The Old Therebefore

episode two , woe is the loneliest number.

JOSEPHINE MONROE wasn't sure how she ended up in this position. And with 'this position' Josephine means being pushed against Wednesday under Xavier Thrope's bed, with their bodies touching a little to close than some people may prefer.

Xavier walked out of the bathroom, and put a shirt on before opening his dorm door. "You're not supposed to be up here." Xavier said to whomever was at the door. Someone stepped inside, most like a girl since the shoes clicked against the wooden floor.

"Good to see you too." The person, Bianca, said as she stared at him. She then shifted her weight to one of her legs and stared at him.

"How'd you get past the Housemaster? Use your siren powers?" Xavier accused, as he looked at her.

"Not while wearing this." Bianca said picking up an amulet that stayed around her neck. There was a long silence before Bianca spoke again. "Would it kill you to not think the worst of me for once?"

"What do you want, Bianca?" Xavier asked as an upset tone.

"To see how you're doing. Especially after being rejected by Josephine for the nineteenth time this week." Bianca said with a tone of amusement that he keeps asking Josephine out, even though she's sign that she's queer. "I'm sorry about Rowan. I know you guys used to be close." Bianca said, changing the subject.

"Since when did you give a damn about Rowan? And I've only asked Josie out twice today." Xavier said as Wednesday glared at his feet from under the bed.

"First of all, she hates that nickname, and you know it. You were the one afraid he'd do something to Josephine. Isn't that why you've been following her like an eager-eyed puppy? She's queer, Xavier." Bianca explained. "Do you have a thing for a taken queer girls with southern-twang fashion sense?" Bianca asked sarcastically, she loved Josephine like a sister.

"Maybe it's because she hasn't tried to manipulate me." Xavier said as Bianca snorted.

"She wants nothing to do with you. She treats you like crap, you can't get enough. I don't blame her." Bianca said, muttering the last part of her sentence.

"Why are you fixated on Josephine?" Xavier asked again, he was deflecting.

"Because she is my friend: we have no one. She is like my sister. I can't wait to crush Ophelia Hall tomorrow and watch Sinclair crumble, she's been treating Josephine like shit. It's gonna be a Poe Cup finale to remember." Bianca said, and Josephine could almost hear her smirk. Wednesday gave a look at she was almost proud of Bianca for doing this, for her Josephine.

"I hate to think what you've got planned." Xavier spoke after a long while.

"My game's already started." Bianca said as Xavier scoffed again, it seemed to be his thing. "I like to win. Is that so wrong?" Bianca questioned, a rhetorical question.

"And you wonder why I broke up with you." Xavier said.

"I broke up with you because you said that I was going through a faze. And you used to love my killer instinct. We could have been good together, Xavier." Bianca said with distaste.

"Were we? Is that just how you wanted me to feel?" Xavier spoke as he almost pushed her out of the dorm.

"Trust me, Josephine Monroe is not the girl of your dreams. She's above you." Bianca said before turning on her heel and leaving. She left with a single sentence. "Stop trying with Josephine; she's already found her soulmate." Bianca said before heading to her own dorm.

🦇

Josephine was standing with Bianca, as her co-pilot. For the first time since they got to Nevermore, they both were in the Poe Cup. Josephine was dressed in a tight suit with a medic bag on her waist, her suit was right outlining her curves. Her hair had streaks of bright gold and black. And she had two dragonfly pins holding her hair back. Her hair was in a bun, it was from two Dutch braids. Her pants were black tights, that had grey and gold bees on them. Her shoes were regular tennis shoes.

Even with her appearance, Wednesday couldn't keep her eyes off of the brunette, who was signing to Divianna about something. "I want to welcome you all to the Edgar Allan Poe Cup. This is one of Nevermore's proudest annual traditions, dating back 125 years. Each team must row across to Raven Island, pull a flag from Crackstone's Crypt, and hustle back without sinking or being sunk. First team to cross the finish line with their flag wins the cup and bragging rights for a year, as well as some special privileges." Weems said through a microphone, she took a small hand pistol and pointed it at the sky. "Let the Poe Cup begin!" Weems said as she shot the gun, symbolizing the start.

"Go! Go! Go!" Yoko yelled from the sidelines, she was cheering for her girlfriend. She watched as Josephine smirked and pointed her hair stick at one of the other teams. The boat she was pointing at got set on fire and the team fell into the water.

The students next to Yoko were cheering loudly for the black cats (Wednesday's team) and the gold bugs (Josephine's team). "Move. Faster!" Bianca yelled with enthusiasm.

"Come on, ladies. Let's go!" Josephine signed as she lifted her hands for a moment. There was the sound of an axe going in the water and a shredding of wood. There was coughing and spitting next to them as they passed a team, Josephine thinks it was the Lee Team, based off the Annabel Lee poem.

"Come on, man. We lost 'cause of you." One of the teammates yelled as Josephine hopped out quickly and grabbed their flag, running passed Wednesday with a smirk. Josephine used to be on the track team, it made sense that they sent her. Josephine quickly grabbed the peppermint spray she had in her bag, and sprayed it on the black cat's flag.

Wednesday fell to the floor as she went to grab her flag, she watched as Josephine kneeled next to her and signed. "Taking a catnap?" Before scurrying off to her own boat with a smirk. Josephine waved her hair stick again and made sure a protective spell was over it.

"Come on! Hurry up, we have to go!" Bianca yelled to Josephine as the latter nodded and ran faster to the boat. She jumped in flying ever so slightly over Divanna (who was scared the girl was going to fall on her, how did Josie do that?)

"What the fuck!" Enid explained from next to them, she had never seen someone jump that far and high. Enid, in anger, scratched Xavier's boat and pushed Wednesday back into the boat.

"The final two teams are the Gold Bugs," Principal Weems said as she used some binoculars to see out of, she could hear students cheering, "and the Black Cats."

"Come on." Enid said as she watched Josephine row even faster, Wednesday too was watching Josephine. She watched the girl's muscles (that Wednesday had never seen before) twitch as she heard someone approaching, causing Josephine to row faster. There was a muffled bounce at the bottom of Josephine's boat, the girl grabbed Thing and threw him back to Wednesday, man handing, the hand. "Gotcha!" Enid cheered as they got to the dock, but unfortunately for Enid, so did the Gold Bugs at the same time.

"Whoo! Yeah, we did it! OMG, Wednesday, we did it!" Enid cheered a she went to hug Wednesday, who was just standing there grimly. She was Josephine wipe the sweat off of her brow. "This is the greatest moment of my entire life. Admit it, you kinda got into the whole school spirit thing." Enid said with a big wolfish-like grin.

"You didn't tell me it was a dark, vengeful spirit." Wednesday grumbled as she watched Josephine sign animatedly.

"The first Poe Cup took place in 1897 as a way to not only honor Nevermore's most famous alumni, but to celebrate those values that all outcasts share. Community, perseverance, and determination. And we certainly saw those values on display today." Weems said with pride as she looked at both teams. Many people cheered, which interrupted the speech.
"Congratulations to Ophelia Hall and Annabel House! In all my years at this school, both as a professor and as student, there hasn't been a tie. The last time there was a tie was back in 1929. So Congratulations!"

Some things stay the same, Wednesday click and clacked on her typewriter and Josephine put herself ahead of everyone in her studies once more. She studied as Wednesday monologued aloud.

"Nevermore continues to be an enigma." Wednesday spoke out of the silence. "A place where the questions far outweigh the answers. But sometimes, the answer is staring you right in the face." Josephine looked up from her English notes, which were perfectly written. Color coded for each subject and semester. "I have an idea." Wednesday spoke as Josephine set her notebook and textbook on the desk.

Wednesday and Josephine walked down to the Edger Allan Poe statue that stood on the ground floor of the building. "Don't worry, Edgar Allan. I see your sanctimonious smirk but we will get the last laugh." Wednesday thought to herself as Josephine held a light at the statue man, who looked peeved and riddled.

"His riddles were legendary." Josephine signed to Wednesday who smirked and looked up at the words before her.

"And this might be your cleverest yet because it's not a single riddle. But rather, each line is its own separate one." Wednesday said as she wrote down each one and reviewed it with Josephine.

"Does it have to be pink?" Wednesday was throughly disgusted as she snapped twice. The two walked in and Wednesday spoke quietly into Josephine's ear. "Secret societies. Hidden libraries. My mother staring at me in a judgmental way. These are all things we've come to expect. But the minute I inch towards the truth; Luckily, I'm not afraid of the dark." Wednesday whispered before for the both of them; everything went black.