All the VKs are speechless at the spray-painted tag. It was the infamous motto on the Isle, one that they used to live by and would spray-paint it all over the crummy buildings of their former home. The key word was "used to," most of them had given up using this expression of their evil when they had a better place to live and were accepted by their peers.
"Would any of you care to explain?" Fairy Godmother says angrily.
"We didn't do it," Mal says firmly. Everyone around her murmurs in agreement.
"So, I am supposed to assume that another student did this? Or perhaps a ghost with painting skills?"
"Why would we do something like this?" the daughter of Maleficent protests.
"Yeah," Evie agrees. "We like Auradon, we wouldn't do anything to jeopardize what we have here."
"Perhaps to get back your precious objects. Maleficent's spell book and your mother's magic mirror."
Mal is completely floored by what this fairy is implying. Her eyes flash green for a moment before she realizes that she's speaking to the headmistress of the school, someone who could very well expel her. "We willingly gave those things to you," the purple-haired teen says. "We don't need them anymore."
"Then who could possibly want those objects because they are amongst the objects stolen from the vault?"
"You have no proof that we did anything," Carlos says, keeping his hand on Mal's shoulder to prevent her from becoming too angry.
"Besides, don't you have security cameras?" Jay points out. "Maybe check them first before accusing us."
"Watch your tone young man," the headmistress warns.
"Did you check the security cameras?" Evie asks, raising her eyebrows.
Fairy Godmother opens her mouth to fire back when she realizes that neither she nor the guards had checked the security footage from the night before. Her face goes bright red and she purses her lips together. She wasn't used to children gaining the upper hand in the situation, nor did she like being made a fool of. All the VKs look at each other, satisfied that they'd proven their innocence.
"No... we have not," She grinds her teeth together. "Move along to your classes now."
Mal crosses her arms in defiance, she wants an apology from the headmistress for accusing them of destroying her office, but the woman is obviously too filled with pride to do so. Jay subtly puts his arm around Mal's shoulders and guides her to the door. The daughter of Maleficent gives one last glowing eye stare at the fairy before all 5 VKs exit the office.
Once in the clear, all of them let out a collective sigh of relief, all except Mal who is still extremely angry. She ducks under Jay's arm and begins walking down the hall in a frenzy of explosive emotions. She couldn't believe what had just happened. She was Ben's girlfriend for Walt's sake, the king of Auradon, why would she want to vandalize the school. She knew deep down that she did miss her spellbook, it did make her life easier and more fun, but not enough to trash Fairy Godmother's office to steal it back. Auradon Prep was a safe place where they were well-fed, being given an education, had good friends and they were overall very happy; why would any of them want to vandalize the school like that? What motive did they have? It was all so infuriating.
"More than a year at this school and we're still the villains," the purple-haired teen hisses in anger.
"At least now we're off the hook," Jay says.
Mal laughs spitefully. "For now, they're going to find a way to pin this on us, I just know it."
"But that's not fair," Dizzy says. The youngest of the group is extremely scared; she hated confrontation and she didn't want to get in trouble. Out of all the VKs to come off the Isle, the daughter of Drizella is the least likely perpetrator of this crime. She was likely the nicest girl on the Isle, maybe even in Auradon. Evie was angry too, but for how the headmistress had made her other best friend sad and scared. The daughter of the Evil Queen puts a comforting arm around her fellow stylist.
"They don't care about fair Diz," Mal grumbles. "They only care about where we came from. Why does it seem every time something bad happens, we're automatically to blame?"
"Because every time something bad has happened, it has involved us in some way," Carlos says. He picks Dude up into his arms.
Mal shoots her friend a glare.
"At least we didn't get in trouble," Dizzy points out.
"That's a silver lining of sorts," Evie agrees. "When they do look at the security cameras and prove it's not us, it'll all be over."
The daughter of Maleficent wishes she could believe her best friend's words, she really did, but something was wrong. It was clear whoever had done this was from the Isle or at least knew about the Isle, possibly having been there before. The only other kids who knew the motto were Lonnie and Ben, neither would ever do something like this, lest Ben be viewed as a horrible king and Lonnie losing her spot as team captain on the Swords and Shields team. Her mind thinks about Uma for a second, the wicked daughter of Ursula is still unaccounted for... was it possible that it was Shrimpy? The slimy octopus that had kidnapped Ben and put a love spell on him just to spite her. But wouldn't have somebody spotted her, her hair and stench would be hard not to miss... unless it was at night.
As the group goes their separate ways to class, Mal's mind continues to piece together the clues, no longer thinking about school work. Both she and Dizzy go to chemistry and they sit in the back, ignoring the confused gazes from their classmates as to why they are late.
In the middle of an experiment, Chad Charming and Jane, who are both working next to Mal and Dizzy, Jane leans over to talk to them quietly.
"Are you guys okay?" she asks genuinely.
Mal's first reaction is to lash out at the daughter of her accuser, but she remembers that Jane was too nice for her own good. She genuinely cares about people, plus she was dating Carlos, the last thing she wanted was to make enemies with her.
"We're fine, it was a... misunderstanding," she says through gritted teeth.
As Dizzy pours a test tube of acid into a beaker, Mal hears Chad talking to Jane.
"It doesn't surprise me that your mother thought they vandalized her office," he says. "Once a villain, always a villain."
Mal's eyes flash green again. Unbeknownst to her, the beaker that she and Dizzy are working on begins to bubble.
"Uh... Mal..." Dizzy says nervously, but her lab partner doesn't hear it.
"It's so typical of them though," Chad continues to anyone who would listen. Jane looks down, trying to ignore him. She knows he was just jealous of the fact that the VKs were so much more popular than he was. She knew Carlos was the sweetest guy and would never do anything to hurt her or her mother. "They can't help but cause trouble for everyone, thinking they're so cool. Honestly, Ben should keep them on one side of the school."
The beaker continues to boil as well as Mal's anger, her eyes becoming greener with every word. Dizzy tries to tap Mal's shoulder to get her attention.
"Ben should've kept Audrey..."
At that moment, the beaker explodes, spraying the liquid on everyone and everything. Once it makes contact with the other chemicals on the table, a thick blue and black smoke spews into the air, rapidly spreading everywhere. Soon the whole classroom is engulfed in the strange smoke.
"EVERYBODY OUT!" the teacher coughs. The room erupts into chaos as students try to find the door.
What only satisfies Mal is Chad screaming, "My hair! My Hair!" on his way out the door.
...
Mal walks down the hall after having been chewed out by both the chemistry teacher and Fairy Godmother. The lab would have to be cleaned out now and she would be the one to do. She also had to replace anything that was damaged. The chemistry teacher said she was lucky that Dizzy had accidentally mixed the wrong chemicals, making the mixture that exploded relatively harmless.
Frustrated about how her day was going, she goes to the girl's bathroom to clean the gray and blue residue and grime from her face and hair. She wasn't sorry for what happened. She knew she'd lost control, but Chad's words had just infuriated her further till the point that she exploded.
She finds both Jane and Dizzy and a few other girls from the classroom trying to clean themselves up in front of the mirrors and sinks. They all look at Mal, she shrinks into herself a little bit.
"I'd rather go clean up in my own room," one of the other girls snorts after spotting Mal. She and her friends exit the bathroom with a flick of their dirty hair.
Mal looks at the two who stayed.
"I'm sorry guys," she says, meaning it with all her heart.
"It's okay," Dizzy says slowly. The daughter of Drizella is holding up her pair of glasses, they'd been cracked and scratched by the glass beaker that had exploded.
"Oh Dizzy I'm so sorry about your glasses," Mal says, coming over to help her.
"It's okay, I have tonnes more in my dorm," she says giving a bright smile. "It's not the first time they've been broken or scratched."
Good old Dizzy, no matter how bad the situation may be, she always manages to smile. Mal turns to Jane.
"Jane, I'm so sorry."
"It's okay Mal," the daughter of Fairy Godmother says, trying to comb the frizz and knots out of her hair. "I heard what my mother accused you guys of. It was totally unfair, and she had no proof of it and what Chad said... I didn't believe any of it. It was a recipe for disaster. I don't blame you for getting angry"
"You've got that right," Mal sighs. She begins washing the grime from her face and wondering whether she can wash her hair out in the sink or she should take a shower. There was a bad feeling growing in the pit of her stomach, she knew that no one would want to be around her now. They'll all think that she's the one who trashed Fairy Godmother's office now out of anger. She knew that she had lost control of her powers and it nearly hurt people, but it was an accident. What happened last night was no accident. It was intentional.
...
It wasn't long before the chemistry explosion was being whispered all over the school. Mal found her hoodie and tries to keep her face hidden for the rest of the day. She didn't want to have to deal with any of her gossiping classmates right now. No doubt that they thought she'd vandalized the office and that she was reverting to her old ways again. The daughter of Maleficent was becoming evil again. It just made her angrier and more annoyed at everyone and this is indirectly allowing the rumour to come true. At this point, she just wants the day to be over, so she can go to bed and forget her problems.
She fiddles with the lock on her locker when Evie, Carlos, and Jay all approach her. She only gives them a glance, struggling to unlock it.
"That was pretty cool what you did," Jay says, smirking widely. "I never thought anyone could make an explosion like that and get class cancelled."
"Knock it off Jay," Evie scolds him. "It wasn't cool at all."
"No, it wasn't," Mal agreed. "Because now I'm stuck cleaning the science lab and replacing anything that I broke, without magic or with help from anyone."
"At least no one was hurt," Carlos adds.
At that moment, Mal finally gets her locker open, only for a dark blue hoodie with the crown on the back of it to fall out onto the floor in front of them. Rolled up in this hoodie makes the four friends gasp. Evie's mirror and Mal's spellbook.