Madder than a Hatter (Descendants)

Butterflies (Edited)

I'm not proud of my actions following the coronation, which mostly involved avoiding Lonnie and trying to form my own study habits. The former went pretty well, and the latter made me grind my teeth.

The other VKs seemed to be really taking to life in Auradon. Jay became captain of the tourney team, the same team that Lonnie had desperately wanted to join but couldn't because of the rules.

Carlos had developed a crush on Jane and really wanted to ask her to the upcoming Cotillion dance, but he was still struggling on how to make that happen.

Evie's notoriety for designing incredible outfits began to expand outside of the school as students were asked where they got their dresses.

Mal was struggling with her new status as King Ben's girlfriend. She'd changed her hair from its beautiful, vibrant purple to bleached blonde. It wasn't a bad change, she still looked gorgeous, but she looked much less Mal than before. She put on a princess personality for everyone, which further diminished the amount of real Mal left.

She also seemed to be relying heavily on magic and her mother's spellbook, according to Evie, who was not happy about that. In the same breath, she told me that she wanted me to stop by her room after school so I could try on my Cotillion dress and make sure it was the right size.

"And we'll also talk about your hairstyle," she'd added, seemingly as an afterthought.

"My hair is fine and you can fix it when I'm dead."

"If you say so. Be there, or I'll knock you into next week," she had threatened goodheartedly.

"Then I won't need the dress," I'd pointed out.

She'd laughed, gently pushed my shoulder, and walked off. I suppose that was the closest she could get to next week without actually hurting me in some form.

I still wasn't really sure why I was going. To support Mal, of course, since she had asked if I was going and I had abruptly decided I was. But other than that, there really wasn't a point. I didn't have a date, it was likely that I wouldn't get one, and I never liked showing up to parties alone.

I was hanging out with Carlos in his room, stretched out on Jay's bed, as he paced back and forth, waiting for Mal to show up. Jay was at tourney practice and Evie had stayed after class to talk to a teacher about something, so we were both killing time.

I had carefully navigated around any topic that could lead to talking about the dance, hoping to quell some of his anxiety. It only marginally worked, and I was glad when Mal finally showed up.

She seemed to be in a rush, but once Carlos explained his situation to her, she slowed down. "Here," she said, and held up a red gummy-looking thing.

"So, this thing will make me say what I really feel to Jane?" he asked.

"Yeah. I mean, this is a truth gummy, so take it or leave it."

"Perfect." Carlos looked more relieved at the simple gummy than at anything anyone had said to him over the course of the last day.

Mal jerked the gummy back. "Hold on, though. Are you sure that you want to be taking this? Because this is going to make you say the truth all the time, no matter what, and the only reason I'm asking this is because I know that if I took this right now I would get myself sent back to the Isle. Which, it's not that that sounds super unappealing, but, you know."

So that had turned into an impromptu confession session.

"Yeah," Carlos said, nodding slightly. "I'll take my chances, I guess."

Mal looked a bit unhappy for some reason, and her hand dropped. "Okay."

Before anyone could react, Carlos's dog, Dude, jumped up from his place on Carlos's bed, ran over to Mal, and devoured the gummy in a second.