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Edalyn Clawthorne had been on quite the roll lately. Since that stupid convention for dorks she had to go to where she met Raine, things had gotten better. She had been ecstatic when Raine had transferred to the school. They seemed to have something about them that pulled others towards them, since ever since they came, Perry Porter and Darius Deamonne had also started sitting with them at lunch. It wasn’t like they were complete strangers before, Perry sat with Eda for help with his school work sometimes. It was really a win win, Perry was in the oracle track, which meant Eda looking over his notes with him would let her study another type of magic. Darius and her had met in the abomination home room one day when she had snuck in for some material. He was more annoyed at the mess than he was at her breaking into the classroom, and had even helped her find what she was looking for. After that they met up sometimes so Eda could learn from him, and Darius was always glad to show off his skill.
The two of them had started hanging out with Eda, Lilith and Raine more often now that Raine was part of the group. Sometimes Alador and Odalia came along with Darius at lunch, and although Eda wasn’t going to say anything until Odalia or Alador actually said something she, her sister or Raine could take offence to, she wasn’t going to say anything. She had gotten quite close with Darius (and Perry) in the two months since they had started sitting together, but Darius was still close with Alador as well, and it was clear he wasn’t fond of Odalia either.
Eda boredly tapped her pencil against her desk in her potions class, not at all paying attention. She could look at Lilith’s notes later. Eda sighed, not loud enough for the teacher to hear, and looked around for something to entertain herself with. Her eyes eventually landed on the plant on her teacher’s desk. She smirked, discreetly casting a spell circle and aiming it towards the plant when the teachers back was turned. The plant grew to about a metre tall as the petals folded in half and grew teeth to look like a mouth. The teacher shrieked, jumping back to the blackboard as the plant snapped its teeth. Eda snickered at the scene. Unfortunately, it didn’t last as long as she hopped, as someone else cast a spell on the plant, making it return to normal.
“I saw that, Edalyn!” Vice Principal Bump said.
Eda rolled her eyes. “You remember what Snapdragon said, right? She says my potential has to be nurtured. So why can’t I use my potential to give a plant teeth?” She asked.
“Principal’s office, now!” Bump said.
Eda rolled her eyes, leaving the class as other kids snickered as she passed. She had done this so many times she was surprised they still found it funny. Her teacher gave her a death glare on the way out, also nothing new.
She was seated in Principal Faust’s office for the second time that week, feet up on the desk and smirking at the large demon.
“Edalyn, this is the fifteenth time you have been caught mixing magic-“
”Fifteenth? I thought it would be more.” Eda said, playing with a strand of her hair.
“-This month.” Faust finished.
Eda grinned. “Yeah, that sounds right.”
Faust narrowed his eyes. “Detention.” He said.
Eda rolled her eyes. It was nothing new, and it was worth it to see Bump’s reaction to her pranks. “Fiiiiiine.” She said, stretching the word out. “But if im gonna be held prisoner, I am gonna make it terrible for the prison guard.” She said.
Bump sighed, taking charge of the young witch as she followed him to the detention room. she texted her sister over Penstagram on the way over, saying that she wouldn’t be able to make it to lunch, which meant she’d be eating alone that day. Perry had something to do with the school newspaper that he had to attend, Darius was eating with Alador (and Odalia) that day, and Raine had to make up for a presentation that couldn’t bring themself to preform infront of the class.
Hey, Fausty’s got me in detention. Can’t go to lunch. Eda texted.
Lilith sent a thumbs up in response.
As Bump soon found out, Eda was not kidding when she said that her punishment is going to be worse for whoever’s watching her. Eda had been using half-assed spells to clean up, many of which made the situation worse, especially after she got the class bird to start singing in the most high-pitched tone it could.
“Okay, okay! You can leave if you get that stupid bird to cut that out!”
Eda smirked, casting a spell to get the plant to go back to normal, then skipped out of the room. “Great, thanks, Vice Principal B!” She said.
Eda hurried to the cafeteria to find her sister. Eda’s punishment had lasted all of 10 minutes before she annoyed Bump so much he let her go, so she still had quite some time. Looking around the cafeteria, Lilith was not difficult to spot with her bright red, curly hair. Eda smiled and called out to her.
”Lily!” She shouted happily.
Lilith shot up from her previous slumped position and turned around at the sound of Eda’s voice.
“Hey, you will not believe how I got out of-“
Eda looked down at her sister to see her upset expression. Eda always hated seeing her sister upset. She was usually so calm, that seeing her loose her bearings was jarring.
“…What’s wrong?” Eda asked.
“Calder Stelve stole my lunch money.” She said glumly.
Eda’s empathy for her sister was rivalled by her sudden contempt for the Illusion student as she looked over at his smug face. She really wanted to punch him, but if she didn’t at least try to ‘talk it out’, her father would be disappointed. This way, she had a loophole. She marched up to Calder’s table and slammed her hands down.
“Hey Buddy, wanna tell me why you’ve got my sister’s food infront of your face?” She asked.
He gave her a sleazy grin back. “‘Cause I was hungry. Now get outta my face.” He said.
“‘Kay, well, you’re not the only one that needs to eat. So, why don’t you go back over there without any problems, and maybe I won’t give you a black eye.” Eda said.
He laughed. “I don’t think so. Now piss off, unless you wanna fight.” He said, standing up along with his group of friends. They all stood at least a good head taller than Eda, but she was still ready to take them all on, more for her and her sister’s honour more than the food at this point, until Lilith pulled her away from the group, with them snickering behind her.
“Eda, don’t. You just got out of detention- or maybe you escaped- I dunno, but this will get you suspended! Don’t you do anything stupid.”
“Lily, he needs to pay! And you need to eat. So fine, I won’t do anything. So, uh, I’ll be right back. I’ve gotta go.. do something real quick.” She said, giving Lilith the snails that their mother had given her that morning.
Lilith didn’t have time to object as Eda dumped the snails into her hands and bolted off. Lilith sighed. There wasn’t anything she could do about Eda, so instead she just got up to get her lunch. Maybe if she acted like everything was fine, she would discover she had imagined the whole thing.
Eda raced down the hall, only receiving one ‘No running!’ From a teacher. She probably shouldn’t have been going that fast, considering she was scribbling a note down on a notepad. When she finally got to her destination, she knocked frantically on the door. Luckily, the person she wanted to see opened it.
“Eda?” Perry asked. “What’s up? We’re in the middle of our meeting.”
“Hey Perry, listen, I got a tip that there’s gonna be some drama in the lunch room. Rumour has it that Calder Stelve really pissed someone off. Gonna send abominations after him.” She said, giving him the piece of paper. “Someone from your newspaper crew may wanna come get a video.” She smirked.
Perry gasped, taking the piece of paper from Eda eagerly. He grinned. “Whoa, thanks for the tip, Eda!” But was the words were leaving his mouth, something seemed to click for him. “….Wait, how do you know this?”
Eda smirked. “It’s a secret!” She replied, whirling around to run to the nearest door to the outside of the school. It didn’t take Eda long to locate the second part of her plan, after hearing the obnoxious laugh of Odalia. Darius, Alador & Odalia were sitting on the front steps of the school. Odalia was telling something to Alador, and Darius looked like he was just barely refraining from getting up and throwing her in the trash can.
Eda quietly sauntered over to the steps behind them, crouching low before jumping out at the three.
“Darius!” She yelled.
Odalia screamed, and she managed to get both Alador and Darius to jump in surprise.
“Edalyn, hello.” Darius said, almost relieved.
Odalia rolled her eyes. “Well if it isn’t the troublesome wonder herself. Why are you Alador and I?” She asked, grabbing Alador’s arm and pulling him closer to her.
Eda rolled her eyes back. “I’m not here for you, Odalia. But if you wanna fight I can make that happen.”
“That’s alright, Edalyn, what did you need?” Darius asked.
“I need your notes real quick.” Eda said.
“Why not my notes?” Alador asked sourly.
”A), Darius is smarter, B), did you even take notes?” Eda asked.
“He did not.” Darius asked, pulling the notes out of his bag for the red-headed witchling. As always, they were perfectly neat and uncrinkled. “…Hold on, what for?” Darius asked.
“Nothing..!” Eda said innocently. “…Some jerk just stole Lilith’s lunch money.”
“Serves her right. Maybe if she decided to get rid of those wretched glasses..”
“Quit it, Odalia.” Darius said, then turned to Eda. “What exactly do you plan on doing with an abomination?” Darius asked, handing her the notes.
Eda gave him an evil grin. “Come to the cafeteria and find out.” She said.
Darius gave her a blank stare, looked at Alador, then back to her. “Oh titan.” He said, grabbing his and getting up, soon followed by Alador, although he was soon pulled back down by Odalia.
“Alador, you said we would eat here today. I don’t care what he does, but you told me we wouldn’t have to deal with the rest of those morons today.”
“I mean.. she’s right.” Alador shrugged, sitting back down.
Darius and Eda gave eachother a look, before heading back inside, Darius to the cafeteria, and Eda to the Abomination classroom.
Eda sprinted to the abomination classroom, hoping there would be what she needed already there. Luckily for her, there was no teacher in the classroom to stop her. It wasn’t difficult for her to gather the materials, she had created abominations before, but they tended to need more precision than other forms of magic, so she didn’t practice them as much. Still, it wasn’t difficult for her to create one, especially with Darius’ notes to help. In the end, she had created three abominations, and had managed to make even bigger a mess than she normally did wiTh abominations.
Eda gave one of the abominations a fist-bump to congratulate herself, before standing up on the teacher’s desk to address them.
“Alright, abominations. You have been created to right an injustice: my sister’s lunch money was stolen today, by a student going by the name of Calder Stelve. He looks like this.” Eda pulled up his penstagram account on her scroll to show them what he looked like, before continuing to monologue. “Your mission is to get his lunch, and bring it to my sister. …Maybe beat him up a little. Understood?”
The abominations stood still and looked at her.
Eda rolled her eyes. “Abominations, salute!” She said.
The abominations did just that, and Eda giggled. “Good, now, go!” She said, jumping off the desk and racing to get to the cafeteria before the abominations did to avoid suspicion.
In the cafeteria, Raine had joined Perry, Darius and Lillith at their usual table. The three of them had just bought Lilith lunch with their leftover lunch money.
“Thank you..” She sighed. “I suppose I could have just asked Eda for some of her money.. mom always gives her more. Now she’s off who knows where doing who knows what.”
“She told me she got a tip that something was gonna go down in the cafeteria, so.. it’s probably not good.” Perry told her.
“She just asked me for my notes on the abominations before I came in here. She said she needed them because some guy stole your lunch money.” Darius commented.
“Oh good, she asked the press to come videotape her expulsion.” Raine commented sarcastically. “We’ve gotta get one of those leaches for her that parents use to keep track of their toddlers.” Raine said.
“Hey, I’ll have you know that I am the model student around here.” Eda said, practically collapsing on the bench beside Raine out of breath.
“You’re dripping abomination goo.” Raine said.
Eda smirked. She was indeed, covered in the stuff. She draped her arm around Raine, pulling them into a side hug. Raine made an ‘ack’ noise that didn’t entirely cover their chuckle.
“My notes, Edalyn?” Darius asked, a half-smirk on his face.
“Left ‘em on your desk for your next class.” Eda replied.
Darius nodded, looking over Eda. “You really should be tidier when making abominations, though.”
Eda cackled.
Lilith was frantically looking around the cafeteria for what Eda was doing, but of course it was the second she looked away that the abominations threw open the door and marched towards Calder. Lilith paled.
“Edalyn!” Lilith yelled.
“Whaaat? I’m not doing anything!” Eda grinned.
“Eda! You are going to get suspended!” Lilith quietly shrieked.
Raine, Darius and Perry looked at the scene with jaws dropped. Perry held up his scroll to record the scene.
One of the abominations lumbered over infront of the other two to the unimpressed thief, who only seemed to get annoyed when the abomination picked up his lunch.
“Hey!” He yelled, standing up and punching the abomination on the side of its arm.
He soon realized that to be a mistake, as the abomination punched him in the arm back. That didn’t keep him down for long however, this time joined by his friends to fight back. The abomination gently put the lunch tray down before all three of them started to brawl with the teenagers.
Raine was holding back laughter, Eda was not holding back laughter, while Lilith, Darius and Perry were all in different states between shock and amusement right up until Principal Faust came up behind Eda.
“Alright, Ms Clawthorne, that is quite enough.” He said.
“What? How do you know this is my doing?” She asked.
“I told him.” Odalia said, standing smugly behind the principal, Alador behind her, but more paying attention to the abominations.
“We found these on a desk in the abomination home room as well.” Faust threw a small stack of papers onto the table, covered in abomination goop. Darius squeaked at the sight of his notes in such a state, less so that they had been found at all. The group all glared at her.
“Yes, however you also told me Mister Deamonne helped with this, yet notes in such a state could not possibly be his.” Faust said.
Darius relaxed a bit, and shot Odalia a second glare.
“Return them to the abomination room, Edalyn.” Faust said.
Eda rolled her eyes. “Fine. I was just tryna get my sister’s lunch money back.” Eda said, climbing up on the table.
“Can’t fight your own battles, Edalyn?” Odalia asked.
“Keep talking and find out.” Eda said. “Abominations, stop!” Eda called out across the cafeteria.
The abominations seemed to consider it for a moment, before continuing to fight with the group of teenagers. Eda blinked. “Huh. That’s new.” Eda said.
“Right now, Edalyn.” Faust said.
“Abominations, did you not hear me? I said quit it!” She said.
Odalia scoffed. “Only Edalyn Clawthorne could make an abomination that disobeys orders.”
“Uh- Guys? The abominations are doing something..” Perry said.
The abominations were indeed doing something. They were morphing together into a larger abomination. The entire cafeteria held its breath for a few seconds while the newly enlarged abomination stood still. The eery silence was once more disturbed as the abomination started to trash the cafeteria.
“How did you manage to make an abomination with a mind of its own?!” Lilith yelled.
“I dunno, I guess I’m just that fantastic!” Eda said.
“For every minute those things are rampaging is an extra hour of detention for you, Edalyn!”
Eda groaned. “Fine, fine. Stupid school doesn’t let me do anything.” She mumbled the last part.
Eda looked around at the situation, trying to come up with a plan. After a good 20 seconds a lightbulb went off in her head and she turned towards her friends. “Darius, Alador, how long can you keep that thing at bay for?” She asked.
”How long do you need?” Darius asked.
“As long as you can!” Eda said, before she turned towards Raine.
Darius and Alador rushed towards the abomination and both activated spell circles. Manipulating the formed matter of abominations was more difficult than when they’re being made, but the pair were still able to blow holes in the oversized abomination, and keep it from destroying any more of the cafeteria.
“Raine, I know you don’t like to play infront of others, but I need your help. So will you pleeeease play so that you can activate that one disintegration spell?”
“Disintegration spell?” Faust asked. “Those are not permitted in school.”
“This one only disintegrates abiotic matter. Also, stow it, Fausty, we’re doing your job here.” Eda replied.
”I dunno, Eda..”
“Please, Raine? Everyone else is distracted anyway!” Eda pleaded.
“Well.. okay, I’ll need the abomination somewhere where I can have a shot at it without hitting anything else though.”
”Okay so we’ll lour it to the back of the cafeteria.”
“And how do you plan to do that?” Odalia scoffed.
“Thank you for asking, Odalia. Live bait. I’d use you but I have a better idea.” Eda said.
Lilith smiled, and pulled Perry away from Faust, Odalia and Eda. “Perry and I are gonna go lead students away from the trap. Good luck, Eda!” She said, finally succeeding in getting Perry to look away from his video recording.
Eda smiled back, turning her attention to Calder. “Calder!” She yelled.
She got his attention quite quickly. “Get to the edge to the cafeteria and start screaming!”
“No way, you do it!” He yelled back.
“You wanna stop this thing or not?” She asked.
“It’s your creation!”
”It’s your fault for stealing my sister’s lunch money!”
He rolled his eyes. “Fine!” He said, intentionally walking slowly to the edge of the room.
“Eda! I doubt we can hold this thing off for much longer!” Darius yelled.
As it turned out, he was right. The abomination got a hit on Alador, dropping one of its arms to crash down on him, knocking him out cold. Darius didn’t fare much better, the abomination’s other arm shooting out to slap him back a few metres into a wall.
Eda winced.
“Hey! Goop-brain! Over here!” Calder shouted.
Eda breathed a sigh of relief as the abomination turned towards him.
“Alright, Raine, You’ve got this. I’m gonna climb one of those support beams to pull Calder out of that corner.” Eda put a supportive hand on their shoulder, before running off.
Raine blushed, and summoned their viola, hurrying up behind the abomination. The abomination got quite close to Calder before Eda grabbed him with a newly created plant and pulled him up the support beam with her. Raine cast the spell and flung it at the abomination. The creature disintegrated, leaving only a small pile of goop behind.
“Raine! You did it!” Eda said, flinging herself at Raine for a hug.
“Well.. everyone was watching Calder.” Raine shrugged.
”Still though!” Eda said.
”That was amazing Edalyn!” Lilith shouted from across the cafeteria where she was helping Darius, who was not covered head to toe in abomination goop, up off the floor.
“You are going to pay for what you did to my clothing, Edalyn.” Darius said.
Eda snorted. “Sorry, Darius.” She said, half-sincerely.
“You will more severely pay for what your creations did to this room. You are going to clean up this entire thing without magic, and you are going to have five hours of detention.” Faust said, a satisfied smile on Odalia’s face.
“Eh, you’ve given me worse. Besides, this was worth it.”
A day later, there was an article in the school newspaper about the entire event, praising Eda as a talented witch and the hero of the story. Odalia was not happy.