"Carlos, look! It locks and everything! See!" Evie exclaims excitedly.

Carlos is happy for his friend, he really is, but her high pitched squealing is drawing attention to them and Carlos doesn't exactly like attention. He glances around quickly to make sure the wrong people aren't paying them any mind. "Yeah, that's what lockers are supposed to do, Evie."

Evie tugs on her brand new locker door, opening it and closing it again for Carlos's benefit with a wide smile. "I can actually put my books and belongings in it now. I don't have to carry everything with me all day. Isn't that awesome?!"

"That's great, Eves," Carlos chuckles fondly.

There wasn't much levity in Carlos's life, and probably less in Evie's, but something about her childish excitement over something as simple as a functioning school locker made Carlos smile—discretely of course, he was happy for his friend, not stupid. Maybe it was because she had been sheltered from so many things for so long, or maybe it was just her nature, but somehow, despite the shitty hand she had been dealt in life, Evie still got excited over the small things.

Evie lets out an indiscernible squeal of excitement and claps her hands together before turning her attention back to her locker to re-organizing the few books she has in there for the fifth time.

"What are you so excited about?"

Carlos groans. Evie's excitement had drawn attention—of course it did. No one in Dragon Hall squealed and clapped in the halls. He'd have to talk with her again about quietly expressing herself at school.

"They fixed my locker! I have a door now. With a real lock!" Evie shares in response to Mal's question, not concerning herself with the fact that Mal hates her and probably doesn't actually care. She finally has her own space, small as it may be, and she's happy about it.

"Who's they?" Jay asks with an easy smile. He gives Evie an exaggerated once over and leans a shoulder against the locker adjacent to hers.

"The school. Well, the custodian, I suppose. Do we have custodians?" Evie wonders. "I put in a request with Dr. Facilier's office and—"

"Of course you did," Mal interrupts drily. "Not even here a week and you're already ordering people around and expecting the entire school to cater to you."

"It's their job. I'm sure they didn't mind," Evie says, sounding unsure.

Carlos glares silently at Mal, waiting to see just how far Mal will push things today. They haven't talked since yesterday and he's still pissed at her for saying all that shit about Evie.

"Oh, I'm sure they didn't. Not for you, Princess," Mal drolls with a roll of her eyes. "In all my time at this dump, I've never seen a single thing get fixed. The textbooks are garbage, the desks are falling apart, the plumbing in the bathrooms doesn't work for shit. But you show up and bat your eyelashes at the goons in Dr. Facilier's office and all of a sudden your locker is being personally serviced." She pauses and leans in towards Evie, curling her lips and dropping her voice suggestively. "So tell me, Evie, who did you have to personally service to get treatment like that."

Evie's face pales and she shakes her head frantically, her eyes finding Carlos's. "I didn't!"

Carlos's eyes darken and his jaw clenches. "Knock it off, Mal."

Mal just grins back at him and Carlos scowls, dying to wipe the smirk off her face.

"Come on, Mal," Jay interjects, pushing himself off the locker in an attempt to ease the tension between his friends. "If someone in the office is sweet on Evie maybe we can use it to our advantage. Ask for more than to fix a busted locker. We can totally run this school." He gives Evie a grin to lighten the mood but she still looks pale and upset.

"No one's sweet on me. I just asked," Evie insists, voice growing quiet. Should she not have asked to have her locker fixed? Did she cross a line? She looks to Carlos for answers, worry creasing her brow.

"We're not using Evie for anything," Carlos says firmly, turning his shoulder to Mal and drawing Evie's attention back to her locker. "Hey, Evie, can I put some of my stuff in your locker for the day? You know, since you got the most secure locker in the place."

Evie brightens up instantly. "Of course! Ooh! Maybe I can decorate the inside! Get a mirror… err, maybe not a mirror," she trails off. "But something nice. Lights or stickers or something. Or I can line it with fabric! I have a bunch at home that I could use," she rambles, seemingly forgetting about Mal's little insinuation— much to Carlos's delight.

Jay chuckles at Evie's excitement. "You don't get out much, do you, Princess?"

"Oh shush up and let me enjoy this," Evie laughs, swatting Jay's bicep playfully.

"Sure thing, Princess."

Mal walks away from the group with a barely contained groan. It's only Evie's fourth day at Dragon Hall and she already has Jay and Carlos wrapped around her finger.


Evie and Carlos decide to actually attend Weird Sciences that morning, leaving Jay to amble the halls alone till lunchtime—Mal having sulked off previously. Jay busies himself breaking into lockers, ransacking teachers' desks, and pick-pocketing passing students till he has a pretty sizable collection of stuff to root through.

He finds an abandoned corridor to settle down in and begins to take inventory of the spoils of his labor. Must of it is junk, there's not much of value on the Isle to begin with, but he does manage to get his hands on some decent costume jewelry and a couple of pieces of silver that might fetch a few bucks at his father's shop.

He shoves everything he plans to bring to his father in his backpack and chucks the rest, save for one item.

"What's that?"

Jay doesn't bother lifting his eyes from his loot—instantly recognizing Mal's voice and the rattle of her spray paint can. "I don't know," he shrugs, turning the item over in his hand to admire it. "Some dangly crystal thing. Kinda cool, huh? Thought Evie might like it."

"Evie?" Mal growls. Her eyes narrow and her lips curl at the sound of the girl's name.

"Yeah, for her locker. She wants to decorate it. Figured she could make something sick out of this. Like a mini chandelier or some shit," Jay explains. If he's at all aware of Mal's state of simmering rage, he doesn't acknowledge it. His fingers pass over the hanging crystals, multi-colored and dangling from several stings tied around a large metal ring. Jay thinks it kind of looks like an oversized earring but he only found the one.

"You're stealing shit for her now?" Mal demands.

Jay shrugs yet again. "I steal shit for you all the time."

Jay is a gifted thief and while he mainly steals to keep his father's shop stocked (and his father off his back), he couldn't deny the rush it gave him. And so if he occasionally stole something that earned him a grin from Carlos or an approving glance from Mal, well that was just an added bonus. Evie isn't exactly his friend, she's more like friend adjacent, and Jafar would probably kill him if he found out Jay gave away something so valuable, but he likes the way Evie's eyes get wide and her voice gets high when she's excited about something.

"Are you comparing me to Evie?"

Jay rolls his eyes at Mal's attempt to intimidate him. "Of course not. I wouldn't dream of it."

"Good. I'll take that." Mal swoops down and swipes the item from Jay's hand, sauntering away with a smirk.

"Mal—what the hell?" Jay cries as he watches Mal retreat out of sight. He could easily get up and take it back from the girl but decides to let it go. Mal has been sullen and snappy all week and Jay's not exactly eager to engage her in some petty pissing match over junk he found in someone's locker. Mal's not taking Evie's enrollment at Dragon Hall in stride and he doesn't need to be adding fuel to the fire. He'll snag Evie something even cooler for her locker when Mal decides to give this feud stuff a rest.


She can't believe she's here, in shorts, because of her.

Mal's eyes search the sea of students for blue, finding her target standing off to herself at the back of the gym. Evie's too distracted to notice Mal approaching, the girl preoccupied with furtively glancing at the front of the class and picking at the polish on her fingernails in a decidedly un-princess-like manner. Mal supposes the class had officially started a few minutes prior but she'd never dream of being on time.

"Smart move trying to turn Carlos against me. Didn't think you had it in you," Mal hisses in Evie's ear as she pulls up to the distracted girl.

Evie jumps at the sound of her voice, earning a small grin of satisfaction from Mal.

"Excuse me?" Evie only spares Mal a cursory glance. Her concentration seemingly fixed on whatever's going on at the front of the gym.

"Don't act all innocent. You know exactly what you're doing," Mal sneers.

If Evie thought she was going to get in the way of Mal and her crew, she had another thing coming. Mal had hoped Carlos would snap out of his infatuation with the annoying princess once Mal put her in her place, but instead Carlos is ignoring her while following Evie around like some kind of lost puppy. Mal won't stand for it—she, Carlos and Jay have history and it takes time to build a solid crew and she's far too busy to start over. So if she's currently doing exactly what Carlos asked of her and actually attending P.E. with Evie, well it's only so she can restore order to her crew like a good leader. She's not at all bothered by how upset Carlos appears to be with her and she's definitely not concerned with whatever's going on with Evie.

If the venom in Mal's voice has any sort of effect on Evie, the blue-haired girl does a skillful job of concealing such.

"What am I doing?"

Mal feels her cheeks grow hot with rage for the infuriating girl and her patronizing act of innocence. She follows Evie's gaze to see what's so damn captivating but all she sees is Gaston shoving a bunch of mostly deflated practice balls into a large netted bag at the head of the gym. Of course, Evie would be distracted by Gaston and his stupidly large muscles. Did Carlos really ask her to come to this pointless class just so she could watch the princess gawk at Gaston?

"Whining to Carlos about mean old Mal so he'd do something as stupid as asking me to go to class with you," Mal spits between gritted teeth.

At that, Evie turns, her head tilting sideways with a curious expression. "Carlos asked you to come here for me?"

"Stop playing dumb. Your plan's not going to work," Mal huffs. "Make no mistake, you and I will never be friends. I don't care what Carlos says, I'm only doing this to get him off my back. See, I showed up like he asked so you'll have to come up with some other method of ruining my life because as far as Carlos is concerned, I'm doing my part."

"I'm ruining your life?" Evie chokes out in disbelief. She's going to have to have a very long conversation with Carlos when she sees him. Mal—of all people! What was that boy thinking!

"Look, I'm not sure what you did to get Carlos under your thumb, although I have a pretty good idea…." Mal trails off with a pointed look. "But eventually he'll get bored of you and then he'll drop this absurd idea that we should all get along."

Evie shakes her head with a bored sigh. She's getting tired of Mal's less than subtle innuendos. As if she would ever engage with Carlos sexually. "You're sounding more ridiculous than usual."

"Is that what happened with Ol' Gaston over there? He get bored of you too?" Mal taunts, tongue clicking against the roof of her mouth in faux pity. "Don't take it personally, Princess, Gaston likes variety. He's got a different girl on his arm every week."

Evie takes a deep breath, refusing to allow Mal the satisfaction of seeing her carefully crafted mask slip from her face.

Evie knows exactly what Gaston likes.

"I don't know what Carlos said to you but I can assure you the last thing I want is your company," Evie snaps sharply.

Mal smiles, pleased with herself for getting a rise out of the girl. It was almost too easy. "Well, Princess, guess it's time you learn you don't always get what you want."

Evie turns on her suddenly, eyes flashing red with anger as blue-hair whirls around her perfectly-painted face. "Gods! What is your problem?!"

"You are!" Mal fires back, easily matching the blue-haired girl in intensity.

"Alright, people, line up! It's time to stretch!" Gaston's voice echoes throughout the large hallow tomb that serves as the school's gymnasium.

Mal groans as she gets into position beside Evie and makes absolutely no attempt to mimic the stretches Gaston is demonstrating at the front of the gym.

"Backs straight! Arms forward!"

Mal rolls her eyes so hard she almost topples backward. "Ugh. Kill me now."

"Bend at the waist! Fingers to your toes!" Gaston calls, weaving through rows of standing students to survey the class with a hand on his hip and his shoulders thrown back. "Don't think I don't see you slacking off out there! If you want to be weak and frail your whole lives, then be my guest!"

He closes in on where Mal and Evie are standing and Mal is sure Gaston is about to chew her out for not doing the warmups but instead, he comes to stand behind Evie.

Mal watches as Evie breath catches in her throat and her body stiffens as Gaston nears. The stretches she had previously been doing with ease suddenly become difficult as she stumbles under Gaston's intense gaze.

"Bend at the waist, Evie," Gaston says from behind the blue-haired girl.

Evie's hands shake as she bends and reaches for her toes. Gaston stands behind her, his eyes glued to her ass as she struggles to follow his simple instruction. Mal rolls her eyes at the teacher's blatant staring.

"There you go, that's my good girl," Gaston praises as his hands come to grip Evie's waist from behind. "Mmmhmm, all the way down, just like that." Evie's hips jerk forward and she almost falls over at the contact.

Mal's lips curl disgust. "I think she's got the hang of it," she snaps, unable to stand Gaston's lascivious grin any longer.

Gaston pulls back from Evie and winks unabashedly at Mal. "Oh, I'm sure. This one's a quick learner."

With that, he walks off to break up a fight between two boys a couple of rows over. Evie remains tense, body rigid and eyes staring straight ahead.

"Has he always been that creepy or do you just bring out the pervert in people?" Mal snarks.

Not surprisingly, she receives no answer from the girl but Mal decides maybe she'll attend a few more P.E. classes before she completely blows Carlos's request off.


It takes Evie longer than she'd like to get dressed after P.E. Her hands are still shaking and Mal's lingering in the locker room pretending not to be watching her. All the other girls have cleared out, leaving Evie alone with her biggest antagonizer. It's all a little unnerving but when she finishes lacing her heeled boots and lifts her head she finds that Mal is gone too.

Evie's eyes sweep the locker room cautiously, making sure she truly is alone. She spots a black and purple notebook sitting on the bench where Mal had been perched moments ago. Before she can think better of it, Evie's feet are shuffling forward and her fingers are curling around the worn-out notebook that bears the letters M A L in scrolling etching at the top.

Upon closer inspection, Evie realizes it's not just a notebook, it's a sketchbook and Mal has drawn a large picture of a purple dragon on the cover. There are smaller doodles surrounding the dragon—a snake, crossbones, a crown. Evie traces the tip of her finger along the crown sketch, a small smile on her lips at the detail Mal has included.

With how quickly Mal disappeared, Evie figures the purple-haired girl most likely took the staircase closest to the locker room. With one last cautionary glance in the direction of the gym, Evie starts jogging up the stairs.

She catches Mal three flights up and her face breaks out into a wide smile, thankful for her long legs—or Mal's short ones for that matter.

"Mal!" she calls between panting breaths.

Mal spins around, her look of confusion quickly giving way to annoyance. "What do you want?"

"You left this in the locker room."

Evie holds out the book for Mal to see and Mal snatches it from her hand unceremoniously.

"My sketchbook. What'd you steal this when I wasn't looking?" Mal accuses.

"Yeah, I stole it just so I could give it right back to you," Evie snorts at the accusation. "It must have fallen out of your bag in the locker room, you dimwit."

Mal narrows her eyes, hugging the book to her chest protectively. "You didn't go sticking your big nose where it doesn't belong and snoop through it did you?"

Evie touches her nose gently. Was it big? "No, I didn't look through it. You're quite talented though."

Mal puffs her chest out in challenge, teeth peeking through her snarl. "I thought you said you didn't look."

"I didn't. You doodled on the cover."

"I don't doodle."

Evie blows the air out of her cheeks in frustration, Mal's relentless peevishness growing tiresome. "Right."

"What are you waiting for?" Mal asks at Evie's lingering. "A hug?"

"A thank you would be nice."

It's Mal's turn to snort now. "That's not going to happen."

"I didn't think so," Evie says quietly.

Mal holds her gaze for a tad longer than Evie's comfortable with and Evie eventually looks away with a sigh. She thought perhaps Mal would take the retrieval of her sketchbook as some sort of peace offering, but Mal's cross behavior just confirms what Evie has come to realize this past week: Mal's not interested in peace.

"Why did my mother say you could leave your castle and come to school?" Mal asks finally, halting Evie in her tracks.

"Some people know when to let go of a stupid grudge," Evie shrugs, although her heart thumps at the question.

Mal shakes her head with a humorless laugh, not buying Evie's answer. "Not my mother. There had to be a reason."

"I'm afraid I can't help you with that," Evie sings, hoping she's not over-doing the nonchalance.

"This has to be a set-up to one of her schemes," Mal decides, stalking across the floor to point and glower in Evie's face. "She probably has something planned for you! Something truly evil! You're going to wish you had stayed in that decrepit old castle of yours!"

Evie's brow arches at Mal's ominous claim. "I seriously doubt that."

"You doubt my mother?" Mal demands harshly. "She's the evilest villain on this stupid island!"

"I doubt anything Maleficent may or may not have planned for me can make me long for my mother's castle," Evie says calmly, turning on her heels and leaving Mal, angry and bewildered, behind.