(((.-) Zel ||~.^|| Xelloss {{$.$}} Lina ((.^)|| Gourry ((^.^))Amelia



Seyruun High Jinx

Chapter 14

Dawn brushed her rosy fingers across the sky. The dark clouds of the night before were gone, leaving only wisps of white like whipped cream smeared across the sky.

Zel's groggy eyes opened the merest crack, but the light was too much. He closed them again, happy just to know that he could, for it was Saturday. Gramps would be wanting his breakfast soon, but he could postpone getting up to fix it until he was being yelled at. Hmm... Why wasn't he being yelled at? Suddenly, the awkward feeling that he wasn't in his own bed hit him like a boulder. Both eyes flew open, and were met with the phantasmagorical visage of Amelia's sleeping, quietly drooling face an arm's length away.

And so ended that wonderful dreamy, half-awake state he'd been drifting in and out of, now crashing and burning in a very strangled yelp.

Strangled though it was, it awoke Val, Lina, Sylphiel and Amelia herself. Gourry, used to all manner of noise from living with his pack of siblings, slept happily through it. Xelloss and Filia were not there.

Val muttered a string of curses, swung a fist randomly, and burrowed himself deeper in his blanket.

"Gods, Zel…You moron….'ll kill you," Lina moaned. "What the hell is wrong with you?" She looked like a small, red bear, roused prematurely from hibernation and ready to maul the culprit. When she found Zel, paralyzed with fear and staring up at the ceiling unblinking, the rusty gears began to creak in her head. "You fell asleep in the middle of Xelloss' story last night, and no one disturbed you." She carefully omitted certain incriminating details. "So relax, you IDIOT. No one took advantage of you." She then rolled over and emitted a long, low moan that tapered into a bear-like growl.

"I had the most horrible nightmare!" Sylphiel cried.

Zel had just lived his.

"Shove it." Lina and Val harmonized.

Amelia did not exist. She had instantly slipped under her blanket, becoming an invisible, quivering blob of embarrassment. "If I never come out again, I'll still die of shame," her poor little mind assured itself.

There was a noise outside the practice room door.  "That's right hold the door for me, thanks, Filia," whispered Xelloss. He was struggling with a huge pink box from Polly's Pastries and Pies and tipsy mugs, plates, spoons and napkins clinking on top.

"Sure thing. I'd like to get the tea going. Where's your teapot? You have a teapot, don't you?" Filia asked.

"Not really, but I can go get one. What else do you need?" he asked in a hushed voice.

He set down the box and disappeared out the door again. Three minutes later he returned with the requested items, a sack full of dried clothes, and a serious look on his face.

"Something the matter, Xelloss?" Filia asked unconcernedly.

He shook his head and plastered on his smile. "Perhaps I'm just not used to you being so nice to me."

"Humph! It's no big deal, you know," she sniffed.

It was to him though. While Filia completed her tea-making, he started coffee, put the milk away, and began folding the clothes.

"Now what are you doing?" asked Filia stiffly.

"Folding Lina, Gourry, and Zel's clothes so that they can take them home or change back into them before they go," he answered brightly. "Ah, methinks I hear stirrings from yonder fun-makers."

"Xelloss, you are so weird, you know that don't you," Filia said as a statement not a question to his receding back.

"Breakfast call everyone!" he chortled. "Your carriage departs in half an hour, so unless you want to stay here longer, it's time to rise and..."

"Shaddup!" shouted Val, "Everyone's movin'…and don't be so...cheer-ful so early. Lina, you'd better give Gourry another kick. Mine don't seem to be getting through."

"Lina, whisper those sweet nothings in his ear…food...food...food," giggled Xelloss.

"You're awfully chipper this morning. What's that? .~***FOOD***~.?" Lina's interest was aroused now.

"Yes! Now, what would you like? There's coffee, tea, or..." Xelloss began.

Zel, shook his head and mumbled, "Please don't say it, please don't say 'me'..."

"...milk. And fresh Danish, bearclaws, donuts…"

Zel was pouring himself a mug of coffee. "Toast. Dry."

"Nooooo, but I have something else over here," Xelloss said in a lowered voice and tugged at Zel's shirt.

"What is it?" said Zel his irritation level rising.

"We need to talk. Outside. Quickly," whispered Xelloss conspiratorially.

Zel sighed, "This had better be important," then followed Xelloss out the door.

Xelloss looked first at the main house, and then stepped out of sight of the windows. His serious expression silenced Zel.

"When I went to get some breakfast things this morning, I went to the kitchen and," he swallowed.

"And?" prompted Zel.

"Your grandfather spent the night here. He was having coffee and scones with…Zelas. She never gets up on a Saturday morning before noon, that I've noticed, before this. Of course, he may have driven himself over."

"He's blind! Of course he didn't drive! How did he get here then? Why?" Zel was flustered, but not as much as Xelloss.

"I KNOW! I barged in and they laughed and greeted me like this happens everyday…then Zelas told me that Phil came over last night, bringing your grandfather, to check on Amelia. Apparently the phones started working because he called everyone's guardians to let them know we were all right. She told me to tell all of you to be ready for pickup at 11:00 sharp."

Zel was thinking things over, "So why didn't he go home too?"

Xelloss smirked, "Why do you think? I told you she was ... awful."

Zel gave his friend a dark look. "He probably stayed in the guest room and your mother is just being a kind hostess."

"In her bathrobe, do you think?" Xelloss frowned.

Zel began making some wheezing noises, when Lina popped her head out. "Hey guys? Is this a private conversation, or can anyone join  in? Gaaah! Xelloss what did you do to the poor guy this time? Zel you're spilling your coffee!"


Gourry and Lina happily changed back into their dried clothes from yesterday.

"Ah, thanks, Xelloss, for the clothes and stuff," said Gourry politely. "So where did you find clothes big enough for me, ah… just wonderin'?"

"You're welcome. Umm, they were step-dad number two's. He was pretty tall. I kept a few of his things in my old room in the house. No problem, really."  The boy smiled and appeared not to be bothered by anything.

Zel was too shell-shocked to notice his old clothes (minus the stained shirt) had been stuffed into his fencing bag. Or that he was still wearing Xelloss' old ones. "This isn't happening to me. He's not in there. My grandfather is at home. He is not…'visiting with'…Xelloss'…mother…"

"Zel, what is your problem? Phil's here and everyone's already in the van!" Lina admonished. But seeing that he was unresponsive, Lina simply picked up his bags, and not the Fender, and carried them out to the van. "Gourry, do me a favor and get Zel moving, all right?"

"Sure, Lina," he agreed.

While Gourry and Zel were bonding, Filia and Sylphiel were chattering about the upcoming football game. Since Filia was staying over at Amelia's one more day, Amelia decided to watch the girls lead the cheer squad. Val had work to do at the music/repair shop, and so declined. Lina said she'd think about it. When Zel made it into the van, it was settled -no band practice this weekend or Monday. On Monday the play try-outs would take precedence. Rezo was in conversation with Phil in the front seats. Zelas wisely remained indoors out of sight. Xelloss waved goodbye to his friends, satisfied with his first party and overnight. Even his mother's antics couldn't mar that.




Monday morning announcements included: reduced hours schedule for the next week's fall holiday ( no classes Thurs-Fri ); play try-outs this afternoon; the archery club's bake-off fundraiser would take place Friday before and after school; and as further reminder, there would be no sports events next week due to the holiday.

Zel watched Lina throw her body at her desk for composition class.

"Mornings will be banned in the future, when I rule the world," she growled to her long-time friend. "Mark my words."

Zel reached over and scratched a giant ' Z ' across her notebook. "Consider them marked," he smirked.

Lina's eyes smoldered revenge. In one swift movement, she grabbed his pocket schedule and flung it out the door, where it disappeared into a sea of students.

Zel gasped, muttered something nasty and shot out the door in desperation.

The bell rang. He stomped back to his seat, without the schedule planner, planning his retaliation, when he noticed his pocket schedule fanning the air in front of his face.

"Lose this?" asked the purple haired kid with the goofy grin.

Zel ripped the planner out of the other boy's hand without a word of thanks and settled into his chair. "Oh joyous Monday."

"Okay, the front office is getting on my case for neglecting the role call, so we'll be wasting fifteen minutes on that this morning," the teacher sighed. "Ursula Applegate?"

"Here."

"Ken Amano?"

"Yo."

"Oh, Ken, I was wrong. You'll have to return the other one."

"Sure."

That was confusing. But whatever mystery was going on would have to remain so. Role call went on and on.

"…Zelgadiss Graywords?"

"Here," he lamented.

"Kagome Higurashi?"

"Present."

"Lina Inverse?"

"Yep."

…And on and on...

"Kaoru Kamiya?"

"Here."

"Robin Kaplan?"

"I am HERE!"

"That's nice…Kodachi Kuno?"

…And on and on...

"Shiro Ryujoji?

"Present."

...And ON and ON…

"Filia…how do you pronounce that?"

"Ul Copt."

"You're here."

...AND ON AND ON...

"Xelloss?"

"…"

"*Sigh* Xelloss, I know you're here."

"Then why did you call my name?" he smiled.

"You call that a name?" some obnoxious brat uttered. "That's, like, half a name of an alien or something!"

"…" from the teacher.

"What do you say to something like that?" Lina wondered aloud.

"Nothing," Zel offered. He knew why Xelloss didn't use a last name, although he still didn't quite think 'Xelloss' was a real name, either. *ZELGADISS* didn't think it was fair to name a child something like that, poor kid. He'd feel sorry for him if he didn't have to deal with him all the time. Suddenly, visions of bottles of medication came unbidden into his mind and he turned pale.



After English, Zel walked alone to calculus. The tough lesson demanded and absorbed all of his energy, so he didn't have much time to think. Actually, he was rather avoiding thinking in general these days. It only made him sick or depressed.

Meanwhile, Lina languished in Trig. "Boring boring boring boring..." she sang to herself, drawing pictures of suns, princes, horses, gory battle scenes, and a very genki self-portrait. "Boredom boredom boredom boredom…" soon her mantra became a new tune, and the words began to evolve, too. "Where oh but where oh but life continues..."

"Lina, what ARE you doing?" the teacher asked, fiddling with a white-board marker.

"I'm expressing myself in a creative and joyful fashion, you old octopus!" she yowled.

There was a moment of silence while the words sunk in and Lina sat, panting, on the desk she'd leapt upon in her rage.

"Would you like to go to the office and share your creativity and joy with the principal?"

"Well, not really, but I don't have much of a choice now, do I? Oh, well." Lina hauled her stuff down the stairs to the office on the first floor. On her way, she noticed for the first time all of the doors without room numbers or labels. Where did they all go? Were there really secret passages? And what about that bell-tower?  The hairs on the back of her neck began to rise. She knew it was silly to creep herself out over Xelloss' loony stories, but still...  The halls were very deserted, very quiet. The office loomed up in front of her. She swallowed her fear and slid in the door, humming her new tune so she wouldn't forget it.

She coughed and leaned forward a little, but it was no use. The principal's face was lost in the shadows and haze from a burning cigarette. "Well, Miss Inverse, what brings you here this morning?" purred the lady's voice.

Lina's throat constricted making her voice high and tiny. "I was doodling in Trig class and called the teacher an...old octopus."

Zelas Metallium drew in a lung-full of smoke, and then let it out slowly. "I see. And here I thought you were a smarter girl than that. After last year's…antics with your friend Miss Nahga, things seemed to be improving. New friends?"

Lina gulped. How does she know so much about me?  Aloud, she answered, "Ah… yes a few."

"That's…nice…Now wouldn't you rather spend time with those friends than spend that time sitting in detention?"

"Yes, absolutely!" said Lina. (No, duh!)

"Good. Would you do something to help yourself then? Of course you would, so here's what I ask: write a short note of apology to your Trig teacher; get up to date on your assignments for the class, if you aren't already; and, lastly, THINK before you insult someone who is trying to help you. Can you do that for me dear?"

"Yes, no problem," nodded Lina.

"Very well, then…Just one more thing...  How was Zelgadiss this morning?"

"Who?  Zel? Ah…same as always, I guess."

"And…Xelloss?"

"Goofy as ever, ah… Why are you asking me about them?" asked a confused Lina.

"No reason, really…  That's fine. You may go now," Zelas said dismissing her with the flick of a hand.

Lina left the office a bit shaken.  Zel was right. That's one scary woman. Well, I'm hungry is it lunch time yet...eh? No? Gaaaah! I still have science! I'll never make it…  sooo hungry.  She drooped. I'm starving. I can feel myself turning into a walking skeleton.  Well, can't have that, can we? Lina fished her bag lunch out if her backpack gleefully. By the time she got to science, her lunch was more than half gone.

Lina had hoped that science class would end soon. She glanced over at Zel. He seemed to be entranced with the lecture. Yawn. Xelloss might have been asleep. He sat resting his face down on his folded arms. Yawn. After this was lunch! And then a few more hours until try-outs! "Oh yeah!"

The teacher paused in his endless droning. "Yes, you are right when you agree, Lina Inverse, that the Law of Thermodynamics is unquestionably klksdf fjfjlkfj fjjkddkdj."

"Whew, that was a close one," she thought. "Lunch better come soon." 

Minutes later she was joined in the lunch room with her familiar crowd.

"Lina? Did you forget your lunch?" asked Gourry dropping his customary trays on the table.

"Nah, I got here a little early, that's all."


Filia flounced in breathlessly carrying her lunch and a heavy looking tote bag brimming with books. "Lina! So what did the principal DO to you? Must have been bad if you're not eating."

All eating stopped and curious eyes riveted upon the petite red head who was more interested in Gourry's tray of food than answering the question.

"Nothing much...and I just came here and ate early."

Sylphiel cried out insisting for more details. "You got sent to the principal's office?! If that happened to me I'd just be sick!"

Now Val, Zel, and Xelloss were interested too. Gourry was busy trying to keep Lina's sneaky fingers off his food.

"Listen, I have to apologize for smarting off to the teacher, okay? No big deal...except that.."

"Yes?" Sylphiel prompted.

"She asked how Zel and Xelloss were doing. Kinda odd. And yes, she's creepy, so drop the subject okay?"

Not okay, thought Zel. Who knows what Xelloss was thinking? His smile grew the tiniest bit tighter.

"Miss Filia, could you move your book bag a little? I can't move my feet," asked Amelia politely.

"Of course, I thought you'd all be interested in seeing MY school yearbooks," Filia said brightly. She heaved the first three onto the table. "Here's my fifth grade graduation picture," she paused for the 'ooohs and ah's to diminish "…and my fourth grade class."

"Hey, Filia, do you have older ones?" asked Lina triumphantly waving a stick of cheese she'd won from Gourry.

"I brought them all."

"Let's see the oldest…maybe Val's in one," Lina suggested.

"I never thought of that!" Filia cried excitedly yanking the bottom-most book out and thumbing through the pages. "You are a year older so..."

"I didn't live near you," Val began.

"Not when you were very young, but later…even though your mother didn't stay with the clan, you may have bused to my school. You said you don't remember that time, just long bus rides. It won't hurt to try. Oh, here I am in kindergarten. Yeah, I know, little Goldilocks.  So if we turn to the grade ahead…VAL LOOK! What do you think?"

Val stuck his nose into the book. There was a picture of a thin-faced boy with green hair, but he was smiling not smirking. "Wow...that's me."

Filia grabbed the next books, frantically searching for more pictures. But no more were to be found. "I'm sorry, Val. Looks like you were there only the one year. No wonder you don't remember much."

"Yeah, well that's more than I knew before," he smiled a bit.

"Here," said Filia handing him the book. "You keep this one. As you can see, I have plenty of pictures of myself."

Val held the book, flipping through the pages, "Thanks, I will. Maybe some of the pics will spark my memory. Hey, Lina, wanna see the best lookin' kid in kin-der-gar-ten?"

"Oh joy, now he's got something else to show off besides tattoos," grumbled Zel, a bit peeved at having Filia dredged up 'Zelas' thoughts.

Xelloss, ready to stick his foot in his mouth for fun, chortled, "You're not still upset about your picture with the heart drawn around it, are you?"

Gasps. Lina was about to drive her fist through his smiling visage, when Sylphiel burst into nervous laughter.

"Oh, that! It was a silly thing for me to do, I know.  Do you remember Lina? A group of us girls were, you know… writing in each other's yearbooks when we decided to have a vote on who the cutest guys were? Of course you do! Don't sit there shaking your head now. Anyway, I don't remember who the runners-up were, but I drew the heart around the winner!"

"Ah, Zel, a lady killer at eleven and you didn't even know it. And, from the look on your face, I don't think you enjoy knowing it now. Oh the horror! The horror!" Val was on a roll. He was in a great mood and perhaps a little of Xelloss was rubbing off on him. He did have the wisdom to jump out of the way as Zel's beverage can flew at his face.

"I'm leaving," Zel announced and made good on his promise.

"Well, you can't blame me this time, Lina," Xelloss glowed.

"You brought it up, moron!" Lina screeched while slamming Gourry's mostly empty lunch tray into the grinning kid's face.

"Ouch! That hurts!" he whined.

"Serves you right!" admonished Amelia. "You are all so cruel to poor Mr. Zelgadiss. You tease him when you know he's sensitive about his appearance. You embarrass him unmercifully, Miss Lina, it's a wonder he calls you his best friend! Mr. Val, you insult him. Mr. Xelloss, you just tease him to his limits all the time and have a way of setting him off whether you mean to or not. It's so unjust and mean spirited. We must think of something nice to do for him. To make it up to him."

"Well now, Amelia, there you've gone and spoiled all my plans for fun at the try outs today," pouted Xelloss.

"I'm serious!" shouted Amelia.

"Me too!" shouted Xelloss, tossing his hair in an imitation of Filia. "Now I'll just have to think of something…else..." And he took his leave of the lunch room seconds before the bell rang to end the period.


"Oh good you're both here early," the computer lab teacher said. "Zelgadiss, how is the video taping going?"

Zel had put the project on that handy brain back-burner, where neglected plans simmer and deepen in complexity or scorch beyond recognition. 

"The what?" he panicked. He instantly whisked up the charred remnants of the project and molded a semblance of order, "The project! Yes …um…the hardware is working fine. We've gotten some headway on the..."

"That's all I needed to know, thank you. I just knew I could count on you two to just dive on in without my needing to prod," smiled the teacher, who was walking over to another cluster of students.

Xelloss smiled, "It must be nice to be trustworthy, hmm?"

"He said 'you TWO', didn't he? You've got the teacher's trust in this class, at least. Of course, it is your forté," Zel gave Xelloss a rare smile.

The purple-haired kid returned the smile. "That's right. And I actually HAVE tested out the camcorder, so if you want to see what I've done, you can keep honest and trust-worthy. By the way, has your grandfather said anything to you about the other night?"

"No, and I'd like to keep it that way. Oh but, BY THE WAY, what's the idea of sending me an email that's password-locked?"

"That day when you yelled at me and…stuff… going home...I wrote down some secrets to share. I changed my mind a few times. Just delete it."

"Ho, ho? You must be kidding. Breaking encryption files is my specialty. This should be..."

"No!"  Xelloss interrupted.  "Please, it wouldn't be a good idea. Just delete it. I'll tell you the story another time. I promise!" Xelloss looked beseechingly at his friend.

"I'll think about it," Zel smirked.

So they loaded on the recorded images, mostly views of crows marching on the lawn, and began the onerous task of testing the software editing tools. Finally, the blessed bell rang, releasing the animals from their cages.


Lina's crew was assembled at their lockers, chatting and laughing, except for Zelgadiss. He had raced at demon speed from the computer lab room to the play try-outs just to be first in line. The drama teacher was ready and waiting to get going too, so he was trilled to have an equally enthusiastic student to begin with.

"Oh, this is wonderful! Let's get started immediately then. First, what parts would you like to read for...Zelgadiss?" the teacher asked while getting out a notebook, pen and script.

"I thought Demetrius would do," Zel said.

"Yes, good choice, but I want everyone to pick two parts.  Let's see… for you… let's try Theseus…no, no... Oberon and Lysander too."

"Oh joy," Zel thought, and then asked, "What would you like me to read?"

"Start with Demetrius on page 25 and just go until I stop you."

Zel read with spark and energy for a page or so, and then the teacher asked him to switch roles and continue. Zel read for Oberon and Lysander.

"Thank you, well done. Ah, I see more students are filtering in now. I'll see you in class tomorrow.  Oh yes, and call-backs will be posted outside the classroom tomorrow, Wednesday call-backs. More kids here for try outs?  Yes, come on in and let's get going.  Now, you are…?"

Zel picked up his things and left to sort through his books at his locker. He ran into Lina and Co. outside the room.

"Change your mind, ZEL?" taunted Val.

"Nope, all done!" Zel snickered.

"Not fair! So what did you try out for?" demanded Lina.

Zel waited until Xelloss had stopped chatting with Amelia, then said, "Well, Miss Lina I think that…that's a secret!" Before he had to listen to all their groans and complaints, Zel tripped off to his locker.

Everyone had a chance to read for at least two roles: Lina read for Helena, Titania, and Puck; Xelloss read for the role of Puck also, and Lysander and Demetrius; Amelia tried for Helena and Hermia; Filia for Titania and Hippolyta; Val for Demetrius and Oberon; Gourry for Egeus and Bottom; and Sylphiel read the parts for Hermia and Helena like Amelia.

A dozen or more other kids waited their turns to try out for a role in the play. By 5:30 the last of the students was gone. Lina and her friends were tired and left one by one as soon as they had finished. Filia, however, knew she would miss her bus, and so she waited for a ride from Amelia. They all knew that the results for the call-backs would be posted the next day, and that they would all talk about it at that time.

**** ( ^^ ) ****

End Seyruun High Jinx Chapter 14