A week later, you and Deuce walk down one of the school's many hallways. Grim bolts down the hallway and leaps onto your shoulder. Ace comes charging after him.
"Hold it right there, Grim! You're not gettin' off easy today, you hear me?"
Grim smirks and laughs at the red haired boy. "Maybe you shoulda put your name on it if you wanted it that bad!"
Ace glares at the cat. "Why you!"
You roll your eyes and grab Grim off your shoulder, holding him close to your chest. "What is it this time?"
Deuce sighs. "Seriously, don't they ever get tired of this?"
"Hey, Y/N!" Ace turns to you. "You're the prefect, so do some prefecting! This lousy furball swiped the doughnut I bought and ate it! AGAIN!"
Grim leaps down from your arms and shrugs. "I didn't steal nothin' I just saw a snack left abandoned on a desk and gave it a home outta the goodness of my heart."
Ace sends the cat a death glare. "It's not abandoned if it's on somebody's desk! If you're gonna keep runnin', I've got some wind magic up my sleeve with your name on it."
Ace whips out his red jeweled pen and points it at Grim, only angering the cat more.
"Oh YEAH? Try me! I've got fire magic ready to-"
Both Grim and Ace pause and step down. Ace puts his pen back in his jacket pocket.
"Y'know what? I think I'll skip the magic today. I don't wanna get sent to wash even MORE windows."
Grim sheepishly chuckles. "For once, I think you've got the right idea. I'd be embarassin' myself if I was the only one usin' magic, so I'll let you off easy this time."
You quirk an eye at the two, surprised by their sudden change of attitude. "Did you guys really just stopped fighting?"
"Wow." Deuce looks to the two with equal surprise as you. "It's not every day I see you two de-escalate one of your fights without outside intervention. Normally, you go at it until the classrom's blasted to bits and the headmage comes storming in."
Ace only shrugs. "Hey, what kinda punk would I be if I started fighting with a weasel over one lousy doughnut?"
Grim glowers at Ace. "Why do you always have to get in one last smart remark?"
In your home room class, you sit at your desk with Deuce and Ace on either side of you. Crewel slaps the pointer against his hand, gathering everyone's attention.
"It's time for class to start, whelps. Get to your seats. First, I'll pass back your tests."
Deuce nervously bounces his leg. "This is it, the moment of truth."
Grim excitedly hops on your desk. "Myah hah! Gimme! Gimme! I want that test, Prof!"
"Settle down, Grim. Stay. STAY!"
Crewel sternly looks at Grim and you pull him off the desk and into your lap. Grim pouts and folds his arms.
Crewel continues. "I'll call you by your class number. Number one!"
Eventually, everyone receives their test. Ace fist pumps and grins. "SWEET! I got a ninety two!"
Deuce smiles with satisfaction. "I got an eighty eight! I never thought I'd see the day I scored over eighty."
Grim excitedly waves his test in your face. "Check it out, Y/N! I got an eighty five!"
You smile at the boys. "I'm so happy for you guys! Do you see the benefit of studying now!"
Ace waves you off, still looking at his score. "Yeah sure, whatever."
"You appear to have studied a great deal for this exam. Yes." Crewel looks at the celebrating students. "A great deal indeed, compared to your quiz scores." Crewel puts a hand to his chin. "In fact, the class average has gone up to a degree one might call... unusual."
Ace folds his arms. "And what's that supposed to mean?"
"The average test scores across every level of potionology are over ninety." Crewel answers. "Professor Trein has remarked upon similarly positive trends in his magic history classes."
The boy's eyes widened. Deuce runs his hand through his hair. "Say what?"
"Mraaah?" Grim puts his paws to his head worriedly.
"Uh oh." Ace rubs the back of his neck. "I don't like where this is going."
"The school's fifty highest achievers will be posted in the hall. You can look forward to seeing that shortly." Crewel slaps the pointer against his hand. "Now, let us begin today's lesson. Open your textbooks."
The boys race ahead of you as soon as class let out. They all bolt to the announcement board to find their name on the list. A massive gathering of students are already swarming the list, checking to find their name.
Grim weaves under people's feet. "Okay, where am I in the top fifty?"
Deuce and Ace try to push their way through, dragging you with them. Ace nervously scans the list. "With an average score over ninety, we've gotta be in there, right?"
"First ten places... nope. Twenty... nope. Forty-eight, forty-nine, fifty... nope." Grim's hopeful expression drops. "Wait a minute, I ain't in here at all!"
Deuce pales. "N-neither am I..."
"Hold up." Ace looks at the list closely. "There's a list of the total scores each top achiever got across all subjects. The top thirty scored perfect marks, five hundred points!"
"PERFECT MARKS?" Grim and Deuce shout in unison.
You tilt your head. "Can thirty students really ace every test?" You believed it was possible with some students like Riddle and Trey, but thirty?"
"B-but if I don't mak it into the top fifty," Grim puts his paws on his head. "that counts as a breach of contract!"
Ace looks to the cat in shock. "Wait, contract? Oh no. Grim, did you...?"
Deuce grimaces. "Judging by the look on your face, Ace, don't tell me you also-"
Bwooop
In a blink on an eye, little pink sea anemones pop on top of the boy's heads. In fact, all of the students surrounding the board had the anemones too. You take a step back in shock, bringing a hand to cover your open mouth.
"MYAH!" Grim feels the top of his head. "What in the world? A sea anemone just sprouted outta my head!"
Deuce's glowers at the cat. "Grim, you made a contract too? You big cheater!"
Ace rolls his eyes and folds his arms. "Yeah, whatever, Deuce. You're just as guilty, keepin' your friends close and your anemones closer over there!"
"I'll just give it a quick tug, and-" Grim tried to pull the anemone off. "OW! It's not comin' out!"
You look at all the boys as they struggle with their own anemones on their heads. You shake your head in disbelief.
"What in the world just happened?" You ask no one in particular.
"I came to see what all the commotion was. Why am I not surprised it's you guys?"
Turning around, you see Jack walking towards you. He stops next to you and folds his arms. "What're you doing?"
"Jack, did you make a contract too?" Deuce looks to Jack's head but only sees his wolf ears. "Wait, you don't have an anemone!"
Ace scoffs. "So much for looking like a bad boy. You're more of a square than Loosey-Deucey over here!"
Jack twitches his ear. "Okay, what? I'm completely lost here. What are you talking about, and what are those things growing outta your heads?"
"Look, it's uhhh... MROW!" The anemone pulls on Grim's head. "What now? This dang anemone's yanking my head!"
"Owww, geez!" Ace grabs at his head as he gets tugged by the anemone. "It's gonna rip my noggin off!"
Deuce winces as the anemone drags him along. "So when he wrote absolute obedience, this is what he meant..."
All the students in the hallway are dragged by the anemones in the same direction. You look to Jack who looks equally puzzled.
"What now? The way they were walking, it was like the anemones were pulling them in that direction." Jack points to where they're all going. "Is a picture that stupid still worth a thousand words...?"
You sigh. What have they gotten into now?
"We'd better follow them and see what's going on."
Jack folds his arms. "Where do I come in here? This is none of my business."
You shrug. "Okay. I can't make you come with if you don't want to."
You start walking away to follow the boys. Jack shakes his head, not believing what he's about to do. He jogs to catch up to you, putting a hand to your shoulder.
"Fine. I'll keep you company for a little while, at least."
You smile and wrap him in a hug. "Thank you, Jack."
Jack's face slightly reddens. "Let's get this straight though, this is purely out of curiosity. I wanna see what caused this. I couldn't care less about those guys. Just so we're clear on that."
You nod and let go of him. "Of course."
You continue to follow the boys. Jack whispers to himself. "And to protect you from whatever those idiots roped you into."