After the last classes of the first day of school after the coronation, Fairy Godmother asked the Children of the Isle into her office.
"Now children. None of you are in trouble, but there are something's we need to discuss."
Wary, but willing to talk, Mal, Jay, Evie and Carlos filed in and sat on the chairs that Fairy Godmother had sat out for them.
"Now, I'm so proud of all of you. You're all doing so well in your classes, and I'm very proud of how you behaved during the whole situation at the coronation. However, some people, such as King Adam, myself, and a few of the other royals realised that with everything that happened, and how prepared Maleficent was to escape the Isle, we realised that you had obviously been planning to help the villains get off the Isle. Is this true?"
The Isle kids all wore matching expressions of discomfort and guilt. Mal looked ready to speak, but Fairy Godmother spoke again before Mal could.
"You did. How could you? Do you even regret the things you did on the Isle, or is this because you truly want to be better? What about after coming to Auradon? Plotting to help Maleficent gain possession of my wand, tricking and deceiving your classmates? Do you regret any of it?" demanded Fairy Godmother.
"That depends," snapped Mal, "do you regret helping King Adam draw up and implement legislature that screwed over an entire generation of children for crimes they had nothing to do with?"
Fairy Godmother looked thrown, her argument derailed.
"Don't look so surprised. It was the decision to create the Isle, and also punt off every person that ever committed a crime, which created a society of festering fury, thievery, and general callousness towards the very concept of kindness to others that created a society of evil and cruelty, that any idea that leaving small children to be raised in that society could be considered tantamount to abuse at the hands of the government."
Fairy Godmother looked strained. "Now, Mal-"
"Many of our parents committed horrible crimes, as everyone feels the need to express to us. And yet, the so-called 'good people' in power decided that letting people that loudly and proudly declare themselves evil could possibly be good parents. Evie's mom forced her stepdaughter to be her servant, and then tried to kill her for being prettier than her. What kind of values did you think she'd instil in her OWN daughter?! Jay's dad was to backstab and murder his way into power, and his only undoing was that fact that he didn't think of the restrictions on genie power. Carlos' mom wanted to kill and skin ninety-nine baby dogs for the sake of fashion. My own mother cursed an infant over an insult! WHY would you think ANY of them were prime parent material? And now, you have the nerve to tell us that we are poorly behaved, that we have no care for others. Where do you think we learned it from?!"
The older fairy could only stammer. It wasn't often that her arguments could be so quickly derailed. (Also, all four of the children had matching expressions that were the definition of Not Impressed And Kinda Furious. It was quite a disturbing sight to behold).
"We did what we did, because not five days before, the entire school decided to express just how much they hated us for what our parents did, along with all their parents. We didn't have any reason to believe that anyone would help us when our parents got their hands on us. No-one would have defended us, because no-one defended us then. We had no reason to believe that anyone would care."
Mal took a breath, and Evie jumped in.
"The slogan for Auradon Prep is 'Goodness Doesn't Get Any Better'. If you're all going to tout that, then maybe there should be a big sign outside the Isle, 'Evil Can Definitely Get Worse'. What kind of values did you seriously think we'd be raised to have?"
Fairy Godmother stammered out, "W-well, I suppose everyone was thinking that no matter how bad people they were, the villains would still love their children-"
She was cut off by Carlos' bark of sarcastic laughter. It wasn't real, genuine laughter, the kind that comes out when a person finds something actually funny. This was the kind of laughter that comes out when someone says something so absurd that the only proper response is to force out a noise so dripping with condescension that the person that offered up the opinion feels like an utter idiot.
"You seriously believed that?! Honestly?"
His face was full of disgust. Carlos leaned forward slightly.
"My mother loved her fur coats more than she loved me. Fact. My mother forced me to sleep in her closet with those furs, with no proper bed or blanket or even a pillow. Fact. My mother would make me clean the house, scavenge for food and supplies from the garbage barges with other kids twice my size that wouldn't think twice about shoving me overboard, into the waters I can't swim in. Fact. If I didn't do everything exactly the way she wanted it, I would be locked in the wardrobe without any food. Fact. For fuck's sake, my suitcase for coming here was a plastic garbage bag. I got my first scar from the bear traps in the closet when I was six. In what delusional universe would anyone believe that a woman completely willing to skin ninety-nine puppies for a coat could ever be a good parent?!"
Carlos' rant had started off rather quiet, but by the end of it, he was screaming. Fairy Godmother looked ready to vomit. The other Isle kids were stone-faced.
Evie said quietly, "We didn't know it was that bad. Why didn't you say?"
Carlos huffed.
"What difference would it make? And I didn't want you looking at me with pity."
He and Evie stared at each other. Carlos pointed to her expression.
"That look of pity." He turned back to Fairy Godmother. "But don't worry, FG. I wasn't the only one that got a shit draw of a parent. If Jay didn't bring home enough stuff he'd stolen, his dad would throw him out of the house for the night," Carlos said flippantly, his anger forgotten once he wasn't referring to his mother, "Jay slept on a mat under the television display. The one held up by a rickety shelf. Everyone should be impressed that Jay wasn't crushed. Evie was raised to do all the chores around her house too, by the way. However, her mom's idea of affection was telling her she wasn't pretty enough, and that intelligence is nowhere nearly as important as her looks, and that the only thing she should strive for when she got to Auradon would be to find a prince. Mal also got treated rather shittily, what with the whole 'be more evil, live up to your mother' thing she was treated to. So don't worry, FG. There's varying degrees of bad parenting on the Isle, but everyone's got a raw deal."
The Isle kids looked toward the Fairy Godmother, who's purely horrified expression befitted the things she had been told.
Jay spoke for the first time since the Isle kids were herded into the room.
"And so, Fairy Godmother, if you're wondering whether or not we regret the things we've done here in Auradon, I think I can speak for all of us when I say that, no, I don't really regret the things I've done. I regret that I hurt people, but living up to the standards and beliefs that we had embedded into our moral beliefs since childhood, not to mention the pressures and fears that our parents gave us, means that, no. We don't regret what we did, but now that we know better than we did before, as well that we don't have to fear our parents or how they're going to react, we're going to work and make ourselves better. Because King Ben, y'know, the one person that never gave up on us and believed that we could be good, and do things we enjoy, has promised to make sure that we don't have to go back and live with our parents ever again."
Mal stood up. "And on that note, we're leaving. Because I don't think we should have to stay here so you can try to justify leaving us children in those living conditions, and our only way of getting out of them was with the benevolence of a sixteen year old king-to-be. Let's go guys."
The Children of the Isle of the Lost swept out of the room, without a single backward glance. Which was good, because Fairy Godmother had to sit down, her shaking legs refusing to continue to support her. What have we done, Adam? She thought, still feeling ready to be sick, What did we do?