Descendants Junior Novel (5 page)

“Correct,” said Fairy Godmother with a smile. “Again.”

Jay sighed.

“You are on fire, girl!” said Carlos.

“Yeah!” said Evie.

“Just pick the one that doesn’t sound like any fun,” said Mal.

Her friends
ooh
ed.

“That makes so much sense,” said Evie, starting to twirl her hair.

A girl in a pale blue dress with a big blue bow on her head entered the class. She cast a frightened look toward Mal and her friends and scurried toward Fairy Godmother at the blackboard. The
girl held a clipboard in front of Fairy Godmother.

“Hello, dear one,” said Fairy Godmother.

“Hi. You need to sign off on early dismissal for the coronation,” the girl said.

Mal stopped sketching to study her.

“Everyone here remembers my daughter, Jane,” said Fairy Godmother as she signed the form.

“Mom!” Jane whispered.

Jay and Carlos exchanged looks.

Fairy Godmother returned the clipboard to her daughter. “That’s okay,” she said, turning Jane to face Mal and her friends. “Jane, this is everyone.”

Jane gave a feeble wave. “Hi. That’s okay. Don’t mind me. As you were,” she said, bowing and rushing out of the room.

Mal smirked to herself.

“Forgive Jane,” said Fairy Godmother. “I may have told her a few too many bedtime stories about your…parents.” She cleared her throat. “Let’s
continue.” She went back to the blackboard. “You find a vial of poison. Do you: A. put it in the king’s wine, B. paint it on an apple, or C. turn it over to the proper
authorities?”

Three hands shot up.

Carlos and Jay fought to be picked.

“Ooh! Ooh!” said Carlos.

“Jay,” said Fairy Godmother.

“C. You turn it over to the proper authorities,” said Jay coolly.

“I was gonna say that!” said Carlos.

Jay laughed mockingly. “But I said it first!” he said. He grabbed Carlos’s head and put him in a headlock.

“Ow!” said Carlos.

“Who said it first?” said Jay. “Who said it first?”

He and Carlos started wrestling on top of their desk.

Evie put on lip gloss in her mirror. Mal sighed.

“Boys,” said Fairy Godmother. Then she said it more loudly: “Boys!”

They froze.

“I am going to encourage you to use that energy on the tourney field,” she said.

“Oh, no, that’s okay. Whatever that is,” said Carlos, “we’ll pass.”

But before he and Jay knew it, they were on the grassy green tourney field just outside the school. It resembled a lacrosse field but had two cannons at the fifty-yard line that shot a constant
barrage of balls across the width of it. A big sign that read
GO FIGHTING KNIGHTS!
overlooked it. Jay and Carlos were barely recognizable in their tourney helmets and
bucklers and multitude of pads.

The coach blew a whistle.

“Jay, Ben, offense,” the referee instructed them. “Chad, you’re defense!”

A handsome boy, Chad, strolled across the field.

“Hey! Hey! Put your helmet on! Get out of the kill zone!” the coach said to Carlos. “Pick it up! Put it on! Two hands!”

The coach blew the whistle again, and the play began. Jay was off like a shot. He ran right over Carlos, who thudded to the ground. Jay slammed his buckler into Chad, who had the ball. The ball
flew free and Jay scooped it up. He charged down the field into the kill zone, roaring ferociously and dodging the flying balls expertly.

Carlos, meanwhile, was trying to crawl under the barrage of balls. Ben came to his rescue, batting the balls away as he pulled Carlos to his feet.

Jay slammed the ball right into the net. The cheerleaders whooped—all except for Audrey. Jay threw off his helmet and did a victory dance. Then he realized he was dancing alone. The field,
he noticed, was littered with lots of penalty flags and battered, beaten, groaning players in both yellow and blue uniforms.

Coach blew his whistle. “You! Get over here!”

Jay trotted over to the coach, who stood among the downed players, Carlos included. Ben was hanging over his knees, panting.

“What do you call that?” yelled the coach.

Chad looked on smugly.

The coach’s face broke into a smile. “I call that raw talent. Come find me later; I’ll show you something you haven’t seen before. It’s called a rule book.”
He chuckled and patted Jay on the shoulder. “Welcome to the team, son!” He looked at Carlos and said, “You ever thought about band?”

Carlos tittered weakly and Jay laughed.

“I’ll work with him, Coach,” said Ben.

“All right,” said the coach. “Let’s run that again!” He blew his whistle, and the players moved to resume their positions on the field.

Jay grinned and spun around to find Chad glaring at him with his chin and nose stuck up in a rude, snobby way. Jay squinted at Chad and walked past him, bumping him hard. Once Jay had passed by,
Chad rubbed his arm.

Mal and Evie parted ways at Mal’s locker, which had
EVIL LIVES
spray-painted on it—a little something Mal did to make herself feel more at
home.

Mal dug around in her locker. She heard loud, obnoxious laughter and looked up to see Audrey and Chad. Audrey wore pink sunglasses and a pale pink sweater. Chad wore his letter jacket. Ben
appeared behind them in a smart-looking jacket.

“Those kids are trouble,” Chad told Ben, pointing to Mal.

Audrey nodded, shooting Mal a particularly nasty look.

Mal turned away and tried to ignore them.

“Come on, Chad,” said Ben. “Give them a chance.”

Audrey took Ben’s hands in hers. “Ugh! No offense, Bennybear—you’re just too trusting,” she said with a big smile. “Look, I know your mom fell in love with a
big nasty beast who turned out to be a prince. But in
my
mom’s story, the evil fairy was just the evil fairy.” She nodded at Mal. “That girl’s mother,” she
whispered.

“I think you’re wrong about them,” said Ben.

Audrey sighed, let him go, and walked off.

Ben approached Mal as she shut her locker. “Hey!” he said with a coy smile.

“Hey,” she said, squinting at him.

“How’s your first day?” he asked.

“Super,” she said smugly.

“You should really think about taking this talent off the locker and into art class,” Ben said. “I could sign you up. What do you think?” He gave her a long, intense
look.

Mal spied Jane passing by them. “Way to take all the fun out of it,” said Mal. She shot Ben a flirty smile, spun around with her spell book under her arm, and followed Jane into the
bathroom, remembering the reason she was in Auradon in the first place: the wand. What better way to get close to it than through Jane?

Jane was alone at the bathroom mirror, looking at her short, straight brown bob. When she saw Mal enter, her eyes grew wide. She froze and then spun around.

“Hi!” said Mal brightly. “It’s Jane, right? Always loved that name. Jane.” She laughed.

“That’s cool,” said Jane, breaking her stare and making a beeline for the door.

Mal obstructed her way. “Don’t go!”

Jane froze.

“I guess…I was just kind of hoping to make a friend,” said Mal, putting on her most vulnerable voice. “You probably have all the friends you need, though,
huh?”

“Hardly,” said Jane.

Mal made herself sound surprised. “Really? I mean, with your mom being Fairy Godmother and headmistress. I mean, not to mention your own, um, I mean, your own”—she looked Jane
up and down—“personality!” She giggled kindly.

“I’d rather be pretty,” said Jane. “You’ve got great hair!”

Mal stroked her purple locks. “You know what? I have just the thing for that.” She lifted her spell book and turned through the pages. “It’s right…here!” She
read from the page.
“Beware, forswear, replace the old with brand-new hair.”

With a few waves of Mal’s finger, Jane suddenly had long, beautiful wavy brown locks. Jane gasped in delight as she studied her new do in the mirror.

“Wow! You almost don’t notice your…other features anymore!” said Mal.

“Do my nose!” said Jane, turning to face her with a huge smile on her face.

“Oh, I can’t. I wish I could,” said Mal. “I’ve been practicing, but you know, I can’t do really big magic. Not like your
mom
! With her
wand
!
I mean, one
swoosh
from that thing and you could probably have whatever features you wanted.”

Jane frowned. “She doesn’t use the wand anymore. She believes the
real
magic is in books. And not the spell books. Regular books with history and stuff.”

Mal laughed. “What a rip,” she said. “You know, she used magic on Cinderella, who wasn’t even her real daughter. Doesn’t she love you?”

“Of course she does. It’s just, you know, tough love,” said Jane. “Work on the inside, not the outside. You know, that sort of thing…” She trailed off,
looking sad.

“That’s the face!” said Mal, pointing at Jane’s sad expression. “Yeah! And then just look as if your heart is about to break.” She pouted her lips and altered
her voice to sound more like Jane.
“Oh, Mother, I just don’t understand why you can’t make me beautiful, too.”
Her face broke into a grin.

“Think it would work?” asked Jane, blinking and smiling.

“Yeah! I mean, that’s what old Cindy did. And your mother Bibbidi-Bobbidi-ed the living daylights out of
her
!” said Mal.

Jane laughed.

Mal’s eyes flashed. “And, hey! If your mom does decide to break out the old wand…invite me! I just think it would be so…inspirational.”

Jane smiled. “If I can convince Mom, you’re so there!”

“Yay!” said Mal, clapping.

Jane took her purse and left the bathroom. “Bye,” she said.

Mal smiled, pleased with herself. “Bye,” she said.

J
ANE MAY BE MORE USEFUL TO US THAN I FIRST THOUGHT. HELLO, PLAN B!

ALSO, I LIKED HER SHORT HAIR BETTER. JUST SAYING.

In chemistry class, Evie sat next to Doug and stared longingly at Chad.

Across the lab bench, beyond the tubing, clamps, pipettes, and steaming beakers, Chad was bathed in his own golden light. Evie couldn’t stop gazing at him. Chad tried to see what his lab
partner was writing so he could copy the notes down.

The chemistry teacher, Mr. Delay, scribbled a formula on the chalkboard.

“Any chance he’s in line for a throne?” Evie asked Doug. “
Anywhere
in line?”

“Chad. Prince Charming Jr., Cinderella’s son,” said Doug.

Evie turned and looked at Doug, then back at Chad.

“Chad inherited the charm, but not a lot of
there
there,” said Doug. “Know what I mean?”

Evie rested her head on her hand. “Looks like there there to me,” she said.

“Evie!” said Mr. Delay. “Perhaps this is just review for you. So tell me, what is the average atomic weight of silver?”

Evie stared at him blankly. “Atomic weight?” she said. “Uh…well…not very much. I mean, it’s an atom, right?” She smiled and let out a laugh.

Chad laughed, too.

Mr. Delay beckoned her forth.

Evie pocketed her mirror and strolled confidently up to the chalkboard. “Let’s see.” She took the chalk from the teacher, stealthily removing her mirror and speaking down into
it. “How do I find the average atomic weight of silver?” She glanced at her mirror, hidden at her side, and it revealed the whole long calculation of the answer, which she copied onto
the chalkboard. “That would be 106.905 times .5200 plus 108.905 times .4800, which, Mr. Delay, would give us 107.9 amu.” She smiled.

Chad, impressed, copied her calculation into his lab notebook.

Doug looked at Evie curiously.
“Amu?”
he mouthed to himself.

“It was a mistake to underestimate—” said Mr. Delay.

Evie spun around in a circle, whipping the teacher with her long blue-black locks. “A villain?” she said, smiling. “Don’t make it again.” She threw him the chalk
and flounced back toward her seat. As she passed Chad, he slipped her a note and ogled her. When Evie sat down, she opened the note. It read
MEET ME UNDER THE BLEACHERS AT
3.
She looked up at Chad and nodded at him. He rested his head on his hand, and Evie did the same. They locked eyes and shared a dreamy, longing look.

Doug rested his head on his hand, too, and frowned.

On the grassy tourney field, Ben stood with a stopwatch, facing Carlos.

“Okay, Carlos,” said Ben. “We’re gonna do some sprints. Ready?”

Carlos, who was kneeling a good distance away, nodded at him.

A little dog came out of nowhere, barking, and began to chase Carlos, who took off. Carlos sped toward Ben, then past him, screaming in terror.
“Ahhh!”

Ben clicked his watch. “Sweet!” Then he realized Carlos was being chased.

Carlos kept running. He ran into the woods, the dog hot on his heels. He hopped partway up a tree, and the dog stood at its base, watching him. “No! Stop!” he shouted, terrified.

The scruffy rust-colored dog looked up at him with wide imploring eyes.

“Carlos!” Ben called.

“Ben! Ben? Ben, help me!” Carlos shouted as Ben appeared. “This thing is a killer! He’s gonna chase me down and rip out my throat! This is a vicious rabid pack
animal!”