#magicalflow

     Jane didn’t like the way Ben had been acting since the VKs had arrived. Her boyfriend had been so involved, which of course she understood, but the way Mal and Evie looked at him made her uncomfortable. And then the worst had happened. Right there at the tourney game, Ben had started serenading... her. Not Jane, but Mal. Her heart had shattered. It was so cruel. Not even having the courage to break up with her before going after another woman. It was so... so... un-Ben-like. Though it had taken her a few days of refusing to leave her bed to fully realize that. A few days of pretending she was sick - which she never did, so her mother believed it - a few days of eating ice cream and decidedly not showering.

     But then it clicked. Doing her homework in her bed, she read a section about how villains used love spells and it clicked. Ben wasn’t acting like himself. If Ben had wanted to break up with her, he would have done it properly. He wouldn’t have just forgotten about her like that. Wouldn’t have been staring at another girl as she ran off crying and upset. Wouldn’t have subjected her to watching him confess his ridiculous love to another girl. She’d spelled him. Somehow. Jane was certain of it. It was an awful thought, but at least it got Jane out of her bed. Got her into the shower. Got her dressed and ready to leave her room. But she hesitated with her hand on the doorknob. So he was spelled. What could she do about it?

     Sure, Jane had done little bits of accidental magic before. But she definitely wasn’t allowed to, and she definitely couldn’t confront Mal. Especially if she didn’t know exactly how she’d done it, and had no proof. Sinking down against the back of her door, she tried to piece it together. What did she know about the VKs? She could only learn so much from Instaroyal, they hadn’t been on it before they got here. And people talked about them a lot, but it wasn’t usually anything substantial... except... Lonnie has run into them in the kitchens one night, hadn’t she? Baking cookies.

“Gandalf Malone”

You have to be one hell of a Wizard with way too much sauce to be able to pull this look off. This man does it perfectly. The thick sideburn strapped neckbeard with the nappy cheeks that don’t quite connect to the goatee is a clear indicator that you started ballin’ when you were young and need that money like the (Fellowship of the) ring you never won. If you ever see this Fro in public, make sure you say congratulations. 

     Ben scrubbed his hands over his face. Mal had refused to come back. She wanted to be on the isle, and even him showing up to try and convince her to come home hadn’t helped. Because Auradon wasn’t her home. Not really. And even after being here a year, it still didn’t feel like it could be. He wasn’t sure how to go on from here. He would. He just wasn’t certain how to advance. He’d been planning to ask her to marry him. Now he was alone with a Kingdom in his hands. The only bright spot in all of this was Jane.

     Dizzy stepped out of the car and adjusted pink hair. This was all so daunting. And honestly, even if the place hadn’t been daunting, the King standing in the courtyard waiting to greet her and the few others who had arrived would have been. She’d never met a king before. Not a proper one. And he was... oof. He was pretty. And taken. That was okay, though. Dizzy wasn’t looking to get anyone’s affections. Not right now. Not like that. Still, when she came up to him, bouncy and beaming and bright, she offered him her hand. “You’re King Ben, right?” Diz asked. “I’m Dizzy. Dizabella Tremaine, and you’re handsome. Wow. The posters on the isle that gave you gap teeth and devil horns didn’t do you justice.” She grinned.

     Ben revved the engine of the car. Some of the VKs had started up a little... race when the barrier had come down was a good distraction from everything going on in his head. Ben had found that the faster he went, the less his mind roamed to things he didn’t want to think about. Mal not agreeing to marry him. He gripped the steering wheel tighter. Audrey turning him into a beast. His knuckles turned white. He was a young king... and he was alone. Someone dropped the handkerchief and Ben hit the gas, his car shot off ahead of the others, cut them off every time they tried to weasel their way past him. Shooting around corners, he cut them tight and when they came back around to the starting line, he was the clear winner. He hit the brakes, let the tail end of his car swivel around as he came to a rough stop, and the cheering crowd rushed his vehicle. Already the rush was winding down in his mind and he hated that things were starting to come back.

❝You didn’t have to RUIN my birthday party to get your point across you know.❞ Her response was basically whispered - and hands wrung together nervously. She knew Audrey would come talk to her eventually. Whether it was to simply EXPLAIN or to APOLOGIZE she wasn’t sure, but either way it didn’t matter. Jane forgave her. At least for parts of it. She hadn’t been treated fairly, it was only natural to be angry. But stealing from the museum? Wielding that kind of power, in order to what? PROTECT herself after Ben had hurt her? To cause so many people pain when it hadn’t been their fault? That was the part that she couldn’t forgive, not right away at least. ❝They didn’t do anything to you. My MOTHER didn’t do anything.❞

              She’s right, Audrey knows, but to hear it spoken rather than echoed in her mind is very different. It makes the knot in her stomach twist, body freeze as her breath catches. This should be easier. Ben forgave her without any glint of disappointment, without any fear or sadness. Maybe it was because he’d done something wrong, too. But Jane never did. Sure, they stopped being friends, maybe she never checked on her or wondered how she was feeling-- and maybe that was one of the many reasons why it all went wrong-- but she wasn’t the only one. And, truthfully, the two of them had never had the healthiest of friendships to begin with, if she really thinks about it.