Her Royal Highness

Chapter 19

I do not own Descendants, Sleeping Beauty, Maleficent, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Frozen, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, 101 Dalmanations, Aladdin, the Little Mermaid, Peter Pan, Bambi, or Mulan.

Mal chose to have her interview in the library where Ben had had his a few months ago, before they'd gotten married. The reporters and camera crew showed up at two in the afternoon, after Elsa and her family had left in the morning, but at two-ten, Mal was hiding in her old room staring at her reflection.

Sophia had given her a black dress to wear with her now-dirty Isle jacket, but her hair seemed too long to go with the ensemble. Mal examined it with a frown. A pair of scissors and a collection of hair ties sat on the table in front of her. Mal carefully picked up the largest, black hair tie and gathered all her hair up at the nape of her neck. She tied it with a few inches beneath her scalp and managed to wrap the tie a whopping six times around.

Carefully, she used smaller hair ties all the way down to where her hair ended around her thighs to keep the strands in line.

Finally, she picked up the scissors and held them in front of the highest tie as she examined herself in the mirror. "Goodbye long hair." She thought as she began to cut.

It took a little grinding and moving her hair around in its ponytail, but at long last, about four feet of hair fell from her head into a rope on the floor. Using a comb and the mirror, Mal evened out her new haircut. It looked similar to when she'd first come to Auradon, a little longer in front, a little shorter in back, only hanging about four inches in the longest places. She ruffled the top up a little and swished her head around. Her head felt lighter. She picked up her rope of purple hair off the ground and found it to be heavy.

She knew there were places in Auradon and on the Isle where you could donate hair to be made into wigs and figured someone somewhere would be able to use it, so she curled it up and resolved to find a place after her interview. She cleaned off the scissors in the sink and shook her head in the mirror once more, admiring the way the uneven, freshly cut edges felt on her skin.

She went up to her bedroom and found her jacket hanging on the back of a chair. She put it on, flipping her now-short hair out of the collar as she did so.

The door opened. She heard footsteps but didn't turn around as she fixed the cuffs on her sleeves. When she heard someone chuckle, she turned around. "What?" She asked as Sophia walked over.

"That's quite the improvement." Sophia laughed, tracing her own black, braided hair as she examined Mal's. "It's not straight, though."

Mal shrugged. "It wasn't meant to be." She pulled the rolled-up hair out of her pocket to show Sophia with a smirk.

Sophia looked impressed. "How long until the fairies grow it all back?" She asked with a laugh. Mal could only groan in response.

"Everyone's been looking for you," Sophia mentioned as she adjusted Mal's sleeves, which was her way of telling Mal it was time to head down.

"Why?" Mal asked. "I told them we were doing it in the library. They don't need me to set up everything."

Sophia put a hand on her arm with a smile. "No, but they wanted to make sure you were ready to be onscreen."

"Am now." Mal shook her head again to feel the cut locks tickle her neck.

"Feel weird?" Sophia asked as she watched her.

"Very," Mal confirmed. As they walked towards the door, it opened even wider and a head of sandy hair appeared.

"Mal?" Ben asked, poking his head inside. "Oh, hello. You found her, Sophia." He noticed Mal's hair and smiled. "Oh, I see." He hummed, nodding in understanding.