Hooks and Poison Apples

Guests

Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?

With a smile Evie leant in closer to her vanity table mirror, gingerly applying her mascara.

It was Friday and she was getting ready for her next lesson with Harry. So far she had had three lessons with him and surprisingly they had gone off rather well. The only issue was that the haunted tree - whom Evie had decided to call Hauntie - was proving to be a little too protective of her.

Whenever Harry disarmed or teased her he would receive a threatening snarl from the haunted tree or a thwack on the head with an arm like branch. It would only back off after Evie scolded it. However, the moment her back was turned it would immediately go after Harry again.

During their last session, Harry had managed to deck her, which had resulted in extreme repercussions from Hauntie when Evie had not been looking. It had managed to coil a root around Harry's leg before flinging him straight into the sea! When Harry had finally managed to make it back up to the top of the pillar, it led to a rather comical argument between a tree and a dripping wet, fuming pirate.

Evie giggled as she dwelled on that day. It safe to say Harry had not been impressed and was now scouting out new locations for them to practice.

Let's see, Evie thought to herself, looking through her neatly arranged makeup products on the table. Where is my concealer?

"Evie!" Her mother's voice sung from somewhere downstairs. "You have guests!"

Evie turned towards her door.

Guests? Who could that-

Evie jumped when the door flung open, banging loudly off the wall.

Mal barged into the room, Carlos and Jay following after her, bickering away and shoving at each other.

"Evie, get dressed! We have a problem."

"What's wrong?" Evie asked, turning back to her mirror. She kept eye contact with Mal via the reflection as she continued applying her makeup. "You seem really stressed. If you keep frowning like that you're going to cause yourself wrinkles."

Mal rolled her eyes, placing one hand on her hip.

"We don't have time for makeup, Evie! Now I need you all to listen! Uma and her crew have declared war on us."

That warranted Mal Evie's full attention. She placed her makeup utensils down, spinning around in her seat to face the girl fully. This could not be good. There had always been tensions between Uma's crew and their gang, mainly rooting from Mal and Uma's bittered friendship. The girls had once been the best of friends before something hammered a wedge between the two, causing a schism that warped into tense rivalry and hatred. What it was Mal had never said.

Over by her four postered canopy bed with it's glittering blue curtains, Carlos and Jay had halted their tussle. Carlos sat down on the bed, legs crossed while Jay stood beside him, leaning back against one of the bed's posts. They watched Mal with great interest, waiting for her to continue.

"I went to re-paint my signature marks up on Pain Lane but someone had painted over them! All pirate themed. Purple tentacles. Bows and Arrows. And hooks. Now, who do those logos belong to?" Mal hissed, her eyes flaring bright green. "Uma, Harry and Gil! They came onto our turf and messed with my graffiti!"

Everyone else winced. The quickest way to rile up Mal was to mess with her artwork.

"So what do you wanna do about it?" Jay asked.

"Get payback, of course. That's what we do!"

"Is this really such a great idea?" Carlos asked, seeming hesitant.