Dark Ray of Sunlight

Romance Tips

       Marissa walked out of one of her classes and sighed heavily, staring down at the assignment she had been given. It was a Math class, and to be honest she had never learned a thing of math before. Dragon Hall didn't spend a lot of time on what was known in Auradon as 'Important Life Skills'. And her mother was always worried about her speech, so she never got much math influence, just the real basics. The class had been like a torture chamber. All these things about finding X and Y. Like she cared about that junk.

      All Marissa wanted was to get the wand and get out of Auradon, and back to her mother. Finally proving that she wasn't just a disappointment, but a brand new type of villain. One that was every bit as bad as the ones before her.

        Marissa made her way back to her dorm, setting her book bag down on her bed. She pulled out her Algebra 2 book and notebook, and started looking over the equations. At some point Jane came and started ranting about her mother to the three villain girls. "Mom said that if a boy can't see the beauty within, then he's not worth it. Can you believe it? What world does she live in?!" Jane ranted. Marissa let out a breath. Jane had been going on like this for nearly an hour and she wasn't sure how much more she could take.
         Mal on the other hand seemed to be somewhat enjoying herself. She scoffed at Jane's comment. "Auradon."
         "Rissa," said Evie. Marissa looked up from her homework. "Do you like?" Evie held up a dark blue leather dress.
         Marissa studied it, and nodded. "Yeah, it looks nice. Brings out your eyes."
        Evie smiled, and looked back at the dress. "I know."
        "I'll never get a boyfriend," said Jane, sitting down on Evie's empty bed.
        Marissa rolled her eyes. "Boyfriends are way over rated. You don't need someone else to make you feel complete, you can do that yourself." She felt an awkward silence fall upon the room. Marissa looked up from her book to see Mal and Evie staring at her. "What?"
        "Since when did you become a fortune cookie?" asked Mal. Marissa rolled her eyes. Evie gasped as she eyed Marissa's math book. "Oh no! I forgot to do Chad's homework!" she rushed over to the night stand where a tan backpack was and brought it over to her desk, pulling out a Chemistry book.
         "See," said Marissa. "This is what I'm talking about."
         An Asian cultured girl walked in, knocking on the open door. Her dark black hair was cut short, above the shoulders, she wore a pink pastel shirt with cherry blossom designs, and a mint skirt. "Hey guys, I'm Lonnie," she said, with a smile. Blake stares. "My mom's Mulan." More blank stares. "Anyways, I love what you've done with Jane's hair. And I know you hate us and well, you're evil. But do you think you could do mine?"
          Mal looked up at her sharply. "Why would I do that for you?"
         She held up a little minty green pouch, "I'll pay you fifty dollars?"
         "Good answer," said Evie, nabbing the pouch from Lonnie's hand. "I need to buy more material." Evie examined Lonnie's hair, and started listing off the possibilities. "Let's see. I'm thinking we lose the bangs, maybe some layers and some highlights."
         "Yeah, yeah. I want it cool," Lonnie explained. "Like the Mal's."
        "Really? The split ends to?" Marissa teased, putting down her math book and joining the rest of the girls.
        Mal rolled her eyes and looked to Evie, but Evie just shook the bag of coins mockingly. Mal groaned, rolling of her bed and grabbed her spell book.
        She flipped through the pages till she found the one she needed. "Beware, forswear, replace the old with cool hair." Mal shut the book, and moved her hands around in motion. Lonnie's hair transformed from a thin black bob to beautiful, thick brown locks.
       She quickly moved to the mirror, and opened her mouth in awe. "I know, I know," Evie said, looking in the mirror with her. "It looks like a mop on your head. You know what, let's cut it off, layer it—"
       "No, no, no, no," Lonnie told her. "I love it. It's just..." She bent down a little, and ripped a tear in her skirt. "Now I'm cool."
        Marissa watched the girl with new interests and smirked slightly, "Like ice."
        Jane joined Lonnie at the mirror, and repeated the actions to her own dress. She put her hands over her mouth and gasped. "What did I just do?! Mom's gonna kill me!"

       Carlos sat on the floor on his laptop, with Dude, the dog that Ben had introduced him to. Evie was looking into her Magic Mirror for the answer to Chad's homework. Marissa was seated in the window sill, humming quietly to herself.
      Jay entered the room wearing his new tourney jersey that he had just received from the coach.  "Yo- Ho- Ho!" he cheered excitedly, showing off the jersey. He walked over to Mal's bed, and held onto one of the bed's poles. "Did your plan work with Jane? You going over to see the wand?"
       "Do you think I would be going through every single spell in this book, if I hadn't completely struck out?" She asked, obviously irritated.
       "Someone's in a bad mood," Carlos muttered.
        Mal whacked him on the back of the head and he made a small 'Ow'. "My mom's counting on me," she defended herself. "I can't let her down."
        "We can do this!" Jay spoke up. Everyone turned their attention towards him. "If we stick together."
        "And we won't go back, until we do," Mal said. "Cause we're rotten."
       "To the core," the other four descendants finished.
       "Oh yeah, I found out that fairy Godmother blesses Ben with the wand at coronation and we all get to go," Evie said, casually. "I have nothing to wear, of course."
        The others stared at her as if she had just told them that she wanted to be good. "What?" There was a knock on the door. "Hold that thought," Marissa ordered, getting up from the window sill and walking to the door. She needed to get away from all the confusion for a moment.
         When she opened it, they found Ben on the other side, his usual warm smile on his face. And next to him was Finn, who had more of a neutral look. Marissa glared at him, to which he gave her a swoon worthy smirk. She rolled her eyes and slammed the door in both boy's faces. "Marissa!" Evie hissed. Marissa folded her arms over her chest and glared at her. "Open the door, now!"    Marissa groaned, and opened the door, automatically sending a deadly glare towards the Fitzherbert boy. Ben, obviously sensing the tension, stepped in. "Uh, hey, guys. I didn't see any of you today. I was just wondering if you had any questions or anything that you needed?"
         Mal joined Marissa at the door halfway through Ben's question. "Not that I know of," Mal looked back at their three friends who shook their heads.
        "Okay...alright...well, uh if you need anything just feel free to uh," He rambled awkwardly, starting to walk away. Finn started to follow him.
        "Oh, wait," Mal called out. Ben stopped and walked back to the doorway. "Is it true that we all get to go to your coronation?"
         Ben smiled, "Yeah the whole school goes."
        "Wow, that is beyond exciting," Mal twirled a piece of her purple hair. "Do you think it's a possibility that the five of us could stand in the front row next to the Fairy Godmother just so we could," Mal took in a deep breath, "soak up all that goodness?"
         Ben's smile faltered a bit, "I wish you could. Up front it's just me, my folks, and my girl friend."
        Mal nodded slowly, processing everything. "And you girlfriend," she repeated.
        He gave her an apologetic smiled, "Yeah, I'm sorry."
       Mal started closing the door, "Okay thanks, bye."
      "You know there's plenty of—" he began to say, but the door closed in his face for the second time in a minute.
       Mal smiled mischievously, "I think it's time that Benny Boo, got himself a new girl friend. And I need a love spell." She clapped her hands, and Carlos tossed her the spell book. Mal smiled mischievously as she found the correct page.

       In the hallway Finn let out a soft chuckle. "That was..." he paused, searching for the right word. "Interesting." Ben rolled his eyes at his friend. "Didn't go as I planned that's for sure." He looked at Finn. "You know you didn't have to come, right?"
       Finn nodded. "Of course. But I had a feeling Marissa would be here. And seeing her get angry at me is very entertaining."
       Ben looked at him. "Why don't you just try being nice to her?"
       Finn shook his head. "Girls around here don't exactly care about a boy being nice to them. They just want some devilishly handsome boy to come in and sweep them off their feet."
       Ben sighed. "I think you've been spending to much time around Chad." He looked at Finn as the walked. "Can you look at Marissa and say that she's anything like most girls around here? She's obviously different, and I know you are to. You're a different guy then what you show most of the time. You just have to prove that to her." Ben walked off, leaving Finn deep in his own thoughts.