Chapter Text
Chapter One
In which Agnes DeMille finally escapes the penitentiary that is Nevermore Academy
“Surprise!” a dozen or more voices called out, as guests leapt from behind sofas or out from doorways. Essentially all of Agnes’ friends here to shower her in praise, except for Wednesday Addams. Who was also here, just not doing any of the excessive yelling. And, honestly, Agnes appreciated it.
Now, Agnes DeMille liked the idea of a surprise party in theory. There were two major problems with such an event, however. Firstly, actual surprises did not always go down well with Agnes. Well, at least, not those that she wasn’t orchestrating. Because Agnes loved surprising others—preferably with shock and fright. Perhaps hypocritically, she was less likely to react well to being surprised, especially in her own spaces, and especially if she had other plans. But secondly, it was rather difficult to surprise Agnes at all, and less and less so as she refined her unique skillset every year. Agnes tried her very best to never not be in the know, and with friends like hers, finding out whatever it is that they are hiding was not particularly challenging. Wednesday was perhaps the only one who could’ve kept this under wraps, but then again Wednesday didn’t really seem to care whether Agnes knew about the party happening or not. It was a miracle that the petite, scowling woman was here at all, likely only thanks to her pastel-and-rainbows girlfriend, Enid Sinclair.
The last not-quite-three years had been strange for Agnes. Her whole social life had been linked with older students at Nevermore Academy, which of course left her a little adrift when they all graduated without her. Agnes had only recently turned fourteen at the time, and suddenly went from being ingratiated with numerous students who were part of secret societies and had saved the school from supernatural villains to… her obsession-turned-friend’s kinda weird younger brother, and a nerd who only talked about bees. Yes, Agnes loved Pugsley and Eugene, but it wasn’t the same.
Then, part way through that time, Agnes had travelled for what was meant to be a one-week break from school to visit Wednesday and Enid at their university, Awen College. Because her father had abandoned her, and only thanks to the Addams’ generosity had she been able to stay at Nevermore and retain any kind of family. But that vacation—which started as simply sleeping on an air mattress in Wednesday and Enid’s dorm room and normal activities like going to the mall—had quickly spiralled into a darker and more twisted adventure than any that had happened at Nevermore. A murderous stalker who had been even more disturbingly obsessed with Wednesday Addams than even Agnes herself could ever claim, wanting to literally steal away Wednesday’s life and walk in her skin and claim her friends and her family… Not to mention having to go on a literal heist into enemy territory to receive a forbidden spell that was needed to save Wednesday when they had lost to the stalker’s schemes.
If her friends leaving after graduation had been strange—difficult, even, though Agnes had always retained a level head and steady heart and hadn’t always admitted that it affected her emotionally, not just in her practical routine—then having to return to high school after such a traumatic experience… Well, Agnes hadn’t really felt like she was where she was meant to be, like she was home, anytime that she was apart from Wednesday and Enid and Yoko and Divina and Joel. While all of that chaos had been happening, Agnes had already moved beyond really needing high school. Not just because she had hacked the Nevermore grades system, but Agnes had genuinely only fabricated her results because she was confident that she already knew everything and anything that Nevermore could hope to teach her. And everyone else around her just cared about, well, nothing. At least, their interests and worries all felt small to Agnes, infinitesimal.
This birthday, in Agnes’ mind, marked a change. Sure, she wasn’t actually leaving Nevermore Academy until she graduated, but this was now truly the last stretch. Agnes was legally an adult, and only really had one of everything left: one of each social event, one exam season, one graduation ceremony… And she would be free.
The party, which had been held at the Addams’ manor over a long weekend that was near enough to Agnes’ actual date of birth to count, stretched well into the night. Those who couldn’t stay for several days or were from further afield were offered red-eye flights, entirely paid for by the Addams. Everyone else was billeted in the expansive home. Agnes had arrived with Lurch, Pugsley and Eugene in tow, supposedly none the wiser to those who had already secretly made their way here from Nevermore or had come with Wednesday and Enid all the way from university on the other coast. Whether Agnes was just naturally suited to being a vanisher, or whether her personality had grown out of her abilities, it made little difference at this point. Being at the centre of attention did not suit her. But it was nice, in its own way, to be celebrated. For others to flock to acknowledge Agnes’ importance to them and the milestone that was entering adulthood. For once, to let herself be seen.
It only took until the Year of Our Lord, 2031, for Agnes to be able to accept and enjoy this moment without feeling guilty or undeserving. Thanks, dad.
The following months until her freedom were, in some ways, excruciating. Knowing that the door out of Nevermore was so close was torture. But Agnes kept to that mantra: only one more. Every social event was either ignored or a chance for a good prank. Every exam was a breeze. And she walked across the stage, with cheers from her fellow students that were sometimes genuine, but more likely from fear and bribery, though the latter was her own doing and more to Agnes’ style anyway. Among the authentic congratulations were, of course, the full Addams clan, and though not everyone from Awen College had made it, there had been joy but absolutely no surprises upon seeing both Wednesday and Enid in the auditorium. The former with her classic deadpan, but the whooping and hollering of the latter more than making up for it.
Summer was spent in New Jersey. Though Agnes still kept her surname, in every other way she was now an Addams. Well, without paperwork, and now as an adult, Agnes was legally on her own. But in every other other way, Gomez and Morticia called her their daughter, and Enid and Pugsley and Pubert referred to her as ‘sister’ when she wasn’t just ‘Aggie’ or ‘Little Psycho.’ And Wednesday didn’t actively deny it, which counted just as much. (If she ever had tried to deny it, Agnes kept up her sleeve the fact that Wednesday had made the call to her father that had catalysed the all-but-adoption process in the first place.) As always, summer was too short but also seemed to stretch on timelessly. Not in the way of her final semester at high school, but perhaps its antithesis. The heat didn’t agree with Agnes anymore than it did with the rest of the Addams, but time seemed to become irrelevant in that uncanny way that it only ever could when there had been no school yesterday and was no school tomorrow, only the endless chorus of cicadas and sunlight casting dappled shadows through the leaves and the nights shrinking to their shortest.
Of course, ends always arrived. And Agnes wasn’t particularly mourning this one. Summer with her family had been enjoyable, but Agnes had felt like she was still holding her breath. Sure, her last summer as a high schooler had technically been the one before, but Agnes had yet to experience a holiday as a teenager after which she wasn’t returning to her educational penitentiary. So it didn’t quite feel real, wouldn’t quite feel real, until the year progressed and Agnes didn’t have to step back through those gates. The gates that had given her Wednesday and Enid and the other Addams and helped her become herself… but nevertheless were now part of her history not her present, and thankfully so.
Enid’s ‘new’ car, as they still called it, even though she had technically been gifted it by Gomez several years before following the events with Wednesday’s stalker, was packed to the brim with their luggage. A spacious enough hatchback, but one that struggled when it had to cope with five passengers. Agnes had not graduated on her own, and Enid had insisted to both Agnes and Wednesday that she got to decide, as the driver, who she did and didn’t offer rides to. To absolutely no one’s surprise, Pugsley and Eugene were following them to Awen College too. The only consolation was that Wednesday had insisted that the home that she shared with Enid was definitely not large enough for either, let alone both, of the boys to ‘freeload’ with them, and had pointedly given Pugsley dormitory application brochures for his latest birthday. (He had burned them in the bonfire that night with a gleeful grin, but ultimately still ended up signing the online equivalents with Eugene to move into university halls.)
The boys were ditched unceremoniously at the university gates, and Agnes—who had endured sitting in the middle seat for far too many hours—felt no shame at letting her childishness win and sticking her tongue out at them as she got to drive off with Wednesday and Enid to their real house, and the boys definitively did not. Thanks to her numerous visits over the last two years, Agnes essentially already had a room of her own in Wednesday and Enid’s place. Sure, if there were other guests, the sheets got switched and the room had to cope with the indignity of strangers sleeping beneath its roof. But the closet had long since been colonised by Agnes, and the décor featured her particular touch, and Enid at least, of the two, referred to it as her room. Wednesday perhaps only didn’t complain because she tolerated so few other guests that Agnes laying her claim to her territory hadn’t become a problem. She had even heard from Enid that Wednesday had more than once rejected letting others stay because ‘sorry, Agnes will be here,’ when this was a bald-faced lie.
Still, now it would truly and officially be hers. Smaller than the master bedroom, without an ensuite, and with only one wall with a window since it was sandwiched between the living area and the garage. But nevertheless. Hers. Even the room at the top of Ophelia Hall, which Agnes had threatened and blackmailed her way into having as a single, had not felt like ‘hers’ in the same way. For one, it was designed as a double, but perhaps more significantly, she had still thought of it as Wednesday and Enid’s room that she had taken over through all of her years living in front of the spider window, one half still in colour and the other bare, Agnes unable to bring herself to change something so iconic.
By the time that they had pulled into the garage, lugged everything from the trunk, and argued over what kind of takeout to order given that it was already late from the long drive, Agnes was ready for sleep. Enid had offered to hang out, and Wednesday had suggested that some kind of task could be found to keep Agnes useful and busy if she so desired, but she’d chosen to thank the former and roll her eyes at the latter, and just collapse for the night. She didn’t even remember the moments that must have passed between sitting on the edge of her only partially made bed, and falling backward into unconsciousness. Still fully dressed, even if in something comfortable enough for a long car ride. But it hardly mattered.
For the first time in years, Agnes felt like she was home. Not just visiting family in a place that she was allowed to call home. Not just existing in walls that were temporarily home. In her home, with her people, stable and secure, for as far into the future as Agnes could currently imagine.