𝐆𝐎𝐎𝐃 𝟒 𝐘𝐎𝐔 ⸻ wednesday addams

𝟏𝟏, 𝐏𝐔𝐒𝐇 𝐀𝐖𝐀𝐘 𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐄𝐎𝐏𝐋𝐄 𝐖𝐇𝐎 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐌𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐒𝐓

CHAPTER ELEVEN; push away all the people who know me the best

( gorgon anatomy ) 

[ ʚїɞ ]

"WEDNESDAY'S BEEN ignoring me," Xavier complained as soon as Elizabeth opened her eyes. "So could I maybe, possibly, get an explanation as to why I walked in on you two holding hands?" he asked. "Not to mention that Wednesday was literally staring at you like she was in a trance or something."

"Was not," Wednesday shot back. "I was trying to give Elizabeth a clear head to work with . . . whereas you give me a headache."

"Okay, well, if that's the case," Xavier said with a grin, "What's the whole hand holding thing about?"

"Shut up, Thorpe," Wednesday snapped, facing away from them. "You don't know what you're talking about."

The room plummeted into a silence that was filled with nothing but tension so thick that it could have been sliced through with a knife.

Xavier cleared his throat awkwardly. "Never mind then." He glanced at Elizabeth. "So . . . just because Wednesday gets to be exempt from class because of a head injury," Xavier said, then dramatically added, "might I mention one that could've been a lot more severe had I not saved the day," but stopped under Wednesday's murderous side-eye and cleared his throat again, "doesn't mean we do too," he concluded, shooting Elizabeth a look. "Right?"

"Yes!" Elizabeth answered, jumping up from her seat. She was grateful for the excuse offered, but for some reason, part of her was stung by Wednesday's reaction to Xavier's initial teasing remarks.

She followed Xavier to the door, but stopped to glance at her roommate for a moment. Wednesday was staring at the wall now, a mixture of confusion and irritation upon her face. Elizabeth felt the pang in her chest again, and turned away, but tossed a casual "Bye," over her shoulder.

Once outside, Xavier turned to Elizabeth, his thin eyebrows drawn together in worry. "Are you okay?"

Elizabeth shrugged. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Xavier's concern morphed to disbelief as he gave Elizabeth a long, searching look. He sighed. "Whatever you say, then."

An awkward silence settled over them, though it only managed to last for a moment. Elizabeth shot the artist a glare. "Can't you stay quiet for one second?"
"See, I knew something's wrong!" Xavier exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at Elizabeth. "You are a huge stan of humming and yapping, so you shouting at me to shut up tells me you're in a bad mood." He paused. "Am I wrong?"

Scowling, Elizabeth shoved her hands into her pocket. "I don't understand how you know me better than I know you; I'm the mind reader and you're only an artist."

Xavier made a face. "I'm going to ignore your attempt to change the topic and also discreetly insult me." He put his hand on Elizabeth's shoulder then quickened his pace to move in front of her and stopped, efficiently bringing her to a halt, too. "Lizzie, what's wrong?"

There was a lot she could say, starting with Thornhill's proposal, to the strange hurt she felt with Wednesday's embarrassment at being seen holding hands with her, even if it was only for telepathy purposes. And then there was the unknown rivalry her family had with the Addams . . .

Elizabeth chewed on her lip for a moment, then decided to tell Xavier a partial truth—"I don't want to go listen to a lecture on the anatomy of gorgons."
It's not that bad," Xavier said with a roll of his eyes. "You just have a strange grudge against Ajax."

"Why do you and Enid keep on insisting that Ajax is the entire reason why I don't like this class?" Elizabeth demanded. "And yes, it is that bad!" she added. "Mr Wagner makes it so boring! He talks about everything in the same, monotone voice! With no differentiation in anything! He can literally talk about something super exciting and also the world's most boring thing in the same tone!"

Xavier held up his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay! I get your point!" He grinned. "Though . . . I'm still waiting to hear about the whole vengeance backstory you seem to have with Ajax."

She rolled her eyes. "You can forget about that. I'm forgiving him for Enid's sake . . . possibly." Elizabeth paused. "Well, I'm trying to, anyway. We've made good progress . . . I think." She gave Xavier a thumbs-up.

"Doesn't mean you can't tell me why you used to dislike him," Xavier answered. "I mean, yes, he's my friend, and yeah, I might not be Enid, but I still want the tea!" He made an exaggerated pout at Elizabeth.

"Of course you do," she replied with a sigh.

This time, they fell into a comfortable silence and then took their seats when they reached the classroom. The teacher droned on as usual, but that day, it was impossible to try to stop the raging thoughts inside her head, especially not when she was so bored. Mostly, they surrounded her mother's reaction when she had brought up Wednesday. And then there was the Addams' shock at seeing her . . .

"Do you know anything about why my parents might possibly not like Wednesday's family?" Elizabeth couldn't help but ask in a quiet whisper.

He didn't respond for a moment, just stared straight ahead at the board, where the teacher was pointing to a diagram. "No," Xavier replied. "But I remember at my godmother's funeral . . . we walked up to your dad, and he looked at Wednesday really weirdly . . . "

This brought up another question inside of Elizabeth's mind—"Why didn't I remember anything about that day?"

"I forgot about that," Xavier murmured. He turned to Elizabeth sharply. "Yeah, why wouldn't you? Both Wednesday and I still do, even if the exact details of my memories are a little murky . . ." He paused. "I'll ask my dad, since, you know, he's a washer."
"A what?"

Xavier rolled his eyes. "A washer is what we call a psychic who wipes memories," he responded.

"Oh," Elizabeth said. "That makes a lot more—"

"Anderson, would you stop distracting Thorpe!" Mr Wagner exclaimed, telekinetically controlling a yardstick to rapidly tap against the desk that Elizabeth and Xavier shared.

"Right, sorry, Mr Wagner," she responded, sheepishly ducking her head and flipping open her blank notebook.

For the next ten minutes, Elizabeth tried to listen to the lesson the best she could and even take notes, though her attention kept on drifting away. Suddenly, a rogue thought sent her pencil jerking across her page, with a thick, ugly line as a result.

"Xavier?"

"Yeah?"

"Was your dad at your godmother's funeral?"

Xavier looked at Elizabeth. "Obviously. Why?" His eyes widened. "You don't think . . . you don't think your memories . . . he was the one who . . . ?"

Elizabeth took a deep breath. "I do." 

1265 words<3

author speaking!

so yes that was a terrible attempt at a cliffhanger and im super sorry bc ive had yall wait for sooo long even though this chapter is really wonky but thank you guys so much for your patience <3333 also this chapter has basically nothing to do with gorgon anatomy other than the fact that they're in the class LMAO—anyway i hope you enjoyed this chapter, if you did, make sure to vote and comment! love you ALL so much, so have a great rest of your day! <3000

— sophia xoxo