pecan pie [descendants]

step sixteen

When Jo walked into Ben's office to find it covered in spray paint and glitter, it took everything within her not to laugh.

Imogen had gone above and beyond. Well, as above and beyond as she could without doing any real damage. Jo wasn't sure what was her favorite part: the bedazzling of his chair, the glitter glue coating everything on his desk, or the spraypainted message above the couch, which read 'Welcome home, bastard!' It was too much for her to get done all by herself in the short window they had, so she figured Imogen had recruited Amaris for help. That would certainly explain the shredded pillows.

Ben was standing in the middle of the room. He'd been surveying the damage when she walked in, but now he was looking at her. He smiled. "It's okay. You can laugh."

"I feel bad," she muttered only to burst into laughter seconds later. To her surprise, Ben started laughing too. They sat down on his couch, one of the only objects in the room to escape Imogen's wrath, save for the destruction of the pillows.

"Yeah, I'm starting to think someone at Auradon Prep has a problem with me," Ben said. "First the posters, then someone put a dress on my dad's statue, and now this? Oh, and did you hear? Someone started a rumor that I can't read."

Jo covered her mouth, trying to hide her giggles. The posters were Jo's idea, and Amaris was the one who suggested the dress, though the dress itself came from Scarlett. It was Imogen who came up with the idea to tell everyone that Ben's illiterate. It was so completely and utterly random, and also totally genius. The girls had howled with laughter at how it spread like wildfire.

No one knew that they were the ones behind these pranks. No one would ever suspect Jo - yeah, she's a VK, but by now everyone's come to the conclusion that she's just a sweet girl who's good in the kitchen. And they're not wrong, technically, but Jo is so much more than the girl who gives out free food with a warm smile. No one can be as good at cooking and baking as her without being a little bit of a mad scientist.

"I'm not saying I believe the rumor, but I will say I've never seen you read," Jo teased, placing her basket of goodies on the cushion between them.

Ben pouted. "I can read!"

"Really?" Jo challenged, raising her eyebrows. She pointed to the wall behind them. "What does that say?"

"It says 'Welcome home, bastard,'" Ben replied indignantly. When Jo let out a shriek of laughter, he sighed and shook his head at her. "You just wanted to hear me say bastard, didn't you?"

Face red from suppressing her cackling, Jo managed to choke out, "Maybe."

"You really are something, Jolie Beaumont," Ben replied. He smiled at her and she nearly melted. How was it possible that someone could be so immeasurably adorable? He sighed again and pulled a tattered pillow into his arms, holding it close to his chest. "I just wish I knew who it was so I could talk to them and try to make things right."

Jo's face fell. Oh no. There it was. The inevitable guilt she knew would sour her stomach. Ben was just too sweet. He didn't deserve to be messed with like this, not really, because even if he hadn't just outright told her, she already knew that if someone had just pointed out to him how his actions had affected Audrey, he would do everything he could to fix it. That was one of Jo's favorite things about him, how unbelievably kind and compassionate he was. Yeah, he'd done wrong by Audrey, but he never sought out to hurt her. It was an accident. He still needed to take responsibility for his actions, but hurting her was an accident.

"Ben-" Jo started to say, but he cut her off.

"It's okay, we don't have to talk about it," he interjected. He was blushing ever so slightly. She had no idea why. Did he think he couldn't open up to her about something like this? After everything, did he still not trust her?