Dance With Me
Aug 18, 2019 15:14:34 GMT -6
Post by Snick on Aug 18, 2019 15:14:34 GMT -6
It was early morning, and Makepeace was out of the dorms and running. Flying, actually, on his Numb Butt 2000, which was how he referred to his knockoff broom that never quite seemed to be as cool as the Nimbus brooms it was meant to be a knockoff of. Oh, it was as fast as a Nimbus, but at high speeds, the cushioning charm tended to shake and bounce, not unlike riding a ten speed down a pothole and speed bump-ridden street. He was considering going out to a bicycle shop next time they had the opportunity to go out to the city, and just mount a padded bicycle seat on it, but part of him told him that it was really more effort than the cheap broom was worth.
He planned to leave her a trail of flowers, each with a calligraphy clue written on expensive parchment paper - A single word. He knew her schedule, after all, and he even knew her locker combinations thanks to the fact that she had written them down on the inside of one of her binders -- Which he was able to look inside when they sat together in Potions.
He went out to the fields just outside the Elfin village, where wild Marigolds grew, and harvested a large armload, then flew back to the school, where he'd left a fourth floor window unlocked the day before.
He left the flowers in her regular locker, in her desk in Astronomy class, in her locker in the gym, where she would change for Dance Class. He placed one in a hollowed-out book, which he planned to keep with him.
The rest he arranged in a decorative vase from the dorm commons that usually held fake plastic flowers, and levitated it towards her dorm-room door. If she followed her usual routine, she would leave her dorm and find the first bouquet, which said, "Esther, Will." On to her locker to pick up her astronomy book and the second bouquet. "You" Astronomy class, where she would glance inside her desk upon seeing a hint of orange, and find another bouquet. "Dance." On to Dance class, where she'd stash her books and blazer in her P.E. locker and find "With." And finally, at the end of Care of Magical Creatures, he would show her the hollowed-out book with the single marigold inside, and a parchment note that said, "Me" Wrapped around two tickets to the homecoming dance.
As he guided the vase to come to rest outside of Esther's door, he grinned boisterously, feeling oddly... bouncy. Like he wanted to jump up and down. This was going to be amazing. What could possibly go wrong?
Ian Black watched the boy lay out his careful date request. His baby sister. Their family princess. She was only 13. Too young to date. Makepeace was all right, but this was their Esther. She wasn't ready for this. Give her another two or three years, kid, before you get all moony. He noticed the flowers were on the heating vent, and cranked up the thermostat on his way out. Wouldn't want the girls to get chilly feet. He then smirked at the kid in the hallway before heading back to his Legacy.
He would make sure to speak to Esther about the meaning of flowers later on that day. Some of them were really funny.
Makepeace didn't know what the smirk Ian offered him augured, but Esther's older brother didn't pull him aside and give him the business, so he guessed that it might have been a hint of good-natured ribbing to come.
Which was better than an ass-beating any day.
The day progressed, and though they had all the same classes, Makepeace casually avoided being close enough to hear about the flowers and the mysterious messages that Esther was getting. Everything seemed to be going according to plan, though, as Makepeace could see Esther chatting with her friends at lunch in an animated fashion, smiling and laughing and even blushing once or twice. He also saw Ian come up and talk to her, and wondered if the older lad was going to reveal his secret, but Esther didn't look around for Makepeace, and in the crowd, one guy in a school uniform looked just like every other guy in uniform, anyways.
In fact, he was feeling awfully good about himself most of the day, although careful not to tip his hat.
So, when he saw his name paired with Esther's on the board in Social Dance class, he wondered how he was going to keep everything secret. The hollowed-out book was still in his locker, so he couldn't spring it on her quite yet, but as the teacher called the class to order, he couldn't help smiling as he made his way over to her. "Looks like we're dancing today, Miss Black. How's your day been so far?"
"It was so funny, Makepeace. You should have been there. I think those idiots from Horatio Alger tried to get even with me for helping you. They left all these shriveled up marigolds with a dance invitation . . . I mean, most everybody knows that marigolds mean either I despise you or despair of you, and where the flowers were all shriveled up like that . . . I knew they were trying to pull a prank on me, so I didn't fall for it. Who would ask me anyway? I just barely turned 13, and my brother would probably stalk them the whole time if I went with a date." She laughed. "I showed them. I'm not going to let them get me. They were probably going to pull a Carrie on me or something." She grinned, but something felt off with Makepeace.
Makepeace could have sworn that his heart not only fell, but somehow managed to end up on the floor beneath her feet. "Oh, they better not, or else Santa might leave something worse than coal in their stockings." He said to cover for the fact that the smile had completely fled from his face. "I didn't think they were bright enough to figure it all out, to be honest." The flowers had been shriveled? Had Ian done it? It was possible that he knew Esther's locker combinations... Makepeace hadn't even thought to wonder why her older brother was in the Dormitories when he was a Legacy. "I also can't imagine that they'd know the meanings of flowers. I don't." He was trying to recover his cheery composure, but damnit, it hurt to be laughed at, even inadvertently, by someone he cared about. He wanted to tell her it'd been him, that it wasn't like that, that he didn't know the flowers would wilt...
But everything he'd learned since his parents died told him that he should squirrel this hurt away, stick it in the darkest reaches of his heart and never revisit his feelings for her. Esther was popular and pretty and he would slowly fade from her life. She would never miss him. He wanted to hurt her, wanted to see that smile of hers break and see pain reflected in her eyes. But he couldn't bring himself to hurt her. "And anyway, you're not Carrie. She was a misfit, and you're incredible. I'd invite you, but it's bad enough I'm dancing here. If I had to do it in front of a whole auditorium while Ian kept giving me threatening looks..." He ducked his head in mock shyness.
She smiled shyly right back. "But we can dance there, Makepeace. Even if we're too young to date. We'll dance there." Her voice was meant to sound assured, but something was off with him. He was dancing all right now, the stupid boxstep they made them do in social dance, when everyone wanted to do real dancing. "You are going to go, right?" she asked.
1992 was an eventful year for the Legacies. It marked, for one thing, the last time that the Legacies were allowed the privilege of interrupting classes for their hazing rituals. There were also rules enacted against hazing that put students at risk of physical, mental or emotional trauma, even though such things are still rumored to go on to this very day.
Something in Makepeace's face softened to Esther's words, warmed to her. She was right, they could just dance at the dance, and dating could wait. She was worth waiting for, that much he was sure of, and in a year, when Ian left the school, they wouldn't have to worry so much about him looming over his little sister. And she wouldn't have to be in anyone's shadow. "We could..."
He was going to say more, but three guys from ISA walked into the classroom with hall passes in hand. Wearing red devil costumes.
"Sorry, Mrs. Halbermann." Said the lead devil, Robert Skinner. "We have a pop quiz for some of your students. There are seven pledges left and only six spots..." This last part was said with a singsong in his voice accompanied by an air-guitar solo on his plastic pitchfork.
Mrs. Halbermann was a no-nonsense sort of lady, and she sighed, shaking her head. "You have to do this in the middle of class, Robert? MAKEPEACE!?!?"
Makepeace's had grown feral as he heard Robert and his friends enter the room, and he pulled his hand away from Esther's, turning and charging the older boy, bodily shoving him all the way out of the room, and pressing him up against the wall. "You think it's funny?" He yelled, wrenching the plastic pitchfork out of Robert's hand. "You're lucky I don't stick this up your ass!" he said, throwing it down the hall. People were coming out of other classrooms at the sound of the yelling, just in time to see Makepeace grab Robert by the lapels of his cape, pull him away from the wall, and then shove him back into it.
Robert's accomplices and several boys from the class rushed towards Makepeace, grabbing onto him only to have him slip out of their grasp and again shove Skinner against the wall. "I'm through pledging your legacy, asshole!" He shouted. The other boys in the hallway grabbed at him again, and this time managed to secure good holds on his arms and shoulders, and get between him and the shocked-looking young man in the devil costume.
Three or four other instructors came rushing up upon hearing the ruckus, and they shouted for the students to calm down, but Makepeace was still struggling. Unable to use his arms, he leapt upward, trying to kick at Skinner before Mr. Llewellyn appeared with his wand in hand. There was a flash, and then Makepeace crumpled, sagging in the grasp of the people who held him. "It's alright." Llewellyn said, glaring at the students around him inscrutably. "I'm sure everyone has better places to be than in the hallway. Skinner, Park, Feinstein... Principal's office." He said, picking up Makepeace and slinging the boy over his shoulder in a fireman's carry without so much as a grunt of exertion. Seeing everyone milling around, he snapped, "Get back to your classes!"
Makepeace was suspended from classes for a week and forced to take mandatory weekly counseling for three months in the wake of this incident.
Esther was two steps into running after him to stop those bullies from picking on him when the teacher stopped her. Another one of the students, a boy, joined in, and she was effectively held back. "But they're hurting him . . . you don't understand . . . this isn't what Legacies should be about. They should change the rules!"
"Miss Black, you are absolutely right. You are just the girl to lead the fight. I will support you all the way. Now settle down. Fighting isn't the way to deal with these things."
Esther would change the rules. But something had changed between her and Makepeace.
He planned to leave her a trail of flowers, each with a calligraphy clue written on expensive parchment paper - A single word. He knew her schedule, after all, and he even knew her locker combinations thanks to the fact that she had written them down on the inside of one of her binders -- Which he was able to look inside when they sat together in Potions.
He went out to the fields just outside the Elfin village, where wild Marigolds grew, and harvested a large armload, then flew back to the school, where he'd left a fourth floor window unlocked the day before.
He left the flowers in her regular locker, in her desk in Astronomy class, in her locker in the gym, where she would change for Dance Class. He placed one in a hollowed-out book, which he planned to keep with him.
The rest he arranged in a decorative vase from the dorm commons that usually held fake plastic flowers, and levitated it towards her dorm-room door. If she followed her usual routine, she would leave her dorm and find the first bouquet, which said, "Esther, Will." On to her locker to pick up her astronomy book and the second bouquet. "You" Astronomy class, where she would glance inside her desk upon seeing a hint of orange, and find another bouquet. "Dance." On to Dance class, where she'd stash her books and blazer in her P.E. locker and find "With." And finally, at the end of Care of Magical Creatures, he would show her the hollowed-out book with the single marigold inside, and a parchment note that said, "Me" Wrapped around two tickets to the homecoming dance.
As he guided the vase to come to rest outside of Esther's door, he grinned boisterously, feeling oddly... bouncy. Like he wanted to jump up and down. This was going to be amazing. What could possibly go wrong?
Ian Black watched the boy lay out his careful date request. His baby sister. Their family princess. She was only 13. Too young to date. Makepeace was all right, but this was their Esther. She wasn't ready for this. Give her another two or three years, kid, before you get all moony. He noticed the flowers were on the heating vent, and cranked up the thermostat on his way out. Wouldn't want the girls to get chilly feet. He then smirked at the kid in the hallway before heading back to his Legacy.
He would make sure to speak to Esther about the meaning of flowers later on that day. Some of them were really funny.
Makepeace didn't know what the smirk Ian offered him augured, but Esther's older brother didn't pull him aside and give him the business, so he guessed that it might have been a hint of good-natured ribbing to come.
Which was better than an ass-beating any day.
The day progressed, and though they had all the same classes, Makepeace casually avoided being close enough to hear about the flowers and the mysterious messages that Esther was getting. Everything seemed to be going according to plan, though, as Makepeace could see Esther chatting with her friends at lunch in an animated fashion, smiling and laughing and even blushing once or twice. He also saw Ian come up and talk to her, and wondered if the older lad was going to reveal his secret, but Esther didn't look around for Makepeace, and in the crowd, one guy in a school uniform looked just like every other guy in uniform, anyways.
In fact, he was feeling awfully good about himself most of the day, although careful not to tip his hat.
So, when he saw his name paired with Esther's on the board in Social Dance class, he wondered how he was going to keep everything secret. The hollowed-out book was still in his locker, so he couldn't spring it on her quite yet, but as the teacher called the class to order, he couldn't help smiling as he made his way over to her. "Looks like we're dancing today, Miss Black. How's your day been so far?"
"It was so funny, Makepeace. You should have been there. I think those idiots from Horatio Alger tried to get even with me for helping you. They left all these shriveled up marigolds with a dance invitation . . . I mean, most everybody knows that marigolds mean either I despise you or despair of you, and where the flowers were all shriveled up like that . . . I knew they were trying to pull a prank on me, so I didn't fall for it. Who would ask me anyway? I just barely turned 13, and my brother would probably stalk them the whole time if I went with a date." She laughed. "I showed them. I'm not going to let them get me. They were probably going to pull a Carrie on me or something." She grinned, but something felt off with Makepeace.
Makepeace could have sworn that his heart not only fell, but somehow managed to end up on the floor beneath her feet. "Oh, they better not, or else Santa might leave something worse than coal in their stockings." He said to cover for the fact that the smile had completely fled from his face. "I didn't think they were bright enough to figure it all out, to be honest." The flowers had been shriveled? Had Ian done it? It was possible that he knew Esther's locker combinations... Makepeace hadn't even thought to wonder why her older brother was in the Dormitories when he was a Legacy. "I also can't imagine that they'd know the meanings of flowers. I don't." He was trying to recover his cheery composure, but damnit, it hurt to be laughed at, even inadvertently, by someone he cared about. He wanted to tell her it'd been him, that it wasn't like that, that he didn't know the flowers would wilt...
But everything he'd learned since his parents died told him that he should squirrel this hurt away, stick it in the darkest reaches of his heart and never revisit his feelings for her. Esther was popular and pretty and he would slowly fade from her life. She would never miss him. He wanted to hurt her, wanted to see that smile of hers break and see pain reflected in her eyes. But he couldn't bring himself to hurt her. "And anyway, you're not Carrie. She was a misfit, and you're incredible. I'd invite you, but it's bad enough I'm dancing here. If I had to do it in front of a whole auditorium while Ian kept giving me threatening looks..." He ducked his head in mock shyness.
She smiled shyly right back. "But we can dance there, Makepeace. Even if we're too young to date. We'll dance there." Her voice was meant to sound assured, but something was off with him. He was dancing all right now, the stupid boxstep they made them do in social dance, when everyone wanted to do real dancing. "You are going to go, right?" she asked.
1992 was an eventful year for the Legacies. It marked, for one thing, the last time that the Legacies were allowed the privilege of interrupting classes for their hazing rituals. There were also rules enacted against hazing that put students at risk of physical, mental or emotional trauma, even though such things are still rumored to go on to this very day.
Something in Makepeace's face softened to Esther's words, warmed to her. She was right, they could just dance at the dance, and dating could wait. She was worth waiting for, that much he was sure of, and in a year, when Ian left the school, they wouldn't have to worry so much about him looming over his little sister. And she wouldn't have to be in anyone's shadow. "We could..."
He was going to say more, but three guys from ISA walked into the classroom with hall passes in hand. Wearing red devil costumes.
"Sorry, Mrs. Halbermann." Said the lead devil, Robert Skinner. "We have a pop quiz for some of your students. There are seven pledges left and only six spots..." This last part was said with a singsong in his voice accompanied by an air-guitar solo on his plastic pitchfork.
Mrs. Halbermann was a no-nonsense sort of lady, and she sighed, shaking her head. "You have to do this in the middle of class, Robert? MAKEPEACE!?!?"
Makepeace's had grown feral as he heard Robert and his friends enter the room, and he pulled his hand away from Esther's, turning and charging the older boy, bodily shoving him all the way out of the room, and pressing him up against the wall. "You think it's funny?" He yelled, wrenching the plastic pitchfork out of Robert's hand. "You're lucky I don't stick this up your ass!" he said, throwing it down the hall. People were coming out of other classrooms at the sound of the yelling, just in time to see Makepeace grab Robert by the lapels of his cape, pull him away from the wall, and then shove him back into it.
Robert's accomplices and several boys from the class rushed towards Makepeace, grabbing onto him only to have him slip out of their grasp and again shove Skinner against the wall. "I'm through pledging your legacy, asshole!" He shouted. The other boys in the hallway grabbed at him again, and this time managed to secure good holds on his arms and shoulders, and get between him and the shocked-looking young man in the devil costume.
Three or four other instructors came rushing up upon hearing the ruckus, and they shouted for the students to calm down, but Makepeace was still struggling. Unable to use his arms, he leapt upward, trying to kick at Skinner before Mr. Llewellyn appeared with his wand in hand. There was a flash, and then Makepeace crumpled, sagging in the grasp of the people who held him. "It's alright." Llewellyn said, glaring at the students around him inscrutably. "I'm sure everyone has better places to be than in the hallway. Skinner, Park, Feinstein... Principal's office." He said, picking up Makepeace and slinging the boy over his shoulder in a fireman's carry without so much as a grunt of exertion. Seeing everyone milling around, he snapped, "Get back to your classes!"
Makepeace was suspended from classes for a week and forced to take mandatory weekly counseling for three months in the wake of this incident.
Esther was two steps into running after him to stop those bullies from picking on him when the teacher stopped her. Another one of the students, a boy, joined in, and she was effectively held back. "But they're hurting him . . . you don't understand . . . this isn't what Legacies should be about. They should change the rules!"
"Miss Black, you are absolutely right. You are just the girl to lead the fight. I will support you all the way. Now settle down. Fighting isn't the way to deal with these things."
Esther would change the rules. But something had changed between her and Makepeace.
