Mr. Jensen brings Zach's reports up to the palace personally two days later. Zach is in the library when he comes, so Ben and Mal decide to get the rundown first and then take the information to Zach. So they gather in Mal's office as he unloads a few comprehensive reports with a small smile.
"This is his English scoring," he says first, showing them a few bar graphs of knowledge standing based on the averages of other age groups, and Mal's heart aches to see Zach's indicated line up in a sophomore level of college. "And that's also his highest score. Meanwhile, his Science and Math..." he puts down two more graphs, and these are only slightly more reasonable. Science dips into a ninth or tenth-grade knowledge, but a scribbled note reads: "Account for youthful lack of term knowledge - 11th grade." Math reads at a solid tenth-grade mastery level. There's one last paper that groups together general history knowledge, medical information, and then apparently her son knows some German and French? He's scored at the lowest comprehensive level for the two languages.
"I would honestly be comfortable to start him in with college classes if not for one major issue," Mr. Jensen says, pulling out the last paper. He slides it forward, and Ben begins to laugh while Mal processes what she is reading. "Your son cannot write very well," Mr. Jensen finishes. "He writes at a second or third-grade level."
A scan of Zach's question response sheet reveals two shaky lines of a very direct answer. He obviously didn't get the idea of an 'essay'. His handwriting shows the courage of someone who knows what they want to say but holds the shakiness of someone whose hand isn't trained to writing very nicely or for very long amounts of time.
"He's also not quite as mature as he thinks he is," Mr. Jensen continues with a shrug. "He gets frustrated and his attention span isn't very long and he gets distracted easily. But that wouldn't be a huge deal, necessarily. We just have to get his essay writing up to scratch and he'd be fine."
"We'll talk," Ben decides, glancing at Mal. "We might hold off a while. He needs to be a kid for a little while longer and I don't want to push him towards this. If he wants to go, I have nothing against it, but it's not my goal to push him through college yet."
Mal nods along with him. She's more than okay with waiting, and now she has a good cover.
"Are you really thinking of sending him to college?" Evie asks Mal and Ben while all the VK's sit together in the palace library, talking to each other. Mal hums and combs her fingers through Zach's hair. He's sitting beside her and reading a book on unleashing creativity. It's an interesting read for him - he usually doesn't like self-help books.
"Not yet," Ben shakes his head. "He can't write well enough yet. But we're keeping an eye on him and we'll see."
Zach yawns and curls into Mal's side while he reads. In her lap, she's balancing a sketchbook at an angle so she can see the bottom of the paper around her belly. This baby is bigger than Zach was but smaller than Tyler was. Mal's hoping they're a good mediator between the two boys. They don't seem as temperamental, but she could do without the dance parties in her belly every time she's near music. The baby almost tipped her over yesterday with several sharp kicks to the right side of her stomach.
The door opens and Tyler appears in the doorway. They put him to bed a while ago, and so Ben frowns to see him. "Mom?" He whines from the door, flinching away from his dad's stern gaze, "I can't sleep. Can you come sit with me?" He rubs his eyes a little and then Mal noticed his black, weighted blanket pulled over his shoulders like a cape.
"Not now, beastie," Mal hums, adding a long, thick line to her drawing. "But you can come sit with mom as she finishes this. Then I'll come and take you to bed."
Tyler tugs his blanket into the room and comes to hop up next to her. He pulls his blanket up and Mal sets her sketchbook down to help him pull the edge up around his ears. Evie chuckles from across the room as Tyler tucks the corners of his blanket around her legs in a show of goodwill.
"Former mistress-of-evil-in-training turned pillow," she calls as she cuddles her own children to her chest.
Ben rolls his eyes at Evie's description. He loves moments like these when he can see how close his boys are to their mom. He watches Tyler put a hand to his mom's belly and frown. "The baby is kicking me," he complains. "Can you tell him to stop?"
"If only it worked like that," Mal sighs as Zach closes his book and leans his head on her belly.
"Baby," he mumbles softly, patting right beside her belly button. "Kicking isn't nice. Don't kick mom anymore."
Miraculously, the fleeting in the side of her stomach ceases. Mal raises her eyebrow at her oldest. "Oh, of course they'll listen to you," She sighs. Zach curls into her even further and closes his eyes. The other adults laugh as she rolls her eyes and then combs her fingertips up and down Zach's back until Tyler whines and presses his head into her. She keeps drawing aimless patterns on Zach's back while using her other hand to start combing through Tyler's purple locks while both boys lean against her belly like it's a pillow.
"Careful," Ben warns as Tyler closes his eyes. "They're going to go to sleep on you."
"You can help me carry one of them up," Mal replies and then yawns. She closes her eyes and hears Ben stand up. He pulls two more blankets up out of a chest and then she hears him flap them out before one that's thick and fluffy falls over Zach's frame and covers one of her hands. She pulls it out to keep rubbing his back through the blanket and then a woolen blanket falls over her chest and legs. Ben lifts Tyler's head onto the blanket. Despite what he said about not being able to sleep, he's out cold. Zach manages to move his own head, but by the time Ben leans down to kiss the crown prince's forehead, Zach is snoring softly.
Mal peeks out underneath her eyelashes to watch as Ben kisses Tyler's head, tilting his son's chin up so he doesn't start drooling on her, and then kisses her cheek before returning to his seat on the couch with Evie and Doug and Carlos and Jane and Jay. Mal keeps her eyes closed, humming to both of her children and quietly petting them.
"Back when we were teens, I never thought she'd be a good mom," Carlos hums.
"Oh, she's fantastic," Ben replies. "Did I tell you about her Christmas fiasco? She surprised them with origami decorations on their presents. They were thrilled."
"I'm glad she's good at what she does," Evie sighs and Mal can hear her brow in closer to Doug. "It gives me hope that I can do something right."
"You do plenty good," Doug sighs. "You just don't let yourself see it."
"Mal's the same way," Ben says with a groan. "I kinda left this out, but the Christmas present thing? When I told her that it wouldn't matter in the end, she said that if the kids turn out as evil as Maleficent then at least she could say she tried to wrap their presents nicely at Christmas."
"I'm still awake, Ben," Mal made a face in his general direction. "I can hear you."
"Evie had a breakdown when someone gave Lexi makeup. It was a kid's set, but she started crying about how she was turning into her mother."
"Mal always has a tough time when the boys ask her about the Isle of the Lost."
"Wait," Jane interrupts with a tiny gasp. "Are they already asking about the Isle?"
Mal groans and covers both Tyler's and Zach's ears. She's positive they're both fast asleep, but it makes her feel better. "Zach is," she sighs. "Tyler doesn't care yet. He'll ask questions if Zach brings something up, but he doesn't care yet."
"Zach told Hades and Tyler that Maleficent used to hit her," Ben sighs, and Mal opens an eye to watch him pinch the bridge of his nose. "And then we were trying to explain it to him, and he asked if she'd been abused. I didn't even know he knew what that meant."
"He looked me up on his phone," Mal calls, closing her eyes again. "I was looking through his history and he was searching through my old interviews. But he was filtered out by our family system, so he didn't end up reading anything."
"That's scary, " Evie whispers. "I thought I had a few more years."
"I don't even have the years I thought I'd have with Zach!" Mal complains. "He's like a forty-year-old stuck in a seven-year-old's body!"
"You probably still have time," Ben consoles Evie. "But Zach? He's trying to study AP Physics and I'm completely lost."
"That's funny, considering he's your son," Jay laughs and Mal opens her eyes to frown at her old friend as he leans over to shove Ben's arm. "No way those genius genes came from Mal."
Ouch. Mal fixes the blankets around her and the boys as she glares at the carpet. She can't exactly fault Jay even as his words cut deep and sting because she thinks the same thing at least twice with every question Zach has.
"That is not true," Ben hisses, smacking Jay's hand off his arm. Mal lets her gaze flick upwards but doesn't say anything as she tucks Zach's blanket around him tighter. "Just because she didn't have a lot of school time doesn't mean she's not a fast learner. Zach's reading might come from me, but his memory is hers."
"Ben," Mal shakes her head. "He's right. I've accepted it." Sort of.
"No, he's not right," Ben snaps back, glaring at her now. "Don't you dare think that."
His voice doesn't exactly leave a lot of room for argument, but Mal still clears her throat and acts as if this entire conversation isn't hurting her. It's almost as if they're discussing whether or not she's Zach's mother after everything she's gone through with him and how hard she's tried and all the love she has for him in her heart. "Ben, he was four when he first realized that you know-"
"Don't finish that sentence," Ben shakes his head at her.
"You were the one defining things for me at-"
"Mal, go to sleep."
She sighs, opens her eyes long enough to roll them and then lets herself sink back into the couch, cuddling both of her beautiful little boys to her chest. She hears the conversation start back up - Ben starts regaling everyone with tales of the boys' winter recitals. Tyler did a hip-hop dance with his department and Zach had a solo riff in his guitar lessons. He's been talking to them about learning to play the piano lately. She lets the background noise fade into a low buzzing and then slowly feels herself drift off.
She feels herself wake back up hours later when Ben picks Zach up off of Mal and carefully wraps the blankets around him before carrying off. She slowly gets to her feet, yawning, and then gathers Tyler up in much the same way.
When she puts him into his messed bed, avoiding his toys on the floor, she takes the time to kiss his head and tuck the covers around his body. Purple hair sweeps up at odd angles on his pillow, and she can see the lightning-shaped buzz cut he asked for in the side of his hair. Her baby boy. The one that looks and acts like her. Her three boys are her whole life, and she wouldn't have it any other way.
Tyler bursts into a meeting that she and Ben are sitting in on. His shirt has white marks up and down it and more white streaks that look like they're from a chalk marker cover him. "Mom! Dad!" he shouts upon entering and dashes up to the head of the table as everyone jumps and spins around. "Look at me!"
"Why do you have white all over you?' Ben asks as he turns in his seat in obvious alarm.
"Did you get into Mom's paint markers?" Mal demands, seizing his arm and rubbing at the white marks on his arm. "You did! Why were you in my studio?"
"Look, mom!" Tyler proclaims, showing them his arms and pointing to sparse marks up and down his skin. "Now I have battle marks like yours!"
Silence overtakes the room as Tyler keeps an index finger on a smudged line on the inside of his elbow, waiting for praise. A few court members let out breaths as they connect the dots and realize what "battle marks" Tyler means.
Ben seizes his son's arm and uses his leg to push his chair out. Mal's face is burning as the other royals exchange cautious glances between her and Tyler. "Cover me," Ben orders, and marches Tyler to the door quickly. It's open because Tyler burst in and didn't close it. He pushes him out into the hall and Mal can hear his stone-hard voice start to lecture their younger son before Ben closes the door behind them and then the meeting can proceed as normal.
Except now no one will meet her eyes and the marks on her back are burning even though they're almost twenty years old.