MOGTOBER2020

Day 8-Favourite friendship-Sisters and Brothers, Loyal for Life

Unit 919 made their way over to where Morrigan was sitting at Proudfoot Station. Hawthorne led the group, telling them about his newest experience in dragon riding.

"Hawthorne, you didn't almost die. Stop being such a drama queen."

"Stop being such a meanie, Thaddea. Hey, Morrigan!"

Hawthorne had noticed Morrigan sitting on the bench and came and sat down with her.

"Guess what?"

"Hmm...you almost died?"

"Woah. How did you know? Do you think spending time with Jupiter is making you become a witness?"
"No, idiot. I heard Thaddea."

Hawthorne rolled his eyes. "Ugh. Whatever. Anyway, there's a new dragon. His name is—"

Morrigan didn't find out what the dragon's ridiculously long name was because Hawthorne was interrupted by Anah.

"Morrigan, are you okay? Your eyes are a little red around the edges."

Anah had started to feel more comfortable around Morrigan. She still didn't like to be the only one at Station 919 with her in the mornings, but she would sit with her at lunch, and even on Hometrain. Morrigan was glad to see Anah less scared and anxious all the time.

Morrigan looked down into her lap to hide her eyes.
"Oh, it's nothing. I must be getting sick or something..."

Anah walked over to her and placed her hand on her forehead. "You don't have a fever. Are you sure you're okay?"

"She's not, and I know why," said Arch in a grave voice.

Everyone looked to where he was pointing and saw the Charlton Five hidden behind trees giggling behind their hands. Immediately tension between the two groups formed. Hawthorne placed an arm around Morrigan's shoulders.

"Hey. It's okay. They're a bunch of losers anyway."
Morrigan sniffled. "Yeah, but you'd think that the bullying would stop once they found out about my knack."

It had been a week since Morrigan had told everyone her secret to protect Lam's. She had been fine for the most part. Everyone left her alone. Most likely because they were afraid of her. But today, as Morrigan was leaving class to come and wait for the others at Proudfoot Station, the Charlton Five had come up to her.

"What did they do?" asked Mahir.

Morrigan felt tears sting the back of her eyes and she shook her head.

"We want to help you, Morrigan. Remember, sisters and brothers..." began Francis.

"Loyal for life," finished the rest of the Unit, except for Morrigan who was trying not to let tears escape her eyes. Her vision was now blurred her tears. She blinked and one rolled down her cheek.

Immediately, Unit 919 formed a circle around Hawthorne and Morrigan on the bench, shielding them from the rest of Wunsoc. Hawthorne moved his arm from her shoulders and held her hand.
"Morrigan look at me."

She looked up at her best friend.

"You are the second strongest girl I have ever met. Aside, from Thaddea. Man, her punches hurt."
Morrigan giggled at this and looked up at Thaddea who had a smug smile on her face.

"Anyway, you can beat some idiotic bullies. Throw a couple punches there, couple swear words here—"
"Hawthorne, we don't want her to get expelled!" Morrigan looked up at Cadence and followed her with her eyes and she came to sit down on the other side of the bench. The rest of the Unit tightened the circle, filling in the Cadence-sized hole.

"What he means to say, is that you can get through this. You don't have to let them bring you down all the time. You need to be the bigger person here. And anyway, you're Morrigan freaking Crow! You're a Wundersmith! In my opinion, you're stronger than Thaddea—"

"Hey!"

"—actually, you're stronger than the whole Unit combined. You don't need to have everyone in Wunsoc on your side. You have people that matter. You have all of us, Miss Cheery, your teachers, Jupiter, and everyone at the Deucalion. If my maths is correct, that is a lot more than five teenagers who don't like you."

"She's right, you know." Lam hadn't made a noise up until now (apart from finishing the oath with the rest of the Unit), and everyone looked up at her. She seemed embarrassed by all the attention. "Um...I just mean you saved Cadence and I from the Ghastly Market—" everyone looked down at this. Nobody liked to talk about the fact that two Unit members had been taken by the Bonesmen "—and, well, if you can do that, you can, essentially, do anything." Lam looked down to her shoes, clearly finished with her little pep talk.

"Thanks, guys. I'm sorry for making you deal with this—"

"No, I'm sorry for having an idiot patron who has even bigger idiot scholars."

"Except for you," said Morrigan.

"It's kind of cool," said Francis. "Having the one nice Baz Charlton scholar. It's like we have a super power. I mean, we already do. We have a Wundersmith, but it's a nice little addition."

"Good afternoon, Unit 919! How was everyone's day?"

The circle broke to reveal Miss Cherry standing behind them. She looked around at all of their solemn faces before her gaze landed on Morrigan.

"Oh, is, um, is everything okay?"

"Yeah, it's fine, Miss. I'm okay."

Miss Cheery nodded, clearly noticing Morrigan didn't want to talk about it.

"Miss, Francis just brought up an excellent point. Unit 919 has super powers! Can we please get capes?"

"Hawthorne!" Everyone groaned collectively.

{~~~}

The next morning, Morrigan walked into her Wunsoc wardrobe and put on her uniform. Then she went to open the second door but it wouldn't budge. She tried it a second time and it still wouldn't move. She tried it a third time, and it opened the tiniest bit, enough that she could see a head of curly brown hair through the crack in the door.

"Hawthorne! Let me out, we're going to be late!"

"No, I'm not letting you out. We have a surprise for you."

"And it's a good one!" Morrigan heard Cadence's voice come from the station.

"A surprise? For me? What kind of surprise?"

"Just be quiet and you'll know soon enough."

Morrigan gave up trying to open her door and let go. She heard a yelp of surprise and a thump against the door as it closed. Hawthorne had evidently fallen.
She stood waiting, wondering what her surprise could possibly be. She didn't have to wait long. The door flung open and she saw the whole of Unit 919...except Francis.

"Surprise!" they all yelled.

"Where's Francis?"

"I'm here."

The group split to reveal Francis standing behind a...
"A Grand Caledonian Coronation cake? Francis, I thought that was the most difficult cake ever."

"It is, but I had everyone help me. We wanted to do it for you. Look at what it says on the top!"

Morrigan walked over to where he was standing, taking in the beauty of the cake. She looked towards the top of it and read aloud.

"'Sisters and brothers, loyal for life.' Aww, guys. You really didn't need to do this. It's—um—thank..."
She trailed off suddenly overcome by tears.

"Oh, no! Did we do something wrong?" Anah sounded anxious.

"No...no, of c-course not. I'm just...I'm so grateful for you all. Thank you so much." Morrigan wiped at her eyes and sniffled. The whole of Unit 919 walked over to her.

"Group hug!" yelled Mahir.

The group giggled and hugged each other. Morrigan was so happy to finally be in a group that accepted her. She was happy to be with her sisters and brothers.

1269 words