"Beast!"
Raising his gaze from his newspaper, Coach Adams sighed in frustration as he folded it up and tossed it aside on his desk. "What do you want, Paxson?" he demanded. "I'm not in the mood for one our arguments."
"I'm here because of your arguments," Fairy Godmother spat bitterly. "Mal Fae doesn't want to do the callbacks anymore. According to your son, it's because she overheard a fight between you and him. I want to know what that fight was about."
"It has nothing to do with you."
"It has everything to do with me," Fairy Godmother argued forcefully. "Your son has a chance strong chance of beating Chad Charming and Audrey Rose at the callbacks. That can't happen if Mal's not his partner and especially if they don't get their connection back."
"Does it look like I care?" Mr. Adams retorted snobbishly. "If Ben doesn't do the callbacks, then he'll be able to play the entire championship game. It's a win for me."
"He's only playing Tourney for you," Fairy Godmother stubbornly insisted. "I've watched him play and I've watched him sing. Tourney is nothing compared to the enjoyment I have seen on him when he's singing."
"Why do you care?" Coach Beast demanded. "You have nothing to gain from Ben performing."
Fairy Godmother scoffed at the ridiculous question. "Apparently, you've never heard your son sing," she assumed with an incredulous shake of her head. "Ben and Mal are the best duet I have ever heard in my years of being a drama teacher. They could get scholarships from prestigious art schools, much like the one your father-in-law attended—"
"Don't mention him," Beast warned with a slight growl in his tone. "Ben always gets messed up in the head when his grandfather is mentioned or around. The last thing I need is Ben losing his focus right before the most important game of the season."
"He already has," Fairy Godmother informed with a knowing gleam in his eyes, "because he has lost the trust of his queen."
Over the weekend, Mal and Ben grew more depressed with every passing hour, as they had thought they were dumped by the other. Their friends and family tried to cheer them up, but nothing seemed to work.
On Saturday morning practice, Jay, Gil, and some other students were on the outside Tourney field. They were trying to kill some time before practice started by seeing who could make a goal after doing a series of dizzying flips. They waved at Ben to join them, but he blatantly ignored them. Instead, he began jogging around the field to clear his mind.
Sunday afternoon at the Fae household, Mal was sitting at the balcony of her bedroom. Surrounded by various canvases and paints, she poured all of her negative emotions into her artwork, but nothing was making her feel better. As the sun was replaced by the moon, Mal was working on her twelfth painting when her father opened her bedroom door. Slowly entering the room, Hades held out the home phone toward his daughter, indicating that the call was meant for her.
Mal shook her head, not in the mood to talk to anyone.
The next day at school, Mal and Ben bumped into each other in the cafeteria. Ben visibly brightened at seeing Mal, but she just looked more depressed. Mal walked pass him, tears in her eyes from remembering his betrayal. As she moved away from him, Ben went back to his mopey attitude from before and everyone who watched the awkward exchanged noticed it.
Wanting to get away from the spectators to sulk alone, Ben went to his secret hideout: the rooftop garden.
As he glumly ate his sandwich, the roof door opened, allowing Gil and Jay to walk through.
"We saw what happened with Mal," Gil informed timidly. "Do you—"
"I don't want to talk about it," Ben snapped bitterly.
"Well, we do," Jay retorted persistently. "You need to cheer up. There's no way the audience will be cheering for you if you are mad during your singing performance."
Ben narrowed his eyes sharply at the duo, seeing what they were trying to do. "You're not gonna hear me sing," he stubbornly insisted. "Mal won't talk to me and she won't give me a chance to explain what really happened. I don't even know how she knows only that part of the argument."
Jay and Gil exchanged uneasy glances, knowing they would be testing their friends temper. "We do," Jay finally revealed. "Carlos overheard an argument between Audrey and Chad and told us. Turns out, it's Chad Charming fault. Here's what happened . . ."
Later on that evening, after hearing the truth from his friends, Ben walked up on the Fae family's front porch and knocked on the front door, hoping he could convince Mal to let him explain himself. The door opened after a few moments later, though Ben was completely caught off guard by the beautiful woman, with incredibly long brown hair, that answered.
"H-hi," Ben stuttered, slightly scolding himself for doing such a thing. "Are you Mrs. Fae?"
"No need for formalities," the woman calmly reassured. "You may call me 'Maleficent'."
"Maleficent," Ben corrected himself, liking the way the name rolled off his tongue. "I'm Ben Adams."
Her eyes widened a little in surprise. "Oh!" she exclaimed in familiarity. "You are Maurice's grandson. Mal has told her father and I a lot about you. She's . . ."
"Busy," interrupted a voice from inside.
A moment later, a well-fit, muscular man with dyed blue hair appeared at the door next to his wife. "Aidoneus," he greeted, "but I prefer to be called 'Hades'."
Taking a moment to check out the nervous teenage boy, Hades informed, "Mali is in the middle of a painting, and she doesn't like to be interrupted. However . . . I suppose she would make an exception if her prince were to climb to her window." He paused to raise an inquisitive eyebrow. "Know what I mean?"
A flash of realization went through Ben's mind, an idea coming to mind. "I do," Ben acknowledged with a brisk nod. "Thank you."
As the young teenager began walking around the house, Maleficent turned to look questionably at her husband. "Do you think he can . . . ?"
"If he truly is the grandson of Maurice," Hades began with a small smile, "then there is no doubt he can. He is afraid to tell anyone, just like Mal was when she was a little girl."
In her room, Mal was almost finished with her latest painting when Ben's photo appeared on her cell-phone screen as it started to ring. After a long moment, she went against her better judgement and answered. "Yes?"
"Mal!" Ben greeted in a rush. "What you saw in the video the other day was only a portion of what was said. I was being sarcastic to my father because me playing Tourney is the only thing that satisfies him. Yes, I did say those things, but I asked afterwards if saying any of those things would make him happy."
"You sounded pretty convincing," Mal replied coolly as she gathered her brushes and paints to clean, the urge to be creative going away due to the conversation.
"I was screaming at him moments before," he revealed, though the comment did surprise the teenage girl. "I cursed at him, something you know I never do. After he blatantly lied to me, I told him I was going to pull myself out for the rest of the game to do the callbacks."
Mal sighed sadly as she walked back into her bedroom, her back toward her balcony. "You can't do that, Ben. You're father—"
"This isn't about him," Ben stubbornly claimed. "This is about how I feel. And I feel the happiest when I'm singing with you because I love you! Do you love me?"
Mal pondered on the question for a moment, reluctantly admitting, "Yes, I love you—"
"So will you turn around so you can say it to my face?"
Whirling around, Mal blushed deep red at seeing Ben standing on her balcony. Placing his phone in his pocket, Ben cautiously stepped forward, so he was merely a foot in front of Mal. "I love you," he confessed confidently. "And I am sorry I lost your trust in me. Will forgive me, even though I don't deserve it?"
Smiling softly, Mal teased, "I'll do something better than that."
Stepping forward to wrap her arms around Ben's neck, Mal cooed, "I love you, my prince."
Unable to contain himself anymore, Ben swooped down to kiss his Mal. Giggling like a love-struck teenager, Mal smiled into the kiss, grateful that she forgave her prince.
Although she was happy for the moment, Mal pulled away to give him a stern look. "I'm still not letting you miss the game," she warned. "You worked too hard to give up on that."
"What am I—what are we going to do then?" Ben wondered as he unconsciously wrapped his arms around her waist. "No matter, what I'm going to miss some of the game, and you are going to miss some of the Art Relay competition. We'll be disqualified from playing or competing anymore."
Smirking mischievously, Mal reminded, "You said you'd leave the evil schemes to me, remember? Well, I just happen to know a computer genius who will be more than willing to hack a thing or two to help us get revenge on Chad Charming."
The next day, everyone at school noticed a significant difference in the atmosphere. It didn't take long for them to realize the change was because of a certain couple that were smiling and laughing together in the hallway. The school had a much happier vibe now that the 'power couple' was back together.
Right after homeroom, Fairy Godmother had the couple stay behind a couple extra minutes to discuss the previous news she had about the callbacks.
"A new song!" Ben repeated incredulously. "We can't learn a new song in four days!"
"I know otherwise," Fairy Godmother argued. "The last song no longer fits you. You broke free long before the audition. This song fits what you two are going through now. I have a couple requests: don't rehearse in front of other students, including Jane. I want everyone to be surprised by your performance. During free period and after school for the next four days, you'll rehearse in the music room in my presence only. The room is soundproof, so no one can hear you sing."
"Why do you want to help us so much?" Mal wondered with a curious tilt of her head. "I thought you would be focused on helping Audrey and Chad with their performance."
"There is nothing I can do to help Chad with his performance," Fairy Godmother informed, causing the teenagers to slightly chuckle at the obvious insult. "Audrey is the only reason he gets the leading roles. I want to prove to the school that anyone can be the lead of a musical if they put in the effort."
Ben raised a cautious eyebrow as he wondered, "What's the second request?"
Smiling almost mischievously, Fairy Godmother answered with her own question, "How long will it take you to learn the piano?"
