Chapter 7:
Nadiya was ready to strangle herself with the vine harness.
She'd been on the Flowerground since her hometown of Rajashah, and she'd never been so frustrated. Starting out alone, with no other students save one confused looking lad from Ladelflop who didn't seem to want to talk to her, and hardly any other passengers, had been calm enough. But the Tangerine Line was long, boring, and had no other stops apart from Ladelflop and Rajashah, meaning they had to switch onto the Hibiscus Line at Camelot- which was where she was narrowly missed by a tall blonde girl's boot, as she was yanked onto the train several spaces behind her.
The Everwood Botanical Transit Authority really needed to sort out their boarding procedure.
But they were whisked ever onwards, and despite the offers of various suspect muffins and beverages, Nadiya didn't find herself particularly cheerful as the train swooped through the Garden of Good and Evil. A graveyard wasn't the most pleasant entrance to a School where she had about a good 33% chance of being turned into a plant like the ones she was surrounded by now.
She was excited, initially, when she'd got her acceptance letter. What child in the Woods didn't dream of attending the famed School for Good and Evil, which produced heroes and villains of great esteem?
But Nadiya had spent lots of time reading about the school. Coming from a family where she was the first in 456 years (her father counted) to attend the school, she'd taken it upon herself to learn as much as she could about a world she'd never assumed she'd be a part of. Not all she'd learned had been good. Now that she knew about ball scandals, trial disasters, deaths, dismemberments, injuries, disappearances, and everything in-between, excitement had been replaced with worry. She'd found herself having consistently grim mental images of various worst-case scenarios, despite her parent's assurances that she'd be fine, and after the Second Great War, the School was safer than ever.
(Hopefully.)
She wondered if everyone felt like this when they arrived. Surely some people were apprehensive, too-
Someone screamed, and her thoughts were rudely interrupted when, with a rush of greenery, every single other student from every other line suddenly boarded the Hibiscus Line.
All at once, that was.
The point where the lines all crossed on the Flowerground had been condemned by Nadiya's mother as "hellish." Now she saw why, and cursed herself for not noticing it was approaching.
Vines stabbed and lashed through the air, sending deadly missiles of high heels, sharp nails, boots, and sword scabbards flailing through the sky- plus the students that said missiles were attached to. Nadiya ducked down in her harness, hoping to hang onto her head, as students after student was hurled over her cowering form and dumped unceremoniously on the flower train, usually accompanied by shrieks or screams (which, oddly, were not forbidden in the largely s based list of prohibited actions. You would have though screaming was more disturbing than sneezing.)
It took a good few minutes for all of the students to be settled, and even longer for them to all calm down and sit back. Glad to have escaped unscathed, Nadiya sat back up, wondering where they were-,
Dante bellowed from right behind her head, and if she could have fallen out of the harness, she would have done.
"STOP FOR THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL!"
Nadiya nearly jumped out of her skin, and then noticed the rest of the students reaching for the vines beside them. Panicked, she copied them, and perhaps she yanked the vine just a little too hard, because her harness tightened, squeezing all the breath out of her lungs, tensed, and hauled her straight upwards, plunging her headfirst into a suffocating, blinding mass of soil. But rather than crashing straight into it, Nadiya was pulled up, up, up through the crushing dirt, disorientated, confused, stifled. She didn't know which way was up, which way was down, or why she ever thought this was a good idea in the first place-
She also didn't quite know when she was shoved out of the ground, but what she did know was that she was so disorientated she staggered, tripped, and landed hard on her rear in lush green grass.
Well, then.
As she sat there, blinking, her vision slowly came back into focus, and, for the first time, it crossed her mind where she was.
She bolted upright, eyes widening, as she realised what was in front of her.
Soaring turrets of pink and blue glass speared into the cloudless blue sky, so high she had to crane her neck to see where they ended. Coloured breezeways interlinked each tower, stained glass windows sparkled in the sunlight, and the author of this tale had lost their copy of The School for Good and Evil, and therefore could not remember exactly what the School for Good was meant to look like. They were running entirely off memory, and not doing a bad job, all things considered.
In front of her, tall silver gates opened into another stretch of that lush grass, leading past a glittering bay of crystalline water, towards the castle entrance.
Dumbstruck, Nadiya could only stare around, wondering vaguely if she'd been dumped in some sort of paradise.
But no. Nearby, a gold-lettered sign confirmed her location;
The School for Good: Enlightenment and Enchantment.
Nadiya took several tentative steps forwards, hardly noticing the other girls stood around her.
She was here. The School for Good.
Which meant, on her left, was the twin school.
Nadiya turned to the second castle, a mass of towering, stylised black turrets, much more modern than the Good castle. She could see the bony silhouettes of stymphs, swooping and darting around the towers, and faint shrieks drifted across the Never's side of the bay to the Ever's. Apparently not all of the students enjoyed the Stymph Landing Pad as much as Dean Sophie had thought. Or, maybe, she thought as she watched one stymph stop flying momentarily, and heard the students on its back scream, the stymphs liked to mess with their passengers a little more than necessary.
Everything about Evil was sleek and shiny, from highly polished towers, glowing lights from inside, to the beach tents she could see set up on the bay, and the statue of the Dean who made it all happen, perched on top of the tower in the centre of the bay.
She knew the statue of Dean Sophie was supposed to point to the winning school, but seeing as the Ever Never Challenge hadn't yet begun, Sophie's polished onyx hands were folded in front of her, unmoving.
She tore her eyes from the School for Evil, and caught sight of her fellow Evergirls beginning to make their way up towards the castle. Not wanting to be left behind, she hurried after them, and found herself walking next to a girl who looked familiar- Nadiya recognised her as the girl who'd been yanked onto the train at Camelot earlier. Tall, and almost gangly, with thick blonde hair tied into a messy plait that was half falling out. She didn't seem to notice Nadiya beside her- she was eyeing the castle with an expression that didn't look exactly glowing with excitement. She seemed to be embodying the feeling of apprehension in the pit of Nadiya's stomach. In fact, she looked very apprehensive, almost afraid.
Thinking it best to introduce herself, Nadiya cleared her throat politely. The girl glanced around at her, already arched brows shooting almost comically high, and Nadiya summoned up her best smile.
"Um… hi! I'm Nadiya. Of Rajashah. I, um just noticed you looked a bit apprehensive, so… so I thought I'd check you were okay."
The girl blinked owlishly. Nadiya watched her wide brown eyes give her a swift, oddly piercing, once-over. She looked rather taken-aback at being approached, and Nadiya wondered if she'd perhaps made a mistake in talking to her-
But then, to her relief, the other girl's face lit up with a surprisingly charming grin, displaying slightly crooked front teeth and dimpling her cheeks.
"Aw, thanks! You're a dear, aren't you? Nah, I'm okay. Just a bit… uh, nervous. You know? I'm Alex, by the way."
She offered her hand, which Nadiya shook.
"It's nothing, I'm glad you're okay. Nice to meet you. Uh, where are you from, Alex?" Nadiya was sure she recognised her, but why, she couldn't think-
"Oh, did I not say?" Alex tucked her long hands into the pockets of her breeches. "I'm from Camelot."
"Alex of- wait."
Nadiya stopped walking, struck with a sudden realisation. Camelot. Alex of Camelot. Alex of Camelot, with an odd accent and clearly expensive clothes. Blonde. Tan. Brown eyes.
"You're not… that Alex? Princess Alex? Princess Alexandra of Camelot?"
"Yeah, I'm that Alex." Princess Alexandra Pendragon of Camelot, eldest daughter of the legendary King and Queen of Camelot confirmed, currently picking a twig out of her hair. "I know, there's lots of girls called Alex. My parents popularised the baby name, it was fashionable for ages." She smirked at the dumbstruck Nadiya, dimples sinking deeper. "But I'm the original. The trendsetter. Don't call me Alexandra, though. Too long. Plus, it makes me sound like someone's grandma."
She turned and trotted ahead again, whistling tunelessly.
Stunned, Nadiya hurried after her, trying to match her long strides.
"You… uh…" She stopped, and tried again. "I- I shouldn't be addressing you formally, should I?"
Alex looked faintly amused at the idea.
"Hah! No, no. No, definitely not."
They were approaching the castle now, walking into the shadow of its turrets, but Nadiya barely noticed, instead surveying this princess closely. Her parent's faces and story were everywhere in the Woods, and she might have seen the odd depiction of Alex in her grandmother's various gossip magazines. But she'd never really payed attention. She'd sort of assumed this girl would look… well, like your stereotypical princess.
Alex was tall, and broad-shouldered, with a face that almost looked elfish- her long, slightly crooked nose, wonky front teeth, arched brows, and dimpled cheeks gave her a mischievous look, like she was always holding back laughter. She was an odd mix of looks- she wasn't exactly unattractive, but she wasn't any great beauty, either.
Also, she was wearing men's clothes.
Nadiya was rather surprised. She was nothing like how she'd imagined Tedros and Agatha's oldest daughter.
Alex seemed oblivious to her scrutiny, and sauntered up towards the towering glass castle, still chattering away;
"- I mean, if you really, really, really wanted to, there's not a lot I could do to stop you, but it's whatever. One time I met some envoy bloke who referred to me by my whole name every time he talked to me. And my whole title is long. Like really long. I have like a hundred middle names, for some reason. And a bunch of fancy bits on my title. Waste of time, honestly."
She turned to see Nadiya lagging behind, and waved her forwards cheerfully.
"Come on, Nadiya- ooh, can I call you Nadi? I mean, I shouldn't have to call you your full name if your just gonna call me Alex, right?"
Nadiya considered this. She didn't think she'd ever had a nickname before.
"Um… yeah, that's… that's fine. You can call me that." She stammered, a bit bewildered by how full-on this girl was. Did she ever stop talking, or walking, or-? Oh. She was off again.
Alex beamed, striding up the steps to the Entrance Hall two or three at a time.
"Great! We could make the best sitcom out of this!" she waved her hands in the air, visualising some imaginary sign. "Alex and Nadi take the School for Good! Hah! Come on!"
She disappeared into the Entrance Hall, and Nadiya hurried after her new friend, somewhere between confused and pleased.
She took her first steps into the glittering halls of the School for Good, with no idea what to expect, and a hundred questions in her head. Was she going to do well? Was Alex going to do well? What would her lessons be like? Who were her roommates?
(And what on earth was a sitcom?)
She didn't find out the sitcom one, to her disappointment.
Actually, she didn't find any of them out, right away, because that was when all the shouting started.
