Chapter Text
„I still think we shouldn’t play any sombr song except 12 to 12, they’re too sad for the beginning of the year.”
Leola’s voice rang through the room, she was absentmindly playing with her drumsticks. The discussion had been going on since the pair had made their way to the practice room.
The eyes of her angel friend looked through the list she had made a few days prior. Mini shared her opinion, playing a sad song at the founder’s pyre wouldn’t be the way to go.
“True, but the only other songs are censored by the school. We could do either Juno, bad idea right, Jennifer’s Body would work too, but I don’t know”, Mini groaned as she stretched out of the chair she had settled on.
“If we do Jennifer’s Body Isa will start crashing out and before Heide does another Sabrina song, she will curse us. Where the hell are the other two even?”
“You know unlike us; they don’t live out of their luggage the first week of school”
Leola gave her friend a look that made her snicker. Before the girl could make another snide remark, the door opened, letting in some sunlight, making Leola hiss in displeasure.
“You’re not going to die from that Leola”
“Oh yeah my summer was nice, how were you, Heide?”, the vampire pouted a little but couldn’t keep the smile of her face.
“The usual. I finally started on my polished grimoire though”, Heide’s voice rang through the room, commanding the presence to her with quiet confidence.
It made Mini perk up at the mention of her grimoire, her eyes darting to the witch as she smiled seeing her friend again.
“You gotta show it to me later. I found an old one in the attic a few weeks ago, brought it with me if you want to take a look”
Before Heide could answer the door opened again revealing a slightly panting green head, their limps awkwardly clutching the doorway. Six eyes on them, waiting for the inevitable breaking news.
“Did you read the email Dort send?”
Confusion made its way through the room, the expectance of either gossip or something actually interesting crushed because of the words of the still slightly out of breath siren.
“No Isa, we don’t read school emails during summer break”, Mini’s blunt voice gave notice, earning nods from the other band members.
“I mean I don’t read emails at all”
Leola shrugged as she put on her sunglasses and spun around in her stool.
“And I never logged into the school account”, the witch looked at her dormmate with slight distaste at the mere mention of an email, only earning a slight eye roll and scrambled explanations.
“What did it say anyway?”
Leaning on her arms the angel watched her friend pull out their phone. What could be so interesting or important that it had the siren sprint? The group of friends listened intently as Isa began to read the email out loud.
“Dear Nevermore Students, I hope you had a great summer break, and I am happy to welcome you all back! This school year we are happy to announce that the ban on Hydes attending the school has been lifted. In the attached document you will find reasons and notices for this change. With kind regards Principal Dort.”
The room was quiet for a moment, all of them letting the change settle in. Leola subtly glanced at Mini, watching her reaction. Everyone had heard about the trial and eventual not guilty verdict of Tyler Galpin, what most didn’t hear about was that he had stayed at Willow Hill a long time. As did Mini.
It had been a gruelling two months of not seeing their friend additional to the months prior to her hospitalisation. Willow Hill a place no Outcast ever wanted to even visit, let alone stay. Memories of the first day Leola had seen her friend again flashing in her mind. She had been worried, the image of her completely out of it, crying, praying on the floor to make it stop, before she was taken. Yet the moment their eyes had met again, all worries gone, it had been like the light had returned to the angel’s eyes.
Now though her eyes were glazed over and her bottom lip was being chewed between her teeth, deep in thought.
“You good?”, the question of the vampire made the other two look at their guitarist.
Her eyes shooting up to look at the others, the normal composed face of the angel displaying various kinds of emotions but settling on averting her gaze and letting out a breath through her nose.
“I might have kind of forgotten to tell you about some small, just minute, details of my Willow Hill stay”
Mini finally said looking up and giving the group a guilty look in true I-genuinely-forgot-or-suppressed-please-don’t-be-mad fashion.
“Oh no what’s coming now”, Leola nearly groaned out as she rubbed her eyes.
In another part of the school Wednesday Addams had just finished putting all her luggage away, storing the dark cases under her bed before turning around to look at her girlfriend catch up with Thing. It was still a new thing to her, the whole girlfriends thing. When she first started at Nevermore, Wednesday could have never imagined meeting someone so interesting and strong willed enough to not just match her but complete her in a sense. Showing her sides of herself, she never thought plausible.
And now the wolf was already looking up new moisturizing techniques with Thing peering over her shoulder.
“Would it hurt you terrible not giving a sentient hand the attention reserved for me?”, her voice was blunt with a small hint of annoyance, mirrored in the way her brows furrowed.
The giggle, the question elicited from her girlfriend made the now all too familiar feeling return in Wednesdays gut. She’d describe it as being stabbed by a thousand bees, Enid clarifying it was called “having butterflies”, pesty creatures she had remarked.
“It’s not like I have seen him every day like you. I missed my favourite Diva”
The fist bump exchanged between the two making the goth shoot a glare towards Thing, who just shrugged as good as a hand could and made his way into the small home Enid had built him last year.
“But okay Addams, I might have missed you too, sort of”, Enid’s tone light, teasing, but betrayed by the flush of her cheeks and how she had practically bounced on Wednesday the moment she had stepped out of the car.
Her warm smile made Wednesday step forward. Before Enid she hadn’t understood the desire to be close to someone, even barely tolerating any of her family members. But now it was different, the craving for the blonde only growing every passing second.
Nowadays even the quick movements of Enid’s gaze jumping over her lips made her giddy, as much as the Wednesday Addams could be. Then in true Addams confidence showing she stepped forward, leaning up the few centimetres to place her lips on her girlfriends.
Even though Enid was the more experienced between the two, she always waited for her girlfriend to initiate physical contact. Yet the moment she had gotten the permission, she placed one of her hands above the hip of the other and her second one grabbing her cheek delicately.
It was soft, a sort of longing underlying in the kiss. The time they had spent apart erased in a singular kiss.
The perfect picture they had painted suddenly destroyed as Wednesday’s head dipped back, her eyes going wide as she fell back.
“Wednesday!”
Before she could hit the floor, her vision went black. Normally she’d enjoy the absence of light, but now that it disturbed her séance with her girlfriend, she was a little bothered.
The celling was tinged in grey as she opened her eyes. She was laying on the floor, Enid nowhere to be seen, but on her bed sat former principal Weems instead. In the moment her spirit guide had noticed she was awake she got up, pacing the room, her eyebrows tightknit.
“Could you not have chosen a better moment?”, Wednesday’s voice was filled with venom.
Weems stopped shooting her a glare.
“Well, I am terribly sorry that I disturbed your little moment with Miss Sinclair. But this is a matter of urgency”, her voice didn’t leave much room to argue, making Wednesday study her better.
The tall woman was still pacing around the room, like she was searching for an answer to a question yet to be asked.
“Somethings going to happen to Nevermore”
That made Wednesday pause. The normal calm and collected demeanour of her spirit guide and former principal had been annoying at times and bearable at best. Yet it was always reassuring in a way, even if it was for show. Now it was replaced with an aura of urgency and uncertainty.
“What do you mean something is happening at Nevermore”
The psychic’s voice laced with slight confusion. Yes, her visions had been vague, especially in the beginning, but never had she been told something by her guide without having a vision prior.
“No, not at Nevermore to Nevermore. I don’t know what it will be, but there has been a disturbance in Nevermore’s mana.”
“Nevermore’s what?”
“Oh please Wednesday, should you not know? Has your mother not taught you about it when you developed your psychic abilities?”
The little crease between her eyebrows appeared at the, what she would usually take as an insult, but what was now just words said in the moment.
“I had a little bit of a different approach than what my mother had wanted for me”, her words cutting sharp through the already tense atmosphere.
“Ah, my apologise, but we don’t have any time to waste. Something is on the rise, and you need to find out what it is Wednesday. Before it is too late.”
The following snaps made her draw in a sharp breath as her eyes shot open again.
Now wasn’t Weems standing in front of her, but her seemingly worried girlfriend. Wednesday blinked as she regained her vision, warm arms wrapped around her cold frame.
“Oh my luna you are awake. Is everything okay? What did you see?”
The goth sat up slowly, gliding onto the floor from the lap of her girlfriend. Wednesday’s mind was spinning, what did Weems want from her. What did she mean by Nevermore’s Mana was different and something would be happening? She couldn’t help the frown that was implemented on her face.
“Enough Enid, I’m fine.”
“Fine my ass, you had one of your visions again”, her voice softened as she let go, what must have been a near death grip on her girlfriend.
“What do you know about Mana?”
With little regard to the blonde’s clear concern, Wednesday got up and made her way to her desk. There must be something in the book from her Aunt Ophelia her mother had given her. And if not, maybe something useful to get another vision, a clearer one of what could happen to Nevermore.
After a brief moment of silence Enid also got up, following her goth counterpart to her desk.
“Not much, that’s more in the department of Magick and that stuff”, it was the truth, werewolves rarely took an interest in the occult, ,,Why are you asking?”
“Weems told me something will happen to Nevermore. That its Mana is acting different or something.”
As she went through Aunt Ophelias book, flying over sketches and scribbled words. There wasn’t really a system to how she had written in it. For the past months Wednesday had tried to copy and decipher most of the things she could. Which proved to be harder than expected.
“That doesn’t sound good at all. Why are we always dragged into these things?”
Normally Wednesday cherished Enid’s whiney tone, but not now.
“Like it wasn’t annoying enough that Tyler is going to Nevermore now”
The pouty look on the werewolf’s face, one that made Wednesday reach out her hand and softly trace her thumb over her cheek bone.
“Have I not told you enough times cara mia? My infatuation with him was nothing more than that, an infatuation.”
Her tone so sure her girlfriend couldn’t help but sigh and lean her face into the goth’s hand. It wasn’t that Enid was jealous, or gods know scared of a little competition, she knew that what her and Wednesday had was transcending this petty teenager stuff, she was more territorial per say.
And now with Tyler in the picture again, she was a little on edge. Even though both of them had testified in his favour a few months ago, it didn’t stop her from distrusting the Hyde. The familiar nickname only soothing some of her worries.
“Okay, I guess so”
Wednesday couldn’t help herself in leaning forward and placing a soft kiss on her girlfriend’s pout. The feeling of her chasing after the sensation when the goth leaned back and broke the kiss, bringing a rare smile on her face.
“Now back to the Mana. Who could know more about it?”
Enid leaned against the desk, watching Wednesday look through the old book. Her mind going in circles as to who she might know. Normally other psychics, witches, mages or occultist fanatics would know about those things. All people Enid normally didn’t hang around much. Even if she knew most people by name and things others told her for her blog, she wasn’t close to any of these outcast types, excluding her girlfriend.
“Wait I might know someone who can help you.”
“Who?”
Wednesday didn’t stop putting notes in Aunt Ophelias book for later investigations as she waited for the other to continue.
“In my old pack there was a guy, Ands, and I think his girlfriend is close with a witch. Yeah, it’s like a whole friend group. I don’t think you know anyone from the school band, but she plays bass, I think.”
The recall, of memories of people telling Enid some gossip about her own pack member. Normally the school band rarely performed, at least the last year under Dort and she thought she might remember that one of their bandmates might not have been at the school for a while.
“Good, where can I find her?”, the goth put the book down on the desk, letting Thing arrange some of the notes in an orderly manner, before sharply turning to Enid.
The later couldn’t help being fascinated at the stillness of her two pigtail braids, even though her dress was swinging with the motion. Eery, Enid’s favourite word to describe her girlfriend.
“Well, that might be a problem, she isn’t known for being the most forthcoming and welcoming person.”
“Okay then who can we use to get to her?”
“Wednesday we are not going to use anyone”, Enid put air quotes around the use, the goth just hummed. Whatever made her girlfriend happy in that moment.
“But if we were to”
“Gods Wednesday, I don’t know her that well, or at all. I just know she’s part of the school band, maybe someone on there?”, the werewolf made her way over to her bed, sitting down and leaning back on her hands. She knew that once Wednesday had set her mind onto something there were very few things to make her back off.
“And who is part of this wannabe pop atrocity that it probably is?”
“They aren’t really a pop band, they mostly do covers Weds. And they played last year, you were there”
In all honesty Enid wasn’t surprised that the goth hadn’t bothered to remember such trivial details as names, a remark she had often made in the past.
“Well, there are four members. Heide, the witch, Isa, Leola and Mini. I don’t know all of them well. I had a few classes last semester with both Leola and Mini, but they kept to themselves and after the first semester ended, Mini wasn’t in the class anymore”, Enid stopped in her thinking, her brows furrowed as she recalled, ,,I think there were some rumours that she went to Willow Hill”
Now that was finally something interesting for Wednesday to hear.
“Don’t you say? We can use that, maybe find her reports and threaten to release them. A little blackmail has never hurt”
She was already ready to send Thing on his mission to get the necessary material.
“Or you could ask Tyler, they should have been there around the same time”, Enid’s voice rang through the room, making her girlfriend still in her steps.
“Interesting.”
“A big part in my recovery was learning how to actually use and control my powers.”
The room was quiet, the presence of the story weighting on all of them. The three friends hadn’t wanted to intrude on their friend when she had come back from Willow Hill. School was already enough of a burden, and they knew Mini would eventually talk.
“Doctor Fairburn, my main therapist, she had never studied someone with my power before.”
An Angel. The implication went unvoiced.
“And you know how I was, spiritual psychosis actually makes you act fuck ass psychotic. And the energy that I was emitting was just amplifying that. So, Doctor Fairburn came up with a few exercises that I could do to stay calm and not make everything worse.”
It made slightly sense, considering now the angel had her wings out much more often. Only in class was when she let them fold in, something Leola tried to understand how it was biologically and physically possible, but it worked. The outlines showing as scar like lines on her back every time.
“When I was able to not emit amplifying energy anymore it started to change into subduing energy. It kind of feels like taking the edge off. After that it got easier to just focus on speech therapy and diagnostics. Like the autism and adhd stuff.”
Leola nodded along, this part she already knew. The two had talked about this before. The energy Mini was speaking of had helped the vampire with her panic attacks some times. It helped her body calm down, not her mind though.
“And after some time, Doctor Fairburn realised some things about my abilities. At first, she didn’t want to test or use my ability in any way, since I was still in recovery. But after a few weeks I brought it up again, it felt nice to help people, you know?”
The soft smile on the angel’s face didn’t reach her eyes.
“We started small, every time someone was in the cafeteria and there was tense energy I’d just try to use my energy. After that worked well enough it was onto one-on-one focused energy output. Doctor Fairburn wasn’t sure on which other patient to pair me up with. I told her I’d be fine with anyone, wasn’t like I had a personal connection to anyone. It just turned out to be, harder than I expected”
“You got paired with Tyler”
Leola’s voice rang through the room. The other two holding their breath for a moment as their eyes jumped back to Mini.
When the inevitable nod came, the reaction of the three friends would essentially reflect who they were at their core.
Leola’s already pale skin seemed to go even a shade deathlier when the image of her friend, best friend, who she had seen suffer through so much, who had been by her side for years, was paired with a fucking psychotic serial killer by her fucking therapist. The air that came out of her nose preventing her from scoffing out loud. She knew that the remark on her tongue would in no way be helpful.
Isa on the other hand had stopped twirling their septum between their fingers. Many different thoughts flashing in front of their inner eye. In a way it hurt, not being told sooner of what happened, that was the first though of the siren. This quickly faded into understanding, understanding of what their friend went through and that there were maybe more layers to the story that Isa hadn’t even thought about.
Heide’s stomach dropped at the confirmation. Her and the angel rarely talked about their feelings to each other, before and after the hospital stay. This felt foreign, even if it wasn’t just the two of them. There was respect between them, an understanding that words sometimes didn’t need to be said. Yet now there was a gnawing feeling of regret and guilt building in her for not asking sooner.
“Don’t stress too much guys”, her tone was light, or tried to be, ,,It was a good opportunity to really get to know the extent of my powers. And I was safe and could pull out any time I wanted or needed.”
“You didn’t though, did you?”
Leola’s piercing green eyes meet Mini’s dark ones. Feelings exchanged to later be talked about.
“How could I?”