Her first week at Auradon High hadn't been horrible, Mal liked to think. She'd advanced in all her classes due to the superior education she was given in the Protectors Academy, and she'd stayed out of everyones business by simply not making friends.
Investigating was harder than she'd anticipated. Not only was the school painfully normal, but nothing seemed to be sparking any magical energy. She'd tried to use spells to track the source of magic itself, but she was unable to find anything. If she couldn't find the magical source, how could she protect it?
Freddie hadn't had much luck either. She'd also been trying to locate the source of the magic, but she had yet to discover it. It was frustrating, not knowing what they had to protect. Nevertheless, they continued as normal in the high school, attending classes and sitting alone at lunch, pretending to not know the others identity.
It was another boring Wednesday afternoon for Mal. She was once again sat alone in the corner of the cafeteria, the table deserted save for her lunch tray. She tiredly picked at the cheese fries in front of her, having already grown bored of the small selection of food in the cafeteria.
Just as she was preparing to throw away the abysmal excuse for food the school had provided, something caught her eye.
Across the cafeteria, she spotted the same blue-haired girl she'd seen in her science classes. She was sat with a group of boys with letterman jackets and girls with cheerleading uniforms, despite the fact she didn't seem to be on either team. She was animately chatting to another letterman boy with long brown hair, sporting a red beanie. Mal couldn't quite work out his face from the angle she was watching from, but the group of teenagers wasn't what had caught Mal's eye.
In the girls hands lay a small mirror, which to any mortal may have seemed harmless, but to Mal, it was a huge lead in her mission. She'd spent a whole semester in her junior year studying the properties of different enchanted items, including the retired, old enchanted items used by Protectors in the early years of their training.
The Magic Mirror was a tool famously used by Protectors to discover the location or properties of a certain person or object. Mal had only seen one in person before, which had been locked in a museum due to the substantial power it held. It had famously been used by an evil sorceress to discover her targets locations, and therefore the item had been discontinued, less than a dozen remaining in the world.
Mal couldn't quite figure out of the girl was aware of it's powers from where she was sat. In fact, she seemed to be using the mirror as exactly what it was; a mirror. If only Mal could hear what her conversation was about...
Spotting a bin near the girl's table, Mal stood up quickly to deposit her lunch inside it. She took her time approaching the table, trying to overhear as much of the conversation as possible. Upon approaching the bin, however, Mal was very disappointed in the conversation she was now eavesdropping in.
"So I have my hair appointment at five and then Chad wants me to come over to help him with Calculus," the blue-haired girl sighed, "Why is my life so hard?"
"People are dying Evie," the boy with the red beanie replied, stuffing fries into his face, "Why is Chad asking you for help anyway?"
"Because he's courting me, of course!" The blue-haired girl explained, "Just like Ben did to Audrey!"
Mal sighed. It seemed that the girl was far too superficial to even know the importance of what she was holding. Nevertheless, Mal made a note to mention the item to Freddie as a possible lead in their investigation. With one final look at her now disposed cheese fries, Mal made her way out of the cafeteria to desperately search for a vending machine.
"Mal, this is huge!" Freddie exclaimed as the two sat in their dorm room back at the Academy, "Why didn't you text me?"
"Because this phone is driving me insane," Mal explained, gesturing to the cell phone on her bed, "What should we do now?"
"We could steal it," Freddie suggested, "Or deactivate it's magic powers."
"And how, pray tell, do you expect us to accomplish that without being caught?" Mal asked.
Freddie rolled her eyes, "We're Protectors. Duh."
The next morning, Mal was once again sat in her homeroom, bored out of her mind. Ben and his girlfriend were once again flirting before the bell rang, now joined by some of the same people Mal had seen the blue-haired girl sat with yesterday, as well as the girl herself.
Mal considered bringing a book to pretend to read out of sheer boredom for the next week, as homeroom proved to be the longest and most tortuous part of the day. However, this all changed upon overhearing the conversation going on near her.
"I just don't understand why we shouldn't abolish magic all together!"
Mal's eyes widened. It had been a popular debate in recent media if to abolish magic would be an improvement to modern day society, by reducing the 'abnormalities' in humans. Of course, being a Holder of Magic, Mal found the whole debate stupid. Of course Magic was important; it was the foundation of nature and the world's best line of defence. However, she was very aware of the prejudice that came with it.
Many people believed Magic was a curse; something that could potentially ruin humanity in the future. A leader of this movement happened to be the major of the small town, a man nicknamed 'King Beast'. He had once been cursed by an unruly Holder into the form of a Beast, and had since been an advocate against Magic, along with his wife Belle, the Senator of Auradon.
Mal was very well-versed in both sides of the argument, and she was not shocked to hear the group speaking about the issues. Nevertheless, she continued to listen.
'Like, think about it," Ben's girlfriend continued, "Magic has caused so many problems, with all the curses and hexes!"
"But Magic is pretty much retired," the Red Beanie boy pointed out, "There haven't been any serious incidents in years since Maleficent's imprisonment."
Mal knew the legends of Maleficent. Any and every Holder did. Maleficent had been an incredibly powerful Holder who had used her powers for evil. She had eventually been imprisoned by a group of Protectors, her location unknown. She had been banished prior to Mal's birth, and therefore she didn't know much about the ordeal.
"Because they removed her Magic," Ben's girlfriend stressed, rolling her eyes, "That's my point; if we just got rid of Magic, we'd all be better off!"
Mal noticed the blue-haired girl had stayed quiet during this debate. Mal couldn't tell if it was for her own personal reasons, or if the phone in front of her truly was more interesting.
"Audrey is right," a blonde haired boy added, finally putting a name to the face, "Magic creates more crime than it solves. I mean, have you ever actually seen a Protector doing their job? I bet it's all a scam."
Mal could feel her blood starting to boil. It was an endless argument in the media; if Protectors truly did work. Truthfully, Mal knew for a fact her job was much more impactful than anyone could imagine. Protectors dealt with multiple different aspects of the world, including nature. In fact, just last week a secret mission had taken place to reduce the impact of climate change. There were so many things Protectors did for the world, but they were just unknown.
"We should start a petition!" Audrey suggested, "I'm sure if we can get the whole town to sign, we can get those anti-magic barriers in too! And if every city did it, then we-"
"You do realise that Protectors are the first line of humanity's defence, right?" Mal snapped as she turned to the group, unable to keep her thoughts to herself any longer, "Even though you don't see them, they've been using Magic for decades to protect the world from natural and criminal disasters. And they do this without an ounce of gratitude, despite this meaning they protect ungrateful people like you."
"Excuse me?!" Audrey exclaimed, placing her hands on her hips as the rest of the room fell into silence.
"Do you honestly believe that it is more important to banish Magic than to have government-trained agents and medical specialists protecting humanity and the earth?" Mal finished just as the homeroom bell rang.
Audrey pursed her lips angrily before storming out of the room. The rest of her group followed suit, however Mal could swear she spotted two sly grins from the blue-haired girl and the red-beanie boy. Ben considered following Audrey, but instead stayed seated as the homeroom teacher walked in, keeping his gaze away from Mal.
Mal knew she'd instantly made enemies with the group, but honestly, she didn't care. She was there for government business only, and with that thought, she smirked at herself in victory.
