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“No, I mean, we were raised to believe bad is good, and all we knew was the Isle of the Lost. But our parents were determined to send us here so they could have their revenge.”
“Thank goodness you guys didn’t do it,” said Jane.
“Yeah. It’s weird. I never thought I’d be over on this side of the barrier, but it feels really natural now,” he said, thinking of all the good things in his life now that he lived in Auradon. His dog, Dude, for one, and his solid gang of friends for another. Even Jane, he thought. If he’d never moved to Auradon, he wouldn’t have met her.
“What do you want to do when you get out of here? Auradon Prep, I mean,” she asked, as they left the field and walked onto campus.
“What do I want to do when I grow up?” Carlos thought about it. “I don’t know. Something with computers, maybe? What about you?”
“I always thought I’d be like my mom,” said Jane.
“Headmistress?”
“No, I meant like someone who grants people’s wishes. But now that magic is discouraged, I guess I have to go back to the drawing board,” said Jane. “Which is totally fine. Although, I was sort of looking forward to suddenly popping up when people are crying and changing everything so that they get their heart’s desire.”
“You like helping people,” said Carlos.
“I guess I do,” said Jane. She smiled and blushed, as if she’d revealed too much of herself. “Come on, race you back to the dorms. One, two…”
But before she even said three, Jane was already running, holding her mascot costume in her arms.
Carlos yelped and ran to catch up with her, following the sound of her laughter all the way to the buildings.
Jane had a sweet, lovely laugh, and hours later Carlos discovered he was still thinking about it.
After saying goodbye to Ben, Mal burst out the library doors and crossed campus, weaving her way through a crowd of students rushing out of their classes, and headed to study hall. Evie deployed the emergency-text option sparingly, so Mal knew it was serious. When she finally arrived back at their room, she found Evie sitting on the bed with Arabella, who was sniffling and wiping her eyes.
“Mal! Thank goblins you’re here,” said Evie.
Thank goblins? Things must really be serious if Evie was slipping back into Isle-speak. Mal took a seat across from Arabella and tried to look comforting.
“Tell Mal what you told me,” Evie said to her friend.
Mal thought that maybe Arabella, who was new to Auradon Prep, had some kind of first-year problem. The villain kids all had questions when they’d first arrived too: Was it okay to eat as much food as you could from the refectory? (Jay) Could you take as many classes as you could fit into your schedule—or even take two classes at the same time, if you worked really fast? (Carlos, of course.) Evie had wanted to know if they had to wear uniforms (they didn’t), while Mal’s only question was where she could acquire purple spray paint (the art studio). Although it had to be more serious than that, since Evie’d texted SOS.
“I have a big problem.” Arabella gulped and wiped her eyes. She was shaking. Hmmm. Definitely not the usual freshman drama, thought Mal.
Evie soothed. “Big problems are Mal’s specialty.”
“Okay,” said Arabella. She took a deep breath. “Remember when I went to my grandfather’s reception at the Seaside Festival yesterday?”
Mal nodded.
“So, um, I did something stupid at the party. I took something that wasn’t mine,” said Arabella, still sniffling. “When he wasn’t looking, I swiped my grandfather’s trident. I just wanted to see if I had enough power in me to use it, like my cousins. I just wanted to prove that I’m one of the king’s heirs too, that I could raise the waves like he did. I figured I’d return it right after.”
“Okay, so you took his trident…” Mal tapped her chin with her fingers; she could tell where this story was going already. The girl had gotten into some kind of mischief, obviously, but nothing too hard to untangle or fix.
“But…” said Evie, prompting.
“But it didn’t work out that way,” said Arabella, miserable. “I didn’t just call up some waves. The trident was so powerful that I called up that huge storm. I lost hold of it, and it flew up into the sky—and when it fell, I couldn’t find it. It washed away somewhere!”
“So it’s gone?” asked Mal, shocked. That she hadn’t foreseen, although she was relieved to discover that the Dragon’s Egg hadn’t been the reason behind the storm after all. Even though the talisman was gone forever, she was glad it hadn’t caused any more destruction as the result of her delay in taking it to Fairy Godmother.
“It’s gone.” Arabella nodded.
“Does King Triton know?” Mal asked. She could only imagine the sea king’s rage when he found out. Mal knew all about what happened when powerful beings were bereft of their magical instruments.
Arabella shook her head determinedly. “No. I didn’t tell him. I didn’t tell anyone. I was too scared.”
