Choosing Family

Chapter Thirty Three

The weekend came before Mal knew it, and she found that she was actually excited to watch Jay and Carlos try out for Tourney. It would at least be more entertaining than watching Blueberry do Chad Charming's homework for him.

Honestly, what is she thinking? That Charming would just go out with her if she does his work? Mal thought with an eye roll. Still, a small part of her couldn't help but be a little amused by the whole thing. Blueberry was getting played by the same stuff she would pull on the Isle. Mal would always have a front row seat to that sort of thing since she and Blueberry were often in the same class at Dragon Hall.

Karma was sweet. Or at least it would if Mal didn't feel a small tug on her conscious every time she saw Evie at work. That tug was the reason why Mal spent more and more of her time throughout the week hanging out in Jay's room. She couldn't feel the tug if she didn't see Blueberry.

"Are you sure we have to do this?" Carlos asked that Saturday as Mal once again sat in the boy's room, smirking in amusement.

"It's either we do this or we have detention DeVil," Jay told him.

"I believe I stated earlier that as VKs we don't shy away from detention!"

Mal looked over at Jay and the two of them shared a smirk. DeVil truly was coming into his own—or at least felt more comfortable around Mal and Jay. To be fair to the younger boy, he mainly saw them when one of them checked in on him and Gil—and if it was Harry, well let's just say there was a reason why Mal or Jay handed the check ins.

Now all DeVil needed to do was lose a lot more of the timidness around people who weren't Mal or Jay and he'd be just fine.

Meanwhile, over at the girls' side of the building, a certain prince was making his way down the hall. He hadn't had a chance to talk to any of the VKs that day and he wanted to make sure they were doing alright. Ben figured that they were probably all in one location. He didn't know why but he wanted to start with Mal's room.

He had a good feeling about it.

Knocking on the door, Ben felt his good feeling disappear as Evie answered the door. That wasn't to say that he wasn't happy to see Evie but...he had kinda wanted to see Mal. "Evie! Hi!"

"Hello Prince Ben," Evie said with a small smile, clearly remembering the incident from their first day since her voice lacked the flirtatious nature it'd had at their first encounter.

"You don't have to use the title Evie. Just Ben is fine," Ben said gently, smiling as he saw the books spread out on the table behind her; a small handheld mirror holding down some of the papers. "I just wanted to stop by, see if you and Mal needed anything. Where, uh, where is Mal by the way?"

"You might want to try Jay's room," Evie told him, the smile still on her face but Ben could hear a slightly resigned tone to her voice. Were...were they not friends on the Isle? Ben thought. Mal wouldn't purposely exclude Evie would she?

"It's where she always is," Evie added as Ben didn't comment, lost in his thoughts. Ben nodded though he felt his heart sink to his stomach. Oh. Mal was with Jay. Any thought or belief that Ben had that Mal and Jay were just good friends was slowly deteriorating.

"Thanks Evie," Ben told the blue haired girl, hoping his disappointment didn't show in his voice. "Do you need anything?"

"I'm good," Evie told him with a small shake of her head. Ben nodded and gave her a small smile before turning to go make his way to Jay and Carlos' room. Even though the door was shut, Ben could still hear their voices from his spot in the hall.