Just a short one-shot I wrote about the movie I LOVE so much, you people have no idea how much I adore this movie. People have said,"Where did Ben go while Mal was singing?" This is my attempt to answer that question.

I let out my best beastly roar and jump into the lake. Mal's laugh is music to my ears right before I go under. I swim around for a while. I wanted to swim to the cavern behind the waterfall and get a magic rock for Mal. Mal...

As I sit in the little alcove of crystals I begin to realize something. I realize that Mal had put a love spell on me. But how? When? Why? And why aren't I mad at her? And why do I still feel love for her if it was all just a spell?

The spell must've been in that cookie. Mal manipulated me so easily that I could've laughed. She must've liked me but I was with Audrey so she spelled me, that must be it. As for the last two questions, maybe I didn't really need a jinxed cookie to have feelings for her. I just needed it to break up with Audrey.

That made me think back to a date with Audrey a week or two ago. She had started singing that song, the one that goes like "I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream." When she had sung that, it made me think of a dream I had. The dream that triggered the idea of my proclamation. A dream of a girl with purple hair on the Isle of the Lost.

Oh, man I'm stupid. Mal is the girl with purple hair. This is a face palm and sigh moment if I ever had one.

I thought about Mal some more. Her personality, her background, her artwork, her middle name. I care about the children of the island, all of them, especially Mal. I care about her. I told her I loved her. And it was in this moment of deep thought in the crystal cavern that I realized that I meant everything I ever said to her, magic cookie or not.

"BEN!" I heard Mal shout. She can't see me from the old gazebo, I should probably go back.

I grabbed a magic rock and dove back into the water. As I swam below the surface, I could hear more shouts, but those were soon joined by splashes. I swam faster and came out from under Mal and carried her back to the gazebo. She had tried to save me, but she clearly didn't know how to swim.

"You can't swim?" I asked incredulously.

"No!" She shouted. She seemed really, really mad.

"But you live on an island," I stated. I figured everyone on the island would know how to swim.

"Yeah, with a barrier around it!" Mal said as though were obvious. If I thought about it, it really was obvious.

"But you tried to save me anyway," I observed. No doubt anymore. Mal cared for me, more then she would ever care to admit. I felt the same way, even without love spells or magic wish rocks.