Anomalies (working title)

Chapter 16

Skye

When you wake up on your last day of your old life, normally you'd think people would go through some sort of epitome. Possibly join a new religion or two, or some sort of self-reflection.

All Skye did was start a food catching Olympics.

But that's jumping the gun. Let's rewind a bit.

The first thing Skye noticed upon waking was everyone's new hairdo's. Jo's aqua-colored tips, Blue's indigo mass of hair, Rey- No, Jamie's purple streaks, Cam's matching red one's, Hayley's bubblegum pink tips being loud and proud, and then Skye's green streaks.

"You're still a living pun, Blue," Skye pointed out, yawning loudly.

"Shush, you Billie eyelash lookin' nerd," Blue shot back, sticking out her tongue.

"I like the indigo. It suits her," Jo sleepily murmured, giving Blue a look of pure sweetness. Blue returned the favor.

Wait a damn minute- Are they finally- No way, Blue's way to clueless. Not so much clueless as in denial, but Jo. Would she tell her? Maybe so... I always imagined Blue saying so first... I need to investigate this further, Skye thought. As an aromantic asexual person, he was strangely good a picking up on romances. He knew the two of them had the hots for each other for three years (they were terrible at hiding it), and had closely monitored the situation. The only thing was he felt a blank space, a missing piece. If he could only figure out what led to their frigidity over summer...

SLAM!

"OH MY HEAVENS, YOU'RE ALIVE!" Ms. Lynn yelled, staring at the half-asleep teenagers on the floor.

"Uh... Good morning?" Hayley said awkwardly, attempting to tie her hair back as quickly as possible.

"None of you were in your rooms... I thought you'd run away, or worse," Ms. Lynn fretted, gazing around the room to make sure they were all there.

"Sorry, Ms. Lynn. We were just having a sleepover is all, to celebrate the new school year," Skye explained, standing up and stretching.

"Yes, well... Get down to breakfast, please, I don't want the littles whipped into a tizzy. I love everyone's new hair, by the way. It suits you all," Ms. Lynn remarked slyly, slipping out of the room and down the stairs. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank god she likes the hair... I didn't want to be grounded on my last day," Jamie sighed.

"I don't think she'd do that. After all, we're only here until 2 o'clock, so there's not much grounding to be done," Skye pointed out. Everyone murmured in agreement, before shuffling to respective rooms to finish packing and make themselves look presentable.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"Woah, what's with the hair?" Sam asked the second the Venificus freshmen walked into the room.

"Uh- Long story," was all Jo said. Sam shrugged and went back to her waffles.

Waffle day at the House for Anomalies was normally pretty amazing. There was fresh fruit, syrup, and powdered sugar. They also used plastic cutlery and paper plates, since they needed a quick getaway most days.

Suddenly, a mischievous thought crossed Skye's head. The plastic forks and spoons made great catapults, and strawberries were relatively harmless...

"Yeet," he whispered to himself, flinging a strawberry at Hayley. She saw it coming, and caught it in her mouth.

"Nice one," Wick yelled from the end of the table, tossing a stray banana at Sam, who attempted to catch it in her mouth, but only succeeded in getting it stuck on her forehead.

"Oho, it is so on," Hayley yelled, flinging a blueberry in Skye's direction. He grabbed it in his mouth before it reached halfway across the table.

And so it began.

Lets just say for the sake of time, teenagers are really, really competitive. And when we ran out of amo, we had to get creative.

"Chop up the waffles, let's go, all of them," Blue said. Everybody began ripping waffles into small pieces and chucking it in their partner's direction, even if there had been syrup poured on the waffles previously.

Needless to say, it was a bit of a messy cleanup.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"So this is it," Skye finally said, staring at their mostly empty room.

He held their herbs in a few protective carrying cases, but they had left a few of the posters. The beds had been stripped of their sheets, and the closet mostly cleaned out. The desks were for the most part cleared of their clutter (90% of it being Skye's drawing and sewing kits), and all of Hayley's caboodles filled with makeup. She had left one caboodle for the littles and middles who would inevitably raid their stock, which was filled with tubes and sticks of assorted goop that Hayley decided she could live without. With his duffle bag and sister by his side, Skye was ready to say goodbye to the House until December.

Pepper scampered up Skye's arm, burying once again in his hair (his favorite hiding spot), providing a sense of comfort Skye hadn't known he needed until that moment.

"Looks like it. Let's go join the others," Hayley said, grabbing Skye's hand. They had stopped doing this, for the most part, years ago, but it felt like right now he needed his tether to reality.

"Yeah," Skye replied, walking side-by-side down the rickety old stairs they had climbed so many times. Jamie, Cameron, Jo, Blue, Sam, David, Betsy, and Ms. Lynn all stood at the door. It was obvious they had all been waiting for the twins.

The large group all walked out and loaded into the House's minibus, which was usually only used for trips to Venificus. The back few rows were stocked with luggage, and the students were allowed a few personal items to pass the time. But by the way Ms. Lynn talked, they wouldn't be on the road long.

Where Venificus was, Skye couldn't tell you. Like most magical locations, it was off the map to non-magicians. Since Skye had lived life like a non-magician, most of his knowledge about the magical world was limited. But he knew that this ride was not going to be a normal one when Ms. Lynn sprinkled a glittery looking substance onto the dashboard and began muttering in what sounded like Latin.

Suddenly, the world jumped into hyperspace. Everything out the windows was dark, with streaks of light. This lasted for about a minute, before they were in front of a large, castle-looking building, a far cry from the Victorian-looking comfort of the House for Anomalies.

They were there.

It was time for his new life to begin. One without previous labels, old memories, nostalgia, and pure familiarity. It was a life he could build to be his own.