Riiiip! The second last it of plastic left the window as Ember tore it off.

You see, the stained glass window in Enid and Ember's room was now only half colourful. Riiiiip! Ember was now fully finished in eradicating all colour from her side of the room.

There was now only half a colourful shadow on the floor, as Ember's side was bare. She had also laid down tape as well. Just to be sure.

"What the hell did you do to my room?" Enid exclaimed as she came up the stairs and saw the new improvement Ember had made.

"Dividing our room equally," Ember said. She kicked all the bits of plastic she had removed over to Enid's side. "Looks like a rainbow vomited on your side."

Enid looked absolutely stunned. "I-"

"Silence would be appreciated," Ember went and sat down at her desk, where a typewriter lay. Wednesday's typewriter. "This is my writing time."

"Your writing time?" Enid repeated.

Ember shrugged. "Or Wednesday's. She used to devote an hour a day to her novel, but that time's up to me now, since she broke a few fingers on our mini guillotine. So she entrusted me to write it for her. Perhaps, if you did the same, your vlog might be coherent. I took a little look. I've read serial killer diaries with better punctuation."

"I write in my voice! It's my truth. It's what my followers love!" Enid replied.

"Your followers are more brainwashed than my cousin was when I gave him five hundred volts of electroshock therapy," Ember answered, getting up from the typewriter and going to face Enid, not going past the shadow line between colour and monochrome on the floor. "They respond to your stories with little pictures that make less sense than your love for colour."

"You mean emojis?" Enid asked. "It's how people express their feelings, but I realise that's a foreign concept to you since you have none!"

"When I look at you, the following emojis come to mind," Ember said, done with this conversation. "Rope. Shovel. Hole."

Enid simmered for a second, steam almost coming out of her ears.

"But the way, there are two D's in Addams," Ember added, going back to the typewriter. "If you're going to gossip about me, at least spell my name correctly. Though I would've thought people had better things to talk about. Is your life really that boring?"

That set Enid off. Instantly, she slammed a hand down on her speaker and a jazzy song started.

Ember spun round, fixing her gaze of fire on her roommate. "Turn that off."

Enid shrugged her head, turning around and doing a dance.

"This is your final warning!" Ember shouted, walking towards Enid.

But before she got past the line into the colour half, Enid turned around and went. "Aaargh!" And all at once, her nails went to claws.

Ember didn't flinch.

"Don't. Mess. With me," Enid said, eyes wide, leaning close to Ember. "This kitty's got claws, and I'm not. Afraid. To use them."

But before Ember could make a cutting remark or sarcastic comment, the door opened and in stepped a woman with red hair and big glasses. She was holding a pot plant and was about the least threatening person Ember had ever seen.

Boy, was she wrong.

"Good evening, girls!" She said, as she locked the door. "Oh, sorry about the mud! I just wanted to make sure that Ember was settling in. Are you alright, girls?"

"Hmm," Ember and Enid stood on their sides of the window, hands behind their backs. Ember took a moment to study this woman. Especially her red boots, covered in mud, as she slowly put a foot on either side of the tape instead of standing entirely on Enid's side.

The woman smiled and headed over to Ember. "I'm Ms Thornhill. Your dorm mum. And your sister's, as well. Even though she's... somewhere else."

"Cousin," Ember corrected again.

"Oops, sillly me!" Ms Thornhill chuckled. "Apologies, I wasn't here to greet you when you arrived. I trust Enid gave you the old Nevermore welcome!"

"She's been smothering me with hospitality," Ember said. "I hope to return the favour. The smothering part. Not the hospitality," she added. Enid gave her a snide side eye.

Ms Thornhill, meanwhile, seemed taken aback. "Well, here's a little welcome gift from my conservatory."

She gestured to the pot plant in her hand. "I like to match a flower with each of my girls, and when I saw your personal statement in your application, I immediately thought of this one."

Ember looked down at the flower. "A black tipped rose," she said.

"Oh, you know it?" Ms Thornhill seemed surprised.

"Yes, I used to love pricking my fingers on the thorns," Ember looked up.

This rendered her silent for a second. "Okey-dokey, well, before I leave, I want to go over a few house rules. Lights off at ten o'clock, no loud music, and no boys. Ever."

She seems to think that's going to be a problem.

"What's the story about going into the local town?" Ember questioned.

"Passes to Jericho are a privilege, not a right," Ms Thornhill answered her sincerely. "It's a brisk twenty five minute walk, or there's a shuttle on the weekends. I won't sugarcoat for you, the locals are a tad bit wary about Nevermore, so please don't go making any waves, or perpetuating any outcast stereotypes."

She turned to Enid. "That means keep your claws to yourself," then Ember. "And no smothering people."

"Are we clear?" She got two harsh stares back. "Okay! Great talk!"

And with that she left the room.

"That was illuminating," Ember rolled her eyes and went back to the typewriter, burning with jealousy at the fact that Wednesday was bypassing all of this.

❣︎❣︎❣︎

The fencing team was the first thing Ember set her sights on. She didn't know why, but as she walked in in her black suit (in contrast to all the white ones in the room) with her helmet under her arm and her sword in her hand, she felt a sort of savage pride.

Xavier Thorpe took his helmet off just as she entered the room. His hair was down this time, just touching his shoulders. Ember didn't even glance in his direction.

"Coach! Coach, she tripped me!"

Ember soon turned her attention to another fight, just ended in front of her. It was the boy on the ground that had yelled, and the girl that was fighting him took off her helmet, revealing Bianca Barclay. 'The closest thing to royalty...' Enid had said. Well, she was going to change that.

"It was a clean strike, Rowan," the coach said to the boy on the ground. Rowan, his name was.

"Maybe if you whined less, and practiced more, you wouldn't suck," Bianca said, turning. "Seriously, coach, when am I gonna have some real competition?"

She looked around the hall in a joking fashion. "Anyone else wanna challenge me?"

"Yeah. Me."

Bianca looked around at the pale girl with the pitch black plaits. Ember Addams. She laughed. "Ohhhhh, you must be the psychopath they let in."

"And you must be the self appointed queen bee," Ember said. Bianca shrugged in a yes. "Funny thing about bees. Pull out their stingers and they drop dead."

"Ooooohhh!" Ember heard Xavier and a couple others go behind her. But she didn't care.

"Rowan doesn't need you to come to his defence," Bianca scoffed. "He's not helpless, he's lazy!"

"And you're not good. You're arrogant," Ember raised her eyebrows. "Are we doing this or not?"

Bianca smirked. And nodded.

Ember steeled herself as she pulled down her helmet and the coach said. "En garde!" If she couldn't beat Bianca, then she didn't know what would happen.

As she posed with her sword, Ember couldn't help but glance to the side, where she saw a crowd forming.

Bianca struck first, and after that, there was about five before either moved.

It was easy to distinguish which girl was which, given the fact that Ember was in black and Bianca in white. Hopefully, blood would stain the right one.

"Argh!" Ember grunted as she moved her sword, only to get blocked by Bianca every time. The two girls moved up and down the narrow white mat they were on until Ember got to the end, having to duck down. This gave her new vantage, though.

And she was able to jab Bianca in the chest.

"Point to Ember!" The coach shouted, as Ember and Bianca reset again.

It didn't take long for Bianca to level the playing field. Just a quick gnash back up the mat and she struck Ember on the head.

"The score is even," the coach chimed in.

Ember shrugged and took her helmet off. Bianca too.

"That first point was clearly just beginners luck," Bianca said, smirking, as she and Ember walked around each other. "But I mean, you started this-"

"And I'll finish it," Ember spoke with a malice laced in her tone. She turned to the coach. "For the final point, I would like to invoke a military challenge. No masks. No tips."

She looked straight at Bianca. "Winner draws first blood."

"Uh-" Bianca hesitated. Ember smirked.

"It's your decision, Bianca," the coach told her.

A pause.

"Let's see if you bleed in black and white," Bianca shrugged, cockiness back in her every move. She chucked her helmet across the room, and the fight began again.

Ember's plaits flew in the air as she twirled, blocking Bianca and trying to get past her blocks in return.

They went off the mat on this occasion, going around it as they tried to strike.

Then, finally, Ember had the upper hand, about to strike-

"Argh!" In one move, Bianca kicked the hand that Ember had her sword in. The girl faltered, but managed to block just in time, throwing her sword to the ground as well and Bianca's.

She got up quicker than Bianca and managed to do an aerial away from the sword that came underneath her. Then strike. Again, it got blocked.

And then, as she stood back up, she wasn't paying attention, and as Bianca slashed her sword-

Ember felt the blood trickle down her forehead. Bianca had cut a shallow gash there, and as Ember put a finger up there, only for it to come back bright red, she knew it was over.

She had lost.

"Wow, now your face matches the rest of you," Bianca smirked, referring to Ember's red school uniform.

Ember didn't even have a smart retort. She barely even listened as the coach told her to go to the nurse to get a plaster for her forehead.

But she knew one thing. She was going to get back up.

This wasn't getting her down.

❣︎❣︎❣︎

"Hey... you're Ember, right?"

Rowan was in the nurse's at the same time as her, getting his wrist that Bianca had sprained taped up.

And of course, Ember was there, getting a plaster for her forehead.

"Rowan," Rowan said, smiling awkwardly. "I know how you feel."

"I guarantee you don't," Ember said back quickly.

"My mother promised me I'd finally fit in somewhere," Rowan shrugged. "I never thought it was possible to be an outcast in a school full of outcasts. But it looks like you're gonna give me a run for my money. Well, you and your sister-"

"Cousin," Ember had become so used to correcting people that her and Wednesday weren't sisters that she just did it as soon as someone mentioned the latter now.

Rowan sighed. "Uhhh... I'm sorry about the- uh- nick."

He pointed to his own forehead.

"No good deed goes unpunished," Ember said, pondering the idea before walking closer to him to pick up her jacket. "And neither did mine."

She sighed, walking away from the boy who was the self proclaimed 'outcast amongst outcasts', and away from the infirmary. She spent about a second looking at the water tank outside - she could've sworn she saw something move behind it - but she didn't care. She felt a sort of lousy she had never felt before.

She got her umbrella (it was raining heavily outside) and put her jacket on, then went outside. She sighed, walking into this sort of courtyard thing and across. That was when she saw a gargoyle up on the top of one of the buildings around her started to move.

Move closer to the edge.

Ember only looked up as it fell off-

It was tumbling towards her-

She was going to-

"EMBER!"

Next thing she knew, she was getting barrelled out the way. She felt a body pull her to the side, and the same person fall on top of her, swiping her plaits aside and checking for any damage to her.

She caught a glimpse of Xavier Thorpe's face as a bit from the fallen gargoyle smashed into her head and that, along with the impact from her landing, made her black out.