"Meredith? Chad?"

Lonnie, clad in a pink oversized sweater and pajama pants, walked towards Meredith and Chad, who were in the midst of an intense conversation (alternatively, an argument)  in the lobby of the dorm building. Meredith was worried about what Lonnie must have heard, but she was glad it wasn't Mal, or worse, Evie. She didn't know Evie well, but if she did get hurt by Chad's scheme, she would feel terrible because Chad was her friend and she felt responsible if she didn't stop him from doing something bad. Moreover, Evie had literally just offered to make a dress for her that afternoon. It was such a genuine offer that Meredith was really starting to see that maybe they weren't all that bad.

"Oh, hey Lonnie," Meredith greeted casually. "What are you doing up so late?"

The Asian girl raised her eyebrows.

"I could be asking the two of you the same thing," she countered, eyes flittinf between Meredith and Chad.

Despite the fact that Chad was naturally not very smart, he did have a talent for covering up his mistakes — basically, lying.

"We just wanted a midnight snack, that's all," he laughed it off, and Meredith badly wanted to say that that was her line. "You?"

"I was actually looking for Mal," she replied. "Have you seen her anywhere?"

"No, sorry," said Meredith. "But I'm heading to the kitchen now for that midnight snack and maybe she could be there."

Meredith truly wanted something to eat, but her number one wish at the moment was to get away from Chad. He was really getting on her nerves and she felt like she would explode if she tried arguing with her arrogant and selfish excuse of a "friend."

"Great," Lonnie grinned. Meredith faked a smile and strode over to Lonnie, ready to leave. "Chad? You coming?"

Meredith sneaked a peek at Chad, who sent her an annoyed side-glance.

"No," he answered, plastering a fake smile for Lonnie. "I'm not hungry anymore."

"Oh, alright. Good night, then. Come on, Meredith."

Meredith didn't turn back anymore and instead walked side by side with Lonnie, making their way to the kitchen in search for a certain purple-haired girl.

When the two girls turned the corner to walk down the next hallway, Meredith asked Lonnie, "So, why exactly are you looking for Mal?"

"Some of the girls saw my new hair and want theirs done, too," she told her brightly. "You should have yours done, too!"

Meredith chuckled lightly.

"I'll think about it," was all she said. For one, she was already satisfied with her wavy red hair — not that she paid much attention to it. Also, she didn't really feel like altering it because for all she knew, it could wear off just like what happened to Cinderella's dress the night she met Prince Charming. Meredith shook those thoughts off, though, because she began to remember Chad and his moronic ways.

"You don't really need to, though," Lonnie added. "Your hair is already really pretty."

Meredith gave her a genuine smile.

"Thanks, Lonnie."

A few minutes into their stroll, Meredith and Lonnie finally spotted the kitchen door. It was a heavy metal door in the ground floor of the building, and it was open to anyone who wanted to cook or bake on their own even though the school across the road served all three meals everyday, even on the weekends. It should have been locked after curfew, but somehow, thee students found a way to unlock it, so it was practically open all hours of the day.

Meanwhile, Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos were already inside the kitchen, busy concocting a love potion. After learning that only Ben's parents and girlfriend would be sitting in the front row during his coronation, nearest to Fairy God Mother and her wand, Mal decided to take this as an opportunity to get him to fall in love with her. That way, she'd become his girlfriend, get to sit at the perfect spot, and steal the wand when the time came. And so, there she was, mixing the cookie batter where she'd place the love potion in while her other friends assisted her.

"Okay, so it says we still need one tear," Mal said. "And I never cry."

Carlos grabbed a pack of onions from next to him.

"Let's just chop up some onions," he suggested.

"No. It says that we need one tear of human sadness. This love potion gets the best reviews, so we have to follow it exactly."

"A tear's a tear," Jay sighed.

"That's not true, Jay," Evie interrupted. "They both have antibodies and enzymes but an emotional tear has more protein-based enzymes than a reflex tear."

The blue-haired girl was met with a short silence, everyone a little shocked at how much information she knew.

"Look at you," Mal said, impressed.

Back outside, Meredith was the closest to the kitchen door, so she reached out her hand to push it open. What she didn't expect though, was that it was already left ajar. Because of all the weight she was putting on the door she thought was closed, it was pushed open in one swift motion. Before Meredith could comprehend what was happening, she was falling face forward and onto the kitchen floor

"Yeah, I knew that," Jay was saying.

"Did not," Carlos scoffed.

"Yeah, I did."

Only a millisecond after that, the four teenagers from the Isle of the Lost saw a flash of red from the entrance of the kitchen. They turned in time to see a redheaded girl shoot through the door and land on the tiled floor with a small thump.

"Oof!"

Carlos immediately recognized her and hopped off of his seat on the counter. While everyone was surprised at the unexpected entrance of someone new, Carlos made his way to whom he knew was, without a doubt, Meredith.

"Uh, Meredith?" he said, hesitantly bending over to reach her.

Meredith looked up sheepishly.

"Oh. Hi."

Carlos had an amused smile on his face. He decided to help her up to her feet and Meredith flushed in embarrassment, laughing awkwardly as she accepted his hand."

"Thanks, Carlos," she said, dusting herself off to avoid the curious gazes from the other three in the kitchen.

"Meredith, you okay?" Lonnie laughed from behind her. Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos continued to stay quiet.

"Yeah," Meredith said back at her. "I was just bonding with the floor, of course."

With Meredith now standing and not blocking the doorway, Lonnie was able to walk inside. Since Meredith wasn't hurt from that surprising fall into the kitchen, she decided to go straight to the point when she spotted Mal there.

"There you are, Mal!" she said, walking over to her. "I've been looking for you. You know, all the girls want you to do their hair."

As Lonnie addressed Mal, Meredith noticed the bowl of batter and other baking ingredients laid out on the table. She wondered what they were baking and secretly hoped they had already finished before she even arrived so that she could steal a piece.

"Midnight snack, huh?" said Meredith as Carlos made his way back to his place. She also took note of how Dude was there, and she almost smiled at how only a few hours ago, she learned that Carlos was afraid of dogs.

"Watcha guys making?" Lonnie added.

"Nothing special," Mal said. "Just cookies..."

Lonnie then leaned over and dipped her finger into the batter, scooping up a portion of it. What startled her and Meredith was the violent reaction from everyone when she ate it.

"No, no, no!"

"Wait!"

Meredith and Lonnie froze in place, staring at the four in front of them oddly.

"What? I'm not gonna double dip," Lonnie reassured them as Meredith tried to analyze everyone else's faces, all who still looked shocked.

"Feel anything?" Evie asked her cautiously.

"Yeah," Mal agreed slowly. "Like we may be missing something?"

Out of nowhere, Jay stepped closer to Lonnie, separating her from Meredith. The redhead shrugged at the odd action and hopped onto the empty space next to Carlos on the counter. At the unexpected action and how close Meredith suddenly was, Carlos's eyes widened and he gulped. Meredith didn't notice of course, as she was too busy petting Dude already.

"Hey there," Jay said to Lonnie. Meredith was sure he was flirting just by the sound of his voice.

In response, Lonnie simply stared at him before answering Mal's question.

"Could use some chips," she said, already walking away from Jay and to the stainless steel refrigerator.

"Chips?" Jay said questioningly.

"Ooh, get the dark chocolate ones," Meredith couldn't help but suggest, pointing at the fridge.

"And those are?" Mal asked.

Lonnie and Meredith faced the girl, wondering how in the world she could not know about chocolate chips.

"Chocolate chips," Meredith clarified, causing everyone to face her. "It's just the most important ingredient in baking."

Lonnie whipped out a bowl of the dark chocolate chips before striding back to the table. When she noticed that Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos still didn't understand what she and Meredith meant, she threw in some of the chips and said, "Wait. Didn't your moms ever make you guys chocolate chip cookies?"

Still, she only received more curious looks.

"Like, when you're feeling sad," Lonnie went on. "And they're fresh from the oven with a big old glass of milk and she just makes you laugh and puts everything into perspective and... why are you all looking at me like that?"

Meredith of course understood what Lonnie meant, but when she noticed that everyone had this unreadable expression on their faces, she stayed silent, too.

Mal shook her head at Lonnie's question and went back to stirring the batter now filled with chocolate chips.

"It's just different where we're from," she muttered.

"Yeah, I know," Lonnie tried. "I just... you know, I thought even villains love their kids."

A look of realization dawned on Lonnie, and then it was quickly replaced with pity. After a short silence of processing what she had just learned, she said, "Oh... How awful."

Meredith dared to sneak a glance at Carlos, who also had a look of sadness. His hand was still on top of Dude's head, but he was unmoving. She bit her lip, taking note of how sad he and his friends looked. She didn't think she'd see that kind of emotion from them.

Meredith quickly averted her eyes just as Mal changed the topic and said, "Yeah, well, big bummer, but we have to get these into the oven, so thank you so much for coming by!"

Both Lonnie and Meredith crowned at sudden change of emotion from Mal. One second, she was solemn, and then in the next, she was enthusiastic.

All of a sudden, it was like the Isle of the Lost kids were kicking them out. Mal began pushing Lonnie away from the table and to the door. Jay held his hand out to Meredith and when she didn't take it after just a second, he himself lightly grabbed ahold of it and helped her down the table. Carlos didn't know why, but he didn't like seeing Jay do that.

Once Meredith was on her feet again, Mal also started pushing her to the door with Lonnie who looked confused. Meredith could only mirror her friend's expression — she wasn't sure why they were suddenly kicking them out of the kitchen.

"Really, really have a good night!" Mal called out as she successfully pushed the two girls out the door.

"Oh, okay!" Lonnie was saying, but Meredith had become suspicious as to why they wanted them to leave already when they had just arrived.

"See you tomorrow!"

"Bye!"

"Evil dreams!"

As Meredith left the kitchen, all she could think about then was how she wasn't able to get her midnight snack after all.

A/N: I tried sneaking in a cute Meredith + Carlos scene... I think I failed HAHA. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter!