Chapter Text
“Hey, Evie, wait up!” Evie stops dead in her tracks, pretending that the reason she’s not turning around is because she’s annoyed, and not so that no one can see the dumb smile on her face. She’s just managed to somewhat control her pathetic facial muscles when a body slams into the side of her. Stumbling from the sudden impact, Evie looks up, once again breaking into a grin when she sees Mal’s horrified look.
“Did you know they’re offering a class on not barreling into your friends next semester? Maybe you should sign up,” Evie teases.
“Shut up.” Mal’s voice is much more indignant than the push she gives to Evie’s shoulder. Evie turns to look at the portraits on the opposite wall, and it’s totally not to hide her blush.
“Hey,” Evie turns back at Mal’s voice. “Did you fix my jacket? I went in the room to get it before class and the rip from yesterday was gone. Like, ‘without a trace’ gone.” Evie bites her tongue in attempt to stop from blushing again.
“Oh yeah, well, you just mentioned that you had torn it yesterday at dinner and I finished my homework early last night, so I thought I would just go ahead and fix it up. You know, just because you would’ve asked me to, anyway.” Evie pretends that Mal isn’t one hundred percent aware that she’s never had to ask Evie to fix any of her clothes; the rips and tears and stains are sometimes gone before Mal even notices them in the first place.
“Thank you so much, dude. Ben said he was going to take me sailing tomorrow, and it sorta ruins the point of a jacket to have half your arm exposed.” Evie’s stomach totally doesn’t seize up at the thought of Ben and Mal alone in the middle of the ocean. Not at all.
Evie rolls her eyes. “Okay first of all, the tear was not that big. Secondly, why is a leather jacket your go-to sailing outfit?” Mal scoffs.
“Excuse me, leather goes with everything.”
“Not seawater,” Evie mumbles. Mal pushes her again, and Evie’s pretty sure she hears her mumble something about being such a bitch. Evie’s also pretty sure her giant smile is a little too over the top for just walking down the hall with her friend, but it’s not like Mal would notice anything out of the ordinary, because, you know, it’s not out of the ordinary. Evie’s been like this almost as long as Mal has known her. (With “like this” being “low-key incredibly in love with Mal.”)
“Are you not going to lunch?” Mal sounds confused, and almost slightly worried, and Evie realizes that she’s walked past the door to the dining hall without noticing. (The fact that she was not actually planning to go to lunch is completely irrelevant.)
“Oh, I was just going to put my stuff in the dorm, first.” If there’s one thing Evie learned on the Isle, it’s how to lie. Mal nods.
“You cool if I go ahead and start eating?” Evie nods immediately, because honestly, when has she ever been able to deny Mal anything, and also because that was kind of the point. Evie tries not to think about the fact that she wouldn’t even consider not offering to go with Mal if their roles had been reversed.
“Of course! I’ll be there in a few minutes!” Evie doesn’t leave until she sees Mal sit down at their usual table. Ben slings his arm around her shoulder and Evie turns on her heel, walking briskly down the hall. Maybe if she takes long enough they’ll all be done and she won’t have to eat anything. She shakes her head, pulling her room key out of the pocket of her bright blue jacket.
She listens to the door click in place behind her before she sighs, depositing her books and pencil case on the wooden table a few feet to the left of the door. She shrugs her baggy jacket off her arms and moves to stand in front of the full length mirror. She adjusts the black A-line skirt so that the front and back hit the same place about halfway down her thigh. She sticks her fingers into the waistband, pinching the fabric together as much as possible. Less than a centimeter before she’ll have to sew in another button so the skirt doesn’t straight up fall off.
Her fingers fiddle with the hem of her loose navy blue tank top as she looks herself up and down in the mirror. She turns to the side, placing her palms on her stomach. She sucks in, pushing even more with her hands. Removing her hands, she keeps her stomach folded in on itself. Her calves look okay in the black fishnets and navy blue pumps she’s wearing, at least.
She turns back to face herself in the mirror again, pinching the fat that’s barely on her arms. Her makeup is exceptional; she learned from her mother, so it’s not as if anything less could be expected. At this point she could probably apply the dark eye shadow in her sleep. Once her mother told her that Evie was getting better at creating a smokey eye than she was. It’s in the top ten best days of Evie’s life for sure.
She plucks the bright red locket her mother gave her on her thirteenth birthday from its resting spot against the fabric of her shirt and drops the heart shaped charm underneath the neckline, letting the silver chain fall between her breasts. She gives a toothy smile to the reflection in the mirror, letting it fall almost immediately.
“You look like shit,” she mutters at her reflection before turning away and grabbing her jacket off the floor where she left it. She slips back into it, refastening the sleeves back into place just above her elbows with the snaps. Evie knows buttons look better, but she loves the sound snaps make and how they just, well, snap into place. (She has completely useless buttons on top of the snaps on these sleeves.)
Sighing once more, she slips out of the room, letting the door close on its own behind her.
Everyone is at least halfway through eating when she returns to the dining hall. Jay is all the way done, but looks like he’s about to get up for seconds. Or thirds.
“Hey, Eves, what took you so long?” Jay grins, extracting himself from between Carlos and Lonnie.
“Oh I forgot my jacket and didn’t realize till I was almost here. Had to go back and get it.” She shrugs out the lie more easily than if it were the truth. She follows Jay to the serving station, bypassing all the substantial food in favor for an apple. She fills a ceramic mug with ice water, half hoping to create the illusion of drinking something with some sort of caloric value while still staying below the one hundred calories she’s allotted for lunch.
Evie slips into the seat Mal had saved her between her and Audrey as gracefully as she can; the seat is smack in the middle of the bench and she’s trying her damndest to not knock into Audrey’s legs. She’s already worried Audrey is very not fond of her. She sets her mug and apple down in front of her. Doug grins at her from the corner of the table before looking back to Chad who’s across from him, and obviously telling him some story. Evie smiles back, missing the concerned look Lonnie shoots her—and her food—from the seat directly across from her.
Jay comes back, balancing two plates as he re-inserts himself between Lonnie and Carlos. Evie feels queasy just looking at all that food. Mal glances away from the banter she’d been watching Ben and Carlos exchange from across the tables to look at Evie.
“That’s all you’re eating, E?” She almost sounds worried, and that almost makes Evie smile. Instead, she shrugs.
“Yeah. I haven’t been feeling too great today, and I had a big breakfast, anyway.” Mal accepts the lie without question, and Evie thanks everything she knows, good and evil, that Mal hadn’t been with her at breakfast this morning. She’d overslept, and hadn’t even made it out of her room until twenty minutes before the morning assembly. The dining hall was almost empty. She’d sat with Lonnie and some other girl while she drank her (black) coffee.
Feeling someone’s eyes on her, Evie looks up. Lonnie’s not exactly glaring at her, but Evie wouldn’t say the look was particularly friendly. Evie wants to thank her for not commenting on her statement about breakfast, but realizing that that’s probably what the almost-glare is about, she keeps her mouth shut.
She takes a sip gulp of her water, watching Mal out of the corner of her eye. Mal’s face lights up in the way it only does when she hears a good insult, and Evie’s subsequent smile is way more lovesick than she’d care to admit. She looks away from Mal long enough to see Lonnie still watching her. Evie immediately bows her head, grabbing her apple and taking a big bite in an attempt to hide the blush rising in her cheeks.
Jane and Doug rise from the bench, explaining that they need to go study for the chemistry test next period. Evie jumps up as quickly as she can without bumping Audrey or Mal.
“Oh! I need to study for that, too!” She almost falls trying to climb off of the bench, and her face burns redder than the apple in her hands as she scampers to catch up with Jane and Doug.
It’s mostly a lie that she needs to study, really. (She knows Dough probably doesn’t either; they spent two hours swapping notes and hunched over textbooks in the library last night.) All the same, she’s starting to think that Lonnie is catching on to every one of her secrets and that it may be a good idea to spend as little time around her as possible. Which sucks, because she really likes Lonnie. She just likes not having her life ruined more.
She drops the almost whole apple in a trash bin on the way out of the dining hall.
She sits by Doug in the lab, Jane on his other side, not even pretending to study. She got an A- on the last test, and she’s even more prepared for this. She’s not trying to brag or anything because it’s not like she’s actually smart, just good at memorizing things, really. There’s a few other kids in the classroom: a tired looking girl with curly orange hair piled in an impressive bun on top of her sitting next to a pale boy with striking shoulder length blonde hair tapping his pencil nervously against the tabletop sitting in front of her, and a small boy with soft brown hair sitting across the room.
Evie opens her notebook, studying the blonde boy in front of her. He and the girl are sitting on the opposite side of the table, so that Evie can see them, and more importantly, their clothes, almost perfectly. The boy is wearing a pastel blue henley, grey sweatpants, and what Evie thinks are probably women’s combat boots, but they’re the same color blue as his shirt and he’s an attractive kid; Evie knows he could look super great if he tried.
She starts sketching, pulling out her colored pencils and drawing his hair as his only defining feature, besides the structure of his body. She sketches the same shirt he’s wearing, paired with what she assumes would be light grey linen pants. Hesitating for a moment, she adds his boots, but colors his laces in dark grey, instead of the same pastel as the shoe like they are now.
She’s halfway through drawing what she thinks could be a nice white blazer with lining and a lapel the same dark grey as the shoelaces when she hears Doug say her name. She glances up.
“Evie’s are just as good though, and I don’t think she’s using them. Here.” Doug is talking to the blonde boy and redheaded girl in front of them, and before Evie realizes what’s really happening, he’s snatched her notebook from under her hands and is passing it across the tables. Evie jumps up, freezing when she sees the boy look down at the open page. He looks up at her, and Evie’s face burns even darker than earlier. She really needs to get this blushing thing under control.
“Is— is this me?” he asks, sounding more curious than mad. Evie lets her shoulders relax a bit, but doesn’t move from her awkward position.
“I am so sorry, I really am. I just like thinking about clothes and stuff, and I was super bored and you were right in front of me. I am so, so sorry. I know this is probably so creepy.” She only stops when the kid in front of her opens his mouth.
“Actually, it looks really good. Not super comfortable, but definitely nice.” Evie almost gasps at what she takes as an insult.
“No! It would be super comfy! She pants are linen and the blazer is cotton. Honestly, linen would probably be more comfortable than the pajamas you’re wearing right now.” Evie does not realize she could easily be insulting him, or that she has moved around the table and is now leaning over him, pointing at the sketch as she talks. “And anyway, it’s the same shirt and the same shoes. I’m not really sure why you’d think it would be uncomfortable.” The boy smiles at Evie’s indignant tone of voice.
“If I could find clothes like this, then I would wear them for sure.” Evie thinks this is one of the best compliments she’s received in a while, and speaks without considering what she’s saying.
“I can make it for you!” The boy looks taken aback by her eagerness, and Evie can feel the blood returning to her cheeks. “Sorry,” she almost whispers.
“Would you seriously make clothes for me?” She nods.
“Yeah of course! I just need fabric…” she trails off. “And money to get the fabric, I guess.” The boy looks surprisingly pleased.
“No problem! My mom will be so excited about me having new clothes! She hates what I wear! I do too, sometimes. I bet she’d take us to the fabric store on the weekend if that’s cool.” He seems almost as excited as Evie, and she’s really looking forward to sewing for someone that isn’t Mal, Jay, or Carlos.
“I— uh. I don’t really have the best track record with parents…” He looks confused. “You know? Daughter of the Evil Queen and all?” The boy smiles again.
“My mom won’t care. She doesn’t really keep up with any of that. She’s a little spacey. She’s from Wonderland, after all. I’m Ace, by the way. Well, Alexander really, but I prefer for people to call me Ace.” He sticks out his hand.
“Evie.” Another thing she’d learned on the island is how to shake a hand, and he seems surprised by her firm grip.
“And this is Maddie,” Ace says, motioning to the tired looking girl beside him. She nods her head at Evie, who smiles at her.
“Oh! Did you want to look at my notes for class? They’re actually in another notebook.” She reaches back to her desk, taking the remaining notebook and passing it to Ace and Maddie. She gets her other notebook back in return. They bend together, reading through her notebook.
“Umm, and I was serious, you know, about sewing for you. It’d be fun for me.” Ace looks up.
“Yeah, I can tell. I’m serious, too. I’m gonna call my mom tonight.” He looks down in time to miss the smile that takes over Evie’s face. Doug grins at her as she slips back into her seat.
“I really think you could start a business or something, Evie.” His voice is truly eager, and Evie realizes it’s because he knows this makes her happy. It means so much to her to have people that actually care about her, even though she knows they wouldn’t if they knew how horrible she truly was.
Evie edits her design for Ace, and even starts on another one before the rest of the class ambles in, followed by the booming voice of their teacher snapping at them to put their notes away. Ace hands hers back to her as he moves to the other side of the table so he’s facing the front. A kid with black roots and the ends of his hair the same color as Evie’s cheeks have been lately slides into the seat on the other side of Ace. Evie puts both notebooks under her desk and hopes with all her might that she will do well on this test.
She finished almost directly in the middle, and she leaves the half empty classroom with her books clutched in her hands. She feels like she did pretty well, but again, she knows she’s not really all that smart and she shouldn’t get her hopes up.
On the way back to her room, she passes a vending machine and realizes that people, mostly Mal and Lonnie, will get onto her about eating dinner tonight, and also that she’s going to have at least twenty minutes before Mal gets back from class. She backtracks, stopping in front of the machine and attempting to stuff a bill into the the slot. She succeeds on the fourth try, and leaves a few minutes later minus three dollars and plus three bags of potato chips
She ducks into the girls’ bathroom and opens the first bag of chips, emptying it into the trash. She does the same with the second and half of the third. Sighing, she shoves both empty bags into her pocket. Right before she pushes against the bathroom door, she stops, and puts the half empty bag in her other pocket; she wouldn’t want anyone she passes in the hallway to think she just ate half a bag of chips.
After she unlocks the door, she sets the books down on the same table as before. She kicks off her shoes and starts to take off her jacket before deciding against it. She doesn’t want anyone seeing her upper arms, even Mal especially Mal.
She takes her notebook and pencil case off the pile of books and flops down on her bed. She takes the chip bags out of her pockets and rolls over onto her stomach. She moves one empty bag to the corner of the bed, and tosses the other on the floor below it. She leaves the half empty one open and facing her, so that she can pop a chip in her mouth when she hears Mal at the door. She opens up her notebook and continues working on the sketches for Ace that she started before class.
It’s half an hour before she hears the telltale turn of the knob. She plucks a chip from the bag and holds it to her mouth. The door opens and she bites into it, smiling at Mal from her position on the bed as she feels salt and oil on her lips.
“Want some chips?” Evie holds out the bag, her mouth obviously somewhat full. Mal grins, untying her black combat boots before joining Evie on her bed. She grabs the bag from Evie’s still outstretched hand and takes a handful, leaving the bag (thankfully) almost empty.
“Whatcha working on?” Evie likes that Mal always seems genuinely interested, and starts to explain the pre-chem test events.