"Ooh!" Akko tugged at Holbrooke's sleeve. "What do they do in that classroom?"

"Er…" Miranda hesitated. "That's…that's a closet, dear."

"Oh." Akko pursed her lips, then gasped again. "Ooh! What do they do in that classroom?"

"That's…a bathroom."

"Oh." Akko pursed her lips, then gasped again. "Ooh! What do they do in that classroom?"

Miranda sighed internally as she explained the concept of a stairwell to Kagari. This had been going on for five. Straight. Minutes. And Miranda hadn't been able to get a word in edgewise about anything related to Luna Nova's rich history. Just door after door of "that's a hallway", "that's a bathroom", and "that is a classroom but we just teach regular maths in there" followed by a far-too-lengthy-for-her-tastes explanation of why she had said "maths" instead of "math" and—oh for the love of…she's pointing again.

Just as Akko was about to ask about the 10th dormitory door she had seen on this trip, Miranda spotted her target…victim…student.

"Oh look, Akko," Miranda smiled as best she could, "it's miss O'Neill, let's go over there!"

To her credit, upon spotting the headmistress Amanda immediately realized that Holbrooke was trying to pawn off the responsibility of looking after Akko, and immediately tried to flee the scene. Unfortunately for her, Holbrooke was surprisingly fast for someone her age, managing to corner the girl just outside of her dorm.

"Miss O'Neill!" She sing-songed in a voice very much inappropriate for her. "What a lovely surprise!"

"Headmistress…" Amanda glowered.

"I was just showing our wonderful new guest around," Holbrooke continued unabated, "and I had an excellent idea!"

Amanda narrowed her eyes. This was less dramatic than it sounds when you consider the fact that the headmistress was half Amanda's height, but the emotion carried.

"What better way to introduce such a…promising young girl to our lovely school, than to have a student give the tour herself."

"I know what you're trying to do," Amanda said pre-emptively, "do not."

"Oh, I have absolutely no idea what you mean, dearie." Holbrooke chuckled.

The headmistress slid the smiling little girl into Amanda's arms the way one might slide a piece of meat on a plate to their younger sibling. The last slice of meat, the one that's rare on the inside and burnt on the outside and is mostly fat so it tastes like chewy sadness but your parents make you eat it anyway because "throwing it away would be wasteful". That piece of meat.

"Now Akko," Miranda cooed, "Amanda will show you around now."

"Really?!" Akko smiled a toothy smile.

"I really can't," Amanda said, "I have to—"

"Of course she will," Holbrooke said, "she'd love to help out."

Amanda narrowed her eyes.

"I will have revenge, you understand?" She said.

"Amanda is a great student," Holbrooke continued through the rantings of her student, "I'm sure she'll tell you everything you want to know about Luna Nova if you just ask her."

"I have it all planned." Amanda growled quietly. "It will be slow, painful, and involve a large number of radishes. I hope you're ready."

"And I'm sure she'll be happy to do it," Holbrooke interrupted, "considering she already seems to have gotten special permission to be in her dorm when she should be in class right now."

Amanda's glare shifted from "you're the worst" to "I will urinate on the tree you'll turn into".

"You blackmailing little…"

"Oh my, look at the time…" Holbrooke said as she glanced at an invisible clock and managed to somehow shuffle backwards through the hallway at a speed that would make Olympic athletes pant in exhaustion. "I have a meeting to attend, you two play nice, take care, bye now!"

And with that, she vanished around a corner.

"Fhoooo…"

Amanda exhaled audibly. It was a simple noise that conveyed a lot of information, such as "I know where you live" and "I wasn't kidding about the radishes" and "my roommate is well-versed in the subject of weaponizing root vegetables".

"Are you really going to show me around?" Akko asked cheerfully.

"Look," Amanda began, "the truth is—"

Amanda looked into her eyes, that was her big mistake. Those big, round, gleaming puppy-dog eyes set in a cute puffy face. Looking that cute ought to be a war crime…

Actually…

Now that she thought about it, why was Amanda upset? It's not that she hated kids or something. And she definitely didn't hate Akko…and she did basically just get explicit permission to skip class (even though she was totally going to do it anyway)…

"The truth is," Amanda said, "that I was about to go practice my flying."

Akko gasped sharply.

"You can fly?!"

"Of course I can fly," Amanda laughed haughtily, "I'm a witch."

"Ohmigosh, OHMIGOSH…!" Akko seemed to sparkle in awe.

"So…" Amanda smirked as she pretended to inspect her nails. "You wanna come with?"

"WHADDYATHINK OF THIS?!" Amanda shouted as she kickflipped her broom and landed in a handstand.

"WOAH!" Akko clapped rapidly. "THAT'S SO COOL! THAT'S SO COOL!"

"AND THEN LIIIIIKE THIS!"

Amanda pulled into a vertical climb before seemingly stalling out, at which point she yanked the top of her broom and spun it over her shoulders before throwing it downwards, landing on with the balls of her feet. Then, to complete the trick, she quickly bounced off the broom into a backflip, grabbing the broom with her hands as she fell and swinging underneath it, twisting her body as she came around the top again and landing back on the broom in a crouch.

"WOOO! SO COOL!" Akko cheered.

Amanda circled around and halted her broom in a hover just next to the girl.

"Wooow!" Akko clapped again. "That was so cool!"

"Hmph!" Amanda smirked. "I am the best flyer in the whole school, ya'know!"

"Woooaaah!" Akko's eyes sparkled. "You're like, as cool as Shiny Chariot!"

Amanda thought on this for a minute, reminding herself that this was Akko and that she meant it as a compliment.

"Hehe," Amanda chuckled, "I wouldn't say that…"

'I'd say I'm better.' She added mentally.

"You two seem to be having fun." A voice chirped from behind Akko.

Amanda grinned and waved at Jasminka and Constanze, who were approaching.

"Heyooo!" Amanda greeted. "Just showing Akko how great I am at flying!"

Amanda rubbed the little girl's head, much to her chagrin.

Constanze leveled a glare at their friend.

"Skipped class." Stanbot chirped.

"Hey now," Amanda smirked, "this time I got permission."

"Before or after you skipped?" Jasminka asked between bites of her chips.

Amanda rolled her eyes. Akko ventured up to the newcomer girls.

"Um…" She gave Jasminka a determined look. "Can you fly too?"

"Hmm…" Jasminka thought for a moment. "Not as well as Amanda, I suppose. She might be kinda annoying…"

"Hey!"

"…but she is one of the best flyers in the school." Jasminka thought for another moment. "Maybe even the best flyer in the school."

"Oh…" Akko hummed. "But…you can fly?"

"All witches can fly," Jasminka said, "I've only ever met…one…that couldn't, and…well…I won't bored you with the details, but she was determined to prove herself and eventually taught herself how."

"Oooh…" Akko sucked on one of her fingers. "Does that mean…does that mean I can fly too?"

Jasminka smiled warmly. Maternally. A soothing smile that made anyone feel comfortable.

"Akko," she said, "I know for absolute fact that you'll be flying at this very school some day."

Akko broke into a wide grin.

"Really?!"

"Really."

Akko turned to Constanze, who didn't move for a moment before giving a light thumbs-up.

"Yay!"

"Hey now," Amanda chimed in, "if you want to fly, how about I take you on a little aerial tour?"

Akko's eyes lit up, but Jasminka's face contorted into a small frown.

"Are you sure…?" Jasminka asked.

"Look," Amanda huffed, "the headmistress literally told me to show Akko around. I'm doing exactly what she told me to do, I'm just doing it my way."

Jasminka stared at her roommate and Amanda winced under her scrutiny. Jasminka was pretty open to Amanda's pranks and general nonsense, and she almost never made that face, but when she did…hoo boy…talk about a guilt trip.

"I-I'm not gonna, like, do loop-de-loops or anything…" Amanda flushed lightly in embarrassment. "I'm capable of flying carefully. I'm not an idiot."

She half-waited for Sucy or Hannah to appear and make a quip about doubting that.

"A-anyway," she said, "I'll keep it slow. You understand, right Akko? You gotta practice if you wanna fly like me!"

"Okay…" Akko seemed partially excited at the idea of flying and partially disappointed at the idea of not flying fast.

"Here," Amanda patted the handle of the broom in front of her, "sit right here and hold on tight."

Akko straddled the broom with much difficulty and a little help from Amanda. Jasminka still wore her frown, which irked Amanda.

"I promise," Amanda said, "I'll play it safe."

"If you say so…" Jasminka said, worriedly.

Amanda turned to Akko.

"Okay…" She said. "Ready, Akko?"

"Ready!" The girl gripped the broom.

"Now, the spell to make a broom fly is 'Tia Freyre', got it?"

"Teeah Faireh?"

"Tee-ah Fray-ay" Amanda sounded out.

"Tee-ah Fray-ay." Akko repeated.

"Very good." Amanda cooed.

Man, she was actually pretty good at this kid stuff. This oughta be a cinch!

"Tee-ah Fray-ay." Akko said again.

"Okay," Amanda said, "with me. One…two…three!"

Now, Amanda was not—contrary to what others say—dumb. And she did actually know how to slow down and fly safely every once in a while. She just, you know, usually chose not to. Because she was awesome. But with a child on the broom, Amanda decided to play it safe and had planned to just carefully lift off the ground. A few feet, maybe. A yard and a half at most.

That plan…shall we say…did not come to fruition.

"Tia FreeeeeYAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

The broom shot off vertically like a rocket, going from 0 to 60 almost instantaneously. Well, not really 60…Stanbot's built-in radar gun actually clocked in at around 73 MPH.

"Oh my." Jasminka said, watching things unfold from the ground.

Constanze snapped a photo with Stanbot.

On the broom, one occupant screamed herself hoarse, terrified at the sudden, seemingly-uncontrolled acceleration and the very real possibility of death.

Akko, on the other hand, giggled delightfully.

'Stop!' Amanda demanded of the broom, but the broom didn't listen.

'Please stop!' But still the broom didn't listen.

'STOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOP!' The broom was not in a listening mood.

"STOOOOOP!" Amanda shouted aloud this time, and the broom finally did yield, screeching to a halt far above the school grounds.

Amanda gripped the handle of the broom until her knuckles turned a pasty white. She may be good on a broom, but that was because she practiced all the time. She knew what she was doing and she knew how the broom would respond to stimuli. It's a completely different story when you're expecting the broom to slowly float up and instead find yourself suddenly aboard a space shot.

And wow were they high up. Amanda had been high up before, like when she helped launch the other girls towards the missile…but that was then and this is now and back then they didn't have a highly-excitable 6-year-old girl piggybacking on the broom.

"Wooooaaah…" Akko cooed as she looked out over the school grounds. "This is so cool!"

"C-cool…" Amanda squeaked. "Y-yeah…v-very…c-cool…"

Amanda shifted her grip nervously, worried that if she willed the broom down it might do a repeat performance of its little stunt towards the very hard ground this time.

"You get to see this all the time?" Akko asked, eyes darting from one ant-sized building to the next.

"I…" Amanda hesitated. "I…guess I…do…?"

"Wooow…witches really are the best!"

Amanda gulped nervously, staring down at her now-ant-sized friends.

"Y-yeah…"