Agatha had always been that "let's-go-hide-and-die-I-don't-like-you-and-you-don't-like-me" kind of girl. She'd never been all that, "Yes! Saturday! I'm calling all my friends over for a party!"
No, that was Sophie. In fact, that was where Agatha was right now. She blew hair out of her eyes and crossed her arms. She was at one of Sophie's dumb parties again. She'd always try to skip them, but then, the next thing she knew, Sophie would be dragging her down the hill and picking out her outfit. Agatha had insisted she could clothe herself, as she did every time. This would leave a disappointed Sophie, but if Agatha let Sophie dress her, she'd end up in a pink frilly dress and glass slippers.
Agatha was wearing black boots, dark ripped jeans, a black shirt with a flaming skull on it, a leather jacket, and black studded gloves. Agatha blew hair out of her eyes again.
Sophie was busy "mingling" with her friends. Belle wasn't in the least one of them, but her Stefan had made Sophie invite her.
Agatha saw out of the corner of her eye a man approach. No, this wasn't one of those cute boys coming to flirt, if someone came to flirt, Agatha would punch them and show them to Sophie. Not that it had ever happened.
Stefan was the man going up to Agatha.
"How's life?" Stefan asked, instantly regretting it.
"Terrible. The usual." Agatha answered. Stefan wasn't sure whether to laugh and joke about it, or show sympathy, so he changed the subject.
"Um. How's Reaper?" Stefan asked. Agatha whistled. Reaper came at her call. All the girls turned to Agatha immediately. Agatha looked uncomfortable and turned away, but not before picking up her cat. Stefan wearily looked at the bald cat inside of his nice house.
"He looks... great." Stefan said, trying to smile. Deep down, Agatha admired Stefan. She liked him. She appreciated how he was being nice to her, and even trying to make a conversation with her. But, she was the witch of the town and no one liked her, so she was basically humoring them.
"Want some punch? Or food?" Stefan asked. Agatha fiddled with her zipper, not looking at Stefan.
"Yeah, sure." she mumbled. Stefan got up to get her some punch and snack. When he was getting some punch, Sophie cornered her dad.
"Leave the punch for the guests, father." Sophie seethed, maintaning her smile.
"It's for a guest." Stefan said, reaching for some chips and a plate.
"Which one?" Sophie asked.
"Agatha." her father replied. Sophie turned to Agatha in the corner with her cat. She grimaced. She shooed her father away nonetheless. Stefan returned to Agatha and handed her the plate and punch. Agatha dropped her cat to take it. She was a hard conversationalist, but Stefan didn't mind.
Agatha munched loudly on the chips.
"So how's your life?" Agatha asked, mouth full. Stefan found Agatha relaxing. Whereas his daughter would forever prod him upon being dressed well, eating healthy, and all those things about her pores, Agatha would sit around with pimples all over her face and not mind it.
"Same old, same old." Stefan replied. Agatha nodded, sipping on her punch. Droplets of it dropped onto her shirt. Stefan scratched his golden hair, thinking of what to say.
"So, the school's enrolling soon." Agatha said. Stefan nodded.
"Think Sophie'll get in?" Stefan wondered aloud. Agatha shrugged. The School of the Advanced and the Receded. One was for the good, smart students, the other was for the students who are behind in school or the troublemakers. Another good part of it was it taught you self defense.
However, it was a boarding school, so if you went in, you went from there on till graduation. After graduation, your yearbook was sent back to their city.
Gavaldon.
You only got into the School for Advanced and Receded if you were 14. From then on, you'd graduate and you could show up in a yearbook.
The yearbooks basically showed everyone who went there. It showed if you Class Captain, it showed if you had done well and got a job in one of those fancy schmancy uptown places. No one was allowed in uptown unless you graduated from the School for Advanced and Receded. And the school was very exclusive. It had only let in two people from their city each year. Well, that's what they thought anyways. Two had been taken each year since two centuries ago, no more, no less.
If you weren't fourteen, you'd search the yearbooks for clues of if you'd be taken the next year, or if there were familiar faces. Did your friend get in? Did the fail?
Agatha looked through the most recent yearbook. The one four years ago. Garrick and Bane. Bane had been taken to the Receded, Garrick to the Advanced.
Bane had failed. Garrick hadn't been mentioned. As if he'd never existed. Agatha sighed. She didn't miss Bane though. Last she saw him, Bane had been trying to gouge out Reaper's eye. If you failed, you didn't come back. All the townspeople assumed they just caught up or went to uptown or something.
Agatha was the one that they thought would go to the Receded. Belle was who they assumed would go to the Advanced. Not Sophie, Belle. Belle had always been the kind of girl that was like, I'm-better-than-you-and-I-cook-food-and-would-rather-stay-in-Gavaldon-then-go-to-that-cursed-school. That was Agatha too. Minus the first two parts.
"Agatha!" called a raspy voice that sounded like it could be pretty and like a princess's if the person who had the voice tried.
"What?" Agatha called. Callis walked out. Her eyes were big bug eyes, she had helmet hair, long gangly limbs, and sickly pale skin.
"Do you think you need three textbooks or four?" Callis asked.
"For what? I usually only have one." Agatha replied.
"For the School for Receded." Callis replied. Even Agatha's own mother thought she'd go there.
"I'm not going to Enrollment mother." Agatha replied.
"But you must. If you don't then the President and his ninny's will drag you by your feet and take you. So really, you must go either way."
"But I don't want to." Agatha groaned. Callis glared hotly.
"You will. I don't want to watch my daughter be dragged across the concrete roads and lose half her skin."
"Fine." Agatha replied, thinking of what she would look like without her skin. Callis smiled toothily.
"Well then, help me pick out some snacks!" she smiled. Agatha groaned, but nodded.
"Father?" Sophie called. "Where's all the cucumbers?"
"In the fridge." Stefan replied.
"They're not- Oh, here they are." Sophie said. She grabbed all the lemons and honey too. She packed them in some plastic containers and walked to the garden. She picked all the mint leaves and herbs for her face masks and DIY perfume. She packed those up and went to her room.
What dress would all the girls and boys at the School for Advanced be SO totally jealous of? Hmm... Sophie picked up a pink summer dress that had spaghetti straps. It was just a soft pink.
"No, too casual." Sophie said. She picked out a poofy hot pink dress with a gigantic bow at the back.
"Why do I even have this?"
Then she picked out a peach dress with long sleeves.
"No. Too... just no."
Suddenly she picked up a beautiful petal pink dress. It was a summer dress, but the fabric at the top wrapped around her, and it was one shouldered.
"Perfect." she whispered. She slipped on the dress and matched it with some white heels. She slipped on a white necklace to match and put her hair in an impeccable braid. She stepped to her mirror and admired herself. She twirled around in her dress and laughed.
She walked into the bathroom.
"Father, I do hope you don't need to go because I may be in here for a while!" Sophie called. Stefan did nothing as he prepared dinner. It was 4:00.
Sophie sighed as she put on muted pink lipstick she had made herself. Her face was much to delicate and beautiful to have store bought make up put on it.
She pursed her lips as she put on more lipstick. She put a bobby pin in to keep a loose strand from being, well... loose.
Sophie smiled brightly as she put some blush on. A girl like her didn't need any makeup, but Sophie was almost obsessed with herself. Besides, she never overdid it, she only put on enough makeup to make her really shine. That is, shine more.
An hour later, Sophie stepped from the bathroom and made a quick goodbye to her father. She grabbed a small picnic basket and stepped outside.
She had just seen Agatha, but she didn't exactly care. She was a bit late, but she knew Agatha wouldn't mind.
Sophie was just walking around the second block to Agatha's when she saw a bright red flash. She sighed and put on her best fake smile.
"Hello Radley." she said, straining to keep her nice picture as she smiled at Radley's scraggly red hair, buck teeth, bright freckles, and short, scrawny stature. He smiled toothily.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"Going to a friend." Sophie replied, teeth tight.
"Why are you friends with the witch?"
"She's not a witch."
"She has no friends and she's queer. And she pranks us. She's a witch."
Sophie refrained from telling him that this meant he was a witch too. She refrained more so when he mentioned pranking.
"It was a harmless prank." Sophie replied.
"I don't think that dressing the Elder's statue in lady's undergarments was harmless." Radley replied.
"Well, it was rude obviously but it was harmless. No one was hurt."
"Well, when they enroll her into the School for Receded you'll need a new friend." Radley said. Sophie clenched her teeth.
"And who would got to the School for Advanced?" she asked tightly.
"Belle of course." Radley replied. Sophie thought of the brown haired girl with brown eyes that were covered by big chunky glasses who always had her head down in a book. She thought of how her hair was always in a ponytail, how her nails were always filled with something from working and cooking. She thought of how she always wore tacky sweaters and plaid skirts. Belle. Sophie thought, tight.
"But I'll be your new friend." Radley smiled.
"I'm full on friends for the moment." Sophie snapped. Radley suddenly looked scared and fled. Sophie sighed. Great. She trudged towards her actual friend as she started to think about her Good Deeds from the last day to make her feel better about the Radley situation. She glared as Belle walked by wearing a grey sweater, plaid skirt, knee high white socks (one high, one low), brown clunky shoes to match her black clunky glasses, brown hair pulled into a ponytail, and ear buds in. Probably listening to some Opera.
Sophie sighed and went back to counting her Good Deeds.
Agatha heard a knock at her door. She checked the eye hole of the crumbling door. Her whole house was crumbling, actually. She saw a blond head waiting impatiently.
"You're late." Agatha sneered.
"Well, I am a tad late, but-"
"A tad late is apparently an hour." Sophie heard Agatha snort.
"Um. I brought cookies?" Sophie said, a bit unsure of Agatha's answer. Agatha hesititated.
"Store bought ones with sugar or dry boring ones that you made?" Agatha asked, finally. Sophie opened her picnic basket. Agatha didn't see, but Sophie sure saw dry, boring ones she made.
"Store bought ones." Sophie lied. Agatha opened the door. Sophie was disappointed to see that Agatha was still in what she had worn to the party. Only, she didn't wear her boots now, now she just wore grey socks that had holes in them. Sophie grimaced.
Agatha opened the basket and saw dry, boring one's Sophie had made. Agatha glared and Sophie wilted. Agatha pushed Sophie outside and closed the door.
Who knew someone was so pushy about cookies? Sophie jabbed her foot between the door and wall. She winced. That was less painful in movies. A lot less painful. Agatha was trying to push her foot out and was jabbing the door still.
"I was thinking we could go on a walk." Sophie said through the pain. Agatha stopped jabbing. Sophie heard a yowl. Presumably from Reaper, Agatha's cat.
"Fine. Whatever." Agatha said, pretending not to be happy that Sophie wanted to, pretending that that wasn't the question she had been waiting for. "I was getting tired of jabbing your foot anyways."
