It was a couple weeks after the events that led Professor Croix to leave Luna Nova. Life had gone back to normal for the majority of the students, heck even new students ended up appearing at Luna Nova after witches became repopularized after the interception of the missile. Everyone seemed excited, happy, and care free with all of this change and generally harmless environment. However, it was a little bit complicated for some. A handful still seemed on edge, but one that could never really be expected to be so worried, was Constanze.

Amanda was in class, generally leaning back and just half listening as she normally would. She felt like she should try her best to graduate, even if her best was, well, this. Jasminka beside her was taking notes for an upcoming test, eating some chips during class, yet keeping quiet enough to not intrude on anyone else taking notes. Amanda smiled at Jasminka, before looking over to Constanze, which made her smile go sour. She raised her eyebrow with some confusion at Constanze, who was just staring out into the middle of the classroom. She was mostly still, but she seemed to be fidgeting with the ribbon tied around her waist. Amanda took her feet off the desk, which didn't even get a reaction out of Constanze.

She seemed even more confused, before speaking up. "Constanze?" she asked with a hushed, yet curious and worried voice. The hair on Constanze's arms spiked up as she gasped, leaning back a bit and nearly falling over. She seemed startled, before the world came back to her. She tried to grab her pen, before fumbling harshly with it. She began to write what was on the board quickly. Jasminka looked over, but didn't think too much of it, and went back to writing. Amanda seemed rather confused and suspicious of what was going on, not entirely sure of what could have gotten Constanze to act in this manner. The rest of class went rather normally. But as the day went on, Constanze ended up repeating this instance of staring off, and it began to go on for a couple days. Even Jasminka couldn't help but notice this occurrence.

Akko, Lotte, and Sucy were eating at their own table, discussing upcoming events and some classes, until Amanda walked up. Amanda seemed unnaturally concerned, which definitely caught Akko's attention. "What's wrong Amanda?" Amanda gasped and immediately the concerned expression became frustration. "What makes you think anything is wrong?" she blurted back to Akko, who seemed to become less enthusiastic from the hostility. Lotte chimed in, "You seemed to look a little stressed when you walked over here. Has something got you down?" she asked nicely. Amanda stood there for a few seconds, before sighing and looking back at her table.

Constanze was staring at her food and not eating it, it seems she took a few bites out of a small sandwich, but no more. She looked back to the girls and nodded. "Yeah a little bit. It's about Constanze '' Akko perked up, interested in the potential tea Amanda was about to spill. Sucy looked unimpressed about Akko's surprising recovery in this situation, hoping she wouldn't do anything rash. Lotte nodded, allowing Amanda to sit, in which she did. Amanda let out a deep sigh before smiling at the girls. "Ever since last week, she seems to have been out of focus. I feel like something is wrong." Lotte smiled with hope. "Perhaps she's busy with something in her lab! Maybe she's just tired, or full of thoughts. I know I get quiet when my mind is racing."

Akko smiled and chimed in immediately. "Maybe she's trying to make something super cool! She must have had a lot of inspiration from what Croix made!" Amanda looked at Akko and then pondered some, then thought about what Lotte had said. "Maybe you're right. I will keep an eye on her, and try to make sure she doesn't overwork herself." She nodded with a bright smile to the others, before walking back to the table with Constanze and Jasminka. Sucy looked at Akko, raising an eyebrow. Akko only looked back with a bold "What?!" spurting from her mouth.

As Amanda sat back down, Jasminka looked at her with a friendly expression. Amanda responded with a cautiously optimistic expression of her own, before looking at Constanze, whose eyes seemed to be shaking a bit. She seemed to have realized she still had her sandwich, and picked it up to take another small bite out of it. She continued to eat, seeming to have snapped out of whatever thought process she had then, much to Amanda's relief. That night, as everyone was asleep in their dorms, Amanda was laying facing the wall. She couldn't help but think something was wrong, but she decided that it would be best not to concern herself with it. After all, this was Constanze, someone who was usually unphased by a lot of work, so it couldn't be all the classes or something she's working on. And she's normally planning during class, but she's taking notes of her ideas otherwise.

She calmly sighed before putting an arm underneath her pillow, and went to sleep. The next morning, Constanze walked late into class, she had woken up earlier than everyone else. Amanda and Jasminka were confused, as well as the rest of the class, she normally isn't late to class. Constanze is very particular about her work, and this included her school work, she normally wouldn't just show up later without a reason. The teacher didn't seem to acknowledge it, so Amanda knew something was up. When Constanze sat down, she sniffled a little, as if she was upset.

When Amanda was about to question her, Constanze could tell before she even spoke what she was going to ask about, she grabbed a paper out from her book and showed it to Amanda and Jasminka. Her grades were tanking from recent tests, and she had a report about it due to the teachers concerns, as well as the fact it was impacting her report cards. Jasminka felt bad as she took the paper and began to read over it, but Amanda knew something was up.

Later that day during lunch, Amanda was playing with her food a bit before groaning and leaning back in her chair as she normally did. She smiled at Jasminka, "Oh who cares if your grades dip? Mine have been D's and C's all year! And look! I am still here!" Jasminka seemed a little cautiously optimistic, seeming concerned for Constanze and not sure that this would make her feel better. But nonetheless, she nodded with a determined "Mhm!" while looking towards Amanda, before turning her head, only to lose her smile and determination to Constanze, who sat down with no food. Either having forgotten to grab some, or not feeling hungry. Jasminka of course began to become worried now, she looked at her, before speaking out. "Constanze? Constanze, are you alright?" No response came from her.

As Jasminka was about to give up and reached for a chip, a loud growling came from nearby, startling Amanda so bad that she fell back onto the floor, and making Jasminka nearly drop her bag of chips. People looked over as Constanze seemed to have been startled herself, waking up from the seeming paralysis of thought she was in. The growl happened again, this time Constanze held her stomach, seeming to be hungry and in pain from it. Jasminka offered her chips, which Constanze almost instantly took. Though she didn't take them with haste, she grabbed them gently and brought them over to herself. As she brought her legs up and sat criss crossed on the chair, eating the chips slowly. Amanda stood up to fix her chair, but her concern only grew.

Later that day, Amanda went outside, meeting Diana and Akko, who were talking about their trading card collections. Seeming that Diana had started collecting some more than she had, as if Akko had convinced her to. Amanda leaned against one of the stone pillars, standing there for a minute or two, before finally mustering up the determination to talk to them. She hated asking others for help, it made her feel weak, but she knew that she had to do it sometimes. Especially when she didn't know what was happening, or what to do. This was one of those desperate times, so she pushed off the pillar and began to walk over.

While the girls were in awe over one of Diana's new cards, Amanda spoke up. "Knock Knock." she said, causing both of them to look to the side to see her. She didn't sport her usually determined face, having a more mellow expression. Diana seemed confused why Amanda came to talk to her, considering Amanda's disdain for Diana for a while. Just before Diana was about to speak up, Akko took the stage. "Oh, hello Amanda. What are you doing out here?" Amanda grimaced, trying to not look too helpless. She gritted her teeth defensively, "I could ask you the same question." she barked out towards the girls. Diana sighed and looked down at the card booklets before closing hers. Akko scrunched her nose before speaking up a bit louder, "Don't get so angry! I was just curious!" Diana put her hand up, lightly hitting Akko in the cheek to get her to stop fighting.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Amanda gasped lightly, seeming a little concerned about what Diana was going to say. As Diana looked over, she had a very serious, and dominating expression. "Is something the matter Amanda?" Amanda looked angry, but took a deep breath, before gulping a bit. She tugged on her collar as she could only muster an "uuhhh." Diana spoke up once more, in the same determined tone. "If you don't need anything, then why don't you leave us be?" Amanda looked at her angrily. "I do need you guys! You two know more about magic than I do! And I need your help!" She said, breathing heavily in anger and from yelling. She sighed, before sitting down and tucking up her legs, similar to the fetal position.

"Is this about Constanze?" Akko asked, Diana looked at Akko with a curious expression, wondering what would be happening with Constanze, and how Akko would have known already. Amanda looked up to the two and nodded. "It's only gotten worse, today at lunch, it didn't even sound like she ate throughout the day. When she came into class, she was late, and she had a grade report that her grades were dropping. I want to help her somehow, she is my friend after all. I just can't seem to figure out what's wrong." Akko spoke up before Diana could even get a word in, "Do you know if she's working on anyth-'' she was cut off by a frustrated yell from Amanda, which led Amanda to stand up. Her fist shook in the air as she stared at Akko, her fist shaking as if she was going to hit her as well as her nose scrunched up.

"She hasn't worked on anything in days! She hasn't accessed her workshop at all! I even went down out of curiosity, and nothing was on the board!" Her position changed to a more modest, less hostile posture, however her face was still scrunched in anger. "Usually she works after school on stuff, but recently all she has been doing is either sitting on her bed, looking at one of her stan-bots, or she's playing games!" Akko was about to say something, presumably commenting that maybe Constanze was bored and just getting lazy. However, Diana put her hand on Akko's stomach and pushed her back lightly, making sure Akko knew she wanted to talk.

"This sounds like a form of stress, do you know anything that would be stressing her out?" Amanda put both of her hands out in a desperate manner as she talked in a worried voice. "Only her grades, but she was doing this disassociating thing since before she got that report! Same with the dorms! She won't even interact with me or Jasminka when we interact with her!" Diana put her hand to her chin, muttering some ideas. Akko closed her book and stood up, pondering a bit as well. "Maybe it's just the influx of new kids. Constanze was always a bit shy, with all of these new kids around, maybe she is taking some time to adjust." Diana looked up and nodded determinedly. "That could be it, Amanda. She rarely talks even with us, and with all the new kids, she could feel exposed. Just make sure she feels comforted, ok?"

That night, Amanda layed in bed facing the wall again. Jasminka had already fallen asleep, snoring a peaceful and rather unnoticeable snore. But Amanda noticed, her senses were on fire as she tried to think. She stared at the wall, thinking if Akko and Diana were correct. It certainly made sense, but even when they went to events or met new people, Constanze was never like this. She groaned, before turning her body and slamming her face into the pillow, laying on her belly. She couldn't make any sense of it, neither head nor tail. Her ear twitched as she heard something; however, she turned her head and peeked over to Constanze, who was sleeping across from her. She and Jasminka shared the bunk, since Constanze's lab was under her bed. She couldn't get a good look at what was happening, so she tried sitting up, the moon light was extremely weak, so she could only see a blurry haze.

She tried to squint, but couldn't really see what the rustling was all about. She sat up straight, before fumbling her hand around on the desk, before grabbing her wand. She whispered a spell, before flicking the wand to make a tiny flame. Unlike the light spell that made a bright glowing light like a flashlight, she wanted to use a very weak light just so she could see and not wake everyone up. Her eyes opened wider with concern as she saw Constanze's face, scrunched up, turning in bed, pushing at her blanket. With the light, it only seemed to make this reaction worse, so Amanda covered the flame and extinguished it, packing up the wand and putting it back on the table. Amanda's eyes looked down at the floor, before she turned her head towards her pillow. She got ready to lay back down, before hearing Constanze vocalize a bit. Amanda looked at her, her neck snapping towards Constanze with a lot of concern, her mouth hanging open in worry. Constanze was muttering, pushing her blanket around and rolling, as if she was being attacked. As if she was having a nightmare.

Amanda stood up, and looked around, before walking over. She put her hand on Constanze gently, trying to sooth her. This only caused her to jump awake, her eyes wide open as she screamed. It was surprisingly loud for Constanze, but it was fast, and most people wouldn't have noticed. Amanda winced and slowly looked back. Jasminka groaned before rolling onto her side, falling asleep immediately again. Amanda sighed, glad she didn't wake Jasminka up.

Constanze was shaking violently looking up at Amanda. Her face contorted into a sad, depressed expression as she began to tear up. Amanda smiled, and crouched down, sitting on her knees by Constanzes bed. She tilted her head and smiled. "Are you alright Constanze?" She was responded to with a slow head shake, still shivering like a wet dog. Amanda seemed surprised, and spoke up once more. "Was it a bad dream? A nightmare?" Constanze nodded, but the shaking didn't seem to go down. Amanda put her arms out, and Constanze gave her a slow and meaningful hug. It wasn't tight, and even though Constanze closed her eyes, Amanda couldn't bring herself to do it and to embrace the hug. After what felt like a minute or more of hugging, the shakes went down. Amanda pulled back a bit, holding Constanze under her arms, near her rib area. She smiled at her, which got a small smile back.

"Are you feeling better?" she asked. Constanze, still shaking, though less than before, nodded weakly. Amanda smiled before standing up. Constanze looked up at her, still on her bed, but with a saddened and worried expression. "I am going to go to bed, I hope you can get some sleep tonight too. Ok?" Amanda said with a kind heart, something not commonly seen from her. Constanze didn't seem to reply, but she watched Amanda get in bed. Time began to pass, and Constanze laid in her bed, tossing, and turning. Even when she would close her eyes and begin to sleep, the nightmare would start again. She laid restless, before looking over at Amanda, who had fallen asleep. She grabbed her pillow, and hugged it tightly, before standing up and walking over to Amanda's bed. Amanda took a moment, before she had the feeling of being watched, her eyes scrunched a bit before she, tired as ever, opened them and looked up. She rolled slightly over to see Constanze, who seemed to have a sad and embarrassed expression. Amanda looked at her curiously, "I suppose you couldn't sleep?" Constanze shook her head no.

Amanda began to think, she hadn't noticed it, but maybe this nightmare was recurring. It would explain why she was so wide eyed in class, and why she was worried sick and wouldn't eat. Amanda looked to the pillow, before sitting up and looking at Constanze. She then looked to her own pillow, before scooting, and moving it. "For just this night, I suppose you can sleep with me. I will make sure you're safe, even if your nightmares come back." Constanze took a step back, surprised that Amanda was actually ok with this idea. But she didn't want to experience the nightmares anymore, so she took it. As Amanda layed down, she had her back to the wall. Constanze laid beside her, and put her pillow down. She faced Amanda, and closed her eyes, forcing them shut with a harsh scrunch. Amanda put the blanket over Constanze as well as herself. "Don't stress about it, just, think happy thoughts, you need the rest. I know you do."

Constanzes eyes opened meekly, looking up at Amanda, before nodding. She slowly closed them, and after a handful of minutes, she fell asleep. Amanda stayed up a little longer, watching over Constanze. Whenever she fidgeted, or seemed stressed, Amanda put her arm onto Constanzes shoulder, which slowly calmed her down. After a while, Constanze seemed to be sleeping soundly, and safely. Amanda smiled, before pulling her arm back, and tucking the one she was resting on up under her pillow. She was glad to see Constanze had a smile on for once in a while, even if it was while she was sleeping, and even if it was small. She closed her eyes, and went to sleep.