Half and Half

Chapter Thirty Four

Mal nodded slowly. She couldn't deny that Ben had a point, especially since there would be six months where she wouldn't be able to help Uma keep an eye out for Celia.

"Okay...but we can't just go around and ask kids. We'd look weak," Mal said. "Who would we even ask?"

"Well didn't you say there was a library in one of the schools?" Ben asked. "We could go there and see there's anyone who stands out?"

"You just want to go to the library don't you?" Mal asked.

Ben shrugged but Mal couldn't help but chuckle at the light in his eyes at the thought. Benny would always be a fan of books no matter where he went, she couldn't help but think.

"Alright, let's go," she said.

"Really?!" Ben asked with a grin.

Mal nodded. "Yep. If we're going to find kids to join into the gang and not just provide protection, then we need to know who's out there for us to recruit."

And more importantly, we need to see who we can bring into our gang before Freddy Frollo recruits for his, Mal thought as the two of them made their way out of the Underworld. There had been talk about the older boy trying to entice people into joining him but so far there wasn't any luck.

Oddly enough, the looming threat of burning for all eternity wasn't exactly enticing people who lived on an island of villains.

His sister's alright though, Mal thought. Sometimes Claudine lets Benny and I hang out in the bell tower when we want to escape Beast and Steph's 'homeschooling'. Why can't we just go to Harry and Uma's school? Or better yet, don't send us to school! Benny's smart enough anyway, why does he even need it? And even without school, I'm smarter than most of the Gods on Olympus.

Yeah, that had been fun to learn. That Beast and Steph expected her and Benny to be homeschooled, not that she was smarter than most of the Gods of Olympus. She was pretty sure that went without saying.

Benny had liked the homeschooling at first and Mal had tried to go along with it but it just didn't make sense. Why did she have to learn Boreadon stuff when she could be sword fighting with Harry and making smoke bombs with Uma?

It was surprisingly Virgil who had made the lessons interesting for Mal, much to everyone's surprise.

"I don't know why I have to learn this," Mal muttered as she and Ben did their 'independent study'. Well more like Ben worked on math problems and Mal doodled on the side of the paper. The best part about having a baby brother and your other teacher had to work at your father's restaurant? You got a lot of breaks from your lessons. "Why do I need to know how many apples someone has if he decides to give some away? Why give away food?"

"Chip says math is important to know for everyone to know," Ben said as he looked up. "Plus I don't want to disappoint papa."

Mal shook her head. No matter how long Ben was on the Isle, his Auradon-ness came through in full force at times. Not that Mal would want to change him.

"H-Hiya M-Mal," a nervous stammer could be heard over her shoulder and Mal smiled as she saw Virgil in the doorway.

"Hey Virgil," Mal said.

"W-What are y-you working on?"

"Math."

Virgil couldn't help the nervous chuckle that slipped out as Mal made a face at the subject. Of course it didn't hurt that Ben had also chuckled so it wasn't as if Virgil was the only one laughing.