Friday Addams || Xavier Thorpe

2

Mother gasped as we entered the room. The window was covered in colourful plastic to bathe it in colour when the sun shone through. A girl with blonde hair dyed pink and blue at the tips came running over to greet us from her desk.

"It's so... vivid." Our father exclaimed as our roommate bounced with anticipation of having more people in her room.

"Howdy, roomies."

"Wednesday, Friday, this is Enid Sinclair." The principal introduced the colourful girl. My family was surprised by the colour in the room, but I quite liked the window.

"Are you okay? You look a little pale." Enid commented on Wednesday's usual white skin.

"My sister always looks half dead," I explained to her so that she wouldn't be alarmed.

"Oh," She lost some of her nerves before gaining her excitement back and reaching for a group hug. "Welcome to Ophelia Hall!" Wednesday stepped back which caused Enid to retract her arms and put them behind her back. "Not a hugger. Got it."

"Please excuse Wednesday, she's allergic to colour." Our mother tried backing up my sister's normal behaviour.

"Oh, wow. What happens to you?"

"I break out into hives and then the flesh peels off my bones," Wednesday said, flatly in a display of her sense of humour.

"Luckily, we've ordered you a special uniform. Enid, please take the twins to the registrar's office to pick up their uniforms along with their schedules, and give them a tour along the way."

"I don't mind the colour, Enid. The window looks great," I said to our new roommate, earning a glare from Wednesday. We followed her through the doors for a tour while our parents left with Weems to finalize the arrangement. After we got our uniforms, she continued speaking about Nevermore. I had a normal Nevermore uniform while Wednesday's was all black with a white button-up shirt.

"Nevermore was founded in 1791 to educate people like us. Outcasts, freaks, monsters, fill in your favourite marginalized group here," Enid began to walk through the history of Nevermore as she guided us through the school. She seemed genuinely kind and, since I needed to find some friends, I decided to return the favour. However, Wednesday didn't seem to share the same idea as me.

"You can save the sanitized sales pitch. We don't plan on staying here for long."

"I actually think I might want to stay here for longer. And I especially don't want to get expelled in the same manner as the last time." This earned me another short glare from Wednesday as I usually sided with her on matters involving our parents.

"Why not?" The colourful girl questioned with a small tilt of her head. She couldn't understand why Wednesday wouldn't want to stay at this school, considering we were outcasts.

"This was our parents' idea. Oh, look there's our mother smirking at us." I looked in the direction my sister nodded to and found an image of our mother with the fencing team. She had her usual smirk laid upon her face. "They've been looking for any excuse to send us here. It's all part of their nefarious, yet completely obvious plan."

"What plan?" Enid asked once more.

"To turn us into a version of themselves," I provided while rolling my eyes slightly at how dramatic my twin was about it. She worried she would become like our mother even if their personalities were different.

"In that case, perhaps you can clear something up. Rumour's been swirling around that you killed a kid at your old school, and your parents pulled strings to get you off." The rumour had been incorrect, but I knew Wednesday was going to take the opportunity to make it sound true.

"Actually, it was two kids, but who's counting?"

Enid ignored the comment and went back to her tour. "Welcome to the quad," she stated, as we entered an area similar to a courtyard where students seemed to enjoy hanging out in.

"It's a pentagon." My sister spoke dryly and interrupted the girl another time. I had been trying to keep quiet and listen, even if some of the facts were uninteresting.

"The whole snarky Goth girl thing might have worked at normie school, but here things are different." I chuckled at Enid's statement before letting her continue. We walked around the quad as she showed us the different social groups. "Let me give you a wiki on Nevermore's social scene."

"I'm not interested in participating in tribal adolescent clichés."

"Wednesday, maybe if you listen more, you could enjoy the school more," I reprimanded her. She had a faint look of shock before returning to her usual cold expression. I didn't often speak against her.

"Well, then use it to fill your obviously bottomless pit of disdain. There are many flavours of outcasts here, but the four main cliques are Fangs, Furs, Stoners, and Scales. Those are the fangs, AKA vampires. Some of them have literally been here for decades." Enid pointed out a group of paler students with teeth associating them to the name 'Fangs.' "That bunch of knuckleheads are Furs, AKA werewolves. Like me!" As we pass by the Furs, they begin howling at Enid. Most have longer, poofy hair. "Full moons get pretty loud around here. That's when furs wolf out. I suggest you pick up noise-cancelling headphones."

Wednesday interrupted Enid's rambling when she paused to face the Sirens. "I'm assuming Scales are Sirens?"

"You catch on quick. And that girl, Bianca Barclay, is the closest thing Nevermore has to royalty. Although her crown's been slipping lately." I watched the siren twirl her hand through the water as her scales shimmered. "She used to date our resident tortured artist, Xavier Thorpe. But they broke up at the beginning of the semester. Reason unknown." My eyes were torn from the sirens to stare at the brown-haired boy painting a mural on the opposite side of the quad.

"Fascinating," I replied as I forced myself to tear my eyes away from him. I almost felt electricity run through the air when our eyes had met while I stared.

"I know, right? My vlog is, like, the number one source for Nevermore gossip."

She was interrupted this time when a boy wearing a beanie over his head walked over. He had a small snake peering out from underneath. "Yo, Enid! You're not gonna believe the dirt I heard about your new roommate. She eats human flesh. Chowed down on that kid she murdered. You better watch your back. I heard her sister is her accomplice."

Enid awkwardly moved out of the way to reveal Wednesday and I standing behind her. My sister turned to him with a serious expression. "Quite the contrary. I actually fillet the bodies of my victims, then feed them to my menagerie of pets. Friday is harmless though."

"Ajax, these are my new roommates, Wednesday and Friday."

"Whoa. You're in black and white." He referred to Wednesday, whose uniform was two different shades of black.

"Ignore him," Enid said, pushing him lightly away. He walked off after being frightened by my sister. "Gorgons spend way too much time getting stoned. He's cute, but clueless. It's a small school. There wasn't much online about you. You should really get on Insta, Snapchat, and TikTok."

"I find social media to be a soul-sucking void of meaningless affirmation." I agreed with Wednesday's stance on social media, though I would not state it so blandly.