Well, I was supposed to spend this afternoon working on a huge psychology assignment that's due in less than three days time which I am nowhere near finished, but instead, I decided to write you a chapter of Harvest High, so you better feel pretty damn special. Which is all the more reason for you guys to review, you know...
Review Replies
Invader Cakez: Hmm, why is it only girls? Is it because they are girls? Or is it for another reason, and their gender is just coincidental...
Yes, that's it. One reply. I feel very lonely, guys. Very, very lonely. I know for a fact that more than one person has read this...Thank you, Invader Cakez. You made me happy. If you hadn't replied, this chapter wouldn't exist.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon, and I don't know any potion recipes.
Chapter 9
Potion
"No."
The four of us exchanged glances. We had approached the Head Girl to tell her of our plan, and Kai had literally only just opened his mouth to speak when Annona had given us her answer. The green-haired girl crossed her arms over her chest and looked down at us, an expression of superiority and stubbornness.
"Annona, you haven't even heard the plan yet!" I exclaimed, and the young woman gave me a look.
"Will it involve you leaving the Hall?"
"...Well..."
"Then my answer is no."
Cliff let out a soft groan. "Please, Annona, just hear us out."
Cliff repeated the information that Karen had given us, explaining our reasons for believing that the kidnapper was a hypnotist, and then explaining our plan.
"...and we just need to get to go to the potions classroom to make it."
Annona's expression had not changed throughout the entire explanation. She just looked at us, clearly bored. "No."
Popuri glared daggers at the woman in front of us, and let out a cross between a high pitched squeal and a groan. She shoved her way in front of us, Annona backing away as she approached her and the pink-haired one cornering the girl.
"Listen, you...you...you stupid person!" she exclaimed, and we probably would have chuckled at her inability to think up a better word had the situation not been so awful. "Our friend's life is in danger! Claire's cousin's life is in danger! And you are not doing anything about it! You say you're protecting us by keeping us all here under watch but you're not, because people got kidnapped from this very Hall and you did nothing, absolutely nothing to stop it. And now we've thought up a plan that could save the lives of everyone here and you won't even let us give it a go, because you think we'll be in more danger in another classroom, even though it would mean that we're alone and can watch over each other easily and make sure that none of us get hurt. So why won't you just let us..."
"Miss Bellflower?"
Popuri shut her mouth and straightened up immediately, though her red eyes were still filled with anger and frustration towards the Head Girl as she turned to look at Headmaster Maynor.
"What in the world is going on?"
Deciding that Popuri was too angry to respond, I spoke up instead.
"We believe that the kidnapper is a hypnotist, sir, and we know of a potion that can defend one against hypnosis. We were hoping to be excused to the potions room, to make it."
Annona interrupted me. "But, sir, I told them that it was far too dangerous and then Miss Bellflower..."
"You're excused."
I frowned. "Wait, what?"
Annona said the same thing.
"Even the Great Hall is dangerous, Miss Goddess. These four have a plan; the least we can do is let them follow it." He looked down at the dog by my feet. "Sammie will protect them, won't you, girl?"
Sammie barked, and I translated, "She says she'll guard us with her life."
Annona stared at the headmaster, clearly annoyed that she had been disagreed with, but knowing very well that no one argues with the headmaster. Said man just smiled at us.
"Take care of each other. If anything happens, I'll contact you immediately. Be careful." We all nodded, and the headmaster nodded once, clearly giving us permission.
"Thank you!" I said, and my friends quickly said their own words of thanks, Sammie barking, before we turned and hurried to the end of the hall. We glanced towards the headmaster, unsure of if he wished us to teleport, and he raised a hand. The lock clicked and the door opened. All of us, particularly Kai, looked at him thankfully and slipped through the door, before it magically closed behind us.
OoO
"Let's hope this is open..."
Cliff placed his hand on the door handle, and turned it. To our relief, it turned, and the door opened easily, revealing the dark potions classroom. The sun had already started to set. Time was passing way too fast for my liking. The longer we left Ann, and Jill, and Mary at wherever they were, the more danger they were put in. And I did not like that idea at all.
Kai switched the light on, and it cast a dull glow over the room. The lighting in the potion room was always bad. Apparently strong lighting messed up the potions or something, according to the teacher. Personally, I think the school was just too lazy to buy brighter lights; this room was one of the oldest in the school.
"Let's start by finding the recipe."
Cliff walked over to the shelf and picked out the one with a small sticker on it labelled "Fourth Years". He brought it over and placed it on the desk, opening to the contents. From there, it was easy enough to find the correct page. The recipe itself, however, did not look easy enough.
"Fifty-four ingredients!" exclaimed Kai, staring wide-eyed at the page. "What kind of recipe has FIFTY-FOUR ingredients?"
"A very complicated one," I muttered. "Well, we have to try and find..." Popuri cut me off with a gasp.
"Wait, guys, why didn't I think of this before!" She closed her eyes, and another Popuri appeared beside her. And then another. And another. And soon enough, we were surrounded by fifty-four extra pink-haired girls, who, naturally, immediately started bickering about who the real Popuri was, making us all cringe.
"Right, Popuris, listen up!" Popuri – presumably the real one – stood up on the desk to get the attention of the other Popuris. "You there, you collect..."
We watched as she ordered each of the Popuris around, surprised that they were so good at obeying rules, each of them depositing the ingredients on the table, and, once they were done, disappearing into thin air.
"Who knew cloning yourself could be so useful, hey?" Kai said quietly, leaning over to me with a smirk on his face. I just nodded in an agreement, also smirking.
The last clone placed their ingredient on the table, and vanished, and Popuri, with a very satisfied look on her face, turned to face us. "Now we just have..." she looked at the recipe, and I saw her smile falter but she tried to stay positive, "...sixty-one steps."
"Can't you get a clone to do all the work?" Kai asked, and Popuri glared at him, though her cheeks turned pink in embarrassment.
"Clones are...well...as smart as I am...and...you know how I almost never get potions right on the first try in class..." She looked down at her feet. "We can't afford to mess this one up."
Cliff spoke up. "Popuri's right. If we're going to do this right; we have to do it ourselves. We're a team, and we're going to stay that way."
I nodded, smiling slightly for a second. "Then let's get to work."
In hindsight, starting the potion so late at night was not a clever idea, but we were short on time and we didn't really have much of a choice anyway. The first fifty-nine steps were simple enough, only really time consuming. The number of ingredients was ridiculous, and there was some even more ridiculous order in which you had to put them into the cauldron. None of us had watches, but we were certain that it was past midnight when we finished this. Despite our fear for our friends, we were all yawning and struggling to keep our eyes open. And then we discovered that step sixty was to stir it for five minutes every twenty minutes, over a three hour period. Step sixty-one was to let it sit until it changed colour. If we had started earlier, we could have finished step sixty by then, and we could have let it sit while we slept, but clearly that wouldn't be the case.
"It's probably dangerous for us all to sleep at the same time anyway," Cliff pointed out. "Maybe we could take turns sleeping and stirring."
I did the maths in my head quickly. "We'll each have forty-five minute shifts each and then we'll wake up the next person, letting the rest of us sleep."
Sammie barked, and I added, "Sammie says that she'll sleep near whoever is awake and would like them to wake her at even the slightest sign of danger."
Popuri raised her hand. "I'll go first. I'm not tired yet."
I nodded. "I'll go second, then. Cliff can go third and Kai can go fourth. Then we'll just keep rotating until morning to keep watch, but we won't have to stir anymore."
Everyone murmured sounds of agreement. I looked over at Popuri. "Wake me in forty-five minutes, but if you get tired earlier, because you're going first, wake me then so you don't fall asleep, okay?"
"Okay." Popuri nodded her head, and then sat up on the stool in front of the cauldron. Sammie sat down at her feet, and glanced over at me. I knew that she was asking me to stay nearby anyway. She didn't like to be without me. I nodded at her, and lay down nearby. Kai took off his bandana and folded it up to make it thicker; laying his head on it, and Cliff scrunched his jacket into a ball to use as a pillow also.
"G'night, guys," murmured Popuri, staring intently at the cauldron, wooden spoon in hand.
"Goodnight," I replied, and I heard similar mumbles from Kai and Cliff before I let my eyes fall shut.
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