Here is the next chapter!
The beginning scene was added to help with my idea that will appear in the next chapter since an argument starts because of the innocent conversation.
While working on a certain part of this chapter, I came with an idea about the coronation that involves Mal's entrance. It will be a nice touch to show she will take no crap from any person for her magical heritage.
So I have a question: how in the world did my daily view count nearly double on Sunday? The normal count recently is around 1.5K views, but on Sunday I had 2.5K, which is the highest I've had! What changed? Let me know in a review and I'll try to post again tomorrow or Wednesday.
Enjoy.
"Ben!"
Stopping in the middle of the hallways of Auradon Prep during the Friday afternoon, the future king turned to see his closest friend running to him. "Hey, Lonnie," Ben greeted with a small smile once she stopped in front of him. "What's up? Do you need something?"
Lonnie—the daughter of Mulan and Shang, who wore a pink floral shirt with a pink sash, a short teal skirt, and sporting a short bob hairstyle with bangs—caught her breath first before she wondered, "Have you seen Jane?"
"No?" Ben answered with a curious tilt of his head. "Is something wrong with her?"
"No, it's her hair!" Lonnie exclaimed as they walked side-by-side down the halls. "The new girl, Mal, she spelled Jane's hair! It's so long and luscious now! Jane seems to have a little more confidence now because of it. Everyone's noticed."
"How did Fairy Godmother take the news of her daughter's new hair-do?" Ben questioned as they turned a corner.
"She thought it was pretty," Lonnie revealed before sighing softly. "But then Jane asked her to use the wand to change her looks even more. Fairy Godmother said no, of course, and then warned her to be careful since Mal can easily change her back if she wants to."
"I don't think Mal will," Ben insisted as he shrugged. "Not unless Jane does something to her."
"What about me?"
Ben stopped to raise an eyebrow at his friend. "What about you?"
"Do you think she'll do mine?" Lonnie clarified as she grabbed a lock of her short hair. "Mine has always been short and it takes forever to grow out. Besides, I'd love to have a new look for the rest of our sophomore year and a variety of hairstyles options for your Coronation that isn't a bob."
Ben chuckled at her friend's energetic behavior. "It doesn't hurt to ask her," he reassured. "But you should give her something as payment. Maybe a little bit of money? I doubt she or her friends have any Auradon currency."
"I think I will. Thank you!" Lonnie smiled at her friend before running down the hall—
Not knowing she would be the cause of an argument between a boyfriend and girlfriend.
Later in the day, Mal was laying on her stomach on her bed as she was drawing in her sketchbook while Evie sewed a new dress at her desk. While Mal was trying to find a new subject for her to draw that wasn't her mother or father, Jane recounted her conversation with her mother.
"Mom said, 'If a boy can't see the beauty within, then he's not worth it,'" Jane mimicked in a singsong tone. "Can you believe it? What world does she live in?" She angrily stomped to the other side of the room as she roughly sat at the edge of the other bed.
Mal snickered at the question. "I told you it may not work," she reminded softly. "Maybe it's for the best. Mothers usually know what is best for their daughters."
"Hey, M?" Evie called as she held up the dress she had been sewing on. "What do you think?"
Mal glanced up as she ripped the page out of her sketchbook. "It's cute. Brings out the color in your eyes," she commented as she crumpled her drawing. "Now if only I can draw something as good as you can sew, then our day would be perfect."
Evie smiled happily at her creation with before she started to sew again, hoping she can finish it soon so she can start another outfit for another day.
"I'll never have a boyfriend." Jane complained as she laid back on Evie's bed in depression.
"Boyfriends," Mal paused to toss the paper into the trash can at Evie's desk, smiling when it went in with no trouble, "are overrated."
"Mal, how would you know?" Evie leaned forward with a mischievous smile. "You've been crushing on the same guy for twelve years. You've never had one because you've been waiting on him your whole life."
Blushing as red as she possibly could, Mal couldn't necessarily deny the claim since there was a knock on the door with a girl stepping into the room. "Hey, guys!" She greeted with a smile. "I'm Lonnie."
"Oh!" Mal exclaimed as she shut her sketchbook close. "I know you. Ben and Jane talked about you a couple times. You're Ben's childhood friend, right?"
"I'm surprised he could tell you that without getting into an argument with Audrey," Lonnie joked, though she had a little tenseness in her shoulders. "Anyways, I absolutely love what you've done with Jane's hair and I was wondering if you could do mine." She brought out her silk purse. "I'll pay you fifty dollars."
"Good incentive." Evie stopped her sewing to help with the hair situation. "I need to buy material and I have no Auradon money." She stood and walked around Lonnie. "Let's see." She stopped in front of her. "I'm thinking we lose the bangs, maybe some layers . . ." Evie trailed off to look at the purple-haired girl. "What do you think, M?"
"I think . . . she needs something cool." Mal stood from her bed and flipped through her mother's spell book. Smiling reassuringly at Lonnie, Mal spoke, "Beware, forswear, replace the old with cool hair." With a few swipes of Mal's finger, Lonnie's bob transformed into long, soft brown locks.
Lonnie checked herself out in the mirror with a small frown on her lips.
"Something wrong?" Evie wondered as she strolled over to stand next to the girl. "If you don't like it, we can always cut it and try again—"
"No, no, no, no!" Lonnie disagreed as she slowly started to smile. "I love it! It's just . . ." She trailed off before she ripped her skirt up the side, much to the surprise of the other three girls. "Now I'm cool."
"Like ice." Mal flashed her a smile to show her approval.
And with that, a little friendship was born.
Jane looked between the two and ripped her skirt up the side too to fit in. She instantly gasped. "What did I just do? Mom's going to kill me!"
Some time later, the 'Core Four'—as they started to call themselves—were hanging out in Mal and Evie's room as they recounted their day away from each other.
With Jay, he had a meeting with the Tourney coach to go over the rules of the sport. By the end of it, the coach gifted Jay a jersey to welcome him as an official member of the team.
With Carlos, he had a private practice with Ben, who volunteered to help the younger boy improve his athletic skills at the previous team practice. During practice, Carlos ended up being chased by a tannish-brown dog, who turned out to be the campus mutt. Ben managed to get Carlos over his fear of dogs and allowed Carlos to be the one to take care of 'Dude', which he somehow managed to get approved with Fairy Godmother.
Meanwhile, Evie was in a dilemma. During her Chemistry class yesterday that she shared with Doug, Evie met a prince who turned out to be Chad Charming. Since her teacher singled her out to answer a question on the board, Evie used the magic mirror to get the correct answer. Her 'intelligence' caught the attention of the brainless prince. Chad waited until the next day, after Evie answered another question correctly, to ask the Isle princess to meet her somewhere.
Reluctantly, Evie met him under the bleachers as he requested, which she soon discovered was so no one else could see them. Turns out, Chad wanted her to do all of his homework and in return they would 'hang out', but who knows what that could mean. Evie took the work, but she is unsure if she should blow off the prince and continue her somewhat slow relationship with the band member.
"Oh, yeah," Evie continued nonchalantly. "Doug told me that Fairy Godmother blesses Ben with the wand at the coronation and we all get to go." She huffed in annoyance. "That means I have to design and sew four outfits for us to wear! I'm tempted to write Cruella to ask her to design Carlos's suit and your dress, Mal. That way I have more time to work on the actual dress."
"I don't think Mom will mind," Carlos commented helpfully as he continued to run his fingers down Dude's back. "Just please don't mention anything about Dude. I want to wait a couple days before I tell her anything about the dog."
Rolling her eyes playfully, Mal wondered, "Does that mean Doug asked you be his date to the coronation?"
"He did," Evie admitted with a light shrug to ignore the thump in her chest. "I was actually thinking about telling him 'yes' since he's been so sweet to me the past couple days. We've been spending quite a bit of time together since he's been helping me with my classes. Luckily, my mother is on the Isle so she can't murder me for being escorted to a royal event by the son of a dwarf."
"Your mother wouldn't do that," Jay reassured with a shrug of his own. "Now, force you to cut off your hair as punishment . . . that I can definitely see."
Tossing a pillow at her friend for his teasing attitude, Evie adverted her attention to back to Mal. "What about you?" She tilted her head curiously. "Are you gonna wait for Ben and Audrey to break up or are you going to wait for someone else to ask you out? If I were you, I wouldn't lose hope. From what you told me yesterday, Ben is definitely into you. I wouldn't be surprised if he's waiting for the day that he can be with you instead of Audrey."
Of course, the comment resulted in Mal blushing deeper than she did earlier that day, but then something happened.
Her hair started to change color. It was still purple, of course, but now it had a redder tint to the purple.
Jay busted out in laughter. "Her hair changes color now because of her emotions!" He deduced between gasps of breath. "She's so embarrassed that even her hair is turning red!"
Mal blushed even deeper, causing her hair to change even more in hue. Evie and Carlos joined in on the laughter, since now they could use their friend's hair to tease her and make her even more embarrassed than she already is.
In the middle of the laughing session, there was a knock on the door. Since she was the only sane person at the moment, Mal jumped up from her bed to open the door. In the hallway wearing a small smile just happened to be the prince himself.
Hearing the laughter in the room, Ben raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "What's going on here?"
"Remember how I told you about my you-know-who yesterday?" When the prince nodded, Mal explained with a soft sigh, "Well his hair can change from blue to red, depending on his emotion. We just found out that my purple hair changes hues depending on my emotion. They embarrassed me a couple minutes ago, so my hair turned a little red."
"That's pretty amazing," Ben complimented as he leaned against the doorway. "Now I can figure out if you like me or not."
Rolling her eyes playfully, Mal wondered, "Did you need something?"
"Just wanted to check on you and Evie," he answered with a light shrug. "I didn't see you two today and I was wondering if you needed anything."
"Not that I know of. . . wait!" Mal exclaimed as she suddenly remembered something. "Is it true we get to go your coronation?"
"Of course," Ben answered as his smile grew even more. "The whole school gets to go. I've been trying to convince Fairy Godmother to cancel class for the day instead of making some students go for a couple hours."
"Is it possible for the four of us to be close to the front row?" Mal wondered innocently. "Our parents will probably be watching the coronation from Isle of the Lost. I think it would make them proud to see us there."
"I promise I will try to get your friends as close as I can," Ben commented with a soft sigh. "But up front it's just me, my folks, and my girlfriend."
"And your girlfriend?" Mal repeated before tilting her head slightly. "Audrey's going to be up there with you? I thought you were wanting to end things with her."
"I wasn't talking about her," Ben reassured with a flirty smirk. "I was talking about you, when I finally get the chance to ask you out."
Mal couldn't help the blush that spread across her cheeks, her hair changing hues for the third time in the past twenty minutes. Ben's smile grew at the reaction. After saying his 'good-bye', Ben traveled down the hallway as Mal lightly closed the door—
Not knowing she would be caught in the middle of an argument in the next few days.