Chapter 26

It was almost an hour later before the pirate returned to his room. He's been sent there by Evie, slightly confused as to where Mal had gone.

When he opened the door, he spotted the purple beauty sat on his bed occupying herself with something on her phone. She was too absorbed in whatever she was watching which allowed Harry to just admire her from the doorway for a couple of minutes.

"Hey beautiful" he greeted the girl. "How come you're here and not enjoying the party?" tilting his head in the rough direction of the ballroom.

Mal looked up from her phone and shot Harry one of her rare, full smiles. He was now inside the doorframe, Mal was happy to spot that he was still topless, the letterman jacket slung over his shoulder. In his right hand, she spotted the bottle of whiskey that Harriet had managed to send over.

If you listened to the three Hook kids they'd convince you it was from Neverland although Mal was less convinced.

"Evie passed the message on I see" she said eyeing the bottle. "As for the party, a certain princess decided to ruin the mood. Technically it's also a school night and I'd rather wake up 10 minutes before breakfast than have Evie badger me every five minutes from 7am." she rolled her eyes to emphasise her dislike at the early mornings sharing with Evie brought.

Harry made his way over to his bed, placing the whiskey and two glasses onto his bedside table. When he sat down on the bed it wasn't long before Mal was snuggle up against his chest, enjoying the comfort it provided.

"How did The Challenge go?" She asked, having missed the event. "Bit tame really, certainly doesn't take much to get you expelled." he responded. The build-up made him imagine true villainous acts, although it was really just some tame dares!

Following this he poured them both a drink, passing a glass to Mal. Clearly she was thinking of their first 'date'. They'd been running around the isle, basically causing mischief while trying to avoid the people who would get word back to their respective parents. Mal had known that her gang's hideout would be free that night as the quartet had been discussing their plans earlier in the day and their evenings all revolved around chores and jobs for their parents. What followed was a night full of drinking, talking about escaping the Isle, and making out. Harry had to leave in the small hours of the morning to avoid Mal's gang from discovering him - with a parting kiss he disappeared into the night, neither knowing the next time they'd see each other.

When Evie, Jay and Carlos had arrived the next day and asked why she was there and not at home she lied about having a migraine and needing to get away from her mother.

"Isle escapades on your mind?" he asked her, to which she nodded in response.

"It was all worth it for this Harry, all the sneaking around and deception - finally we're free" she sighed softly in content as she downed her drink in one, enjoying the reminder of one of her happier memories from growing up.

"I wish we could have always had this. Your mother would have killed me, your father would have intimidated me. My Da, well he always engineering me into situations with Uma" Harry said, both pulling an equally repulsed faced at the final thought causing them both the laugh at the others expression.

By this point it was almost 2am in the morning and the party would surely be winding down.

Mal briefly got up from the pirates bed to take her dress off before bed, "there you go, one dress on your floor as promised" she said while smirking at Harry, who's eyes were suddenly glued to her. Soon he was running his hook over the replica, knowing it drove the girl crazy. Soon she was back on his bed and making out like they'd not seen each other in weeks.

Before they could get too far there was a knock on the rooms door.

"Oi Harry, is it safe to come in?" came Gil's voice from the hall. This caused the two to break apart and move below the pirates duvet.

"Aye, you're good Gil" called Harry to his dorm mate, and lifelong friend.

Gil appeared in the room in a similar state as to how Harry had first arrived. Spotting the dragon girls dress on the floor by Harry's bed he raised an eyebrow at him.

Turning towards the pair he said "Mal you're more than welcome to stay as long as you both promise to only sleep in the snoring, restful sense." Harry was certainly in a playful mood with his response, "you got it Gil, if only you'd been here earlier you could have joined in" this caused Mal to burst out laughing, the entire bottle of whiskey the pair had consumed between them finally starting to affect her.

At this Gil just rolled his eyes and headed to the bathroom to get ready for bed. He wished the couple evil dreams and the three headed off to an alcohol induced sleep.

An alarm blaring from the other side of the room woke Harry and Mal up.

"Gil, shut that infernal alarm off" Harry's voice still thick with sleep grouched out. The unexpected noise caused Mal to attempt to bury her head further into Harry's chest, clearly attempting to ignore it.

"Harry its half eight, we've got registration in 20 minutes - we need to get up" Gil stressed as he began to get out of bed, "at least the six of us will be in a better state than everyone but Ben who went last night."

While Gil had a point the other two were still unhappy at having to get up. Mal headed straight for the boy's shower to get ready for the day, not caring that she only had her underwear on as she walked across the room. When she was drying herself off she realised she only had the dress from the night before - the staff would have a hissy fit if she turned up to class in it.

"Harry, Gil!" she called while sticking her head out the door, getting the two boys attention, "do you have anything I could borrow till lunch?" she asked.

Before long Mal had a pair of Gil's sweatpants as they were closer in height to each other and Harry had given her his tourney team hoodie. Thankfully she just rolled the sleeves up and didn't look too bad in the cobbled together outfit.

"Would either of you happen to have a hairbrush?" she asked, knowing she was pushing her luck at this request.

"Do we look like girls?" Came Harry's response as he pointed between himself and Gil.

"Fine, I'll just put it in a bun!" she said before picking up some basic school supplied from Gil's desk, which was far more organised and would be enough to get her through the morning's classes. Thankfully her art class wasn't till the afternoon so she'd have time to get her folder and laptop from her room.

Once the three were ready they headed off to their homeroom. Gil was right, the rest of their classmates looked rough, whereas the VK's looked like it was just another day.

"Mal! How could you come out in public wearing that?" was the greeting she received from Evie.

"Thanks E, this is what happens when the only other thing you have when you go to a sleepover in an indecent dress!" she replied, giving Evie a look that would make most normal people recoil in fear but the blue haired girl wasn't deterred by it.

The bell rang signifying it was time for class. On her way out the room she turned to Harry and Gil, "swing by later - I've got some pictures from the match you might want to see."

With this she headed off to her torturous first period math class, praying the teacher might go easier on them due to the state of the others.

Thankfully math had gone relatively well, it was mainly revision material and for once Mal had actually revised and understood the concept.

She had English with Jay before lunch, the only subject besides gym she shared with the boy she thought of as a brother. Neither of them had enjoyed that particular lesson, they'd been assigned some old book called Great Expectations by Charles Dickens with the expectation they'd have read it by the following week. The pair had just raised their eyebrows at each other - they'd have to find an online quick guide to this to be able to cobble together the upcoming assignments.

Lunch passed by in a blur of the two pirates being on the receiving end of many looks following the previous night. Thankfully it appeared Audrey couldn't remember what had happened, the small nod from Ben confirmed her suspicions.

After she'd finished Mal dashed off back to her dorm room so she could get her art supplies. Remembering the conversation from the night before with Jane she picked up her Isle sketchbook which contained all the tattoo designs she'd come up with, along with her folder and her camera.

When she entered the art room Mal sat in the empty seat at Ellie's table.

"How was last night with you mom and brother?" she asked the girl.

"It was okay, mom on her own is totally fine and actually quite nice. However add my brother to the equation and it became a rather awkward evening meal." Ellie explained, if anyone Mal would understand the issues families could create. "How did the party go?"

Mal pulled her phone out to show Ellie the few pictures that had been taken the night before. It was mainly just a couple of the group of the girls, and then one with the tourney boys and Doug.

"It was pretty good, they managed to get the good drink from home - thank god for Harriett Hook!" she smiled wickedly at her friend. "There was a slight incident with Audrey but she'd got no idea what happened, thank god! Although Ben and Evie do."

At that moment, Mrs Fitz entered the classroom. "Happy Thursday everyone! Thank you all for submitting your photography portfolios." She said while smiling around the classroom, "I've picked a few out from the submitted ones to share with the class. Although the rest of the period we'll be working on your fine art." Mal was relieved that she'd brought the sketch book.

The first couple of pictures displayed were landscape shots from the area surrounding the school, looking at them made Mal feel glad she'd been changed to live action for her project rather than landscape.

The next picture was off the town's harbour on a flat calm day, whatever class mate took it had the patience of a saint as far as Mal was concerned. It was a lovely photo but boy would it have taken a lot of planning (and waiting) to capture.

The final two put up on the screen was the one of Harry and Gil during their swords practice, and the one she'd given the Jane the previous evening of her flying through the air.

Mrs Fitz was briefly making comments to the class on each picture to give them different aspects they could use in their own work.

"Mal?" she asked, drawing the girls attention away from the pictures on screen. "In the swords picture, were the boys stationary or mid 'fight'?" the teacher asked, hoping it was the latter.

"Mid fight Mrs Fitz" came the response along with a small smile gracing the purple haired girls face in pride of the picture.

The rest of the class appeared shocked at this, with the exception of Ellie who had seen everything Mal had taken so far with exception to the previous day's work.

After briefly going into detail about shutter speed Mrs Fitz set them off to work on their fine art.

Ellie and Mal both pulled out their sketch books, although Ellie noticed that Mal was not using her usual one, but one that looked far older and dirtier. Definitely not Auradon bought.

Mal was working on new ideas for what could go on her pirate next, there were two designs on her mind - the first was her necklace charm and the second involved his tourney number and design. Ellie was drawing some incredibly complicated design around snowflakes, there was also a very detailed reindeer - Mal vaguely remembered it being called Sven.

It was a common theme in the fine art work that the students picked topics they were incredibly familiar with, which was usually of their hometowns and lives.

Mrs Fitz approached the table the girls were occupying and started talking to Ellie about her work. When she moved onto Mal, like Ellie, she was curious about the different sketch book.

"Mal, where's your normal book?" she asked the girl. "It was something Jane mentioned last night about submitting a person for fine art that made me bring it. This was mostly used when I lived on the Isle and the first few weeks here." she explained while handing the booked over to the teacher to look through.

"These are incredible Mal, especially when some are off Neverland features. Despite the circumstances when it was drawn Fairy Godmother's wand looks so realistic." Mrs Fitz mentioned before her brain caught up with what Mal had told her just moments before. "Why would you submit a human for this module?" she asked suitably confused, causing the younger girl to laugh.

"Let's just say most of these sketches have ended up becoming tattoos that ended up being on display for the whole school last night" she shrugged at the end. "Please don't get us in trouble, none of its happened since being here and on the Isle we don't really have the same rules, or any rules really." she finished, momentarily forgetting who her teacher was married too - the biggest mischief maker this side of the Isle.

"Don't worry Mal, your past will never be held against you in this classroom. It does confirm what had been circulating this morning however." she said, hoping to reassure the girl. Continuing to flick through the book she spotted the dragon version of the girl complete with replica mini scales and then moved on to what she was currently sketching.

"Very good both of you - keep up the work." With that the girls were left to their own devices for the rest of the period.

Before long the bell had rung signalling the end of the day, although for Mal she'd be heading to Fairy Godmother's office to continue her magic studies, hopefully Jane would be joining them today she though as she began to make her way through the school.