III. History Lesson
Amanda finished slicking back her hair and stood proudly in front of the mirror in their dorm room. She was wearing her disguise that she had used to sneak into Appleton Academy with Akko. Good times, Amanda thought, reflecting on that memory. She could have chosen to wear something else but this suited her for today. There was something wonderfully ironic about wearing another school's uniform in rebellion against her red haired witch practically skated out of her room to join her teammates. Jaminka wore her low cut cookie shirt with jeans and Constanze wore a light teal romper.
Yeah, Amanda thought, today was going to be the best friday ever. Even though they all had tests today, Amanda knew she was going to crush it. The green team walked down the hallway and saw all something rarely seen at their school. Instead of a mass of white and purple uniforms all scurrying to class, there was a wide variety of color and styles of clothing. There were even some students dressed in business casual with bow ties and slicked back hair like Amanda's.
Amanda waved at them and found herself grinning from ear to ear. This was awesome! Why hadn't they made this happen sooner? Everyone looked so happy and free. This was the school Amanda wanted to be a part of and to think, Diana and her team wanted to keep them looking like sheep.
"This is freakin' awesome! Screw those stuffy uniforms!" Amanda yelled, as she walked to class.
Everyone else who heard her raised a cheer. Amanda felt encouraged by the response and was about to say something else more obscene about her school when she felt a wave of nervous quiet rush over her. The green team stopped outside the door to Professor Croix's classroom only to see Diana and her followers. Hannah and Barbara and a handful of other students stood outside in the hallway stubbornly wearing their school uniforms, all glared at Amanda. Amanda scoffed at them and headed inside the room. Jasminka followed, leaning forward as she passed the group to show off her cleavage, tauntingly. Constanze walked past them holding a sign that said "Deal with it.".
Amanda threw herself down in her seat and, like any gay would, refused to sit properly in her chair. Diana and her followers made a big show of walking into the classroom with their noses turned up at everyone else. Diana sat in the row in front of Amanda as Hannah and Barbara turned around to start some shit with Amanda.
"God! You just want all kinds of attention don't you!" Hannah spat at Amanda who smirked. Hannah just couldn't not talk to her.
"Well, if it's from cute girls especially redheads, then yeah." Amanda said, cooly kicking her feet up on her desk. Barbara huffed at her.
"Geez, what are you even trying to look like? One of those Appleton guys?" Barbara said, crossing her arms. Amanda ran her hand through her slicked back hair.
"Sure, but you gotta admit, I do it better. Isn't that right, Hannah?" Amanda smirked. Hannah turned bright red.
"Look I hit on you that ONE TIME because I thought you were Andrew's second cousin twice removed, but you need to let that go!" Hannah said. The door to the classroom closed loudly and Hannah and Barbara sat down in their seats sulking. Professor Croix stood at the front of the class wearing a rainbow cape with her usual attire.
"Alright class, HAPPY FRIDAY! For all of you it's the first free dress Friday of the year, but do you know what else today is?" Croix posed looking around the room. One student raised their hand.
"Is it the day we take our 2nd test?" Professor Croix was about to respond and paused mid sentence. After shuffling some papers around on her podium she responded.
"Yeah… about that. Since everyone's been working so hard, how about we have the test on Tuesday? Since I kinda sort of forgot to print out the tests and plan Tuesday's lesson." Croix said sheepishly. Everyone whooped and cheered. Diana crossed her arms in a huff.
"Instead, since today is Witches History Day, we're going to learn about famous witches throughout history! Trust me, it's going to be fun!" Croix said with vigor in her voice. As Professor Croix set up her powerpoint, Amanda high fived her teammates and looked at Diana. The green haired witch was sitting there with a neutral expression on her face but Amanda still wondered, what was her deal?
Seriously, yesterday Diana had yelled more than Amanda ever thought she could. Was she that afraid that people would think she was gay? The more Amanda pondered this the more she was torn. On one hand, she wanted to feel sorry for Diana, Amanda was 99.9% certainly Diana was gay. Amanda thought back to all the times that she had caught Diana looking at girls a little too long or blushing deeply whenever any girl complimented her and even when Akko hugged her a too tightly. It made Amanda laugh silently to herself thinking about when Akko messed up a spell causing her uniform to disappear and how Diana had been a blushing, bumbling mess fixing the spell. It must suck to be fighting yourself every single day.
Yet, on the other hand Diana was actively trying to suppress other people from expressing themselves. She remembered when a group of students had tried to wear pants that matched with their school uniform to class and had been forced to change. Diana had bashed them harshly saying that they were tarnishing Luna Nova's reputation by altering their dress. Amanda remembered rolling her eyes when Diana went on an impassioned rant in front of her followers at dinner. About how people outside of Luna Nova thought since the school was all-girls that it must be full of lesbians and that it was the students job to prove them wrong by being respectable ladies.
Amanda shook the memory from her mind, it was just making her angry and turned her attention to the powerpoint.
"Alright, First up Wilma the Wise! She founded the first international coven of witches. The best part is that she defeated the twelve werewolves at once by using illusions to trick them into fighting each other." Croix explained flipping through slides. As the lesson progressed, Amanda found herself enjoying Professor Croix's retellings of history. It was better than their actual history class. The rest of the students laughed along with the professor's explanations of the slides.
After Croix's retelling of Greda the Great, the next slide showed Breatrix Cavendish. The room grew quiet with everyone rolling their eyes, EVERYONE had heard about Breatrix from Diana's proud, long winded recountings of her ancestor's history. She never hesitated to start going on and on about her.
"Ah, yes. Beatrix Cavendish, or Beatrix the Affectionate. One of the nine old witches and founder of Luna Nova." Croix said. Diana straightened up proudly in her seat.
"But, did you know that even though Beatrix had been betrothed to marry the wizard, Beowulf of the Bellows, she ran away? In fact, she had a long standing relationship with Iris the Conjurer. They saved each other's lives numerous times. It's widely believed that based on their countless letters and years they lived together that they were romantically involved." Croix explained showing historical paintings and letters on her slides. Everyone in the room looked over at Diana who was fuming. Amanda tried to hold back her laughter even doubling over in her seat, clenching her stomach.
Diana roughly rose from her seat.
"NONE OF THIS IS TRUE. I should know, those supposed letters speak of only platonic affection and friendship between women. Beatrix and Iris were nothing more than close friends." Diana glared at Croix who looked dumbfounded at Diana.
"Well, Diana. I hate to break it to you, but some of those letters are a little -" Croix started, pulling at her collar.
"W-women expressed affection differently to each other back then. It was normal for women to be more... p-physically affectionate with each other than our time." Diana stated.
Amanda couldn't contain herself. She burst out laughing loudly. It was hysterical, Diana always held up Beatrix as an example of a witch that others should strive to be while loudly declaring that queer witches hurt the repetutation of witches as a whole.
"BWAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Yeah, yeah because, hahaha, kissing the homies ain't gay. Neither is not dating anybody else and living in the same house together for years and sleeping in the same bed every night. No homo. Ahahaha." Amanda said, making some other start laughing.
The next thing she knew, Diana grabbed her by the collar and yanked her out of her set and over the desks between them. Amanda struggled to free herself from Diana's grip but instead, Diana slammed Amanda's face into her desk. A burst of pain shot through Amanda's face and red splatter flew into the papers and school supplies of the desks.
There was confusion and yelling as Professor Croix threw up a magic barrier between them and rushed over there. Diana was struggling to free herself from Hannah and Barbara who were trying to pull her away. Amanda slumped over onto the floor and felt the dull intense pain radiate from her nose as she closed her eyes.