Chapter 17- a rule slip - chapter 18- a surprise tip
“Wh- now hold on Riddle–” I tried reasoning with him, he quickly raised his hand and shushed me. “You are a prefect as well, you know how it is!” he gestured to Grim.
“Whoa, hold up! Is that one of your rules too?!” Ace yelled “yeah! If you want the tart gone, let me eat it!” Grim loudly whined.
Trey and Cater walked in front of us “housewarden, allow me to apologize. I was the one who suggested making a chestnut tart.” Trey confessed “I was a part of that too. We had no idea there was a rule about it!”
“The making of the tart is not the issue. The issue is bringing it HERE. today. THAT is the transgression!” Riddle shouted “how can you live by such foolish rules?” I scoffed.
Riddle snapped his head towards me “what did you just call me? “Foolish”?!” Riddle glared “everyone, stop! Don’t dig this hole any deeper! And Riddle, please try to remember that these are new students who’ve only been here a few days!” Cater pleaded.
“Nah, bro. I’ve got a shovel and I am DIGGING. Throwing away a tart to obey some insane rule is about as foolish as it gets.” Ace stated “I agree with Ace. of course, I understand that rules do need to be followed, but… this is going much too far.” Deuce sighed
“Are you attempting to debate me? Bold move. But I'll bite. By breaking even the smallest rule, yoy are throwing wide the gate to anarchy.” Riddle stated almost as if he was the smarted person in the world
Ace turned to look at everyone in the dorm area “everyone, I know you’re afraid of getting your magic sealed away, but you know this is insane, right?”
“N-no, we, uh…” a student stuttered.
“Well? Isn’t it?” Riddle looked at him.
“Far from it, Housewarden Riddle, sir!” the same student shouted “we trust your judgement, sir!” another student yelled from beside the first.
Grim jumped up into my arms “you little…” he mumbled angrily “you spineless, fair-weartherd cowards…” Ace spoke to them.
“In the year since I became Housewarden, not a single student from Heartslabyul House has dropped out or been held back a year. We are the only house that can boast sush a feat. Furthermore, of everyone in this dorm, I have the best academic standing. Hence, I am the most correct! If you would simply obey me without question, we wouldn’t need to contend so.” Riddle grimaced.
“Listen, we—!” Deuce tried to speak before getting rudely cut off by Riddle “it’s not off with their heads because *I* want to do that. I do it because rules must never be broken.” Riddle shouted
I looked at Trey who stood silently with his head down “if you will not obey me, then I will have all of your heads!” Riddle screamed “okay, let’s all say, ‘yes, housewarden Riddle’.” Cater turned gesturing to everyone and trying to get them to say it.
“...I can’t” Deuce slowly back down, and behind me “me neither.” I stood tall while saying “I don’t bow to self-important tyrants!” Ace shouted from behind me.
“What did you just call me?” Riddle face full of disgust, he slowly turned his head towards me to stare down Ace “he called you a tyrant for wantin’ to destory good food just ‘cause you’re throwin’ a tantrum!” Grim nodded his head as he closed off his sentence.
“Guys, I don’t think we need to escalate this—” Deuce tried to silence us.
“Off! With! Your! Heads!” Riddle screamed at the top of his lungs, a collar showed up only around Deuce and Grim’s necks, since Ace already had one “bwaaaah!” they both said in unison “no! Not the collar again!” Grim buried his head into my neck out of shame “gah! I can’t get it off!” Deuce yelled while trying to pull the collar off.
“Trey! Cater! Eject them from the premises!” Riddle gestured to us four “...Yes sir, Housewarden.” Cater and Trey spoke in unison “Y-you’re supposed to be our ‘mentors’!” Deuce whined “sorry, but we can’t disobey our housewarden!” Cater lowered his head in shame “sorry, man…” Trey shook his head.
“Oh, that’s how it’s gonna be? Then bring it on!” Ace shouted in their faces, Trey looked at us with pity.
Cater started splitting into clones, two of his clones grabbed me before I could do anything, they grabbed me under my thighs and my arms and picked me off the ground like I weighed nothing, and started carrying me out, another clone grabbed Grim and carried him behind me, I began thrashing around trying to get from their grip, another four clones had grabbed Deuce and was carrying him, one one each limb.
Trey and what I presume to be the original Cater had grabbed Ace, all of us thrashed around trying to fight back but it was no use “PUT ME DOWN!” I began screaming. I swung around and hit one of the Caters in the face, two more Caters came up and grabbed onto me.
Before we knew it we had been thrown out of the tea party area and straight into the maze I face planted, I looked up just in time to see Ace and Deuce collide, Grim landed on his feet “oops sorry y/n!” Cater spoke out behind me.
“We’ll T-T-Y-L, folks.” Cater waved at us as we all got up from the ground “we’ll try to calm Riddle down, so maybe he’ll let you back in the dorm after you apologize.” Trey stated while looking at Ace.
“I will NEVER apologize! Not to that numbskull!” Ace turned, crossing his arm.
Cater and Trey turned around and left, just as I watched them enter the gates again I felt dizzy like I couldn’t stand anymore “woah there!” Deuce and Ace caught me before I hit the ground, everything was spinning just then I saw it, more inky black, dripping, more and more kept coming, what was happening.
I slowly stood back up and said, “I'm fine.” i reassured the boys looking at me “you sure y/n?” Ace looked slightly concerned “not that i’m worried, but hey if something happens, I don’t think i’ll have anywhere to stay” Ace looked away from me.
Ace let out a growl “Rrrgh! I hate that little ginger megalomaniac! Does he think HE’s the Queen of Hearts?” Ace shouted out, almost as if he wanted Riddle to hear him.
“Bansihed by the housewarden from my own dorm… my dream of becoming an honor student is slipping further and further away…” Deuce whined, looking away from everyone else.
“Stupid collar! It’s so tight! Grrr.” Grim said with a pout. “You’re really racking up those collars. Quite the impressive collection.”
Everyone screamed and swung around to see a floating head “myah! A ghost head!” Grim jumped up into my arms screaming.
The floating head’s eyes looked down, before the rest of his body appeared “oh dear. It seems I'm not all here.” he snickered.
“What? Er, so you do have a body, then? Who are you?” Deuce asked carefully, the boy’s eyes met mine.
“The name’s Artemiy Artemiyevich Pinker. Am I a cat? Am I a purrrson? A mimsy borogove, perhaps? A mome rath with a knack for magic?” Artemiy stated with a smirk, he mispronounced alot of words.
“Uh, look, Ar… Arte… run the name by me again?” Ace started stuttering, I turned to Ace “Artemiy Artemiyevich Pinker!” I smiled, Ace looked at me with surprise, I heard Artemiy start laughing.
“Heh heh. People usually just call me Chenya, but this is GREAT! Let’s just say I'm not from the other side of the looking glass!” Chenya said with a giant smile.
I nodded “so, what dorm are you from Ar- I mean Chenya?” Chenya’s smile didn’t leave “why don’t you try to guess?”
“Oh, I know! He’s got animal ears, so he’s gotta be from… uh… Bananaclaw, was it?” Grim looked up at me in my arms to check if he said it right. “Bzzzzzt! Incorrect. Bananas grown on trees, do they not? I, on the other hand, am a cat.” Chenya chuckled.
“And besides, other dorms have students with animal ears, too.” Deuce sighed. “After the insanity that teapot tyrant put me through, I’m not in the mood for whatever this is. Just leave me alone.” Ace scoffed and walked behind me.
Chenya started laughing “Riddle the teapot tyrant… heh heh. Well, I can’t dismiss that perspective as wrong. He’s always been quite strict.” Chenya’s eye’s driffeted away from us.
“Do you know something about him?” Deuce questioned Chenya “perhaps there are things I know, and perhaps there are things that I don’t.” Chenya laughed.
“That’s not an answer!” Grim yelled from my arms “is there something you wish to know about Riddle?” Chenya snickered.
“Yeah, what created such a control freak?” Ace crossed his arms and grimaced “I believe his four-eyes friend may have the answer.” Chenya kept his giant smile.
“Four-eyed friend? You mean Trey?” Deuce looked at me “he’s known Riddle since we were all little boys. If you want to know more about Riddle, I would begin my quest there.” Chenya nodded as he spoke.
“They’re childhood friends? I didn’t really get that impression.” Deuce shook his head “if you’re so perceptive, then what are you asking me for? Buh-bye!” Chenya started disappearing.
“H-hey!” Deuce yelled after him, Chenya started laughing as he disappeared in thin air “goodbye Chenya!” I yelled out, maybe he heard me, I heard laughter.
“I tell ya, no one makes any sense around here.” Grim huffed “well, we’re not going to be able to do much in the way of schoolwork with these collars on. So let’s go see what Trey has to say, and then…” Deuce muttered.
“If you’re gonna say “apologize to Riddle,” you can forget it!” Ace cut Deuce off, all of them looked at me “maybe we need to set up a little ambush…”
Everyone smirked and Deuce cracked his knuckles.