos’s voice wavered in worry, “what’s wrong? Did something happen with Dude?!”
Jay just sat there and blinked a few times while opening and closing his mouth like he wanted to say something, but he ended up just making a face and shaking his head.
“Where is Dude?” Evie asked quietly. Carlos turned to her briefly before remembering the dog had been in Jay’s dirty clothes pile. He then rushed over to the mound of clothes that was between their beds.
As he stared down at the clothes, Carlos furrowed in his brow in confusion. Dude was laying down in the clothes heap now looking much more content, but there were two tiny brown blobs squirming around next to him. The black and blonde teen gaped before looking back over at Jay.
“Dude.” Jay finally said as he turned his head in Carlos’s direction. “Dude’s not a dude.”
Carlos looked back over at The Fairy Godmother and the girls. They all had the same look of confusion on their faces. The remaining three walked over to where Carlos was and, as she came to stand behind him, Fairy Godmother placed her hand on his shoulder to peer over him to see what he had been looking at. “Oh, well would you look at that!”
“Oh my gosh, are those puppies?!” Carlos heard Evie exclaim.
Mal then snorted in the background and then started laughing more in earnest “Is that Jay’s Tourney jersey they’re laying on?”
Jay let out a whiny groan. “My clothes...”
Carlos continued to stare down at Dude and his-well, more like her-puppies in shock and awe. Evie let out another squeal in delight before kneeling down to get a better look and Carlos finally backed away a bit to look back at Jay again. Suddenly he understood the horrified look the older teen had had on his face when they all walked into the dorm room. He had witnessed everything.
Fairy Godmother rubbed Carlos’s arm before turning away from him and a few moments later, the bedside light on the side of Jay’s bed turned on.
“I guess that’s what the Tourney team gets for automatically assuming Dude was a boy.” The older woman said in her cheery, sing-song voice before coming back over to Carlos. “Congratulations!” She then turned to look at Jay. “And don’t worry dear, will get you some new clothes.”
“I, uh, huh, I mean, I just assumed since Ben said...” Carlos trailed off, completely lost in thought. But man, were Dude’s puppies cute! As he looked down at them in the light he couldn’t help but start smiling.
“What’re you going to name them?” Mal said as she kneeled down next to Evie while smiling brightly at Dude. Clearly she was impressed with how the tiny dog had been able to single handedly traumatize Jay in such a short period of time.
“I don’t know-”
“You better be naming one of them after me after everything I saw.” Jay cut in and Carlos laughed lightly before looking over at his friend apologetically.
“Alright, one can be Jay Jr.” Carlos said and for the first time since the group had walked back into the dorm room, Jay grinned.
“Sweet, little JJ will be awesome!”
“They’re so tiny! How about naming the other one Peanut?” Evie asked excitedly. And when the black and blonde teen looked back to see how excited the girl looked, he couldn’t help but nod in agreement.
“Alright girls, why don’t we leave and let the new mom and these two boys get some rest.” Fairy Godmother said. The two girls collectively aw’d in disappointment before getting up. Evie then hugged Carlos and Mal ruffled his hair before leaving the dorm with their principal.
Once the two boys were alone again, Carlos went to go sit on the edge of his bed, still smiling brightly. Not only was Dude okay, but now he had two more little dudes he got to help take care of. The bed shifted slightly and the younger teen knew Jay had come over to sit next to him.
The thief then wrapped his arm around Carlos’s shoulders and pulled him close. “I’m glad Her Dudeness is okay.”
The black and blonde teen laughed and looked over at Jay. “Her Dudeness?”
“Well, yeah, you can’t keep calling her Dude now that she’s a mom.”
“And that was what you came up with?”
“Dude, it’s like, three in the morning and I’m still having flashbacks of those two entering the world on a pile of my clothing.”
Carlos laughed again and turned slightly to hug Jay. “Thanks for staying here with her.”
Jay moved his hand to ruffle Carlos’s hair and the younger teen felt him shrug slightly. “Don’t mention it. Just know you owe me some new shirts.”