"Lonnie?" Carlos exclaimed, his eyes wide as he looked up at the Chinese girl, who was definitely not XJ. "What are you doing here?"
Lonnie's eyes widened and she caught sight of her reflection in the window that had been swung open and had smacked Carlos right in the face. She gasped as she put a hand up to her face to feel it. "Oh no, it wore off." She whispered, her complexion now pale.
"'It'?" Mal's voice rang from around the house's corner as Jane ran to Carlos, who was slowly getting up from the ground with Ben and Evie behind her. Mal's eyes widened when turned and saw Lonnie. "Lonnie? How did you get here?"
"I, uh," Lonnie smiled sheepishly. "It's a long story. How about you guys come in?"
"What's going on - why are you wearing my girlfriend's clothes? Where's Xiao?" Harry stopped short as he skidded to a halt, with Jay hot on his heels.
Lonnie laughed nervously, "Like I said, it's a long story. Come inside first and I'll explain everything."
"Woah, dude," Jay asked, turning to Carlos with wide eyes, "What happened to you? You have a huge bruise on your forehead."
Carlos grumbled, "A window smacked into me."
"I didn't mean it!" Lonnie said hurriedly. "I'm sorry, I was just trying to get some ventilation going on! XJ didn't mention how hot the Isle was in the summer and I didn't know how to get the air conditioner going because I couldn't find the remote and- "
"Alright, we'll just come in through the front door and you can tell us what's going on, okay?" Ben asked, smiling as an act of friendliness. However, there was still an obvious underlying tone of confusion.
Lonnie nodded quickly. "Alright. I'll just close these," She smiled at Carlos apologetically as she grabbed the handles of the window she had flung open. "Sorry Carlos."
Carlos waved a dismissive hand, "It's okay."
Lonnie shut the windows and closed the curtains as the group walked to the front door.
Evie didn't hear any clicking noises from the lock, and so she said loudly so that Lonnie could hear, "The door's locked, Lonnie!"
"No it's not! I didn't lock it!" Lonnie called back from inside.
Jay blinked. "What?"
Mal shrugged at Evie, who was giving her a wide-eyed look. "Try it."
Evie carefully grabbed the golden doorknob like it was hot coal before twisting it. To everyone's surprise, the door swung open.
"You said it was locked," Mal accused, glaring at Harry.
"I thought it was Xiao in there," Harry argued defensively, "Not an imposter!"
"Can we do this later?" Evie hissed as she stepped inside the building. Mal and Harry didn't do anything other than shoot each other dirty looks. Evie sighed as everyone piled into the house. "Thank you."
"So, Lonnie..." Jay said, sitting down on the nearest chair he could find, looking at the girl pointedly, "Care to explain?"
Lonnie blushed but nodded. "Yeah, I will, but you guys might want to sit down first. It's a long ride."
The group all found seats, whether it was on the couch, some chairs or even on the floor, everyone was soon seated comfortably. The second everyone was settled, all heads turned to Lonnie, who was sitting on the couch herself.
Lonnie sighed, "Alright, so I'm pretty sure some of you are familiar with what XJ told me back when Ben first got kidnapped a month ago here on the Isle, but just for clarification, I'm going to tell it again.
"When XJ and I were sword-fighting on Uma's ship, trying to get away with Ben, because of course we do - our parents are enemies - she told me that my country's emperor refused to give food to her father's people, even though they were starving, and therefore forced her dad to start a war, as he couldn't let his people die. My emperor was selfish, but to make matters worse, we won the war." Lonnie sighed.
"We shouldn't have. Happy ever afters are supposed to go to people who deserve it and my country most definitely didn't deserve it. Shan Yu's country should have won and my mother was no hero." A dark look came over Lonnie's face and she sighed before continuing.
"After I confirmed this with my mom, who tried to argue that it wasn't right for Shan Yu to start a war - it wasn't, but he was forced to by the very same country my mom fought and won for, I went to XJ, who had already come to Auradon.
"The guilt was killing me, and I wanted to set things right, because I was the only one who was willing to do it. Mom wouldn't ever admit and the rest of the world would continue turning a blind eye. Shan Yu had disappeared and XJ was the only known descendant of his, so I came to the conclusion that I would do whatever I could."
"Wait," Mal interrupted, making everyone else turn to her. "You didn't realize that XJ would take advantage of that?"
Lonnie laughed, "Mal, XJ's a nice person. I know you think that she's a terrible person, but she's not."
"Lonnie..." Ben asked slowly, "What did XJ say when she asked you to come here?"
"Well, XJ knocked on my dorm door one night before, and because Jane is incredibly hard to wake up, I opened the door to see XJ sobbing, literal waterfalls streaming out of her eyes."
"Xiao was crying?" Harry asked, his eyes wide.
Lonnie nodded, looking at Harry disapprovingly. "She told me about her break up with you. I'd never seen her so emotional. I invited her in because Jane wouldn't wake up anyway and after some comforting and a box of tissues, she hiccupped and said that she needed space. She didn't want to go back to the Isle like Mal did, but she didn't want to stay at Auradon Prep either. I didn't ask where she was going to go, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to run away with herself on tight supervision especially as a villain kid.
Lonnie suddenly looked sheepish. "So she asked me if I would pretend to be her and go to the Isle to lead everyone off of her track, which is why I'm here."
"So it was you on the motorbike," Harry stated. Lonnie nodded. Harry frowned as a realization came to him, "But I saw your face - it was definitely Xiao."
Lonnie smiled guiltily, "Yeah, well you borrowed your spell book to Xiao, Mal, so she used a couple of spells to make me look like her until I got to the Isle."
Mal snorted, "I didn't give her the book, Lonnie; she stole it from the museum."
"Wait really?" Lonnie asked loudly, shocked.
Evie nodded sympathetically, "Yeah, she did. I'm sorry she lied to you, but another thing I'm confused at is that you were willing to come to the Isle?"
Lonnie nodded, shrugging, "I said that I would do whatever I could to make things right, even if it meant coming here and helping XJ."
Jay scoffed, "Playing XJ's game will make things right?"
"What game?"
The group exchanged a look before Ben said carefully, like explaining something to a child, "Lonnie, XJ stole the spell book and we're pretty sure that she's planning on something big."
"She's going to take over Auradon." Mal piped up.
Ben shot his girlfriend an exasperated look before turning back to Lonnie, "We don't know that for sure." He reassured her.
Lonnie blinked, "So...what are you trying to say?"
"She played you," Carlos said grimly. "XJ doesn't care about the feud between her and country and yours. She wanted you to lead us on a wild goose chase."
"Which means she's back in Auradon!" Mal suddenly exclaimed, jumping up. "We have to go now! She could be setting fire to the school for all we know!"
"Wait," Lonnie said as she herself stood up, with a heartbroken look on her face. "Are you sure?"
"You're not still thinking that XJ's a good person, do you?" Evie asked, smiling sadly. She put her hands on Lonnie's shoulders. "I know that you're guilty about the history between your ancestors - that part might actually be true..."
"It is true."
"I know, but trying to get into XJ's good books is impossible, because she doesn't have one. Everybody's out to get her in her eyes. I know that you want justice, but it's not your fight." Evie said softly. "Okay?"
Lonnie was quiet for a bit. Finally, she nodded. "Okay." She replied quietly.
"In that case, we'd better get going." Mal said, already prepared to bolt out of the door.
"Mal's right," Ben said as everyone stood up. "Come on Lonnie, we have to get you back to Auradon and try to catch XJ."
Lonnie nodded, still looking hurt. "Let's go."