Half and Half

Chapter Twenty Seven

Time passed and soon the Isle was once again abuzz. However, this time, the buzz wasn't from the gossip of Persephone adopting Mal but from the birthday of the daughter of the Evil Queen.

Invitations had made their way out through the vultures, but some lucky VKs had theirs hand delivered by the Princess. Rumor had it she had been trying to build her own gang, the same way Mal, Uma, and Harry had their gang. She had already brought in Quinn, Queen of Hearts' daughter, and Ginny Gothel.

Mal honestly believed they'd last a week before disbanding. They called themselves the Royals after all, any gang that prissy would be eaten alive.

Of course, Evie had continued to exhibit her lack of brains (at least according to Mal) when she decided to hand deliver Ben's invitation right in front of Mal.

Though, if Mal was honest, she hadn't expected the response that came from the Prince.

"Ben!"

"Oh, hi Evie," Ben said with a smile as Evie came walking up to them. Strictly speaking, running was reserved fo getting help if someone was hurt or if you were trying to get away from someone you stole from. Jay, Jafar's son, was often an example of the latter.

But Evie always managed to take it to the next level. Something that seemed to always irritate Mal but Ben never understood why. Most of the royals across the bridge tried to take what Chip called 'dainty' steps—the older boy insisted the shoes some of the older girls wore made it hurt to walk hence the dainty steps.

"Blueberry," Mal scoffed in greeting.

"Mal," Evie nodded her head before turning back to Ben and handing him an envelope. "I hope you're able to make it to my party Ben, almost all the Isle's been invited. Of course we haven't invited Freddy Frollo—."

"Why not?" Ben asked.

"He's the spawn of Satan, do we have to go over your flash cards again?" Mal asked, looking over at the confused royal.

"Oh! Right!" Ben nodded as the knowledge came back to him. It made more sense now why Evie wouldn't want Freddy at her party.

"Well...I hope you're able to make it," Evie repeated. "It's in April so you should still be on the Isle then according to mother."

"...Where's Mal's invite?" Ben asked.

"Oh...well you know, there's a lot of people—."

"You said, almost all the Isle's invited except for Freddy," Ben said. "Mal's not mean like Freddy so shouldn't she get an invite too?"

"Like I'd want to go to Blueberry's party anyway," Mal scoffed but Ben could hear a bit of hurt in Mal's voice. He knew what it was like to be excluded and some of the other Isle kids seemed to be giving her a berth as the news had gotten out that she was no longer legally Maleficent's kid.

She'd lost her power as heir apparent to the Isle because of the adoption. Not that Mal cared about that, but having the ability to protect Uma and Harry was all that mattered to her. Oh and protecting Ben of course.

Ben had actually earned some points in Uma's book by going up to her after they found out that the news had spread throughout the Isle. Apparently Ben wanted to repay everything Mal had done for him by making sure nothing happened to her because of the change. Sure she had only gone from Maleficent's kid to Hades' kid but Ben was no idiot even if he knew most of the Isle kids thought he was.

It was one thing to be the daughter of a God. It was another thing entirely to be the daughter of the Dragon who ran the Isle. And so Ben, despite his slight worry that Uma would just laugh in his face, went to the teal haired girl to set up some protection for Mal.