Rotten to the Core

7

I wake up the next morning looking to the side, looking at the tiara on my nightstand. I smile, but then I remember what happened yesterday and I sigh. "Mal's right. We need to do this, all of them won't know what hit them" I say in my head smirking. I mean they were all just a bunch of jerks and I'd rather rule over them where they know where we truly shine in the world. I get dressed and Evie looks at me with a sad face. "What is it, E?" I ask her. "I was just wondering if you're ok, I mean you were pretty hurt after what happened at Family Day yesterday" she says. "I'm fine. It's no big deal. I mean, I was pretty stupid to fall for my mom's enemy's son" I say and she stares at me in disbelief.

I go down the stairs on my way to school, but run into someone again. It's Aden and I really didn't want to face him today, not after what happened yesterday. So I start to walk away, but he grabs my arm and holds me back. "Ivy, wait we need to talk" he says. So I turn around and look at him waiting for him to talk. "Don't listen to Chad, Ivy. You know I love you and I always have since the first day I laid eyes on you" he says and I look in his eyes. He really knows where to get me doesn't he.

"Look, Aden, I love you too and I've loved you since that point on also, but I can't right now. You saw how they embarrassed all of us like we were nothing, but a piece of paper. I don't need that right now, Aden, I need to focus. I'm sorry, but I have to go" I say walking away to the end of the hall, but what people didn't see was a tear slip out of the corner of my eye. "Ivy?" I hear a familiar voice say behind me and I turn to see Carlos and Jay. They both hug me and I can't help but sob in their arms. They're always here for me and I appreciate them for that. Our parents taught us that if someone is crying, to not comfort them. If they're happy, make them miserable. We're all different from our parents, even though we don't want to admit it.

"Everything will be ok after this, I promise" Jay says holding me a little tighter.

"How do you know that, Jay?! How do you know that after we pull this off, we'll all be fine?!" I ask him still sobbing and pulling away from their arms.

"Ivs, have we ever let you down?" Carlos asks with a little smirk.

I sniffle and chuckle a little, "Not really. Except that one time in 2nd grade when you two were supposed to catch me after I did the trampoline tricks" I say. We all laugh and Jay wipes the tears from my eyes, "Come on, we gotta get to class" he says and I nod. Why can't things just turn out how we want them to? Mal has to do this for our parents and I agree, because from what I see here we will never be accepted as to being one of them. We will never be good, because our parents have evil blood in their veins and it's in ours too. That's a symbol that automatically makes us evil here and we can't change that. We have no choice, but to follow orders. "Jay, Carlos, do me a favor and don't tell Mal and Evie I cried" I say and they nod.

I sigh as I go through school with names being called over my shoulder. People telling me why am I here and that I should go back where I came from. I was sick of it all honestly. I meet up with the rest of the gang after school and we all talked about our day. "Dude, this sucks. We can't even do anything without getting told things and to go back to the Isle! It's not fair! Were not even our parents!" Carlos exclaimed mad that he had to go through school like that, and not to mention that Dude turned around at the mention of his name.

"We're all mad, Carlos, calm down. We aren't going to let this slide, they're all gonna pay. We're gonna let everyone from the Isle out! Who's with me?" Mal says in a determined voice, but I knew that she was conflicted on the inside. "We all are, Mal. Count us in!" Jay says pretty unsure himself, but goes along with it. I just sat there staring out the window of the room. I wonder how Aden is- wait, what? Why am I thinking about him? He didn't say anything in front of everyone else. He doesn't deserve this from me, no matter how much I love him, I have to do this. It's the only way. What I failed to notice was a tear slip from my face until Mal points it out.

"Hey, Ivy, are you sure your ok with the plan? I mean you and Aden, I thought-" I cut her off, "Aden isn't as important as this. We can prove to them and rule like our parents wanted and they won't judge us or stop us. It's gonna be like what we have wanted all this time" I lie, but smile like nothings wrong. Mal finds it suspicious, but shrugs it off and goes back to talking to Evie, Jay, and Carlos. But the boys stare at me with a concerned look on their faces. They know why I'm sitting on the ledge of the window staring into the sky, but then they turn back to Mal. "I wonder what will happen later on. I hope nothing bad and I wish Aden luck on everything; this is goodbye Aden" I whisper under my breath as I watch the stars appear.

It was time for curfew and the boys had to leave before they got in trouble. I walk up to them and hug Carlos and he walks out. Jay looks at me sincerely and hugs me tightly, "You'll be ok, I'll make sure of it" he says and pulls away. I shut the door and Evie gets ready for bed. I do the same, but instead of laying in bed, I sit on the windowsill and grab the tiara off my nightstand. I look at it and a tear slips from my face again. I don't want to see Aden get hurt by my mother at all. I know the first thing my mother would want to do, once she gets out of the island, is to get revenge on Ariel. I just can't help but think of Aden and his family. Mal was down in the kitchen with my potion book making the potion to break the love spell. I know she doesn't want to do this, but we have no choice now. I look at the tiara, then back at the stars. A little tune comes in my head and I sing it out loud, 'a million thoughts in my head should I let my heart keep listening, I know it's time to say goodbye so hard to let go'. The tears flow down my cheeks and I know I can't go on like this. I put the tiara back on my nightstand and walk out of the room. I knock on the door and Jay answers, "Ivy, what're you doing here?" he asks.

"I can't sleep and I really don't want to be alone. I mean, I know Mal and Evie are there with me, but Mal's in the kitchen making the potion to break Ben's love spell and Evie doesn't really wanna talk" I say and he nods and lets me in. I see Carlos sleeping peacefully with Dude on his left. "I'll sleep on the windowsill couch. You can sleep on my bed" he says and I nod. I hug him and say, "Thanks, Jay, your the best friend a girl could ever ask for" I say to him and he hugs me back. "It's no problem" He says and kisses the top of my forehead in a friendly manner. I pull back and lay on his bed pulling the covers over me. This reminded me of home. If I had a nightmare or felt bad about something, I'd go to Jay and he'd let me sleep on his bed and he'd either be next to me or be in the room still but laying somewhere else. I start to fall asleep, but soon wake up from a nightmare, "Ivy, you ok?" Jay asks. "No, not really" I say and he comes over sitting next to me. "I'm right here" he says and I smile and cry. I've been crying a lot today and I really don't like it. I'm just glad Jay's here. We've grown up together ever since we were 2 years old. We lay back on the bed and I finally fall asleep with no dreams.