FTRS Shots and Other Stuff

Gilly falls off her bed in the morning

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Once Upon a Time...

Yeah, no. Let's not use that one.

Once upon a Friday morning, with the sun slowly rising up on the sleeping kingdom to awaken its citizens and dwellers for another engaging and hectic day, Gillian Cobbler fell off her bed.

It wasn't her fault (this time), it was Peaches'. Dear ol' Peaches with her knack for eating objects not meant for a duck's appetite. Things like hair ribbons, brushes, chair legs, spoons, mirrors, plants, shoes, sometimes test papers that were either finished or unfinished, you get the point. Peaches ate anything except for actual food. On that Friday morning particularly, Peaches was eating Gilly's blanket for reasons even Maxine herself couldn't understand.
She just ate... anything.

Now it wasn't Peaches' fault (this time) that Gilly's legs were tangled up in the blankets. No, that was definitely Gilly's fault. If the teenager never twisted and turned in their sleep, she wouldn't have had them wrapped around the blanket, increasing the chances of being carried away by, hypothetically, a duck chewing on the dangling piece of fabric for breakfast.

Needless to say, the sound of Gilly clattering to the floor woke Maxine up.

"Jocelyn I-I'm sorry I ate your patty-cakes with sprinkles and blueberries and cream cheese and-and..." Maxine babbled, drool trickling down her face, her vision trying to focus. "I mean, I'm awake!"

"Ugh..." a muffled voice mumbled. Maxine looked down and shrieked.

Red was splattered on the dorm room floor. Someone's body laid down. Peaches was standing nearby, chewing, the remains of something unidentifiable, but with had the eerie resemblance of corpse remains.

Oh, and Gilly was trying to speak.

"My ribs hurt..." she managed, before passing out.

It took a few seconds for Maxine's brain to process everything.

And no, that wasn't a corpse, dear Maxine, that was just Gilly's red blanket.

***

"So you're telling me Gilly's dead," Jocelyn deadpanned. "About time."

"Jocelyn that's not what I said!" Maxine wailed, stomping a fist that rattled their table. Ollie kept a wary eye on his plate of pancakes just in case it might fall off.

"That's what I think happened," the witch shrugged.

"Don't think like that, it's not nice."

"Maxine, I'm not nice."

"Well, you should be. She's your friend!"

Jocelyn made a disgusted face.

"Maybe we should let Headmistress Flora check on Peaches," AG spoke up, hoping to divert their attention to something else. "It's not very healthy for ducks to eat random things."

"Headmistress Flora can't really handle Peaches so I've stopped trying," Maxine sighed. The duck in question quacked beside her.

"Still doomed." Jocelyn supplied unhelpfully.

Meanwhile Ollie turned his attention to two plates with more breakfast. His mouth watered. He was about to reach out to them when he made eye contact with AG. She gave him a disapproving look.

"They won't know," he said.

"They would," she answered back.

"It's not like Jax eats that much."

"I'm pretty sure that's his favorite food right there." A plate held figgy pudding.

Ollie groaned. "Well it's their fault for leaving their breakfast on the table!"

"They're the only ones who can help Gilly," AG said firmly. "The least we can do is watch over them."

"Kayla's the one with the healing powers, why's Jax there too?"

"Moral support," Jocelyn snorted. She slid Jax' plate towards Ollie. "Just eat it. I doubt he'd care anyway."

"Jocelyn!"

"Keep fighting and I'll take it instead," another voice answered. Jack slid in the chair in front of Ollie and swiped the plate before the other boy could take it.

"You can't take that either!"

"Oh AG just let them at it," the witch zapped her plate with a finger and it disappeared. "Again, I doubt they'll care."

Before AG could reply, Maxine stood up abruptly, rattling the table again. Ollie squawked as he held onto his plate.

"Gilly!" The ogress had spotted her seemingly well roomie and Kayla enter the cafeteria. Jax trailed behind them.

Kayla caught Maxine's worried look as they approached closer. "She's okay, don't worry." The fairy smiled reassuringly. "Nothing extreme happened."

"Are your ribs okay?" Maxine's voice pitched high with concern. She had ran out (while also finding time to wear her uniform, she never crosses Miri) to find Kayla, fearing that something may have had happened to Gilly's ribs, or something.

"They're okay," Gilly replied, cracking a feeble smile. If she had to be honest, she wasn't even sure if she broke anything. No, she didn't even recall saying anything about her ribs. The fall itself brought her in a haze and if she had to be painfully truthful, Gilly didn't even realize she was on the floor already. Sometimes you won't be aware of anything at all.

"You're not dead?" Jocelyn asked, feigning surprise.

"I'm not dying in a lame way," she replied dryly. Jack was about to ask what they were taking about but decided against it. No one would notice if he pretended to know what they were talking about anyway.

Speaking of Jack, he also realized too late that Jax had arrived.

"That's my plate," the blond calmly said.

"I don't care," Jack replied and stuffed a cinnamon roll in his mouth.

Ollie reached out and grabbed a cinnamon roll too. Jax raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not letting you two fight today. It's ours now," Ollie nodded in Jack's direction. The other boy shrugged. Jax just sighed really loudly.

And that's how their morning went. Gilly's ribs were okay, which was good. Jocelyn was done with breakfast, good. Ollie prevented a fight from stopping, very good. Peaches was now eating a chair leg, not good. But it was still a fairly normal morning, aside from certain oddities.

That is, until Jax remembered to announce something.

"I almost forgot," he said right after they left the cafeteria. "My sister's getting married."

A pause.

Then Kayla's "WHAT?!"

Ollie dropped his toast. Jocelyn dropped her book. Maxine dropped Peaches. Gilly almost dropped Wilson (yes Wilson was also there). Jack blinked. AG's eyes widened.

"How could you forget something like that?"

Funnily enough, Jack said that.

Once upon a Friday morning, Gilly fell off the bed unharmed, ate breakfast, and was about to go to class until she heard the news of her club advisor, Rapunzel, getting married. The sequence of events were random. You could say it was unexpected.

Well, what's the fun in knowing everything? Why do stories need to make sense? Should everything need to be expounded?

Perhaps it wasn't a normal morning after all.

***