Sorry for the long wait! School is to blame.
Just one thing I feel like I should address since it's come up a couple of times now...you guys know I love and appreciate all of my reviewers. I love reading reviews and they give me the motivation to keep going. But because of how I've been raised, I take complaints about JayxCarlos very seriously. Obviously, not every ship is for everyone and that's fine. But there's nothing wrong with being gay...you'll notice in this story that it's the villains who have a problem with it and the heroes who know that love is love. I have friends who have gone through terrible times in their lives simply because of who they are, because someone decided to cherry-pick passages from religious texts to tell them they are unnatural, even though those same texts mark us ALL as 'wrong' in some aspect of our lives. The real problem is not homosexuality, it is prejudice and intolerance. For anyone reading this who is also in that sort of situation, I'm sending you all of my love! You're perfect the way you are!
"How is Jay doing?" Ben asked.
Mal didn't really know how news of Jafar's death got around so quickly, especially since she herself had only found out about an hour ago. Then again, Ben was about to be king, so maybe someone had let him know in a more official form than gossip.
"Not that great. We didn't stay long." She and Evie had stopped by to ask why the two boys had skipped dinner. It was all too clear that Carlos was the only person who could provide Jay any comfort; Mal wasn't experienced in that sort of thing, and Evie hadn't gotten much of a response out of him. The girls eventually left them alone and in silence. Mal had found the whole thing extremely awkward, and was almost glad she had an excuse to duck out early.
Almost.
"Look, Ben, I really don't want to do this – "
"You'll be great, don't worry," he assured her. "You'll pick it up fast."
Mal did not share his confidence. While the entire idea of pretending to be Ben's girlfriend was abhorrent, some parts were more tolerable than others. Practice for their first dance at the coronation absolutely fell into the latter category.
Ben had taken her to the music wing to practice. At first, Mal only grumbled incoherently about this. Then she found out there would be other people there, including a string quartet and an instructor/choreographer, and her grumbling turned into vehement refusals.
"They're going to be watching?!" she nearly shouted.
"And critiquing." His tone was far too mild for the situation. Mal's dancing experience amounted to approximately zero, and she was not going to let some snobby posture coach tell her how everything she was doing was wrong.
"No."
"Just give it a try. You might even like it." How did he sound so reasonable?
"I will not like it."
"Twenty bucks says you do." He grinned. Now it was a challenge. That bastard.
The hand holding she was starting to get used to, but ballroom dancing was another animal entirely. Ben guided her hand to his shoulder and made it extremely obvious that he was going to place his hand around her waist on the small of her back before he actually did. Still, Mal was more than a little surprised, and stiffened under his touch.
"Well done, Miss Mal. Remember to keep your back that straight for the remainder of the performance," said their instructor Reginald, his words perfectly enunciated. Mal had been hoping he'd be too afraid of her to comment, but apparently he knew he was in charge here. He even had no problem ordering Ben around. "Chin up, Prince Benjamin. It would not do to – "
" - Have a king with a weak chin, I know." Reginald glared, and Mal got the impression Ben did not believe this thing was as fun as he'd tried to convince her. She wondered how much he'd pissed off their instructor when he announced, two weeks before the big day, that he was switching partners.
"Now, Miss Mal, you will follow Prince Benjamin's lead. Where he steps, you will step with the mirroring foot. Do you understand? The beginning sequence is 'one-two-three-one-two-three-one-two-three-TWIRL-two-three." He acted it out with an imaginary partner as Mal watched with disgust. Then it was their turn.
She hadn't realized how close they'd have to be. Ben had tightened his hold on her just before they went prancing about. Mal could feel the warmth coming off of him, could smell a hint of his cologne. When the instructor forced her to look into his eyes as they danced – they were a beautiful shade of blue-green - her heart began beating erratically. Adding to all of this, she was clumsy as hell. She kept putting the wrong foot forward, or forgetting to shift her weight and stumbling. Annoyed at herself, she hissed, "I could not look any more stupid right now."
"That's not true," Ben argued. Mal braced herself for another lengthy tirade about her beauty and grace, but instead he dropped his voice down to a whisper and nodded his head in the direction of one of the violinists. "You could be wearing that hat."
In spite of herself, Mal snickered. Ben's eyes twinkled as he continued quietly, "That's how you can tell when people have no respect for you. He's literally coming out to play for the prince of Auradon, and he didn't stop to think are polka dots really appropriate for a royal audience?"
"Or he just has no sense of fashion," Mal countered, still smiling. "After all, you're going to be king in a few days. He'd better respect you."
Ben shrugged, earning a rebuke from Reginald. He spun Mal and then whispered back, "I'll be crowned in a few days. Doesn't really make me a king."
Confused, Mal replied, "Um...I think it does." Their steps took them in a diamond-shaped path on the floor.
"Well, yeah," admitted Ben. "My vote will count for more. But my dad will still be sitting on all the meetings, just a little more quietly. And it's going to take a while before people stop seeing me as a kid."
That surprised Mal. Ben had always seemed so mature to her, especially when it came to governing. He was able to see how his actions affected all the little provinces in the kingdom. His charisma and sincerity and thoughtfulness better fit someone far older than him. It was only in his humor that she glimpsed the teenager he really was.
"You'll be a good king. They'll see," Mal lied softly. He'd be king for all of two minutes, but had he been allowed to rule Auradon for a longer period of time, she didn't doubt he'd be a much better monarch than his father.
Why she felt the need to tell him that was another story, though it might have had to do with the grateful smile he gave her in response.
"Much better, Miss Mal. Do you see how easy the steps become when you let Prince Benjamin lead?" Surprisingly, with her attention elsewhere, her dancing had improved tremendously. Her feet had followed Ben's reflexively when her mind was too preoccupied to try and fix them.
Ben distracted her for the rest of practice, making jokes about anything and everything just to keep her smiling. Reggie, as Ben had taken to calling their instructor under his breath, had plenty of pointers for Ben but was content if Mal looked at all more sentient than a rag doll. Between the whispered levity and the lack of expectations, Mal was kind of enjoying herself by the end. Not that she'd ever admit that to Ben.
Reginald called it a night when Mal was pretty sure she had the first thirty seconds of their routine down. Maybe this won't be a complete disaster. She and Ben both left practice wondering who owed whom twenty dollars, and decided not to bring it up.
Evie thought her anger was evident when she stomped into the chemistry room to take her midterm, but certain half-dwarf half-wits hadn't gotten the memo.
"You ready, Evie?"
Doug actually seemed excited. Or maybe he was just nervous. She didn't know and didn't care, just grunting in response.
"I think you're going to do great. You've really been putting in a lot of work." He'd clearly raised his confidence over the past couple of weeks. Until recently, he wouldn't have dared compliment her for fear of seeming like he was coming onto her when he knew she wasn't interested. Maybe he's getting over his puppy-love crush. That would be just what she needed right now. Finding out another boy who supposedly loved her actually didn't.
Then Chad walked into the room and sat in his customary seat across from her, smirking. She wanted to punch his face in, and the only thing stopping her was that the blood wouldn't come out of her clothes. "Whatever," she snapped. Finally noticing that she didn't want to talk, Doug shrank away from her.
Mr. Delay came around to their table, but had left the stack of test papers back on his desk. Students were still filing in, so there was enough noise cover that when he said, "Evie, I'm extremely disappointed in you" no one outside of their group of three heard.
"What? Why?" How could he already be giving this speech, when she hadn't even had a chance to take the test?
Then Mr. Delay took her magic mirror out of his pocket. The color drained from Evie's face.
"Chad has alerted me to your use of this device in our pre-test. He told me you intended to use it today as well. I'm sure you are aware that this is cheating. Cheating is not tolerated in my classroom."
Damnit! Damnit damnit damnit damnit! How had she been stupid enough to leave that with Chad Charming? Sure, it was nothing more than a mirror for him - it only worked for Evie. Still, she should have known the vindictive brat would do something like this, especially if he'd planned on cheating with it only to find out that particular function was turned off for anyone unrelated to the Evil Queen. Her mouth opened and closed again. She could offer no explanation.
"I will, of course, be suggesting that you be expelled from Auradon Prep. Fairy Godmother is also notoriously strict when it comes to cheaters. They do not belong in a place of learning." The teacher patted a preening Chad on the back, all while shaking his head at what had once been his star student.
Expelled? She'd be sent back to the Isle - more importantly, she'd be going back wandless. That couldn't happen. She had to say something. Do something.
To her endless surprise, Doug stepped in. "Mr. Delay, Evie wasn't going to use that. I know she wasn't. We've been studying every day to prepare for this test."
Chad was glaring daggers at Doug, but the smaller boy didn't back down. Evie hissed, "Doug, I can - " He held up his hand to silence her.
"I don't know if she cheated before, but she definitely doesn't need it now. You can't expel her. She didn't even have it. Chad did." He absolutely knew she'd cheated before. Now she had this goody-two-shoes lying for her.
Mr. Delay raised an eyebrow. "Doug...pardon my saying so, but I hope you realize that your credibility now depends on a villain. Perhaps you should rethink defending her."
"She's not a villain," Doug corrected him. "She's just really good at chemistry."
Evie held her breath as Mr. Delay's eyes flitted between her and Doug. He pursed his lips, thinking for a moment, and then said, "If you score above ninety percent on this exam - on your own - I will reconsider bringing Fairy Godmother into this."
Ninety was too much. She'd never make it. Nevertheless, Doug sat down, satisfied with the terms. He grinned at Evie, who could only stare blankly ahead. She was going to be expelled and Mal would have to carry out the plan without her and her mother was going to be so angry and Maleficent was going to kill her for failing and she'd end up just like that poor man they'd watched Maleficent murder all those days ago -
A packet of paper landed in front of her, and Mr. Delay set a timer for one hour. Evie had one hour to save her own life. Her breathing quickened and her head swirled. She couldn't do this. She couldn't. How would she get out of this?
The intermolecular bond between an electronegative atom such as oxygen or fluorine and a hydrogen atom can be classified as which of the following?
Wait.
She knew that. Her head cleared a little.
Which property of water allows it to form a visible meniscus in a thin tube?
She knew that too.
The questions got harder, but for the most part the answer came to her within seconds. There was a time when half of these words wouldn't have even made sense to her. Now it was like she knew an entirely different language, and translating it into English made the questions so much easier.
Which property of oxygen does molecular orbital theory fail to explain?
Oh no. Evie remembered reading this, but the specific property escaped her. Which property...which property...? She kept her eyes steadfastly focused on her own paper, for fear of being accused of cheating off of Doug's exam the good old way. The words blurred in front of her. Just keep going. Come back to it.
When all was said and done, there were a few questions Evie was unsure about. She'd written in her best guess, which would have been fine if the stakes hadn't been so high. Her anxiety level was through the roof when she handed her test in; she couldn't even take pleasure in the fact that Chad was still struggling on the first page.
What if it I didn't make the cutoff? There's no way I made it. I'm not good enough. I'm not smart enough. I thought I could do this but I can't and now...
Doug finished soon after her, and caught up with her as she was walking back to the dorm. "How'd it go?"
"Just leave me alone."
He frowned. "Evie, it couldn't have been that bad - "
She rounded on him, fire in her eyes. "Just leave me ALONE! I could've handled that myself, and instead you set up some insane deal that I could never win, and now I'm going to be expelled!"
Doug took a step back. "I was just trying to help, and I'm sure you - "
"I don't need your help, peasant!"
The minute that sentence left her lips, Evie knew she shouldn't have said it. Doug, normally so warm and sweet, closed off entirely. Without saying a word, he dropped his chin to his chest and walked away from her.
Say sorry. Just do it. Just say sorry. Her mouth was operating on its own, though. "Come back here! I'm not done yelling!"
Doug turned around, but only slightly. He didn't look angry, just sad. "I'm sorry, Evie. I tried. I really did. But I don't think I'll ever get through to you. I guess that...you're beautiful on the outside, but you're ugly on the inside. And the ugly always comes out." Her voice stuck in her throat. Ugly? He left her all alone.
Ugly.
That was how Evie ended up in front of her bathroom mirror, scrubbing furiously at all the make up on her face. Helping to remove the cosmetics were the tears running down her cheeks, leaving black trails of eyeliner and mascara. He's right. Chad's right. Mom was right. I'm ugly. I'll always be ugly. Nothing can cover that up. Her skin was turning red from the repeated attacks with soap and water. Her shoulders shook violently with each sob.
Memories flashed in her mind.
"Mommy, it hurts!" Tears had been falling from her eyes then, too. She was nine.
"It's your fault for having that disgusting unibrow. Get used to the pain; you're going to have to have your eyebrows threaded for the rest of your life."
She remembered the first time she'd been rejected by a boy. It hadn't been much longer after the eyebrow incident. George Nesbitt, the son of some henchman or other. He'd been tall for his age, and Evie found him cute. He hadn't been interested in anything except burning ants via glass and sunlight. The Evil Queen had been so disappointed. Never mind that once George hit puberty he couldn't keep his eyes off Evie. She hadn't been beautiful enough when it mattered.
"If commoners don't want you, how will a prince ever marry you? Stupid, grubby little girl. You're good for nothing else, do you understand? If you don't seduce a man who will take care of you, you'll have NOTHING in this world. You will never amount to anything on your own. You aren't smart, you aren't talented, you aren't strong. You're nothing if you're not beautiful."
And the worst memory, the one she'd tried to change retrospectively so many times because it was fine that it happened, it was fine, she was okay with it, she had been all along -
"I didn't want to do it, Mom," Evie whispered the morning after. "I don't like how it feels. Everything hurts." She was crying. "I didn't want it. I don't want to do it again."
"Pull yourself together," snapped Grimhelde. "What do you think a prince is going to marry you for, your winning charm? Men like women with experience, and you're going to get it. By the time that prince comes along, you'll make yourself unforgettable - "
"There are no princes here!" Evie screamed.
Grimhelde grabbed Evie under the chin, forcing her to look into her mother's eyes. "We won't be here forever. And when we get off this accursed rock, you WILL be ready."
The last of the makeup was gone, leaving her looking washed out and lifeless. Her lips were too thin, her eyes beady, her skin pallid. Her nose looked huge without contouring, while her cheekbones had all but disappeared. She was ugly. She was a monster. Doug had said so himself.
Doug, who used to adore her.
She'd felt like a real princess in his presence. Every time they'd gotten together he'd been impressed by the smallest things she did. When he thought she wasn't looking he'd sneak admiring glances. But now he'd seen the truth.
Evie stumbled out of the bathroom and didn't even make it to the bed before collapsing on the floor in a heap. Tears continued to flow. She wiped them away; her skin was tender from basically having layers scraped off. The pain felt good, better than the other feelings roiling around inside of her. Evie dragged her manicured nails down her face, wishing she could tear her skin off entirely.
Mal came home and found her there a few seconds or a few hours later, Evie couldn't tell. Her roommate's eyes widened at Evie's state, and then turned a bright, glowing green.
"Who did this to you?" she growled, her voice somehow stronger, as if all her magic was just behind it.
Evie rasped between hiccuping breaths, "I - did - Doug - he - "
Mal did not listen beyond that. With that same voice, she boomed, "Wheresoever he may be / Bring Doug to stand before me."
"No! I - don't - want - to - see - him." She couldn't tell if Mal heard; the other girl's irises continued to blaze and she stood stock still. Evie tried to calm herself down, but that only made the crying worse. She looked so pathetic. It was difficult to even let Mal see her like this. Maybe I should go back to the Isle. Maybe I should die. I'm weak. Useless. Worthless. Disgusting, disgusting, disgusting.
For a while, nothing happened. Mal continued to stand there and Evie continued to be a quivering, sniffling lump. Then there was a knock at their door.
Mal flung the door open. Doug's hand was in mid-knock, and he seemed rather confused. He quickly became worried, though, when he saw his former study buddy. "Evie?"
That was all he could get out before Mal had him by the collar of his shirt. She was strong for her size, and Doug didn't weigh much, so when she pinned him to the wall his feet were an inch off the ground.
"What did you do to her?" There was a rage in her tone that Evie hadn't heard in a long time.
It would have been off-putting to the very strongest of people. Doug, who was not among the very strongest of people, made a choking noise and then promptly fainted.
Mal threw him on the floor, which woke him quickly. Evie had the good sense to crawl in front of his splayed body and hold up a hand to her terrifying leader. "S-stop!"
"He hurt you, didn't he?" Mal asked venomously.
Evie shook her head, and Doug copied her, though far more vigorously. Mal glared at him.
"Explain."
Safely shielded by Evie, Doug said, "I don't understand...you were fine when I left you."
The blue-haired girl's resolve failed when she remembered why he'd left her and what an utter failure she was. Her shoulders sagged and her intended words garbled as a fresh set of sobs wracked her.
Both of them were too afraid to touch her. Doug, because he'd always treated her like some sort of ethereal being, and Mal, because she didn't know how to comfort anyone. Mal's eyes faded back to their normal color. She squatted in front of Evie and put a hand on her shoulder, which was the best she could do. It wasn't unwelcome.
"Evie...will you talk to us?" Doug spoke softly, but the tremor of fear was still obvious. "What happened?"
She couldn't stop bawling like some helpless child. After what she had said, after how she had insulted him, he still cared about her. It was more than she deserved - she was nothing, after all.
"She said your name," Mal told him. "I thought you did this."
"No! I would never...I...we got in a fight...a bad one." Terror flitted across his face. "I said some things I shouldn't have. But that can't be..."
"What did you say?" Mal was not asking nicely. Doug ignored her and pulled Evie's hands away from her face. A good amount of mucus came with them, which was absolutely humiliating. She had never let anyone see her like this, but he didn't seem to notice.
"Evie? Evie, I'm so sorry if I upset you. I'm sorry about the test and I'm sorry for - "
She didn't let him finish. If anyone was sorry, it was her. A sorry excuse for the beautiful princess she'd tried so hard to be. Evie threw her arms around his neck and continued sobbing into his shoulder. Startled, it took Doug a few seconds to timidly hug her back.
Neither of them said a word as Mal stood up to leave the room she'd entered only a few minutes ago in order to give them the space they needed to sort this out. Evie calmed much more quickly with Doug rocking her back and forth. After a while, Evie's sniffling abated enough to say, "I'm so scared."
"Of what?"
"If I get sent back to the Isle...Maleficent will kill me."
She felt Doug's heartbeat accelerate before he pulled away from her, holding her at arm's length. "What?"
Using the back of her hand, Evie wiped a few tears away. "I'm going to die."
His grip on her tightened. "No, you're not. You're not. God, Evie, I'm so sorry. If I had known your life was on the line I'd never have talked to Delay on your behalf. But you did it, Evie. That's where I was before I suddenly really needed to see Mal - " His brow scrunched in confusion. "I was in Mr. Delay's office. I asked him to grade your test. And you passed with a ninety-two."
The shock knocked the breath out of her. Her hand came up to cover her open mouth, and she stared at him in disbelief. Doug nodded, a tentative smile pulling at his lips.
I passed.
A strange, strangled, hysterical bubble of a laugh forced its way out of Evie's throat. Then she lunged forward, kissing Doug soundly on the lips.
It was over in a millisecond. Evie pulled away just as quickly, horrified when she saw splotches of her own tears and snot on Doug's face. He just sat there, completely dumbfounded. "I'm so sorry," she lamented, reaching for the tissue box on her nightstand. "I'm so disgusting...and now all of this is on you. On your shirt, too."
He haltingly reached out for the tissues she gave him. "Uh...I mean...I guess it is kinda gross...but it didn't feel that way." He wiped his face and chuckled. When he didn't stop laughing, Evie couldn't help joining in. They must have looked ridiculous - two teens in the middle of a pile of used tissues, giggling like they were watching stand-up comedy. Evie's eyes were still watery, though, so she dabbed at them with another tissue. "Are you feeling okay?"
"Yeah. Much better. Relieved." She felt shy all of a sudden, or maybe just ashamed - either way, she couldn't meet his gaze. "I'm just...sorry. For everything." Apologizing had never been her strong suit. She was a villain after all.
"It's okay," Doug assured her. "I mean, I don't think you have much to apologize for. Spending time with you was always pretty great."
Oh, this poor, confused boy. Evie was now satisfied that her hands were clean so she reached up to touch his cheek. Doug blushed furiously, which was so adorable Evie gave a breathy laugh. "I can't wait to show you what 'pretty great' is really like." She sighed, dropping her hand. "But I'm going to fix my face, first. I hate people seeing me like this, all...hideous."
She stood up, but Doug grabbed her hand and pulled her back down. "Evie, you could never look hideous, even if you tried." He smiled. "Just stay with me."
Carlos's alarm hadn't gone off. He was still so unused to this 'classes in the morning' thing that oversleeping was a given unless something loud went off at the right time.
As it was, Jay woke him about fifteen minutes before he had to be at school. His roommate seemed considerably less upset than the day before, though he might have just been hiding his pain as strong villains did. Instead of saying anything about last night, Jay told him, "You might want to get ready or you're going to be late. You can have this if you can't get to breakfast on time. I stole it from the cafeteria yesterday." The older boy tossed him a cookie. Carlos stuffed the whole thing in his mouth before mumbling his thanks.
"Want me to wait for you?" Jay asked. Carlos's heart swelled. It was so wonderful to have his friend back, even if the circumstances were less than ideal. Regardless, he waved Jay away. Both of them didn't need to be late.
Jay moved slowly towards the door, and since he hadn't left, Carlos decided to voice a thought that had just occurred to him. "Hey, so, is Mal still pretending to date Ben?"
He could've just imagined it, but Jay seemed to be holding back a smile. "Yeah, she will be until the coronation. Why?"
Carlos shrugged. That answer irked him. The coronation was still several days away. "But she doesn't really like him, does she?"
"I doubt it. It's Mal we're talking about."
"Right." That helped his mood a little, but then..."What does that mean? Do you think she'll ever like anyone?"
"Maybe, if the right guy comes along." There was no question, Jay was definitely smirking. "Why, are you interested?"
Five minutes ago, Carlos would not have cared less. But something - maybe a dream he had - had given him the idea that Mal was actually the perfect girl for him. "I just think she's so..." He struggled to find an endearing personality trait, but came up short. "...Evil."
"And you like that."
"Yeah."
Jay had one foot out the door. "We'll talk about this more later. Don't do anything stupid, okay? She might burn you to a crisp."
Carlos continued thinking about this on the way to class. He did like a lot of things about Mal. She was strong, like Jay, and looked out for him almost as much as Jay did. She was intimidating and powerful and often underestimated - which was funny, because people often made up their minds early about Jay too and didn't realize how much he was really capable of. They weren't close, but he could fix that. Maybe he could get her something - would she prefer flowers or vials of poison?
That stopped him in his tracks. Oh my god. I'm in love with her. Nothing had ever been so clear to him. Somewhere along the line, he'd fallen for Mal of all people. Mal...even her name sounds perfect. Mal, Mal, Mal, Mal, Mal... Her terrifying green eyes, her cold expression, her biting tongue...he loved it all.
Carlos might as well have not shown up to lecture, for all the good it did him. Mal, Mal, Mal, Mal, Mal...
Carlos skidded into their room just after classes. Jay had already begun packing up the things he needed for tourney practice. "Jay, I can't keep this in anymore. I need to tell someone."
"Tell some - "
"I'm in love with Mal!" Carlos announced, flopping onto his bed. Jay did a mental victory dance. Finally, he could have his relationship with Carlos and not be worried about it evolving into anything more in the safe space of Auradon. Plus, Carlos's obsession with Mal didn't even bother him like his friendship with Harry did - this was fake. It was the first good thing that had happened since Jafar died...Jay sobered again.
"Okay. Good for you."
Carlos sat up, urgency in every movement. "What do I do, Jay? She's with Ben right now! I have to break them up."
"No!" That was an unexpected development. "Are you nuts? If you break them up, that'll ruin the whole plan. Mal won't be close enough to the wand during the coronation - do you really want to be the reason she fails? She'd blame you forever. Or at least until Maleficent kills us all."
His roommate deflated, considering the logic. "So I can't be with her?"
"At least not until after the coronation. Just lie low for a little while. I promise, once we get the wand back home, I'll do everything I can to get you two together." Mal could deal with that problem when it came.
That, at least, put a smile on Carlos's face. Jay had nearly forgotten what that looked like - he'd missed that smile. "You're the best, Jay. I can't wait."