Q-Tip(KOTLC) {Completed}

21

When they returned to the medical tent, Sophie was awake and seemed slightly angry, glaring a little at Janessa with clenched fists.

"What did I do?" the white-haired girl asked, bewildered.

Sophie looked down at her fists in shock and relaxed. "Nothing."

"Alright then."

"Hey—boobrie dude's back!" Keefe yelled. "Got any more of the good stuff?" He waved an empty vial of an elixir the man had given him.

"I don't think he needs any more of that." Sophie warned.

"I agree." the man and Janessa said in synchronization.

The man turned to Janessa. "You should go back out to be divided with your friends. I don't need your help anymore."

Janessa nodded and put her mask and cloak back on, returning outside. 

When she arrived back outside, she saw one of her friends being marked with blue paint. She couldn't see the others.

"Now, for your marking, pyrokinetic." the red coach said.

The purple coach approached and dipped both hands in purple paint. "Your indecision to act and your... original method say you are neither left nor right, but Ambi." She pressed a hand onto each of Janessa's shoulders, leaving purple hand prints.

Janessa hesitantly entered the large purple tent the coaches directed her to and looked around for any of her friends. No one felt friendly, all sitting as far apart as possible on the frayed, stained mats. Finally, Janessa decided to sit next to the Hydrokinetic and the Shade the boobrie dude had told her about earlier, the one with the dark pin that she now saw was a black hand on a silver background who was protective of the Hydrokinetic.

She could feel them staring at her and subtly waved at them. She looked around to make sure no one was listening and whispered, "Thanks for saving my sister when I couldn't." The Hydrokinetic didn't answer, not that she'd expected either of them to.

Nothing happened for the next fifteen minutes as they were waiting on Sophie and Keefe to be marked.

From outside, Janessa heard the red Coach say, "Since these two have delayed today's lesson with their accidents, we will be skipping lunch and switching today's skill to appetite suppression."

Every Wayward —student— groaned, including Janessa.

Keefe was then put int the Right Hemisphere and Sophie was Ambi. When Sophie entered the tent, other students tried to trip her as she looked for a friend, not noticing Janessa at the back, though she thankfully made her way to the back to avoid everyone else.

Janessa smiled at Sophie, the girl exhaling loudly in relief at being with her sister. Janessa grabbed her hand and squeezed it reassuringly. 

The purple coach then told them how, though food was necessary, hunger wasn't.

Janessa distracted herself thinking of various human songs, frowning as she thought of the duet she was supposed to sing with Andrew at the hospital talent show, which she now realized had already passed, before he... Janessa couldn't even think it.

Janessa hastily wiped away the tears that had fallen, wishing she could have said goodbye to him, or just seen him once more. 

As she sniffled, she heard a whispery voice in her mind.

"You shouldn't cry. You'll get in trouble for showing emotion."

She looked over to see the Shade looking at her, though his mouth hadn't moved, and his shadow crossing hers unnaturally. 

"My best friend died last week. He was like my older brother. He was sick, and a human, so I knew it was going to happen soon, but I never got to say goodbye. It's hard not to mourn." Janessa whispered back sadly. "I appreciate the advice though. I'll try to stop."

A hand rested over hers. Surprisingly, it wasn't Sophie's, it was the Hydrokinetic's. Janessa smiled gratefully. 

At the end of the day, the Coaches brought out bowls full of green beads like the ones that had brought them there and when the red coach clapped, they all floated to every Wayward they thought worthy.

A shock went through her hand as she picked up the bead, surprising Janessa. She threaded it onto the black necklace.

As they light leaped away, the six friends held hands as the Coaches and Waywards stared.

Calla met them in a forest with crooked trees, which she explained had been dying when she sang to them

She sang again to the trees and they began to sparkle until the whole forest looked like it had been painted with glitter.

Then, Calla created a tunnel that returned them to Alluveterre.