"What the hell are you guys doing?" Mal asked her boyfriend while walking into the cafeteria.

Ben looked down at his purple haired beauty, she had to be kidding, but no. Her expression was pure confusion, it hit him like a train, while everyone was excited for Christmas four kids probably didn't know much about it.

"Decorating a Christmas tree!" Ben said, he didn't want to make a big deal of it. He knew how Mal got when she was out of her element, he'd explain later when they were alone.

"Didn't you guys celebrate Christmas on the Isle?" Lonnie asked from the back of the tree.

"No, I can't say we did." Mal said. In truth they did, on December 26th they were all expected to fight each other, practically to the death for left over food and discarded gifts that came on the barges in hopes their parent would be something other than disappointed. She knew that was not what Lonnie had in mind for Christmas.

"You had to have done something!" Lonnie said in shock, "I mean even if your parents just gave you a little gift and didn't make a big deal of it, it's Christmas for crying out loud!"

Jay, Carlos and Evie walked in to hear Lonnie's exclamation and stopped mid step. Ben was mildly amused until he realized something bad had to have happened to make all four kids freeze like that.

"Oh come on Lonnie, you know they aren't like us!" Chad pipped in to the conversation.

"I know that, but I mean even villains have to love their kids!" Lonnie said, to her it was impossible for the world to be any other way. One glace at the four villain kids told her the impossible was very possible. None of them even thought to say that of course their parents loved them, they all knew better.

"That's, just. Oh." Lonnie trailed off.

"Well, right now we're decorating one of the trees, I think the school gets about a million more. All the kids and staff work on them whenever. Each tree has its lights and things next to it" Lonnie said "On Christmas eve we have a feast and Christmas morning we exchange gifts and have another feast."

Mal raised an eyebrow, "Two feasts? No wonder so much food went to the Isle" she said with out thinking. Lonnie looked even more gobsmacked, even Chad who could care less about the VK's looked surprised. Ben didn't say anything, he knew how the island got food.

"You mean you got our garbage!" it wasn't a question, but Evie nodded. Carlos turned and left, he didn't want to hear anything about the Isle, it was in the past and that is where he wanted it.

"Whats up with him?" Chad asked.

"Bad memories" was all Jay said before he left to find Carlos.

"It can't have been that bad" Chad said, "I mean you're all still alive."

Ben watched Mal's face morph into anger, something told him they were about to learn a bit more about life on the Isle. She'd told them a bit before, it seemed like anytime she got mad she'd talk about the Isle, as if proving that those around her would never understand exactly what her and her friends had lived through.

"You want to know how we spent Christmas" Mal asked, spitting the word Christmas, as if it was poison.

"Mal, don't!" Evie said. There was no way Mal could tell about Christmas without talking about their non-existent home lives

"No, Evie. I'm tired of eating shit here! We left the fucking Isle and these assholes keep bringing it up. They deserve to know what they're reminding us of every fucking time they need to point out just how different we are. Ben can do it without making us feel like shit, he did on Halloween, but everyone else acts like we can change what happened to us, if we just try harder." Mal had drawn the attention of everyone in the room, which was about half of Auradon Prep. Evie looked at her friend, then she nodded slightly, "Go on.", Carlos was going to kill them, hell Jay was probably going to kill them for Carlos.

"Every year on December 26th we celebrated Christmas-"

"Christmas is the 25th" Chad interrupted, while his friends told him to shut up.

"As I as saying, on December 26th, we did Christmas. Everything on the Isle comes in on barges, it's nothing more than Aurdonian garbage. As you know Christmas is a time of excess, so on the 26th the barges are overfilled. All the kids on the Isle, anyone under sixteen, is sent to meet the barges. We have one goal, get as much food as we can, worry about the stuff later, find the food." Mal shuddered, even she hated the holiday on the Isle. "As you can imagine many fights broke out, in the end we would all get hurt just trying to steal from each other to try and make our parents happy. It never worked. One year I brought home a whole cake for mother, she was mad it wasn't chocolate. Jay's father always wanted more, why bring one steak, why not two, never mind that steak isn't really thrown out that much. Evie probably had the best Christmas of us all, her mom was actually okay with anything she got, but then she'd be belittled for her appearance because she'd failed to fight for her life and look like a model." Mal stopped, Carlos was going to kill her, maybe if she stopped there no one would notice.

"You're missing one." Evie said softly behind her, "He's the one they're hurting the most, they need to know."

For the first time anyone could remember Mal's voice shook as she continued, "Like Evie said, C had it the worst. I mean there is nothing to him, picture him against a horde of fifteen year olds. He'd get beaten half to death on the barge, whatever scraps he could find never had a chance at being enough. As we got older we helped him, but he spent years alone. Then he'd go home where his mother would beat him again for failing her and being so worthless. Jay and I used to bandage him up, when I say it's a miracle he's alive I mean it." Mal wiped at her eyes, sadness quickly turning back into anger. "That is just the worst day of our year, there isn't really a good one though. I'm never good enough for my mother, Jay never steals enough for his father and Evie is never pretty enough for her mom. But Carlos is less than worthless to his mother, she saw nothing but a slave and a punching bag. Every fucking time you bring up that Isle, that is what we remember. No, villains don't love their kids, but their kids don't love them either. We four hit the fucking lotto, we got an escape. We're trying like hell to take it but every fucking day something has to remind us we don't fit in." Mal stopped and looked around before continuing so softly those on the other side of the room had to strain to listen, "C watched his mother burn to death, we roasted marshmallows in the fire. No, we don't fit in here, but you wouldn't fit in there." Mal said before turning to leave, Evie right on her heels.

"Where are you going?" The blue haired girl asked.

"To my death sentence, I'm telling C that everyone knows."

Inside the cafeteria it was silent. For many of the kids their world was shaken, they'd never imagined anyone existing in anyway other than how they did.

"She's lying" Audrey said. "There is no way all they get is garbage!"

Others started to agree when Ben interrupted, "That part is defiantly true. I've talked to the Wharf Goblins, the Isle is basically our dumpster".

Silence reigned again. Before Lonnie spoke up, "Ben, how'd you handle Halloween with them?"

"I asked Mal what they usually did, I wanted to try and incorporate it into our party. She wouldn't tell me. So I told her what we did here, I'm assuming she told her friends later. I mean she didn't know what a Jack-o-Lantern was." Ben said. "I didn't even think about Christmas for them" he admitted.

"I think, maybe. We should go to Fairy Godmother with this." Lonnie said, "I mean unless someone else has an idea."

"We'll I'd stop talking about the Isle in front of them!" Mary said. She was pissed to hear Carlos' story, he was such a nice kid, but coming from an Isle of evil she could see how that may be a bad thing.

There was a murmur of assent around her. "Besides that though, I mean think about things like fireworks, those will probably scare them to death" Lonnie said. Ben nodded, Mal hated loud noises and he knew Jay had held Carlos through every thunder storm they'd had. "I think you're right Lonnie. Why don't we go now?" Ben asked.

Lonnie came from the back of the tree and together they went to Fairy Godmothers office.

When Mal pushed open the door to the boys dorm she was torn, her old self wanted to sneer and tease the two boys, but the new Mal felt her heart melt just a little.

Jay was on the couch with his legs up, Carlos was nestled between him and the back of the couch, his head on Jay's chest. As they walked in Jay held a finger to his lips to keep them quiet.

"What happened when you left?" Mal asked quietly, she was more than a little concerned, not that she'd show it.

"We made it back to here before he just broke." Jay sounded lost, "I couldn't comfort him or get him to stop crying, he just fell asleep a moment ago. I think he exhausted himself."

"Well as always, it's probably going to get worse before it gets better" Evie said quietly.

"Mal, what did you do!" Jay whispered as harshly as he dared.

"Something you're both gonna kill me for" Mal said turning red, now she felt remorse in full force, sometimes she hated being good. "I sorta exploded and told them about our Christmas."

"Them who?" Jay asked.

Mal was silent, Evie spoke up "Everyone in the room, in twenty minutes the whole school will know."

Jay looked sick, "How much, how much did you tell them?" he asked, the answer scared him more than he'd ever admit to anyone.

"Everything."

Silence.

"How much is everything?" Jay growled.

"Everything Jay, her mother, my mother, your father and Cruella. They know it all."

"Even about his scars?" Jay asked

"Not the details, just that me and you bandaged him up after his mom beat the shit outta him" Mal said, hoping she'd live to see tomorrow.

"You should have told them." Jay said. Evie looked confused, "what am I missing? she told them everything!"

Mal raised an eyebrow at Jay, "she should have been told on the Isle." was all he said.

Mal took a deep breath, she hated being a story teller when she wasn't pissed off.

"Jay, can you pull his shirt up a little more?" Mal asked, deciding showing was better than telling.

"You know he was beaten, that was only half of it." Mal said. Jay gently moved Carlos' shirt up being careful not to wake him.

"Holy fucking shit" Evie swore, Mal looked at her, Evie never swears.

"The lines are from a razor blade, the circles are cigarette burns. All from Cruella. Jay has been bandaging him up since C was nine, but he said there are scars older than that."

"How much older." Evie asked.

"He thinks it started around age two, but he's not sure." Jay said while pulling Carlos' shirt back over the scars and holding him tight again. He hated even thinking about everything he had survivied.

"Well now I know why he never goes in the locker room after Tourney." Evie said. There wasn't anything else to be said, there was nothing that could fix just how much their friend had suffered.

Both girls left, Evie wanted to study for a test, everyone saw it as the distraction it was, Mal just wanted to leave Jay and Carlos alone.

Carlos woke up in Jay's arms shortly after Evie and Mal left.

"Sorry, I know I get kinda dramatic." Carlos said, not looking up at Jay.

"You're fine, and you're probably going to be more dramatic in a second." Jay told him

"Why?"

"Mal told half the school, who probably told the other half. She told them about our Christmas."

Jay watched, as Carlos went even paler than usual, he didn't think that was possible.

"Evie also knows about your scars."

Now Carlos turned red, "Great, ;ike I needed more people paying attention to me." he lamented.

"It'll be fine, you'll see no one will even care." Jay told him.

"At this point I don't care, I have you that's all that matters." Carlos said.

"Ah, Ben and Lonnie, how are the Christmas decorations coming?" Fairy God Mother inquired as the two youths came in.

"Well, but we've hit a bit of a snag with the Isle kids."

"Oh dear, are they causing trouble?" FG asked.

Lonnie was taken aback, then she remembered FG didn't know what they did, "No, no, they're great, better than expected really." Lonnie said.

"Oh then what's the matter dears?"

"I, er, we are really worried about them..." Ben trailed off before retelling what had just happened in the cafeteria. Fairy God Mother paled considerably upon hearing Mal's story retold.

"I think, perhaps the best course of action is to leave it alone."

"What!" Lonnie screeched.

"Try to see this from their point of view dear. If we draw more attention to them it will make it worse. Everyone knows, I'd like to think they will stop talking about the Isle. Ben and you can explain things to them. I have a feeling others will as well, now that they realize just how different island life is. If you notice any troubles let me know. But for now, nothing is what we will do." Fairy God Mother said.

Lonnie started to protest, but he interrupted her, he knew Mal did best alone, the others were probably similar. "Thanks Headmistress, we'll just go now." Lonnie followed him silently. They stopped halfway to the VK's dorms.

"We have to do something!"

"We are, I'm gonna talk to Mal later, assuming Carlos and Jay don't kill her for telling their story." Ben said.

"Why would they be mad?" Lonnie asked, if she was in that situation she'd want everyone to know to help get her out.

"Think about it like them, no one has ever cared before. No one has ever helped them before-"

"You're wrong, one person helped us." Mal said coming out of some shadows. She'd left Carlos and Jay alone, Jay said he'd tell Carlos before someone else did, but for now he wanted the boy to rest. "Once upon a time an Auradon kid sent over a case of lollipops, he made the goblin promise to give them to one of the kids, not an adult. The kid that got them was me, every kid on the Isle got a few, I wanted to steal them all and couldn't do it. My first proof that I wasn't my mother." Mal lamented, "The goblin also told me who it was, a few years later they did even more to help us."

While Mal talked Ben made up his mind, he just had one thing to ask, "The day you had the lollipops, was it like Christmas, did everyone fight over them?"

Mal shook her head, "We didn't need to, they were ours. I left part of Christmas out, Lonnie please don't share it." Mal looked at the girl, knowing she could trust her, "Us kids got the scraps of your scraps, at Christmas time we didn't even get that, the scraps were too good for us, our parents ate them all."

Ben asked another question, "How many of the Isle kids, even the ones older than us are just evil because they want to live?"

Mal thought for a moment, "All of them." she said softly. As Maleficent's daughter she was the unofficial leader of the kids, when they were alone, out of sight of adults they were kids. They bandaged each others wounds, made sure the others had enough to eat, helped with homework and taught each other skills to try and please their parents. Outside of their so called safe spots though, it was every man for himself. As the kids got older they often stopped coming to the safe spots, fearing that they'd be caught."

"Okay" Ben said, "If I suggested bringing other kids to the Isle, what do you think the best way to do it is?"

Ben couldn't help but laugh, Mal and Lonnie had the exact same expression, pure shock.

Mal thought for a moment, then answered her boyfriend, "It'd be best if one of us went back to talk to the others to find out what they really want. But I don't know how possible that is."

"What if the VK's went back to these safe spots and let those that want out know that there's a way, then we just need to pick them up?" Lonnie said.

Mal went to speak, but Ben cut her off, "Lonnie, think like them, they'd see it as a trap." Mal's jaw dropped. "I have been listening to you about the Isle, you know"

"I see that now." Mal said, "I think Lonnie might be on to something though, if we could go back to contact some of those under us, those we trusted they might be able to arrange it the kids meeting at a pick up spot."

"I have to talk to my father more, he's already approved a bit, but the more I learn, the more needs to be changed." Ben said. "He really didn't think The Isle of the Lost through properly".

"Well get your cute ass on the phone!" Mal said, "The sooner we get them the better!"