Thank you to koryandrs and NoraMermaid for your review and favorite, respectively!
DISCLAIMER: I forgot to mention last chapter, but Mythology High (MytH) is owned by me. Everything aside from that and the aforementioned original characters, however, belongs to Mattel and Shannon Hale.
Enjoy!
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The Seeds of Rebellion
Chapter 2: Looking for Loopholes (PART I)
When Sean had been called into the headmaster's office, he'd been expecting to be punished for snatching last night's seafood casserole from the castleteria, not a girl. But there she was—a black-haired, blue-eyed fairyteen about his age.
"Mr. Oceanus, I would like you to meet Nerissa Marin. Starting today, she'll be attending class here, and I would like you to show her around campus, help her adjust."
It was hard for anyone near—or, in Sean's case, under—the sea not to know about the Marins. The family head, Marina, owned the Marin Merchant Agency, a bustling company that acted as a bank for and a mediator amongst merchants, so it wasn't surprising that one of their own decided to attend Ever After High. But Sean knew the real meaning behind Headmaster Grimm's words: there were more 'princes' than 'princesses' in his class year, and the man was using Nerissa's entrance as an opportunity to reduce that ratio.
Sean smiled nonetheless. "Name's Sean, son of the Little Mermaid. Nice to meet you."
Nerissa gave her own forced grin, the implications not lost on her, either. "Same. So…do you like sword fighting?"
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Dylan loved Ever After High's library, with its wide selection of titles from every genre, its heavy, aged paper smell, its layers of dust on the shelves. The best thing of all was that no one could freak out about the 'big, bad sea witch'—noise had to be kept to a minimum and the library was big enough for him to escape any nuisance.
Usually.
But the minute he walked into the library that day, Dylan was greeted with a book to the stomach.
"Oof!" The sea sorcerer groaned, grateful that he hadn't eaten lunch yet. Rubbing his abdomen, he grabbed the text off of the floor. "'The History of Woodworking'?"
"I'm so sorry! Are you okay?"
A dark-skinned girl with long, straight black hair rushed towards him from across the room.
"Books aren't your personal punching bags, y'know," Dylan huffed, handing the book back to her, "Especially not the classics; they're fragile."
The girl's eyebrow rose. This guy just got socked in the gut, and he's worried about the book? "I'm sorry about the book?"
Dylan nodded. "As you should be. Now, why were you tossing books around?"
The girl bristled slightly at that remark, but managed to calm down quickly. Sighing, she replied, "I'm just mad that I didn't get the electives I wanted."
"Why not?"
"Because they didn't fit with my 'destiny'," she went on, "Never mind that I placed out of all the woodworking classes offered here—I have to take them, anyway!"
Dylan stroked his chin. "Well, that's fun. What's your story?"
"Pinocchio. I'm Marionette, daughter of Geppetto."
That explains the book choice… "And which classes did you want to take?"
Marionette rubbed the back of her neck, glancing away. "I kind of wanted Dress Design, Shoe Making, and Enchanted Singing…"
"Well, when I was setting up my schedule last spellmester," Dylan explained, "I tried showing how taking certain classes corresponded with my destiny. For example, I managed to switch Ominous Chanting and Incanting with Enchanted Singing by saying that a nice singing voice would help me deceive people."
"So basically, you want me to find a loophole."
"Exactly. In regards to Dress Design and Shoe Making, you could tell your fairy god-counselor that you're taking them to improve your creations."
"Yeah, I could say that instead of painting their clothes, I want to make them. That's good. But what about Enchanted Singing?"
"That might be more of a stretch. You could argue that you're taking it to help you make singing puppets or something, but ES would help with your singing, not the singing of anything you make."
"True…but at least now I stand a chance with the other two classes, so that's something."
"Right. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to find a book on medieval curses for one of my classes. It was nice talking to you—aside from the whole book incident."
Marionette snickered. "Yeah, my curse. Thanks for helping me, um…"
Dylan hesitated before answering. "Dylan. Dylan Tempest…son of the Sea Witch."
The girl's eyes widened slightly, but the grin only faltered for a moment. "Thanks, Dylan."
"You-you're welcome," the white-haired male stuttered, his voice almost an octave higher. No one had ever reacted positively upon learning who he was. Even Sean had taken a few minutes to recover. He cleared his throat. "Guess I'll be seeing you around, then."
He headed towards the Medieval history section, but didn't get far before bumping into someone—no, two someones, he noted as the three of them stumbled backwards.
"Whoa," Sean said, before looking up. "Oh, hey, Dylan. What's up?"
Dylan adjusted his glasses. "Nothing much. Just looking for books, running into people at every corner…who's this?" he asked upon noticing Sean's companion.
"This is Nerissa. She's, uh…my 'princess', I guess?"
Dylan smirked. "Oh, really?"
"Yes, really," Sean snapped, "She's new here, so I'm showing her around. Nerissa, this is my friend, Dylan."
Nerissa blanched. "You mean the sea witch you told me about earlier?"
Sean took in a sharp breath. He hadn't meant to reveal his friend's legacy when he'd mentioned the sorcerer earlier, but it had just slipped out. The redhead hoped he wasn't too hurt.
If Dylan was, he didn't show it. "I see my legacy precedes me. Nice to meet you. But for future reference, I'm a sorcerer, not a witch."
An awkward silence fell, during which Nerissa tried not to fidget, Sean tried to think of conversation starters, and Dylan tried to look as amiable as possible. Nothing worked, forcing the latter to clear his throat.
"Well, I need to find a book for my class. I'll see you guys later. Welcome to Ever After High, Nerissa," Dylan said as he made his way past the two.
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Baba Yaga's office wasn't much of an office at all—at least, not the parts Dylan could see, anyway. Most of it was dark, with only one light bulb illuminating the center of the room. In said center rested a desk and a few chairs arranged in a circle, only one of which was being used, as Baba Yaga chose to float and Headmaster Grimm to stand next to her.
"Mr. Tempest, it has come to our attention that, once again, you haven't been causing trouble on campus," the headmaster said.
Dylan stifled a snort. They'd had this conversation way too many times. "Can't say that I have, sir."
"And that's a problem, Dylan," Baba Yaga replied, "You're a sophomore now. With Legacy Day just around the corner, how can you expect to become a Sea Witch—"
"Sorcerer," Dylan corrected, adding a 'ma'am' once he realized he'd snapped at her.
"—sorcerer if you don't act like one?"
Dylan was spared from having to respond thanks to Anansi stumbling into the room.
"Mr. Spider, how good of you to join us," Headmaster Grimm remarked, "We were just discussing appropriate behavior on campus, a skill both you and Mr. Tempest seem to be lacking. There's also the matter of you not tackling your prank quota. Care to explain?"
Anansi chuckled as he caught his breath, leaning against the doorframe. "Why yes, yes I would. I haven't been pulling pranks lately because I wanted people to let their guard down. That way, they won't see the really big prank that I'm planning coming!"
Headmaster Grimm crossed his arms. "And what is this 'really big prank'?"
Anansi smirked. "You'll find out in 5—"
A loud explosion rocked the building, objects on Baba Yaga's desk toppling over and the headmaster falling down in response. Dylan was only spared the same fate thanks to his magic. The ruckus was followed by the chittering of insects and the cries of horrified students.
Headmaster Grimm marched towards the door and peered into the hallway. "Excellent work, Mr. Spider! In all my years as headmaster, I've never seen this kind of chaos on our campus!" He looked back inside. "Mr. Tempest, you could learn quite a bit from your roommate. Now, if you'll excuse me…"
The headmaster ran out the room.
"Well, I should go help him," Baba Yaga added, floating out the door.
Dylan stormed towards Anansi, smacking the boy in the chest.
"Ow! What was that for?" Anansi cried, rubbing the affected area.
"You knew we were going to be sent to the advisor's office!"
"I didn't find out until this morning! By then, we were on opposite sides of the campus. There was no way I could reach you and pull the prank in time!"
"And you couldn't send a member of your legion of insects to find me? Or shoot me a hex—"
Dylan's pocket vibrated. He pulled out his Sea Phone and flipped it open, revealing a hex message that read:
U going 2 Briar's study party 2nite?
"Who's it from?" Anansi asked.
"Sean. He says there's some study party…" For what class? Dylan typed.
S and S. Trust me you'll WANT 2 come 2 this 1.
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Dylan sighed as he rested against the wall. When Sean had told him about the study party, he hadn't expected it to be an actual party. To his dismay, however, the place was packed with fairyteens—and not just his classmates—dancing to blaring music as they chanted concepts, acronyms, and mnemonic devices. To make matters worse, he couldn't find Sean.
The sea sorcerer just wasn't made for these things: spending most of your life in a sea cave didn't exactly give you opportunities to learn how to socialize…or how to dance. Dylan chugged the cup of fairy ale he'd been nursing. Well, at least he'd pass tomorrow's test…
"ANANSI!"
Dylan almost gagged on his drink, looking up. Several students complained as they were shoved aside by the screamer.
"Anansi the Spider, I know you're in here! You're gonna pay for what you did to Cedar!"
Marionette emerged from the herd of students, eyes darting around. Curious, Dylan approached.
"Why do you need Anansi?" Dylan shouted over the yells of students who'd suddenly started reciting the five levels of mystic animal classification.
She turned to him. "Oh, it's you! I'm after him 'cause that jerk decided to include termites with his wave of bugs and spiders earlier, and they started gnawing on Cedar."
"That's sounds terrible. Is Cedar okay? I take it she's Pinocchio's daughter?"
Marionette nodded. "Yeah, I made her out of his old parts myself. I mean, she's fine for the most part, but some of those things bit holes into her. It'll take some enchanted wood glue and sawdust to fix, though…which is why Anansi's gonna get it when I find him. If I find him."
The boy fought a smirk. Glad to see that Anansi throwing me into the oven hasn't gone unpunished. "What if I told you that I had a hexproof way of getting back at him?"
Marionette eyed him curiously. "How?"
Dylan's smile twisted into a smirk worthy of an evil sorcerer. "He's my roommate."
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Author's Notes: Oh, boy; something tells me that Anansi's gonna be really unhappy, REALLY soon. XD
There was one more scene that I wanted to add to this chapter, but I figured that it was better off being in Chapter 3 and decided to end it here.
You guys probably noticed that this chapter references Stark Raven Mad and Briar's Study Party, even though those web episodes don't happen until after Apple: The Story of a Royal and Raven: The Story of a Rebel. I figured that those two episodes (and several others, for that matter) could have easily taken place either before or after Apple and Raven, so I took a little creative liberty here.
In regards to Cedar's origins, when I was originally planning this fic, I hadn't realized that Cedar was Pinocchio's biological daughter; I just figured she'd been built and taken in as an 'adopted' child (like Cupid), so I had to mess with things a bit here to make Marionette's existence valid.
I mentioned 'spellmester' here, even though Ever After High is clearly a high school, because I was pretty torn between giving the school marking periods or semesters. Marking periods would fit more with the whole high school thing (at least in an American sense), but I figured that they'll need to take a lot of classes in order to fulfill their destinies, and four years with just 4-6 classes per year might not cut it (Was it 4-6 classes per year?). There's also the fact that Rumplestilskin and Nimble are referred to as professors in the webisodes, which really doesn't help at all. XD
As for Nerissa, her name means 'sea sprite' (Nerissa) and 'sailor' (Marin), respectively. I brought her in as a 'flexible destiny' character because someone on YouTube pointed out that there could be incest amongst the characters since they're the children of fairy tales, and I'd rather not think about the characters' situations like that…
For Marionette: Marionettes are a type of puppet, and Carver's…well, you get the picture. XD
Thanks for reading, and feel free to review!
Japaneserockergirl
1/4/14
