Settling In (Pickles!)

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

The redhead- who didn't looked any less worried than before- stared at Ailith with eyes like saucepans. "S-Susie!" she squeaked. "Susie R-Rainfeather!"

The girl with the pushed in face smirked. "Well, I'm Beatrix Evans, and I'm pretty much the best shadowmancer to ever attend Wyrdwood." The girl began to twirl her hair with her wand. "In fact, the teachers are already talking about moving me up a year- I'm that good."

Lulu smiled at both of them. "Well, my name is Ailith, and this is my friend Lulu!" she said cheerily, pointing at the real Ailith. "I'm sure you'll both do wonderful here!"

[Pickles]

Ailith was pretty sure she heard something wrong, and once she did a double take, she realized, yup, that naming order wasnt right. But she decided to roll with it: it couldn't do that much harm, and admittedly, could be a little bit funny.

"You two are first years, right?" She smiled at them. Susie seemed nice enough, but Beatrix..: eh, she'd play along for now. "Wrydwood is an amazing school. I'm sure you'll love it here!"

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

"I still can't believe I was accepted!" Susie said, wide eyed. "My parents are mundanes, and we barely have any money! Mom says that it must be Myyla blessing us, but I'm worried it was a mistake..."

Beatrix scoffed. "Hah! Well, I was recommended to the school by Queen Di'Veera herself! I'm basically a prodigy, you know."

Lulu snickered as Susie stared at the blue haired girl in utter disbelief. "Um..." the redhead said nervously, glancing at the two older girls. "Uh, what about you guys? Was it... hard for you to get accepted?"

[Pickles]

Ailith didn't really believe that Beatrix was really recommended by the Queen, but she didn't protest. Last thing she wanted was an argument with her. So she instead answered Susie's question.

"Yeah... A little bit," Ailith admitted, staring at the table. "Elementalists aren't that rare. I guess I was better than the rest."

Ailith hoped it didn't sound like she was bragging. She just said what came to mind. And hopefully it didn't make Susie feel bad, either. Ailith felt like Susie should probably be hanging around someone other than Beatrix.

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Susie nodded, seeming to take some comfort in Ailith's answer. Lulu smiled- she felt just as out of place when she first arrived as the redheaded girl did. She was about to say something reassuring, but before she had a chance, the dinner menus materialized on their plates in a puff of smoke! 

Lulu grinned. "About time! The cooks kept us waiting today." Picking up her menu, the girl picked out a  she liked and pointed her finger at it. "Roast chicken... Presto!" In another puff of smoke, Lulu's plate was filled with piping hot food. 

Beatrix immediately followed suit ("Pea soup... Presto!"), but Susie looked at the menu apprehensively. She then gazed at Ailith, as if looking for the older girl's approval. "Um... Lulu?" she asked timidly. "What... what do I get? Some of this food seems really fancy... I don't need to pay for it, do I?"

[Pickles]

Ailith almost corrected Susie before she remembered the act they were playing. "Oh, no, all the food is covered," she assured. "It's part of your scholarship, so it's free."

Ailith looked at the menu. Everything seemed so good... but she really couldn't eat that much. "Chicken soup... Presto!" The soup materialized in front of her. No matter how many times she did that, it was still really cool so see.

"Get whatever you want!" She said to Susie. "The foods there for a reason."

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Susie smiled, muttering a quiet "Thank you..." Pointing her wand at the menu, the girl stammered her order. "Beef Stroganoff... Presto!"

As the nervous girl's plate was filled with hot food, Beatrix began to snort with laughter. "Hahaha! Ailith, what are you doing?"

Looking up, Susie saw Lulu had begun cutting her chicken with her fork, then picking it up with her knife to bring it to her mouth. "Ummm..." the redhead said, looking incredibly lost. "Am- am I supposed to eat like that? Is it a rule here?"

[Pickles]

Ailith tried not to laugh, but a small "pfft" still escaped her. "No, of course not," she said. "In fact, it'd probably be harder to do so."

She stared at Lulu's plate, trying to figure out how she was doing that. How do you cut food with a fork? She would try it herself, but she'd probably only end up embarassing herself... So instead, she started to eat her own food.

She looked over at Susie, who still hadn't touched her plate. "You should try it," she said, with her mouth still slightly full. "It's really good, I promise."

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Lulu smiled inwardly. It had been stupidly easy to get the redhead to utter her ability's trigger- too easy, in fact. "That girl won't last if her confidence doesn't go up." she thought to herself. "Wyrdwood will be tough for her."

Susie gave Ailith a nod, then tenatively began to eat her meal. Her eyes lit up. "Whoah!" she said excitedly. "You were right this is amazing! Much better then the stuff my parents can aff- um, buy for us..." The redhead's cheeks flushed pink, as if she'd said something dirty.

"Well, at my house we have a gourmet chef cook all our meals." Beatrix bragged. "Yeah, my family is basically the richest in the world. "It's a pain having so much money, y'know?"

[Pickles]

Wow. Ailith really wished it was allowed to send rich snobs like Beatrix into oblivion with magic. But unfortunately, it wasn't, so she could only sit and grimance through these bratty remarks. Could she stop bragging for literally one second?

Why did Susie even hang out with her? It'd probably be much better for her confidence, and Ailith could tell Susie needed a lot of it if she wanted to survive Wyrdwood. It wasn't a school full of bullies, per say, but confidence was key for magic, at least to Ailith.

"The food's one of the best parts," Ailith said to Susie, ignoring Beatrix. She swallowed another spoonful of her soup. "Honestly, I think it's some of the best food I've tasted too."

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Susie nodded excitely. "Taking a bite of her stroganoff. "It's really somfing else!" she said with her mouth full. "I wonder if th' food is magi- whoa!"

Looking towards where Susie was pointing, Lulu saw a boy fly into the dining hall on a broomstick. Flying towards the ceiling, he did a loop before landing on the opposite end of the hall. The students nearby broke into applause, and many left their seats to get a closer look at the boy. Grinning excitedly, Beatrix stood up to join them. "That was so cool! Come on Susie, lets go see!"

Giving Ailith an appreciative smile, the redhead left her seat. "I-I'll be back! Thanks for being so nice!"

Lulu watched the two go, eying the girls carefully. "The first-years seem to get stranger with each passing year, huh?" she said, placing a finger on her chin. "Think they'll last here?"

[Pickles]

"Beatrix will for sure, even with that attitude..." Ailith looked at the two first-years. "Susie, though... She needs to be more confident. She won't get anywhere if she's always so nervous."

Ailith watched Beatrix and Susie. She almost lost track of the two of them in the crowd of students: it seemed like everyone wanted to meet this boy. Ailith, however, didn't care all that much. She'd seen a lot of things here, and things like this had happened before. But it was somewhat heartwarming to see how the two first-years responded. It was like a nostalgia trip.

"I think Susie will find her confidence eventually, though," Ailith said, looking back at Lulu. "Once she gets used to it, I'm sure she'll be fine."

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

"Mm..." Lulu hummed, nodding. It was certainly no lie that Susie would need to adjust to Wyrdwood's culture, but unlike Ailith, Lulu was cynical. "I remember my first year. Had I not come from..." She paused, a sad look in her eyes. "...If I wasn't as tough as I was, I wouldn't have made it." she said finally. "The other students didn't take too kindly to me being Connlaothian and all that."

Lulu looked like she wanted to say something else, but the sound of a spoon tapping a goblet shifted her attention to the front of the hall. "Ugh, looks like it's time for the start-of-semester speech." she groaned. "Do you want to just skip it? It's the same every year." Lulu crossed her arms. "We could grab some food from the kitchen if you're still hungry, they probably wouldn't mind..."

[Pickles]

Ailith glanced at the front of the hall. She had never skipped the start-of-the-semester speech, but Lulu was right. For the past three years, it had been almost the exact same speech, word for word. She really didn't want to sit through it again... and... she kind of wanted to be rebellious...

"Let's just skip it," Ailith decided, looking back to Lulu. "I'm still kind of hungry, anyways." The thought of sneaking in the kitchen still scared her, for sure, but the thought of more of the delicious food the school cooked was way better. And getting away with it sounded thrilling. "Do you know a way in?"

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Lulu grinned, glancing in the direction of the high table where the professors sat. "Of course I know a way in!" she whispered excitedly. "The crumbs will guide us!"

Standing up non-chalantly, the girl slowly made her way to the exit. From behind her she could hear Professor Zinc begin to drone on about Wyrdwood's prestige, and smirked. "Yeah. As if."

Reaching the entrance of the hall, Lulu would look behind her to make sure Ailith was following. She held the door open a crack-just enough for a person to squeeze through. "Come on!" she whispered. "Before the mice get them!"

[Pickles]

Ailith glanced behind her quickly to make sure nobody was looking at them before they slipped out. Of course, everybody was too focused on the speech to notice, and she doubted that any bored student that spotted her would actually call them out. She slipped through the exit, heart pounding as she did so.

"Where do go from here?" Ailith whispered, staring in front of her. 'Follow the crumbs,' Lulu had said, but she didn't see any. Maybe they were in the wrong area? Or maybe they were too small...

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

"We gotta go to where people eat, besides the dining hall." Lullu explained, walking quickly down the hall. "People break the 'no food outside the hall' rule all the time, I'm not even the teachers enforce it anymore."

After a few minutes, their destination was in sight- Staircase Twenty-six. The staircase itself was normal, but underneath it was where the school misfits usually hung out. Most of them didn't care for the school rules much- especially one as pointless as 'no food'. Slowing down, Lulu pressed herself against the wall, motioning for Ailith to follow. Sure enough, a few empty snack boxes lay on the floor, along with a half eaten cookie and some bottles of fizzy water. "Okay. We made it." the girl said quietly. "Now we just gotta wait for the mice..."

[Pickles]

Wait for the mice, huh... That could take a while. From what Ailith was gathering, the mice should lead them to wherever the kids were eating, and then... hopefully they'd have a food stash there. If they were there, though... that'd be awkward.

Ailith heard a tiny squeaking sound. She looked down, and sure enough, there was a mouse there, checking out the remains of a cookie. She stared at it, trying not to scare it. The mouse left the cookie, looking on the ground for presumably something it could fit in it's mouth.

"Please find something," she whispered to herself. The mouse halted for a few seconds, then ran forward. She thought it might've left them when it stopped again. It might've found something! "...Should we follow it?" She asked quietly.

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Lulu watched the mouse intently, smirking. There was no way the school mice would leave a cookie that size behind! "Just wait a little longer..." she whispered. "Watch, the mice here are clever."

The mouse lifted it's head into the air, squeaking loudly. In an instant, three more mice scampered out of the shadows, following the first back to where the cookie lay. Lulu smiled in excitement- this was always so fun to watch!

With dexterity rarely seen in rodents, the four mice stood up on their hind legs, picking up the cookie and running off with it. "Now!" the girl hissed as she quietly began to follow them. "They're taking it back to the kitchen! This is our chance!"