Call her a pushover, but Honey wasn't about to sit and watch Evie stress over completing Chad's homework. So, she decided to help. She was actually pretty good at Science, after all, baking is a Science, so with Honey's help, Evie was breezing through both Chad's work and her own. And she wasn't just helping by doing all the work, either. She actually made an effort to explain things to Evie, and Evie didn't hesitate to ask questions when she was confused.

"Hey, we're like study buddies," Honey said as she looked up from a worksheet.

"Ooohhh I like that. We actually make a pretty good team, ya know." Evie smiled at the girl across from her, silently grateful for all her help.

"Speaking of teams, how was Tourney practice, Carlos?" Honey glanced at the boy who had shown up not that long ago with Dude. Mal had complained a bit about having a stinky mutt in her room, but the others convinced her to let him stay.

"It was okay, ya know, if you don't count me totally sucking." Honey frowned at the boy's words, though she didn't know how to help. She knew lots about Tourney from watching Ben play for years, but she wasn't the most athletic person. "Ben tried helping me. He said I'm a good runner."

"There you go! I'm sure you'll be really great with just a bit more practice. And if you ever feel like you suck at it, just know that you can't possibly be worse than me." Honey smiled as Carlos burst out laughing, nodding his head in appreciation.

"Thank you. I'll keep that in mind."

Honey turned back to her work with a smile on her face when she caught something behind Evie. "Is that a dress?" She got up from her seat and walked over to the table that held the sewing machine and blue dress. "I didn't know you could sew. This is amazing." Honey stared at the dress she carefully picked up, admiring every single detail. She'd never been big on fashion, but even she could recognize style when she sees it.

"Thanks! I make all my clothes. Some of theirs too," Evie nodded her head over to Mal and Carlos. "Don't you know how to sew?"

Honey shrugged, putting down the dress and moving to sit back down in her seat. "Not really. I know how to knit, and Belle taught me needlepoint, but I've never actually sewn anything."

Evie's face sunk a bit as she fully drew her attention away from her homework to Honey. "A lot of us actually know how to sew on the Isle. Most of the clothes we get is ripped or stained, so we just have to work with what we got." She shrugged as if it was no big deal, but Honey could tell it bothered her.

"Oh, wow. I had no idea." Honey sat in thought for a minute, not really knowing what else to say. For years, she had felt at a disadvantage compared to her royal peers who seemingly had everything while she had significantly less. But the arrival of the Isle kids helped her realize how fortunate she was to even have what she did.

"It's okay. You didn't know."

"But it's not okay, Evie. I mean, some of us have some idea of what it's like on the Isle, but none of us really know. I guess that's why Ben is doing all of this. To bring awareness, I think. To fix things."

"We don't need fixing," Mal spoke up harshly, causing all her friends to snap their heads over to her.

"Oh, I-I didn't mean it like that. I just meant, like, help-"

"We're not helpless, either." Honey could tell Mal was getting mad now, but she didn't know exactly what to say to make things better. Evie must've noticed Honey's hopelessly face as she grabbed her arm, causing Honey's body to relax slightly as she looked over at her.

"Hey, you wanted to bake, right?" Evie watched as Honey's eyes lit up immediately, a smile reaching her face as she nodded. "Well, I'm almost done with this homework. Why don't you go down to the kitchen and get everything set up. I'll meet you there soon, okay?"

"Yeah, I can do that." The redhead sent her a grateful smile as she collected her stuff and walked to the door. "See you soon." She sent the blue-haired girl and Carlos one last smile and wave before leaving.

Evie waited a couple seconds to be sure she was completely gone and couldn't hear before she turned to her best friend with a glare. "What the heck was that?! Are you trying to make the only person here who actually hangs out with us hate you?"

"Yeah that was pretty harsh," Carlos spoke up from his spot on the floor, nodding at Evie's question.

"You're getting too attached," Mal vaguely explained, not even looking up from her spellbook. Though she didn't actually look at her, Evie knew right away that Mal was talking to her, making her squirm in her seat with a frown.

"No, I'm not..."

"Oh, come one, E! I'm not blind! We're not here to make friends." Mal glanced down at Carlos clinging on to Dude and frowned at him as well.

The tense atmosphere was interrupted by Jay barging in, flaunting the Tourney jersey Coach had just given him. Only Carlos really paid him attention as Evie went back to work, still upset with Mal, and Mal went back to looking through her spellbook.

"Your plan work with Jane? You going over to see the wand?" Jay asked, leaning against Mal's bedpost.

"Do you think that I'd be going through every single spell in this book if I hadn't completely struck out?" Mal snapped, taking out her anger on him.

"Woah. Someone's in a bad mood," Jay mumbled teasingly, leaning away from the girl just in case.

"Yeah, Mal feels like hurting her friends all of a sudden," Evie spoke up bitterly. Jay looked back and forth between the girls before looking down at Carlos who just shook his head.

"Oh, she'll get over it."

"Who are we talking about?" Jay asked cluelessly.

"Honey. Mal was mean to her," Carlos said, earning a flick on the head from said girl.

"Oh, the cute tall one with red hair? Yeah, she's really nice. Those cookies she made were de..." he trailed off as he noticed the death glare Mal was sending him, "...licious."

"Look, in case you guys forgot, we're here for one reason and one reason only. To steal the wand and make our parents proud! My mom's counting on me. I can't let her down."

"We can do this," Jay started, looking at all of them individually, "if we stick together."

"And we won't go back until we do. 'Cus we're rotten," she started.

"To the core," all of them said in unison.

As she was packing up her homework, a thought popped up in Evie's head. "Oh yeah. I found out that Fairy Godmother blesses Ben with the wand at the coronation and we all get to go. I have nothing to wear, of course," Evie said casually, her friends all turning to her and looking at her strangely. Mal was about to speak up when a knock was heard at the door. "What?" Evie asked, noticing the look Mal was giving her.

"Hold that thought..." Mal walked over to the door, opening up to reveal Ben whose face brightened upon seeing her.

"Hey, Mal. I didn't see you guys today and I was just wondering if you had any questions or anything you needed?" He asked nervously, never taking his eyes off the purple-haired girl.

"Not that I know of..." Mal glanced back at her friends to see them all shaking their heads. Ben shifted on his feet nervously as they all looked at him with blank stares and he took that as his cue to leave.

"Okay. Alright, well, uh...if you need anything, just, uh-"

"Oh, wait!" Mal cut him off, stopping him from leaving as she remembered something. "Um...is it true that we all get to go to your coronation?"

"Yeah, the whole school goes."

"Wow," Mal nodded and smiled sweetly, already concocting a plan in her head. "That is beyond exciting. Do you think that it's a possibility that the four of us could stand in the front row next to the Fairy Godmother? Just so we could soak up all that goodness." Mal and the other were smiling extra hard now to seem convincing.

"I wish you could. Upfront it's just me, my folks, Honey, and my girlfriend." Ben's smile dropped a bit as he gave them the bad news.

"And your girlfriend?" Mal asked for clarification.

"And Honey?" Evie spoke up, causing Ben to glance back at her briefly.

"Yeah, she doesn't know yet, but I plan to make her my "Royal Advisor", which is just a fancy way of saying she's my best friend who hangs out with me while I do my King stuff, so yeah, she'll be in the front," he explains.

"Hmmm," Mal hummed, deep in thought before her face lit up again and she smiled fakely at Ben. "Okay, thanks! Bye!" She closed the door in his face, cutting off whatever he was about to say.

Mal smirked, turning to her friends with a devious glint in her eyes. "I think it's time Bennyboo got himself a new girlfriend. And I need a love spell."

"Great. Well, I'm going to meet Honey in the kitchen while you work on that," Evie started walking to the door as she gestured to Mal look intently through her spellbook.

"Wait!" Mal stopped Evie from leaving, her eyes trained on a spell in her book. "This one is for love spell cookies...," she trailed off, giving Evie a knowing glance that the girl quickly recognized.

"No. No, absolutely not."

"Oh, come on! You're gonna be baking anyways. All you have to do is bat your eyes and she'd probably make it for us."

"There's no way she'd help us make a love spell to use on her best friend," Jay points out obviously, the others nodding in agreement.

"So...we just don't tell her it's a love spell," Mal shrugged, looking around to still be met with unsure faces. "Look, this spell has to be perfect or it won't work right. This plan has to work," she looked at them, expression laced with desperation.

"I don't like it, but she's right," Carlos spoke softly, already hating having to take advantage of the girl that's been so nice to them.

"Fine," Evie huffed in resignation.

"Yes! I knew you'd come around, E." Mal threw her arm around her best friend as they made their way out of the dorm room, Evie much less eager than she was before. "C'mon, guys. We have some cookies to make."

To say that Honey was surprised when Mal showed up in the kitchen would be an understatement. She'd thought the last thing the purple-haired girl wanted to do was be in the same room as her, but here she was with an uncharacteristically wide smile on her face and ready to bake.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Evie apologized to Honey, but the girl just waved her off.

"Oh, don't worry about it. I wasn't waiting long. And hey, I found some more recipes I think we should try-"

"Actually," Mal interrupted, moving beside her with the spellbook in hand, "we already had something in mind and thought maybe you could help us out?"

Mal opened up the spellbook to the right page, moving aside some ingredients to lay it down on the table. Mal, on the way to the kitchen, had come up with the genius idea to magically change the title of the spell so that Honey wouldn't get suspicious. So now, instead of saying "Love Spell" at the top of the page, it said "Sweet Dreams Spell",

"You see, we've been having some trouble sleeping since being here."

"Yeah. New place, new room, it all makes us so...restless," Jay added, the others nodding along. Honey's eyes flitted from the page to the others in a mixture of concern and empathy.

"Oh, gosh. I'm so sorry to hear that. Of course I'll help you! No problem."

"Oh, that is just so nice to hear!" Mal said excitedly, still acting "sweet". If Honey noticed how strange they were behaving, she certainly didn't say anything.

Honey moved expertly around the kitchen, knowing the place like the back of her hand. She was surprised to find the recipe was fairly simple, albeit with the occasional strange ingredient or direction. Still, she adapted easily, and before she knew it they were almost done.

"I'm sorry," Evie spoke up from beside Honey, causing the girl to jolt up in surprise at the sudden voice. The baking process had been pretty quiet other than Honey giving directions from time to time and the boys talking quietly in the background, not really wanting to participate.

"Wait, why are you sorry?" Honey paused from chopping the walnuts, giving the blue-haired girl her full attention.

"Well, Mal was a little mean before. We're pretty used to it, but you probably aren't."

Honey shrugged it off, not wanting Evie to think it got to her. In reality, she had been thinking about it since she left their room earlier. In one day, she had managed to piss off two of her friends. It made it even worse that she couldn't really understand where she went wrong.

"It's fine. I get it, we all get in bad moods sometimes. She just deals with it differently than I do."

"How...How are you so nice?" Evie stared at the redhead in disbelief, absolutely amazed by her kind nature. Everyone in Auradon acted so much different than people on the Isle, but Honey was completely foreign to her. She was like the poster girl for goodness, embodying everything that Auradon is supposed to represent.

"It's too hard being mean, not that I ever tried it," Evie laughed at her words, bringing a smile to Honey's face. "Honestly, there are already so many awful people in the world, and I would hate to be one of them. I rather make people smile."

"You're really good at it."

"What?"

"Making me smile," Evie admitted, a warm smile on her face as proof.

"Alright," Mal spoke up, bringing the attention to her, "it says we still need one tear and I never cry." Mal stopped mixing to look over at Evie's side. "What about you, Sunshine? Got any sad feels in ya?"

"No, sorry. Maybe if I try really hard, though." Her eyebrows furrowed as she concentrated, thinking of sad things like those commercials of abandoned animals or when your ice cream cone falls and splatters all over the sidewalk.

"Hmm, 'kay, well, while she's doing that," Carlos looked from Honey to the onions next to him, picking one up, "let's just chop up some onions."

"No!" Mal protested. "It says that we need one tear of human sadness, and this lov-" she cut herself off, glancing at Honey to see if she noticed the bear slip-up, "this sleep potion gets the best reviews," she corrected, "So we have to follow it exactly."

"A tear's a tear," Jay whined, wanting to get the spell over with.

"That's not true, Jay. They both have antibodies and enzymes, but an emotional tear has more protein-based hormones than a reflex tear," Evie informed him, causing all her friends to look at her in amazement.

"See? You don't even need that magic mirror," Honey whispered to the girl. Evie smiled confidently back with her head held high, proud of herself. Everyone turned their attention to the kitchen door as it opened, revealing Lonnie wearing her pajamas.

"There you are, Mal! I was looking for you." As Lonnie approached the table, Mal threw a hand towel over the spellbook, covering the recipe. Honey furrowed her eyebrows at the actions, not understanding what the big deal was, but kept quiet. "You know, all the girls want you to do their hair." Lonnie finally took notice of the bowl full of cookie dough and stared at it hungrily. "Midnight snack, huh? What're you making?"

"Cookies! Oh, they have walnuts in them. I don't know if you're allergic," Honey said, watching as the brunette shook her head with a giddy smile.

"I love walnuts!" Without warning, Lonnie reached a finger into the bowl and scooped some up, licking the dough off as the Isle kids all yelled at her to stop. "What? I'm not gonna double dip." Both Auradon girls stared at the others strangely, confused by their outburst.

"Feel anything?" Evie asked cautiously.

"Yeah, like maybe it might be missing something?" Mal added, she and her friends all looking for any signs that the potion worked without the tear. Jay, deciding to test it out, smoothly walked up to Lonnie, giving her a charming smirk that would have even Chad quaking.

"Hey, there." Lonnie stared blankly at the boy, not understanding what he was trying to do.

"Could use some chips," Lonnie said, looking away from Jay and back to Mal. The Isle kids all gave her confused looks as she walked over to the fridge.

"Oh, that's a good idea!" Honey smiled at the suggestion.

"And those are?" Mal questioned in a frustrated tone, continuing to mix the cookie dough. Both Honey and Lonnie whipped their heads to the purple-haired girl.

"Chocolate chips," Lonnie elaborated as if t were obvious. "Just the most important food group," she laughed, only Honey joining in. Lonnie set the bowl of chocolate chips down on the table, sprinkling some into the mixing bowl. "Wait, didn't your mom ever make you guys chocolate chip cookies?" Both Auradon girls looked around to be met with blank stares. "Like, when you're feeling sad and they're fresh from the oven with a big ol glass of milk and she just makes you laugh and puts everything in perspective and-" she notices Honey, who had caught onto why the group was looking at them like that, vigorously shaking her head and mouthing for her to stop. "Why are you all looking at me like that?" she asked cluelessly.

"It's just different where we're from," Mal mumbled, looking upset as Honey fought the urge to give her a hug.

"Yeah, I know," Lonnie kept going, making Honey wonder what on earth she was thinking. "I just thought even villains love their kids...," she trailed off as their sad faces finally set in for her. Everything was quiet for a few moments, Honey starting to tear up in that time. "How awful." Lonnie reached her hand over to hold Mal's, who watched as a single tear rolled down her cheek. Honey was also crying next to Evie, her sniffle alerting the blue-haired girl who immediately grabbed a towel and dried her face without thinking.

"Yeah, well," Mal perked back up after dropping Lonnie's tear into the bowl, "big bummer, but we have to get these into the oven, so thank you so much for coming by, really," Mal said as she started pushing Lonnie out the kitchen. "Evil dreams!" she said to the girl before the door closed all the way. Mal turned back around to her friends, smile dropping as she gave them orders.

Evie pulled away from Honey as they both set to work, Honey helping the boys scoop the cookie dough onto the sheets while Evie preheated the oven. The atmosphere was still kind of awkward and tense, making Honey squirm on her stool. The Isle kids may have all been acting like they were fine now, but she knew better.

"I know I'm not your mom," she started, earning confused looks from the boys, "but, uh, if either of you wanted to bake cookies and talk, or just hang out in silence if you prefer, my door is always open." She glanced at them nervously, not knowing how they'd react, but relaxed when she saw the tiny smiles on their faces. They nodded, not saying anything for a while as they kept working. Carlos was the one to speak up, gaining her attention again as he spoke.

"Thanks, Honey. That...means a lot."

a/n: wow it has been a while since i updated, huh. i kinda lost motivation for all my published stories for a while, but i think i'm slowly getting back into it. also, even though i've had this chapter in my drafts for a while, i have yet to go through it and edit so....oops.

anayways, hope you enjoyed the chapter! and please, leave a vote or comments to let me know what you think. i love (positive) feedback!