Choosing Love

Chapter Twenty

Uma sighed as she walked into her dorm. She figured it would be the best place to start looking for Mal, even if she was constantly on the move. Even if she wasn't there, there was a chance that she'd come back and Uma could grab her then.

Even better would be if Estelle was with her because then Uma would have backup that Mal couldn't say no to. Well, Estelle or Hadie would work but Uma wasn't picky.

Luckily, Mal was in their dorm but Uma had to pause as she saw Mal put something in her eye. What in the world...?

"I thought there might have been something different going on with your eyes but I wasn't sure," Uma said as she walked into their dorm. Unfortunately, their dorm was empty but as long as Mal was there, Uma wasn't all that disappointed. "Your eyes were not that dark when you were younger. I'm your cousin, I should know."

"It's nothing Uma," Mal sighed and shook her head, setting the contact down since it seemed that Uma was insisting on talking. She wasn't so skilled that she could do two things at the same time. "I just...I just wanted a change is all."

"Hey it's not a big deal Mali. It's not like they're turning yellow or anything. But...why? I thought you were over the whole 'hating your eyes' thing?" Uma said, keeping her voice gentle. Sure they were probably wasting time on this but Ben would probably appreciate the extra time to get Aunt Steph into Auradon. Besides, if she was sarcastic or anything other than gentle, Mal might get her back up and that would just end up in a fight.

It was rare when such a thing happened but when it did, Mal and Uma usually didn't speak to each other for a day at most. Hey, they were cousins. Cousins fought.

But they didn't have time for a fight right now so if handling with kid gloves was the only way to do it, then Uma would.

It took Mal a moment before she answered. "I...I don't want to be connected to Maleficent," she whispered. "It's the only thing Auradon has right now to claim I'm actually the Dragon's spawn instead of mom's daughter."

"Okay...and you're doing it manually why? I mean you have magic! What's the point in living in Auradon if you're just going to insist on doing it manually anyway?"

"Spell might wear off and I'd have to keep applying it. This is a one and done sort of thing. Sure my eyes dry out faster but there's no risk of them failing in front of mom or Ben."

Uma frowned slightly and sat on her bed. There was something...off about the tone of Mal's voice. "Mali...do you need to talk?"

Mal sighed and turned to face her cousin. "Uma...what's there to talk about? No matter what I do, they're going to find a way to connect me to the Dragon. To them, it doesn't matter what I do or what mom does. They only see my 'evil' DNA. Changing my wardrobe didn't change anything, they're still writing articles saying I'm really Maleficent's kid because of my eyes. So...I'm changing that too. Besides, they're only a shade or two darker...Ben hasn't even said anything..."

"Mal, if I hadn't seen you putting in those contacts, I wouldn't have known," Uma said, a little taken aback at how easily Mal had told her all of that but worked to keep it off her face and out of her voice. "Granted, I thought they were darker than they were on the Isle but I just chalked that up to the sun. After all, you've been living here longer than I have."

Mal shrugged slightly. "If that's what it takes, then that's what it takes. I should probably get the other one in before I'm walking around with two different colored eyes."

Uma nodded slightly, her attention more focused on something sticking out under Mal's mattress than on her cousin's words.

"Mal? What's that?" Uma asked, pointing to whatever was poking out from under her cousin's mattress.