We make it back to the dorm in once piece. I haven't made a wonderful amount of progress in cleaning yet, but it's a start. I give the duo a tired look. "It's either clean a room or sleep out here on the couches." I gesture to them; they're cleaned off and there's a couple blankets around from Ace's slumber party from last night. "I'm worn out—so I will take complaints in the morning… of the first week of never."
"It IS a slumber party, we should at least play a game." Ace gripes again.
"I have a deck of cards…" Deuce offers, pulling it out of his pocket.
I, of course, give in. "Okay—two rounds, maybe three. But then we have to go to sleep. I'm so tired."
We sit down, and honestly? Even though I'm falling asleep off and on, it is fun—jolts of excitement keep me holding on for awhile. Longer than expected.
Grim is horrible at cards, and give himself away every time. I have an excellent poker face, and thus, and pretty good at winning. Or at least, bluffing. It might be because I'm so sleepy, too.
I have to be poked awaay by Grim at one point. "Maybe we should go to bed…" The cat lets out the biggest yawn.
"You know, you two could share…" Ace comments.
"No." I respond, standing up.
Grim's already headed upstairs with a yawn. "Night!"
"So stingy…" Ace complains.
"I'm the one getting drug into these situations because of you." Deuce gripes a little. "Shouldn't try to take up bed space."
"And save all bickering for the morning; I'm a light sleeper. Prefect orders, blah blah…" I'm heading up the stairs with another yawn. "Sweet dreams!"
"Night, No!" They both call as I go right up to my room and close the door. Grim's already passed out.
I laugh, and head to take a shower before bed—letting that hot water come down and wash away this long, exhausting day away. I'm wondering if every day is going to be so eventful, or am I… oh, I don't even know. A sigh leaves my lips, and I exit ready to flop into bed.
Which is really carefully getting down into bed and passing out to hopefully, oblivion.
iThe surface swirls and glows. The scenery black and white. There's headges all around in open-shaped hearts. /i
iA large woman in a split red and black dress, with a crown upon her head—severe, and large—angry. Oh, her temper is bigger than the tree she's ripped out of the ground with red roses and one white. She's yelling at a small child with blond hair in black and white who is… holding a red paintbrush in her hand. "How DARE you—ruining my roses! Prepare for your punishment!"/i
iA man of a card holds a brush, begging to have his life spared. He has clubs on him. Three./i
iAnother man of clubs, a two this time, is pointing at someone. Saying it was bAce's/b fault./i
iThis is the Ace of Clubs, covered in red paint, blaming two when the Queen demands who it was./i
i"Was it two's?!" She screeches, drawing closer to the group./i
iThe two blames three. There's back-and-forth of who it was. Ace, two, or three. They are terrified, but the Queen finally loses his temper. "FINE! ALL THREE OF YOU! OFF WITH YOUR HEADS!" It's horrifying./i
iThe three are drug off by diamond cards, with lines of hearts and spaces on either side—being told it was their fate. They mistook white for red./i
i"What is wrong with this…?" I finally speak in my dream—and it all fades away./i
I wake up confused, another strange dream. I'm not sure why I—but-it's slowly fading. All I know is it was some sort of omen, right? Fuck, I'm tired.
"Wake up." I hear a voice as my eyes blink rapidly. "Wake up, No. It's the Unbirthday Party. If we're late, it's off with our heads." Not that I have to be worried about that. I absolutely have no magic to lose.
I yawn, nodding my head as I wave him off. "Yeah, yeah, Party time..."
There's a knock on the door and I groan. Deuce frowns. "I suppose someone is here."
"Go get the door." I gesture for Deuce to get out as I hurry to dress once I hear him thudding down the stairs. Unfortunately that means prison for the titties. But at least I sleep on my side with my arms covering my chest—good cover for boobs. Best sleeping position—because for some reason these assholes won't stop coming into my room!
I hear Cater from downstairs, as I hear Grim plodding down to join the other three. "Morning! Did you have a fun sleepover? Did you sleep, or play card games?"
Ace lets out a big yawn. "Cater—morning. We… we played cards… then No made us sleep." I am sort of glad I can hear everything but also, rude. Sleep is good for you. "Grim didn't know the rules for Old Maid… so he kept getting stuck with it."
While I'm still wearing a uniform from an outdated set, the one I have on today is still… okay yeah it's okay, I have to cuff the sleeves and the pants on this one, but it fits a bit better in the shoulders. Someone was pretty tall, but a bit more narrow. It fits well enough. I snag my school bag and empty it of books, putting the camera back in and the old wallet I have shoved with the left-behind money I've found so far. I need to stop by Mister S's store soon. I think I'm going to call it the Sam Shack for simplicity. Sam might not own it, but I'm always going to associate the place with him considering my first impression. I snag a brush, working through my hair quickly, and thoroughly—but knowing we're about to get drug into some nonsense I go down the stairs to deal with Cater to hear Grim gripe.
"It was bullshit! I couldn't win!" Grim stamps and pouts, too early for that much energy. Stop.
"When you had the maid, you couldn't stop grinning." Deuce comments.
Cater interrupts Grim's protests. "So! Shall we get going—apologize to Riddle with the tart we made? There's a lot going on, so we need more hands for the party, too." Ah, that makes more sense of why he's here so early!
"Ah, so you want to rope us into helping again. THAT'S why you're here so early." What a bastard.
"More hands?" Ace asks, curious.
"Anyway—let's hurry and get to the Unbirthday Party!" Cater's cheeriness belies an agenda. I will keep an eye on him.
Giving another yawn, I shift, and I'm finishing up my hair. Running my hands through my large mass of curled tresses as I make sure they're satisfactory. Pocketing the brush in my bag, which is my school bag—now purse and camera bag combo because I have nothing else. Crowley said to take pictures. This is a perfect opportunity.
I sling my bag on as we leave my dorm. Continuing to brush out my hair as we head to the many mirrors that lead us to the dorms. Cater's chatting happily about something and in all honesty I have completely tuned him out because I have no desire to do much more than wake up. Sometimes I can jump out of bed, and sometimes I just feel sleep cling onto me. Today, it's clinging and I want nothing to do with that.
Sighing, I shake my head and wipe some sleep out of my eyes if it's there. My hair is as nice as it's getting without some—well, actually… it is REALLY nice, without some product. What is in the water here? "Huh." I comment, as I put the brush away and step into the portal to once more go to the heart-themed dorm.
Ace grins. "Alright! We can get the tart from Trey and take it to the Housewarden, and finally put this mess behind us!"
"Apologizing too, Ace. That's the most important part." I remind him.
"Whatever! As long as we can put this behind us."
What keeps him from being a permanent housemate is good enough for me. But I am becoming fond of the dumb duo.
It's that a second Cater jumps out in front of us that has all of us jump out of our skins when he says. "Finally! You're all here! We've been waiting for you to bring them, me!"
What the fuck.
"I'm back, thanks for waiting for me, me!" The… Cater A, says.
"Why are there two Cater Diamonds?!" Deuce is saying what the rest of us are thinking.
"You're a twin?!" Ace. Ace baby.
"He said me—it's him! Clones." I whisper. Evil clones.
The second one grins. "No, no, I'm the only male in my family. This is my Unique Magic. Card Split. I can make clones of myself!"
I KNEW it was evil clones!
"So that's why we couldn't win, he kept sending out himself…" Deuce grumbles a little. Now we know he doesn't play fair.
A third appears, "Welcome back!" Cater C is all smiles.
There is evil afoot. We were brought here to work more and I just know it. We better be fed for this.
"Welcome, all of you." There is Cater D.
"There are so many of him!" And Ace sports the appropriate reaction: horror.
Cater B grins. "By the way, the OG is me. But cloning myself is exhausting, so let's get to work. Anyway, if we're late it's off with ALL of our heads, so you're fine with helping out, right? When we're done, we can go to Riddle."
Evil clone bastard.
"You're going to make us paint those roses again, aren't you?" Grim knows it's a ploy too.
"How nice of you to ask." Ace huffs. He also has an appropriate reaction.
"You're owing Grim and I big time at this point, Cater. Remember that." But I will help, because I know a scheamer when I see one. It's either we do it, or it's a pain in the ass headed our way. But I WILL call up the favor in the future.
"Alright, let's go!" Cater B, the OG, grins, because he wasn't going to take no for an answer anyway.
Fucker.
"Now, remember, this is just like yesterday! Those with magic use it to turn the roses red. Those without magic take a paintbrush."
I head over with Ace, grasping a bucket and paint brush and head over to violate OSHA policies some more. The ladders are already set up, so I climb carefully at set the bucket on top. One hand cups a rose, and the other paints it. Two points of contact instead of three. I care so little right about now—and I don't even have a spotter.
iPaint the roses red./i Flits in my head.
I sing the line to myself a few times as I move from rose to rose as I hear Deuce and Grim cheer or groan at every rose they get wrong or right. It sounds like they're making better progress as I am hearing more cheers.
Ace is grumbling, but I can't make out the words either.
"YOU CAN DO IT GRIM! GREAT SORCERER POWERS!" I call to encourage the demon-cat that is a cat and no one can convince me otherwise.
How could they?
I swear we're here for an hour or so by the time Cater is cheering that we're done.
As I come down from my final violation of OSHA policies, I look over at a very exhausted Deuce who's happy to be done. "We improved…"
"You did better than yesterday!" And Cater, the phone addict, pulls it out. "Oh! It's almost time! Boys, we are done—let's get ready for the party!" He's so excited too.
It's an army of Caters that have appeared. "Aye, aye, sir!" Uh.
One is one too many.
Cater appears whole in an instant of magic, letting out a sigh of relief. "That was tiring! Come on, everyone! Let's go to the Unbirthday Party—we'll be just on time!"
Well, as we walk I check myself for paint, and there's none—snag my bag, and run fingers through my hair to make sure it's presentable. I REALLY need to get some ponytail holders for things like this, if my daily life is going to be event after event.
"I guess we get to find out what an Unbirthday Party is now, huh, Grim?" My fiery companion grins at me.
"As long as there's food, I'm in!" I can't help but laugh at Grim's response. I agree wholeheartedly.
But is it really going to be alright?
