{s} Ok, confession time. The only anime I've watched is "Riddle Story of the Devil". I can already sense your questions. "Then why are you using the word tsundere Jocelyn?"
After Marianne told me what the word meant I just added it to my vocabulary since it sounded cool. The only alternative I can think of is hot and cold personality which makes me sound 50 so, I think I'll just go with tsundere.
If I got insanely bored one day I could see myself watching more anime. I mean Marianne gave me a list of 'yuri' (it just looked like lesbian school romances to me) she thought I would like and "Riddle Story of the Devil" was really good so might as well.
Anyway, I entered my small room, shutting the door behind me. I grabbed my suitcase that was dropped close to the door and grabbed one out of the four outfits I picked from my parents' estate.
The outfit I grabbed included a black longline collarless faux fur coat, a thin white turtleneck sweater, some black skinny jeans that were distressed around the knee and some black heeled (small heel by the way) booties. After changing into the outfit I began to accessorize with a leopard print scarf, a pair of black Huggie earrings, a black Louis Vuitton pochette, and a black and silver watch.
I grabbed a small black pocket mirror from my pochette and analyzed how I looked to see if everything was in place. After noticing some tangles in my hair I grabbed a small purple comb from my pochette and combed them out of my blonde curls.
Done! Glad I went with this coat rather than just the fluffy sweater.
I put my comb and mirror back in my pochette, closed my suitcase and slid it under my bed. I grabbed my key that was on the right side of my pillow. I then walked to my door, opened it, and stepped into the hallway that was significantly brighter than my unlit room. When I stepped out, Emma turned towards me and looked me up and down.
Yeah, I know how to dress. Surprised?
"Hm. Well let's go." Emma uttered while turning around.
...Whatever.
"Alright." I said and proceeded to close and lock my door.
Emma had begun to walk down the hallway with me following a little behind her.
"Our floor's common area is the other way but stopping there isn't necessary since it's only some chairs and plants." Emma murmured all while looking in the elevator's direction.
"Works for me." I said while catching up to Emma's walking speed.
We made it to the elevator and stopped there as Emma hit the button that called the elevator. A couple of seconds passed and I started to hear the creaking of the elevator coming up. A couple seconds later and the elevator made it to our floor. The doors squeaked open. We entered and turned around just as the doors closed.
While the elevator went down I glanced at Emma. She was tapping her foot, clearly annoyed.
What is her problem? Acting all friendly and talkative (annoyingly talkative if I was being truly honest) in the beginning and now acting like I just punched her grandma.
Maybe she got some bad news from a text or something. Maybe someone actually punched her grandma and now Emma mom's is asking her to check on the freshly socked grandma. Or maybe she just thought I took too long to get ready. Honestly I didn't know which one it could be. [ss]
The elevator dinged and the doors opened. We were on the first floor of our dorm. The long hallway was pretty empty with only a few girls sitting with their backs to the walls. They were either reading, on their phones, or...sleeping? Yep, a pale girl with long unkempt brown hair, an oversized blue hoodie, black jeans, and black sneakers was leaning on a combination of the wall and a giant backpack that looked like it was meant for hiking, not sleeping.
"That's Galina." Emma stated plainly, noticing me glancing as we walked by.
No extended explanation? Ok.
We continued walking until we got to a door that I remembered from my walk with Lizzy. Emma opened the door and we entered the living room-like area from yesterday. Two groups of girls were sitting on the couches playing cards. Another slightly smaller group of punk looking girls wearing cool outfits were talking in the kitchen. One of them caught me looking and quickly looked away telling her friend something. The friend, a shorter girl with black and blue hair, looked at me and then quickly looked away.
Oh great. Now punk girls don't wanna look at me. Maybe my non-platform-shoe-influenced tallness scared them?
Emma noticed me looking and commented something I kind of already assumed. "That is the kitchen. If you ever need to cook a meal for yourself, go there."
The sophomore turned towards the door and added "And make sure not to put styrofoam in the school microwave. We already had two close calls last year."
"Noted...The close calls part not the styrofoam part."
It was the truth since whenever I went over Marianne's house sophomore year I would use hers. I totally didn't have to buy her family a new microwave after destroying the first one while excitedly cooking Cup-a-Noodle for the first time. Hey, at least the new microwave was way better than the original since it had drawers inside and had way more complex modes.
"Mhm. Yeah." Emma mumbled while slightly looking over her shoulder.
Emma then started walking toward the doors that led to the lobby and I followed behind her. A small group of girls sat in between the doors talking in hushed tones. When we made it to the right door one of the girls looked at me with a serious expression and then returned to the conversation once I noticed her looking. I didn't think much of it as me and Emma entered the lobby.
"Lizzy's gone." Emma noticed looking at her empty chair.
"Maybe dealing with another rat?" I suggested, half joking.
Emma shivered. "Let's go." The preppy looking girl said after having turned around to face the dorm exit/entrance.
I nodded and we walked through the door.
[s] The sky was filled with grey as if a storm was coming. It was quite windy but this time there was no Top Ramen package to blow around as it seemed to be picked up like most of the trash on the benches.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
"Did you notice?" Emma murmured while looking at the sky.
"That it's cloudy?" I guessed.
"No. That everyone is talking about you."
"I mean, I noticed two weird looks but, that's it."
The short girl turned and stared up at my face with her pretty ashen eyes as if trying to read my expression. It was just us out there. Did I mention she was kind of cute? I might've blushed a little.
Did I mention she was kind of cute? I might've blushed a little [https://img.wattpad.com/d66eaddab8662b1c3b2e836980a458dd8411ca8d/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f4b6535444b7136487372495643413d3d2d313330373738323139312e3137336335616264303965626437346231323037303037323631362e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
"You're...not affected by it?" She asked in her soft voice.
I knew what she was talking about immediately and my mood shifted.
"Yeah. I'm not affected by it. It's just words at the end of the day, spoken by people I could care less about anyway." I claimed.
The preppy looking girl murmured something I didn't catch.
"The whole process is different now with there being an online aspect but, to me it's all the same. It probably affects me even less since it's just words on a screen. Online it feels like it's even more based around the "bullies" insecurities." I continued with the short girl reacting on the last line.
"I don't understand this whole cyberbullying thing like just turn off notifs and close the app. It's-" I was wrapping up my rant when Emma, who looked slightly more annoyed than usual, interrupted me.
"It's the curse." She stated plainly.
"What?" I said, blatantly confused.
"The curse is the reason you're getting bullied."
"What is this curse you're talking about?"
She walked towards the gate and said. "Come on. I'll show you."
I followed behind and ended up opening the gate since Emma was having trouble opening it on her own.
Once I stepped through the gate the whole school panned out below me as the dorms were positioned on a hill that overlooked everything. A really old, church looking building was on the left and a huge "L" shaped building was on the right that looked (slightly) newer than the other buildings. A tall old bell tower stood behind this building. All three buildings had the same maroon colored paint job. The "L" shaped building had a good amount of windows facing our direction. In front of this building was a parking lot that connected with the road to get up this hill and the road back to town. A dense forest arched around the buildings and stopped at the road.
I followed Emma as we descended towards the school silently.
A curse? That sounds so childish. What is my hair gonna fall out once I touch the library door? Actually, that would be really bad, wigs are embarrassing.
As we got closer I noticed that there were small groups of students standing near the entrance. Emma turned to the left and I followed as we seemed to be walking towards the church looking building. [ss]
"Are you gonna dip me in holy water? Cleanse me of my curse?" I asked.
"No, this-." Emma was saying plainly before I interrupted her.
"Gonna force me to skinny dip. Do you want to see me naked that bad?" I teased making a "X" with my arms over my boobs.
"N-n-n-no! It's just the library!" Emma exclaimed her face red, clearly from embarrassment.
"Plus that's not how you get baptized. They usually just dip your head in." The soft voiced girl added which gave her info dump character points.
"Whatever. I'm not catholic." I said as we reached the "library".
I opened the door and made a dramatic gesture for Emma to walk in. She walked in, ignoring me. I walked in after her, letting the door close behind me.
[s] The library was pretty grand. There were white bookshelves in rows all around us all filled to the brim with books. I was impressed at the sheer amount of them, especially when compared to the town's library I went to once when I actually read books. A few old looking wood tables were in front of us. A couple of students sat in them, seemingly studying. I heard a beeping noise from our left and looked to see an older lady with white long hair sitting behind a desk scanning books.
"We'll need to go up there." Emma whispered while pointing up.
"Ok. I'm following you." I assured her while looking up.
Above us was a balcony that went all around the middle area with bookshelves lining each of the walls. Beautiful windows stood over the bookshelves giving the library a bit of natural light. Thick white pillars that stood on the first floor held up this balcony. Directly above us were huge arches that had intricately designed crosses in the middle of them.
Emma walked forward and I followed just like I said I would. We walked to some old looking white, wood stairs that were in the back. We climbed up, Emma clutching the railing as she walked up.
She made me real confident in the architecture, I assure you.
We made it to the second floor and walked to the left of the library with a section that seemed dedicated to old looking books and newspapers from different time periods.
Emma went through the newspaper section for about a minute and came out with three torn up, old looking papers. She walked past me and whispered "Come on. Let's sit down."
We sat at a wooden table close to the railing, sitting across from each other. The newspapers were in between us on the table.
The sophomore held up one and pointed it at me to read, a grim expression on her face [https://img.wattpad.com/67b057f4b3004bd622a81fbfef75ebaa9542dca5/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f495134757342445456354b5570673d3d2d313330373738323139312e313733633561633766636334396461313930383137363039313237372e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
The sophomore held up one and pointed it at me to read, a grim expression on her face. On the cover was a pretty girl with long blonde hair, a serious expression on her face. She wore an all black, 70's-esque outfit while carrying some books that were tucked into her left arm.
Even back then she was not furthering the dumb blonde trope.
[s] The red printed headline above her read, "Harley Tian said to be a witch who brought on the lightning strike that struck Charlotte Miller's Girls' School yesterday morning." I then read the small text under the photo that said. "Luckily only a few were injured but Harley is nowhere to be found as of today. Read other student's accounts of her weird actions prior to this incident."
"Well I'm not into the occult so we don't have to worry about that." I said dismissively.
"Look at these two then." Emma insisted pointing to the two that I hadn't mentally taken note of.
The one closest to me read, "Local blonde from Coraline Miller's said to be the cause of the 1986 earthquake that shook Ecruville and local counties here's how..." with the cover showing a blonde girl in a bright looking sweater and denim jeans talking to her friends.
I sometimes forget that youtubers weren't the first to use clickbait.
I glanced at the third paper with a headline that read "Esmee Hader the high schooler who brought a cult to her school. More info inside!"
This one was probably from the early 2000's as I recognized the font from a newer newspaper. Esmee wasn't the main attraction of this one as she wasn't featured on the cover. Instead there were two pictures of the school, the one on the left being a normal looking school but with an added heavenly atmosphere. The one on the right was purple and looked like an evil witches castle. It looked like it could've been funded by a cult with the creepy deer logos pasted all over it. In the middle of the illustration, there seemed to be crossroads with each castle as an option that converged to the bottom. A person stood here like they were deciding which path to take.
"So, blondes coincidentally seem to turn up when a natural disaster strikes? That has to be wrong. Michigan is pretty white. There has to be more blondes than just these three." I argued.
"There are smaller cases that have brought on smaller disasters but they still raised fear levels to where they are today." Emma said, not hiding anything to spare my feelings.
Not that I needed them spared anyways.
I sat straight up and tried to gather my thoughts. There was no way this was real. I just step on school grounds and get smited with a curse. No way. This all sounded like stuff straight out of the fairytales my parents' maids would read me. Except for the morals of those stories would be things like "Don't steal!" the moral of this would be "Don't be blonde!" The whole situation was starting to piss me off a little.
Who knew trying to go incognito would end up like this.
"Well, I don't believe it." I stated confidently.
Emma leaned forward a little to look at my face as if looking for something again.
This time I was in no mood to blush, I was pissed and frustrated.
After a couple of seconds the preppy girl leaned back and sighed. She looked at me and said. "Fine, I guess your tour is over then." in a monotone voice.