Work Text:
There couldn’t be a better day. The sun was peeking out from behind the clouds, the wind was a calm breeze, and leaves were falling gracefully upon the pathways, creating a crisp crunch when you step on them.
And then there was school.
“I wish we could just skip,” Gem mumbled as she watched the world around her. She walked along the pathways with a classmate of hers, seeming bored.
“C’mon, Gem, it’s not that bad,” Pearl chuckled, “You’ll be able to endure it, I believe in you.”
“I don’t think I can endure another hour, Pearl.” Gem groaned, tone moody. “I cannot possibly look forward to school and classes.”
“Hey, come on now, cheer up. Besides, you’ll be meeting up with fWhip and Sausage at the first recess time, right? You’ll need to endure it, if not for your sake for them!”
“That just makes it way worse, Pearl! You know how much trouble those boys can be!” The crystal wizard protested, exasperated.
The Aussie giggled in response, nodding sympathetically.
The two girls continued chatting as they reached the gates of the campus. They walked in along with various other students, some alone, others by their friends.
“Speaking of Sausage and fWhip, what have you three been up to?”
“Right now? Not much, as far as I’m aware.” Gem replied. “They said they’re planning on doing something this break time though, so that’ll probably change.”
“It’s not anything dangerous, right?” Pearl looked up before the main school building as they entered.
“Probably is, if I’m being completely honest.” Gem sighed, fixing her braid as they walked around the corner. “They assured me there are no explosives involved this time, but knowing them it’ll probably still not be safe enough for there to be no casualties.”
Pearl laughed. “Are you sure fWhip’s not going to be sneaking any TNT into the operation this time?”
“Nope!”
They both just giggled as they stepped into the classroom. Most of their classmates were already there. They were immediately met with several greetings as they walked in
“Pearl! Gem!” Sausage waved at them from the other side of the classroom, the same amount of enthusiasm and energy in his voice as usual. “Good morning girls! It’s so good to see you two!”
“Morning, you two!” fWhip added, seeming to have been talking with Sausage from his seat before the two came in.
“Good to see you too, Sausage! Morning, fWhip!” Pearl returned with a smile.
Gem waved slowly back at the two, a slight smile on her face, before turning back to Pearl. “Well, see you later, Pearl. I’ll probably be with the boys for a while, wish me luck.”
“Good luck, good luck. I’ll see you in a bit.” The Aussie replied, before jokingly adding; “Try not to die this time.”
“No promises.” She could barely hear the faint reply as Gem started walking away to her seat. With a small chuckle, Pearl also headed to her table.
---
The first recess bell rang, and class was dismissed. Pearl swept her stationeries back into her case, and sorted her books again for the next class after the first recess, which lasted 45 minutes, so it was a pretty long time.
“Hey- Jimmy,” She called the person sitting in the chair in front of her. “Can you help me grab that pencil over there? Just below you.”
“Ah- Sure,” Jimmy briefly, reaching out to get it, and turning around to hand it to her. “Here you go!”
She smiled softly, “Thanks! Also, I saw that earlier you were struggling with taking notes in biology class, do you need any help?”
“Oh, not at all- not at all, it’s just that…” Jimmy's face turned a little grim. “The teacher used a picture of a Salmon when explaining a fish’s internal organ system. Like- out of all the fish she could’ve chosen - including cod - she decided to pick salmon of all things! Salmon !”
Ah, that explains all the quiet, angry muttering.
Pearl couldn’t hold herself from laughing out loud.
“It’s not funny!”
“Ah- yeah- sorry, sorry.” Pearl chuckled. “But like- just because she chose to use a picture of a salmon, did you just immediately lose your motivation to study-??”
“Yep. I’ve lost all my faith in her because of that.” He replied, arms crossed but a grin on his face. “We all know salmon are the worst type of fish, and to think she would just use a picture of those disgusting things? Shame, shame.”
“So- if she were to instead use a picture of a cod, what would happen? What would you think?”
“She would’ve immediately become my favorite teacher, of course!” He declared boldly, voice light and teasing. “Cod is way better than salmon, it’s just common knowledge!”
Pearl, along with most of the other classmates, had always found Jimmy’s strong distaste in salmon absolutely hilarious. Little of them actually took it seriously, while others decided to play along, and some (fWhip I’m looking at you), even started to mention salmon randomly just to spite him.
Jimmy also liked cod a lot , and considers it his favorite fish. He even has a beanie of the fish that he wears at all times in school. Nobody has ever seen it off his head ever since the second semester of their first years, he absolutely refuses to take it off, pouting when forced to for events. Most of the class would tease him for this, and it quickly became a great inside joke, since Jimmy gets very defensive when people start talking about the hat, an equal amount to when people make fun of cod or say that salmon’s better.
“So you just determine whether or not you want to still be friends with someone by seeing if they like salmon or not?” Pearl questioned, managing to keep a straight face despite the joking tone of her voice. “What if I told you I liked salmon?”
“No. Stop. You wouldn’t.” Jimmy gasped overdramatically. “Pearl! I trusted you! You traitor!”
“I’m kidding! I’m kidding!”
“You better be, or else I’m gonna feel so betrayed!”
“What about Scott?” Pearl suddenly wondered. “Does he like salmon?”
“Scott?” The Cod boy raised an eyebrow, thinking about it for a second. “Honestly, I don’t think he ever told me his fish preferences, but I swear if he lik-”
“ Why are you two talking about my fish preferences? ”
Both of their eyes immediately turned to the elf that just entered the classroom.
“Oh! Hey, Scott!” Pearl greeted, trying and failing to keep a straight face.
“Hi,” Scott smiled, approaching the two. “Nice to see you two.”
“How have you been?” Jimmy chimed as the elf stopped and took the vacant spot in the corner to talk to them.
“Pretty well, I’ve been pretty busy over the week, you know, being a part of the student council isn’t easy.” He hummed lightly.
“We know, Scott, we know, you've already been bragging about that for months.”
Scott chuckled, “How about you guys? How’s the class going?”
“Oh yeah- on that topic.” Jimmy frowned. “Scott, please tell your goddamn brother to stop harassing me! He’s been bullying me all week!”
“I mean I don’t doubt that.”
“I mean, Jimmy, you are pretty bully-able.”
“Guys!” He said as both dismissed him jokingly. “I’m serious. He’s been stealing my stuff, and keeps trying to jumpscare me everywhere I go! It’s honestly getting annoying!”
“Jimmy,” Scott sighed. “A reaction is exactly what he wants, and you keep giving it to him, of course he’s sticking to you.”
“But I can’t just ignore him!” Cod boy pouted, crossing his arms. “He’s just everywhere I go! Even now, it’s a miracle how he’s leaving me alone.”
“Honestly, your fault for being a good target,” Pearl hummed. “Maybe just start doing what Joel’s doing and act like he’s non existent, he won’t want to bother with you anymore.”
Jimmy briefly laughed, scratching his head, but then stopped, realizing his cod hat wasn’t on. “Hey- where did my beanie go?” He stated the realization out loud. “I swear I was wearing it a minute ago!”
“You sure you didn’t take it off and forgot?” Scott raised an eyebrow. “You weren’t wearing it since I came in here, I thought that was on purpose.”
“What- nonsense! I would never take it off, and even more so forget about doing it!”
“You sure, Jimmy? That kind of sounds like something you would do.” Pearl teased, not missing a beat.
“Hey, stop it! No it’s not! You two are mean!” The cod boy replied in an offended tone, raising as the other two began giggling. “Guys, seriously, stop! This is a serious issue!”
Pearl was about to stop laughing and say something, but then stopped. She pointed to the classroom door, where someone was standing. “Hey- isn’t that-”
“Xornoth.” Scott gritted his teeth, seeing what Pearl was referring to.
“And- wait a minute ! He has my cod hat!” Jimmy added, becoming increasingly furious. Without a thought, he ran after the demon, who immediately dashed out the classroom laughing as Jimmy chased after him. A distant “Hey- Give it back!” echoed through the hall a few seconds after.
“Welp, there he goes.” Pearl sighed, shaking her head with a slight smile on her face.
“Are we sure Xornoth is not up to anything bad?” Scott said, seeming more serious than the Aussie. “I don’t really trust him.”
“Relax, Scott, you know he messes with Jimmy basically everyday.” Pearl pointed out.
“I know- but-”
“Are you jealous?” She said, jokingly raising an eyebrow.
“Wh- n-no! Of course not!” The elf said an octave too high to be convincing, his cheeks redding for a second. “It’s just that- look, you know my brother, and how much of a trouble he can be!”
“I mean, yeah, I’m pretty sure he attempted to kill me once.” Pearl nonchalantly mentioned, making Scott freeze for a second.
“He WHAT .”
The Aussie shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal. “I know you don’t really go down here to visit often, but yeah, just letting you know that this is usually normal around here.”
“Does he really mess with you guys that often?” Scott asked, now completely serious, concern edging his voice.
“I would say so, yes. He’s usually silent in class, but whenever class ends and he has a chance, he takes it. I don’t really mind him as much as the others do, though.” She shrugged nonchalantly.
As expected, the worried look the blue-haired elf had multiplied. He sighed. “I will have to talk to him about this. You guys don’t know how dangerous he can get.” A darker tone bled into his words.
“Sure, sure.” Pearl hummed. “But then, you should be more worried about Jimmy now.”
Scott froze as she said that.
“We need to find Jimmy. Now.”
And that's why she was now wandering through the school halls, searching for said demon.
To be completely honest, none of her classmates really knew much about Xornoth, other than the fact that he was Scott’s, an upperclassman who most of them knew for years, younger brother, and the fact that he was a demon. Pearl only had encountered the demon once, and she did kind of see what Scott meant by him being ‘dangerous’. He was a demon, and usually displayed his powers in some ways that can be very fatal if gone wrong, but he has surprisingly only gotten yelled at a few times, and the worst he’s been punished was a short period of suspension.
Xornoth had been their classmate for the year, and they still didn’t know that much about him. The only thing they’d see him doing was purposefully being the annoying classmate and even some potentially lethal pranks.
As she was passing by the school garden though;
BOOM !
She jumped in surprise as an explosion erupted suddenly from inside. She immediately abandoned her train of thought, running over to see what had happened.
Before she got to the doors though, they opened by themselves and someone wobbled outside, coughing from the gas that came from inside. They froze as they saw Pearl.
“O-oh! Pearl!” Sausage chuckled nervously, voice stuttering a little. “What are you doing here?”
“What am I doing here-? Sausage! What happened inside!?” Pearl asked back, a worried expression evident on her face.
“Nothing too bad! Nothing too bad! I promise!” He replied quickly, continuing when Pearl looked incredibly doubtful. “It’s nothing bad, Pearl, I swear! fWhip, Gem and I were just coloring roses!”
“Coloring roses?” Pearl repeated it, tone tilting upwards to make it a question. “So like . . . in those DIY videos where you recolor a rose?”
“Yeah, that!” the brunette nodded. “That’s all, really! We were just taking some of the roses Gem grew in the garden and wanted to try recoloring and- what was the word again- DIY-ing some of the roses.”
"Then why the explosion???”
“Well- uh- about that…” Sausage chuckled nervously. “You know how roses can take around four hours to a full day or more to fully recolor, right? Well- Gem’s type of roses might have been one of the slower ones, and we didn’t really have the patience to wait for it… so I might have suggested that we- uh- should try speeding the process up.”
Pearl froze. “Don’t tell me.”
“Gem tried to use her magic on the thing to speed it up and- yeah, this happened.”
“Sausage!”
“Hey! It’s not my fault! I only suggested the idea, I didn’t actually do anything!” He pouted, crossing his arms in a defensive manner, before dusting the remnants of the explosion off his attire.
Pearl sighed, changing the topic to something that’s probably more important. “Are fWhip and Gem alright?”
He stopped. He then made a sharp turn back to the garden, eyes wide in alarm. “fWhip-! Gem! Are you two alright in there!?”
Pearl both mentally and literally facepalmed behind him, following him into the garden, from which smoke was still rising.
“Oh no- I think they’re unconscious-” She could hear Sausage mutter somewhere inside the room.
Letting out another sigh as if this was again a regular and only mildly inconveniencing event, she extended one of her hands to shake the smoke off. There was so much fog and smoke that it was impossible to see, to make matters worse, dust was also everywhere. . It was obvious that they needed to get rid of the smoke first before doing anything.
Pearl inhaled sharply, before blowing out, her breath clearing out the smoke. She really hoped that whatever magic smoke was in the air wasn’t flammable. She continued to push the smoke away. being an ender dragon hybrid had it’s benefits, and strong breath was one of them.
After the smoke cleared out a bit, they could finally somewhat see. Gem lay limply on one of the counters in the middle of the room, and fWhip had apparently been knocked back by the explosion and was slumped against one of the walls, a few broken plant pots and dirt around him.
Now that the smell of the smoke was out, she swore she could smell burning crystals.
“Yep, there’s no way you guys aren’t going to get in trouble for this.” Pearl sighed as she approached Gem’s unconscious body, with a worried Sausage trying to wake her up.
“Alright- I- look-” Sausage started. “Can we worry about that later? Please, Pearl- can you help me take care of them before you tell us off to the teachers?”
“Fine, fine.” Pearl replied, heading to check on fWhip, hoping he didn’t hurt his head from the explosion. She checked on him. He does usually wear multiple layers of clothing, so she hoped that might have protected him from the explosion to some degree. There were no visible injuries, but that didn’t really say anything.
She winced for a second, before shaking the guy a little, seeing if he’d wake up or not. For a brief second, she swore he did flinch.
“Sausage, we should really take them to the nurses office, at the very least. I’m getting more help,” she said as she got up.
Sausage stayed silent for a little while. “ Yeah … you’re probably right. You go do that.”
And with that, she looked at fWhip and Gem for the last time, before sighing. She walked out of the garden, and just around the corner, was Katherine.
“Pearl! What happened here?” She immediately asked, worry evident in her face. “Why was there smoke?”
“Wither rose trio did something again, and messed whatever they were doing up again.” The Aussie replied, somehow managing to look calm. “Can you help us take Gem and fWhip to the nurses’ office? They’re both unconscious.”
“Of course!” Katherine nodded without hesitation.
With the help of Katherine, they were able to get the unconscious duo to the infirmary. They rested the two on the beds, and waited anxiously as the school nurse examined them. Luckily, besides some few traces of magic and bruises, they were fine.
The nurse then told them to go back to class, since recess was ending in 5 minutes.
As soon as they got out of the office and closed the door behind them, Pearl stared directly at Sausage.
“Sausage, please promise me you three aren’t going to do anything dangerous like this ever again.” Her tone invited no discussion.
“Yeah, this could’ve been really bad, we’re lucky they just suffered minor wounds.” Katherine added.
“Alright, alright, I’m sorry.” Sausage sighed. “I didn’t know flowers and magic didn’t go so well together. The other day, Katherine, I also saw you using magic to help the plants grow better, so I thought it was alright.”
“My type of magic and Gem’s Crystal magic are very different, you can't just compare them.” Katherine huffed. “Anyways- let’s just go back to class before recess ends and we enter late.”
And so, the other two nodded in agreement, and they started walking back to class.
As they entered the classroom, though, the atmosphere was already pretty loud, with people chattering loudly in front of class.
“...And next- you guys wouldn’t believe it-!” Joey said excitedly as he was talking to Shubble, Martin, and potentially Lizzie, who seemed to only be slightly listening in. He stopped when he saw the trio enter the classroom. “Ah, Good day, Pearl, Sausage, and Katherine!”
“What happened here?” Katherine asked first.
“You guys- Joey’s crazy!” Shubble started, concern evident on her face. “He says he and Xornoth-”
“I’m not crazy!” Joey corrected her, before the excitement came back. “But anyways- I asked out our demon guy classmate, and he accepted! I’m so excited!”
“You… asked Xornoth out?” Pearl repeated, mild concern expressed on her face, remembering what Scott said to her about the demon. Oh boy, the elf was not going to react so greatly to this news.
“That’s great, Joey!” Sausage suddenly said, which made Shubble shoot him a look that silently said ‘Don’t encourage him!’, but he didn’t seem to notice as he continued. “You two would make a great couple! I just know it!”
“I know right! thanks so much for the support, Sausage, I really appreciate it!” The avian giggled.
Pearl just sighed, sharing a look with Shubble. There’s just no way this doesn’t end badly.