The day Mabel Badun meets Killian Gothel starts like any other.
She and her older cousin Jakob are about to make a steal — or several — in the Isle's shabby little marketplace. Why the vendors even try anymore is beyond her, considering most residents don't have money, and anyone willing to live an honest life would be better trading labour for goods instead of whatever ripped dollar bills they find in Auradon's trash. But they keep her skills sharp and her stomach adequately filled, so can she really complain?
It's the usual setup. She hides against the wall of Darkmist Alley, making herself even smaller than usual, while Jakob gets ready to cause a scene. They've been doing this for several years now, but the shopkeepers haven't caught them yet. They can't outrun her, and they can't outfight him. They're a match made in hell.
She watches as Jakob enters the scene, making himself as discreet as he can when he's taller than most other children on the Isle, but most are too busy with their shopping to notice him. Any seasoned vendor would know to be wary of Jakob by now, but if he wears his clothes a certain way and tilts his cap to cover his face just right, then he can be stealthy, if only for a little.
Their target is the biggest watermelon they've ever seen. It's the kind that farmers grow for harvest competitions, except there are scratches and bruises all over the skin. That's to be expected. It's been sent to the Isle, so something must be wrong with it. It doesn't matter. Food is food and they want it anyway.
And, apparently, so do several other thieves.
Mabel has long since learned to search the rooftops for Jay when she's about to go in for the steal. They aren't always after the same thing, and on those days they'll use each other's presence as extra concealment, working around each other with practiced finesse. Other times, it's a mad dash to get the treasure before the other.
Today, it seems, is going to be the latter.
She catches Jay eyeing the melon and, as if sensing her eyes on him, he turns to her. She narrows her eyes. He narrows his. There is an intensity to them that she's used to, a challenge that she isn't backing down from. Whoever grabs the melon and takes it back to their hideout first wins. The loser has to go find something else to steal.
At least that's the plan until Jay's attention is pulled elsewhere. She watches him frown at something on her side of the marketplace, to her right, but she can't see due to her position in the alley. When he looks at her again, he brings both his pointer fingers up and puts them next to each other. Two things, mirror images of each other, and a signal that Mabel always hates to see.
The Stabbington Twins.
Unlike herself and Jay, the Stabbington Twins take playing dirty to another level, and there is no fun competition with them. They want what they want and they are taking it. If you get in their way, you answer to their blades. The playing field changes when they step onto it.
She looks to Jay and gestures between them with her finger before pretending to break something open with her hands. It's not the first time she's made this signal either, and it's the one that usually comes after the Stabbingtons' arrival. The message is clear: we work together, we split the profits.
Jay nods just as Jakob screeches, and suddenly they're on the move.
Mabel barely pays attention to Jakob, who is pretending to be drunk (he's nowhere close to being of age, but underage drinking isn't exactly uncommon on the Isle) and causing havoc near one of the clothing stalls. She darts behind several carts, aware of Jay jumping across rooftops like the crazy bastard he is, and watches for the Stabbingtons. They're emerging from another alley, the one closer to Facilier's store, and they've forgone being discreet in favour of manpower. They're both big boys, not as big as Jakob, but they have more muscle and are annoyingly in sync with each other. They're hard to beat.
Unless you're fast enough.
The moment Otis Stabbington puts his hands on the melon, Mabel moves, dashing out and knocking into his and Odin's legs. She isn't very big, but she goes right for the kneecaps, and Otis falls into Odin. Both of them fall to the ground like two connecting dominoes and the melon falls off its stand.
Jay scoops up the melon like it's an overly large football and begins sprinting down the path that leads to one of the Isle's biggest residential districts. Mabel starts getting up to follow him, but a strong hand on her head slams her back into the dirt, two pairs of long legs leaping over her and giving Jay chase. She coughs and spits dirt out of her mouth.
"Assholes," she mutters, clambering to her feet and rushing after them.
The twins are taller than her with longer legs, but she's quicker, and it doesn't take long before she's caught up with them. They move sideways on the path as they run, attempting to block her, and it works for a while. Then Odin runs forward so he and Otis are no longer side-by-side and Mabel darts into the space he occupied, elbowing Otis in an attempt to careen him off the path.
She's so focused on her mission that she doesn't realize the issue until Jay is yelping and she's almost tripping over him. Odin pushed him down on his front and grabbed the melon. He's starting to get away and Mabel wastes no time in leaping over Jay (she doesn't feel guilty; it's what he would have wanted, and he would have done the same for her) to get it back.
Otis is right behind her, at least until Jay trips him over using his body. At least she assumes that's what happens when she hears the yell and crash. She doesn't have the luxury of looking back.
While she may be quicker than Odin, she isn't stronger, and so pushing him from behind won't cut it. As she rapidly approaches, she readies herself and, when the timing is just right, jumps onto his back. She wraps her arms around his eyes and digs her heels into his abdomen before tugging him sideways. The two of them fall to a ground in a heap.
The melon, the beautiful melon, their wonderful prize, rolls away. It's no longer within reach, but Mabel has more important things to deal with. Namely, this brute of a Stabbington as he attempts to shake her off. She holds on for dear life.
Running footsteps approach behind them, but they stop abruptly as Jay pushes Otis to the ground. Otis grabs Jay's ankle and drags him down with him. All four of them squirm on the dirty ground, limbs flying as both pairs attempt to one-up each other.
"Oh, sweet, a melon."
All four of them stop at once at the new voice. Still on the ground, they look up to see a boy who can't be any older than Mabel looking down at the melon. It's rolled several metres away, laying on the pathway, right at the feet of this boy. None of them move as he leans down and scoops the melon up.
Mabel is the first to snap out of her shock, finally letting Odin go so she can stand up. She must look a sight, dirty from head to toe, legs scraped from colliding with the ground one too many times, but she strides over with purpose.
She will be taking that melon home.
"Listen here," she says, and she can hear how she's completely dropped the 'h', her accent coming in full force. "Unless you're part of the fight for the melon," and there go the 't's, too, "you don't get to touch the melon. Piss off."
The boy scowls. "Finders keepers."
"You joking? Get your own melon, you tea leaf!"
Rather than listening to her, the boy snorts a laugh. "'Tea leaf'? Who calls someone a tea leaf?"
She stamps her foot in frustration. There are, unfortunately, several things she inherited from her father. Her thieving ways, her accent, and his vocabulary. It isn't her fault if these idiots don't understand it.
"Listen," she says, making her tone as serious as she possibly can. "You want the melon, you fight for it fair and square like the rest of us." She glances back at the twins. "Like most of us. Who the hell're you, anyway?"
"Killian Gothel," he says simply. "And this is my melon now. If you wanted it, you should've held onto it."
"Okay, Gothel, you live in that tower over there, right? Gimme the melon, turn around, walk on back to it, and we can pretend this never happened."
Killian scoffs. "Yeah, right. And who are you supposed to be?"
"Don't matter."
"You can't even talk right."
"'Scuse me?"
"You call people tea leaves, can't speak like a real human, what even are you?"
The twins laugh behind her and she balls her hands into fists. Who does this asshole think he is?
When she doesn't answer, he laughs and says, "What, are you some weirdo alien?"
She's been teased for her accent before. Mostly by schoolmates she gets into arguments with, who use her accent as a reason to debunk what she's saying, as if that has anything to do with it. She's used to it from them on occasion, though most have accepted it as part of her.
But this guy. He randomly appears, steals her melon, and calls her an alien just for the way she speaks. It feels just like the first time this happened to her, when she was only five, and she's ashamed to feel the tears on her cheeks.
"What? Can't tell the truth or the mothership will take you back?"
That's the final straw. Before she realizes what she's doing, she pulls her arm back and punches forward, her fist landing right in Killian's eye.
"Ow, what the fuck?!"
She doesn't answer, catching the melon as he drops it and dashing forward, refusing to turn around lest the others see her cry.
thank you for reading! this one was a lot of fun to write, just because four kids fighting over a melon like football players is very entertaining to me. this chapter introduced:
mabel badun, daughter of horace. she's the same age as carlos, but in this particular story she's ten years old.
jakob badun, son of jasper, he's a few years older than mabel and is about fourteen here.
otis and odin stabbington, son of "sideburns" stabbington. they're two years older than mabel.
killian gothel, son of mother gothel and, unlike the rest, is homeschooled. he's the same age as mabel.
mabel is on good terms with the rotten four because of carlos (she can't stand mal, but she likes the rest) but she and jay WILL try and fight each other if they're the only ones trying to steal the same thing.