Part 32 - Odd

Y/n

I have been asleep for way too long.

But hey, I ain't complaining. I wake up when my alarm does. It just felt like it was taking a lot more time to scream into my ears than usual.

Like you know you should be waking up but when you open your eyes it's way too early?

Except this time I couldn't be bothered to check how early it really was, I was just waiting for the annoying sound of this week.

I was here, awake, but I wasn't? I don't know if that makes sense, but I could hear the stuff around me faintly even without having to be conscious. 

It was messing with my brain a little bit , but I'm not gonna turn down a few extra minutes.

Then I heard a distant whisper.

"...pretty girl."

Why do I feel like I've heard that voice before?

What kind of weird dream am I having right now, and how the fuck can I stay asleep to finish it.

Maybe if I just focused hard enough, the voice would become clearer and I'd be able to tell who it was. Come on brain don't let me down now...

I know I'd heard it countless times before, but never saying those particular words.

I almost had it, the familiar sound was just shy of being placed, I just needed a little time to figure it out. It's on the tip of my tongue, what was it-

"Sooooo tell me what you want what you really really want!-"

Oh for fucks sake.

Yeah, you know that train of thought I had just a few seconds ago, that's gone. Left the station and is not coming back. 

Now it decides to interrupt me, what the hell happened to my peace and quiet?

Well obviously the spice girls don't want me figuring out shit this morning, so I better just accept that now was the time to get up.

The sound of a click from what sounded like it could've been the door made me pause for a second.

Nah, it was locked, so nobody could be coming in, I must be hearing things.

With a reluctant groan, I flip onto my other side and bury my face into my pillow while my hand blindly reaches for my nightstand where I had left my phone to charge last night before I fell asleep. 

I fumbled around for a second, but my fingers located the rectangular device I was ever so used to, and I swiped the alarm off.

Okay, now that the sound was gone, I just had to will myself out of bed.

Or you know, maybe just roll off and hope I don't break anything.

But I didn't particularly feel like showing up to class today with bruises, so it'd be better if I choose the former option just for this morning. I'll willingly inflict pain upon myself some other time.

I lift my head a few inches up from my pillow, so that my voice wouldn't be muffled as I called out for the boy who was probably still fast asleep in his own bed, even after that god forsaken alarm.

"Pugsley, time to get up."

...

Silence. Not even the daily groan of refusal I heard every morning that I'd expected at the very least.

"Pugsley! Come on, we've got shit to do."

Still nothing. How far deep into sleep is the guy today? Am I gonna have to pull him out of bed again, or can I just shout him awake?

I'll try the not violent version first before anything else.

I push up on my hands off my mattress, and I lifted my arm up to push away my hair, though it seemed to be already out of my face unlike every other morning, normally there'd be half of it in my mouth and the rest is in knots the size of Texas.

Weird. 

My eyes open, and the sunlight hits them in a way that made me take a second to adjust to the world around me.

While I waited for my vision to fully come to normal, I turned my body to face where Pugsley slept in his bed.

"Ugh, Pugsley, how deeply asleep are y-"

Oh.

He's...not there.

And now that I was finally looking around, he wasn't anywhere in the room.

How did he wake up before me?

It isn't like him to be up before 8am.

That was the time wasn't it...?

I turn back to my nightstand, where my phone lay, unplugged. I could've sworn I put it on to charge last night, but maybe I imagined that in my tired stupor.

I reach over and double tap the screen, turning it on to show the photo I had taken yesterday of Eugene and Pugsley when I got bored of studying. It  brought a slight smile to my lips when I looked at it, because it was the first time I'd seen both of them truly happen together, and I wasn't going to forget it, ever.

Wait, why did it say 8:17. My alarm goes off at 8 every morning without fail. I must be tripping right now, was there a bug on my phone or what? Maybe I should just leave it here to charge while I'm in class since apparently I didn't do it last night.

But when I glanced up at my battery percentage, it showed itself to be 100%

Okay genuinely what the fuck is going on? Something weird is happening with my morning, and it was making me question if I was actually awake yet, or if this was just some messed up dream I was still inside of.

So to sum up, I had a dream about a voice I swear I almost knew, my phone is fully charged without being plugged in, Pugsley is nowhere to be seen, and my alarm was roughly 15 minutes late.

This is fine. Totally fine. I may be going crazy, but at least I'm not dead or anything.

I just had to get out of this room, and go about my day as if none of this just happened. 

Easy peasy. 

At least I could get dressed in peace today without worrying about Pugsley peeking at me. Not that I thought he ever would do that, he's too much of a gentleman, but there is always that sliver of a chance.

My head fell back onto my pillow as I stared up at the ceiling above me, and I couldn't help the giant smile that graced my lips as I thought back to last night.

I let my feet kick under my blanket, giggling like an idiot without the worry of anybody else hearing me this time, and my hands come up to cover my face.

Oh my god.

I'd almost kissed him.

He'd almost kissed me.

I have to pull myself together before I internally combust.

I sigh, kicking my sheets off of me, and when I stood up from my bed, something fell to the floor by my feet with a small squeak, and I look down to see what it was.

Wait hold the fuck up, he's supposed to be hidden under my bed, why the frickity frack fuck is he doing falling from on top of it. Oh god please don't tell me Pugsley saw him, I would literally die from embarrassment.

At my feet lay the small toy mouse that I'd tucked away from any prying eyes at the start of the year so nobody would make fun of me for still having a stuffed animal at the age of 16, but somehow he made his way up onto my bed.

I am so done with today already, can it be over yet? I wanna go back to bed.

My uniform hung from a coat hanger on the outside of my closet, just waiting to be worn, and who am I to deny it that joyful thing that is quite literally it's only purpose.

The slow shuffle I took to go over to my closet took at least a minute within itself, and then something clicked in my brain.

If my alarm went off 15 minutes late,

That means if I don't get my ass into gear, I'll be 15 minutes late for everything too. And I don't just mean my classes, I mean everything I have to do before then. We've been over this, I have a routine, a process if you will, and 15 minutes is no joke.

The goddess of alarm clocks and punctuality is laughing at me right now isn't she.

Well, I'm not going to let this tiny setback ruin my whole day. I'll let the math test I've got later do that for me. I was fairly certain I'd pass.

Oh you think I mean the test? Haha no,

I mean pass away.

I may have spent all day staring at my textbook and writing shit down, but I was mostly doodling in the corner of the page and spacing out at every opportunity.

If Yoda were here right now, he'd say,

'Cooked, you are.'

Yes wise Jedi, yes I am.

No need to fret the small stuff though, I was crushing every other class, math just hates me and my soul for some unknown reason, and you know what, the feeling is mutual.

And there wasn't much purpose in worrying about something inevitable, so I'll just have fun with everything else and forget math evens exists. Starting with getting this fucking uniform on.

I swear, this thing gets smaller every morning. My butt ain't that big, okay, but apparently these tights say otherwise. The struggle is real. 

But the uniform is on, that was the goal. Great awesome I still wanna go back to bed, but we're doing this, so no take backsies. 

With shoes being pulled onto each foot, tied accordingly, and bag grabbed off the floor at the end of my bed, along with my hair put in a very rushed braid, I was at least somewhat ready for the day. I really hope it gets better from this point, I am feeling super disoriented right now.

I shake out my limbs, jumping a couple of times to pull my thoughts together as I pluck my keys from my desk, the new whale shark pendant hanging down, reflecting a beautiful blue in the sunlight that I couldn't see before in the darkness. And it just made it even more perfect than it was previously.

The commute through the halls and down the horrendous amount of stairs on each level out towards the courtyard was the same as each time before, and each time it only felt like more of a calming route that brought peace to my mind in it's familiarity.

It might seem dumb to find calmness with a simple walk every day, but to me it felt safe, like my life had some sort of normalcy amongst all of the chaos that being an outcast brought me. 

And even the actual chaos of said courtyard brought a smile to my face, and frankly I just felt grateful I got to experience this type of place in my life unlike normies who have to endure regular high school, which I heard, from one of my friends outside of Nevermore, who didn't have any powers or outcast traits, is to be said as very...

Well, shit.

So while I may have to encounter the occasional zombie or homicidal Hyde, I'd take that over an eventless repetitive life of a normie any day. Though I suppose I don't really know what my life would be like if I wasn't an outcast, so I can't make that call.

Around the last corner down onto the ground floor, my body collided with another, causing the both of us the stumble slightly as we regained our bearings, and I saw a flash of pitch black hair.

Ah shyte.

There stood the girl who could not show you what she was thinking through facial expressions to save her life, and I was well prepared to get an ear full about watching where I was going, which in all fairness, I wasn't really doing.

"Wednesday, I am so sorry, I didn't even see you and I-"

"Oh my gosh no you're totally fine don't even worry about it!"

...

Huh?

Wait, what the fuck was that.

This had to be some person who just looked a lot like Wednesday, because I have never heard her say the words 'oh my gosh' in the entire time that I've known her. Either that or she is severely broken this morning.

But before I got the chance to ask, she was already scurrying off in the opposite direction like she'd just done something bad or embarrassing.

I guess I was wrong after all, my day can get weirder.

But I suppose it's not out of the ordinary for something weird to be going on around here, this place was just like that.

Though,

The single thing I wouldn't trade for the world, was the friends that I've made at this school. One of which was waving me down from across the courtyard, right now. His curls and adorable smile showing me he was happy to see my face today.

A joyous grin turns my lips upwards as I skip over to Eugene, who greeted me with a friendly hug and a pat on my back. 

Maybe I'd judged him a little too early about the changes he went through over the summer. While he might be a little different from last year, he had a lot of shit happen to him, so I couldn't blame the guy for being a little shaken up.

But he seems to be gradually returning to the same sweet boy I had met and gotten so close to last year, and for that I was grateful.

"Hey, you seem surprisingly chipper for a Monday morning."

The skepticism on my face was probably obvious, and it's not like I wasn't glad that he was happy to see me. But like...why?

He shrugs.

"Can't a guy just be super pumped to greet his awesome sauce friend for no reason?"

Okay yeah there was definitely something else going on here. He only uses the phrase 'awesome sauce' when he's trying to hide the fact that he's upset, that much I knew. Something I think he'd picked up from me unknowingly.

"You can, but I'm guessing that's not the whole story here. So, what happened?"

He stayed silent, looking off to the side away from me, but I could see the disappointment creeping onto his face slowly.

"...The guys from Caliban saw me hanging out with you and Pugsley yesterday, and they kind of ditched me to go hang out without me..."

It was then that I really saw it.

He was still just that lonely boy with a love for bugs and a heart of gold who wanted to make real friends more than anything, and the people who he thought liked him, ended up leaving in the end.

"Aw, E, I'm sorry..are you okay?"

He gives me short reassuring nod.

"Yeah, those guys were kind of assholes anyway, I think I'd much rather hang out with you and Pugsley, they didn't actually get me like the two of you do."

He sighs.

"Plus, after spending some time with the dude, I've realized that Pugsley isn't actually that bad, he's pretty cool. And he likes bugs, though not entirely in the same sense that I do."

I smile at him.

"Well, I'm glad that you and him could be friends, and I like to think I played a pretty big role in this budding friendship."

He rolls his eyes at my cheesiness.

"Yeah yeah, think what you want. But uh...can I maybe stick with you today?"

Like he even had to ask.

"Of course you can, I do have a question though since we're on the topic. Have you seen Pugsley at all this morning? He wasn't in the dorm when I woke up."

The awkward expression on his face kind of answered that for me.

"I uh, yeah, I passed by him earlier. He was saying something about needing the day to himself, and then something else about a family dinner later, so he would probably spend the night at the cottage...so..."

oh.

"He didn't mention that, guess it slipped his mind.."

...

"Are...you okay?"

Eugene questioned , pulling me from my zoned out state, and I nod.

"Yeah, sorry. We should get going, we've got a math test to flunk."

Eugene lets out a snort as one of his arms slings over my shoulders, pulling me along with him as we move to leave the courtyard towards where our first class was. He and I shared most of the same schedule, while Pugsley would be in different classes today.

So I get to spend the day with Eugene, which isn't gonna be so bad.

««« ♪ ♪ »»»

"You've got plenty of your own right there!"

It was a half exclamation, half laugh from Eugene as I plucked another fry from his lunch.

I popped it into mouth, laughing along with him as I chewed.

"Yeah but yours are just better!"

"Okay then let me try yours if mine are sooo much better."

He started to reach his hand across the table, but I smacked it away and wiggled my finger dramatically.

"Nuh uh. You see Eugene, my food is my food. And your food, is also my food."

He just stares at me dumbfounded as his arm rests back on the edge of the table.

"You are truly insufferable sometimes."

I grin ear to ear as I steal another fry.

"Thank you, I take pride in that."

The two of us exchanged moments more of laughter at each others antics, which we had become accustom to from one another whenever we hung out like this, and it turned into a sort of back and forth banter that pretty much summed up our friendship. Easy and fun, without any true malice behind our words, for we always knew it was all just jokes.

He and I sat together at a table in the courtyard, enjoying our lunch break after a very grueling hour and a half of classes, including the math test. Eugene would probably end up passing, and yes this time I do mean the test, and I just hoped for the knowledge I already knew to be enough to get a good grade at the very least.

The mood of the crowd soon started to shift though, when it became less of unbridled chaos, and more like a mass confusion, with Eugene and myself following what seemed to be the big deal that had everyone in such a shocked state.

At first when I saw the flashing of moving colors brighter than my future, I assumed it to be the dear cotton candy werewolf, that now that I think about it, I had not seen yet today at all. But when I took a closer look, my thoughts were proven otherwise.

Oh. 

Dear.

God.

I wasn't sure if I was imagining the sight before me or not, but I wouldn't be surprised if I was indeed still just in a horrible dream that I simply could not awaken from. But when I pinched my arm, multiple times, I felt the pain that came with it.

So something was genuinely going on today that I don't think anybody here could explain. 

Especially not that.

The same acquaintance that I had bumped into this morning on my walk though the halls, now stood atop the boulder that could be seen from every corner of the yard, and boy was she being seen alright. Kind of hard not to stare at her when she was dressed fully in the rainbow colors, instead of her usual black attire that she was so well known for.

But that was not the most disturbing part of this.

No, if it were just the clothing, I would pass it off as simply one of the shapeshifters playing some prank for attention.

But she was dancing. Like, really energetically. Jumping around and smiling at everyone who gave her their gaze, causing quite the scene for people to laugh at.

Because that is what most were doing. Phones out, recording this odd behavior, and will most likely post it online for the world to see, and Wednesday didn't seem to care at all. She simply just continued on, moving around in such a way that usually I would have thought caused her great disgust.

"What is happening right now..?"

I speak to the boy sitting across from me, though I did not dare to take my eyes off of Wednesday.

"I have no idea, but this is not normal."

Well, was anything with that girl ever truly normal in the eyes of others? I would think not, but this occasion was really something else.

From the table not too far from our own, where Bianca and Ajax sat, they had their own questions.

"What the hell is going on here?"

Bianca shrugged at Ajax.

"Looks like Wednesday Addams has...finally cracked?"

I don't think there was really a right answer as to what this was, but it still hadn't stopped.

Wednesday stepped down from the rock, moving to the space in the middle of the crowd surrounding her, and she almost looked...proud of herself? Smug at the very least. But there was no way that there wasn't something else going on with her.

Like the fact that she was scratching herself every few seconds, along with what looked to be blemishes rapidly appearing on her face. And once she grabbed the phone of one of the kids who was recording her, turning it to see herself in the reflection,

The loudest shriek I've ever heard her make comes out of her mouth.

Soon enough, she is on the ground, scratching at every surface on herself that she could reach, twisting and turning as those said blemishes grew bigger and more unsightly.

I turn to Eugene only using my head.

"Should we...I dunno, help?"

His expression was just as unsure as mine, and a small hum left his throat.

"Yeahhh, I'm not sure about that one. I don't have much desire to try and do nice things for Wednesday when she's acting normal, I'm afraid she may try something drastic if were to help her now. She's resilient, I'm sure she'll be fine...I think."

Wednesday was out of here pretty quickly, running away with her shame and itchy skin while everyone around just sort of hovered, unsure of what to do with the situation now.

But she was no longer the Addams that had my attention.

The long strides of another familiar figure across the courtyard caught my gaze. 

And I caught his too.

I sent Pugsley a smile and a short wave, but his eyes left mine as quickly as they found them, with no response to my silent greeting.

He started to walk on after not even sparing me a second glance, but he's stopped short by a certain redhead that greeted him with a sickenly sweet smile.

I couldn't hear what she was talking to him about, nor could I attempt to read their lips from this far away. But I felt a strange sense of annoyance when I saw his reaction to her words.

He was laughing.

Whatever... I don't care who he talks to, even if another girl is making him laugh. I kind of thought I was the only one who could do that, but so what... She can't be THAT funny.

I mean it's not like he's on the floor clutching his stomach like he was last night, so I still hold that title above her. But the way she was looking at him made me want to go over there and rip that dumb fucking smile right off of her dumb freckled face.

Woah. Oh my god stop. That's way too far, it's just an innocent conversation between two people. Albeit two people that I've never even seen actually speak nicely to each other before, but that only begged the question of why she was being so friendly towards him all of a sudden.

Pugsley glanced back over to me as Agnes continued to chat away about whatever stupid thing she was thinking, and I rolled my eyes as I was the one to ignore him this time. He wants space? Fine, then I'll give him space. He can talk to whoever the fuck he wants, it's not my problem.

I sigh as I return to my position looking at Eugene, grabbing another fry from his lunch and popping it into my mouth with a newfound aggressiveness that I think he noticed, because he quirked one of his eyebrows.

"You...okay?"

"Yup. Never better."

I glance back over to Pugsley, and Eugene's eyes follow my own before he sighs.

"Hey, I'm certain things are fine, it's not like anything has happened with you guys that would make him disregard you, so just give him today to do whatever he's doing, and it'll be back to normal soon enough. I'm sure of it."

Well, about that...I had a feeling I did actually know why Pugsley wished for space away from me. I had just hoped it wasn't the reason for his distance. It didn't even happen, it was barely a possibility that it would have happened at all, I didn't think it would have affected him that much. And after staying up together so late last night I thought things were fine between us, but I guess not.

Should I tell Eugene about it though? I mean, it barely lasted a moment, I don't know if it's really worth telling, especially when I know if I think about it I'll just get my hopes up about what it truly was that happened between Pugsley and I.

I just give Eugene a slight nod.

"Yeah, you're right,"

But I couldn't help but have a little fun with this.

"But what do you know? You suddenly an expert in boy-girl relationships or something? I had no idea that little crush on Enid you had actually worked out, good for you man."

I felt a tiny smirk creep up on my lips as Eugene's jaw dropped lower than my current math grade, and he scoffs.

"I'm gonna pretend you didn't just say that so we can stay friends."

I pick up a tiny burnt fry from the bottom of the pile, and I chuck it at him gently as I cough.

"Ahem- Wimp-"

I could feel his glare as he picked up his water bottle and unscrewed the lid.

"Okay you know what?"

Oh shit.

He throws the remaining water from his bottle over the table and right at me, hitting straight onto my shirt, and I let out a soft laugh of pure shock.

"Oh you little..."

The two of us both rise from our seats, grabbing ammo of various bits of food and water, and we ran around the table and courtyard in a game of food tag trying to hit each other while laughing uncontrollably.

There may have been several people watching this scene, but I didn't really care,

I was spending time with Eugene the same way that I used to.

Just being friends. 

-------------------

Can you guys tell that I was watching Bridgerton while writing the second half of this chapter...

Cause I sure can, I feel like every time I watch it, I write like I'm in the 1800's 

Lady Whistledown whoooo

No but seriously it's so good, if you haven't watched it already, I implore that you do, because it may just be my favorite period drama tv series out there.

Also I love Penelope sm she's so adorable (●'◡'●)

Oh and I've been listening to that one remix of Charli xcx's song Everything is romantic, the one that was used in that trailer and then people started using it for edits on tiktok of like Bonrad and other tragic romances and stuff, and I'm actually obsessed, it's been playing on repeat for like 30 minutes just while I'm just locking in and writing.

It's safe to say that I am definitely falling in love again and again and again and again.

But anyways, more chapters to come soon, next up, the really weird family dinner ;)

Author out <3