Secret in the Heart ||Descendants|| (♡Ben)

17

Evie shakes me awake. "Five more minutes." I say. "You have to get up now. I've already let you sleep as long as possible." she says. "Please Evie just let me skip the first few classes." I say as I turn on my side. "Kara!" she says and she throws the covers from me. Cold is the first thing I feel. "Get ready for school now!" she says angrily. "Okay, okay." I say and walk to the bathroom. After I have showered and am brushing my teeth Evie enters the bathroom. "I have your dress here for today." she says as she shows it to me. I groan. "Do I have to wear a dress today?" I ask. "Yes, you have. You remember the meeting with the press today, don't you?" Mal asks as she pops her head through the bathroom door. I let my head fall. "I'll take that as a no." she says a bit irritated. "Look Mal, I am sorry. I will wear the dress." I say. "Okay." she says and walks out of the bathroom. I put on the dress and when I walk out of the bathroom the room is empty. My school bag stands on the table, packed and all. I smile. That's Evie. The bell rings. "Shit!" I say. I quickly put on the heels Evie put out for me and run towards my nightstand. I grab the elastic lying on top and put it on my wrist. I then grab my bag and run out of the dorm and close the door behind me. I start running, or for how far that is possible in these heels. While I am running I put my hair, or the hair from the wig, in a messy bun so that it doesn't hang in my face. I am just in time for class.
    I walk inside and everyone is already sitting at a desk. I look around and smile when I spot Connor sitting at our usual place. "Miss Kara." our teacher says as she looks at me. "I am sorry I am late Mrs. Johnson." I say. I walk towards Connor and sit down next to him. "Hello early bird." he says with a smile on his lips. "Shut up." I say and he lets out a laugh. I shove him in the shoulder. "Ouch." he says. "O don't be such a baby." I say. "I am not being a baby, you just shoved me really hard." he says. "Ow, can't little Connor who plays tourney handle a girl." I say mockingly. He opens his mouth to speak. "Mister Connor." Mrs. Johnson says. "Would you care to share what you were about to say to Kara with the class?" she asks. "No, thank you Mrs. Johnson." he says. "That's what I thought." she says. I try to suppress my laughter. "I will get back at you." he whispers. "Hmh. I will be looking forward to it." I whisper. I turn towards the board and I try to focus on what Mrs. Johnson is saying. But I can't seem to put my focus on it, the lack of sleep I got last night really kicks in. I give up and put my head on my hand and doze of.
    Me, Jay, Evie, Carlos, and Mal are standing around a cauldron. There's a green liquid inside and smoke erupts from it. I am stirring the liquid and lift an apple out of it. "Let's give Auradon a taste of evil." I say as I drop the apple back in the liquid. "Wicked ways beneath the skin, let all who taste it now join in." Mal chants from her spellbook. I look at her and laugh wickedly. Jay and Carlos each dump a bucket full of red apples in the cauldron and I stir them around. Then we take them out and give them to everyone at school. Every cheerleader, athlete, nerd, band member, teacher, everyone gets one. Suddenly I am overlooking a classroom and Evie walks towards the front and puts the apple on Fairy Godmothers' desk. Once she sees the apple she takes a bite out of it and the students in the classroom throw the papers in the air. Fairy Godmother doesn't say anything of it and even throws her own papers in the air. In the hallway, Mal is spraypainting the words 'Long live Evil!' on the lockers, and on the school grounds, people start dancing. Suddenly the scene changes and I raise the flag of evil, designed by Mal. Then I run towards the grounds. Everybody comes running out of the school in the middle of the day. Something inside of me likes the chaos that there is and wants it to come back. "Kara." a distant voice says and I look around the grounds to see who said it. "Kara!" the voice says again and my arm shakes. "No." I say. "Kara." the person says a lot closer this time. "No!" I say a little louder but it's already too late, everything starts to fade away. "Kara." the voice says again and my arm gets shaken so hard that it slips from under my head and my head falls down. My head hits the table and I groan. I open my eyes and slowly lift my head. Someone besides me is laughing really hard. I look beside me and see that it's Connor. "Yeah, terribly funny." I say. "Come on. The class has ended." he says and I look around and see that everyone is getting out of their seats. "Yeah, right." I say and I stuff my books back in my bag. Mal's head pops into the classroom. "Shit, the meeting." I say and I stand up. "Thanks for waking me, Connor." I say as I quickly glance at him. "Yeah, of course." he says with a bit of a frown.
    I run towards Mal while stuffing my books in my bag. "I am ready to go." I say as I walk out of the classroom. We start walking together. "No, you are not." she says. "What do you mean?" I ask. "Have you looked at your hair?" she asks. "No, I haven't." I say. "Come here." she says as she pulls me into the bathroom. She steers me to the mirror and I look at my hair, which still is in the messy bun I made. "I think it looks fine." I say. She lets out a sigh and takes the hair out of the bun. She grabs a hairbrush out of her bag and starts brushing my hair into a neat high ponytail. "There, that is better." she says. I frown. I didn't know that Mal had become good at this. I mean yes she and Evie are the persons who help me remember everything and get me ready, but usually, Evie does these kinds of things. Before I can even say anything she pulls me out of the bathroom and towards the front of the school where the press is waiting. She takes the backpack from my shoulder. "I will put this in your locker for you." she says. "Yes, do you know the code?" I ask her as I stare at the press that is assembled outside. "Yes." she says. "It's 13-" I start not registering her comment. "13. I know." she says as she shakes my shoulders. I look back at her. "You got this girl." she says and then she nudges me towards them. "Uhm, Mal." I say as I turn back around, but she is already gone. "Dammit." I say.
    "Look there she comes." Fairy Godmother says as she walks towards me. "There is nothing to be worried about dear, they will just ask some questions." she says softly to me so they can't hear her. I nod. She leads me to stand in front of the statue of Ben's father. As we come walking towards the statue cameras start clicking and people start calling my name on repeat. The flashes are blinding me and the people are all leaning forward and constantly calling my name. Just some questions she said. I stand still in front of the statue and look around, trying to take it all in. "Only three days to the Royal Cotillion. Ever think a girl like you would be Lady of the Court?" a reporter asks. "Well-" I start. "How does it feel to be the most envied girl in Aurdon?" another reporter interrupts me. "Uhm, I'm not sure what you are talking abo-" I start. "Do you like being blond?" another reporter interrupts me. "Not really n-" I start. "Everybody is still wondering, who are your parents?" another reporter interrupts me. Before I can open my mouth to say something Ben clears his throat. I look at him and immediately feel a little more relaxed. "Okay, all right. Excuse me." he says as he walks through the reporters towards me. He stands beside me and wraps an arm around my waist. "Did you ever think you'd be with a villain, kid?" a reporter asks. I smile, glad that the questions are no longer asked to me. Ben chuckles. "We're done here." he says. The reporters complain, but Fairy Godmother steps in and shushes them. "This is still a school, so-" she says but I can't hear what she says next because Ben turns me towards him and leans down. "I bet you look really pretty in every single one of those pictures they just took." he whispers in my ear. I look up at him and smile. The reporters talk through each other again and we look at them. "Shush." Fairy Godmother says every time a reporter tries to asks something. When they are all silent she shushes them away and they start to walk away. "Thank you guys." Ben says to them. "Kara, Ben." Fairy Godmother says. "Fairy Godmother." we both say as she walks away. Ben looks at me and I exhale. He chuckles. "Don't pay any attention to them." he says. "Well, that's a lot easier said than done." I say. "I know. I know." he says as he looks at them. "You know, maybe we should do something." he says as he looks back at me. "We should go somewhere. Get away." he says. "Yeah." I agree. "You know what-" he starts but then he looks at his watch. "I have a council meeting. I'm so late." he says. "Oh, uhm. That's okay." I say as my face falls. "We'll do it sometime. Uh-" he says and he leans forward to kiss my cheek but before he can do that somebody grabs my hand and turns me away. "If we don't do a fitting for your gown right this minute, you'll be dancing in your bathrobe, okay?" Evie says. She looks at Ben. "Hi." she says to him. "Let's go. Let's go." she says and she starts pulling me away. "Bye, Ben." I say and I give him a sad smile. "Bye." he says
    Evie drags me to our dorm, where Mal is sitting on her bed. "Hey, Kara." Mal says when she sees me enter the room. "Hey." I say. Evie shoves me behind the folding screen. "The dress already hangs there." she says. She is right. There is a blue and yellow dress hanging on a hanger. The main color of the dress is yellow. The top is made out of yellow satin. On the body, there is a blue lint tied around the waist and a royal pattern on the jest. The skirt is layered, the top layer exists out of the same satin as the body and the bottom layers are yellow layers of tule. Between the two yellow layers of different fabrics, there is a layer of blue material that has sparkles on it. The top yellow statin layer also has a stroke of the royal blue material with sparkles. I put the dress on. "Evie." I say. "Coming." she says and she walks behind the folding screen and pulls on the strings on the back of my dress. "Come here." she says as she walks out from behind the folding screen. I lift up the bottom of the dress and walk after her. She points to a small round pedestal next to her desk. I step upon it. I stand still and Evie starts walking around me. She is at my back now and pulls my shoulders back. I grunt and Evie pulls on the strings on my back, tightening the dress even more. "Okay, Evie, I cannot breathe." I say. "Well, you can breathe after Cotillion." she says as she ducks under my arm. "I sincerely doubt that." I say as I let my arms drop to the sides. "I have at least 20 more events directly behind it. And I can't even remember what a single one of them is." I say. "Oh." Evie says as she gives a chef's kiss. "Impeccable." she says. I look at my leather jacket that is hanging on the coat rack. "Evie? Mal?" I say. "Hmm?" they hum. "Do you ever think about what we'd be doing if we were back on the Isle right now?" I ask them. They chuckle. "That's funny." Mal says. Of course, they wouldn't be thinking about that. I mean they really like it here and just do the things that they like to do. Evie is making dresses for basically every girl for Cotillion and Mal is constantly sketching and painting. She told us that the art teacher said that she could have a serious career as an artist.
    Music starts playing on the TV. "Ah." Evie says as she turns towards it. "Look who's on TV." Mal says and she stands up and walks towards us. I chuckle as Evie helps me down from the stand. "As the royal couple continues their tour of the kingdom, they dined with Aladdin and Jasmine." a reporter says and you see a video of Ben and me dining with Aladdin and Jasmine. I spin around and sit down at the foot of my bed. "Six months ago, no one thought King Ben and his girlfriend from the wrong side of the bridge would last." the reporter says. "Yeah, no kidding." I say. The feed shifts to a video from the meeting with the press just an hour ago. "Kara must be counting the days until the Royal Cotillion when she will officially become a Lady of the Court." the reporter says. Ha, if she only knew how stressful everything is. I mean I need to learn all these manners and stuff. I gasp. I forgot. I get up and walk towards my nightstand. I grab the book about manners Fairy Godmother had given me. "Mal." I say to Mal. She turns away from the tv and looks at me. I wave with the manners book. She walks towards her nightstand and grabs her mother's spellbook. "Read it fast at lightning speed. Remember everything she needs." she chants and flicks her finger. "Thanks." I say and I start reading the book. "I know Kara's secrets of fitting in and Ben wouldn't like it one bit." Evie says. I just look at her and then continue reading. "Haven't you guys had enough secrets between the two of you already?" she asks. I look at her. "Evie, I almost know how to do speed reading, but almost isn't fully. I'll get there I promise." I say and continue reading. "That's not what I meant and you know it." she says as she takes the book out of my hands. I sigh. "Evie you remember what I was like before I got Mal to help me. I mean, I was a complete disaster." I say. "Well, personally, as your best friend, I strongly believe that that spellbook belongs in the museum along with my mirror." she says as she points towards the spellbook that lies on Mal's nightstand. I look at her. "Don't give me the face." she says. I pout. "Put the pout away." she says. I don't put it away. "Mmm-hmm. You know I'm right." she says. I let out a sigh. "You know she has a point." Mal says as she stands by Evie's side with her spellbook. "It does belong in the museum." she says. "Seriously you too?" I ask. I look away from them and outside. "You guys don't ever miss running wild and just breaking all the rules?" I ask looking back at them. "Like stealing," Evie says. "And lying," Mal says. "And fighting?" Evie says again. "Yeah." I say as a smile grows on my face. "No." they both say. "What?" I say. They chuckle. "Why would we?" Evie says as she walks towards me. "Ra, come here." she says as she grabs my hands and pulls me off the bed. "Look at where we are." she says as she walks me towards the TV. Mal joins me on my other side and grabs my other hand. "We're in Auradon." Evie says. "And we're Auradon girls now." Mal says. "Since Kara revealed her love of grapes, she has received hundreds of cartons from her admirers." the reporter says as they show a video of me and Ben. We are sitting at a table with a bowl of grapes and he puts one in my mouth. They make it look like we have all the time in the world together, while I only have spoken to him once today. Evie and Mal squeal and wrap their arms around me. "See, this is the land of opportunity." Evie says. "We can be whatever we want to be here." Mal says. "So please, let's just leave the past in the past, okay?" Evie asks. "Besides...I mean, look at these shoes." Mal says as she grabs one of the shoes that Evie is making me wear for Cotillion. It's a pair of yellow see-through shoes with blue detailing on them to match the dress. "Severe." I say. Evie and Mal laugh.

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3022 words
(10/01/2021)