AN: Please note that the only reference I make to Liv and Maddie is the name Olivia.
Please let me know what you think.
_
You're always out for yourself. Reverberates through my mind. I can definitely see where she would think that. It's not like I have ever given her a reason not to. That's probably what they all think about me. I'm sure that they don't mean to, but some part of them definitely think that. Determined to make things right, I set out in search for Uma.
"Hey Uma, can I talk to you. Please?" I ask more timidly than I'd care to admit.
"Sure, Mal." She says hesitantly. Spying a conveniently placed bench behind her and gesture for her to join me there. I try to gather my thoughts before we get to the bench, but to no avail. I remember the last time I had a conversation with my friends on the lawn. In fact, we sat not too far from where Uma and I are sitting now.
We sat there for a few minutes looking anywhere but at each other before she broke the awkward silence.
"What did you want to talk to me about Mal?" She asks. That one thing I like about Uma. She speaks her mind no matter what. right. I wanted to talk to her. I don't know why I'm suddenly so tongue tied. Wait, yes I do. I'm about to tell her something that no one else knows.
"Uma, I know that I apologized to you for the things I did and said to you when we were younger, but I didn't tell you why I started to do it." I paused trying to gather my thoughts…again. "After everything we've been through, I think that you deserve an explanation." I say with utmost sincerity.
"All right, talk." She commanded. Though she tried to hide it, I could hear the slight tinge of apprehension in her voice.
"I know that I haven't been the best friend, let alone cousin. You see…I… ugh" I ended up groaning. "Mal? What's the issue here?" She asked rightfully. I'm not normally this tongue tied.
"I know I'm not normally like this, I just don't know how to tell you. It's a difficult topic. Wait. I know. I'll show you." I exclaim.
"Oh no no. You are not doing any magic on me." She chimes in immediately.
"No, no. I meant that I'll show you the drawings I made. Wait here, I'll go get my journal."
The book that I want to retrieve is tucked carefully away, hidden in the one place someone wouldn't dare to look for it; inside Belle's library.
There it was, on the ninth shelf of the third column. To others, it looked like any other book, but for me, it shun a gold so bright, that I could never ignore it. Grabbing it quickly, I return to Uma. Hopefully she waited for me.
There are significantly more people loitering on the lawn than when I left it. The population around Uma being the largest. All of our friends seemingly drawn to her in my absence. "Hey Mal!" Carlos yells out, quickly followed by a chorus of hello's from the others.
"Hey guys." I respond jubilantly, as if their presence was wanted at this point in time.
"Did you get it?" Uma asks quietly, but not quietly enough. "Get what?" Evie chimed in.
"Nothing." I reply, but Evie being my best friend could tell that I was lying. "Why are you lying? I thought we promised no more secrets?" She asked, as if we weren't surrounded by all of our friends, who were all clearly listening in. But she was right. I did promise not to keep any more secrets from her.
"I went and got my journal. A journal I've kept a secret for many years." I say
"Why? What's s special about this journal?" Jay asks.
"It's a journal filled with drawings of someone in my family." I say resignedly.
"What family? How come we've never heard of this? Aren't we family?" Carlos asks with his sad brown eyes.
"You guys are family to me. But, I wanted to share it with my cousin before I shared it with you guys." I explain.
I expected some uproar from my comment, but not what they shouted. "COUSIN!" They yelled.
Uma and I looked at them all as if they were idiots.
"Yes,….cousins." I say apprehensively. Why were they confused? They now know that Hades is my father, what is the issue?
"How are you guys cousins?" Jane asked? "Obviously Auradon needs to brush up on its genealogy lessons." Uma drawled. "My mother is Ursula, and her father is Hades. Hence cousins."
"I still don't get it." Chad asked.
"Do I have to spell out everything for you guys? Ursula is a daughter of Poseidon who is the younger brother of Hades. Therefore, Uma and I are cousins." I explain with much aggravation. Honestly, it's simple logic.
"Mal?" Ben calls, "Are there any other relatives of yours that I should know about?"
"Well, I've got a half brother that was born the other day, Hadie." I say nonchalantly.
"Anyway!" I exclaim before anyone else can. "Uma, can we talk in private?" I inquire, ignoring the stares pointed my way.
"What's so bad, that you can't share it in-front of us?" Gil grumbles.
"Guys, chill. Sure Mal." Uma declared with her usual level of sass.
When I knew that Uma and I were alone, I hand the journal to her. I don't know why I call it a journal, because it's more like a sketch book. Then again, journal is accurate, because it holds a story.
I watch as she slowly flips through the page; her face giving away more than i'm sure she would care to. When she flipped to the last page, I think it became crystal clear what I was trying to say.
"I know the drawings show it, but tell me what happened." She asks softer than i've ever heard. I shuffle closer to her, and turn the pages to the very first one.
"This is me," I say while pointing to the blonde haired girl on the left, "and this is Olivia. She was born first. I mean 6 minutes isn't that big of a gap, but she always lamented on it."
"How come I never knew about her?" Uma inquired.
"That's my fault really. You see, though Liv was older, I was more like our mother. This happened before I met you. I don't even remember what I did, but boy was my mom mad. She knew that she had to punish me in a way that would make sure that I never fail her again." I croak as I re-live that day.
"Mal, what an utter disappointment you are. And to think, I gave you my name. No, this will never happen again. Since Olivia seems to be so much of a distraction, I shall remove her from the equation." She hissed.
"There were times when I would forget that my mother was actually a dragon. But, I'll never forget the look in her eyes, they glowed a green so vivid, I swear I could feel her dragon bearing down on me." I say as I flip to a specific page. This drawing depicts a girl ;who looked just like me, trapped in a dungeon.
"That was the last time I got to see her in person."
"In person?" Uma inquired. "Mom didn't and still doesn't know that as twins, Liv and I had a connection like no other."
"That day when we tried to prank Cruella, that was my biggest mistake. Not the fact that I tried to prank her. No, my mistake was failing to do so, and embarrassing mother. TO make it worse, I fall in to the water, and flounder around like an idiot, while the kids of parents she deemed beneath her, laughed. That was the ultimate humiliation, and it would not go un-punished." Tears freely ran down my face at this point, ad I didn't care. I was finally talking about my sister out loud. Uma, sensing that the story gets worse, stayed silent.
"That night, I felt a pain I had never felt in my life. It was like a part of my disappeared. I had never felt so alone in my life." I cry.
"Then I got angry, and you were the easiest person for me to take my anger out on. I'm sorry for that." I end.
Uma seemed to be as upset as I am, and that was better than anything I could hope for.
"Maleficent shishkabobed her own kid?" Uma asked incredulously. Villain parents were mean, but no one had ever heard of one of them killing their own child.
"No, no!" I yell out in order to dissuade that train of thought. "No. she cursed 's currently asleep, only to awaken when my mother thinks that I have lived up to her expectations." I sigh before continuing. "I stopped talking about her, and everyone eventually forgot that I had a sister.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Uma asked clearly hurt that I didn't just tell her what was wrong.
"I wanted to, but things got out of hand, and before I knew it too much time had passed and too much had happened between us." I shrug. Uma for the first time since we sat down, looked me in the eyes.
"Thank you for telling me Mal. I know that I may not have known her, but it's nice to finally understand you. At least partially anyway." She finished with a smile.
i couldn't help the small giggle that past my mouth, as I smile at her.
"Come on, let's go eat some cake. Wipe your tears. The people of Auradon can't see their future queen crying after talking to me. They'd have my head." Uma smiled.
It felt nice to have gotten that off my chest. I'd love some cake. Do you think they have any chocolate cake left?" I tease as we head to the kitchens.