chapter vi.

adapt

𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐇𝐒 𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑 your initiation, you had slowly adjusted to the Laurencia lifestyle.

For the first few weeks you had sobbed yourself to sleep every night, your only comfort being the strong sense of peace the stars sprinkled on your window gave.

"Hey. Psst."

The bed next to you creaked.

You hadn't realised you had been crying, again, until the wetness of your cheeks leaked into your mouth. You wiped them hurriedly as the voice's matching eyes melted into pity.

"I get it hon. My first week was hard too." You could make out the shape of her smile and her coily dark hair.

"I'm Jo." The voice whispered, and this time you could see her mouth make out the words. You weren't dreaming.

Jo reached into the bedside drawer between you two. She pulled out a little picture.

"I was taken two years ago." The soggy, yellow scrap of an image showed a young Jo, face screwed up in distress, while a woman who you assumed to be her mother held her close.

"It was the last time I ever saw my mom. On Christmas Day." She furrowed her brows in nostalgia.

"They took you too?"

"Of course. Almost everyone here." She looked around the still room, scanned over all the other beds.

"They send a letter, and they next day a car shows up and takes you away to be locked up here."

"But why?"

Jo's voice hushed, dropping below a whisper. She leaned in and darted her eyes around, almost as if someone was listening.

"This is not a family. It's an empire. They're building an empire."

It didn't make sense at first, but thinking back to everything that had happened; the paperwork, the secret duties, the way everyone stood as of being inspected...

Her few words all instantly clicked as a sickening pinch in your chest. You throat tightened and your head felt like it was going to burst.

"Hey, hey. It's okay." You heard your sniffles and knew you were crying again. "Trust me, it's not completely terrible. The Laurencia's are nice people, it's just a shit system."

"What can I do? I don't know anything about this." You breathed, a trace of panic wavering through the night's cold air.

"I'll help you. The more you learn and adapt to the way things are here, the easier it gets." Her hand gently pressed on your knee.

"The best thing to do is just keep you head down and do the best you can."

You nodded pathetically, accepting your fate.

Slowly beginning to climb out of your sink-hole of self-pity, you tried to focus your energy onto the inevitable quest ahead of you. Adapting.

Adapt. It was a word you never once considered before. Five letters that got lost in the ocean of words of a dictionary.

Becoming anything unnatural to you was against your personal philosophy, you never feared being an outcast. But now that you were actually, officially an outcast, you weren't even considered normal amongst your own kind.

You stood out from all your siblings.

You didn't have a power, you didn't have any knowledge, and you lacked the commitment to the family.

There was only one answer: Adapt.

𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓𝐒 𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐘𝐎𝐔 ended up where you were now, passing through the gates of Nevermore Academy.

You looked down at your outfit.

Completely unrecognisable.

The snugly tailored cream top was nothing alike to the lazy, floppy silhouettes of your old dresses and shirts.

You never tied up your hair, which is why it took your scalp so long to tolerate the tight, pulled back styles you now so frequently wore.

You now remembered to sit still and straight, stretching you neck away from your shoulders.

You parents were in a different car entirely, tailing behind you. You wondered if they were inspecting you now, pointing out your newly perfected mannerisms.

Jo helped to burn your old stuff and walk around with a book on your head.

You had read up on outcast history with her lengthy articles, relentlessly plucked your eyebrows and managed to stop crying through the night.

You stomped out your mindless daydreaming and silly curiosity to become a convincing member of the Laurencia family.

Except for the powers. No one could really help with that part.

Now you finally reached the milestone every Laurencia child must pass. You sat in the leather chair of Principal Weems' office, parents either side of you. You deeply inhaled the smoky musk of the room.

Principal Weems' was charming and sweet in her speech, her red lips often stretching into smiles.

You felt mildly uncomfortable.

"I know that you have had some trouble unlocking Y/N's abilities." Principal Weems addressed your mother and father, and they looked at each other worriedly.

"Um, yes. We have. That's the issue." Your mother stuttered out. You were surprised at how quickly she could deflate in front of Weems, who towered over her desk.

Your father chimed in, voice tumbling in rapid explanation. "We are, well we were um... hoping that we could possibly make an exception for Y/N. She's a very bright child and we are willing to pay extra if it grants her the admission. We uhm- We both think that Nevermore could help her discover the powers we both know she undoubtedly possesses."

You don't know how well life at Nevermore will be if you didn't even have an ability yet. Wasn't that the whole point of the school?

"Well. Given your very large contribution to the school, and the mere status your name holds, we would be more than happy to help a young Laurencia excel." Weems grinned at you.

"Thank you so much, Principal Weems." You murmured politely as your parents began pouring out their undying gratitude all ove the wooden floors.

You weren't unhappy. You were worried.

This was the biggest step yet into becoming an outcast and you didn't know if you were ready.

𝐌𝐄𝐀𝐍𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐄 Wednesday was back home, sharpening her pencils to a point.

She liked preparing for the new school year. It gave her time to conjure up new ways to torture her classmates.

However, the thought of stabbing someone in the shoulder with a pointy lead wasn't enough to distract her from thinking about you.

She hoped it had. She hated this.

She wasn't going to let you ruin her fun.

Being sad or angry or upset with you wasn't going to make anything better. Wondering where you were wasn't going to do anything.

You left, and that's all there was to it.

She wasn't going to wallow.

She was going to adapt.

(un-edited chapter)