Facilier decided that waking up at the crack of dawn was not worth it, especially if he has to wake up for school. As he grumbles about pulling on his clothes Lily is frantically rushing about making sure she has everything.
"Schoolbag, check." She digs through it. "Pencils, notebooks, voodoo emergency kit, check." She then looks around the kitchen for her lunch,
"It's on the table, love," Ms. Jones says helpfully as she places down breakfast. Facilier walks over and scarfs down his food before eyeing Lily's plate hungrily. Unfortunately for him, Lily sees that and quickly clears the plate. Tulip ignores their appalling manners to look over their clothes, nodding approvingly.
"Right, we're all set. Lily, Facilier, do you want me to walk you to school?" She asks them. Lily glances over at Facilier and quickly makes a digging motion with her hands, Facilier then moves his two fingers as if they're walking. Both did this under the table so that Tulip wouldn't see, for they just told one another that they will be looking for materials while they walk to school.
"No thank you, mum, we know the way." Lily says sweetly, she grabs her lunch and drags Facilier with her, "and we should be going actually. See you later!" Tulip looks after them with a large smile, if someone told her divorcing her husband would lead to having two magical children she would have laughed in their face, but now… she couldn't imagine a world without her two witch doctors.
The two friends were walking on opposite sides of the streets, looking for feathers, leftover bones, jewelry bits, and anything else that could be useful. As they speedwalk, they don't want to be late for school, discussing what it'll be like.
"I used to go to primary school back in England, it was nice but the kids could be annoying sometimes. Petunia made up for it." Lily paused in her retellings, she hadn't heard from Petunia since she first moved. It was… disappointing to lose her sister after being together for so long. Lily shrugged, at least she got a new brother. "Since you're nine and I'm seven we will be in different grades, but we can meet up at lunch and break."
"That sounds good, well not being with other kids, meeting up again." He pulls a strand of beads out from the ground, "are we going to the emporium after this?"
Lily shook her head, "Mum wants us to come home instead," as she took in their new school building.
It was huge and blockish, made up of faded gray bricks. A fence surrounded it giving prison vibes and Lily was 95% certain it was haunted. A flock of children wandered about, some were playing with balls, others played tag, or stood around talking. The two looked at one another before stepping into the unfamiliar territory.
Instantly eyes were on them, taking in their appearance and whispering among themselves. Okay, that didn't happen but it felt like it did. A couple of kids did look their way but returned to whatever they were doing.
Facilier wanted to capture one of the birds that were chilling up on the rafters, but Lily told him that would draw the school guard's attention to themselves. Instead, they decided to mingle. A group of kids was close by, three girls and two boys.
"Hello, I'm Lily and this is Facilier we just transferred here. Do you mind if we talk with you?" The kids looked at one another then shrugged.
"Sure, I'm Miles." A dark-skinned boy said. He was short and pudgy and wore a redshirt. "These are Will," He had a buzz cut and square glasses. "The twins Marie and Mary," Mary had darker skin than Miles and curly hair that poofed around her face while Marie wore a white flowy dress with her hair in cornrows. "And Florence," funnily enough she looked similar to Lily, although her eyes were more hazel than green, she moved her hands signing things with a welcoming smile, "She's mute so you'll have to learn some ASL."
Facilier and Lily jump at the opportunity to learn something new and the seven of them quickly become friends. All too soon the school bell rang and the gaggle of children walked inside the school.
Unsurprisingly it was just as dreary on the inside as the outside, although the dreariness was hidden behind brightly colored posters and signs. Separating from the group, Facilier leads Lily to the headmaster's office, he's broken into the school enough times to know the place (no he didn't steal anything, he was just… curious). The headmaster was a jolly enough man to escort them to their classes without a hitch. And thus Lily and Facilier have officially started their first day of school.
The teacher, Mrs. Newman, taps her hand against her desk, "Alright students, please sit down. We have someone new joining us today." She gestures to Lily who was standing beside her. "Why don't you tell us about yourself?" Lily looks over the class and starts.
"My name is Lily, I moved here a couple of months ago from England. I enjoy learning with my friend, Facilier, and I like to make jewelry." She says thinking about all the charms she's made. Mrs. Newman smiles at her and tells her to sit down before addressing the class again.
"Alright, class today we will be learning about our presidents…" Lily rushed to get a notebook and take notes, listening to her teacher.
Mr. Kennith was a very stern-looking man, he had a crowbar mustache, a balding head, and a large potbelly. He looked down his large nose in a superior way, but he wasn't mean in actuality. Gruff yes, but unfairly rude no. He makes Facilier pick a desk and then come to the front and introduce himself.
"Uh, hi. I'm Facilier…" He looks around the classroom not knowing what else to say. Luckily Mr. Kennith helps him.
"So, Mr. Jones," Facilier was registered under Mrs. Jones's last name. "What sort of things do you enjoy?"
"Oh, I like working in mine and Lily's shop, scavenger hunting, and eating Mrs.- er mum's cooking." That seemed to be enough for his teacher and he went to sit down.
"Right class, bring out your times' tables, we'll be doing a review." Facilier followed the instructions but zoned out for the rest of the class.
Classes blurred into one timeless blob until the lunch bell rang. Facilier practically leaped out of his seat and ran out of the classroom, hoping to catch Lily before he entered the cafeteria. Seeing a familiar head of red hair he follows after it.
"Lily!" He shouts and she spins around holding a stack of books. She relaxes once she sees who he is and lightly bumps into him.
"You prat, don't yell my name like that." She adjusted her books, "anyways, how has your day been?" Facilier shrugs.
"Meh, kinda boring." He thinks about his science class, "but I did learn something." his smirk brought on Lily's next question.
"Well, what did you learn?"
"We didn't actually get to do it but the teacher was talkin about chemistry and mixing elements, and that got me thinking about potions." He takes a breath. "So, I think we should start researching potions next time we go to the emporium."
"That sounds like a good idea, a perfect place to branch out." She agrees.
They enter the cafeteria, the biggest room in the school, which was filled with loud noises echoing across the walls. Clusters of children sit around tables, while others are sitting in the courtyard outside. Facilier and Lily barely shared a glance before walking outside, they both enjoyed it more than being in the loud room.
They make their way to the edge of the courtyard and sit on top of the brick wall. They ate in silence observing the other children as they ran about or ate, it was an… interesting experience.
"Excuse me," a quiet voice whispers behind them, "but are you two, the witch doctors?" Turning around they see a woman, she was dressed primly but had a tired face and a loose bun.
"We are, what do you want?" Facilier asks.
"I think a spirit is following me, or, or, a devil." The two share a look.
"What makes you think that?" Lily says as she pulls out a hag stone. A hag stone is a naturally made ring, which can see things a human eye can't.
"I've been having back pains but the doctor can't find anything wrong with me, and…" her voice gets quiet. "I've been having awful dreams, people hurting me or me hurting them."
As she talks Lily puts the hag stone over her eye and looks at the woman. Sure enough, a small black blob was wrapping itself around the woman's back and head. A malicious spirit, but a weak one.
"You're correct, there is a spirit. Luckily it's small enough that we won't have to do a cleansing ritual." Lily then grabs a bag of herbs. "All you need to do is splash some salt over yourself, but if you are still bothered, burn the herbs and stand in the fumes." The woman grabs the baggie and turns to leave.
"Um lady, we are a business." Facilier says with a raised brow, "those herbs don't come cheap." Lily rolls her eyes at him.
"Don't listen to him, if you have money that's good but you can pay us back in other ways." the woman looked them over before handing them [whatever the equivalent of $20 bucks at that time] with a sigh. Lily coughed, "He is right though, these herbs were hard to get." the woman started to get annoyed and huffed.
"Well, what do you want then, that's the only money I've got on me!"
"The cat food in your purse," Facilier said without dropping a beat. The woman puckered her lips in confusion but pulled out the tin of cat food.
"I don't know how you knew that was in my purse but here," she let out an exasperated sigh, "can I go now?" They both nodded, not paying attention to her. As she walked off they noticed that an audience had gathered. It was Miles and his friends.
"Heh, uh…" He stared at them blankly, until Florence hit him. "We were going to see if you wanted to hang out with us but you guys seem busy so we'll just go." He hastily turns around ready to skedaddle. His friends however were not.
"What were you guys selling?" Mary asked. "Was it drugs?" Will elbowed her before Lily or Facilier could say anything.
"Of course it wasn't drugs, dummy, didn't you hear her?" He points to Lily. "It's magic herbs to ward off evil spirits. My question though," he looked at them slyly, "why were you selling magic herbs?" Facilier sat up straighter.
"We're witch doctors, that's why we have a duty to help those with mystical ailments."
"For a price," Lily added as an afterthought to which Facilier nodded. The other kids didn't look so convinced.
"Yeah, it sounds like drugs to me," Mary said. Lily jumped down and stood up in Mary's face, forcing her to back away as she tripped over Lily's shadow. It stood up and waved at Mary's shocked face before flattening again.
"Think we are lying now?" Lily asks smugly. Facilier laughed at their shocked faces and jumped down as well.
"Dang Lils, you showed them." He said, still laughing. Lily pushes him and the rest relax, eagerly asking about voodoo and what their 'business' is like. During dinner that evening, Lily and Facilier had much to tell Ms. Jones.
"Why did you take the cat food?" Tulip asked after the story.
"To feed any black cats." He says in a 'duh' tone, "everyone knows that black cats only cause bad luck if you're mean to them." Ms. Jones only shook her head in amusement.
AN:
UnnaVox: A big thanks to everyone who has liked, liked, and reviewed! Your support means a lot to us! On a different note, sorry for having so many OC's, I know some people don't like them. But don't worry they aren't that important and won't be having an important role besides being school friends. On another different note, this story is definitely historically INACCURATE so if you see something and think 'I don't believe that happened' good for you, y'know history. For the sake of the story just go along with it ;)