"Whoa! What happened to your back?"

Mal whirled around in shock. Her eyes were wide with fear as she interrogated, "Excuse me?"

The tour was nearly an hour in when Mal had turned her back to him for just a brief second. She heard his gasp, believing that he was surprised by something on campus. She never thought it would be from that . . .

"Your back," Ben repeated stubbornly. "It's disfigured, like someone gouged it or a bone is sticking out. What happened?"

Peering over her shoulder just to see if she could notice anything out of the ordinary, Mal calmed at seeing everything appeared normal. Well, as normal as it could with the bandages and clothing covering the secret. Still . . .

"You're seeing things," Mal insisted forcefully. "Nothing is wrong with my back."

"Bull-shit," Ben called out. "I've lived on the Isle of the Lost long enough to know when someone has been physically harmed in some way. Something happened to your back."

"Is this how you normally get a girl's attention?" Mal retorted in a way to get the subject changed. "You tell them they have a flaw when they don't, and then try to flirt with them so you can make them feel better about themselves? Surely your mother taught you better than that—"

"My mother is dead," Ben bitterly informed as a scowl took over his facial features. "I have never met her, so no, my mother didn't teach me better because I don't know her."

Mal paled, complete shame and guilt written all over her face. The princess mentally scolded herself for saying such a careless thing. She knew his file didn't mention anything about his mother and didn't think anything about it. Before she could have a chance to apologize for her blunder, her 'uncle' intervened with his sudden arrival.

"Princess!" Diaval greeted as he approached the teenagers. "Your parents are requesting your presence. They have something they wish to inform you."

"Is it something bad?" Mal wondered, her focus now adverted to her family. "Is something wrong with Mom?'

"You will be surprised," Diaval informed mysteriously, a small smile just at the edge of his lips. "You better not keep them waiting."

"Will you lead Ben to his dorm room?" Mal requested with just a hint of pleading in her voice. "I'll make sure Cerberus doesn't bother you while you're in bird form for . . . a week?"

"Two weeks," Diaval countered playfully. When the offer was agreed upon, the 'man' adverted his attention to the slightly confused teenage boy. "I'm Diaval," he informed. "I'm a family friend of the royal family."

"You are family, Uncle Diaval," Mal assured with a playful role of her eyes. "Why else would Mom have you walk her down the aisle during her and Dad's wedding? Or name you my god-father?"

"To make me feel better about a dog running around their castle," Diaval claimed with a stressful sigh. "I just don't understand why Cerberus has to chase me every time he returns from the Underworld. It's exhausting!"

While the princess snickered at her uncle's clear anguish, Mal's phone went off, indicating that she received a text message.

"Whatever they need to tell me, it must be important. Dad's asking where I am," Mal revealed as she placed her phone back in her pocket. "Ben's room is Jay's old room, so it's next door to Carlos's room. Ben, if you need anything, Jay and Carlos will be on one side of you while Harry and Gil, my cousin's friends, will be on the other. They are all good people. I think you'll get along with them, especially Gil. If I don't see you later today, I'll see you tomorrow."

Meanwhile, on the other side of the campus, Evie decided to take Audrey and Lonnie to the Tourney field to introduce them to their future captain of their respective sport team. Well . . . that's what Evie led them to believe. The Auradon princess had other motives for taking them to the Tourney field. After all, the Tourney team just happened to be having practice at the same time as the cheer team.

As the trio approached the small group of girls by the sidelines, a dark-skinned teenager with abnormal teal-colored hair announced a ten-minute break before she met the trio half-way.

"You must be the new girls," she assumed with a small smile. "I'm Uma, daughter of Ursula. Mal and Uncle Hades said you two needed to join a club or sports team. First, how athletic or skilled are you?"

"I'm the best sword-fighter on the Isle," Lonnie boasted with a nonchalant shrug. "No one can beat me."

"We'll see about that," Uma challenged before adverting her gaze to Audrey. "And what about you? Are you athletic?"

"Not really," Audrey admitted almost bashfully. "But I would like to at least try for cheer."

"I can work with you if needed after you try out tomorrow," Uma informed as she turned to Lonnie. "As for you, you will try out in the amphitheater during free period, the hour after Tourney and cheer practice. Jay volunteered to spar against you. He is one of the best sword-fighters in Auradon. He was captain before I won his position. Just a little warning, ROAR is not what you think it is."

"Can you get Gil out of practice?" Evie inquired. "I wanted to introduce him to Audrey, and I need to ask him something."

"If his dad will let him," Uma cautioned. "There's only a few days left until the championship game. If he can get away, it won't be for long."

Having acknowledged the risk, the captain turned toward the Tourney field, shouting, "Hey, Coach! Can I borrow Gil for a minute?"

With only a brisk nod, the overly muscular man gestured for a player to move off the field.

Removing his helmet, the young man with shoulder-length sandy-blonde hair jogged over to the girls. "Please make this quick," he requested. "With Carlos and Jay not here, I can't afford to miss much of practice."

"Audrey and Lonnie, this is Gil," Evie quickly introduced. "He is the son of Gaston, the youngest of three brothers, and is the captain of the Tourney team. Gil, this is Lonnie, daughter of Mulan, and this Isle princess is Audrey, the daughter of Aurora and Philip."

"Wow," Gil praised as he gave Audrey a quick once-over. "You are so . . . beautiful."

Audrey blushed, as it was the first genuine compliment she ever received from someone that wasn't her family. It was refreshing, and made her heart skip a beat.

"You can ask her out later," Evie teased good-naturedly, though she sounded hurried, so she didn't take up too much of his time. "I need you to translate something for me, since I understand Spanish and you understand French."

"Why didn't you ask Mal?" Gil wondered. "She knows it almost as well as I do."

The color drained from Audrey's face as her eyes widened in fear. Evie momentarily ignored the Isle princess, insisting, "The conversation was referring to her, I think, and she seemed surprised by it. What does 'Est-elle tout ce dont vous rêviez' and 'Oui, mais elle est plus belle' mean?"

Gil raised a curious eyebrow at the phrases, translating, " 'Is she everything you dreamed of?' 'Yes, but she is more beautiful.' Who did you hear that conversation from?"

"Me," Audrey answered a little too quickly. "On the Isle, my friend and I speak French to each other when we don't want anyone to listen in our conversations. I'm not as fluent as Ben, who speaks it as well as he does English. Mais il ne sait pas lire l'anglais."

Gil nodded in understanding. "I'll talk to my dad. He can speak with the headmaster about that situation."

Uma scrunched her nose in confusion. "What situation?"

"It's not important," Gil quickly claimed. "I have to get back to practice. If you girls need anything else let me know and I'll do what I can to help."

Later that evening, Ben was on his new bed, reading from a well-worn book when Audrey barged in without warning. "Find a stopping point," she instructed as she closed the dorm-room door behind her. "We have to talk."

"You found a boyfriend already?" Ben teased as he did as what was asked of him.

"Maybe," Audrey admitted, "but that's not what we need to talk about."

Sitting on the edge of his bed, Audrey sighed as she reluctantly revealed, "Mal knows what we said. I found out she can understand and speak French. She knows I said she was flirting with you—."

"And you insisting that I ask her out," Ben finished with an aggravated sigh. "After today, I doubt she would say yes if I did ask, or even bring up the French conversation."

"Why?" Audrey interrogated with a tilt of her head. "What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything!" Ben denied offensively, but then he hesitated. "Well, I didn't do much. But she—"

CREAK!

The couple jumped at hearing the sound of the bedroom door slowly creeping open. A moment later, Chad stuck his head inside before he barged in with timid Jane, Doug, and Lonnie following his lead. Waiting until the door was closed, Chad announced, "I have a brilliant idea!"

"That's a first," Ben retorted, earning a light slap on the leg from Audrey.

Ignoring the insult for the moment, Chad declared, "Let's steal the wand tonight!"

"Fairy Godmother's?" Doug clarified with a shake of his head. "That's impossible. Why would we even want to?"

"To bring down the barrier around the Isle," Chad insisted, his tone quieter to prevent anyone outside the door from listening. "We can set our parents and the rest of the villains free and take over Auradon!"

"I'll pass," Ben immediately denied. "The last thing I want is my father getting off the island."

"We have only been here for less than a day," Lonnie reminded. "I'm not saying that I wouldn't consider it, but we have too much attention on us right now to do anything risky."

"You couldn't sneak in the room without us hearing," Audrey added pointedly. "If you tried to steal it, you would get caught. I want to stay in Auradon, so I'm out."

"Let's try a different approach then," Chad suggested, determined to make them agree. "Technically, the wand is Jane's birthright. She could convince the royal family that it belongs to her. Or we could steal it front of everyone during the coronation!"

"Jane is too timid to ask for the wand," Ben argued. "And you would be placing innocent lives in danger if you took it during the coronation. Once again, I'm out, so take this conversation somewhere else and get out of my room."

A few miles away at the royal family's castle, Mal walked into the foyer to see her parents nervously standing next to each other. They were fidgeting quite a bit as they whispered to each other. It was almost as though they had pent up energy that was on the brink of exploding.

"Mom?" Mal greeted in confusion. "Dad? What's going on? What's wrong?"

Although the married couple admittedly flinched at hearing their daughter, the happy smile on their faces indicated that they were hiding something good from her.

"Mali," Hades slowly began. "How would feel about being a queen and a big sister?"

Mal gasped. Her eyes grew incredibly wide as her mouth hung open in surprise. "No way! You mean-!"

With her gentle smile growing a little more, Maleficent placed a loving hand on her stomach as revealed, "I'm pregnant."