𝙼 𝙰 𝚈 𝙱 𝙴
stave i 🥀 chapter 1

( third person narration )

𝙄'𝙫𝙚 𝙨𝙖𝙞𝙙 𝙖 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 𝙗𝙚𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙚
𝙄'𝙫𝙚 𝙛𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙣 𝙞𝙣 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚
𝙄 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙𝙣'𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙡𝙠 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙧𝙪𝙣
𝘼𝙩 𝙣𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩, 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙚𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙚𝙭𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣
𝙨𝙚𝙚𝙢𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙠𝙚𝙚𝙥 𝙢𝙚 𝙪𝙥

Unlike every other fairytale, the four words "Once Upon a Time" were definitely not suitable for this story. Unless it was in the context, "Once upon a time, Quinn Cora Hearts grew up in a tiny island with no magic, wifi, or way out, thanks to her wicked mother."

This story instead starts with a sixteen year old girl, Quinn Cora Hearts (that's two n's by the way), who truly lived the epitome of her mother, like every other kid on the Isle of the Lost did. But unlike carefree children, who learned how to say "please" and "thank you" from their parents, Quinn learned the basics of lying and stealing from her mother. Which made absolutely no sense to her. It's like the Queen of Hearts was holding up a neon sign saying "please steal my expensive jewlery."

But Quinn was afraid of her mother enough as it is, for if she did anything bad to her mother, the phrase "Off with your head!" was used. Now that she thought about it, the Queen of Hearts did have the premium package. She could teach her daughter how to be evil, all the while not having to worry about anything being stolen from her dressing table.

Despite fearing her, Quinn—like every other normal teenager—could still be angry at her. Like now. Their recent argument being over Quinn's sloppy job at painting the Aisle's dead roses red. To blow off steam, the girl did what she knew best: heartbreaking.

It was true. Quinn Cora Hearts was the Isle of the Lost's charmer. The amount of hearts that she had broken was more than the amount of loot her friend Jay had obtained, which says a lot, him being the Isle's residential pick-pocketer and all. His father, Jafar had essentially given him the old Aladdin treatment, as in "Steal a magic lamp for me!"

Boys and girls both swooned over the girl, and both wished to be her. They had yet to master her charms and ways of seduction. Like now.

Quinn strutted the murky streets of her home, her fingers running around her newest prized possession. It was a dirty knock-off ruby, attached to a well-darkened chain. Quinn despised it, but she knew her best friend would adore it. Evie, (the Evil Queen's daughter), was quite the diva. Impeccable fashion sense, flawless makeup, and quite crafty, Evie and Quinn had become two peas in a pod, both sharing the interests of inheriting a throne one day.

Another Isle/Quinn thing: Randomly singing and conducting nicely choreographed dances that nobody had learned. Like right now.

(let's just say that they sing, it's so amazing, the song gets stuck in all of our 10 year old brains)

Everyone finished the evil anthem, and burst out into laughter. Mal saw a baby in a stroller with a lollipop, a rare thing on the Isle (the lollipop, not the baby). She plucked the lollipop from the baby's hands and waved it in the air. The villagers continued to laugh.

But the Villagers' expressions abruptly changed. Their once cheery expressions turned in to looks of worry and fear. Quinn raised an eyebrow at Mal, who was just as confused as she was. The villagers suddenly ran off.

"Stealing candy, Mal?"

The five turned around to find Maleficent, in all her black robed glory. Everyone only wished they could be as evil as the dark fairy. She held a staff in her hand, it's head glowing green. Quinn figured that Maleficent carried around her staff for intimidation reasons, for there was no magic on the Isle of the Lost.

"I'm so disappointed," she continued.

"It was from a baby," Mal reasoned, holding out the lollipop to her mother.

The dark fairy swiftly switched her staff between hands, making Quinn flinch a little. "That's my nasty little girl," she took the lollipop, spit on it, put it under her armpit, and handed it back to her goons, "Give it back to the dreadful creature."

The purple-haired girl frowned, "Mom—"

Malificent continued, "It's the deeds, Mal, that make the difference between mean and truly evil—"

"Did she just say deets, or was it deeds," Quinn asked her friend Carlos, who shrugged in response.

Carlos was Cruella DeVil's son. You know, the lady who tried to steal a bunch of puppies?

"—When I was your age, I was cursing entire kingdoms."

Mal mouthed, "curing entire kingdoms" at the same time as her mother did.

Maleficent smirked at her daughter. "You. Walk with me," a walk being her and Mal taking only a couple steps away from her friends, "See, I'm just, just trying to teach you the thing that really counts . . . how to be me."

She looked at her daughter, who gave a small nod, "I know that. And I'll do better."

Quinn felt a little bad for her friend. Her mother basically embarrassed her daughter in front of her friends. The mood changed, however, when Maleficent twirled to face the rest of the VK's. Mal took a couple of steps back.

"Oh! There's news! I buried the lede," the fairy said, spinning to face everyone, "You four have been chosen to go to a different school." The five looked between one another as she finished her sentence, "In Auradon."

Evie, Jay, Carlos, and Quinn all tried to run away, but they were stopped by Maleficent's goons. They all struggled in the goons' grip.

"Put me down, scatterbrain!" Quinn said. The goons let the kids go.

Mal's arms were already up in surrender. "What?" she complained, "I'm not going to some boarding school filled to the brim with prissy pink princesses!"

"And perfect princes," Evie dreamily said. Mal glared at the blue-haired girl, whose expression changed, "Ugh."

"Yeah, and I don't do uniforms," Jay said, crossing his arms and smiling, "Unless It's leather. You feel me?" He reached to give Carlos a hi-five, who looked at Jay in fear.

"I read somewhere that they allow dogs in Auradon," Quinn rolled her eyes at her friend, "Mom said they're rabid pack animals who eat boys who don't behave."

Jay snuck up behind Carlos and barked. Carlos jumped and smacked his friend who was already laughing at the joke. Evie giggled a little. Quinn also laughed along.

The heartbreaker smiled. "Yeah as much as I'd love to go to a town filled with sunshine, rainbows, and cheer as anyone else would," Quinn's smile turned to a scowl, "I don't want to go to Auradon."

"Yeah, mom, we're not going," Mal finished.

"Oh, you're thinking small, pumpkin. It's all about world domination," Maleficent insisted, waving her robes, "KNUCKLEHEADS!" Her goons followed her towards her sort-of-castle. "Mal . . . " she sang.

The five gave each other reluctant looks, but they followed Maleficent, as always, nevertheless.

• • •

So it turns out, Maleficent had a plan. Per usual. The five VKs met in her castle, where their parents were already at. Maleficent sat on her "throne," filing her nails and telling the teenagers about her "master plan."

"You will go. You will find Fairy Godmother and you will bring back the magic wand," she said, now, turning to the VK's, "Easy peasy."

"What's in it for us?" Mal asked, referring to her friends. Maleficent, however, didn't catch that yet.

"Matching thrones. Hers-and-hers crowns," Maleficent said.

"Um, I . . . I think she meant us," Carlos interjected as Mal pointed between the five of them.

Maleficent leapt from her large chair. Mal took a couple steps forward. "It's all about you and me, baby," she said, "Do you enjoy watching innocent people suffer?"

"Well, yeah. I mean, who doesn't—"

Seeing as though this conversation was turning more into a mother-daughter one, Quinn went over to her mother as Maleficent's drowning voice continued.

"Well, then get me the wand and you and I can see all that and so much more," Maleficent promised, "And with that wand and my scepter, I will be able to bond both good and evil to my will!"

"Our will," the Evil Queen added.

Cruella DeVil pointed in agreement as the Queen of Hearts and Jafar nodded along.

"Our will, our will," Maleficent finished, snapping her fingers to bring Mal's attention back to her, "And if you refuse, you're grounded for the rest of your lives, missy."

"What . . . mom—"

Maleficent pretended to close the purple-haired girl's mouth. Both of their eyes turned green, insinuating another staring contest. Their eyes fought the dusty molecules from Maleficent's castle as their glowing eyes refused to blink. Even the smallest flinch could ruin the whole thing. Despite how well Mal was doing, Quinn automatically knew that Maleficent was going to win this battle.

"Fine. Whatever," Quinn heard.

"I win."

The Evil Queen had ignored the mother-daughter eye quarrel between Mal and Maleficent, and called out to her blue-haired daughter. "Evie my little evil-lette in training," Evie rushed over and sat beside her mother, "You just find yourself a prince with a big castle and a mother-in-law wing."

"And lots and lots of mirrors!" the two finished. Evie laughed in delight at the thought. But, the Evil Queen was quick to stop that, "No laughing. Wrinkles."

The Queen of Hearts had watched the mother and daughter. "You could learn something from the Evil Queen," she insisted, "Like how to fix that auful hair of yours! If you're gonna dye it half red, you might as well dye the rest."

Quinn rolled her eyes. Of course mom's getting on me about my hair. It was originally blonde, but she died the bottom half red, for style purposes. Her young friend, Scarlett, who worked at Curl Up & Dye, had recommended it. While Quinn rocked it well, her mother hated it, insisting that "a job half done is a job never finished." Quinn knew that her mother just wanted no sight of blonde hair, for that was her father's hair color.

"Mom, it's style," Quinn insisted, rolling her eyes at her mother.

"You know what I always say," the Queen of Hearts pointed at her daughter.

"Off with your head?" the heartbreaker guessed.

"A job half done is a job never finished," her mother said, "Like that rosebush you haven't finished painting." The Queen of Hearts raised her voice so Maleficent and the other Villains could hear. "AND SHE'S NOT GOING ANYWHERE UNTIL MY ROSES ARE RED!"

Maleficent rolled her eyes.

"Oh, well, they're not taking my Carlos, because I'd miss him too much," Cruella DeVil said.

"Really, mom?" Carlos asked, his expression hoping that this was true. No villain parent had ever said "I'll miss you" to their children.

"Yes. Who would touch up my roots, fluff my fur, and scrape the bunions off my feet?" the mother asked, propping her foot against her son, who caught it in midair.

"Yeah, maybe a new school wouldn't be the worst thing," Carlos said, putting his mother's leg down.

"Oh, Carlos," Cruella started, "they have dogs in Auradon."

Carlos furiously shook his head, "Oh no! I'm not going!"

"Well, Jay isn't going either. I need him to stock the shelves in my store," Jafar said, holding a wooden spoon and turning to his son, "What did you score?" Jay pulled out several things from his leather vest. "Oh. Ooh." Jay than pulled out a lamp and smirked proudly at his dad's reaction, "A lamp!"

Jafar took a towel and rubbed the lamp continuously. Jay frowned, knowing that there was no magic and because he had already tried rubbing the lamp. "Dad. I already tried."

Jafar also frowned and threw the lamp back at his son. Jay's frown deepened.

"Evie's not going anywhere until we get rid of this unibrow, hmm?" the Evil Queen mentioned. Evie winced as she felt the area between her blue eyebrows.

"Oh well, I guess M is going to candyland by herself," Quinn said. Mal glared at the girl.

"What is wrong with you all? People used to cower at the mention of our names!" Maleficent yelled.

Quinn rolled her eyes. The redhead already knew where this conversation was going. She had had it millions of times with her mother. So Quinn decided in her head that it wouldn't be that big of a deal to sneak out of Maleficent's castle and go do something fun before whatever is taking them to Auradon arrives.

The stained glass door that directly led to Maleficent's balcony was open. The balcony held a knotted rope that was usually used by Mal and the gang to sneak out whenever they pleased. Quinn slid down the rope and briskly landed on the pavement.

Normal teens would have that indescribable feeling of freedom, but Quinn faced facts a long time ago. The island was small with a huge barrier covering it, so technically there wasn't freedom. Sneaking out was just a usual thing she would do every day.

Sneaking off to Ursula's Fish and Chips to sit on the roof was another usual thing she would do every day. Sure, she was mandated by Mal to stay three hundred feet away from that place, and she vowed herself not to go back after an incident with a not-so-nice member of a rival gang. But she still went back.

If you found the right spot, you could sit on it and gaze at the sea. Sure, it was crowded by a massive ship owned by Uma's (daughter of Ursula) gang, but if you looked close enough, you could see the non-existent sun glistening on the waves

Quinn couldn't stop herself from thinking about how everyone's villainous parents treated their children. Maleficent was constantly pressuring Mal about how world domination was the most important thing, the Evil Queen was fueling Evie's insecurities by whispering into her ear about how she needed to find a prince with a shiny castle, Jay is basically Jafar's employee, Carlos is basically his mother's slave, and the Queen of Hearts had no self control and would happily scream at her daughter, threatening to cut her head off.

Suddenly, heavy footsteps were audible in the distance. Definitely some form of boots. Quinn ignored them at first, but they inched closer and closer to her figure. The drowning voice of what was assumed to be a male was now heard.

"Who's up here?"

AUTHOR'S NOTE

ahhhhhhh first chapter :DD

we're back. after seeing this labeled as COMING SOON for the longest time, we finally are here. I'm so excited for the QuinnxHarry ship. If you're a fan of the enemies-to-lovers trope, than this story is your cup of tea.

chapter 2 will be out next week.

thanks for bearing with me. :)
until next time.

~crrashingwavves