"Sorry," Carlos mumbled. "I guess I was wrong, Mal doesn't just talk a big game."

"Yeah, me too. The party sounds like fun," Evie said sadly, she looked over to Faith, who seemed a little pale, "Are you okay?" she asked. Faith quickly shook her head and stepped out from Blade's arm and hightailed it to the bathroom. Of course, the first thing she thought of when she thought of a party was the crowd…

And that led to plenty of unpleasant thoughts.

She just needed a moment to herself before the bell rung, indicating that she would only have five minutes to reach her next class.

"Oh darling," her mother said. "Don't let what's going on with me make you want to miss the crowd. I'll be fine right here, and I'll be here when you come back."

"But mama!" a small Faith said, "I don't want to leave your side for a second! Don't make me leave the house. Let me stay here, and practice."

"Shouldn't most kids want to leave the house?" Her mother said with a chuckle, "You'll be fine Faith. Go to that party, enjoy yourself, I'll be right here."

Faith wiped at the tears that had dared to leak from her eyes, her mother was right, she was there, ready to talk to her when she got home. But….

It doesn't matter, she had a class to attend.

Faith made it to the classroom just as the five minute bell rung. Of course, the only available seat left in class was the one right next to Mal, and seeing as she was too tired to pull the trick she did in first block, Faith decided to just suck it up and sit next to Mal.

Mal did try to bother her, but stopped when Faith took out a small knife, full expecting it to be used on her. But much to her shock (and relief) Faith also pulled out a block of wood that had been previously whittled into, and continued with her work, ignoring the two next to her.

"Well, you look very pleased with yourself," Jay said to Mal while keeping an eye on Faith.

"I am," Mal said. "I just taught that little blueberry what it means to feel left out."

"Carlos looked like he was going to have a cow when you told him he was hosting your party."

"You mean a dog?" Mal laughed, even though the joke was getting old.

Jay elbowed her with a wink before melting away to his desk in the back of the room.

"Hello, you dreadful children," Lady Tremaine said, entering the room with a swish of her petticoats and casting a bored look at the class in front of her. "Today we will embark on our annual class project: Crafting the Ultimate Evil Scheme."

She turned toward the chalkboard and wrote in earsplitting cursive: The Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Broken Glass Slipper. "As you well know," she said, as she turned back to the students, "my manipulation of Cinderella was my greatest evil deed. For years I kept her in the attic and treated her as a virtual servant. If not for some horrid meddling mice, one of my daughters would be the queen of Charming Castle right now, instead of that ungrateful girl. And so, the goal of every teacher at Dragon Hall is to train the new generation of villains not to make the same mistakes we did. You must learn to adapt, to be faster, more cunning, and wickeder than ever before. You will spend this year working on an evil scheme of your choosing. The student with the best nasty trick will win Dragon Hall's Evilest of the Year award."

Faith looked up from her whittling, considering whether or not she should participate in this little competition. She immediately pushed the thought out of her head, all the crazy schemes she had would expose her, and the whole reason for leaving the house, and the promise she made would be broken.

Across the room, a soft giggle could be heard. It turned out to be Evie chatting cheerfully with Carlos De Vil as they played with some sort of black box on his desk. Faith turned around to see Mal smiling mischievously and furiously scribbling in her notebook. She considered spying a look but never got a chance to as the bell rang.

She sprang from her seat and walked to the back to walk with Evie and Carlos.

"Feeling better?" Carlos asked, and got a small nod in response. "So will you be coming to the party?"

Faith shook her head.

"Mal's not gonna like that."

Faith surprised them by speaking, "Well then, Mal, can suck it." Evie burst out in a giggle as Faith cracked a smile and Carlos just stood there staring up at the supposedly silent girl.

Even so, they walked out of the classroom in high spirits.

Though they soon lowered.

"Hold up," Mal said as she spotted Carlos and Evie coming toward them.

Evie looked genuinely fearful and Carlos wary, and Faith… Protective? As they approached Mal, who blocked the doorway.

"Hey, Evie, you know that party I'm having?" Mal asked.

Evie nodded. "Um, yeah?"

"I was only kidding earlier," Mal said with the sweetest smile she could manage. "Of course you're invited."

"I am?" Evie squealed. "Are you sure you want me there?"

"I don't want anything more in the world," said Mal grandly, and truthfully. "Don't miss it."

"I won't," promised Evie with a nervous smile.

"Same goes for you Faith."

Faith had fell back into her silent mode and shook her head with a smirk, almost as if to say, Go to a party? Not in a million years… She then turned and left with Evie and Carlos and went off to lunch. Today's food was stale no cheese pepperoni pizza, rotten apples, sour apple juice, and sloppy cups. The three loaded their plates and looked around. Faith, being taller than the two, was able to spot Blade occupied by him and two others, only one being familiar to her.

She pulled Carlos and Evie along with her towards the end table. "Faith," Blade nodded. Faith put her plate down, just in time to, because a boy with long black hair that reached his waist and pitch black eyes engulfed her in a hug that was returned awkwardly. Of course, he was the same height as Faith was in a pair of flats, so the hug was even more awkward.

"Theo, you're crushing the poor girl," a smooth tone said. Faith glanced at the owner of the voice to see a girl with a curly Mohawk with her sides shaved, bright blue eyes, and a spray of freckles that peaked out from just beneath her black mask. "Am not! I'm not crushing you right Faith?" Theo said, releasing her from the hug and looked at her with puppy dog eyes that a teenager should not be able to pull off.

Faith shook her head with a small smile and sat down with Evie and Carlos.

"So Faith, who are these two, weren't they being hassled by Mal and Jay in the halls with you?" Blade asked, glancing at the two of them. Faith rolled her eyes at him, "This is Carlos de Vil, and that's Evie Queen," she said, then she glanced over at the girl who tried to save her from a hug, "And you are?"

"Cynthia Syndrome, daughter of Syndrome! One of the greatest super villains of all time!" Cynthia said as she stood up pointing an arm up in the air and placing a hand on her hip. The group chuckled at the girl. After the introductions, the teens ate their lunch and casually chatted, insulted others, and plotted evil schemes. Well, everyone except Faith, who watched the group with slight amusement.

At the end of lunch the group went separate ways. And Faith decided she was going to lie to her father, and not see him in third block. Because once again she was in a bathroom stall having a major panic attack. She soon realized why she was only just now having a large panic attack. Before, she was at least with someone to mainly keep her mind off of the crowd, so her attention wasn't trained on virtually everything.

But on her walk to class she had been on her own, and without her attention being taken off of everyone around her, she was bombarded by the overwhelming crowd.

Carlos never shied from a mission, and if Mal wanted a howler, there was no alternative but to provide one. There was nothing he could do about it, AP Evil Penchant or not. He knew his place on the totem pole.

First things first: a party couldn't be a party without guests. Which meant people. Lots of people. Bodies. Dancing. Talking. Drinking. Eating. Playing games. He had to get the word out.

Thankfully it didn't take too long for everyone he crossed paths with at school, and the minions of everyone they crossed paths with, to spread the word. Because Carlos didn't so much issue an invitation as deliver a threat.

Literally.

He didn't mince words, and the threats only grew more exaggerated as the school day wore on. The rumors spread like the gusty, salty wind that blew up from the alligator-infested waters surrounding the island.

"Be there, or Mal will find you," he said to his squat little lab partner, Le Fou Deux, as they both dissected a frog that would never turn into a prince in Unnatural Biology class.

"Be there, or Mal will find you and ban you from the city streets," he whispered to the Gastons as they took turns stuffing each other in doomball nets in PE.

"Be there, or Mal will find you and ban you and make everyone forget you, and from this day onward you will be known only by the name of Slop!" he said almost hysterically to a group of frightened first-years gathered for a meeting of the Anti-Social Club, which was planning the school's annual Foul Ball. They turned pale at his words and desperately promised their attendance, even as they trembled at the thought.

By the end of the day, Carlos had secured dozens of RSVPs. Now, that wasn't too hard, he thought, putting away his books in his locker and releasing the first-year who'd been trapped inside.

"Hey, man." Carlos nodded.

"Thanks, I really have to pee," squeaked the unfortunate student.

"Sure," Carlos said, scrunching his nose. "Oh, and there's a party. My house. Midnight."

"I heard, I'll be there! Wouldn't miss it!" the first-year said, raising his fist to the air in excitement.

Carlos nodded, feeling mollified and more than a little impressed that even someone who'd been trapped inside a locker all day had heard the news about the party. He was a natural!

A few hours later and Carlos was home setting up for the party along with his "friends" Harry and Jace. He also called up his cousin, Diego de Vil- who was the lead singer in a local band called the Bad Apples- to see if he would perform tonight.

Luckily that was a yes, because a party wasn't a party without music. And no party would result in either death or excruciating pain for Carlos.

The band arrived not too long after, setting up the drum set by the window and practicing their songs. Their music was loud and fast, and Diego, a tall, skinny guy who sported a black-and-white Mohawk, sang out of tune. It was marvelous. The perfect soundtrack for the evening.

Next up, Carlos dug out an old-fashioned instant Polaroid camera he'd found in the attic. He fashioned a private booth by removing the sheet from a couch and rigging it on a rod in a secluded corner. "Photo booth! You take their photo," he said to Jace. "And you hand it to them," he told Harry.

Carlos admired his handiwork. "Not too shabby," he said. "Now we're talking."

"And it's about to get a whole lot better," said an unfamiliar voice.

Carlos turned to see Jay entering the room holding four huge grocery bags filled with all manner of party snacks: stinky cheese and withered grapes, deviled eggs (so appropriate) and wings (sinfully spicy), and more. Jay pulled a bottle of the island's best spicy cider out of his jacket and dumped it into the cracked punch bowl on the coffee table.

"Wait! Stop! I don't want things to get out of hand," Carlos said, trying to grab the bottle and cap it. "How did you get your hands on all of that sugar!"

"Oh, but that's where you're wrong," Jay said, grinning. "Better your party gets out of hand than Mal gets out of sorts."

Jay sank to the couch, putting his combat boots up by the punch bowl. The minions shrugged, and Carlos sighed.

The guy had a point.

"Faith?" Dr. Facilier called, it was after fifteen minutes after school and he had not seen his daughter all day. He would question whether or not she had actually attended school had it not been for Mother Gothel talking about how there was a student who finally got the point of her class and showed up late.

But she was not in her last five classes, and while he would be proud of her for skipping classes, he was a little concerned about why.

So that was why he was in the girls bathroom looking for her. Dr. Facilier listened closely and heard shallow breathing from the first, no second stall from the end and opened it to find a passed out Faith sitting on a toilet with her knees pulled up and her head buried in them.
He sighed and shook her shoulder to wake her and was greeted with her head shooting up and wide magenta eyes looking at him shocked.

"Panic attack?"

Faith nodded.

Her father sighed and offered her his arm, Faith stood up and hooked her arm in the crook of his and walked home in silence.

Or she was hoping it would be in silence.

"I heard that there was a party," her father said, and Faith nodded.

"Are you gonna go?"

Faith responded with a rapid shake of her head, "No way in hell," she muttered under her breath.

And Dr. Facilier could understand why, amongst there being a crowd of people, which would overwhelm Faith on its own, but the sheer noise and bright flashes would be enough to make her collapse in the middle of Hell Hall. So instead of giving into the fruitless threats, Faith went home and rested peacefully.

HA! Peaceful? Faith? No she was riddled with nightmares.

More than an hour after the party had officially started, there was a sharp knock on the door. It wasn't clear what made this knock different from all the others, but different it was. Carlos leapt to his feet like a soldier suddenly called to attention. Jay stopped dancing with a posse of evil step-granddaughters. The Gastons looked up from the buffet table. Little Sammy Smee held an apple between his teeth questioningly.

Carlos steadied his nerves and opened the door. "Go away!" he yelled, using the island's traditional greeting.

Mal stood in the doorway. Backlit by the dim hall light, in shiny purple leather from head to toe, she appeared to have not so much a halo as a shimmer, like the lead vocalist of a band during a particularly well-lit rock concert—the kind with smoke and neon and bits of sparkly nonsense in the air.

Carlos half-expected her to start belting a tune with the band. Perhaps he should have felt excited that such an infamous personality had decided to come to his party.

Er, her party.

There would be no unplugging this party like one of his rebuilt stereos, not once it had begun, especially not the sort of party Mal seemed to have in mind.

"Hey, Carlos," she drawled. "Am I late?"

"Not at all," said Carlos. "Come in."

"Excited to see me?" Mal asked with a smile.

He nodded yes. Except that Carlos wasn't excited.

He was terrified.

Somewhere, deep down, he even wanted his mommy.

"Toad's-blood shots!" declared Mal, leaping into the room as if she were just another guest. "For everyone!"

And just like that, the party began again, as quickly as it had stopped. It was like the entire room exhaled in one relieved breath. Mal isn't mad. Mal isn't banning us from the streets. Mal isn't renaming us Slop.

Not yet.

She circled the party, pilfering a wallet from one of Gastons, stopping to share a mean giggle with Ginny Gothel about the dress Harriet Hook, Blade Hook's annoying little sister, was wearing, ducking under an overenthusiastic pirate swinging from the chandelier, taking a bite out of someone else's devil dog and grabbing a mouthful of dry popcorn. She walked into the hallway and bumped into Jay, who was out of breath after winning the latest dance-off.

"Having fun?" he asked.

She shrugged. "Where'd Carlos go?"

Jay laughed and pointed toward a pair of black shoes poking out from behind a sheet covering the biggest of the bookcases. "Hiding from his own party. Typical."

"And Faith?"

"Never showed. Guess she really isn't one for crowds."

Mal knew how Carlos felt, though she'd never admit it. Truly, she'd rather be almost anywhere on the whole Isle than at this party. Like her mother, she hated the sights and sounds of revelry. Fun made her uncomfortable. Laughter? Gave her hives. But a vendetta was a vendetta, and she had more planned for this evening than just Deep, Dark, Secret or Death-Defying Dare.

She should've expected Faith to be absent, Mal had only ran into her once before Faith came to her school, and that was only because Faith was trying to avoid a large crowd. Why is a mystery. Mal could have assumed that she was like Mal and just hates being around people, but she had a feeling it went deeper than that.

"Come on," said Jay. "They're playing pin the tail on the minion over there, and Jace has like, ten tails. Let's see if we can make it a dozen."

"Maybe in a minute. Where's Princess Blueberry?" Mal asked. "I did a whole loop of this party, and I didn't see her anywhere."

"You mean Evie? She's not here yet. Nobody seems to know if she's coming or not." Jay shrugged. "Castle kids."

"She has to come. She's the whole point. She's the only reason I'm even having this stupid party." Mal hated when her evil schemes didn't go exactly as planned. This was the first step in Operation Take Down Evie, Or Else, and it had to work. She sighed, staring at the door. Pretending to be having fun at a party when you hated parties was the most tiresome thing in the world.

Mal had to agree with her mother on that one.

"What are you two doing?" asked Anthony Tremaine, Lady Tremaine's sixteen-year-old grandson, a tall, elegant boy with dark hair swept off a haughty forehead. His clothes were as worn and ragged as everyone else's on the Isle, but somehow he always looked as if he was wearing custom tailoring. His dark leather coat was cut perfectly, his jeans the right dark wash. Maybe it was because Anthony had noble blood, and would probably have lived in Auradon except for his grandmother's being, you know, evil and banished. At one point he'd tried to get everyone on the Isle to call him Lord Tremaine, but the villain kids had all just laughed in his face.

"Just talking," said Mal.

"Evil plotting," said Jay.

They looked at each other.

Something about Anthony's handsome face brought to Mal's mind another handsome boy—the prince from her dream. He'd said he was her friend. His smile was kind and his voice gentle. Mal shuddered.

"Do you want something?" Mal asked Anthony coolly.

"Yes. To dance." Anthony looked at her expectantly.

She looked at him, confused. "Wait—with me?" Nobody had ever asked her before. But she'd never really been to a party before either.

"Well, I didn't mean him," Anthony said, looking awkwardly at Jay. "No offense, man."

"None taken." Jay grinned broadly, knowing how uncomfortable this made Mal. He found it hilarious. "You two kids go have fun out there. Anthony, make sure you pick a slow song," he said, as he slid away. "I have a step-granddaughter waiting for me."

Mal could feel her cheeks turning pink, which was embarrassing, because she wasn't afraid of anything, least of all dancing with snotty Anthony Tremaine.

So why are you blushing? she thought.

"I'm not really a dancer," she said lamely.

"I can show you," he said with a smooth smile.

Mal bristled. "I mean, I don't dance with anyone. Ever."

"Why not?"

Why not, indeed?

Mal thought about it. Her mind flashed back to earlier that evening. She'd been getting ready for the party, trying to choose between violet-hued holey or mauve patchwork jeans, when her mother had made a rare appearance at her door.

"Where on this dreadful island could you possibly be going?" Maleficent asked.

"To a party," Mal said.

Maleficent let out an exasperated sigh. "Mal, what have I told you about parties?"

"I'm not going to have fun, Mother. I'm going so I can make someone miserable." She almost wanted to share Operation Evie Scheme right then, but thought better of it. She would tell her mother once she had completed it successfully, lest she disappoint her once more. Maleficent never failed to remind Mal that sometimes it just didn't seem like Mal was evil enough to be her daughter. At your age I cursing entire kingdoms was a familiar phrase Mal had grown up hearing.

"So you're off to make someone miserable?" her mother cooed.

"Wretched, really!" enthused Mal.

A slow smile formed on Maleficent's thin red lips. She crossed the room and stood in front of Mal, reaching out to trace a long nail along Mal's cheek. "That's a nasty little girl," she said. Mal swore she saw a glimmer of pride flicker in her mother's cold, emerald-green eyes.

Mal snapped back to reality as the band finished a punk rock number with clashing cymbals and a drum roll. Anthony Tremaine was still staring at her.

"So why don't you dance, again?"

Because I don't have time to dance when I have evil schemes to hatch, Mal wanted to say. One that will make my mother proud of me, finally.

She turned up her nose. "I don't have to have a reason."

"You don't. But that doesn't mean you don't have one."

He caught her by surprise, because he was right.

Because she did have a reason, a very good reason to stay clear of any kind of activity that might hint at or lead to romance. Her missing father. So Anthony had her there. Mal had to give him that. But instead, she glared at him. Then she glared at him again, for good measure. "Maybe I just like to be alone." Because maybe I'm so tired of my mother looking at me like I'm weak, just because I came from her own moment of weakness.

Because maybe I need to show her that I'm strong enough and evil enough to prove to her that I'm not like my weak, human father.

That I can be just like her.

Maybe I don't want to dance because I don't want to have anything human about me.

"That can't be it." Anthony said, picking lint off his jacket. His voice was uncommonly low and pleasant, which once again brought back to Mal's mind the handsome prince by the enchanted lake. Except that Anthony wasn't quite as handsome as the boy in her dream had been, not that she thought that boy handsome, mind you. Not that she thought about him at all. "Nobody likes to be alone."

"Well, I do," she insisted. It was true.

"And besides, everybody wants to dance with a lord," he said smugly.

"Nope, not me!"

"Fine, have it your way," Anthony said, finally backing away, his head held high. In a hot second, he had already asked Harriet Hook to dance, and she'd accepted with a delighted shriek.

Mal exhaled. Phew. Boys. Dreams. Princes. It was all too much for one day.

"Mal. Mal. Earth to Mal?" Blade waved a hand in front of her face. "You okay?"

Mal looked up at him with a scowl. "And why do you care?"

"You seem out of it," the boy said before disappearing in the crowd. Odd.

Soon Jay came up and asked the same question, and for that all Mal did was nod. Still out of it, it seems. She was thinking back to some, interesting dreams.

Jay frowned, holding out a cup of cider. "Here. It's like you've powered down, or something."

Mal realized that she hadn't moved from the front hall. She'd been standing there, stupidly frozen, ever since Anthony had left her side. That was three songs ago, and the Bad Apples were playing their current hit, "Call Me Never."

She perked up, not because of the cider or the catchy song but because, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Evie through the floor-to-ceiling window in the foyer. She was coming down the road in a brand-new rickshaw, her pretty V-braid gleaming in the moonlight. She thinks she is so special. Well, I'll show her, Mal thought. Her eyes wandered over the room and rested upon a familiar-looking door.

It was the door that led to Cruella De Vil's storage closet. Mal only knew it was there because she and Carlos had once accidentally come across it when they were working on a skit about evil family trees in sixth grade, and Mal had been bored and had decided to go poking around Hell Hall. Cruella's closet was not for the faint of heart.

Mal would never forget that day. It was the kind of closet that would get the best of anyone. Especially a princess who was making her way up the steps to the front door and would appear at any moment now.

"Jay," she said, motioning to the front door. "Let me know when Evie arrives."

"Huh? What? Why?"

"You'll see," she told him.

"All part of the evil scheme, huh?" he said, happy to do her bidding. Jay was always up for a good prank.

But Carlos went white-faced when he saw where Mal was heading. "Don't—" he shouted. He shook off his sheet, almost tripping over the fabric in an attempt to get to the door before Mal could open it all the way.

It slammed shut. Just in time.

But Mal crossed her arms. She wasn't backing down from this one. It was just too perfect. She glanced out the window again. Princess-Oh-So-Fashionably-Late was at the front door now.

Mal raised her voice. "New game! Seven Minutes in Heaven! And you've never played Seven Minutes if you haven't played it in a De Vil closet."

"Can she really see us?"

"I think so Jered, I think so."

"Please dear! Tell my little Harriet and Blade that I miss them!"

"Let me out! My time isn't over, you can let me out!"

"The poor dear, she can probably hear everything, even us, and were downstairs."

"Shut, up…"

Ten miles away and she can still here "Call me Never" booming from Hell Hall. But it did nothing to dim out the voices.

"Help us."

"Please I just want to say one thing to my husband."

"Why can't I leave?"

"Shut. Up."

"Quiet the mouth on you, how rude."

"It's not like you can't help us."

"You're a horrible child. You know that right?"

"I said… To. SHUT UP!" Faith screamed, her arms pushing the bed that she was hiding under across the room. The mattresses remained unharmed, but the bedframe shattered into pieces. The voices silenced. Faith was now huddled in a corner, her hands covered her ears and her eyes were shut tight. The distinct smell of smoke mixed with rose's floats by her before disappearing.

Finally, some piece and-

"Faith?"

Damn it, spoke to soon.

A hand rested on her shoulder and she jerked away, looking up at her father through squinted eyes. When she saw the concerned look she began to worry. She sat up straighter and looked around the room with wide eyes. The apparitions were gone… Thankfully, but the damage that they caused weren't. Faith had long since been in her freak out a few minutes after her father fell asleep. She had kicked her already worn dresser in half, shattered a window with her fist. And yes, her bed did indeed lay in pieces on the ground. The wallpaper was nonexistent and her school supplies were strewed out across the room.

She looked down and noticed the jagged cuts that ran up her arms and finally noticed that the top half of her purple nightgown was stained in blood.

Maleficent, what a mess.

To clear some things up, yes Faith can hear ghost, it's why she has an aversion for crowds. It's also a curse for her sense it made all six senses extremely and painfully sensitive. What else?
I know Dr. Facilier seems to be caring, and that may seem out of character... But I take it as a bad sign when a parent in this part of the world cares, it makes the situation to dire to ignore. But that's just my opinion.
Oh, so as you can tell, I'm not just sticking to one part of the Disney universe (i.e. princesses) but going into Pirates of the Caribbean and The Incredibles.
And much more.
So did you like it?
Yes no maybe so, leave a comment down below?
Thank you so much for the likes and comments, it warms my heart to see people leave them, or to see that a heart has been clicked.

~Bye