Chapter Text
Max looks at his face in the mirror; Pink’s healing tea helped with the cuts and bruises. A small cut still marks his cheek. He walks out of the bathroom to the others, all sitting around Red’s dorm.
Red looks up from Orla’s phone. “You look better.”
Max sits down on the bean bag by the window. “I don’t feel it.”
“Come on, guys, we haven’t even written the letter yet!” Pink says, sitting by Red’s desk.
Red connects the phone to the computer with a cable. The computer lights up, and Pink clicks to the gallery. They start scrolling through the pictures and videos.
“Wait,” Luis says, getting up and clicking on a video. The video is of Orla doing different poses next to the unconscious Uma.
“Come on, Orla, stop filming your stupid dance videos and help me move these bodies!” Delphina shouts, off camera. Orla rolls her eyes and picks up the phone.
“Okay, so that’s definitely not creepy,” Felix says, grimacing.
Pink scrolls further down; there’s another photo that catches everyone’s eye. Delphina is leaning on Neal while he looks off with dreamy eyes in a different direction.
“Delphina has a crush on Neal?” Pink asks.
“Why would she help him get Chloe then?” Hazel asks.
“Because she thinks he’ll see what’s so great about her,” Max speaks up. “It’s stupid; he never will.”
“So dumb,” Robby mutters, everyone chuckles at his comment.
“Pink, scroll back to the top,” Red tells her.
Pink scrolls back up and clicks on the most recent video. It opens to Orla running up to Chloe and giving her a side hug. Chloe looks off distantly.
“Aw, Chlo Chlo, are you excited to go dress shopping?” Sha asks enthusiastically. When Chloe doesn’t respond, she snaps her fingers and pouts. “Neal, she’s being boring again!”
Neal walks into frame and cups Chloe’s face gently. “She doesn’t need to be enthusiastic around us, as long as she is in public, it’s fine. Just pick something she’ll look good in while standing next to me.”
“Maybe we should make another batch of that happy tea?” Orla asks.
Neal snaps to look at her, angrily. “My mother already said that too much of that tea will start affecting her negatively. You already messed up one spell; let’s not do that again.”
He pulls Chloe out of frame, Orla pouts at the camera.
Everyone has a look of disgust on their face. Red storms into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. Hazel looks over to Max, who is trying to calm himself by looking out the window. Luis rubs Pink's back and tries to calm her down as tears well in her eyes.
Robby stands up and walks over to the computer. He starts scrolling through the videos. Hazel looks up at him.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m trying to find evidence of Snow White being involved in this too. We need camera evidence.
He accidentally clicks on a video. It’s of Snow White yelling at Neal and his friends. The camera pans up to Chloe, who is holding the phone. She whispers something into the camera and then zooms in on Snow White, now handing the Fairy Godmother’s book to Neal.
“Oh my heart, Chloe did it,” Pink says, looking at the video, shocked. Luis walks over to the bathroom door and knocks. When Red opens the door, Luis pulls her to the video.
Red looks up. “We have enough evidence, let’s write that letter.”
A few hours later, everyone is sitting around the computer waiting for a response. Luis stands up, stretching as he does.
“It’s late; they might only receive the letter tomorrow. It was sent as an email, how often does the king check his emails?” Luis says.
“Please just one more hour and we’ll all go rest.” Pink begs with puppy eyes, the Smees give Luis puppy eyes too.
Luis pretends to block his eyes. “Ah, no three sets of puppy eyes! How will I resist!” He dramatises.
Hazel tosses a sequin pillow at him. “Get us food, Madrigal.”
“Fine, Max, help me?” Luis asks. Max gets up reluctantly.
“Don’t expect me to carry anything but drinks.”
When they walk out of the room, Luis turns to him. “Take a short walk, you look like you’re about to vibrate out of your skin.”
“What?” Max asks, confused.
“You need to go collect your thoughts. You’ve been angsty since we watched those videos.”
“Fine, but I’m doing this because I want to and not because the Care Bear in human form is telling me to.”
“Okay, Grumpy Bear!” Luis calls out.
______
Max walks along the hallways. It’s becoming dark; luckily the hallways have nightlights. He wanders towards the baking class without noticing.
When he turns the corner, he sees the classroom light still on. He thinks maybe Fairy Fauna is still in class. He thinks he should ask for her help with the Neal situation.
He walks into the class. “Miss Fauna-”
The sound of a metal bowl falling to the ground catches his attention. He turns in the direction to say sorry, but his eyes meet Chloe’s.
They stand there silent for a moment, neither one of them moving, then Chloe tosses a wooden spoon in his direction and tries to run out the door behind him. He catches her by the arm and pulls her close to him.
“Chloe, please look at me! I’m not going to hurt you!”
“Then why are you holding me like this?” she shouts, not looking at him.
“Chloe, please! You’re under a spell. Just look me in the eyes and tell me you love Neal, and I’ll drop this whole thing.”
Chloe turns her head to look at him; she looks deeply into his eyes.
“I really do love-,” She hesitates.
Her facial expression softens, she gently puts a hand on his cheek and lightly rubs her thumb over his cheek.
“Oh, Max. Who did this?”
He puts his hand over hers. “Neal and his friends. It was a lot worse, but Pink cooked up some healing tea.”
Chloe lets out a breathy chuckle, she smiles softly at him. He smiles back at her, he slowly leans in. He softly kisses her lips; Chloe returns the soft kiss. They deepen the kiss as they feel sparks fly. In a moment, light radiates from them.
Chloe tenses up for a moment, she gasps, pulling away, her eyes shimmering purple and then sparkling blue. She touches her head. “My head.”
Max pulls her into a hug and holds her. “I know, it’s the spell.”
“The spell?” she says breathily.
“Neal, he did this. He’s hurting you.” Max tells her.
Chloe looks up at Max; she looks upset. “He can’t get away with this.”
“And he won’t. We sent a letter to Queen Mal, and we’re setting up a plan to expose Neal and Snow White.”
“What can I do to help?” She asks.
“I have a plan, but I need you to keep pretending to be under Neal’s spell.”
Chloe nods her head, Max takes her hand and kisses it. He starts making his way to the door.
“Wait!” She quickly says, taking a step forward. Max turns around quickly, scared she’s somehow hurt.
“We need to finish our cake; it’s due tomorrow!” She points over to the mess on the counter. Max chuckles to himself.
“Always a goodie-goodie.”
“That’s your goodie-goodie, thank you very much.” She smiles.
______
Max slowly opens the dorm door. He tries to creep into the dark room, but a small table lamp is turned on. Hazel sits in a chair next to the table lamp.
“Luis said you went on a walk.” She folds her arms and looks at him expectantly.
Max walks over to stand in front of her. “Yeah, I did. Lost track of time.”
“Got hungry on your walk?” She asks, pointing to the icing on his jacket.
Max shoves his hands in his pockets and sways on his feet. Hazel stands and smacks him lightly on the arm.
“Where did you go?” She raises her eyebrow.
“No, where?” he says, still not trying to look at her. She narrows her eyes at him.
“Fine! I found Chloe, and I may have kissed her.”
Hazel looks at him, shocked. “What? You broke the spell? And you weren’t going to tell me!” She smacks him slightly harder on the arm again.
“Ow, ow, I was trying to be sneaky.”
“Sneaky, my button top!” Red shout whispers from the bed closest to them. “Max, I swear to my mom, you are so lucky this is good news.”
She gets up from the bed and walks over to Max, she pulls him into a tight hug. “How is she?”
“She’s as good as she can be after finding out Neal put a spell on her. We made a plan.” Max tells them.
“Thank goodness,” Luis says from behind them. They all jump.
“How long have you been standing there, Madrigal?” Hazel asks.
“Pink woke me up when she stepped on me.” He shrugs.
“And when did Pink step on you?” Red asks.
“I stepped on him when Max snuck in, I was waiting until he got back safely.” She explains from behind Red. They all jump again.
“Okay, who else is awake and not going to scare us?” Red asks the room.
Felix switches on the light by the door. “I want you all to know I hate you, and you guys are way louder than you think you are.”
Pink skips over to Felix and drags him to the group; she gestures to the others to all sit. She turns on the laptop.
“I don’t think they will have responded by now, Pink,” Red tells her.
A notification sound pings as the laptop fully turns on. They all scramble to take a look at the notification.
“We have to start planning something,” Red announces.
“I’m on the dance planning committee, if that helps?” Robby asks, shyly.
Red looks at Max. We got this, she mouths. He nods and turns back to face the excited group.