A/N: This isn't a very good chapter, but none of my chapters are that good anyways.
The four of us sat in a circle on the floor of the dorm in our pajamas. "Amazing," said Ella. "I can't believe it went off so well!"
"Me neither. It was perfect!" I exclaimed. I sucked in a breath as I applied more healing salve to my cuts. They were nearly gone, but still hurt like hell without salve.
"The best part is that the dye is permanent, so for a few days they'll go around with completely purple skin and the clothes that they were wearing will be purple for a long time! Not to mention the basinture fangs in it that'll make them break out in hives," Kiara chuckled.
"I got it all on video," Tessa grinned. "You should see their faces when the bag exploded!" We crowded around Tessa as she pulled out her screenpage and played the video. She zoomed in right before the Order of Chaos members got drenched in dye and focused on Master Carriway's visage. His eyes were popping and he seemed to be baring his teeth, which made him look like a horse. The four of us burst out laughing.
"I think we got nearly every member in the castle!" I cheered. "This is great!"
"That'll show them," Ella smiled.
"Now we just have to make sure that they don't find out it was us. If they do, we're toast," Tessa reminded us.
"No need to make us all nervous again, Tessa," grumbled Kiara. "Anyways, they can't trace it to us. Ella and I used gloves and Ella's too fast to be seen by the cameras."
"Yeah, I used gloves too, but what if they decide to pause the video? The camera will stop on one frame and Ella will be seen!" cried Tessa.
"Let's hope the cameras are horrible," I said. "But it won't really matter because I didn't use gloves. I didn't touch anything we didn't use, but I did touch the crate. I'm sorry."
Silence rang through the room. "Don't worry, Maya. Nobody will check," Kiara reassured me, breaking through the quietude.
"I can go bring up the crate, Maya," Ella offered.
"No, don't. That'll raise more suspicion, and anyways, I don't want to put you at risk even more," I told her.
Just then, the intercom crackled. A voice that I recognized as Mistress's announced, "STUDENTS OF VIVENTI ACADEMY, REPORT TO THE DINING HALL IMMEDIATELY. FAILURE TO BE IN THE DINING HALL IN TEN MINUTES WILL MERIT A VISIT TO THE TROUBLE ROOM." The intercom went dead again.
"What's the Trouble Room?" I asked.
"I don't know, but seeing as it's the Order of Chaos, it's probably nasty," replied Tessa. "We should probably go down. I don't want to be late."
We entered the dining hall and sat down at one of the tables. None of the Chaos members that had been splattered were present, leaving only Mistress and one member at the head table. Once ten minutes were up, Mistress said something to the burly man standing next to her and he left the hall, presumably to search for stragglers. Then Mistress turned to face the hall. The students all hushed and Mistress began her speech. "STUDENTS. YOU HAVE GRIEVOUSLY INJURED MOST OF THE ORDER OF CHAOS MEMBERS IN THIS CASTLE. I HAVE DECIDED THAT I AM BEING TOO LENIENT. YOU MAY BE WONDERING WHAT THE TROUBLE ROOM IS. THE TROUBLE ROOM HAS REPLACED DETENTION. IF YOU MISBEHAVE, YOU WILL BE SENT TO THE TROUBLE ROOM. IT IS NOT A PLEASANT EXPERIENCE. THE STUDENTS WHO ORCHESTRATED THIS PRACTICAL JOKE KNOW WHO THEY ARE, AND IF ANY OF YOU KNOW WHO THEY ARE, REPORT THEM. FAILURE TO DO SO WILL WARRANT A VISIT TO THE TROUBLE ROOM FOR THREE HOURS EVERY DAY FOR A MONTH, THE SAME PUNISHMENT THAT WILL BEFALL THE TROUBLEMAKERS. ALONG WITH NEW PUNISHMENT, THERE WILL BE NEW CLASS TOPICS. YOUR LESSONS WILL BE TAILORED TO FIT THE STANDARDS OF THE ORDER OF CHAOS. ANY TEACHER FAILING TO COMPLY WITH THE NEW LESSON PLANS WILL VISIT THE TROUBLE ROOM FOR THREE HOURS EVERY DAY FOR A WEEK. THIS SCHOOL BELONGS TO THE ORDER OF CHAOS NOW, NOT YOU."
The teachers and students were glaring at Mistress, who seemed to be unaware of the hostile stares surrounding her. "I'd like to smack her to next Saturday," Tessa muttered. "Smarmy, horrible little-"
"YOU ARE NOW DISMISSED, STUDENTS AND TEACHERS. KEEP MY WORDS IN MIND," finished Mistress.
"She is horrible!" Kiara exclaimed on our way upstairs, careful to keep away from anyone who could get her in trouble for such a statement. "She's not the queen of everything!"
"That's probably what she wants to be," I said. "Although I'm not sure if any crown could go with her skin tone."
"Very funny, Maya," Ella responded, rolling her eyes. "I can't believe that they're changing our classes! What is their deal? Why do we have to learn what they want us to learn? Seriously, the only reason why we go to school is to learn to fight stuff like this! But here we are, letting them run over us and not fighting them!"
"We dyed the Order of Chaos purple and made them break out in hives," Tessa reminded her.
"Yeah, but what good is a prank? It's not making a difference! All that did was create a new punishment and make our lessons horrible!" Ella cried as she locked the door to our room. "Ugh!" she yelled as she kicked her mattress.
"There's never gonna be any change unless you go all the way, Ella," I said. "You can't expect them to bow down and tremble before us just because we pulled a prank on them. Even though it was a super painful prank."
"Are you saying that we should start a war with them?" Ella asked.
"Maybe we should," said Kiara. "We have nothing to lose."
"We just have to make sure that Victoria doesn't find out," I cautioned.
"Oh yeah!" exclaimed Kiara. "With all of this going on, I completely forgot about her!"
"She'd hate to hear that," I smiled. "She is such an attention seeker."
"Anyways, we need information before we can plan a rebellion," said Tessa. "If not, we risk going in blind. God, I sound so pretentious."
"Not really. Those are good words of advice," I told her. "We need to know a lot of information about the Order of Chaos before we can make a move. But I'm gonna go to bed- it's nearly midnight."
"Same here," said Kiara.
"Might as well," Tessa said.
"'Night," yawned Ella.
I crawled under my blanket and fell asleep instantly. My dreams kept shifting in whirls of color. There was one that particularly stood out in my mind, though. The four of us were back to back in a small circle in a barren landscape, surrounded by a ring of Catrops that all had the face of Mistress. They spoke to me, telling me to turn my back on my friends and become one of the Catrops. Suddenly, my friends weren't at my back. They had become Catrops, and they pressed forwards, blotting out the weak light of the moon and blacking out my vision. I raised my sword to defend myself and found that it was gone. I was slowly changing into a Catrops with amethyst claws. I panicked, but before I could try and regain control of myself, I felt something sliding into my stomach. I looked at the claw embedded in my skin, then saw the owner of the claw- Kiara. The ground fell out from under my feet and I was falling through the sky towards a horde of Catrops, claws raised to slice me to pieces. I woke up as the first claw was a millimeter away from touching me.
A/N: I'm really sorry that I haven't updated sooner, I've had a crazy week and I was really busy yesterday. I had to write an article for the school paper on short notice (TWO DAYS BEFORE PUBLICATION) and I barely had any time to do that. On top of that, I have to do research for my English teacher and I barely had time to write this crappy chapter. Anyways, I hope you've had a better week than I have!
-Deepio the Slytherclaw
