Hello my dear readers, This chapter deals with some more mature themes. As always I 'd love to hear what you think, so please leave a review or PM me.
Ideas and suggestions for future chapters are always welcome

Trigger warning - sexual assault

Mal tossed and turned in her sleep, green eyes staring down into her soul. That's all she could see. And then water, lots of water all around, she knew taking a breath would cause her to suck in the water so she tried to hold her breath but she could only go so long. The girl gasped and air filled her lungs and she woke up drenched in sweat. What time was it? 3am? She looked over at Evie sleeping in the other bed. How could she sleep like that, didn't she ever have bad dreams?

Mal knew she'd never get back to sleep now so she pulled on some black jeans and a purple sweatshirt and decided to go for a walk. It was a strange concept to Mal, to walk around in the middle of the night and not have to worry about someone trying to do something. Not only that but in Auradon everyone was sound asleep. Easy targets she thought. On the isle the early morning hours were the most dangerous, that's when most of the really bad stuff happened.

The hallways were dark and quiet and seemed to go on forever. Mal didn't really think about where she was walking, she just started to walk and found herself by the art studio. She tried the handle and to her surprise it was unlocked so she headed in and turned on the light. Walt, the art teacher, who refused to tell students his last name because he hated the formality of it, had shown her around, but there was so much she was completely overwhelmed. She ran her fingers along the various shelves of paints, saw the different size canvasses, looked at some of the unfinished student projects stored around the room. There were even pottery wheels and a kiln. Mal pulled out some pastels and began to draw, she loved the soft feel of the little square sticks of color and how effortlessly they blended together. She became so absorbed in her drawing that she didn't even realize that the sun was coming up or that the door had opened.

"You shouldn't be in here." Said a deep voice and Mal yelped and jumped off of her stool. She looked up to see a young man standing in the doorway. He had long brown hair and sharp features, and he looked like he could lift an ox.
"Who are you?" she questioned as she quickly put the pastels back in the box and put it away.
"That isn't your business." He said coolly. There was a look in his eye that made Mal feel uncomfortable, she'd seen that look before. Where had she seen that look? He took a few steps into the room and the door shut behind him automatically.

Mal felt a knot of panic in her gut. This didn't feel right, she scanned the area for an exit but they only door was the one behind him, and all the windows only opened at the top. That has got to be a fire code violation. She thought, and then chided herself for thinking about fire codes.
"You're really pretty. Did you know that?" He was closer and a chill went down Mals spine. She tried to move with his steps so that she could keep the table between them. "Oh come now don't be rude, I gave you a complement." The girl hesitated for a second, not sure how to respond, but it was enough, he grabbed her wrist.
"Let go of me." She screamed and tried to break free but he was so much bigger that it was impossible.

He pulled her closer and with his free hand touched her hair, Mal wanted to throw up, she had to get out of there NOW. He pulled her in even closer and ran his fingers down her face and neck. Mal felt frozen THINK, DAMN IT she screamed to herself. She was close enough now to smell his nasty breath, it was now or never. Mal raised her knee into him and his grip on her wrist instantly loosened as he slumped forward, she elbowed him in the face, and ran. Mal didn't slow down as she plowed over two other students, or when her nose smelled the delicious foods coming from the kitchen. She only stopped when she burst into her dorm room, slammed the door shut, and collapsed to the floor crying.

"Mal?" Evie said as she came out of the bathroom "MAL! What happened, what is it?"

Mal could only get out a few words here and there between sobs but it was enough for Evie to piece it together. Evie put her arms around her friend and held her as she cried. "Evie.."
"yeah Mal?"
"I thought thinks like that didn't happen here. Auradon isn't supposed to be like the Isle."

Evie didn't respond for a moment, "That's what I thought too. Mal, I think we need to let Fairy Godmother know." Mal shook her head no, she didn't want to tell anyone. "Mal we need to, they need to make sure they can find this guy, and they can't do that if they're not aware."

Mal shook her head, she didn't want to talk to anyone about it, she just wanted to curl up in bed and not move. Her skin still crawled with the remanence of his touch and she shuttered involuntarily. She didn't want to have to explain to fairy godmother why she was in the art studio at 3am either. Especially with how strict she was with curfew.

Evie sighed as Mal climbed back into bed, at least it was Saturday, and if Mal wanted to stay in bed she could.

Jay knocked on Lonnies door, he smiled when she opened the door, "Hey, wanna go work out with me."
Lonnie gave him a look as if she was confused by the invitation, but she wouldn't mind someone to work out with so she nodded and told Jay to give her a few minutes to change. They went outside to the track and started to warm up.

"Tourney try outs are this afternoon." Jay mentioned casually.

"I know." Lonnie said, she seemed a little sad at being reminded about the fact that try outs were today.

"You should try out, you're really good."

"Jay, they don't let girls play on the school team."

"How would they know if you pull your hair up and have helmet on… You could even wear one of my shirts, or one from Carlos, so they don't recognize its you." He said excitedly. "Come on, some rules are just dumb and need to be broken."

Lonnie looked at him, "why do you care if I try out or not?"

Jay shrugged, "If you don't want to its one thing, but being told you can't just cause you have different parts," she smacked his arm at that "well that's just dumb."

She nodded "Yeah, ok, lets do it. " They ran back to the dorms to find an extra shirt that would fit.

Jay opened the door to the room he and Carlos shared, the younger boy was playing a video game. "Tourney try outs are today."

"So?" Carlos replied
"So… are you going to try out?" Jay asked impatiently.
Carlos laughed "You want me to get killed? No way, that stuff is all you." Carlos noticed Lonnie standing in the doorway "Whos that?"
Jay smiled, "This is Lonnie, she's going to try out for the team, so um awkward question." Carlos paused the game looking between the two older teens. "Can she borrow one of your shirts?" Carlos fell over laughing, "Come on, dude, she needs a guy's shirt so they won't know who she is."

Carlos was still laughing too hard to answer, Jay shoved him aside and opened his closet to find a shirt.
"Not the red one," Carlos sputtered out between giggles "I only have the one."
Jay rolled his eyes put the shirt back and grabbed a black one and tossed it to Lonnie. Try that on he gestured to the bathroom.

A moment later Lonnie came out "It fits!" She declared "Thanks Carlos!" She ruffled the younger boy's hair.

Coach Jenkins was determined to have a winning team this year so ran the boys (and Lonnie) hard. By the end of the three hour try outs he had a pretty good idea who he wanted on his team. He looked at his list and scratched his head, he had 20 names on his list and 21 boys on the field.
"Boys lets bring it in!" he called and within a minute the whole group was in front of him. He walked through them looking at each of them till he came to a smaller boy next to Jay. "What was your name again?" before Lonnie could answer Jay did.
"This is Ping". Lonnie rolled her eyes Ping, really? That's the only name he could come up with. But Coach Jenkins didn't seem to notice, clearly not having paid enough attention in history class back in his days at Auradon Prep. Coach nodded.

"Welcome to the team, Ping."