There is something that should be said about windows: when all the windows in a room are tinted, however slight it is when looking out, it is very noticeable when one is missing despite a lack of visible cracks and regardless of the pile of glass on the ground three floors down.
When Professor Goodwitch had returned to the C floor of the building to release her captives the relief from finding two students sitting peacefully against the wall in what otherwise appeared to be an untouched room was torn from her grasp as she opened the second door.
It was not immediate, but the details quickly shone through; despite all the desks being as they should it was clear that not one was aligned quite straight, the board was smudged, although erased, and the two students within sat separately. It was the return of a sense of dread she noticed first, before picking up on those details. One student, located in the middle of the room had her book bag on her desk and seemed to be trembling with excess energy, turned her head to look at the professor before the door had even opened. The other with her head down on a text, the image of defeat, behind whom was a clean window, a very clean window.
Coco and Penny, standing just behind the professor, quickly turned away from the room in advance of those details registering in her mind. Both had a hand across her mouth, Penny in shock and horror, Coco attempting to snuff out any indication of laughter. Carefully the two of them looked at the other as Professor Goodwitch attempted to find her voice.
The next evening saw all four members of PNNC seated in room 16C, each in one of the four corners of the square desk arrangement. Perhaps the well-mannered Penny and Coco could learn to control the destruction of their teammates this time. Professor Goodwitch had said, as much a warning as an instruction.
Twas not long before Nora moved to sit atop the instructor's desk, cross-legged and leaning over a notebook open in her lap. She struggled to pay attention to her notes and doodles, shifting and stretching. Her hunched posture become a hindrance; she tried straightening out, turning sideways and pushing the book in front of her sitting form. Her form elongated as she sunk forwards, chest propped up using her arms, legs bent and gently kicking the air.
A few minutes of that and her separate rhythms met with one heel hitting her bum, her other foot hitting the metal side of the table, and a sucking 'click' from her mouth as her mumbled reading paused with a page turn.
Coco stood abruptly, her chair slamming against the desk behind her, pushing the entire column into the wall, including the one Nora had started at. "Stop that!" she exclaimed.
Nora rolled to face the source of commotion, in her surprise she pushed off with too much force and rolled off the table. A weak 'ow' was all she spoke.
Unperturbed, Coco continued. "Be quiet and stop twitching around! Just sit down properly," she waved a hand toward the desks behind her, "and study normally!"
"Sssshe c-can't." replied Neopolitan calmly, seated in the desk closest to the windows in the same front row as Coco. It was a statement that shouldn't have needed to be said, they had known Nora long enough to understand her study habits. "A-and y-y-you kn-now it."
Nora stood at the front of the room, hesitant to resume her perch on the desk. Surprised the teammate that had ignored her for the past day had come to her defense, she turned to face Neopolitan.
Penny spoke before Coco could retaliate, "We all know that Nora is not one to study in the traditional manner. Can we agree to allow her to do as she pleases within this room with the condition that she shall do nothing she cannot put back or fix before our period of confinement ends?"
Nora's eyes twitched around the upper half of the back wall, attempting to understand Penny's suggestion.
Faster, Coco grumbled as she sat back down, providing one additional caveat, "She had better be quiet and not bother me." Her attention turned to her book as she appended quietly, "I can't miss two nights of studying."
"Certainly!" Penny hurried to respond, knowing better than to allow comment on Coco's second remark. "Actually, Coco, would it help if you move to the desk in the back row?" she offered, extending a hand to indicate the spot in her same row, previously warmed by Nora.
Coco gathered her things as Neopolitan watched her teammates intently.
Nora promised that she would be respectful of the study time and agree to the terms laid out by Penny and Coco. First she covered the blackboard with a mural of herself riding an ursa, leading an ursa army over the corpses of beowolves. It spanned the entire board, and most of Nora's arms and skirt as a result of her hasty erasures and artful blending of the colored chalk.
Once satisfied, Nora spun on her toes and looked about the room as she dusted her hands. The room was not decorated, and the majority of it was comprised of the currently unused desks and chairs. Choosing to start with the corner desk Coco had been at not long before, she placed it beside the teacher's desk. It sat a little lower. Another went to the other side, then one atop each of the short desks to the table at a slant. Most of the unused desks were soon part of her carefully crafted structure, even building from the long sides of the table to support it. Chairs were placed on top for embellishment with one at the very top, centered, where Nora sat observing her dominion.
Her dominion was small, a mere three subjects whose heads were bowed and fields cleared apart from the few remaining chairs. Carefully, her attention turned to the mural depicting her heroic battle to protect her fiefdom which earned her the love of her subjects and a new crown. However, not all her subjects were happy. One section rose against the queen when she was turned away and took hold of a desk leg.
Coco had pulled the desk free and jumped back. Nora felt her carefully crafted world wobble and tilt, ready to crash down around her. She pushed off from her throne, up and back, her feet planting just above the board behind her and launching her to the door-wall, opposite the windows, from which she fell to the floor with a roll, ending back on her feet.
CRASH!
Coco was sliding back into her own seat by the time Penny and Neopolitan looked up to see the pile of furniture come crashing down.
Penny looked from the front of the room, to Nora, then the other two, attempting to piece together what happened. A snicker came from Neopolitan.
Nora twisted her stance toward Coco, demanding "What was that for!?"
It took a moment before Coco looked up from the book she was not reading. "What? Me? Nooo I was sitting here quietly, minding my own studies."
"Liar! You pulled the desk out! I was entertaining myself without bothering you or breaking anything and you made all the desks and chairs come crashing down!" accused Nora, her voice wavering in frustration.
"But you didn't!" retorted Coco, standing up and letting go of her pretext. "Every scrape of a chair, and the whole thing was bound to fall down anyway!"
"Nu-uh! I was careful and I made sure it wasn't and I was going to be able to take it down the same way I built it so that nothing got broken and nothing crashed. You are the one that made the big distracting noise."
With each of her own utterances of the word 'you', Coco stepped forward. "You just couldn't sit still. You just had to break something. We are only here today because you couldn't just study like a normal student. You thought it was a good idea to throw a desk at a window and break it. What would you have done if the desk went through it? Try to get it up the stairs without being noticed?"
Penny was getting to her feet, looking between her three teammates unsure of how to diffuse this situation. A hand was placed on Penny's shoulder encouraging her to not get closer, and it's source was the first to speak while a stunned Nora stood frozen.
"C-c-coco, n-noth-nothing br-roke b-bef-fore y-y-you p-p-ulled th-the des-sk."
"Yeah!" said Nora, picking up where Neopolitan left off. "Now we'll be in trouble all over again because you couldn't let me be like we all agreed. I was just minding my own b-"
Coco cut her off, "No. Yesterday should've been it. Done. You two couldn't hold yourselves together for three hours. Three hours." responded Coco, now addressing both Nora and Neo. "So now we have to do it all over again, and you were scraping the floor," she pointed at Nora, then switched to Neopolitan, "and you are laughing, while I'm sitting in this horribly hard chair attempting to study, waiting for it to all go to hell and us be stuck here again."
Penny reached to move between them but Neopolitan's hand remained on her shoulder. Neo was waiting, waiting for just the right moment. Coco punctuated the end of her list of complaints by kicking a fallen chair into the air and using a hand to slam it towards Nora; it hit the wall and floor at once, the wood exploding upon impact. Nora bent, grabbing a chair as she dodged, using her entire torso to whip it at her aggressor.
Neopolitan smiled, dropping her hand from Penny's shoulder at the sound of the latter's back opening. Easily dodged by Coco, the second chair flew past Penny and broke against the back wall.
"STOP THIS!" shouted Penny, her arms up, as she took a step toward the center of the room, away from her partner. "Events such as these are precisely why we have been confined to this room as punishment. We are here to find respite for ourselves, our peers, and our educators. We must not continue this pattern of destruction." she entreated.
Neopolitan offered her own solution with a smile to Coco and nearly submissive tilt of her head. "I th-think Coco ou-ought t-t-to b-be th-the one to c-cl-cleann th-this up. C-can y-y-ou f-fix ch-chairs?"
Coco roared, furious at the insinuation that she was the only one to blame, and looked at a desk to serve as her next projectile. After all, building a large throne of desks and chairs is hardly appropriate behavior for detention. Nora was quick to agree with Neo, but before she voiced a full syllable Penny shouted again.
"Cease!" ordered Penny. Six blades hovered behind her and with a few quick motions two launched for each of her teammates head-on.
Neopolitan was quickly pinned up between windows, too close and too surprised to dodge. Nora jumped to avoid them but she was easily affixed to the wall which held the door, closer to the front of the room than the door.
Coco jumped back, then to the side. The blades followed her, Penny turned her body to better direct them. Coco moved side to side but always back, until she was against the wall; one blade pinned her sleeve, the other found her scarf just above her opposite shoulder.
Three students, trapped more from shock than force, were attached to three different walls with the fourth standing in the center, wary of who might be the first to move, arms out and ready to respond. They were only half way through this detention, and had an hour and a half to repair as much as they could.
The door opened before any one of them had gathered her wits enough to speak. Professor Goodwitch stepped into the room, enough to see the three students in easy view, and Nora with a slight twist.
She took a step backwards into the hallway, closing the door in front of her.
