The last week of school was often a pretty big week. Even bigger than possibly Winter Break which meant a whole month off of school, even more of a gift than a three day weekend with Sunday being seen as an extra Saturday especially with pizza served for lunch on the Friday before the three day weekend. Also, the big tests were over, though Mal wished she could be a high school senior right about now as she was told that the seniors get to go to Triton's Bay which was a famed and popular Water Park just outside of town and spend the whole day there, but her friends such as Evie reminded her to be patient as they were going to have some fun too.
"So, there's a day before the last day of school to have a picnic with our parents?" Mal asked Evie as they met at their lockers.
"Yes. It's usually a wonderful tradition," Evie smiled. "It's formal dress, though I wouldn't make too much of a big deal over it."
"Hm... I'm not fond of dresses, but I guess it couldn't kill me to wear one for this occasion," Mal shrugged. "After all, I put up with this lousy uniform for a whole school year without going insane."
"Hmm... Well, half of that is true." Evie smirked playfully.
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" Mal glared as she put her hands on her hips.
"Oh, nothing~" Evie giggled bashfully. "Just making a joke."
Mal rolled her eyes. "You have an interesting sense of humor, Evie Mills." she then snarked a bit.
"I've been told that, yes," Evie replied. "Anyway, don't worry about the formal dress, Mal. Also, at least we don't have to be as busy as Ben."
"Yeah... He's like king of the school, right?" Mal noted. "What makes him so powerful anyway? People around here even treat him like a king or something."
"Well, his father's a top CEO at his work and Ben's like our school president," Evie remarked. "It's just kind of a big deal. At least he's nice about it."
"Yeah... That's true..." Mal replied. "Usually at my old school, whoever was in charge of the students ran with an iron-clad fist and dominated over the little people. It was like The Purge."
"What's the purge?" Evie wondered.
"It's just basically when no rules will fly and everyone goes nuts with no relief in sight," Mal explained. "It's not a pretty picture, especially on Halloween. One time we tied up this lady in toilet paper while throwing it all over her house and even threw eggs at her just because she wouldn't share her candy with us."
"Gosh..." Evie winced. "If I did that, my mother would probably ground me until the end of time."
"Oh, yeah. I'd love to see your mom in my hometown," Mal smirked and crossed her arms. "There'd be no mercy one way or another."
"Totally." Evie agreed.
They soon heard ruckus cheers outside the window. The two girls then went over to the window beside their lockers as the younger kids were cheering and running around in excitement.
"Man... Don't you just miss those days?" Evie sighed softly. "Running around without a worry or care in the world?"
"It does look like a lot of fun," Mal nodded. "Still, pretty tame to what would happen in my old hometown. At least nothing's on fire this time."
"Cheese and crackers, Mal... I don't think I wanna visit your old hometown." Evie winced nervously.
"Let's hope that you won't have to," Mal replied. "...Though, something does sort of worry me."
"And what would that be?" Evie asked as calmly as she could.
"Uma coming back for me after disappearing from the school dance with Maddy," Mal explained. "Especially since I sorta ditched Maddy to be with you, Henry, and your mom. I mean... Has anyone seen them since that night?"
Evie paused thoughtfully. "...Now that you mention it, I don't think anyone really has," she then said softly. "You must be feeling really scared and uncomfortable that they could come back and strike you at any minute."
"Gee, thanks, Evie. I totally wanted that kind of pressure on my brain all week until we get out of school." Mal snarked again.
"Sorry~" Evie smiled sheepishly.
"Let's just change the subject about what happened after the dance," Mal suggested before she thought of something and smirked. "Speaking of which..."
"...Huh? What do you mean?" Evie asked Mal.
"What exactly happened to you after the dance?" Mal reminded. "Don't you remember?"
"...Oh, you mean when I sent you that text to go home without me because I'd be spending the night and morning with a friend?" Evie asked bashfully.
"Mm-hmm..." Mal nodded. "Who was this friend and what exactly happened?"
"Oh... Uh... It's a long story... I don't wanna bore you," Evie covered up bashfully. "Say, isn't there a test we need to be studying for right now? Come on, let's go to the library." she then went to walk away rather quickly.
Mal then grabbed her best friend's arm. "Uh-uh," she then shook her head. "I want the deets. You did something last night. Who is this friend and why didn't you tell me when Robin picked me up after the dance ended?"
"Oh... All right..." Evie heaved a sharp sigh before she looked back over at Mal. "You have to promise not to say anything. Especially to Mom or Henry."
"You have my word," Mal promised before looking around the hallway. "You wanna go to the library anyway? I doubt anyone will be there."
"Except for maybe Sophie." Evie reminded.
"Doesn't that girl have a house to go home to after school?" Mal rolled her eyes, nearly forgetting about Sophie who put a new meaning to the term "Teacher's Pet".
"I think she lives in the library actually." Evie smirked, though it was obvious that that was supposed to be a joke.
"Come on then, let's go." Mal suggested as they walked out of the hallway to go into the school library.
Evie nodded as she followed after Mal as they passed their lockers and the windows as the younger kids continued to celebrate their upcoming summer vacation outside.
Outside the school, Ms. Blanchard smiled fondly as she held her hands over her stomach as the students were at play, sighing softly as she enjoyed her job of watching them learn and grow as she was going to miss them once it was time for them to grow up and move on.
"So, Henry, what do you think you'll do this summer?" Dee Dee asked as she was swinging with her best friend.
"Oh, gee... I'm still thinking about it," Henry replied. "I'm not sure if I'm allowed to go with Evie to Emerald Acres since that's a big kid thing... But also, our Aunt Zelena lives down there and I don't think I've seen her since I was a baby."
"What's your Aunt Zelena like?" Dee Dee then wondered.
"I don't know a lot about her, but Evie says she's really cool and that whenever Aunt Zelena babysat whenever Mom wasn't home that she got to have ice cream for breakfast and pizza for dinner all the time." Henry guessed.
"Wow... I'd love to have candy all the time," Dee Dee smiled hopefully. "Especially sugarplums~"
"You just love your sugarplums, don't you?" Henry chuckled playfully.
"Yeah... I do..." Dee Dee smiled and blushed. "I was hoping maybe we could spend the summer together."
"As best friends, right?" Henry asked softly.
"Yeah," Dee Dee nodded. "We've been friends forever after all."
"Even if sometimes the big kids like Jay and Carlos say otherwise." Henry said softly and bashfully.
"We'll think of something to do this summer, Henry," Dee Dee smiled before looking over at the Smee twins who were getting toilet paper, shaving cream, and goofy string to decorate their teachers' houses with this summer. "Aside from maybe causing trouble."
"Oh, yeah..." Henry nodded. "Nicholas and Ava once took candy and pretended to be my friends so they wouldn't get in trouble, but Mom knows I didn't steal the candy since I don't really like candy."
"Well, my papa says with friends like those you're better off having enemies." Dee Dee advised.
"Unlike you though," Henry smiled. "You're a really true friend. You even seem to like my fairy tale book."
"I love The Nutcracker Prince story," Dee Dee smiled back. "Maybe someday you'll be my Nutcracker Prince~"
"Gosh... Me... Being your prince?" Henry blushed suddenly as he glanced away sheepishly. "Maybe...?"
"I would love it if you were." Dee Dee beamed.
Henry smiled bashfully at her as he continued to swing with her on the swingset.
LATER AT THE LIBRARY...
"Hey, Soph," Mal greeted the brunette girl who was behind the reference section. "Mind if we borrow the library for a minute?"
Evie smiled and waved from behind Mal.
"Shh!" Sophie shushed them with narrowed eyes.
"...I'm sorry, was that a yes?" Mal then asked, stepping back slightly.
"...Ah, what the heck?" Sophie then shrugged. "You might as well stay and get comfortable. It's the last week of school, who's gonna come in here to study anyway?"
"Exactly..." Mal nodded as she put her hands on her hips.
"We promise we won't do anything bad to the books at least." Evie piped up as she came out from behind Mal.
"As long as the books aren't harmed," Sophie nodded as she went to go back to doing what she was doing. "A damaged library book results in a damaged permanent record."
"Is that a threat?" Evie asked.
"It can be if you want it to be," Sophie smirked mysteriously. "I have Headmistress Fairgood on speed dial, you know~"
"Of course you do," Mal replied dryly as she walked off with Evie. "Anyway, we'll be just a minute. You might wanna put headphones on."
"No partying in the library!" Sophie scolded.
"No, Sophie, Mal just means we need a private one-on-one talk," Evie explained to the brunette girl. "We just don't want anyone else to know about it."
"Ohh... Okay..." Sophie replied. "I just hope it's nothing bad. You're a bit of a rebel sometimes, Malissa..." she then warned the other girl.
"So I've been told." Mal replied.
Sophie then took out her headphones and decided to put them on as she continued to alphabetize the bookshelf. Mal and Evie soon went over to talk in a private table far away from the chaos of the school outside and Sophie's working in the library.
"All right, Evie. Spill. What happened to you after the school dance?" Mal demanded. "You showed up after breakfast and you and your mom talked in private, but I haven't heard anything."
"It's kind of a secret and that's why you haven't heard anything," Evie replied before she took a deep breath in and then out. "Where do I start?"
"From the beginning," Mal said softly. "Were you okay?"
"I was fine... I was with Doug actually." Evie explained.
"Oh?" Mal then asked, very much intrigued right now.
"Well... You see... It's like this..." Evie began to explain. "Not too long after Uma and Maddy disappeared and the dance was winding down..."
We go back to the night of the school dance. Uma and Maddy have disappeared with no one sure of where they could had gone. Harry comforted Mal as best as he could as Ben sighed, being forced to let her go before he ran into Keela and decided to be nice to her and shared a dance with her as well as everyone else as the last dance played, being a slow, romantic song. After the dance ended, Mal got her text from Evie and soon went to go and meet Robin at the car with Robyn Jr following her after blushing and waving at Tilly who blushed as well and waved back as the two seemed to become girlfriends overnight.
"So... Uh... You wanna hang out?" Doug smiled bashfully at Evie, his voice squeaking a bit from both nerves and the blessing and curse of puberty.
"Sure, Doug," Evie smiled back. "So you wanted to get smoothies?"
"Right," Doug nodded. "Thanks for dancing with me. Sometimes I think I'm kind of a joke to everybody around this school."
"Oh, Doug, don't say that," Evie tutted and swatted his shoulder in a playful sort of way. "You're very sweet, funny, and unique. Any girl would be lucky to have you in her life."
Doug smiled and blushed. "G-G-Gosh... Thanks, Evie..." he then said.
"Come on," Evie smiled back. "Let's get those smoothies."
And so, everyone began to leave the school dance.
Doug and Evie met up at Ms. Fisher's ice cream shop and began to share the new smoothie special which was a "gooseberry blueberry smoothie".
"Well, Doug, I gotta say. I've never had a gooseberry blueberry smoothie before, but I'm glad that I got to experience it with you." Evie smiled warmly.
"I'm glad too, Evie," Doug smiled back. "Gooseberries are my family's favorite, especially on my dad's side of the family."
"Well, maybe we can share another gooseberry blueberry smoothie together in the future," Evie smiled hopefully. "I like hanging out with you, Doug. Plus you seem to know quite a bit about fashion too like I know about chemistry. I'm sure we could work really well together someday."
"Ooh! I think I'd like that very much, Evie!" Doug beamed before covering his mouth bashfully and turned red in his face. "I-I-I mean... If you wanted to, I guess. We could hang out as friends."
"Right... Friends..." Evie said softly with a nod.
The two were then silent after a while as Doug fiddled with his glasses a bit. Evie's blue nails fingertips tapped against the table a bit as it was quiet between them for a while.
"So... Uh... Maybe you'd like to see my comic book collection sometime..." Doug soon decided to say, seeming to be a bit out of the blue, but it was the first thing that came to mind for him.
"You have comic books?" Evie asked, seeming interested.
"Yeah!" Doug replied as he nodded. "I mean, if you would like to check them out of course... Would you like to?"
"Well... I guess I could check them out for a little bit," Evie said to him. "I hope you have some good ones."
"Oh, I do, Evie. I do." Doug nodded.
Mal soon yawned as the story proved to be boring to her so far.
"It gets better, I promise," Evie replied. "Mrs. Clark, Doug's mom, even agreed to let me stay."
"Stay?" Mal asked.
"Allow me to explain..." Evie nodded. "Doug and I soon went back to his place so that I could see his comic books. I don't know how you feel about comic books, but-"
"They're for dorks." Mal interrupted.
"But I found them to be interesting," Evie retorted, continuing a bit firmly as she decided to not let Mal's opinion ruin her story. "We read a lot of them together and soon last track of the time... And... Well..."
"You never made it back home that night?" Mal guessed.
Evie blushed before nodding as that was true.
"No way... You spent the night at Doug Clark's house?!" Mal gasped and cupped her mouth before smirking. "Evie... I thought you would wait for marriage before doing that sort of thing."
"It's not like that, Mal!" Evie defended bashfully. "Yes, I spent the night with Doug, but not in the way you're thinking. We both just fell asleep under his comic books... And... Well..."
BACK INTO EVIE'S STORY...
When the next morning came, Doug's mother Ebony was checking on the breakfast she was cooking. She smiled a bit before flinching as her husband and six brothers-in-law rushed down the stairs before looking over her shoulder. They all looked rather hungry and eager as they were about to get their plates and get their food together.
"Ah, ah, ah!" Ebony reminded the seven men as she wagged her finger. "Just a moment!"
The seven men then suddenly stopped clamoring like a bunch of children.
"Breakfast's not quite ready yet," Ebony told them. "You'll just have time to wash."
"Wash?" The men responded.
"Oh, grow up, you guys," Ebony smirked playfully. "Wash your hands and besides, there's someone missing."
The men looked around before they noticed that someone was indeed missing.
"Go wash up and wake up Dougie for breakfast," Ebony then told them. "He had quite an exciting night last night."
"Ah... I'll go do it," Leroy shrugged as he got up. "That boy doesn't know when to get up on time anyway. He spends all night reading his comic books or watching that Science Fiction Theater show of his."
Soon, everyone got ready to wash up for breakfast as Ebony continued to cook breakfast which would be ready very soon.
"Hey, Doug... Time for breakfast." Leroy called as he knocked on the boy's bedroom door.
There was no answer.
"...Come on, Dougie... Up and at 'em." Leroy called again as he knocked a bit louder that time.
There was still no answer.
"DOUGIE!" Leroy shouted as he nearly pounded on the door before he opened the door without waiting for an answer that time. "WHAT IS THE HOLD UP IN-" he then stopped as he looked wide-eyed before his brothers suddenly surrounded him. "...Here?"
The others then surrounded Leroy's sides.
"Ugh... Uncle Leroy... There's no need to shout this early in the morning..." Doug groaned as he was shown to be tucked under his bed with comic books scattered around and Evie seemed to be next to him.
Evie yawned as she made herself known to the Clark family before gasping with wide eyes in embarrassment. Doug's uncles and father just looked wide-eyed and shocked as they saw that Doug had some special company last night.
BACK IN THE LIBRARY...
"Gosh! That sounds a bit embarrassing..." Mal commented.
"You're telling me," Evie replied. "At least Doug's parents were cool with it, but I guess they forgot about telling Leroy and the others. So after breakfast, they gave me a lift back home."
"So I see," Mal nodded. "Though it does make me think of another question."
"What's that?" Evie then asked.
"...Do you like Doug?" Mal asked.
Evie gasped with wide eyes and bit her lip.
"...I'll just take that as a yes." Mal smirked.
Evie then looked around before walking over closer to Mal. "...Again, don't tell anyone. I think I might like him like him."
"Ooh~" Mal whispered in amazement before smirking. "So tell him."
"I... I can't..." Evie stammered.
"What? Why not?" Mal asked.
"I... I'm not sure how to... I'd like to tell him," Evie said nervously. "But... I just don't know how or when."
"Well, you better do it soon, the end of the school year is upon us as we speak." Mal reminded.
"I know that, Mal." Evie sighed.
"Besides, he's a lot better for you than Chad," Mal then said. "Heck, anyone's better than Chad."
"At least that we can agree on." Evie smirked as Chad proved to be the biggest jerk in the school when she had a crush on him, but got over it.
"Totally," Mal smirked back. "I'll help you out if you want."
"Oh, that would be nice," Evie nodded. "I'd love to kiss him, but I'm really nervous about that."
"Slow down, Evie. You gotta show and tell him how you feel before we get into all of that," Mal warned her best friend. "We don't wanna scare him away after all."
"You're right. You're right." Evie nodded.
"Aren't I always?" Mal smirked slyly as she crossed her arms.
Evie soon gave her a bit of a look.
"I mean when it's important?" Mal then continued from there. "...Okay, actually, don't answer that question."
"There we go." Evie teased once she heard what she wanted to hear from Mal.
"Yeah, yeah..." Mal rolled her eyes. "You're such a princess cuz your mom's the mayor and whatnot."
"Yes, I like to think of myself as a princess, so it means so much to me that you think of me as one." Evie smirked.
"Oh, brother..." Mal sighed and smirked back.
Soon, the bell rang.
"Well, we better get going," Evie suggested. "It might be the last week of school, but we still have some loose ends to tie up before we go to Emerald Acres."
"Yeah... Such as cheerleading..." Mal rolled her eyes.
"It'll be all right, I promise," Evie told Mal. "Just try to put up with it until our big trip and then you can meet my cool Aunt Zelena. I really can't wait for you to meet her, Mal. It's gonna be a great summer this year, I just know it."
"I sure hope so." Mal replied as they soon walked off together to leave the library.
It was going to be an interesting summer, that was for sure.