"So Ben is interested in that new emo girl?" Audrey asked firmly as she sat in her desk in her current class.
"I heard and saw it with my own ears and eyes," Scarlet nodded sincerely. "Ben and Mal are probably going to be an item before this semester ends."
Audrey snarled. "Everybody knows you can't date the ex-boyfriend of the most popular girl in school," she then seethed. "Doesn't this Mal realize that?"
"She obviously doesn't, Audrey," Ivy shook her head. "She's as socially dense as my geeky little sister."
"What're you going to do, Audrey?" Coraline asked.
"...Nothing." Audrey simply said.
"Nothing?!" The three other girls yelped.
"Nothing." Audrey smirked as she leaned back into her chair, putting her feet up and over on her desk, putting her hands behind her head.
"Audrey, you usually have something sneaky and schemey right about now," Ivy replied, almost sounding disappointed in her friend. "We might as well hang out with Scarlet again. At least she got the dish on Mal and Ben and Ben's your ex-boyfriend."
"Don't you get it?" Audrey smirked. "When do the best villains strike in these dopey and lame plays that Old Man Hyde makes us read? When you least expect it."
"So... You're coming up with a plan and it'll come into action later?" Ivy guessed, trying to understand.
"Exactly!" Audrey nodded, keeping her smirk. "Sure, I might not be doing anything right now, but these school walls are thin, especially when it comes to rumors and juicy gossip. Don't you guys remember how we got Claudine Frollo busted by her dad when she released those frogs from The Biology Lab when we were supposed to dissect them next week and we told him about it?"
"Ohh..." The three girls nodded and had fiendish smirks on their faces.
"Too bad that couldn't get that creepy Frollo girl expelled," Ivy scoffed. "She claims to have magical and supernatural powers, but the only thing she's powerful at is being a freak."
"Creepine Freak-o," Scarlet chuckled darkly. "I remember you came up with that name in the girls' bathroom and by lunchtime the next day, everybody was saying it."
"Exactly," Audrey grinned maliciously as she rested her hands underneath her chin as she sat up then. "Just leave it all to me... Nothing shall stop me~"
Eventually, the class bell rang and the girls stood up and went to leave their desks with the other students to get out of their Advanced English Class.
"Just a moment, Miss Thornley..." The teacher called, making the girl freeze on the spot with his low, grave, and chilling voice that could frighten any student.
"...Yes, what is it?" Audrey asked, a bit annoyed as she promised to start plotting right after class, but was being held up in class.
"Mr. Hyde, whatever it is, Audrey is, like, super busy right now." Ivy said as she came beside the brunette girl.
"Yeah, you wouldn't want her to miss her next class, would you?" Coraline added.
"Oh, I, like, totally wouldn't want that." Mr. Hyde replied, rolling his red-brown eyes as he seemed to agree with the girls so far.
"Right, so we're gonna get going and we'll see you tomorrow." Scarlet said, going to lead Audrey out the door.
"Not so fast, my dears~" Mr. Hyde smirked darkly, scaring them instantly, especially with how strict and direct he was compared to most teachers, almost like a male Mrs. Belfrey. "I need to speak with Miss Thornley. The rest of you go off to class, this is between me and Miss Thornley~"
"Okay!" Scarlet nearly squeaked. "See ya, Audrey, we gotta go!"
"Good luck!" Coraline and Ivy added before bolting off suddenly with Scarlet.
"Cowards..." Audrey grumbled before she sighed and turned around with a forced polite smile on her face. "Yes, Mr. Hyde, sir, what is it? By the way... You look so handsome today~... I think I have a crush on you~"
"Well, I'm flattered, but very much disinterested." Mr. Hyde smirked, not buying into her kissing up as he knew she was just saying that to soften the blow and trouble she was about to get into.
Audrey had a small pout of defeat.
"You were 25 minutes late to class today," Mr. Hyde told Audrey. "What possible excuse could you have?"
"Ugh... I had a make-up appointment, okay?" Audrey rolled her eyes. "I just ran out of Simba Sunrise lip balm and I had to find a better shade. I know how to accessorize, ya know. I'm sure you totally understand 'cuz you're so smart and awesome, right?" she then smirked boastfully.
"And yet you thought it would be okay if you were late to class to put make-up before your studies." Mr. Hyde then said.
"Yes!" Audrey nodded. "Presentation is everything. So can I go now?"
"I'm sorry, Miss Thornley, but you're going to have to do extra homework tonight." Mr. Hyde narrowed his eyes sharply.
Audrey let out a startled yelp. "But... But... But... But..." she then stammered.
"No butts except for yours in the desk right in front of me; I'll write you an excuse note for your next class." Mr. Hyde smirked.
Audrey groaned as she soon dumped her backpack down in the desk in front of her and then sat down against her will.
"You waste my time waiting for you, I'll waste yours making you wait right here," Mr. Hyde replied. "Now then, I want you to copy this information down to teach you for being late to class without a valid excuse."
"B-But... I..." Audrey stammered shakily.
"I'm sure you totally understand." Mr. Hyde smirked as he stood up, approaching his board with a piece of chalk.
"...Right." Audrey grumbled as she soon took out a pencil to do as he asked, feeling like a prisoner right about now.
Meanwhile, Mal was in her current class with the boys. She luckily warmed up to them a bit more, but she still missed being able to talk with Evie. The two felt very close and comfortable with each other, almost like sisters.
"So Ben invited me to have lunch with him today," Mal said before shrugging. "I know you guys don't know much about girls going out to lunch with guys, but what do you think? Is it a good idea?"
"I'd go for it, especially if Ben's paying for lunch," Jay chuckled as he crossed his arms. "His parents are loaded, especially his uncle having a better shop than my old man."
Carlos rolled his eyes slightly.
"So I should go for it?" Mal then asked.
"You might as well since he invited you," Carlos smiled. "Ben's a pretty nice guy even though he's super popular and rich compared to a lot of us."
"Well, yeah, he doesn't seem like a snob," Mal had to admit. "I'm just not sure what we could talk about or do."
"I'm sure you'll think about something as long as you don't talk about cramps or chocolate," Jay rolled his eyes. "You girls tend to yak about your feelings a lot."
"Jay!" Carlos glared.
"What?" Jay shrugged in defense.
"You must make your girlfriend really proud, Jay." Mal rolled her eyes in deadpan.
"Ha! Joke's on you, I don't have a girlfriend!" Jay smirked before he paused briefly. "...Wait."
Carlos just groaned and face-palmed. "I'm so sorry about him, Mal," he then said. "How is it that I skipped a couple of grades and yet I'm more mature?"
"Well, they say girls mature faster than boys, but I don't know what's your excuse," Mal smirked slightly. "Say, Carlos, aren't your parents rich too?"
"My new uncle is rich, my mom was born rich, but she lost her inheritance after a family reunion went wrong," Carlos shrugged. "I don't care much about riches honestly. I think I wanna be a vet someday or something like that."
"Hmm... Yeah..." Mal nodded. "I've seen you be good with a lot of animals, especially a dog who keeps wandering around campus."
"Yeah, no one knows where he came from or why he keeps coming back, but I kinda like him," Carlos smiled before groaning. "I'd adopt him, but my mother probably thinks he's just a pile of riffraff."
"Your mom sounds like a nightmare." Mal muttered.
"Trust me, she is..." Carlos sulked. "Uh, let's move on to other topics... What should we use for our group project?"
"Augh... I kinda liked what we were talking about already," Jay groaned as he sank in his desk. "Can't we keep talking about girls and rich boys?"
"Oh, Jay... What am I going to do with you?" Carlos sighed and shook his head.
"I dunno," Jay shrugged with a small smirk. "Keep me?"
Mal and Carlos just rolled their eyes together in mild annoyance.
"Just remember to do your part in the project and don't rely on just us to get an A on your report card, Jay." Carlos reminded.
"Yeah, Jay, don't just rely on Carlos to get you an A on your report card." Mal added with a smirk.
"Yeah!" Carlos nodded before he realized what Mal said and then pouted. "Hey..."
"Just having some fun, Carlos, no harm done," Mal chuckled innocently and ruffled up his monochrome hair. "You know I care about you like a little brother."
"Yeah, whatever." Carlos rolled his eyes as he crossed his arms.
"All right, all right, I'll help you guys out," Jay chuckled as he soon sat up again. "So stop spreading gossip like a hen, Mal. That way, we can do our project."
"Hm..." Mal just rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Men."
"Yeah, we can be so fickle sometimes," Carlos scoffed. "Sorry about that, Mal."
"It's fine," Mal replied. "And my mom thought my dad was immature and needed to grow up."
"Daddy issues?" Carlos guessed.
"More or less," Mal shrugged. "It's kind of a long story. I don't feel like talking about it much."
"Great. We don't wanna hear it." Jay replied nonchalantly.
"Jay..." Carlos sighed and shook his head. "Well, Mal, at least you know your dad and he stuck around."
"Oh... Carlos... I'm sorry..." Mal said softly as that struck her deep down inside. "You never knew your dad?"
"No, I'm afraid not," Carlos replied. "My mom's been with so many men, but none of them were my father. She just calls them my uncles, but they never last long. It's been that way for as long as I can remember."
Mal frowned softly.
"...Oookay, anyone wanna change the subject?" Jay suggested softly.
"Fine," Mal replied. "So, I guess lunch with Ben is going to be adventurous. I'll let you guys know how it goes."
"Sounds good," Carlos smiled. "I don't think you have much to worry about. He's a pretty cool and nice boy."
"In my old neighborhood, we'd probably just beat him up, take his clothes, and tie him up to a basketball hoop or something." Mal remarked.
"Heh... I kinda like this old neighborhood of yours," Jay smirked, chuckling a bit. "I think we'd get along nicely down there."
"Sure, Jay..." Mal smirked back a bit.
The discussion went on for a bit before they switched to the topic they were required to discuss which was their assignment from Ms. Porter. However, the talking among students was cut short as they suddenly heard some beeping in the air which soon meant that they were going to be given a school-wide announcement from their headmistress.
"Attention, my little dears, attention~..." Headmistress Fairgood's voice rang, sounding like a songbird in the morning, tweeting the day away.
"What does she want?" Mal muttered to herself.
"Mm-mm..." Jay and Carlos just shrugged in response.
"At 1:00, there will be a teacher's meeting, so after lunch hour, you will all be dismissed and sent home early today," Headmistress Fairgood soon stated. "Now I know you'll all be sad about missing the rest of your school day, but don't worry! You can always finish up your classes tomorrow... I hope you all understand... That is all for now, my dears. Have a wonderful rest of your morning!" she then signed off.
The classroom blinked for a few minutes and soon, the classroom erupted into cheerful excitement about going home early today.
"A half-day... Not bad," Mal smirked as she crossed her arms before pausing thoughtfully. "Hm... I wonder if I'll still have lunch with Ben?"
"I'm sure you will," Jay reassured. "No need to worry, Your Royal Purpleness~"
"Your Royal Purpleness?" Mal deadpanned slightly.
"Well, yeah," Jay chuckled. "You're going to lunch with The King of School. You might as well become the new Queen of School. Eat your heart out, Audrey Thornley~"
"Shh... Be careful," Carlos shushed urgently with his own chuckle. "If you say her name too many times, she'll pop out of nowhere and make your life a living Hell."
Jay and Carlos soon chuckled.
"It's just lunch, guys," Mal smirked a bit. "It's not like he's gonna ask me to marry him or something."
"Ooh, imagine if he proposed right after the big game?" Jay smirked at Carlos. "That'd be the scoop of the school semester alright."
"Everybody would be talking about it at the big school reunion in 10 years." Carlos chuckled.
"Ugh..." Mal groaned and rolled her eyes before face-planting against her desk. "Boys..."
"Some grow up and some don't." Carlos added, looking snarky towards Jay as he seemed to be the most mature student in the high school hallway despite being two years younger than the others.
"I think a lot of mothers would agree with you on that statement." Mal remarked.
Carlos and Mal soon both chuckled as Jay gave them a look, but he didn't say anything.
Some time had passed as Ben was feeling slightly better than he was before, especially when he talked with Dr. Hopper. He was mostly looking forward to lunch today and eating with Mal, hoping it would work out. Especially since today was a half-day, he decided to take her to a special spot for just the two of them. He heard that his father did this for his mother on one of their first dates and even though it was very old-fashioned, he just hoped that Mal would appreciate it for when the time would come. He was looking forward to it a lot more since it was a half-day of school and they wouldn't have to head back to classes too soon as he wanted to spend as much time as he could with her as he had a good feeling about her.
"Hello, Mal," Ben smiled warmly as the girl came to meet him in the hallway as promised. "I hope you're good to go for lunch. I just have to make a quick stop at my house first. Maybe I could pick you up in my uncle's car and you could get some stuff from your house and get out of that boring uniform?" he then suggested, adding a bit, trying to make a joke.
"Huh? Oh, yeah, sure," Mal replied before nodding. "I guess this uniform's not really date attire, huh?"
"Heh... Date..." Ben chuckled bashfully. "I guess you could say that~"
"I hope that that's not too forward," Mal said with a small smirk. "I'll head back home. I don't know if my mom's even home, but either way, I should be fine."
"Could I have your address then?" Ben asked. "So we know where to come get you?"
"All right, sure," Mal nodded. "Besides, you have a little sister, right?"
"Yeah, I should make sure she makes it back at the house safely," Ben agreed. "Thanks for understanding."
"No problem," Mal said softly. "Your sister must be lucky to have a cool big brother like you."
"I feel like the lucky one sometimes." Ben smiled warmly.
The two chuckled together before they soon split up, walking away from each other. Mal decided to not let Audrey said get to her about staying away from Ben, besides, what could possibly go wrong? Ben began to feel the same way as they soon split up to go to their respective homes. Audrey glowered from where she stood in the hallway and soon walked off into the shadows, like a mysterious and ominous villain and was luckily undetected by the two of them. Mal soon found herself facing a problem though... What was she going to wear and what was she going to do about her make-up? Definitely not tell her mother though...
"Looks like you passed Dr. Jekyll's science test," Evie smiled as she stood beside Henry. "Just wait 'til you're my age and Mr. Deley makes you find the atomic mass in something with both Math and Science."
"Yeesh... Talk about overkill," Henry replied as he looked at his test papers which had an A on it. "You think Mom will put it on the fridge?"
"I'm sure that she will," Evie smiled before hugging him and giving him a sisterly kiss on the cheek. "Mwah! Ooh, my baby brother is so smart~"
Henry smiled back, though looked a bit bashful and sheepish from the kissing, but wasn't deathly embarrassed like many kids would be in his age or position.
"I told you, I'm more than just a pretty face." Evie smiled warmly at Henry.
"A shocker, huh?" Henry chuckled.
"You're gonna do just fine," Evie smiled before firmly pouting and shaking her head. "Even if Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Deley are just very strict science teachers on us students~"
"Tell me about it," Henry pouted and nodded in agreement. "I wish Ms. Blanchard could teach science like she teaches us everything else. We're probably gonna make birdhouses in the Springtime."
"That'll be fun," Evie smiled. "If you need help, just remember to ask your favorite big sister for help."
Mal was soon wandering around and looked a bit frustrated once she caught up and saw her best friend in school. "There you are! I have been looking for you literally everywhere!" she then told Evie.
"What's up?" Evie asked.
"Are you forgetting?" Mal reminded. "I have a lunch date with Ben today and he wants to take me out because we have a half-day today."
"Nice." Henry commented.
"So what's the problem?" Evie asked Mal.
Mal bit her lip. "...Can you do my make-up and help me pick out what to wear?" she then asked nervously.
"Do you wanna come to my house?" Evie then asked.
"He's gonna pick me up at my house," Mal replied. "I don't suppose you could come meet me there?"
"Let me make sure Mom comes to pick up Henry," Evie suggested. "I have to make sure he gets home safely and I can't leave him out here on his own unless there's a major school emergency."
"...Well, I can wait," Mal shrugged. "Just please hurry up. I don't know how long Ben will be in getting ready and coming over."
"All right, I'll just tell Mom to let me go home with you and once we're through together, Ben won't be able to keep his hands off of you." Evie soon said with a small, reassuring smile.
Mal smiled back a little shyly.
"Girls..." Henry rolled his eyes. "I don't understand them sometimes."
"Oh, come on, Henry," Mal smirked a little. "Isn't there a girl in your class that you like?"
"Mm-mm," Henry shook his head. "I'm too young to be engaged in a fully-committed relationship for I am vastly immature for such social rituals."
Mal and Evie blinked at each other, glancing at the strange use of Henry's wording.
"In other words: I don't think any girl likes me and I don't like any much and they don't really hang out or talk to me," Henry shrugged. "I don't really have any friends."
"No friends?" Mal asked. "Come on, kid, there's gotta be someone you hang out with."
"Well... I once tried to hang around the Zimmer twins," Henry shrugged. "I recognized them from school, but I didn't fully know them when we ran into each other at The Dark Star Pharmacy. Turns out they were just sneaking Wonka and Apollo bars in my bag so that they could get away with stealing and Mr. Clark, the owner, called Mom. Luckily I wasn't in trouble, but Nicholas and Ava were given a serious talking to afterward."
"Don't worry, Henry," Evie coaxed to her little brother as Regina's car began to pull up. "You'll make some new friends soon enough. Just like I'll have a boyfriend someday."
"Until then Henry... I will be your friend." Mal offered.
Evie smiled warmly as she appreciated and admired that.
"No, that's okay, I know it'd be uncool if someone your age called someone my age a friend," Henry said softly. "I'll be okay, Mal. Really."
Mal frowned softly, but patted him on the head and he soon went over to the backseat of the car.
"Mom, I'm going to go Mal's house for a quick min-" Evie began to say before looking to see who was driving. "Oh... Uh... Hello, Graham."
Mal glanced over as she felt something odd as Evie addressed the man in the car.
"Your mother had an urgent meeting with Mr. Glass and asked me to come pick you and Henry up from school and maybe see about your dinner," Graham replied. "Is Mal going to come over with you?"
"Actually I was wondering if I could go to Mal's place after school," Evie explained. "It's a make-up and fashion emergency."
"Ohh, I see," Graham nodded. "Well, in that case, you girls better stick together then."
Eventually, the two teenage girls got into the car and drove off together as Ben was leaving the school with Clarice. In no time at all, a black 1990 Cadillac Brougham pulled up right beside them and the car window rolled down to show a man with shoulder-length graying brown hair, wearing sunglasses and grasping the steering wheel firmly as he eyed the two French siblings.
"H-H-Hey, Uncle Cedric..." Ben greeted bashfully and nervously, trying to smile politely. "H-Have a nice drive on the way to Auradon Heights?"
"I most certainly did, Benjamin," The man nodded with a small, toothy smirk forming on his face. "Shall I take you and your sister back home so you can enjoy your little vacation outside of afternoon school hours?"
"Erm... Yes!" Ben gulped and squeaked in tone a little bit before clearing his throat. "Y-Yes, sir... Also, I might need to ask you to drop me off somewhere when we get back home so I can get ready. I-I kinda promised this girl from school a lunch date."
"Ohh... A girl~..." Ben's uncle grinned and nodded. "Well, hop in and strap in your sister and I'll drive off real smoothly~"
Ben nodded and soon went to help Clarice into her seat and shook some chills down his spine. He just always felt so scared and nervous around his uncle as he was quite stern and had strict rules for whenever Belle and Adam had to go out of town for any reason, though luckily, Aunt Lacey usually managed to break him out of a sourpuss mood if he was lucky and make the visit more fun and exciting than having harsher and colder rules than his parents would give him and Clarice. Ben always thought maybe he was born with a stick up his bottom, but of course, he would never say that out loud, especially around Clarice because then he was sure he would end up in military school at his uncle's request in a second's notice.
A/N: Just a little shout-out to my boyfriend Sonic Thunder Saiyan Turtle for thinking of Mr. Gold's first name being Cedric.