AN: This story is also on AO3 and no offence to this site, but I actually prefer that site for Descendants fanfic as there are fewer restrictions. The story content though is the exact same, so either one works completely fine. I just had to do small changes on like shorten the summary and the limit on characters and tags or whatever, etc.

Anyway, hope you enjoy!

Trigger warnings: mentions of toxic relationship.

"Oh, come on, Mal! It'll be fun!" Benjamin LeBon implored to his stubborn girlfriend, Mal Moors, who was barely even acknowledging him as they sat on his family's living room sofa together.

She was currently drawing in her beloved sketchbook while he spoke to her with the TV on yet completely in the background.

She was in the middle of drawing a very interesting piece. It was set in a medieval time period with a knighted prince, a princess, and a dragon. However, rather than having the prince and dragon battling it out over custody/protection of the princess, they were working together to save her.

The suited and armoured, blue-and-gold-clad prince had his royal sword ready for battle and was riding on the back of the green-fire-breathing, dark purple dragon with horns just as sharp and deadly as the sword as they charged at a huge golem, who was holding the terrified and injured yet always gorgeous, sapphire princess captive.

Where she found the inspiration for this piece, she had no conscious idea. She believed that she was never in control of her artistic mind and her hands merely brought to life what her brain conceptualized.

Nevertheless, she already knew this was going to be one of her favourite pieces, along with her mostly black-and-white, candid portrait of her boyishly handsome yet annoyingly persistent boyfriend.

"Yeah, 'fun' isn't exactly the word I'd use for signing up for the school play, Ben," the other teenager retorted without even tearing her eyes away from the page.

"Wha—Why not? Babe, you're perfect for the lead!" the boy insisted, scooting closer to her.

See, here was the conflict: Ben was the paragon of an active student participant. He was student body president of Auradon High, captain of two junior varsity school teams (football and lacrosse) in only his junior year, straight-A student, and now, student director of the school's play of an original production of a Cinderella Story-type tale called A Cinderella Story: If the Shoe Fits, written by himself.

His girlfriend, Mal. Well, she was the complete opposite.

She stayed away from any extracurriculars like they were the plague, unless she was genuinely interested in them, which was so rare that it was essentially a fantasy. She'd barely even go to all of her classes and had detention at least once every week.

That was until she'd started dating Ben back around just before the summer before their freshman year of high school and also until she'd found out she actually liked hanging out with some of his other do-gooder friends. Damn good influences.

Speaking of which, she was also not exactly one for socializing with people outside of her own, little friend group. She preferred to stick around just those closest to her—people she personally "selected" to spend time with willingly—which was fine but also a negative characteristic in terms of her extroversion.

So convincing her to even consider joining the school play was going to be a challenge. A challenge that her boyfriend was determined to conquer.

Mal scoffed out a loud laugh and responded, "Why? Because I'm blonde, my mom's a bitch, and I have a black cat?"

"Well, actually, you know it's not about the original Cinderella, right? So none of that really matters, even the fact that you have smaller than average feet," Ben teasingly corrected, to which he received an eraser projectile to the head, "I'm kidding. I'm kidding, babe. Seriously though. You'd be awesome. I mean, you definitely have the voice for our original compositions."

The girl gave her brown-haired boyfriend a doubtful look and pointed out, "The range of some of those songs is a little low for me. Your little, anonymous composer would have to transpose them up a bit if I were to become the lead and who even knows if you'll be able to find them or get that done in time."

"Miss FG would be able to organize that and you'd still kill it, no doubt," Ben immediately countered, earning him an exasperated expression, "Come on, Mal. Please! You know how much I wanna do this, but I don't want it to pull me away from time with you for so long."

Mal closed her eyes, knowing her resolve started to break at the charming words and trying to rebuild it (So she was a big softie at heart. Sue her). However, the athlete caught the moment of weakness and jumped at it.

"I'd really like for you to be a part of the play, Mal," Ben continued, "I really wish you hadn't made me pull this card, mainly because I wanted it to be a nice surprise instead of some form of bribery, but there was the name of a certain gorgeous brunette we know on the sign-up list."

The blonde compressed her lips and closed her eyes again, shaking her head, before she finally said with a reluctant smile, "You little fucker. That was a nasty play."

"So?" the boy drew out the word hopefully, despite already assuming the answer.

"I hate you so much," Mal continued to deny giving any real confirmation as her eyes remained glued to her sketchbook, but that statement was enough verification.

"I love you too!" Ben exclaimed excitedly, bringing his girlfriend back into his arms so that she was comfortably lying across his chest.

"You're such an idiot," the girl laughed, placing her drawing stuff aside onto the coffee table as it didn't seem like she was going to be getting any more work done on it, "Seriously though, I'm not auditioning for the lead. Not only is the vocal range thing true, but I'm not the trained dancer that you and Carlos want or need and I'm no actress. Jay told me he and his family are doing set design. I'll sign up for that. I can paint shit and stuff."

"Works for me. I'm just happy we're doing this together," the student body president easily agreed.

"Well, I can never seem to deny you or our girl anything, can I?" Mal rhetorically asked.

"You and me both, babe," Ben stated, "Who could ever deny her anything though?"

"Very true," the blonde concurred, "God, I wish we could call her our girl and actually be able to mean it that way."

"You and me both, Mal," the boy repeated in a slightly sadder tone.

Just then, the front door opened and Ben's parents, Adam and Belle, walked in with groceries. The younger couple immediately got up to help.

"Ah, thank you, guys," Belle said as the four of them began to put stuff away, "Mal, honey, are you staying for supper?"

"I'd love to, but, uh, my dad's gonna be home tonight," Mal answered.

"Of course. Next time?" the older woman asked.

The blonde nodded.

"Hey, guess what I just did," Ben spoke to his parents, "I convinced Mal to sign up for the school play."

Adam's eyebrows rose in shock and he jokingly commented, "Oh, you must be a miracle-worker."

Mal smirked at her boyfriend's dad and shook her head, trying not to laugh.

"And how exactly did you pull that off?" Belle asked, then paused in playful hesitance, "Wait, do we wanna know?"

"Wha—Oh my god. No. Mom, no. That's—I—We didn't—I-I'm so not talking about that part of our relationship with you guys yet," Ben stuttered, blushing heavily, while the others just laughed at his very flustered state, "I just used my skills in persuasion—"

"Evie signed up," his girlfriend unabashedly revealed.

The two adults "oh"'d and "ah"'d in realization.

The couple felt no need to be ashamed about their incomplete throuple. For one thing, it was their own lives and they could be with whomever they wished to be with, no matter what others believed.

It really helped though that Ben's parents, Mal's father, and all of their friends respectfully accepted them and the different aspect of their relationship. They truly believed in the statement that "love is love," so everyone whose opinions mattered to them supported them.

They also all knew about their mutual crush on a certain Evie Grimhilde. Incredibly kind, very intelligent, and drop-dead gorgeous Evie Grimhilde.

She was in the same grade as them (a junior) and they would be considered friends, one would suppose. Not close friends, but definitely more than just acquaintances or classmates. They also had a lot of friends in common. Ben's very first friend in fact was Evie's best friend and one of Mal's best friends' boyfriend was Evie's neighbour and very first friend.

The three knew each other through a common, weekly activity as well. Every Tuesday evening at their high school (with permission of course), Ben and his family, including Mal, and a couple of their friends, including Evie, conducted a nonprofit event where they'd organize activities for children (Yes, Mal was good with kids. Never judge a book by its cover). It was primarily targeted for less fortunate kids who didn't have as many opportunities for hobbies and recreation. However, all children were welcome of course.

They showed movies in the business room (it was like a mini auditorium), played games, played sports out on the field or in one of the gyms (depending), played modified sports, did crafts, etc. They even did tutoring.

It was a chance for children to socialize, have fun, get homework help if they needed it, keep themselves busy and out of trouble, and let the parents have a little, weekly break. It was basically like a youth group, but without a religion being incorporated into the activities.

Ben and his parents circulated the centre and kept an eye on everything while Mal usually did arts & crafts, luckily for her, in the same classroom where Evie ran story/reading time just a couple feet away. Sometimes, they'd even join each other's activity and Mal really liked it whenever that happened.

The brunette girl was so great with kids. She truly cared for them and was an amazing role model. She made each and every one of them feel special and seemed to always know what to do and say with them in any given situation.

And the kids loved her right back. They thought she was "so fun and smart and pretty as a princess" (They weren't wrong). Ben's and Mal's hearts couldn't help but melt when watching this.

They loved being around Evie, learning how incredible she truly was, despite still knowing very little about her, personally. She emitted an absolutely alluring aura and Mal and Ben were completely helpless to it, not that they minded nor tried to resist it.

They'd have asked the girl if she'd be interested in completing their relationship by that point if not for one thing that was in the way.

"Is she not still dating that Tremaine boy?" Adam questioned curiously.

That was the one thing.

"Oh, no. She is for God knows what reason," Mal answered, annoyance and disdain creeping into her at the mention of the boy, "She deserves way better than that freaking douchebag."

Yes, Evie was in a relationship with Anthony motherfucking Tremaine and had been since just about the beginning of them being in high school, which was the primary reason as to why the couple hadn't approached the girl with their request yet.

However, Evie deserved so much better.

As mentioned before, she was essentially all-around amazing. Her boyfriend, though, wasn't. He was an absolute asshole, to put it lightly. He was athletic, admittedly pretty attractive, and averagely smart, but he was standoffish, selfish, competitive, prone to jealousy, possessive, sketchy, and overly aggressive, especially in sports.

He was on the football team with Ben and he often got carried away and ended up hurting someone, whether a teammate or an opponent. Mal had almost charged him, if not for her friends holding her back, when he'd once nearly dislocated her boyfriend's shoulder from a particularly rough tackle during a simple practice.

"Completely off the record, you're right. She's a wonderful girl and he's just a little…" Belle commented in an almost secretive manner.

"Douchebag?" Mal helpfully supplied with an encouraging expression for the older woman, who simply chuckled and shook her head at the girl's amusingly graceless and unabashed swearing.

The second Anthony had injured their son, Belle and Adam had naturally decided they didn't like him. However, since Adam was the principal and Belle was the librarian of their school, they had to remain professional and objective. As parents though, they weren't ashamed to admit that they couldn't stand the little asshole.

It was a little surprising though that he was such a jerk. His entire family was absolutely fine. His parents were lovely; he had an apparently sweet, little, five-year-old sister; and he had two cousins within his age range who were also great kids. So what went wrong with him?

"I agree. Every single time I pass that girl in the halls or see her on Tuesday nights, she smiles brightly at me, greets me, asks me how I'm doing. Very few teenagers nowadays do that unprompted, no offence," Adam added, "And every time I see him, he's always got a scowl on his face and he clings to her as if he's her personal bodyguard, which makes that poor girl's smile go away. People should protect, not shelter, each other."

"That's the professional way of saying that he's possessive and overly jealous, right?" Mal rhetorically questioned, "You're both right though. He doesn't let any other guy get within five feet of her and he has this constant need to show everyone that they're dating, even though it's completely unnecessary at this point in their freaking two-year relationship."

"Anyway, how is the play going so far?" the principal asked curiously, avoiding having anything even more catty said than what had already been.

"Nice segue," the blonde joked.

"It's going really well," Ben answered, all of them disregarding his girlfriend's usual sarcastic remarks, "Miss FG's awesome. She knows when to make executive decisions and when to let us students decide on things. She's also really nice and obviously has some great ideas herself. I wish I had her as a teacher, but unfortunately, I don't take drama or vocals. Maybe next year, if I can fit it into my schedule.

"Mal's friend, Carlos, signed up for head choreographer, which is a real win. He's legitimately the best dancer in the school. He's been dancing basically since he was born and he's trained in breakdancing, hip-hop, modern, jazz, tap, and ballet. His younger cousin, Diego, is gonna help him and us out too. He's gonna be co-choreographer and a dancer.

"Mal's other friend, Jay, and his family and the Badun Brothers signed up to do set work and now so has Mal. Aziz, Jay's older half-brother, wants to go into, like, design or something like that, so he's gonna conceptualize and sketch everything out. Jay and Jade, his cousin, recently just won a team construction competition, so they're gonna build the sets. Harry and Jace Badun know how to incorporate some tech tricks for cool effects into the sets. And then Mal's the best artist I know, so she's gonna paint them.

"My friend, Doug's, gonna do sound and Clay Clayton's gonna do lighting because, well, who else knows that stuff like they do? We still need at least one more person to help Jay's other cousin, Jordan, out with wardrobe. And Dizzy Tremaine is gonna do hair and Freddie and Celia Facilier are gonna do makeup. And then all of the people auditioning, including Evie and Audrey.

"Then there's just one more thing: the music. It's all already written, recorded, and ready, but I just wish we knew the name of the anonymous composer of our songs. We'd credit them because they're so awesome."

"Wow! That's a lot of talent! This is gonna be a great show!" Belle enthused, "Does Miss FG know the identity of your songwriter?"

"She does, but she's respectfully keeping their name between herself and that person," Ben answered.

"I wonder why that is. Who wouldn't want their name on their brilliant work?" his mother pondered aloud.

"Well, some people are scared their stuff will flop, so it could be a way to protect themselves. Or they're too shy to put their real name out there. Or maybe they don't care about the recognition themselves. They don't want their name and reputation to be the centre of attention, just their work. Or they had to do it secretly for some personal reason," Mal nonchalantly listed off some possibilities, which earned her some suspicious and curious looks.

"Oh my god, guys! Chill! It's not me! I swear! Like I'd ever. I just watch a lot of TV and movies. Besides, my thing's art, not really music. Cinderella isn't even my style, even if it is a really great original version that my wonderful boyfriend wrote and is directing," the blonde explained, adding the extra sweetness to ensure she didn't accidentally insult her boyfriend and all of his hard work, "I just know the feeling. My mom has always hated that I wanna become an artist, so when I was younger, I used to use a fake name for my work until my dad took full custody of me and I stopped caring what she thought."

The other three nodded in understanding, then Adam said, "Well, maybe this person will reveal their identity once the play's over."

"I hope," Ben responded, "I'd love to give credit to whoever credit is due."

"Ohhh, look who's getting into the spirit of Cinderella, my Prince Charming," Mal flirted with her boyfriend.

"Wait, aren't I always Prince Charming?" the brown-haired boy played along.

"Mm. 24/7," the teenage girl sarcastically retorted.

"Well, I got you to join the play," Ben pointed out with playful arrogance.

"Oh, yeah, that reminds me. I quit," Mal joked.

"Too late. Your commitment is legally bound now," the athlete quipped, kissing his girlfriend on the cheek.

"Funny. I don't remember signing any 'legally binding' contract yet," the blonde continued.

"Two witnesses," Ben countered, motioning towards his parents.

"Who weren't present on the scene at the time of the alleged confirmation," Mal stated.

"Mal," the brown-haired boy sighed.

"Kidding. Kidding, love. I'm kidding. I'm still gonna help you because you are my Prince Charming," the shorter teenager reassured her boyfriend, returning a kiss to his cheek.

Ben grinned and hugged the girl, feeling even more excited to start really working on this play. He just hoped Evie would get in for whatever part she's planning on auditioning for.

They couldn't wait to spend more time with their crush and to get to bond with her more deeply. They knew they were already falling for her, but maybe she'll actually end up reciprocating their feelings towards both of them. Maybe she'll finish things with her horrible boyfriend, so that they could have a chance to show her that she deserves so much more. Maybe they'll finally be able to fulfil their incomplete relationship with the only girl they'd ever found and fallen for just as deeply as they'd fallen for each other.

AN: So obviously the play in my story is going to be basically a live theatre version of the movie that Sof was in of the same title. So far, I don't envision my story being too difficult to understand without having already seen the movie, but I would still recommend because Sof's absolutely adorable in it.

Anyway, thanks for reading!