The guys left Mal at her dorm and told her not to worry about the rehearsal they would schedule another one for next week if she was up to going. She enter her dorm and found herself alone, Evie was on a study date with Doug but it was almost 9 so she should be getting back in an hour, earlier if the guys text her. Mal went into the bathroom and took a long hot shower trying to forget what had happened an hour before with Ben but the same words would repeat themselves "she is my girlfriend, I understand if you don't want to be friends". She lost track of time until she heard a knock on the bathroom door "Mal? Mal are you ok? You've being there for at least half hour. Mal?"

Mal snap out of it and told E that she was getting out. "Hey E!, how was your date with Doug?" E look at Mal with a worry. "What?" Mal knew exactly why E was looking at her like this but she didn't want to talk about Ben anymore. Thankfully Evie understood that sometimes Mal just needed to move on and when she was ready she would talk about it, Evie was not going to push it. "Nothing, my date was great thank you. We study for a while and then just hang out" The blush in Evie's cheeks told Mal that hanging out was definitely understatement, who would've thought the son of Dopey would be so accomplish in so many areas. "Should I make some pop corn before you start elaborating in the hanging out part" Mal said while winking at Evie which only made the other girl blush more.

There was a knock on the door and the girls exchange a confuse look, Mal open the door to find Cora and Lonnie with huge bucket of pop corn and she couldn't stop the laugh that erupted from her. She move to the side and signal both girls to get in. "We heard Evie and Doug had a date so we assume pop corn was in order" Lonnie said while all the girls sat in different places ready for a steamy story from Evie. " You guys are making me really self-conscious" the other girls shrug and started eating the pop corn. Mal took a moment to look at the other three girls, she was sad for what Ben said earlier but she no longer question the Auradon was the right place for her and that help her feel better.

The rest of the week flew by, two more weeks and they would have a free week in celebration of Belle's birthday. The only thing Mal knew was that she didn't want to spend it Aurodan because all the students that decided to stay would be invited to different activities and the castle including a huge ball. Sadly she was the only one that felt like this, most of the students were planning to stay she even overheard Evie and Doug talking about how romantic all the week would be for them. "Hey Mal" she turned to see Lonnie standing there with a big smile on her face, Mal knew that Lonnie and Jay had started going out on there own but they didn't necessarily told her about it but they weren't hiding it for her either so it was weird to see Lonnie without her friend. "Hi, what are you doing here?" Lonnie blush a little and suddenly squeal loudly which startle Mal "I try to find Evie and Cora but I couldn't and then I saw you here and I just needed to tell somebody but now that I'm here I don't know if I should because.." Mal put her hand over Lonnie's mouth, the girl was great but honest to god she could give someone a headache just by talking. "Did Jay ask you to be his girlfriend?" Lonnie's eyes grew like sausage and the girl furiously nod.

"I'm going to move my hand now, please don't squeal again", Lonnie look a little sad but nod. "Congratulations Lonnie, I'm so happy for you two" Mal gave her a hug, yes they had turned her into a hugger, and both girl jump up and down . After a couple of minutes of doing that Lonnie told Mal every detail about how it happened and Mal could see more popcorns night in her future. She was really happy for her friends but this meant that Jay would stay for the week long celebration because Lonnie's mom was invited to come. Azis appear out of nowhere next to Lonnie and when the girl turned to talk to him he stop her. "Congrats Jay told us about it. Hey he also asked me to tell you that he is waiting for you at the field" Lonnie nod and went on his way. Azis turned to Mal "He actually didn't but he wont mind showing off some skills to her specially after their sparing incident" Azis laughed until he saw the confuse look on Mal's eyes.

"Right you weren't there. We were hanging out watching Zohu practice his combate skills, of course Jay was making little comments about how anyone could that. It went on for a while until Lonnie and Zohu look at each other and Zohu smirk." Azis went on to describe what happened next, it seemed that Zohu told Jay that he bet anything he wanted that Lonnie could do it better than Jay could. Jay laugh and make a dumb comment about how that was impossible only to be proving wrong when Lonnie clean the floor with him. "Lonnie did that? But she seemed so princess like" Azis shook his head laughing. "Wow you guys really need to do some research. Mulan is not a princess she is a warrior and Lonnie is just like her mom, Jay was lucky she like him or she would have hurt him" Mal nodded and laugh imagining the scene she understood why Jay didn't mention anything but she wonder why the rest didn't do it. "I think that was what made Jay ask her to be his girlfriend for a thug guy he looked extremely happy to loose to Lonnie" Azis was right, Mal could see that Jay like Lonnie but after something like that he must felt like he had found a girl to put him in line.

"So why am I hearing about this just now?" Azis look down and clear his throat "Ryder and I were going to tell you after it happened but when we arrived at your art class…well you had other things in your mind". They stay silent a couple of minutes, Azis try to fill the silence "Are you ready for Queen Belle's birthday?" Well this conversation was getting worst by the minute. "I don't want to be here but I think I don't have choice in the matter, how about you? are you parents coming?" He made an awkward nod "All our parents are coming, is going to be interesting to see them together for the first time. All of them are also really excited to meet you guys, we all have talk about how cool you guys are." Mal doubt that their parents were happy but she really hope Azis was telling her the truth. Just then Carlos appear holding hands with Jane, they were so cute, "Guys what are you doing here, practice is going to start and coach doesn't like when we are late".

Mal try to say her goodbyes but the other three wouldn't let her, Jane told her how she was going to be bored out of her mind if she didn't go with them. The second she arrived her eyes scan the field for Ben but he wasn't there, however once she turned to sit on the bleachers he found him kissing Alexandra. She heard Jane gasp and Carlos cursed, this was it whatever she choose to do now was going to set the tone for the rest of the year. Mal took a deep breath held her head high and ask Jane where she wish to sit not waiting for an answer and walking to a sit where she knew she could see the field but probably wont have any contact with the players. A second later Jane was sitting by her side trying to apologize for Ben but Mal shook her head "It's ok, he is the king is not like I'm not going to see him. But now you own me some juicy information about Carlos and you to distract me" that comment made Jane blush and Mal smile.

Jane was a very detail oriented person which made Mal really happy that Carlos was such a gentleman otherwise she would never be able to see him in the face again. Once in a while though her eyes went to the field and she would watch Ben playing, he score and he had to remind herself not to cheer, it got easy when she heard Alexandra cheering really loud. Jane must have notice because she ask her to go to the bathroom she only nodded in response and when they came back the other team was being a little more aggressive. For the rest of the game every time Ben try to score or even held the ball a second later he would be on the grass. She turned to Jane and she could see the other girl was shock but there was little smile making her way to her face, for the first time since they arrived she search the bleachers for Lonnie, and found her with Evie both of them were smiling a clapping?. Mal wanted to be mad at them, the boys had no right doing that to Ben but the game ended and Alexandra practically flew to Ben side giving him a kiss, suddenly Mal felt ok with what happened. Maybe she wasn't rotten to the core but she was no angel either.

"Great practice guys" said Lonnie while walking to stand next to Jay. At least the guys had the decense to avoid eye contact with Mal, she stood next to Ryder who was the last one to basically punch Ben and was about to say something when Ben's voice broke the conversation. "Guys, that was great really. We have a very solid team for this season with you here." Everybody turned to see him and Alexandra approaching the group. The guys nodded acting truly proud of themselves. Mal heard Ryder whisper "is this guy for real?" that made her smile, to anyone that didn't know Ben this would seemed weird but he was this amazing. "So do you have any plans for today? If you don't we would love for all of you to come to the palace to hang out. It's been to long since the last time we all did something". Ben sounded truly hopeful but Mal could see the hesitation on everyone so she took the lead. "Sure, let's all do something. What time would be good for you guys?"

She didn't need to look around to know that everyone was shock about her answer but the look Ben gave her reminded her of the one he had when she ask about his coronation, so full of hope and happiness. "Seven would be perfect, see you guys then" He turned to walk with Alexandra while the others openly stare at Mal "Yes, I know but I'm moving forward and you guys are my backup". They all nodded and went to get ready for the evening.