Chapter Text
Deciding who to eat lunch with is the sort of decision Madeleine was often faced with. It wasn’t that he wasn’t popular enough, he definitely wasn’t lacking in that category, and it wasn’t that he was bad company to spend time with. It was more of the fact that he was just too indecisive to pick a routine group.
Today his decision was made for him when the second he walked into the cafeteria he was immediately dragged out of it by none other than one of his senior friends, Sparkling. Madeleine wasn’t all too sure how or why Sparkling had become friends with him, but he had, and Madeleine was grateful for it. Sparkling was the kind of person who could have a good conversation with anyone because of his charismatic personality and charm.
Sparkling continued to drag Madeleine to the outside lunch area and into the corner when two other people were sitting. When they got to the corner, Madeleine recognized them as Herb and Vampire, not surprising considering Sparkling always seemed to be with them.
“So,” Madeleine asked. “Is there a reason you dragged me all the way out here?”
“Yes, actually,” Sparkling said. “I need to warn you about what Mrs. Shortbread is going to do.”
“Oh my witches,” Herb chimes in. “It was so unlike her.”
“It-was-terrible,” Vampire says, his words slightly slurring together as if he was under the influence of something that wasn’t just grape juice.
The three of their reactions to whatever Mrs.Shortbread did scared Madeleine. These guys were usually chill and go with the flow kind, so if they were upset you know it must have been bad.
“She gave us partner projects.” Sparkling says.
“Well that doesn’t seem so ba-” Madeleine starts to say.
“She assigned the partners.” Sparkling interrupts, revealing the real bad news.
Madeleine still doesn’t feel too upset, there’s not really anyone in his class he wouldn’t work well with for a project. He briefly considers Twizly Gummy, the hyper girl in his class who got held back a year, but comes to the conclusion that even she could be a decent partner.
“I still don’t see an issue with that,” Madeleine tells the trio.
“Well good for you I guess,” Herb says, his tone clearly upset. “What she did to our class was horrific.”
“It’s true,” Sparkling agrees. “Me and herb were going to obviously work together but she split us up! Now I have to work with freaking Pomegranate and Herb has to work with Parfait.”
“She-did-the-same-to-my-class-too,” Vampire whines. “Poor Minty-and-Cocoa-got- split-up”
Madeleine finds it a bit strange that Vampire would compare a friendship like Herb’s and Sparkling’s to an obvious relationship like Mint Choco’s and Cocoa’s. Then again it’s all really about being split up with the person you wanted to work with.
“Hey, I forgot to mention,” Sparkling announced. “We’re throwing a party at my house this weekend! We were hoping you could come!”
“YEAHHHH” Vampire yells in excitement. “We’re-gonna-come-out-too!”
Vampire’s excitement falters when he sees the confusion on Madeleine's face and the looks of horror on his now outed partners’ faces.
“Come out?” Madeleine asks. “As in like come out?”
“I-” Herb starts to stutter, clearly embarrassed by the question.
“Surprise!” Sparkling practically shouts, his smile looking forced. “Who would’ve guessed that the three dudes who always hang out together were actually dating!”
Sparkling laughs nervously.
“That’s awesome!” Madeleine says, his response clearly surprising the other guys.
“Seriously?” Herb asks.
“Seriously.” Madeleine confirms.
Just as the word got past his lips the bell rang.
“Well,” Madeleine says as he stands up and starts to walk towards the door that leads to the inside of the school. “I’ll definitely go to that party! See ya later.”