Alex's jacket really was too big for Marcy.
The three of them joined the crowd of girls sweeping down from the tower, Alex walking a little sheepishly behind Marcy and Nadiya. The mix of her height and men's clothes, with Marcy's wet hair, oversized jacket and furrowed brow, drew stares as they descended the staircase. Some people probably recognised Alex from her outburst earlier.
(Or maybe most people. She could shout quite loudly.)
Nadiya caught sight of Marcy frowning in Alex's direction, and wondered if this was signalling some sort of feud between her two roommates. She hoped not. Alex seemed far too amiable to be getting in a feud with anyone, anyway-
Someone behind her giggled, and the thud of boots and sudden increase in volume around them immediately signalled the arrival of the Everboys. Nadiya, interested to see the other half of the Evers, peered around as the boys fell into step with the girls, most sauntering along with an oddly familiar swagger-
Nadiya caught sight of Alex in front of her and realised why it was familiar. She nearly laughed- that'd be where it had come from, then. No doubt every Everboy who'd ever attended this place, and fancied themselves charismatic and charming, had walked like that. Clearly, Alex had picked it up from a certain someone.
She pictured Alex as a little girl, sauntering alongside her father with that peacocking gait, and smothered a snort.
"Why is your roommate damp and wearing Alex's jacket?"
Nadiya sighed as Sora drew up beside her.
"Don't ask. How did you know she was our roommate?"
"I heard her telling another girl just now. Not sure she has the highest opinion of Alex."
"Marcy? Yes, she's not too pleased. Hopefully, she'll cool off."
"Has she not already done that?"
"Funny. No, Alex threw a jug of water on her because she passed out."
"Ah."
"She was only trying to help."
"I don't doubt it." Muttered Sora. He leaned forwards and prodded Alex in the back. "Well, hello, not-Alexandra! Walk with a charming young man?"
Alex looked incredulous.
"Charming?"
"It's a matter of opinion, Pendragon."
"Obviously."
Even so, Alex dropped back to walk with them as they tramped out of the doors and turned towards the sleek black towers of Evil. The Theatre of Tales had been located in the School for Evil ever since Dean Sophie had taken over. Their winning streak in the School was over twenty-five years old, now, and every year of Evers had vowed to end it, only to be defeated again and again. Nadiya had no idea how they did it. Most people assumed Dean Sophie was rigging it, or that Professor Dovey had just been getting too old.
Maybe now that they had a new Dean for Good, it might all change.
(Maybe?)
The students of Evil greeted them as cordially as you might expect- by jeering and pelting them with pieces of their pews.
Seated on their side of the split theatre, they hung off their pews like demented monkeys, hurling insults and missiles in turn across the fairy and wolf guarded aisle, as the Evers filed through the west doors towards their crystal pews. Separated by the silver aisle they may have been, but it was still impossible to ignore the other school.
The Evers, for the most part, ignored the taunts, but a couple of particularly defensive Everboys had to be yanked away from the Evil pews by fairies.
Nadiya winced as a piece of black onyx bounced off her collarbone. Then she frowned as she noticed how hard it was.
"How are they even breaking it off? It's stone!"
"I think there used to be decorative stuff on the top of the pews that was thinner." Sora caught it and tossed it back, causing several rude gestures to be flung their way.
"Not anymore, clearly." Muttered Nadiya, eyeing the ragged tops of the pews.
She could see Marcy sat a couple of rows in front of them, with some other girls, trying her hardest to ignore the stares from the other students, still noticing her damp hair and Alex's jacket draped over her shoulders.
Nadiya felt a rather irrational twinge of guilt, even though it hadn't got a whole lot to do with her. (Although she probably should have worked out what was about to happen when Alex grabbed that jug).
Speaking of Alex, she was currently returning one of the Never's gestures, laughing, and ignoring their dirty looks.
"Aw, man. I wonder where June is?"
Nadiya and Sora stared at her as they all sat down, Alex still peering into the Never pews.
Sora posed the question;
"Who's June?"
Alex blinked, turning back to them.
"Oh, she's my friend."
"In Evil?" said Nadiya incredulously.
"Sure!" said Alex brightly. "Our parents are friends, see, but Hest and Ani would rather die than have kids, and so June is like the Coven baby, even though she's only related to Dot. They bring her when they visit, although they pretend they don't want to. June's a love."
Sora stared at her.
"All the people from The Tale of Sophie and Agatha's- you're friends with all their kids?"
"What? No, that'd be dumb, there's far too many, most of them don't see us often, or at all. I think Bea and Reena have a kid, but they're always on the sea, and she's around Marcus and Ros's age-"
Nadiya interrupted.
"Wait, wait. This June- she's Dot's daughter?"
"Yeah! We're the first Tale of Sophie and Agatha kids to come here, I think."
"Are there… lots of them?" ventured Nadiya.
"I dunno." Yawned Alex. "I don't know my parent's friends too well. I mean, lots of their main friends died in the war, or didn't have kids, like Sophie, or Hort, or married other people and tried to live a normal life, like literally everyone else. Actually, some legged it for some uncharted kingdom to get out of the mess of the main Endless Woods. Pretty sure none of the original Everboy group apart from my dad and Chaddick are around anymore. Can't say I blame them."
Nadiya had no idea what to say to that, but Sora opened his mouth-
"Welcome to the School for Good and Evil!" trilled a sing-song voice from the front.
Everyone turned.
"Oh, great." Said Alex.
The great brown dog patrolled the silver stage in front of them, two starkly different heads protruding from its hulking body. The first snarled as its mean, glittering eyes swept over the students in the pews, displaying huge teeth and foaming jaws, and splattering the stage with drool.
The second looked like a toy poodle; cute, and could have passed for cuddly without the presence of the second head, who looked like he'd eat you if you looked at him funny. The nice head looked like he'd knock on your cottage door and offer you a coupon for the Salt Baths of Shazabah, as long as you agreed to sign up for weekly pigeon mail for the rest of your life, and possibly some of your next. The second head did seem to be in charge, though, or at least thought he was.
"I am Pollux, Welcoming Leader-"
"AND I'M CASTOR, AND I AIN'T AN ASSISTANT WELCOMING LEADER NO MORE. I GOT A PROMOTION, UNLIKE THIS PANSY, AND WE'RE ON PAR NOW. BUT DON'T WORRY, I STILL EAT KIDS. OFTEN."
A couple of Evers gulped. Alex snorted.
"Thank you, Castor." Said Pollux sourly. "As I was saying, welcome! Some of you are here because your souls are purer than others-"
"AND SOME OF YOU ARE HERE BECAUSE YOUR SOULS ARE SHI-"
"Thank you, Castor!" interrupted Pollux shrilly. Then, in a (still very audible) whisper: "I told you just because you got a "promotion" doesn't mean you need to try and upgrade your normal speech!"
Castor sniggered. Pollux sniffed, trying to regain his composure.
"My apologies, students. As I was saying, all souls are fundamentally Good or Evil, and they cannot be changed." He eyed the Never pews doubtfully. "Although I'm not sure why you would want to…"
Evers and Nevers exchanged disparaging glances across the aisle.
"At any rate, you are here because you have the strongest pull to one of the sides, whether it be Good or Evil. You will be trained to be the best of Good or Evil, before venturing out into the Endless Woods to fight and quest for yourselves, maintaining your values and lessons from this school. It will be a constant competition between Good and Evil, and we will start it now, with the Ever Never challenge, which pits you against each other, to win this Theatre, and the Snow Ball for your school, amongst other things-"
"And we'll win!" roared someone in the Never pews, and the students of Evil erupted into raucous cheers.
"We've won every year since Dean Sophie came in!"
"Good always lose now!"
"We're finally winning everything!"
"GOOD ARE LOSERS!" boomed a tall boy from the front of the Evil pews.
The Nevers cheered again, louder this time.
Slighted, the Evers exploded into their own chants, and soon the whole school was scrambling to their feet;
"VICTORY FOR EVIL! VICTORY FOR EVIL! VICTORY FOR EVIL-!"
"BREAK THE STREAK! BREAK THE STREAK! BREAK THE STREAK-!"
"God, they're bad at chants." Said Sora.
"VICTORY-!"
"BREAK IT-!"
Pollux shouted something, but everyone either ignored him or didn't hear him.
He tried again, louder this time, something about rules. When that still went unnoticed, his voice rose to a shriek-
And it was pretty evident everyone was just ignoring him by now.
Pollux deflated.
Castor was grooming himself.
Both sides were getting increasingly rowdy as the chants grew in volume- Everboys were grappling with fairies to try and reach the taunting Nevers, and Nevers were pelting Evergirls with gruel. Nadiya was pretty sure she'd seen some boots go soaring over to the other side, hurled by both schools, and had to duck what she swore blind was a live rooster-
She staggered back up and was bemused to see the nonchalance with which the other two were treating the chaos.
Alex was both chatting to Sora, and returning Never missiles with a rather impressive throwing arm, at the same time. Quite a lot of the Evers were cowering in the pews, or fighting, so this was a confusing change-
"Well, I never! What… um, spirit!"
A new voice cut through the chaos, one that no one seemed to recognise.
Caught off guard, the students turned back to the front.
The melee ground to a halt as two women were ascended the steps to stand with Pollux and Castor.
The woman on the Never's side, everyone knew.
Dean Sophie slunk onto the stage, purple train sweeping behind her, blonde locks elegantly coiffed and not showing a hint of grey, despite the fact she was definitely over forty now- in fact, she looked remarkably youthful in general. Nadiya didn't bother wondering how, or why.
She was a witch, after all.
She smiled indulgently at her students, but she looked somewhat fixed as if she was irritated and trying not to show it.
The woman on the Ever's side looked to be the reason why.
She was the one who had spoken, and she practically skipped to Pollux's side, beaming all the while. She was dressed in a yellow gown to rival the sun, stitched with flowers, and her blonde hair was yanked into a tight bun.
She stopped by the dogs and beamed down at the students, who were all taking their seats, befuddled.
"Hello, children! I'm so impressed by your spirit. I am-"
Sophie interrupted her.
"Thank you, Castor and Pollux. As I'm sure you've guessed, we are your deans. I am Dean Sophie, of the School for Evil, better known as the protagonist of the Tale of Sophie and Agatha, or Grand High Witch Ultimate!"
She mustered up a smile for the students, only some of whom looked impressed.
"Also modest, clearly." Muttered Sora. Alex rolled her eyes.
"This is mild for her. You've never heard her trying to out-do my parents in terms of impressive achievements."
Nadiya had forgotten Alex was related to Sophie, and there was very little in the way of apparent similarities between the two.
"And, with the retirement of my long-time colleague, Professor Clarissa Dovey, I'm pleased to announce the School for Good has a new dean in my new partner, Ida Cromwell."
She didn't look very pleased to announce it. Nadiya wondered why she seemed to dislike her so much. Then again, Dean Sophie was notoriously petty, so maybe it was nothing.
The Evers clapped dutifully. The Nevers didn't, naturally.
Sophie went to speak again, but Pollux butted in, clearly getting a head start in sucking up to his new boss.
"Maybe you'd like to say a few words, to us all, Professor?"
The yellow-clad woman smiled at them with blindingly white teeth.
"Thank you, Master Pollux, I would love to!"
Pollux looked very pleased with being addressed as master. Castor rolled his eyes.
"But first, I'd like to say how proud I am, to have been selected to be the dean of such a legendary school, working alongside such great colleagues-" Here, she cast Sophie a fawning smile, which Sophie did not return, in favour of examining her nails- "and getting to teach such promising students, with… um, lots of enthusiasm!"
She was clearly thinking of the recent brawl, but she recovered quickly.
"And I'm sure I can lead you all to be the great heroes I know you want to be!"
"Nah, I wanna be a magic daisy." Muttered Alex to Nadiya.
Nadiya snorted but quickly disguised it as a cough when some of their classmates looked their way.
"Thank you, everyone! I'll see you in class!"
She stepped back to another lukewarm round of applause.
Sora sighed deeply. Nadiya elbowed him.
"Don't be so judgy. She's enthusiastic, at least."
"There's something I don't like about her." Muttered Sora.
Nadiya frowned. "You should give her a chance."
When Sora looked unconvinced, she sighed.
"What is it, then?"
"It's just-"
Pollux started talking again, cutting him off.
"Thank you, Deans! Now, for the rules!"
Everyone groaned.