Expectations When Expecting

Book 1, Chapter 21

"Alice!" She called out, hoping to reach her or distract the queen. As if her voice had fallen upon deaf ears, the queen ignored her, face burning an angry crimson as she sent a glare at Alice.

"OOOOOOOOOOFFF WITH HER HEAD!!!" She demanded, pointing at Alice. Yuu felt her heart drop into her stomach as she noticed the card soldiers as they pounced, hell breaking loose of its reigns. Yuu heard the excitement in the voice of a smaller man as he ran about, waving a fan.

"You heard what Her Majesty said! Off with her head!" He encouraged the cards.

Yuu closed her eyes, terrified of what would come to unfold before her very eyes... and she woke up.

Why won't anyone stop the queen?

The young woman kicked herself free of the blankets, suddenly hot and nauseous. The familiar feeling of bile rose in her, making her eyes widen in panic. Yuu ran, making as little noise as she could.

Within less than two minutes, Yuu had managed to make it to the bathroom, throat tight with fear and her body was dizzy from sickness and stress of the heavy collar that would beat against her collarbone. Yuu had a very bad feeling.

.

.

.

When Yuu regained consciousness, she had absolutely no recollection of returning to bed, however, she was absolutely certain that she'd made it to bed of her own accord, given the fact that Grim now sat atop her chest, grinning.

"Hey, Yuu!" His blue eyes sparkled mischievously. "Ah, good, you're already up."

Yuu groaned, about to sit up before yelping in surprise as she noticed a very restless Ace standing in her room.

"Ace, you dumb shit! You're gonna give me a heart attack!" She exclaimed, launching one of her pillows in his direction.

"Yeah, yeah." Ace scoffed playfully as he rolled his eyes. "C'mon dumbass! Get up! Today's the big duel!"

Yuu groaned, placing the pillow over her head for a moment before sighing. "Yeah, okay. Just get out of my room and leave me to change!" She called, Ace pumping himself up excitedly.

"Let's DO this thing." He cheered as he left the room.

Yuu rolled her eyes, closing the door as she pushed back on the rapidly growing feeling of dread.

.

.

.

Yuu now stood in the Heartslabyul dorm's courtyard, listening to the mocking whispers of students that considered her friends to be stupid. She bit her tongue to prevent her snarky response, instead, shooting several of the boys dirty looks.

"You're saying Ace and Deuce are challenging Riddle for the housewarden's seat?! Please tell me you're kidding." Yuu froze as she heard a familiar voice sigh in exasperation..

"I tried to stop 'em." Trey sighed.

"Of all the stupid ideas... I just hope this doesn't make everything worse." Cater muttered before looking over to see Yuu.

Yuu felt insulted and betrayed at Cater's words, scowling slightly when he met her eyes. He gave her an apologetic look, to which she simply shook her head and looked ahead, noticing Crowley standing between Riddle and Ace to gain everyone's attention.

"We are about to commence two challenges for the housewarden position at Heartslabyul House." He announced, many of the audience buzzed in anxious anticipation, settling down a bit to watch.

"The first challenger is Ace Trappola. The second challenger is Deuce Spade. The current housewarden they have challenged is Riddle Rosehearts." The crow-man introduced the two parties, gesturing to both sides of the metaphorical ring. "Now, in accordance with the duel rules, please remove the magic-sealing collars as they would provide an unfair disadvantage."

Crowley's words allowed for Riddle to boredly roll his eyes, waving his stone-topped staff and relieving the two of their collars. Yuu looked on, somewhat jealous of their lighter necks as Crowley made his way over to her, standing in front of her.

Yuu looked up at him, realizing that he had placed himself there as a barrier between herself and the duel. She gave him a thankful smile, which he returned, beaming at her silent praise.

"Ah! FINALLY, the stupid collar is off!" Ace stood up straight, rolling his neck and shoulders as he enjoyed the freedom provided to him.

"Enjoy your moment of freedom. The collar will be back on soon enough." Riddle scoffed. "I could hardly believe it when I heard you two intended to duel me. Is this a joke?"

"Do I look like I'm joking?" Ace growled, fishing his pen out of his pocket.

Deuce followed suit, deadly serious. "I'd never propose a duel as a joke."

The red-haired tyrant, in turn, simply huffed boredly, clearly not taking the duel seriously. "Have it your way. Let us get this over with."

Yuu's gaze hardened as she silently fumed at the short boy's blatant disregard for sportsmanship and his complete lack of interest.

Yuu looked over to Cater out of the corner of her eye, noting something in his gaze as he sheepishly slunk forward.

"Uh... Riddle? What do you want to do about today's afternoon tea?" He asked, one last effort to prevent the potentially disastrous duel.

"A foolish question." The boy waved dismissively. "You know that the rules stipulate I take my tea every day at 4 p.m. sharp." He snapped.

Cater simply swallowed, shrinking as he murmured something about the time.

"And you fear that I will be late? All the more reason to end this promptly." Riddle assured Cater, who scrambled back to his post quickly. "It appears I have little time to waste. Rather than facing my opponents in succession, I will take on both at once."

Yuu's jaw dropped in annoyed disbelief. There is no way that little shit just completely devalued my friends!

Yuu felt herself being stopped by the headmage, keeping her from speaking up in defense of her friends. She felt tears of frustration well in her eyes when she listened to the cowardly cheering from all of the other boys;

"You can do it, Housewarden! Knock 'em dead, sir!"

Ace and Deuce, to her, looked as if they were standing in a crowd being humiliated.

She took a deep breath. "Boys! You can do it!" Yuu called, hoping that her voice didn't betray her feelings of outrage.

The two, however embarrassed to have Yuu call out to them, simply nodded. Grim shifted in Yuu's arms, looking at Yuu.

"I have a bad feeling about this..." He muttered, Yuu pulling him closer against her chest, cradling the cat monster.

"Don't worry. At least they have a plan, right?" She muttered, watching the three in the ring.

"Headmage, please give us the signal." Riddle called from his place, posture relaxed and regal, something Yuu had begun to despise about him.

Crowley gave a nod, pushing Yuu a little bit more behind him before nodding. "When the mirror I've thrown shatters upon the ground, that is your signal to begin." Crowley procured a small, elegant hand-held mirror from his pocket, clawed hand curling around it before tossing it upward.

"Ready..."

Yuu watched in anticipation as the mirror seemed to fall in slow motion. She held her breath when it hit the ground, spreading glass upon the ground as Crowley called out.

"Go!"