The Sorceress

1.8

"Whoa, whoa," The guy voiced in alarm, both of his hands were up when he saw me standing up with a defensive stance, "I mean no harm, miss Nevaeh. But do you mind answering my question?"

"How did you know my name?" I inquired him with a wary stare. Then it struck me when I saw his face.

Dark brown - almost black - hair, hazel eyes, very tall, and had similar facial features to Ben. The stranger wore a light yellow blouse with a silver rose-shaped pin on his breast pocket and a pair of dark navy trousers. I subtly raised an eyebrow as I obtained my answer. He was Brayden, Ben's twin brother and the oldest prince in Auradon (I really need to ask someone why Brayden wasn't the next king). With that being said, he obviously knew my name because of the list of new kids from the Isle.

As soon as I recognized his identity, I lifted my lips and bowed to him, "Forgive my rudeness, Prince Brayden."

"Oh, no. It's fine. You're being cautious." He brushed it off and gave me a blank smile, "But do call me by my name, which I didn't remember giving?"

I faked a chuckle, "It was Doug. He mentioned you when he was introducing us to our new class. Quite an amazing individual you are."

"Why, I'm flattered." He chuckled - quite dryly, in my opinion - while placing both of his hands into the pocket of his pants, "Now, I don't mean to be intrusive, but can you tell me why you could contact people from the Isle? It must be your mother, Nasira. As from what I've remembered, there's no magic on the Isle?"

"It is my mother and it's just a small, harmless spell my mother gave me. You know, to contact her after I'm here, where magic is available. It's the first time we've been apart from each other for such a long time and mail didn't exactly work on the Isle, since no one wanted to visit the Isle." I carefully emphasized the last sentence and continued my 'pitiful' act with a sad sigh, "So, it's the only form of communication I have with my mother."

I saw the prince raise his eyebrow before a small smile appeared on his lips, "I see ... Well, I hope there's nothing dangerous from the spells in your book. Otherwise, the program might just be canceled. We don't want that, do we?"

I gritted my teeth and suppressed the urge to retort. I continued with my facade and responded smoothly, "Of course, I've always wished for the two lands to unite. Auradon is indeed a beautiful land with all sorts of resources." Then I dropped my smile and said in a bitter tone, "Unlike the Isle, where most of the people rarely got their stomachs filled or even find a place for shelter."

I saw the prince's face showed a look of bewilderment when I finished my speech. Then, he looked at me apologetically and opened his mouth, wanting to say something. But, I beat him to it and raised a fake smile before saying my goodbye, "If there's nothing you need, I will be taking my leave now."

I bowed to him and left this field as fast as possible while appearing I was not running away from him. But before I could step out of the field, I heard his voice call out, "Hey, don't smile when you don't want to. Your genuine smile was much more pleasing than your pretentious smile."

Stunned and mortified, I paused my steps. Then I turned to him with a snarky smile, "I don't think you have the right to control it, Prince Brayden."

☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐

I slammed the dorm room open and saw Mal and Evie flinch at the sudden collision. I muttered a sorry to them before shutting the door with a loud bang, which caused Mal and Evie to flinch again.

"What's gotten into you?" Mal inquired while placing down the palette and brush (I'm just gonna assume Mal borrowed them from the Auradon kids), "You never get angry. Well, you do, but you always cover it up with your fake plastic smile and no one will even find out that it's fake."

"Exactly!" I exclaimed in exasperation while pulling my hair, "No one could ever differentiate my genuine and fake smile besides you guys and my mother. But then, there's this guy who just randomly shows up out of nowhere and says I shouldn't fake a smile because it's less pleasing to the eye! Who does he even think he is? Does he think I'll obey his words because he's a prince? No! Absolutely no!"

I saw Mal and Evie stare at each other in befuddlement before they broke into a fit of small laughter. I stared at them in disbelief, "How do you find this funny?"

"Well, first of all," Evie started, her hands not stopping on her sewing, "We never saw you in this ... raging state since we knew each other. So, it's kind of a new thing to us. Second of all, who is this special prince that made our calm and composed Nevaeh this pissed?"

I rolled my eyes at Evie's teasing and answered, "It's Ben's twin. That Brayden guy that Doug and Audrey mentioned."

"Is he cute though?"

"Evie!" I cried in incredulity and gave the laughing girl a glare, "That's not the point."

I groaned, placing my face on both of my palms. Then I slowly raised my head up as I realized something, "Wait ... Oh, this is not good. How could I not have realized this earlier?"

"Realized what?" Evie asked, looking up from her sewing.

"Of how ridiculously sharp this Brayden guy was." I bit my nails while analyzing this situation, "As I said before, no stranger could ever tear open my act. But this Brayden could easily see through the cracks within a few minutes of converse. What if ..." I turned towards Mal and Evie with a frown, "What if he notices our plan on stealing the wand."

Mal stopped painting the silhouettes of our mothers as she sighed, "The only way for us right now is to meet up with the boys before coming up with a decent plan. Then, we'll leave this place right after we get the wand."

"Yeah, yeah, that could work." I breathed out before lying on my bed, "I hope."

I.S.:

Mal: 20

Evie: 21

Brayden: 21

Nevaeh: 22