Friday Addams || Xavier Thorpe

13

Wednesday and I burst into Principal Weems' office, hoping to find solutions and answers to the complications we have faced with seeing Rowan alive. The tall woman sat poised at her desk and glanced up when we opened the door. At the raised brow, questioning expression she gave us, Wednesday spoke.

"We need to speak with Rowan. I can't find him."

"It won't be possible, I'm afraid. He's been expelled," she replied calmly, folding her hands and weaving her fingers together.

"For what?" I asked, tilting my head. I didn't understand why he would be expelled if they believed our story to be fake. There would be nothing to dismiss him with.

"Never you mind. He'll be on the first train out this afternoon." She paused, as if in thought. "What were you doing out in the woods with him?"

"I told you already. I heard a noise, and I went to investigate," Wednesday stated cooly. This was not entirely wrong, though it was due to a vision rather than a noise. The principal scoffed at the explanation she had already heard before.

"That excuse might have placated the sheriff, but you can't fool me. You had a psychic vision, didn't you?" My twin did nothing to show that Weems was correct in her assumption. "I realized you might be having them when we passed by the accident and you knew that poor farmer had broken his neck. Your mother started having visions around your age. They were notoriously unreliable and dangerous. I remember at first, she thought she might be losing her mind. Have you spoken to her about them?" She took a moment to let the fact settle in the air between us. "Clearly, the person withholding information here is you."

I was about to speak up for Wednesday when she held her hand up to silence me. It seemed, she wanted to be in control and would not admit defeat by allowing me to stand up for her. I saw Rowan die too, and I don't share her visions which meant he really did, contrary to popular beliefs.

"May we go now?"

"Not until you've picked your extracurricular activity. We want all our students to be well-rounded." I didn't mind having to choose an extracurricular activity. My mind briefly drifted to spending extra time with Xavier for the purpose of one. I shut out the thought and faced Wednesday to determine her reaction.

"I'd prefer to remain sharp-edged."

"I took the liberty of putting together a list of clubs that have openings." Weems passed a clipboard with a list full of different clubs. I supposed we would have to try each of them out to determine a proper club.

"How thoughtful," my sister replied deadpan.

"Thank you," I said in reverse to her.

"You need to have picked one by the end of the day. I'll be keeping my eye on you. No doubt you'll find something that tickles your fancy."

"The last person who tickled me lost a finger." I had been glad that it was not me to make the mistake firsthand. I do believe this was a joke as neither of my parents were missing their fingers.

We quickly left the office and I read the list of extracurriculars while Wednesday assigned Thing the task of keeping an eye on Rowan to find out what was going on. "Weems is clearly trying to keep tabs on me. Keep an eye on Rowan. Don't let your fingers out of his sight." She then turned to me, "So, what horrible clubs has she suggested for us?"

"We got scales on scales on scales, On scales on scales on scales, On scales on scales on scales."

The sound of the sirens singing flooded my ears as we walked into the courtyard, the sound melodic with the perfect harmonies. As much as I disliked Bianca, she and her sirens did have powerful voices when singing. "Weems said you'd be stopping by. But to be honest, after your performance at the Harvest Festival, drama club might be more your speed," the siren commented, stopping her choir to face us.

"After we passed out, who did you tell? The sheriff?" I asked, wanting to get behind the Rowan situation as much as Wednesday did.

"You think I'd trust normie cops?" She shook her head lightly in disbelief. "I went straight to Weems and let her handle it. Anyway, let's get this audition over with. What are you? Alto, soprano, or just loco?"

The piano played a note as Wednesday inhaled and sang at a frequency high enough that the human ear is unable to hear it. Glass shattered from nearby due to the frequency matching the wavelength of the glass. "What was that?" Bianca questioned with a bit of judgment laced within her tone.

"A note only dogs can hear," I responded before swiftly turning away with Wednesday to check out another extracurricular activity. My twin had planned most of these as visits to gain information about the attack that happened previously.

"Here's a little song I wrote, you might want to sing it note for note. Don't worry, be happy..." The choir vocalized behind us while we walked away.

"Huh. You actually showed up. Ever shot a bow and arrow before?" Xavier met us with his green eyes as we stepped up to the archery field. I shook my head softly at his question and averted my gaze from him to the ground.

"Only on live targets." Wednesday took note of my sudden shyness and continued on with the conversation.

"Okay. Square stance. Load the arrow like this, yellow side out. Three fingers. Pull back and... let it fly," he said as he mimicked the action. He held the bow toward the target and avoided pointing the arrow at us for safety. He spread his feet slightly apart with his dominant foot planted in the back, loaded the arrow carefully, pulled it back, and let it go. The arrow sunk into the target with ease, missing the center and hitting the outside ring. "Any questions?"

"When was the last time you saw your roommate Rowan?" This didn't surprise me coming from my sister, she was usually all business and no play. She didn't come to check out the archery club for the fun of shooting an arrow but rather to speak to Xavier about what happened to Rowan.

"You mean the one that was killed by a monster?" This comment angered me slightly after our previous conversation. I thought he believed me despite the popular opinion on the topic but still spoke callously to Wednesday at the mention of Rowan. She glared uncomfortably at him in response. "The Harvest Festival. I haven't talked to him since. But his side of the room was all packed this morning. Rowan's always been a little off, but, uh, the last couple of weeks he's been more erratic. You know, telekinesis can mess with your head, you know. He's... It started to freak me out." He paused for a moment as if in thought.

"So what's the deal with you and Tyler?" At Wednesday's silence and my confusion, he was prompted into speaking further. "I'm sorry, were you the only one who got to ask non-archery questions?"

"There is no deal. He was doing me a favour driving me out of town." I knew this much of Tyler but had continued to grow suspicious of his relationship with my sister and of the boy himself. I wondered how Xavier knew him and why he seemed to dislike him.

"Yeah, word of advice. Steer clear."

"Why? Because he's a normie?" I was still upset about the previous comment he mentioned about not believing us with Rowan. As much as I didn't trust Tyler already, I did want to know what Xavier had on him. I flinched at the hurt that appeared on his face from the roughness of the question.

"Tyler and his friends are jerks. They can't stand that this school's propping up their Podunk town." I could tell by the tone of his voice that there was more to the story but Wednesday was already getting tired of being in his presence and I opted out of asking further before she was done.

"Says the boy whose life was served on a silver platter." She picked up a boy and an apple, knocking an arrow onto the bow.

"Hey, girls in glass houses-" he began to say but was cut off shortly by my twin.

"Should throw bigger stones. At least I'm not an elitist snob." She threw the apple in the air and shot through it to the bullseye of the target. She had always taken a liking to archery and often shot live birds from the sky for target practice. I opted out of it due to being unable to kill an animal.

"Ouch." Xavier replied as Wednesday turned and walked off. I returned his gaze for a moment, intending on stopping by later and speaking with him about everything. And after the fencing match that we were equally matched in, I wanted to be able to learn archery as an excuse to be with him. I scolded myself for thinking of him that way after he outright stated that Rowan had not been killed and followed Wednesday before she could drag me with her.