What is that sound?

Carlos glanced anxiously between the incoming train and the next platform. He tried to peer over the heads of all the other Auradon Prep students waiting to bombard the passengers getting off the train, but he couldn’t see what was making that sound.

“Hold on,” Carlos said, and took a few steps toward the adjoining platform.

“Carlos,” Jane said. “The train is almost here!”

But Carlos didn’t stop. He could hear the sound better now. It definitely sounded like someone crying. It was being washed out by the hissing of the incoming train.

Carlos took three more steps through the crowd, and that’s when he saw the boy. He was huddled on the ground in the middle of the empty platform, sobbing. He looked to only be about six or seven years old. The boy’s hair was white, just like Carlos’s, which surprised Carlos. He had never before seen another child with white hair.

Carlos blinked, and for a second, he couldn’t see the boy anymore. He only saw himself. A scared little boy, huddled inside his mom’s fur-storage closet, crying to be let out. He felt a wave of fear pass through him, as though he were back there in that closet.

“Carlos!” Jane said, bringing him back to the train station. “What’s going on?”

“We have to help him,” Carlos said dazedly.

“Help who?” Jane asked, confused. But then she glanced in the direction where Carlos was staring and saw the boy. “Oh my gosh! What’s wrong with him?”

Carlos shook his head. “I don’t know. But we can’t just stand here.” And then he was moving, calling back to Jane and Evie to come with him. Carlos could hear the hiss of the train from Charmington as it pulled into the station, but he didn’t care. This was more important.

When he reached the crying boy, he skidded to a halt and knelt down next to him. “Hey, hey, little guy,” he said in a soothing voice. A voice he’d never heard from his mother. “What’s the matter?”

The boy looked up. His face was tearstained. His eyes were red and puffy. He blinked, looking confused, as though he couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing. “Carlos?” the boy asked.

Now Carlos looked confused. “Do I know you?”

In answer to the question, the boy leapt up and threw his arms around Carlos’s neck in a hug. Carlos didn’t know what to do. He certainly didn’t recognize the boy. He patted him awkwardly on the back and glanced up at Jane, who had arrived with Evie.

Jane threw her hands up, as if to ask, What did I miss?

But Carlos only shook his head.

The boy sniffled into Carlos’s leather jacket. “Carlos! I can’t believe it’s really you. Mommy said we wouldn’t see you if we came to Auradon. That it was too big of a city and the chances of running into you were so small. But I knew we would see you. I just knew it!”

Carlos, still baffled by the exchange, pulled back so he could look into the boy’s eyes. He searched the kid’s face for a sliver of familiarity, but once again, he found nothing. “How do I know you?” Carlos asked.

The boy shook his head, his eyes still full of tears. “You don’t.”

“Okaaaay,” Carlos said. This was getting stranger and stranger. “Then how do you know me?”

“Are you kidding?” the boy exclaimed. “You’re my hero!”

Carlos snorted. “I think you have me confused with someone else.”

But the boy shook his head adamantly. “No. It’s you. You’re my hero. I heard about you when you first came to Auradon from the Isle of the Lost. You were on TV and in the newspaper. You’re so cool. You’re my favorite VK.” Then the boy seemed to notice Evie standing there for the first time and his eyes went wide. “Sorry!” he said to Evie, looking caught out.

Evie smiled a tender, caring smile. “No apology necessary. I agree. Carlos is pretty cool.”

“What’s it like at Auradon Prep?” the boy asked Evie. “Is it amazing? My daddy went to Auradon Prep a long time ago. I can’t wait until I can go!”

Evie smiled. “It is pretty amazing.”

“What are you doing in this train station all alone?” Carlos asked.

This seemed to remind the boy why he was crying in the first place. His eyes filled with tears again, and he tipped his head back and started wailing. He sounded like he was trying to say something but his words were choked by sobs.

“Shhh,” Carlos said, trying to calm him down. “Shhh. It’s going to be okay. Slow down. Take a deep breath.”

The boy did as Carlos said, finally managing to form coherent words. “I lost my mommy.”

“Awww.” Jane knelt down next to the boy. “It’s okay. Don’t worry. We’ll help you find her. Right, guys?” Jane looked at Carlos and Evie.

“Of course!” Evie said.

Carlos glanced at the next platform and could see that the train from Charmington had come to a stop and the doors were opening. He knew if they helped this boy, they might lose their chance at an Auradon Express train ticket. They might lose their chance at twenty points. A very crucial twenty points.

“Carlos?” Jane said.

Carlos shook his head. He was being ridiculous. He couldn’t just leave this little boy to fend for himself. That would make Carlos no better than his mother. They’d just have to make up the points another way. Maybe there’d be another train from Charmington arriving later in the day.

“Of course we’ll help you.” Carlos stood and extended his hand for the little boy to take. The boy looked in disbelief between Carlos’s hand and Carlos’s face, a grin the size of Triton’s Bay appearing on his lips. He took Carlos’s hand, and Carlos helped him to his feet. The boy was wearing black-and-white leather pants that looked a lot like Carlos’s. On top, he had on a ratty old blue T-shirt that was about four sizes too big, with the words RAD REP printed across the front in faded yellow letters. Carlos assumed “rad rep” must be some kind of popular Auradon kid thing he’d never heard of.

As Carlos led the boy into the train station, he glanced back at Jane, who was beaming with pride. He flashed her a wink and she winked back.

“First, I have to ask you the most important question of all,” Carlos said to the boy.

The boy gaped up at him with joyous anticipation, as though waiting for an edict from King Ben himself. “What?”

Carlos squeezed his hand. “What’s your name?”