"Hey!"

"Chad, you are a prince," Kitty said, rolling her eyes.

"See! Nothing wrong with being a prince!" Chad nodded, not understanding his sister's comment.

"On the Isle, that's basically a motto for all of us," Mal said, looking over at Dizzy. The young girl, who was staring at the screen with rapt fascination, was never one to abide by that. It was one of the reasons why Mal was so happy that Dizzy was off the Isle.

At least for now.

Meanwhile, some of the girls were drooling over the way Jay's arm muscles flexed as he was talking.

"Not sure I want to know the end of that saying," Aladdin said, looking slightly disturbed.

"True, very true," Carlos nodded.

"It's not a pretty sight," Evie sighed.

"Though with the food shortage, it never is," Dizzy added

King Beast choked on the bite of food he had taken, having heard the young girl's words. "Food shortage?" He asked after clearing out his airway.

"Well yeah," Dizzy said, looking confused at all the shocked looks on the adults and most of the children's faces. "We're twenty years into a garbage strike so we pretty much have to get what we can. I know it's been happening since before I was born, Uma and Harry won't stop ranting about it every time they stop by the shop."

"But you guys get food right?" Ben asked, looking at Dizzy in shock that quickly grew to horror as he remembered the scene of Carlos and Jay fighting over the candy. "You're not literally eating our garbage?"

Mal couldn't help but sigh at the sight of Ben, who always saw the good in everything, deflate at the idea of the people of the Isle eating garbage.

"Mom," Kitty whispered to Cinderella. "Can we invite Dizzy and the others to the castle for dinner sometime?"

Cinderella paused for a moment before a small smile graced her features. "It's like you read my mind. Let me work it out with your father."

Maybe she could arrange for Chad to be visiting his grandfather that evening? Normally she would never stoop to such a thing but watching how her son was treating the children of the Isle, it would be better if he wasn't at the dinner.

"Like Mal, Carlos, Evie and myself," Jay said with a chuckle. "Mal's the leader, Carlos is our tech wizard, Evie's the mom and I'm the muscle."

"You're more than that Jay," Evie told him. "You're our morale builder!"

"That's true," Mal nodded. "Anytime things look down, you always find a way to give us the silver lining."

"Probably cause you stole it first," Carlos quipped and then ducked Jay's punch to his shoulder.

"Congratulations," Aladdin told Jay with a small smile. "Tourney's not easy and I don't think Coach Jenkins has let anyone new on for about five years now."

"Thanks," Jay said after a few minutes. It was tough getting over the shock of Aladdin paying him a compliment.

"You were using the mirror?" Doug asked.

"Chad had included some make up work," Evie told him, shooting a glare in Chad's direction. "I wasn't there when the material was covered."

"Whoo!" Morgan Phillip cheered.

"Morgan," her father warned but Giselle, her step mother, put a hand on his shoulder.

"Let her cheer. I don't think these kids have had many people celebrate their accomplishments," she whispered.

"Someone's hard at work," Betsy whispered to her brother Brody who nodded. The children of Bernard and Bianca were raised to recognize and appreciate hard work. While they may not be in favor of stealing the Fairy Godmother's wand, they were at least glad that the younger girl wasn't half assing it.

When their parents defeated the VKs, it wouldn't be right if the attempt was half hearted.

"I don't think she'd be pouring over the spell book if she had succeeded with Jane," Meg pointed out.

"Now Meg, Jay doesn't know that," Hercules told her. No one noticed Mal's slight tense at her cousin's comment.

"So, what all's in there besides the hair spell?" Kristoff asked.

"Kristoff!" Anna warned.

"What? I'm curious!"

Many of the kids sobered at that, knowing the pressure they put on themselves to live up to their parents. The difference was, if they failed, they knew that their parents would support them.

Who knew what would happen to the VKs if they failed at getting the wand?

Has being here begun to change them? Ben thought, looking at the group who was so proud at being rotten. Carlos had come out of his shell, Jay seemed to fully appreciate being part of a team (and wasn't stealing everything in sight). Evie, the girl who was a walking definition of a 'gold digger' was doing exceptional in her classes.

The only one who seemed to stay the same was Mal, but Ben wouldn't change anything about her.

"Seriously?" Madeline Robin exclaimed. "Wouldn't that be like the first thing you lead with?"

"Madeline!" Christopher Robin warned. His wife Evelyn shared a commiserating look with Gisele. Even though Christopher had learned to enjoy himself again, he was still prim and proper when amongst the royals of Auradon.

"Saved by the bell," Jamie chuckled.

"Probably also wanted to be sure Audrey and Chad didn't give them a hard time," Rowyn muttered.

Belle couldn't help but smile at her son's stammering. Since Ben was born, Belle felt guilty that he couldn't have a regular life—sure he had friends who were royalty but since Beast was the king, Ben had to watch how he acted while in public. It was nice to finally see him being able to act like a normal teen.

"And you didn't think that suspicious?" Chad asked, turning to Ben. "Four villain kids asking about your coronation?"

"Why would I?" Ben asked, staring Chad down. "They were new, they probably heard it around school and wanted to be sure they had the details right."

Chad scoffed. "Wow, Audrey was right. You are too trusting. That group has one known gold digger who's already flirted with you back when you were with Audrey and yet you don't think they'll do anything to get ahead?"

"Watch yourself, Chad," Ben warned, a small growl in his voice. He had seen how Evie deflated when Chad called her a gold digger. He liked Mal's friends, he wanted to be their friend too. Normally, he would hate to choose between his friends but with the way Chad was acting, Ben didn't want to be considered a friend of his anyway.

"Or what?"

"For the love of all that is good and pure, shut up!" Kitty shouted, glaring at Chad while startling everyone with her sudden eruption. "I apologize, Ben, on behalf of my idiot brother. He doesn't speak for the whole family."

"How can you trust them?" Chad demanded, turning to his little sister.

"Because while you were standing by when your girlfriend thought it was a good idea to make my life hell, Mal and Evie actually did something about it!" Kitty responded, getting in Chad's face and poking him on the chest. "I really hope you like sniffing up Audrey's skirts because no one is going to be around you when you come up for air!"

With that, the smaller Charming stormed off to where the VKs, Ben, Lonnie, Rachel and Evan were sitting. Chad looked over at his mother and father to defend himself but the look on their faces told Chad that nothing good would come his way.

"Three weeks," was the only thing his mother said. His father didn't say a word but shot him a disappointed glare.

"Don't think I didn't hear your name in that conversation, young lady," Aurora whispered to Audrey.

"Mom, I barely did anything," Audrey scoffed. "She's just being dramatic."

"Yeah, filling her locker with cat litter sure is nothing," Phillip Jr muttered.

"Four weeks," Aurora told her daughter, having heard her younger child's mutters. "Also, I think you and Chad could stand with a summer apart."

"Mother!"

"That....that's a good plan, not going to lie," Emma White muttered, wrapping her arms around her knees. It was a lot better than just trying to steal the wand.

"Really Ben? Did you have no sense of protection for poor Audrey?" Queen Leah sniffed. "Anything could have happened."

"Mother, enough." Aurora said. "Considering Audrey is sitting with us and appears to be relatively unharmed, it's safe to assume nothing happened."

"Do you not care—"

"Don't ever accuse me about not caring for my daughter," Aurora almost growled, glaring at her mother. Then, as if realizing where she was, she straightened up and cleared her throat. "However, we can not lose our heads about this."

"Smooth," Carlos chuckled, causing Mal to flick him on the back of his head.

"See! I told you Ben!" Audrey shouted, going to her feet. "You should have never trusted them!"

"Guess you really did steal Ben," Chad smirked, chiming in with his two cents. Other kids started muttering in anger that the VKs had used a love spell against their future king. The mutterings got so loud that Dizzy curled into Evie as if to ward them off.

"Nothing to say?" Audrey sneered at Mal, who was trying her hardest not to go on a rampage. She knew how it looked to the adults and the kids of Auradon. She didn't want to make it worse.

"Alright Audrey, enough," Ben said, a firm tone to his voice and standing up as well to look Audrey in the eye. "Why don't we just watch the rest?"

"How can you defend them spelling you?!" Audrey shouted.

"I think dogs howled at that last word, that's how high she got," Kitty muttered low enough so that Dizzy heard, causing her step-cousin to smile. Unlike her brother, Kitty paid attention to conversations that didn't involve her and so knew exactly who Dizzy was.

Ben, however, just shot Audrey a dirty look and sat back down, wrapping an arm around Mal's shoulders. While the noise settled down, the dark looks and mutters did not.

"I can't believe Ben's still sitting with her," Beast grumbled.

"Ben's a smart boy," Belle told her husband but looked at her son with worry evident in her eyes.

"How?" Melody asked, one of the few to not shoot Mal and the gang dirty looks.

"On the Isle, you cry you die," Mal said simply.

"Life's harder on the weak," Evie added.

"Never let them know they got to you," Jay piled on.

"The punishment's ten times worse if you cry," Carlos continued.

"Stop crying or I'll give you something to cry about," Dizzy finished, coming out from behind Evie.

Most of the adults couldn't help but look horrified at what the five of them had just revealed. Anita knew that it wouldn't just do to get Carlos for the summer—she was getting him off that god forsaken Isle if it was the last thing she did.

Cinderella looked over at Dizzy and hoped her husband would agree to foster her through her schooling. She deserved more than what the Isle would provide.

"Love potions get reviews?" Kristoff asked.

"Well, more like my mother had comments about what worked on one and what didn't work on others," Mal told him. "The one we used had the least amount of comments."

"Oh."

"Also, how can the potion tell the difference between human sadness and say, crying from laughter?" Anna added on, curious herself.

Mal paused. "I don't know. Mom never really explained the whole magic thing before we came here."

"Actually, that's not true," Jane Porter said with a kind smile. "They have their differences."

"Well said, my dear!" Fairy Godmother beamed at Evie.

"Told you you were smart," Mal smirked and bumped her friend on the shoulder with her own. Evie blushed but smiled at the praise.

"Yeah, you sure looked like you knew that," a blonde girl sitting next to Melody rolled her eyes.

"Grace, be nice," Melody muttered, bumping her friend on the shoulder the same way Mal had done to Evie earlier.

"Really, all the girls wanted me to do their hair?" Mal raised an eyebrow.

"They did!"

"And did Jane happen to mention the reason why I turned about five of them down until they figured out the idea of spacing out the hair visits?"

A few of the girls flushed at the idea that they had aided to what had appeared to be Mal's perpetual exhaustion for a few days.

"We really did like our hair Mal," Kitty said, tugging on the end of one of her braids. "I know for me, I was just excited to look as good as Jane and Lonnie did. I'm sorry I didn't think about magical exhaustion."

"You don't have magic," Mal said, slightly confused.

"Did you forget who my mother is? We've gotten the lecture about how draining magic can be when you're not used to it about fifty times now."

Meanwhile, Audrey was stewing over the fact that, yet again, no one was suspicious of the four villains acting odd.

"Lonnie!" Mulan scolded, trying to keep her voice down so that the other kids didn't hear. She and Shang had actually moved closer to their daughter and the group she was siting in during the previous break. "How many times have we told you to be careful?"

"What, because they're villain kids?" Lonnie asked, turning to her mom with a look of shock and disappointment on her face.

"No," Mulan shook her head. "Remember Prince Ben is in school with you and while the main villains are on the Isle, there were some that escaped the round up. If there was an assassination attempt..."

Lonnie stifled a gasp, realizing what her mother meant. "I'll be more careful, mother," she said. "But I won't let Mal, Evie, Carlos, Jay or Dizzy feel like they're not to be trusted because of where they came from."

Mulan looked over at Shang, who smiled at his daughter. "How'd we get such a smart, loyal and kind daughter?"