Wicked Ones ♛ MAL [✓]

➣ nineteen.

When he was gone, Evie took each of our arms and dragged us away, saying softly, "We need to talk."

"No," Carlos suddenly said, causing us to stop.

"No?" Evie repeated.

"You guys are always going off in a huddle, whispering your girl talk stuff or whatever," he said. "And Jay and I are tired of it."

When we looked at Jay, he glanced around nervously. "I'm not."

Carlos gave him a look before he went on, "We're your family, too. We've been through a lot together. We're not stopping that now, okay?" After a pause he sat down on the grass and said firmly, "Everyone, sit."

We all just looked at him, shocked by his suddenly display of confidence.

"Come on," Carlos said as Evie, Mal and I sat down, then looked at Jay and said, "You too."

When we were all seated, Carlos glanced at us in embarrassment. "I don't know how to start girl talk."

There was a pause before Jay shrugged and said, "What up?", causing us to laugh softly.

"I'm a mess," Mal suddenly rushed out, clearly on the verge of tears. "I'm such a mess. I mean, six months ago, I was, you know, stealing candy from babies, and now... everybody wants me to be this Lady of the Court. And I have no idea how to keep up the act."

"Then don't," Carlos told her.

"See?" Jay said, starting to get up. "This was dumb."

"Maybe it wasn't," I said, causing Jay to look at me in surprise and sit back down.

"We're always gonna be the kids from the Isle," I said to them. "I tried to forget it. I really tried, but those are our roots. And we all did what we had to do to survive. But it made us who we are. And we're never gonna be like anybody else here. And that's okay." I looked at Mal, who was staring back at me with a smile. "That's okay."

"And we can't fake it," Carlos said.

"No," I agreed.

Mal laughed dryly. "Yeah. I mean, especially without my spellbook."

"You don't need a spellbook," I told her, putting my hand on her arm. "Just be yourself. And if the people don't love you for you, then that's their loss."

Mal gave a soft smile before it faltered a bit, and she took my hand and squeezed it gently.

"I'm gonna make some changes to your dresses," Evie said to us. "And if you two are up for it - only if you're up for it - they'll be waiting for you both, okay?"

She and the boys stood up and left, and I looked at Mal, telling her softly, "Come to Cotillion tonight, all right? I have one more surprise for you." When she looked at me but didn't protest, I went on, "If I show it to you, and you still can't stand another day, Jay and I will drive you back tomorrow ourselves. Okay?"

Mal nodded. "Okay."

I stood up, walking away from her and heading back to our dorm. But as I rounded a corner, Uma jumped out of the shadows, grinning like the Cheshire Cat as she held Mal's spellbook in her hands.

"Uma?!" I gasped. "What the–"

"Even though the idea is crazy, make this villain fall for me," Uma said, waving her fingers at me. Blue sparkles fluttered from her fingertips, and as soon as they made contact with my face, the whole world went black.

━━━━━━━ ❃ ━━━━━━━

A/N: I promised myself my last update for tonight wouldn't be a cliffhanger but... oh whale shit happens

Lol anyway, the angst is real and it is alive.

You've been warned.