19:54 pm - Mal and Evie's dorm room

Stood at the bottom of her fourposter bed, Mal sighed deeply and crossed her arms in front of her, frowning down at the homework she had spread across the bottom of her bed. She was tapping her foot on the hardwood floor but her socks muted the repetitive thud.

"Mal, if you stare any harder it'll burst into flames," Evie teased from her desk, not bothering to turn around as she knew what she would find, a picture that was always the same after dinner. Evie held her right hand out and a pair of sharp fabric scissors floated across the room, straight to her waiting palm.

"You shouldn't do that, if somebody realised I was still casting spells for you, they would tell Fairy Godmother and she would freak," Mal told her roommate, turning on her heels and crossing their room to sit on Evie's unmade bed.

"Please," the daughter of the Evil Queen laughed, snipping around the fabric on her desk. "As if Ben would let Godmother send you back to the Isle."

Mal rolled her eyes and made a disgusted noise at the back of her throat and Evie finally turned to face her best friend. A dark eyebrow raised and Mal avoided Evie's intense stare.

"What's wrong? Did something happen between the two of you again?" Evie asked, a hand coming to rest on Mal's knee.

Ever since Cotillion, Mal and Ben had been trying to patch up their relationship and return to the same comfortable partnership they had shared before the disastrous period they had endured. Mal was struggling to keep up with the press and publicity that came with being a Lady of the court, even if her darker side had now been accepted.

"He was summoned to Aurora's castle just before dinner on urgent business," Mal scoffed, making quotation marks around the last few words. "I know this is Audrey trying to mess with me, but..." Mal trailed off, biting her lower lip and averting her eyes.

Evie stood up from her desk and sat next to her best friend, wrapping the girl in a hug. "But what M?"

Mal buried her head in the crooks of her friend's neck and took a calming breath. "But I don't care," she confessed into Evie's dark hair. With the confidence of not looking into her friend's eyes, she continued. "I don't feel for Ben like I did. I was happy earlier when he said he wouldn't be here to welcome the new kids from the Isle. I like being on my own with the VKs, I feel like myself."

Evie placed her hands on Mal's shoulders and pushed the other girl back so they could see each other again. "You've fallen out of love with him," Evie breathed quietly, slightly sad at the deterioration of their relationship but she cared more about Mal.

"I don't think I was ever actually in love," Mal's fingers began to play with the gold ring on her right pointer finger. She sighed once more and whispered a spell, the green light of her magic engulfing the ring and when it retreated, one of Mal's costume rings were in it's place. "I returned his ring to his collection a few nights ago but he hasn't noticed yet."

"Evie's shoulders dropped. She had been so busy with her school work, making her own designs and spending time with Doug that she hadn't realised her best friend had been so unhappy.

"I'm sorry," Evie apologised and Mal laughed, sniffing and wiping away some unshed tears.

"It's alright, I've been hiding it well I guess," Mal shrugged.

Evie pondered for moment before perking up and smiling brightly. "Let's do something tonight, just us four, before the new Isle kids come tomorrow," Evie suggested, standing up and pulling Mal up as well. The blue haired teen squeaked happily when Mal nodded slowly and she went to her closet, rooting through the garments until she found two hangers wrapped in dust covers. Evie placed one on her bed and the other on Mal's. Smirking widely, Evie gestured to the zipper and clapped in delight at Mal's reaction.

A pale purple skirt made from buttery leather had small flat studs along the seams and complimented a jacket of Evie's design. The jacket was long and Mal guessed it would hit her legs a few inches above the knee. It too was made of leather, but it was black and nipped in at the waist, flowing into a skirt-like shape after that.

When Mal looked up from the garments, Evie was already dressed in a short blue dress, accents of gold running through the cotton she had used as the main material. "Come on, let's get you ready and go get the boys. We'll blow this popsicle stand tonight and have some fun," laughed Evie when she held up a pair of dark purple shoes for Mal who was drooling at the sight.

22:47 pm - Jay and Carlos' dorm room

Carlos shot a dark look in Jay's direction, envious that he had been able to sleep through the loud knocking that echoed around their dorm room.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," he whispered harshly to the door, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as Dude cocked his head. Carlos had only just nodded off when he was woken up by the knocking. He unlocked the door and pulled it open, frowning at the two girls on the other side who were grinning at him, only slightly guilty at waking him up.

"Nice PJs," smirked Mal as she gently pushed past him to make her way into the room. Evie followed closely behind, both tottering in heels so high that Carlos winced. He blushed slightly, looking down at his red pyjamas, the shirt and the pants both spotted with black dots.

Mal leapt onto Jay's bed, knees either side of his torso and her hands going to his shoulders to shake him awake. Evie's melodic laugh was loud in the quiet room and it made Carlos snap to attention.

"What are you two doing?" Carlos hissed, shutting his door quickly and looking between the two girls. "Why are you dressed up?"

"We're going out, right now in fact," Evie replied, going over to the boys' closets and picking out some clothes. "Come on, get changed," she punctuated her command by throwing the clothes right into Carlos' shocked face.

"Huh, what's going on? Mal?" Jay's croaky voice made the girl on top of him snicker. She clambered off him and went to stand next to Evie, the two girls looking at the boys with raised eyebrows. Evie sighed and threw Jay some clothes, tapping her foot to indicate her waning impatience.

"Mal needs cheering up so we are going into the village, maybe find a nice little tavern and we will have some drinks, laugh, do what we used to do back on the Isle," Evie told the two boys as Carlos looked warily at the clothes in his hand and Jay climbed out of bed.

"It's a good job it's a Friday night," Jay joked, following along with Evie's request and changing from his pyjamas into the pants and jacket she had thrown his way, unfazed at the thought of leaving Auradon Prep's vast campus.

"Jay!" Carlos said in disbelief. "What makes you think we are going to sneak out? I am not being sent back to the Isle because of you two!" he cried shaking his fist which had a t-shirt in.

Mal's face softened and she turned to Carlos. "We won't get caught, I promise you. Please, we haven't done something with just us four and I think I will go insane if I don't break a rule soon," she all but begged and reluctantly, the white-haired boy could see the sadness in Mal's eyes.

"I don't feel like myself and I just need a night as though we're still at home," she said softly and Carlos' anger dissipated and he hugged her into his chest, resting his head on her collarbones as she towered over him in her heels. The younger boy had always felt close to Mal and he could tell she had been struggling recently, especially after Cotillion.

"Where are we gonna go then," he smirked and the two girls laughed and smiled, talking quickly at the same time to try and get the two boys caught up on what had happened with Ben and the tavern Evie had heard off.

Carlos' eyes went wide as they flooded him with information whilst he got changed, some more personal and in-depth than he needed to know, and Jay nodded along, looking as though he caught every word as they left the boys' dorm room and began to sneak out of the school.

Sometime after one am - The Snuggly Duckling

After sneaking off of the campus via a tunnel so that they didn't disturb the magical barrier, the group had trekked through the Mysterious Forest, following hastily scribbled directions on the back of Evie's hand. The quartet had stumbled across the tavern The Snuggly Duckling and had settled in for a drink or two. The owner, a man named Ducky, had managed to set up his pub on the mainland with the help of his friend, Rapunzel and due to his villainous roots, he turned a blind eye to the four underage drinkers and settled them into a secluded booth at the back of the smoky pub.

A few drinks turned into a boisterous game of darts with some of the pubs' regulars and after a few hours, Carlos realised the time and had dragged his friends from the tavern, all slightly drunk from the ample supply of mead Ducky seemed to be giving them. They assured the thug that they would return soon and had been bid a hearty goodnight from the landlord.

On the walk back, the four linked arms and helped support each other as they slowly sobered up. The dark trees failed to intimidate them as they had grown up among worse places on the Isle. They chatted and laughed, joked and teased each other to occupy the hour it took to walk back to the school.

One by one, they scrambled under the roots of an ancient oak tree, carefully worming their way through the small underground passage and emerging back on the campus, underneath the magical barrier and back on the school grounds. When they had all climbed out of the small tunnel, the four slowly crept back across the grounds, all of them as sober as they had left.

Mal and Evie thanked the boys, pecking them both on the cheek as they dropped them off at their dorm window, watching the pair climb the drainpipe and then to their open window, laughing quietly as they hoisted themselves through the window.

"I feel like me again," Mal told Evie as they began to walk back to their own dorm, forced to brave the corridor as neither girl had left a window open.

Evie held the door open for Mal and grinned at her. "It's good to have you back," she whispered in reply, reaching out and squeezing her hand as the made it to their door.

"So it is," the annoyed voice of Fairy Godmother startled the two girls and they jumped, Evie letting out a small shriek in surprise. "Do you know what time it is?" The fairy asked and the pair turned on their heels to come face to face with the woman.

"Uh..." Mal stalled, looking between the pyjama wearing Godmother and her best friend who looked like a deer in the headlights. Mal knew she must be frightened in case she was sent back to the Isle. "I apologise Fairy Godmother, I made Evie take a walk around the grounds with me because I couldn't sleep," she lied quickly, returning the pressure to Evie's hand to try and reassure her.

"Dressed like that?" Fairy Godmother noted with a deadpan voice, looking the two girls' outfits up and down. "Go to bed Evie, I would like to speak with Mal alone," Godmother requested but her tone made the girls understand that the request was none negotiable.

Evie opened and closed her mouth a few times and then dropped her shoulders, quietly wishing Mal good luck and good night. The daughter of the Evil Queen unlocked their dorm room and closed it slowly as Mal and Godmother watched her go.

Godmother put a hand on Mal's shoulder and the teenager stiffened, the gesture an echo of how Maleficent would grip her hard enough to hurt. Godmother gasped and quickly let go, knowing she had evoked a dark memory for the girl.

"You will be serving detention and this will go on your record, not Evie's," she told the girl who relaxed and thanked her for sparing her friend. "But..." Godmother quickly interrupted Mal, a finger waving in front of her, "I know where you went and why Mal."

Mal dropped her head, a lock of purple hair falling on her face and she struggled to stop her eyes misting over with tears. A small sob escaped her and Fairy Godmother wrapped her in a hug, surprised that Mal didn't shake her off. Instead, the girl gripped the older woman and cried into her shoulder. She cried for her home, for feeling lost, for losing Ben and the fact that her mother now lived in a vivarium on her bedside table. The motherly contact she was wrapped up in made her heartache and burn.

"I feel so alone," Mal sobbed, a hiccup punctuating the words. "I don't belong here."

Fairy Godmother shushed and soothed her, rocking the girl from side to side slowly. "I know how hard it was for you, this change from the Isle to Auradon. I've watched you lose yourself since Cotillion and I know you try and hide it but I can see how sad you are. I wish you had come to me Mal," she told the girl, tucking her under her chin.

Mal pulled back and Godmother wiped a few tears away, cupping her face in her hands. "I think I broke up with Ben," Mal told her. "I told him I loved him but I don't know what love is. I never have. My mother doesn't love me, she broke me." Godmother sighed and nodded, pocketing the information about Mal's childhood away.

"Tomorrow the new transfers from the Isle will arrive, maybe helping them settle in will help you," Godmother suggested and Mal nodded in agreement, so slow it was as if the thought exhausted her. "Go to bed Mal, I will see you tomorrow at ten in my office and we can sort your punishment out."

Mal thanked her quietly and opened her door, leaning against the wood when she had closed it.

"M," Evie called out and Mal sniffed, wiping her nose and face to try and mask her earlier crying. "Come here," ordered Evie as she pulled her covers back. Mal smiled, watery tears blurring her vision again. She unbuttoned her skirt and pulled her t-shirt over her head, reaching for a thick sweater and putting that on instead. Mal crossed their room and slipped into the warm bed beside her friend, allowing Evie to hug her middle as she cried.

"Thank you," she whispered and Evie dropped a kiss on her shoulder to show that she had heard.

"Try to sleep, the sun will rise in a few hours and we need to be up for breakfast," Evie reminded her, her voice already thick with sleep.

Mal nodded and the pair fell into silence, and then into a deep sleep, lulled by the sound of each others breathing and warmth. Mal's last thought was that she would never be able to express her gratitude to her friends, the VKs. She had made it through the last few months because of them, because of their friendship. Mal hoped that they truly knew how much she cared for them.

Author's note: 13/01/18

Hello, just going through and sorting mistakes, both spelling and programming. This story is 100% complete so don't get excited thinking i've added more content XO