"There. That should probably be better than whatever was on there before."
Elle took a deep breath, appreciating the less dirty sheets. It took a while for her to figure out how to get the old ones off, but she managed. She was honestly surprised the mattress was in one piece still. It was surprisingly sturdy. New mattresses were definitely on the priority list, though.
She stifled a yawn, glancing out at the window. It was dark, no surprise. Probably time to sleep. She glanced down at her outfit. Seemed to her like it was two pieces, held together by a belt. She could still feel the pants she had on before she arrived, and she was still wearing the same shoes, so she assumed her previous outfit was simply underneath the ceremonial robes. She fiddled with the belt, eventually unclasping it. She folded it as neatly as she could before placing it in the empty dresser.
To her relief, her assumption was correct. Her black dress shoes, dark grey corduroys, and navy blue turtleneck sweater were all present and accounted for. It was an outfit that was simple, semi-formal, and comfortable. Since she didn't have any other options, these were her pajamas for the night, she supposed. Not the worst she's had to deal with, honestly.
She climbed onto the bed carefully, still afraid of the mattress giving out on her, and gently slid under the covers. Well. Today certainly happened. She wondered if her parents have noticed her missing yet. She knew they'd probably feed Marie some lie to stop her from worrying, but how long would it take before they start searching themselves? Would they ever even bother to search? Probably not. She sighed, rolling onto her side.
...She hasn't been this far from Marie in a long time. Not since she first tried to run away from home all those years ago. It felt almost empty. Like a pause in a conversation that lasted just a little too long. She felt like there was something that needed doing, something she had to check, but there wasn't. Of course there wasn't. Marie wasn't there. Just being apart from her for this long and speaking to the people around her probably broke at least three rules, speaking of which. Oh well. What her parents didn't know couldn't hurt her. It's not like they could even reach her here.
...She missed Marie. She missed her sister a lot. She loved her, and it hurt her to think the girl might be worrying about her at that very moment. But...even though she misses her, even though she loves her....it almost felt like a mountain of weight was lifted off of her shoulders. And she hated it. She hated how being separated from her sister felt like being relieved from a burden. Marie wasn't a burden. Marie was beautiful, talented, bright, caring. She always tried her best to make sure everyone was included. She would never think of Elle as a burden. Marie wasn't the problem. Marie didn't do anything wrong. Marie was just as much of a victim as she was. And yet...
Elle curled into a ball. Tomorrow would be another day.
...
Elle opened her eyes to see soft beams of light peeking through the boarded up windows. It had become a habit of hers to wake up at dawn. Less people were likely to be awake. She took a deep breath before sitting up.
Ah, right. She was here now. Elle took a moment to recollect herself, feeling the fabric of the sheets and the wood of the headboard. She was here. This was real. She could handle this.
She nodded to herself after a moment, and shuffled out of bed, slipping on her dress shoes. It would probably be best to shower before the others woke up. She knew where the bathroom was from her exploration yesterday, so she headed that way, making note of which floorboards squeaked and which ones to avoid.
She changed back into the clothes she arrived in, still not having any other options, and towel dried her hair to the best of her ability. She wandered around the third floor for a while until her hair was reasonably dry. There were ten rooms on the third floor, surprisingly enough. Three of them were being used for storage, which she would happily search through later, but she found it somewhat odd. For such a large school, wasn't this dorm strangely tiny? It could maybe fit around 40 people, and that would be assuming there were two to a room. She supposed that was why it was abandoned.
A sudden scream jolted her from her thoughts. That...sounded like Grim. She quickly retraced her steps to the staircase, cringing each time she accidentally stepped on a creaking board. Overall though, she was fairly silent. She slowly descended the stairs, listening closely for any movement or voices. She heard puffs of what she would assume to be fire, and a cackling she was fairly certain she heard yesterday. Ghosts.
She carefully, silently, slipped over to the doorframe to listen in. She made sure to stay just out of sight, in case someone opened the door.
"So I hear you and the little lady will be living here from now on? Hope you like pranks as much as we do! Hya ha ha!"
Knew it. Elle pinched the bridge of her nose. On one hand, she was relieved there wasn't any real danger. On the other, the resident number just jumped from three to six. Luckily, ghosts usually don't need to eat, so their food expenses were still manageable. Speaking of food...
Elle glanced over at the hall leading to the kitchen. There...probably wouldn't be anything edible in there. The courtyard she saw yesterday had apple trees, maybe that was an option.
Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Crowley coming up the stairs. On instinct, she made herself small. She was about to run off, but quickly realized she would make too much noise and would undoubtedly be spotted. Instead, she pushed herself off the wall, nodding her head at the crow man. She still had her shoulders turned inward and her head ducked low, frustratingly unable to fully shake the habit.
The headmage nearly did a double take at the person before him. Long blond hair tumbled over their shoulders and chest, shading their face, and deep cobalt eyes searched him for...something. If this were not an all boy's school, he would have assumed them female. Well, there was a freshman this year who was similar in that regard... Actually, was...there any guarantee that El was male, considering all of the other outlying details surrounding them? He should probably ask later.
"A-Ah, El. Good morning. Is Yu awake yet?"
She nodded, turning to knock on the door. There was a rustling, and a thump, and then a quiet "come in". The headmage entered first, Elle following closely behind. She noted that the ghosts she heard before were nowhere in sight. Good. She was no good at talking to adults. Hopefully she could avoid them for as long as possible.
Yu was awkwardly shoving his foot into a tennis shoe. He had on black sweatpants and a plain white T-shirt that had something written across the front in Japanese that Elle couldn't read. Grim had perched on his shoulder, making Elle further question whether or not he was secretly a Pokémon. The boy looked surprised to see Crowley, but waved at him nonetheless.
"Good morning, Yu. Did you sleep well?"
Grim spoke up first, looking obviously unhappy. Elle was starting to notice a trend.
"Not at all! When I sprawled out on the bed, the mattress fell right through the frame! Exactly how ramshackle IS this dorm? And worse yet, we got woken up by ghosts!"
Elle put a hand to her mouth, her eyes widening. She never got to check the mattress since she was distracted by the rain! Now she felt bad.
"Elle, whatever you're thinking, stop. I'm not going to blame you for it."
"But..."
"Nope! Not your fault."
"......alright..."
Yu couldn't hear her, but figured she acquiesced from the nod of her head. He smiled before turning to Crowley to put his own two cents in.
"I slept great, honestly."
"I am delighted to hear that you've adjusted so well, despite being sent to another world! Now, speaking of moving on, let us discuss your assignment for today."
Crowley led the three ramshackle residents down to the main lounge area, speaking brightly as soon as they had all found a place to sit on the couch.
"Your job today is to clean the campus. That said, the campus is vast, and without magic, it'd be quite a Herculean task to clean it all. Therefore, today I'll have you focus on the area spanning from the front gates to the library."
Elle blinked. Those instructions were far too vague for her liking. What areas were they supposed to clean? Just the path? Or the gate as well? What did 'cleaning' even entail? Were they expected to simply sweep up trash, or were they power washing the sidewalk? Were they expected to do interiors as well?
She voiced her concerns to Yu, who in turn repeated them to the headmage.
"You will be staying on the main pathway outside for today. I expect the path to be cleared of dirt, trash and leaves, and pull out any weeds that may be growing in the cracks."
Okay, that was manageable for her. She nodded her head in thanks both to Yu for speaking for her and Crowley for answering her questions.
"Now, Yu..."
Yu sat up straighter, suddenly somewhat nervous. Why was he specifically being called out?
"I do expect that you'll keep a close eye on Grim, lest he cause another incident like yesterday."
Yu bit his cheek. There wasn't a lot he could really do against magical fire, but it was his idea to let Grim stay in the first place...
"I can't promise much...but I'll do my best."
"Do not fail me. You may take your lunch in the cafeteria."
Elle was thrilled by that news. One less meal she had to scrounge together. Seems like stealing from the apple trees really was the most viable breakfast plan currently, though.
"I eagerly await the fruits of your labor."
Having said his piece, the headmage walked off to do...headmage things. Elle got up off the couch and stretched, raising her arms above her head.
"Well, that could have gone worse."
Grim crossed his arms, huffing. What was she talking about? This was the worst! He didn't want to be some stupid janitor!
"Hrmph. I ain't cleanin' nothin'! I'm here to study magic so I can be blastin' off spells left and right! Like BAM! POW! FWOOM!"
Elle kneeled to Grim's level, looking him in the eyes. Grim stared back, confused. She gave him a patient smile.
"Hey, Grim. I may not be able to use magic, but if we can get to the library, I could probably teach you."
"W-What?! Are you stupid or somethin'? How would that even work?!"
"Well, I'm pretty good at deciphering difficult textbooks. You want to actually try stuff out instead of sitting around reading all day, right? What I'm saying is I will do the reading, then teach it to you in a way that you'll better enjoy."
Grim stared at the girl with wide, sparkling eyes. She would really do that for him...? His eyes started to water.
"Waahh... You're like an angel...! Do ya really mean it? Like REALLY really mean it?"
She nodded.
"YES! I'm gonna be a magic whiz in no time!"
Yu folded his arms, raising an eyebrow at the monster.
"After we clean, we can go check out the library. But we need to finish our work first."
"Hrmph. Spoilsport."
Elle let out a light laugh. She was glad she managed to get through to Grim. She was honestly almost as excited to be done with work as him. Learning was fun, as long as it was of her own volition.
"Okay, is everyone ready to go?"
Grim jumped up onto Yu's shoulder again, and Yu glared at him, but didn't complain. He sighed, stood up, and headed for the door. Elle followed close behind.
"Yup. We're starting at the front gate, right?"
"Yeah. I was thinking of taking a pit stop over to the main building to snatch a couple apples for breakfast."
As if on cue, all three of their stomachs rumbled.
"Yeah, that would probably be a smart idea."
"I'm famished! Why isn't there any grub in this building?"
"Probably because it's abandoned."
Grim grumbled, crossing his arms. Elle promised him that their first paycheck would be spent on stocking the pantry, and that seemed to appease him for the time being. After a quick strategy meeting, the group decided that for maximum efficiency, Yu and Grim would start working by the gate, while Elle went into the castle to get the apples. She would meet up with them by going down Main Street until she ran into them.
"Are you sure you'll be alright alone, Elle?"
"Trust me, sweetheart, I'm used to sneaking around. This is probably our best bet."
Yu nodded quickly, suddenly finding the floor very interesting.
"A-Alright. Okay. Cool. S-See you in a bit, then?"
"Yup. I'll be back in a flash." With a playful salute, she took off for the courtyard.
"Now what're you acting all weird for, minion? You're all stuttery and stuff. Are you cold or somethin'?" Grim started pawing at his cheek. Yu pushed him away by the face, flustered.
"Hush, you. And I'm not you minion!"
He started making his way down to the front gate, pointedly ignoring Grim's questioning. He really needed to get used to those nicknames....
~~~
Starting of the chapter this week with a smattering of angst (: a little bit of insight into Elle and Marie's relationship! (I care them both immensely did you know)
I actually do have a character profile for Elle, Yu, and Marie saved in my notes, but it's so hard to narrow it down to one picrew as a reference image ;-; also if I do end up deciding on one I'm gonna have to hunt down the picrew link to credit it. If I ever drop those bios, it will probably be between the prologue and the Heartslabyul arc.
ALSO THIS FIC HAS REACHED 1K VIEWS?????? THANK YOU??????? I'm seriously so happy that y'all find my fix even vaguely interesting.
Next chapter we finally get to see some new faces! Look forward to that (:
Thanks for hanging out!
~Astroleap