Not A Princess (Sequel to Princess Of The Underworld)

11| Slop Shop

My boots clicked against the cement floor as I walked into the old hangout. It looked exactly the same. Mal's old paintings scattered all over the walls, Evie's hand-made throw pillows scattered everywhere, Jay's numerous stolen objects lined across the table, and Carlos' equations and projects all over the couch.

I walked over to my part of the room, laughing at all the pictures I had strung up around of the gang and I (Jay had swiped an old polaroid camera from Anthony Tremaine and Carlos had fixed it up for me). I smiled at one photo showcasing the five of us all writing over King Beast's sign with spray paint, everything was so different from back then.

"I remember that day." I swirled around to see Mal standing on the stairs, her hair lighter then usual as she stared at the photo, "It's the same day we threw the bottle with our names into the ocean."

We had done that as a farewell to our sophomore year at Dragon Hall, writing down little notes and our names before Jay chucked it as far as he could into the ocean, it bouncing of the barrier. It was our legacy.

"What are you doing here, Mal? How did you even get here?" I asked as I snapped out of my flashback.

My best friend motioned to the bike helmet under her arm, "I borrowed Ben's bike, turns out it has a built-in barrier-opening button. It didn't take a genius to figure out you had gone back to the Isle." I rolled my eyes as I dropped down onto my mattress, it was nowhere near as soft as my bed in Auradon, "You're lucky I didn't tell your boyfriend, he's got the whole kingdom looking for you!"

Of course Ben would go into a worried frenzy, I wouldn't be surprised if he had already gone into Beast-Mode on someone.

Mal continued, "When I realized you weren't here I went looking for you and ended up at Curl Up And Dye, where Dizzy told me I had just missed you and this..." She motioned to her new hair, "happened."

I took a breath in, leaning my head back so that I was looking up at the paint-splattered ceiling.

I heard my best friend sigh, and I could picture her running a hand through her purple hair, "Why don't we go down to the Slop Shop? Like the old days? Order some terrible food, goblin-watch. What do you say?"

I looked to see Mal holding out her hand, I looked at it for a few seconds before grabbing it and allowing her to pull me up.

Once we had reached the Slop Shop and ordered our food, we snatched a window seat (though it was so covered in grime you could barley see out of it) and dug into our food.

"He's totally trying to create a goblin uprising." Mal said as she took a sip of her Black-Like-Your-Soul Coffee, pointing to the grumpy goblin who was working the register.

"But he only wants to raid all the candy stores in Auradon." I smirked as we placed Goblin-Watch, a game we had created with Carlos when we were thirteen. Basically, we tried to come up with silly backstories for all the goblins.

Mal chuckled, setting her cup down, "Nice." She was silent for a second before speaking again, "Why'd you leave? Really."

We both knew the game of Goblin Watch was over.

I only shrugged, stirring my spoon in my musty oatmeal, Mal's eyes on me, "I don't belong in Auradon, I can't do what everyone wants me to. I can't be who Ben wants me to be."

The purple-haired girl leaned back in her chair, "You know Ben really loves you, right? I don't think he would send out an entire search-party for someone he didn't care about."

I let out a chuckle, "That's kind of like what Dude said." I thought back to the campus mutt.

Mal frowned slightly, her forehead creasing under her bangs, "Wait. The dog?"

I nodded slowly, "It's actually a pretty funny story..."

I then explained what had happened involving the truth gummy and Dude, and soon both Mal and I couldn't stop laughing, causing us to be kicked from the café.

And for a second, it kinda felt like old times.