After all their classes were over for the day Drac headed down to the tourney field with Carlos. On the Isle Drac and Carlos were as close as Mal and Evie, partially from how close they were in age compared to the others in the group.
Carlos had filled Drac in on how Ben had persuaded the coach to let him on the team with Jay and how the prince had even offered to help him train after class. Drac, being the cautious son of Maleficent, decided to go with him, he wanted to make sure his friend would be okay and that this wasn't some ploy by the prince. He could be hunting for information or a weakness, Drac theorized, although the prince did seem a little too trusting for his own good. Still, mother had always said stay two steps ahead of your enemies and you'll never lose the race. So he decided to wait on the bleachers while Carlos practiced.
The cheerleaders were also having practice not too far away and down the field from them was the band. Drac helped pass the time by trying to pair up which kids went with which parents. Audrey of course was the daughter of Philip and Aurora, Chad was Cinderella's son, Doug's father was Dopey and Jane's mother was Fairy Godmother but he knew very little about the others. Two steps ahead, a small voice echoed in his mind.
One boy down by the band seemed to be directing the rest, he had tanned skin and dark hair, wore a beige jacket and a purple ball cap, maybe a son of Aladdin? In front of him holding instruments were a girl with auburn hair, another boy with dark hair who was lankier then the Agrabah boy, a girl with skin like milk chocolate and one more boy who was shorter than the rest and wearing a green hoodie. Before Drac could make any guesses he heard Ben shout.
"Okay. Carlos, we're gonna do some sprints. You ready?" Ben asked and Carlos nodded getting on one knee ready to take off. Then Drac heard it –a bark. Oh no. Ben looked up and Carlos had already taken off, a small patch of brown fur running after him. As amused as Drac was he also knew that his friend was truly terrified so he hurried down the bleachers, jumping off the last few steps and ran over to Ben who was just now noticing that Carlos hadn't stopped sprinting.
"Sweet!" Ben shouted as he clocked Carlos on his stopwatch. Then Drac tapped him on the shoulder and pointed in Carlos' direction and Ben's eyebrows shot up.
"Carlos? Carlos!" he shouted as they ran after him into the woods. Drac was no stranger to running after growing up on the Isle but with the wind in his hair he couldn't help but think that following Carlos would be better if he was flying. Eventually they found Carlos up a tree with the small dog waiting at the bottom of the trunk.
"Carlos!" Ben shouted with Drac right behind him.
"Ben! Drac! Guys help me!" Carlos called. "This thing is a killer! He's gonna chase me down and rip out my throat. This is a vicious rabid pack animal!"
"Caw!"
A black shadow swooped down as Diaval landed on Carlos' head.
"Diaval! Help! Sick 'em! Pluck it's eyes out!"
Diaval only leaned forward and looked at Carlos upside down and tilted his head to the side. Drac chuckled at the crow's 'what am I supposed to do about it?' reaction and held out two fingers.
"Diaval." He called and the raven flew to him and landed on his hand. Drac pulled his fingers closer to his torso and pet Diaval's feathers.
"That bird is useless!" Carlos shouted and the dog barked. The sound made Carlos squeal again and scramble to get higher in the tree. "Don't just stand there! Get it before it rips out my throat!"
"Hey, who told you that?" Ben asked and picked up the dog.
"My mother."
"Who else?" Drac muttered turning to the prince.
"Cruella?"
"She's a dog expert." Carlos said, "A dog yellerer. Why are you holding him? He's gonna attack you!"
"You have got to get over this man." Drac said crossing his arms, Diaval moving to his shoulder, "You're like four or five times his size."
"Carlos you've never actually met a dog, have you?" Ben asked.
"Of course not." Carlos replied.
"We only really have rats, bugs and reptiles on the Isle. The only ones with real pets are the witches with their cats." Drac explained, "And those things will claw your eyes out if you get too close."
Ben smiled.
"Dude meet Carlos and Drac." Ben said petting the dog, "Guys this is Dude. He's the campus mutt."
"He doesn't look like a vicious rabid pack animal." Carlos said getting down from the tree.
"Jeez. You're a good boy aren't you?" he asked getting closer and petting Dude before Ben passed him the dog to hold, "You're a good boy."
"I guess you guys have it pretty rough on the island."
"Yeah, let's just say we don't get a lot of belly rubs." Carlos said getting comfortable with the dog while Drac looked down at the dirt and started digging into it with the toe of his boot as he slid his hands into his pockets.
"Listen I'm gonna give you guys some space, yeah? You guys get to know each other and just come find me when you're done." He offered leaving them with Dude. Carlos sat down on a fallen tree and Drac sat next to him as they pet Dude.
"Hi, Hi, Oh, thank you." Carlos said as Dude kissed his face as Drac pet the dog's back.
"You know this isn't so bad." Carlos said with a smile.
"Yeah and when we get the wand and the villains take over you can have as many dogs as you want." Drac replied smiling.
Carlos chuckled before the smile fell from his face, "That is if my mother doesn't skin them all first."
They both fell silent at that and Drac got a weird feeling in his stomach, it made him think maybe Carlos didn't want the villains to win. Then he pushed the feeling aside, no he was just being ridiculous, Carlos was like him, born and raised on the Isle, rotten to the core, . . .right?
- - LONG LIVE EVIL - -
Drac and Carlos spent a good twenty minutes with Dude before going back to the field. Ben was happy to see them getting along with the mutt and Carlos seemed to like training better when he had a dog to race with.
Afterward the pair returned to their room and showered off before they went to Mal and Evie's room. The whole time Carlos insisted on carrying Dude back to and around the dorms. Diaval had decided to stay behind and take another nap. You'd think after spending years as a statue he'd be tired of sleeping but Drac got the impression his bird wanted some time away from Carlos' new furry friend.
"What is that?" Mal asked when they walked in, momentarily looking up from their mother's spellbook.
"This is Dude. He's the campus mutt, Ben introduced us. He's cute right?" Carlos said before grabbing his laptop from his bag and sat with it next to Dude on the floor. Drac took a seat on Mal's bed next to his sister and leaned back against the pillows propping his feet up on the bed post. Then the door opened again and Jay waltzed in wearing a royal blue Tourney jersey. He must have gone to coach's office while the other boys had been on the field. He made some poses and whistled before walking over to Mal.
"Did your plan work with Jane? Are you going over to see the wand?"
"Do you think that I would be going through every single spell in this book if I hadn't completely struck out?!" she snapped at him.
"Someone's in a bad mood." Carlos muttered.
"My mom's counting on me! I can't let her down!" Mal said flicking Carlos in the head.
"That's why you have me." Drac said sitting up and taking the book, "Here take a break. I got this." He offered as he started flipping through pages seeing some spells had notes next to them from Mal's purple pen. His sister started rubbing her eyes as they recovered from staring at the book all afternoon obviously on the verge of a headache from all of it.
"We can do this." Jay said, "If we stick together."
"And we won't go back until we do." Mal said looking around the room, "Because we're rotten. . . "
"To the core."
"To the core."
"To the core."
"To the core." They all finished their mantra.
"Oh yeah, I found out that Fairy Godmother blesses Ben with the wand at coronation and we all get to go." Evie said casually making all their heads turn. She couldn't have said something earlier?
"I have nothing to wear, of course."
Then there was a knock at the door. "Hold that thought." Mal said heading for the door. When she opened it Ben was standing there in his typical blue blazer.
"Hey, Mal. I didn't see you guys today. I was just wondering if you had any questions or anything that you needed." He said smiling.
"Not that I know of." Mal said looking back at them and they all shook their heads as Drac discreetly hid his mother's spell book behind his back.
"Okay. All right. Well, if you need anything just. . . "
"Oh, wait! Um, is it true that we all get to go to your coronation?" Mal asked.
"Yeah, the whole school goes."
"Wow. That is beyond exciting." She said twirling her hair obviously coming up with an evil scheme though Ben was oblivious to that. "Do you think that it's a possibility that the five of us could stand in the front row next to the Fairy Godmother, just so we could, soak up all that goodness?"
"I wish you could." Ben said sounding genuinely sorry that he had to turn them down, "Up front it's just me, my folks and my girlfriend."
"And your girlfriend?"
"Yeah. I'm sorry, I -"
"Okay. Thanks, bye. " Mal said closing the door as Ben tried to say something else. Then she turned to the others. "I think it's time that Bennyboo got himself a new girlfriend. And I need a love spell."
Drac smirked and tossed her the spell book which she caught perfectly and she returned to the bed as they started going through love spells. There were quite a few of them, but they wanted the best.
- - LONG LIVE EVIL - -
The siblings had spent the rest of the afternoon going through love spells but decided on one that would be easy to add to a recipe. They decided on cookies since none of them had ever baked and it seemed the easiest. They had all changed into their pajamas and met in the kitchens on the lowest level of the dorms. Drac was in probably the simplest clothes he owned, black sweatpants and a purple sweatshirt hoodie. The hoodie had the same green dragon logo on the back as his leather jacket did and the front had rips that exposed a black fabric underneath like a dragon had scratched across his chest several times but not enough to make the hoodie look like it was falling apart. He had the purple hood up covering some of his green hair though some of it still peeked out as he helped get Mal ingredients as she mixed the concoction.
"All right. It says that we still need one tear, and I never cry." Mal said pointing to the recipe in the spell book.
"Let's just chop up some onions." Carlos said grabbing an onion from the crate beside him and Dude, who was sitting in a large salad bowl. Drac had brought Diaval down too looking for some crackers to feed him but his earlier suspicions about the raven clearly not liking the dog too much seemed true and Diaval stayed perched on top of the cooling rack across the room from the mutt.
"No." Mal whined, upset that this all might have been for nothing, "It says that we need one tear of human sadness. And this love potion gets the best reviews so we have to follow it exactly."
"A tear's a tear. . . "
"That's not true, Jay." Evie spoke up as she scooped more flour out of the bag Drac was holding and passed it to Mal, "They both have antibodies and enzymes, but an emotional tear has more protein-based hormones than a reflex tear."
"Listen to you." Mal said impressed and Drac gave Evie a nod of approval before he put down the sack of flour, reached across the table and grabbed more walnuts before popping them into his mouth. He also grabbed a cracker and walked over to the cooling rack, holding the snack up high as Diaval started to peck at it.
"Yeah, I knew that."
"Did not." Carlos said, weakly knocking Jay's shoulder.
"Yeah, I did." Then their banter was cut short by Lonnie, the daughter of Mulan, coming into the kitchen. She had met Mal and Evie earlier that day after hearing that Mal had a spell that could give you great hair, something that Evie was now using to make a quick buck.
"There you are Mal! I was looking for you." She said as Mal covered the book with a napkin, "You know, all the girls want you to do their hair!" she exclaimed then she looked down at the table, "Midnight snack huh? Whatcha guys makin'?"
"Nothing special. Just cookies." Mal said and before anyone could stop her Lonnie put her finger into the batter and tasted it. Drac turned from Diaval and reached his arm out but froze when he saw it was too late. When Lonnie saw everyone's startled expressions she pulled her finger out of her mouth and muttered, "What? I'm not gonna double dip."
"Feel. . . anything?" Evie asked.
"Yeah, like maybe it might be missing something?" Mal pushed.
Jay took the moment to test out the love potion, he approached Lonnie and leaned against a metal pole giving her his signature go-weak-at-the-knees smile.
"Hey there."
Lonnie just stared at him before turning to Mal, "It could use some chips." Lonnie said with a shrug and headed for the fridge. Drac snickered causing Jay to glare at him but he only responded by making his eyes flash green for a second which was always enough to make anyone back off when he wanted them to.
"And those are?" Mal asked relieved.
"Chocolate chips." Lonnie replied, "Just the most important food group." She explained bringing over a small dish with little brown things in it. "Wait, didn't your moms ever make you guys, like, chocolate chip cookies?"
They all looked at her blankly.
"Like when you're feeling sad and they're fresh from the oven with a big ol' glass of milk and she just makes you laugh and puts everything into perspective and. . . why are you all looking at me like that?" she asked looking at all their faces as they looked at her with a mix of sadness and confusion since none of them had ever experienced anything close to what she was talking about. They all wished they had though, the picture Lonnie painted sounded like a nice one.
"It's just different where we're from." Mal said going back to stirring the love potion and Drac moved to look over her shoulder trying to distract himself by focusing on the potion. Diaval flew down to his shoulder and rubbed his beak against Drac's cheek. The corner of his mouth lifted at the bird's attempt to be comforting and he brought up a hand to scratch his head in thanks.
"Yeah I know. I just, you know, I thought, even villains love their kids. . ." she trailed off again as Mal and Drac along with the others looked up at her with expressions so sad Lonnie began to tear up as she caught on. "Oh, how awful." She said putting her hand over Mal's leather clad one comfortingly. But Mal saw the glistening tear on the girl's cheek and quickly snatched it and with a flick of her finger plopped it into the batter. Then to cover what she'd done Mal quickly got Lonnie out of there.
"Yeah, well, big bummer, but we have to get these into the oven, so thank you so much for coming by. Really, really have a good night. I'll see you tomorrow. Evil dreams." Mal said moving around the table and ushering Lonnie out.
"Okay, goodnight." Lonnie said smiling as she left, then Mal turned to them with a clap.
"Okay, boys cookie sheets. Drac oven, Evie batter."
"Yes ma'am." Evie replied bringing over the bowl as Drac moved to turn on the oven and set it to the right temperature.
- - LONG LIVE EVIL - -
After their first few classes the next day they had another free period. Mal had spent most of it doing the same spell over and over helping the other girls from school with their hair. Drac watched her as he stood by the lockers leaning on the rail looking at the group below with his sister among them. He played nervously with his purple leather gloves. He had on a black shirt with three quarter length sleeves, the sleeves were purple with a black outline that made a dragon scaled pattern, he was also wearing a backwards baseball cap that was also purple and the brim had the same scaled look as the sleeves of his shirt. Some of his green hair poked out of the front and was flattened on his forehead, he thought the hat would be a good addition to wear since Auradon was always so sunny and bright.
When Mal had finished with the girls she joined him on the outdoor hallway as they walked to her locker. They figured Ben would be by to ask her about her day like he'd done yesterday. So they knew it was only a matter of time before they smuggled him a cookie and put their plan into action. While they waited for Ben Jay joined them leaning against the lockers.
"Are you feeling kind of weird about this?" he asked, "I mean it's not so bad here, you know?"
"Are you insane?" Mal asked, "Long live evil. You're mean, you're awful. You're bad news. Snap out of it!"
Jay shook his head.
"Thanks Mal, I needed that." he replied smiling before Mal patted him on the shoulder and he left to go flirt with all the girls that had just been with Mal. Drac thought back to Carlos and the feeling he'd had the other day that maybe his best friend had been thinking along the same lines as Jay had been. But he was pulled from his thoughts when he looked over his shoulder and saw Ben and Audrey come around the corner.
"Do you think they actually paid for those?" She asked looking at the girls with their new hairstyles. "She did it to Jane's hair too and Fairy Godmother's not happy about it."
"What's the harm?" Ben shrugged.
"It's gateway magic! Sure it starts with the hair, next thing you know it's the lips and the legs and the clothes and then everybody looks good and then. . . where will I be?"
"Listen Audrey –"
"I will see you at the game after my dress fitting for the coronation, okay?"
"O-kay."
"Bye Bennyboo." She said before leaving and Drac moved to Mal's other side and a few lockers down so Mal could get the job done. She shut her locker hard and called to Ben.
"Hey Bennyboo!"
"Hey." He said smiling as he turned to her.
"I just made a batch of cookies." She said holding up the bag, "Double chocolate chip, do you want one?"
His smile waivered, "I've got a big game, I don't eat before a big game. But thank you so so much, next time –"
"No yeah, I completely understand." Mal faked being let down, "Be careful of treats offered by kids of villains."
Ben's smile dropped, "No, no, no –"
"I'm sure every kid in Auradon knows that."
"No, no, that's not it. No really, I do –"
"No I get it. You're cautious, that's smart." Mal said taking a cookie, "Oh well, more for me I guess."
"No, no hey." Ben said snatching the cookie and taking a bite, "See that? Totally trust you."
Drac couldn't help the smile that appeared on his face and was glad he was far back enough that Ben wouldn't notice. He heard slow footsteps behind him and turned to see the others coming down the hall. They smirked too when they saw Ben with the bitten cookie in his hand.
"How are they?" Mal asked.
"They're good. They're great. They're amazing! You know, they're chewy and that, is that walnuts? I love walnuts. You know the chocolate. . . the chocolate, chocolate chips are. . . I'm sorry um. . . they're warm and soft. And they're sweet." As Ben got lost in Mal's eyes the rest of the gang all approached slowly like they feared their presence might affect the spell somehow.
"Mal, have you always had those little gold flecks in your eyes?" Ben asked about to take another bite but Mal snatched the cookie away.
"How you feeling bro?" Jay asked coming up behind the prince.
"I feel, I feel, I feel like, like singing your name! Maaalll! Ma-" before he could draw attention Mal shoved her hand over his mouth. Jay looked to the cookie in shock and mouthed, 'wow'.