The Rite of Spring
Chapter 7
Odette found Ace on her doorstep.
"Ace? What's up?" Odette asked as she made her way up to the porch.
Ace stood there in his school uniform but now he had a hear shaped black and red collar on his neck. "I'm joining your dorm now." He said motioning towards the gym bag he was carrying.
"What happened?" She asked as she opened the door and let him in.
"Well after class I decided to go to the library but I was falling asleep so I decided to go to the gym to wake myself up. Well when I got back to the dorm I was hungry and went into our kitchen and found three tarts so I decided to eat one. Well it turns out they were for something and my dorm head warden, Riddle found him and used his signature move, OFF WITH YOUR HEART. It's sealed my powers. Riddle says it's rule 89 you never eat a tart without permission." Ace explained.
"Rule 89? How many rules do you guys have?" Grim asked as he came out from the lounge.
"Our dorm is based on the Queen of Hearts who had a lot of rules." Ace explained with a shrug.
"Well maybe if you apologize he'll remove it." Odette suggested with a yawn. "Tomorrow morning of course, let him cool off for the night."
"That's collar no fun is it." Grim teased.
"It's the worse." Ace whined.
"We haven't had time to clean up any of the other rooms so you might have to dust off the bed first." Odette informed him motioning him to follow her upstairs.
"Seriously?!" Ace exclaimed
"Well we had to spend last night going to a mine." Grim pointed out.
"Oh right." Ace groaned following them up the stairs.
The next morning as they were getting ready there was another knock on the front door. "I got it!" Odette called out as she came down the stairs. She opened the door to see Deuce in the normal school uniform. "Oh good morning Deuce."
The rest come down the stairs as she let him in. "I figured I would find you here." Deuce smirked as he crossed his arms over his chest.
"It was the only place I could think of. I was hoping that apologizing would make him reverse this." Ace sighed pointing to the collar.
"Maybe but three freshman overslept this morning and Riddle collared them too." Deuce explained.
"Jeez he's no a rampage." Grim exclaimed.
"Well it's worth a shot. Come on let's go." Odette said as she put on her shoes.
"She has a point. You're gonna have a hard time in class without your magic." Deuce pointed out as they left the dorm.
"Ugh you're right." Ace groaned.
They arrived at the Heartslabyul dorm and Grim's jaw hit the ground. "Oh my god! Look at this place! It's so pretty!" Grim exclaimed.
"Well it hasn't been abandoned for god knows how long." Odette remarked. "So where do you think this House Warden is?"
"Well let's go see if someone knows." Odette said as they entered the rose maze. They soon came upon a ginger haired guy up on a ladder messing with a tree.
"Is this him?" Odette asked.
"No this is um." Deuce began.
"I'm Carter Diamond. How do you not know who I am? I'm Magicgam famous but I guess it's not the same as you guys. The whole school knows who you are." Carter chuckled. "I need to get a picture with you guys." He said getting off the ladder and snapping a photo real quick. "What's your user name so I can tag you." He asked as he typed away.
"We don't have one. My phone is broken." Odette grumbled crossing her arms over her chest. Carter was already annoying her.
"Oh that's too bad." Carter replied with a shrug.
"We're looking for the House Warden. Have you seen him?" Odette asked trying to move her group along and away from this jerk.
"I've seen him but I couldn't tell you where he is since he keeps moving around to check all the preparations for the unbirthday." Carter explained. "If you help me out real quick he might come by." Carter said as he got back up on the ladder and handed everyone a bucket of red paint.
"Why are we painting the white roses red?" Grim grumbled as he did his first rose.
"Because that's what our dorm's leader the Queen of Hearts did." Carter explained. "What were collared for anyways?"
"For eating a tart." Ace groaned.
"And you didn't bring a replacement tart?" Carter asked.
"No." Ace answered.
"Dude, that's rule 53. If you eat someone's tart you need to replace it with another tart." Carter explained as he got off the ladder again. "Thanks for your help." He then left.
"Something tells me he knew the whole time." Deuce said as he placed his bucket down.
"He tricked us!" Ace fumed.
"Come on we should get going before we're late for class." Odette grumbled and stormed off.
They made it just in time for the first class. The rest of the day went as normal as it could. Ace, Deuce and Odette were starving by the time lunch come around, having missed breakfast.
As they sat and ate they were joined by Carter and the green haired guy from music class.
"You're not still sore about this morning are you? I really did need the help." Carter said as the group glared at him.
"Please forgive him. I'm Trey by the way. This is Riddle's first year as House Warden so he is going a little overboard." Trey explained.
"I guess we can forgive you this one time just don't do it again." Odette grumbled.
"Honestly, I can see why you weren't sorted into a house you really don't fit into any house." Carter said as he bit into his pear.
"What does that mean?" Odette asked raising an eyebrow.
"Let's just say each house has it's own 'flavor' for lack of a better word." Trey said. He began to explain how each house until Lilia appeared behind him.
"Are they being nice to you?" Lilia asked freaking out Trey and Carter.
"Yes, they are but thank you Lilia for checking." Odette said giving him a smile.
"See ya later." Lilia smiled back then floated back to his table.
"Later?" Deuce asked glancing back over to the Diasomnia table.
"I have animal linguistics with him." Odette explained. "I don't understand what the big deal about their
dorm is. They've been the nicest to me so far. You guys shouldn't judge a book by it's cover."
"I should say so. I never thought sweet looking Riddle would be such a bully." Ace sighed.
"A bully? Am I?" Riddle asked as he appeared behind Ace.
Ace jumped and whirled around. "Riddle?!" He exclaimed.
'Oh no, this isn't good.' Odette thought as her smile faded from her face.
"Well, I would say a bully is better than a rule breaker. Head Master Crowley is a fool for letting you lot stay in." Riddle grumbled crossing his arms over his chest.
"Please House Warden Riddle can you please remove this collar? I would like to have my magic back for class." Ace asked in the nicest tone he could muster.
"I will remove it when you think of what you have done. Freshman classes this early into the year are all just theory so you shouldn't need it, speaking of which I suggest you start getting ready for your next class." Riddle dismissed then left.
"He won't give an inch." Odette sighed as she finished her iced tea.
"Riddle is taking the course he thinks is best for the house." Trey explained.
"So the tart rule is real? I have to get a replacement?" Ace asked.
"Sure is." Carter said getting up from the table.
"I can't afford to buy a whole tart." Ace whined placing his forehead on the table.
"What about making one?" Odette asked."That should be way cheaper."
"But I don't know how to." He continued to whine
"I know how to make a tart, chestnut tarts are easy, I can show you how and it's one of Riddle's favorites." Trey confessed to them.
"That's great! Thank you so much!" Ace cheered as he popped up from his seat.
"You just need to go out to the forest behind the school and go pick some chestnuts." Trey pointed out as he gathered up his stuff.
"Pick them? That'll take me forever. Odette? Grim? Deuce?" Ace asked turning to each of them with big puppy eyes.
"I guess we could help." Odette sighed.
"I've got to see this." Deuce chuckled.
After classes let out they all went out to the edge of the forest.
"So who wants to climb up the tree?" Grim?" Odette asked as she looked up into the treetops.
"Sure." Grim grumbled floating up and began picking.
"Ace? You're the reason we're out here." Deuce pointed out.
Ace just sucked his teeth and huffed but climbed up the tree.
They began to throw down nuts for Deuce and Odette to gather.
Grim and Ace made quick work of picking and soon they had more chestnuts then they could carry.
"Let's head back to the house so I can get this collar off." Ace exclaimed leading the way back.
They found Trey down in the basement kitchen.
"Ah, there you are. You have so many chestnuts more than enough for one tart. I think I can get at least two out of this many but I only have enough ingredients for one tart. I'm gonna need a few more thing to more the extras. Deuce, Odette would you mind going to the store to pick up the extras for me." Trey asked as he made up a list for them.
"Leave it to us." Odette said taking the list from Trey.
They went to the store and got what they need but the trip back wasn't so smooth.
"Well if it isn't one of the magic-less trouble making brats What trouble are you getting into now?" A random Savanaclaw student asked blocking their path.
"Say one more word to her and I'll make you see stars!" Deuce threatened shaking his fist them.
"Oh, I didn't see you there. We didn't mean anything." The second student said back pedaling.
"Yeah sure but you better leave her and Grim alone." Deuce growled glaring at them.
"Yeah of course." They replied and ran off.
"Have you two been having trouble when we're not around?" Deuce asked turning towards her with a concerned look on his face.
"No, nothing like that." Odette said with a shrug.
"But not nothing?" Deuce asked as they continued on.
"Nothing I've really paid attention to honestly but thank you for sticking up for me that was very sweet of you." Odette said with a shrug then smile up at him.
Deuce blushed and looked away with a shrug. "It's no problem."
"Not that it's any of my business but those words seem to come naturally to you." Odette said.
"I use to be a punk but my grandma said she was worried about me and the path I was on so in middle school I decided to change my ways." Deuce explained.
"Oh," was all Odette could manage in response. "I'm glad you did. I'm glad you're here." She said after a few minutes.
They returned and everyone started on the second tart. "Now I think we should give it a taste test." Trey said slicing up the second tart. He served everyone a slice and everyone loved it.
"It is so good. Thank you so much Trey!" Ace exclaimed in between pies.
"No problem." Trey said. "I think it's best we give this to Riddle tomorrow during the unbirthday. So why don't you head back to the Ramshackle dorm tonight."
"If you think that's what's best." Ace said.
"Are you okay with that?" Trey asked turning towards Odette and Grim.
"Fine by us." Grim said with a shrug.
"Deuce you might want to go with him and keep him out of trouble." Trey turning towards him.
"Yeah." Deuce said with a nod.
Once the group had left Carter came down to find Trey. "I need your help up here. Riddle has collared ten more students." Carter informed him.
"Oh goodness." Trey muttered and went upstairs.
Hello, thanks for sticking around. I hope you enjoyed part one of the Heartslabyul Arc. I'll be upfront there probably won't a different POV until after this arc. If you that's the part you like best I promise it's worth the wait. I hope you stick around to see how Odette and Grim handle the Red Rose Tyrant.
Sorry if I confused anyone with this chapters previous version. It had some typos that I didn't catch. So I took it down to fix it and put it back up. Sorry again if this confused anyone. I guess I shouldn't be writing in the middle of the night. Lol. I'll try better to proof read before I post.