Chapter Text
It was a rainy, humid day in Parfaedia, or what some like to call “The City of Wizards,” or something along the lines of that. There was an institute named “The Parfaedia Institute” as well (how original), where most young wizards went to learn how to make their magic as great as the professors’! All was usually well, no chaos, maybe the occasional dragon needing to be slayed… But other than that, not much interesting. It was around March and students and professors were bustling about the institute, trying to make everything perfect for the upcoming tournament, also known as the Triple Cone Cup! The tournament was a battle against the 3 schools, Parfaedia, Scovillia, and the Creme Knights. Today was the day that they would pick the nominee to represent the school for the Triple Cone Cup.
Prune Juice Cookie was sitting in the cafeteria, bored out of his mind as his professor, Professor Sugar Wafer Cookie, hosted an assembly about the Triple Cone Cup. She was a tall female cookie with chunky, sugar wafer-looking layers in her hair. Her dough was fairly baked and she had warm brown eyes.
“Alright class, today I will be re-explaining the events that will occur within the Triple Cone Cup that is coming up!” The professor seemed quite cheery about the subject of the Triple Cone Cup. Prune Juice Cookie had watched the Triple Cone Cup go on a few times, as he was a senior. He found it quite boring to watch in general.
“Today, our nominee to represent the Parfaedia Institute will be chosen! One of our lovely seniors will be elected if their name is drawn from the votes that have been put in this jar!” She held up a jar ecstatically, handing it to the principal.
“Ah yes, the Triple Cone Cup. I’ve been around for years to witness this great event go on every March!” The old woman rasped out, her voice clearly tired from all the yelling she had to do to the freshmen.
“Today marks exactly a week until the Triple Cone Cup! March 7th. The Triple Cone Cup will take place on the 14th of this month.” The principal informed all the students, before shaking the jar which was handed to her to mix up the papers of names within. She then reached her hand into the jar to pick a name.
Just to Prune Juice Cookie’s luck, his name was pulled. “Prune Juice Cookie!” The old woman announced, reading his name off of the small paper she had pulled. He wanted to melt into a puddle right then and there as almost EVERY student’s eyes were on him. He pulled his witch hat over his eyes. His usually shut eyes squinting shut even harder, trying as though to make everyone disappear.
The worst part was that he was quite popular. He knew he would lose. I mean, just look at the guy! He was skinnier than most of the girls in the school and he was probably weaker than them as well. He may have also been in opposition with the most popular girl at the school, Withered Rose Cookie. She would mock him to a ten-fold! He reluctantly stepped on stage as the principal and Professor Sugar Wafer Cookie beckoned him to come up. “Take the mic!” Professor Sugar Wafer Cookie slipped the mic into the senior’s shaky, sweaty hands.
“U-uhm…” He stuttered into the mic nervously, not knowing what to say in order not to embarrass himself in front of thousands of impressionable students. He then remembered to be his usual self, nothing could go wrong with that! He took a deep breath before speaking proudly into the mic.
“Thank you everyone for voting for me, this only goes to show how amazing I really am to you guys! I promise I will not let you down!” He beamed, scanning the crowd for Withered Rose Cookie subtly, hoping nobody would notice this.
He spotted her gazing up at him with her usual cocky-looking expression. It only pissed him off how she gave him those weird looks, it was like she knew something she shouldn’t know. Hopefully she didn’t know what he hoped she wouldn’t figure out…
“GOOD JOB, DORK!!!” She called out from the audience, waving her arms at him mockingly. She had that stupid, smug smirk on her face. It made his blood boil how she thought she could get under his skin like that without consequence…
“Ugh…” He grumbled to himself as he stepped off stage, the assembly finally ending. As he walked to his dorm, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He whipped around to face none other than his arch-nemesis, Withered Rose Cookie.
“ What… ” He muttered, obviously wanting nothing to do with her. “What could you possibly want…”
Withered Rose Cookie smirked at him, her hand still on his shoulder. “Oh Pruney, you know exactly what I want.”
“To torment me? Get a life, Withered Rose Cookie.” He pushed her away and tried to keep walking but she grabbed him with the magical vines on the back of her waist.
“No. I know something about you that nobody knows! Not even your bestest friends!” The plant mage boasted, clearly proud of herself. She had really only figured out his secret due to an odd amount of stalking him in her free time to learn his weaknesses and insecurities. But, among the stalking, she accidentally found something much, much, darker.
“And what would that be?” He inquired curiously, tilting his head. He grinned slightly, a small glimpse of sharp teeth showing. Withered Rose Cookie eyed his teeth for a moment, letting out a small startled gasp
“U-uh…” She stuttered, just like how he had before on stage. That got a little giggle out of him. “Erm… I saw you with someone last night in the halls while I went to refill my thermos. The interaction looked rather… hostile.”
His mind went blank. She had seen that? He prayed to the witches that she hadn’t seen the entire interaction. “Uhm… I can explain!” He yelped out in fear of her knowing the truth.
“Are you sure? Because you sure looked ominous, approaching them with a dagger n’ all.” She originally was going to finish her sentence, but then saw a silver shimmer from under his cloak. She was alone with him as well. “Oh. You still have it on you…” She whispers to herself, praying he wouldn’t threaten her with it.
“I do.” He moved his hand to the hilt of the dagger carefully, unsheathing it from it’s holster slowly.
“I’m going to leave now…” Withered Rose Cookie shuddered, running off to her dorm room. It was late now, after all.
He watched her run off, his cyan eyes fluttering open to watch her dart away. His eyes lingered on the magical vines on the back of her hips. They intrigued him for sure. He was quite jealous of people with magic, after all.
He decided to head back to his dorm as well in the end. His mind clouded with thoughts of that wretched plant mage, that nuisance of a woman. He clenched his fists as he thought of the possibility of her alerting the authorities about his… deeds. It scared him, and he was quite the hard person to scare.