Chapter Text
Viney runs her fingers through Puddles’ soft downy coat, smiling to herself as she half-listens to whatever Jerbo and Barcus are discussing. Something about the theoretical uses of using an abomination to tend to brew potions. The healer isn’t interested and is coating bandage wraps with the magic salve she created in her last healing class. She’d have to find Emmy after her healing class and force her to sit still so that Viney could wrap her leg. Big ol’ dummy refuses her keep the healing glyphs on because they’re “itchy”. The bandages should be less of a problem, the glyphs don’t make contact with the skin and instead increase the effects of the salve. She’d just have to corner the other girl long enough to get the bandages on her. Viney hums to herself in thought: Emmy meets her when she’s leaving Salves and Concoctions sometimes-
“Viney? Hey, Viney!”
“Wroof!”
Viney’s head jerks up at her friends’ calls and she feels her cheeks heat up with a flush. The girl smiles guilty, “Sorry. What were you saying?”
“We’re heading to class now because we have projects that we need to work on. Do you want us to help you to your S and C? Your teacher won’t let you keep Puddles with you, right?”
“Aw I’ll be okay,” Viney waves off their concern with a smile. “Puddles can still walk me there- they just can’t stick around. Poor Puddles, you knock over one cauldron and get banned for life,” Viney cooed at her griffin and laughs when Puddles nudges their head against her own. “Go on ahead. I’m going to see if I can catch Emmy before class.”
“Oh, okay! We’d stick around to finally meet her, but we really got to go.” Jerbo looks down at Barcus as he barks and nods in agreement. “Yup, we totally got to meet the girl Viney won’t stop talking about. Make sure our troublemaker doesn’t get into anything.”
“Shut up! I talk about other things!” Viney blushes at Barcus’ disbelieving grumble, “I do! You guys are prying!”
“Just be careful, Vine- this girl’s been avoiding meeting us. Have you even gotten her last name, Viney?”
Viney flushes and turns away, finding comfort in Puddles’ gray form, “You know I suck at names. Besides, Emmy is a really busy person. I’ll ask her when she’s free though.”
It’s a half-truth. Viney has tried to set up a meet and greet, but Emmy always has something going on. Be it something for class, some form of punishment for one of her pranks, or something to do with her siblings, Emmy is not an easy girl to pin down. When Viney does finally get a chance to be with her… well, Viney really doesn’t feel like sharing with her other multitrack students.
“We’re holding you to that, Vine,” Jerbo states, and Viney can hear his puffed-out chest. Viney wants to shake her head at his macho display, but that’d prevent them from leaving.
“Yeah, yeah, okay. Now scram or you won’t have any time to do your projects.”
Viney sighs when she finally hears them take off up the steps and rubs of Puddles’ neck, smiling when the griffin warbles happily.
“At least you don’t ask a bunch of questions,” she mutters to her griffin and scratches its chin. “Dumb boys.”
“Boys what?”
Emmy’s lilting voice drifts through the empty entrance and Viney perks at the sound. Viney jerks to her feet and grips at Puddles’ wing as she stumbles her way down the stairs. Puddles squawks as they tumble forward under the sudden shift in weight. A hand grips Viney’s arm and another grabs Viney’s uniform by the belt. Emmy huffs as she yanks Viney back into a standing position.
“Geez beautiful; I get that you like me, but you don’t need to literally fall all over me,” Emmy teases and pokes Viney’s cheek before stepping in front of Viney so that she can kind of be seen.
“Shut up!” Viney laughs out and waves an arm in Emmy’s general direction. A sudden softness grazes her palm and Viney grasps at whatever Emmy had conjured. She runs her fingers over the feather’s edges.
“Bet you can’t tell what it is,” Emmy sing songs as she guides Viney back to the steps and sits the both of them on a stair.
“Well… the shape is telling me hippogriff so I’m going to go with that… but you got the texture wrong,” Viney informs with a smug grin. She snickers at Emmy’s offended scoff and feels Emmy’s slim hands graze the feather.
“What?! No way! That trick got me an A on my pop quiz!”
“Yeah, well I doubt your illusion professor has actually touched a real hippogriff. Those are reserved for the senior Beast Keepers- it’s one thing to get pecked at, it’s another to get kicked in the gut. It’s too flimsy for one of its primaries. Here,” Viney grabs Emmy’s hand and runs their fingers over the edges that frayed easily under their touch. “It needs to be firmer and feel smooth, not this fuzzy thing you got going on.”
“Okay, I get it. You’re a huge nerd,” Emmy teases and the softness of the feather disappears with a faint breeze of smoke. “What are you doing out here by yourself, cutie?”
Viney shakes her head at the nicknames. She had finally stopped blushing after the first week of the onslaught of being called cutie. Viney knows that Emmy loved to make people flustered- she calls Luz cutie all the time. Once Emmy didn’t get the reaction she wanted, she started switching to different endearments. Viney loves it as much as she hates it.
“Waiting for you- don’t get smug!” Viney warns because she can feel the smirk growing on her friend’s face. “If you can meet me after my S and C, I have something for your leg.”
“Ugh,” Emmy groans dramatically and drapes her weight onto Viney’s side. “I’m finnneee. It’s just bruised now and only hurts a bit.”
“You cut through your calf muscle and keep tearing off the healing glyphs. These won’t itch, I promise. It’s just a bandage soaked with some magic and a herbal salve. So keep it on, please?”
“Uh, fine,” Emmy concedes. “I know you don’t know what it looks like, but you gotta chill with the big ol’ puppy eyes. It’s seriously unfair.”
The warning bell screams and both girls sulk at the sound. Emira stands and grabs Viney’s hand to rest it on her arm.
“If I may escort the lovely lady.”
“You have a class to get to, too” Viney chides even though she takes a step closer to Emmy and tightens her end of the grip.
“Eh, my class is pretty close to your S and C. Besides, my teacher loves me, and worst case scenario, Ed has to keep up an illusion of me and I get stuck with his crappy notes.”
The two walk the familiar path to Viney’s healing class. When they pause outside the door, a burst of petals grazes Viney’s cheeks. Viney's nose scrunches at the foreign feeling.
“Here you go, darling girl. I’ll find you after your class and you can do your nurse thing.”
“Don’t ditch,” Viney calls out as Emmy leaves her.
“No promises!”
Viney groans and then smiles, even though her stomach lurches in her gut. That makes her pause and palm at her stomach- that’s new. The class is grumbling around her, but she ignores the noise. People are probably just nervous. Screw ups in Healing courses can lead to some wacky side effects. Viney gets an A for her healing bandages, which is good because that means it’s safe to use on Emmy. She’s listening to her teacher’s critiques on the common mistakes made, nose to her paper and a bright light under her notebook making her notes legible enough that she can read them later to her recorder. Apparently some kids tried to mix in some flowers to fix the unideal smell and completely neutralized the effect of the salve. Viney smiles to herself- Emmy’s going to whine about the smell. She’ll huff and puff at Viney, and grumble cutely and still let Viney put the bandages on her.
Sometimes Emmy can be too cute- NOTES! Viney jerks and refocuses. Her stomach twists again. Maybe she’ll ask her teacher to do a health scan after class.
“Viney? You didn’t ditch me, did you?” Emmy calls out as she enters the near empty classroom.
“Emi-” Viney's teacher starts only to be cut off by her student.
“Emmy!” Viney greets loudly and turns her head toward the sound. “I’m coming in a sec.”
“Is something wrong?”
“Well, Viney, you seem fine to me. Eyes closed,” Viney’s teacher instructs as the dark blue circle fades and the glow encompassing Viney glows before dying out. “Nothing wrong with your lungs or your stomach… Are you feeling alright- emotionally that is?”
“Yeah, I think so…” Viney answers and thinks for a moment. “I have a test in my Beast Care class, maybe I’m just weirdly nervous. Thank you, Mrs. Goodwin.”
“Anytime. Now can I help you Em-”
“Nope!” Emmy quickly interjects. “Just here for Viney! Come on, sweet girl- you wanted to play nurse for my leg.”
“Right! Thank you again,” Viney calls out as Emmy grabs her hand and starts dragging her out the door. “What’s up with you?”
“She’s the one that chewed me out for the griffin illusion. Don’t think she likes me,” Emmy breaths out as they start strolling down the hallway. “So, think we could do this somewhere private. Don’t think I want people to see me whining about a bum leg.”
“I guess we can use the Shortcuts Room. Just don’t go barging in there without me- It’s kind of us multitrack kids' sanctuary. Anyone around?”
“Nope,” Emmy answers and yelps when her arm is yanked as Viney bangs on the front of a locker.
It glares at her and Viney apologizes sheepishly. The teeth snap at her before the locker moves to the side to reveal a path that the duo quickly slips into. Emmy whistles appreciatively at the grand room and sits when Viney insistently tugs on her arm. The illusionist rolls up her leggings to reveal the bruising cut and watches as Viney fumbles through her things for her healing bandages.
“Well, I aced my assessment so this should work pretty well.” Viney palms at her friend’s leg, face blushing red slightly. “Sorry if this is weird, but I need to find the cut.”
“Hey, I’ll never complain if it’s you,” Em purrs and laughs when Viney sputtered and coughs.
“I’ll bandage your mouth next,” Viney warns as she finds the cut. That feeling in her stomach is back. A snake swirling in her gut. Her heart beats against her chest like struggling wings. She unfurls the bandage and wraps the cloth around the mostly healed cut with an expert touch. She ties it off with a tight knot. “I wanted to get this to you days ago, but I wanted to make sure I didn’t screw it up and make you break out in warts or something.”
“It’s really fine. Mittens would say it’s what I deserve,” Emmy said as she watches Viney smack a healing glyph onto the bandage. Viney squints against the faint glow as her magic settles into the glyph.
“From the horror stories I hear. Mittens has the right to- what?” Viney asks when Emira bursts out laughing. The sound is sweet in her ears and the hand that grabs her shoulder is gentle. Heat starts to flood Viney’s neck under the hood of her uniform.
“Mittens would send an abomination after you if she ever heard you call her that. Don’t worry, I’d protect you,” Emmy assures, but the sarcastic tint to the words makes Viney shake her head.
“I’m bad with names!” Viney pauses for a moment before continuing. “Um, so… Jerbo and Barcus really want to meet you. If you’re free at lunch?”
“Sorry, beautiful,” Em replies softly and Viney can feel her deflate. “As much as I’d rather be with you, you know I can’t do lunch… I told Ed I’d-”
“I know, I know. Sorry,” Viney interjects. “I know you’re busy. They’re just on my tail about it. I don’t know why they’re so worried… you’re not one of those snobby rich kids who mess with people like me.”
Viney has heard rumors about witches like ,the Blights, or that Boscha girl. Rich kids carry as much trouble with them as they do money. Viney feels a shiver roll down her back just thinking about the horror stories that she’s heard in this room.
“Wait, who’s messing with you?!”
“No one important, Em,” Viney reassures and pats Em’s arm as she stands up and gathers her things. “I just don’t let them get to me. I don't even know their names. Don't worry about lunch. The guys will just have to wait.”
“Well, I can’t complain about keeping you to myself.” Em’s voice states airly and Viney coughs away the dryness in her throat.
That darn stomach lurched up her throat.
“Y-yeah… Come on, if we go through one of the doors it’ll pop us in the illusion hall. I can call Puddles from there.”
“Any time with you is time well spent. Where to, gorgeous?”
Viney feels around for the right door and takes the offered arm. She swallows away the fluttering feeling in her chest. The sloshing of het stomach. She really needs to figure out what’s wrong with her. It’s so distracting.