enchanted (carlos de vil) ✓

chapter seven

THE TOURNEY MATCH

     iduna rounds the corner with jay and mal, holding the strap of her school bag over her shoulder. mal carries one of the cookies they had made last night in a zip-lock bag, ready to give to ben.

     the girl felt herself second-guessing their plan. sure, she wanted to take over auradon with her friends, but it felt wrong bringing ben into this. he was nearly the only person from auradon who had been truely nice to her since they arrived a week ago. it just felt a little extra cruel, toying with his feelings for mal like they were going to.

     "look, it's mal!" the girls seated below on the table exclaim, waving at the purple haired girl. mal waves back, smirking.

    "hey iduna!" the petite girl furrows her eyebrows as she looks down at the table, smiling awkwardly as ava, who she hadn't seen since track a few days ago, waves to her. it seemed as though ava was making an effort to talk to her, to which she wasn't sure how she felt about it.

"aren't you feeling kind of weird about this?" jay questions, leaning against the lockers as iduna stands next to him. "i mean, it's not so bad here, you know."

"are you insane?" mal's eyes widen. iduna opens her mouth to defend jay, but is cut off as mal speaks, "long live evil! you're mean, you're awful! you're bad news! snap out of it!" she clicks her fingers in front of jay's face.

"thanks mal, i needed to hear that." jay chuckles. iduna huffs, rolling her eyes at mal's manipulativeness. she loved the girl, but if someone else didn't share her opinion, she thought low of them.

jay gestures iduna over to the railing to leave mal with ben. iduna follows, clutching her sketchbook against her chest as she leans on the railing, listening as jay flirts with the group of girls.

"he makes me sick." carlos scoffs from nearby, standing with evie as he nods his head toward the boy.

evie rolls her eyes, "careful, jealously makes you age." she says as she examines her lips in her mirror.

carlos shakes his head furiously, "jealous, why would i be jealous of jay?" he shudders, thinking about the boy. "he's used the same toothbrush for like five years."

"not jay specifically , silly!" evie sighs, "you're jealous because he knows how to express his feelings." carlos looks at her confused.

evie huffs, stuffing her mirror into her bag. "what i'm saying is, hurry up and tell iduna about how you feel, or someone else is going to fly down and swoop her off of her feet.

carlos feels his ears burn red. "w-what? i-i don't know what you're talking about. i don't like her. i mean, she's really nice, funny and pretty! but, she's my best friend. that's how it's always been, and always will be." he stutters.

"carlos! wake up to reality. you like her. you always have, just, you've never had decent competition before. the only boy on the island iduna was interested in was harry. and we know how that ended," evie frowns, "but let's face it, iduna's the pretty new isle girl. haven't you seen the way boys stare at her? we're surrounded by dozens of potential suitors. as iduna's best friend, and yours of course, i'm telling you that you need to step up your game."

carlos bites his lip, "e, i'm nothing compared to these auradon boys. even if i- even if i did like her, she wouldn't feel the same."

evie sighs, "carlos, you're so oblivious. she totally likes you. she just has trouble expressing her emotions. like you do. she isn't going to make the first move, so you have to. i really want to see you guys happy."