wednesday briskly made her way to the boy dorms and slipped past the dorm fathers in silence. after sneaking through, she walked up to xavier and ajax's dorm and barged in, not waiting to knock.
"wednesday, what the hell are you doing?!" exclaimed ajax. "i could've been naked or-- or-- or showering!"
wednesday shot him a frightful glare. "you are acting like a child, ajax, and your room is a pig pin. where is xavier?"
"he's-- he's not here right now!" ajax shouted. "just leave! he doesn't wanna talk to you anyways! you're a bitch!"
wednesday continued to glare at the gorgon. "your tells are as explicit as your expository language. call me a bitch again, and i will whirl you off the balcony."
"okay, what's going on?!" xavier exclaimed as he walked out of the bathroom. his hair was wet from the shower. "you're both acting like two-year-olds, and i don't even know what you're saying! i can tell just by the way you're shouting!"
wednesday stared the boy down. "i was not shouting. i was merely threatening your roommate for calling me a bitch."
xavier then turned to ajax and crossed his arms, looking at him in the utmost judgemental stance. "seriously, dude?!"
"she barged in here like it was her own room, xavier! what was i supposed to do? tell her she's welcome and that it's a totally normal thing to barge into other people's dorm rooms like that?!" ajax exclaimed.
xavier heaved out a tired sigh and glanced over at wednesday. "why did you come in here?"
wednesday glared at him and replied, "to confront you about your previous interaction with me this morning."
xavier shook his head and said, "what are you talking about? i didn't see you this morning. i literally left in the middle of class to go find you, and i looked everywhere. seriously, did you just disappear into thin air or something?"
"see, dude?" said ajax. "this is why you gotta stop having feelings for her. she's driving you nuts, dude. you left in the middle of class to go find her."
xavier rolled his eyes and shook his head again. he then looked at wednesday. "can we just talk about this in the morning?"
"only if it is before class," said wednesday. "i can't afford to miss any more history of outcast classes to go meet you in the middle of the woods in jericho."
"you went into jericho this morning?!" exclaimed xavier. "seriously, what the hell are you talking about, wednesday?!"
wednesday glared at him. "xavier, you were there in your nightshade's cloak. stop playing the part of the fool, and admit the truth."
"no i literally wasn't!" exclaimed xavier. "i was all over the school trying to find out where you--"
his sentence was interrupted by the door opening. "xavier, ajax, what is this girl doing in your dorm?" asked their dorm dad.
xavier sighed. "mr. fisher, it's not what you think. wednesday just came here to ask me a question. she wasn't trying to do anything bad or anything--"
"save it for the principal, xavier," said mr. fisher. "i'm sure she'll want to see the three of you in the morning. now, you," he said, turning to wednesday, "you better come with me. i'll personally escort you away from these attrocious young scandals and will return you to the girl's dorms. i'm sure ms. venus will just be thrilled to know you left."
wednesday merely stared at mr. fisher and said, "xavier and ajax are not attrocious young scandals. they are both soft momma's boys who would never be caught in scandals. they are far too innocent."
xavier rolled his eyes. "okay, that is so not fair. do you not remember the whole thing with bianca last year? she literally got so pissed at me that--"
"that's enough, xavier," said mr. thorpe. "move out of the way so i can take the girl back to where she belongs."
xavier moved out of the way, and wednesday glared at the bald, burly teacher. "if you do so much as lay a finger on me, i will personally hunt you down and slowly cut your limbs from the inside out."
"i'd like to see you try, goth princess," said mr. fisher. "you're going back where you came from."
xavier couldn't help but laugh at the teacher. "yeah, good luck with that. you don't wanna test wednesday."
mr. fisher rolled his eyes and quickly grabbed wednesday's arm and began to pull her toward the door. she immediately stomped on his foot and moved around in a hypnotic motion so quickly around the fat man that he fell to his feet.
xavier's eyes lit up as he doubled over in laughter over the fat man on the ground. "i told you, you can't test her! she'll beat your ass, man."
"xavier, let's go," said wednesday.
"wednesday, i love you, but we're not gonna get out of getting in trouble," said xavier.
wednesday felt her entire face pale. he'd just said it again for the first time in weeks. "xavier, this is not the time for such transformative statements. we need to go talk to principal opal. please."
xavier sighed. "wednesday--"
"xavier, now," wednesday emphasized.
"okay, fine. let's go," xavier said as he began walking toward the door.
"not so fast, xavier," said mr. fisher as he grabbed xavier's arm and thrust him backward, landing on his bed.
"you better get going, goth princess," mr. fisher told wednesday, "or i'm gonna make sure you and these two scandals don't see each other anymore."
wednesday narrowed her eyes at the fat teacher. "if you touch my boyfriend again, i will send you flying over the balcony so hard that you will never be able to breathe again."
xavier sat up immediately. wednesday had just called him her boyfriend again.
mr. fisher's face reddened. "damn it, i knew you two were together. if you touch me, little girl, i'll make sure you're thrown out of this school."
xavier looked over at his dorm dad. "just let her go, mr. fisher, please. it's not like she wanted to do anything bad. i told you. she just wanted to talk to me. about a serious matter, man. don't you understand that?"
wednesday immediately walked right past the fat teacher, grabbed xavier's hand, and pulled him toward the door. "we are going to talk to the principal now. by the end of this, you should consider yourself lucky if you are still employed," she told mr. fisher.
the dorm father rolled his eyes. "good luck with that, goth princess. you'll be lucky if principal opal doesn't send you away for good."
xavier tightened his grasp around wednesday's hand before she would try to let go. "xavier, let go of my hand," she said.
he frowned. "why?"
"we are going to talk to the principal of the entire school," said wednesday. "it would be foolish to display any kind of affection in front of her."
xavier huffed, shrugged, and dropped her hand. "fine."
"i am doing the talking," said wednesday. "i need you to go along with what i say even if you do not agree with it."
"look, wednesday, i dunno if that's such a good idea. i mean, i trust you and all, but i don't think the principal will," said xavier.
wednesday glared at him. "xavier, let me handle it."
xavier sighed. "wednesday, i really don't know if that's such a good--"
"my, my, what are you two doing in the halls so late? an evening walk?" principal opal asked as soon as she walked around the corner.
"principal opal," said wednesday, "we were just on our way to visit you in your office."
"oh?" said principal opal. "what for?"
xavier hesitantly looked down at wednesday. "it might be better if we talk about it in your office. it's a lot of explaining to do."
..............................
"alright, miss addams, mister thorpe, what brings you two here so late at night? is something wrong that i must be made known of?" asked the principal.
xavier shook his head. "it's kinda more of an explanation. i'll leave it to wednesday."
"i went to visit xavier in his dorm, which i am aware is off limits," said wednesday, "but i had to speak about him urgently about something that i learned of this morning. something about yoko's death."
principal opal raised an eyebrow. "you are quite the detective, aren't you, miss addams? do tell more about this information concerning miss tanaka's death."
xavier watched wednesday talk intensely. he knew she wasn't going to flat-out lie to the principal, but he didn't know if she would twist something into a half-lie.
"i met with someone this morning," said wednesday, "after getting a note last night to tell me when and where to meet someone for an explanation. the person was wearing a mask, and they told me that it was not sheriff galpin who killed yoko. it was laurel gates's partner, markus peterson. he did it out of revenge."
principal opal shook her head. "i should've known that peterson was behind this. he and laurel were close when they were young, and he moved away when she joined nevermore. thank you for figuring this out, miss addams. is there anything else you'd like to share?"
"no, that's it," said wednesday, "but i do want you to know the reason i went to meet with xavier tonight was to tell him exactly that. he has helped me on prior cases."
the principal nodded. "of course. i understand, miss addams. there will be no punishment because of your bravery to figure out what happened. i do hope that in the future you and mister thorpe will come to me with your knowledge. you two would make a wonderful team as a detective agency when you are older."
xavier shrugged with a smug grin. "who knows, maybe that's what we'll do."
"thank you, principal," said wednesday.
"yeah, really, thank you," said xavier as they left.
as soon as they were out of the office and the door was shut, he turned to wednesday. "did... did that all really happen, wednesday? is that what you came to talk to me about?"
"you were there, xavier," said wednesday, "stop playing the part of the fool. you told me everything. when did he threaten you?"
on a whim, xavier grabbed both of her shoulders and stared her down. "i wasn't there, wednesday. i dunno why you think i was, but i wasn't. i was looking for you."
"xavier, you truly are the most incompetent artist i know. have they erased your memory now? is that why you can not remember a thing?" asked wednesday.
"oh, so you wanna play at that game now, huh?" asked xavier. "i'll prove it to you that i wasn't there. you missed two classes, wednesday. i only missed half of one. it would've taken us the same time to get back to the school if we were at the same place, and it didn't. because i wasn't there."
wednesday frowned. he had stumped her. "you are right, xavier. i didn't think you were, but you are. it wasn't you."
"finally, you admit it," xavier said with a lighter laugh. "so... uh... when you said that i was your boyfriend earlier... were you just saying it to scare away mr. fisher?"
wednesday frowned again. he had stumped her twice. "i do not know."
"you don't know?" xavier asked with a confused frown.
"yes," said wednesday. "i'm not sure. perhaps principal opal was right about us making a good team."
xavier couldn't help but smile. "so... metaphorically... if i kissed you right now... would you want to try to kill me afterward?"
"no, but i may try tomorrow," replied wednesday.
xavier smiled. "good."
seconds later, he leaned down closer to her with a delighted smile and cupped her face with his hands. "i've missed you, wednesday. i told you, i'll always be here."
"i will always be here too, xavier," wednesday said a little quieter, "even if it does mean that i want to kill you many days."
"it's a good thing i'm used to it," xavier said before his lips touched hers.
wednesday didn't hesitate to kiss back.
wednesday and xavier were back,
and this time, nothing would separate them.