Chapter Text
Standing by the gate, I look outside the campus. The trees that dot the expanse of land sway in the breeze, and the air gently buffets my face. I take a moment to close my eyes and take a deep breath and think of nothing. Opening them again, I take a step into the Saturday morning. Grass softly crunching beneath my footsteps, I walk past the courtyard.
I don't really know where I'm actually going, to be completely honest. I mean, it's my fifth year at Watford and all, and you’d think that I'd know my way around by now, but I guess I don't put too much thought into it. I never saw the need to. Now, Baz, he always knew where he was going. Sometimes, in the odd times when he was walking behind me and not the other way around, he would make a big deal out of flat-tiring my shoes and walking around me with a few inaudible words grumbled under his breath. The tosser.
Anyway, I really shouldn't be thinking about Baz. In fact, the reason I'm taking this walk in the first place is because Penelope told me I needed to stop “stalking” Baz. Before I could explain for the umpteenth time that our lives were all at stake until I had evidence to reveal he was a vampire, she interrupted me by pushing me out the door of my dorm and yelled at me to go take a hike. So… here I am. Walking in the grass. Breathing fresh air. Thinking about Baz. To be fair, she never told me not to think about Baz and it kind of is my right to think about whatever I want to think about. But then again, it was probably implied- and she's probably right.
I’m stopped short of my thoughts when I slip and fall flat on my face. Right, they watered the grass on Saturdays. I debate staying in this position for a while, until I hear what I think sounds like bleating at a volume so loud that whatever is making it could have its mouth right in my left ear. Then, I feel something warm and wet tickle the lobe. It is in my ear. My head shoots up.
Two bulging eyes meet mine and the goat that they belong to bleats once again. It's coated in glossy black fur, but a white spot exists just at the bridge of its nose as if someone painted it there.
“Hey there, Billy. How's it going?” I ask him. He lets out another throaty sound.
I notice a pair of sandled feet standing a distance behind Billy. My neck can't crane up high enough to see who it is, so I scramble to my feet. When I look up, I see it's Ebb. I haven't seen her since a couple of weeks ago, now that I think about it. I used to help her out weekdays during my first couple of years at school, but then the Mage started handing me extra piles of spellwork that he thought would help me be a better Chosen One. I'm sure it's for the best and all, but I sure have missed her. Her pale, short, straw-colored hair is tied up in a low ponytail, and her deep brown eyes are looking at me. Her sun-tanned skin is crinkled into a soft smile.
“Simon, what brings you here? I see Billy’s found you. He's always…” her voice trails off as her eyes look down to my shirt. She frowns slightly.
Instinctively, I look down at my stomach. My white shirt is splotched with mud. At least, I hope it's mud. I'm definitely not going to sniff it to find out. If this was anyone other than Ebb, I would probably find the nearest tree and stay there until the coast is clear for me to run to my room. Instead, I look up and shrug. Ebb shakes her head and her lips pull back up into a smile.
“... he’s always following you about. Although, I guess it wasn't too hard this time, you slipping in his poo.” Nope, of course it's not mud.
“It's fine, I'll just go back to my room and switch it out. Not like I haven't gotten myself into this situation during first year,” I tell her. Baz’ll get a kick out of this, I'm sure. Ebb gives a short chuckle through her nose.
“Actually, I think I might have a spare you left by when you helped sometime, if you want. It's somewhere in that shack of mine, I think…” her eyebrows pull together in thought as her eyes break contact with mine and drift somewhere off to the right. Then they come back and she nods. “Yeah, I know where it is.”
“Sounds good.” I grin. Looks like I've escaped ridicule by a certain someone after all.
I pick little Billy up into my arms before following Ebb to her house, which is at the edge of the fields right by the Wavering Wood. She holds the front door open with one hand when we get there, and I close it behind me after putting Billy down outside. Turning around, I see her living room just the way it looked the last time I saw it: a comfy brown fabric sofa is splayed on a handcrafted rug, an old armchair stands in the corner, and a brick fireplace crackles in front of it all. It’s still hard to believe the place was abandoned before Ebb fixed it up during her first few weeks working here, since it’s arguably the coziest quarters at school.
I guess I was just busy thinking again, because before I know it, Ebb is handing me a T-shirt. I take it in my hands and take a look at it. It's a dark blue and it says “Chicago Cubs” on it. It was a gift from Penny for Christmas during third year, which she told me she found at a gift shop while visiting her boyfriend Micah.
“I'm going to go make some tea,” Ebb calls over her shoulder as she walks away.
I strip out of my soiled shirt and change into the one Ebb gave me. Just as expected, it's a little tight, but it's not really uncomfortable. I just hope my ribs don't show through; enough time hasn't gone by yet for me to gain the weight I usually do when I come back to school every year. I don’t let myself worry about that too much, though, because it’s nothing a little more food can’t fix. Speaking of which, I hear my stomach make a noise. Maybe Ebb has some scones to go with that tea.
When I enter the kitchen, the door on the wall opposite of me is hanging open. My hand reaches for my sword. Keeping my fingers close to my pockets, I slowly cross the linoleum flooring and search through the door frame. At first, all I see are rows of tall, towering cedar trees marking the end of Ebb's “backyard”. Then, a flicker of movement catches in my peripheral vision. My eyes rest on Ebb, who is pouring tea from a thermos into two paper cups (she dismisses Styrofoam as a form of dark magic capable of destroying the planet). She's sitting on a red and white striped cloth on the grass, showing no signs of anything being out of the ordinary. Or at least, nothing weirder than it already normally is. My hand relaxes, arms falling to my sides.
As I make my way towards the little picnic spot, I can't help but feel foolish at getting all worked up for nothing. I mean, if I'm supposed to save the World of Mages some day, I could at least refrain from letting the hair on my arms rise up at the slightest discrepancy. Ebb gingerly hands me tea, careful not to let it spill from the rim of the cup. I take a sip. I realize that there's no milk or sugar, but the taste is soft and subtle enough in a way that there doesn't have to be. Just like Ebb. My thoughts are pushed aside as I turn towards her. She's watching me with her well-like eyes.
“How's school?”
I blink when I hear this, but I don't break eye contact.
“It's nice,” I say.
I guess that's one way of putting it. I just don’t know how else to sum it all up. There’s the food, which has been as amazing as ever. My mouth just waters at the thought of stacks of buttermilk pancakes lathered with extra slabs of homemade butter and drizzled with maple syrup for breakfast. And scones- I pause to take a few from the plate next to me, which Ebb has so graciously remembered to take out- with lots and lots of butter too. And cold-cut salami sandwiches, with the plastic-ended toothpicks speared through them and all, and squeezed lemonade to wash it all down for lunch. And tender slices of meatloaf with thick cooked gravy and hand-churned mashed potatoes with pepper, salt, and basil for dinner. Basil. An image of Baz, with the fangs I'm sure he has even though I've never actually seen them, replaces the mashed potatoes. I push it away by thinking of the next thing. There's Penny, who has been by my side always, trying to help me control my magic during class and study for exams at the library after school. But, slowly, the Penny in my memories starts yelling at me to start focusing on the stacks of books in front of us and stop talking about Baz. Ugh. There's Agatha, with her long, straight, platinum tresses, who I've been meeting in the courtyard every morning. Then I start to think of the time when I almost told her how I felt… but saw a flash of shiny black hair and told her to hold that thought before following it discreetly. There's the Mage, who has been giving me more work to do, but has never stopped believing in my destiny. My destiny to overthrow the Humdrum… and Baz. I stop thinking about how the year has gone all of a sudden, desperate to get away from my own head.
I know I've totally zoned out, but the look that Ebb is giving me right now makes me speak immediately.
“The food’s great, and so are Penn and Agatha if you were wondering. Same old, same old- preparing for the inevitable and all that.”
“You know what I mean. How’s school?” she says, pronouncing the last word extra carefully.
Her gaze is suddenly too much for me. My eyes flit to the nearest scone, and I shove it into my mouth and swallow it in a span of about two seconds. I open my lips.
“How did you- No, why should I- See, it’s just that-” the words spill clumsily out of my mouth, tumbling to the grass and tangling in between themselves.
I shut my mouth before any more comes out, knowing full well that this is one of those times I need to pause. I breathe in through my nose and look to Ebb. Her face isn't twisted into disgust like Baz’s gets when I do this with him, and it's not masking a thin layer of rage like the Mage’s does sometimes either. She's not telling me to use my words like they do, either. She's just looking at me with the same soft expression she had on when she first asked the question.
“You know I love Watford?” I start after deciding that I've waited long enough. Her eyes say yes. “You know I love the way that magic lives here. The way I don't feel like I've been wearing a shoe size too big like I do at the care homes. Sure, I'm the Chosen One, which means I'm not exactly the average joe here either, but… Well, none of that's a problem. I'm used to it. That's not what bugs me.” I pause, waiting for her to cut me off the way Penny does. But, she's not Penelope. She’s not going to stop me. And it feels like I've kept this bottled up for a week too many, and it's bubbling and seething up over the top of this metaphorical bottle, ready to boil over right now. The air around starts to get warm and sticky around me. I try my best to ignore it.
“What bugs me is Baz, okay? I've been trying to tell everyone that he's the monster he is, but no one but you will listen. Penny's not having it, Agatha isn't interested, and even the Mage is just telling me to focus on my self improvement instead. It's like no one gives a horse’s hoof about the fact that we are all living among a bloodsucker! And I've devoted nights, nights, to following him around the catacombs without a single piece of proof. I'm so close, but sooo far, and all the while, he's just strutting his posh self about like nothing’s the matter and calling me a bloody idiot! I say, if I’m the Chosen One, why won't anyone listen when I'm right up shoving it in their faces that I'm trying to save them from something?”
By this time, there's static in the air, and I'm standing up and shaking my head furiously. Ebb doesn't seem to notice, though, since she's still lying with her elbows propping her up. She says nothing. I start again, this time lowering my voice to just above a whisper.
“And when I try to stay in my dorm and sleep, I'm afraid he's going to bite me. It's like no one cares about the possibility that my life's in danger, too…”
Sweat is rolling down my forehead now, so I wipe it away from my eyes. I suddenly feel tired, so I sit back down. Silence envelopes the space where my voice once was, but as unsettling as it is, I wait for Ebb to speak.
“Do you really think he would bite you?”
I have no reason to lie to Ebb, so I think about it. Looking back, it was just something I said when I was going off. But, I do know that I feel somewhat uncomfortable with Baz around, and that must be because I'm scared he'll do something. I mean, bite me. I give up trying to reach a conclusion, because it's really just a confused mess right now.
“... I don't know,” I admit finally.
“We all get tired of our roommates, you know,” she spoke. “You might just need a vacation.”
That was an odd thing to say. First of all, in her times of nostalgia, she was always retelling stories about how she became best friends with her roommate at Watford. She couldn't possibly relate to being paired with your ultra-nemesis. Most importantly, she knew more than probably anyone other than the Mage that I didn't have the type of money to travel for leisure. I fight the urge to remind her of this, though, because she doesn't forget things often. There has to be a reason she would suggest such a thing.
“Maybe this would be the perfect opportunity for me to ask you a favor,” she continues. I feel my eyebrows pull together. A favor? “I need to be somewhere this weekend, and I won't be back until Monday morning. I wasn't too sure about asking you earlier, but it seems like you could use a change of scenery. So, what do you say? Take care of the goats while I'm gone?”
“Does the Mage know?” I ask out of impulse. I always ask that question first. When Penny took her new cell phone out of her pocket, when Agatha snuck out of Watford to meet her Normal friends at some bar, when Baz caught me following him into the catacombs for the first time. Just like then, I ask even though I already know the answer. Ebb shakes her head.
“No. He runs a tight ship around here, so there’d be no use asking.”
Ebb looks at me like she knows exactly what she is asking of me. And she does know. She is asking me to do something the Mage would definitely disapprove of without his permission, which I have never done before. It might sound crazy, but the Mage has always been like a father to me. He sends me a present every year on my birthday, and he even negotiates with the council members for me when I feel uncomfortable with a policy they make. He does all of that because he trusts me- and I've always tried my best to uphold that.
And, whether she knows it or not, she is asking me to let go of my fear of leaving Baz alone. Even if it’s only for a weekend, I would have to stay away from my dorm while Baz could be plotting to kill me while I’m gone.
But this is different. This is Ebb. This is the only person here who hasn’t asked anything of me before. She’s never asked me to be the savior that some prophecy has foretold me to be. Somehow, that makes it more important that she's asking me for help now. It's also not like she's asking me to slay a dragon. She is just asking me for a simple favor. A favor that involves me hanging out with my favorite non-human friends.
“...ok. Yeah, sounds good. When do you leave?” I ask, nodding.
“Right now.”
She gets up, giving me one of her rare wide smiles before rubbing her scone-glazed hands on her overalls. Next, she signals for me to get up so she can fold up the blanket. After collecting the cups and cutlery in the basket she brought, I follow her back into the kitchen.
“So, since I figure you're going to need to eat something other than the grass you'll be feeding the goats,” she says hurriedly as she opens the door to her fridge, “there’s potato salad there on the top shelf. Below it’s some turkey sandwiches I made, and there's milk by the door for cereal if you'd fancy some.” She closes the fridge with her hip and gestures to the cabinets around. “Besides that, you now where the tea is. I haven't changed things around too much.”
I nod.
“As for the little ones, guide them to the south fields where the grass is extra thick twice a day, like usual, and they'll be fine. Just make sure not to let Pip get too close to Billy, or they'll find themselves fighting over who has the shiniest coat. Anything I'm leaving out?”
My mind is blank. It was always blank when I had to remember something quick. The clock in the kitchen tick and nothing comes to mind. The worst thing that can happen is me having to find the sugar if it’s misplaced.
“I don't think so. I just need to get some of my things.”
“Perfect. I'll be gone by the time you get back, but the door’ll be open.”
She stands straighter as she finishes this last sentence, and she looks at me with a tilted face. Suddenly, I feel a pair of arms hug me. Just as suddenly, they pull away.
“Take care, Simon.”
“Bye, Ebb.”
I give her one last smile as I turn to leave. Just before the door, I see a fat green and brown striped suitcase on the floor that I haven’t seen before. Probably, because I don’t remember her leaving Watford before. I swing the door open, and the last thing I catch is a letter on top of the suitcase with the word “Nicodemus” scribbled in the corner in unknown handwriting.
As I walk to back to campus I make a mental map of the things I’m gonna take. I also hope to Merlin above that Baz isn’t in our dorm when I get there.