Choosing Love

Chapter Twenty Six

"I know why we don't want Freddy," Ben spoke up from his never ending mountain of paperwork. After all, he wasn't exactly fond of the guy who hit Mal in the shoulder with a dagger and he wasn't exactly crazy about the idea of bringing gang warfare to Auradon even if every kid on the Isle deserved their chance to be in the sun. "But why don't we want Zevon?"

"He's got a crush on Mal," Jay and Harry spoke up simultaneously, causing Mal to roll her eyes and Ben's back to stiffen up.

"Honestly, you think every guy I interact with has a crush on me!"

"Not true. We don't think Emir or Akiho has a crush on you," Jay pointed out.

"Considering they both have girlfriends, I should hope not!"

"We also don't think Charming or DeVil or Fish for Brains have a crush on you," Harry added, acting as if Mal hadn't spoken. "Though if I had to be fair to Zevon, we at least know what his next move would be if he got to Auradon. Freddy's unpredictable."

"I think for the second group, it couldn't hurt to have an application," Ben said, bringing the conversation back to stable waters and giving a nod to Carlos' point. "We keep it fair that way. Plus then it builds the framework for future groups."

"Okay but then who reviews the applications?" Jay asked from his spot leaning against the wall by one of Ben's bookshelves. "Your shadows? Because I'm pretty sure we just made them biased by going on about why we don't like Zevon or Freddy."

"To be fair, we don't like any of the Angels or the Casters," Mal pointed out as Estelle got up from his spot by Carlos to go over to her. "Well...except for Brooke and Quinn."

"That's only because the lass didn't exactly have a choice in leaving our crew and Quinn's pretty much harmless in that she's the only Caster who can't use magic," Harry told her.

"Right. You'd said Locklyn basically told Brooke it was us or her."

"You know it's a good thing Gil's not here otherwise he probably wouldn't like where this conversation was heading, talking about his sister and cousin like this," Carlos said, shaking his head.

"Where is Gil anyway?" Ben asked. While the blond wasn't necessarily close to the other VKs, Ben would have thought the son of Gaston would have been at this meeting in case there was someone he wanted to get off of the Isle.

Evie wasn't there either but Ben had pretty much expected that—her father had officially been released from the hospital and Snow White was helping him get set up in a guest room in her castle. Something that Evie was more than happy to help with. Ben had already sent a card to Daniel, hoping that the older man continued to have a speedy recovery and that whenever he was ready, Ben was more than happy to meet with him to set up guardianship for Evie.

"Gil's on a date with Macaria," Mal told him, a small smile pulling at her lips at the thought. Of all the things she'd seen since coming to Auradon, that was probably not something she had ever expected to happen. But, and she'd deny she even thought it if anyone actually asked, it was cute. Sometimes Mal would see the two of them watching R.O.A.R practice on occasion when she'd sneak in to watch Jay and Carlos.

Plus Lonnie had finally decided she was good enough to try out for the team and there was no way Mal was going to miss that.

"Harriet," Harry stated, pulling them back onto their original topic. "If anyone's coming off the Isle, it should be Harriet."

"Excuse me? Why not Celia?" Uma asked, leaning her head back to look at her first mate and raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"No reason they both can't come cap'n. In fact Freddie might prefer it if Harriet was with the young shadowling."