Chapter 3:
Carlos suddenly turned over on his side, his eyes wide as a thought struck him.
"If they get through, all the villains are going to come here, right?"
Jay's brows scrunched down. "I guess, I mean the king and queen are here and they've got a pretty big grudge against them for sticking them on the island."
"And they'd probably be working together, right? They'd be a lot stronger if they teamed up, and all attacked Auradon at once."
Jay propped himself up on his elbow, really not liking where Carlos' mind was going. "Ok, spit it out already dude."
Carlos nodded, "Once that barrier comes down Jay, our parents and the rest of the villains will be able to use magic again and if they come to Auradon first they'll be able to get their most powerful weapons back too."
Jay's face paled at the thought, Auradon's museum was filled with the most powerful artifacts from those villains. If his father managed to get his hands back on his staff, there wouldn't be anyone left in the entire kingdom who wouldn't be under his hypnosis. And it wouldn't take much for a hypnotized king and queen to eat a few of the Evil Queen's poisoned apples and never wake up again.
"We need to tell Ben," Jay blurted as he leaped to his feet in a mad scramble.
Carlos jumped up after him and the two tore off across the campus to Mal and Evie's dorm room.
Throwing open the door, Jay stumbled to a halt, Tourney equipment clattering loudly to the floor just as Carlos barreled into the back of him causing both boys to crash on top of the gear in a jumbled heap.
Shocked cries of surprise and alarm rang out from the group in the room as Ben, Mal and Lonnie all grabbed a flailing limb and attempted to help Jay and Carlos up from the floor. Ben managed to dodge a Tourney stick just to have it collide into the side of Carlos' head, and the boy gave an offended yelp. Jay managed to roll off the pile of gear, dislodging Carlos from where he was sprawled on his back, barely catching his friend before he face planted into Lonnie's lap.
"What in the world were you guys doing?" Mal asked, glancing between the scattered Tourney sticks, balls, and padding to the boys who were panting raggedly on the floor.
"Practicing," Jay huffed breathlessly.
Mal raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. "Uh huh, and you?"
Carlos cracked open an eye. "Walking Dude."
Everyone looked around the room, Dude was suspiciously missing.
Mal's head cocked to the side and her glare increased. "Then why did you come crashing through our door?"
"Carlos thought of something," Jay replied, throwing out a hand to get the boy's attention, nearly smacking him in the face.
Carlos swatted Jay's hand away and struggled to sit up.
"Do not drag it out this time," Jay warned, as Mal's gaze narrowed on Carlos.
"Right, well if the barrier comes down and all the villains come here then they'll all be able to get their weapons back. Without Fairy Godmother's magic keeping them dormant, there won't be anything to stop the villains from using them."
"I haven't been in the museum in awhile, but I'm willing to bet just a few of those used together would take down Auradon pretty quick. My dad's staff, the Evil Queen's poisoned apples, Maleficent's spell book..." Jay trailed off meaningfully.
Everyone in the room exchanged looks as the thought sunk in, Mal's arms fell to her sides and she sat down heavily on the edge of her bed.
"There are a lot of very powerful items in that museum, not just the villain's weapons. King Triton's Trident, the Sorcerer's Hat and the magic lamp," Ben said, feeling a heavy sense of dread settled over him.
Jay's head shot up from the floor. "Aladdin's magic lamp is in there?"
Ben nodded, "It's empty now, Aladdin set the genie free."
Jay groaned, "Magical items always have a little left over, even if they haven't been used for decades. If my dad gets a hold of that he'll figure out a way to wish for a genie again."
"Maybe we can stop them before they even get here," Carlos said suddenly.
Everyone's eyes snapped to him in attention, even Jay looked up from his prone position on the floor.
"If Fairy Godmother's magic fails, it won't take long before the villains realize and start heading to Auradon. They haven't used their magic since before we were born and some of them are so old they probably couldn't even remember the simplest spell in their books. If we destroy every single item in that museum then there won't be anything left of their magic."
"Destroy them all?" Lonnie asked.
Everyone looked at Ben.
"Is it even possible?" Mal asked him.
Ben bit his lip in thought, "I don't know, we've never tried to destroy any of them before."
"Can't we just move them? Like to a better vault or something where no one would find them?" Doug asked.
"If the villains make it off the island, I doubt there is a safe enough place anywhere in the world. I know I'm king now, but I need to talk to Fairy Godmother and my father and see what they have to say about it," Ben said, climbing to his feet. "In any case, it's getting really late and we should all get to bed. I should have some more answers tomorrow for everyone and we'll be able to figure out a better plan. But in the meantime, Carlos do you have Jane's number?"
Carlos paused for a moment, caught off guard by the question. "Ya, do you need it?"
"No, but I think with everything that's been going on it'd be a really nice thing for you to call her. She doesn't really have many friends here and she hasn't left her mom's side since she started getting sick," Ben replied.
Carlos' shoulders drooped, he and Jane haven't spoken much in the last few weeks. They had attempted a relationship right after he had summoned the courage to ask her to the Cotillion and afterward, Carlos had asked all his friends for advice on where to take her on the best dates to really impress her. However, with Jane's extremely busy schedule, Carlos was always taking a backseat and after the fourth rain checked date in a row he decided to let it drop. He'd hoped perhaps Jane would come looking for him once he stopped chasing her around but she hadn't even attempted to seek him out or return any of his texts. His first attempt at a girlfriend and he felt like it had been a total failure, it didn't exactly inspire confidence in him.
An arm suddenly dropped across his shoulders and he was yanked into Jay's side. "Come on bud, time for sleep."
Carlos nodded absently and helped collect all the Tourney gear as they trudged back to their room a few doors down the hall. The room fell into a heavy silence, both boys lost in their thoughts as they collapsed onto their own beds. Carlos glanced across the room at Jay, the other boy was sitting with his knees pulled up against his chest picking mindlessly at his fingernails. He didn't know what to do to break the tension, usually making witty one-liners was Jay's forte and between the sickening thought of his mother coming to Auradon, Fairy Godmother's illness and now having to contact Jane his brain felt like it had short-circuited.
"So you gonna call her or what?" Jay asked.
"Uh..." Carlos replied.
"I can't believe you haven't already, your girlfriend's mom's dying and you're staring at your phone like it's gonna bite your face off."
Carlos stupidly looked down at his phone again, almost expecting to see a mouth full of pointed teeth appear. "I don't think she's my girlfriend anymore, or if one dance even made her that in the first place."
Jay groaned dramatically at Carlos' pathetic grumbling and stalked across the room. He grabbed the other boy's phone, scrolled quickly through the five names in his contact list and hit Jane's number before Carlos could do more than squawk in protest.
"You can thank me later," Jay whispered.
"Hello?" Jane answered.
"Jane! Hi, I just wanted to see how you were doing," Carlos yelped, half hoping it had gone to voicemail.
"Carlos? Oh hello, I'm fine. I mean I guess I've been better, you know with my mom being sick and all. It's really nice that you called, nobody's called me all week. I suppose they haven't wanted to bother me, but it would have been okay. All I've been doing all week is sitting here while doctors talk to my mom, or poke and prod her, they barely even look at me, so I've had to ask like a million times what's going on. I've felt so stupid, there's nothing I can do, but I'm her daughter, so I feel like I should be doing something and isn't that what everyone is expecting of me? Gosh, I'm so useless, just sitting here crying all the time," Jane rambled miserably.
Carlos had forgotten how overwhelming it could be listening to Jane, massive verbal overload and he wasn't sure what to respond to first.
"Ya we all heard today, I'm so sorry she's sick. The whole school is cheering for her though, and Ben said they're going to do everything to help her get better. I'm sure someone would have called before if anyone knew what was going on. It doesn't sound like there's much you can do for her right now, though I'm sure she appreciates you being there with her," Carlos replied, hoping he sounded halfway convincing.
"Aw, you're so sweet to say so, Carlos. You really are one of the nicest people I've ever met before. I'm so lucky that you asked me to the Cotillion, I thought for sure I was going to go alone again and have to sit through Audrey laughing at me," Jane said.
Carlos nodded, then remembered she couldn't see him. "Yeah, of course, I was just glad you said yes."
"It was so much fun dancing with you, I've never had that much fun at a dance before, mostly because nobody's ever asked me. I'm really sorry we had to cancel all our dates, I just couldn't reschedule all the things I was doing, most of them were for the student council and my mom. I heard they canceled all classes at school and some of the students might be going home, is that true?"
"Uh, yeah me too, maybe we can try again sometime. Just, for now, everyone's really worried about your mom," Carlos said lamely.
"Oh, my mom needs me, I'll talk to you later ok Carlos?"
"Yeah, sure, talk to you later."
Carlos hit the end button, feeling like he'd just been steamrolled.
"Good grief, that was the most painful thing I've ever had to listen to," Jay moaned next to him.
Carlos sighed heavily and set his phone down on his nightstand. "Well, no one asked you to listen."
"Carlos seriously, I do not think I could handle being her boyfriend if I had to listen to that day after day. What are her text messages like?" Jay asked.
Carlos glared at his friend and shoved an elbow into his side. "Just because your brain can't keep up with more than one sentence at a time, doesn't mean everyone else is that slow. Jane is really smart and has a lot to say but nobody really listens to her or asks for her opinion."
"That's obvious, but how do you get her to stop?" Jay teased.
Carlos growled and got up off the bed to pace restlessly around the room. "Just knock it off Jay, she was the only girl who said yes when I asked her to the Cotillion. Everyone else was either taken or drooling over you and wouldn't give me the time of day. At least I can hold an intelligent conversation with Jane, she doesn't gush over stupid things like dresses and shoes."
"Hey, it's not my fault the girls love me and Evie would resent that, most girls can't keep up with her fashion sense," Jay protested, smirking and flexing his biceps.
"Ug, stop preening! I'm not going to fall all over myself just because you're wearing a sleeveless t-shirt," Carlos said.
"Maybe if you wore something like this you would have gotten more invites to the Cotillion; or at least kept Jane's attention," Jay teased, seeing the fury building in Carlos. Normally it was almost impossible to get him riled up, the other boy was either very even-tempered or nearly melancholy.
Carlos felt the jab like a bucket of cold water over his head, instantly chilling him to the core. He knew he had nothing on Jay as far as looks, he was shorter, skinnier and frailer. He'd compared himself to his best friend way too many times over the years to not have noticed and now it was being shoved in his face. Carlos hadn't bulked up like Jay had when they started playing Tourney, in fact, he'd lost even more weight due to all the running and mandatory training. When he'd noticed he'd finally gained a few inches in height, the elation was quickly lost when he realized so had Jay. Having Jane notice him had been his redemption, his validation after years of feeling inadequate but now even that was lost.
Waiting for Carlos' response, Jay's eyes widened as his friend's whole posture sunk and his face clouded over and shut down. Swearing softly under his breath at his own stupidity he quickly crossed the room to where Carlos stood staring blankly at his desk.
"Carlos I'm sorry, that was stupid. You didn't do anything wrong and if Jane keeps blowing you off then she doesn't deserve you. The other girls aren't that great anyhow, why do you think I never date any of them?" Jay said, his voice soft and pleading.
"Doesn't matter, what do we isle kids know about dating anyway? Nobody's gonna love us, they barely even trust us," Carlos muttered dejectedly.
Jay's jaw clenched tightly, he put a hand on Carlos' shoulder and spun him around. "Who the hell cares about a bunch of stuck up Auradon Prep snobs? We're not gonna be stuck in this school forever, and they're the only people who know who we are. Once we're out of here we can live our lives however we want, nobody is going to judge us and someday someone is going to fall head over heels for you."
Carlos' frown quirked up at the edge a bit, "Wow motivational and more than one sentence."
Jay sighed heavily, the tension in his shoulders evaporating. They didn't usually talk about heavy subjects like the way they were raised and the effects it had on them, they knew each other's deepest, darkest secrets and it was just too painful to keep bringing up. They were raised on hate, anger, revenge, selfish pursuits and evil intentions, love was a foreign and scary concept. On the Island whenever one would ask their parent about love it was scorned and scoffed at. It was something to despise, it would weaken you to your enemies and leave you vulnerable to a kind of pain few ever recovered from.
If Jay was honest with himself it still confused and scared him, he wasn't sure he ever wanted to fall in love. It seemed to put Mal through a hellacious sort of torture this past year, keeping her swinging from blissfully happy, to a scared, anxious wreck, to breathing hell fire at anyone in her path and then down a spiraling chasm of depression and back again. Her sudden departure back to the Island and revision of 'Evil Mal' had cemented it in Jay's mind that love was insane and would break even the strongest willed person.
"It's totally your fault anyway," Jay groused, earning a very confused look from Carlos. "You're my brain, and with you distracted by Jane I can't be held responsible for the stupid stuff I say."
Carlos' jaw dropped in shock and Jay immediately started howling with laughter at the look on his friend's face. Jay ducked a badly aimed punch to his shoulder and scrambled across the room as Carlos started chucking everything within arm's reach at the boy who was nearly bent over double in hysterics.