A/N

This could be considered chapter 10 part 1. Happy reading!

"Evie...Evie...Evie?" the teacher called out to her, trying to grab her attention once again.

The person next to her tapped her on the shoulder; she shook her head and blinked, trying to refocus on where she was and what she was supposed to be doing.

"Sorry" she said, her face turning red as apples. "What was the question again?"

The teacher gave her a slightly annoyed look at having to repeat himself, and she gave him an apologetic look. He repeated the question to her, which Evie answered correctly, before he turned back to the chalkboard and she slipped back into her thoughts.

She was sitting in her fourth period grammar class, but if you were to ask her where she was, she wouldn't have been able to tell you. Her routine this morning was very robotic and done without much thought. Focus and concentration eluded her today, and more than once, a teacher called out to her multiple times before she focused on them again. Carlos even slapped her shoulder earlier trying to get her to focus in their Politics of the Palace class, but it never worked, and it was thanks to last night's fight.

After their fight, Mal stormed out of their dorm and slept in B that night, leaving Evie alone. Ben was granted a single dorm after he became king, forcing Chad to move out and move in with someone else. His argument was that he was a "king of the people", and he had to live among them in order to properly govern them. Plus, he was still a student in Auradon Prep.

Ben came to their dorm last night and grabbed a bag with some of Mal's things in it. It was an awkward moment for Ben trying to find all of Mal's things, and Evie didn't bother to help much in his endeavor. However, in a rare moment between them, Ben and Evie talked for hours after that, with Ben doing his kingly duty and listening to his people. She released all her frustrations and anger out at him while he silently sat there and listened. As much as Ben was Mal's boyfriend, Evie was also his friend, and he trusted her with a lot. Ben promised to talk to Mal that night before he left with the bag of Mal's things.

Sleep didn't come easy that night. She was constantly tossing and turning, trying to get comfortable and relaxed, but no matter what she did, it didn't come. Her dreams were plagued with images of Harry and Mal, yelling at her and blaming her for everything; in one of them, Harry slipped his hand into Mal's and ran off with her. After that second nightmare, she made herself a coffee in the public room and had been up ever since. No one could tell that she was exhausted as hell thanks to her mad makeup skills, but her actions proved otherwise. She was worried that Harry wouldn't show up to any of his classes, but her worries were laid to rest when he was there in Life Skills, but Mal was missing, and she felt that Mal would be missing the whole day.

She felt a finger tap her shoulder again, and she shook her head and turned to the person tapping her shoulder.

"The bell rung. Let's get something to eat and grab you a coffee. You look like you need it badly" Carlos said, not hiding his concern on his face. Carlos was always able to pick up on people's moods quite easily, thanks to years of practice living with Cruella.

Evie gathered up her things and both of them made their way to their lockers, depositing their items before heading towards the cafeteria.

"Evie, are you sure you're ok?" Carlos asked, slipping his jacket on.

"I told you, I'm fine. It doesn't concern you so stop worrying" Evie said with frustration in her voice. She knew Carlos was going to badger her about it until they talked it over and came up with a solution to it.

They made their way through the food line and sat down at their usual table. Evie barely touched her slice of pizza, but she forced herself to finish it because if she didn't, Carlos was going to antagonize her about it. Before long, Jay made his way over to the table and sat down with his burger.

"Hey, has anyone seen Mal? She wasn't in our Language of the Stars class. Come to think of it, I haven't seen her since last night."

"Mal isn't coming, and I doubt she'll be coming for the next few days" Evie said before taking a bite of her pizza.

Carlos and Jay looked at her skeptically. She looked over at Carlos, who nodded his head slightly as if to convince her to share what's been bothering her. Evie sighed, knowing she had no way out of this one. She told them the story in detail of what happened between her, Mal, and Uma, which led to Mal leaving and their friendship severed.

"You know, she did have a point. Harry told Uma and you didn't tell us. We are friends and you still should've told us" Jay said.

Evie let out a huff of frustration, tired of hearing the same thing over and over again. She didn't think she would ever live this one down. This was going to be the one thing they always held over her.

"But" Jay continued. "You were right not to tell us. She was going to react exactly that way back then. Hell, we all would have."

"I'm more surprised at you, Evie" Carlos said. "Out of all of us, you're the one who keeps her emotions in check the most."

Even Jay nodded his head in agreement with Carlos' statement. Jay and Mal were always quick to show their anger, annoyance, or evil delight. Carlos had always shown his panic and anxiety in moments where his mother was concerned, especially if he forgot to do a chore correctly. Evie was more reserved and always kept to herself, and she owed it to her ten years in isolation across the Isle.

"I don't know what came over me. I was just so mad at Harry for what he said that it kind of came out at Mal. It wasn't like what I said was untrue or anything. If anything, Mal's been a worse best friend than us" she said before picking up her fork and stabbing at her macaroni and cheese.

"What do you mean by that?" Carlos asked.

"Just think about it. You had to throw a party for Mal with moment's notice so she could lock me in a closet. She almost killed us trying to retrieve the scepter. She forced us to grab the wand. She left us here in Auradon and forced us to go back and get her, and then she proceeds to yell at us and get mad at us for bringing Ben there, when he was going to go with or without us. Then, she has the audacity to yell at me for trying to talk some sense into her. And for all that, we never got so much as a 'thank you'; all we got was that I was a bad friend."

"Evie, that's just who Mal is. Mal struggles with the whole concept of 'friendship' and 'gratitude' in the first place. Besides, didn't she thank you after the scepter disappeared?"

Evie scoffed and rolled her eyes at this statement. "I highly doubt saying 'I didn't mean it' is a statement of gratitude."

"For Mal, that is. But give her the benefit of the doubt here."

"Why in the hell should I give her the benefit of the doubt? What has she done to deserve that?"

Jay set down his fork and clasped his hands in front of him.

"You can't hold Mal running back to the Isle over her. She's always been difficult in expressing her emotions, and running away like that was the only way she knew how to deal with it. She wasn't born royalty or had royal training like you, Ben, and Audrey. This was a complete culture shock to her. Second, she did give us her thanks, not in word form though. She managed to convince us that we could be good and let us live in Auradon. If she had gone through with the plan, we all would've been back on the Isle. She knew how much it meant for us to live here, and this was her way of thanking us for sticking by her through everything that happened to her."

Evie tried to retort, but words eluded her at this moment. As much as she didn't want to admit it, Jay had a point. Mal was constantly struggling to be the Lady of the Court and she wasn't one to admit when she needed help. She opened herself up to making friends, and she doubted that if she didn't, they would never be in Auradon nor would they have been able to stay. Mal had given them the best thank you in the entire world: a second chance in Auradon.

"I feel like such an asshole" she mumbled.

"Been there before" Jay said, before the table was filled with small, amused laughs.

"But let her figure out the fault on her end. I mean, you weren't really throwing her under because you agreed with Uma. To be honest, I'm fed up of their feud as well. Maybe we can do an intervention later on" Carlos said.

"Uma and Mal in a room together for an extended period of time? Good luck with that..." Evie said.

"Just give Mal a few days for this to blow over. I'm sure Ben will talk some sense into her" Jay said.

"Speaking of things blowing over, how are you and Harry?" Carlos asked.

Out of all the topics Evie wanted to avoid, this was the top one on her list. While Harry had shown up to his classes, he refused to even look or speak to her. She tried to corner him after their History of Auradon class, but he managed to slip by her unnoticed. While things with Mal had a better chance of soothing down, she had no idea what would happen with Harry. Harry was wildly unpredictable; his moods could swing from one end of the spectrum to the next in a matter of seconds.

"I don't know. I'm still hoping he will show up tonight. If not, I'm just going to do it myself and put both our names on it. It's no big deal anyway" she shrugged.

After she said that, two red flaps out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. Harry was walking by them, ignoring them and focusing solely on what Gil was saying. Evie wished he didn't, but Jay stuck his foot out and made Harry stumble a bit. It was subtle enough, but it managed to turn his attention to the group.

"Watch where ye put those, will ye? Dirty thief..." Harry muttered before Evie stood up and threw her hair back, catching his attention fully.

"Aye, what does yer royaltyness want now?" Harry asked, not bother hiding the spite and sarcasm in his voice. It was enough to get Evie fired up and respond though.

"Our assignment. Tonight. Be there at seven or I'll tell Merryweather you bailed and that you should fail. It'll look great next to your math score you got yesterday. What was it again...a C-?"

Carlos and Jay let out a snort, and even Gil was silently laughing behind him. Harry shot them all a glare before he turned his attention back to Evie. He slowly crept up to her and lifted his hook to drag the pointed end of his hook down her cheek, not enough to break skin, but just enough so that Evie could feel it.

"I'd watch that mouth yer majesty" Harry said in his low, dangerous voice.

"I'd watch where you put that hook, because if not, I'll be putting it somewhere you won't like" she said, her voice like poisoned honey. She emphasized it with a batting of her eyelashes.

He lowered his hook back down and grabbed some of Carlos' French fries before turning back around and stalking off with Gil stumbling behind him.

"Where did that come from?" Carlos asked in slight awe and amusement.

"Oh trust me. There's a lot more where that came from."