Ellie's Flames BOOK 2

16: Liar, Liar, Rock's No Longer On Fire

SERA's POV

It takes literally every single inch of my strength not to laugh with Harry about the look on Beasty Boy's face. I mean, it's killing me inside. Suuure, we didn't catch Audrey. But on the bright side, we'll live to kill another day!

Fight. I meant fight.

(No I didn't.)

I rub my hands together. "Where to next? Auradope Prep again? Hmm? Ooooooh, and we could all cuddle up on Audrey's bed and take a picture then post it somewhere. That'd drive her up the wall!"

Icy laughs. "I hardly think social media is appropriate right now."

"Nothing's ever appropriate when I wanna do it, Icy." I tease, sticking my bottom lip out. She shakes her head at me, smiling. "But seriously, I'm tired. We've been at this for almost a whole day."

"And we were at sea for weeks when we went to Scotland to get my dad." Icy reminds me. "Y'know, when..." She glances over at Uma, then coughs. "Never mind."

Uma waves her hand calmly. "It's cool. I'll admit I went a little overboard then."

I cough my next sentence out: "Capturing-my-brother-then-hanging-out-with-the-guy- who-put-us-both-in-comas-then-tried-to-steal-Icy's-powers."

Uma smirks. "Okay, a lot overboard. But it was nice to finally get my way for once."

"For once?" Carlos laughs. "You got us all turned into Beasts!"

By now everyone's laughing, even Ben who's normally oh-so-formal. We don't even remember this stuff as bad, we remember it as funny memories. Like how people'd remember fights with their siblings from when they were tiny. Like this one time, Ar and I started wrestling each other for who got to put the little coin into the TV slot at Dr. Facilier's Arcade. I mean, c'mon. A little coin? There's about a billion other chances to do that.

I'm suddenly surprised by the fact that I don't hate Shrimpy or Captain Guyliner anymore. I don't. For a sec, I almost didn't realize they weren't even supposed to be in Auradon.

Like there wasn't a barrier between us. Both figuratively and literally.

I wonder if the barrier---the real, shiny yellow one---is the real reason VK's and AK's don't get along. The magical barrier caused a real barrier between the people.

Huh. I'm hanging out with Brit too much. That sounded waaaay too philosophical.

Oh, yuck, big words! Yup. That's it. I'm hanging out with Icy more. I can trust her to stay on movie topics.

Uma sighs, still laughing. "Ooh. All right, let's get this Audrey chick taken care of already." Everyone laughs, and Uma smiles at Mal. "What do you say, girl, time to wrap things up?"

Mal grins, and they both fist-bump. Ben puts an arm around Mal, beaming at all of us. "Y'know, someday, you're going to have to tell me how you guys all teamed up."

"Mal actually promised to let all the kids off of the Isle once this is over." Evie explains, smiling at her friend.

Ben stops walking. "Mal?"

Wow. Didn't see that coming. Beasty boy looks... shocked. And scared. And confused. And a bajillion other words that don't mean "YAY!"

"I have to tell you guys something." Mal says, putting her hand in the air and turning to face all of us. She looks kinda... nervous.

Wow, what in the world could make Ms. Green nervous?

Everyone listens to her intently.

She inhales, composing herself. "Um... I lied to you." She finally admits. "The kids won't be coming off the Isle."