Hi all! So sorry its been so long! I've had a couple chapters written for a while but then life happened 3 I still don't know where to take this story but now looking back and re-reading older chapters, I'll try to keep it going and update more regularly! Hope everyone is doing well :) 3 xx
The dining hall was once again quite crowded at lunch, you had to almost shout to be heard. Mal, Evie, Jay, Carlos, Jane and Lonnie were all sitting at one of the back tables to avoid the concentrated noise, making their own smaller conversations. "Doug! Over here" Evie called out and waved when she noticed Doug standing with his lunch tray, scanning for somewhere to sit. He immediately grinned at her and made his way to their table.
"Hey Eve" He said to her with a genuine smile.
"Hi Dougie" Evie replied sweetly, and blushed.
Both of them blushed immensely and nervously sat down beside each other. Everyone knew that they both really liked each other but neither were brave enough to make the first move. As he sat down, the rest of the group greeted Doug before returning to their own conversations. Evie ate a mouthful of her pasta before looking up at Doug again.
"Hey wasn't El coming with you from your last class?"
Mal looked up and chimed in. "Yeah she was looking forward to Carbonara" She pointed at Evie's pasta lunch questionly.
Doug looked down at the table and shook his head sadly. "No I don't think she's joining us for lunch". Evie looked at him with concern and placed a hand on his.
"Doug I know that look. What happened?". He glanced up and sighed. "Audrey gave her a bit of a hard time before class".
"Who's giving who a bit of a hard time" a voice said behind them.
Doug jumped and breathed a small sigh of relief when the three of them turned to see Ben approaching the table with seriousness and concern reflecting in his eyes. He hugged Mal from behind, kissed her on the head before sitting beside her. Doug really didn't want to get Ben involved but there was nothing he could really do about that now.
"Oh..um.." Doug stammered. He didn't want to worry them. After all Eleanor had stood up for herself, her friends and her family. But then again she did seem quite upset at the start of class and had stayed back afterwards. Feeling conflicted, he looked over at Evie and she smiled reassuringly, encouraging him to go on.
"Doug?" Ben said in a soft tone. Doug took a deep breath and grabbed Evie's hand underneath the table. His cheeks went slightly red when Evie squeezed his hand gently.
"In our Magical Remedies class, Audrey gave Eleanor a hard time before the teacher arrived. She got angry about Eleanor hearing the events of the last year from Evie and Mal, but El defended everyone and herself quite well. But then Audrey brought El's parents into it which I think bothered her the most and she knocked El's books off the desk "by accident". El seemed pretty upset and embarrassed about it. I tried talking to her after class but she stayed behind to talk to the teacher". The table went silent as everyone turned in shock at what Doug had just told them. Ben had a strange look on his face and straightened up his royal jacket.
"I'm going to talk to Audrey" said Ben in quite a firm manner but Mal stopped him. "Please Ben, don't. Let Evie and I talk to El first. If she's having a hard time, we'll try to encourage her to go to Fairy Godmother first".
Ben sighed and nodded sadly. "I guess you're right but it makes me so angry that people still judge the VK's. Especially Audrey. She knows what happened and still behaves like this".
Doug looked down in shame, he didn't want everyone to know, he only wanted to mention it quietly to Mal and Evie so they could check on her later. He felt Evie squeeze his hand again comfortingly but he was still anxious. He knew that Ben would stay true to his word and not approach Audrey but it still worried him as simply talking to Audrey could make matters so much worse.