Hey guys! Thanks again for the support and reviews of the story :) Sorry for the long wait, I've been pretty busy lately and writer's block has been a pain in my ass for the past few weeks. Anyways, here's chapter three!
Without waiting for an answer, Mal and Aurora left. Mal held Aurora's small hand in hers as they walked back towards her car. "Miss Moors! Miss Moors! Maleficent, wait!" Mal turned as she around to see Diaval Riley and his son running towards her. Mal and Aurora stopped and waited for them catch up. Diaval and Damon quickly caught up to them. Diaval smiled charmingly at Mal. "Ya sure do move fast Maleficent, ya were practically flying down the school hallway." Mal noticed that he had a very nice voice, not to deep with a very slight accent…Irish maybe? Mal realized what she was doing and brushed aside her thoughts. She did not want to smile at his pitiful attempt at a joke, so she bit the inside of her cheek to keep her mouth from turning up.
She calmly smoothed her features into an indifferent expression on her face as she looked at Diaval. "What do you want Mr. Riley?"
She answered. Diaval's smile faded at a bit at the formal greeting.
"You left before I could give you my number." Diaval answered, letting go of his son's hand to pull a card out of his pocket and holding it out to Mal. Mal raised an eyebrow at him. "Your number, Mr. Riley?"
Diaval smirked as he raised his eyebrows back at her. "To organize the play dates Miss Moors? After we wouldn't want to get in trouble with the principle, now would we?" Mal struggled not to roll her eyes at him. "Ah right. I'd forgotten about that." She said, taking the card from him. "I'll try and call later in the week." Diaval nodded and smiled at Mal. "I look forward to it. Milady." Diaval gave a little bow and winked at her before leading his son back towards his car. Mal blinked and tried not to blush at his actions. She hadn't dated since Stefan and she was very cold to most men who tried to talk to her. She'd gotten quite the reputation over the past five years; some went even as far as to call her "the Ice Queen". Apparently this man hadn't heard the rumors yet. "Mama?" Aurora asked, looking up at her mother. Mal snapped out of her thoughts and looked at her daughter.
"Yes beastie?" Mal answered, using Aurora's nickname as she bent down to put Aurora into her car seat. Beastie had been a nickname Mal's grandfather had given her when she was a little girl. It was also what he had called Mal's mother when she had been little as well. Her grandfather had passed away before Aurora was born but giving her daughter the family nickname was Mal's way of giving her daughter a little piece of her great-grandfather to hold on to. "Am I in trouble?" Mal sighed softly as she buckled Aurora's seatbelt. "No beastie, you aren't in trouble." Mal said as she straitened back up. "Are you mad at me?" Mal looked down at her daughter and smiled gently. "No beastie, I'm not mad at you. I was worried about you though." Mal answered as she bent back down to press a quick kiss to Aurora's head before shutting the door and walking around to the driver's side of the car.
Once Mal was in her seat she looked back at Aurora. "Would you like to tell me what happened at school today?" Mal said, waiting for an answer. Aurora chose not to look at her mother deciding instead to start playing with her hair; pulling one of the curls strait and then letting it go so it could bounce back into its usual spiral. "Aurora?"
Aurora still didn't look up, choosing to keep all her focus on her hair. "Aurora Rosellen Moors, we are not going anywhere until you answer me." Aurora finally looked up at her mother and then looked back at her hair, continuing to play with it while she answered her mother's question. "Damon and I were playing catch and we couldn't decide who would throw first and we both wanted to so we decided to play rock, paper, scissors for it. I won but Damon got upset and said I cheated! I told him you can't cheat and rock paper scissors and he said you could.
I really wanted to play before recess ended so I just let him throw first but when he threw it the ball hit me in the head! I know he did it on purpose, so I yelled at him and pushed him and he yelled and pushed me back and we kept yelling and fighting until Miss Flittle came over."
Mal nodded and started the car. Mal pulled out of the school parking lot and started to drive back to Magic Forrest Flowers.
"Does your head still hurt Beastie?" Aurora shook her head.
"No Mama, it stopped hurting a while ago." Mal nodded.
"Ok, I have to go back to work so you'll have to come to. You can work on your homework in Granny's office." "But Mama…" Aurora groaned. Mal smiled at her daughter's lack of enthusiasm towards her homework. "If you finish before the store closes, you can come out front and help me and Granny with the flowers. Ok?" Aurora groaning stopped immediately and she nodded happily at her mother. "Ok Mama." Aurora said. Mal smiled at her daughter again as they pulled into the parking lot of Magic Forrest Flowers. Mal parked and got out of her car. She walked around the car to let Aurora out of her car seat. Aurora smiled up at Mal and lifted arms up. Mal laughed and decided to indulge her daughter, picking Aurora up instead of reminding her that she was old enough to walk on her own. Carrying Aurora on her hip, Mal walked towards the door and Mal opened the shop door. Hearing the shop bell ring when the door opened had pulled Kathy out from her office. Once she spotted Aurora and Mal she rushed over to them, pulling them both into a tight hug. Aurora giggled and managed to hug Kathy back. "Hi Granny!" Aurora chirped out from Kathy's bone-crushing hug. Mal managed to mumble out a muffled greeting from the tangle of arms as well.
"Hiya sprout! How's my favorite little worker today? Have you come to help your old Granny out with the flowers?" Kathy asked Aurora.
Aurora giggled at Kathy. "I'm ok Granny. But Mama says I have to my homework before I can help today." Kathy nodded and smiled at Aurora. "Alright sprout, you can head on back to my office while me and your mama get to work." Aurora nodded as Mal put her down. "I'll check your work over for you when we get home beastie." Mal said, ruffling Aurora's hair. Aurora giggled and nodded as she started to run towards Kathy's office. "Aurora! No running in the store!" Mal called after her. "Sorry Mama!" Aurora yelled back, slowing to a walk until she got to Kathy's office. Once Aurora had shut the door, Kathy looked at Mal. "Well Mally, what happened?" Mal sighed and started to walk over to the counter. "Aurora just got into a fight with one of her friends Kath. It started out with yelling and then it escalated to hitting. The teacher broke it up before it got to out of hand. She's got a lump on her head but she says it doesn't hurt anymore and other than that she seems fine." Kathy nodded. "That's very unusual for Aurora." Mal nodded as she started checking what flower orders had to be prepared and sent out today. "Is she going to be punished for it?" Mal looked up from the orders to glance at Kathy before looking back to the orders.
"Not exactly. That knotgrass woman wanted to settle it peacefully I think so she asked that instead of punishing them, the child go on some play dates to try and work their differences out. I have to call the boy's father to set them up sometime this week." Kathy nodded and smiled. "Well that's not so bad Mally!" Mal grunted as she continued to work. "The boy's father, Diaval Riley, is annoying. First he storms into the principles office making all these threats and blaming Aurora for the whole thing, then he catches up to me in the parking lot and starts to attempt to joke around with me. He kept smiling and winking at me. Before he left he bowed and called me Milady in some attempt to be charming." Kathy gave a little snicker at she listened to Mal's rant. "Yes, yes how dare anyone smile at you of all people. Was he handsome?" Mal rolled her eyes at Kathy's comment. "All I noticed was his pitiful attempt at humor." Kathy started laughing at Mal's indignant look. "Well at least he has a sense of humor, unlike some people eh Mally?" Mal rolled her eyes at Kathy again but she did so with a smile on her face. "Can we just get back to work please, Kath?" Kathy looked at Mal with a smirk on her face and started wiggling her eyebrows. "Whatever you say. Milady." Mal couldn't help it then. She burst out laughing. The rest of the week went smoothly with work and Aurora keeping Mal to busy to remember the obnoxious man in black. Until today, she had completely forgotten about him. Kath had asked her on their lunch break if she had called "Mr. Riley" yet. Mal had said no and promised that she would call him tonight. Mal looked down at the phone in her hands. She looked at the card in her hand. "Diaval C Riley. Home repairs and Gardening." Mal read the card out loud. She sighed as she dialed the number on the card. She held the phone to her ear and waited. "Hello?" "Hello, Mr. Riley?"