The Experimental Dogcatcher

Chapter 13

Mal and Jay had helped walk Carlos to his and Jay's room, each an arm supporting his back or under a shoulder. Evie lead the way, steering them through crowds and other obstacles with a polite smile and batting of eyelashes. Once they were finally able to flop Carlos onto his bed, Mal began pacing from the door to the moonlit window, arms crossed. Evie had situated herself by Carlos's feet, absently curling a strand of hair around her finger and watching Mal think. Carlos propped himself up on his elbows with a grunt.

"Mal." he started after a moment. His voice was quiet, nearly emotionless.

"What??" She snapped, not stopping her fuming gait.

"What are we going to do?"

She stopped then, turning to look at him. Betrayal had left a tired expression with his features, he had succeeded in keeping the pain in. For now, at least. Mal's own expression softened slightly.

"We're going to do what we came here to do in the first place."

At this, Evie stopped mid-anxious-twirl. "What? You mean what our parents want us to do?"

The resolve in Mal's voice flooded her friend's ears. 

"Yeah. Tomorrow night. We're going to go into that Hall of Villans, grab the wand, and free the Isle."

"But, but Mal isin't that suicide?" Carlos piped up, clutching the bedsheets.

"Isin't it suicide if we don't? I mean come on, don't you want to make our parents actually proud of us for once? Don't we want to skip a beat-belittling?" 

Carlos flinched with a noticeable shudder as Mal faltered. Her eyes darted around awkwardly. She knew all too well, as did everyone else in their group, how sensitive Carlos could be with certain things because of his past. Because of his mother, more specifically. They always tried to be a little extra careful about saying things too flippantly around him, or doing anything that might trigger a bad memory, but every once in a while it slipped out.

"Um..." Mal cleared her throat, a little too loudly, as Evie placed a surreptitious hand on Carlos's leg to let him know it's okay. To remind him Mal would never want to say anything to upset him. He shot Evie a grateful glance, but then faced the young fairy.

"Anyway," She began again "I'm just saying that we need to do this not only for our parents, but for ourselves. I don't know about you guys, but I haven't been exactly peachy with the whole idea of actually attending this prissy excuse for a school. A girl's gotta be in her element, and that is anywhere but here." 

Jay raised a brow. "This place isin't all that bad. I've never seen better things to steal in my life, dad would totally flip if he saw what I could haul in around here. And oh man," he chuckled fondly "the chicks are to die for. One lame little pickup line and they drop to their knees."

Evie rolled her eyes. Mal sighed.

"I....I wanna do it."

Three sets of eyes flicked over to stare at Carlos. The pair of green were the most intense.

"W-What? Wait what? Really?" Mal said. Carlos swallowed thickly and averted his gaze, shy from the sudden onslaught of attention. 

"Well....yes. I mean, y-you'll probably need help with the security system, and I guess this school is kinda....too....um, yeah. I'll miss that dog a bit, but I'm with you. I mean you guys are my allies and all, right? So it.....so i-it's only right that I help. Yeah."

Evelyn frowned, her sympathetic gaze reading Carlos like a book.

"We should also do it to....to get away from.....her." She supplied quietly.

Mal nodded, face blank, serious. "Who knows what she'll do next."

At the girl's solemn words, Jay took his hands from the casual position they had been in within his pockets, and crossed his arms. His eyes hardened.

"Can't argue with that."

"So it's settled then," Mal said. She looked at Carlos again, eyes blazing with vengeance-driven power.

"Midnight tomorrow, we show this place evil lives on."