Bedtime Snack

Summary: You would think that four VK's would be more careful with a batch of love-potioned cookies… (AU, takes place during the movie) (Mal/Ben, Evie/Chad, Jay/Jane, Carlos/Lonnie)

Mal stood at her locker gazing absentmindedly across the campus of Auradon Prep. The tourney game of yesterday—followed by Ben's completely out-of-character declarations—still seemed to be the main topic of conversation. She groaned mentally. Magic wand or no magic wand, giving Ben that cookie probably had not been her best idea. Mal slammed her locker and turned to walk to her third class.

"Mal! Mal!" Why such a fuss? Mal turned just in time to keep Evie from falling down the stairs. Now that would be beyond humiliating, especially with Doug sitting not six feet away.

"What is it?" Mal steadied her friend. "Why the rush?"

"He's chasing me." Evie ducked behind Mal, using her as a cover.

"Who's chasing you?" Mal asked just as Chad came tearing around the corner.

"Him!" Evie pointed her well-manicured finger in the prince's direction. "Hide me!"

"Where are you lovely?" Chad muttered, leaning against the railing. Mal started to inch backward, Evie just behind her. With luck, they could make it through the doorway before… "Mal!" She groaned aloud as Chad sauntered in her direction. "Have you seen Evie? I'm desperate to find her."

"Desperate?" Mal laughed nervously. "She's probably around here somewhere."

"Why does this always happen to men in my family? We fall in love with a pretty girl and then have to chase her." Chad leaned back against the locker, despair spread across his handsome face.

"In love?" Evie squeaked from behind Mal.

Chad's eyes brightened. "Do you know what size shoe she wears?"

"Um, sorry, no." Mal backed up towards the door, trying to look casual and not-at-all rushed, but probably failing completely. "I'm going to be late for my goodness class."

"You better go," Chad sneered. "You need all the goodness you can get. Not like Evie, my lovely, sweet bird."

Mal backed away and finally the two girls made it through the door. "What just happened?" Mal shook her friend. "In love with you? Chad?"

"I don't know what happened." Evie's eyes darted behind Mal like she thought Chad might follow them. "This morning he was such a royal pain, in Chemistry class."

Mal rolled her eyes at Evie's pun. A thought occurred to her, and she hurriedly slipped her backpack off her shoulder. "Evie, what happened to the rest of Ben's cookie?"

"I thought you had it." Evie wrung her hands. "Please, please tell me Chad didn't get a hold of it."

Mal reached the bottom. "It's not in here."

"Or did Jay have it?" Evie's eyes narrowed. "You gave it to Ben, and then Jay took it and was looking at it. Do you think…?"

"No." Mal's heart sunk into the bottom of her boots. "Jay couldn't have… could he?"

"We have to find him."

(…...)

The two girls finally found Jay out on the tourney field… by himself… shouting and leaping like a maniac. They leaped off the bleachers and ran out into the risk zone to meet him. Evie got there first.

"Jay, what is going on?"

"I made the tourney team!" He shouted and turned a full flip in the air, followed by a handstand. "I'm playing tourney!"

"Okay, okay, we get it." Mal held out her hands to try and calm him. "But what we need to know is where you put that cookie."

"What cookie?" Jay finally came right-side-up. "I haven't had a cookie."

"Agh!" Mal screamed and put her hands on her hips. "The love-potioned cookie! Ben's cookie?"

"You had it yesterday," Evie explained. "Right after Ben ate it. Where did you put it?"

Jay shrugged. "I must have left it in the dorm. Why?"

The two girls were already running away. "Come with us," Mal shouted over her shoulder. "It's urgent."

Carlos leaped to his feet when his three friends burst into the room. "What's going on, guys?"

"Where's the cookie?" Mal demanded, lifting Jay's blue-and-gold blanket off his bed. "Where is it?"

"What cookie?" Carlos ran his hands through his hair.

"The love-potioned one, idiot." Jay rolled his eyes and slapped the younger boy on the back of the head. "What else?"

"Oh, yeah, I knew that." Carlos knelt and looked under his own bed. Evie searched the boys' desks while Mal looked in the closet. "Nothing here."

"Or here." Jay leaned back on the bookshelf. "Now, when are you girls going to tell me why it's so important?"

"Well, you see, Jay," Mal turned to face him, a little breathless from digging in the disaster of a closet. "Love-potioned cookies make people fall in love—and somehow Chad must have gotten this one."

"Chad?" Carlos groaned. "Don't tell me he…"

"Yes." Evie slumped back on Jay's bed. "He thinks he's in love… with me."

"Well, that settles it." Mal hurried out of the room. "We need to find the anti-spell."

"Don't you have a date, though, Mal?" Evie asked as they rushed down the hallway. "Ben…"

Mal groaned and froze in place, nearly making the guys fall over her. "I forgot."

"Let's get you ready." Evie said. "Chad can just wait."

"But…"

"No buts." Evie put her finger on Mal's lips. "If you don't get Ben, then we don't get the wand. In fact, why don't you go on your date and let us come up with the anti-spell?"

"But…"

"I said no buts." Evie pushed Mal down the hall. "Come on, guys. We have an anti-spell to make."

(…...)

Evie tied the apron over her dress, still reading from the spell book on the counter in front of her. "All right. Let's see…"

"What goes in these things?" Jay asked, reading over her shoulder. "I mean, make people fall in love? That's bizarre."

"I know." She read the ingredients again before looking around the kitchen. "Now, where do they keep the flour in here?"

Both she, Carlos, and Jay dug through the entire kitchen. They ought to be able to remember where one simple ingredient was, Evie thought. After all, they had made the original cookie less than three days ago.

"Uh-oh."

"What is it?" Evie turned to see Carlos staring down into a drawer, mouth open.

She and Jay hurried over to peer over Carlos's shoulder. The drawer was filled with crumbs—chocolate chip cookie crumbs. Evie groaned. "We forgot the leftovers."

"Who put them in the drawer?"

"I…" Carlos laughed nervously. "I was going to come back for them after…"

Jay slapped Carlos on the back of the head. "Look what you did! Now who know who's in love with who now."

"I'll bet you're hoping pretty Lonnie eats one of 'em." Carlos sneered into the taller boy's face. "Then she'll be in love with you, eh? That's what you want?"

"Is that so?" Jay ruffled Carlos's hair. "Or are you just jealous because Jane didn't get one?"

"Boys!" Evie raised her hand in the air. "It doesn't matter. All that means is that we have to get this anti-potion done as quickly as possible. Where is the flour?"

(…...)

Mal returned from her date many hours later than Evie expected—in a quiet, pensive mood very rare for her. Evie, on the other hand, was sobbing.

"What's wrong?" Mal stood in front of Evie's bed, hands on hips. "Why are you crying?"

"It's… it's Doug." Evie sat up and wiped the mascara streaks from her cheeks.

"What did he do?" Teenage girl drama. Mal sighed. Evie always had to be the drama queen when it came to boys.

"He didn't do anything. It was Chad."

"What did Chad do?"

"Well, nothing at the start. It was Audrey."

"What happened?" Mal shouted, exasperated. How much more confusing could this conversation get?

"We were trying to find the flour to make the anti-love potion, and Chad came in. He… well, he attacked me and tried to kiss me."

Mal groaned. "Not again."

"Again. Jay and Carlos got him away from me, but somewhere in there Chad ended up with a black eye. Jay and Carlos are still arguing about who really gave it to him." Evie sniffed. "But then Audrey came in, and she called us the worst names. Worse than your mother has ever called you, Mal, really, that bad."

"Wow." Mal plopped herself down on the bed beside her friend. "What did Doug have to do with all this?"

"Nothing, and that's the problem. He stood there the entire time and never said a thing. Worse yet, it's family day tomorrow, Chad's still in love with me, Doug's not speaking to me, and I have nothing to wear." Evie dissolved into sobs again. Mal awkwardly wrapped her arms around her.

There was a first time for everything, she supposed. And that included hugging your buddy.

In a little while, both Jay and Carlos appeared. They stood awkwardly at the door, looking a lot like the other night when they had been interrupted making the love potion cookies—defenseless and a little scared. They likely weren't used to girls crying.

"Come in." Mal nodded to the boys. Evie straightened herself up and moved over to the mirror to fix her makeup. "How did it go?"

"Not good." Jay turned one of the girls' chairs around and straddled it. "Chad interrupted our little cook-fest, and now we can't find the spell book."

"Can't find the spell book?" Mal leaped off her bed. "Evie, why didn't you tell me?"

"I was a little preoccupied." Evie glared.

"Did you check in the cupboards, the drawers?" Mal demanded. "Everywhere?"

"Everywhere." Carlos nodded. "All we can think of is that someone stole it."

"Audrey." The name came out like a curse word. "I'll bet Audrey stole it."

"Why would she steal it?" Carlos asked. Did Mal imagine the little tilt on the outside of his mouth? Jay and Carlos exchanged mischievous glances. "Does she hate you that much?"

"Yeah, what's so bad about her?" Jay laughed and snorted in that weird combination of his. "Mal, we're just joking."

"Just joking?" Mal pulled her pillow off her bed and threw it in Jay's face. He caught it just in time and threw it off to the side. "You guys are so dead."

"You wouldn't want to kill the people who have the solution to your nightmare, would you?" Carlos lifted a little Ziploc bag with a brownie in it. "One anti-love potion, delivered as ordered."

"You evil… witch!" Mal shouted at Evie. "Did you know about this?"

"Of course. We were pretending, all but that part about Chad trying to kiss me." Evie smirked. "You're so naïve sometimes, Mal."

"Of course," Mal pretended to agree, snatching her spell book from Jay's hands. "Who was the one who had the idea for the love spell? Huh? Huh? And who's going to be the one to get the wand? Me."

"Okay, okay." Evie held out her hands to calm Mal. "We get it. You're evil, wicked, insane. Just like your mother. We get it."

"Good." But why did it feel like she was reassuring herself as well as her friends? Mal leaned back on her bed in silence. She was evil, she was. It was just so hard to remember that sometimes. Auradon had that effect on people… or was it Ben?

"Let's get that cookie to Chad before he does something worse." She stood. "Evie, you had better come along."

Evie shuddered. "If I have to. But don't you let him get close to me."

"I won't." Carlos puffed out his chest.

"You mean I won't." Jay showed off his muscles before rubbing Carlos on the head. "I'm the man here."

"We're the men here." Carlos insisted.

"Who's the big tourney player?"

"You both are." Mal said as she pushed between the two boys and out the door. "Just make sure that one of the two of you takes care of us poor defenseless females."

Jay snorted again as they walked out of the room. "Defenseless, my foot."

(…...)

Their two victims—ahem, fellow-classmates—were in the classroom when Mal and her friends finally found them. Strangely enough, Ben and Chad sat together. Not that Mal was giving Ben one of these brownies. Not yet. He would have to wait until… later.

"Here." Carlos shoved the brownie into Evie's hand. "Go give it to him."

"Me?" Evie's eyes opened wide. "I told you, I don't want him anywhere near me."

"And he's not going to take a brownie from any of the rest of us. It's you he's in love with, remember?" Mal insisted, pushing her friend forward. All of them but Evie left the room as quickly as they could. It wouldn't do to have Chad see them talking about the brownie.

"Hi, Chad." Evie was a consummate actress, but Mal could tell that the flirtatious smile was a fake. "I have something for you."

"Something for me, sweetheart?" Chad stood and turned slightly to face Evie. Mal, from her position just outside the door, could see his bruised eyes. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Evie started to walk away, but Chad's arm wrapped around her waist.

"Please, don't be so harsh with me, my sweet one. Evie, Evie, please kiss me."

"No, Chad." She pushed him away firmly and left the room. She only stopped when all four of them were on the other side of the door, and then she slumped back against the wall. "I can't wait until that's over with."

The four friends walked down the hallway to the cafeteria. The tables, sporting the usual blue, gold, and pink of Auradon were relatively empty, especially considering the hour. Come dinner time, however, the room would be packed.

Mal returned a wave from Lonnie, who was sitting with Jane and some other friends at the opposite end of the cafeteria, as the four sat down at one table. "All right. Now we can finally concentrate on our plan."

"The wand." Jay crossed his arms. Did he know it made him look more muscular, or was that just a habit? Mal crossed her knees under the table. Why was she even thinking about this? All of the love going around was getting to her head.

"Just to recap, Fairy Godmother's using it in the coronation, right?" Carlos asked.

"Yes," Mal sighed.

"And you're in the front row, right?"

"Yes." Mal tried to hide her exasperation as she looked around the group. "Any other obvious questions?"

Evie shook her head. Carlos opened his mouth as if to ask another question, but Jay nudged him with his elbow. "What about…"

"Jay." Lonnie was calling out from the other side of the cafeteria. Mal sighed. What did she want now?

"Just a minute, ladies." Jay gave Mal and Evie a flirtatious look. "I will be right back."

He sauntered over to the table, leaving his friends staring at his back. "I think the popularity is getting to his head," Evie commented.

"You think?" Carlos reached forward and played with the salt shaker in the middle of the table. "And I have to sleep in the same room with him."

"Mal, get over here!" Jay's terrified shout rang out across the cafeteria. "We have a problem."

Mal, Evie, and Carlos scurried over to their friend. He was sitting in the booth directly across from Lonnie, who was halfway through a chocolate chip cookie.

"Chocolate chip." Mal and Evie sighed at the same time. Mal snatched the cookie away. "Where did you get that?"

"It was in the kitchen." Lonnie shrugged and reached for the cookie. "What's wrong with you guys? Why do you all look so scared?"

"Because…" Mal sought for words to explain, but words weren't needed. Lonnie's eyes met Carlos's.

"Carlos," she sighed like a girl in a soap opera. "You must be the most handsome man in all of Auradon."

"Me?" Carlos pointed a finger at himself as if he were impressed. "You're sure you're not talking about Jay here?"

"No, you." Lonnie stood and trailed her finger down Carlos's chin. "Yes, you, Carlos."

"Help!" Carlos shouted and ran screaming from the room. Lonnie stood in his wake, eyes brimming with tears.

"Great." Mal groaned. "Now we have to go through this all over again."

"What is wrong with Carlos?" Jane pulled a plastic bag from her purse and rummaged through it. "Is he all right?"

"Yes, it's just… just…" The words stuck in Evie's mouth as she stared across the table at Jane. "No, not you too!"

"Me, what?" Jane asked, taking a bite of her chocolate chip cookie.

"Jay, you had better run." Mal whispered.

"Why?" Jay shrugged at her. "She's a cutie." And he scooted closer and closer to Jane.

"Yeah, but her mother's the fairy godmother." Mal slapped him on the back of the head. "What do you think she'll say about this?"

"Yeah. True."

The three remaining VK's left the room as quickly as they had come, leaving droopy, tear-filled Lonnie and Jane behind. They needed that spell book.

Again.

(…...)

With Mal around, the four villain´s kids whipped up the anti-love potion brownie mix quickly. They somehow managed to sneak it into the stew for the next day… and hoped that Ben wouldn´t be eating in the cafeteria that day.

In fact, Mal made sure of that. They went for another picnic.

And after that came the coronation.

If nothing else, Mal and her friends had learned never to trust Carlos with leftover cookies… and not because he would eat them all.

Love spells were dangerous.

And so were cooies.