Esper was relaxing on the couch with King napping on her stomach, dreaming about cupcakes. Luz was practicing more of her light glyphs while Eda was making sure they were prepared. Eda looked down at her satchel full of human objects, "Alright, this should be enough to last us the whole day at the market. Come on, everyone, chop chop! Gotta get the good stall area before people take em all!"
Esper stretched as she got off the couch, "Okay, let's get going then-"
Eda stuck a hand in front of Esper, "Nuh-uh nope, it is your turn to watch Hooty. Luz did it last time, so now you get to be the one in charge this time!"
The young witch groned, "Aw WHAT! I'm on babysitting duty? I thought Hooty was a big boy house!" Eda glared at her and Esper continued, "...Okay finnnne. I'll watch him."
Luz ran up from behind her and ruffled her hair, "Awww, thanks Esper-y!"
Esper laughed and then pushed her away, "Yeah yeah! Just go sell things, you goobs!"
As the group walks out of the door, Eda gave her some last words, "And remember, Esper, you are the responsible one here. I don't want any messes, no destroyed house, no nothing. Understand?" The younger witch nodded eagerly and the older witch left with the group. Hooty excitedly sticks his head inside through the window, putting himself near Esper's face, "Oh boy Esper! What do you want to do first?"
Esper pushed him, "Well, I want to practice my spells. I want to get my aim just right for any situation, be a great witch, you know. Why don't you find something to do, Hooty?" Hooty groaned, "Aw but you ALWAYS practice! Is there anything I can do to help, hoot hoot?"
The witch sighed heavily, "Well... I guess you can help set up some targets. But don't try and get in the way okay, I don't want to hurt you."
Hooty nodded as he then went underground, grabbing a few rocks in his mouth. He slithered upwards and swallowed a few bottles until he spat them out, lining them in front of Esper.
The witchling formed a circle with her finger, causing a ball of a fire to shoot out at the rock. Esper continued this motion, going fast and even using both hands at one point. She tried to mimic the way Eda moved during her fight against her sister a week ago.
Upong hitting the final bottle, the girl raised her arms in victory, "Alright! I'm really getting the hang of this! Come on Hooty, let's get more targets."
The owl tube pouted, "Mmmm... Don't wanna. Hoot hoot. I'm bored."
The witchling then flung her arms downwards, "Aw what! But Hooty, I need to practice!"
The giant owl pouted, turning his head away from Esper, as he was bored. He wasn't having any fun with this activity. Hooty then had an idea and then snatched her bow from her head. The black bow became undone, as did her hair. Her red hair flowed around her head as she felt the top of her head. Hooty sped off as Esper glared at him, "Hey! You did not just take out my bow like that! Get back here!"
The witchling chased down the owl tube inside the house, "Hooty! Get back here with that!" He teasingly waved the bow above her and she jumped up at him, knocking them both into a shelf. As the shelf moved, a bag on top of it fell down to the floor. It spilled the contents onto the floor, it was filled with spheres that were made out of a chalk-like texture. Esper quickly grabbed her bow from the owl's mouth as he looks at the mess they made.
Hooty looked down at the objects, "OOOOO! These are bath bombs, hoot hoot! They look so beautiful when they're put in water! We should use some! I'm sure Eda won't mind! Hoot!" The witchling fixed her hair back into it's ponytail as he spoke.
Esper pondered for a moment, gesturing with her hands, "Well on one hand, she did store them up on a shelf none of us could reach. But on the other hand, she didn't take them to the market to sell them so... Yeah! Let's do it!" She scooped up the bath bombs as Hooty danced with glee.
He was distracted as Esper walked up the stairs to the bathroom. She turned the water on in the bathtub and waited for it to fill up completely. Once it filled up fully, she threw the bath bombs into the water. She dusted her hands off with a smug look on her face, "Phew, okay, that should distract Hooty long enough to let me practice."
Hooty panics at the bathtub, "WAIT, you didn't put the bath bombs in the bath, did you?"
Esper raises an eyebrow at him, not noticing the multi colored bubbles forming behind her, "Duh, of course I did. They're called 'bath bombs', dude. Where else would they go?"
The owl tube retracts his form, "Uh... Well you don't use them inside because uh... You know... Because of that." He moved his head to gesture to the bubbles building up behind her.
The young witchling looked behind her, the bubbles now about to burst, "Oh sho-"
Before she could finish her sentence, the bubbles exploded in front of her. Sending a wave of water rushing towards her and flooding the whole house. Hooty attempted to wrap around her but missed as she was dragged under the water. The witch swam under the water, grabbing multiple objects as they started to flow with the water away from their original places. She started to struggle for air until Hooty dived his head downwards into the water, picking up Esper in his beak. She gasped for air, continuing to grab the scattered objects floating above the water. Hooty struggled to hold onto the hood of her jacket as the water continued to flow. Eventually the water got calmer and remained still, so Esper looked around, spotting a window. Forming a circle with her finger, she shot a fireball at the window. Which opened the window and the water suddenly flowed out of the house. Hooty then let Esperanza go, letting her float into the water.
Esper laid flat on her back, drenched from the water, "Ugh..." Hooty's head got up, shaking free of the water, "Esper! Are you alright? Hoot hoot."
The young witch sighs, "Yeah, I'm fine. But Eda is so going to kill me for this mess! I gotta clean this up! Uh, uh, come on. Let's get you dry-" Esper reached for a nearby, displaced towel when they heard the door open.
The group gasped at the mess in front of them. Eda looked at the young witchling, "Esper! What happened to my house!"
Hooty slithered in front of Esper, "Oh no, Eda, it was meeeeeee."
Eda raised an eyebrow at the owl, "Really Hooty? What did you do this time?"
With his shrill voice, Hooty begins to make stuff up, "Hoot hoot! Oh well you know, I was snooping around the shelves while Esper wasn't looking. Then I took the bath bombs from the bag and I threw it in the bath tub to see what would happen. Blah blah blah. You know, blah."
Hooty's voice continued to ring in the air as Esper played with her fingers. Both index fingers poking the other as she felt more and more guilty. Soon, the shrill voice was interrupted.
The young witchling spoke up, "No! I... Eda, it was me."
Eda scratched her head, "Uh, who the what now?"
Esper stepped in between the older witch and the owl tube, "I said it was me. I was the one who wanted to use the bath bombs. I wanted to keep practicing my magic but Hooty was getting bored and then we found the bath bombs-"
Eda waved her hand in front of her in an attempt to calm the younger witch down, "Woah woah, kid, slow down."
Esper started looking at the ground, tearing up, "And I didn't know the bath bombs would be actual bombs and I accidentally flooded the house. Please don't punish Hooty, he didn't actually do anything wrong, it was me." Her voice started to crack towards the end. Luz was about to walk forward to comfort her friend, she has never seen Esper like this. But she was stopped by Eda's hand stuck in front of her.
Eda smiled at the young girl sitting on the ground, "Alright, shoosh, shoosh." The old witch raised her hand, telling King and Luz to go to a different room. She knelt down, putting a hand on Esper's shoulder to get the younger girl to look at her.
"Hey kid, listen... I get it. It was a misunderstanding and it caused an accident you couldn't stop. Sure, you almost destroyed the house but hey, so did Luz. At the very least, you did what I asked and you kept the damage to inside the house. Hooty's safe, you're safe and that's all that matters to me. So come on, stop crying..." Eda sighed, "Here, I got you this. I thought you'd do a good job but you've been doing well with your spellcasting so far, I figured you would like an award. We probably have to fix it up a little but I thought you would like it." She then revealed what was behind her back, a jean jacket.
Esper sniffed as she grabbed the jacket from her, wiping her tears, "Hehe... Bought or stolen?"
Eda laughed at her joke, "Oh I think we both know the answer to that."
Esper opened the jacket fully, giving it a stare to judge it's look. It was a light blue jean jacket with white cuffs. It had two sets of pockets, one on her chest and one set near her waist. It had a white collar and the zipper was broken but it was lined with a dark blue stripe. Though both elbows seemed to be ripped, which would have to be replaced with patches in order to be comfortable. The witchling smiled and put the jacket on over her yellow hoodie, "You know, it needs a patch job but I like it... Thanks, Eda."
Eda smiled, "Any time, kiddo. Now, clean this mess up and join us in the kitchen, I'll be making griffon eggs tonight."
The younger witch saluted to her, "Yes ma'am!"
She gave Esper a pat on the head, ruffling her hair before getting up to go into the kitchen. Despite the mess around her, Esper smiled, hugging her new jacket closer to her...
