Twisted Luck

Un-birthday troubles

'Another dream...?' The queen of hearts yells, "For painting my roses red, someone will lose their head!" The three of clubs states pointing to the other two cards, "Y-Your majesty, if anyone's to blame, its him!" The two of clubs states, "Have mercy, your grace. It was the Ace!" "So, it was YOU." The Queen of hearts glared, gripping the rose tree in her hand harder, moving closer and closer to the pleading card soldiers. "No, it was Two!" The Ace blocked back the blame and threw it back. The Queen states, "Then he will pay." The deuce tries to deflect, "It was the Three, I say!" The queen shouts, "Enough! Off with all their heads!" The Queen thundered. All of them shout, "Waaaaaaaahhhh!!!" The queen laughs, "Hee hee hee." Another card soldier nearby scoffs, "A fitting end. Color, you can't mend." The three of Spades states, "Everyone knows the roses should be red."

I think, 'Why doesn't anyone stop the queen?' I wake up to Deuce stating and shaking me awake, "Y/n, wake up. The unbirthday party is today. If we're late, well, you know..." I state, "That's right... The party's today." As we are walking into the kitchen, Deuce and I hear knocking; Deuce states, " Hmm? It sounds like you have a visitor." Deuce opens the door, and Cater walks in, "Good mooorning! Did you all enjoy your sleepover? Did you bond over pillow fights and card games?" I make myself breakfast and overhear Ace stating, "Oh, good morning, Cater. We did play some cards, yeah. But only Old Maid, 'cause that was the only one Grim knew how to play. Also, Y/n was no fun at all ... all they did was read..."

I scoff, "I have years of material to catch up on ... I'm not going to be the one who drags down our grades! (Grim and my grades combined) ... Remember ... I'm not from here!" Grim whines, "And I still got the Old maid every time; Dang it!" Deuce mocks, "Let's just say Grim doesn't have a very good poker face." Cater states, "You should grab the tart we made yesterday so you can apologize to Riddle. We should probably hurry because of the trouble yesterday; we're a little short-handed." Ace asks, "What do you mean?" Cater states nonchalantly, "Don't worry, I've totes have it under control. Anyway, off to the party we go!" I wonder, asking out loud, "Do I have to wear anything?" Cater states, "Don't worry about it!"

We all arrived at Heartslabyl's dorm. It was still just as splendorous as the first time I stepped foot in there. Ace states, "All right, so I'll hand over the tart and say I'm sorry, then-" A Cater in a sports outfit interrupts, "Hey, it's about time I got back! Good to see me!" The original Cater states, "And me! Looking good as always, me!" Ace, Grim, and Duece all shout, "Bwuh?!" Deuce asks, "Th-there're two Caters?!" and Ace asks, "Are you guys identical twins?!" The Cater that arrived with us states, "Nope. Don't have any twin siblings. What I DO have is my signature spell, Split Card. It lets me make magic duplicates of myself." Deuce states, "This must be how Cater kept coming after we beat him over and over again yesterday..." Another two Cater clones comes over, one wearing alchemy clothes, "Welcome home, daaarlings" and another one wearing the ceremonial robes, "Good to see you, Y/n-chan!!" The one wearing the alchemy clothes pouted, crossing his arms, "You got to see Y/n-chan? No fair!"

The Cater in the sports clothes states, "J-S-Y-K, I'm actually the real Cater. Making these duplicates is suuuper exhausting, so I can't maintain them for long. Anyway, if we're late, heads will roll. And since we're several people short, we'll need your help. But when this is over, I promise I'll take you straight to Riddle." Grim complains, "What, MORE roses?" Deuce states, "You really are shameless, senpai ..." Ace states, "And here we go again!" I look at the trees, realizing that all of the roses that need paint are higher up, and I gulp, "U-Umm ... S-Senpai ... is there a ladder I can use ...? I think I'm too tiny ..." Cater just pats my head and states, "Don't worry about it then Y/n-chan." Cater then adds, "Get the lead out, peeps! We need to get started!"

'At least they were making progress faster than last time,' I thought as the boys continued to paint the roses. One would assume Cater would have finished painting most of them, from getting the other members of the dorm to help. Then again, the thorny expanse of the hedge maze had extended all the way out into the horizon. They finished painting the clearing significantly faster, especially with the help of the Cater clones. Grim and Deuce, who mastered painting with their magic, made minimal mistakes. Before long, the last rose in the clearing was painted red. Deuce pants, "*Pant*... Well, this is going better than before." Grim flops into my arms and pants, "That was tough, but we're finally done!" I just pet Grim, and he doesn't argue against it.