Chapter Four: We the Wicked Ones

Ben felt like he was getting well acquainted with the villain kids. In his first period, the prince noticed Yin's discomfort from being separated from her friends and also how Yin avoided eye contact from the teacher and Ben, contrasting her calm behavior from the other day where she presented herself as the heir of the Huns. With the knowledge of her uncomfortableness, Ben tried his best to get her to be less tense around other people but it was not until second period with Jay was when the huntress was grateful of prince's care.

Their second period math class was filled with mild chatter as students worked on the problems written on the board. Yin and Jay took the desks in the back of the room and again, Ben followed them and sat on Yin's left.

"Jay, for the third problem, is that a ten or an eleven that is being added?"

Both boys looked up to the board but frowned, Jay gave the girl a confused expression, "Yin, that's an eight, not a two digit number."

She returned an equally confused and worried expression to the thief and then felt a tap on her left shoulder. Ben held a glasses case towards her and shrugged, "I mostly use contacts but I keep these in case."

Taking out the glasses, Yin held it up to her eyes to peer through it and said, "Oh."

"That's why you're bad at archery!" Jay realized, "Wait, all this time, everything far away from you was blurry and you didn't tell us?"

"There was no glasses store on the Isle so it seemed unnecessary to complain about my poor eye sight," Yin shrugged and returned the glasses to Ben, "Thank you Ben but the glassware is not fitted for my eyes."

"No problem at all Yin, I'll arrange an eye checkup for you some time later alright? Also, maybe you should care more about yourself," Ben suggested, "I mean, you came all this way with your friends, injured or not, I can tell that you're the self-sacrificing type."

Jay snorted, "No kidding, you should see how fast this girl steals a blue scarf for Evie."

"Oh, like you have not stolen from various houses to help Carlos with one of his many projects," Yin countered.

If there is one thing that Ben instantly liked about the villain kids, it was their bond with one another. Ben could not help but find Yin's and Jay's banter as endearing. The way they talked about Evie, Carlos, and Mal and also Jay teasingly pocking Yin's cheek with the huntress flicking eraser bits at the thief. Ben smile at how they were indeed plain teenagers just like him.

Ben was enjoying his time as he connected with the villain kids. With Evie, it was during lunch when Ben was once again reading as many books as he could. The library of Auradon Prep was Ben's personal favorite place to be since his mom always was encouraging about education and reading so it was never a surprise that the library was the number one place to look for Ben.

Currently, the prince of beauty and beasts was in the science fiction section of the grand library, reading about an alien traveling through time and space when Evie greeted, "Hi Ben!"

"Evie, hello," the prince smiled up from his sitting position, surrounded by stacks of books.

"Are you really planning to read that many books before six period starts?" Evie knelt down beside him with the grace of a princess. No surprise there since from day one, Evie walked around the hallways with poise and possibly more grace than the average princess in Auradon Prep.

"No, I would often switch from book to book and sometimes I like to compare the characters," Ben replied, pushing away a stack of novels so that Evie would have a comfortable space to sit. "So what brings you into the sci-fi section?"

"Just looking around and, well, finding a book in good condition is really rare sight on the Isle," Evie explained, picked up a book from a pile and tracing the golden cursive words and then flipped through pages with care and gentleness. "But finding the chance to read is also small too. We mostly find old, torn out paperback books or we learn about fairy tales from our parents."

Ben closed his book, giving Evie his full attention and stated, "They told you their side of the story."

"Pretty much," Evie scanned the words of novel, "It's pretty hard to decide on what to read first here."

"Well, I recommend the Adventures of Time and Space series. It's a novel, a graphic novel, and a T.V. series about robots, aliens, modern day life, old age life, and well, of course, future stuff."

"You're a big fan?" Evie rhetorically asked, amused at Ben's giddy smile from talking about the series. "You're acting like Carlos when he talks about his inventions or Mal when comes up with a new prank idea."

The prince gave her a bashful smile, "I spend a lot of time reading just like my mom."

"Yeah, my mom taught me how to apply makeup, have my hair on fique, to know what shades of lipstick go well with the right skirt," Evie listed.

"What about your education?" Ben questioned, "I heard from Doug that you're really good at chemistry and that you've made great annotations in English."

"Oh, that," Evie began, remembering how easy it was to slip out her magic mirror in nearly all of her classes, "Some things are just easy for me I guess. Even if my mom didn't teach me anything school related, I'm still able to do things on my own."

Then the bell rang, signaling another end of young adults' freedom away from the classroom. As Evie helped Ben put away the stacks of books on a nearby cart, Ben asked, "Evie, how about you become a tutor like me and Doug? We could really help a lot of students with a chemistry tutor."

"You're asking me for my brains?" Evie responded with astonishment and being sidetracked with the offer, a book dropped from her hands and harshly collided with the metal cart. The load noise snapped her out of her surprise. "You're also asking me to do a good deed. I'm still not used to being good, Ben, its best if I start out smaller than being nice to others," the blue haired princess smirked, "I'll see you later, Ben."

Ben watched her leave and signed, thinking that maybe he will have a better luck the next time trying to get the villain kids to be good. The next time happens at Tourney practice with Carlos. At first glance, it was obvious that Carlos had more of a dancer's build compared to the arm and calve muscles of Yin and Jay, so Ben got a stopwatch and a clipboard to check off the exercises that tested Carlos' strength and weaknesses.

When Ben met up with the three villain kids on the Tourney field, Carlos seemed the most unenthusiastic by how he slumped down his shoulders was and frowned regardless of how Jay and Yin reassured him that everything would be alright. The two alethic islanders waved goodbye as they made their away to train with the rest of the Tourney team as Ben and Carlos practiced one on one.

After stretching and helping Carlos properly do a push up, Ben decided it was time to see how fast Carlos can run. The white and black haired teen continued his disgruntle attitude towards all the Tourney exercises and settled into a starting position at the one end of the field. Then that grumpy face of Carlos turned into one of pure, raw fear at the sound of a single bark.

Ben was momentary distracted by Carlos' velocity and acceleration until he realized that Carlos was screaming at the small, brown furred dog chasing the human to the woods. It only took Ben a few minutes to find the villain teen and Dude the dog since all the screaming and barking was a dead giveaway to their location.

Carlos was still screaming in fear, hugging a tree, and when Ben made his way to pick up the mutt, he yelled, "No, Ben, get away from it!" Then he pointed accusingly at the dog, "This is a viscous, rapid-packed animal!"

"Hey," Ben shouted in the dog's defense, "Who told you that?"

"My mother," was a surprising answer to the prince.

After calming the other boy down, Ben learned about how Carlos' mom influenced him to have a phobia of dogs and the blond couldn't help but comment, "It sounds like you guys got it pretty rough on the island."

"You have no idea," Carlos countered, gently holding Dude and reminiscing with a sad smile, "An island full of villains can only mean something bad but when the five of got together, everything seemed better for once." Carlos dismissed the sad memories away by cuddling more with Dude, "Thanks for, um," Carlos just hugged Dude closer.

"Yeah, no problem," Ben smiled genuinely, patting Carlos' shoulder, "You're a good boy." Quickly realizing how strange the compliment was, Ben rephrased, "Good runner, you're a good runner. I'll just go give you two some space."

Flustered, Ben absconds away from the forest back to the Tourney field where practice was coming to a closed. The prince saw most of the team already heading towards the locker room when Coach Hedgeson called him over to help Jay with packing the training equipment in the Tourney storage.

The boys are carrying one of the safety mats when Ben began to make small talk, "So I see you have your jersey, why the number eight?"

Jay shrugged, "It seemed like a good number and Yin's number is thirteen."

"It is because her lucky number seven is thirteen?"

"No, we met her on a Friday the thirteenth."

"Oh," Ben commented, "Yeah, Carlos told me that the day you guys got together was really important to all of you."

Jay paused, another safety mat weighing down on his arms, and gave Ben a suspicious look, "He told you about us? All of us?"

It was now Ben's turn to shrug in response, "No, he just said all of guys being together is important."

Then Ben saw the edges of Jay's mouth curled up into a smitten smile, "Yeah, he's important to us too." The boys stacked that last of the mats into the shed and made their way to the locker room. As expected, most of the team has already left or locking up their equipment.

Jay looked around the empty field, "I'm pretty sure that Yin went back to Evie but where did Carlos go?"

"Oh, I left him with a dog," Ben said casually but before he walked into the locker room, Jay grabbed his arm and slammed his back against the wall.

Ben rarely saw aggression off the Tourney field and there was never a moment where Ben felt threaten by another student. Right now with Jay pressing him up against a wall, a tight grip on his arms, and a harsh glare, Ben is reminded why the other students fear villain kids. "You left him with a dog?"

Most people Ben knows would probably be terrified to the point of kicking and screaming. Instead of acting reckless, the prince took a breath and explained, "He's alright Jay. Carlos' with the school mascot, my dog Dude. They're bonding and I believe that Carlos really likes him, he's safe. This is the truth."

The thief let go of his grip and Ben saw the thing that he was searching for. Besides the anger, there was panic and fear on Jay's face at the thought of Ben leaving Carlos with his phobia. Now Jay looked relieved and backed away, "Okay, you're not lying. Sorry, I um."

"No worries Jay. Carlos told me about his fear of dogs." Ben rubbed his arms, smiling reassuringly, "Like I said, he told me how important you all are to each other but next time you should get an explanation before violence please?"

"I'll keep that in mind."

That wasn't the most reassuring response that Ben has ever heard but there's still one thing that Ben can admire from Jay. "You have a big heart and quick to protect your friends, that's really admirable Jay."

The thief had the same look Evie had, both shocked at receiving an unexpected compliment. "Thanks, you, you run well."

Ben laughed, "But not as well as Carlos, he'll do just fine on the field."

The small smile that tugs at Jay's lips sends joy to Ben's heart. It's such a lovely scene of someone big and strong be smitten with the people their closest with. He'd seen similar smiles on Chad's face when Doug makes a chemistry joke but where Chad's smile seem careful and forced to stop, Jay's smile was quick to form and reached his eyes, making those brown eyes soft and completely foreign to the rage that Ben saw earlier.

Yeah, Ben liked the genuine smiles of the villain kids but so far he hadn't seen that type of happiness from Mal yet. Every time he went to talk to her, she'd had a mischievous smirk that would mean she had a prank in mind.

Nothing too mischievous happened though, all Mal did was give Jane a magical haircut and Jane never looked more confident in herself. Jane bumped into Ben and Lonnie and instantly shared her new look with glee.

The fairy began to hang out more with the villain girls, no longer completely fearful of the dark fairy or the huntress. Still, it felt awkward and a bit invading as she stayed in their room. She and Mal were talking about magic while the other side of the room held a bitter feeling. From what Jane picked up in the conversation, Yin did not approve of Evie's new friendship with Chad.

"Yin, calm down," Evie chided, organizing the homework by putting aside her work and beginning to do Chad's. "Chad's busy practicing for the game and I offered to do our homework."

"This prince of yours has done nothing to earn his title other than bat his eyes at you." Yin reasoned.

Evie raised a brow, "You don't like it when anyone bats an eye at me."

"Only because they are beneath your level and do not have the will to go through me. Charming on the other hand, he has not earned your respect."

"Evie, Yin!" Mal interrupted, still focused in her spell book, "You're both superior, we know that. Will you two just calm down."

"Well, this seems like a good moment to enter the room." At the door was none other than Jane's friend. "Hi, I'm Lonnie, Mulan's daughter."

The sour expression on Yin's face changed into one of awe. Mal and Evie gave the newcomer a simple wave but Yin held Lonnie's hand and knelt.

"It is an honor to be in your presence Fa Lonnie," Yin proceeded to surprise the hero kids by kissing Lonnie's hand. "I am Yin Yu, daughter of Shan Yu and heir of the Huns, if I had not been distracted by other events of the school, I would have scouted you to formally introduce myself." Jane glanced between the faith hue of red on both girls cheeks as Yin stood up. "Apologies, was my greeting inappropriate?"

"It's better than the punching me in the face when we first met," Mal said.

The dark fairy didn't seem surprised at all at the kiss, instead she casted her eyes at Evie's cold stare at Lonnie's hand. The first time Yin kissed someone hand like a prince was when the villain kids played pretend and it was always Evie who received the kiss. From what Mal knew of the huntress, a kiss would be the sign of giving away her admiration or she's caught up in the moment to impress the person.

As funny as it is to see Yin frustrated over Evie and Chad and now Evie enraged over Yin kissing Lonnie's hand, Mal was pretty sure that Yin was imprinting her respect of Mulan onto her daughter, once again trying to impress the adults of her legacy. Yin gave her all to become what the Huns expect her to be, she would put her clad above her needs and wants. Now off the isle, away from their parents, Yin was trying to be strong and suave in front of her counterpart.

Yin's intentions were pretty clear to Mal. Make Evie a bit jealous and impress anyone in relation to Mulan. So to sweeten the deal, Mal gave Lonnie a magic makeover. Apparently, Lonnie and Jane got the idea that they can fit in with the 'Isle of the Lost' image.

It's about time the hero kids start thinking of how better they villains are.