The Prince and The Shadow's Daughter

CHAPTER NINE: FAMILY V FRIENDS

For the next few days, everything went by smoothly, and before we knew it, Family Day had arrived. By the time the five of us made it to the courtyard where all the activities were going down, Ben was already performing Be Our Guest in honor of his mom and dad. Jay and Carlos became easily distracted by the big chocolate fountain while Mal and Evie found some friends who were not performing with Ben to talk to. I made my way to the front of the crowd, and as soon as Ben saw me, I could see his eyes light up. Once they finished performing, his parents whisked Ben away to take their annual family portrait.

"Oh, by the way, I have a new girlfriend," he said out of the blue before the picture was taken. "Well, I never wanted to say anything, but I always thought that Audrey was a little self-absorbed," Belle said through her smile. "Do we know your new girlfriend?" his father asked curiously. "Sort of..." Ben started to say before spotting me and calling over to me. "Y/n! Y/n, I want to introduce you to my family," he said, moving to be by my side.

"This is Sarah. From the island. My girlfriend." Ben said, introducing me to his parents. Being polite, I exchanged hellos with his mother before he continued talking. "I was thinking maybe she can join us for lunch." Recovering from the shock, Beast said, "Of... course. Any friend of Ben's..."

"Oh, I actually came with my friends," I said, turning around and spotting them all conversing with each other. "Well, you should invite them. Because the more the merrier!" Belle said, trying to form a bond with her son's girlfriend. "Uh, how about a game of croquet before lunch?" Nodding, I accepted their request for the game before lunch and walked away with Ben to grab my friends. "Have you ever played before?" he whispered to me, trying to figure out if you know what I got myself invited to.

In the middle of the game, someone's parent walked up to where I was standing. "Have we met?" he asked me. "No, I don't think so. I'm new. I'm sort of like a... transfer student," I said, trying to figure out the best way to explain why I was there. "Oh, Audrey. It's so nice to see you again." "I don't think you'll want to be talking to her, King Naveen. Unless you want to turn back into a frog," she said in a snooty voice once she made it beside him.

A little confused about what she meant by that, he took a second look at me and connected the familiar facial features to my father. "How are you here?!" He asked, slowly backing away. "King Naveen, it's okay. Dr. Facilier is still on the island." Ben said, walking up behind me and placing his arm around my waist. "This is his daughter, y/n. Don't you remember my proclamation to give the new generation a chance?"

"A chance to what, Ben? Destroy us? Come on. You remember, don't you? The poison apples. And the spells. Spells. I was turned into a frog because of her father's voodoo powers. You mustn't trust her." Naveen said, trying to get Ben to see some reason. Trying to get close to apologize for my father's actions, Chad quickly ran over. "Get away from him." "Don't do this, Chad." Ben started.

"What? Ben, they were raised by their parents. What do you think villains teach their kids? Huh? Kindness? Fair play? No way, okay? Uh-uh. You stole another girl's boyfriend," he said, pointing at me before pointing towards Jay. "You enjoy hurting people, and you..." he said, now turning his attention to Evie. "You are nothing but a gold digger and a cheater."

"Mirror mirror in my hand; who's the biggest jerk in the land," Evie said, grabbing her mirror from her purse and showing Chad his reflection. Once Chad saw his reflection, he slapped her hand away, causing Jay to get overprotective and yelling at him to back off. To de-escalate the situation, Evie then grabbed the perfume and sprayed Chad two times, causing him to go out like a light.

"They did something to Chad!" Audrey exclaimed after King Naveen caught Chad from falling over. "Wake him up. Check if he's okay." Lonnie said, reaching the middle of the group. "Chad, wake up." While everyone was trying to wake up Chad, Evie grabbed my hand, the five of us trying to get away from all the prying eyes with Ben yelling after us, asking us to return. "I feared something like this would happen." His father said, dissapointedly.

"It's not their fault," Ben said, trying to stick up for us. "No, son, it's your fault," Beast said before grabbing Belle's hand and walking away. Later that day, we were sitting at one of the picnic tables, quietly conversing between ourselves, when Ben walked up behind me and placed his hands on my shoulders. "Hey, guys. How is everyone? Yeah? Hey, listen. Forget about it. All right? It was nothing. Forget about it. Let it go. Tomorrow, after the coronation, I promise everything will be okay," he said to the group before leaning down to whisper to me, "I have to go. I'll see you guys later."

As soon as Ben left our table, Doug walked up to us, trying to talk to Evie, but Chad called his name from a different table and gave him a look. "Doug?" Evie asked, looking a little heartbroken. "Sorry. I can't," Doug responded before turning around and walking to the table Chad was at. "How long does she think that's going to last? y/n's just the bad girl infatuation." Audrey said to the group of girls while walking past us. "Yeah. I mean, he's never going to make a villain the queen," Jane then said before laughing with the group.

Mal, finally tired of how everyone treated us, flipped her spell book open to a spell and quietly cast it, causing Jane's new hair to disappear and giving her her bob hairstyle back. Everyone around her noticed and backed away, afraid their hair would be next. "There's a lot more where that came from." "Excuse me, who do you think you are?" Audrey asked, getting up in our faces. Sensing Audrey's fear, I grabbed Mal's spell book and asked, "Does it look like we are kidding," and started turning the pages, causing them to run away.

"I can't wait for tomorrow," Mal said. Let's grab that wand and blow this popsicle stand." Evie finished, looking at the other three before landing on my face. "Actually, y/n, can we go talk in your room about something? I still need to finish your dress," she asked, pulling me away, not waiting for an answer from me.