Auradon

(Day 1: Sunday Morning)

When the boys find their dorm Jay grins, "Wow. Auradon really does have it made."

Carlos throws his black backpack onto the left bed and sits down at the round table of ugly orange wood. "Yeah. It's wonderful," he grumbles as he places his chin in his hands.

"I would have thought you'd be happy to get away from your mother," Jay comments as he abandons his red suitcase and sits down across from him.

"That's why I'm worried," Carlos anxiously responds. "She was so angry with me before I left, because I didn't get a chance to do my chores. And now, she has to do them indefinitely."

"But you don't need to worry." Jay reasons, "She's stuck on the Isle. She can't hurt you while we're here."

Carlos reaches for the burn at the back of his neck, "But that's just temporary, isn't it? I mean, the plan is to bring them here." Jay stays quiet, as if he doesn't know what to say in response to that very real issue, leaving Carlos to trace his fingers over the burn. There's the hole, which still stings when he touches it, and then there's the skin next to it that feels a little like the uneven cooling of candle wax.

Jay's eyes narrow, "Did she hurt you?"

Carlos stares down at the reflective table, "It's not that bad." but he covers the mark with the whole of his hand as he does so.

Jay stands, "I'll be the judge of that." and he makes his way over behind Carlos. "Move your hand." Carlos doesn't budge, so Jay forces it off himself. "God, Carlos."

"It's not as bad as it looks. It—" Carlos licks his lips before biting at them, "It doesn't really hurt that much."

"How can it not hurt?" Jay objects. "It wasn't on you last night. This must have only happened a couple hours ago. It has to hurt."

"Yeah? And how would you know?"

"You forget," Jay replies, "that I've been hurt too."

Carlos scoffs, "Your father doesn't smoke. He just throws things. This is different. How it feels is completely different, and I'm telling you that I don't feel any pain right now."

"Oh. Is that so?"

"Yeah," Carlos confidently answers. "It just doesn't hurt."

"Then you won't mind if I do this," Jay responds, before presses his thumb hard on the hole of his friend's neck. Immediately, Carlos lifts his head up to take in a huge breath, and then he unsteadily releases it. "I knew it. This thing looks like a crater. There's no way you couldn't have not been in pain."

"A crater?" Carlos questions. "You're exaggerating."

Jay pulls the chair out, "Come on. Stand up."

"Why?" Carlos complains.

Jay forces him to stand and grabs ahold of his hand, "You have to see it." before he pulls Carlos past the blue beds and into the bathroom. "Take a look at it for yourself, and then tell me it's still not that bad."

Carlos twists his head in different directions, but he's still unable to see it. "It's on the back of my neck, stupid. Putting me in front of a mirror isn't going to change that."

Jay lets out an annoyed breath, "How do girls do this?" as he messes with the large cabinet mirrors. "Here. Try it now. Stand here."

Carlos looks into the right side mirror and sees his neck reflected into the left. Jay was right; it does look pretty bad, worse than anything he's ever had before, and he's surprised the pain isn't any worse than it had been. But no matter how it appears, if it's not hurting me that much, then it must not be that bad. Right? "It's still not that bad," Carlos calmly comments.

"How can you say that?" Jay yells, and Carlos looks down and away from both him and the mirrors. "Don't you see what she did to you? She did this. She's such a horrible person."

"No, she isn't," Carlos shouts back in defense. "She's my mother, and I—" He sadly laughs at the realization and softly continues, "I love her."

Jay's expression falters, "Carlos. I—"

Carlos shakes his head, "No." and pushes past Jay. "Just forget it… Leave me be."

"Evie. What are you doing?"

She continues the exercise, "Did you know that there are complete channels dedicated to fitness and health?"

Mal scrunches her eyebrows, "Like you even need that."

"But I totally do," Evie struggles to say, as she appears to be out of breath. "Did you know that rock candy is a hundred and ten calories? I thought it would only be like five." She stops what she's doing to catch her breath, "I will never underestimate any kind of food again."

"You only had one piece."

"And yet I've seemed to have gained a pound." Evie's exhaustion turns into a grin, "I wonder if I lost anything yet."

Mal watches in disbelief as her best friend skips off to the bathroom, "Wait a minute. Are you telling me that you weighed yourself right when you got here? We haven't even unpacked anything yet."

"Why would we?" Evie laughs. "Aren't you the one that said we won't be here long?"

Mal hears a groan, "You also weighed yourself this morning after using the toilet when you were completely dehydrated. I don't know if you know this, but like I've said before, when you drink water you have the weight of that water running through your system."

Evie comes back out, "Perhaps, but I have zero water retention. My mother always tells me to drink enough water, because you can only lose water when you drink water."

"Yeah," Mal complains. "She also tells you that if you gain weight now, then you won't be able to lose it when you're older."

Evie laughs, "Have you seen her? I like to think she's just looking out for me, making sure I don't make the same mistakes she did." Her smile fades, "Beauty may be painful, but nothing will ever taste as good as skinny feels."

"And you honestly believe that?" Mal questions.

"Why wouldn't I, when it's so very true?"

"No." Mal shakes her head and steps forward, "This is your mother talking. These are her words. You're just playing them on a loop like some kind of…" She snaps her fingers until she remembers, "Record. Her words are just playing in your mind like some kind of record, aren't they? That's why it doesn't even matter we're miles away from them. You somehow still think your mom will know what you've done."

"What I eat in private, I wear in public," Evie retorts. "She would know, especially if we don't epically fail at completing this evil scheme of theirs." Mal doesn't speak, shocked into silence by how realistic her friend's fears actually are. The things she says may not make much sense to her, but in the end she's right. "My mother would know. And as good as things seem here, we're not on vacation and I can't just pretend we are."

Mal sadly nods, "Right. I get it. Just because your mother isn't here right now, that doesn't mean the things you're doing aren't happening. She touches her thigh, where the cuts would show themselves to be later, as she tries to remember anything horrible she may have done here so far. No. Nothing. Or well, nothing other than a little disdain here and a snide comment there. "Just promise me you'll be safe, to stop if it gets too bad."

Evie offers a sad expression, "Mal. You know I can't do that."

Mal slightly nods, knowing that if things got too bad with her that she probably wouldn't stop either, "Right. What was I thinking? We're villain kids. We do it big or we don't do it at all." She just kind of had hoped that Evie would make the promise anyway, because if there was hope for Evie, then that meant there was hope for her.

"I'm sorry. I just—"

"No," Mal interrupts. "I get it. You can't stop." She looks down for a mere second, "You're not going to stop. I get it."

"You do?" Evie sincerely asks.

Mal's mouth is open for a moment, before she finally speaks, "I think you know I do."

Evie nods and blinks fast, probably in an attempt to prevent tears, "Yes. I do know."

- So, I had the hardest time editing the thumbnail, because when I left the editor it didn't save; however, I think I finally got it to work and if so it should be available for everyone to see. Also, if anyone wants to see what music/videos I've been listening to and watching as I've been writing this, then you can find the Descendants Fanfic playlist on the youtube channel AshLand Writer. I hope you've been enjoying this.