Once We are Descendants

Chapter 8: Guilty Until Proven Innocent

All the VKs are speechless at the spray-painted tag. It was the infamous motto on the Isle, one that they used to live by and would spray-paint it all over the crummy buildings of their former home. The key word was "used to," most of them had given up using this expression of their evil when they had a better place to live and were accepted by their peers.

"Would any of you care to explain?" Fairy Godmother says angrily.

"We didn't do it," Mal says firmly. Everyone around her murmurs in agreement.

"So, I am supposed to assume that another student did this? Or perhaps a ghost with painting skills?"

"Why would we do something like this?" the daughter of Maleficent protests.

"Yeah," Evie agrees. "We like Auradon, we wouldn't do anything to jeopardize what we have here."

"Perhaps to get back your precious objects. Maleficent's spell book and your mother's magic mirror."

Mal is completely floored by what this fairy is implying. Her eyes flash green for a moment before she realizes that she's speaking to the headmistress of the school, someone who could very well expel her. "We willingly gave those things to you," the purple-haired teen says. "We don't need them anymore."

"Then who could possibly want those objects because they are amongst the objects stolen from the vault?"

"You have no proof that we did anything," Carlos says, keeping his hand on Mal's shoulder to prevent her from becoming too angry.

"Besides, don't you have security cameras?" Jay points out. "Maybe check them first before accusing us."

"Watch your tone young man," the headmistress warns.

"Did you check the security cameras?" Evie asks, raising her eyebrows.

Fairy Godmother opens her mouth to fire back when she realizes that neither she nor the guards had checked the security footage from the night before. Her face goes bright red and she purses her lips together. She wasn't used to children gaining the upper hand in the situation, nor did she like being made a fool of. All the VKs look at each other, satisfied that they'd proven their innocence.

"No... we have not," She grinds her teeth together. "Move along to your classes now."

Mal crosses her arms in defiance, she wants an apology from the headmistress for accusing them of destroying her office, but the woman is obviously too filled with pride to do so. Jay subtly puts his arm around Mal's shoulders and guides her to the door. The daughter of Maleficent gives one last glowing eye stare at the fairy before all 5 VKs exit the office.

Once in the clear, all of them let out a collective sigh of relief, all except Mal who is still extremely angry. She ducks under Jay's arm and begins walking down the hall in a frenzy of explosive emotions. She couldn't believe what had just happened. She was Ben's girlfriend for Walt's sake, the king of Auradon, why would she want to vandalize the school. She knew deep down that she did miss her spellbook, it did make her life easier and more fun, but not enough to trash Fairy Godmother's office to steal it back. Auradon Prep was a safe place where they were well-fed, being given an education, had good friends and they were overall very happy; why would any of them want to vandalize the school like that? What motive did they have? It was all so infuriating.

"More than a year at this school and we're still the villains," the purple-haired teen hisses in anger.

"At least now we're off the hook," Jay says.

Mal laughs spitefully. "For now, they're going to find a way to pin this on us, I just know it."

"But that's not fair," Dizzy says. The youngest of the group is extremely scared; she hated confrontation and she didn't want to get in trouble. Out of all the VKs to come off the Isle, the daughter of Drizella is the least likely perpetrator of this crime. She was likely the nicest girl on the Isle, maybe even in Auradon. Evie was angry too, but for how the headmistress had made her other best friend sad and scared. The daughter of the Evil Queen puts a comforting arm around her fellow stylist.