Saturday finds himself in a cold and pale forest, exactly the one in which he was in currently, but there was an eerie feeling in the air.
He stands up and looks around.
He was right in front of Joseph Crackstone's grave, except, he noticed sharply, that snow was falling from the white sky.
He turns around and finds himself face to face with a tall and pale boy, the same height as himself, with dirty blonde hair and cold brown eyes, dressed in a brilliant silver shirt and trousers, holding a large leather covered book. Saturday notices immediately that the young boy's facial features and build resembled his own to a startlingly similar degree. It made him feel uneasy. Who was he?
The boy with floppy, dirty blonde locks looks coldly at his floppy, black haired counterpart, assessing him. Standing face to face, the two, tall, lean boys were like the opposite sides of a coin. One light. One dark.
Saturday furrowed his black eyebrows ever so slightly at the boy in front of him, his luscious lips seemingly to have gained a bit of colour from the freezing snow, his cold secretive eyes sparkling in interest.
The blonde haired boy opened his mouth and says mysteriously in a cold and deep voice, "You are the key."
Saturday glances him up and down before he returns to consciousness.
"Taking a pupnap?" teases Bianco as he and his co-pilot grab their yellow-with-a-black-beetle flag and quickly turn to run back to their canoe.
Saturday lifts his head with his arms and stare inquisitively at the grave of Joseph Crackstone. The building made of stone had double doors a dark turquoise colour with a hooded stone angle statue at its front doors.
He quickly gets up off the yellow and orange leaf scattered floor, black flag in hand and hurry off back to his teammates.
The Red Jokers were in front with The Yellow Beetles a fair way back as both canoes row out of the narrow lake with the island neighbouring its sides. The Black Canines were nowhere to be seen...Yet.
"Come on!" prompts a teammate.
"Hurry up, we have to go!" calls another.
The three remaining boys dressed in black skin suits with black puppy/cub canine ears were all sitting impatiently in their black canoe as Saturday runs into view, carrying the large black flag.
Bianco's team was starting to catch up to Ajax's.
Sitting at the very front, Red Joker Ajax stares in surprised dismay as his canoe started leaking water from what looked to be four sharp claw marks.
"What's going on?" he yells exasperatedly.
The Red Jokers could only paddle in dismay as their red canoe started sinking exponentially. Ethan crows triumphantly as The Black Canines pass them with ease.
"See ya, jokers!" the handsome, young werewolf calls out devilishly.
"Cheaters!" Ajax yells, in vain as his team sunk.
"I just told myself. "SSS" Suppose. Surmise. Saturday." Ethan turns his head back to Saturday as he says proudly, then promptly stares straight ahead as the team rows effortlessly.
The Black Canines were slowly but surely catching up to The Golden Beetles.
"The final two teams are The Gold Bugs..." Principal Weems announces slowly as he looks through his black binoculars, smiling with excitement. The crowd behind him cheered loudly and whooped excitedly. A bunch of students in the centre waving yellow flags. "...and The Black Canines." He lowers his binoculars slowly as his smile turns into a slight frown.
The tall, lean, auburn haired teacher, Mr. Thornhill, clapped and smiled excitedly as his large pale hand reaches up and adjusts his turquoise glasses, by far the most enthusiastic of the teachers.
"GO! GO! GO! GO! GO! GO! BLACK CANINES!" cried out Misaki with such a passion in her big golden eyes as soon as her young Master's team was in view that Eugene gave her an inquisitive look- she was usually so submissive and quiet.
Out on the lake, Saturday momentarily stops rowing to flick the second switch on the floor of their canoe (Thing already switched the first one).
Thick metal spears popped out of trapdoors on the sides of the Black canoe. The boys wanted to do brutal damage to their arrogant golden counterparts.
The Black Canines started to pick up their pace, edging closer and closer to The Gold Bugs. Both teams had stuck their flags high in the front of their canoe, proof that they had retrieved it.
Bianco's team all turned around to look at the canoe that was catching up to them.
Saturday gave them an icy, hard glare.
The spears edged ever so close to the yellow canoe but they had not expected the merman to roughly shove their black canoe away from it.
Bianco's co-pilot gave a winning smirk as the black canoe was pushed further and further away. Though, Bianco himself only looked apprehensive, they had only just escaped a crisis after all.
The Black Canines' canoe was being pushed roughly towards the red marker- the object that had destroyed The Pit and the Pendulum's chance at victory. The merman was too strong for just the rowers to handle.
Ethan worriedly pants as he helplessly rows, much like his other two teammates, but Saturday remained cold and calm.
Thing jumps from Ethan's seat into the murky water and swims toward the merman...
He lands a strong decisive punch on the boy's face.
Thing flutters his long pale fingers to get over the impact, as the boy once again, sinks deeper into the lake; unconscious this time.
Out on the landing, flags of the colours, red, indigo, yellow and black were fluttering in the air, the students excitedly waving them and hoping that their favourite team wins.
The Black Canines begin to once again catch up to The Gold Bugs, and it was Bianco and his team's turn to fear.
Saturday and Ethan give their competition a scorching glare, upon reaching them.
The black speared canoe passes the yellow canoe and the sharp metal pierces through the brittle wood, creating deep gashes.
Bianco's foot hurriedly lifts out of the way for fear of being cut.
"Gotcha!" Ethan cries triumphantly, his deep voice laced with satisfaction.
Water immediately started to fill the yellow canoe, wetting the shoes and ankles of the boys inside.
Bianco gives a deep frown at his loss, but was helpless, giving only a frustrated grunt, his knuckles paling on his oar.
Ethan and Saturday and the rest of their team could almost hear a triumphant fanfare playing as they rowed strongly to the finish line.
In the crowd, Eugene gives a huge grin, as Misaki was almost lifted off her tippy toes into the blue blue sky. Xaviera claps loudly and whoops.
A black FINISH flag with white lettering had been set up in the front of the crowd, custom to The Black Canines' win.
The canoe glides smoothly back to its starting position as Ethan and Saturday both grab the flag and run across the wooden deck, onto the landing, under the tall FINISH sign, their teammates following suit.
Ethan had a wild ecstatic look in his crystal blue eyes and a big grin on his pale face which made him all the more handsome and the girls gushed and screamed as the tall, lean but muscular boy runs past, though admittedly, they were also staring admiringly at the tall, lean, black haired, pale skinned, obsidian eyed boy who was next to the werewolf.
Saturday also had a slight of a happy smile on his flawless face as he ran. Not to mention the black puppy/cub canine ears and full skin suits made the boys look like kawaii superheroes.
"Yeah, we did it!" yells Ethan happily as he slung an arm around his co-pilot, when they come to a stop.
Thing crawls tiredly but contentedly out of the water onto the wooden deck, shaking water droplets off his supple skin.
"HOLY SHIT, Saturday, we did it! This is the greatest moment of my entire life." exclaims Ethan exhilaratingly, shaking his roommate by the shoulders. Saturday remained unmoving but Misaki and his team all knew that he was more than pleased with himself.
"Admit it, you kinda got into the whole school spirit thing." Ethan smiles happily as he stops shaking Saturday.
Saturday gives the hint of a genuine smile as he turns his gaze towards the runt in the water: Bianco Barclay and his 'almighty team of sirens' were slowly starting to pull themselves out of the muddy water. The hard black boy had an angry and frustrated look on his face as he and his co-pilot forced themselves onto the wooden deck.
"You didn't tell me it was a dark, vengeful spirit." smirks Saturday in amusement at Bianco's defeated state.
He then finds Misaki's pale oval face in the crowd and gives her a cold smirk, as if saying, "You were right all along. There was no doubt that your Master would win. Especially against that arrogant runt."
She blushes a faint pink on her soft cheeks and shyly looks away, clapping more rigorously.
The crowd continued to clap and wave their colourful flags as every member of The Black Canines jumped up and down excitedly, Saturday excluded.
Back on the pentagon, Ethan gives a brilliant smile in his black and navy uniform with a golden hand sown Nevermore crest, beside his slightly shorter roommate Saturday, in his black and grey uniform with a silver embroidered Nevermore crest. The polar opposite of his white-blonde (with pink and blue streaks) counterpart, the black haired, obsidian eyed boy had an annoyed expression on his sharp features.
"The first Poe Cup took place in 1897 as a way to not only honour Nevermore's most famous alumni, but to celebrate those values that all outcasts share." announced Principal Lukas Weems proudly, on the slightly raised grey, stone platform into his silver retro microphone. The winners stood slightly behind him Saturday and Ethan in front, with their hands in their trouser pockets. Behind them was a doorway into the castle-like building. The black Poe Cup with silver arms and a silver base, stood on a tall black balustrade, next to the white-blonde Principal clad in off-white.
The black, yellow, red and indigo flags were set up on Principal Weem's other side.
Mr. Thornhill, in his jade overcoat, and the fencing Maestro, in his royal purple casual jacket and pants, two stripes of baby blue on the arms and legs, stood in front of the 'stage', one on each side.
"Community, perseverance, and determination." smiles the tall, lean and muscular Principal, grandeur laced in his deep honeyed voice, his crystal blue eyes sparkling.
Ethan kept looking at Misaki, smiling his radiant smile and she could not help but blush deeply under his hot azure gaze. Saturday looked coldly apathetic, as his dark obsidian eyes drilled hard into her light golden ones. It made her shudder, but the shiver crawling down her small back was far from unpleasant.
"And we certainly saw those values on display today." finishes their Principal grandly, his luscious deep voice reverberating throughout the open space.
He reaches out his gloved hands and gently grabs hold onto the large trophy by its arms, lifting it carefully off its balustrade.
Smiling pleasantly, he hands the trophy into Ethan's eagerly waiting arms.
"Whoo!" the young werewolf shouts, lifting the cup high over his head.
The crowd of students cheer and pump their fists in the air, as Saturday continues to furrow his brows.
"You would think he'd show some delight in winning." mutters Eugene as he nonetheless claps enthusiastically.
"Yeah!" yells Ethan happily.
"Congratulations to Ophelius Hall!" Principal Weem's voice rang out loud and clear around the pentagon.
"As a former resident, I will be happy to see the cup back on the mantle after all these years." continues Principal Weems, smiling, then clapping politely with his cream white gloved hands.
None of them, except Misaki, notices that Saturday stalks away abruptly, still looking sharp and apprehensive. She quickly follows suit, leaving Eugene confused as to where the petite girl had gone.
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