Chapter Text
“Ah man, we both guessed wrong on that last one,” I sighed despondently before quickly checking my Magicam again. Even though they were a pain in the neck to wear, our ceremony uniforms had flare sleeves which were perfect to hide my phone while I casually type up a post with one hand or just sneak a peek at the next celebrity’s hot gossip news.
Today’s opening ceremony ended rather late and only just minutes passed before we finally were able to head back to our dorm for the tea party. Still, I was hoping my quick fingers and countless hashtags would’ve produced a fresh batch of charms on my post and new misfits. Something like this should’ve exploded on the Magicam by now. I see so many of the similar hashtags going around - #NRC, #NoMagicAccepted, #omg, #BIGGESTNewsYet, #NonMagicFighting!, #RaccoonFire, #DarkMirrorScrewedUp. I wondered how many other students had posted the same thing. Though no matter what, I do have an advantage over them for one specific thing.
“It’s lucky I got front rows for the entire action,” I continued as I reopened on my latest post. It was a close-up of the non-magic who somehow got chosen by the Dark Mirror. Unfortunately, we didn't get to find out what happened to her after that raccoon burned the entire room, but since it was obviously a mistake that she was here, the headmaster will probably just send her back home. I kind of wish I had the chance to get her Magicam account info. She was cute in a petrified Queen of Heart’s white rabbit sort of way. The quick shot I took was a bit blurry, so her face wasn’t as clear as I want it to be. Not even filters were able to help.
“Make sure you don’t let Dorm Head Riddle hear you or it’s off with your head,” Trey warned, walking next to me and keeping a careful eye on the newbies following us. As the vice dorm head, he was way more lenient about the rules but not so much as to give my comments a pass.
“Okay, okay,” I mumbled as I continued to play on my phone. This time I checked Vil’s Magicam account. As one of his 5mil+ misfits, I was eager to see what the Pomefiore dorm head had posted. However, to my disappointment, there was no mention of what happened minutes ago. Not even a small post. The most recent was a simple and formal post about Night Raven College's opening ceremony, which already generated more than 30,000 charms. Maybe he was too busy with his own dorm’s ceremony for tonight. He probably will have something up tomorrow. If I can get his hashtags, I’ll add that to my post. It should generate more charms if I had them there.
“Cater,” Trey said in a tone that said he had been repeating my name to get my attention, and I jerked my head up. “Don’t forget. I won the guessing game, so you have to take care of the new students.”
“Right, right… Urgh, I can’t believe Pomefiore snatched up that cute new student with purple hair… I would’ve won if I got that one right,” I grumbled with my eyes glued right back to my Magicam account post. Only one new charm since I last checked. What’s taking it so long?
“Cater…” Trey raised an eyebrow, and this time, I sighed and nodded before slipping my phone back into my pocket.
Even though he acted like my two nagging sisters at times, I get where Trey was coming from. Our dorm head may look like a cute hedgehog, but he was actually super terrifying, especially when it came to all these rules and stuff. Nothing was worse than having that metal heart-shaped collar around your neck and your magic cut off for a week, all because you forgot to add two cubes of sugar to the after-meal tea.
In a way, me and Riddle were the complete opposite. He was one of the only few guys from this decade who doesn’t have a Magicam account or use any social media platform - probably a good thing too given what people had said about him online. But I don’t complain about the tedious things he made us do in order to follow the Queen of Hearts' rules. I mean, I don’t want people to see me as the grouch who kept complaining about everything. Everybody knew me as the more go-with-the-flow kind of guy without a care in the world, and I preferred to keep that image.
On the other hand, Trey does as he was ordered more out of guilt whenever Riddle was being a bit unreasonable. I know the two used to be childhood friends, but I never asked what happened to make them act so distant now. If I had to guess, I assumed Riddle's renowned family didn't approve of him hanging out with a commoner like Trey, and they just grew apart as they got older. Anyways, I just don’t see the point of stirring up unnecessary trouble – especially against someone who is definitely more OP than me. I've learned early on that it was better if everybody just kept their head down and do as their told. It saved everybody from those awkward dinner moments.
As I refocused on my job, I couldn’t help grin at the newbies. Clearly, this opening ceremony definitely exceeded their expectations, so they pretty much were ignoring us upperclassmen and just chattering about what happened tonight. I hope they learn really quickly about keeping their mouths shut when Riddle was around. Because, if not, it’s off with their heads.