On her second day of school, Evie has something called Physical Education scheduled for third period. Her schedule tells her it's in the gym, which she learned from Carlos on their walk to school that morning is located in a converted old tomb in the basement. She's a little wary of the physical aspect of the class but she strolls into the gym with a confident smile. Carlos had also informed her that Physical Education requires its own set of clothes and Evie always appreciates a costume change—though Carlos had pleaded with her not to refer to it as such in the presence of anyone else.
When she makes it to the gym, most of the girls are already in the middle of changing in the locker room. Evie hates being late but her previous class had been on the top floor and it's kind of difficult to run down four flights of stairs in 4-inch heels. Not that Evie would be ditching her heels in the future—her mother would never allow it.
"Better hurry, new girl, or you're going to have to stay after to run laps," some girl Evie has never met calls out with a smirk before slipping out of the locker room with a group of other girls. The entire group giggles as if something hilarious had been said and Evie just rolls her eyes—kids in this school sure did like mocking one another.
The locker room has mostly cleared out by time Evie finds a locker to put her stuff in and while Evie appreciates the privacy, she's not at all eager to do any sort of running after class. She makes quick work of pulling off her dress and putting on her gym attire and sneakers and heads out to join the rest of the class in the gym.
Her classmates are all sitting cross-legged on the gym floor, awaiting instruction from a man whose back is to Evie. Judging by his broad shoulders, Evie assumes he must be the gym teacher. Carlos had said P.E. was basically just group exercise with some silly games thrown in. Evie doesn't mind exercise, her mother has had her on an excessive schedule since she was three, but she's not so sure how she feels about group exercise. It's one thing to get sweaty and gross in the privacy of your own castle but in front of your co-ed P.E. class? Evie's sure her mother would have plenty to say about that.
Doing her best to be discrete, Evie slips behind the teacher's back and walks along the side to find a spot on the floor. Just as she's about to sit, a high pitched whistle pierces her ear and Evie jumps.
"Well, look who finally decided to join us!"
Evie spins around at the sound of the teacher's booming voice, the squeaking of her sneakers against the old wood floor echoing loudly through the gymnasium. Her eyes are wide as she takes in the man standing at the front of the gym, grinning at her with a whistle hanging from his neck.
Evie's heart thumps violently against her chest at the sight of him. His face remains unchanged, grinning at her expectantly—she supposes he probably was expecting her considering teachers had access to the class roster, but Evie couldn't possibly be more surprised to see him of all people standing at the front of the gym. School was supposed to be her safe place. Her out.
"I—I think I'm in the wrong place," she stammers out before racing out the back entrance of the gym. There's more laughter from her classmates but she doesn't care. She doesn't even stop to get her clothes or books out of her gym locker in her haste to escape.
The back of the gym exits into a winding staircase Evie has yet to come across. She doesn't know if that's because of its somewhat obscure location or because she's only had two days to explore the school. Despite her usual reluctance to enter spaces she's unfamiliar with, she darts up the stairs as the bile rises in her throat. She hears voices as she approaches the second landing and instantly isolates the source of one of the voices. As if this day could get any worse.
"Shouldn't you be in class, Princess?" Mal voice rings out in question as Evie pauses on the step before the landing, panting lightly. Perhaps she shouldn't have run up the first set of stairs while panicking.
Evie takes a moment to catch her breath and swallows the groan that threatens to spill from her throat at the sight of her antagonizer. Mal is perched on the banister, a can of spray paint in her hand and a smirk on her face. Jay stands to her side, leaning back against the railing watching her with his signature grin, while Carlos sits on the floor in front of them, fussing with what looks like a broken radio.
"Shouldn't you?" Evie shoots back. She's so not in the mood for Mal's bullshit right now. Her hands are shaking and she's not quite sure what to do with them so she balls them into fists at her sides and wills herself to calm down.
She catches Carlos staring at her with a somewhat confused look on his face. She looks down at herself and realizes she never changed out of her gym clothes and shakes her head as if to say 'don't ask'. He gives Evie an apologetic shrug in response before turning his attention back to his radio.
"Didn't take you for the skipping class type," Mal says, a smile spreading across her face at the sight of Evie's obvious annoyance. What can she say? She really did enjoy riling people up—especially spoiled princesses.
"That's because you don't know a thing about me," Evie snaps.
Mal hops down from the banister and tosses the spray paint can to Jay, who catches it easily. "This is our spot. You can't be here."
"This is a staircase."
"And this staircase is our spot. Crew members only. You're not part of the crew so you can't be here." Mal steps forward and folds her arms across her chest with a smug expression.
With Evie still standing on the step below the landing and currently in sneakers, Mal stands taller than the blue-haired girl for once and eagerly takes advantage of her momentarily height advantage to glare down at Evie with all the contempt her tiny body can muster. "Beat it, Blue."
"Am I supposed to be intimated?" Evie laughs, purposely stepping up onto the landing and forcing Mal back.
"Be whatever you want. As long as you do it somewhere that's not our spot," Mal grounds out.
"Whatever."
Any other day Evie might have had the will to engage Mal in whatever this was, she'd probably enjoy doing so in fact, but she's too on edge at the moment to keep the charade up. Instead, she huffs and pushes past the other girl to continue her trek up the stairs—to where she's not exactly sure but she'll figure that out as she goes. She just needs to put some more distance between herself and the gym.
A hand wrapping around her wrists stops Evie in her tracks. Her eyes widen for only a moment at the touch and she swears her gasp is barely audible. She spins around to find Jay holding onto her with a gentle smile on his face. Remembering what Carlos told her about the overly flirty boy, she relaxes and tries not to pay too much attention to the way Mal is currently eyeing her from over Jay's shoulder.
"Ignore her. Stay and chat," Jay tells Evie with a playful look. He lets go of her wrist but stays in her personal space. Evie takes a small step back and hopes Jay doesn't notice. "So what class are you taking refuge from? I'm currently avoiding Unnatural Biology."
"Physical Education." Did he really think she'd wear these clothes willingly?
"What?! That's like the best class in this place!" Jay exclaims excitedly. "Have you played dodge ball yet? You get to pelt people in the face with balls! It's awesome."
"You're not actually supposed to hit anyone in the face," Carlos chimes in, too engrossed in his radio-tinkering to actually lift his head.
"Whatever," Jay waves him off. "So why the jailbreak?"
Evie shrugs and pulls at the ends of her hair—a nervous habit her mother was always correcting her for. "P. E. just isn't really my thing."
"What's the matter, Princess? Afraid your makeup might run if you break a sweat?" Mal mocks.
Evie chooses to ignore Mal and addresses the boys, namely Carlos because she doubts Jay is all that familiar with Dragon Hall's academic offerings. "C? Are there any alternatives to P.E. I can take? Like an Art class or some other elective? Anything other than P.E."
"Sorry, Princess, you gotta take all the same classes as the rest of us commoners," Mal answers.
"Will you give it a rest! I'm not talking to you! I'm talking to Jay and Carlos so back the hell off!"
Evie didn't necessarily mind the nickname "princess", but she can't stand the way Mal says it.
Mal scowls at Evie's sharp tone. No one in school talks to her that way. "Watch it," she warns. Evie seems unfazed by the threat.
Carlos finally decides to abandon his radio on the floor and get to his feet. In all the years Carlos has known Evie he has never seen her lose her temper. When he finally looks at her he notices Evie's eyes are wider than usual and her hands are shaking. "Evie, what happened?"
"Is Gaston the only P.E. teacher?" Evie asks instead of answering.
Carlos looks at her with a curious expression and Evie silently pleads with him not to push her for answers right now. He seems to get the hint.
"Not a fan of Gaston?" Jay asks with a chuckle. "He's a pompous jerk but he's not so bad once you get to know him."
"I already know him," Evie mumbles quietly.
Carlos's head jerks back in Evie's direction at her statement. His mouth opens to form a question but Evie shoots him a glare that has him snapping his jaw shut before he can get it out.
Evie shakes her head softly at the concerned look on the boy's face to let him know now is not the time. In turn, Carlos sighs but relents. He couldn't exactly ask what was on his mind in front of Mal and Jay.
Mal watches the pair carefully, intrigued by the silent interaction. "Care to share with the class? No secrets in this crew."
"Good thing I'm not in the crew," Evie says with a satisfied smile before slipping past the three and walking up the staircase.
Mal scowls as she watches as blue hair disappears up the staircase. When she feels Evie is a sufficient distance away, she whirls around to address Jay. "What the hell was that?"
"That was Evie appearing to be completely unfazed by your threats. Not gonna lie, it was kinda hot to witness," Jay answers with a waggle of his eyebrows.
"No. I mean what the hell were you doing," Mal demands.
Jay shrugs as he pulls an apple out of his backpack and takes a bite. "Talking to Evie."
"After I told her to get lost and get out of our spot."
"Oh, come on," Jay drawls with a roll of his eyes. "We don't actually have a spot."
"Wherever we are is our spot," Mal insists.
"So we can't ever talk to Evie because if she stops to talk to us she'll be in our spot and that's apparently unacceptable to you?" Jay questions.
"Yes. Exactly. Glad you understand."
Jay shakes his head and takes another bite of his apple, shameless speaking with his mouth full. "Yeah, no, I call bullshit."
"Excuse me."
"I know you like to think of yourself as our leader or whatever, and we let you think that because it means more to you than to us," Jay says, glancing over at Carlos who nods in agreement. "But you don't get to dictate who we can and can't talk to. So I'm calling bullshit on your little Evie embargo and ignoring you. Evie's cool. I like talking to her."
Mal is fuming. Evie's only been in her school for two days and she's already disrupting Mal's life. She'd have to cut that girl down to size before she got the wrong idea about how things work on the rest of the Isle.
Mal rolls her eyes. "You can cut the flattery act, she's not here. Besides, I doubt you have to try that hard to get into her pants."
"I'm not only nice to girls I want to bang. I'm nice to you, aren't I?" Jay asks pointedly. "Besides, you don't know what's going to happen between me and Evie."
"Nothing's going to happen," Carlos mumbles. He's currently kneeling on the floor trying to collect all the various broken bits and pieces of his radio to shove into his backpack.
"I know girls like Evie. She'll probably let Jay fuck her by the end of the week. That girl has slut written all over her," Mal sneers.
"What's your problem?" Carlos snaps as he straightens up. "Evie's been nothing but nice to you and you're acting like a total bitch."
"Did you forget who I am? Who we all are?" Mal asks. "We're villain kids! We're not supposed to be nice! Besides, I don't need a reason to hate some frilly little princess but trust me, I have my reasons."
"Yeah? Name one," Jay challenges. It's not so much that he wants to be best buddies with Evie, she's hot but he doubts they have anything else in common, but he doesn't let anyone, not even Mal, decide who he can and can't be friends with.
"She's a snob who thinks she's better than us! She thinks because she grew up in some stupid fancy castle and calls herself a princess that we should all bow down to her! She's lucky she's been stuck in that damn castle for the last ten years because that prissy little princess wouldn't have survived a day on the streets with the rest of us! She should be thanking me for keeping her safe instead of trying to ruin my life and get in between me and my crew!" Mal rants.
Carlos shakes his head and shoulders his bag. "You have no idea what you're talking about."
