Hi everyone. With the recent passing of our beloved Cameron Boyce, I felt a need to return to this story. I'm going to try and finish it (I have the rest of it planned out), so bear with me as I get back into the swing of things. I'm going to post this chapter and see what the response is, I'm not sure if the people who read the first two chapters are going to be interested in it anymore. So, let me know what you think.

Mal ~

"Where the hell have you been?" My room is dark when I quietly unlock the door, expecting Evie to be fast asleep. The moon is high in the clear night sky, proving to everyone just how late it is.

I jump straight out of my skin, one of the bedside table lights flicking on as I do so. Evie is sitting up in her bed, a dark blue nightgown, the same shade as her hair, adorns her body, her face bare of any makeup. Carlos lays beside her, Dude curled up at the end of Evie's bed, with Jay lounging out on mine. "What are you guys doing in here?" They were all supposed to be asleep. I was supposed to sneak in without anyone noticing. This whole afternoon was supposed to have disappeared from my memory before tomorrow morning.

"Mal, it's almost midnight. Where have you been?" Jay sits up straighter, wiping the exhaustion out of his eyes. Out of all of them, he should be the one to understand the most, that, sometimes, you just need to get out of your head for a little bit.

I throw my backpack on the ground by my desk, not even bothering to stand it back up when a couple of pencils roll out. I unzip my boots, procrastinating as much as I can before I have to answer. "I went for a walk."

"A walk?" Evie has pushed herself out from underneath her covers, coming over and standing right in front of me. I don't need any more light to see how angry she is. Her brows are furrowed, three lines appearing in between them. "A walk? Mal, Ben left hours ago saying you were upset with him, and you don't bother coming back until now? You don't bother letting anyone know where you were?" I open my mouth to answer her, but she cuts me off. "You didn't go make cookies with Lonnie or Jane… it's been hours since anyone has seen you!"

"I-I'm sorry." I don't know what to say. I wasn't thinking when I left Ben's office this afternoon. All I could think about was getting away from him and getting away from Auradon. I walked for miles, ending up in the Enchanted Forest on the outside of Auradon's town line. It was dark by the time I got there, so I turned around, not really caring about curfew, or Fairy Godmother, or Ben, for that matter.

Evie's lip quivers before she throws her arms around my neck, engulfing me in a hug so tight you would've thought I'd been gone for days – not hours. "We thought something had happened."

I squeeze her back, pulling away only to see the anger diminish and take the form of concern. "I didn't mean to make you guys worried. I figured you would've just gone to bed."

"Why would we have gone to bed?" Carlos finally joins the conversation, "Ben told us about your fight. We knew you were upset."

Ben was here. "Yeah, um…" the memory of our fight slowly comes back to my mind. Him saying I shouldn't trust my mother, me blaming his dad for my childhood. My heart aches just thinking about what I said. "He got mad because I keep going to see Maleficent rather than going to croquet games."

I take Evie's hand, leading her back to her bed. The circles under her eyes are darker than before. The nightmares bother her the worst, but the stress I just put her in, must've made her even more exhausted than normal. Jay joins us on the mattress, the four of us sitting so close that our knees touch. "We know, Ben told us."

"So, Ben was here?" The three of them exchange nervous looks, contemplating whether or not to tell me what he said. Too bad for them, I can read right through them. "Guys, come on. What did he say?" They look between each other once more; Evie nervously biting her lip, Jay looking anywhere but my face, and Carlos occupying himself with petting Dude. "Guys."

"Ben said if you kept going to see Maleficent, you were going to end up getting hurt." The words spill from Jay's mouth before anyone can stop him. In exchange for his honesty, he gets a glare from both Evie and Carlos in return, but just shrugs his shoulders in response. "She was going to find out eventually."

My heart pounds in my chest. Get hurt? I already hurt. My mother doesn't remember who I am, I was almost responsible for not only the death of two of Auradon's finest royalty; but the death of hundreds of Auradon citizens – including my three best friends. Now, we're back in the same bubble the four of us were in when we got here. Everyone tries to make us feel like we're one of them. A hero. But, truth be told, we're always going to be 'the kids from the Isle.' Even if no one calls us that, we will forever call ourselves that.

I take a deep breath, not ready to hear the answer to the question I'm about to ask. "What do you guys think? Am I going to get hurt?"

Evie grasps my hands, her finger lightly stroking the gold material of Ben's ring. "M. She's your mom. You deserve to try and make things right between the two of you." She moves even closer to me, wrapping her arm around my shoulder. My throat tightens, tears threatening to spill. "Ben is never going to understand what it's like to have a parent like ours. He's never going to understand how we still love them, even after everything they've done. That's not an excuse, though, for him to try and get you to stop seeing her. Even after you've told him multiple times that this is what you want."

It's clear that there are some strong feelings about Ben in the room. I know all of my friends like him. He's their friend just as he's my boyfriend. That doesn't mean that he can't make them angry, though, and, clearly, there have been some discussions today toying with just that idea.

"We know it's hard for you not to have his support. But you have ours." My free hand is taken by Carlos, his snow-white hair sagging with the lack of product in it this late at night.

"It's just…" I take a shuddering breath. "I-I want to make Ben happy. More than anything I want to make sure he's not embarrassed to have a villain kid as his girlfriend. But I can't just abandon my mother." I choke back a sob. "I finally have this chance to have a relationship with her and I feel like he's trying to sabotage it."

The tears are flowing freely now, just as they did earlier this afternoon as I tripped over roots and stumbled over rocks in the woods. I'm once again pulled into Evie's chest. But, this time, I feel another set of arms wrap around me, and then another.

We remain like that for a while, none of us moving, each of us feeling safer than we have in a long time. It's very rare that all four of us are together when someone reaches this point of vulnerability. It happened more frequently on the Isle, but, after that one Sunday, we've typically only been around one or two other people when we hit our breaking point.

I'm with Evie when she has her nightmares; sobbing as the memories of the Isle, the coronation, and after the coronation, come flooding back to haunt her dreams. The boys don't like to get emotional, but both Evie and I have seen them break down. I try not to let it happen, but there's only so much you can do.

Finally, Jay starts to pull away, causing the rest of us to look up at his dark, chocolate eyes, waiting for his words of wisdom. "We'll be here for you, with whatever you want to do. If Ben doesn't see what you want, and who you are, then he doesn't deserve you."

Carlos, feeding off of Jay's words, takes his own shot at it. "We're not going to let him keep you from the things you want. From the things you deserve to have."

"You don't have to change for him."

Flashback~

Mal doesn't want to move. Movement causes pain. Movement causes her to remember how stupid she had been last night. How could she even think it would be okay to lie to her mother about what she had studied when Mal knew that she would be tested on it. Idiot.

Her room is dark, the shades pulled shut, blocking the minimal sunlight that the Isle receives during the day from reaching her pale skin. She doesn't know how they do it in Auradon. The sun shines 24/7 there. How do they not get burnt to a crisp?

Despite her better judgment, she bends her leg slightly, her thigh screaming in pain from the gash left over from Maleficent's fingernails. She's so uncomfortable. At this point, she'll do anything to numb the pain.

Her headache roars to life when there is a light tapping on her balcony door. It's been throbbing dully all day, but even that small amount of added noise inflicts so much more pain than humanly possible.

Mal's voice croaks as she tries to answer, "y-yeah?" The door handle slowly turns, the dimming sunlight flooding the room. She brings her arm up to cover her face, resulting in another cry of pain. Her mother is out right now, so, luckily, she won't be able to dance with glee at her daughter's discomfort.

"M? You okay?" Evie's voice fills Mal's ears, the only pleasure she's experienced in the last twenty-four hours. With her eyes closed, she feels a hand grab onto hers. "Mal, what happened?"

Her mattress – as thin as it is – sinks beneath the weight of two other people, undoubtedly Jay and Carlos. They're probably just getting back from school. None of them are fans, but it's one of the only places safe from their parents.

Mal licks her cracked lips. "I w-was…studying and I t-told her I finished." Her lungs burn. She probably has a cracked rib or something, not that she'll ever admit it. "I h-hadn't f-finished and she found out."

"Idiot. Why would you do that?" Jay's soft voice comes from the corner of her bed.

Mal suppresses a smile, "I h-had a death w-wish." She struggles to open her eyes, one of them swollen shut, but Evie strokes her forehead softly, bringing her some much-needed comfort. "H-how was school?" Mal, Evie, and Jay are all the same age, but, Carlos, a year younger, could easily outsmart any of them.

Carlos lays his hand gently on her foot. "It was fine. We missed you, though."

Evie lets out a small laugh. "Yeah, so can you not lie to your mother anymore? We kind of need you."

I hope y'all enjoyed it, and, if you're reading this after sticking it out with me for the past two years, thank you so much for coming back. Please, let me know what you think, and I hope there is enough support (although I understand if there isn't) for me to post the next chapters. I'm predicting the story to be ten chapters in all (with the tenth chapter being an epilogue). So, let me know what you think, and I hope to post again soon!