Bad to the Bone
Chapter 13 – When She's Ready
Disclaimer: I don't own Descendants, only my original characters
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A/N; I did have this chapter all ready for updating on Thursday but I completely forgot with school and coursework, so I though I'd update now.
"I'm rotten to the core."
The noise of the corridor was cut off by the click of the door and Jaz bobbed her eyebrows in greeting. She stepped over the sprawled out Carlos and avoided his laptop charger connected to the wall. Kicking her shoes off in the direction of the corner of the room, she dropped onto the end of Evie's bed by her brother.
Mal frowned at the far away look in her eyes and tapped her pencil against her notebook. The teen scrunched up a spare sheet of paper and launched it at the brunette and didn't receive the reaction she expected when Jaz simply let it hit the side of her head and fall to the ground.
"What's up with you?" the boys' eyes landed on their friend in concern, Jay soon shrugging it off and moving to the window sill when his phone pinged.
Jaz groaned and flopped into the space her brother had just been occupying and roughed a hand down her face, "Just can't wait to get off this damn island."
"Not long now." Jaz shrugged her shoulders and kept her gaze on the ceiling above her.
"Hopefully." She sighed again before rolling onto her side to look at the leader of their band of misfits, "Anyway, how did your date go with Benny-Boo?"
"I dunno. I nearly drowned trying to save his dumb ass." Mal rolled her eyes at the memory before her eyes took on a glint of mischief, "He has swim trunks with little crowns on."
"Really Mal? Looking at his swim trunks on the first date? I thought better of you." Jaz teased, earning a pillow to the head which she caught and pressed it to her chest.
"Shut up. It wasn't like that." Mal scowled, trying to fight the blood rushing to her cheeks. Mal didn't blush – not ever.
"Sure." Jaz smirked before rolling onto her back to look at the ceiling again, "Where's E?"
Mal flicked her notebooks shut and sat up, done with whatever she was doing for the time being, "Dunno; I think she said something about working with Doug."
Jaz nodded, unbothered and didn't move when the door opened and Evie stepped in, graceful as always.
"Ah speak of the devil." Mal mumbled loud enough for everyone to hear and leant back against her pillows.
Evie raised one perfectly manicured eyebrow before shrugging and sitting daintily at her desk. She pulled a textbook from her back and dropped it onto the desk along with a notebook and some papers. She flashed her eyes over the occupants of the room before settling her gaze on Jaz.
She rested her elbow on the back of her chair and examined the girl before asking, "Have you been to see Fairy Godmother yet?"
The easy grin slipped from Jaz' face and she sat up with a groan, the pillow nestled between her legs, "Yeah I just got back a few minutes ago?"
"What'd you go for?" Carlos asked, looking away from his computer screen for a moment before returning to it.
"The old bat got some idea in her head that there's something wrong with my brain. A load of bull, if you ask me, but I did some tests so she'll get off my back."
She busied herself with nimbly un-braiding her hair, refusing to make eye contact with anyone as she scraped her hair up into a more comfortable and messy ponytail.
"I mean there is a lot wrong with you." Mal gibed and Jaz flipped her off in response.
"Did she tell you what the tests are for?" Evie asked, turning her attention to her textbook.
"Dyslexia or something; I dunno I wasn't paying much attention." Jaz shrugged flippantly, the air of nonchalance around her seeming forced.
"Oh I read about that." Carlos said and stifled a laugh as he realised what he said, "I guess that's where the problem lies for you then isn't it."
Jaz simply rolled her eyes and leant over the edge of the bed to whack him with her pillow. She leant back and watched Jay, her stomach knotting with nerves as her twin moved to sit by Evie's headboard.
Jay exhaled softly and stretched his legs to rest his feet on Jaz' thigh, "What's dyslexia?"
"It's a learning difficulty I think, its people that struggle with reading and writing." The smallest of the group answered before pulling up a new computer tab.
His nimble fingers flew across the keys as he typed 'dyslexia' into the search bar. He scrolled through the search results until he came across a decent site.
"Are there any symptoms or signs?" Jay asked, his stoic expression not giving away his thoughts.
"Uh yeah." Carlos nodded before scrolling further down the webpage, "Its says here that dyslexics might; be slow readers, have poor spelling, be able to understand verbal commands but not written ones, and can struggle with planning and organisation. But they can also be good problem solvers and be creative thinkers. It says every case is different and some people might be better off than others."
"Well I've never struggled with spelling." Jaz said, waving a blasé hand.
"Jaz." Evie said softly, her features twisting into a worried frown.
Jay stared intently at his lap before watching his sister, "Can it be fixed? Is there a cure?"
Carlos looked up with a frown, his gaze flickering from one twin to the next, "It's not an illness, Jay, it's a learning difficulty."
"It can't be 'fixed' just helped." She hissed practically throwing herself off the bed.
Her shoulders heaved as she tried to take calming breaths. Giving up she crossed the room and wrenched the door open, "I said I'd meet Megan."
The slam of the door was followed by the sound of skin hitting skin as Carlos slapped the back of Jay's head. The taller teen's eyes snapped to Carlos and his hand reached up to rub the area.
"What the hell was that for?"
"Would a little tact be so hard for you?" Evie scolded, twisting in her chair to shoot him a glare.
"Yeah. 'Can it be fixed?' What was that about?" Carlos asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
"What? If there is something up with my sister, and there isn't," he said, adamantly, "I wanted to know if it could be cured."
"We're not saying there is, okay? But if there is, Jaz doesn't need you being mad as well. She'll be annoyed enough at herself."
Jay slumped in on himself, worry lines etched onto his forehead, "Why would I be mad? Why would she be mad at herself?"
Carlos winced and bit his lip nervously, "That doesn't matter. Just be careful what you say to Jaz. She's desperate for the results to be negative."
"Why? What's problem with what the results are?"
"You really have no, do you?" Mal scoffed, rolling her eyes and pinching the bridge of her nose, "I thought you of all people would have noticed. I thought since we'd figured it out you would have too."
"Figured what out?" Jay asked, anger seeping into his voice at being left out of the loop, "What the fuck are you talking about?"
"It's not for us to tell you, Jaz has to tell you herself." Carlos said softly, avoiding Jay's gaze as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"I know life on the Isle wasn't easy but dad didn't give much of a shit about her so she had it easier. I'd have known if anything bad had've happened to her, right?"
"She's a good liar." Mal shrugged, her fingers drumming almost nervously on her knee, "There's a lot none of us know about her. We have no clue exactly what she went through on the Isle or who she dealt with so we wouldn't have any problems. Do you know?"
"But she'd tell me." his voice wavered as his faith in the statement wavered.
The twins were as close as they could be and they shared everything. Surely he'd know if anything happened to his best friend, right? His confidence in that fact fell flat at the soft looks of his friends' faces.
"Would she? Do you know anything about her first time? Who it was with? When it happened?" Evie asked her voice gentle and jay shrugged a little defensively, "Exactly."
"I thought she was still a virgin." Jay commented softly, his gaze locked on his feet at his thoughts swirled and jumbled in his head.
Evie shook her head and kept her own gaze on the spot where Jaz had been sitting before, "All we know is that she's not anymore. We don't know who with or when."
"I mean I kinda get why she wouldn't tell me about it, but why didn't she tell any of you?"
"Like Mal said, there's a lot we don't know. You know what the Isle is like, it might not have been consensual, we just don't know." Evie watched Jay carefully, noting the tightening of his jaw and the clenching of his fists.
"We were lucky and I hope that she was but we can't be sure." Mal admitted reluctantly, "Our luck had to have ended at some point and I know for a fact that some people on the Isle weren't as lucky as we were."
"No one else has someone the way we did. And I bet there weren't many people willing to do what you did for us." Evie shot jay a grateful smile before dropping her gaze back to her hands, "We had you to make sure our first times were consensual, Jaz didn't."
"Do we ask her about? How do you even bring that up in a conversation?" Jay groaned, rubbing the back of his neck.
"She'll tell you when she's ready. The isle has messed us up in different ways and once our parents get that wand, shits gonna hit the fan. She might never be ready but let her come to you." Carlos moved to sit next to Jay and threw an arm around his shoulders, Evie and mal moving to sit at his other side.
"Jaz trusts you more than anyone and when she's ready, she'll tell you."
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A/N: Okay so, some of the things in this chapter will be brought up later on (probably in the sequel that I plan to write) but as a basic rundown, on the isle rape is pretty common and Jay agreed to sleep with both Mal and Evie (at different times) so that their first times wouldn't have been tainted with rape. The idea isn't mine and belongs to Evie-Ruby-1194, so go check out her story 'Sex Ed Class'. Her story is amazing and brings up some important ideas that many people forget or brush over.
After all, the isle is filled with villains that are no doubt angry without anyway of relieving that pent up aggression and anger. I know rape can be quite triggering but I don't plan on writing anything more than mentions of it.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter and drop a review with your opinion.