Chapter Text
Riddle was exhausted.
Who knew that babysitting a bunch of freshmen could be so tiring? Riddle had a lot more respect for Trey’s ability in keeping his younger siblings in line all the time. He had second thoughts leaving his two troublemaker first years back in that hallway, but at the same time he was glad that they had refused to follow him back to the dorm.
He felt like he was about to collapse.
He had trudged up the stairs, clutching his side as he went. He hadn’t mentioned it to any of the first years, but one of the blows he thought he had managed to dodge had managed to hit his side rather hard. He’d probably be fine though. The pain that was now taking over his side was just from the lack of an adrenaline rush. Probably. It hadn’t even managed to cause damage to his school uniform.
He'd be completely fine tomorrow.
He tried to remain as quiet as he could. It was already past curfew and Riddle was not particularly in the mood to be called a hypocrite again today. The whispers he heard as he left the cafeteria had left him feeling sick to his stomach. He knew it was his fault for not paying attention to the time, but he was also the one who punished those who broke the rules. How was the punisher supposed to become the punished?
He had spent the rest of his afternoon classes trying to think of a way to punish himself for breaking one of the Queen’s rules. He came up with absolutely nothing. At least, he didn’t until Ace and Grim both tried getting out of window-washing duty. While the freshmen probably viewed his offers of help as his way of being benevolent, letting them off lightly… his offer was just his way of punishing himself. Washing windows, especially ones as tall as the ones at Night Raven College, would be no easy task and thus the perfect punishment for himself.
After ten minutes of shuffling up the stairs, trying to be quiet and to not aggravate his side any more than he already had, he finally arrived at the door to his room. For the first time, Riddle cursed having the Housewarden’s bedroom be on the third floor. But, that’s where it always has been so it wasn’t like Riddle would go and change it. Heartslabyul didn’t need renovations.
He opened the door and looked longingly at his bed, wishing he could just fall into it and pass out, he knew he couldn’t. There was still the hour of study time he needed to complete before eating, then he could have a quick dinner, and then he had to write up a plan for Klee’s lunchtime tutoring session tomorrow. Then he could finally sleep. He looked at his clock. 21:17 it read back.
He brought out his phone and set an hour-long timer, turning down the volume so its rings wouldn’t disturb anyone who was sleeping or studying. He pushed his laptop away so he could make room for his textbook and notebook. Honestly, his mother probably wouldn’t have approved of that academic purchase if he hadn’t told her that all his papers and most of his graded assignments had to be turned in electronically. She had responded back that he could always use a computer from the library until he told her about how some of his teachers preferred online quizzes to written ones. So, she had picked out a laptop that had great battery life and not much else and had it charged to the credit card she had given Riddle for ‘anything educational’ he might need to buy while away at school.
He had no doubt that the freshman of his dorm would call him crazy for studying on the first day of school. He wouldn’t even blame them for thinking so. Today was a ‘Welcome Back – here’s what we’re covering this semester’ day with a bit of review for Sophomores. Still. He had been studying every day since he had returned to school a week ago to prepare for the incoming freshmen and just because tonight had gotten him a bit – a lot – off schedule was no reason to skip studying.
I don’t think I’d survive another summer of mother’s non-stop tutoring…
His mother had not been satisfied with his final exam scores, despite them being higher than his mid-term scores.
It’s fine. She just wants the best for you. You shouldn’t complain…
Riddle shook his head, trying to focus back on his work. He didn’t want to waste his study time getting lost in his own thoughts. He needed to read this passage and take notes on it before Wednesday, since it would be about the topic of discussion. Most would leave it until Tuesday night, but Riddle didn’t believe in procrastination.
He managed to focus for the rest of the study session, but by the time his phone rang, he was well and truly starving. It was a good thing he had scheduled planning for Klee’s tutoring sessions for after dinner.
He stood up, wincing at the pain at his side which had dulled down while he had been studying. He guessed it was still too fresh a wound to stop hurting completely. Riddle winced at the fact that to eat, he’d have to walk back down three flights of stairs.
I wish the Queen of Hearts allowed food in the dorm rooms, Riddle thought.
He exited the room and trudged back downstairs. It was now nearly ten-thirty, a truly horrendous hour in his mother’s opinion. His mother always had him going to bed at nine at the absolute latest, since he would often have to be up by seven anyways, and she had cited multiple health and wellness research articles about how children his age needed at least ten hours of sleep. However, Night Raven College had a curfew of ten o’clock at night, since that’s when the library closed, and most dorms had an actual ‘lights out’ policy by eleven.
As a Housewarden, it was his job to be available at almost all hours, so while rare, there were instances where someone came to his room at two in the morning to ask him questions about their homework that they just didn’t understand. He always helped, then collared them for the night since they really should have been doing their homework earlier and went back to bed. But it had ended up screwing up his sleep schedule.
That had been difficult to hide from his mother over the summer.
Ten minutes later, Riddle found himself in the Heartslabyul kitchen and contemplated what to eat. Perhaps Trey had left him something in the fridge? If not, he probably could have that healthy cereal…
He opened the door to the fridge and squinted inside, eyes unused to the bright light. He stared for a moment, then took a step back and blinked. He looked back at the fridge.
There. Sitting on the Shelf.
Was a tart that had clearly had a slice removed.
WHO HAD DARED TO STEAL THE QUEEN’S TART?
Immediately, Riddle’s thoughts turned to his two troublemaking first years. Hadn’t he told them to their faces as he left, do not eat the tarts in the fridge? Ace had even acknowledged him!
He took out the tart, inspecting it closely. While a tiny slice, the fact that the tart had been broken into was incredibly annoying, not to mention it meant that it could no longer be used for the Unbirthday party on Thursday!
Trey was incredibly meticulous about his way of making tarts for the Unbirthday party. Normally, he’d make them a few days in advance, putting them in the freezer for a day or two to let everything firm up properly and then taking them out the day before, putting them in the fridge to let them defrost properly.
Trey must have made these tarts today. Though… why didn’t he put them in the freezer?
He opened the freezer and observed the inside. It was filled to the brim with… dinosaur chicken nuggets? What?
He brought out his phone and sent a text to Trey.
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@t.clover |
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Trey |
I guess I’ll just lecture everyone tomorrow morning. Riddle sighed. He looked back into the fridge and contemplated his choices for dinner. He didn’t want to steal the dinosaur chicken nuggets from the student who had requested them – that would just be rude – and he wasn’t exactly in the mood to cook (and he wasn’t that great at cooking – for some reason his mother had not deemed cooking as a valuable life skill?)
However, that’s basically all that there was to eat. Food that would need to be prepared, dinosaur chicken nuggets, and of course, the ruined tart.
Well, it might not be good enough to present at the Unbirthday Party now… but I see no reason to let this tart go to waste. Not that Trey would – he’d more than likely just add it to the after-school homework snacks that are always available in the lounge.
He had to babysit a bunch of first years today. He deserved the sugar.
(Not that they were all that younger than him. Had he not been born the month that he had, he would have been their classmate this year.)
He analyzed the tart. It was probably too big for him to eat it all by himself. But something in him… he just wanted to take a fork and eat it straight out of the baking dish. He slapped both of his cheeks and shook his head.
What was he – insane? That means that he would then be contracted to eat the entire dish himself – and it was enough sugar and calories to give his mother a stroke.
Just because she’s not here to see you, doesn’t mean you should break her rules, Riddle. He scolded himself. Mother knows best. She says sugar is bad for you, especially in large quantities. You make exceptions for yourself when there’s an Unbirthday party, since the rules of an Unbirthday clearly state that the dishes should be sweet! But you cannot eat this entire tart by yourself. You shouldn’t even be thinking of eating a tart for dinner! It’s a dessert item!
Riddle recovered the dish in the plastic wrap that Trey had wrapped around it and placed it back in the fridge. He walked to the panty and pulled out the healthiest cereal they had: a multi-grain cereal with dried fruit and poured himself a bowl. He ignored pouring milk into the bowl. He ate quickly. He still had a lot of work to do, and all these mini crises he was having today were not helping.
He quickly washed the bowl with warm soapy water, then the spoon. He then put them on the drying rack and trudged back up the stairs to his room.
Now all he had to do was plan out Klee’s lunchtime tutoring session. Then he could go to bed. Azul and he had done some cursory planning the night before, but ultimately had just hammered out the schedule. They were lucky that Klee had chosen extracurriculars that matched up so well to their schedules. He was a bit annoyed that Azul had insisted that their joint tutoring sessions be held at the Mostro Lounge though. Didn’t he realize that he scheduled the Equestrian Club’s meetings on Wednesday because Riddle could always count on Floyd being busy at basketball practice… at least nine times out of ten?
Or he did realize. And just didn’t care. Sounds about right for Azul.
The library would make more sense. That’s where I was planning on holding Klee and I’s Saturday sessions, at least. Oh, I also should plan for Saturday as well…
He sighed. Normally he found tutoring enjoyable. While people did complain about how strict he could get, they couldn’t deny that he did help their grades. But normally, people presented what they couldn’t understand on a silver platter, making Riddle’s job rather easy. Here? Riddle had to figure out how to teach someone a different language.
Sure, he was fluent in it, but learning a language and tutoring – no, let’s be honest – teaching a language were two very different things.
He re-entered his room and brought his previously ignored laptop out. He brought up the top-rated search engine up and searched for easy Japanese worksheets. He’d probably start with… vocabulary? That’d give him a place to start.
While he waited for the page to completely load in – apparently the Wi-Fi of the dorm wasn’t as terrible as he thought, it was just his laptop being terrible – his eyes got drawn to an ad that had shown up. There was some sort of green bird that seemed to be speaking: Learn Japanese Today! Download now!
Hmm, now that he thought about it, one of those language apps would be good for days where they didn’t give Klee in-depth lessons. Plus, Riddle and Azul had to make Klee at least conversational in Japanese by the time the Inter-Dorm Spelldrive Tournament came around.
Oh, which reminds him… didn’t Azul offer to be the head of the planning committee for that event last week? That might interfere with Azul’s ability to always be available for Klee’s tutoring sessions… No matter.
There was one problem with those language apps, however. They required a cell phone. Specifically, they required a smartphone. And they weren’t exactly cheap. Riddle had only gotten his current phone after one of his classes last year insisted on using this one site that could essentially be described as online competitive trivia. It was effective for review, but Riddle’s competitive spirit had been stoked by the fact that his laptop made it harder to answer the questions both due to its shaky internet connection and because it took longer for the mouse to travel across the screen compared to just using his fingers on a touch screen. Getting third place during one of the review sessions was enough for Riddle to justify to himself using his mother’s credit card to buy himself the cheapest phone he could. It didn’t have service since he didn’t think he’d be able to hide a monthly payment from his mom, but it could connect to the internet and there were various chatting apps that his fellow housewardens used and they were the main ones he ever texted anyways.
And if he needed to call someone, he still had the flip phone his mother had sent him to school with, since she at least agreed that he needed some form of communication given the long distance between the Queendom of Roses and Sage’s Island.
Hmmm, perhaps Vil would be able to acquire Klee a phone? He was a famous actor and model, so money probably wouldn’t be too much of an issue for him. If Vil couldn’t solve this, then Cater might have an old phone that might work… and Kalim would also be a likely candidate for being able to get Klee a phone.
He picked up his phone and opened a private message with Vil in Magicam.
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@vil_schoenheit |
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Vil Schoenheit |
A few minutes later, Vil sent him a photo. It was a screenshot of his conversation with Leona.
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@leona |
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leona kingscholar |
Well, Leona seemed to agree to that rather easily…
With that problem solved, Riddle finished up his lesson plans and downloaded a few worksheets off the internet with intentions to print them out in the library in the morning. He looked at the time – 23:54. He winced. He’d only be getting about six hours of sleep. He shut down his laptop and quickly changed into his pajamas, hitting the lights.
It was difficult to get comfortable, mainly due to his side. There was a sharp pain when he tried laying down in a way that put even the slightest bit of pressure on it. He shifted and the pain dulled away. He closed his eyes and drifted off.
~Klee's Adventures in (Twisted) Wonderland~
Riddle groaned as he opened his eyes, waking up moments before his alarm went off. He gasped in pain, clutching his side. Well, it certainly didn’t hurt that much yesterday…
Well, that’s something to think about later, he decided. I have to go find a tart thief.
He got dressed in his uniform, taking an extra moment to tie his tie. He stared into the mirror for a moment, then untied it and retied it into a bow. Perhaps Vil and Lilia were right about the bow suiting those who were currently shorter in stature than average.
He put his magic pen into the pocket of his blazer and put on his gloves. He exited the room and found that most of the dorm had already been awakened, many groaning about the early morning meeting in the lounge. Oh, perhaps Trey had sent out a notice? Riddle was sure he hadn’t. He was preoccupied with his tutoring plans.
“C’mon, why are we having a meeting so early…” he heard Ace Trappola groan, leaning lightly against Deuce Spade who looked just as tired. “It’s like, 6:30. Classes don’t even start for another two hours.”
Riddle entered into the lounge, the room immediately growing quiet.
“Last night, I discovered a crime scene in the kitchen.” Riddle said. “Someone ate one of the Queen’s tarts.”
Deuce blinked. “Huh?”
“This is a grave crime indeed. Rule 89 is very clear that a tart must never be eaten without the permission of the Queen. And in Heartslabyul, that’s me.” Riddle explained. “However, it’s the start of the year so I’ve decided to be a little… benevolent, I suppose. It’s possible the rules might have gotten muddled over the summer or perhaps it was a freshman who hasn’t had time to memorize all the Queen’s rules yet.”
Whispers started flying around the room, many about who they thought might have done it.
“I will give the culprit a chance to repent and fix their mistake by replacing the tart they ate. Rule 53: Stolen items must be replaced. They must bring a fresh tart to the Unbirthday party on Thursday, and I must stress that you must make the tart yourself. I will know if it is store-bought. If they do this, I’ll forgive their mistake. HOWEVER, should I discover the culprit before Thursday or if they do not repent and I figure out who they are –” Riddle stared into Ace’s eyes as he said this, noting that he looked a bit scared. “ – Know that my punishment will be swift and merciless. That is all.”