Abel LaBelle (Schuyler)

**Abel LaBelle** is one of the two main protagonists in *Schuyler* series, the other being his brother, Reuben LaBelle. He is an intelligent and thoughtful character who appears in *Schuyler: Reuben & Abel*, its spin-off *Schuyler on Deck*, and the Disney original movie, *Schuyler Movie*.

Abel is good friends with Luke, Buzz, Paris, Cassie, Barbara, Jaslyn and Joanna, and Tim. More recently, Abel was dating Candice Potter during the second season of *Schuyler on Deck*. However, in the episode "Breakup in Pasler", the couple broke up due to a lack of trust. Though their relationship had ended, it is revealed throughout the third season that both Abel and Candice still have feelings for each other. In "Twister: Part 2", Abel and Candice get back together, admitting they never stopped loving each other.

## Origin

Abel was born at St. Joseph's Hospital (now called St. Joseph's Medical Plaza) in Seattle, Washington, ten minutes after his identical twin brother Reuben, on a Sunday at 6:40 am in 1992. He traveled the country with Reuben and his mother Carey before finally settling into the Wenge Hotel as seen in the first episode of the series, "Hotel Hangout".

Abel is shown to have a Swedish heritage; in the episode "The Swede Life", Reuben and Abel visit Sweden which they detail as the home of their ancestors.

## Story

### *Schuyler: Reuben & Abel*

Moved into the Wenge against their will, Abel and his brother Reuben are forced to live with the bare minimum in a hotel suite while their mother sings in the lounge several nights a week. They are finally "settled", and make friends in school, though not without issue.

Though Abel is generally very quiet, he often goes along with Reuben's pranks and jokes and though he gets in trouble for many of them, his punishments are often lesser than Reuben's as the parts he plays in them are less severe.

Abel moves up through middle school with his brother and they encounter several problems both there and at home, often with Mr. Moseby or their mom. He eventually reaches high school, and an opportunity opens up for him and his brother to attend school aboard a cruise ship, the S.S. Wenge. The boys' mom, with her employment discount, sends them off into the world.

### *Schuyler on Deck*

After a few days adjusting to sea life, Abel is forced to get a job in the episode "Broke 'N' Yo-Yo", where he becomes the ship's towel boy to earn money after Reuben maxes out both of their student cash cards on non-essential items, particularly food and gifts for girls Reuben was interested in.

Abel soon found that Candice Potter, a girl on the ship, is the first person to rival his intelligence, revealed to have a better entry essay into Seven Seas High. Though Reuben was initially interested in Candice, he agreed to back off when he and Abel were locked in a cell during "Parrot Island". Abel assumes that his relationship with Barbara is now cut off, and engages his six month plan to win Candice's heart.

Though seen to be unlucky many times, such as in "International Dateline" where he attempts to win Candice's heart but is stopped by time turning back each night, he perseveres unrelentingly. He is ultimately successful, and in "Wizards on Deck with Hannah Montana", the two finally begin dating. In "The Spy Who Shoved Me", Candice begins to distrust Abel, though she eventually finds out that he is an honest person, and their relationship resumes. Much later, in "Lost at Sea", Candice and Abel hit another rough patch, wherein Abel becomes dominant over Candice to a point of cruelty. They eventually iron this out and continue their relationship.

All during this time, Abel is revealed to finally have some friction with Reuben, who is now inevitably slacking his way through school. In "Goin' Bananas", it's revealed that Reuben resents Abel for always being better in school, though he seems to be quite forgiving to the issue.

In "Marriage 101", after a class project, Candice discovers that she and Abel would not be able to be married happily. After a short apology and encouragement from Ms. Tutweiller (who devised the project in the first place), she and Abel reunite once more, until "Breakup in Pasler". In this episode, the two finally end their relationship; though there were a few misunderstandings, they ultimately decide that they cannot trust each other enough, and go their separate ways.

Though Abel is shown to be quite sad about the loss of his relationship in the episodes following, it is not until "Twister: Part 2" that they finally get back together, admitting that they never stopped loving each other.

After renewing their romantic relationship, Abel learns from Candice that she doesn't think he is funny. Abel strives to impress Candice, but he is not at all funny to people. Candice does tell Abel that he has other special qualities.

Abel goes to prom with Candice, but Candice becomes to obsessed with winning prom queen that the two don't share a special moment together until the very end of "Prom Night".

Abel learns that the ship has been sold, so he begins to focus on getting into Yale University. Unfortunately, he doesn't make it into Yale, and goes into a state of both depression and shock. Abel also learns that Candice did make it into Yale, so they will now be miles apart. But Abel eventually cheers up and gives a heart felt speech to the class, as he is valedictorian of his class.

He originally intended to attend Harvard, however he had a bad encounter with the Dean of Harvard, as he helped to lie when Reuben dated the Dean's daughter. Later on, he made a new decision to attend Yale with Candice, as he said in the episode "The Defiant Ones". Unfortunately, he is not accepted into Yale. It was revealed in "Rollin' with the Holmies" that Abel is a big fan of Sherlock Holmes and is the president of the Boston "Sherlock Holmies".

### *Schuyler Movie*

After making the perfect plans to spend spring break with Candice, Abel ditches the plans and goes off to work as an intern at a prestigious research firm, because he wants to be able to obtain a scholarship to Yale. This leaves Candice infuriated and refusing to speak to him because she does not know about his intention to attend Yale. Abel tries to write her a letter explaining everything, but Reuben loses the letter and tries to help Abel tell Candice in order to obtain Abel's car. At the internship, everything goes well until Reuben follows Abel there. He still wants Abel's car. Reuben destroys the equipment at the reserve and Abel is kicked out of the program, furiously vowing to never forgive Reuben, saying that they are twins, but definitely not brothers.

Dr. Barnaby (Matthew Glave) approaches the boys and tells them that they would be ideal for the Gemini Project, a massive project studying the effects of twins. Though it takes them much thought, they eventually decide to participate, and land themselves among dozens of other twins.

At first, the project seems normal. The first phase of the project is to eat a delicious fruit, which connects the boys physically. But before long, the two suddenly find themselves connected metaphysically in a way they never have been—the second phase is they are able to think each other's thoughts and feel each other's pain. As tension builds, the two find themselves not only emotionally conflicted, but end up in an actual fight as well.

But as their week on the Gemini Project campus goes on, they soon discover that all is not what it seems. They overhear Dr. Barnaby telling Nellie that it is a shame that Abel must lose his brain. The boys sneak into his lab to discover what the project is truly about. It turns out that stage three is a merge, which makes the twins combine together to make one brain. After that, Dr. Barnaby can control them. Reuben and Abel are confronted by Dr. Barnaby, so they decide to make a run for it. The only problem is Dr. Barnaby can control all of the other twins and he orders them to get Reuben and Abel.

Meanwhile, Candice has mixed feelings about Abel. She tries to ignore him to cause him pain, but Abel never calls again once Candice doesn't answer the first time (Only because Dr. Barnaby confiscated Reuben and Abel's cell phones.) She doesn't know that Abel is in grave danger. She tries to talk it out with Buzz and Paris, but that does not work. She is totally confused until she discovers the letter that Abel wrote, and how he only went on the internship to obtain a scholarship to Yale. She now understands, and thinks he is the "sweetest fella on Earth". So Paris, Buzz, and she head of to apologize to Abel.

Dr. Barnaby captures Abel and Reuben using his twins, and they are pinned to chairs in order to complete stage three. But Candice, Paris, Buzz, and Dr. Joyce rush in to stop Barnaby. Barnaby puts an electric wall up though, so no one can stop him. Dr. Joyce tells Dr. Barnaby to show everyone who he really is, and it is revealed that he is Dr. Joyce's evil twin brother. He pushes the button and Abel and Reuben begin to merge. Little does anyone know that the thing the twins do best actually saves them. The twins argue while they are merging and they destroy the machine. The twins are freed and they rush up to their friends. Abel and Candice share a romantic kiss to celebrate. Dr. Barnaby is still trying to merge the twins because he is extremely upset. Candice captures him using her rope tying skills. Then, they give him the same fruit as he gave to Reuben and Abel. They also give one to Dr. Joyce and tell him to think good thoughts about his brother. This turns Barnaby good again, and Mr. Moseby comes in with the police, taking Barnaby away after he and Joyce make plans for lunch once he gets out of prison.

Abel and Reuben reflect on what happens when they work together, and it is decided that they make a very good team.

Back on the ship, Candice tells Abel that she had the best spring break ever, and they accomplished everything on her list.

## Personality

Abel is more erudite, mature, and intelligent than his twin brother Reuben. As such, he generally is more studious and gets better grades in school. Unfortunately, this often leads to him being labeled as a nerd, though Abel prefers to call himself "educationally gifted". To his dismay, this has led to him being "rented" for doing schoolwork and assignments by Paris, Riya, and his own brother. Abel shows a passion for cooking, tidiness, acting, dancing, miming, and stamp collecting. His enjoyment of academics and learning is furthered in the episode "Abel Goes to Camp" when he attends a math camp, and is also seen in "Neither a Borrower nor a Speller Bee" when he wins a spelling competition.

Though he values relationships, Abel enters into them far more seldom than his brother. His relationships tend to last longer, though he has had a few short-term flings.

Abel is far more sensitive and easily frightened than his brother, and often does not do as well physically. Instead, he seems to have inherited quite a talent for singing from his mother, much as Reuben inherited his father's guitar skill. Abel also plays the French horn and violin.

Though Abel is initially quite into making trouble with his brother, as the series goes on, he becomes more mature and detached from Reuben's pranks and plans. However, as seen in "Mom and Dad on Deck", Abel still has a streak for making trouble when he deems necessary.

Like brothers normally do, Reuben and Abel often have arguments, however they sport a typical brother-best-friend relationship from one another. He is generally nice to his older sibling, but has the occasional time where he would rather be mean, taking after Reuben's insensitivity somewhat.

### Intelligence

Throughout the series, Abel has shown to be very intelligent, constantly besting Reuben in anything that has to do with school or facts, though he often fails at physical activities and more hands-on classes. The former is shown many times, as Reuben usually has Abel do his school assignments and homework. He is also seen to have more common sense than his brother, usually thinking things through before doing them. Because Abel likes to somewhat show off how smart he is, he often tends to bore and annoy the people around him. Some of his theories are real, like Galapagos Gurdy, although this was never proven to anyone, including Abel himself.

Though he expresses a wish to be the first doctor-lawyer in space in "First Day of High School", this is never elaborated on further in the series. Instead, he seems to have shifted his focus to becoming a Supreme Court Justice. Abel wishes to win the Nobel Prize, and is shown to do so on multiple occasions when reflecting on his past in "Starship Wenge".

After the disaster that took place in "Shipnotized", Abel decides that he no longer wishes to attend Harvard, and decides instead to go to Yale with Candice.

### Quirks

Though Reuben is known to be the more physical twin, moments have been shown to speculate that Abel may be, deep down, stronger than his brother. In "The Ghost of Suite 613" he is able to repeatedly smush Reuben. Also in *Schuyler on Deck'*s "It's All Greek to Me", Abel is able to lift a glass case no one else could. In "Shipnotized" he is able to rip a towel into two pieces when angry. However, in "In the Line of Duty", he has a weak knee, and in "Party On!", he claims to have thin corneas and sensitive scalp syndrome. In "The Swede Life", he could not beat a "Test Your Strength" game, claiming it was rigged; however, shortly thereafter, an elderly lady walked up and was able to claim the top prize.

Abel appears to have only one fear, that of penguins. This is revealed in "Computer Date". However, Abel details a fictional phobia of bananas for a Louis XIV paper he wrote in elementary school.

### Differences between the two series

Overall, as part of evolving into an adult, Abel has become far more mature. He has developed his own sense of style, no longer seen wearing sweater vests, and he is far more assertive in his demeanor than in the first series. He is also more interested in girls and seems to develop a more loose personality, gaining an air of sarcasm and being able to lie and pretend far more than seen previously.

Additionally, Abel is seen to be more compulsive, even going as far as lying about doing his homework in the episode "The Defiant Ones".