Ben looked tired to Mal. Tired and stressed. A part of her didn't like that. Who had succeeded in upsetting him, where she had failed?
"Good morning, Mal," he said, quite unenthusiastically.
"If you're any more cheerful, you might put Lonnie out of a job," remarked Mal.
In spite of whatever was bothering him, he smiled. "Sorry. I just...had a rough night. Can I - "
"Bennybear, you still haven't told me what color you're wearing to the coronation." Audrey had rounded the corner and was examining her newly painted nails, so she noticed Mal a few seconds too late. She glared. "Why are you always here?" Mal chose not to dignify that with a response, merely glancing at the locker that was very obviously hers. "Anyway, Bennyboo, you know how long it'll take me to get a dress. I have to shop around and try a bunch and then get the one I want tailored. The coronation's not that far away." She pouted at him. "Can't you decide?"
"My suit is blue, Audrey. You've seen it before," Ben explained patiently.
"But what kind of blue? Do you know how many shades there are?"
The poor boy looked helpless. "Just...the one I always wear. I'm sorry, Audrey, but I really need to speak with Mal for a few minutes."
Her eyes glinted dangerously, switching back and forth between a smirking Mal and an exasperated Ben. "What about?"
"Yeah, what about, Bennyboo?" Mal asked innocently. Funnily enough, that didn't help the situation.
"Um...Isle stuff," Ben answered, more than a little uncomfortable.
"Well, when you want to give your girlfriend the attention she deserves," spat Audrey, turning on her heel, "come find me." She looked back after a few steps, expecting Ben to follow her, but he'd already turned back to Mal.
"I talked to Jay and Carlos yesterday," he began.
"I know. They said you freaked the hell out. What'd they do?"
"Nothing. They didn't do anything." He ran his hand through his hair, which had already not been as perfectly brushed as usual. With a deep breath, he started what Mal anticipated was going to be a lecture. "Twenty years ago, my...King Adam imprisoned all the villains on the Isle of the Lost."
"I'm aware."
"Let me finish. I didn't hear about it until I was five or so, and only because I asked where all the villains from the stories went. When I was around ten, I started sitting in on council meetings. One year, someone brought up the fact that Maleficent's daughter seemed to be able to see the delivery team when they brought food to the island and it was scaring them." Mal didn't realize they knew she knew. At least they'd been afraid of her - how cute. Ben had been avoiding her gaze up until this point, but now he was staring intensely into her eyes. "You were the first Isle kid I ever heard about. And in a room full of dignitaries and dukes and advisers, I was the only person who asked what your crime was.
"Everyone laughed at me. My dad took me aside after and explained to me that villainy ran in people's blood. That you were going to end up just like your mother. That it was a good thing you were locked up with her.
"But I never stopped thinking about you, Mal. Ever." The way he said that, with so much sincerity, gave her a strange ache in her chest. "And I just kept thinking, when I'm king, I'm going to bring that girl here. I want to give her a chance.
"In the meantime, I learned there were more of you. And I was still out to prove something, so I chose the four with the worst parents - you, Carlos, Jay, and Evie. I thought, if you guys came here and you showed everyone that you were good, we could bring over more kids. They wouldn't have to be jailed with their parents."
He paused to gauge her reaction, but she kept her expression unreadable. "Why didn't you tell us before?"
"It was the deal I made with my dad, so I could do this 'trial' before I officially became king," Ben said, looking embarrassed. "He thought you would pretend to fit in 'until the time is right', whatever that means." He scowled. "But when I talked to Jay and Carlos yesterday...everything's different now."
"How so?"
"They told me what your lives were like there. I couldn't have imagined it in my worst nightmares, Mal. It honestly never occurred to me how much danger you were in every day. They told me...children died." Geez, it looked like his eyes were actually watering. "I've never yelled at my dad before, but last night...I don't know how he kept a clear conscience, Mal, I really don't. But I'm bringing them all over as my first act as king, no matter what he says. Every last kid."
"Kids die everywhere," Mal reasoned, though her voice had unconsciously taken on a softer tone. "The strong ones make it. And some of the people there kind of want their kids around. You can't just force them to leave. Besides, where would you put them all?"
"I know." He slumped against the lockers. The rings under his eyes were all the more obvious from this angle. He must've been up all night thinking about it. "But in Auradon, at least every kid gets a life. None of them starve to death." He shuddered. "What do I do, Mal?"
Startled, she said, "Why are you asking me?"
"You've been there. Carlos and Evie and Jay look up to you. What did you do that makes them believe they're safe with you?"
Mal hadn't realized Ben was so observant. And yet, he couldn't figure out that his dad was right. "My mom is Maleficent. People were scared of me because I was like her and so - "
"But you're not like her!" Ben interrupted. "I can see that much. You're not evil, Mal. You do what you have to just to survive. The minute you realized you were safe here, you...I mean, Lonnie told me you were baking cookies. Come on. Where's the evil in that?" When her eyes narrowed, he stopped joking. "You're not your mother, Mal, and I'm trying my best not to be my father. Whatever he thinks, our choices don't reflect our blood. We can be better than them." His gaze implored her. "Help me, Mal."
"So, the farther to the right you go on the periodic table, the more electronegative the elements get, right?" Doug explained. "So the ones farthest to the right, like fluorine and oxygen, are really good at hydrogen bonding."
"What about this one?" Evie pointed at neon.
"That's a noble gas. Its valences are filled so it doesn't bond with anything."
"And the valences are the clouds the electrons float around in?"
"Yes." Doug looked quite proud of her. "For someone who doesn't know any chemistry, you sure ask all the right questions."
"Thanks." She caught herself quickly, remembering to be cold to him. "This isn't going very quickly."
"Actually, I think we are." He flipped through the pages remaining in the chapter. "Once we finish going through this, we'll be ready to tackle the homework."
A thought flashed through Evie's mind. Doug knew all of this. Going through the book page by page was probably a huge waste of his time. Why would he -
Because he wants to spend time with me, duh. This is a treat for him. I'm the one doing him a favor. He's probably never been this close to a beautiful girl in his life.
She hadn't told Doug she needed to finish Chad's homework too. Evie was sure he would do it for her, but she couldn't bring herself to put that on him. For all of his shortcomings (and there were many), Doug had been professional, polite, and sweet. He hadn't made a single move on her, despite his obvious crush. And he'd been a pretty good teacher, too.
She was going soft.
Doug flipped the page. "Okay, and the farther right you go in each of these sections, the smaller the size of these atoms, too. Do you know why?"
"No."
"Well, it has to do with valences. Adding on valences make the total atom size bigger, but because there are more protons per atom as you go across the row, they attract the electrons and pull them closer." Doug waited for her to process and nod. "So do you think nitrogen, oxygen, or fluorine would be smallest?"
"Of those three? Fluorine."
"Nice. How about we review those valences? Can you tell me the order?"
They passed another thirty minutes this way, cutting into dinner. Finally, Evie heard Doug's stomach rumble and called time on their study session. "Let's meet tomorrow," she said, more as a demand than anything else.
"Okay, same time?" Evie nodded. "Great. Have a good dinner, Evie." He held open the door of the library for her, and walked an acceptable distance behind her. That was courteous of him, Evie thought as she looked over her shoulder. He was texting and didn't notice. They were both walking to the cafeteria, but he left her alone the entire way. Just as she would have wanted him to.
"They don't have pizza!" Carlos cried in distress, slamming his tray down. Mal, Evie, and Jay looked up from their food at the noise. "Mal - "
"No."
"But you could just - "
"No."
"Jay, it's your turn," Evie interrupted, sliding the mirror across the table. "And speaking of things more important than pizza, has anyone seen Jane around?"
"I haven't."
"Nuh-uh."
"Once," said Mal. "She was across the hall. Just kinda looked at me and then ran away."
"No surprise there," Carlos said dryly, still a little miffed she wouldn't magic up some pizza for him.
"Anyone think Fairy Godmother's told her to stay away from us?" asked Jay.
"That's a possibility. We've definitely been harassing her enough in class," Evie remarked. To no avail, Carlos could have added. The wand hadn't budged an inch. "She's probably not going to let Jane talk to us until we learn whatever the hell she keeps pushing."
"Well, we don't need to stop. We don't know if Jane is badgering her from that end, but we can wear her down from ours," decided Mal.
Before they could say anything else, they were startled to see Lonnie bring her dinner tray over. "Hey guys! Mind if I sit with you?"
They all exchanged glances. "Don't you normally sit with...um, who do you normally sit with?"
"I try to keep moving, get to know everyone," she said, sliding into the chair between Jay and Evie. Carlos and Jay looked away from each other uncomfortably, wondering if Lonnie was going to bring up that issue again. Carlos hadn't seen her since then, and he had been pretty okay with that. "I spend one meal a day with the international students, though, because I want to keep up with my Chinese. It's so easy to lose a language if you don't keep speaking it, you know?" She picked up her sandwich. "So, what were you guys talking about?"
"Uh...shields," mumbled Carlos.
"Shields?"
"Yeah," Jay added. "The shields for our tourney team came in today. They're pretty great. Brand spanking new."
Carlos grumbled, "And heavy." He saw Mal roll her eyes. "But I guess that's a good thing. You could probably even fight off Mal with one of those things."
Mal flicked a pea at him, but before it got anywhere close, Lonnie reached out and grabbed it right out of the air. Carlos flinched back as if it had actually hit him. "Holy shit, Lonnie!"
"Oh." The gangly girl blushed. "Whoops. My mom and dad do reflex training all the time; sometimes I forget not to react." She rolled the pea back over to Mal's side. "Nice shot, though."
"Can we have you on the tourney team instead of Carlos?" asked Jay. Carlos was the only person not amused, but at least the awkwardness he'd felt was gone.
"Thanks, but I'm more into fencing, actually. You guys should check the team out. Ben practices with us sometimes." Lonnie winked for reasons unknown to Carlos. Mal's cheeks burned an angry pink, and the fork in her hand bent slightly without any obvious external force acting on it. Lonnie didn't notice. "Anyway, I was planning on baking some more cookies tonight. Are you in, Mal?"
"No." Mal answered quickly. Lonnie pouted. "I have an early day tomorrow."
"But it's Saturday!"
"Yeah, I've got something in the morning." Carlos knew she was lying to get out of hanging out with Lonnie, but honestly, who said no to cookies?
"Bummer! How about you guys?"
"Hell yes," said Carlos. "If I can't have pizza, I'm definitely having cookies. Can we make chocolate chip again?"
"Sure! And some sugar cookies with frosting, and white chocolate macadamia nut. You'll love them."
"I'm in too," said Jay, slapping Carlos on the back. "Just to make sure this guy actually puts on a little weight. Maybe then you'll be able to pick up your shield."
Carlos shoved him. "Shut up."
Jay shoved back. "You shut up."
"Lonnie," said Mal, ignoring the two boys. "You don't have to do this."
Carlos noticed a look pass between the two girls that he didn't understand. "I want to, Mal. It'll be fun." Mal didn't argue any further. "What about you, Evie?"
"Oh, I shouldn't," Evie smiled sweetly. "I need to watch my figure."
Naturally this was followed by vehement denial from Lonnie, which clearly helped Evie's ego. Once she was done, Lonnie turned back to the two boys. "Let's meet around nine? We can bake all night!"
Carlos and Jay decided on a jog before the imminent cookie bake-off to make sure they were hungry enough for all the desserts they needed to stuff down their throats later. The campus grounds were fairly deserted, which surprised them. Did the students of Auradon Prep have nothing to do on Friday nights?
Then they came across the tourney field, and saw several students engaged in a late night game of dodge-the-disc in the kill zone. "Nerds," said Jay.
"That is literally what we do every day."
"Still."
They took a break on a bench in a small courtyard. "Hungry yet?"
"Getting there."
The stars were incredibly bright in Auradon. Jay had never seen many on the island, what with the magical barrier keeping out even most sunlight. This sight was quite beautiful. He felt kind of stupid mentioning it to Carlos, until he looked over and saw the other boy was also gazing up at the sky.
All of a sudden, a jingling noise signaled the entrance of somebody - or rather, something - else into the courtyard.
Carlos jumped. He was standing on the bench now. "JAY!"
A dog trotted into view, holding a tennis ball in its mouth. Even Jay was startled. He looked to Carlos, who had the most terrified expression Jay had ever seen painted across his face.
The dog saw them and picked up its pace, heading in their direction. Carlos had gone white, and he was shaking violently.
Jay stood in front of him. "I won't let anything happen to you."
Instead of attacking, though, the dog dropped the tennis ball in front of Jay and then sat, expectantly. It made no noise at all, just cocking its head like Jay was being stupid.
"Get out of here!" Jay yelled, kicking the tennis ball away. The dog went running after it. "It's okay, Carlos. It's gone."
Not quite. Upon catching up with the ball, the dog worried it for a few seconds and then picked it up with its teeth, bringing it back to Jay and dropping it on the ground. Then it waited again.
"What's it doing?" asked Carlos, his voice a deathly dry whisper.
"I don't know. Get away from us!" Jay kicked the ball again, farther this time, and the dog went bounding after it, only to bring it back. It didn't sit this time, ready to run again. "Hold on...Carlos...I think this is a game."
"A game? Are you nuts?" Carlos refused to get down from the bench. "It's going to eat us alive."
"It's really small," Jay reasoned. "If it tries to, I could probably break its neck pretty easily." Jay picked up the tennis ball this time, and immediately regretted it. As was to be expected, the ball was covered in saliva. He threw it and watched the dog chase it, only to return. "This is definitely a game." He handed the ball to Carlos, who dropped it.
"No way. No fu - "
The dog now looked at Carlos like he was the idiot. "Come on, man. It's not so bad." Jay picked up the ball and handed it to Carlos again. "Just throw it."
Carlos tossed the ball a few yards away, and watched the dog run after it.
"Was that so bad?"
"The ball is wet." He sounded a little better.
"Yeah, well, it's in the dog's mouth for the most part." Jay picked the ball up off the ground and looked at his friend. "Do you want to try again?"
Carlos looked unsure, so Jay lobbed the ball. "Jay?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you think...do you think my mom lied about dogs?"
Jay turned to give Carlos a small smile. "I think so. Or maybe they're not all vicious. This little guy doesn't look like he'd hurt anyone." When the dog came back with the ball, Jay squatted in front of him. He reached his hand out and ran his fingers through golden-brown fur. The dog's tail started wagging.
"You're...you're touching it," Carlos stated with wonder, like he was trying to convince himself of what he was seeing.
"Yeah." He petted the dog again before picking up the ball. "You want it?"
"Okay." Carlos threw the ball a little farther, and when the dog ran, he stepped off the bench. He pressed up against Jay's side, still not completely ready to throw caution to the wind. The two of them played with the dog for a little while longer. With every minute that passed, Carlos got more and more comfortable.
His first attempt to pet the dog did not go well, though. When he shakily extended his hand, the dog suddenly decided to lick it. Carlos stumbled back, shaking again. "It's going to eat me!"
"No, Carlos - "
It was too late. The rage had already begun. With a shout, Carlos's limbs began flailing in every which direction. He was kicking and screaming, and one of his feet just barely missed the confused animal in front of him. Jay grabbed Carlos and immobilized his arms, trapping the younger boy's legs between his own. The dog ran away from the noise, whimpering. Jay clapped his hand over Carlos's mouth and murmured comforting words into his ear.
"It's okay. You're safe. I told you I wouldn't let anything happen to you, didn't I?"
He took a few minutes to calm down. Jay sighed in relief when no one came running to investigate the screaming. He helped Carlos sit on the bench. The boy was breathing hard, and his gaze was unfocused.
"Hey. You're okay. Just take a minute. You're fine."
That cursed dog had come back once Carlos stopped moving. It was still whining, and placed a paw on Carlos's shoe.
Carlos looked down at it. "Are...are you gonna kill me or not?"
It pawed at his shoe until Jay leaned down and petted it again. To his surprise, Carlos followed suit once he saw there was no danger in doing so. The minute his friend's palm touched the dog's fur, he relaxed.
"It's really soft."
"Yeah." Jay smiled again, watching Carlos's amazement.
A door on one of the castle walls bordering the courtyard opened. Lonnie's head peeked out. "Guys! I've been looking for you!" She closed the door behind her. "Thought you got lost."
"No, just sidetracked." Jay waved her over. "We met this dog."
"Oh, Dude!" Lonnie rushed over to pick up the animal. "I haven't seen you yet this year! Hey there, cutie pie!" She explained to Carlos and Jay, "He's basically our unofficial mascot. I mean, I know we're the AP Knights, but Dude's been the campus dog for a long time." Dude licked her face.
"What is he doing?" asked Carlos nervously. "Tasting you?"
"No, silly. This is how dogs give kisses." Lonnie kissed Dude between the eyes and then set him down. "You guys ready?"
Jay experimentally picked Dude up and found him less squirmy than anticipated. "Can we bring him?"
"I don't think that's a good idea. Chocolate is toxic for dogs. I don't want to risk him eating something off the floor. Say bye, Dude!"'
Jay rubbed the dog's side a little before setting him down. Carlos squatted next to Dude and held out his hand. "You can kiss me if you want, now." Dude did just that. Carlos petted his head and then stood up. "Let's go make some cookies."
Lonnie, as was usual, chatted the most throughout the entire baking session. Carlos was clearly tired and trying not to show it. By the time midnight came around, they had made around six dozen cookies, with warnings not to eat them all at once. The cookies were even better when warm.
"I'm in heaven," Carlos moaned, chocolate covering his mouth.
"You guys are so gross, it's great," giggled Lonnie. "I'm only going to take a few. Make sure you leave some for Mal and Evie!"
Carrying two plates piled high with their creations, Carlos and Jay returned to their room. Their sweet tooth satisfied, they settled into bed.
Carlos was almost asleep when he mumbled, "Thanks, Jay."
"For what?"
"For always being there. Like today." His eyes were closed, and he snuggled into his pillow. "I don't deserve...you."
"Don't say that, man!" Jay was wide awake now, even if his roommate wasn't. He didn't know how to explain to a half-asleep friend that his company basically made life worth living.
Carlos's breathing became soft and even. Jay assumed he had gone to sleep, and suddenly realized he hadn't checked the mirror in hours. He scrambled to find it, only to see that the wand was still there. He prayed it hadn't been removed and put back in the time that he'd been baking cookies, though he supposed they would find out on Monday if Jane was all of a sudden -
Carlos stirred at the noise Jay was making, so he froze. If not, he wouldn't have heard his roommate, his friend, the most important person in his life, sleepily murmur, "I love you."
