you ain't seen nothin' yet

༒chapter seven༒

"Yeah," she says, grabbing a small bowl out of the fridge before coming over to us, "like chocolate chips. Just the most important food group."

I furrow my brows and glance at Mal.

Lonnie grabs a handful of the chocolate chips. "Wait, didn't you parents ever make you guys, like, chocolate chip cookies?" she asks, putting the chocolate chips into the bowl of dough. We all glance at her confused. "Like, when you're feeling sad, and they're fresh from the oven, with a big ole glass of milk and they just make you laugh and put everything into perspective, and—"

Wait, parents actually sympathize for their kids?

Lonnie's face drops when she sees the looks on our faces. "Why are you all looking at me like that?"

Mal shrugs. "It's just different where we're from."

"Yeah, I know," Lonnie says, glancing at us. "I just thought, you know, even villains loved their kids."

"Yeah, if they do they have a funny way of showing it," I mumble, which makes Lonnie's face drop even more.

"Oh," she says, looking at all of us. "How awful."

I glance at her to see a tear going down her face. Before it drops, I wipe it off her cheek and flick it into the bowl. She furrows her brows. "Don't lose tears over us," I say as Mal starts mixing the dough again.

"Yeah," Mal says, our sad moment now being over. "Well, big bummer. We live with it, but we have to get these into the oven before—"

"Curfew," we both say.

Mal nods and starts ushering Lonnie out of the room. "Really, really have a good night. See you tomorrow. Evil dreams."

As soon as Lonnie is out the door Mal turn to us. "Boys, cookie sheet. E, Harp, oven."

Jay goes to get a pan while Carlos starts rifling through a cupboard before grabbing out a roll of parchment paper.

"Yes, ma'am," Evie says as we walk to the oven.

༒

"You think it'll work?" I ask Evie and Carlos as we go to walk outside behind Jay and Mal.

"Hopefully," Evie says.

Carlos sighs, hugging Dude closer to himself. "We're running low on time," he says as we get outside.

"She did it to Jane's hair too, and Fairy Godmother's not happy about it."

"Hey, Audrey!" I shout, getting her attention. "Wait 'til you see the place Evie and I get our hair done!"

She huffs and stomps her foot a little. I laugh, putting my elbows on the railing next to Jay so I can stand facing the lockers.

Mal smiles at me. I nod to her and smile.

"Hey, Bennyboo!"

I hit Jay's arm to stop him from flirting with all the girls.

"Hey," Ben says, turning to walk towards Mal.

Mal shows him a ziplock bag of cookies. "Uh, I just made a batch of cookies. Double chocolate chip. Do you want one?"

"I—uh—I've got a big game. I don't eat before big games," Ben replies. "But, thank you so, so much. Thank you. Next time. Next time," he says, starting to walk away.

"No, yeah," Mal says after him. "I get it. I completely understand." Ben turns around. "'Be carful of treats offered by kids of villains.'"

"No, no, no."

"No, I'm sure every kid in Auradon knows that."

"No, no. That's not it."

I turn to Jay. "Don't you feel kind of bad?" I ask quietly. He furrows his brows. "I mean, he seems like a nice enough guy. I feel a little bad for using him to do this for our parents."

Jay shrugs. "Yeah, I guess so. But at least they'll be proud of us."

I'm not so sure about that.

"No, no, no. I really do," Ben keeps saying. "I have—"

"No, I get it," Mal says. "You're cautious. That's smart." She grabs a cookie and goes to eat it. "Oh, well, more for me, I guess."

"No, no, hey," Ben says, grabbing the cookie from Mal before taking a bite out of literally half the cookie. "See that?" he asks, "Totally trust you. Totally."

Mal looks back at us as we all slowly start to walk towards the two. "How are they?" she asks.

"They're good," Ben says, nodding. "They're great! They're amazing!" He laughs. "They're—uh—I mean, they're chewy and, you know, they—Is that walnuts?"

Definitely not.

Mal nods.

"I love walnuts," Ben says. "I mean, you know, the chocolate," he clears his throat, "The chocolate—the chocolate chips are—I'm sorry, um—They're warm and soft. And they're sweet. Mal, have you always had those little golden flecks in your eyes?"

He goes to eat another bite, but Mal grabs the cookie from him and laughs before putting it back in the bag.

Jay pats Ben's shoulders. "How you feeling, bro?"

"I feel," Ben starts, "I feel, I feel like singing your name!" He starts to literally sing Mal's name, very loud. "Mal! Mal! Ma—"

Jay grabs the bag from Mal when she puts her hands over Ben's mouth. He whistles when he sees how much of the cookie Ben ate.

"Holy shit," I laugh.