Pirate Pan

Past

"All right. It says that we still need one tear, and I never cry." Mal says as she and Evie stand at the table making potion-infused cookies while Jay, Pan, and Carlos sit on the kitchen counter behind them with Dude, the dog, next to Carlos. Pan found out earlier that Carlos had befriended the dog, so now, Dude stays with Carlos as his pet.

"Let's just chop up some onions," Carlos says, tossing around an onion.

"No," Mal says, rejecting Carlos's suggestion. "It says that we need one tear of human sadness. And this love potion gets the best review, so we have to follow it exactly." Mal says.

"A tear's a tear," Jay responds, not understanding why it's a big deal.

"That's not true, Jay. They both have antibodies and enzymes, but an emotional tear has more protein-based hormones than a reflex tear." Evie explains smartly.

"Dang, look at you go," Pan says, impressed as Evie smiles confidently.

"Yeah, I knew that," Jay argues.

"Did not," Carlos says.

"Yeah, I did," Jay responds.

"You really didn't," Pan chimes in, getting Carlos to chuckle as Jay glares at them.

"There you are, Mal!" Lonnie says, bursting into the room, startling the VKs as Mal subtly covers up her spell book as they try to act normal. "I was looking for you. You know, all the girls want you to do their hair!" Lonnie says as Mal and Evie chuckle nervously while trying to act normal. "Midnight snack, huh? What are you guys making?" Lonnie asked, looking into the bowl that Mal was stirring ingredients into.

"Nothing special. Just cookies." Mal says, and before they could stop her, Lonnie dips her finger into the cookie dough and takes a bite.

"Oh, no, no!" Mal rushes as everyone gets up to stop her, but it is too late. Lonnie had already eaten the cookie dough and looked at everyone weirdly.

"What? I'm not gonna double dip," she says, chuckling.

"Feel anything?" Evie asked hesitantly.

"Yeah, like maybe it might be missing something?" Mal asks as well.

Jay, wanting to see if the potion worked, walked up to Lonnie and leaned against the table, trying to act cool and seductive, "Hey, there," he said flirtingly as Lonnie just looked at him weirdly like he wasn't doing it for her.

"It could use some chips," Lonnie said, walking past Jay, who looked confused on why his charm didn't work, while Pan just stifled a laugh.

"Chips?" Jay asked, confused as everyone let out a sigh of relief as Mal got back to making the dough.

"And those are...?" Mal asked, annoyed.

"Chocolate chips," she said, taking a bowl of chocolate chips out of the fridge. "Just the most important food group," Lonnie said, setting the bowl of chocolate chips down on the counter Mal and Evie were at. "Wait, didn't your moms ever make you guys, like, chocolate chip cookies?" she asked, dumping a handful of chocolate chips into Mal's batter. Pan could already tell that this wasn't going to go well. Unlike Lonnie, Pan knew that life on the island was tough, and the VKs parents probably weren't the best. "Like, when you're feeling sad, and they're fresh from the oven, with a big old glass of milk, and she just makes you laugh and puts everything into perspective and..." she trails off as she sees all the VKs with sad expressions on their face as Pan just sat there in silence. "... why are you all looking at me like that?" Lonnie asked as the VKs looked at her, wishing that they had that good of a childhood.

"It's just different where we're from," Mal tells her.

"Yeah, I know. I just, you know, I thought... Even villains love their kids." Lonnie says, but as she looks around, she realizes they never had that. "Oh... How awful," she says, placing her hand on top of Mal's as a tear slips out.