The Red Rose

Prologue 10

Grim and Evadne sat in the cafeteria, waiting for Ace. Grim had a pretty boring day, simply washing and scrubbing floors and walls. Meanwhile, Evadne on the other hand . . . 

Flashback . . . 

Crowley led Evadne down the hallway to where the nurses office was. Many students on their way to their first class had seen her and begun whispering. One of then tried to look cool in front of her while the were passing by, but tripped and fell face first in front of her. One of the people just so happened to be the beautiful man at the entrance ceremony. This time however, he was wearing the school uniform and locked eyes with Evadne for a few quick seconds. Evadne gave him a small smile before continuing after Crowley. 

"Oui, I see you have also fallen for Mademoiselle as well?" A blond haired male with a bob cut appeared beside him. 

 "Absolutely not! I would never fall in love with someone who outshines me." The beautiful man retorted. Ever since the school found out Evadne was a girl, the school had gone into a frenzy, talking about how hot she was. He didn't care at first, until he overheard several people say how Evadne was the most beautiful person in the school. Oh how his heart burned with envy at the sight of all the attention she was getting, and how vindictive of a person he was.

"Just you wait Scarlet, I will bring you down."

. . . 

Crowley stopped in front of a white door, which Evadne presumed to be the door to the nurses office.  

"This is the nurses office." He explained, though Evadne already knew, "If there any issues, just let me know."

"Yes, but—" But Crowley had already vanished, " . . . I don't even know where your office is."

Evadne sighed and entered the room anyways, closing the door gently behind her. She opened a few of the medicine cabinets, only to find them almost empty with the exception of a few bandages and Aloe Vera. 

'Jesus Christ, how does this school even get through life?'

She felt a presence behind her, and turned around. She came face to face with a ghost. 

"Hello there, I suppose you are the new nurse. I am the ghost that works here. May I know your name?" The ghost asked.

"Evadne, Evadne Scarlet." Evadne paused, "Do you know how busy it is here?"

"Not really that busy—" Before the ghost could finish talking, voices on the other side of the door interrupted him. Evadne opened the door, just to find a horrendously long line of students, all complaining about some injury they had and saying they needed to see the nurse, earning a frustrated sigh from Evadne.

'I'm betting over half the students here are lying. I'm sure they just want to get close to me. Now I'll barely have time to read my books.'

"Oh this is going to be a long day . . ."

. . . 

"I'm already exhausted from a full day of cleanin'. I can't believe we still gotta wash a hundred windows!" Grim whine as he slumped in his seat.

"Eh, just means more time to read books." Evadne shrugged her shoulders and continued reading her second book. She was reading the books that the first years have as their study course. She had finished reading the one for their Alchemy lessons, and was now reading on history. 

30 minutes later . . . 

"Ace better not be dodging responsibilities or I'm going to rip his head off and shit down his neck." Evadne said, nearly breaking the poor book on ancient curses. Grim simply shivered from the dangerous aura she was giving off. 

45 minutes later . . . 

"And now he's super late! I bet he straight up bailed on us!" Grim shouted, jumping from his chair.

"Come on. Let's go give him PTSD." Evadne got up, leaving her books on the desk. She and Grim got out of their seats and walked out the door, running down the hall. They ran into Ace's classroom, or what Evadne hoped Ace's classroom was.

"Hey! Ace! Get over here! Try to hide from me, will ya! Huh... Maybe there's really no one here?" Grim looked around the empty classroom.

"Oh, I wouldn't say that, I'm here." A painting behind Evadne said, causing Evadne to whip around and practically break her neck.

"Bwaaah! That painting just talked!" Grim jumped back in fright.

"Yes, and...? Is a talking painting really such an oddity at this school? The lady in the portrait on that wall talks too. As does the gentleman in the portrait on this one. As long as a painting has a mouth, why wouldn't it be able to talk? Is that really so strange?"

"We'll, actually yes. Most paintings don't talk unless they're enchanted, but most people don't find a use for that. And apologies for his actions, I swear he has no filter." Evadne glared at Grim who went silent as a mouse.

"Well, your "usual" and my "usual" clearly differ. Shall we agree to disagree on the matter?" The painting asked. 

'Eh, sure. Why not.'

"Now, you seem to be searching for someone." 

"Yeah. We're lookin' for this guy called Ace. He's got a cringy heart drawn on his face and hair that sticks up." Grim said bluntly, earning himself a smack across the back of his head from Evadne.

"Ah, I know him. A new student, I believe? Today was his first day at school. I think he went back to his dorm a while ago." The portrait looked up at the ceiling, thinking, while Evadne boiled with rage. 

'That asshole dare skip on something that could've been almost done by now?'

"Myaaah! So it's true! He's tryin' to ditch us! Do you know which way he went?" Grim asked impatiently.

"The doors to the dorms are in the east building." The painting replied calmly.

"Thank you for your time, miss. My apologies for bothering you." Evadne gave a small bow to the painting. 

"No no, it's fine. Now go along. Go catch him." The painting smiled.

"Ah, yes. Come on Grim, we're going to get Ace." Evadne and Grim ran out the door.

"Ahh, what a lovely girl she is."