Chapter Text
It had been a few days since Bill was given the clearance that he could have the choosing of what friends he wanted to have. Through this he has learnt many things that he wouldn’t have known otherwise, one of these things is having a companion.
Having a companion means you are making a lifelong commitment, as not only does a companion serve as a pet but it can also help heighten a witches or demons magic ability. The reason Bill has never known about them was because he is forbidden from having one, as in his fathers words ‘if you need one to heighten your ability then you have no ability at all’.
During Bill’s time at school, he has found several different teachers and even students with a companion, all in the forms of different animals. What seemed the most confusing to him was the ability to actually gain one, there seemed to be many different ways, the most common being them ‘finding you’ as it was put, essentially it can happen at any point in time making it take either be there when you’re born to being on your death bed.
Another way is finding it yourself, this is one of the hardest ways but does have the best outcome. How it works is by trying to use a certain magic tactic and basically using it as a sort of compass, it is as confusing to do as it is to explain it.
Out of the whole group only Jesse and Stan had a companion, Jesse’s was a raccoon named ‘Rags’ due to the fact that when she was found she was laying in old cleaning rags. While Stans’ was a opossum which he named ‘Shanklin the stab possum’ (Shanklin for short obviously) for reasons only Stan seemed to know.
———
The Hexes were out on a grassy field, all of them abandoning their own work to instead spend the study lesson talking about the upcoming festival that the royal family holds every year. “We went for a few years, but we soon just found other plans,” Pyronica states.
“Yeah, l normally skip it but my boyfriend wants to see me, plus they have some of my favourite foods,” Bill responds, looking up from his abandoned workbook only to see the rest of the group's faces staring at him like he had grown a second head.
“Since when did you have a boyfriend?!” Stan yelled probably way louder than he should’ve.
“About 2ish years ago when he asked me out.” Bill was more surprised by the fact that a thing like this wasn’t as popular as it should be, as he knows damn well that over in the kingdom where Adrian lives that the moment they became a couple it was on every paper and channel being advertised.
As time went on the group gained information about Bill and Adrian, but on the other side of the field laid Lucy and her clique. “Why out of everyone in the school did the prince himself choose that group?” Lucy grumbled, she hated how the Hexes had taken the opportunity of having a royal member be friends with her rather than them. She turned around hoping to find her group of friends to agree.
None of them dared to speak out about their personal options on whatever matter Lucy wanted to talk about, all expect for one, “Well you barely talked to him and when you did he was visibility uncomfortable,” Carla spoke out, she was one of the newer members, as only being able to join thanks to her school status as the treasurer for events held by the students.
Lucy glared at her, she had been regretting adding Carla to her group for a while, but could never seem to find the right time. “Takes a lot of guts to speak up to me,” she asserted, her voice remained calm but her tone had a slight arrogance in it. Carla stared at her, she wasn’t scared of Lucy more so the fact that Lucy’s squad is some of the only friends she has, Lucy continued, “let’s make a deal, you get his royal highness over here and we can forget about you speaking out of turn, deal?”
Carla agreed (not like she had a choice) which led her to be in this situation, as she walked over to where Bill sat she began to think of things she could say to get Bill to come with her. Once she got close enough she decided that she would say whatever came to her mind at that moment, “hey Bill, l was wondering if yo- O.M.G IS THAT A OPOSSUM!?” Immediately getting sidetracked to the said animal whose head was stuck in a chip packet, rushing over and crouching down to pet it.
Carla didn’t care that the group was staring at her picking up Shanklin, turning around, finally making eye contact with the rest of the group. “Sorry, what was l saying before..” Carla stopped realising another member of the group that she had forgotten about.
———
Carla had just been transferred from Eggbert High to Gravity Falls High, she didn't want to change schools, she liked her old one, had loads of friends to have none hurt her in a place she couldn’t place.
She had a tour shown around the school by the schools council, Lucy who was the head president, Ivy the vice-president, Sophie the secretary, and Pyronica one of their newest members who was the treasurer, one of the nicest members of the council to Carla by a large margin.
This made them bond very quickly, they would bond over their love for movies, going over to each other's homes to watch whatever low budget films were streaming that day, they didn’t really care for them as they always ended up either talking through the whole thing or sleeping in the first 30 minutes.
Their friendship seemed to last forever, all up until they entered year 9. Neither knew how it happened all they knew is that the other didn’t want anything to do with the other.
———
“Hey Pryo,” Carla spoke with a shaky breath, letting the opossum fall down from her grip to the ground.
“Don’t call me that. Only non-backstabbing bitches call me that, you however are not one.” Pyronica spat, standing up, her face filled with disgust. Carla could only nod and walk away, she knew that whatever chance she could have for speaking to her once dear friend was gone.
Pyronica who was once the main source of chatter among the group was now the quietest one, “l’m going to the bathroom,” it was so quiet you could miss it, her tail was whipping the grass she was walking in making it a mini mower.
“I’ll go check on her,” Bill was the first one to speak up, as he stood he waved at Steve signalling him that he wants to be alone on this, rushing over to the girl who was already half-way to the toilets. Steve stared at him till he saw both Bill and Pyronica together, turning around to face the rest of the boys, “Do you know what happened between them?” he asked, looking at each of them looking for an answer in their eyes.
They all stared at each other, none of them really knew how it happened, “We don’t know she just sat with us one day and we never really asked.” Ford said, fiddling with the pen in his hand. Steve had a visible confused look on his face, but decided not to ask any further questions instead putting his focus into the work that he originally was going to spend his time doing.
———
Once Bill caught up to Pyronica he immediately asked what’s wrong leading her towards a more secluded place, in this case the side of the toilet block, his parents would rip him apart saying that it’s not a place a future prince should be seen in but he could care less about that, all he cared about right now was making sure his friend is okay.
“It’s just that every time l see her it…brings up some bad memories l wish weren’t there,” she says, holding her head in her knees, wiping away some tears forming.“I’m always told by my parents that keeping stuff like that isn’t the best thing to do, and that you should have someone to talk to about it,” he states, “and you and l both know l’m a sucker for drama.”
Pyronica stares at him, she had only known Bill for a few days, yet somehow he was able to make it seem like they were friends since birth. Sighing she reluctantly agrees, but before she does she makes sure Bill won’t tell a soul, not even Steve. “It’s my royal honor to keep this safe,” he replies.
———
Pyronica had been going through a trying time during the year 8, she had gotten a role of the school’s council which came with a lot of responsibilities she had to uphold, mainly covering the school’s budget. She found this quite easy, she was good at maths (more than she would be happy to admit), what she hated was the pushback she had to endure due to her not only being a new member but also a demon.
Many people didn’t like demons for reasons that always baffled them, between witches and demons the only difference they had was their physical appearance, as witches looked like any ‘normal’ person while a demon had a feature that always stood out along with a tail.
Pyronica's appearance wasn’t the boldest that could exist, she had a pink pigment mixed in with her skin, it wasn’t dominant but was noticeable whenever the light beamed into it, she loved how it glowed, not as much as her hair. She loved to have it styled and cut, right now she had it cut into a very nice pixie cut so that with her natural bright pink hair made it make people put their full focus on her. Along with this she also had one eye, it was in the center of her face and had a pink iris, nearly matching her hair in colour.
What seemed to annoy her was the fact that she was the only member of the council to be left out of meetings, only knowing what to do from the notes that would be taken (if there were any). At one of the breaks Pyronica sat in the halls working on the amount of money they would need to pay back after an event that was being held, but she soon got interrupted by someone, “hey, l’m Carla! We met before when you and your friends were giving me the tour,” Pyronica stared at her squinting at Carla before speaking up, “they aren’t my friends,” she continued bluntly, “I just happen to be a part of the same council as them.”
Carla took this as an opportunity to ramble about anything and everything on her mind, Pyronica knew that with her talking right in her ear she wasn’t going to get anything done, so she put her equations she had spent time working out away and turned her full attention to Carla.
Ever since then Carla and Pyronica had been inseparable, up until the last term before the end of the year. Pyro had to take time off of school due to personal reasons she would rather not share, she thankfully was able to return for the last two weeks.
But when she returned she found out that not only had her role been taken but also lost a friend to who replaced it, Carla had presumably talked to Lucy and her group which led to a series of events causing this whole thing to happen.
Pyronica had tried several times to talk to Carla about what happened, but every time she did Lucy would drag her away, while whispering something in her ear. Pyronica hated this, she was standing in the cafeteria, looking around for anyone that might accept her to sit.
She found a table with only 3 boys sitting at, good enough she thought, sitting down and sparking up a conversation with them, hopefully this one goes better.
———
Once Pyronica finished, neither her nor Bill said anything. They both leaned against the wall staring off at nothing in particular, “many other princes treat me like absolute shit because l was born a demon.” Bill said, turning his head towards Pyronica, she returned the look, her eyes now smudged in the once perfect mascara started to well up with tears, Bill wrapped his arms around her as water ran down her face.
After a while the bell had rung, both Pyronica and Bill still stayed behind the block, only leaving when Steve had come to have Bill return home. Before leaving he made sure Pyronica was alright and made it to her last class of the day.
And for once Pyronica was glad someone took the time to let her talk.