"For the first time, it's like I'm more than just a pretty face."
***

Evie listlessly strolls through the halls of Auradon Prep, humming under her breath, a content smile spread on her face. She was happy. With her life, with everything. You'd think she wouldn't feel as great as she does so soon after her painful breakup with Doug, but, then again, maybe that's one of the reasons. She feels free. No jealous boyfriends, no expectations of winning over a handsome prince, Evie can just... be herself. And she's perfectly fine with that. More than fine, to be honest... It's enlightening. And aside from her love life, so much progress is being made with integrating the Isle as a part of the kingdom, it's impossible not to feel proud. So much has been accomplished, and Evie feels a sense of fulfillment, even though Uma is responsible for most of the project's success (Evie would never deny credit where credit was due, and... Uma deserves more credit than any royal in Auradon, including Mal).

The VK sighs as her thoughts, of course, remind her of the one thing she doesn't want to think about. Mal. Her best friend had divorced Ben about a month ago, and left Auradon to 'do some major soul searching', in her words. Well, Evie said Mal divorced Ben... it was an agreed-upon decision. They both felt they needed to focus on other things, learn more about themselves before they committed to a relationship. They needed to figure out if they wanted to.

To be honest, Evie was relieved. There had been a lot of tension building between Ben and Mal, and... Let's just say that everyone saw the logic in the decision to diffuse the bomb before it went off. And not just with Ben... Mal's relationship with everyone, including Evie was becoming strained... It was almost as if her friend was going through a relapse of her blonde phase, but worse this time. Instead of bleaching her hair, Mal was bleaching herself, washing away her personality to become this unlikable cardboard cutout that was an unrecognizable clone of Evie's friend, despite looking so much like Mal. And the former "Queen of Auradon" had used the kind of bleach that was only available on the Isle. The awful, foul-smelling, acid-like kind that had started eating her friend from the inside like poison. And what scared Evie the most was that she hadn't realized any of this until too late. How many times had she missed it, when Mal had been screaming for help the whole time? All those times that she had avoided questions, and skipped classes, and gone without sleep... How many times did it seem just too easy to let it go when Mal said she was fine?

Evie had lied to herself, convincing herself that Mal was telling the truth, that she was fine. Evie can't count the times she had said that Mal was going through a lot of changes, and this was an adapting period.

And then, she starts to wonder... How long had this been going on? How long had she ignored these kinds of things in her friend? Before Auradon, Evie would excuse every horrible thing Mal did, just to make sure that the most famous girl on the Isle would still like and protect her. And her thoughts would only spiral downward from there. What if her friendship with the purple-haired dragon she once called her sister was based on lies? What if it was built on an unhealthy dependency that she herself had created? What if...

Evie takes a deep breath. Okay... So maybe she isn't as happy as she had claimed. But that's one of the reasons she's walking the halls now. A visit to Auradon Prep's library always helps clear her mind.

"Okay... Good thoughts now..." Evie thinks to herself, "Let's see... Carlos, Ben, Jay, Uma, Gil, Harry, the rest of the Hooks, Iria, Dizzy, Celia, Squeaky, Squirmy, Freddie, pretty much all of the VKs...."

Evie habitually smooths out her face, already feeling lines forming on her face.

"A princess doesn't have wrinkles," Evie recited with pride, staring up at her mother, her large, innocent eyes hungry for adoration.

"Good, good, little Evie," Grimhilde responded, patting her daughter's head. She leaned down to her nine-year-old child's eye level and smiled,

"The fairest of them all, dear. Never forget that. The fairest of them all."

Shaking herself out of it, she huffs in frustration and scrunches up her face as much as she can, letting out a small laugh as she walks down the empty hallways. Evie's favorite time to be at Auradon Prep is when it's like this... empty. Beautifully, blissfully, silently empty. There's a 'field trip' from today until Friday to go to a water park. So, of course, everyone except Evie signed up. Even Jane, Squeaky, and Squirmy, some of the shyest people she knew, were convinced to go. While Mal, Jay, Ben, even Carlos, and all her other friends, loved amusement park rides, and water parks, and rollercoasters, Evie would much rather be on dry, flat ground, with a good book.

Her thoughts trail off as she reaches her destination. She sighs in contentment as she greets the librarians, Milo Thatch and Jane Porter, undeniably her two favorite people over the age of 30 in Auradon. Both are usually quiet and reserved, but have come to know Evie quite well, seeing as she's such a regular visitor to the library. She surveys her usual reading niches, deciding that the armchair in the corner of the room will be perfect. Granted, it is her favorite spot. It rests between two small shelves, making the space sheltered, but not claustrophobic or stifling, and the large window lets sunlight pour in, but not so much as to make Evie sweat under her leather outfit. The blue-haired princess reaches into her bag for her latest reading book, humming softly as she smiles, delving into her book and relaxing for the first time in that very long day. Which is why she nearly jumps out of her skin when she feels Milo tap her shoulder. She places a hand on her chest, catching her breath as Milo apologizes,

"Oh, gods. Sorry Evie, didn't mean to startle you."

Evie smiles, shaking her head, "No worries, Milo. What was it?"

"I just, uh- remember when you asked me to tell you if I could find any books about your parents? Yours and the other VK's, I mean."

She immediately straightens her back, perking up with interest. Finding books on the villains and their pasts has been a long-time goal for the Evil Queen's daughter. Almost all books on the villains in Auradon have to fit a series of strict requirements, all made by King Adam, so most of them have ended up polished schist piles that barely tell of the villains at all, and paint the stories as though the heroes in them are paragons of good, with no flaws, no humanity, and no struggle.

"Disgraceful," Evie always thought when she read such books, "I suppose I can understand showing the villain's as inhuman, but to depict all these heroes in such a way? It makes them seem like they never have problems. That they never have to face any hardship just because they do good things. As if evil is some foreign concept that is completely alien, not something that is born inherently of human nature, from pain, grief, loss, anger, and hurt. As if everything is black and white, no heroes ever make mistakes, no villains ever do good or show mercy. Absolute bullcrap."

So, she had made it her mission to find any literary work that depicted the villains as human (metaphorically speaking... not all the villains are human), with emotions, and pasts, and pain, and suffering, and... well, personalities. Character. Evie had personally asked Milo and Jane months ago to help her in her search for such books, and they both agreed, saying that they always wanted to find a more accurate depiction of their own stories. Yes, in case you're wondering, Auradon City has its own library, but it is packed to the brim with said over-glorified propaganda. Those librarians would 'help' her, or any other person, by brainwashing them.

...Okay, maybe she's exaggerating a bit there... But Evie does not like the Auradon City public library.

"Did you find something?" Evie asks. Milo smiles, and holds out an old, dusty storybook, with beautiful gold lettering on the cover, spelling out 'Once Upon A Time'. Evie takes the book delicately, wiping some dust off the cover as she studies the volume with fascination. The VK only just remembers to say, "Thank you so much, Milo."

The librarian smiles, "My pleasure. Now, you better get reading. Please tell me if you find anything interesting."

Evie smiles back as Milo walks away. She settles back into the chair, opening the old, crinkled pages with wonder as she begins to read.