Evie smiled slightly as she sat by her father's hospital bed, sketching the final design for Mal's cotillion gown. Like everything she did, Evie knew Mal's dress was going to look stunning but there was still something in the back of her mind that didn't sit well with her.
This wasn't Mal's style. Evie might not have been the closest of friends with the Godling but even she knew that. Mal's style was more dark colors, leather, and dragons. Not this bright yellow and blue strapless gown.
It's none of your business, Evie thought as she continued to sketch. If Mal wants to change her style, you just nod and go along with it. After all, Mal could have insisted you be punished for your actions at the coronation but she didn't. Instead she was able to go ahead and work with Ben to get your dad back.
And he was truly back, something Evie would be forever grateful for. Dr. Sweet had brought her father out of the medical coma about a week ago and Evie had been by every day after classes.
"Hmm..." Daniel groaned as he woke up. The unfortunate thing about being Maleficent's captive for around eight years or so was the fact that he seemed to tire easily. He was always coming in and out of naps which didn't necessarily make him the best companion.
Evie didn't mind in the slightest.
"How long have you been here?" Daniel asked, his kind voice still tinged with sleep as he looked over at her.
"Not very, just maybe an hour or so," Evie said.
Daniel shook his head slightly as he sat up in the bed. "Your mother would have had my head if she knew I had been sleeping when you arrived. She would have said it was bad manners and that it was always important to greet a guest."
Evie gave her father a soft smile as she set the sketchbook off to the side. "I think mother wouldn't have minded if it meant she got to be with you. She missed you."
"I missed you two as well," Daniel said, giving a weak smile. "Once I'm out of here, I'll talk to King Ben about getting guardianship of you."
Evie looked at her father in shock. "I...I thought you'd be going back to the Isle?"
"And leave you?" Daniel asked as he looked over at her. "Evie, I love your mother. Always have, always will. Will I miss her? Of course I will, I'd be crazy not to. But I'm not leaving you alone in a strange land. Maybe once you're eighteen I'll ask King Ben about getting visitation visits for the Isle but right now, you need me more, light beam."
Had her father not been lying in a hospital bed, Evie would have leapt into his arms. She'd waited eight years to hear those words from her father. Especially her old nickname.
Her father used to say that she was the light of his life, always beaming with energy. Hearing that again...it was like a dream.
"Can I see your sketch?" Daniel asked.
"Oh...sure," Evie said softly, handing her father her sketchbook. "It's just a design I'm working on for Lady Mal's dress for cotillion."
"Maleficent's daughter?" Daniel asked, his voice growing sharp as he said Maleficent's name. Not that Evie particularly blamed him for that; she knew she wouldn't be fond of anyone who held her captive for years because of an imagined slight. "She's a Lady now?"
"She's not Maleficent's daughter," Evie said quickly. "She's Lady Persephone's, they said so at King Ben's coronation. Mal likes to say that Maleficent may have given her life but that didn't make her her mother. She's not a big fan of her title either, she only really puts up with it when it's an official event."
Daniel nodded slowly as he looked at the sketch. "This is a beautiful design Evie. You've got a real gift here."
"Thank you," Evie said, beaming with pride at the compliment. "I just hope Mal likes it. She had said that she wanted to branch out into more Auradon styles but...it's not her style at all."
"In this instance, you have to not look at Mal as a friend and look at her as a client," Daniel said gently. "This is what she's requesting so this is what you're giving her. No matter what, it's going to look gorgeous. I saw a photo of the dress Lady Mal wore at King Ben's coronation. The caption said you had designed it?"
Evie nodded, amazed that the fashion blogs were still talking about her dress. Then again, she had made something that had stood up to a dragon attack and Mal transforming herself into a dragon. That was something worth talking about, even a couple months after the event.
That was really the only positive to come out of her actions at coronation though. Well, and she and Mal seemed to grow closer from the experience. Evie wasn't as dumb as she pretended to be after all, she could see the faint remnants of the word 'traitor' on her locker and knew there were probably only a few people who would clean it off for her.
There was one day though she had stumbled across the word freshly sprayed on her locker, before there had been a chance for anyone to clean it off.
Whoever used spray paint probably thought I'd think it was Mal doing it, Evie thought. The only thing is, I know Mal enough to know she would never use pink spray paint. If she used any color other than purple, it would be blue. You know, for Hades.
Maybe Mal would use green spray paint if she was in a bind, but it would only be if she had no other choice. With the exception of the green in her jacket and a light green dress Evie had designed, Mal had been vehemently against the color green showing up in her wardrobe.
Evie had suspected the only reason Mal okayed the dress was because of the fact that it was so light. A darker green might have gotten a harsher reaction. A darker green might have been too close to Maleficent for Mal's liking.
At least a lighter green would look closer to one of Lady Persephone's colors than Maleficent's. Evie, though, tried her hardest to keep Mal's wardrobe looking more neutral than anything else. She remembered the articles from The Gazelle and she didn't want Mal to have to go through that.
"Evie?" Daniel prompted.
"Oh!" Evie said and gave her head a little shake. "Got lost in thought."
Daniel smiled. "I know being here with your dad isn't the most exciting but I'm happy to be here with you Evie. Just knowing you're safe is more than I could ask as a father but getting to see you..."
"There's no place I'd rather be," Evie told him, smiling as she took in his words.
"Now I know that's a lie," Daniel chuckled. "Surely you'd rather be with your friends or your boyfriend than with your old man?"
Evie sighed softly and bit her lip. "I...I don't have that many friends. I use to but after coronation, the only friends I have are Mal, King Ben, Doug, Jay, Carlos, Lonnie, Ally and Jordan."
Maybe Gil but he tends to follow Uma and Harry's direction and everyone knows Uma hates the ground I walk on.
"Well, light beam, if they stopped being your friend after what happened at King Ben's coronation, then they wren't really your friends," Daniel said gently.
"But it was my fault," Evie said softly. "I'm the one who snatched the wand and I'm the one who caused Maleficent to escape the Isle. If it hadn't been for Mal and her own dragon transformation, I would have been responsible for Maleficent taking over Auradon and bringing down the barrier."
"Hey, hey," Daniel said gently as he looked over at his daughter. "Evie, you might have been the one to grab the wand but you were put in a position that no one your age should have had to worry about. And like you said, thanks to Lady Mal, Maleficent isn't free to rule Auradon."
Evie smiled slightly. "Mal said that Lord Hades has enjoyed having Maleficent as a pet. According to Hadie, he spends every morning gloating about how once again her plans have failed and she was forever doomed to be on the Isle of the Lost."
"Hadie?"
"Mal's little brother," Evie explained. "Well, half brother since biologically Mal's still Maleficent's. It's a little confusing from what Mal explained, but I think I got the gist of it. Lade Persephone adopted Mal in a magical adoption, meaning she became Lady Persephone's daughter and gained some of her magic. However, that doesn't change who Mal is biologically."
"I'll tell you one thing Evie, you're a lot smarter than I am for understanding that," Daniel said with a small smile. "Though considering your mother was a skilled potions maker, I'm not surprised you're able to grasp the more magical aspect of that."
Evie beamed at the compliment. It wasn't that long ago that her mother would have told her off for showing her smarts to anyone, even her father.
"Mother's going to be so happy when she hears you're alright," Evie said. "King Ben said that he would pass the word to her if you want or he'd set it up so you could talk to her. They did that for Carlos, Jay, Lady Mal and me before Family Day though Mal ducked out before she could be face to face with Maleficent."
"Smart girl," Daniel muttered, wincing slightly as he shifted to try to sit up more than he already was.
"Are you okay? Do you want me to get the doctor?" Evie asked worriedly, noticing the wince.
"I'm fine," Daniel said, giving Evie a small smile. "Maleficent's goblins weren't the most gentle of beings and ten years of their ministrations isn't going to go away in the blink of an eye."
Evie couldn't help but give a sad smile at that. "I should go...you need your rest after all. I'm sorry for being a pest—"
"Hey, my room is always open to you Evie," Daniel said, his voice soft as his eyelids seemed to grow heavy. "Never think you're being a pest, light beam. I love you."
"I love you too," Evie said softly as she bent down to kiss her father on the forehead before packing up her stuff. She had a few consultations with a few more of her classmates to make their clothes for Cotillion.
They had gotten wind that she was designing Mal's dress and remembered that she had also done Mal's dress for Ben's coronation.
Though honestly, the request that had surprised her the most had come from Chad. At first, when it came, Evie thought it had been a joke. After all, Chad Charming hadn't exactly been apologetic about getting her to do his homework in exchange for a date.
And then of course there was the whole 'almost getting her expelled' incident though she did have some blame for that too. If she hadn't shown Chad her mirror...but other than that one time in class, when Mr. Delay had pulled her up to the board when she was talking with Doug, the only time she ever used the mirror was to see her dad.
The barrier stopped wicked magic from coming through after all, and there was nothing wicked about a daughter's love for her father. And besides, the magic was affecting the mirror in Auradon, not the Isle.
Well all that, and the fact that he'd gotten involved in a relationship with Audrey after stringing her along, meant that Evie wasn't exactly the most trusting of Prince Charming. But he was actually one of the easiest of all her clients to deal with.
On top of that, he also told the Fitzherbert girls about her business and they had been quick to commission gowns for Cotillion.
It was weird but Chad really turned down the jerky meter after he and Audrey broke up, Evie thought as she left her father's hospital room. Sure he's had some slip ups, but those have really been few and far between after Leah got sent to the Isle.
Ben had tried his hardest to make sure the news was restricted to just those in the know, out of respect for his former relationship with Audrey and the working relationship with Queen Aurora but he forgot about one thing. Teenagers gossip and Akiho was at the council meeting where the judgement was handed down.
He had told Emir, who of course told his sister who then told Kitty who told her twin sister who had it spread to about half the school in three hours. Evie had to admit, it was pretty impressive how fast the younger Charming twin had gotten the news out about Leah's exile.
Of course Audrey wasn't all that pleased about it but then again she wasn't pleased with much ever since Mal became Ben's girlfriend. She would tell anyone who would listen about how hard her life was and how unfair Ben had been, to remove himself from their betrothal contract without talking to her first.
Honestly Audrey, if your parents thought there wasn't an issue in getting you two out of the contract then really you weren't all that negatively impacted, Evie thought with an inward sigh. If you really want to see a hard life, try being a kid on the Isle in a low ranked gang...or no gang at all.
She had been lucky in that even though Mal and Uma hated her guts, her mother had been able to get in with Maleficent's gang. After all, Maleficent ruled the Isle so she got first dibs when it came to the food that arrived. It also meant anyone in her gang got first dibs as well—plus Lord Hades did have some decent food at his restaurant.
Evie wasn't so innocent though that she didn't know how lucky she was that her mother was in Maleficent's gang. Otherwise she would have been a girl without a gang on the Isle. If she was lucky, she would have had to get a job at one of the shops around the Isle. If she hadn't been lucky...
Don't think about that, Evie thought as she walked out of the hospital. If you think about that, you're going to go down a rabbit hole that won't help anyone. Just focus on your designs. That's probably the best thing you can do really. Mal'll do the work to help out the Isle, she's the highest ranked out of all of us anyway.
Not to mention she's got the ear of the King, being his girlfriend and all.
Honestly, if you had told Evie a month ago that Mal of all people would be the one dating the King of Auradon, she'd have said you were crazy. Mal was notorious for not having flings on the Isle—she and Uma were probably the only girls who hadn't had some sort of a fling.
Even Evie had had innocent flings to get what she wanted, always stopping before it went too far. Her mother always taught her that a princess kept her purity.
She was a flirt, nothing more. Flirts were safe in a way, there wasn't a risk in getting a kid involved by being a flirt.
"Evie!" Doug called over to her, waving a bit and pulled Evie out of her thoughts.
"Doug!" Evie grinned and rushed over to him. She hadn't expected that he would be picking her up but she wasn't going to fight it. After all, the only other mode of transport available to her would have been a bus. She hadn't been around the general Auradon populace since Ben's coronation so she wouldn't know how they would react to seeing her.
"How was your dad?" Doug asked, giving Evie a hug as he took her bag to put it in the back of his car before opening the passenger's side door for Evie.
"He seemed better," Evie said as she slid into Doug's car. "Hopefully he won't have to be in the hospital for too much longer."
"It's likely that even if he doesn't stay in the hospital, it'll be a while before he's at one hundred percent," Doug said gently.
"I know," Evie sighed, her voice soft. "But I've got to keep hope."
Doug gave a sad smile before taking her hand and giving it a gentle squeeze. "You know Snow will let you stay as long as you need. I think Emma might kill her parents if they kicked you out."
Evie couldn't help but give a weak smile at that. Emma White had become another unexpected friend after the catastrophe that was Ben's coronation. She and her brother were always quick to come to Evie's defense if needed and Emma had been one of the first to commission an outfit for Cotillion.
She was also really easy going in terms of her gown, preferring to stay in her normal color scheme of blue, white and red but not afraid to branch out. Let's just say pink would not be a color found in Emma's wardrobe.
"How're you holding up?" Doug asked, his voice cutting through the silence, and Evie looked over at him.
"I'm okay," Evie said, her voice still soft. "I just...I wish I could go back to my dorm and know I was rooming with someone who didn't hate me."
"Mal doesn't hate you."
"Anymore, and I was talking about Uma," Evie sighed. "I almost feel bad for Mal because of all of this, it can't be easy being put in the middle. Not that I'd ever tell Mal that to her face."
"Oh right because no one wants to hear that someone has sympathy for them," Doug said, his voice dry.
"VKs don't do sympathy," Evie said with a small sigh. "After all, unless you're in an alliance or it's your family member, it's pretty much every kid for themselves. And we might have left the Isle but there are still some here in Auradon who won't let us forget that we are from the Isle."
Doug reached over and gave her hand a gentle squeeze again, having put both his hands on the steering wheel as he was driving. "Well, if it helps, I know there are a lot of people who like the fact that you're from the Isle. You provide a point of view that we never got before."
"Is that an official 'King Ben' statement?" Evie asked with a small chuckle.
"I mean, I know one of the reasons Ben wanted to bring you all from the Isle was because you guys could give him a point of view he didn't have," Doug said. "But then again, Ben just wants to make sure everyone's happy."
"He's been good with that," Evie said. Ben really had worked tirelessly to make sure everyone was happy, she had seen that first hand. From getting her father back from Maleficent's clutches to helping spread the word about her business, Ben had truly been in her corner. He was a good friend.
I think I've never been more grateful that Mal's not the jealous type, she thought as Doug made their way back Auradon Prep. It could have been so easy for her to think that I had put a spell on Ben for him to do all these nice things for me. Especially after how I ruined his coronation. But she's been just as nice as Ben has—and that's honestly the strangest thing throughout this whole debacle.
After all, Mal hating her was somewhat normal. Even being tentative allies had been nice but strange but this? This was the closest they had ever been to being friends and Evie was just waiting for the other shoe to drop.
For Uma to somehow convince Mal that a return to their normalcy was needed and to have Evie get kicked out of their dorm. She knew that no matter how close they got, Mal would always pick Uma first. Not that Evie faulted her for that. Uma was Mal's family. Family was everything on the Isle.
It was the one thing they thought they could always depend on.
Well, until we got to Auradon that is, Evie thought with a small smile as she glanced over at Doug as he parked his car and got out to let Evie out.
"I should probably go get started on my homework," Evie said softly.
"You want any company?" Doug asked with a small smile. A smile that Evie readily returned.
"I'd love some."