Chad, Ben, and Audrey walked into the hall, laughing and stood by the lockers. Audrey's laughing while Chad could be heard saying 'I know, I know.' They stopped laughing the second they saw Mal and Evie by Mal's locker.
"Those kids are trouble," Chad told Ben, pointing Mal out to him.
"Bye, Mal," Evie waved goodbye to her friend, clearly having overheard Chad's comment.
"Oh no, how troubling," Rowyn Fitzherbert muttered to her sister, who giggled in response.
"Bye," Mal replied and turned back to her locker.
"Come on, Chad. Give them a chance," Ben told his friend, turning to face him.
"You know," Poppy Dennison chimed in. "You guys don't know about the wand stealing business. So why don't you trust them?"
Chad flushed and looked away to avoid answering.
"Oh, no offense, Bennybear, but you're just too trusting!" Audrey said, grabbing his hands.
I don't know which was worse: Bennyboo or Bennybear, Ben thought with an inward shudder.
"Look, I know your mom feel in love with a big nasty beast who turned out to be a prince. But with my mom, the evil fairy was just the evil fairy. That girl's mother," she finished, whispering the last bit.
"Audrey Stephanie," Aurora warned, her tone slightly darker than usual. "I believe an apology is in order."
Audrey glared but bit back the retort. "My apologies, King Beast. Queen Belle."
The aforementioned royals nodded as a sign of acceptance toward the apology but the slight glares on their faces did not soften.
"You're forgetting one," Aurora said and this time Audrey did splutter in shock.
"Oh, and she doesn't have to apologize for eavesdropping on my conversation!"
"You were twenty feet away from her locker," Aurora stated. "Even if she didn't want to, Mal would have heard your conversation. Even with your 'whisper'."
Audrey glared in defiance, causing Aurora to sigh with an air of disappointment.
"Very well, three weeks. Starting as soon as you get home."
"Now dear," Queen Leah tried to steer Aurora toward leniency for Audrey.
"Not. A. Word, mother."
"I think you're wrong about them," Ben said. "I'll see you later."
[Ben walked away from the other two, Chad looking confused and Audrey walking in the other direction, and walked toward Mal, meeting her at her locker.]
"Hey!"
Mal closed her locker door to reveal Ben. "Hey."
"You know, I had my doubts but they don't seem to be causing too much harm," Belle whispered to Beast.
"Even with the whole wand business?"
"I have a feeling Mal'll do the right thing," Belle told him. "Ben seems to have taken from my side in terms of falling in love."
"How was your first day?" Ben asked, a smile gracing his face.
"Super."
"You should really think about taking this talent off the locker and into art class," Ben gestured to the spray paint image of Maleficent's silhouette on Mal's locker. "I could, uh, sign you up. What do you think?"
"I know, I know," Ben chuckled. "It'd take all the fun out of it."
"You know, Mal," Rachel said. "If you want to come over at some point in the summer, mom usually has a painting contest where we paint the craziest things we can on the wall of the dungeons since they're hardly ever used. You'd be awesome at that!"
"Sounds fun," Mal told her with a genuine smile. Art was one of the few things she was proud to be good at and it was actually really freeing to not have to hide it from her mother—since art wasn't 'evil'.
Jane squeaked and walked past the two. Mal looked over her shoulder at Jane and then turned back to Ben.
"So, why the squeak?" Mal asked, turning to Jane.
"Nervous habit," Jane told her.
"Way to take all the fun out of it." Mal smirked at Ben before leaving to catch up to Jane.
"Huh," Ben uttered, putting his back against the locker.
The scene changed with Jane in the bathroom as Mal walked in, her eyes widened.
"No one uses that bathroom," Jane explained. "It's the closest to the faculty lounge."
"Ah," Mal nodded. "That explains why no one else came in while we were talking."
"Hi! It's Jane, right?" Mal asked, smiling at the other girl. "Ah, always loved that name, Jane."
"You're welcomed to it," Jane Darling muttered under her breath. Yes, she was fond of her name but there were too many Jane's in Auradon.
"That's cool," Jane said, obviously trying to leave.
"Don't go!" Mal said, louder than she would have liked. "I guess I was just kind of hoping to make a friend. You probably have all the friends you need though, huh?"
A few girls winced at that. They hadn't been the nicest to Jane and they hadn't thought how the young fairy would have taken that.
"She's good," Jasmine whispered. She knew Mal was still after the wand but it was a better plan than just going to the museum.
"Hardly."
Fairy Godmother frowned at that. Jane was one of the smartest, nicest girls she knew. Surely people were clamoring to be her daughter's friend?
"Really? I mean, with your mom being Fairy Godmother and headmistress? I mean, not to mention your own, um, personality," Mal stumbled over the words, finding it hard to get out the complements.
"I am not used to giving complements," Mal said upon realizing many eyes were locked on her. "On the Isle, if it wasn't peppered with little insults, people thought you were weak."
"And by people, she means our parents," Evie added.
"I'd rather be pretty. You've got great hair," Jane said.
"You know what? I have just the thing for that," Mal pulled out her mother's spell book and skimmed through it. "It's right...ah! Here. Beware, forswear, replace the old with brand new hair." Mal closed the book and then made a gesture with her finger as Jane's head followed the path.
"Um, hold up," Kristoff said with a raised eyebrow. "Maleficent's spell book has a spell for hair?"
"Yeah," Mal nodded.
"Why?"
"Oh, ah, ah!" Jane gasped.
When Jane brought her head back up, her hair changed before their eyes, and became longer with a hint of curl at the end.
Fairy Godmother sighed. While she wasn't happy about Mal using magic on her daughter, she couldn't deny that Jane looked stunning with that hair.
"Wow! You almost don't notice your...other features anymore," Mal smiled, looking at the other girl in the bathroom mirror. Jane looked stunned and slowly turned to Mal.
"What other features?" Carlos muttered. "Once you did the hair, she went from an 9 to a 10."
Anita put a hand over her mouth to hide her smile, having heard Carlos' mutter. The young De Vill was not as quiet as he thought he was.
"Do my nose!" Jane said excitedly, pointing to the book.
Fairy Godmother sighed once more. This is why she steered away from using magic, so her daughter wouldn't think that magic was the solution for everything.
"Oh I can't. I've been practicing, but you know, I can't really do really big magic. Not like your mom with her wand. I mean, one swoosh from that thing and you could probably have whatever features you wanted," Mal said, making her way over to the sink and hopping up onto it.
"I think Jane was just insulted," Scamp whispered to Angel, brushing a bit of his grey hair out of his eyes.
"I think that's Mal's idea," Angel whispered back, leaning her head on his shoulder.
"She doesn't use the wand anymore," Jane said sadly. "She believes real magic is in the books, and not the spell books. Regular books with history and stuff."
"Then why not set up a magic damping barrier like you did for the Isle?" Carlos asked. "That way, no one gets magic and everyone's happy."
"I'll have to look into that," Fairy Godmother said with a smile.
"What a rip," Mal stated. "Yeah. You know, she used magic on Cinderella, who wasn't even her real daughter. Doesn't she love you?"
"That was a low blow," Evie whispered to Mal.
"You think I don't know that? We spend our days wondering if our own parents love us, I was not a fan of putting that doubt in Jane," Mal whispered back.
"Well, of course she does. It's...it's just, you know, tough love. Work on the inside, not the outside. You know, that sort of thing," Jane said, looking down with sad eyes.
Fairy Godmother sighed in relief. At least she had conveyed to Jane that she loved her and her daughter didn't fall for Mal's trick.
"That's the face!" Mal exclaimed.
A few students jumped at Mal's sudden exclamation.
"What face?" Evan asked.
"Yeah, and then just look as if your...year heart is about to break. 'Oh mother, I just don't understand why you can't make me beautiful too?"
"Oh!"
"If it were anyone else, I'd say that would do it," Kitty Charming, Chad's younger sister, said with a chuckle. "But Fairy Godmother's a tough nut to crack."
"Think it would work?"
"Yeah, I mean that's what old Cindy did, right?
"Old Cindy," Cinderella chuckled. "I like it."
"Mal does seem to find ways of making us realize we're humans," her husband nodded, keeping his voice down in case someone found fault in what he was saying.
"Kit, it's not that," Cinderella sighed. "Having to watch what I said all the time around my step mother, I have to admire Mal's frankness."
"Thinking about your step mother and her daughters?" Kit asked, rubbing his wife's shoulder.
"Yes," Cinderella nodded. "I know why Ben denied my request for the offspring of either of Drizella or Anastasia, if they exist, since he didn't want to be seen showing favoritism, but I wish they could have been brought with the four."
"There's always the next batch," Kit told her with a smile.
And your mom Bibbidi-bobbidi-booed the living daylights out of her. And, hey, if your mom does decide to, you know, break out the old wand, invite me!"
"You know, young fairies are supposed to be around sources of magical power to help them harness theirs," Jane said. "Since you were on the Isle, it probably helped that your mom somehow got her scepter."
"If I can convince mom, you are so there," Jane promised.
"Yay," Mal said, giving a little clap with her hands.
Carlos and Jay couldn't help but chuckle at that. It was so not-Mal.
"Bye," Jane said and left the bathroom.
"Bye," Mal waved back to the other girl.
"So why didn't you leave the bathroom after that?"
"I had to use it," Mal said with a shrug.
The scene changed to a classroom where Evie sat in what looked to be a science class talking to Doug while staring at a very attractive young man.
"Any chance he's in line for a throne? Anywhere in line?" Evie asked.
"Hey Chad, are you in line for a throne," Kitty giggled.
"Shut it."
"Chad, watch your tone around your sister," Kit warned.
"Chad. Prince Charming Jr. Cinderella's son?" Doug asked and looked over at Evie, who perked up upon hearing Cinderella.
"Why did you perk up at Cinderella?" Jamie asked.
"Safer than a son of Snow White," Evie told her. "Mother probably would be furious that I even considered it."
"Chad inherited the charm, but not a lot of there, there, know what I mean?"
"Hey!"
"Don't make me bring up the homework thing again," Mal told him and then turned to Fairy Godmother. "How did you guys not realize that his homework had different style of handwriting every time?"
"We didn't look that closely," Fairy Godmother told her. "Now we will."
"Looks like there, there to me," Evie said, staring at Chad dreamily.
Chad couldn't help but feel a little bad at that. From what they had seen, the Isle was a horrible place—it would make sense why someone as comfort driven as Evie would want to live with a prince.
He wasn't saying that he could trust any of them, but he did feel a tad guilty about stringing Evie along and then going out with Audrey.
Oh, bibbidi, his mother was going to kill him when that moment came.
"Evie, perhaps this is just review for you. So tell me, what is the average atomic weight of silver?" The teacher came over and interrupted the conversation.
"It wasn't review," Evie said. "I've never paid attention in class though. Mother always said that boys don't like smart girls."
"And I always told you that your mother is full of crap and a dumb girl wouldn't survive ten minutes on the Isle," Mal told her.
"Atomic weight? Uh, well, not very much. I mean it's an atom right?" Evie asked, smiling at the teacher who motioned for her to come over to the chalkboard.
A few kids chuckled at Evie's joke, knowing the fear of not knowing the answer when brought to the chalkboard.
Evie got up and quickly grabbed her mirror out of her purse before going up to the chalkboard.
"I'm going to let this bit of cheating slide," Fairy Godmother told her. "If only because your teacher should have double checked the curriculum of the Isle schools and made sure that—"
"Oh, we didn't have chemistry in our old school," Mal told her. "You really wanted villain kids in a room with chemicals that could blow stuff up?"
"Let's see, how do I find the average atomic weight of silver?" Evie asked, posing the question as if she was thinking out loud but one glance at her free hand showed the mirror hidden away from the eyes of the teacher. "That would be 106.905 times .5200 plus 108.905 times. 4800, which, Mr. Delay, would give us 107.9 amu," Evie finished, looking up at the teacher instead of the mirror.
"That explains amu," Doug said with a chuckle. "Normally we say A.M.U or Atomic Mass Unit."
Chad could be seen writing something down.
"Chad's taking notes?" Kitty gasped.
"Amu?" Doug questioned.
"I forget. Always a mistake to underestimate—"
"If he says a woman, I'm going to find a way to punch him through the screen," Mulan muttered to Shang.
"A villain? Don't make it again," Evie cut off the teacher's statement and threw him the chalk she had been using. She walked by Chad, who hands her a note which causes Evie to smile.
Mal couldn't help but glare softly at that, knowing the pain Chad would cause her friend.
"Wasn't that the girl you said was trouble?" Poppy asked Chad, her arms folded over her chest.
Upon returning to her seat, Evie opens the note, which says 'Meet me under the bleachers at 3?'. Evie looks up and smiles, causing Doug to look off in disgust as Chad and Evie stare longingly at each other.
"Doug looks so done," Kiara chuckled.
"Wouldn't you be done too if you were around people gazing into each other eyes?" Kovu asked.
"Considering you spend most of your time staring into my sister's eyes, I don't think you have room to talk," Kion said, rolling his eyes as Kovu stuck out his tongue.
"Wait, you're dating my sister?" Kopa asked, looking at his little sister in concern.
"Honestly Kopa, you've been out of school for two years," Kiara told him. "Who I date is not your concern!"
"Does Dad know?"
"Yes! And dad likes Kovu," Kiara added. "And thanks Kion for telling him. I just really wanted an overprotective big brother experience today."
"You're welcome!"