Supernatural Taxes

13) I should have just used Knots and rolled him down a flight of stairs.

"You want to use a different spell today? Are you sure about that?" Thanos wasn't as excited as usual. "I'd honestly recommend just using Identify or Knots, hell, Lazy Day works too now that we're alone. You probably shouldn't try the others if you don't want to or until you have the time to get familiar with them."

It was Thursday morning, they were chatting over breakfast.

"I'll try to find the time to read through some of those journals this weekend, but I also need the motivation to do that. You were the one bragging about having so many awesome grimoires weren't you? Why are you getting cold feet now?

"Some of those research journals were for grimoires called Fireworks and Fly. There has to be some spell with a cool effect."

"We're not using those," Thanos was dead serious.

Atla hesitated, "Fine then, I'm just asking that you keep your eyes out for a good time to use a spell. Show me something useful or cool and please just remember to tell me some details so I don't make a fool of myself."

Why was she egging him on after their conversation with Hadi and Ida?

"... I can probably do that. But if there isn't a good opportunity can you just use Lazy Day when we get home again, okay. Or Pull, that's easy enough; it Pulls stuff you can reach to you with your strength, it's easy to learn but hard to master. Nifty hey?" He tried to lighten his tone with his usual advertising.

"Okay." She looked at him funny but finished breakfast anyway.

Today was another doozy, several lectures including marketing followed by work and a meetup with her friends in Another One. It was the premiere of some popular superhero movie or something so they were meeting there before walking to the cinema.

Atla pulled on her running shoes and started running.

•••

She'd made it to her last lecture before work, marketing. She'd made her debut as cactus girl here so uncomfortable stares were the most concentrated here. People made quiet comments to their friends like they were waiting for her to flip out and roast Mr. Brouwer again.

Atla had no allies in this lecture, the few people she recognised or sometimes greeted were quick to avoid her since the start of this monster of a week.

She sighed, sat in the closest seat to the exit she could find and deployed her special move: pretending to sleep on her arms. It was super effective.

Thanos hadn't been too bad, he'd cracked joke or two in her unbearably boring accounting lecture and even told her the answer to one of the lecturer's questions. Right now he was on the table looking utterly ordinary. "Here come some riff-raff" He said cautiously.

Atla looked up, Piet and two of his friends wandered into the lecture theatre, cheeks a little flushed and eyes struggling to adjust to the light, they plopped on the nearest seats next to Atla. They waved at her then laughed.

She started getting up when Mr. Bouwer entered, vaguely calling for silence.

Atla controlled her breathing, sat down and looked straight ahead.

Atla tried her best to listen to the dispirited and bland lecture, since Monday Mr Brouwer's lectures and moustache lost their spring. Piet was staring at the bright projector lens, listening to music, picking his nose and flicking the contents into the air. Between them his two more addled friends were sleeping on their arms. Maybe they needed attendance numbers or something.

Whatever the case Atla was glad that they were too hungover or sleepy to bother her much today.

Ten minutes before she was home free Mr. Bouwer wrapped up his presentation, "Okay like I warned you guys a few lectures back, you've got an assignment to find a gap in the market based on current events. Hopefully some of you will have kept an eye open for ideas because now you'll need to split into groups of four to complete the assignment."