Monday was relatively uneventful, until Chemistry that is. Alia had almost forgotten, given her eventful weekend, that they had a test in Chemistry that afternoon. Of course, the words 'EXAMINATION' written in all capital letters on the chalkboard quickly reminded her when she entered the classroom.

She managed to do a bit of cramming in the few minutes before the test, and luckily she remembered most of the stuff from Friday, so she felt as confident as she could to take her test when the bell rang and Mr. Deley passed the tests around the room.

She was just reading the first question when Mr. Deley's voice spoke just loud enough for the people sitting in the front half of the class to hear.

"Looking for something?"

Alia looked up in time to see Evie snap her purse shut. The teacher held up what looked like a beat-up old handheld mirror. Alia glanced curiously at Evie, wondering what the deal with the mirror was. Evie's mouth opened wordlessly.

"Thank you, Chad." Mr. Deley continued to the prince sitting next to where the plump teacher stood. "It's gratifying to see that someone still respects the honor code."

Chad turned a smug grin on Evie, who looked like she was trying to kill him with her eyes.

"It will be my recommendation that you are expelled." Mr. Deley continued to Evie. Alia's mouth fell open, but before she could even consider jumping to Evie's defense, Doug did it for her.

"But that isn't fair." Doug pleaded, standing up. "Obviously she wasn't cheating since she didn't have that…whatever it is." he pointed out, gesturing to what the teacher still had in his hand.

"It's called a magic m-"

"You're not helping." Doug interrupted Evie, who ducked her head sheepishly. "Maybe she needed another pencil." Doug suggested to Mr. Deley, who didn't look the least bit convinced.

"Actually, I was-"

"Really, don't help." Doug cut Evie off again. Alia would've thought that a kid from the Isle would be a little less honest about possibly being caught cheating. Unless they were raised to be proud of cheating?

Doug turned and looked beseechingly at the teacher, which Evie echoed with a pleading, puppy-eyed expression.

"Well, if you can pass this test, I'll return your property and let the matter drop." Mr. Deley conceded, probably due to Doug being his favorite student.

Doug and Evie thanked him, but when Chad shot Evie a smug sneer, the blue-haired girl glared him down. Doug tapped her shoulder and the two bent over their tests once again.

Alia turned back to her own test, trying to push a couple major thoughts from her mind. One was the hope that Evie would pass the test, because she didn't want the girl sent back to the Isle. Her other thoughts…were on revenge on Chad Charming.

When classes were done for the day, Alia headed to the gym. There were a few people playing sports or jogging around the gymnasium, but that wasn't what she was here for. Glancing around inconspicuously, she pulled the hood of her baggy, white hoodie over her head. Casually, she headed toward the locker-rooms. She glanced toward the right, where the girls locker-room was, and then headed left, into the boys locker-room.

She kept her head lowered, but luckily there seemed to be no one in the room. For now. But she needed to be quick, either way. She couldn't get caught in here.

She quickly and easily located Chad's locker. With another cautious glance around, she pulled a bobby pin from her pocket and expertly picked the padlock on Chad's locker. Grinning, she pulled the blue metal door open to find, as she suspected, Chad's everyday clothes inside. Tourney practice was currently going on, so he would be wearing his practice padding and jersey at the moment, and wouldn't be needing his clothes for another hour, at least.

She searched through the locker until she found his pale yellow sweater he'd been wearing that day. She turned it over and spread it out so the back was smooth on the bottom of the locker. She figured it'd be safer to keep her activities hidden within the locker instead of getting the sweater out where someone could walk in and see.

Pulling her backpack around, she reached inside it and felt around until she found her small stack of multicolored sticky notes. Pulling it out, she grinned at the picture drawn on the top, pink piece of paper.

It was a fairly decent sketch, if she did say so herself, of Chad as Pinocchio, his nose very long, and talking to a couple girls. To be sure people knew what the picture was, she'd written out Chad's name and drew an arrow pointing to the long-nosed boy's head.

Feeling fairly accomplished, she pulled the sticky note off the stack and stuck it on the back of Chad's sweatshirt. She made sure to rub her thumb firmly over the sticky part a few times to ensure it would stick, and even pulled out a piece of tape to stick the bottom of the note in place, as well.

With that done, she turned the sweatshirt over so Chad wouldn't see the note right away. She then closed the locker quietly, relocked it, and turned to leave-

Only to smack into someone.

Gasping, Alia instinctively ducked her head and tried to move around the person, hoping her hood had kept her face hidden.

"Nice try, Alia." a familiar voice scolded, a grin obvious in his voice.

Grimacing, Alia looked up and met the dark brown eyes of Li Shang Jr., affectionately known as Li'l Shang to just about everyone.

"Um,…hi Shang." she murmured quietly, looking sheepishly up at him from under her lashes.

"What are you up to?" he asked knowingly, crossing his arms over his broad chest and eyeing her knowingly. "In the boys locker-room. In Chad Charming's locker." he added pointedly.

"Uuuuuumm…" she drew the word out, her mind drawing a blank. This hadn't exactly been her most planned-out scheme. Admittedly, she probably should've at least planned out a cover story in the event she be caught in the locker-room. "I got lost?" she suggested helplessly.

"Funny." Shang countered. "Knowing you, you're doing something that's likely breaking at least a handful of school rules,…but you also probably have a good reason. So, let's hear it."

Li'l Shang was obviously the son of Li Shang and Fa Mulan and the older brother of Lonnie. He looked a lot like his father; he was of Chinese descent and was muscular with chiseled cheekbones and a strong jaw line. He had thick eyebrows and narrow, dark brown eyes, and his black hair was long enough to sweep over his eyebrows in a sort of skater boy haircut.

Alia and Shang had known each other almost as long as she'd known Lonnie, and she considered him at least somewhat of a friend. They'd also visited each other's families on a couple occasions, given how close Alia and Lonnie were. Shang had also played a part in Alia's self-defense and sword fighting training. Having graduated Auradon Prep the previous year, he was taking a year off and was working as the Swords and Shields assistant coach.

Alia sighed in defeat, glancing nervously around to make sure no one else was around. "Okay, Chad was a total jerk in Chemistry today, he almost got Evie expelled, so I thought I'd just get a little harmless payback." she explained in a rushed whisper.

Shang nodded slowly, taking in every word. "And what kind of 'harmless payback'?"

"It's just a sticky note on the back of his sweatshirt. No big deal." she waved it off, hoping he'd believe her.

"And what's on the sticky note?" Shang asked, his expression neutral.

"A drawing of Chad…with Pinocchio's nose." she admitted quietly.

Shang stared at her for a few long moments, his expression still blank. Alia was starting to feel like he was going to rat her out when he grinned. He lifted his hand and held his fist out to her. Grinning in relief, Alia bumped her fist to his.

"Not bad. Just don't get caught." Shang warned her, still smirking slightly. "Now get outta here before someone else comes down here." he ordered lightly, pushing at the back of her shoulder to turn her toward the door.

"Thanks, Shang." she breathed in relief, grinning at him before hurrying out of the locker-room.

Alia skipped her usual routine of watching tourney practice with Lonnie, considering it would nearly be over by the time she got there. So instead, she headed straight to her and Lonnie's usual picnic table where they ate lunch and dinner. She got one homework assignment done before Lonnie joined her and they grabbed trays of food to eat.

She was turned to her right, talking with Lonnie about their lesson in Heroism class, when she reached for her apple on her lunch tray. Feeling nothing in the spot the apple should be, her head snapped around, her narrowed eyes easily finding the smirking boy standing just behind her left shoulder. Jay took a bite of her apple, meeting her gaze playfully.

"Jay-" Alia started angrily, her voice cutting off as she struggled for a moment. Then her angry expression changed to confused. "Do you have a last name? Or a middle one? What's your full name?" she asked curiously.

Jay snorted, amused by her sudden change of demeanor. He sat on the end of the picnic bench, his hip bumping hers and scooting her over easily.

"No, as far as I know, I don't have a last name. At least not one my dad ever mentioned." he informed her before taking another bite of the apple.

"Is Jay short for anything?" she asked curiously, seeing an easy opening for what she'd been wondering.

Jay chewed thoughtfully for a moment before swallowing. "I don't know." he admitted honestly, meeting her eyes. "I don't think so. I've only ever been called Jay. Then again, I don't know if my dad would ever bother telling me stuff like that. I think he would."

Alia hummed thoughtfully, nodding her head. "Well, if he's never called you anything else, that's probably your name, then." she agreed, though she wasn't sure if she believed it herself.

"Oh, guess what?" Jay suddenly perked up, smirking deviously.

"What?" Alia and Lonnie both asked curiously.

"Chad still hasn't noticed yet," Jay started, leaning in close and whispering to the two girls, "but someone stuck a note on the back of his sweater. I think it's a picture of him looking like Pinocchio with the long nose. People have been laughing about it, and I think someone even took a picture and posted it online."

Alia covered her mouth to muffle her laughter, but Lonnie didn't bother. She burst into a fit of giggles, leaning forward over the table.

"That's amazing!" Lonnie gasped between her giggles. Jay was chuckling, too, but his eyes were fixed intently on Alia's expression. She didn't bother hiding her amusement. After all, just because she found it funny didn't mean she did it.

"It was you, wasn't it?" Jay whispered knowingly, smirking slightly.

Alia's mouth fell open. She was aware that Lonnie had quieted her giggling and was listening to them. "What makes you say that?" she managed to get out, refusing to break eye contact with Jay.

Jay's smirked softened slightly, as if he were actually thinking about a response. "Not sure." he admitted. "But I get the feeling that you did it."

Alia debated admitting the truth. After all, if word got out she'd get in trouble.

"Nope. Wasn't me. I've been here working on homework." she answered convincingly.

Jay narrowed his eyes doubtfully, his head tilted just slightly as he stared into her eyes. She kept her expression blank, hoping she'd convinced him.

"Liar." he finally said confidently. "It was definitely you. You suck at lying."

"I do not!" she protested. "I'm great at lying. I mean-" she faltered, realizing it wasn't very "Auradon" to claim to be great at lying.

"Nope. You were definitely lying. It was you." Jay stated with certainty.

"Okay, okay." she whispered quickly, glancing around. "Yes, it was me, but you don't need to go around telling people. I don't want to get in trouble."

"What'd Charming do to deserve it this time?" Lonnie asked knowingly.

Alia glanced briefly at Jay before admitting, "He almost got Evie expelled in Chemistry today."

Jay sat bolt upright. "What?" he whispered harshly, leaning forward.

"She has some kind of mirror," Alia started, watching Jay for any sign he might know what she was talking about. Sure enough, when she mentioned a mirror, a flash of recognition crossed his eyes. "I'm not sure how he found out about it, but he must have taken it from her somehow, or told Mr. Deley about it. Either way, Mr. Deley got hold of it and threatened to expel her for somehow using the mirror to cheat. Doug talked him down, begging Deley give Evie a chance to take the test and prove she hadn't been cheating."

"And?" Jay urged, looking worried.

Alia shrugged. "I don't know how she did. We probably won't get our grades until tomorrow."

"What if she fails?" Jay asked worriedly.

"It sounded like, if she passes the test he'll return the mirror and drop the whole thing. But if she fails…he made it sound like he'd recommend she be expelled."

"So,…she fails, and she gets sent back to the Isle." Jay murmured.

Alia looked at him worriedly. "Does she not want to go back?" she asked quietly.

Jay's eyes flickered up to meet hers. "It's…complicated." he admitted finally.

Alia nodded slowly, understanding he didn't want to talk about it.

XXX

Li'l Shang is not my character! He is a character from the Descendants book Rise of the Isle of the Lost, and I really like him, so I decided to bring him into the story. However, I'm not too fond of the "Li'l" part of his name. It sounds like a rapper name. So Alia will probably just call him Shang.

Anyway, review to let me know what you thought! Especially of Alia's revenge on Chad! Hehehe!