Chapter 12: Theories and Mysteries
Evie wakes up the next morning to find Mal completely out cold. She's dressed in her lilac silk pyjamas and her purple hair is sprawled outwards like a big fan. The daughter of the Evil Queen wonders if her best friend is still mad at her for yesterday. She really didn't mean to hurt her feelings, but she should have turned the objects over to Fairy Godmother immediately. The four of them knew that Mal wouldn't trash the headmistress's office and steal things… any longer. She'd shown that she's changed; granted it was slower and her path did diverge at some point, but Mal was back on track, being the person, she wanted to be. The VKs would've backed up Mal's claims of not stealing them and they would have supported her the entire time. Now… the daughter of Maleficent was going rogue again, taking care of things her way.
Evie notices something unfamiliar sticking out from underneath Mal's bed. She kneels down and pulls out the hoodie, mirror, and spellbook.
"Oh, Mal…" Evie sighs heavily. "This is not going to end well for any of us."
…
When both girls walk down the halls of Auradon, the school is again buzzing with activity. Mal prayed that her little chemistry incident had been forgotten. She mostly tries to hide her face from everyone. Evie bites her lip, wanting to confront her bestie about the mirror and spellbook. The right thing was that it should be returned because if not, it's going to get much worse.
As the girls are getting things from their lockers, Carlos runs up to them.
"Are you guys okay?" he asks.
"What do you mean?" Mal asks.
"I think you'd better come to see for yourself."
The son of Cruella De Vil drags his two friends down the hall and out in front of the school. Again, a large group of students, including Jane, Jay, Lonnie, Dizzy, Chad, and Audrey had gathered. They seemed to be staring at something that was in the school.
"What are they…?" Evie asks but stops mid-sentence.
Mal turns and her jaw drops open.
Spray-painted right on the front of the school in purple and green paint are the words:
Rotten to the Core
Long Live the Isle
The letters are spread out across the face of the building as if it were a giant piece of paper to be written on. Additionally, the sign saying Welcome to Auradon Prep is blotted out with more spray paint and says Long Live Evil.
"That's one serious paint job," Jay says. Lonnie elbows him for the stupid comment and he rubs his shoulder.
"Definitely an improvement," Tallia, the daughter of Tinkerbelle snickers. She most likely meant it sarcastically, the petite blonde girl with her tips dyed green and her affinity for green leather made her a rebel that would have fit right in on the Isle. Allie, the daughter of Alice, shakes her head at her friend in disappointment for the offhanded comment.
"It would certainly take someone with the ability to fly to reach up so high," Whitney, daughter of Snow White observes to her twin brother Simon nodding in agreement.
"Why would anyone do this to the school?" Audrey asks.
"Isn't it obvious?" Chad pipes up. Immediately, everyone around him rolls their eyes. "Someone is trying to send us a message. Someone with connections to a certain island. Trouble just seems to come off the Isle of the Lost," Chad says to Audrey.
Mal's eyes glow green again as she wants to turn around and put Chad in his place, but she already got in enough trouble with chemistry today. She takes a few steps away, out of earshot from Chad's obnoxious comments. In fact, most of the VKs follow her to escape the indirect insults.
Several of the teachers have gathered, including Queen Belle and King Beast/Adam. Mal goes over to find Ben standing among them. He smiles at her and accepts her into a hug.
"Pretty bad huh?" he asks her.
"Yes," Mal says.
"This has gotten out of control," Grumpy, one of the teachers is saying. "First Fairy Godmother's office and now this, what is next? When will this anarchy stop?"
"I seriously doubt it's anarchy," Ben says, trying to keep a calm and level-head about everything.
"But why would anyone do this?" Queen Belle asks.
"To send a message I would assume," Fairy Godmother mutters.
Mal swallows a lump in her throat when the headmistress looks directly at her, boring holes through her with a glare. Mal keeps her arms wrapped around Ben, trying to ignore the gathering eyes on her and her friends.
"It has to be one of the Isle children, who else could it have been," Grumpy says.
"Now hold on!" Ben says immediately, coming to his friends' defence. "There is no proof that the VKs had anything to do with this. For all we know, it was just some vandal or a few people playing a sick joke."
"Sick jokes are their specialty," Grumpy hisses, eyeing Mal as well.
The daughter of Maleficent releases her boyfriend and goes to stand with her friends, who attempt to stand strong and firm against these accusations Only Dizzy seems to be much timider than before and she shrinks behind Evie and Jay, not wanting to be noticed any further.
However, it seems several other teachers are now eyeing the group suspiciously. Mal clenches her fists and tries to remain composed, no doubt her glowing eyes would not be a good image to portray at the moment.
"Come now Grumpy," Queen Belle reasons. "There is no way that these children of the Isle could even reach up that far. It had to have been done by someone very big or by someone who could fly."
"What about the dragon girl?" Grumpy hisses, eyeing the purple-haired teen. "You saw what she could do at the Royal Cotillion, why not her?"
This is too much for Mal, she turns around and storms away from the scene, not caring what happens. Tears are burning her eyes as she continues to get away from all this. Her stomach twists in anger and sadness. She ignores her friends' calls for her to come back as she hikes further and further away.
She hated this so much. The whole point of coming to Auradon was to get a second chance at a better life, but clearly, the stigma would always be there. She was a child of the Isle and while she was proud of it, no one else was. It was just making things worse for her and her friends. It was obvious that no matter what happened at the school or to the school, the Villain Kids were to blame.
She continues walking until she reaches the special place where she and Ben fell in love. She leans against the same pillar she'd been against more than a year ago, still so confused about her life and her feelings, nothing seemed to have changed. She lets the tears fall quietly as she gazes out onto the Enchanted Lake. She wonders if anything would ever be normal for her… She just wants to get away, find a place where she wouldn't be defined by her past or where she had come from. Where she could be a normal teenage girl and do things with Ben and her friends, travel and see the world; no Isle, no Uma, no magic… where she could be like everyone else.
As she continues staring at the lake, she notices something. At first, it seems like an illusion created by the trees or the sunlight, but it was too bright to reflect the leaves. Curiously, she takes a step closer. Mal goes to the edge of the lake and kneels. She notices a green residue of some kind that was slowly lapping against the muddy shore. Using her fingers, Mal collects a sample of it on her fingertips. It looked like the residue of some kind of spell or potion. Her mind immediately thinks of Uma; the wretched pirate captain had stolen a lot of potion supplies, but what could she be using it for? What purpose did using the lake water serve?
"Mal!"
The daughter of Maleficent stands to see Ben walking towards her. She can see the sympathy and concern on his face as he approaches her.
"How did you find me?" she asks.
"You're a creature of habit, whenever you're sad or upset, you back to the start. Since your motorbike is still in the garage, I figured you'd be here…" he smiles.
The purple-haired teen can't help but smile too. No matter how bad she felt at any given time, Ben had the ability to make her smile.
"The place where we fell in love," he says, stepping a bit closer to her.
"And the place where the love potion wore off," Mal smirks.
Ben reaches up and grabs her hand, the one that was not covered in the strange residue. He turns her towards him, Mal becomes lost in his hazel-green eyes, like so many times before and just melts. All her anger and hardness dissolves into nothing but love and compassion.
"It's the moment I realized how much you meant to me," Ben says quietly.
She leans in and their lips meet. She tries to memorize the taste of his lips, salty and slightly sweet, like honey. She wraps her arms around his shoulders, while he holds on to her waist, pulling her closer to him. The two smile as they kiss, their true love once again shining through anything.
When the two break apart, Mal gasps.
"What?" Ben asks.
Mal wipes the green residue from her King's cheek. She shows the substance to him.
"What is that?"
"I don't know," she says. "The lake washed it ashore. Look…"
The couple goes to where the daughter of Maleficent had made the discovery. Ben takes a sample on his fingers too, rubbing it to get a sense of the texture.
"Have you seen this before?" Mal asks.
"No, have you?"
"No. Do you think it washed away some kind of spell?"
"Not likely, the lake usually just dissolves any kind of enchantments," Ben explains.
"Whatever Uma is up to, she's using the lake."
"Uma?" Ben asks in surprise. He immediately goes on high alert. "Is she here?"
"I think she might be," Mal says.
"How do you know?"
"When I was cleaning the chemistry lab last night…"
"Right sorry, I should've come to help you," he cuts her off. Always such a gentleman.
"It was my mess, I had to clean it up. Anyways I heard someone's voice in the hall and I recognized it as Uma's."
"Are you sure it was hers?" he inquires.
"It's a voice you won't soon forget," she says.
Ben nods in agreement. "So, did you see her?"
"No, I only heard her voice. She was talking to someone, probably through a cell phone or something and I heard a locker slam before the nearest door shut. I ran and realized that she had broken into my locker even after I'd put an enchantment on it."
"Why did you put an enchantment on it?" Ben asks. Mal can see the shift in his eyes, the fact that she'd used magic. She swallows realizing that Ben didn't know about the fact that her spell book, Evie's mirror, and a hoodie that the thief probably wore were found in her locker.
"I did it in case whoever broke into Fairy Godmother's vault would try to break into my locker."
"Why would they want to break into your locker?" the king asks, raising an eyebrow. Mal realizes what this might be implying.
"No clue, I guess I just went a little overboard with protection."
"They weren't after your spellbook, were they?" Ben asks nervously, he really doesn't want to go through another fight about magic with her again. He waits patiently for an answer.
"No, my spell book was stolen after I donated it."
"Right," he says letting out a slight sigh of relief.
"I know I used magic and I shouldn't have, but Uma did steal something from me."
"What was it?"
"The library book about all the different worlds."
"The one we were reading together?"
Mal nods.
"Oh god, what could she be planning?" he asks, becoming a bit nervous.
"With Uma, you never can tell, but we know it's not something good."
"What surprises me is that she didn't steal the wand. That's why she kidnapped me on the Isle. If she wanted to break the barrier around the Isle, it could've been done very easily with it."
"She must be after something else," Mal says.
"And she's the one who vandalized the school then," he deduces.
Mal lets a sigh of relief out, glad that Ben believed that she wouldn't do what she was being accused of by other teachers. "In her octopus form, she can do almost anything."
"That would explain how she was able to get up so high to spray-paint." Ben looks down at his hand. "I want to get this green stuff tested," He grabs a rock and adds what globs of goo he can get onto it. "Maybe Doug can test it for us to see what it's made of. And I'll have security patrol the grounds after dark to ensure nothing like that happens again. We'll also have to start looking for that book."
"Sounds like a plan," she nods. She goes up and kisses Ben on the cheek, happy to see that he believed in her theory and he was doing something about it.
"Let's go," he says smiling.
The couple rushes back towards Auradon, hand in hand, ready to put their plan into action.
Not long after they've left, a turquoise-haired girl comes out of the tree line, looking angry. She wanted to vomit after watching the two-true love-birds suck face right in front of her, but she was furious that Mal was onto her and that Ben was doing things to stall her plans. Her gloved hands nearly crush the shell-phone in frustration. She looks into an area in the trees where's she's stashed her portal potions. She knows she's going to have to step up her game.
"Get the ship ready tonight Harry," she hisses into the shell. "Change of plans, we have to step up our game."
Please review, it really helps me out.
