Chapter 6

Violet coughed as dust billowed off the ratty carpet. She'd finally gotten the last of it out after weeks of cleaning, but it seemed the mess wanted to bid her farewell by invading her lungs one last time.

"You're supposed to dump it out the door," Ace called from the common room.

Jerk. Violet frowned as she shut the front door.

"Don't give me that look," he barely glanced at her, "I'm the one doing all the heavy lifting around here."

Heavy lifting indeed. Ace leaned against the wall, his magic pen glowed as he levitated some fallen beams to the roof. Not a drop of sweat moistened his brow, nor had he sullied his mostly white jacket. Violet, on the other hand, had at least three ash smears across her cheeks from the fireplace while dust clung to the ends of her eyelashes. She was grateful for the coveralls now.

"So manly," she flashed him a bitter smile.

He only shrugged, "Hey I'm helping, aren't I? Now shut up. This is the tricky part."

The wooden beam maneuvered itself into place like a puzzle piece, its splintered edge lined almost perfectly with the spot it had fallen from. This time Ace's face scrunched up in concentration as he muttered a fusion spell under his breath. The wood began weaving together until the surface smoothed itself out. Ace's magic pen went dim.

"There. That's the last leak."

"Great," Violet removed her cap and fanned herself with the bill. The Ramshackle common room was the only place she felt comfortable enough to let her hair show, and she did at every opportunity. Neither Ace nor Deuce batted an eye at it anymore despite Deuce chastising her the first couple times she'd done it.

Something clanked into place from the second floor.

"How are you doing, Deuce?" Violet called.

The sound of running water followed, "The upstairs sink is working!"

A choir of angels sang in Violet's head. No more brushing her teeth in the kitchen.

A month had come and gone since her arrival at Night Raven. It had taken her about as long to come to terms with the fact that she probably wouldn't be getting home anytime soon. Thus, she'd managed to guilt Ace and Deuce into helping her fix up Ramshackle as best they could. Of course, she'd tried to ask Crowley but the headmaster always found some excuse to keep her at bay.

"Apologies, Ms. Parker, but I have a staff meeting," was last week's reason.

"Not today, Ms. Parker, I'm rather busy researching your way home," was the one before that.

This particular morning he'd hit her with, "Perhaps another time, Ms. Parker. Dorm head Ashengrotto is waiting to speak with me." A new one for sure, and an obvious lie. What student would want to meet with a teacher on a Saturday? Either way, she had to give him points for creativity.

"What's next?" Deuce leaned over the now intact railing on the upper landing.

Grim scampered in from the kitchen. The sharp ends of his tail were covered in wispy cobwebs. "Food," he frowned. "Now. I'm sick of cleaning."

line

The dining hall was buzzing with chatter as Violet ate. Ace and Deuce argued by her side all the while, about what she wasn't sure. Whatever. She'd learned by now how to tune them out, and so did the other Heartslabyul boys for that matter.

None of the freshmen had intended to join their dorm head's inner circle, and yet meals with Trey, Cater and Riddle became habit. Violet suspected the older boys hadn't intended for this either but nobody complained. It was kind of nice if she were being honest. The tips they'd gotten from the older boys kept the first years afloat, particularly in Trien's class where their eyes often drooped with fatigue.

"Mome Rath tea," Trey had told them once. "Drink it at breakfast and it'll keep you awake until lunch."

The trick worked like… well, like magic.

"You're filthy."

Speak of the dorm head…

Riddle frowned at Violet's clothes as he settled next to Trey.

"We were cleaning," she answered with a little more bite than she meant to.

The dorm head's temper rose a notch, "That's no excuse! The Queen of Hearts held strong opinions on cleanliness. You're embarrassing our dorm."

Our dorm. Honestly, somedays Violet was convinced he forgot she wasn't part of Heartslabyul. Or rather, that Parker wasn't.

Still, strict as he was even Riddle had his helpful moments. He'd given both her and Deuce advice on surviving Professor Crewel's ruthless quizzing methods.

"Read the next day's portion the night before," he'd said.

"But drink a memory potion first," Cater added with a wink. That earned him an extra round of chores from the dorm head.

Riddle shook his head to dispel his irritation, only to demand of Ace and Deuce, "What are you fighting over now?"

Ace didn't hesitate to answer, "This creep says I'd make a crap MagiShift Flyer!"

"You're too jerky in the air!" Deuce cried. "You'd drop the disk in a second. Tell him, Parker!"

Rarely did Violet ever want to kill Deuce. Usually it was Ace that rubbed her last nerve raw, but she'd avoided the argument thus far and here he came to drag her into it.

"Naw, man," she said. "Don't look at me. I'm Switzerland."

Silence descended over the table. Violet didn't quite notice until she looked up from her meal to see six pairs of eyes staring blankly in her direction. She froze. Why were they staring? Had she forgotten to lower her pitch? Was her hair…? She fought the urge to reach for her hat. Panic zinged under her skin for a moment until realization soothed it.

Violet blinked, "Switzerland. It's a country. There was a war and they…"

When the boy's faces didn't lose their shade of confusion, she sighed. "Never mind. It's complicated."

"Right," Ace drawled.

"Sorry," Trey gave a single chuckle to try and clear awkwardness. "We forget you're not from around here sometimes."

"It's cool," Violet said. What she didn't add was how some days, she forgot too. Her life was finally making sense again, thanks in part to the help the older boys afforded her. Whether they realized or not – though Violet knew they absolutely did not— they played a big part in helping her maintain her cover. The less targets she had on her back the better. Violet swore to herself if she ever had the chance to thank them properly, she would. And if not, she'd find a way to do it.

"So," she said around a bite of her food, "what's a flyer?"

Trey brightened at the question. The flicker in his eyes tugged at the corners of Violet's lips. She'd found a fellow sports enthusiast.

"Flyer is one of the MagiShift positions," Trey said. "They make for great aerial defense if you use them right. Offense, too, but they're not allowed to break formation, so it can get tricky."

"Yeah," Cater chimed in, "It's usually what I play for the Heartslabyul team during tourney."

Ace swallowed a bite of his sandwich hard, "Whoa. We have a team?"

Riddle nodded, "Every dorm does. Once a year we have an inter-dorm tournament. The competition is rather intense. Some of the biggest names in the sport recruit high performers based on the games."

"Ah! H-how do I get on the team?" Deuce was all in.

"Slow your roll, first year," Cater laughed. "Tournament's not for another month. Besides, we don't have an open spot. Tryouts are at the end of the year."

Both Ace and Deuce balked.

"The end of the year!"

"That's not fair."

Riddle barely glanced at them, "Fair or not, those are the rules."

Another argument sparked to life, with the freshmen airing their grievances while Grim taunted around bites of tuna.

Violet settled in for the long haul. This fight was bound to spill over to Ramshackle that afternoon, and possibly to dinner if they were feeling brave enough. It was fine, it really was. Though she was stuck at Night Raven for the time being, Violet had friends. Good ones. If things remained the way they were, she found she didn't mind waiting around for Crowley.

But she still hated her disguise.