Call Me A Freak

First Dates

The very next day, Ben insisted on walking me to all my classes.

The minute the bell had rung, he was rushing down the hallway to pick me up.

I barely had time to wave goodbye to Evie, before Ben was beside me, a broad smile being his permanent look around me.

"Hey," I said.

"Hey! Where's your next class?" he asked.

"Downstairs."

He grabbed my hand and we started towards the end of the hallway together. He was quiet for most of the walk, which I appreciated. It was draining to keep up a happy, romantic attitude around him.

However, once we reached the bottom of the stairwell, he paused, and looked at me, nervously.

"Um, Mal?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Yeah?"

"I was wondering if... you possibly wanted to go out on a date?"

I pulled the inside of my cheek between my teeth. "Sure," I lied. "When?"

His eyes lit up. "Later today?"

Crap. Excuses. Excuses...

I was coming up empty on reason to say no.

"Alright." I panicked.

"Awesome! I'll pick you up at 4!" And just like that, he walked off, his shoulders bouncing in excitement.

~ ~ ~

"There you are!" I cried, walking through the grass towards the blue bench Evie was sat at. She was next to Doug, both of them smiling. "I have been looking for you literally everywhere."

"What's wrong?" she asked.

I slammed my hands down on the table. "Ben just asked me out on... a date," I grumbled.

Doug muttered, "Nice," under his breath.

"We can handle this," Evie assured me, before whispering a quick, "bye," to Doug.

"Bye," he responded, watching us walk off.

"You're looking a little pale-"

"Yeah. Of course."

"I can fix that with some gloss and some blush," she continued.

"No!" I insisted. "I don't want to go!"

"Mal, this is so exciting. You have to go!"

I shook my head. "E, please don't make me do this."

As I said it, it sort of hit me how reliant I was on Evie now. I had always thought that out of all of them, Jay and I were the most likely to get this job done and make our parents proud. But I needed Evie for this, too. Jay was my brawn and my center point when I questioned myself, but Evie had saved me multiple times the past few days. She kept me sane in this new world.

"Mal, this is your first date. We're going to make it as special as we can," she convinced me.

I stared at the sidewalk in front of me. "I never thought my first date would be with someone under a love spell."

I knew that she heard me, but she didn't respond to that.

As we made our way into the dorms, she continued to talk about what I was going to wear.

"Where are you going?" she questioned, unlocking our room.

"I don't know. He never told me. He just asked if I wanted to go out on a date."

"Hm." She walked in and went straight for her makeup. "In that case, I say you wear a short heel. Still fashionable, but easier to walk around in."

I was barely listening to her. I didn't care much for her beauty talk, I was just hoping to get this over with.

She had me put on a purple dress, with a leather jacket and boots. It was close enough to my style that it wasn't uncomfortable, but I wasn't exactly loving the look. She insisted I sit quietly while she did my makeup, but I made her promise not to do anything extreme.

"Smile."

I narrowed my eyes. "Excuse me?"

She sighed. "I need to put on your blush. If you smile, it's easier for me to find your cheekbones."

I hesitated. There was no reason not to smile, but it still felt weird. Then again, I'd been fake smiling for Ben all day.

My eyes wandered as she did this, my lips twitching with discomfort.

"Okay. Easy on the blush." I pushed her wrist away, afraid of how sunburnt I would look if she kept going. "I don't want to scare him away... Not that I could."

"Please. My mother taught me how to apply blush before I could talk," she reassured, putting the brush up to my face once more. "Always use upward strokes."

I watched her start to put the blush away, joking, "My mom was never big on makeup tips. And I... don't have a sister."

She gently applied some gloss to my lips. "Well, now you do. We're going to need all the family we can get if we don't pull this off."

I pulled away from her slightly, then said, "If we don't pull this off, I suggest you guys don't get too attached to me. I probably won't survive long enough to say goodbye."

Evie looked in my eyes. She knew that I wasn't kidding. She had seen my mother's face when she told me that if I didn't go to Auradon, I would be dead.

Her facial features tightened, but now wasn't the time to talk about it. We both knew that.

"My mother's not a barrel of laughs when she doesn't get her way, either," she continued, going back to my lips. "Just ask Snow White."

"Are you afraid of her?" I asked after a moment.

Evie shrugged. "Sometimes," she replied.

She didn't need to ask me the same. Our discussion two nights ago had proved that I didn't have a loving relationship with my mother.

"Moving on," she decided. "Come see."

She stood up, pulling me along with her and situating me in front of the mirror.

It was almost scary, looking at myself like this. I never dressed for me. I only ever picked out outfits when I needed to wear something movable. But the dress was cute, and it didn't look too out of place on me.

As she had promised, the makeup was hardly noticeable, but it looked nice.

I couldn't stop myself from giggling, just a bit, at my reflection.

"I know." Evie put her chin on my shoulder so that she could look at me, too. She was grinning from ear to ear.

"I look..."

"Say it," she prompted.

I couldn't bring myself to say much other than, "Not hideous," but Evie knew what I meant.

"Not even close," she assured me.

I took in a few deep breaths to myself. It was only a couple of hours. I could do this.

There was a soft knocking at the door. I looked at Evie and she gestured for me to open it, making me feeling stupid.

Behind the door stood Ben, in a blue and gold letterman jacket, with two helmets. He was perfectly still, watching me open the door.

"For the first time," he admitted. "I understand the difference between pretty and beautiful."

I snorted. God, was he cheesy.

"I hope you like bikes." He politely handed me one of the helmets in his arms.

I grabbed it, then turned to give Evie my best unamused face.

She simply smiled, watching me walk off with my new boyfriend.