Second in Line - Descendants (?Mal) ~Slow Updates~

●°●BEN●°●

Ben hadn't seen this much life in the school's courtyard in years. Students had gathered around waving flags, holding up Welcome signs in the air, wearing colorful clothes. The marching band lead by Doug stood in the middle of the square in front of his father's statue. Dressed in the blue and yellow uniforms representing the colors of the kingdom, ready to play their song the moment the limousine would arrive. 
     Weeks had passed since his sister had managed to convince their father to let her go through with her proclamation. Ever since she had been working tirelessly to get everything and everyone ready and in order for the arrival of the four new students. Emma had been out of herself with relieve when she got word back from their parents that all of the four teenagers were allowed to come study at Auradon, showing that even villain parents cared about their children's education and future. 
     But Ben hadn't seen Kat all day, she had been running around the school, getting all the details in order with the help of Audrey and Aggie. Ben was so glad to see Audrey and Emma still hung out after he had passed, he used to think they disliked each other but turned out all they needed to bond was loosing me. Typical. 
     "There you are, Princy!" Ray came flying out of the crowd, "ya little sister knows how to throw a party. I've been zooming around the place and my sweet Evangeline this place is going crazy!" Ben's glowing friend flew a few spirals in the air. "So, when's the food coming out?"
     Ben had to stifle a laugh, Emma hadn't arranged all the flair, that had been Audrey, but he wasn't going to tell him that. "You know, Ray, this isn't a party. It's just to welcome the new students."
     Some of the enthusiasm dripped out of his voice, "so, no food?" Amused Ben shook his head, seeing a small frown form in his face. "Well, that stinks." 
     A small chuckle escaped Ben's lips, "not that we are capable of eating." His comment didn't go unnoticed by his friend, who shot him a side eyed look. 
     "Details ain't important, my friend." 
      Laughing, Ben shook his head. Ray had been sticking around a lot longer than he had expected. Especially since he kept talking so fondly about his dear Evangeline and that he wanted to return to her. Not that the prince complained, it was nice to have someone who actually responded when he talked to them. Somwhere inside of him, Ben didn't think he would've been able to stay sane without Ray around. 
     "They're coming!" A voice called out over the crowd, queuing the band to start playing. Ben's head snapped to the band, where Emma was now running to the front with Fairy Godmother, Aggie and Audrey behind them. 
     "Come on, Ray. Let's join Kat, she needs our support." 

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●°●EMMA●°●

Emma hadn't even noticed the limousine turning around the corner until the band started playing. "They're here!" Aggie exclaimed, her voice easily audible over the music and now cheering teens around them. Emma couldn't contain a small squeal of enthusiasm before pushing the clipboard she had been holding into Aggie's hands and running to the front of the crowd. 
     As rehearsed multiple times Emma took her place in the middle of the path together with Fairy Godmother, on her right stood Aggie, the dark turquoise, plaid skirt matched her top. Her hair that perfectly resembled her mother's was braided to both sides of her head, let loose at the end where her explosion of red was let loose. Audrey stood on Fairy Godmother's left, she looked as elegant as always with her soft pink dress, light blue blouse and hair that looked way too soft to belong to her personality. 
     The closer the car came, the more Emma could feel her stomach turn, she started messing with the hem of her blue blazer without realizing. The golden details all over her blue dress matched the small tiara that kept shifting the wrong way whenever she turned her head too fast. Thinking about it made Emma's hands reach upwards in order to re-arrange it. Only for Aggie to take her wrist and pull it down. 
     "You look great." She whispered, "just remember to breath once in a while, yeah?" Emma nodded, taking a deep breath through her nose and out through the mouth.
      The Limousine had already stopped right in front of the group when Emma's gaze returned to the front. Richard, their driver, was the first to emerged from the vehicle, making his way to the door at the back. 
      Emma didn't exactly know what she had been expecting when the four teenagers stepped out of the car. But definitely not this. 
      The moment Richard had pulled the door open, a black, white and red blur fell out onto the asphalt, clinging to one of the blue towels like a small dog trying to rip a stick from their much bigger owner. "Stop!" The boy on the ground growled as he kept pulling on the towel to the person on the other side that stepped out after him. 
     Emma didn't think it could get worse, but the second guy was carrying the entire TV-screen that previously had been attached to the inside of the car, together with multiple other electrical devices that dangled of the cords he had managed to wrap around his arms. With his other arm he was also pulling on the towel as if his life depended on it. Emma could hear Aggie trying to keep in her laughter as she watched the second guy placing one boot on the black and white boy's chest, pinning him to the ground.
     "You got everything else," the boy on the ground tried to yell, which was hard with a foot pressing down his oxygen, "why do you want whatever this is?" 
     "'Cause you want it!" The other boy responded through gritted teeth. Immediately Emma felt sorry she had assigned Richard to go get them, this couldn't have been easy with his frequent migraines. 
     "No!" 
     "Let go!" 
     While the boys were fighting in front of the car door, a girl with blue hair that matched the rest of her clothes squeezed herself passed them. Her eyes were big with what I would describe as wonder as she twirled around to take in her surroundings. 
     Last, a girl with vibrant purple hair pushed herself passed the two guys. She didn't look around in wonder, she actually looked rather bored. The purple girl's annoyed gaze went from the hundreds of people around them to the the two fighting boys. 
     "Guys, guys, guys." She snarled at them in a hushed voice before turning to Emma's little group with a clearly faked smile. "We have an audience." 
     This seemed to get the attention of the two, their heads turned to them and the one who snatched everything he had found copied the girl's smile. "Just, cleaning up." He said, aimed at the Fairy godmother with a nervous chuckle before reaching down and pulling his friend from the ground. 
     Emma knew she was supposed to say something, but found herself incapable of responding to the scene in front of her in a way a Princess should. Fortunately for her, Fairy Godmother did know what to say. "Leave it like you found it!" She sing-songed, her voice quickly shifting to her more authoritarian tone. "And by that I mean just leave it."
     Audrey found it in herself to let out a soft giggle while the two boys threw everything back into the car. Attracting the attention of the second guy, without the TV covering most of him it was easier to take him in. His long brown hair sticking out from under a red beanie that matched the color scheme of his sleeveless leather jacket, showing off his biceps.  He put on a shameless flirtatious smile before approaching Audrey, "hello, foxy." Emma's eyes found Aggie's, who's expression held more disgust than the amount her friend felt. "The name's Jay." Audrey let out an awkward laugh, clearly not knowing how to respond to this guy's 'moves'. 
     To my relieve, Fairy Godmother leaned her head between the two. "Welcome to Auradon Prep." Her voice had gone back to her happy peppy self as she talked to the four new students. "I'm Fairy Godmother. Headmistress." She ended her introduction with a small, graceful curtsy. 
     "The Fairy Godmother." The girl in purple responded. Mal. That was her name. Of course. The resemblance to her mother was striking. "As in "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo"?" As she talked she made a movement with her hand as if she was twirling a wand.
     "Bibbidi-Bobbidi you know it!"
     "Yeah, I always wondered what it felt like for Cinderella, when you just appeared out of nowhere," a small chuckle sounded from Mal's lips that did not really sounded very amused. "-with that sparkly wand and warm smile." Fairy Godmother seemed a little flustered by the girl's words. "And that sparkly wand." 
     "That was a long time ago. And as I always say: 'Don't focus on the past or you'll miss the future!'" Fairy Godmother made some flashy hand gestures to support her words, almost hitting Emma and Audrey in their faces.  
     A small snort came from beside Emma, followed by Aggie's soft voice, "no way. She ever said that." 
     Ignoring the words of her friend Emma decided it was time for her to say something. With her hands softly clasped in front of her she took a step forward, small smile on her face. "It's so good to finally meet all of you. I am Emma."
     "Princess Emalia." Audrey spoke up. 
     "Soon to be Queen." Aggie chimed in, sensing her best friend's slight discomfort and unable to resist messing a little with her. 
     "A princess?" The girl with the dark blue aesthetic questioned, walking a little closer. "My mom's a queen. Which makes me, a princess, too." There was enthusiasm in her voice, clearly trying to connect. 
     Immediately Audrey spoke up, shaking her head. "The Evil Queen has no royal status here. And neither do you." The smile disappeared from the girl's face and got replaced with a glare towards Aurora's daughter.
     Taking a deep breath to try and keep posture Emma gestured to Audrey. "This is Audrey."
     "Princess Audrey." She corrected Emma with a wide smile,  "Head of the Royal Student Council." 
     "Right." Emma said, shaking the slight irritation she was feeling towards Audrey before turning to her right. "And this is Princess Aggie." 
     Aggie made an extravagant bow, twirling the hand that wasn't still holding the clipboard. "Unofficial right hand woman slash adviser to the future Queen of Auradon." Emma could see the confused faces of the four in front of them as they tried to deceiver understandable words from Aggie's accent. 
      Audrey let out an annoyed puff of air, mumbling: "that's not a thing." 
     "Yeah, that so, lassie? What's this then?" Aggie said, waving a little with the clipboard. 
      Emma wasn't the only one seeing things would escalate if someone didn't intervene soon. "Emma, Aggie and Audrey are going to show you all around." Fairy Godmother chimed in, "and I'll see you tomorrow." Seeing Audrey and Aggie were still glaring at each other, Fairy Godmother got in between, still addressing the kids from the Isle. "The doors of wisdom are never shut! But the library hours are from 8:00 to 11:00. And as you may have heard, I have a little thing about curfews." The four hesitantly let out something that resembled a laugh, not knowing if she had been joking or not. 
    Leaving it at that, Fairy Godmother walked away, the band following promptly with Doug at the front. Emma couldn't help the awkward feeling that seemed to grow the longer the band and other students took to leave. Unfortunately the feeling did not leave with them, but seemed to grow in the short silence that followed. 
     Realizing it was up to her to break the silence Emma clasped her hands together. "It's so, so, so good to finally meet all of you." Emma walked over to Jay to give him a hand, but stumbled a little when he instead gave her an- assumed to be meant as a friendly- punch to the shoulder. It hurt, but she didn't let her smile falter as she moved on to Mal, who stood beside him. 
     Mal did take Emma's hand, rather firmly, staring into her eyes with a level of intensity the young woman was not used to. For a moment, Emma stared back, not knowing if she was trying to intimidate her or figure her out. Eventually Emma ripped her gaze from Mal's green eyes and continued. "This is a momentous occasion," Emma made her way to the boy with white hair she knew to be the son of Cruella de Vill. Carlos.
     "-and one that I hope will go down in history." Carlos shook Emma's hand with a little wary look,  immediately after taking the boy's hand she could feel the sticky remains of chocolate on his fingers, which was no surprise seeing the amounts that had stuck around his mouth. "Is that chocolate?" Emma questioned with a small chuckle, obviously already knowing the answer. Carlos didn't respond, he just stared at her. Emma never thought meeting them would be this awkward...
     "- as the day," the princess picked up her speech again, "our two peoples began to heal." 
     "Or the day that you showed four people where the bathrooms are." Mal spoke up, half mimicking the way Emma had been talking. Making Emma let out a soft laugh, returning her eyes to hers. 
     "A little bit over the top?" 
     "A little more than a little bit." Mal chuckled at her own words and Emma couldn't help but join in a little.
     "Well, I will make sure to work on that." Emma nodded to Aggie, who made a show of writing something down on the clipboard.
     "You do that." 
      "So much for my first impression." This time it was Emma who laughed at her own words and to her relieve, Mal joined in. A seeming genuine smile carefully pulling on the corners of her lips. 
     "Hey!" Audrey's loud voice startled Emma slightly, ripping her eyes away from the purple girl. "You're Maleficent's daughter, aren't you?" She didn't even give Mal time to respond and continued. "Yeah, you know what? I totally do not blame you for your mother trying to kill my parents and stuff." Mal's eyes widened, but Emma couldn't tell if she was feeling overwhelmed or already bursting with irritation. "Oh, my mom's Aurora." Audrey specified unnecessarily. "Sleeping-"
     "Beauty." Mal finished. "Yeah, I've heard the name." Emma's gaze glided over to Evie, Jay and Carlos, who all seemed completely unfazed. "You know, and I totally do not blame your grandparents for inviting everyone in the whole world, but my mother, to their stupid christening." 
     "Water under the bridge." If Emma thought Mal's smile from before had been fake, the teeth showing smiled that followed from Audrey and Mal now were much worse. 
     "Totes!" The smiles turned into forced laughter that ended creepily simultaneously with a sigh from both girls. 
     Emma exchanged a slightly concerned look with Aggie, who pointed at her scribbles on the clipboard. It read: No way this is gonna end well.
     "Okay!" Emma quickly clapped her hands together to get everybody's attention. "So, how about a tour? Yeah?" Nobody responded, so the young woman just began, gesturing to the big building behind them. "Auradon Prep, originally built over 300 years ago and converted into a high school by my father when he became king." 
     After a short hesitation by the kids from the Isle they followed Aggie, Audrey and Emma as they slowly walked through the garden, approaching the golden statue of Emma's father that stood in the middle. Everyone's attention automatically went to it, which Emma used in her advantage. She clapped her hands twice causing the statue to creak and groan while it changed shape. Within seconds the human form of King Adam was replaced by his beast like appearance. 
    A frightful scream made Emma's head snap to Carlos, who had jumped into Jay's arms, clinging to him as he stared at the statue with fear in his eyes. 
     "Carlos, it's okay." Emma tried to reassure the guy immediately. "My father wanted his statue to morph from beast to man to remind us that anything is possible."
     "Does he shed much?" Mal asked from beside Emma. 
     "Yeah," Emma answered, looking at her with the most serious expression she could master. "Mom won't let him on the couch." For a moment Mal seemed unable to place if the princess was joking or not, eventually letting a smile take over her expression. Emma couldn't help the little pride creeping into her own smile before turning around and continue the tour. 
     Aggie leaned towards her best friend, a half grin on her face. "Making jokes now, are we?" 
     Emma's grin widened, "ow, shut up." 
     The redhead laughed, glancing back to see if the others were following. Again, she leaned towards Emma, "you think that wee lad is okay?" She said, gesturing with her head to Carlos. He was standing on his own legs again, still staring at the King's statue. He clapped his hands, but when nothing happened he hurried to catch up to the others.
     "Maybe they're just not used to magic." Emma looked back at Aggie, "there's non on the Island, remember?" 
     "Ow, yeah, of course." 
     They walked around the school's terrain, showing the different buildings that were used for different subjects, the library, cafeteria inside and outside. The four barely seemed to pay attention to anything the three princesses were saying or pointing out. Not until they entered the main building where all the dorms were. 
     "So, you guys have a lot of magic here at Auradon?" Mal asked no one in particular. "Like wands and things like that?" 
     "Yu're really interested in wands, aren't yu?" Aggie responded with a trace of amusement in her voice.
     Evie's eyes widened at the statement while Carlos hit Jay on the arm. Audrey raised an eyebrow when Mal let out a strange sounding laugh, "well, I mean, isn't that what you use for magic most of the time?" 
     Emma cleared her throat, "yes. That used to be the most popular method of using magic. And of course magic still exists, but it's mostly retired. Most of us here are just ordinary mortals." 
     "Who happened to be Kings and Queens." Maleficent's daughter commented. 
     "That's true!" Audrey chimed in. "Our royal blood goes back hundreds of years." 
     Aggie rolled her eyes, "aye. Of course, with most of us being royalty and all, it kind off takes away the whole 'status' thingy." 
     "Not all of us are royal." Audrey responded with a big smile, but with a threatening undertone, "there still are a lot of distinctions. Take Jane and Lonnie for example, they aren't royalty, not really." 
     Desperate to get out of this discussion, Emma's eyes fell on Doug, a blond boy and band member, still wearing his blue and yellow band uniform, holding another clipboard as he walked down the stairs all of them stood near. "Doug! Doug, come join us." Seeing who had called to him he smiled at the girl. The light of the lamps reflected off his glasses before he joined her side, Aggie wrapping an arm around him. "This is Doug." Emma introduced him, "he's gonna help you with your class schedules and show you the rest of the dorms. And... We'll see you later, okay?" Emma tried to let it look like she made eye contact with all four of them, but for some reason her eyes got drawn back to Mal's. "And if there is anything you need, feel free to-"
     "Ask Doug." Audrey's interruption got followed by her and Mal's forceful laughter, again ending with that unsettling sigh. Emma tried her best not to shoot Aggie a look, fortunately, Audrey did not loose another second before walking away. 
     "Our apologies for all.... that." Aggie said while gesturing after Audrey. 
     "Aggie..." Emma started, but her friend raised an eyebrow at her. 
     "What? Yu know I'm right. She's a special kind of besom." 
     A sigh escaped Emma's lips as she answered in a whisper voice, hoping only Aggie would hear, "you know I can't talk about people like that. And she's not that bad"
     Aggie snorted, hooking her arm with Emma's, "she definitely agrees with me." Emma had barely time to glare at her before Aggie started to drag her along. "See yu around!" Aggie called back at the four and Doug. 
     Once outside, Aggie turned to Emma with a grin on her freckled face. "That went well, right?" 
     "If you say so..." Emma mumbled, looking down at her shoes, the heels she wore clacked against the cobblestone path. 
     "Don't be like that!" Aggie groaned, shaking her friend's arm a little. "You did fine! Besides, yu made the Big Bad Fairy's daughter laugh, counts for somethin', right?" 
     Emma thoughts went back to the tour... yeah, maybe she went a little too far at some points, but all in all it could have been a lot worse. "I guess you're right." She eventually gave in, the corners of her lips curling up slightly. 
     "Course I am." Aggie scoffed. "I'm always right." 

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