Chapter 14: Made, Not Born
"So, you think Uma's cooking up some kind of scheme?" Carlos asks.
Jay, Carlos, Mal, Dizzy, and Ben wait outside the chemistry lab as both Doug and Evie work together to test the substance that the royal couple had found by the lake.
"It wouldn't be the first time," Mal scoffs as she leans her head on Ben's shoulder.
"It's interesting that she hasn't gone after the wand though, that would be the easiest thing to gain control of anything she wanted," Jay says.
"Maybe she's just doing that to throw everyone off her trail," Carlos suggests.
"Well, we'll know more once Evie and Doug test it," Ben says.
The bell rings and students begin to file out into the hallways on the way to their next classes. Many sets of eyes wander in the direction of the Isle children and the whispers start almost immediately. A couple of kids point to them as if their fellow peers were an exhibit at a museum. Mal does her best to ignore the stares and pointing, but she can feel the rage against them bubbling inside her stomach. Obviously, all the VKs were being watched; after all, they were the implied vandalizers of the school.
Ben's phone keeps going off continuously, but he does his best to ignore it. Mal knows it's his secretary begging him to come and deal with royal duties.
"You sure you don't want to go back to your office," she offers to him.
"No," he says. "I'm staying right here with you. No one is going to say anything bad as long as the King of Auradon is with you."
"You know we can take care of ourselves, right?" Carlos asks, not exactly liking the idea of being treated like children in need of protection.
"I'm as involved in this as you guys are. Uma maybe from the Isle, but she just wants to be with the rest of us here. She wants a better life and it's likely that she wants attention from these actions. It might even be a cry for help. She may be hard and evil, but evil is not born, it's made."
Mal looks at Ben and smiles. She knows that he has a good heart and wants to see the good in people, but the daughter of Maleficent had grown up with the daughter of Ursula and it was definitely not what he thinks. A bad childhood and parent couldn't excuse the deep-seated rage and evil inside of this pirate captain. She was hardened to the absolute core and had likely been born that way. While most of the VKs had been raised bad, they'd all been led to believe that they were born bad and would always follow in their parents' footsteps. However, their second chances had obviously changed this mindset, but when Uma was given that chance, she selfishly took advantage of it, trying to ruin Mal and Ben at the same time. It was almost impossible that the slimy sea-witch's offspring would ever change, but the purple-haired teen just lets Ben go on thinking this until he's proven wrong once again. She admires his optimism and hope, but unfortunately, it would not be enough to change Uma.
Just then the door to the chemistry lab opens and Doug and Evie come out. Doug has his notebook and wears goggles and a lab coat. Evie wears similar equipment with goggles perched on her head and a beaker of green liquid in her hand that has a rubber seal on the top to prevent the specimen from being contaminated further.
"Well?" Mal asks.
"What did you find out?" Ben asks.
"It's definitely a potion of some kind," Doug answers. He reads from a slip of paper in his book. "It's made of many organic materials."
"What kind of materials?" Carlos asks, as Dude comes up to the group, to which his master scoops him into his arms.
"Well, it's mainly made of water from the Enchanted Lake, giving it a lot of magical properties. We also detected plant matter, possibly a flower of some kind, a bit of gold and rock, but mainly animal material…"
"Like what?" Jay asks.
"Crow, I think," Doug says, examining his notes carefully. "Spider, gryphon, and I am pretty sure human."
The last one makes the group shudder slightly.
"Human?" Dizzy asks nervously.
"Blood," Evie says to soothe her friends' worries.
"Type A from the testing," Doug says.
"Any bones?" the dog asks. "I'm starved."
"Dude, if you're hungry just tell me," Carlos groans, putting his pet down and going into his backpack to fish out some dog treats.
"No bones, but it definitely has magical potential."
"What kind of magical potential?" Mal implores a little more harshly.
"We don't know," Evie shrugs.
"You seriously spent all that time in there and you can't tell us what it does?!" the purple-haired teen snorts angrily.
"Chemistry is different than magic Mal, it only tells us what it's made of. If you want magic, go talk to the Fairy Godmother of the school."
"Well this is just great," the daughter of Maleficent sighs. "Again, Uma is two steps ahead of us."
"Who's Uma again?" Jane says, coming up to the group. Her arms are wrapped around her books and she smiles at everyone. Carlos goes to put his arm around her.
"She's someone we think is causing all the trouble at the school," Ben explains.
"She's the one who was at the Cotillion right?" Jane asks.
"Yes, the one with eight extra legs," Jay adds.
"Well, what does she want?"
"Still trying to figure that out," Mal groans.
"But it has to do with this," Evie says, showing the beaker of liquid to Fairy Godmother's daughter.
"What is it?"
"Some kind of potion," Doug explains. "With magical properties."
"You should probably take it to my mom," Jane says. "She might be able to help."
Mal feels deep inside that she doesn't trust the headmistress anymore. For all she knows, the fairy will accuse her or her friends of making the potion and find some way to pin everything that's happened on them. She's just getting sick and tired of this, she wants to find Uma and put an end to it. "Good luck with that. And while you guys waste your time doing that, I'm going to find Shrimpy before she does any more damage."
She's about to walk away, but Ben grabs her arm. She turns to look at him. She feels herself becoming very annoyed, everything about this is driving her insane and she just wants to put a stop to it.
"Mal, please let the guards figure this out. We don't need anyone in more trouble."
"So, you think I'm trouble?" Mal snaps back.
"No," Ben says. "I just don't want the teachers to have any more of a motive to blame everything on the VKs."
Everyone can see a flicker of green in the dragon girl's eyes. Obviously, she's not happy about this implication at all.
"So, you think we did this?"
"Of course not, Mal, I just don't want you to get hurt."
"I can take of myself, I don't need your "kingly" power to protect me. I'm going to stop this my own way." she says firmly, before turning to go down the hall in frustration.
Ben wants to go after her, hurt; once again that they were fighting, but Evie puts her hand on his shoulder.
"Give her some time to cool off," the blue-haired teen says. "She's just upset and wants this to be over."
"Don't we all?" Jay asks, scratching the back of his neck.
"I think we should take this to Fairy Godmother and then go about our day like nothing's happened," Ben says, watching as Mal disappears around the corner. He can feel his heart sink into his stomach at seeing her go so angrily. Once again, his girlfriend is pulling away from him. "At least until we know what we're up against."
"Okay," Carlos says. He turns to his girlfriend. "Can I carry your books for you, Jane?"
She smiles widely at him and allows the son of Cruella to do so. The couple walks off together, with Dude trotting along behind them. Jay splits to go get ready for gym and Doug offers to take the sample to the headmistress. Dizzy hugs Evie before going to gather her books for her class, leaving Evie and the king by themselves.
"Don't beat yourself up," Evie says gently to Ben. Once again, she's trying to be the middle woman in Ben and Mal's relationship. "Her anger sometimes blurs her judgement and she lets her feelings get the best of her."
"I wish she'd just let us help her, she thinks she has to do this all on her own."
"I know and that's probably because she's been on her own for so long… We were all pretty much born without love from our parents and we've had to take care of ourselves. She just feels like she has to take care of everything her way and alone."
"But she's not now," Ben sighs.
"I know, and she'll realize that soon," Evie says, reassuringly.
I hope…
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