Wednesday's Week

Back to the Daily Woe

Xavier sat across me, staring at me like he did his paintings. I half expected him to peel me off a canvas. "Why didn't you respond to my texts?" he asked.

I stared him down, "I did."

"Responding to 'are you there' with 'This is Wednesday' does not count," He sighed.

I crossed my arms, "I warned you to keep your hopes down. I haven't even replied to Enid."

"Ouch, your roommate."

My phone dinged. New text from stalker. Xavier faded away as I opened it as fast as I could. A new photo. It was me and Xavier on the train, taken right from the window of our cart. I jumped up and reached for the door, "Well there is someone you are willing to respond to," Xavier mumbled grumpily. He was using that same tone I couldn't define. Like he was indifferent and hurt. But I didn't care. I threw open the door and looked down the hallway empty. Xavier moved behind me, hos head poking through above me, "What are you looking for, Wednesday?

"A familiar face," I whispered before moving down the hallway. Seeing someone I knew would almost confirm my stalker. This train wasn't picking up every student of Nevermore across the country. I peeked into each door. Just families and travelers. Xavier followed. I got to the end of the cart. The lock leading outside was absolutely destroyed.

"Dont open that!" Xavier warned.

I ignored. The metal door flew back and the wind rushed at my face. I stood my ground, looking at the link that kept us connected to the next cart. Pain shuddered through the hand that was keeping me steady. The one I had cut this very morning. As a reflex, I let go. I stumbled toward the racing tracks below, but a hand grabbed my arm and yanked me back. Xavier shoved his weight against the door until it was closed again. "Do you have a death wish?" He asked incredulously.

My hand was bleeding again. I pulled the bandage back to inspect it. "Do you have a bandage?"

Xavier took me back to our booth. He reached into his backpack and I noticed a fresh scar across his whole hand and up into his sleeve, "What is that from?"

"Tell me what you are looking for," He replied back. Touché. I grabbed the bandage from him and sat down to wrap my hand. He just watched. I don't know what to make of Xavier. Tortured artists. Competitive socialite. Outcast king. He had saved my life twice, maybe three times as of the last fifteen minutes. He scorned me for my secrets but disclosed little himself. Thing jumped out of my bag and snatched his journal. Thing loved to snoop in Xavier's business. Its how he found multiple portraits of me. I dont know if I want to be a muse. "Stop taking my stuff! Invasion of privacy." The last drawing was our late principal, Mrs. Weems. But it was her on a autopsy bed. A scene neither of us had physically witnessed.

"Lively as ever," I responded dryly. Xavier snatched his journal back and shoved it in his backpack.

He frowned, "Fine, we can sit in silence."

Normally I'd be totally okay with that. But I had one more question for Xavier. So I pushed away my lingering thoughts about the stalker and trained my eyes on the head board above Xavier, "Do you still have dreams about Tyler?"

"I haven't had a dream about the Hyde since Enid subdued it," Xavier responded, making sure to refer to him as a monster.

Tyler was a monster. He was groomed by a vengeful woman and he gruesomely murdered people and manipulated me. All that I could forgive. But he had almost killed Eugene and Thing. And one did not simply forget hive code. "Do you think they will kill him?" I found myself asking out loud. Why?

"I think they will do tests on him. We don't know much about Hyde's and they will want to prevent something like that happening again," Xavier answered.

I hope they do tests. Electric tests. And needle tests. I was only sad I could not carry out my own vengeance.

The rest of the train ride was only two hours. I closed my eyes and left myself to flounder in my own thoughts. Xavier got the memo and stayed silent. Thing kept himself busy deep in my backpack.

We got off the train and onto the station. Since Jericho was an hour away, we'd have to wait for the school to pick us up. I lugged my bag over to the bench. I had no idea who would pick us up. The only two staff members I had cared to remember were dead or had tried to kill me.

It was coach Vlad who picked us up along with a few kids from a bus stop. The van he drove looked as if it might not make it back to Nevermore.

"Coach!" Xavier ran over to him. "I've been practicing those moves you showed me."

He smiled and looked over at me, "and you Wednesday?"

"I don't do homework. It's a principle of mine. Besides I defeated Crackstone in a duel with an arrow in my shoulder. I think I can fend for myself," I moved past him and shoved my bag into the van.

We piled into the van. Despite having ridden a whole train ride together, Xavier sat beside me, trapping me against the van wall. He leaned to the driver seat, "Coach, who is the principal of the school?"

"Weems, of course," he answered.

We looked at each other. "But she died."

"Terrible, I know. Took the rest of the semester to fix that," Coach Vlad spoke in complete normalcy. As if everyone could just reverse death.

I decided it would soon explain itself. The forest road to the school flooded me with memories. Investigating, chasing, running away. Tyler and Thornhill. The forest parted to the gated school. It's black fence parted and let us in. It looked exactly the same. Black through and through. Students with bags and blue and black uniforms mozied around. This was the early crowd. Tomorrow everyone would be in and then school would start Monday.

Ophelia hall where my dorm was had a long stair case up to it. It was one of the tallest. But I wouldn't trade anything for the gothic styled window and the vaulted ceiling. I parted from Xavier and began my ascent.

Before I opened the door, I could hear her. Enid danced around the room, redecorating her room with even more color. She graciously kept her brightness to her side. It took her a moment to realize I was here.

"Roomie!" She cried out with glee. Enid didn't hug me. She knew I felt strongly against it. I had only hugged her when she had taken down Tyler. An appropriate time to console her. "How has your break been? Did you do anything exciting? What classes do you have? Did you hear about the new teacher?" She prattled on, four weeks of no talking to catch up on.

I set my bags down beside my bed. "What new teacher?"

"To replace-, well a new plant teacher. You had that class didn't you?" Enid took note of the snood in my bag and did a little jump. She was overbearingly joyful. Like a puppy. I don't like dogs.

I began unpacking, "Do you know what their name is?"

"Ophelia! Maybe we will have some luck with a lady who shares the name of our dorms!" Enid responded.

But she was wrong. There wasn't a lot of Ophelia's and fewer more obsessed with plants. Luck had little care for me.