A/N: This story does not go with Detours. It is canon compliant and takes place in the same universe as 'Follow the Leader', though it is not necessary to ready that one to understand this one. There will be one or two more one shots in this series. This story is not compliant with Descendants 2.
Growth is Painful. Change is Painful. But Nothing is as Painful as Staying Stuck Somewhere you Don't Belong
What the fuck? Yeah, yeah, nice Auradon kids didn't swear or anything like that, but Jay wasn't any sort of nice Auradon kid. So he was sticking with What. The. Fuck. This wasn't math. Math was made of numbers, and this was letters. It had taken Carlos months to teach him basic multiplication and division, and that was as far as Jay thought he should be required to go. At least those had some use in the real world. But this? This was just bullshit.
Luckily for him, he had a secret weapon when it came to things like this. And that secret weapon was named Carlos. Carlos, of course, was long finished with his test, and staring vacantly out the window. Well, vacantly if you didn't know Carlos. None of the Rotten Four were unaware of the words that the adults threw around regarding their youngest and most fragile. PTSD. Dissociation. Autism Spectrum.
While Jay didn't deny that there was something going on with him, a lot of it just came down to knowing Carlos. Sometimes he looked out of it, but he really wasn't. Like right now. To someone who didn't know him, he was just sitting there, eyes unfocused and body relaxed. He wasn't moving, or fidgeting with something, or scrawling things in his notebook like he usually did. So, yeah, it looked kind of funny. But he was just thinking. If someone were to call his name, he would respond. There were definitely times when he wouldn't, but those times tended to occur at night, or in their rooms when it was just the four of them. Someone who couldn't hold it together in public wasn't going to live very long on the Island.
By the way, he wasn't ignorant of what they were saying about the rest of them, either. Kleptomaniac. Aggressive. Sociopath. Narcissist. Low Self Esteem. Attachment Issues. Hyperactive. Borderline Personality Disorder. Eating Disorder.
Just like Carlos, there was probably some truth in the accusations about the rest of them. You don't grow up in a place as fucked up as the Isle of the Lost without coming away a little fucked up yourself. So what? At least they had survived.
Jay slid his eyes over Carlos' paper, but it had been flipped over, showing only the blank side. Well, that wasn't very helpful, now was it? A quick glance told him that Professor Crane was occupied at the front of the room grading papers, so he knocked his pencil off the desk, smoothly catching it at the floor so it couldn't make a sound. Once he was bent over with it in his hand, he gave Carlos a quick jab in the ankle.
Carlos didn't even look over at him, but he did flip his paper back over and stare at it as if he was going back over his answers. Jay quickly copied his answers, ignoring the dirty look he was getting from Dude, who was sprawled out next to Carlos' chair. Since the dog had no idea that Jay was cheating or even what cheating was, Jay could only assume he disliked the poke that Carlos had been given.
Jay had to admit that the whole Dude thing was pretty funny. It had taken all of two weeks for the mutt to go from being the campus dog and mascot of the Tourney team to Carlos' personal pet. He slept in their dorm room, went to all of Carlos' classes with him, ran laps during Tourney practice, and sat in the bleachers during games. What was even funnier was the fact that not one person had tried to stop it from happening. It was just like the adults had had some sort of meeting (which they probably had. They looooooooved to have meetings here) and decided that this was not a battle to fight. Dude was happy, Carlos was happy, and the dog was getting the best care possible. Jay thought the best part was that Carlos has pretty much stolen Dude, the way his mother had stolen all of those puppies 20 years ago. The difference was that he spent his time dressing the dog up, whereas his mother wanted to turn the dogs into clothes themselves.
"Mr. deVil! To the front of the room please." The voice sent chills up and down Jay's spine. Professor Kropp, the meanest teacher in the school. He taught the upper-classman, and only the advanced classes, so none of them had or would have him as a teacher. What was he even doing in this class? He made every student in Auradon Prep clench up, whether they were his student or not.
Carlos stiffened and shot Jay a desperate look. Jay nodded tightly back. It wasn't Carlos' fault that Jay had cheated off his paper, and he wasn't going to sacrifice his best friend to Professor Kropp. It would have been bad enough if it had been Professor Crane. "Professor, it was my-"
"I wasn't speaking to you. I need Mr. deVil and he needs to move more quickly. I've seen you run, kid, and you can move a lot faster than you're doing. Please bring your test paper with you."
Now everyone was staring, which just made Carlos more nervous and caused him to fumble with his paper. "Dude, stay. "
The little dog whined, but laid back down. He had become accustomed to following Carlos everywhere, and had no idea why he was suddenly being left behind.
The door closed with a sharp click, breaking the silence in the room. This had never happened before, and with one of the Villain kids, too! What was happening? The word 'expelled' was floating around disturbingly fast.
When Jay looked up, both Mal and Evie were glaring at him. They all knew that he cheated off of Carlos, and Mal's only instruction about it had been that they couldn't get caught. Beyond that, they should both play to their strengths. Which for Carlos was being smart, and Jay was being sneaky.
Then Mal's head snapped towards the front of the room, where Professor Crane had just stepped back inside. Without Carlos. Shit. Mal's eyes were already glowing green, and Jay knew that this wasn't going to end well. Don't let her do it, don't let her do it, don't let her-
"Where's Carlos." Her voice was hard and strong, turning what should have been a question into a weapon. "What have you done with him."
And she did it. Things had already been bad, but you could always count on Mal to up the ante and make them worse.
"That is not your concern. Professor Kropp will take care of him, and the rest of you need to complete your tests."
"It is my concern, just like anything else that involves my crew. Now where is he?" She crossed her arms over her chest and glared.
"If you do not take your seat and complete your quiz, you can feel free to go to the office and explain to them why you think that your nosiness over another students academics takes precedence over your own."
"Done. Dude, let's go." She snapped her fingers at the dog, who whined again and didn't move. His owner had told him to stay, and he fully intended to follow that instruction. "Now, Dude!"
He withered under her tone, just like everyone else, and stood up. "Find Carlos." With that, the pair of them flounced out of the classroom.
'Find Carlos' was the most useful trick that Dude knew, and no one was sure who had taught it to him. It was especially useful at parties, which Carlos despised deeply. He would usually cruise by the dessert table and overload a plate, then disappear to wherever he could hide the best. Once that included a closet, where he fell asleep and couldn't be found for two hours. That was the first time Dude had hunted in down, but it wouldn't be the last. Everyone else had been surprised that Carlos would not only go into such a small space, but actually curl up and fall asleep with so much happening around him.
Jay, Evie, and Mal weren't shocked, of course. The closet had been Carlos' prison on the Island, but here he kept coming back to it. Sometimes he slept in closets in their dorm room, too. Other times he started out in his own bed, but would sleepwalk into the closet some time during the night. Those nights were much worse, because he tended to panic upon waking up in the dark, closed in. It had gotten to the point where Jay would wake up in the middle of the night and make sure Carlos was either in bed where he belonged, or at least had the closet door open. Carlos startled easily, and had a tendency to punch you if you tried to touch him too much while he was sleeping. Sometimes when he was awake, too. A black eye and two bloody noses later, Jay had learned not to try and put him back in bed. Just make sure the closet door was open and let Carlos sort himself out.
"The next person who speaks out of turn will not only be sent to the office, and receive a zero on this quiz, but will also have a letter sent home to your parents explaining that you do not seem to be able to pay attention in class and suggesting a parent-teacher conference." Professor Crane pounded on his desk and silence fell.
If Jafar were to receive that message, he would probably slap Jay on the back and offer him a drink. Not doing his work and talking back to a teacher? That was cause for celebration back home, not concern.
He caught Evie's eye, and she gave her head a quick shake. There were only 20 minutes left in class, and they had no idea where to find Carlos anyway. Mal would be in the office, of course, trying to talk her way out of another punishment.
But when class was over and they made it to the office, it was Carlos sitting outside, tossing a ball for Dude. The dog's tail was wagging away, and he gave a quick bark when he saw Jay and Evie.
Jay threw himself down next to Carlos. "So, are you in trouble?" He tried to make it sound like he didn't really care and failed miserably. He wasn't supposed to care if he got someone else in trouble. In fact, he should be proud of the fact that he hadn't been caught cheating. But he did care, and he knew that Carlos cared more.
"Nah, I'm not in trouble. Mal is, though. She's definitely got detention this time" Carlos slipped the ball back into the pocket of his shorts. The thought of detention was abhorrent to him.
"Is she in there now?" Evie was already sidling closer to the door so she could listen in.
"Yeah. They're mad because she wanted to know what was going on with me. They said that it isn't her business. But it is and I tried to tell them that. They don't understand what things are like at home." He gave his head a quick shake. "I mean, on the Island."
Even though it had been a month, it was still strange to think that Auradon was their home now, not the Island. Not only that, but they could never go back again. The coronation had been televised, and he was sure that everyone on the Isle had seen it. Which meant their choice to turn away from evil had been televised as well. They were targets now, and only a fool would try and return home.
"She'll be ok. Mal has to learn that things are different here, and that you can tell her things after the fact. We're all capable of making decisions ourselves, or at least asking for a little bit of time so we can go over it together. She's got to let go a little." Evie ruffled Carlos' hair, causing him to make a face and pull away. "So if you aren't in trouble, why did they pull you out of class?"
He grinned, the smiled that Jay almost never saw on the Island, but was seeing more and more here. "They want me to change classes. Professor Kropp wants me in his math class instead of Professor Cranes."
That made zero sense. "Professor Kropp doesn't teach underclassman. And he's a raving dick. Why would he want you in his class?
"Because he thinks I'm smart enough to keep up. He told Professor Crane that I was being wasted in this class and that the four of us needed some time apart from each other. He already talked to Fairy Godmother and they're moving me over on Friday."
"Did they even ask you, or did they just tell you that it was going to happen?" Jay was still shocked. "And we do not need more time apart. We're already spending more time apart now then we ever have."
There was a sharp pain in the back of his leg, and he realized that Evie had kicked him with her high heeled shoe. She shot him a death glare and turned back to Carlos. "I think that it's great. We'll miss you, but Professor Kropp is right. You were just complaining last week how bored you were with basic algebra."
"Yeah..." It was faint and spoken mostly into Dude's fur. "But-" He gave Jay a desperate look, hoping for back-up.
"It's cool, Runt. School is your thing, and it's good that other people are seeing how smart you are." He said it for Evie, since she obviously wanted him to, but the words wanted to stick in his throat.
Jay knew that they all had their roles to play. It was one of the reasons the four of them had been so successful as a gang. Mal was the leader and schemer, Jay was the muscle, Evie was the beauty, and Carlos was the brains. There was some overlap in their roles, of course. They could all defend themselves if needed, and there had been times when he or Carlos was required to play the beautiful damsel, depending on the preferences of the person they were trying to manipulate. Evie and Carlos frequently collaborated on ideas, and any of them were welcome to offer up a suggestion to Mal for a new plan.
But what didn't change was that they all stuck together. On the Island, they spent almost all day together, and the nights too if they could escape their parents. They all had their duties to their parents, whether it was chores, stealing, schooling or lessons in beauty and manners, but, beyond that, they were free to do as they liked. Carlos liked to tag after Jay and help with stealing. Even on the Isle, he had a way of drawing someone in with his sad dark eyes and distracting them while Jay robbed them blind.
It was harder for him to help Carlos out with his chores. Even though Cruella never thought that Carlos did his chores to her satisfaction, she could tell the difference between his work and Jay's. After the first few times, he had told Jay not to help, that it just make things worse for him.
Things were already different here in Auradon. They couldn't sleep together every night any longer, though they still tried most nights.
The door flew open and Mal came stomping out. They all leaped to their feet and followed her. She was pissed. The green eyes were no surprise, but he hadn't seen the smoke coming from her fingertips before.
They were all on their feet before she could even acknowledge them. They needed each other, now more than ever. Mal was going to put a stop to this moving Carlos business,and that would be it. Jay didn't have to be the asshole, Evie wouldn't bitch, and Carlos would do whatever Mal told him to. See? Everyone won.
Once they had made their way back to the girls room, Mal flung herself angrily down on her bed. "I have detention. And I can't even not go, because everyone will notice! When you're dating the King, everyone notices every little thing I do! Be a Lady, Mal. Act like a future Queen, Mal. Don't worry about your friends, even though that's your job, and the Queen's job, too. If the Queen won't stand up for her people, then she's a pretty shitty Queen."
Her frustration was evident, and Jay laid his head on her shoulder. Mal did not appreciate being comforted in words. Carlos and Evie sat on Evie's bed, watching quietly and waiting. If they were needed, they would come forward.
"Alright, deVil, tell me your side. From what I've heard, they want to move you to a more advanced class. Is that true?"
"Yes. But they already moved me. They didn't ask."
"Is this something to fight over, or something to accept? What do you want?"
"I..." He shot a nervous look at Jay. "I don't want to be split up from you guys."
"Can you do the work?"
He snorted. "Of course I can."
"Then you're going. Crisis solved."
Carlos shot Jay a desperate look, which meant Jay had to at least try and stick up for him. "Wait, what about..."
"What about nothing. This is decided and done, and not just by me this time. Carlos goes to the new class, the rest of us stay where we are."
"And you!" Mal pointed at Carlos, making him jump. "You are going to that other class and I'm not listening to any bitching about it. Got it, Two-Tone?"
This wasn't how Jay had imagined this going. He had thought that Mal would agree that Carlos should stay where he was, and then use her new found clout with Ben to make sure that it happened. "Mal-"
She whipped around. "Don't 'Mal' me. We all know that he's too smart for where he is, and you're just going to have to find someone else to cheat off of."
"Sit next to Audrey. She's might be a bitch, but she's pretty smart. Or Evie. She's almost as smart as Carlos is, and I'll trade places with you so you can sit next to her."
"It's not about that!" Even though it kind of was. Well, partially. "We need to stick together."
"We are sticking together. But how many times have I told you that we need to be playing to our strengths? This is his, let him go."
"I know, but..." He trailed off, because he didn't really want to say what he was thinking.
Mal understood and pointed at the other two. "Scram. Go sew something or get textbooks. I'll call you when we're ready."
Neither was offended by the abrupt dismissal. It was just how things were with Mal, and they all knew that she had their best interests at heart. They had all needed privacy at one time or another, and they were perfectly willing to grant it to Jay. They were both laughing as they went out the door, so hopefully Carlos' nerves had been calmed.
"What was that, Jay?" Her voice was a low hiss, almost a growl. "You know better than to challenge me when I've made my decisions. Especially in front of other people."
"I was sticking up for Carlos. He doesn't want to go."
Mal shook her head. "He was fine with the idea until you upset him. Why can't you just be happy for him? It's about time someone recognized how smart he is, and took steps to make sure he gets the best education possible. That's one of the reasons we're here." Then she softened. "What's the real problem?"
"Kropp is going to eat him alive. He's flat out mean to his students, and he's made a few guys on the Tourney team cry in his class. He's just like Cruella, and I don't want Carlos thrown back into that. Kropp will destroy every little bit of confidence he's built up here."
"First of all, no one is like Cruella. She was mean for the sake of it. Kropp is just strict. As long as Carlos does his work and doesn't act like an asshole, he'll be fine. We both know that he can do this, Jay and I would never let him go anywhere that was wrong for him. I've done the research on all of the teachers in this school, because I knew that they would start moving us around once they fully assessed us. I know you love the little Runt, but is this really about him?"
Jay squirmed. This was the reason that Mal was in charge of the group. She knew things, and saw right through bullshit. "We've never not been in the same class before. Even when Carlos was so little, he was in our class."
She cracked up. "For Evil's sake, he really was little. We had to pick him up to get him to the drinking fountain. He was a tough little shit, though. And he'll be tough enough to stand up to Kropp if he needs to, too. Don't worry so much about him."
"I'm worried that we'll get split up further and further, and then we'll lose each other. You're already busy all the time with Ben, and Evie's getting so caught up in her design stuff and taking Carlos with her. We need to be there for each other." It wasn't until he was fumbling through the explanation t that he realized that that really was the problem
"That won't happen. We're not in danger here, so we don't have to spend so much time watching our backs. That leaves us more time to do other stuff. You didn't hear Evie and I whining about you and Carlos practicing Tourney every single day, do you? Take out the time we spent building defenses, looking for food, fighting, keeping each other out of actual danger, and we actually have a lot of extra free time here."
She reached out, holding out two of her fingers, and he wrapped his own around them. There had been a time when his hands were the same size as Mal and Evie's, and much larger than Carlos'. Now he and the Runt were still growing, while the girls had stopped.
In Auradon, it would have been called a 'pinky promise' but they needed more than that. The four of them would always need more, and need different things than their Auradon peers. They could make progress, but they would never catch up. Even if they lived the rest of their lives in Auradon (and they didn't have much of a choice now, did they?), they would never fully negate the first 14 or 16 years of their lives. Their entire childhoods were lost.
Jay tried not to think too much about that. It couldn't be changed, even by magic, so what was the point? They kept trying to send all four of them to special 'feelings doctors' who they were supposed to tell all their secrets to. Fuck that. The only ones Jay told his secrets to were his gang, and they were the only ones who needed to know them.
"You know that I'll take care of you guys, right? Don't worry about Carlos, and don't worry about you. I've got your back."
"I've got yours, too." Sometimes he thought that Mal forgot to protect herself in the same way she protected the rest of them.
She slid her hand away from his, just far enough to make a fist for him to bump. "Of course, stupid. We all have each others backs. Because we're rotten."
"To the core."