Jay pulled French fries from his pocket.
“Jay,” Mal said. “What are you doing?”
“It’s called stealing,” Jay said, tossing the fries onto his bed to join the assortment of other items he’d stolen from the school already, which included a few gold rings, tokens, coin purses, a watch, and a half-eaten pizza.
“What’s the point?” asked Mal.
“Well, it’s like buying whatever I want, except it’s free,” said Jay, pulling a laptop from his vest.
“Okay. So you could do that. Or you could leave all of this here and pick it up when we take over the world,” said Mal with a wide smile.
“You sound just like your mom!” Evie told her.
“Thank you!” Mal said to Evie.
“You do it your way and I’ll do it mine,” said Jay.
“Die, suckers!” Carlos shouted at his virtual foes in the video game. “Jay, come check this thing out!” he said, handing over the nunchakus.
Jay took them and stepped in front of the TV. His biceps bulged as he swung the weapon. Carlos watched him, laughing and whooping as Jay fought off the animated attackers.
“Guys!” said Mal. “Do I have to remind you what we’re all here for?”
“Fairy Godmother, blah, blah, blah,” said Jay as he swung. “Magic wand, blah, blah, blah.”
Evie laughed at him.
“This is our one chance to prove ourselves to our parents,” said Mal.
Evie stopped laughing and faced Mal.
“To prove that we are evil and vicious and ruthless and cruel,” said Mal.
Jay and Carlos stared at her, too. She had their attention.
“Yeah?” Mal asked them.
Her friends nodded solemnly.
“Evie, mirror me,” said Mal.
Mal and Evie sat at the table as Jay and Carlos gathered around them.
Evie lifted her mirror. “Mirror, mirror, on the…in my hand. Where is Fairy Godmother’s wand”—she searched for a rhyming word—“stand?”
In the mirror, there was an extreme close-up of the sparkling wand.
“There it is!” said Evie.
“Zoom out,” said Carlos.
“Magic Mirror, not so close,” Evie whispered into it.
The mirror showed a map of Earth.
“Closer,” said Evie.
The mirror showed the state.
“Closer,” she said again.
The mirror showed the town.
“Closer,” she said once more.
“Can I go back to my game? I’m on level three,” said Carlos.
“Stop!” said Jay.
They peered at the mirror, which showed an old building lit by blue lights, with an engraved sign in front of it that read MUSEUM OF CULTURAL HISTORY.
“It’s in a museum,” said Mal. “Do we know where that is?”
Carlos typed something on the laptop. “Two point three miles from here,” he said, turning it so his friends could see. He went back to playing his video game.
Mal opened the door to the room and checked the hall. The coast was clear.
Jay and Evie followed her down the hall. Jay called Carlos’s name over his shoulder, and Carlos stopped playing his game and ran out the door after his friends.
The lawns of the prep school were dark as the gang made its way to the museum. After some walking, they eventually approached an impressive building marked MUSEUM OF CULTURAL HISTORY. It had tall, imposing stone pillars.
“Check your mirror,” Mal whispered to Evie.
“Is my mascara smudged?” asked Evie. She checked her eyes in the mirror.
“Yeah. Hey, while you’re at it, why don’t you see if you can find us the wand,” said Mal.
“Sure,” said Evie. She held out her mirror. “This way!”
They followed Evie around to the back of the building. The group stopped at a set of double doors and peered through their windows. A guard sat at the front desk, spinning in a chair. There were several monitors in front of him. On the monitors were iconic artifacts from all the famous fairy tales: King Beast’s mystical rose, Cinderella’s glass slipper, the Genie of Agrabah’s lamp, King Triton’s trident.
The guard spun to face the doors, and Mal and her friends ducked.
When some time had passed, they peeked back through the windows and studied a small spinning wheel on a pedestal that was a showcased display—Maleficent’s spinning wheel.
“That’s your mother’s spinning wheel?” said Carlos. He and Jay laughed.
“Yeah, it’s kinda dorky,” Jay added.
“It’s magic,” said Mal defensively. “It doesn’t have to look scary.” Mal flipped open her spell book, found a page, looked through the window at the guard, and began to incant: “Magic spindle, do not linger. Make my victim prick a finger....”
Nothing happened to the guard.
“Impressive,” said Jay, shaking his head.
“I got chills,” said Carlos, mocking her. He and Jay chuckled.
“You know what?” Mal said, annoyed. She concentrated. Her eyes flashed green. “Prick the finger, prick it deep. Send my enemy off to sleep,” she said.
The guard stood and started walking toward the spinning wheel as if he was in a trance. He reached out his finger and touched the spindle. Then he yawned, sat down next to the spinning wheel, curled up on his side, and fell right asleep.
Mal let out a laugh. “Not so dorky now,” she said smugly. She tried to open the door. It was locked. She yanked a few times.
Jay pushed everyone aside. “Stand back,” he said. He backed up, ready to take a leaping kick at the door.
Mal stared at the door and said, “Make it easy, make it quick, open up without a kick.”
Jay ran at full speed and leaped to kick the door—just as it opened by itself. He landed on his butt inside the museum. Mal, Evie, and Carlos laughed and stepped over him.
“Coming?” Mal asked Jay, mocking him this time.
The gang passed the lobby and ran through the dark museum with Evie leading the way as she consulted her mirror. “Upstairs,” she whispered to them.
They ran down a hall and up some stairs, then stopped short in a doorway to a room called the Gallery of Villains. On a pedestal, a wax figure of Evil Queen looked regal, sinister, and frightening—a powerful witch in her ultimate prime.
“Mommy?” said Evie, her mouth slack.
Jay looked up at a wax figure of Jafar, who wore full Arabian regalia, cobra staff raised above his head in a terrifying pose.
“Killer,” said Jay, shaking his head.
Carlos gawked, terrified by the statue of Cruella with stone Dalmatians fleeing from her in terror. “I will never forget Mother’s Day again,” he said.
Mal stood in the shadow of what appeared to be a huge dragon. She looked up in awe at the most daunting and impressive display of all: Maleficent, calling upon the powers of hell. Mal remembered some of her mother’s last words to her before she departed from the Isle of the Lost: The future of the free world rests on your shoulders. Don’t blow it. Mal stared in shock and fear at her mom. Was this who she wanted to become?
“Well, the wand’s not here,” said Jay. “Let’s bounce. Let’s go!”
Evie and Carlos followed him back into the hall.
Mal lingered in the gallery. She couldn’t take her eyes off her mother’s statue. She took a few steps toward it. She imagined asking her mother what to do. In her mind, Maleficent sang to her about how they’d rule the world together, united in their evil ways. But Mal wasn’t so sure that she wanted to rule the world anymore.…
“Hey!” said Evie with a smile.
Mal whipped around to face her.
“I found the wand!” said Evie. “Let’s go!”
Mal took one more backward glance at Maleficent on the pedestal. She ran out after Evie and joined the gang. They looked down through an opening in the floor at the wand floating in a display. It was cream colored, long, and knobby.
&
nbsp; “There it is!” said Evie.
The gang raced downstairs, past a room called the Hall of Castles, with Jay whooping and leading the way.
In the Wand Gallery, they approached its sole exhibit—Fairy Godmother’s wand. It was lit from above and below with a soft blue light. Mal and her friends stopped at the threshold. Jay sized up the situation, making to pounce and grab it.
“Jay, don’t!” said Mal, eying the blue light.
Again Jay moved to grab it.
“Wait, no! No! No! Don’t!” said Mal.
Jay shot her a suave smile. He crawled into the exhibit, reached out, and…
Crack! Jay was blown back by a giant shock.
An alarm started to blare. Mal and her friends held their ears.
“A force field and a siren?” asked Carlos.
“That’s just a little excessive,” said Jay, regaining his stance.
Mal and her friends raced down the corridor. The alarm had woken the guard in the lobby, and he ran toward the noise. Little did Mal and her friends know he was just around the corner. Luckily, they ran in another direction. The group bolted for the exit, unseen, but Carlos stopped at the guard station. As his friends ran past Maleficent’s spinning wheel and out the double doors, he assessed the equipment, looking for the alarm shutoff. The guard’s phone rang.
Carlos answered it. “Hello? Uh, just give me one second, one second.” He examined the guard’s clipboard. “Uh, yeah, yeah. No, false alarm,” he said. “It was a malfunction in the LM 714 chip in the breadboard circuit. Yeah. Okay. Say hi to the missus.” He hung up. The alarm stopped sounding. He looked up to see that the others had left without him. “You’re welcome,” he said to no one. He ran after his friends.
The four, empty-handed, sprinted through the night away from the museum.
“Way to go!” Mal said sarcastically. “Now we have to go to school tomorrow.”
WE STILL DON’T HAVE THE WAND. GREAT. NOW WHAT?
GUESS WE’RE GOING TO HAVE TO SURVIVE SCHOOL TILL WE FIGURE OUT A PLAN B. UGH!
The next morning, Fairy Godmother taught Mal and her friends about goodness.
She stood in front of a blackboard that had WELCOME TO REMEDIAL GOODNESS! written on it, along with phrases like MOUTHS ARE FOR SMILING, NOT FOR BITING and SHARING IS CARING. Mal and her friends were the only kids enrolled in the class.
They were downright miserable.
“If someone hands you a crying baby,” said Fairy Godmother, “do you: A. curse it, B. lock it in a tower, C. give it a bottle, or D. carve out its heart?”
Evie raised her hand enthusiastically.
“Evie!” said Fairy Godmother.
“What was the second one?” Evie asked.
“Oh, okay…” said Fairy Godmother. “Anyone else?”
Mal, who was sketching the wand, was called on.
She looked up. “C. Give it a bottle,” said Mal.
“Correct,” said Fairy Godmother with a smile. “Again.”
Jay sighed.
“You are on fire, girl!” said Carlos.
“Yeah!” said Evie.
“Just pick the one that doesn’t sound like any fun,” said Mal.
Her friends oohed.
“That makes so much sense,” said Evie, starting to twirl her hair.
A girl in a pale blue dress with a big blue bow on her head entered the class. She cast a frightened look toward Mal and her friends and scurried toward Fairy Godmother at the blackboard. The girl held a clipboard in front of Fairy Godmother.
“Hello, dear one,” said Fairy Godmother.
“Hi. You need to sign off on early dismissal for the coronation,” the girl said.
Mal stopped sketching to study her.
“Everyone here remembers my daughter, Jane,” said Fairy Godmother as she signed the form.
“Mom!” Jane whispered.
Jay and Carlos exchanged looks.
Fairy Godmother returned the clipboard to her daughter. “That’s okay,” she said, turning Jane to face Mal and her friends. “Jane, this is everyone.”
Jane gave a feeble wave. “Hi. That’s okay. Don’t mind me. As you were,” she said, bowing and rushing out of the room.
Mal smirked to herself.
“Forgive Jane,” said Fairy Godmother. “I may have told her a few too many bedtime stories about your…parents.” She cleared her throat. “Let’s continue.” She went back to the blackboard. “You find a vial of poison. Do you: A. put it in the king’s wine, B. paint it on an apple, or C. turn it over to the proper authorities?”
Three hands shot up.
Carlos and Jay fought to be picked.
“Ooh! Ooh!” said Carlos.
“Jay,” said Fairy Godmother.
“C. You turn it over to the proper authorities,” said Jay coolly.
“I was gonna say that!” said Carlos.
Jay laughed mockingly. “But I said it first!” he said. He grabbed Carlos’s head and put him in a headlock.
“Ow!” said Carlos.
“Who said it first?” said Jay. “Who said it first?”
He and Carlos started wrestling on top of their desk.
Evie put on lip gloss in her mirror. Mal sighed.
“Boys,” said Fairy Godmother. Then she said it more loudly: “Boys!”
They froze.
“I am going to encourage you to use that energy on the tourney field,” she said.
“Oh, no, that’s okay. Whatever that is,” said Carlos, “we’ll pass.”
But before he and Jay knew it, they were on the grassy green tourney field just outside the school. It resembled a lacrosse field but had two cannons at the fifty-yard line that shot a constant barrage of balls across the width of it. A big sign that read GO FIGHTING KNIGHTS! overlooked it. Jay and Carlos were barely recognizable in their tourney helmets and bucklers and multitude of pads.
The coach blew a whistle.
“Jay, Ben, offense,” the referee instructed them. “Chad, you’re defense!”
A handsome boy, Chad, strolled across the field.
“Hey! Hey! Put your helmet on! Get out of the kill zone!” the coach said to Carlos. “Pick it up! Put it on! Two hands!”
The coach blew the whistle again, and the play began. Jay was off like a shot. He ran right over Carlos, who thudded to the ground. Jay slammed his buckler into Chad, who had the ball. The ball flew free and Jay scooped it up. He charged down the field into the kill zone, roaring ferociously and dodging the flying balls expertly.
Carlos, meanwhile, was trying to crawl under the barrage of balls. Ben came to his rescue, batting the balls away as he pulled Carlos to his feet.
Jay slammed the ball right into the net. The cheerleaders whooped—all except for Audrey. Jay threw off his helmet and did a victory dance. Then he realized he was dancing alone. The field, he noticed, was littered with lots of penalty flags and battered, beaten, groaning players in both yellow and blue uniforms.
Coach blew his whistle. “You! Get over here!”
Jay trotted over to the coach, who stood among the downed players, Carlos included. Ben was hanging over his knees, panting.
“What do you call that?” yelled the coach.
Chad looked on smugly.
The coach’s face broke into a smile. “I call that raw talent. Come find me later; I’ll show you something you haven’t seen before. It’s called a rule book.” He chuckled and patted Jay on the shoulder. “Welcome to the team, son!” He looked at Carlos and said, “You ever thought about band?”
Carlos tittered weakly and Jay laughed.
“I’ll work with him, Coach,” said Ben.
“All right,” said the coach. “Let’s run that again!” He blew his whistle, and the players moved to resume their positions on the field.
Jay grinned and spun around to find Chad glaring at him with his chin and nose stuck up in a rude, snobby way. Jay squinted at Chad and walked past him, bumping him hard. Once Jay had passed by, Chad rubbed his arm.
Mal and Evie parted ways at Mal’s locker, which had EVIL LIVES spray-painted on it—a little something Mal did to make herself feel more at home.
Mal dug around in her locker. She heard loud, obnoxious laughter and looked up to see Audrey and Chad. Audrey wore pink sunglasses and a pale pink sweater. Chad wore his letter jacket. Ben appeared behind them in a smart-looking jacket.
“Those kids are trouble,” Chad told Ben, pointing to Mal.
Audrey nodded, shooting Mal a particularly nasty look.
Mal turned away and tried to ignore them.
“Come on, Chad,” said Ben. “Give them a chance.”
Audrey took Ben’s hands in hers. “Ugh! No offense, Bennybear—you’re just too trusting,” she said with a big smile. “Look, I know your mom fell in love with a big nasty beast who turned out to be a prince. But in my mom’s story, the evil fairy was just the evil fairy.” She nodded at Mal. “That girl’s mother,” she whispered.
“I think you’re wrong about them,” said Ben.
Audrey sighed, let him go, and walked off.
Ben approached Mal as she shut her locker. “Hey!” he said with a coy smile.
“Hey,” she said, squinting at him.
“How’s your first day?” he asked.
“Super,” she said smugly.
“You should really think about taking this talent off the locker and into art class,” Ben said. “I could sign you up. What do you think?” He gave her a long, intense look.
Mal spied Jane passing by them. “Way to take all the fun out of it,” said Mal. She shot Ben a flirty smile, spun around with her spell book under her arm, and followed Jane into the bathroom, remembering the reason she was in Auradon in the first place: the wand. What better way to get close to it than through Jane?
Jane was alone at the bathroom mirror, looking at her short, straight brown bob. When she saw Mal enter, her eyes grew wide. She froze and then spun around.
“Hi!” said Mal brightly. “It’s Jane, right? Always loved that name. Jane.” She laughed.
“That’s cool,” said Jane, breaking her stare and making a beeline for the door.
Descendants Junior Novel Page 3