Chapter 20: Tradition

It was the night of the dance and Mal stood with Freddie in her and Evie's room, impatiently waiting for Evie to come out of the bathroom. She had run in and out five times now painstakingly checking every aspect of her make-up and hair, making sure everything is perfect. She, Freddie and Mal were all already wearing their dance attire.

Evie had made Mal a beautiful dress out of a dark green fabric, laced with purple stitching and purple patterned dragon on her side. She liked that the dress was cut up very high on the side, so she could walk more easily on the purple heals Evie had supplied her with as well. She wore her purple hair straight and it cascaded down her back, almost reaching her midriff.

Freddie, who had never been to an official dance before, wore a simple maroon dress and had her long, dark hair straightened and put in a large ponytail.

Mal gave an exasperated sigh when Evie finally came out of the bathroom. She wore a gown very similar to the one she had worn to cotillion, only with more golden stitching and her long, blue hair was in a large braid.

"I believe everything is perfect." Evie said as she checked herself in the mirror yet again.

"That's what I have been telling you for the past half hour. Come on! We're actually gonna be late." Mal said as she grabbed Evie by the shoulders.

Freddie breathed in and out, seemingly trying to calm herself. "I believe I'm panicking." She said and both Mal and Evie couldn't contain their laughter.

"It's not like we're getting graded." Evie said with a chuckle.

"Oh no, it's much worse, with press and royalty everywhere." Mal said teasing.

"Please shut up and help me calm my nerves." Freddie said. "Fuck it, let's just go."

They all grabbed their clutches, checked their hair and make-up one last time, and headed down to the lobby.

There, they saw a large collection of people dressed in pretty much every imaginable color. Many were pushing themselves through the crowd looking for their date, while others mainly complimented each other's outfit or hair.

Mal saw Chad Charming, once again with large feathered cape, walk out the door with Audrey, wearing an elegant pink gown, at his side.

At the bottom of the stairs stood Ben, Doug and Archer. They all looked up when the three of them came down the stairs, and she saw identical smiles appear on each of their faces.

Ben was wearing a quite simple blue suit, complete with golden stitching and tassel. He looked incredibly handsome and he looked at Mal as if he couldn't believe his eyes.

Doug was wearing a simple brown suit with black tie. For the occasion he had greased up his hair, which he now wore to the side, and put on his so-called 'party glasses'. He looked at Evie with open mouth.

Archer looked absolutely dreamy. His hair was as wild, yet perfectly styled as ever. He wore a suit which Evie had decorated to resemble armor and wore a small cape with his family's crest surrounded by the blue and yellow blocks of Auradon. He smiled broadly at Freddie as she came down the stairs.

When they neared the bottom, all three men respectfully bowed down for them, and the girls responded with a curtsy.

"Evie, you have really outdone yourself." Ben said as he approached Mal and grabbed her by her hands.

"She sure has." Said Archer as he softly grabbed Freddie's hand and placed a kiss on it. "You all look amazing."

"Thank you." Mal and the other girls replied.

"Nice work on the suit, Evie." Freddie said as she admired the decorations made to resemble armor.

"I did the same for all the righteous sons, it will look amazing for the group picture." She enthusiastically said.

"You are kinda late though." Ben said as he checked his watch. "The limo is waiting, and the rest is already outside."

And so, the six of them headed outside, where a number of limousines and similar vehicles waited to escort them all to the dance, which would be held in Auradon city. Mal smiled as she saw the rest of her friends, all in dance attire, waiting in front of the royal limo.

Lancelot, Royce, Aden and Alex indeed had similar suits to Archer's, only they had their other respective crests on their capes. Lancelot wore a simple brown, velvet cloak instead of a crested cape.

Jay and Carlos both wore suits similar to those of cotillion, with Jay's being a brownish color and Carlos' having a mix of red, white and black.

Lonnie wore a pink dress, decorated with dragons and other eastern symbols. Her hair was in a long ponytail with golden thread running through it. Jane wore a blue dress and had her hair in a top bun. Jordan wore a golden dress and had her hair curled for the occasion. Arabella wore a salmon colored dress and had let her hair loose. Ruby wore a pink dress and she wore her extremely long, blonde locks in a long braid which still almost reached her knees.

After everyone had complimented each other on their looks, they all got into the limo to head for the dance.

The ride was about fifteen minutes of some of the most fun Mal had ever had. Archer and his troop made for an excellent addition to their group and she felt as if she had been constantly laughing since she had left the school.

When they arrived at the location, they were immediately overwhelmed by camera flashes of the many paparazzi that had gathered for the event. Mal saw numerous students already standing on the runway, their pictures being taken, and questions being asked by eager reporters.

When Ben and Mal exited the limousine first, they immediately became the center of attention of the cameramen. This had become a common occurrence for Mal since Ben was the king of Auradon after all. Ben always tried his best to shield Mal from the more intense paparazzi, but she had learned to accept them on events like these. For once, they did not ask Ben about political affairs or him dating a villain kid, now the questions all revolved around what they were wearing and the event. Mal tried to keep up a smile as she was blinded by the hundreds of flashes and she saw Ben do the same. Ben had already told her they did not need to answer any questions and Mal was grateful for that. So, they only had to pose for some pictures for a little while before they entered the building.

As she and Ben crossed the threshold, Mal suddenly heard the paparazzi become even louder than they were with them. She looked back and saw Archer and Freddie being almost overwhelmed by the large number of cameras with hundreds of questions being yelled at them.

"ARCHER! ARCHER! ARE YOU GUYS DATING?"

"DO YOU MIND HER BEING A VILLAIN KID?"

"HAVE YOUR PARENTS REACTED ON YOUR CHOICE OF COMPANION?"

Mal felt incredibly bad for Freddie, who had never had to live through a storm of Auradon paparazzi. She saw how Archer tried to shield her from the blinding flashes by putting an arm around her and giving the cameramen a deadly glare. Mal could have sworn she saw his eyes burn a bright blue for a second, before Archer quickly escorted Freddie into the building, followed by Lancelot.

Once they were out of view of the paparazzi, Archer burst.

"Those rotten, greedy, no-good sons of bitches!" he brought out through clenched teeth.

"Easy Archer. It's all over now." Ben said as he placed a hand on his shoulder.

Archer turned to him. "Did you see what they did? They went all in on Freddie just for being a villain kid! They're nothing but snakes! Vicious, greedy snakes!"

"I'm okay." Freddie said timidly. "Thank you for getting me out of there."

Archer's angry frown immediately died away and he smiled reassuringly at Freddie. "It's okay." He said as he hugged her. "Ben, as my friend, can you please make sure that they're not there when we leave?"

"Of course." Ben said solemnly. "They behaved appallingly, and I shall write a complaint to their employers, it's about time we do something about the gossip outlets at the school."

"Thanks, really." Archer said as he patted Ben on the back.

Their group was then joined by the rest of the people from the limo. Evie immediately ran to Freddie and hugged her.

"Oh my god, I saw what those reporters did. That was horrible! Are you okay?" she said with sad eyes.

"I'm fine, thanks to Archer for getting me out of there." She replied.

"They've gotten far more hands-on than I remember." Royce said scratching his chin.

"Ben will handle them for future events." Lancelot said. "I suggest we pay them no further mind, they do not deserve our attention."

"Well said." Yelled Carlos, "Well, what are we waiting for? The party won't start until we get there!"

The rest of the group cheered, and they entered the ballroom.

It had been decorated very similarly to cotillion, except this dance did not take place on a yacht and it was no official royal event. The walls had been decorated with banners from different kingdoms, including those represented in their group, lights of all colors flickered along the room, creating a buzzing, exciting effect, and the floor at the bottom of the stairs was already packed with dancing students. There was a small podium at the far end of the room where a DJ was spinning records and at the right side stood a photographer taking shots of the students.

"You went more all-out then I'd expected." Mal said to Ben as she smiled.

"You know I love dances." He grinned as he grabbed her hand and walked down the stairs along with the group.

Many people at the bottom of the stairs cheered and clapped as they entered the dance floor, where they quickly lost themselves in the party.

At first, their group largely stayed together as they watched Carlos, Jay and Aden have a dance-off under loud applause. Ben then whispered to Mal that he had to make an announcement and kissed her on the cheek before heading to the podium.

"Alright people, listen up. Can I have your attention please?" Ben asked politely as ever.

The music was stopped, and everyone turned to Ben. "I wanna thank you all for being here, on my first personally hosted dance and the anniversary of my coronation." He said into the mic and the entire room applauded.

"Thank you!" he said as he raised his arm. "I want to quickly take a moment to mention the official royalty contest of the dance. As you all know, in the past couple of days, you have been able to vote for the official dance king and queen on the Auradon prep social media and I wanted to quickly remind you of our final remaining candidates. As always, ladies first."

"The nominees for official dance queen are; Audrey, Evie, Jordan, Lonnie and Mal." He said, and he lovingly looked in Mal's direction as the room erupted in loud applause. Mal had almost forgotten about the official dance queen election, naturally she had approved to have her name signed up for the contest and had herself voted for Evie, but she would lie if she had believed she would make it to the final five contestants. Evie, Jordan and Lonnie all smiled at her and pulled her into their hesitant group hug.

Ben smiled when he saw this and quickly continued his speech. "As for the guys, the nominees for official dance king are; Chad, Jay, Aden, Archer and myself." He said with a slight chuckle at the end, which was followed by loud applause.

"The winners will be announced in a minute when all the final nominees have joined me on stage." Ben said.

"What!?" Mal exclaimed. Ben had said nothing about this, she absolutely did not feel like having to stand on a podium in front of the entire school. She did not have time to ponder however, as she felt Evie and Lonnie grab her by the arms and drag her along to the stage. There, they were met by a lot of claps and cheers from the crowd. Mal grimaced as she saw Ben's broad smile.

"You will pay for this." She said under her breath as Ben went to stand next to her.

"Just smile and wave for the people sweetie." Ben said grinning broadly. Mal could only afford a small smile that looked like she was hiding a toothache.

Audrey, Evie, Jordan and Lonnie had all joined her on her right, while Ben, Archer, Aden, Jay and Chad stood to her left. She could not suppress a smile as she saw how Archer, Aden and Jay all made extremely polite gestures to one another and put on their most atrocious prince impressions, which all pretty much were impersonations of Chad, who did not appreciate the humor.

"Oh, you most definitely deserve to win old sport. That tie is absolutely dashing." Archer said in his best upper-class voice to Jay.

"Nonsense good fellow, your accessories on the other hand look terrifically superb." Jay replied.

"Gentlemen please, this is a formal occasion." Aden intervened. "Behave to your social standards." He said with an imaginary pipe in his mouth.

"A formal occasion you say?" Archer replied as he adjusted an imaginary monocle. "Why gosh darn it, you are correct. We better act decently then, before-."

"Er-hem." He was cut off by Ben, who gave him a piercing look before nodding towards the audience who had been following the entire conversation with suppressed laughter.

"Oh." Archer comically replied as he turned to Ben and Jane, who had come up onto the podium to announce the winners. "Excuse me, continue." He said, and the entire room started laughing again.

Jane took over the microphone from Ben and started speaking. "First, the official dance queen." She said, and she fidgeted with one of the envelopes she was holding just long enough for it to become comical. "And the winner is…" she said when she finally managed to open it. "Mal!"

Mal was shocked as a thunderous applause suddenly erupted from the dancefloor and the other girls on the stage immediately went to hug her. Mal was still perplexed when she felt Ben grab her hand and drag her to the front of the stage.

"How is this even…" was as far as she got before Ben pressed his lips onto hers for a brief moment.

"Just enjoy it for a second." He said with a smile as Jane suddenly put a small, but beautiful tiara in her head.

Mal was still standing there with open mouth when Jane came up next to her and started opening the next envelope.

"And the winner for official dance king is…" she said with metaphorical drumrolls. "Archer!"

Mal was nearly deafened by the roaring applause that went off from the crowd. She looked behind her and saw Archer's astonishment quickly make place for subtle humility. He came up beside Mal and made a small bow the audience as he mouthed a 'thank you', he clearly knew how to manage this sort of fame much better than Mal.

Ben then appeared next to Archer and placed a comically small and plastic crown on Archer's head, complete with an elastic around his head.

Mal laughed and as Ben did this, she could hear Archer mumble to him. "I hate you. I hate you. This is a dick move, I will pay you back. I hate you."

Ben gave him a smug smile in return and raised his hand for the crowd to applaud again.

"And now, for the official king and queen to have their first dance." Jane said into the mic.

This freaked Mal out even more, and she looked over at Ben for support. Ben quickly walked to her and whispered in her ear. "It's just one dance, the second it's over I'll come and get you."

Mal frowned at him but complied nonetheless.

Archer went up to her, bowed, which was absolutely hilarious with that small, plastic crown on his head, and presented his arm, which she gracefully accepted. "Alright, where can I not touch her?" he asked Ben.

"Anywhere you wouldn't want me touching you." Ben replied seriously and Mal laughed.

Archer gracefully led Mal to an empty space at the center of the dance floor. When the music started, he bowed for her and she curtsied for him. He then grabbed her right hand and placed his right hand around her waist, while she grabbed his shoulder.

He gave her a broad smile before they started waltzing over the dance floor. "He's a really good dancer." Mal thought to herself, although he probably viewed a dance similarly to fighting strategies. When she looked into his incredibly blue eyes again, he pulled a funny face to make her laugh.

The dance barely took three minutes and soon the music stopped and under loud applause, they separated and bowed to each other again.

Ben immediately went up to Mal when the next song started, and they began to dance, while Archer had pulled Freddie out of the crowd and started spinning her around to. Other couples soon joined them and soon the entire dance floor was filled with students again.

This went on for the next hour, after which almost all members of the group joined on a table at the side to rest for a bit.

Mal waved at herself to cool down a bit as she was joined by Evie, Freddie and Jane. Ben, Archer, Lancelot, Carlos and Doug were going to get drinks for them. Jay and Lonnie were still on the dancefloor, having a contest to see who would be able to keep dancing the longest. Alex and Jordan drove everyone out of their way as Alex had the habit of spinning his dance partner around with much force. Aden and Royce had both long disappeared into some dark corner along with their partners.

"This is quite intense." Freddie said as she leaned back in her seat.

"Definitely." Jane replied as she to waved at herself.

Evie, meanwhile, was already busy reapplying her make-up. "Come on Evie, give it a rest." Mal said as she looked over at her friend.

"There is never an excuse for not looking perfect." She replied as she hastily wiped the sweat off her forehead.

Mal intervened when Freddie was about to comment. "Don't even bother, there's just something off in that head of hers. Probably because of the blue paint."

The other girls laughed as the boys rejoined them at the table. "That's my girlfriend you're talking about." Doug said as he plopped down next to Evie.

"Then you should know more than anyone else what I'm talking about." Mal said and the others laughed again.

The boys had brought punch for every one of them and a large bottle of cider to go with it.

"How about a game as we try to get each other drunk?" Archer suggested with a smile.

The others accepted, and Freddie conjured up some playing cards from her clutch.

"You always carry those around?" Carlos asked with a smile.

"Not always, me and Archer were planning on tossing them at people's heads if we would take a break from dancing." She said with a laugh and the rest of the group roared with laughter and Archer put an arm around Freddie. Mal looked at this with a suspicious glance, but Archer evaded her stare.

They then played a few rounds of a well-known card game, where there was one dealer who would give a player two chances to guess the number of the card in the dealer's hand. If the player guessed correctly, the dealer had to drink, but if the player guessed incorrectly, the player had to drink. After three wrong turns, the dealer position would shift to the person to the dealer.

This went on for about two hours, with a lot of laughing and drinking. At the end of this period they were all sufficiently drunk. Mal was able to act responsible for just a moment and told everyone they would probably have to stop drinking, and everyone agreed.

The dance floor was now mostly deserted, with most people also having found a place at a table and just a few couples were still slow-dancing. One of these couples was Jay and Lonnie, who had called their contest a tie and now slowly moved along the dance floor.

Everyone was feeling quite drowsy, with the combination of the dancing and the alcohol bringing everyone to a satisfied, laid-back state.

All couples were now laying in each other's arms, with Doug and Evie softly kissing each other while having a whispering conversation. Jane simply had her head on Carlos' shoulder, and spoke to him softly. Mal sat on Ben's lap, with her head in the crook of his neck as he played with her hair and occasionally placed a kiss on the top of her head.

Mal saw that Archer refrained from any intimate physical contact with Freddie, and instead kept a conversation going with Lancelot, but did involve Freddie as not to make her feel left out.

"It's two A.M. already." Ben said as he softly pushed Mal off his lap, "I have to call an end to the dance."

"You do what you have to do." Mal said sleepily as she laid her head down on the table.

Ben smiled at her made his way to the stage a bit wobbly. "Okay, h-hey guys. Can I get your attention." Ben said slurring a little. "It's late, so the dance is now at an end. I wanna thank you all for coming and I'll see you again at school."

There was a soft applause after Ben finished his speech and all the students made their way to the exit.

"Mal, come on. Stand up." Ben said to her after he had thanked the DJ and headed back to their table.

"I don't wanna." Mal whined as she buried her head in her arms. "You need to carry me." She said with a sly pout and her big, green puppy eyes.

Ben grinned at this and quickly went in for a kiss, before grabbing Mal around the waist and her legs and started carrying her bridal style.

"Ooh, romantic." Mal giggled in her drunken state, and she put her arms around Ben's neck as he headed to the exit with her in his arms.

"I am a sucker for love." Ben said as he placed another kiss on the top of her head.

The group headed back to the limousine, though they were with considerably less than when they arrived. Aden, Arabella, Royce, Ruby, Alex and Jordan had all already left.

Not much was said during the ride back. Everyone was sleepy and was just looking forward to getting to bed. Carlos even fell asleep in the few minutes they were in the car, and he paid for it when Jay, Archer and Ben all put twizzlers into his mouth one by one, until he suddenly woke up with a mouth full of candy.

When they arrived at Auradon prep, Jay and Carlos said goodbye to their partners in the lobby before heading back to their room. Archer would first escort Freddie back to her room before returning to his own. Ben and Doug walked along with Mal and Evie until they reached their room.

Ben and Mal had a lengthy goodbye in front of their door. Every time Ben tried to dutifully end their farewell, Mal pulled him back in for another kiss. Evie and Doug appeared to have a similar problem.

Evie then suddenly pulled Mal away from Ben and whispered in her ear. "I'm gonna crash with Doug tonight, you guys have fun." She said before she and Doug scurried off.

Ben and Mal watched as the other couple disappeared around the corner. They then looked into each other's eyes. "Room's empty, wanna stay over?" Mal asked seductively.

"Do you even have to ask?" Ben said as he pulled Mal in for yet another kiss.

Mal opened the door and the two vanished into the room.

There was a knock at the door.

Mal immediately shot up straight and felt her head pounding straight away. "That damned alcohol." She thought to herself. She looked next to her and couldn't suppress a smile when she saw Ben stretched out on the other side of her bed with a gaping mouth, still fast asleep. Mal quickly placed a kiss on Ben's cheek and then stood up to put on a robe before answering the door.

In the doorway stood Archer, fully dressed in sports attire, soaking in sweat and looking quite panicked.

"Hey Archer." Mal said with a yawn. "You're early."

"Actually, it's almost noon." Archer quickly said. "But, I have to talk to you Mal, it's quite urgent." He said.

"What's up?" she replied.

"It's Freddie, I think I might have fucked things up." Archer said as he put his hands in his hair.