To the Unplanner: I totally forgot about field days! But is it enough for a (metaphorical) bloodbath though? Hmm... I'll think about it. We have a lot to go through before that though- I want it to be one of the penultimate chapters (if we ever get that far).
Fun fact: According to the official light novel covering the events of chi, Back Cover, and parts of Union X (Your Keyblade, Your Story), the player is canonically in Anguis. If I had known that before writing this, I would have had Anora and Strelitzia in Anguis with Ephemer and Skuld in Uniconis. But, for now, it makes the most sense for Anora and Ephemer to be in Vulpes and Leopardus, respectively, because of events I want to happen later. (Hint: it's 95% because of Ava and Gula.)
Thank you for reading!
"Are we really doing the bags a whole week early this year?" Nin impatiently asked Pyra as the three of them looked at the school store's seasonal things. Anora felt awkward just standing there as the other girls looked over the shelves.
"Do you want a repeat of last year?" Pyra questioned, picking up a small stuff bear from the shelf. She looked it over a bit before putting it back again. "We were so caught up in trying to figure out what the boys wanted, that we almost forgot to made the goodie bags at all."
Nin gave a small grunt of disagreement. "I thought that's why we weren't going to do them. It's not like the boys never give back on White Day, so why bother?"
"It's the gesture that counts, Nin." Pyra argued. "Besides, I meant to gift Mog a new pair of socks last Christmas but forgot. And since Valentines is closer than Easter..."
Nin and Anora looked at each other.
"Socks?" Nin repeated with a neat raise of her eyebrow.
"Have you ever noticed that Mog always wears the same pair of socks?"
"Why would I?"
"Well, he does, and it makes me feel bad for him. So I decided to gift him a new pair of socks- at least it would give him some variety."
"Have you ever stopped to consider that Mog doesn't want to wear any other socks?"
"Who would only want to wear one pair of socks?"
"I can think of a few people..."
Pyra gave Nin a confused side glance before quickly shaking her head. "We're getting off track." she told them. "I think we have everything to make the bags now. We should meet back up on Friday. How does after the school day look for you two?"
"I'm fine with that." Nin agreed with a shrug.
Anora gave a firm nod to show that she was available as well.
"Great!" Pyra smiled at them. "Now, would you ladies like to get some ice cream? All this buying for the guys is making me feel left out."
Nin and Anora gave each other the same look before turning back to Pyra with a grin. Nin spoke for the both of them as she said, "Of course we would!"
Pyra's smile grew wider. "Then let's go!" she declared. Without being told twice, the three of them started to head out the door.
As the three of them left the school store, a sudden clatter caused Anora to jump. She quickly looked in the direction the noise came from to try to figure out what happened. Imagine her surprise when she saw Ephemer, profusely apologizing to a girl with carrot-red hair, as he tried to pick up whatever the girl had dropped.
Her first instinct was to go and help, but she was stopped just as quickly by Pyra calling for her. Anora still hesitated for a moment. Knowing she was going to regret it later, Anora went to catch up with her girl friends, telling herself that Ephemer didn't need help on whatever he was doing. But it was rather weird when she thought about it. What was he doing in the school store?
. . .
Anora did not think that she had her friends had purchased that much stuff for the goodie bags. But now that everything was spread out on the cafeteria table, she was starting to have doubts. At least three bags of candy had been piled into on corner, another pile had an assortment of little toys, then another spot where the tissue paper had been ungracefully taken out of its package and waiting to be used as filler.
"Where did I put Affie's hair gel?"
"It's over here. Can you pass me some more candy? Mog's sweet tooth is worse than a child's."
"That's because he still is."
The two girls went into a small giggle as Anora only offered a light smile. She wasn't going to admit that she was jealous that Pyra and Nin knew the boys so well, but there was a small sting in her chest regardless. She didn't even know why she could have been surprised by this- their group had been together for four years, at the least, considering Mog was in the fourth year classes. In the deepest part of her heart, Anora knew that in time she would know everyone that well.
It was still a reminder that she was different than them.
They had probably all enrolled when they had the chance, she just showed up. No one signed her up, no one asked for her permission to be signed up. One of them must have been part of some legacy family that allowed them to get in. What did Anora do to get in? She didn't even know this school existed a month ago, and yet, here she was.
"You want the extra stuff, Anora?" Pyra asked, snapping the girl out of her thoughts. "Not sure how big you are on sweets, but the boys definitely don't deserve all of it."
Anora looked up at her friends and gave them a rather bewildered look.
"Don't worry," Nin smiled. "We'll take what we want before you haul off with most of it. We each chipped in to buy the stuff, so we're all going to chip in to get rid of it."
Again, Anora looked at them as if they had gained a second head. Eventually she started to nod her head in agreement.
"Great!" Pyra smiled. "Well put everything in a separate bag for you- I should not have gotten that 10 pack of gift bags..."
"Told you." Nin replied with a smirk. "But you insisted that we'd need them for storage or something."
"Well, we kinda are." came the gentle laugh. "Besides, this way, we also have a bag of stuff that we want."
"True" Nin easily agreed before the girls decided to divide the goodies up.
In all said and done, there was still a lot of leftovers to chose from. Anora had ended up with four bags (two of which contained only candy) that she could only set on her desk. She sat down on her bed and tilted her head at the bags. She could easily go through half a bag on her own, and some she could try to give to that mysterious person that knew about her secret place. But what would she do with the rest?
'I should make a bag for Ephemer.'
Anora blinked. Where did that come from? She could list the times she and Ephemer were ever in the same room on one hand; and that included the one incident from last week. And yet… it wasn't a bad idea either…
Making a decision, Anora pulled out one of the spare bags, one of the pens sticking out of her backpack, and started to doodle. It was the same shapes she had drawn before on the concrete slab- this time she made sure to put a bit more effort into the drawings. Never before did she think that the stupid looking hearts, stars, and king's crown she doodled could look pretty decent if she put the effort into it.
Giving some time for the pen ink to dry, Anora sifted through the leftover tissue paper. She chose a purple and blue tissue paper to cover the bottom of the bag, then filled a good portion with candy. Anora looked in the bag with the leftover toys and carefully picked out the least embarrassing looking toys in the bunch. She finished off the goodie bag with a mixture of white, blue, and purple tissue paper to hide the contents proper.
Looking at the newly filled goodie bag, Anora felt a sense of pride in accomplishment. She then reached for a label to write his name. But she froze. When the she and the others did the tags for Affie and Mog, they only written their names down. For some reason, Anora wanted to write a message as well- the only problem was that she didn't know what to say. What could she say to someone she barely knows? Anora bit her lip as she haphazardly looked around her room for some sort of inspiration.
Her eyes eventually fell to a binder Ava had given her during orientation. On it was the school's logo, and under the logo was the school's motto. She blinked at the words for a moment before reaching for her pen. What the words meant in the grand scheme of things was unknown to her, but they seemed just as fitting as any other random phrase.
'May your heart be your guiding key.'