More Than This

Chapter 14

The four friends were sitting quietly at the table in Ben's secret room still in their dance attire. Carlos had his head wrapped in his arms as Dude whimpered at his feet. Mal was glaring into the distance. Jay was tapping in the table and looking off into space. Evie was twirling her hair with her fingers and nervously biting her lip. No one spoke for a long time. There wasn't much to be said. Their parents (with the exception of Mal'a) were lose, they had an evil scepter, and they wanted revenge just as much as they wanted power. Ben quickly hid them back in the secret room when he learned of the danger they faced. Not much else could be done.

"This sucks," Jay said as he pounded his fist into the table and stood up. The three others looked on as he began his rant. "They're free and they have the scepter. It's only a matter of time before they find us with it. And then what?"

"We'll figure something out," Mal said, gritting her teeth.

"When? When they have us cornered?" Jay taunted. Mal shot him a look that probably could kill.

"Jay's right," Carlos admitted. "We need a plan."

"And base it off of what?" Mal shook her head. "Old stories that our parents told us about?"

"The library!" Evie shrieked, sitting up straight in her chair. "They have all the stories! Maybe we can learn something useful."

"Perfect!" Carlos agreed as he stood up.

"Fine," Mal huffed as she followed Carlos to the door.

"Nice thinking," Jay smirked as he nudged Evie on the shoulder and followed the others. Evie smiled to herself before setting off to the library as well.

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"Wow," Carlos breathed. The library was huge. Book shelves reached the ceilings of the large room. The area made the tourney field seem small. Not too surprising, considering everyone knew of Queen Belle's love of books.

There was a large chandelier hanging in the center of the room that shined a beautiful light all over the room, making everything almost look tinted gold. There where also portraits of all the Royal Families along the walls.

"Let's split up," Evie announced. The four all went down different isles. Evie was drawn immediately to a portrait of Snow White and her prince. She craned her neck to see the portrait hanging high above her head and smiled at the happy couple. She then looked a little lower and saw a large book with the spine reading "Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs". Evie smiled at reached up for the book, only to realize that she was about a foot too short, even with heels. She reached and jumped and even started to climb before she felt a strong hand on her shoulder.

"I got this," Jay smirked at her. He handed her a small chapter book before reaching up to get the large book. Once he had it in his grasp he pulled it out  and read the title aloud. "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, huh?"

Evie nodded. "There's got to be something worth knowing in there." She looked down at the book in her hands. "'The History of Jafar's Scepter'. How perfect."

They smiled at each other as they exchanged books and sat across from each other at a small table.

Evie opened her book and began reading. Despite being a rather large book, it was mainly elegant pictures and very little words. Evie shuddered at  the ones that showed her mother as an old hag. It wasn't long until she had reached the end of the story.

Jay, however, was doing anything but reading. He found himself staring at Evie and admiring the little things about her; the way she bit her lip when she was focused, how she would gasp when a detail surprised her, and the way her eyes shined as she read what had to be the happy ending. Jay had always found Evie attractive, but lately it had just gotten to be too much. And he couldn't get it out of his head that just a few hours ago they were kissing. Well, technically, she kissed him, but Jay enjoyed it and looked forward to kissing her again. You know, if he could stop gawking at her and actually talk to her. Jay was completely zoned out.