"Oh, if it isn't Mal. Goodness, the freak actually acts like she belongs here," Audrey turned to the posse of girls behind her, not even bothering to speak lower as she insulted Mal.

Mal rolled her eyes, mostly choosing to ignore them as she returned to carefully continuing her masterpiece. It was looking excellent, and she'd been working on it for days now. Mal certainly didn't want to lose her concentration just for Audrey and her annoying ways.

"I think she's deaf, too. Wait, maybe she doesn't speak English. She is a bit wild, after all. Like an animal," Audrey relentlessly continued.

Well… It was too late for her concentration. It already went down the toilet.

On that note, Mal looked up from her book at Audrey, pretending to be startled. She then forced a wide grin on her face.

"Oh, Audrey, I didn't see you there. Oh, gosh, I love what you've done with your hair. How'd you get it to come out of your nose like that? Pure genius," Mal snidely remarked. She then returned to her drawing once again and suppressed any outward show of her amusement at Audrey's offended gasp of horror.

"Wh- well! You just don't know what you're saying. She is retarded, after all. Too many years sucking poison apples in that depressing hole," Audrey cruelly assessed.

"Yeah, yeah, keep talking, Audrey, maybe you'll actually say something smart one day," Mal attempted to cut off the conversation.

"Aww, you're just jealous because you know that you're not good enough for Ben, or this school, or anybody. Honestly, your little servants are better than you. At least they are loyal to something. However, misplaced their affections may be," Audrey spat. Mal's pencil stopped its frequent, calming strokes and she knew Audrey had noticed from the little victorious huff of laughter.

"Especially that Evie. She told me the other day that you were like her sister," she paused for an added effect, turning and looking back at her little gaggle of mindless geese. "Ooh, she's got her fooled, doesn't she?" She then resumed her ruthless attack on Mal.

"We all know that you just manipulate the three of them to do your bidding. It's unfathomable what you actually think of them," Audrey smirked harshly.

Mal swallowed hard, not letting them see that they actually did succeed in getting under her skin. They had unearthed a lot of old doubts about who she was and her feelings of inferiority surrounding her friendship with Evie and the boys.

"But just look at you, Mal. How can you really think you're better than the rest of us?" Audrey continued. "You're really just a sad, pathetic, messed up little VK. And you're ugly, too. All of those split-ends and your eyes are so far apart that it has to be against some law of physics," the princess observed haughtily.

"I don't know, Audrey, the last time I checked ugly begins with U," Mal fired, finally having something good to say as a comeback.

"Maybe so, but at least I'm not a liar who deceives not only her 'friends' but also herself."

Mal sucked in a breath, about to say something when she suddenly felt a comforting, familiar hand squeezing her shoulder soothingly, the thumb swirling slow and careful circles on her shoulder. Mal flinched a little at the sudden touch and looked up at the person beside her.

As she expected from the gentle touch, it was Evie who had made her way over to help defend her. Mal returned her gaze to her drawing, a huge array of doubts springing into her head. It really wasn't as good as she had originally thought. Without hesitation, she quickly tucked her book in the bag hanging on her chair before anyone could see what it looked like.

"Is there a problem over here?" Evie questioned seemingly kindly and obliviously, but Mal could hear the underlying tone of great warning laced in Evie's voice.

"Oh, nothing much. Just having a nice little conversation with your… 'sister,'" Audrey replied, pronouncing the last word as if it were some sort of curse. Whereas it may or may not have flown over Evie's head, Mal knew exactly what she was referring to and her ultimate goal in saying it. Mal looked between Evie and Audrey silently and hoped that her feelings of insecurity were not showing on her face.

"I see... Well, I need to have a nice little conversation of my own with her, so please excuse us, girls," Evie took Mal's arm and pulled her out of the chair and, before anyone could make a move to stop her, left with the shorter girl. Mal managed to grab her bag just before they left as Evie almost dragged her in the other direction.

Evie kept her hand on Mal's arm until they left the library. Then she slid her hand down her arm and took the purple-haired girl's hand in her own.

"You okay?" the bluenette softly inquired. Mal looked up from the freshly-polished floor to meet Evie's warm, caring brown eyes that seemed to have a never-ending supply of sympathy and love.

"Y-yeah. Why wouldn't I be?" Mal replied, desperately wishing Evie would let it go. She really needed to be alone and she didn't want Evie to know what was going on.

If she did know, she might leave Mal by herself for the long term. Mal didn't want the doubts to creep into Evie's mind. They were already in her own, and if Evie began developing some, Mal would lose the only sister she ever had and ever would have.

"Are you sure? You don't look so good. Did Audrey say something to you?" Mal's eyes widened with fear but she quickly attempted to control her face.

"I'm fine. She didn't say anything out of the ordinary," Mal informed her. It was a half-truth. It wasn't anything unordinary for Audrey to be mean, but it was certainly questionable whether Mal was fine after the cruel words.

Evie kept her gaze on the shorter girl and Mal cleared her throat, uncomfortable with Evie's intent stare. Mal stepped away from her, her hand sliding out of the taller girl's grasp as she walked ahead. She turned back to Evie, walking backwards, and painfully noted that Evie had an almost hurt look on her face.

"I, um… Gotta go. I've got to get some celery to drop in Mother's tank," Mal forced a smile onto her face and Evie moved forward with her.

"I can come with you if you'd like," the bluenette offered sweetly, her red lips curling into a gentle smile as the wounded expression melted away.

"NO!" Mal stopped quickly, realizing how strange that sounded. She took a breath and continued at a lower volume, "No, that's fine. It's really simple. It doesn't require much help, and I have to get it done fast. See you," Mal nervously told her and quickly rushed off, leaving Evie behind.

When she turned the corner after what felt like an eternity, she slowed to a turtle-like gait, ambling along. Mal glanced over her shoulder to see if Evie had decided to follow her. To her relief, no one was there. She let out a shaky breath and continued her trek to her secret hiding place that no one- not even Evie- knew about. Her place of healing where she always went to get her head screwed back on straight.

She'd push through this. Mal just had to make sure that absolutely none of her friends found out.

Especially Evie.

…

"Hello, Evie. Where's Mal?" Audrey questioned, a sickeningly sweet tone to her voice as Evie turned to face the princess. Evie smiled quickly in return, but it swiftly gave way to a more solemn, suspicious expression.

"She's going to get some food… Why are you suddenly so interested?" Evie replied, her eyes narrowing as she stared at the girls before her. She had a feeling that they were targeting Mal for some particular reason, and she certainly was not going to allow her best friend to be injured by these snobby brats.

"No reason. I just had to discuss something with Mal, but it can wait," Audrey shrugged, full of false cheeriness as she turned and began to leave. Evie's eyes hardened as she folded her arms over her chest, and she kept her gaze trained upon Jane who was trying to hide amongst the group.

Jane made the mistake of looking back at Evie and she paled on seeing her. The bluenette eyed her harshly, raising an eyebrow. Jane quickly turned her attentions back to the girls beside her, trying to ignore Evie.

Evie furrowed her brow and allowed her firm, strong posture to collapse under the worry and concern that she felt for Mal. She knew Mal had insecurities, and Mal certainly didn't need Audrey tearing open old wounds.

Evie loved Mal, and it killed her inside to think that some mean little monster was trying to eat at her sister.

However, before she could put much more thought into this, Audrey had suddenly returned to her.

"Oh, Evie? I needed to tell you something important. It's about Mal," Audrey spoke, an almost pitying expression carved into her features.

"What is it?" Evie hesitantly asked, a feeling of disgust and worry bubbling up in a combined knot in her stomach. Evie didn't like how Audrey had suddenly taken a newfound interest in speaking to her and Mal.

"In the midst of an angry fit, Mal was ranting at me. This, of course, is certainly not surprising, but perhaps the shocker is that she told me she didn't need Jay, Carlos, or you," Audrey sadly told her. Evie withheld any outward reaction to Audrey's words.

"Now the boys, well, I mean, that's not quite so shocking… But when I told her that you viewed her as a sister… She just sat down calmly in her chair, a positively impish grin on her face, and she proclaimed that she certainly didn't feel the same way about you," Audrey recounted, a solemn look about her.

"And that was when you came into the library and wanted to talk to her. I'm so sorry, Evie," Audrey placed her hand on Evie's shoulder and squeezed gently.

Evie's mocha orbs searched Audrey's face, desperate to find some sense of deceit. Oddly enough, however, Audrey seemed almost unnatural with all of the genuine sentiment.

But she refused to believe it. This was her sister, her best friend. Mal didn't feel that way… Right? Evie felt like something wasn't adding up completely. Something about how Mal acted almost injured when she spoke to her before and how Jane was looking guilty.

"No. I don't believe you, Audrey. I'm sorry, but I've known Mal for longer than you have, and I know that she'd never, ever feel anything like that. And if she did, she certainly wouldn't be telling you," Evie told her, straightening in an attempt to exhibit her full height as she jerked her shoulder out from a shocked Audrey's grasp.

Evie turned and left quickly, eager to find Mal and hoping to maybe find Jay and Carlos to help her look. She had to have some answers, but most importantly, she needed to know what was said during Mal and Audrey's confrontation.

…

Mal lounged under the bleacher that was farthest from the door that went into the school, closing her eyes in the cool shade. She glanced up at the leaves on the trees. They were so brightly, vibrantly green as they blew cheerily in the breeze and Mal almost felt jealous. Why couldn't she feel so joyous?

Mal looked down at her drawing. It was awful. It really was. There were so many problems with it. The shading was off and some of the most important features were not right at all. It was perfect at a first glance, but when one really paid attention to the details, its ugliness and crudeness showed.

Kind of like Mal.

Mal then, in the heat of her anger, disappointment, and shame, tore her drawing from its place in her sketchbook, crumpling it and throwing it as far from her as she could which happened to only be about three or four feet away from her.

She swallowed hard, holding back the tears. Her mother emphasized especially that tears were a sign of the ultimate weakness, and she hadn't cried at all when she was on the Isle of the Lost. It just further went to show her that she was weak here. She had certainly lost her sense of self.

Mal used to be so confident in who she was as well as her place in life. She was the daughter of the evilest villain on the Isle and was highly respected for it. Things weren't easy, but everyone feared her with a few well-placed evil doings.

Except her friends. Her beautiful, wonderful, faithful group that she could always rely on. They were perhaps the only people that she could ever depend upon to take care of her in a time of need.

She withdrew a bright purple, permanent marker from her bag and did what she always did when she was feeling terribly down or when she was feeling any extreme emotion- she wrote on the bleacher behind her.

Jay was her voice of reason and a fierce protector. Not that the others were not, Evie was especially protective, but she always felt physically safe when Jay was standing with her. She wrote his name.

Carlos was her sense of humor. He never failed to bring a smile on her face or even to draw a good-natured groan at his cheesy jokes. She wrote his name.

And Evie- she was just a different creature from the boys. She was somehow all of those things and more wrapped into one big package of sister. It was wonderful to have someone she could reveal some of her softer feelings to. Evie was just a wonderful thing. Mal wrote Evie's name with extra care.

She loved Jay, Carlos, and Evie with every fiber of her being. There was no piece of her that she would not gladly give to them. They each possessed every bit of her heart. Unfortunately for Ben, he had to share with them. When it came to Mal's affections and loyalties, each and every one of them first and foremost went to her most beloved three people.

But if Audrey's secret got out, they could start having second thoughts about her and their relationship. Then she'd be alone. She'd have Ben, but even Ben couldn't fill the gaping hole that would be left by her friends- no, family's parting.

She then quickly scrawled her name on the bright blue surface.

"Mal?! Mal?! Agh, where is she?" Mal suddenly heard the sound of Jay's voice sound off frighteningly nearby her. She looked up and spotted feet standing on the steps of the bleacher above her. Mal sucked in a quick breath, scared that she'd be spotted.

"I don't know, Jay, but Audrey's after her. If she gets to her first, Mal will probably be even more crushed than she was when I talked to her," Evie told him and Mal could hear the intense worry laced in the slightly older girl's voice. Letting out the breath she'd been holding, she looked down at her hands as she stuffed the marker she had down into a pocket in her bag.

They really shouldn't even be bothering to look for her. She knew she didn't deserve them and she never would. They should just go on about their own lives and leave her be, despite her own feelings.

"We gotta find her," Carlos agreed and Mal watched his shoes suddenly stepping up onto the bleacher.

"Why don't we split up?" Jay offered, shifting his weight to the other foot, the step creaking with the movement.

"Are you sure?" Evie checked, and Mal noticed that her foot was tapping- a telltale sign of nervousness with her.

"Well, I haven't heard any better ideas. I'll go check the halls," Carlos volunteered, rushing off suddenly, and Mal involuntarily squeaked a bit upon the sudden sound of his loud footsteps upon the bleacher.

Mal froze as she spotted Evie's foot immediately stop its tapping. She gulped, knowing that Evie had heard her.

"I'm hitting up the library again," Jay announced, and jogged quickly away.

Mal held her breath, and quietly stared at the pair of shoes that were standing frighteningly still. They then slowly began the trek down the bleacher. Mal knew that Evie was coming, but she didn't know where she could hide.

Mal desperately glanced about, trying to figure out where she could go. She stood up with her bag in hand, knowing that Evie was about to round the corner, and she eased around the other side of the bleacher just as Evie came around.

"Mal?" the purple-haired girl heard the bluenette speak, her voice a bit hushed.

Looking down at her feet and sucking in a deep breath, she hurried as soundlessly as she could possibly manage away from Evie.

…

It was strange. Evie was one hundred percent certain that she had heard a noise. A noise that sounded suspiciously like the girl that she was looking for.

"Mal?" Evie gently called. To her great disappointment, there was no sign of the girl herself anywhere. However, as she looked more at the back of the bleacher, she could tell Mal had definitely been there before.

Covering the entirety of the back of it as far as Mal could reach was a variety of doodles and writing and all sorts of things. Most of the writing was closest to the ground.

Evie knelt down to get a better look.

"My Place" with a very detailed purple dragon standing nearby the words with red flames pouring from its maw.

"Ben + Mal" with a heart encircling it.

"Split-Ends" followed by a crudely drawn grumpy face and a well-drawn cartoon version of Evie with a rudimentary mean face but perfectly drawn hair in black marker. Evie couldn't help but roll her eyes, grinning at Mal's cranky scribbling.

"Dude" with a cute drawing of Carlos' pet and a pink heart around it.

"Audrey" with an almost savage, caveperson drawing of Audrey, representing her as a vicious monster. Evie giggled, trying to commit every detail to memory.

"Evie (While I'm in a better mood than last time)," Evie smiled softly as she admired Mal's handiwork. It was beautiful, and it was almost like looking in a mirror with how accurately Mal had depicted her features.

And perhaps the most recent, simply because it was significantly less weathered, was what Evie read next.

"Jay – My Reason and My Big Brother"

"Carlos – My Humor and My Little Brother"

"Evie – My Rock, My Best Friend, and My Big Sister"

Evie brought her hand up to the last row, touching it gently. It was dry, to her relief, and she caressed the words as if they would disappear before her fingertips.

It was so touching, and it immediately removed any miniscule doubts that she may have ever had.

She furrowed her brow as more writing caught her attention. Sloppier, almost harsh writing.

"Mal – Troublemaker, Screwup, MY WORST ENEMY"

Evie covered her mouth, looking at the words as she felt them reverberate throughout the very core of her being. They were cutting, awful words that Evie didn't understand why Mal would ever write about herself.

Evie sat down on the ground, feeling their effect as if they were personal insults toward her. It cut her to the very bone to know that Mal was thinking and feeling such things.

It was such a sharp contrast with how Mal wrote about Evie. Evie was viewed as practically perfect in Mal's eyes, at least in the writing that she had read so far. Even when Mal was aggravated about the split-ends situation, Evie was still drawn mostly favorably.

Evie felt a bit of moisture running down her face and she rubbed it away. She spotted another small saying nearby her face.

"Tough Girls DON'T Cry," Mal had written in bright, neon red. Evie sat in shock as if she had been slapped. Is this what Mal had to see on a regular basis? Or at least whenever she came here?

Below that were various other cutting notes that were written in an offensive shade of green.

"I Will Always be Rotten to the Core. No Matter What I Do."

"I am My Mother's Child."

"Fate is Inescapable."

"I'm not good enough."

The tears flowed freely after all of these proclamations, and Evie inevitably felt horribly miserable for Mal as well as guilty due to the fact that she had not realized this herself without the assistance of a stupid wall.

Through these hurtful phrases, Evie had come to the conclusion that this was the way that Mal dealt with and shut away her pain in a distant drawer of agony.

Evie wiped her cheeks, and with the movement, her face was angled so that something happened to catch her eye not too far from her. She narrowed her eyes and looked at the object.

There on the green grass not too far from her was a rolled-up ball that was colored suspiciously like the old-looking paper in Mal's sketch book. Evie crawled forward on her knees, completely disregarding what the grass could potentially do to her leggings if she happened to drag her legs, and she grabbed the paper.

Evie sat back down and carefully unfolded the paper. It was ridiculously crinkled, further proving the fact that Mal obviously never did anything halfway.

When she finally was able to unravel it from its almost completely crumpled form, she was shocked once again for what seemed like the millionth time that day.

Drawn on the paper she held in her hands was Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos, flawlessly and beautifully depicted. It wasn't colored, but it was still a very striking picture without any modifications.

It was almost alive with all of the laughter and smiles. There was an imaginary conversation that was so close yet so far that seemed like the words were on the tip of Evie's tongue.

They were so animated on the papers. In the drawing, Evie had her head leaned against Mal's, her entire face scrunched with laughter while Mal laughed as well but with more reservations, attempting to roll her eyes as if she were more dignified than the rest of them. On the other side of Mal, Carlos had his hands extended out and his eyes were wide as if he was telling some sort of very dramatic story. Jay, on the opposite side of Evie, was holding his head with his hand in some emotion between exasperation and amusement.

It was perfect in every way.

Evie took the corners in her hand and tried to straighten the crinkles a little more. She didn't try to work out the wrinkles much, however, because she didn't want to rip it.

When, the bluenette eventually realized that this was obviously a futile effort, she arose from her position on the ground. She held the drawing carefully in her hands and she looked around the area carefully in case Mal was hiding somewhere nearby. But no Mal was anywhere to be seen.

Evie gave the artwork one last glance before she gently folded and tucked it between her body and the elastic of her skirt so that the end of it was sticking out but the bottom was securely held against her.

She then left Mal's secret spot, off to go search for her sister.

…

Mal almost completely silently worked her way past the crowd of chorus students that had just came back from their weekend practice. She kept her gaze on the floor and tried to avoid looking directly at any of them. Maybe none of them would acknowledge her presence.

She didn't want any of them to see her. Not in this state. This was the most vulnerable she had ever been.

Mal turned the corner and headed straight for Evie's and her room, planning to stay there until Evie came. Then she'd pretend that she was asleep so the bluenette wouldn't bother her- hopefully.

However, just as she was reaching the door, she spotted Carlos coming her way in a hurry. Her eyes widened and she turned, trying to quickly escape before he could catch her and bring her to the others.

"Mal? Mal! There you are! We've been looking all over for you!" Carlos called out and Mal heard his footsteps quicken. The purple-haired girl exhaled in exasperation and mild panic, growing unreasonably afraid as the feeling of someone chasing her set into her bones.

The footsteps were growing louder, and Mal couldn't stand the feeling anymore, and she took off as fast as she could.

"Mal, wait!" Carlos yelled, and Mal just ran faster, trying desperately to find the chorus group she had just passed. She stopped quickly and turned down another hall, spotting the huge, dense crowd of people once again.

Mal's heart was racing, and she didn't want to admit it, but she was afraid. Running from someone brought back too many horrible memories. It was like she was running for her life, and it never mattered who was chasing her or what their intentions were.

"Mal, stop!" Carlos shouted and she knew he was gaining on her. His voice was too loud for him not to be near.

Mal zigzagged through the people, accidentally shouldering a few as she passed. She tried to avoid bumping into them, since that'd only further clear the path for Carlos.

Several gasps were heard and some students dodged her running form. She moved sideways to squeeze past a particularly massive student. With how tall and hairy the guy was, he had to be the son of Bigfoot himself. Oh, the strange people one can see, she thought to herself.

She moved past the last few people and she darted away, the de Vil boy officially left behind.

"Mal! Come back! Please! We just want to talk to you!" Mal could hear Carlos desperately call somewhere in the thick of the crowd.

She didn't hesitate, and she turned a variety of corners before she finally looked behind her to check for any sign of the boy. Mal sighed in relief as she slowed her sprint to a more casual walk.

Mal absently noted that she was standing in front of the entrance to the library. However, just as she noticed this, she also realized that Jay was there in that very library searching for her.

And the guy in question was just across from her on the other side of a table. He looked at her, his eyes wide as he smiled.

"There you are. Finally!" Jay told her. Mal furrowed her brow in thought and started slowly moving backwards, trying desperately to come up with some sort of escape plan.

"Woah, woah, it's all good. You're cool," he extended his arms out in front of him in a placating gesture as he carefully started trying to ease his way around the table.

She was in one of those unpredictable moods. One of those that immediately complied with whatever her mind suggested for her to do. And right about now, it was suggesting heavily that Mal should go and jump out of the window that happened to be opened.

Without a second thought, Mal rushed sideways and evaded Jay's arms as he lunged to grab her. She didn't want to be caught, and she didn't intend to be caught until she was fully ready. Mal didn't want Jay, Evie, and Carlos to find out. Not yet. Not until she had healed the wound left behind by Audrey.

Mal was quickly growing closer to the window and she felt the panic rising within her as she heard Jay's breathing growing ever closer. She hated to be chased. It scared her so much to feel like something or someone was going to capture her.

She withdrew her spell book, knowing she'd need it to close up the window behind her so Jay couldn't follow her.

When she got to the window, she placed her hand on the windowsill and threw her body through the hole gracefully.

"Flying feet be ever swift, let the window behind me fall and never lift," Mal uttered her spell, and the glass sealed itself behind her as she landed on the ground.

Jay was stopped in his tracks immediately, rolling his eyes in frustration. To her mild surprise, Carlos then suddenly appeared beside him. The de Vil boy beat on the window exasperatedly.

"Mal, we want to talk to you! Stop making it so difficult!"

Mal turned and ran in the opposite direction, trying to escape before it occurred to them that there was another window nearby that they could open.

It was amazingly secluded in this particular part of the school, Mal couldn't help but notice as she rushed across the schoolyard in nigh panic. The fear of being pursued seemed to hyper-charge her senses.

Which was largely why it was so shocking when someone, that she hadn't seen before in her assessment of the area's emptiness, ran out in front of her quickly. Before she could even see who had just intercepted her barreling gait, Mal collided into him or her with full-force.

Mal smacked the side of her head hard against the other person's and she groaned upon impact. Whoever it was certainly had a head made of pure steel.

Mal tried to get up and off of them quickly to save them both from any more pain- and also simply because she needed to get away from people for a while- but she was stopped by the person under her grabbing onto her arms tightly and keeping her pinned against them.

"Let go of me!" Mal angrily cried out, confused as to why some stranger was restraining her.

However, upon pushing away from the person a bit, she immediately spotted the shiny, perfectly-manicured blue hair that was flowing around the two of them.

It was Evie.

Mal's eyes widened and she started fighting against Evie with a new, even more invigorated force. She'd start chasing her, too, Mal knew it.

However, instead of allowing Mal to push her away, Evie just sat up and wrapped her arms around the girl tightly. Mal scooted backwards on the grass, furiously trying to get away.

But she felt her resolve weakening as Evie just moved with her and pulling her impossibly closer against her as she stroked her hair carefully.

"Mal, calm down. Calm down. You're shaking."

Mal wriggled her arms, trying to unpin them from between her and Evie.

"It's okay. I know you don't like being chased. Jay and Carlos shouldn't have done that," Evie reassured, whispering in her ear as she moved a little with Mal's incessant struggling and tremulous movements.

"It's alright. I love you, I'm here for you," Evie attempted to calm Mal. Her eyes widened, and the green-eyed girl finally loosened, stopping her thrashing. Those three certain words had reached past all of the hurt, insecurity, and fear, penetrating her heart with their sincerity.

After a moment of hesitation, Mal cautiously leaned into Evie, tucking her head under the bluenette's chin with a shaky breath. Mal felt Evie lay her cheek upon the top of her head.

She sat silently, pressed up against the slightly older girl tightly as Evie held her. Mal took deep, shuddering breaths as she tried to control her definitely out of control emotions.

After several moments, Mal heard footsteps approaching them. She stiffened and tried to escape Evie's grasp, but Evie wouldn't let her go, instead placing her hand on the back of Mal's head and threading her fingers through her soft, purple locks.

"Give me a second," Mal could hear Evie whisper to the two boys, and Mal snuggled further into her. They stepped back, but Mal knew they were still lingering close enough to hear what was said.

Mal was feeling quite embarrassed for her earlier dramatics, and she also felt a little silly for being so needy, but she had been having a very rough day. Evie was exactly who she needed to take care of her at this point.

Not that she didn't love the boys. It was just that she felt even more humiliated when she cried in front of them. She always was seen as the strongest emotionally of them all, and she hated to show weakness.

Evie gently pressed her lips against the top of Mal's head. Mal simply sighed in response.

"Talk to me if you need to," Evie softly instructed, her voice calm and soothing to her. She shook her head a bit.

"It seems so stupid now," Mal murmured against the fabric of Evie's shirt.

"Whatever it is, it's not stupid," Evie firmly told her. "It made you upset."

Mal was silent for a moment, trying to find a particularly good way to put it. She didn't want pity. She definitely didn't deserve it or the people that had been working so hard to help her.

She finally decided she'd just say it with her infamous bluntness.

"I don't exactly know what to tell you. Audrey was just especially mean today… And she pretty much told me that I don't deserve you guys. And I may or may not have actually believed her," Mal felt Evie's body harden immediately, her muscles tensed.

"She did what?" Evie questioned, and Mal could hear the forced control in her voice. Mal berated herself. She should've known that Evie was going to react that way.

"But it's fine. I'm fine," Mal reassured, but it mostly sounded like she was trying to reassure herself as well. Evie sighed, and Mal detected the sadness, anger, and love all rolled into one expression.

"Mal, you deserve us. You deserve the world, don't you understand that? I wish you could see it like I do," Evie told her.

Mal felt Evie's head move in what seemed to be a nod, and she shortly thereafter heard footsteps approaching.

Before she knew it, two other sets of arms had engulfed her and Evie. Carlos rested his head against Mal's, and Jay encircled them all as well as he could. Mal exhaled softly, feeling the pieces of her heart start to barely come together with a sensation that could only be labelled as healing.

…

Mal walked into her and Evie's dorm room, feeling considerably better than she did the previous day. There were still a few nagging thoughts, but she had had a long, refreshing talk with Evie that night, and most of them had dissipated.

Evie flashed her a quick smile in greeting but returned to her work with great concentration. Mal's lips slightly upturned in response, and she sat her things down on her purple quilts.

Overall, Mal felt mostly contented. Everything was comfortingly familiar in the room, even the rather loud smell of Evie's ever-present perfume that was highly offensive to Mal's nose in large doses, which was just what she needed.

Mal turned around and came up behind Evie to look over her shoulder and see what she was drawing.

However, when she approached the girl, what she definitely did not expect was the drawing that she had rid herself of positioned on Evie's vanity in a beautiful wood frame not too far from the bluenette.

Mal furrowed her brow and grabbed the picture frame, looking at it critically as a compendium of negative thoughts respawned within her mind.

"Why is my picture here?" Mal asked, gazing at Evie confusedly.

It was completely unknown to her why in the world that Evie would want her picture in a place where she'd have to look at it all the time. It wasn't good at all, and ultimately, there were so many things wrong with it.

"I think you mean my picture that you just so happened to draw," Evie corrected, taking the picture out of Mal's hands gently and placing it back where the girl had picked it up from.

"When I found it, it was crumpled up into a ball and was looking quite lonely. So, I just picked it up and I got a frame for it today so I could see the masterpiece all the time," Evie explained herself as she stared at the picture with unadulterated fondness.

"But why would you even want it? It's awful," Mal expressed her secret thoughts on the subject, looking down at her hands that were currently resting on the vanity.

"Hmm… From where I'm sitting, it looks like the most beautiful drawing I've ever seen. Mal, just look at our faces. See it from my perspective," Evie suggested in a tone that communicated to Mal that it was more of a command. Evie stood up from her chair, moving beside Mal and leaning so that her head was pressed against the green-eyed girl's.

"Do you see us?" Evie extended her hand so that she could more directly show Mal.

"Yeah, E, I drew it. Of course I see us," Mal told her.

"Well, this should make things easier for you, then. Do you see the way Carlos looks like he's in the middle of this really ridiculous story?" Mal nodded, rolling her eyes and really thinking the entire situation was pointless.

"Okay, and do you see the way you're trying to cover up that you really think it's funny?" Mal hummed in agreement.

"And look at Jay! He's totally convinced that it's cheesy and stupid, but his face shows that he does think it's a little funny," Evie pointed out.

"And you captured me perfectly, Mal. I'm laughing like crazy, my head leaned against your shoulder, as if Carlos' story is the funniest thing in the world," Evie smiled widely, looking at Mal affectionately.

"That's the way I made it to look, Evie," Mal finally spoke, shaking her head in irritation.

"Yes! Exactly! The fact that I understood it completely and saw the story you were trying to tell shows you that the drawing's not trash," Evie straightened and took Mal's shoulders, turning her so that she faced the taller girl.

Evie stared at her for a moment, her eyes glowing with that sisterly love that sometimes overwhelmed Mal.

"Mal… It's actually really beautiful," Evie admitted.

The purple-haired girl shifted her gaze over to the picture on the vanity, and stubbornly watched as all of Evie's explanation and insisting came together in a final product of an actually somewhat decent picture in Mal's view.

Mal hesitantly looked back at Evie. The bluenette smiled encouragingly at her.

Mal finally cracked under the persistent pressure of Evie's gaze. It was impossible to decline her when she was looking so ridiculously hopeful.

Evie seemed to practically glow with happiness upon the sight of Mal's tiny smile.

"I guess it's not totally bad," Mal admitted after quite a bit of reluctance.

Evie was thrilled, and she took the slightly younger girl's hands in her own with such vigorous excitement that Mal couldn't help but feel a little happy with her.

"I knew you'd see it my way," Evie pulled her into a hug, tightly encircling Mal's body in her arms. Mal wrapped her arms around Evie tentatively in return, her mind still reeling with her new feelings of slight confidence in her artworks and actions.

Evie sighed happily, still very much feeling huggy, Mal noticed, and she moved her head a bit closer to Mal's ear.

"M, don't ever let anyone tell you that you're not talented. That you're weak…. That you're evil," Evie reassured her strongly in a voice barely above a whisper.

Mal simply nodded in response, feeling quite sure that Evie had seen the writing on the bleachers. It wasn't that big of a deal, she supposed. This was Evie- one of the three people that Mal actually trusted with her most secret feelings.

"Because you're none of those things. Sure, you had a rough start- we all did. But you broke through and you are definitely not the same person as you were on the Isle. You are so much more than that now," Evie comforted, squeezing her a bit tighter in the embrace.

"Thank you, E… It does mean a lot to hear that," Mal slightly smiled to herself and Evie pulled away so that she could look at her.

"You're welcome. But every bit of it was true, Mal. I am so proud of the person you've become," Evie took Mal's shoulders in her hands, looking down at her with joy.

"I'm proud of you, too. I mean, who would've thought the most prissy and perfect of us all would've ended up being the smartest one of all of us?" Mal complimented, smiling at Evie's happiness.

Evie laughed self-deprecatingly and let go of Mal, looking at her shoes.

"I wouldn't say the smartest. I think we're all great in our own areas. Even if I do have a little bit of a talent in chemistry," Evie grinned, unable to be completely humble. Her ego did need a bit of stroking every now and then, Mal knew well.

"Oh, I wanted to tell you, I've got a little something for us to do together with the guys today, if you're up for it," Evie spoke, a mischievous grin on her face that left Mal with a feeling of nostalgia of their times on the Isle.

"Okay… And what would that be?"

Judging by Evie's smile, Mal knew it had to be something positively mischievously rotten.

She could do with a little rotten.

…

"She's coming, you guys," Carlos warned, rushing back to the other three of their group in the parking lot nearby the school. Mal looked at Evie, still unaware of their ultimate plan.

They were currently crouched behind a car and all Mal was allowed to know was that Evie was plotting something to get Audrey back for what she had said to Mal. It was all Mal could do to remain cool and keep from begging to know the secret.

"Alright! Is everything in order?" Evie asked Jay, looking over at him. He nodded, a wide grin on his face.

"Just as you asked," he replied. Mal furrowed her brow and looked around, trying to spot where Jay had placed the things for the prank.

"Wonderful. It's really great that Audrey plans everything around a schedule, you know? You can always tell when she's going to be anywhere," Evie chuckled, a hand on Mal's back as she peered out from the side of the car.

After a few moments, Audrey in all of her pretty pink glory appeared in the parking lot, strutting over to a vehicle. However, upon approaching the trunk, her eyes went wide and she made a strangled sound somewhere between horror and absolute terror. Mal wasn't sure. She must've lost a bit of her edge. Mal used to be able to hear the difference.

Audrey slowly approached the side of her car, and Mal squinted, trying to see past her to read what was written in pretty blue marker.

Audrey finally let loose with an ear-splitting scream, running as fast as she could in her high heels which, unfortunately for her, was not very swiftly.

Once she was out of sight, Mal straightened and strode over to the car that Audrey seemed to be so scared of. Exhibit A: a crudely bloodied arm that was clearly made of rubber hanging out of the trunk. To a seasoned prankster and VK, it was easy to discern rubber and human flesh. She moved along the side of the vehicle and read the message written on the window.

For the first time in several days, Mal laughed loudly, pure genuine mirth that bubbled over like a concoction in a cauldron. She threw her head back with the sheer joy of it as she ambled back to her small, beautifully wonderful family.

Mal really hoped they had some sort of marker remover, though, so they wouldn't get into trouble.

"You're next, Audrey – Evie, Jay, and Carlos"