Pandora grinned slightly. She was sitting at one of the patio tables again, her hand scratching Griffin's ear. It was becoming one of her favorite places.
She was watching the boys across the lawn. Carlos was sitting on the stone bench with the twins on either side of him. It looked like he was checking out Dude's fur. He was mentioning earlier that Dude's scruffy fur was a nightmare in these woods, always catching burrs and things. While Carlos was doing that, the three were also watching Jay demonstrate some tourney moves.
She was distracted when Celia came outside, joining Pandora at the table.
"You look better with blue hair than blonde." Celia told her bluntly as she sat across from her.
Pandora chuckled briefly. "Thanks."
"Want to have your fortune read?" Celia offered temptingly, holding up a deck of burgundy colored cards and fanning them out with a flick of her wrist.
Pandora eyed her thoughtfully. She figured, given Celia was a VK, this could be a scam, or she'll be expected to pay or do something in return.
"What's the catch?" Pandora asked quietly, a small smile showing she meant no harm or offence.
Celia's smirk grew a bit. "I like you. Just a few coins per reading should be fine." she answered.
Pandora nodded, digging her hand around in her jeans pocket. She'd put some money in there earlier just in case. She pulled out a few coins and handed them to Celia, who pocketed the money before holding the fanned out deck of cards toward Pandora.
Stretching a hand out, Pandora waved her fingers playfully over the deck, taking her time going back and forth before carefully pulling one card from the deck. She glanced curiously down at the card before looking back up at Celia, who held her hand out expectantly. Pandora set the card face down in the girl's open palm.
Eyes closed, Celia placed her other hand atop the card. She hummed thoughtfully, her thin brows raising slightly though her charming smile didn't falter.
"The Moon. Something in your life is not as it appears to be. A misunderstanding, or even a truth you can't admit to yourself." she explained in an eerie voice.
Pandora nodded slowly, taking in the words and trying to remind herself that this was probably just for show. And if it wasn't, it wasn't as if it was a particularly awful fortune, like certain death.
"Don't suppose you could specify?" Pandora tried lightly, grinning.
Celia smirked, holding her hand out expectantly in answer. Pandora chuckled and shook her head.
"Never mind, I think I'll be fine. But that is very impressive. Did your dad teach you all that?" Pandora asked curiously.
Celia nodded proudly, shuffling her cards in her hands as if to keep herself busy. "He taught me everything I know. And I know I'm good. I'm never wrong when I've got these." she boasted, impressively cutting the deck with one hand and flipping half of it around.
"I don't doubt that." Pandora assures her.
They both glanced up as someone rounded the side of the cottage. Pandora smiled, recognizing Carlos' girlfriend Jane. She waved slightly as the other girl joined them on the patio.
"Hi, Jane. It's nice to see you again." Pandora greeted her.
"You too." Jane smiled widely.
"This is Celia. Celia, this is Carlos' girlfriend, Jane." Pandora introduced them.
They greeted each other at the same moment Evie and Dizzy came out of the sunroom, Dizzy skipping ahead of the older girl as they approached the patio. Evie smiled at Jane in greeting.
"Hi, Jane. Looking for Carlos?"
"No, he looks like he's having a good time." Jane answered, smiling as she glanced toward where Carlos and the twins were laughing at some of the sillier flips Jay was pulling off. "I just thought I'd hang out with you guys for a while, if that's okay."
"Of course." Evie assured her. "You're always welcome over here."
"Hey, Pandora?" Dizzy asked, sounding like she was about to burst with excitement. "Do you think I could do your hair?"
Pandora glanced at Evie.
"Dizzy is about the only person I'd ever trust with my hair." Evie assured her.
Pandora smiled, looking thoughtfully back at Dizzy. "Well,…I suppose that depends. What did you have in mind?"
"I was just thinking of curling it a bit, and putting it in a waterfall braid." Dizzy offered, looking thoughtfully at Pandora's hair, which she still had up in a messy bun at the moment.
"I suppose that should be fine." Pandora answered. "I just don't want to dye it again. I don't think I want to dye my hair ever again to be honest. Why not?" she finally answered, standing up. At that same moment, Mal came walking around the corner of the house, probably just getting back from her meeting with the King. She smiled slightly at everyone on the patio.
"Hey, E, can we talk?" Mal asked, jerking her thumb toward the sunroom.
"Sure." Evie answered, eyeing Mal for a moment before turning to Dizzy. "You can use the vanity in my room to do Dora's hair if you want, Dizzy."
"Yay!" Dizzy squealed, clapping and bouncing once in place. She grabbed Pandora's wrist and started pulling her toward the door.
"Hey, Jane, you should have Celia tell you your fortune." Pandora called before she was yanked inside. "It's really cool!"
She could hear everyone laugh a bit as she disappeared from sight. For such a scrawny little girl, Dizzy had a good grip.
The next day found Pandora slipping her black and blue vans onto her feet as she entered the kitchen. Evie and Carlos entered from the opposite door, Evie tossing some sandwiches to Jay, which he packed into the picnic basket. Carlos entered behind Evie, stuffing some blue beach towels into a different basket.
They were all getting ready to go to Jane's birthday party, which was at the Enchanted Lake. Pandora was dressed in another new outfit Evie insisted on designing for the occasion. Her hair was lightly curled, hanging down to the middle of her back. She was trying not to be self-conscious about the light blue color. She was dressed in a loose tank top, which was a spring green color until it faded into more of a sea foam green at the bottom. The front of her top was tucked into her denim shorts, which were faded white in a couple spots.
Evie tossed Jay a couple apples to add to the picnic basket, while Pandora started wrapping the couple plates of cookies with plastic to put in the basket.
"Okay!" Carlos randomly yelled, making everyone glance at him in surprise. "Who got into Jane's cake?!"
Pandora, as well as Evie and Jay, curiously approached the cake box that Carlos had just picked up from the bakery not an hour ago. When he'd shown them earlier, it was beautiful and immaculately decorated. Mrs. Potts had outdone herself. It was light blue with light pink bows on the front, as well as the top two corners, and light silver coils of frosting decorating the top and sides, giving it a look reminiscent of Cinderella's carriage. In pink frosting, the top of the cake was decorated with the words:
HAPPY BIBBIDI BOBBIDI
BIRTHDAY
JANE
Unfortunately, that beautiful cake now had a small corner piece missing.
Pandora grimaced slightly, exchanging a glance with Evie before meeting Jay's eyes across the table.
"I mean, maybe no one will notice." Jay tried weakly.
Carlos swung around and glared at him.
"I'm sure they didn't mean any harm." Evie tried to calm Carlos down. "And I'm sure Jane won't care. You know how she is. She'll appreciated the gesture either way."
Carlos groaned, raking his hands through his hair.
"Carlos, calm down." Jay suggested calmly. "We both know it's not the cake you're mad about. You're worried Jane won't like the present you made her. Which is completely ridiculous."
Carlos groaned again, louder than before, and walked out of the room.
Pandora chuckled slightly, crouching down before Griffin and straightening out the bandana around his neck. She then straightened out Dude's black and white leather jacket. Evie had offered to make an outfit for Griffin, but Pandora declined. While Dude pulled off the cute outfits, she wasn't one for dressing up her pets. Plus, she doubted Griffin would be as tolerant as Dude.
"There's probably no way to fix it?" Pandora asked Evie as she stood up, looking back down at the cake. Jay followed Carlos out of the room.
Evie sighed, glancing at the cake as she finished putting things in the picnic basket. "If we had frosting, or more time, maybe I could do something. But we need to get going in, like, fifteen minutes. We're already running a little late."
Pandora hummed, her eyes still fixed on the cake before a light bulb went off in her head. Spinning on her heel, Pandora ran out of the kitchen, through the sunroom, and out into the yard. The bushes right outside the sunroom door had a few different kinds of flowers. She picked several of the small, white flowers, and a couple of the large blue hydrangea flowers.
She then ran around the front of the house toward the double doors on the patio. She paused where Dizzy and Celia were sitting in front of the small fireplace near the door, eating the small corner piece they'd taken from Jane's cake.
"You two may want to hide the evidence." she suggested lightly, glancing pointedly at the two plates of cake, noticing they had frosting on their faces. She then hurried back inside and toward the kitchen, yelling "Carlos! Kitchen!"
She reached the mentioned room, and Evie glanced up curiously from where she was closing up the picnic baskets.
"You don't have any pink flowers, do you?" Pandora asked, already guessing the answer. She'd been here long enough, looking at the different plants in the yard and surrounding area.
"Um, no, not that I've noticed." Evie answered. "Why?"
"You'll see." Pandora answered. She looked under the sink and found a bottle of bleach. She made a half mixture in a large bowl of one teaspoon of bleach and a quart of water. She mixed it before picking up the flowers again. She gave them all a good shake over the sink, dislodging any pollen or loose petals, before cutting all the stems so they were shorter than one inch. She then carefully dipped the stems into the bleach solution, allowing a little of the bases of the flowers to touch the liquid as well. She let them sit there for a few seconds before pulling them back out and laying them on a hand towel on the counter.
"Hey, were you yelling for me?" Carlos asked, joining them in the kitchen with Jay and Mal in tow.
"Yes, I'm guessing Jane likes blue, pink, and white for a color scheme?" Pandora guessed.
"Uh, yeah. Why?" Carlos answered, looking curious.
"Does she like flowers?" Pandora asked, wiping off the flower stems with the towel.
"Yes. Where is this going?" Carlos asked warily.
Pandora didn't answer right away. She arranged some of the flowers, one blue hydrangea with some small white flowers arranged around it. She made sure to thoroughly wrap all the stems with tape, making sure no moisture would be able to leave the stems.
Finally, she approached the cake box and carefully placed the small bouquet of flowers in the ruined corner of the cake, carefully arranging the petals to mostly cover where the piece had been cut away. Finally, she stepped away, nervously waving her hand toward the finished product.
Carlos stared at the cake, his mouth hanging open in amazement. His eyes moved rapidly from Pandora to the cake.
"Yes! It's perfect! Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" he chanted, quickly wrapping her in a hug and actually spinning her around. Pandora laughed in shock, returning the hug partially to keep from being dropped or something. Mal, Jay, and Evie laughed in response.
"Where'd you learn to do that?" Evie asked, admiring the flowers.
"It's not that impressive. I picked up a couple tricks over the last few summers, when I worked part time at Hestia's bakery back home. She'd work with my mom and grandmother's flower shop sometimes to use flowers as decorations." Pandora explained. "Hers are way more complicated and impressive than mine."
"Well, you pulled that off in less than five minutes." Evie pointed out.
"We should probably get ready to go." Mal announced, grabbing her present for Jane off the counter. "I'm going to put this in the car."
"I'm going to check the kids are ready to go." Evie announced, following Mal out of the room.
"So, you're a gardener, and a baker." Jay joked as Carlos put the lid back on the bakery box.
"Hardly." Pandora snorted. "I can barely follow a recipe, don't expect anything fancy. And I can grow plants with my powers, but I'm awful at figuring out bouquets and matching colors."
Jay opened his mouth to respond when a flash of light showed in the window, followed by a cackling laugh. Pandora exchanged a worried glance with Jay and Carlos before running from the room and out the double doors, meeting Celia along the way. They all skidded to a stop on the patio, Pandora's eyes going straight to the girl standing out on the lawn.
She was dressed in some kind of pink and black dress, holding a scepter. Her long hair was pink with streaks of light blue and she was wearing a crown.
She smirked at them when they arrived on the patio. "So long, suckers."
She spun in a circle, causing a cloud of pink smoke to engulf her. When it cleared, she was gone.
Jay turned to help Mal stand up, only to jump back. "Whoa!" Pandora turned and also jumped in surprise. Mal was no longer, well, Mal. She was hunched over in a black hooded cloak, with wrinkly skin and white hair. "Uh, you might want to think up a spell for that."
"There's no spell that can reverse the curse of the scepter." Mal answered in a raspy voice.
"Well, that's a shame." Carlos answered weakly, causing the others to nod.
"Forget about me." Mal insisted. "Audrey's out for revenge. And all of Auradon is in danger."
"What should we do?" Evie asked worriedly.
"The only thing more powerful than the scepter…" Mal answered thoughtfully, "is Hades' ember."
"Oh, and he's just going to hand it over if we go back to the Isle." Jay countered sarcastically.
"And no one knows where his lair is." Evie pointed out.
"I do." Celia announced, causing everyone to look down at her. "I'm his errand rat. I've got the key at my dad's."
"You're coming." Mal announced bluntly.
Celia grimaced in disappointment. "But I just got here." she whined quietly.
"Mal?" Dizzy called, her and the twins appearing in the open doorway. When they caught sight of Mal's new look, they all screamed slightly, the twins latching onto Dizzy in fear.
Evie assured Dizzy that everything would be fine before telling the others to grab their stuff.
Jay, Carlos, and Celia ran inside.
"I'm coming." Pandora announced, making Evie and Mal look at her.
"Are you sure?" Evie asked warily.
Pandora took a deep breath. "I don't know if I want to meet him yet, but…something serious is going on and I want to help. I'm not staying behind while you guys risk your lives."
Mal and Evie exchanged a glance, clearly having a secret conversation with just one look. Finally, Mal nodded in agreement.
"Perfect." Evie smiled back at Pandora. "And I have just the outfit for you."
AN: This was originally two chapters, but since the first one was more of a short filler, I decided to combine the two to keep the story moving.
Let me know what you all thought, and thanks for all the reviews so far!