Not That Evil

Chapter Twenty Three

Going to what I said at the start of chapter 20, I recently got to dissect a pig, and the worst part was the smell. Fermaldehide is now permanently etched into my brain... Anyways, the character Lindsay is based off my real life friend, who insisted I put her in a chapter. Of one of my stories. Sorry you only haves few lines, Lindsay! (And trust me, she's not as mean as her character. She's actually really nice and one of the greatest friends I could ask for).
------------------------------------------------------

I quietly sat down at my lab table for biology, the mere mention of the class holding a negative connotation for me. Rajah and Ray didn't mention what had happened last time we were in this class, but rather offered sympathetic smiles to me and didn't say a word. Another fetal pig rested in front of us, smelling of rotting tomato sauce mixed with chocolate: a horrible combination. There were still about five minutes until the bell rang, and I thought they would pass silently, until a girl with tanned skin, chocolate brown hair, and a perfect face came over and fake smiled at me.
"Are you going to cut off the head of the pig again, Hera?" My throat tightened as she kept speaking. "You really should. It's clearly all anyone from your family is good at."
"Hey," Rajah started, "leave her-"
"Shut it, nerd!" She turned back to me. "You should just go back to the prison you grew up in. There's a reason you low-life degenerates were kept there." She walked back to her table of ever-faithful followers and sneered at me. I bit back the tears forming.

After what had happened at family day, all of the kids at Auradon Prep stayed far away from us. I guess there was this incident with Mal and Evie where Evie accidentally used the spray meant to knock out the limo driver to knock out Chad. Everyone looked at us like the freaks we all knew we were. I barely touched my salad, my stomach too knotted up. Carlos looked around to make sure Jon was nowhere in sight, then wrapped an arm around my shoulders. I sighed and scooted closer to him, feeling comforted by his presence. A person came over to our table, and I recognized him as the boy who had shown us around our first day here.
"Listen, Evie, I want to talk about earlier today. I just-"
"Doug!" A table of popular girls that I thought were our friends pressured him to come back over.
"It's my fault, Doug," she murmured. "I'm sorry."
"No, it's mine."
"Doug!"
"What?!"
"Doug..." This time it was Evie who spoke his name.
"I can't."
"Okay..." Doug walked back to the table, only for Jane, Lonnie, Audrey, Aria, and Lindsay to walk over to us. Jane suddenly seemed to be the Queen Bee of the group.
"How long do they think this will last?" Jane scoffed, looking from Mal to myself.
"Mal and Hera are just the bad girl infatuation," Aria laughed.
"Yeah," Lonnie agreed.
"I mean, there's no way they would make villains queens." The girls all laughed and walked back to their table, when Mal whipped out her spellbook.
"Beware, forsware, undo Jane's hair." She moved her fingers in the familiar motion, and soon, an ear-piercing shriek was emitted. Jane turned around to confront Mal, her hair back in its normal, boring bob cut.
"There's a lot more where that came from." Mal kept her voice cool and threatening.
"Excuse me, who do you think you are?"
"Do I look like I'm kidding?" Jane sneered at Mal, but went back to her table without saying anything else. "I'm really looking forward to tomorrow. Let's steal that wand and blow this Popsicle stand."

I paced back and forth in my pink room. I was nervous about tomorrow. Sure, I didn't care about Jon one bit, but he had high authority in this kingdom. In reality, he could do anything he wanted to me if I betrayed him.
No, Hera! If you keep thinking those things, you'll psych yourself out and not show up at all tomorrow. Mal still needs you.
Despite my best efforts, I couldn't even come close to being tired. I needed fresh air and space to think. Without considering other options, I opened up my window and climbed out, using the large tree underneath it to help myself climb all the way down. I found the small hedge area where I had first met Aline and walked all the way through to the center. There, a small pond with a tiny waterfall sat, surrounded by rocks and flowers. I sat down by it and looked up at the sky, smiling just a bit.
"Hey, Aline," I whispered to the stars. " I know we never got a chance to have girl talk, but I need to talk to you right now." There was a small breeze, and it almost felt like Aline was next to me, listening. "I'm about to do something really bad, and I'm not sure if I should or not. See, if I do it, I could be putting the world in danger. But if I don't do it, I'll be putting my friends and I in danger. I know it seems like there's an obvious answer, but my friends are really important to me, and no one here has been very nice." Tears pricked the corners of my eyes and bit my throat like an army of angry dogs. "What should I do, Aline." I whipped around at the sound of footsteps approaching. I let out a sigh of relief when the source turned out to just be Carlos.
"Hey, do you mind if I join you?" I shook my head and he sat down, so close I could feel his arm against mine. "Who were you talking to?"
"Aline." Carlos seemed to understand and moved on. "Are you nervous for tomorrow?"
"Of course. I'll be wearing a long dress! I'd be surprised if I didn't trip!" Carlos and I both began laughing, and after it died down, I rested my head on his shoulder and sighed.
"I'm sure you'll look beautiful, Hera, and if you ever need anything, I'm in the next hall over."
"Thanks, Carlos." I stood and offered him my hand. "Now let's go back to sleep. It's been a long day." He laced my fingers through mine and we snuck back to the dorms."