"It's not here... nor here either ~"
William hurriedly searched through all the drawers in his desk, looked under his bed, and finally rummaged through his wardrobe.
He checked every shirt, jacket, and jumper, running his hands over the soft fabric, especially around the collar and his ties.
"Come on, Will, you've been looking for your brooch all morning. I think you asked for it before you got here."
Ajax was also searching the room. He had come to William's room after not seeing him at breakfast.
"It was right there on the bedside table. I always take it off before I go to sleep."
William's new anti-dirt brooch had mysteriously disappeared from his room.
"Just to confirm, is it the bear-shaped one you always wear on your tie?"
Ajax checked behind the curtains.
"It's a different one, this one has a stag and an owl engraved in the centre."
It was the Creta of House Stone with two of the sacred animals of the goddesses Artemis and Athena, just like the two relics of the House, the spear and the sword.
*Ding*
"It's a message from Xavier, Professor Orloff's classes are about to begin."
Ajax checked his phone after being alerted to the message with a notification.
"It's useless to continue, let's go, I'll keep looking more thoroughly later."
William smoothed his somewhat tousled hair after bending down, sighed, and reluctantly picked up his backpack.
Professor Orloff, one of Nevermore's oldest teachers and, of course, as strict as they come, was a reanimated head in a glass dome attached to a special machine that allowed him to transport himself from one place to another. His mood was not the best with students who arrived late.
One day, his body could take no more, and with the help of one of his students, he managed to escape death, or at least his head did; his body was not so lucky.
"How can you lose something in such a clean room? I lose my socks, but my room is a complete mess."
Ajax smiled ironically. William's room was what he would call a very well-organised room, except for the pencil sketches stuck to the wall above the desk, some books and photos.
"And just today."
"Today? Is there something special or something?"
"Today is the day of... come to think of it, I didn't see you at the academy during the first few days of last year."
"During the first few days, I was busy with Xavier cleaning a small shed in the woods."
William replied as he put money into the vending machine in the hallway. With a metallic clang, two packets of Twinkies fell onto the tray.
"You didn't answer me. Is something happening today?"
"You'll find out soon enough."
Ajax replied with a smile as he caught the pack of three cupcakes William threw at him, which could be considered payment for helping him find his lost brooch.
- Half a day later - Afternoon break -
"Enid, is something wrong? I've received a lot of messages from you, I mean, more than usual."
William opened the door as if it were his own room.
First, he heard a slight noise, as if a string had broken, then he felt the pressure of the air, and finally, he noticed a slight smell of plastic in the air.
He could see Enid standing right in front of him, her hands behind her back and a smug smile on her face.
The sound of the string came from the mechanism attached to the door; the broken string pulled the trigger of a small crossbow on Enid's desk.
The arrow cut through the air and made its way to the multiple coloured balloons covering the part of the ceiling above William's head.
William's thoughts were so quick that in less than a second he knew where this was all going.
The slight mockery in Enid's smile denoted joy.
*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*
The blunt-tipped arrow burst all the balloons in its path, but it would still take a few milliseconds for all their contents to fall on William.
Of course, William could have dodged the entire contents of the balloon; he only had to take a step back and he would have been out of range.
(Doing that would have been no fun at all!)
William leaned his body forward and took a couple of steps forward, just enough to have Enid within reach.
Enid's eyes widened in surprise when she felt William's arms around her waist.
"Wait!!!"
William lifted Enid's body off the floor and hugged her close, turning 180 degrees on his heels and stepping into the rainbow-coloured glitter cloud falling from the ceiling.
"!!!"
William spun around a couple of times with Enid in his arms, allowing the shiny, iridescent flakes to cover both their blonde hair.
"Bahaha!!!"
"Hahahaha!!!"
They both laughed loudly, not caring how the glitter stuck to their cheeks and sparkled brightly in the light streaming through the windows of the room.
"Happy Pranks Day!!!"
Enid opened her arms wide and said excitedly.
"So that's why you suddenly started joking around."
William sat on the floor with Enid still in his arms, the glitter having made its way onto Enid's soft white neck.
"You've got some on your nose."
Enid tried to wipe William's nose with her fingers.
(It looks unusually adorable with a little glitter!!!)
Those were Enid's thoughts as she saw the result of her artwork.
"Oh yeah? Now you've got some on your nose too!!!"
William took the opportunity to rub his nose against Enid's, causing both of them to now have their noses covered in multicoloured powder.
"Come on, the rest of them should have started the pranks by now!"
Enid took William's hand and together they went out onto the balcony, from where they could see dozens of students playing pranks on each other.
Some Da Vincis were lifting other students off their feet, while some Gorganas were annoying other students with their snakes.
Werewolves threw a student's backpack from a different dormitory at each other, rolls of paper were thrown from one place to another, as were sticky foam streamers.
"God, someone really dared to do that to Professor Orloff."
William wrinkled his nose as he watched a couple of students put eels into the tank where Professor Orloff's head was preserved.
"A mermaid must have put him to sleep."
William leaned on the railing, watching as the boys, after putting the eels in, banged on the glass of Orloff's tank until he woke up.
The head immediately panicked with five electric eels swimming in circles around it, releasing small electric shocks.
"We have to hurry and get them out of there..."
- Pentagonal Courtyard - Right next to the mermaid fountain. -
"Mr Stone, hurry up and get these eels out of my tank."
Professor Orloff would have breathed a sigh of relief if he could have done so underwater and had air in his lungs when he saw William coming to his aid.
"Right away, Professor Orloff, and you all stay still."
The eels seemed to understand William's words and immediately stopped swimming frantically, the slight electric shocks also stopping completely.
Like a true expert, William opened the maintenance compartment of Orloff's life support machine and, in a second, gained access to the inside of the glass tank.
"That was animal control. I didn't know the Stone family had that gift. Your father never showed it."
With William's help, Professor Orloff's mood improved, and he began a quiet conversation.
"It's the effect of one of my rings, specifically this one here."
William pulled a slippery eel out of the tank as he continued the conversation.
"I can see that each of your accessories are valuable runic objects, as expected from one of the four oldest families among the Outcasts."
"Did you know my parents well?"
"Of course, they were brilliant and cheerful people, they were among my best students. Uriel used to help me collect special specimens for biology classes."
About to transfer the third eel from the professor's tank to a small separate fish tank, William's hands paused when he heard something interesting.
"Could I help you as my father did?"
"It seems that, in addition to your appearance, you also inherited his taste for danger. Come to my office later, I have received information about a specimen worthy of preservation."
"Dead or alive?"
With a metallic sound, the lid of Professor Orloff's tank resealed itself tightly. The five eels were too young to pose a threat to the professor and were a very common species; with enough money, you could easily get your hands on them.
"If possible, I would like a live specimen. Now, if you'll excuse me, Mr Stone, I'm going to talk to some students."
Apparently, it would not be difficult for Orloff to find the culprits of this very pleasant prank on a professor, and he would make sure they all received an equally amusing reward.
When the work was done, William was finally able to look around, and apart from Yoko and Enid near him, most of the students only saw him from a distance.
William took his time washing his hands in a nearby sink before returning to Enid and Yoko.
The hustle and bustle and jokes had stopped at least a few dozen metres around him.
"What's going on?"
William whispered to Yoko as he dried his hands with a handkerchief.
"The girls think you're cute with glitter on your face, and the boys don't want to bother you, maybe because you threaten to gouge out the eyes of anyone who bothers you."
Enid replied instead of Yoko.
"It was just once!"
"The video of the boy who wet himself because of your joke went pretty viral."
"Hey Will!"
"You finally came out of hiding!"
William looked up just in time to see several water balloons flying straight at him.
"Oops!"
William moved slightly and most of the balloons hit Yoko, completely soaking her black hair.
"You're dead!!!"
Yoko shouted, baring her fangs as she ran after Ajax and Xavier, who were fleeing through the corridors of Nevermore.