Luna Nova cafeteria
When people say that you can distract yourself from whatever is on your mind by doing something else, they were kind of right.
Between Diana's obsession with the Shiny Rod, and Mary-Ann Lait coming to Luna Nova to spy on Lotte days after inflicting her with the Curse of Annabel Creme, Akko hasn't been able to focus much on anything else, but found a great distraction from those two matter in helping the Green Coven redecorate the cafeteria for the banquet in the coming Sunday.
Lotte and Sucy joined in for the same reason. Though what would be on Sucy's mind other than mushrooms and poisons, nobody knows.
For now, the Red Coven girls focused on painting an unfinished banner that will be hung later. Akko, to nobody's surprise, painted a chibi representation of Shiny Chariot standing on a broom in one corner of the banner; Lotte painted a lit candle that looked exactly like the one from the cover of Nightfall, albeit with Wispy in place of the candle flame (although that one was painted in by Wispy himself), with a tiny speech bubble pointing to it saying "Hello"; and Sucy painted mushrooms that are meant to be growing out of the last "E" in the banner's "WELCOME"...
Lotte and Wispy both squeaked in surprise when they noticed that Sucy's right hand isn't even attached to her wrist, and appears to be painting the banner independently of the puce-haired girl.
"In case you are wondering, even I don't know how I could do this..." Sucy said as her left hand detached and went off on its own to push a fresh can of red paint over, spooking a few other students in the process. "And I don't plan on finding out how..."
Akko is most certainly surprised by Sucy's hands detaching and moving on their own, though she isn't spooked by it. "Hope you don't mind me asking, but can you... detach your head too?"
Sucy shot Akko a "Seriously?" glare in response. "No, but I can detach my left eye. Though for what reason you would need me to do it?"
"Nothing. Just asking." Akko said before going back to painting the banner.
Not much else happened after that as everyone focused on doing their part in the redecorating, with the notable exception being that Abigail King seems to have taken an interest to Sucy's independently moving hands, as she stopped what she was doing to take pictures of the hands with her mobile phone.
The Purple Coven passed by the Red Coven, and Akko overheard them having a conversation about something.
"Do you think Andrew Hanbridge is coming to the banquet this Sunday?" Avery asked her coven mates.
"Andrew Hanbridge, the star student of Appleton Academy, who is also the son of Senator Paul Hanbridge?" Mary responded, taking interest of the question.
"I really hope Andrew does come~" Blair said, seemingly daydreaming about the subject and being smitten by the image in it. "He must be really handsome, and I'm looking forward to meeting him~"
"Blair, you're getting... wet... again." Avery, rolling her eyes, informed her blonde coven mate.
The Purple Coven soon walked out of range, rendering their conversation inaudible to Akko. Akko decided that it isn't important right now, and continued with painting the banner...
"YOU BITCH!"
Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned toward the source of the sudden vulgar outburst.
The outburst came from Elsa Andersen of Light Yellow Coven, who just had a whole bucket of black paint spilled on her, accusing Hannah and Barbara of committing the deed.
"Watch your language, Elsa~" Hannah responded with a mocking tone.
"Because that is so unfitting for a princess~" Barbara also mocked.
Elsa groaned furiously as she wiped some of the paint off her face. "How dare you use levitation magic to dump paint all over me!" She then removed her wand from her wand holster.
Hannah and Barbara responded by laughing at Elsa.
"Perhaps you should just Let It Go, princess~" Hannah giggled as she told the paint-covered student that.
"You should just go build a snowman, because that's what you're best at~" Barbara similarly giggled as she said so.
Elsa, boiling with anger, tightened her grip on her wand so much that she is actually crushing its handle with the enhanced strength that all witches have. "You lousy whor-"
"What in the Nines' name is going on?" "What the hell is going on here?" Diana and Amanda showed up at the same time to interrupt the commotion. The two then glanced at each other for the sheer coincidence in when they responded to the incident.
"They happened to me!" Elsa turned to, and informed, Diana and Amanda, while pointing an accusatory finger at Hannah and Barbara.
Diana looked over to Hannah and Barbara, who just stood there, whistling while looking away from Elsa. The ace student looked like she is doubting that her coven mates would do what Elsa just accused them of doing.
Amanda let out a groan, though one that indicates that this isn't the first time for her. "Yeah, I get what happened, and that the two of them should be taught a lesson or two..." She told Elsa. "But in the meantime, you should go wash off the paint before they dry..."
Elsa is still furious about what Hannah and Barbara did to her, and that Diana didn't believe her. But she acknowledged what Amanda said about the paint, as she then stomped her way toward the cafeteria entrance. All the while Hannah and Barbara snickered at her.
Elsa suddenly stopped in her tracks as she then turned around and used magic to levitate the paint bucket, which she then hurled toward Hannah.
Hannah, who wasn't expecting that, took the flying paint bucket right to her head, hard enough to knock her off her feet but didn't knock her out.
Barbara stopped snickering and started panicking when the situation escalated to having violence. She watched as Elsa used magic to conjure snow that then filled the paint bucket to give it more mass...
"I'll make a snowman out of you."
Elsa then hurled the snow-filled paint bucket at Barbara, who would not be able to dodge in time due to how fast the paint bucket is flying toward her.
Diana quickly raised her wand in an attempt to intercept the paint bucket and save her coven mates.
Amanda raised her wand too, if only to stop the further escalation of the situation.
"Scrylla"
...
It went so quickly, nobody realized what happened...
As far as Amanda is concerned, she beat Diana to casting a spell meant to stop Elsa's paint bucket from hitting Hannah and Barbara. But in a moment not thought out due to the urgency, she cast the first spell to come to her mind, which happened to be the Time Stopping Spell.
Everyone and everything in the cafeteria are frozen in time. Elsa's paint bucket frozen inches away from Barbara's face, Barbara herself (and Hannah) frozen with panic written all over their face, Diana frozen in the middle of casting her spell, and everyone else frozen in the midst of watching the incident unfold.
Amanda, the only one person who isn't frozen in time, looked around with amazement, then at her wand which is glowing a bright green and has magic energy pulsating from its forked tip.
"Huh. How about that?" The redhead mused.
She looked around the cafeteria once more, and then came up with an idea. Reaching into her pocket, Amanda fished out the iPhone she has been using to listen to music.
Upon confirming that the iPhone isn't frozen in time, a cheeky smile formed on Amanda's lips as she then selected a song.
"Time to have some Quicksilver-type fun."
And so, with Just A Girl by No Doubt playing from her iPhone, Amanda went on to prank as many people as she can while everyone else are frozen in time.
Amanda's prank on her time-frozen fellow students began with her taking Erika Mendez's ribbon off her hair and then tossing it aside. Then Amanda moved on to place a palm-sized rubber Black Widow Spider (that she has been carrying for some reason) over Rita Vrataski's face, mimicking the face-hugging creatures from a certain movie franchise about killer aliens. The redhead then went on to undoing Verde Shidariza's twin-drills, sticking marshmallows (that are pilfered from a bowl Aileen Reed is setting up) on Sola Logisdottir's hair, doodling "landing strip" on Verochka Alianovna's forehead, wrapping a length of rope around Carmen Rodriguez's legs, messing with the Yellow Coven (who just happened upon the incident) by putting the lens cap back on Joanna's camera and writing "Diana Cavendish is a slut" on Kimberly's notepad, then unscrewing the receiver of Wangari's microphone, painting the iconic face paint of American music band, KISS, on Hannah's and Barbara's faces (after shoving the paint bucket away), going all the way to the washroom to grab a bucket of water and then dump it over Diana, and then there are some that went by so quickly that Amanda didn't even remember doing them...
All those pranks took some effort as Amanda has to keep holding on to her wand with one hand to maintain the Time Stopping Spell, but she eventually did them all without issue. Now to end the Time Stopping Spell...
Amanda stopped herself from doing that just yet. She then removed Elsa's wand and put it back into her wand holster, and then went to move the paint bucket away from Barbara and placed it on the floor.
With that done, Amanda proceed to dispel the Time Stopping Spell.
Once the flow of time resumed, some of Amanda's handiwork immediately took effect, causing their targets a variety of humorous annoyance.
Erika noticed the disappearance of her hair ribbon and found it having somehow been thrown against Bice's face all in a split second. Rita let out a terrified shriek as she slapped the rubber spider off her face. Verde expressed displeasure at her favorite twin-drill hairdo coming loose. Rajani and Rashmi both groaned upon noticing the marshmallows in Sola's hair. Carmen fell flat on her face due to her legs being tied up. Joanna snapped a few more photos before realizing that the lens cap has somehow placed itself back on her camera, Kimberly stopped writing and seemed to gasp at the sudden appearance of the incredibly vulgar sentence on her notepad, and Wangari wondering why her microphone seemed to have suddenly lost its receiver...
On the other hand, Avery is left wondering why she is suddenly wearing a pair of glasses, while Gaelle found herself suddenly without her glasses.
Elsa looked on with confusion as the paint bucket she levitated and hurled toward Barbara has somehow teleported to a normal position on the floor while her own wand has somehow teleported itself back into her wand holster. "Wh-what...?" She uttered as she processed the events.
Hannah and Barbara are similarly confused as to what happened, though the did sigh in relief as there is no longer a snow-filled paint bucket flying toward their faces. Barbara then helped Hannah get up... only for the duo to scream upon noticing the face paint that had suddenly appeared on their faces (which elicited a cackle from Chloe).
Diana found herself assaulted by a torrent of water followed by a water bucket falling on her head, all before she could register anything.
Perhaps the most confused person in the cafeteria would be Akko. "Uh, Annabel, what just happened?" She asked Lotte.
"I don't know..." Lotte said, not quite as confused as everyone else. "This isn't the first time this has happened, but nobody could tell what was going on..."
Wispy shrugged as he shook his head.
If Sucy is confused about what just went on, then it is hidden very well by her indifference. Though her indifference is broken immediately when she laid her eyes on Akko and Lotte, and can't help but snicker at the sight.
"What?" Akko and Lotte both wondered what could Sucy be snickering about, unaware that whatever happened to the rest of the cafeteria, it got them too.
Akko's short ponytail is gone, and her half-bangs has been replaced by full bangs that makes her look like someone of Diana's level of smart and charming (which is, suffice to say, extremely unfitting of her). Lotte's smooth pixie hair cut turned into a delinquent-ish mess of hair strands that looked like something right out of a shonen anime (which is also extremely unfitting of her).
The only people in the cafeteria other than Amanda who aren't confused at all are Constanze and Jasminka.
Constanze approached Amanda and directed a grunt toward her.
"Yeah, I stopped time again and messed with just about everyone while I'm at it..." Amanda answered as she then glanced at Bianca Rosetti complaining about her bowl of fruit punch getting contaminated by Aileen's marshmallows. "What about it?"
Constanze responded with another grunt.
"Yeah, I did that too. So what?" Amanda answered nonchalantly.
"Did what?" Diana suddenly approached and confronted Amanda, while Hannah and Barbara are behind her, trying to wipe the face paint off their faces to no avail. "I guessed you have something to do with... all these..." Diana continued as she took note of the state everyone in the cafeteria has been left in. "But were you just taking about this?" She finished, emphasizing on the fact that she is soaking wet from head to toe.
"Yeah, that too." Amanda answered with a smug. "You know, this look kind of suits you, Cabbage..."
"Don't. Call. Me. That." Diana growled in response to Amanda's nickname for her.
"Sheesh, I wonder how long you had that stick jammed up there..." Amanda said as she then walked past the Blue Coven, gesturing at Constanze and Jasminka to follow her, then at her redecorating crew to continue their work without her. "And now that I think of it, maybe I should have left it up there, after all..."
Diana raised her eyebrows. "Where is 'up there', and what stick were you talking about?" She asked as she eyed Amanda with dissatisfaction, not understanding what the redhead just told her.
Hannah and Barbara, however, did understand it.
"Diana," Hannah informed her. "That's American slang for being stuck up, and..."
"Let's just say Amanda meant what she say in a somewhat literal way..." Barbara added. She then leaned in to whisper to Diana.
What Barbara whispered to her made Diana boil in anger.
"AMANDA O'NEIL! YOU COME BACK HERE RIGHT BLOODY NOW!"
The Green Coven disappeared from sight before Diana could chase after them.
Akko then face-palmed at everything that has just happened. Luna Nova and the world of magic is amazing, alright, just not in the way the websites had hyped it up to be...
I live! She lives! The Atsuko Kagari Series lives!
So yeah, one thing or another, I was finally able to conquer the Writer's Block that has been plaguing me for over a month...
Anyway, here's the long awaited update to this story. This chapter is just filler for Amanda to do her thing, including... well... taking advantage of Diana...
Amanda: "Well, at least I got to cop a feel of Cabbage's r-"
Diana: "Don't you dare finish that sentence, O'Neil!"
What was I thinking, writing that?
"Just remember: a believing heart is your magic..."
Afterwords end here.