I don't own any of the recognizable places or characters. This story is part of a series that is called Descendants A-Z and is cross posted (always under "IvyNyx").
"We're gonna spend a weekend in the woods. Ben says it'll be fun" Mal told her friends while flopping on the couch.
"How the hell is that fun?" Jay asked
"No clue. Basically the kids here live like we used to for a few days and think it's a great thing." Mal said with a shrug.
"It might be fun, if nothing else it's something we'll be good at for once." Evie said
"Mhmm Ben said they usually have little challenges and things, but he didn't give me much information." Mal said.
That weekend the Isle kids met with a group of Auradon kids at the edge of the woods. Each kid had a typical camping backpack, the Isle kids had their school bags with some supplies.
"Where is all your stuff?" Audrey asked.
"It's camping for two days, why do you all have so much?" Jay asked. He'd spent nights in the woods with nothing but the clothes on his back.
"I told them they should bring more" Ben said, "They want to do it the Isle way, which is apparently insane"
"Watch and learn dear. We'll be just fine. Now shush and lead the way" Mal grinned.
Half an hour into the hike the Auradon kids were bitching about how much their stuff weighed. They stopped for a break and Chad admitted, "maybe less stuff isn't so insane."
"It will be when we get to camp!" Audrey said.
"Yeah but getting there with stuff sucks" Chad whined.
The Auradon kids sat on the ground and rocks while the Isle kids kept standing, shoving each other and generally showing no signs of exhaustion.
Another half hour and they reached the ridge where they'd be camping. The Isle kids felt their jaws drop, the view was amazing. It overlooked all of Auradon Prep. Carlos looked around and picked a spot he tossed his bag down and lounged on the ground, Jay, Mal and Evie quickly joined him.
"Aren't you guys going to set up camp?" Ben asked.
"All we need is a fire, that'll take pyro over there seconds to make" Mal said.
"Food, a tent?" Audrey asked, clearly thinking the kids were nuts.
"It's camping, we don't need a tent and we'll go hunt later for food." Jay shrugged.
"Hunt" Chad echoed as if he couldn't believe his own ears.
"Yeah Jay's gonna make rabbit if we can get one a couple" Mal couldn't wait she loved rabbit and for some reason Auradon didn't consider it a common meat. Considering how faint the others looked, she almost knew why.
"Insane" Chad muttered going back to trying to set up his tent.
"I'm gonna go find a stream" Carlos said grabbing a jug off his backpack.
"I'll come with you" Jay said, he couldn't take the whining anymore.
'I can tell you where it is" Ben offered
"Nah, that takes all the fun out of it" Carlos said trying not to laugh
"If you say so" Ben said shaking his head.
Carlos walked into the woods, Jay close on his heels.
"You'd think they were going away for months not two nights" Carlos said
"Dude if they had to really rough it they'd lose their shit." Jay said with a grin
"We should try to make some of them do it. It'd be a good way to liven this up."Carlos said
"You are evil" Jay told him as they located a stream.
"Mhmm, bet if we follow this up we'll find the classic waterfall with swimming hole" Carlos said.
"Look to you're left, you can almost see it." Jay said laughing when Carlos rolled his eyes.
"Sometimes I really do hate Auradon. Don't get me wrong, I like eating and not being a punching bag, but the whole fairy tale thing grates on the nerves."
"No need to tell me. Lets head back and bring Mal hunting. Maybe we can get you that entertainment." Jay said turning back to camp.
"I have an idea for you angelic non-rejects" Jay said walking into the clearing with an easy grin.
Mal's head whipped to look at him, Ben took the bait.
"What do you mean?" Ben asked.
"Carlos had the idea, you guys camp like us. Neither of us think you can do it, even for two nights" Jay said. He saw the spark in Chads eyes and knew he had him, the pompous boy would never back down from a challenge.
"If Evie can do it any of us can" Chad said.
Ben raised an eyebrow at the Chad.
"I think we could do it, who else is in" Ben said
Lonnie and Jane both joined in, Audrey turned her nose up. Before going to sit with Ariel's daughter Melody.
"Lets go over to the clearing we passed through, if you guys want to come back here you can." Carlos said.
"Lets put a wager on it" Chad said.
"I'd bet my ass you don't make the night." Mal said with a straight face.
"I'd bet my make up" Evie added
Carlos and Jay looked at each other before pointing at the other, "I'd bet him". That sent Mal and Evie into a fit of giggles.
"You two really are adorable" Lonnie said, both boys pretended to gag at the thought.
"Lets make it fair, I bet we four can make it the whole night exactly the same as you four. Stakes are losers get to go streaking at homecoming." Ben said deciding that would be equally embarrassing for all of them no matter who lost. His friends nodded, Mal laughed and held out her hand, "that includes ditching your fancy stuff to match our bags"
Ben reached out to shake her hand, "deal"
"Welcome to hell love" She smiled and twirled to grab her bag, she let the contents drop to the ground.
"That's all I've got" she said with a smirk. Evie, Carlos and Jay dumped theirs as well. Between them all there were five sets of clothes, four water jugs, four flashlights with some batteries, four blankets, four pocket knives and four lighters.
The Auradon kids quickly grabbed their things to match, Lonnie taking the least amount of time, having packed little more than that to begin with. Chad took the longest, trying to decided which clothes to bring. Ten minutes later Mal smiled and lead the way into the woods after Carlos pointed her in the right direction. The Auradon kids waving goodbye to those not going with them.
"You want us to teach you what to do, or do you want to be totally on your own?" Mal asked in a rare show of kindness.
"A little help, but I think we can mostly manage" Ben told her.
"First make camp" she told them.
"How we don't have any tents, or sleeping bags, or anything!" Chad said. Meanwhile Carlos and Jay had laid their blankets out next to each other and Evie had started laying stones for a fire bit.
"Sorta like that" Mal said with a laugh, she walked around gathering twigs and other dead things to burn.
Lonnie took over building the Auradon fire, Mal had to admit she was pretty good. Mal cursed as she burned her fingers for the third time, still not managing to keep the fire lit. "Damn it Carlos! Get over here and light this fucking thing!" Mal gave in.
The pale boy walked over and puled out his lighter, half a minute later he had a roaring fire. He picked up a stick and waved it around watching the flames.
"Okay pyro, you lit it." Jay said with a laugh.
"I know, but it's fun" Carlos smiled. Evie laid out on her blanket while Mal got more firewood.
"We gonna hunt or dinner or eat berries?" Carlos asked.
"Both, E and you will get berries, me and Mal will get meat." Jay told him.
"Sounds good, when?"
"Uhh, after Mal finishes beating that branch down to size" Jay said.
Carlos looked up and laughed, Mal was indeed beating a branch into a manageable size. Chad and Jane watched with amused expressions, Ben looked torn between amusement and fear. Lonnie surprised them all by going to help her.
"I help and we split it?" she offered breaking off a piece.
"Sounds good to me. Isle-ish, but good" Mal laughed. With the other girls help they made short work of the branch, and went to find another.
"What are we going to eat?" Chad finally asked
"What ever you catch or find" Mal said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, "We should go out soon, the animals will be moving" she said towards Jay. The thief stood and stretched, "I'm ready"
Evie tied off one of her skirts and grabbed Carlos's hand, "lets go get berries!"
The four disappeared into the woods to get their food.
"Well we're going to starve tonight!" Chad said.
"Oh shut up, I can fish in the stream. You go find some berry bushes, preferably not poisonous" Lonnie said.
Her three friends followed her to the stream, curious how she'd fish. Three jaws dropped when she waded into the water and waited before snatching a fish straight out of the water.
"Wicked" Ben said.
"Mom taught me, good patience thing" Lonnie said, throwing the fish to shore.
An hour later everyone was back at their camp. Lonnie was busy gutting their fish, Jane had found a few large flat rocks that would act like a pan. Ben and Chad were play fighting waiting for food.
Jay and Mal gutted and skinned four rabbits, while Carlos and Evie looked for sticks that would work as skewers, they found four perfect ones in the stream and brought them back. It took them less than ten minutes to rig up a spit and skewer the rabbits on them. Evie sat and spun them so they cooked evenly.
"After dinner I'm gonna go play in the water" Carlos said.
"I'll go too" Jay said
"Don't fucking drown" Mal said
"'Los can swim" Evie said absently.
Mal and Jay looked at him, "you can?"
"Well yeah, your mom only tries to drown you so many times before you figure it out" he said as if it was obvious.
"Asshole" Jay said grinning
"not my fault you didn't learn anything but stealing and killing" Carlos laughed
"Hey be glad I can kill, got your skinny ass dinner."
"I could eat berries" Carlos fired back.
"Yeah, then shit yourself in the night."
"I was seven!" Carlos whined
"Oh I have to hear this!" Mal said
"Don't you dare!" Carlos yelled throwing his hand over Jay's mouth. The dark haired boy promptly licked him.
"Eww, you bastard!" He yelled.
"'Los at a bunch of berries and had a bad case of the runs, he was asleep and didn't run fast enough" Jay said while getting ready to run away. Sure enough Carlos tackled him and he took off at run around the edge of the clearing.
The Auradon kids stopped to watch the boys, unsure what had caused the apparent fight. Jay ran up the trunk of a tree and walked along a breach, grinning like the Cheshire cat. "Can't get me up here."
Carlos shimmied up the tree, as he reached the branch Jay jumped to another one on an adjacent tree,
"you're gonna kill yourselves" Ben yelled
"Nah they're fine" Mal told him.
Six trees later Carlos got tired of their game and dove at Jay knocking him out of the trees. They fell ten feet to the ground, Jay grunted when Carlos landed on top of him.
"I win"
"Asshole" Jay agreed with a smile. Carlos gave him a quick peck on the lips before moving off of him.
"How the hell did that not hurt either of you?"
"Isle kids" Evie said.
"Why do you use padding in tourney then?" Chad asked.
"Didn't know it was optional" Jay said, Carlos just shrugged.
"If you can do that, try playing without it, shit is heavy as hell." Ben said. Both boys nodded before going to finish their food.
After a swim, which was more walking in water the kids prepared their beds. A distant rumble of thunder made Ben ask if they could grab a tarp or something. The Isle kids let him, waving him off when he offered to get one for them. He left it laying by their stuff, deciding it wasn't really needed yet. Mal and Evie laid their blankets together on one side of the fire, Jay and Carlos took the other. Ben and Chad did the same, leaving Jane and Lonnie to mimic them.
After a few hours the Auradon kids woke with a start, the storm had reached them. It was just starting to rain, big fat drops that promised a lot more water was coming. Ben and Chad rigged the tarp over a tree branch, watching as the rain put out both fires. The Isle kids didn't move.
Five minutes later it was raining hard, Mal finally moved, she shoved Evie who woke up and cursed. Both girls moved over to Jay and Carlos. Ben didn't know what he expected them to do, but it was not to go back to sleep. Carlos looked at the tree line and pointed to a spot, all four of them laid there Evie and Carlos in the middle, Mal and Jay on the ends. Ben watched as they pulled all four blankets over them and appeared to go back to sleep.
"I have got to be seeing things." Jane said looking at the kids.
"Sadly I don't think you are." Ben said.
"What the hell have they gone through that-" Lonnie started only to be cut off by a clap of thunder "-they can sleep throguh that" she continued as it quieted down.
"Why did they move?" Chad asked.
"What?" Jane said.
"They moved, Carlos looked around then they moved out a few feet" Chad clarified.
"The trees, if any of them fall they aren't really under them." Lonnie said as she reached the only logical explanation.
"I'm going to get Audrey" Chad said moving to stand.
Ben grabbed him, surprise written on his face, "why?"
"We've been being assholes to them, it's not feeling so good right now. I think she needs to see it too." Chad said looking remorseful.
Ben let him go and he left.
"Holy shit, something got through his thick skull!" Lonnie said.
"Yeah, that is really sad to see though" Ben said looking at the other kids. They were clearly soaked, but still seemed to be asleep.
"Should we wake them up?" Jane asked.
"They were awake, oddly I think this is bothering us a whole lot more than it is them." Ben said.
Chad and Audrey chose that moment to come under their tarp.
"What the hell man! I was sleeping and you dragged me out in the rain to huddle under a piece of plastic wrap!" Audrey said barely containing her anger.
"Look, you needed to see this with your own eyes. Mal, Jay, Carlos and Evie fell asleep in pairs on opposite sides of the fire. They woke up when it started raining and moved like that, then went back to sleep" Chad said his eyes back glued to the other teens.
"So they're weird." Audrey said, "we've been saying that since day one."
"I know you're so shallow I could step in a puddle of you and not get my feet wet, but for one second think about what they've had to go through to sleep literally in a thunder storm." Lonnie said, hating the other girl more by the second. Audrey went to open her mouth before looking out at the Isle kids, she shut her mouth with a nearly audible click.
"Fine, they've had it bad. I still don't see the point of interrupting my sleep, clearly they are sleeping fine." Audrey said.
"I think we need to lay off them." Chad said
"Why the hell would we do that, this is more proof they don't belong here."
"This is more proof they've never had a chance to belong anywhere" Ben said echoing something Mal had told him a few weeks ago.
"Oh fine" Audrey huffed "I'll go back to tormenting Doug and the band geeks. Now can I go back to sleep?"
"Good night sleeping-" Chad started only to get punched by the princess, "finish that and you won't be able to play tourney next week" Audrey said before stalking out from under the tarp back to her own tent.
The Auradon kids laid down to go back to sleep. At some point in the night it quit raining. Carlos woke first and cursed at how waterlogged he was. He tried to slide out of their bed with minimal success. He gave up and shoved Jay aside, the older boy whined and rolled on to his side, not waking up. Carlos got up and yanked his shirt off, he wrung it out on the ground before laying it over a branch to dry. He picked a sunny rock that had already dried off and laid down on it hoping his pants didn't take too long to dry out.
An hour later he had gone from soaked to irritatingly damp, the other three had woke up and Lonnie was showing signs of life. Mal and Evie tossed their pants and shirts over a branch before laying in the now dry grass in their underpants and bras. Jay laid in his boxers. Lonnie went over and sat by Carlos.
"You guys sleep in the rain a lot?"
"A few times." Carlos said, he wasn't going to tell her he'd spent more time in a leaky tree house and he had in a real house.
"So why do you still have pants on, clearly no one else minds showing off their undies" Lonnie giggled.
"Dunno, I'm the weird one, I usually stay more dressed. I'm actually surprised Jay still has boxers on."
That made Lonnie blush, Carlos laughed, "Maybe that's why you and Jane would probably faint".
"Nah, I'd be in more trouble if Mal or Evie was naked. Jay isn't my type." Lonnie said with a smile.
"What's for breakfast?" Ben asked trying not to openly stare at Mal.
"Dunno, we don't eat breakfast, I guess if you want you could go to the real camp for food." Mal offered.
"Wait, you guys don't eat breakfast?" Jane asked
Four heads shook no, "we usually skip lunch too, and dinner is optional" Mal finally said.
"So you don't eat, you don't have shelter, what the hell the Isle have?" Chad asked.
"Villains, you didn't really expect us to have been cared for or raised by out parents did you?" Jay asked them.
"Well yeah, I mean even villains have to love their kids" Lonnie said, there was no other way for it to be.
Carlos started laughing first, Jay was next then Mal and lastly Evie joined in. At Lonnie's shocked expression Carlos held out his arm, multiple lines were sliced into it from elbow to wrist.
"The dome prevents murder, despite the look of these, my mother did them."
"Mine would forget to feed me for months" Evie said.
Mal pointed to a large scar on her chest "stabbed in the heart, more times that I can count"
"Don't look at me, I had it better than them. I learned to care for myself as soon as I could walk." Jay told them "As long as I kept the shelves full Jafar had a reason to keep me alive and healthy enough"
"I didn't think you guys had it good, but I never thought anything like that."
"Yeah your worst nightmares are our best days, we get it. Now what are we doing today besides rolling down memory lane?" Mal asked
"I'm kinda liking memory lane, I've never seen Chad look so close to puking." Jane said softly. She had come out of her shell, but still disliked attention being on her. Lonnie started laughing, "green is not his color"
"I kinda like it on him" Carlos said, more than a little bitter at how the other boy treated him in the last month.
"Mhmm" Jay hummed in agreement.
"Well it's not like any of us knew anything about the Isle and you guys wouldn't talk about it" Chad tried to defend himself.
Carlos looked up at him, Mal noticed he was doing the innocent thing with his eyes, making them seem as huge as possible. "Would you have wanted to talk about it? If you escaped from hell would you willingly retell the tale?"
The next morning they returned to Auradon Prep. Chad and Carlos were somewhere closer to friends than they'd ever been before. Audrey had started to make friends with Evie on the hike back, both talking about fashion. On Monday morning, no one teased the Isle kids, word had quickly spread with the little bit the Auradon kids had learned camping.
"You know we we never did pick a loser on the camping trip" Mal told Ben the night before homecoming.
"No one lost, we made it the whole trip same as you guys."
"Minus a tarp and extra food from camp." Mal said
Ben rolled his eyes, this was going to be a suckish argument.
The next night Ben, Chad, Jane and Chad went for a rather drafty run, while Mal, Evie, Jay and Carlos laughed, holding onto each other in the stands. Their camping trip would defiantly be remembered for a long time to come.