Red Coven's Dorm
Akko found herself waking up to the sight of Sucy preparing to pour a vial of something down a funnel stuck into her mouth.
Akko quickly removed the funnel and threw it at Sucy, who apparently saw it coming and nonchalantly dodged it. "Sucy! What are you doing?!"
Sucy groaned in disappointment as she lowered both her hands. "I brewed a potion that makes the drinker enter a coma-like state and sees every aspect of their minds as doppelgangers of themselves and their memories represented by an environment." She answered. "I was just about to test it on you when you woke up..." The pale Filipino sighed dejectedly before turning around and placing the vial next to her lab equipment on the desk.
Akko blinked in confusion at Sucy's excuse. "Whatever! Just don't do that again!"
The Japanese girl then turned to read the class timetable that she taped to the wall right below her limited edition Shiny Chariot poster.
"OH NO! I'M ABOUT TO BE LATE FOR CLASS!" Akko panicked when she saw that the first class of the day starts in three minutes.
"Don't worry about it..." Sucy told Akko nonchalantly. "Class has been cancelled..."
"Huh?" Akko stopped in the middle of changing out of her pajamas.
As if on cue, a bell chime is suddenly heard coming from somewhere in the campus.
"Attention, all students and professors. I shall repeat this for those of you who only just woke up." The voice of Headmistress Holbrooke then announced, like a typical school-wide announcement. "All classes will be cancelled for the rest of this week so that everyone can have time to prepare for the Alumni Homecoming Party and 60th Anniversary Luna Nova-Appleton Friendship Ball which will both be taking place this Sunday night. Do note, however, that students with ongoing detentions are still required to serve their detentions. That is all. Have a nice week!"
The announcement ended with another bell chime.
"Huh?" Akko muttered in further confusion.
"Why was someone so clueless as her chosen as my wielder...?" Shiny Rod is heard muttering to itself.
...
Luna Nova Cafeteria
The cafeteria was usually silent in the morning due to there being little students and there being nothing much to talk about.
But not today.
With class cancelled for the rest of the week, the cafeteria is flooded with the noises of nearly every student and some of the staff in Luna Nova talking about their plans for the upcoming Banquet. The discussions ranged from what the past graduates of Luna Nova will be like, from how many different walks of life will the alumni be coming from, what plans the Director-General of the World Health Organization (a Luna Nova alumni herself, as Akko remembered from a news article she read about just yesterday) have for the Homecoming, how handsome the Appleton boys would be (technically, only Blair is talking about that)...
And then there's Chloe ranting to her Coven mates about how she wants to humiliate Diana in front of everyone during the Banquet, but didn't have any "dirt" she could use. Akko conjured in her mind an image of Chloe dumping a bucket of dirt on Diana, and as much as she thinks is taking things too far, the Japanese girl decided not to interfere with it. Even if Chloe was backstabbed by Hannah and Barbara, she is still a vicious bully that had abused Lotte for at least a semester, and Akko wanted nothing to do with her.
Akko tuned out the background chatter and turned back toward her Coven mates. Lotte is staring at the fountain pen that she received for winning the Nightfall Trivia Quiz last Saturday, and next to it is a copy of Nightfall Volume 366, with Wispy peeking out at its master from the far end of the book. Sucy is flipping through her notes on what is perhaps mushrooms and potions, and seems to be highly invested in the contents.
Well, our detention is over, and we have that Whatchacallit Magic Set to help us with our costumes for the Banquet. Akko thought to herself. So as long as I stay away from Hannah and Barbara, I don't have to worry about anyth-
The brunette paused mid-thought and with a spoonful of mashed potatoes nearly in her mouth when she noticed something, or rather, someone, over Lotte's shoulder.
"Annabel, there she is..." Akko informed Lotte as she brought the Finn's attention to the subject.
"Who?" Lotte looked over her shoulder to see what Akko was referring to.
There's Mary-Ann Lait, with her long blonde hair in twin braids, still wearing her easily-identifiable headphones, and also in Luna Nova uniforms, casually walking through the cafeteria toward the food serving stands to grab a carton of chocolate milk before turning around to leave the way she entered the cafeteria from.
"Her?" Lotte seem surprised to see the former author of Nightfall again, in Luna Nova grounds and disguised as a student, no less. "What is she doing here?"
With that, Akko and Lotte (with Wispy hopping onto Lotte's shoulder) got up from their table and followed Mary-Ann out of the cafeteria, leaving Sucy behind in the process. Though the pale Filipino paid no attention to her Coven mates as she continued flipping through her notes.
...
Luna Nova Corridors
"So, Barbs, what plans do you have for the Banquet this Sunday?"
"Well, I'm going to find that guy, Louis Blackwell, and give him a piece of my mind about his father. What about you, Han?"
"I'm going to just have a talk with my brother. Surely he'd be coming over for the Banquet with his classmates."
You have a brother at Appleton?"
With class cancelled for the day and the rest of the week, Hannah and Barbara took their time in the Blue Coven dorm before heading out together. They chatted with each other as they strolled through the campus.
"By the way, Barbs..." Hannah brought up. "Do you think that total loser, Kagari, from Red Coven have any chance in the Banquet?"
"I wouldn't call her a total loser after she fired our French insult back at us. In French. Fluently." Barbara emphasized. "Though I do believe that she'd make a laughing stock out of herself in front of all the alumni and Appleton boys!" She then added.
"Assuming she could even make it to the Banquet!" Hannah let out a "spoiled rich girl" laugh. "And how about that pale girl... Mambavaran, was it?"
"The boys will just think she's a zombie and avoid her like their lives depend on it!" Barbara let out a "spoiled rich girl" laugh as well.
"And Little Annabel?" Hannah continued.
Barbara paused upon hearing that name. "Annabel Creme?"
"Yeah, that pipsqueak from the Red Coven, who as it turns out is also the creator of that garbage Nightfall franchise." Hannah said. "Garbage only creates more garbage, I say!"
"I, um..." Barbara seemed oddly insecure about the topic.
"Well, speaking of her, there she is..." Hannah suddenly broke the conversation and pointed ahead of her.
At the intersection up ahead, the Blue Coven bullies saw what appeared to be Akko and Lotte sneakily following another student that they don't recognize.
"I wonder what those two are doing?" Hannah thought out loud. "And who is that one, anyway?"
"You go on by yourself for now, Han." Barbara suddenly said as she followed the Red Coven girls and left her friend behind. "I'd catch up with you later..."
As Barbara left to follow the Red Coven duo, Hannah stood there by herself, wondering what is with her friend's thought process right now.
...
Luna Nova central courtyard
Mary-Ann Lait sipped her carton of chocolate milk as she stood before the magnificent statue of Jennifer the Great. She looked up at the head of the tall statue of one of the Olde Nines while she reminisced about her time in Luna Nova.
Luna Nova hasn't changed in the years since the last time she set foot on its campus grounds. Yet the academy seemed familiar and unfamiliar to her at the same time.
She initially only came to Luna Nova just to see how her unwitting successor, whose identity got overwritten by the Curse of Annabel Creme, is doing with her new life. She noted that the glasses-wearing girl with the pixie hair cut who was also her Number One Fan seemed depressed, a far cry from the excitement she had on the day of the Nightfall Trivia Quiz.
I felt so sorry for her. She thought to herself. Was it morally right to pass on the Curse of Annabel Creme to her, subjecting her to the same issues that I was trying to get away from?
Mary-Ann had initially planned on leaving Luna Nova after checking on her unwitting successor. But the familiar-yet-unfamiliar environment of the academy caused her to subconsciously stay for longer than she needed. Her Luna Nova uniform - her old one, in fact - had helped her blend in among the students - its amazing that even the control freak Finneran and the sharp-eyed Nelson have not noticed her yet despite her walking right by them several times within the last few days...
She used her extended-and-unwarranted stay at Luna Nova to familiarize... no wait... re-familiarize herself with the campus and its layouts. She missed all of them, from the time she impressed Professor Finneran with a well-casted levitation spell, to the time she crossed the finishing line and won her Coven the Broom Relay Race.
All these happy times... She was forced to abandon them... to get her wish that she would wound up regretting ever getting...
She suddenly felt a menacing aura right behind her. And it sent chills down her spine.
She looked over her shoulder, and saw that Japanese brunette who accompanied her unwitting successor, casting a deathly glare with her red eyes on the former author.
"You have a lot to explain, Mary-Ann Lait."
So, one way or another, I wound up getting my schedule FUBAR'd to the point that this got delayed for two whole months, with part of that time period wasted on writing The Shiny Witch and the Warden and Little Owlet Academia (both only available on AO3). And because my schedule was FUBAR'd, I can't fix it, and all future updates will most likely be inconsistent in frequency. I'm sorry if you wound up having to wait too long.
Anyway, here's the newest chapter. Surprised to see that Annabel Creme/ Mary-Ann Lait was a former Luna Nova student?
"Just remember: a believing heart is your magic..."
Afterwords end here