𝙼 𝙰 𝚈 𝙱 𝙴
stave i 🥀 chapter 8

( third person narration )

𝙎𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙗𝙤𝙙𝙮 𝙩𝙤 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙣 𝙤𝙣,
𝙎𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙗𝙤𝙙𝙮 𝙩𝙤 𝙝𝙤𝙡𝙙
𝙄𝙩'𝙨 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙤 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙙, 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝,
𝘽𝙚𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙄 𝙡𝙚𝙩 𝙜𝙤

An hour and a half.

That's how long it took the five VK's to get ready for family day.

Quinn fully knew that Mal was a "thow on some lip balm and head out the door" kind of girl, and the boys were . . . themselves, so she didn't expect them to take forever to get ready. Her and Evie were usually the ones to take awhile.

Surprisingly, Quinn and Evie were the first ones to get dressed. Mal, Carlos, and Jay took longer. The trio had known that they had to dress to "try and fit in" which Quinn and Evie had been doing. Family day made no difference.

Mal dressed in a purple suede skirt and matching short-sleeve jacket. "Like a princess would," Mal had said.

It was a bright, sunny day in Auradon. Everyone had gathered outside to celebrate with their families. The students even performed a cover of the song from the story of the Beauty and the Beast. Quinn didn't really like it. The five watched the kids perform on the balcony.

Auradon Kids:
Be our guest!
Be our guest!
Be our guest!

Quinn smiled as Alison sent a look of misery over to her. She knew that Alison hated acapella and wearing dresses. The blonde was doing both right now.

The song concluded with applause from everyone. Mal, Evie, Carlos, Jay, and Quinn had made their way to the main area where most of the students and food were. Quinn pinched the bridge of her nose as she watched Jay and Carlos eat their way through the chocolate fountain.

"Weirdos," she commented.

Mal was called over by Ben. The purple-haired girl gave Quinn and Evie a wave. Evie gave a smaller one in return, using her free hand. Carlos had handed Dude off to Evie, which made Quinn roll her eyes.

The blonde-red-haired princess had dressed somewhat normally. It was a tad bit dressier than her usual attire, though. She wore a red-collared dress and paired it with Mal's leather jacket. Her legs were covered in knee-high socks with heeled anke boots. Makeup was minimal, with the exception of Quinn's usual bold lip and half her hair was braided up.

Evie and Quinn observed Mal and the Beast family's conversation. She noticed the horrified looks on the parents' faces soften after Ben had said something. Quinn could only imagine how awkward it must be for the four of them at the moment.

Moments later, Mal and Ben walked over to the four VK's, inviting them to a game of croquet.

"What's croquet?" Quinn had asked.

The VK's and Ben had looked at the Hearts girl in shock.

Turns out croquet was the game that the Queen of Hearts dominated it. Instead, this time the game was played with real croquet mallets instead of flamingos. Quinn herself wasn't terrible at it. She was farther than Evie, who had quit halfway through. Quinn smiled at her best friend's frustration.

"Have we met before?"

Quinn turned around, not recognizing the voice behind her. She turned around to find a girl behind her with ginger hair. The unnamed girl wore a green plaid dress and a long green trench coat. The shades of emerald heavily contrasted with her red hair and pale skin.

"Um, I don't think so," Quinn uneasily responded, looking behind her.

The redhead hummed, "I thought you were—Oh wait! You are!" she exclaimed, "Are you the girl from music class?"

"I thought you didn't go to music, Maxine."

Quinn jumped, only to find another ginger. This one was male, however, but still wore green in the form of a pullover sweater and a green plaid collared shirt underneath. Quinn assumed that both gingers were twins. If not that, then two people who were dared to dress and act the same.

Maxine closed her eyes, pinching her fingers with her croquet mallet in hand. "For the millionth time, Maximus, you go by your full name and I go by Max," she snapped.

"Why doesn't one of you go by Max and the other go by Maxi?" Quinn asked, "I mean, both of your names start with Maxi?"

Quinn was ignored. "I can't believe you left dad by himself while you rudley interrupt a conversation with an amazing singer!" she pointed in a random direction, "Look at him! He's spilling tea all over the place—"

"Who are you?!" Quinn's voice pierced through the conversation.

The duo smiled, like nothing had happened.

"I'm Max," the boy said.

"And I'm Maxine," the girl said.

"We're twins. The Mad Hatter is our father."

Quinn cringed when they talked at the same time. "Um, okay," she said, "Do you know a girl called Alison? Alice's daughter?"

"Oh yeah," Max said, "Ali's in the singing program. She recommended you."

"What singing program?" the heartbreaker questioned.

"Hatter Music Studios?" Maxine half-asked, "It's a prestegious music program that can land you gigs and record deals."

"It's very prestegious."

"Very prestegious."

Quinn was a little creeped out with Max, and Maxine talking in unision. But she wasn't very surprised, considering that the Mad Hatter was their father. Weirdness was very much expected from the Hatter family.

"Wait, so why are you telling me about this?" Quinn asked.

"We want you to audition," ginger #1 (a.k.a Maxine) started.

"For our music program," ginger #2 finished, "Like we said, Alison told us about your songwriting and voice. And we want to hear it for ourselves."

Quinn was happy, but her face was plastered with weirdness that had been emitted from the Hatter twins. Max quickly noticed Quinn's weirded-out expression.

"Take our card," Max handed Quinn an emerald buisness card, "And if you're interested, stop by and show us what you've got. We're always looking for new talent."

The Hearts girl smiled, staring at the card in awe, "I don't know what to say—"

"You!"

A cry of distress caught everyone's attention. Even Quinn, Max, and Maxine's, who were on the other side.

Maxine gingerly put a hand over her mouth. "Ooh. Queen Leah is about to go off on the VK girl," she said, "Good luck calming her down."

The Hatter twins briskly turned around, strutting off without saying another word. Quinn gave them one last good look, before walking over to a small crowd, consisting of Mal, Evie, Carlos, Jay, Chad, Audrey, Ben, Queen Leah, and a few others.

"A chance to what, Ben? Destroy us? Come on. You remember, don't you? The poison apples. And the spells. Spells," a distressed Queen Leah made many pauses for dramatic effect, "My daughter . . . was raised by fairies because of your mother's curse. So her first words, her first steps, I missed it all! You mustn't trust her."

Quinn rolled her eyes. Than you should've hired a sorcerer to reverse the spell, she thought to herself, instead, you let a bunch of fairies raise her.

Queen Leah talked to Fairy Godmother, who had rushed behind her at the start of the scene. Mal attempted to apologize, but it did no good, thanks to Chad Charming.

"Go away! Stay away from her!" he barked.

"Don't do this, Chad," Ben was quick to warn the prince before things turned uglier.

"What? They were raised by their parents, Ben. What do you think villains teach their kids? Huh? Kindness? Fair play? No way, okay? Uh-uh," Chad began, pointing to Mal, "You stole another girl's boyfriend." He turned to Jay and Quinn, "You two enjoy hurting people." Quinn rolled her eyes, but was really fuming when Chad pointed to Evie, "And you, you're nothing but a gold digger and a cheater."

Quinn pushed past Jay, "You made her do your chemistry homework for you, you piece of—"

Evie pushed past Quinn with her magic mirror, preventing the half-redhead from saying something she might regret. "Mirror, mirror, in my hand, who's the biggest jerk in the land?" the mirror showed a reflection of Chad.

"What? Come on!" Chad pushed the mirror out of his face, making Evie stumble back.

Jay was quick to grab Chad by the collar, muttering "Back off, Chad." That's when things started to get really ugly.

Next thing she knew, Quinn saw Evie spray the sleep tonic on Chad's face a couple of times, making him collapse on the lawn. The Auradon kids rushed around Chad. Quinn lightly smiled when she saw Alison roll her eyes and scoff when everyone was crowding around Chad.

Alison looked over to the group, "Guys, he's literally going to be fine—" She was interrupted by her mother smacking her in the arm.

Evie pulled Mal and Quinn away from the scene as she saw Carlos and Jay flee. Ben called after the five, but none of them cared to listen. Quinn started to feel less bad about what they were planning on doing to Auradon. She finally understood why Maleficent cursed Aurora. She finally understood why the Evil Queen poisoned Snow White. She finally understood why Jafar was a wicked as he was. She finally understood Cruella's plans to steal dogs. She finally understood why her mother, the Queen of Hearts, ruled Wonderland with an iron fist.

And she finally understood why the VK's had to steal the wand.

• • •

The VK's were now at the picnic table. Quinn learned that food makes everything feel better. But this time it didn't work. She pushed her lunch tray, muttering "I'm not hungry." Dude ended up eating the bacon on her sandwich.

Ben approached the five. Ben and Alison were also the only ones willing to go within a fiteen-foot radius within the VK's that day. Alison was still moody from the stupidity of the incident, though.

"Hey, guys. How is everyone?" Ben frowned when no one gave him a response, "Yeah? Hey, listen. Forget about it. All right? It was nothing. Forget about it. Let it go." Quinn glared at the soon-to-be-king, "Tomorrow, after the coronation, I promise everything will be okay."

And he was right. After coronation, the wand would be stolen, and all of the villains and VK's would be released from the Isle of the Lost, prepared to wreck havoc on Auradon.

Ben went behind Mal and rested his hands on her shoulders, "I have to go. I'll see you guys later."

Quinn heaved a sign and rolled her eyes when Ben was out of earshot.

Moments later, Doug approached the group, in some sort of attempt to talk to Evie. Alison leaned against a tree nearby the Auradon girls' table, glaring at them as they made snappy remarks about her wearing raggedy tennis shoes instead of heels or flats like every other Auradon girl did. Quinn wanted to do something, but Alison strictly told her not to make her case any worse than it already is.

"Listen, Evie," Doug started, "I wanna talk about earlier today. I just—"

"Doug!" Chad's voice made Doug turn around as the rest of the VK's glared at Chad.

"It's my fault, Doug," Evie pleaded, "I'm sorry."

"No it's mine—"

"Doug!"

Evie frowned. "Doug..." she trailed off.

"Sorry, I can't," Doug apologized, walking back to his friends' table. Quinn rolled her eyes for about the fifth time today.

Meanwhile, Jane and Audrey continued taunting Alison. Alison kept her stone-cold expression, still leaned against the tree. Quinn didn't understand why Alison didn't get up and leave already.

"Looks like someone needs a Cinderella makeover," Jane started. Quinn was surprised. Why was she following Audrey around? Weren't Jane and Alison good friends?

Quinn stood up, causing the VK's and Audrey, Jane, and Alison to look at her. Alison mouthed "don't" to the Hearts girl, causing her to slowly sit back down.

Jane and Audrey smirked, before strutting towards the VK's table.

"How long does she think that's gonna last?" Audrey asked once she was in earshot of Mal, "Mal is just the bad girl infatuation."

"Yeah," Jane agreed, leaning towards Mal's ear, "I mean, he's never gonna make a villain a queen."

The duo giggled, before strutting back to their table. Quinn rolled her eyes again as Mal pulled out her spellbook.

"'Beware, forswear, undo Jane's hair,'" Mal flicked her finger in a couple of directions before hastily shutting her spellbook. Jane screamed when her hair turned back into her previous black shoulder-length haircut. Everyone laughed at her except for Lonnie, who checked her hair to see that it wasn't spelled, and Alison, who rolled her eyes at the freaking out Auradon kids.

"There's a lot more where that came from," the purple-haired girl threatened as her and the rest of the VK's stood up.

"Excuse me, who do you think you are?" Audrey snapped with a hand on her hip.

"Do I look like I'm kidding?" Mal threatened again, whipping her spellbook out again and flipping through the pages. Everyone shrieked and ran off, making Quinn smile in satisfaction. After all, it was better to be feared than to be loved.

Mal sharply inhaled, facing her friends. "I'm really looking forward to tomorrow," she said, earning a couple of nods, "Let's grab that wand and blow this Popsicle stand."

Quinn nodded, following behind Jay as the five walked away from the picnic table, ignoring the glances the other Auradon kids gave them. Quinn didn't care if she was getting expelled from Auradon because of what happened at family day; all she cared about was stealing the wand, and getting the revenge that everyone on the Isle deserved.

It was time for Auradon to get a taste of their own medicine.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

the scene where mal, evie, carlos, and jay strutted out of the picnic area was low-key badass. it was one of my favorite parts of descendants

thanks for bearing with me. :)
until next time.

~crrashingwavves