( the outfit above is what she wears this day ) 

―――― * · ☆ · * ――――

The next day Talia was talking with Rosa as we walked out of Auradon Prep, but sadly she had to leave for cheerleading practice.

" Good luck."  Talia told her.

" Yeah," Rosa scoffed. " I'll need it with Audrey being there." She said and walked off towards the field.

" Talia! Over here!"

She looked over to see it was Doug that called out to her and he was sitting at one of the picnic tables doing some homework. She smiled and walked over to him, sitting across from him.

" What's up Doug?" She asks, tilting her head to the side.

" You will not believe what happened." Doug said with a grin. He then started to explain how he basically saved Evie and how he was like a hero.

Talia smiles at him. " That's great Doug."

Suddenly, Evie comes running over to them with a paper in her hand. She showed them the B+ that was on the paper and did a little dance.

Talia grinned. " Good job Evie! So proud of you." She said and Evie smiled. " Thanks," She says as she wraps her arms around Doug.

" For the first time, it's like I'm more than just a pretty face." Evie says with a smile.

" A shocker, huh?" Doug asks her as he turns to look at her.

Evie placed her paper down as she sat next to Doug. " You were pretty great in there."

" So were you." Doug smiles ather.

" I bet I can get an A without my mirror." Evie says.

" Yeah. Well, maybe, we can get together and we'll hang out with - " Doug starts to say nervously but Evie interrupts, a wide smile on her face as she says," Yeah, let's get together." which brings a smile to Doug's face.

Talia smiles at them as they stare at each other for a while. But then Mal runs over to them with a panicked look.

" There you are! I've been looking all over for you two!" Mal said to Evie and Talia. Evie and Talia share a look before looking at Mal.

" What's the problem?" Talia asks, tilting her head to the side, not seeing why Mal was freaking out.

" Ben asked me out on a..." Mal pauses for dramatic effect. " Date." She then says after a few moments of silence and almost sounds disgusted by the word.

" Nice." Doug whispers and Talia chuckled. 

" We can handle this. Bye." Evie says as she stands up. Talia follows her lead and stands up as well and walks over to them.

"You're looking a little pale." Evie tells Mal.

" Yeah, of course." Mal said as if that was obvious.

***

Talia was now in Mal and Evie's shared room, sitting on Mal's bed helping her with her hair as Evie applies to Mal's face.

" Okay, easy on the blush. Don't want to scare him away." Mal tells her.

" Please. My mom taught me how to apply blush before I could talk. Always use upward strokes." Evie explains, applying the final layer of blush and then moves on to use lipstick.

" My mom was never really big on makeup tips. I never had a sister." Mal said.

" Well, now you have two." Talia reassures her, a genuine smile on her face and she was surprised when Mal sent one back to her.

" We're going to need all the family we can get to pull this off." Evie says and Talia sent her a look. " Evie." She scolds and then laughs. " It's just a date. Not that big of a deal."

" So if Carlos and you went on a date, it wouldn't be that big of a deal?" Evie asks with a smirk on her face knowing how Talia felt about Carlos and that Carlos felt the same way.

Talia opens her mouth and then closes it, realizes she doesn't know what to say. " That's - that's different." She stutters while Evie and Mal share a laugh.

" Can we not bring me into this?" Talia asks nervously. 

Evie rolls her eyes. " Fine. Anyways yeah, my mother's not a barrel of laughs when she doesn't get her way. Just ask Snow White."

" Are you afraid of her?" Mal asks her.

Evie nods." Sometimes. Are you afraid of your mom?" She asks Mal who stares forward, trying to think of an answer. " I just really want her to be proud of me. She gets so angry with me when I disappoint her and - yeah, she's my mom, so I know she loves me...in her own way."

Talia finally finishes with Mal's hair and Evie smiles once she is done with Mal's makeup.

" Moving on, come see." Evie grabbed onto Mal's hand, Talia gets up off of the bed and grabs Mal's other hand, both of the girls dragging Mal over to the full-length mirror.

" Are we done?" Mal questions.

" Yeah." Evie says after sighing happily.

Mal looked at herself in awe. She laughs while muttering something under her breath Talia couldn't hear. Evie moves up behind her and holds onto her arm.

" I know." Evie let's out a content laugh.

" I'm not.." Mal starts to say.

" Say it." Talia and Evie say as Talia moves over to stand the other side of Mal and smiles at her.

" Hideous." Mal finishes saying, a genuine smile on her face as she stares into the mirror.

Talia smiles. " Not even close."

Suddenly there was a knock at the door and Mal goes over to answer it and once she opens the door, the one and only Prince Ben is standing there with two helmets in his hand.

He smiles at her. " For the first time in my life, I finally understand the difference between pretty and beautiful."

" I hope you like bikes." Ben says as Mal walks forward and takes one of the helmets from his hand and glances back at the two girls sending them a look.

Evie and Talia smile at her and Evie closes the door behind them.

***

Talia is walking back to her dorm after talking with her friends in Parker's and William's room, she stopped by Carlos' and Jay's door hearing her name.

" M. You want to break Ben's and Talia's love spell?" She heard Evie ask.

" Yeah. You know, for after." Mal says. " I've just been thinking that you know when the villains do take over Auradon and begin to loot and kick everyone out of their castles and imprison their leaders and destroy everything that is good and beautiful, Ben still being in love with me and Talia still being in love with Carlos just seems a little...cruel."

Talia frowns. So Carlos was just using her? He didn't really like her.  And what was he even using her for exactly?

Oh..that's right. She's going to be Ben's Royal Advisor and that means she will be upfront near the wand. She won't be exactly upfront, but close enough someone could get the wand if they need to, or in this case, wanted to. He was just using her to get to the wand and that honestly hurt her. 

And that was why Ben was acting so weird. It makes sense that he has been spelled. Talia has never seen Ben act like that before so she knew something was up when he started breaking out into song.

She already knew a spell was put on her whenever she got in the Enchanted Lake because she felt different whenever she got out of the lake. Maybe she should tell Carlos that her feelings are real, but now it probably wouldn't even matter since apparently, Carlos doesn't like her the same way.  

A/N I'm so sorry I haven't updated this book in what seems like years, but I hope you guys liked this chapter & I apologize if it's bad! Don't forget to check out some of my other books!