Chapter Text
While it is a small academy above ground, Stone mine academy settled in downtown of the bustling geode city is much more worthy of its title of a school for gifted children on its lower floors. Stone mine academy is an all girls high school/academy with a large cast of different students from many different backgrounds and gem types. Down in the dorm rooms section 3-N there's some commotion going on however as a study group seems to be struggling with a certain topic of discussion.
Bloodstone, a girl with curly red hair, tannish skin and blood red eyes standing at around 5’8. Sat at a circle table in a small library on the second hallway, glaring down at her text book while a girl with light blue pigtails that fades to orangish rust at the tips, she’s decently pale and stands at 5 '5. Known as Blue Copper in the school, or just blue for short. Sits next to her with a bead of sweat rolling down her face.
Blue Copper gently lays a hand on Bloodstone’s shoulder, before snatching it off before Bloodstone threatens to snap her wrist in half for touching her.
“Hey! Hey, slow down. You're getting mixed up in your anger with history again..” Blue said, trying to smile only to be glared at by Bloodstone’s red eyes.
“Why should I need to calm down?! They’ve got the history of my gems all wrong.” Bloodstone crosses her arms, upset over the fact of her gem, the bloodstone. Has been antagonized for at least a good four-hundred years now.
“Ah- well..I understand your anger, but maybe-” Blue Copper continuously glances over at Sapphire, a cousin from another father sitting on the opposite end of the circle table. Sapphire stands at 5 '8 like bloodstone, with Short blue hair, pale skin and a boney frame. As well as dark freckles and small dark circles on her under eyes with natural lidded eyes, giving her a constant numb facial expression.
“-... What Copper is trying to say, is that these textbooks are told from a specific point of view. They don’t see the great stone war from the same perspective you do.” Sapphire interrupts with a slow and airy tone. They were studying the great stone wars for an upcoming exam in history, a series of wars starting from the 1500’s to the 1700’s, most of which started by the dictator “Alloy Blood”. A female dictator with the bloodstone Gem who set the stereotype for aggressive bloodstones. Possessing powerful abilities from her core gem that she didn’t use for good.
“Still!-” Bloodstone hits her fist on the table, making Blue Copper jolt. “-They could’ve put a little more effort into trying to understand the empire’s objectives.” Bloodstone said, leaning against the back of her chair again and crossing her arms.
However, Bloodstone’s anger is halted at the sound of footsteps walking down the hallway, closer to the group in the library.
“Hey! I uh-.. I heard a noise, is everything okay?” A voice calls out, the familiar voice of Emerald. A topper student with tan skin and reddish cheeks, dark green short and wavy hair with side swept bangs, she has green eyes with a thin stature and a height of 5 '5.
Bloodstone rolls her eyes, huffing and clenching her pencil.
“Everything is fine! The history books are just being stu-” She was interrupted by Sapphire clearing her throat and shooting a miniscule glare in Bloodstone’s direction.
“What she is trying to say is that the textbooks are inaccurate to the alloy empire’s intentions with the stone wars.” Sapphire said firmly, earning a roll of eyes from Bloodstone, and a shaky exhale from Blue Copper.
Emerald finally shows herself from around the wall, with a sheepish and kind expression on her face.
“Ah! Haha, okay. I’m glad things are going okay. B-but uh, there's food in the kitchen if you want it. Basalt made chili, but I will warn you. It’s incredibly spicy.” Emerald crosses her arms, standing with her arms nervously shifting and crossing over her chest.
There's silence for a few seconds, before Blue Copper tilts her head, and spits out a question.
“Basalt can cook?” Blue asks, pushing a strand of loose blue hair behind her ear. Bloodstone tilts her head, wondering the same thing.
“That hot head can do something other than burn stuff?” Bloodstone raised an eyebrow, earning a glare from Blue Copper.
“Hey! Be nice, just because Basalt has a habit of burning things doesn’t mean that's all she can do!” Copper scolds like an annoyed mother, albeit with a quieter tone. That doesn’t stop Bloodstone from looking away and mumbling a curse. Before Emerald finally has the chance to answer the question.
“Yeah a-actually, she said she learned the recipe from her dad. They both have a pinch for spicy food and I don’t know why..” Emerald said, giving a sheepish chuckle and itching her neck.
“Makes sense, that knucklehead probably likes her food as hot as her attitude.” Bloodstone comments, getting a sigh from Blue Copper again in return. But Sapphire pushes out her chair and starts to get up. But Bloodstone almost immediately shoots her a question.
“Hey! Where are you off to?” Bloodstone asks with a raised eyebrow and a gruff tone, putting both fists on the table.
“I want to get food.” Sapphire said plainly, Bloodstone raised her eyebrows in question.
“I didn’t know you liked Chili..” Bloodstone mutters, crossing her arms under her chest while tilting her head up to lean back in her chair. Kicking her legs up onto the table before having them immediately smacked down by blue copper.
“Don’t put your feet on the table! That's gross..” Blue Copper said, with a detested look on her face, at the same time Sapphire also spoke up.
“You don’t know.. Any of my food preferences do you?” Sapphire raised her eyebrows, looking at them from a three-quarter view, halfway to the door.
“Well-” Bloodstone goes silent for a moment, her shoulders untensing. “-Ah.. No,-” She sighs with an annoyed tone of voice. “-No. I don’t. I don’t pay attention to what you eat most of the time.” She admits gruffly. Looking down for a moment then back up at Sapphire.
“Can you blame me? We sit on completely different ends of the table.” Bloodstone adds, Sapphire shrugs and shakes her head.
“No, I can’t really blame you for that. But I will ask.-” Sapphire looks at Emerald, then down the hallway, then back at Bloodstone.
“-.. Would you like to eat with me too? I’d like to find out just how spicy Basalt’s chili really is. And besides, you didn’t eat lunch, and it could be affecting your attitude.” Sapphire turns around and crosses her arms. Earning a weak glare from Bloodstone before Blue Copper suddenly stands up.
“B-but, wait! We still have to study for the test, we only have two days left-” She was cut off by a loud growl erupting from her stomach. Her face pales for a little bit, she then feels her cheeks heat up in embarrassment. Her stomach had betrayed her in the worst moment in favor of food, chili of all things. She wasn’t even sure if she liked Chili all that much. The last time she had it she was four, and it left a bad after taste in her mouth. But then again eating at a low quality kindergarten graduation wasn’t exactly the same as eating homemade chili from your explosive classmate.
They all stare at her, until Bloodstone cracks and chuckles with a smug smirk.
“Hungry?” Bloodstone tilts her head, sounding mockingly oblivious. Blue Copper sighs and lets her head dip out of frustration and embarrassment.
“A- Okay, we can take a little break to eat.” Blue said begrudgingly, before standing straight again and following Sapphire, leaving Bloodstone to hurry to her feet to catch up while they all followed Emerald back to the kitchen.
They saw Basalt sitting at the kitchen counter, eating a bowl of her own chili. Basalt is a girl with a muscular build who stands at about 6’0 with dark skin and black thin patches of rock around her body. With brown eyes and black hair with red and orange highlights in a rocky high ponytail.
There's also Granite sitting next to her, the math teacher’s child who suits the teacher's pet role of the classroom pretty well, with muted tan skin and black hair with brown eyes, a genuinely thin body type and height of 5 '4. Who was also trying to eat the chili from a bowl, blowing every bite while Basalt chuckled at her poor spice tolerance.
“Struggling?” Basalt raised her eyebrows with a chuckle, smirking with her spoon in her mouth, earning an embarrassed glare from the teacher’s pet.
“What? No! I-I would never struggle with something as simple as e-eating food..” Granite said as she hesitantly raised the spoon to her open mouth again. Clearly hesitant to eat it in fear of how it would burn her mouth. Only for Basalt to roll her eyes and grab the end of the spoon to shove it in Granite’s mouth.
The poor girl let out a terrified squeal and would nearly fall out of her chair if it wasn’t for Basalt catching her by the back of her shirt. Granite chokes a little bit then proceeds to run over to the water fountain. Leaving Basalt to laugh at her misfortune.
Bloodstone had a good chuckle at this, Sapphire let out an amused hum and started to approach Basalt at the counter. Leaving Blue Copper to watch in shock and worry and Emerald to almost immediately run over to assist Granite. Who was nearly drowning her mouth in water from the fountain.
“Good one hothead, I never knew Granite had terrible spice tolerance.” Bloodstone chuckles as she approaches the counter and grabs a bowl. Sapphire doing the same.
“Do we get it ourselves?” Sapphire asks, Basalt gives a simple nod as she scoops up more with her spoon and puts it in her mouth without much trouble.
Sapphire takes the ladle and gently pours a portion of it into her bowl before sitting down on the other side of Basalt Granite was previously sitting at. Slowly bringing the spoon up and blowing on the food before putting the spoon of chili in her mouth, her eyes widened and turned a bit red.
“My-.. that is- very spicy.” Sapphire swallows and gives a weak smile before looking away and blinking profusely. Basalt chuckles and pat her on the back,
“Yeah, it's spicy the first few bites. But your mouth will reappropriate the spiciness. Unless you're like shortstack Granite over there.” Basalt said with a smile, seeming to have diffused substantially from class. Leaving Bloodstone to scoff under her breath.
“You seem calm today. Hothead.” Bloodstone comments, earning an annoyed glare from Basalt.
“And you seem snarkier than usual, Bloodstone.” Basalt retorts, turning away in her stool and taking another bite from her spoon. Bloodstone rolls her eyes, as Blue Copper approaches only now after Granite has Emerald by her side.
“Bloodstone’s only being snarky because studying took a wonky turn today.” Copper smiles and sits down next to Sapphire, who was still eating the chili with slightly watery eyes.
“If it weren’t for the textbooks being inaccurate with the intentions of the stone wars-”
“AND the amount of kids Alloy had! She has quintuplets, not triplets! It's just that one died at birth so some people don’t count it.” Bloodstone interrupts almost instantly, Blue Copper sighs as she tilts her head up at the ceiling then looks back down. Looking in the rest of the group's direction.
“Yes, and the number of adolescents.” Blue Copper chuckles weakly, then rubs her eyes as Sapphire pours her a bowl of chili.
“Other than that, studying went pretty well today.” Copper brushes a loose strand of hair out of her face. She gave a smile as she grabbed a spoon and raised the chili to her mouth, not reacting to the spiciness all that much.
Bloodstone lets out a huff,
“Still unsure, about the..- The essay. In the final part though.” Bloodstone said, reaching for a bowl and the chili ladle. Sapphire takes another bite of chili before swallowing and clearing her throat in preparation to respond.
“I think you’ll do fine, you’ve got a way with words. Bloodstone.” Sapphire said, she raised her eyebrows.
“And I don’t mean creating freakishly creative insults. You’ve got a knack for writing history, even though you despise the topic.” Sapphire adds, hiding a chuckle in her voice while mentioning the first part about insults.
Bloodstone lets out a chuckle with an annoyed undertone, not denying the fact she can make some pretty crazy insults when she’s mad.
“Guilty as charged.” She smirks. Taking the first bite out of the chili, her eyes widened as she shook her head, her mouth felt steaming hot now and she could feel a literal waterfall forming in her eyelids.
Basalt let out a boisterous laugh at her expression, earning a watery glare from Bloodstone while she let it cool in her mouth. Sapphire let out a dry chuckle.
“You look like one of those angry cartoon characters in old cartoons, with the steam coming out of their ears.” Sapphire comments, giving a small amused smile. Bloodstone turns slightly more red at the comment, before finally swallowing the chili down her throat. Shivering as the intense heat feels like it's ripping through her organs as it goes down.
“I do NOT!” Bloodstone protests, before getting up and speed walking over to the cupboard, opening up and taking a red cup from the stack. Something she donated to the school. And getting water from the fridge dispenser. Swigging it down in two and a half swallows. Before whipping her head around at Basalt.
“Where did you learn to make food so spicy?!” Bloodstone barks, filling the cup again for good measure. Basalt leans back in her stool and puts another spoonful of chili in her mouth.
“My step dad.” Basalt said, Blue Copper paused at the mention of her step dad.
“Emerald told us it was your real dad though?” Blue Copper tilts her head, Basalt blankly stares at her for a minute.
“Emerald misheard me then, my real dad is dead. He’s been dead for quite a bit.” Basalt said bluntly, lowering her spoon into the chili and resting it there as she waited for a response, Copper is silent for a few seconds.
“.. How’d he die?.. Wait- no, sorry. That's incredibly disrespectful.” Blue Copper shakes her head, then pushes the strand behind her ear again. Basalt shrugs in response.
“I don’t find it disrespectful to ask, but I don't know how he died. My mom kept saying he went missing but they lived in a very closed off neighborhood when he disappeared so I doubt he just randomly went missing or got kidnapped.” Basalt said, bringing the spoon to her mouth again.
“Huh, so did she just- not bother looking for him?” Bloodstone raises her eyebrows as she walks back to the counter and sits down, Basalt grunts and looks away.
“I’m not answering that.” Basalt said plainly, Bloodstone rolls her eyes.
“Alright alright, too personal I get it.” Bloodstone said, looking down at the bowl of chili, stirring mindlessly with her spoon before taking another bite. Now that it’s cooled down a tad its much more bearable.
Theres silence for a few more minutes, everyone peacefully eating their share of Chili before Sapphire suddenly pipes up again with a dry voice. Looking between Basalt and Granite’s bowl of chili, which has not been eaten as Granite went to the bathroom after her unlucky encounter with the chili’s spicyness.
“Are you going to do anything with that?..” Sapphire asked, looking from the bowl and empty seat and then panning her gaze over to Basalt. Who then also turned to the barren bowl of Chili on the counter.
“Eh, I’ll force Granite to finish it when she gets back. Shortstack can’t do anything to defend herself against me.” Basalt shrugs and chuckles, leaving barren silence again until Bloodstone suddenly finishes and sets her bowl down.
“Mm, I’m gonna go try my hand with finishing that essay early.” Bloodstone suddenly stands up from her seat, looking over at the others on the opposite side of the table.
“Ey Blue head, you don’t mind if I borrow one of those text books you brought to campus right?” Bloodstoen tilts her head and nods to Blue Copper, the sentence more of a statement then a question.
“Well- uh, give it back tomorrow okay?” Blue Copper sweat drops, Bloodstone gives a gruff nod then sets her bowl and spoon in the kitchen sink. Standing up and making a quick jog back down the hall to the library.
Approaching the circular table again, she skims over Blue Copper’s own notebook, seeing a gravelly picture of a restored painting of Alloy Blood, the dictator that started the stone wars. She purses her lips, feeling something off about the image. The skirt didn’t feel right, she didn’t take the noble Alloy blood as a woman of skirts. However she skims over the page anyway before reaching and grabbing the other textbook she was using. And jogging off to her room to study.