Astird stepped into the warmth of her room, letting the door swing shut behind her as she set Dude, her scruffy and perpetually curious companion, down on the fluffy comforter of her bed. The little dog sprawled out immediately, letting out a satisfied huff. Astird grinned and ran a hand through her hair, already picturing the quiet evening ahead. Her plan was simple: swap her stiff school uniform for something soft, maybe flip through a book, and drift off to sleep.

But as she reached for her closet, a sharp knock at the door shattered her peace. She froze, one eyebrow quirking upward. Who's showing up this late?

Curiosity got the better of her. She padded to the door and cracked it open, her expression morphing from wary to intrigued when she saw who stood on the other side. Mal and Evie leaned against the doorframe, both wearing smiles that practically screamed up to something.

"Hey, Astird," Mal began, his voice cool and casual, like he hadn't just interrupted her wind-down time. "We were thinking... why not have a sleepover? Just us, kicking back, hanging out, bonding." He flashed a grin that was half charm, half mischief. "Totally normal friend stuff."

Astird leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, an amused smirk tugging at her lips. She didn't miss the nervous glance Evie shot Mal, as if double-checking their story. "A sleepover, huh?" Astird drawled, her tone dripping with skepticism. "You sure this isn't code for a midnight heist or some other top-secret shenanigans?"

Evie's smile faltered for a split second, but she recovered quickly, nodding way too enthusiastically. "What? No! Just good, wholesome fun." She clasped her hands together in mock sincerity. "We're trying to be social here, Astird."

Mal's confidence wavered as Astird's smirk deepened. "Yeah, uh... definitely no ulterior motives." He gestured wildly, as if that would help sell the lie. "It's just a sleepover. Pinky swear."

Astird let out a laugh, shaking her head. "You two are terrible liars." Her tone wasn't unkind, but the way their eyes widened made her laugh even harder. "Look, I appreciate the invite, but I'm calling it a night. You'll survive without me, I'm sure."

She winked and slowly shut the door, leaving Mal and Evie blinking at the wood like it had personally betrayed them.

"How did she know?" Mal whispered, genuinely mystified.

Evie threw up her hands. "Does it matter? We need to stick to the plan. Let's head to the boys' room before we lose more time."

They turned and scurried down the hall, their hurried footsteps fading into the distance. Inside her room, Astird listened from the other side of the door, her grin widening. She'd left the door cracked open just enough to catch their whispered conversation.

"Oh, this is going to be fun," she murmured, tapping her chin as ideas began to form. She wasn't about to let Mal and Evie have all the excitement without her. Sure, they thought they were being sneaky, but Astird loved a good game—and she wasn't one to sit on the sidelines.

Dude perked up from the bed as she grabbed a jacket and quietly slipped out the door, her eyes alight with mischief. This night just got a whole lot more interesting. If Mal and Evie thought they were sneaky, they hadn't seen anything yet.

◤◢◣◥◤◢◣◥◤◢◣◥

With its wide-screen TV and wood-paneled walls, dark plaid curtains, and high ceiling, Jay and Carlos's room was a sumptuous blend of old money and state-of-the-art technology, which typified Auradon. Carlos faced the wide-screen TV, playing a fun simulation video game with nunchakus while Mal and Evie walked over to Jay.

Jay pulled French fries from his pocket.

"Jay," Mal said. "What are you doing?"

"It's called stealing," Jay said, tossing the fries onto his bed to join the assortment of other items he'd stolen from the school already, which included a few gold rings, tokens, coin purses, a watch, and a half-eaten pizza.

"What's the point?" asked Mal.

"Well, it's like buying whatever I want, except it's free," said Jay, pulling a laptop from his vest.

"Okay. So you could do that. Or you could leave all of this here and pick it up when we take over the world," said Mal with a wide smile.

"You sound just like your mom!" Evie told her.

"Thank you!" Mal said to Evie.

"You do it your way and I'll do it mine," said Jay.

"Die, suckers!" Carlos shouted at his virtual foes in the video game. "Jay, come check this thing out!" he said, handing over the nunchakus.

Jay took them and stepped in front of the TV. His biceps bulged as he swung the weapon. Carlos watched him, laughing and whooping as Jay fought off the animated attackers.

"Guys!" said Mal. "Do I have to remind you what we're all here for?"

"Fairy Godmother, blah, blah, blah," said Jay as he swung. "Magic wand, blah, blah, blah."

Evie laughed at him.

"This is our one chance to prove ourselves to our parents," said Mal.

Evie stopped laughing and faced Mal.

"To prove that we are evil and vicious and ruthless and cruel," said Mal.

Jay and Carlos stared at her, too. She had their attention.

"Yeah?" Mal asked them.

Her friends nodded solemnly.

"Evie, mirror me," said Mal.

Mal and Evie sat at the table as Jay and Carlos gathered around them.

Evie lifted her mirror. "Mirror, mirror, on the...in my hand. Where is Fairy Godmother's wand"—she searched for a rhyming word—"stand?"

In the mirror, there was an extreme close-up of the sparkling wand.

"There it is!" said Evie.

"Zoom out," said Carlos.

"Magic Mirror, not so close," Evie whispered into it.

The mirror showed a map of Earth.

"Closer," said Evie.

The mirror showed the state.

"Closer," she said again.

The mirror showed the town.

"Closer," she said once more.

"Can I go back to my game? I'm on level three," said Carlos.

"Stop!" said Jay.

They peered at the mirror, which showed an old building lit by blue lights, with an engraved sign in front of it that read MUSEUM OF CULTURAL HISTORY.

"It's in a museum," said Mal. "Do we know where that is?"

Carlos typed something on the laptop. "Two point three miles from here," he said, turning it so his friends could see. He went back to playing his video game.

Mal opened the door to the room and checked the hall. The coast was clear.

Jay and Evie followed her down the hall. Jay called Carlos's name over his shoulder, and Carlos stopped playing his game and ran out the door after his friends.

◤◢◣◥◤◢◣◥◤◢◣◥

The lawns of the prep school were dark as the gang made its way to the museum. After some walking, they eventually approached an impressive building marked MUSEUM OF CULTURAL HISTORY. It had tall, imposing stone pillars.

"Check your mirror," Mal whispered to Evie.

"Is my mascara smudged?" asked Evie. She checked her eyes in the mirror.

"Yeah. Hey, while you're at it, why don't you see if you can find us the wand," said Mal.

"Sure," said Evie. She held out her mirror. "This way!"

They followed Evie around to the back of the building. The group stopped at a set of double doors and peered through their windows. A guard sat at the front desk, spinning in a chair. There were several monitors in front of him. On the monitors were iconic artifacts from all the famous fairy tales: King Beast's mystical rose, Cinderella's glass slipper, the Genie of Agrabah's lamp, King Triton's trident.

The guard spun to face the doors, and Mal and her friends ducked.

When some time had passed, they peeked back through the windows and studied a small spinning wheel on a pedestal that was a showcased display—Maleficent's spinning wheel.

"That's your mother's spinning wheel?" said Carlos. He and Jay laughed.

"Yeah, it's kinda dorky," Jay added.

"It's magic," said Mal defensively. "It doesn't have to look scary." Mal flipped open her spell book, found a page, looked through the window at the guard, and began to incant: "Magic spindle, do not linger. Make my victim prick a finger...."

Nothing happened to the guard.

"Impressive," said Jay, shaking his head.

"I got chills," said Carlos, mocking her. He and Jay chuckled.

"You know what?" Mal said, annoyed. She concentrated. Her eyes flashed green. "Prick the finger, prick it deep. Send my enemy off to sleep," she said.

The guard stood and started walking toward the spinning wheel as if he was in a trance. He reached out his finger and touched the spindle. Then he yawned, sat down next to the spinning wheel, curled up on his side, and fell right asleep.

Mal let out a laugh. "Not so dorky now," she said smugly. She tried to open the door. It was locked. She yanked a few times.

Jay pushed everyone aside. "Stand back," he said. He backed up, ready to take a leaping kick at the door.

Mal stared at the door and said, "Make it easy, make it quick, open up without a kick."

Jay ran at full speed and leaped to kick the door—just as it opened by itself. He landed on his butt inside the museum. Mal, Evie, and Carlos laughed and stepped over him.

"Coming?" Mal asked Jay, mocking him this time.

The gang passed the lobby and ran through the dark museum with Evie leading the way as she consulted her mirror. "Upstairs," she whispered to them.

They ran down a hall and up some stairs, then stopped short in a doorway to a room called the Gallery of Villains. On a pedestal, a wax figure of Evil Queen looked regal, sinister, and frightening—a powerful witch in her ultimate prime.

"Mommy?" said Evie, her mouth slack.

Jay looked up at a wax figure of Jafar, who wore full Arabian regalia, cobra staff raised above his head in a terrifying pose.

Hidden in the shadows, Astird couldn't help but grin, reveling in the chaos she was about to unleash. With a playful flourish of her fingers, she traced delicate patterns in the air, her magic sparking like frost-kissed fireworks. The room's temperature plummeted almost instantly, a thin sheet of frost creeping up the walls as if alive. The once-soft fabric of the curtains crystallized into shimmering sculptures, their delicate folds now brittle and translucent.

The transformation drew startled gasps from Evie, Jay, and Carlos. Evie spun on her heel, her sharp eyes scanning the room. "I know that spell," she declared, her voice firm. "Astird, stop playing games and get out here!"

Chuckling softly, Astird stepped into the light, her entrance as dramatic as her handiwork. "Oh, come on, Evie," she teased, her eyes twinkling with mischief. "Did you really think I'd miss out on this little field trip?"

Jay couldn't help but laugh, clapping her on the shoulder. "Good to see you, Ice Queen. You sure know how to make an entrance."

Astird flashed him a grin before her attention shifted to the glowing opening in the floor. Floating within a crystalline case was the object they had risked sneaking into the Wand Gallery to find. The wand hovered with an almost sentient energy, its pale, twisted surface shimmering in the blue light of the chamber.

"That's it," Evie breathed, pointing at the enchanted relic. "The wand."

The group wasted no time, darting down the staircase and into the cavernous Hall of Castles. The room was filled with miniature replicas of grand fortresses, each a marvel of craftsmanship. But Jay, predictably, ignored the exhibits entirely, his focus locked on the glowing doorway ahead.

When they finally entered the Wand Gallery, the wand's aura commanded their attention. Encased in its protective barrier, it radiated a soft hum of magic, the air around it buzzing like static electricity.

"There it is," Mal said softly, a mix of wonder and determination in her voice.

Jay stepped forward, but Mal grabbed his arm before he could touch the case. "Don't. Look at the field around it—it's not just for show."

Astird raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "Let me try something." With a flick of her wrist, she summoned a shard of ice and hurled it at the barrier. The shard collided with the glowing field, refracting into a kaleidoscope of colors before disintegrating in a shower of sparks.

The room erupted into chaos as an ear-piercing siren blared to life, red lights flashing in rhythm with the noise.

"What the heck, Astird?" Carlos shouted, his voice barely audible over the racket.

Astird smirked. "Relax! Just testing the defenses."

Mal groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. "This is why we don't bring chaos queens on covert missions."

Meanwhile, Carlos scrambled to a guard's desk, grabbing a phone off its receiver. "I've got this," he muttered, quickly scanning a clipboard for details. When someone picked up on the other end, he put on his most professional voice. "Yes, hi. This is, uh, security. False alarm here, just a technical malfunction. Something about an LM 714 chip in the breadboard circuit?" He paused as if listening, then nodded vigorously. "Yeah, totally. We'll handle it."

As the siren finally silenced, Carlos hung up and turned to the group, a smug grin on his face. "You're welcome."

"Great," Mal muttered, motioning for them to leave. "Let's get out of here before anyone comes to check that 'malfunction.'"

The group bolted back through the museum, their hurried footsteps echoing through the corridors. Cold air nipped at their faces as they burst into the open night, their breath visible in puffs against the icy air.

"Well, that went swimmingly," Mal said, her voice dripping with sarcasm as they jogged away from the gallery.

Astrid smirked, adjusting her scarf against the chill. "Hey, it wasn't a total loss. We learned a lot about the security system."

"Sure," Evie muttered, her tone deadpan. "And we're totally not going to hear about this at school tomorrow."

Despite their failure to secure the wand, there was a lingering sense of triumph among them—if only because they'd managed to escape without getting caught. As they made their way back to their dorms, the frosty air a stark reminder of Astird's impromptu display, they couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of the night.

Chaos, after all, was part of the VK way.