Friday Addams || Xavier Thorpe

19

Principal Weems approached us, specifically Wednesday, after Enid was satisfied. "It's good to see you fitting in. Just like your mother."

"My mother and I are two different people, species, everything," Wednesday replied. I still found this idea of hers strange considering their shared personality. If anything, I was a different species.

"The last time Ophelia Hall won the Poe Cup, your mother captained the team. I was her co-pilot. Maybe you two are more alike than you think." It seemed Weems shared my view of Wednesday being similar to our mother. 

Enid came closer with a squal, still completely excited over the win. "I'm so excited!" She leaned in closer to whisper to us. "It was your job to help us win. She's never lost. Never."

Wednesday had gone back to our dorm room and was using her typewriter when she began to think out loud. "Nevermore continues to be an enigma. A place where the questions far outweigh the answeres. But sometimes... the answer is staring you right in the face." I wasn't entirely sure what she meant but she grabbed my arm and dragged me down the hall. 

She stared at the statue of Edgar Allan Poe that we were sitting at earlier and smirked at it. "Don't worry, Edgar Allan. I see your sanctimonious smirk. But I will get the last laugh. Your penchant for riddles was legendary, and this might be your cleverest yet. Because it's not a single riddle rather, each line is its own separate one." I tilted my head in confusion as to what she was alluring to.

As my twin climbed up onto the statue to view the book it was holding, I called out to her, "Wednesday, what are you doing? What is this?"

"This is the riddle to answer our questions about the Nightshade society. Write each answer to the lines on a piece of paper. Each below each other." She looked at the first line and read, "The opposite of moon. Sun."

"Sun," I muttered while writing the answer in the top line of the book. It continued on like this and I was able to guess some of the answers.

"A world between ours," Wednesday read.

"Nether," was my response as I put that one below the first.

"Two months before June." April, I thought to myself and wrote it on the line below.

"A self-seeding flower. Pansy." My twin had to voice this one, knowing I didn't have much knowledge on plants.

"One more than one." Two was the answer to this math problem.

"It's leaves weep to the ground," Willow, "It melts in the sun," Ice. We continued to get the answers needed for the puzzle.

"It's beginning and end never found." Circle, "Every rule has one," Exception.

"The answer will give a sharp cracking sound." She jumped down off the statue and looked at the words I had written. The first letters of each word spelled out 'snap twice,' the answer to the final line.

Wednesday and I faced each other before nodding our heads and each snapping twice in perfect sync. The statue rotated to reveal a hidden staircase behind, leading down into a basement of sorts. We went down the stairs and found rows of shelves filled with books, a portrait of our mother, and the logo of the nightshades painted on the floor. The awe was short-lived when bags were placed over our heads, Wednesday being tied to a chair while someone held me from behind. 

Within a few moments, the bags were removed from our heads to reveal many students standing with masks on. I assumed they were trying to intimidate us and looked over to Wednesday who remained calm. "Who dares breach our inner sanctum?" The person in the middle of their semi-circle line spoke.

"You can take the mask off, Bianca." I didn't know how she figured out it was Bianca, but I felt better knowing it was definitely a bunch of students. They all pulled their masks off together and I glanced back at the person holding me, angered by the sight of Xavier's face. "Wait, I preffered you with it on."

"How did you get down here?" She questioned. I could still see the smirk in the siren's features at having caught us 'off-guard.' However, she looked more annoyed with my twin than anything.

"Rowan showed us." I said while Wednesday gestured toward her left pocket. Xavier let go of me to grab the picture.

"I tracked the watermark to the Poe statue. Then I solved the riddle," she calmy explained.

"Wait, there's a riddle? I thought we just snapped twice." A brown-haired boy I had seen around with the sirens asked. I chuckled even though I would probably make that mistake too. I realized he was the siren swimming and knocking over boats in the Poe Cup once I noticed his black eye, presumably put there by Thing.

"Well, aren't you thr brightest in the bunch?" Wednesday commented sarcastically which earned a glare from Bianca.

"The nightshades are an elite social club. Emphasis on elite." Bianca said with her lips formed into a thin line. She was trying to insult us by telling us we weren't elite but it didn't bother me.

"We have roof parties, campouts, the occasional midnight skinny-dip." Yoko, the original member of our Poe Cup team spoke. It surprised me that she was in the club with Bianca when she was given food poisoning to be out of the race.

"And Yoko's an amateur mixologist." One of Bianca's siren friends added. 

"She makes a killer virgin mojito. It can get pretty wild." Ajax, Enid's crush, commented. She hadn't entirely told me but it was easy to come to the conclusion.

"Do you guys even have a bedtime?" I genuinely asked while tilting my head. It seemed unlikely that they got any rest with their track record.

"Last I heard, the Nightshades had been disbanded," Wednesday commented, ending their constant talk of how great the society is.

"Yeah, the ground kind of lost its charter 30 years ago after some normie kid died," Xavier explained some of the backstory behind the breaking up of the group.

"But we have a lot of wealthy alumni, so Weems looks the other way as long as nobody makes any waves," and Yoko gave the rest of the story as to how they were able to remain a group.

"Someone like Rowan?" Wednesday questioned, moving straight into business.

"We booted that loser last semester," the dark-haired siren paused. "Question is, what are we going to do with them? Only members are allowed in this library." She asked while searching across the faces of her schoolmates.

"I say we invite them to pledge," Xavier said. He elaborated at the confusion of the group and pointed at the picture of our parents. "They are legacies."

"After the crap they pulled at the Poe Cup, there is no way in hell. We talk about not making waves? They are tsunamis."

"Just because we beat you at your own game?" I asked, finding the courage to stand up for myself and Wednesday. I was tired of the constant insults from Bianca. 

"Let us save you the trouble. We aren't interested in joining," my sister added after my comment. I didn't want to join and I knew she wouldn't. It was a lot easier to investigate without being part of some secret society with our enemy.

"You're seriously turning us down?" Yoko questioned.

"Can you believe it?" Wednesday asked with sarcasm.

"Untie her," Bianca gestured to my twin since I had not been tied up in the first place. Xavier had already let go of me when he grabbed the photo from Wednesday's pocket. My sister stood up and dropped the rope on the ground.

"I freed myself five minutes ago." We turned away from the group and headed to the stairs we came down on. The siren from the Poe Cup stepped in front of us to which my twin replied, "Do you want a matching black eye?" He backed away and we went up the stairs. "It's amateurs like you who give kidnapping a bad name," she called down.