Jo had it all planned out.

She set the time and place with Mal. She packed the basket full of treats and draped a red-and-white checkered blanket over the top. She practiced the speech in her head over and over. She even rehearsed it with Imogen, who gave her seal of approval. And now it was time.

Jo and Mal sat on a rock by the Enchanted Lake, the blanket sprawled out underneath them. Mal opened the basket and went straight for the strawberries as Jo knew she would. Jo had filled the picnic basket with Mal's favorites to hopefully soften the blow of this conversation. For a moment, Jo just admired Mal as the daughter of Maleficent ate her third strawberry. If Jo ignored their pasts, she could pretend they were just hanging out, maybe on a date. Just two girls sharing food and enjoying the scenery.

But this wasn't just a picnic. It was a confrontation.

Jo took a deep breath, then said, "We need to talk." Mal quirked an eyebrow. She knew that was Jo's serious tone. She chucked the remainder of her strawberry into the garbage bag Jo had brought with them.

"Should've known you were buttering me up," Mal teased. She tilted her head to the side. "What's up, Jojo? I thought we already talked." Jo's heart was hammering in her chest. Her palms were slick with sweat and she could feel her stomach churning. She could just shut up right now. She didn't have to do this. She could back down and just spend some quality time with Mal like everything was fine between them.

She stood her ground. "No, you talked. I listened." There was a sharpness to her tone now, like the blade of a knife. Mal's eyes widened. This wasn't like Jo. Jo was soft and sweet and warm. She was not sharp and bitter and cold, her eyes glinting like she was at her breaking point.

"Okay." Mal nodded slowly. "Go ahead. Talk." Jo's mind went blank. She couldn't remember a single word of the speech she'd prepared. Well shit. Guess she was going to have to improvise.

"I can't do this, Mal," Jo started, gesturing to the space between them. "Whatever this is, I can't do it anymore. You abandoned me on the Isle and then you bring me to Auradon and you're flirting with me every chance you get and I can't do it. You have a boyfriend."

Mal frowned. "You know Ben and I aren't really together-"

"I'm not done talking!" Jo interjected. She got to her feet and began to pace. "I know you and Ben are just some PR thing, but that doesn't change the fact that I feel like a dirty little secret. I used to like you Mal. Hell, I think I used to love you. But you left, and I know you had your reasons, but that doesn't suddenly mean you didn't make me feel all those things you made me feel. You broke my heart. I thought I was going to die, Mal. I thought that as soon as my dad heard you were gone, he was going to kill me. I ran down to the docks, sobbing, and walked up to Uma and begged her for her protection because I thought otherwise, I was a goner."

She paused to breathe. She was crying again. Jo did a lot of crying. She hated it. She hated how vulnerable she was. She'd tried so hard to close herself off, to stop caring so much, but she couldn't. Maybe it was because her dad treated her like shit, but Jo had this obsessive need to take care of everyone, to make them feel as loved as she wished her father had made her feel. It was why all her peers at Dragon Hall called her weak, why she started Jo's Kitchen, why she bit her tongue every now and then because she never made herself a priority. In every situation, Jo's thoughts, her feelings, her life was secondary.

And she'd deluded herself into thinking Auradon would be different, but it wasn't. It was worse. People didn't poke fun at her because they thought she was too soft. They hated her because of what her father did. They hated her because of all of these things she could not control. At least on the Isle, people had been right about her, that she was too warm. On Auradon, they assumed all of these things. None of it was true and it made Jo wonder what she looked like in their eyes that they could say such awful things about her.

Jo was facing the water now. She couldn't bring herself to look at Mal. "You broke my heart. That doesn't just go away because you have an excuse. It's never going to be like it was before, and I don't want it to be. I just want to get over you, but I can't because you keep trying to recreate the glory days or something, and it's fucking with my head. I can't do this anymore. I can't be your backup or the one you come to when you're bored. I want someone to choose me, really choose me. Not settle with me. Choose me. And Mal, you're settling."

She'd stopped crying. She wasn't sad anymore. She was angry. She was furious, her hands balled into white-knuckled fists. She was pissed off because no matter what she did, it wasn't good enough. She was pissed off because she'd actually thought for a moment maybe she'd get a happily ever after. She was pissed off because people thought she was just like her father. Her father, who only ever treated her like a daughter when they cooked or baked together. Her father who hurt her nearly every day of her life. She just wanted to scream, "I hate him too! I'm not like him! I never want to be like him!"

"I still care about you," Jo continued. "I want to be your friend. But that's it. Nothing more."

And, Jo told herself, this had absolutely nothing to do with the weird feeling she gets in her stomach when she sees Ben. This had absolutely nothing to do with how Jo looked forward to lunch with Ben so much that sometimes she couldn't pay attention in class because she was too busy trying to think of what to make and what they could talk about. No, it had absolutely nothing to do with Ben.

Jo heard Mal get to her feet, felt the dragon girl come to a stop behind her. Mal's voice was taut with tears she was fighting to hold back. "Look at me." Despite not really wanting to, Jo did.

Mal grabbed Jo by her shoulders. "All I want Jo is for you to be happy. I know I broke your heart. I thought I could fix things, but I can't, and that's okay because maybe we're better off as friends. You've always deserved far better than me. I was never the one settling. You were." She chuckled and wiped away a rogue tear. "Your happily ever after is out there. Maybe even closer than you think."

Jo laughed. "Yeah, right." She pulled Mal into a tight hug. Mal wrapped her arms around Jo's torso and squeezed. They stayed in each other's arms for longer than they would've on the Isle because affection wasn't a sign of weakness in Auradon. It felt nice.

"So," Mal said, pulling away and sniffling, "you ready to learn how to swim?"

"I know how to stay afloat," Jo replied indignantly. "Uma had this secret spot on the Isle where we'd go swimming sometimes. Well, they'd go swimming. I'd usually just dip my feet in the water and occasionally splash around in the shallower end."

Mal scowled. "Uma never took me there."

"Yeah, because even when you were friends, you hated each other," Jo pointed out.

"Fair point," Mal sighed. "Anyway, you ready? I probably won't be as good of a teacher as Ben or Lonnie, but I think by the end of today we can get you swimming like a pro."

Jo thought about it, then nodded. "I'm ready."

*

yes i'm supposed to doing algebra 2 work yes i wrote this instead none of you are allowed to judge me

not super in love with this chapter but i wanted to get it out of the way bc now we can get into the meat of the matter ;)