A/N: I swear, I'm actually getting the hang of updating more frequently. Since it is summer, expect weekly updates, if not biweekly updates. It'll depend on how busy I am those couple of weeks. I'm volunteering a lot over the summer and planning fundraisers. Anyways, thank you for all the support; your reviews and feedback are amazing. Now, on wards to the next chapter!

Chapter 9

It was a little after dinner, and the four were lazing about in Mal and Evie's room. Evie was at work on sewing some new clothes for them. They had only packed a few, so they would need new ones in a few days. Carlos was fiddling around with his laptop. His excitement when he found out that there was free Wi-Fi still hasn't worn off. While he was extremely techy based off of the Isle experience, there was never free or working Wi-Fi there. Meanwhile, Jay was lazing about, bouncing a ball from the wall.

As for Mal, she was hard at work practicing on her magic. She was trying to make the food the took that night from the cafeteria to last longer. She was pushing for at least a couple more days improvement on the spell. So far, she's been able to make the food last a week. Eventually, she grew tired, as magic use wore out the person. She then began pondering ways to get the wand.

Dilemma of actually working for their parents aside, they still need to come up with a plan to get it, in case they actually decide to go through with it. Their original plan, stealing it from the museum, didn't work out. Mal pondered who might have access to it.

"Do you think that Jane would have access to the wand?" Mal wondered aloud.

"Probably," Jay answered, not ceasing in his rhythm of bouncing the ball off the wall.

"Maybe we can try a plan through her next," Mal said, chewing her mouth in a thoughtful manner.

"How would we find a way in with her?" Carlos asked. "She's already scared enough hanging out with us with witnesses present. I doubt she'd want to talk with any of us alone."

"Hmm, yeah that is a problem," Mal conceded.

"Maybe we can offer her a makeover? She seems pretty self-conscious with what she looks like based on what we've seen from her so far," Evie suggested. The others just stared at her blankly.

Evie huffed, "She doesn't like how she looks, compared to people like Audrey. Maybe, I don't know, give her a new hair-do or something."

Mal's face brightened. "I think I saw a spell just for that in the book!" she exclaimed.

"Great, that's another way we can try and get the wand," Carlos said.

"Do we actually want to?" Evie asked a bit hesitantly, ceasing in her work as the conversation turned serious. The others did the same.

"What do you mean?" Mal furrowed. In truth, she knew exactly what Evie meant, but she didn't want to admit it aloud.

"I mean, it's only been a day, so we can't really judge. But, it's been a wonderful day so far. The best day of my life. I'm finally free to learn and express myself through my fashion without my mother breathing down my back. It's refreshing," Evie explained.

"Yeah," Jay agreed, "no more stealing for my father for his store. I always actually thought that was kind of pathetic. His nemesis was a guy who stole to feed himself, and he turned into him."

"Do you think that says something?" Carlos suddenly asks. "Aladdin was a street kid who stole to keep himself alive. That's not much different than us."

Mal pondered that for a moment. "Possibly," she admitted, "but it doesn't mirror his life. We're different people, so our outcome or fate will be different. He didn't have a villain as parents."

The group murmured in agreement. "At least I'm not with my mother anymore," Carlos said aloud, "I hated getting stuffed in that closet."

No one could argue with him there. Carlos' punishments were always cruel and unusual. The group once again settled in silence, continuing with their tasks to keep themselves occupied, minds off their childhood. However, Carlos couldn't stop thinking about his.

Carlos didn't have it horrible, mind you. Maybe it was because he was a bit younger than the others, or maybe that his mother never had much magic originally as a villain in the first place. He was never tortured like Mal, beaten like Jay, or even degraded like Evie, but his mother was a special case on her own.

~Flashback~

7 year old Carlos laughed and waved goodbye to his friends before heading back to his house. Nearby, he vaguely saw a man shake his head with disgust in his direction but thought nothing of it. He knew that laughing and being happy was unbecoming of villains, but he couldn't bring himself to care. He enjoyed hanging out with his friends, especially Jay.

Jay had helped Carlos out of a tough situation when he was five. Carlos was not weak by any means, but he was smaller and scrawnier than the average person his age. That meant being the runt of his age group, and thus, bullying from the others. However, one day Jay had stepped in between the situation and yelled at the stupid kindergartners. A beautiful friendship was formed that day, and Mal and Evie soon joined their group not long after that.

Whistling to himself, Carlos entered his household, and almost immediately, his joy wilted at the gloomy atmosphere.

By far, he was luxurious in living on the Isle, actually getting a house instead of living on the street. He factored it in since Cruella knew Maleficent personally, who practically ruled the island. The house itself left much to be desired. Coated in black, white, and grey, one cannot help settling into a somber mood as they entered the threshold. More so as Carlos knew what his mother did.

Speaking of his mother, Cruella was lounging on the couch, awaiting for his arrival home.

"Carlos, my dear boy," she crooned. "Did you do all your chores?"

"Yes mother," Carlos replied dutifully.

"Wash my clothes, did you?" she asked.

"Mmhm," Carlos mumbled, half paying attention and anxious to get to his room.

"Did you forget, perhaps," she paused, "to GROOM MY COAT."

Carlos froze. "Uhh," he stuttered out, frantically trying to recall in his brain if he had done just that.

"Well," she huffed out, "you didn't. And you know what that means, do you?"

"Wait, please mother," Carlos pleaded. "It was a mistake. I just forgot. There was so much to do and I must've - "

"Save your excuses," she snarled.

Cruella stood up and advanced to Carlos, menacingly. She roughly grabbed him by the shirt and began dragging him, despite his protests and pleas. She opened the door of the closet and threw him in.

"Wait mother," Carlos cried out, "please! Don't leave me in here! I hate it in here!"

"Well you should've thought of that before gallivanting off and dismissing your duties as unimportant," she snapped.

Without another word, Cruella marched off and left Carlos alone, trapped alone in the darkness of the small closet.

Carlos hugged his knees. He hated it in there. Often times when he disobeyed, Cruella would lock him in here for extended amounts of times. It was dark, damp, and cramped in the closet. Carlos barely had room to stretch his legs, and it smelled of rotting flesh. Idly, Carlos wondered if any body was stashed in here since it smelled so bad. Or maybe, he thought grimly, someone was locked in here and died.

He curled up in himself for as much warmth as possible and drifted in and out of slumber. Carlos awoke himself on more than one occasion from nightmares of dying or being trapped in the closet forever.

One such nightmare was so severe, that Carlos awoke in a panic, frantically gasping for air. Breath, he thought to himself. Deep breaths. In and out. In and out. Slowly, he came down from his panic attack before drifting off some more. Carlos didn't enjoy sleeping so much in this cramp place, but there was little else to do besides worry himself to death.

When Carlos was finally let out again, he found out from his friends that it had been a week. He didn't have any food or water, and he was exhausted despite his uneasy naps. He felt nauseous as he drearily made his way to the hidden alcove that he and his friends exclusively claimed for themselves. Not that anyone else knew about it to challenge for the spot.

He collapsed when he finally got there. Laying on the cool concrete with the breeze and sun flowing and shining on him.

It could've been hours or minutes, but eventually, his friends made their way to that spot. When they spotted him, they immediately propped him up. Jay and Mal went off, coming back with food and water for their lunch. Carlos noticed that they gave him an extra large portion, although it actually wasn't that large, to him. He wanted to protest, say he was fine, but he couldn't find the strength to say anything.

They didn't ask any questions. They just consumed the food and drink they acquired as Evie filled the void with mindless chatter. Carlos was beyond grateful. He couldn't ask for better friends. They knew it wasn't the time to push or pry, yet he needed to get his mind off of the dark closet.

~Flashback~

Carlos jolted himself out of his thoughts as Jay shook his shoulder. He realized that it was late, so he began packing his things. Once he was ready, he bid the girls goodnight and went back to their dorms.

When morning finally arrived, Mal was in good spirits. She had a plan to get the wand. Well, a plan in case they actually had to do it. After their talk, Mal realized how much they enjoyed it here. However, she knew they still had to plan. To the older generation of heroes, she knew how they felt about them. She knew how they distrusted the teens. She couldn't blame them, not with who their parents were. That's why they need the plan in case they can't stay. With their track record, they won't be able to stay anyways.

It was early morning, probably 6 AM, and she and the others didn't plan to eat breakfast until 7:30 AM. Ben told them last night he would be eating breakfast at the castle, so he wouldn't be there.

Mal quickly wrote a note to Evie that she was going out to not worry the girl. Evie was currently in the restroom, bumbling about her morning routine.

Mal slipped out the door and meandered her way down the hall. She needed to find Jane without making it obvious. When she got to the hallways with their lockers, Mal realized that was the perfect place to wait. No one would suspect her being there, and everyone had to pass through there eventually.

Thankfully, being the daughter of the Headmistress had its advantages as Mal spotted Jane walking down the hall. When Jane spotted Mal, she let out a squeak of terror, but that didn't deter Mal.

"Hey Jane!" Mal exclaimed.

"Uh, hey Mal," Jane awkwardly greeted, eyes shifting to the floor.

"I was just wondering, since you're the Fairy Godmother's daughter and all, is there any classes for magic here?" Mal questioned, making sure to keep her voice neutral and innocent.

"Uh no," Jane replied, "we don't do magic here anymore."

"But that's totally bogus," Mal gasped, "I mean, you're the Fairy Godmother's daughter, shouldn't you be like, training to be the next one? Especially with that wand, it's pretty powerful."

"No," Jane said, a bit sullenly. "My mother said that it is better that magic isn't learned anymore. Not that it's a bad thing, but it's not needed. Plus, look how magic turned out for Maleficent and the Evil Queen. Uhh, no offense."

"None taken," Mal replied back, honestly. "So, even she doesn't use magic anymore?"

"Nope. She doesn't even have her wand with her anymore. It's displayed in the museum as an artifact, and no one's allowed to take it. The only time it'll leave it though is during Ben's crowning ceremony. My mom is gonna use it to bestow the ruling to him. Heritage and tradition and all that," Jane explained.

"Oh, I think I got it. Sorry, I'm just curious," Mal said sheepishly. "I actually have magic, so I was wondering what I could do with it."

"Really?" Jane said, her nervousness was back. "So you're gonna like, use it to curse people or help them?"

"I'm not sure yet," Mal replied honestly. "I'm not that powerful, or trained, so the I only know little spells. Most of them are to help though, the ones I've been practicing. Oh!" Mal exclaimed brightly, "maybe I can practice on you!"

"M-m-me?" Jane stuttered. "I'm sure you can find someone else. They would be better."

"Oh no, I think you'll do fine," Mal responded enthusiastically.

Jane gulped, but she was cornered and at this time in the morning, there wasn't many people around to witness. She squeezed her eyes shut in nervousness, praying that she won't at least be turned into a toad or an animal.

"Beware, forswear, replace the old with new hair," Mal chanted, reading her spell book.

Jane's head jerked in different directions. She trembled, not sure what that spell would do. When the jerking came to a stop, she felt her head feel heavier, and something fluffy was brushing her shoulders. She slowly opened her eyes. Mal had pulled out a mirror, and she handed it to Jane, smiling widely.

Jane slowly looked into the mirror and gasped. Her short bob was now luscious locks!

"Wow," Jane gasped.

"Do you, do you like it?" Mal asked, a little nervously.

In truth, she really did want to practice magic, and she hope she did well.

"Like it? I love it!" Jane squealed. "Thanks Mal!"

Her cautiousness around Mal forgotten; she hugged her. Mal widened her eyes in surprise. She was just practicing, but Jane made it like she owed her a favor. Mal smiled a bit at the thought, helping out Jane. Jane, from what she could tell, was insecure with how she looked. Although she wouldn't admit it, Mal felt a tiny bit happy with helping her out.

A/N: Another chapter done and over with! Keep all the love coming, and see you guys in the next update!