The best way to predict your future is to create it.
-Abraham Lincoln
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Chapter 4
Jay stood between the two swings, pushing Carlos or Mal forward whenever their swing neared him. Evie sat on a bench a few yards away, a textbook on her lap and notes splayed across the rest of the bench. While Jay had completely forgotten about school obligations, Evie hadn't and was preparing for a test that was coming up in her calculus class. Jay knew he had an assignment he needed to finish. He needed to answer questions about the importance of Beast uniting the surrounding lands and banishing the villains, but the lesson as a whole was rather tactless and Jay had found himself avoiding what he saw as a rather sore subject for him. Unfortunately, it seemed like everyone in his history class loved hearing about the villains, so the lectures droned on and on. Jay wasn't too fond of that subject, but he knew enough stories from the isle to write a decent essay, so he elected to remain quiet.
"Higher, Jay! Higher!" Mal called, swinging her legs.
"Careful there Mal, you don't want to go into space!" Jay joked while pushing her swing with a little more force. He looked over at Evie and saw her take her mirror from her bag, checking for what had to be the millionth time that day.
"Hey, E!" Jay called out. She looked up from the mirror, clutching it tightly in her hands. "Maybe you should go back to the dorm and lie down a bit. Or better yet, get some sewing done. That always relaxes you," he suggested, shrugging.
"I can't leave you alone," she argued, returning her mirror to her bag and picking up her flash cards.
"Ah, come on, we'll be fine. You're making yourself sick with worry by checking that mirror every fifteen minutes." Jay regretted suggesting the mirror the previous day, but he still wasn't sure how else to find Mal's book. "Please?"
Evie scrunched her lips and sighed. "Fine. You're right. Don't let them get too dirty," She warned him as she closed her books and stacked them on top of each other. "I'll see you at dinner, don't cause too much trouble while I'm gone."
"No promises," Jay flashed a mischievous smile in her direction as Mal and Carlos called out goodbyes.
"How much longer are you guys going to be swinging?" Jay asked, turning his attention back to his charges. "I can't do this forever."
"Too bad!" Mal wiggled in her swing. "We're swinging forever!"
"Forever? That's a bummer. I guess you won't get to play jump rope with me."
Jay turned and saw Ben walking up with perfectly coiled jump ropes. Jay let Mal and Carlos swing past them without giving them a push and fist bumped with Ben.
"Did Evie call?" Jay inquired, already knowing the answer. He knew that Evie trusted him, but he also knew that she knew what Mal was like when she got fussy.
"She sure did, and I brought a toy." Ben lifted the jump ropes so that Carlos and Mal could see. "The problem is, I need people to play with." He directed his words towards the younger two.
"I wanna play!" Carlos beamed, swinging his legs in an attempt to slow down his swing. When the swing neared the ground he slid off, stumbling when the swing came back and hit him on the shoulder. "Owie." He pouted at the swing and rubbed his shoulder. While Jay checked up on Carlos, Ben grabbed Mal's swing to slow her down.
"Do you want to join us, Mal?" Ben queried.
"Nope!" Mal shook her head, then shifted her weight, trying to get the swing to move again.
"Why not?"
"No one plays with a rope, silly," Mal scoffed, jutting out her chin.
"Wait, so you're telling me you've never played jump rope before?" Ben gasped, over dramatically. "What a tragedy. I guess I can't make you play, but it's such a shame that you'll miss out on such fun." He began to walk over to Carlos and Jay.
"Wait!" Mal hopped down from her swing and tugged on his pants, "I'll play, but just this once."
"Excellent." Ben smiled and the two joined up with Carlos and Jay.
"Cinderella dressed in yella went upstairs to kiss her fella, made a mistake, kissed a snake, how many doctors will it take, 1…2…3…4" The rope tangled around Carlos's legs and Ben and Jay stopped swinging. "Wow, Carlos that was the best one yet!" Jay congratulated.
"Jay, what was that?" Ben looked at Jay, slightly horrified.
"What?" Jay bent down to untangle the rope from Carlos's leg.
"That jumping song was kind of…um" Ben trailed off. At first, Ben had been the only one reciting jump rope chants, singing about princesses and bubble gum. Neither Mal nor Carlos were very good at jump roping so Ben and Jay had been going slow and repeating a lot. Mal was very determined to improve and keep up with Carlos who seemed to naturally adapt to the game. Jay offered to take a turn counting to let Ben's voice rest and recited the first chant that came to mind.
"What about it?" Jay didn't understand Ben's reaction. "We used that chant all the time on the island."
"Can you just say a different one this time?" Ben looked uncomfortable and for the life of him, Jay couldn't determine why.
He shrugged, "Alright."
Mal stepped up to the rope and Ben and Jay began to swing. "Cinderella dressed in green, went downtown to buy a ring. Made a mistake, bought a fake, how many days before it breaks? 1…2…oh! Don't worry, Mal, you'll get there," Jay laughed as Mal huffed. Carlos was doing better than her every round and Mal was resolute not to be left behind.
"Jay, come on man," Ben complained again. Jay raised a questioning eyebrow. "You can't use chants like that, it's messed up," Ben clarified.
"No, it's not," Carlos argued, coming to Jay's defense. "Cinderella is a mean green bean."
"Yeah! She made her sisters go to the isle and they're not even evil!" Mal stood beside Carlos.
"I don't understand," Ben hesitated, realizing that he'd opened a can of worms that he was not prepared for.
"Everyone on the island knows why people are there. People love to gossip and talk, it's not like we can have many hobbies there. We may not like the isle, but we do understand the logic behind most of our imprisonments. There's another thing that everyone on the isle agrees on and that's that Anastasia and Drizella shouldn't be there," Jay said, leaning down to pick up Carlos who had been tugging on his leg during his explanation.
"Who are Anastasia and Drizella?" Ben began to curl up the rope, sensing that their game was over.
"Cinderella's stepsisters. They may be spoiled brats, but they aren't evil," Jay continued. "They watch over the kids on the island because most of our parents forget to look after us. They taught us games and songs. I'm not saying they're good people, but they're definitely not evil," He finished lamely. He hadn't intended on launching into a tirade in front of Ben, but this was a topic that all the kids from the isle agreed on, no matter who their parents were.
"I…didn't know. I'm sorry," Ben apologized. "There is still a lot that isn't known about the island. We talk about banishing your parents to the island and celebrate as if everything was over, but we forget that their life went on after we stopped watching. I still don't think those jump rope songs are appropriate, but I admit that I still have much to learn about your past. I—" Ben was cut off as his phone began to ring. "Excuse me a moment." He answered his phone and took a few steps away, grateful for the interruption.
Jay hadn't meant to cause a scene, but seeing Mal and Carlos as kids was bringing up memories of his own childhood. Ben's rushed apology told Jay that Ben had never intended to upset them. Ben had a heart of gold, and Jay didn't want to take out his frustrations about mistreatment on the island on the king. Jay attempted to collect himself, focusing on the feeling of Carlos playing with his hair. He made a mental note to snag some more hair ties from Evie and watched at Ben hung up the phone and joined the group again.
"That was Doug. He wants us to meet in his room, he says he found some useful information," Ben explained. He turned on his heel to lead the way back to the castle.
"Wait," Mal whined, jumping up from where she'd been sitting on the ground. She bounded forward and snatched Ben's hand. Jay couldn't help but to snort at Ben's delighted expression as Mal tugged Ben towards the castle, any lingering emotions from the altercation disappearing.
Doug steepled his fingers, spinning slowly in his desk chair as he went over his lecture in his head one more time. When the awaited knock sounded on his door he leapt up, knocking over several books in the process. He scrambled to right the books and opened the door, inviting his friends into the room. He flitted back to his chair and noticed as Jay took stock of his surroundings. Doug had a habit of analyzing the body language of the villains' kids and had discovered that upon entering a new environment, Jay would scan the room, almost as if analyzing for something. For what, Doug wasn't sure, but he was mostly confident that this was a habit that had been necessary on the isle, so he had refrained from commenting.
Doug's room was similar to Jay's except with forest green accents rather than Jay and Carlos's navy blue color scheme. Instead of a television and game console, Doug and his roommate had elected to construct a computer station including several monitors and CPUs. Unfortunately, they only had one chair so occasionally they had to play rock paper scissors in order to determine who got to use it at certain times.
"So, I went to the library because I wanted to see if there were any books about magic because honestly at this point we could use any sort of information that we can find," Doug launched into his ramble of a lecture, "But the librarian informed me that she was banned from stocking the shelves with books pertaining to anything that would be pertinent to our situation so she directed me to Fairy Godmother. I went to her office this morning and told her I was researching into Mal and Carlos's condition and she gave me this." He held up a leather bound book with gold lettering.
"A Beginner's Guide to Magic?" Jay read. "If she thought it would help why didn't she let us borrow it earlier?"
Carlos tugged on Jay's hair and said, "'Cuz we're the bad guys Jay, duh."
Doug sometimes forgot that Mal and Carlos being young doesn't mean they weren't paying attention to what was being said. He cleared his throat and cut off whatever Jay was going to say next, "Not the important point at the moment, we can talk about Fairy Godmother's good-evil prejudice at a later time. As I was saying, I got the book and I read through it, well skimmed mostly and read what was relevant or potentially useful."
"I'm assuming you found something?" Ben encouraged Doug as he paused to take a breath.
"Yes! Well, sort of. It's more of a general thing, like—"
"Get on with it," Jay snapped impatiently, attempting to free his hair from Carlos's surprisingly strong grip.
"Yes, sorry." Doug looked down at his notes. "From what I understand, the simpler the spell, the more ways there are to break it. For example, we all know about Mal's love potion. It wasn't particularly complicated magic, therefore could have been broken by the counter spell or a potion or by anything that cancels out magic really."
Jay paused in his battle to liberate his hair, "So what does that mean for us?"
"I'll get there," Doug promised. "The more complex the spell is, the harder it is to break. We don't know what spell was used against Carlos and Mal, which is why Fairy Godmother warned us from trying anything magical. If the spell is strong magic, it would only have one way to break it, and other magics might only make the situation worse."
"Thank you for the reminder that we're pretty useless," Jay sniped more out of bitterness than malice. He set Carlos down to play with Mal after finally freeing his hair.
Doug took a breath before starting again, "From what this book was describing, aging spells do not appear to be advanced magic. If we were more knowledgeable about the ways of magic we could probably find multiple ways to reverse this."
"What about Fairy Godmother? Couldn't she do something? She's pretty good with that wand of hers," Jay suggested.
"I did put some thought into that. I think that if she were able to, she already would have offered. We all know Cinderella's story, right? The magic that she performed was more about transfiguring objects. Aging spells are a very different category of magic than what Fairy Godmother is well-versed in. Also, she's pretty busy in general, it's not like it's easy to run a school like this one." Doug shrugged, attempting to justify the headmaster's lack of response. "My point is, we need Mal's spell book. We can't have that falling into the wrong hands. Jay, you should work with Evie to make a list of anyone, and I mean absolutely anyone, who might even be slightly annoyed with Mal or Carlos. Then Ben and I can split the list and investigate."
Ben nodded, "That way we can narrow down the suspect pool."
"Precisely. People might be more willing to open up to us because, well, let's face it Jay, you're intimidating." Doug jerked his shoulders again in a semblance of acceptance of fate. In response, Jay had crossed his arms and was shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Doug was worried that he'd upset Jay and that he'd never agree to Doug's plan. Jay seemed like the type to want to complete the interrogations himself, but Doug feared that Jay's protectiveness would shine through as an intensity that would just scare those being questioned. Doug let out a sigh of relief when Jay finally gave a small nod.
"Fine. You do realize that this means that Evie and I will have to entertain four-year-olds during classes right?"
"I've also already thought of that possibility. Speaking of which, where is she?" Doug asked, closing his notebook and setting it on the desk near him.
"Probably sewing," Jay replied. He settled himself on the ground near Carlos and Mal before elaborating, "She's kind of freaking out because Mal and Carlos don't have children's clothes and she refuses to let them wear the same thing two days in a row. Honestly, I don't think that they'd care very much as long as they don't smell too pungent."
Ben let out an unsure laugh, "You know that you could've just asked right? I can get you kids clothes for them."
"Yeah, yeah, but we don't have that kind of money," Jay waved him off dismissively.
"You wouldn't have to pay," Ben insisted.
"Isn't that how one purchases clothes?"
"Jay," Ben joined him on the ground, "My parents know that you don't have money. That's why they waved tuition and boarding fees. We can get clothes for you guys easily." Ben paused, a thought occurring to him, "Wait, is that why Evie sews all of your clothes?" Jay remained silent, fingers fidgeting with his bootlaces. "I'm going to make a call and get some clothes for them." Ben finished, determined. Jay shifted, slightly uncomfortable. He wondered if Ben was trying to make up for their earlier disagreement with the jumping songs. People never gave things away for free on the isle. Jay knew he was going to have to find a way to settle this debt.
True to Ben's word, when Jay and Evie awoke the next morning they found brown cardboard boxes outside of their door, one labeled for Mal, another for Carlos, and the third one merely bearing the label 'toys'.
"When Mal turns back we better make sure that she keeps Ben around," Jay commented, carrying the boxes inside.
"Oh my god!" Evie laughed, opening up the box marked for Carlos. She pulled out a Dalmatian onsie pajama, complete with ears and a tail. "We're definitely getting a picture of Carlos in this before they turn back."
Jay sliced through the tape sealing the box of toys and opened the flaps. He pulled out a stuffed dog and said, "Someone in Ben's family has a sense of humor."
"Probably Belle." Evie laid out some of the clothes, matching outfits together. "Carlos, sweetheart, come here and pick out what you want to wear."
Carlos, still in his nightclothes, scampered over to Evie. Evie lifted him long enough for him to point to the red shorts and striped tee shirt before returning him to the ground. She tossed the clothes at Jay, along with socks and shoes.
"Get him ready, please," She commanded, moving on to explore the box for Mal and ignoring Jay's salute and "Yes, ma'am". As with Carlos, she prepared a few outfits and let Mal choose.
After everyone was ready for the day—a process that took significantly longer when four-year-olds were added to the mix—Evie stopped Jay and said, "I'm taking Carlos to my classes, and you're taking Mal." Jay clutched Carlos to him for a moment, giving Evie a look of confusion. "I have chemistry this morning and we're doing a lab. I don't want Mal around chemicals, do you?" she explained.
"What're chemicals?" Mal asked, sitting on the ground. Evie twitched when she saw that Mal had removed her shoes for the third time that morning. "Is it Jay day? Jay day Jay day Jay day!" She cackled to herself, playing with her shoes.
"Fair point, but we're trading at lunch." Jay conceded, handing Carlos to Evie. He tossed his book bag over one shoulder and a squealing Mal over the other. He pocketed her shoes and they made their way out of the room. "Let Jay day begin," he quirked.
"It looks like we have to back titrate the Sodium Hydroxide to determine the molar concentration before we start the main titration," Doug spoke, skimming the lab booklet.
Evie tied her hair back and adjusted her safety goggles. "You get the chemicals and I'll set up the glassware."
"Roger that."
As Evie set up the stand to hold the buret, she glanced over at Carlos. He was sitting on a stool, coloring some pictures that Doug had thoughtfully printed out. He'd also brought some mazes and word searches for Carlos to puzzle with if he tired of coloring. She dropped the spinner magnet in the graduated cylinder and placed them both on top of the hot plate. Evie surmised that she probably had the best boyfriend ever. When two of her best friends were turned into four-year-olds, he immediately set out to learn whatever he could in order to be helpful.
Evie ran her fingers through Carlos's hair, "Let me know if you get bored okay? It's a long lab so make sure to speak up."
"Okay, Evie." Carlos absently agreed, more focused on turning the entire coloring page red with splashes of purple and yellow. She smiled at his dedication and turned back to the lab station where Doug was returning with several bottles of chemicals.
Doug grinned at her, "I got the last bottle of phenolphthalein." He gestured with the bottle of indicator, "We might have to share."
"Not a problem. Alright, let's get started. What does the first question say?" Evie and Doug busied themselves in the titration, making sure to check on Carlos every once in awhile, and the morning flew by.
Jay was not having fun on Jay day, whatever it was that Mal meant by 'Jay day'. Mal had been fine during his hour and a half Trigonometry class, content to color in all of his triangles as he drew them. It would have been mildly annoying if one were trying to earnestly solve the question, but Jay was not one to pay attention in math, sans the bare minimum to avoid failure. He passed Evie in the hallway, Mal on his shoulders. They shared a glance and went on to their next classes, ignoring all the stares from their peers. Modern Auradon History class was where Mal started to fall apart, which was fitting as it was Jay's least favorite class.
As luck would have it, today's topic was the socio-economic effects of the banishment of the villains to the Isle of the Lost. When the teacher announced the topic, Jay rolled his eyes so hard he wasn't sure they could come back. "Seriously?" he voiced. "Do we have to do that today?" He gestured towards Mal, sitting on his lap. She peered at Jay, then at the teacher, trying to understand his disdain.
"Having a child in your care does not excuse you from class. Please refrain from such outbursts in the future," Mr. Gammal clipped. Jay pulled out his notebook to jot down notes, mentally steeling himself for the lecture. As Gammal spoke, his classmates would turn and look at him. Jay stared them down until they bashfully looked away. He wasn't sure if their attention was because of Mal, or because they were talking about villains and they wanted to see his reactions.
"Now a fascinating market to look at was the clothing industry after Maleficent was banished," Jay groaned internally as Mal perked up at the sound of her mother's name. "Her evil magic had many in fear of using anything with a needle and caused a depression in clothing sales."
"I don't see why they were afraid of clothing, that's stupid," Mal said defiantly, standing in her chair.
Mr. Gammal paused in his lecture to address her comment. "The people were not afraid of clothing, but rather of needles. The problem was that no one wanted to use needles, which meant that clothing couldn't be crafted, therefore there were no clothes to purchase, resulting in the decline in sales."
"Blah blah blah, you're all scaredy-cats. S'just a little needle." Mal stuck out her chin and glared at the teacher. It was as if she was being belligerent just for the sake of causing a disturbance, as if the mention of her mother reminded her where she was.
"Mal," Jay pleaded, "Not now."
"No!" She stomped her foot. "He won't say that my mommy scared him but she did! I know it!" Jay wasn't even sure how to argue with her, or what was particularly upsetting her. He did however know that this was the first time he'd ever been kicked out of class, and it wasn't even his fault!
He walked down the hallways, trying to find a secluded corner. Once Gammal had raised his voice at Jay, the crying and screaming had begun. Jay bounced Mal on his hip and patted her back, but she wouldn't calm down. He ducked outside into an empty courtyard and pleaded with Mal.
Her responses included incoherent sobbing and kicking, none of which were helpful. Doug had warned him about potential tantrums, but Jay hadn't taken him seriously. He now wished that he'd listened more closely. He could only remember a few snippets, one being that tantrums are caused by overstimulation and that he needed to remain calm. Other than that he was floundering, grasping at ideas to help her. He set Mal on the ground and she immediately crumpled, laying on the ground as she cried.
"Mal it's okay! We're away from him and that class and you don't have to cry!" He sunk to the ground next to her, frustrated and desperate. He huffed as he watched the tears rolling down her face. "Look, Mal, Lilly, you're alright. Listen to me, you have to calm down." He reached out and pet her hair in what he hoped was a calming and comforting manner. He continued to murmur to her until her sobs finally lessened.
"Are you ready to talk now?" Jay asked, sitting cross-legged in front of her. He pulled a tissue out of her pocket, discovering her shoes that he'd forgotten to adhere—um, return—to her feet, and wiped her face and nose. Mal sniffled, but sat up, squatting in a perch on her socked feet.
"I w-wanna," she paused to take in a gaspy breath, looking at Jay through tear soaked eyelashes, "I wanna go home." She babbled before flinging herself into Jay's lap. He grunted but caught her, holding her close.
"Why do you want to go home?" Jay probed gently. Jay and Mal didn't normally have heart to hearts when they were any age, so Jay felt off kilter, unsure of how to proceed, especially after witnessing her throw a tantrum.
"I h-have to be evil-l like my mommy or she's—she's gonna be m-mad," Mal hiccoughed, then scrubbed at her eyes.
"Mal, there's something you need to know," Jay spoke. "We don't have to be evil anymore, no matter what our parents say."
"We don't?"
"You might as well know what's been happening. You and Carlos are supposed to be older. You're supposed to be my age." Mal furrowed her wispy eyebrows as she looked up at Jay, green eyes shining with confusion and leftover tears. "A spell of some sort was put on you guys to make you little again so that's why you don't remember being older."
"How old am I?" Mal asked, bottom lip pouting.
"You're sixteen years old." Jay lightly tapped her nose with his index finger. "And a few months ago all of us decided that we wanted to stay in Auradon and be good because being evil doesn't make us happy."
"It doesn't? But I thought that we had to be evil. We're rotten to the core," Mal insisted, rather than argued.
"We don't have to be evil Mal, and we don't have to be afraid of our parents anymore because they're far away on the island and we're safe here at school."
"Do you promise?"
"What?"
"Do you promise that we're safe?" Mal's voice, even when muffled against Jay's chest, sounded vulnerable and insecure, so unlike her normal confident and snide self.
"I promise," Jay held out his pinky and Mal twisted hers around it. "Pinky promise."
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Okay, I have several things I want to say so bear with me:
1. Shout out to Renae for being the best person ever and helping me edit these things, like even when I text her on Saturday morning like 'just finished the chapter can you edit it RIGHT NOW' she's super chill and helpful. Love you!
2. The jump rope songs are ones that I sang as a kid but as I thought about it, I felt like Auradon people might be genuinely offended for Cinderella
3. Evie's lab is based off a lab I've done irl also ew titrations, I had to do what they're doing in order to determine the concentration of calcium carbonate in some egg shells. :/ Although we might've used different chemicals, idk I left my lab book in another state
4. I know I ended with some feels, my bad. I promise there will be some cute fluff next chapter to make up for it
You know the drill, review! Let me know what you liked, didn't like, or if there's any typos!
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Question: If you were a descendant of a Disney character, who would your parents be?
Mine would probably be Ariel because if I'm by water, I can guarantee that I will find a way to get in it and swim.
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