The comedic Tragedy of Asmodeus and Raphael

Chapter 1

Beep! Beep Beeeep!

She was instantly awake to stop the infernal racket that was her alarm radio. Once the noise stopped a DJ stated, "And now, Gorillaz-Last Living Souls. Hope this wakes you up ladies, gentlemen and all other configurations of being."

It was her first day in a new school, but she reminded herself not to worry, everyone else in her grade would be new as well. She put the thought aside in favour of internally complaining about how she did not want to wake up. But alas, Auntie would get suspicious soon and she did not want to incur the wrath of the fierce woman.

She stumbled out of her sheets, clad in pajama shorts and a tank top. She wondered if she could just go to school like this, but then thought of the disapproval of her awaiting parental figure.

"No way in high hell," she mumbled, looking in the mirror, "Would Auntie catch me out like this."

She decided that she would try and look nice for her first day of school. She worked hard to get into it, after all. Southeast School of the Arts wasn't known for their high acceptance rate. She found the nicest pair of jeans she had clean and a shirt to pair with it. She decided her converses would go nicely as well and slid those on, too. With one last look in the mirror she thought something was missing.

"Maybe some blush?" She thought, "I don't know how to do makeup."

She put on a choker and some body spray and went to the kitchen to greet her aunt. When she entered, it smelt like sausage and coffee. Auntie had made breakfast this morning, but she only had 15 minutes left until the bus would come. Everyone would normally be off to work by now but Auntie decided to stay to wish her a good first day of school.

"Good morning, Lilly!" Auntie greeted.

"Morning Auntie." Lilly sleepily mumbled.

"What was that? I couldn't hear you." Auntie said in a playful tone.

"I said good morning, Auntie!" Lilly borderline shouted.

"Don't you raise your voice at me, young lady!" Auntie commanded while giving Lilly a playful pinch to her side.

"Ow! Hey, I gotta leave! Bye Auntie, I love you!" Lilly rushed as she tried to scramble out to make it to her bus stop in time.

"Not without a hug you aren't." Auntie said while crushing her in one of her patented love-filled bear hugs.

They said one last goodbye and Lilly was practically running to her stop, almost dropping the napkin-wrapped turkey sausage she held in her hand. In the other hand, there was a violin case. She had been playing for three years now, starting in 6th grade. This is the reason she got into the art school. This was her life, that violin case. By now she had dedicated countless hours of practicing and was at an advanced level. But it scared her, though, as she drew near to the bus stop. Talent was as cheap as table salt at Southeast, and she would have to work harder than ever before to get to the top.

She almost missed the bus as she got to the stop right as it pulled up. She hesitated just too long before she got on, the bus driver gave her a nasty look for being so reluctant. Apparently she was the last stop for this bus, as it was already packed with kids. Half of them had instruments with them and almost all of them looked so... different, so... beautiful.

Everyone had dyed hair and different clothes, all of them representing some sort of taboo. She then realized that the entirety of the school would be like this, that the normal is what she got made fun of for being at her old school. Actually, the only person on the bus that looked anything similar to the people at her last school was a girl(?) or boy, maybe, at the back of the bus that had light hair, light eyes and light skin. Although he wasn't completely normal, the person had long hair and some feminine features but had a completely flat chest and dressed like grunge male from the 90s, except more clean, normal compared to the corset another person was wearing.

Yet again she stalled for too long and got more nasty looks so she took the nearest seat next to a boy (maybe) with green hair. She asked if she could sit and all she got was a nod, then the boy went back to scrolling through his phone. She took the maybe hint and minded her own business for the rest of the ride, which turned out to be pretty long.

...

The remnants of a sunrise were still painting the clouds as Lilly's bus pulled up to the school. It was 7:00, fifteen minutes before school was supposed to start. She looked around the dim bus and saw everyone's face lit up with a screen, except for the grunge person in the back.

"Glad to know one of these weirdos aren't superglued to their phone." She thought as the bus screeched to a slow halt. The school was huge, completely different in the dawn light then when she first took the tour in eighth grade. It was split into different buildings with a giant courtyard in the middle. It looked like it should have been a college campus with how it was laid out.

Even though she attended open house and meticulously worked out where each one of her classes were, the panic of the first day made her forget everything. She fished her schedule out of her partially-overstuffed bookbag and prepared to interact with the students who knew where everything was.

The bus door opened and she glanced down at her schedule for her first block. It was concert orchestra in the performing arts building, room five. She shuffled out of the bus after the grunge boy and tried to catch up with him.

"Hey, do you know your way around here?" She asked.

"Hmm, what? Can you repeat that?" He stopped. Lilly started to observe. He had about three inches on her and had his hair pulled back into a lazy bun. He had a rounder face and soft eyes, and an even softer voice that swung with a more feminine lilt. He looked like a friendly giant, like somewhere else he'd be a helpful Ent. She was still a little confused on what pronouns to call him, she'd done some research on the LGBTQ community before she came here, the school had a large population and she wanted to be prepa-

"Were you talking to me? I'm sorry for the misunderstanding." He started to walk off.

"Wait! I was talking to you! I just need to know where to find the orchestra room."

"I'm sorry, I'm new here, too. But I'm also heading to orchestra, I was just about to ask someone for directions." They shared a chuckle.

"I'm Lilly." Stated Lilly.

"I'm Elizabeth." Stated Elizabeth.

"I'm sorry to be so forward, but what pronouns should I call you?" Lilly asked shyly.

"Oh, um. She/Her? I'm sorry for making you confused." Elizabeth replied, equally shyly.

"That's okay. Is it okay if I walk with you, I feel better not being clueless alone."

"Yeah, of course. We can be clueless together."

And that would be exactly what happens, they would be clueless, together.