"Mal! You ready?" Evie calls through the door.

"Yeah, E! I'll be out in a minute!" Mal responds.

Evie sighs and goes back to waiting. Mal has already made them five minutes late for the VK Day press pre-meeting. She takes a deep breath. It's only five minutes, right? A buzz from her pocket causes her to take her phone out and check what she sees is a text from Audrey.

Where are you?

Evie sighs and texts back.

Waiting for Mal. Should only be a few more minutes!

Evie hesitates before going to knock on the door, just as Mal opens it and walks out, her eyes unfocused and glassy.

Evie pauses, "Mal, are you okay? You look a little-"

"I'm fine," Mal cuts in with a smile, "Let's go to that meeting."

"Okay," Evie responds, and follows as Mal leads the way down the hallway.

"Evie texted me back," Audrey tells Ben, "She says they should only be a few minutes."

Ben nods, "Good. We have a lot to discuss."

The doors open and the awaited members of the council walk in. Mal sits in her designated spot next to him, and Evie a few chairs away from them, next to Jay. Ben sighs with relief, and clears his throat to address everyone and start the meeting.

"Hello, everyone. As you all know, VK Day is only four days away. We're making a public announcement in only two hours, so let's go over our plans as quickly as possible. First, the kids we are bringing over from the Isle. Uma?"

The sea witch stands and states, "I'd like to remind you all that I made a deal with members of the council, allowing Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos to both choose the kids and run this VK Day in exchange for my control of the next one."

Everyone nods, and Uma continues, "Mal's first choice was Ashley Tremaine. She is the cousin of Dizzy Tremaine, and described by friends as caring, thoughtful, and friendly. She could be a good fit for..."

Evie feels bad, but she starts to zone out as Uma continues. She's heard all of this before. Whatever's going on with Mal feels more important right now. Evie looks to her best friend sitting next a few seats away from her, not even trying to hide the fact that she's not paying attention. Evie frowns, noticing the slight green glow of her friend's eyes. An emphatic wave shakes Evie out of her distraction and she looks to Audrey who is sitting right next to Ben on the opposite side of Mal.

"You good?" The princess mouths, and Evie nods.

When Audrey looks dissatisfied with that answer, Evie mouths back, "We'll talk later."

Audrey nods at that, and Evie looks back to Mal. However, the glow is gone.

"It's nothing," Evie thought, "Just weird lighting."

And there is weird lighting in the council room, three huge chandeliers made up of spherical light bulbs clustered together and encrusted with jewels, casting the room with a weird mix of regular light and the occasional ray of color. They're much too ostentatious for Evie's liking, but she assumes they're meant to imitate the common lighting in Agrabah, done with glowing orbs of light, all varying in size and color. Not that she's ever been to Agrabah, but that's how Jordan described it. Evie's always wondered how much of Auradon was-

A sharp kick to her right leg startles her out of her train of thought, and she glances over to Jay on her right, who is staring at her expectantly. She quickly glances towards Audrey, who is emphatically gesturing for Evie to look in her bag.

Evie's eyes widen in realization, and she says, "In terms of how we're going to bring the kids to Auradon," a quick glance around the room lets her know that she understood Audrey's hint correctly.

She breathes a quick sigh of relief and continues, "Me, Mal, Jay, and Carlos will drive in a limo to the Isle, announce who has been chosen, and the kids will have one hour to gather their things, before we all return to Auradon. Once we arrive, I have a tour planned and a meeting with our student volunteers."

Evie gestures to Audrey, Lonnie, Jordan, and Jane sitting next to Ben, "As well as Dizzy and Celia. The kids will start at Auradon Prep the next day, which will mostly be about showing them around and welcoming them to the school. All of the teachers have been prepared with sensitivity training, and we have spoken to the students about inclusivity. Mal, would you care to go over the clauses you and Ben have written for the VK Day agreement?"

Mal nods and Evie sits down again, shooting Audrey a look of gratitude. Audrey smiles back as Mal clears her throat.

"So, we wrote these before last VK Day, and unfortunately we didn't take into account one of our students having a psychotic break and going on a klepto spree," Mal waits for a laugh that doesn't come, and a very awkward silence descends. Everyone glances at each other as if to ask,

"Did she really just say that?"

A few more seconds of torture later, Mal continues. Evie tunes her out and looks at Audrey, who is staring down at her hands and clenching her jaw. Evie tries to get her attention, but she doesn't look up. Evie bites her lip with concern, not knowing what else she can do until this insufferable meeting ends.

Audrey looks up as Mal sits back down, and Evie can finally get her attention.

Suddenly unsure what to do, Evie simply mouths, "How are you holding up?"

Audrey just shakes her head and replies, "Later."

Evie frowns slightly at this, even more anxious for this meeting to drag to an end. Ben stands up to make some inspiring speech about the bright future of Auradon and the Isle, but Evie can't even bring herself to listen.

What feels like an eternity later, Ben calls out, "Meeting dismissed."

Barely withholding a sigh of relief, Evie stands and makes her way towards Audrey and the door. However, she's stopped by Mal.

"Wish me luck for this interview," Mal groans.

Evie plasters on a smile, "You'll do great, Mal."

"Thanks, Eves," Mal wraps her arms around Evie, "Thanks for always having my back."

Evie is completely startled by the sudden vulnerability, but hugs back, "Of course."

Mal pulls back, "I mean, you're always there for me. No matter how tough things get, you stick by my side. I could never forget that."

Evie is suddenly very uncomfortable with the way Mal is smiling at her. Everything she's saying sounds perfectly sweet, but there's something just not right about the way Mal is looking at her. And the glint in her eyes makes it seem like she's going to add something to that sentence.

"You're my best friend, and that's why I love you so much," Mal tilts her head, "Now be careful around Audrey. You know that she's pretty lonely and desperate."

Evie flashes another tight smile as she walks away.

"It's the Isle all over again," Evie thinks, "Mal telling me that the only reason I had anything going for me was being her friend. And if I wasn't good enough at that, she'd throw me to the streets and I'd lose everything, and she'd lose nothing."

"No. No," Evie shakes herself out of the spiral, "Mal's not like that anymore. There's something going on with her."

Evie finally makes her way across the room and to Audrey. The princess seems to mostly have recovered from Mal's vexingly off-handed comment, but isn't quite back to normal, either.

"Hey," Evie greets.

"Hi, Evie," Audrey says, and answers the question before Evie even asks it, "Could we talk about something else, please?"

Evie nods, "Of course. Thanks for saving my butt back there. I completely spaced out."

Audrey smiles for real as the two exit the meeting chamber and begin walking down the hallway, "Yeah, what was that about? Usually you're way more attentive than me."

Evie purses her lips, "It's Mal."

Audrey frowns, "Do you have any idea what's going on with her?"

"I think she might be using magic again."

"Not to be rude, but is that really a surprise?"

Evie laughs bitterly, "Not at all, actually. But it's way more than usual. And she's lying about it."

"Well, that part's weird. Usually she's ready to show off her magic at the drop of a hat," Audrey comments.

Evie shakes her head, "But she promised us that she'd stop with the magic. She was using it for everything, and it's not good for her."

"But now you think that she just said that so you would stop bothering her about it?"

"That's what I'm afraid of, yeah. Or at the very least, she isn't taking it seriously and doesn't want anyone to know."

Audrey pauses, "I don't get it. Uma told me that they put all sorts of magical measures on her, I'm not allowed near magical objects either, and you and Jay aren't even allowed to explore your powers, but Mal gets free rein?"

Evie glances away uncomfortably, "Well, technically Mal shouldn't be allowed to use as much magic as she does, but... They said that since she used her powers for the good of Auradon, she can keep them as a precaution."

Audrey raises an eyebrow and Evie reluctantly continues, "Yes, you're right, that's not everything. Mal maybe kind of convinced Ben to convince the rest of the previous council that she should keep using her magic."

Audrey's eyes widen with shock, "She did what? I mean, I knew that there was bias towards the king's girlfriend involved, but I didn't know that she- Wow."

"I know," Evie says, "I know it's bad. I just- what can I do about it? I've tried talking to her."

Audrey puts a hand on Evie's shoulder, "I honestly don't know what your move is here, either. Maybe you should talk to Jay and Carlos."

Evie nods at that suggestion, "That sounds like a good idea. Let's just hope that VK Day goes smoothly through all of this."

***

"And here you go," the Wizard places the band in Uma's hand.

"Thanks," the sea witch grimaces, reluctantly wrapping the metal around her upper arm.

"And remember, we will know if you try to take it off."

Uma crosses her arms in defeat.

The sorcerer frowns, "Don't worry too much. These precautions will only be in place for a short while. And this is a state of the art model."

Uma raises an eyebrow, "So I get the best magic shock collar? That really does make it all better."

She rolls her eyes at the Wizard's gaping expression, "Whatever. Thanks for the dehumanization."

Uma marches out of the room and down the hallway, already annoyed at the extra weight on her arm. She scowls as she opens the door to her dorm. Kicking off her shoes and sighing heavily, she closes the door probably much louder than necessary and falls backward onto her bed.

She groans again when her phone buzzes, reluctantly checking the screen.

The text from Evie reads, "Everyone almost ready? Informal VK mentor meeting at my dorm in 10 minutes!"

A text from Audrey comes a few seconds later, "On my way! I'm bringing snacks."

Uma almost smiles at that. She actually enjoys Evie's "informal meetings", which are basically just group hangouts. Technically everyone involved with VK Day is invited, but usually it's just her, Evie, Audrey, Dizzy, Celia, Lonnie, and most of the time Jay and Carlos at least make an appearance. Ben showed up once, but he's usually too busy. Mal always says that she can make it, then cancels last minute.

Almost on cue, Mal texts the group, "Sorry! Got caught up with some schoolwork. I'll try and make it next time."

"That's fine, Mal." Evie replies to her almost immediately.

Uma sighs. As much as she wants to just lie on her bed until the next morning, she knows that she has to keep putting up a good front.

"I've shown up to every one of these things, skipping today will just look weird," Uma tries to convince herself to stand up, but being with Auradon kids right now seems like a monumental task.

Finally deciding to do something, Uma texts the group, "Sorry, I'm not really up for going anywhere right now. Hope you losers can survive without me."

Barely three seconds later, Evie texts back, "That's completely fine, I know today can't have been easy. Just know we're all here for you if you want to talk."

Uma groans. She never knows how to feel about these stupid people. On the one hand, they ruined her life, on the other, they're just so goddamn nice to her for no reason. She looks at her phone again to see over five more supportive messages from Audrey, Lonnie, Celia, Dizzy, and even Jay and Carlos.

Not even bothering with anything meaningful, Uma just replies with, "Thank you guys, I just need a little time alone right now." Followed by a few heart emojis.

She presses send and turns on Do Not Disturb mode.