True to the Story (Wednesday & Enid)

4. Consequences and Secrets

That night, Wednesday was actually going to Enid's party. She was going to be turned into a bat by her friend Carrie. She was a new student who was held by the normies for a rather long time, very long considering she had the ability to turn people into bats, given that they give consent.

Wednesday knew her friend's powers would grow stronger than this soon, but before that, she had to close her eyes and sincerely recite a pathetic little poem where she agreed to be turned into a bat. It activated Carrie's magic once Wednesday met up with her that afternoon.

"You sure you're not going to Enid's party? It's quite a big deal, especially because it's sort of an unofficial celebration for someone finally beating Brea at something,"Carrie said. She had thick brown hair and a friendly grin.

Totally did not look like someone who was about to turn Wednesday into a winged creature.
Before she could respond, Wednesday felt her legs rising higher and higher to the sky, until they shrunk before her eyes! The room (they were in Carrie's dorm) looked smaller as Wednesday flew around.

She noticed paper bags with clothing inside. They were Nevermore merch. Of course Carrie would buy some. They were created by a group of students, Brea being their leader. Wednesday flew above the paper bag and she had to admit that this was very cool.
"Woah. I owe you for this one, Carr."

"No problem. Why did you want me to transform you?"
Wednesday hesitated. "My novel is from the perspective of a bat. This is my form of research."

"I- Interesting." Carrie looked up as her friend flew in circles, practicing flying with her wings. Wednesday was surprisingly not as nervous or shocked by her transformation as Carrie expected. Instead, what her mind was thinking was about Enid's safety. How would she protect her if she was a winged creature? Why she even had to, Wednesday just felt obligated to as a friend.

Wednesday sank from the air. "Is it possible that you can turn me back into a human?"
"Uh- I can't. It'll wear off in a few hours naturally. I can't do anything about it."

"WHAT?" Wednesday tried to keep her voice steady. Enid's boyfriend, Sebastian could not be trusted with her life. Wednesday always planned to be there for her friend as backup, helping her wipe the snide smirk on Brea's face. But that was when Wednesday thought she'd be able to transform from human to bat, or be able to solve her novel's plot problem right in time to keep Enid safe from Brea's schemes. But her eagerness to solve her novel's problems made her overlook these details...
"Yes. I thought you had to be a bat for that long, anyway. But judging by how you're flapping worriedly in the air, I'm guessing not... Yeah, I can understand bat facial expressions and body movement, too..." Carrie bit her lip nervously. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Just being surprised is all." Wednesday said goodbye to her friend as she flew outside the school's windows. She easily knew how to navigate to the school's ballroom. It was peculiar for a school to have one, but this was Nevermore. Passing by a bunch of vampires, Wednesday the homogenous mixture of gigglish girls. They were Brea's friends, but the big group looked like they hated each other.

Of course, they didn't recognize Wednesday because she was a bat, but she followed them through the windows, as they moved from one hallway to another. 

The party must've begun about ten minutes ago, but why didn't they look like they were rushing because they were late? The group of girls weren't walking to the ballroom....

Wednesday looked down on one of the windows, and saw with not much surprise that Thing was there, waving at her!
"Yes, it's me..." Wednesday said in a low voice. "I'm going incognito. Those girls with the pathetic nails, over there... Follow them, okay? They're up to something tonight, and Enid might get hurt."

Thing gave a thumbs-up and crawled his way down. That was when Wednesday noticed another bat, though it probably was a real one this time. 

She didn't pay attention to it, because at the moment, the group of Brea's friends walked past the Headmistress' office. Across it was a wall. One of the girls took out a Nevermore merch paper bag that was filled with... sharp pointy objects.

They looked like some sort of gadget... Wednesday recognized it. It looked like a bowl of punch, but the drinks inside it were simply an illusion. She had heard Brea describing this sort of gadget and bragging about inventing it once...

But she did that in public. In front of all their classmates. If that type of invention caused mayhem at Enid's party, that would be too obvious that it was her. Brea wasn't that dumb. So why would her friends do that?
Unless...

Her friends were going against her. They were framing her. Wednesday suddenly felt more in danger than ever. That bat that flew by her was gone. She knew bats couldn't possibly disappear that quickly. Unless it wasn't a real bat...

And the paper bags that the girls were holding, one of them looked familiar ... Shit.
Once Enid saw the invention of the illusion of the punch and suspected Brea had something to do with it, she would attack her. And then they would find out that Brea had nothing to do with it. Mystery solved.

But Wednesday could barely do anything about it. Carrie had turned her into a bat, and she wasn't going to turn her back, which she could, she had just lied about it. Wednesday was stuck.

(Next parts, possibly the last 1-2 parts, will be out Nov. 28-29. Almost there!)