Panting slightly, Deuce wiped his face with the back of his fist, glaring at the pair of delinquents.

The larger one was on the cafeteria floor, remnants of holographic water clinging around him like a mist. The redhead was still upright, but obviously shocked, with a pale white face. A few shimmering leaves still stuck in his hair and on his jacket.

The taller one with the bleached hair coughed, struggling upright with a groan. "N-Not bad for a first-year," he croaked, wobbling slightly.

The redhead shook his head rapidly, the leaves vanishing in small puffs of sparkles. "L-Look-- we'll let you off the hook this time, but only 'cause I wanna hurry up an' eat my pasta, okay?!" He shrieked, voice cracking slightly.

With that, the two turned tail and ran, stumbling out of the cafeteria door and down the hall.

"Heh! I KNEW they were all bark an' no bite!" Grim scoffed proudly, standing up on his hind legs and crossing his arms. "You better remember this!" He called after them.

With a heavy sigh, Kat put the tray down on a nearby table. "You didn't really do much," she told Grim flatly.

She felt like the novelty of magical fights should still be getting to her at this point. Somehow, though, it felt like she was already used to it... Or over it, more accurately.

"More importantly-- are you okay, Deuce?"

The boy shook his head, turning to face her and straightening his uniform. "I'm fine," he said, giving her a small, awkward smile. "How about you?"

"I'm okay," she replied, nodding. "Wish people would stop touching me like that, though..." She shook her head, plopping down on the bench and rubbing her face.

Ace wandered over with a groan, leaning on the table. "Ugh... Now that the fun's over, can we PLEASE get some fuckin' lunch already?" He demanded. "I missed breakfast, and I'm fuckin' starving over here..."

"Oh, look who finally decided to show up," Kat said flatly, giving him a disapproving look.

He scowled back at her, crossing his arms. "Oh, come on-- in case you've forgotten, I wouldn't have been able to help much, either! Besides, Loosey-Deucey took care of it just fine on his own, right?"

'Loosey-Deucey' gave him a sharp look, then shook his head, sighing. "Seriously though, I can't believe it... I mean, this is an academy that's famous for producing exceptional, influential mages, right? To think that there are such textbook bully types here, too..."

"Yeah-- talk about textbook," Kat agreed, snorting. "I mean-- god, I know this is real life, but haven't they ever read a book or watched a movie before?"

Deuce laughed, throwing his head back. "You're RIGHT!" He agreed, still laughing. "Wow-- hey, I never thought I'd be on the other side of that--"

"Huh?" Ace asked, giving him a weird look.

He coughed, looking awkward as he straightened his tie, tucking his pen back into his pocket. "N-Nothing... Hey, let's hurry and grab something before all the good stuff's gone, huh?"

With that, he hurried back to the buffet table.

She and Ace exchanged a look, then shrugged at each other. "I'll save a seat for you guys," she said, waving him away, and he grinned.

"You're the best, Pre-K!" He said, shooting her double finger guns and following Deuce towards the food.

She blinked, then rolled her eyes.

Pre-K... Prefect Kat. Very funny.

She felt Grim hopping up on the bench next to her. She slapped her hand down on his paw right when he started reaching towards one of her slices of quiche. "No," she said flatly. "Mine. Back off."

A few minutes later, after a quick drinks and silverware run, Ace and Deuce finally sat down.

Grim jumped up on the table eagerly. "Alright, alright-- no more distractions, it's CHOW TIME!" Tearing off a chunk of omelet, he shoved it into his mouth with his paws, chewing noisily.

"Mmm-- sh.. Sho GOOD!" He exclaimed, cheeks bulging like a chipmunk's.

Kat bopped him lightly on the head. "Chew with your mouth closed," she ordered. "And don't talk with your mouth full."

He grumbled, giving her a sideways glare, but swallowed the mouthful quickly and started talking again. "This omelet is super-duper fluffy-- an' practically bursting with CHEESE!" He exclaimed, a blissful look on his face.

He started eating again, shoveling it into his mouth in a way that was reminiscent of a Garfield cartoon.

"Hey, speakin' of," he said between mouthfuls, glancing at Ace and Deuce. "We saw your guys's dorm this morning, but--" A couple more mouthfuls. "-But what are the other ones like? D'ya know?"

"You've seen the statues of the Great Seven out on Main Street, right?" A familiar voice piped up from behind Kat. "Well, we've got seven dorms-- and each one is themed after a different member of the Seven."

"Huh?" Ace looked around, frowning. Then he jumped up from the table, looking shocked. "GEH! Y-You're that guy from this morning!"

Kat looked around. Sure enough, Cater Diamond was standing there, with another person in school uniform.

"Hi-hi!" Cater chirped, giving the table a two-fingered salute. "Guilty as charged!"

Grim growled, standing up from his plate with his paws on his hips. "What do YOU want, huh?!" He demanded. "What, was deceivin' all of us into painting your dumb roses for free not enough for ya?!"

Cater sighed dramatically, fiddling with a lock of his hair again. "Gri-chan, 'deceive' is such an ugly word," he said, shaking his head regretfully. "I mean-- c'mon! You think I wanted to spend my whole morning painting roses, either? But it's dorm policy-- you gotta do what you gotta do, ya know?"

He winked.

"But you looked like you were having the time of your life," Deuce muttered doubtfully.

Cater laughed, stepping forward. "Aw, there, there, Deucey-chan~"

He gave Deuce's hair a brotherly ruffle, grinning. "Don't worry about that! I only enforce those rules at the dorm. The rest of the time, Cay-kun's just a cool, easygoing senpai who's always kind to his cute little kouhais!"

Deuce blushed, jumping up and brushing Cater's hand away. "C-Cut it out, senpai!" He protested, smoothing down his hair. "And stop with all the -chans and the Deuceys and stuff, okay?! P-Please!"

The person next to Cater, watching all this with an amused expression on his face, burst out chuckling. Shaking his head, he looked at them with a rueful smile. "Don't worry-- that's just Cater's love language," he said. "You'll get used to it."

Ace looked over at him now, relaxing a little but still not sitting back down. "Hey, not to be rude or anything, but-- who even are you, anyway?"

The person laughed again. "Ah, right-- my bad. The name's Trey. Trey Clover."

He was about two inches taller than Cater, with short-cropped, slightly messy grass-green hair. He had a pleasant face, with a sort of square-jawed, comforting aura. Give him a couple decades and he'll probably make a pretty good DILF...

Like Kat, he wore glasses, but his were black hipster frames. He had the same red vest and armband as Ace, Deuce, and Cater. Like them, he also had a card symbol on his face-- a small black club, on his cheekbone under his right eye. He looked a little bulkier than anyone else she'd met so far-- not overly muscular, but probably a few steps up the scale from Deuce. He didn't seem overly athletic or anything, so he was probably just built like that...

"I'm a third-year in Heartslabyul, same as Cater." He nodded, then turned to Kat.

"Let me guess-- you must be Kat, right? The new prefect from that broken-down--" He caught himself, clearing his throat. "I mean, that rustic old dorm, right?"

He extended a hand.

Smiling, Kat got up. "That's me," she confirmed. "And you can just come out and say it, you know-- the place is a dumpster fire."

She shook Trey's hand firmly. "We've named it Ramshackle-- proper noun, capital R and everything. We had to call it something, and Ramshackle's a lot more fun to say than Trash Fire, right?"

Trey laughed again, giving her hand an emphatic shake, then letting go, crossing his arms. "I've already heard everything from Cater-- thanks for looking out for our boys yesterday," he said, nodding towards Ace and Deuce.

Kat nodded, smiling and sitting back down. "No problem," she said, putting an elbow on the table. "Well--" She paused for a second. "Okay, actually it WAS a problem, but you get what I mean."

Trey laughed harder, sitting down a friendly but respectful distance away from her.

Humming, Cater strolled around the table to where Ace was. He did the same with him-- but at a somewhat less respectful distance. "Come on, Ace-chan, Deuce-chan-- pop a squat! Don't feel put out on our account!" He patted the bench next to him, grinning.

"Tch-- I don't remember inviting you guys to sit with us in the first place," Ace muttered. But he sat down reluctantly, tugging his tray over and scootching away from Cater.

After a moment, Deuce sat back down too, looking at Kat, who caught his eye and shrugged.

Cater apparently didn't get the message... Or, more likely, completely disregarded it. "Aw, c'mon, c'mon, don't be like thaaat~!"

He scooted closer to Ace, phone suddenly back in his hand again. "Since we're from the same dorm, we should at least TRY to get along, right? Hey, I know-- let's all swap contact info!"

He looked over at Kat. "Well, Kitty-Kat? What're your digits?"

Kat blinked. "Uh... I- I don't have a phone," she said after a second.

Cater's eyes widened, and he actually recoiled in shock. "Wh-- you're KIDDING! Seriously?! You don't look like the technophobe type at all... Man, in this day and age meetin' someone like you is, like, SUPER rare!"

"No- it's-- not that I don't HAVE one," she interrupted. "Well-- okay, at the end of the day it's the same, but I DO have a phone... Or I HAD one. It just... Didn't come with me."

"Wha--?!"

Cater drew back even further, jaws dropping open. "N-No way-- that's even WORSE! Oh, you poor thing.. That's, like, a TRILLION times more tragic than just not having one in the first place!"

"...Thank you?" She ventured. "I mean, I think being yoinked from my family and not being able to tell them I'm okay or what happened to me is worse..."

Cater continued, like she hadn't even said anything. "I know a place nearby that actually sells all the latest models for super cheap... How about you and I go on a phone-shopping date sometime?"

She blinked again. "Uhh..."

"Cater," Trey scolded gently. "You're freaking out the first-years... Maybe dial it back a little, huh?"

Cater laughed, putting a hand on the back of his neck and leaning back. "Sorry, sorry! I can be a little extra sometimes... So, anyway-- we were talking about the dorms, right?"

Humming, he put his elbows on the table, propping his chin in his hands. "Hmm.. Yeah, playing the big-brother type is kinda exciting! Well? Go ahead-- us two cool, stylish nii-sans are here to answer any questions that pop into your fresh little heads!"

Kat blinked again, sharing a glance with Trey. He just shook his head, smiling.

Ace swallowed a mouthful of his lunch, wiping his mouth on his hand. "Mmm-- okay, so... Actually, before we get to the others, can you tell me a little more about OURS? Like, I mean-- what's the deal with all these weird..." He waved his hands, frowning. " 'Queen of Hearts Rule number'... Whatevers, right?"

Trey chuckled, leaning forward with his arms on the table. "You guys already know about the legendary Queen of Hearts, right?" He asked. "Basically-- she had to rule over a mysterious country, packed full of all kinds of weirdos. A real madhouse. And she did this by emphasizing order above all else, and creating and enforcing strict rules."

Cater nodded, grinning. "Yup! And our dorm, Heartslabyul House, tries to uphold her spirit. See?" He pointed at his armband. "Our armbands are the same red and black as the Queen's dress."

Ace and Deuce looked down at their own armbands, blinking in surprise.

"But that's not all!" Cater continued, holding up an index finger. "We also live our lives in accordance to those very same rules she created!"

Kat suddenly felt like she should be writing this down. Digging one of the notebooks out of the schoolbag, she found a pencil and started scribbling.

Heartslabyul= Queen of Hearts; colors redblack; live by Queen's rules?

"Tch..." Grim, already halfway into his plate of grilled chicken, scoffed. "This dorm kinda sounds like a pain to live in..."

"Now, how hard we stick to the rules depends on the Housewarden," Cater continued. "Most of the past dorm heads have been a lot more lax about 'em, though."

Trey shrugged. "Housewarden Riddle, though? Well, he's just about as serious about 'em as they come. Basically, you could say we're upholding the Queen's spirit of strictness to the highest extent possible."

"Blegh..." Ace gagged theatrically, head drooping. "Just my luck... I get put in the dorm that's the biggest pain in the ass, huh?"

Grim looked up again. "Hey, hey-- so how 'bout the other dorms? What're they like?"

Cater and Trey looked at each other from across the table, then grinned.

"Well..."

Author's Notes:

My brother is also being a proofreader/reviewer (and by that I mean i walk into his room and force him at gunpoint to read) and he asked me 'why did this chapter end like they just tripped the flag for a musical number' and he's R I G H T

TWST musical when, Disney. We know you can do it.