“Say, Gil?” Carlos fell into step with the brown-clad boy as the two gangs made their way through town together. Ignoring the skulking Gastons behind them, he asked, “Mind if I talk to E for a minute?”
“Naw,” Gil smiled congenially, waving for his brothers to follow him, “Come on, guys. Let’s give em a minute.”
“You’re kidding, right?” Gaton Jr. snorted, “That measly twerp? Yeah, right.”
“Get out of here, you punks!” Evie whirled on them, “If Carlos wants to talk with me alone, he gets too. End of story!”
The twins just laughed again, unwilling to take her seriously.
“Okay, boys,” Carlos shrugged, smirking at his blue-clad friend “She warned ya. I’m not responsible if your bodies turn up somewhere next week. He shrugged again, “Or maybe they just don’t show up ever again.”
Evie waited for a moment, just to let her friend’s warning sink in, then spun around to face their antagonists. Her face was like cold stone, “I’ll give you boys until the count of five, but after that all bets are off. One, two, three—”
Having been on the receiving end of Evil Queen wrath many times during their father’s on-again off again relationship with the vain old villainess, the twins weren’t long in believing the normally sweet beautiful girl didn’t have it in her to follow through on her threat. They were shocked that she could look so much like her mother!
“Y-y-yes m-m-ma’am,.” they stammered, slowly backing away with white-rimmed eyes before fleeing at top speed into the gloom.
“Looks like Gil was wrong; you don’t need us after all.”
Mal and Uma appeared from behind.
“Man,” Uma snickered, impressed, “You sounded just like your old lady there. So much for dear sweet Evie.”
“I think they thought so too!” the blue-clad girl beamed, “Comes from her dating Gaston off and on. I’m sure they’ve taken a lot of crap.”
“They do!” the green-clad girl laughed, “Gil complains about it all the time.” She shrugged, “It toughens him up though.”
“I feel bad for that…” Evie sighed.
“No sweat—” Uma shrugged, “Say—wait a minute! Where is Harry going?” She grabbed Mal and the two bolted forward as the group followed the first mate, turning at the wrong corner.
“What’s up, Carlos?” Evie turned back to her close friend, got back to the business at hand.
“Oh, it’s nothing too bad.” he shrugged, reddening a little, “Jay and I were just hoping you to convince our fearless leader to, ah, tell her story about Auradon tonight.”
“Oh, no…” she paled.
“What happened, E?”
“Nothing!” she suddenly snapped back to normal, “Don’t worry, Carlos. I’ll get it done. Mal will be chatting it up by the time I get done with her.”
“Just remember,” he whispered, “We’re not using our names. You’re the sweet beautiful girl.”
“Aww, that’s sweet…thank you!”
*o*o*0*o*o*
“Son,” Beast tried to inject some reason back into the meeting, “do you really think it’s a good idea to go over there after what you just told us? I mean, you just said you needed Yen Sid’s help to defeat Uma. Think of the lives, and not just your own, that you’ll put at risk. The antiheroes, your friends…”
“Oh!” Ben’s eyes lit up again, “I almost forgot the best part! I have reason to believe things might be different now. I mean, I know it’s been less than twenty-four hours, but Yen Sid tells me that Mal and Uma have started talking. Evie convinced them to start righting the wrongs of the past.” His eyes danced as he took a dramatic pause, “They’re having a slumber party at Mal’s tonight—after lunch at Ursula’s cafe. Isn’t that great?”
“Well, uhm, I guess…” Fairy Godmother answered cautiously, “but…dear…”
“He said he’d gocheck on their progress tonight,” the young king added, “Though, I did make him promise to not look like an Auradon chaperone. We’re going to talk again afterward. I’m going to be in constant contact. I-I-I want to do this right…but if there’s even the slighted chance of success, I want to do it.” He smiled widely, hoping to convey how important this was to him.
“Perhaps we’d feel better if we joined your call…?” Belle suggested, “I mean, I’m all for rehabilitation and righting wrongs, but it would greatly reassure…”
“Yes, yes, by all means!” Ben readily agreed, “I’ll let you know immediately and we can all link in, no matter where we are.”
*o*o*0*o*o*
“You leave Mal to me.” Evie reminded Carlos, hissing in his ear as they stepped through the doorway of Maleficent’s castle together, “Tell Jay. I don’t need you guys helping me force her hand.”
“No, sweat…” he muttered, as she stepped away
“Alright, everyone!” the blue-clad girl ignored the last comment called for attention, clapping her hands for attention. Ignoring the surprised look on Mal and Uma’s faces she took control, leading the group into the old parlor, “Carlos told me that he and Jay were telling you a story back at Hell Hall and now it’s my turn to add to it.”
“Not her too!” Harry groaned, “Really?” He glared at Jay, “First, we have to put up with your crap story. Then Carlos tells his crap story. Now her?”
“Are you a good storyteller?” one of the pirates whined.
“If you shut your trap, maybe you’ll find out.” Evie gave him a look as she flipped her hair off her shoulder in the center of the room. Her heart was really racing and she had to take a deep breath to settle down.
“So anyways,” she started, “The sweet beautiful girl didn’t really think too much about being sweet. Oh, she knew it was important and all, but she was consumed with looking good. You know, face, hair, clothes. She thought that looking good was her ticket to having a handsome husband one day.”
Blushing, she dropped her gaze for a moment, “Actually, unlike her friends, she was pretty excited about going to the mainland because she didn’t like her choices for husband on the island but she hid her feelings for her friends’ sake, and for the sake of the mission. Then, of course, once they were there, she set about finding the perfect guy.”
“She should have asked me.” Harry’s outburst made Evie’s heart jump, instantly pulling her back to that summer before she’d left for Auradon; it was almost too close to home, “Yeah, well…” she blushed, hurrying on with a tight smile, “She found someone pretty quick. He was handsome and rich so she was sure he was going to be the perfect husband so she set about trying to please him so he’d notice her.”
Frowning, she let herself really remember how Chad had used her and her face flamed again.
“He noticed her alright,” her voice was soft, “but didn’t want her the way she wanted. That was hard for her. She’d always thought that if she was fairest of them all and a perfect housewife and mother then all the handsome men would just flock to her.” Shaking her head, she shrugged, “But all she really did was attracted was the tweebiest guy in the school!”
“Tweeb!” Harry hooted, raising his hook in the air, “Tweeb!”
“Be quiet, Harry!” Uma snapped.
“At first, she was horrified,” the blue-clad girl choked back a sudden sob as Doug’s image smacked her in the face, “but this guy turned out to be everything she could have asked for. He-he helped her to see that being beautiful on the inside and being smart and funny and sweet and kind were more important than being gorgeous on the outside.”
“Tweeb!” Harry hooted again, “Tweeb!”
“Enough!” Mal growled, hauling herself to her feet.
She grabbed the blue-clad girl, hustling her down the hallway and up the stairs.
“Hey, wait a minute!” Gil complained, calling after them, “She wasn’t done yet!”
“Oh, you’ll hear more later.” Jay grabbed him as the brown clad boy surged to his feet to follow.
“How about a game of Hangman while we wait?” Carlos leapt to his feet.
*o*o*0*o*o*
“What was that about?” the purple-clad girl hissed, slamming her bedroom door..
“Jay and Carlos started it at Hell Hall.” the blue-clad girl smiled demurely, “Jay had to keep ‘em out of the bear traps. Then Carlos added his bit while they did the washing.” She smiled hopefully, “They thought that, maybe, if we tell our stories, the pirates will start wanting what we’ve found and then maybe we can have our own little Auradon here.” She shrugged, “That’s what we want, isn’t it?”
“So, I guess you’re expecting me to take up the cause now, huh?” Mal scowled, reading between the lines.
“Well, yeah…” Evie shrugged, “That’d be great.”
“Or at least you hope it will.” Mal retorted, crossing her arms over her chest, “But you seem to have forgotten that I came back here because, you know, I’m an Auradonian failure.”
“Well, ah…” the blue-clad girl bit her lip, “I wouldn’t say that…I mean, you saw how many AKs came over here because they all believe you should be back over there.”
“Oh, yeah, and one is coming back too, remember. I’m gonna put a stop to this.”
“Oh, Mal!” Evie’s seized her friend’s hand, “You can’t–”
“You said you’d help—” the purple-clad girl hissed, green blazing in her eyes.
“It would break their hearts—” the blue-clad girl pleaded, “Carlos and Jay spent all morning working on this! We ate lunch with them— They’re guests in your home— Mal, you can’t! What about last night? What about making things better here? For us, for them, for everyone!”
“Shut up!” Mal snapped, “They’ll hear you!” She ran her hand through her hair, pacing back and forth, “What’s the plan then? We have to stop Ben from coming! That’s paramount. I’ll sell out on everything else. I will!”
“But why?” Evie looked forlorn, “We can do both, I swear…”
“No!” Mal whirled around, gesturing angrily, “You saw what they did! How could you—”
“I know, I know…but that was before!” Evie pleaded, “We’ve been working together all day. Oh, if you’d just seen it, Mal. If you’d come with us instead of going to Yen Sid’s.”
“Yeah, well, I didn’t.”
“Uh, guys,” Jay’s voice suddenly came from the hallway, “The-the antiheroes just showed up…any suggestions?”