"It was really nice of your mothers to bring you guys over," Jane said as she and Carlos along with Mal and Ben sat out in the backyard, their parents inside.
"That's not gonna get us in any trouble is it?" Carlos asked nervously.
"It shouldn't," Mal shook her head as she and Ben sat on one of the lounge chairs. "Then again, me and Jane didn't do anything for one, so we're clear."
"You two, I'd worry," Jane laughed, Mal joining in with her.
Carlos and Ben looked at each other. They weren't afraid, but their nerves acted up. "Relax," Mal said after she stopped laughing. "Mom can't hold it against you if your mothers brought you here."
As soon as she was done calming down the boys, Mal leaned up and kissed Ben on the cheek. She was about to tell him that she missed seeing him, but noticed that he was staring at her with self-assured smile. "What?" she asked.
"Really?" Carlos said from small table where he and Jane were sitting. "You're really gonna act like we didn't just hear what you said?"
Mal looked at Carlos like he'd temporarily gone insane. "Said what? That it can't be held against you two?"
Ben and Carlos let out small chuckles. Jane rolled her eyes. "She can't always tell when she does it," Jane cut in. "It just slips out every now and then."
"I called her Mom again didn't I?" Mal said in a restrained gasp.
All three of her friends nodded.
"So you call Fairy Godmother 'Mom' without thinking about it?" Ben asked.
Mal nodded sheepishly. She wasn't embarrassed to be caught or heard calling Fairy Godmother that, she just still felt some uneasiness about. It was because she knew she still had a mother, one that she still loved in her own way. But over this past summer, she'd experienced the kind of mother-daughter relationship that she'd never dreamed of having; or that she'd ever thought she'd enjoy.
With her mother, it was all about proving herself worthy of being called Maleficent's daughter, and earning the right to use her full name in her mother's eyes. There was constant pressure to be the best at being the absolute worst. She lied. She stole. She cheated. She bullied. Every bad thing she could think of in order to get her mother's approval.
But here, with Fairy Godmother it was…simpler. She didn't ask her to earn anything. Instead, she gave Mal as much as she could. A home where she didn't have to tick off a list of bad deeds just be let inside. The door had been thrown open for her. And there was no need to scratch and claw for approval since she knew that she'd had Fairy Godmother's from the day she walked in. But most importantly of all, Fairy Godmother let her know that the only one Mal had to prove herself to was herself. Mal loved how Fairy Godmother was always trying to build her into the best version of herself, not so she could decide that Mal was worthy of her name, but because she'd already decided that Mal was worthy…even if was for a title more than a name.
"What does she think about that?" Ben asked her softly.
"She doesn't mind, at least I don't think she does," Mal answered.
"She loves it," Jane revealed to the group. Mal looked over to Jane and gave her a questioning look and mouthed a "really" at her. Jane nodded at her, a warm smile on her face.
The four of them talked for a while longer before a slight bit of frustration set in. "Ugh, I wish we could go somewhere," Mal groaned.
"Yeah, but Mom's not gonna let us go," Jane corrected her.
"This is fine," Ben cut in.
"Yeah," Carlos agreed.
"It wouldn't be so bad if only…," Mal trailed off, her face lighting up and her trademark smirk creasing her lips.
Jane immediate felt a bad idea coming. "Mal no, we're already grounded for the rest of summer. Don't make it worse," she argued.
Mal just smiled, gave Ben a quick kiss on the lips, got up off his lap, made her way over to where Jane and Carlos were sitting and grabbed her by the hand. The boys watched as she dragged Jane over to the middle of the yard. "What do you think they're up to?" Ben asked.
"They?" Carlos asked as he came and sat in the lawn chair next to Ben's. "This is all your girlfriend. Mine likes to stay out of trouble usually."
"This is true," Ben concurred as they watched Mal and Jane arguing. They obviously couldn't hear what was being said, but judging by the waving hands, shaking heads, and Jane pressing her thumb and forefinger to the bridge of her nose, they could infer than Mal was trying to talk her into something.
"Do you think Mal's gonna – and apparently she will talk Jane into her plan," Carlos said as he watched Jane finally nod her head. Ben laughed and he and Carlos watched as Mal and Jane came back toward them. Once they were back on the stone patio, they held out their hands toward the grass and spoke a quick chant.
Almost immediately, the ground began to shake, and then the grass began to crack and cave in on itself until there was a hole in ground the size of half the yard. The boys, as well as Jane and Mal, listened as a bubbling noise began emanating from the hole and then they watched as water began to come up until it was level with the yard.
"Holy crap," Carlos gasped, his mouth hanging open.
"Did you two just make a pool?" Ben asked in just as much shock as Carlos as he sat up in the lawn chair.
"Oh God," Mal gasped, her eyes wide at the feat they'd just performed.
"Mal, that's way bigger that a paddling pool," Jane shouted as she gazed down at the massive body of water in her backyard.
"You think we overdid the spell?" Mal asked her.
"You mean you two didn't want to make this?" Ben asked.
Both girls shook their heads. "We were going for something a little smaller," Jane said nervously.
"Mom's gonna be pissed," Mal moaned as realized that there was no way they could hide this.
"What did you two do?" they heard from behind them. All four teenagers turned and saw Fairy Godmother standing at the backdoor, flanked by Belle and Liz. Mal and Jane found it difficult to decide how mad she was since she seemed to have more shock written on her face than anger at the moment.
"I can explain this," Mal started. "We tried to make a small kiddie –"
"Paddling," Jane interrupted her.
"Paddling pool, you know, to sit in. I think we, uh, added too much…something…to the spell."
"I'll say," Liz said as she looked at the sparkling water.
"You know, it does look lovely," Belle added.
"Not helping," Fairy Godmother said as she stepped out into the backyard. She turned her attention back to her girls. "Might I ask why you thought we needed a pool?"
"Well," Mal began, "we were kind of bored, so I thought me and Jane could make a small, paddling pool?" she said, turning to Jane to make sure she got the term right this time. Jane nodded. "A small paddling pool for us to sit in."
"This is a little bigger than that," Fairy Godmother said, doing her best to remain calm.
"How much trouble are we in now?" Jane asked sheepishly.
Fairy Godmother took a deep breath and then looked at Mal and Jane, her face softening. These two seem to have found themselves a pattern, she thought. As she remembered back to the more memorable things they done to get grounded; sneaking off to Snow White's kingdom, sneaking off to the party, blowing up her garden, and now this. Each incident had one thing in common: boredom. Fairy Godmother realized that her daughters seemed to get in the most trouble when they had nothing to do.
So she thought that maybe instead of immediately going for more punishment…
"You know what girls, I'm going to let you off on this one," she told them. Mal and Jane looked at her like she'd lost her mind, and the rest of the assembled guests had rather confused looks on their faces at the sound of the normally stern Fairy Godmother showing some mercy. "Boys," she said turning to Ben and Carlos, "if you would be so kind, could you please take the girls out for the day, a movie or something?"
"You're gonna let us go out?" Mal asked. Fairy Godmother nodded. "But what about the pool?"
"I'll take of it," she said. "You four just go have fun."
"Are you sure?" Mal asked.
"Mal, shut up and take it," Jane told her under her breath. "Guys, we'll be right back, we're gonna go change," she added, taking Mal by the hand and running her inside.
Belle and Liz laughed as they watched the girls run. "We'll go wait for them inside," Ben said. "Mom, do you want me to have the palace send another car for you and Mrs. Jenkins?"
"That'll work, Sweetie, have fun."
Ben nodded with a small smile.
"Carlos, take care of Jane," Liz instructed him.
"I will," he answered back as he followed Ben inside.
Belle smiled at Fairy Godmother. "I'm surprised you're being so calm about this."
Fairy Godmother smiled back and then looked over her shoulder into the house. Liz and Belle then watched as she made her wand appear in her hand and began waving in the direction of the pool. "Bibbidi bobbidi boo," she intoned, and then Belle and Liz watched as deck chairs with matching umbrellas appeared next to it. "Once the kids are gone, are you two happy with what you're wearing, or should I conjure up some swimwear?"
Belle and Liz broke out into loud laughter at the realization that Fairy Godmother had no intention of fixing what the girls had done at this immediate moment. She in fact, wanted them gone so they could enjoy the two younger fairies' handiwork.
"Audrey hasn't been herself since that night," Phillip told Jay as he led him and Coach Jenkins to the rear of the castle and onto the grounds.
"I'm sorry about that," Jay remarked.
"I should be mad, but Audrey told me what happened. As far as I'm concerned, you're not completely at fault," he said to him, causing Jay to breathe a sigh of relief. "Of course you're not completely clear of wrong doing. But then again, neither is Audrey," he added causing him to become tense all over again.
"I told him the same thing," Coach Jenkins said as he followed where Audrey's father was leading them.
"Jay, can I ask you a question?" he inquired, stopping him with a hand on his shoulder. He nodded. "Why do you care about my daughter?"
Jay looked over at Coach, a look of help written on his face. "Don't look at me, I'm surprised you haven't had this talk with the man yet," Coach told him.
Jay sucked in a deep breath and then let it out slowly. Ever since that conversation he and Audrey had after Ben's party, things had been somewhat cold between Audrey and him. They still talked and texted, but he could tell that what had been said that night was still bothering her. He tried to get her to tell him what was making her fixate on it so much, but she just kept her distance in regards to the conversation.
Finally, at Coach's suggestion, he decided the best approach was a face to face talk. She couldn't avoid the topic if he was there to keep pressing it. So that was how he found himself inside Phillip and Aurora's castle.
They found themselves at the back entrance to the castle which led out to the grounds which were greener than even the school's tourney fields. Phillip didn't open the doors right away, and Jay knew that he was waiting for an answer to his question. For once, Jay felt a little intimidated. He'd never imagined that one of Auradon's royals could make him feel that, but then again, he remembered that the only real exposure he'd had to them was their children. And most of them were soft by his standards.
But this was King Phillip. This was the man who not only stood up to Maleficent, but actually killed her. Jay would find it difficult to admit out loud, but he had a small amount of respect for the man, after all, Maleficent scared even him.
"Because she's not the stuck up princess everyone thinks she is," he finally answered. Phillip looked at Jay with a raised eyebrow. "I don't know if you know or not, but at school, most people see her and wonder whether all the things that made her mother so loved skipped a generation."
Phillip was surprised to hear this. In fact, he looked over at Coach who simply held up his hands, choosing to stay neutral in all this. However, Phillip caught the slight nod he gave.
"But once you give her some time, and she starts to trust you, she lets the walls down," Jay continued. "You find out what she's like when it comes to people she cares about."
"Which is?"
"Loyal," he said without missing a beat. "Take Family Day a while back." Coach let out a groan at the memory since he was there to see the fiasco. For his part, Phillip was remembering what he was told since he and Aurora couldn't make it. "Not one of her best days for making people feel welcome, but she told me she really thought she was protecting her grandmother from Mal."
"She like that with you?" Coach asked, amazingly channeling the thoughts of Phillip.
"I know she took some…heat…from her friends when we started dating. She even mentioned people here not being too thrilled," he continued. "But she said she never let what other people said or did stop her from making a decision before, so why start now."
Jay went silent. He hoped that answer satisfied Audrey's father because he'd have hated to come all this way and not be able to talk to her. Luckily for him, Phillip was happy to find someone who finally saw the Audrey he knew was really there, not the veneer she put up.
"Follow this stone path until you get to the fountain. When it splits offs, take the path on the right. It will lead you to some trees she likes to sit under," he instructed. Jay nodded in thanks and walked off.
"You really think he can fix things with her?" Coach asked the king in front of him.
"I hope so," Phillip responded as he watched Jay walk further down the stone path. "Because I hate seeing my little girl so upset."
The small orchard of cherry blossom trees on the castle's north lawn was Audrey's favorite place in the palace and its grounds. They were a gift from Mulan and Li Shang to celebrate Audrey's birth. Actually, it had been just the one tree they sent, but after years of care from the royal gardener, one had turned to thirty in various stages of growth. Right now she was under the original tree they'd received. Being the oldest tree, it was the same age as her, and the most mature of the group. It was the one she liked to sit under the best since this was the one that had created the rest of the group.
She'd been spending more and more time here as of late, mostly since the night of the party, thinking back to the conversation she'd had with Jay. She hated that she got so upset with him, especially since she was the one who asked him about his use of that nickname. But that night had led to some soul searching for the young princess, and despite how much she wanted to see her boyfriend, she needed to do that alone.
At least she thought she did until she felt a presence joining her. "You should've told me you were coming," Audrey told him when she felt him sit down next to her.
"I didn't think you would say yes."
"Why?"
"You haven't exactly been happy when we talk lately," Jay said.
She turned to look at him. "I've been…doing some thinking. Some of it about you. Some of it about us. Mostly about me," she told him.
"And?"
"I know people think I'm some kind of high maintenance priss. Others just think I'm a bitch," she started. Jay felt himself become a little upset at hearing Audrey call herself that. "But I always figured my friends thought different."
"We do you know," Jay said in an attempt to reassure her.
Audrey rested her head on Jay's shoulder. "You think different," she remarked. "At least now you do. But I had to earn it because when you first got here, I completely acted like one."
"You changed though."
"For you. But I still have moments where I treat people like servants. And…and that's why I've been so upset. I want to change, but I don't know if I can," she admitted.
Jay wrapped his arm around her, and squeezed her tightly to him. He didn't say anything, not because he didn't have anything to say, but because he knew that she wasn't looking for him to. He heard her sniffling and reasoned that she was crying. He let her get it out until he heard her crying calm down after a few minutes. He then reached down and tilted her head to face him.
"If you want to change, I'll be here for you while you do that. But if you ask me, I think you're perfect the way you are," he told her.
Audrey felt herself suddenly become overcome with emotion at the sound of those words. Tears start running down her cheeks again and before Jay could try to stop them, she leaned up and kissed him, hard and deep.
"I'm sorry I got mad at you," she told him when she broke the kiss.
"Feel free to get mad again," he said without thinking as he recovered from that kiss.
Audrey giggled through her tears and kissed him again, more gently this time. "I missed you."
