Descendants 2 [H.S. & C.S.]

Chapter 17

Calum is a wizard at chemistry.
These smoke bombs are almost done!
Kids, don't try this at home.
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Night fell on the Isle, and Harry and Calum had transformed the salon into a laboratory.

They wore plastic gloves and stood beside the dye-streaked bathtub and percolating glass vials. Calum mixed vibrant powders as Harry funneled then into the shower caps, which he tied off. Jesy sat at her table, crafting her fashion accessory.

Calum picked up Jesy's headband and held it over her head. "H, how amazing would this look with my shredded tee and heart purse?"

"Very amazing," said Harry sincerely.

"Right?" asked Calum.

"Yeah," said Harry.

"Take it," Jesy told Calum, standing. "Take a bunch!"

"Jesy!" squealed Calum, overjoyed at her generosity.

Jesy grabbed a handful of barrettes, headbands, and wraps from her table and raced to Calum, who held open his red purse.

"Thank you," said Calum.

"It would make me so happy to know  you were wearing something of mine in Auradon," said Jesy. "Almost like me being there myself."

Calum pulled Jesy in for a hug and sighed. "I wish I could take you with me."

"At least one of us had his dream come true, right?" said Jesy with a smile.

Harry dropped the last of the shower-cap smoke bombs into his backpack, right alongside his trusty old spell book. "C, we gotta go."

Calum and Jesy looked at each other again then Jesy bowed and skipped back to her table. Calum could barely take his eyes off Jesy. Calum and Harry headed to the door with Harry's backpack full of smoke bombs and then turned back to look at Jesy.

They watched Jesy open Calum's sketchbook and lovingly flip through it.

"She'll be okay," Harry assured Calum.

Calum nodded. "Yeah," he said quietly. "But she could be so much more."

"Let's go," said Harry, reaching out.

"Okay," said Calum, taking Harry's hand.

They ducked through the plastic panels and out the front door of the salon.

Harry and Calum made their way through the decrepit alleys of their childhood.

His arm linked with Harry's, Calum smiled at his friend as they walked down a dark lane. "Do you remember coming here while our moms fought over the best way to poison a princess?"

"Yeah! Apple or spindle? That one was epic. That went on for actual days." Harry chuckled.

"Like it mattered, right?" said Calum. "They were both undone by True Love's Kiss."

"Works every time," said Calum and Harry in unison, breaking into laughter.

They slowed in front of the entrance to the bridge hideout.

"I really thought that's what you and Cole had," Calum said. He looked at Harry. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Harry's smile vanished as quickly as it had arrived. "I'm not coming back, Calum."

Calum looked long and hard at Harry and unhooked his arm to face him.

"I can't," said Harry. "I really tried to tell you."

Calum sighed and leaned against a support beam.

"I . . . just . . . I don't know," said Harry. "I saw your face and how it lit up and how incredibly happy you were that first day that we went into our rooms, and I couldn't—I could not spoil that for you," Harry remembered when he and Calum had first entered their dorm room at Auradon Prep. At the sight of the room, dappled in sunlight, with the flowery curtain fluttering gently in the fresh breeze. Calum had squealed with delight as he took in their new home. But Calum had tried to hide his excitement to match Harry's disgust, and the two of them had closed the frilly pink curtains and plunged the dorm into darkness.