A/N- very, very sorry this took so long to updated. Me is a bad girl, me should updated more often. Bad! **hits self on head with a big stick** That's better. But I finally updated so read and enjoy!
Disclaimer: If I owned the Tamora Pierce characters would I really bother writing this when I could just lock them all in cages and torment them all day? And drool over Dom, of course.
Chapter 9- The evil stick (A/N- I swear it will make sense during the chapter. I think…)The next morning all the girls met outside the Mess Hall. Grace was the only one looking even remotely awake. The previous night all those to be pages – Grace, Emily, Hatty, Jihui and Stella – had gotten their uniforms. At the moment they all wore them.
Emily pulled up her breeches, which were most likely three times too big for her, and grinned. "I can't believe we're gonna be training as pages."
Hatty grinned. "Fun!"
Cecily nodded and walked off. Tat jerked her head towards Cecily's retreating figure. "What was that all about?" she asked.
"She's not a morning person. Enough said," replied Stella.
Grace then screamed. All heads turned to her abruptly. "Wh-what is it?" questioned Jihui.
Grace grinned. "Just wanted your attention." She then turned to face the Mess Hall doors. "Now let's go eat!"
She hurried in without waiting for the others and headed to the food line. The Pages' were still making their way in – albeit slowly.
The girls – now carrying trays and plates covered in food – found and empty table and took places there. Tat was grumbling about how her sausages were now cold. Grace hit her on the back, a bit too hard in fact. Tat sputtered and turned to Grace. "What was that for?"
Grace cowered behind Emily. "Don't hurt me! AHHH!"
Tat sat back down, still glaring at Grace. Grace resumed her seat and ate her tiny breakfast.
Stella noticed the change in Grace's normally gastronomic amount of food to this miniscule (A/N – two big words! Go me!) portion.
"What's with your food Grace?" asked Stella.
Grace, who had already finished her serving and was heading for a second, looked at Stella. "If they had some vegetarian food I wouldn't have so little," she stated, rather too loudly.
A few heads turned and stared at Grace as if she had just grown four arms and a large spot.
Emily leapt to her feet and stood on her tippy toes before giving up on trying to muffle Grace's mouth with her hand. She settled for hitting her. (A/N- I may have said you're small Emily but you got your revenge so don't worry ^_^)
Grace glared, glaringly. "Well it's true!"
Jihui stood and patted her on the back before leading her out of the hall towards the practise area.
Tat headed off to the stables singing her Spike song. (A/N- Spike from Buffy. I won't type out the song as it belongs to Tat.)
Stella shook her head, laughing and followed Jihui and Grace. Hatty ran after Grace. Emily was still standing outside the Mess Hall and didn't notice them go. She then turned to speak and realised – after a few stares – that everyone had already left.
"Wait for me!" cried Emily. (A/N- cried as in shouted not boo-hoo cried. Duh!)
Grace was too busy singing her potato song to care.
"I want to be a pot-a-to,
I want to live in the gr-ou-nd.
I want to be a pot-a-to,
You wouldn't have to make a sound.
I want to be brown,
I want to be hairy,
I want to live where it isn't scary.
I want to be a pot-a-to-"
Stella hit Grace round the head before she could finish. Jihui and Hatty abruptly stopped singing, as they had decided to join in.
Emily caught up with them finally coughing and wheezing slightly. Hatty, who hasn't said a lot, finally said something, "Where were you then?"
Emily growled and Stella had to hold her back. "Stop it!" Emily stopped but continued to growl.
Grace shrugged and entered the practise court. Lord Padraig already stood waiting for the pages. He glared as "the girls" all scurried over.
He cleared his throat and began. "Now, today we have some new members joining our training-" he nodded towards Grace, Stella, Hatty, Jihui and Emily, "-and I know we will welcome them all." He clapped his hands at that and all the pages hurried to arrange themselves in two lines facing each other. Grace looked around blankly. Emily dragged her into line next to her.
Lord Padraig shot her an evil look before handing out staffs (A/N- I so nearly wrote sticks just then) to everyone. Stella almost dropped her staff as soon as Lord Padraig had sorted her grip. She smiled sheepishly (A/N- baa.)
Emily's staff was almost taller then her. Grace burst out laughing when she looked at Emily. Padraig just glared.
Jihui was trying to come to terms with hitting other people whilst Hatty was attempting to do some karate moves. It wasn't working.
Grace grinned at Hatty who was opposite her. They both grinned evilly. This was going to be fun. This was after all their favourite hobby. Hitting people with big sticks.
Grace sighed. "I wonder how many times I've threatened to hit people with big sticks…"
Emily poked her. "I wouldn't even bother trying to count. Anyway these are staffs."
Grace beamed and jumped up and down on the spot. "I wanna start!"
Padraig glared again. "Evil, glaring man," muttered Grace.
He then noticed the placing of Hatty and immediately swapped her with a second year page. Grace shrugged. Padraig then began a count. High block, high hit.
Grace tried to gain control of her arms but they seemed to be doing something completely on their own. Emily was herself having problems. Hauling something that was pretty much your size and throwing it at someone was not fun.
Stella was going along with the beat well almost yawning. Hatty was very much enjoying herself. Smashing her stick with the frightened page opposite her. Jihui was nursing her hand, which had been whacked by the evil staff. Or stick, as the author prefers to call it.
Grace now had no control over her arms and dropped her staff just before the other page struck her kneecap.
She winced and fell to her knees. This hurt more. "Ouchie," murmured Grace before losing consciousness.
Emily, Hatty, Stella and Jihui rushed over. Padraig pushed his way through and looked Grace's crumpled form over before sighing. "Why me…"
~*~
Tat rubbed her forehead. This was giving her a headache. The stupid animals weren't listening to her. "I'll never get the hang of this."
Daine clapped a hand on her shoulder. "Of course you will it just takes practise."
Tat frowned. "I don't like practise. It makes my head hurt."
Daine helped pull Tat to her feet. Hippodrome, who was the animal Daine had chosen for her to work with, continued idly cleaning himself.
"I found things easier because I have so much Wild Magic. You won't have that."
Tat muttered, "I think being the daughter of a god helped."
"That too," Daine added laughing. "Come on. Just give it one more go and we'll have a lunch break."
"All right then." Tat sighed.
She focused on Hippodrome. Hippodrome, can you hear me?
Tat waited for an answer. When none came she groaned in frustration. I so know he's doing this on purpose.
That's right, came a voice in her head. All for the fun of torturing you.
Tat gaped. "Did I just speak to Hippodrome? Inside my head?" she squealed.
Daine laughed. "You did it. Well done! Now, how about some lunch?" (A/N- they are always hungry!)
Sounds good to me, replied Hippodrome leaping from the table and exiting the room.
~*~
Grace groaned. She slowly opened her eyes. "Ouchie, bad pains." She tried sitting up but found herself pushed back down.
"Don't even try it. You are in no condition to be getting up."
All the memories came back to Grace in a flood of thought. Her head sure hurt. "Where's the evil stick?" She blinked and saw Neal sat over her.
He grinned. "I suppose you mean the staff?" Grace nodded. "It was disposed of, though the staff was not the problem."
Grace frowned. "Then what happened?"
"Someone took control of your body, mainly your arms, and we suspect attempted to get you injured." He grimaced. "It worked."
Grace grinned. "It's not that bad. I'll be fine."
"I hope so-"
Neal was cut off when Cecily burst into the room. "Are you OK? What happened? I wish I could have helped."
She rushed over to the side of Grace's bed. Grace raised her eyebrow at her. "Why so worried?"
"You are my best friend Grace." She shook her head. "Honestly, you can be stupid."
Grace choked for a second, not sure what to say. "I-I can be stupid? Hello? What about you Cece?"
The two began arguing and shouting. Neal just edged away from them.
Grace then broke into a grin. "What did Numair teach you?" she questioned, though she couldn't have cared much less.
"It was amazing! I learnt all these ways to channel my gift and loads of incantations. It was so cool!"
Grace though was already sleeping.
A/N- awful I know but at least I finished the chapter eventually. Also if anyone is desperate to find out how the potato song ends just email me or leave it in a review and I will put it in the next chapter. It all has a happy ending, I promise!
