Friendship Blitzkrieg
Kate coughed, drawing everyone’s attention to the front of the room. As the dorm common rooms had originally been study halls, a white board replaced the front wall with a chalk board at the back. In thick black dry-erase marker read:
Operation Friendship Blitzkrieg
Kate held the marker behind her, clasping her wrist behind her back and standing at attention.
“Thank you all for joining me today,” she said, as if they hadn’t been hanging out together every day for the past two weeks. She kept her chin tilted up just a little, not quite making eye contact with anyone, which suited Max just fine. “As you are all aware, last night we made contact with a chaos demon. Unfamiliar with its capabilities, several members of our coven were disabled - “ she gave a pointed glance at Rachel and Max, who smiled sheepishly “- before we were, shall I say, rescued by an unfamiliar witch. What you do not know, however, is the identity of our rescuer.”
Kate closed her eyes, cleared her throat, and continued, “However, last night I also discovered their identity.”
Max’s eyes just went wide with surprise; Chloe asked, “Wait, what?”; Rachel grinned leaning forward in her seat as she said, “Way to go Katie!”
However, they were all slightly taken aback as Kate slowly exhaled, eyes still closed. After a few more seconds, the sigh dragged on long enough to make them nervous.
“Uh, who is it?” Chloe asked.
Finally, Kate breathed in, opened her eyes, and replied, “Our savior last night was Victoria Chase.”
While Chloe and Max remained stunned, Rachel replied, “No fuckin’ way.”
Missing the point, Kate pointed at Rachel and said, “Yes, that Victoria Chase.”
Rachel blinked.
“No, Kate, I got it, I just mean -”
“Oh”
“- that, like. That’s not great.”
Chloe’s eyes flitted over to Rachel before finally turning away from Kate entirely to face her. “So like, what’s the big? Now there’s just some random witch bitch around - why do we care?”
“Look at the board,” Max replied.
Chloe did. She read it. Then she read it again.
“Oh shit,” she said, dropping her forehead into her palm fast enough that it made a slapping noise. “Are we seriously going to try and add her to the coven?”
Kate’s hands dropped to her hips, her face a (very, very soft) scowl. “Of course we are. You know we’re stronger with every member, and Victoria seems very powerful for a lone witch. Why not team up?”
Chloe shrugged; “Did I not already cover the ‘bitch’ part?”
Rachel loudly sighed, though, dragging the conversation away from Chloe’s grasp. “Sadly, I think Kate is probably right. We might be dead right now if it weren’t for her, and the demons have only been ramping up lately. We don’t just need fresh blood. We need someone trained. Clearly, Tori is.”
“Max?” Kate asked, turning her attention to the girl behind Chloe. “What do you think?”
Everyone looked to her, and her eyes snapped up to Kate’s. She started to futz with her woven leather wristband.
“I . . . uh. I’m still in the shock over Victoria being a witch. But making friends sounds nice.”
“Great,” Kate said, “now that we’re all in agreement-”
“But I didn’t agree,” Chloe interjected
“- let’s move on to the plan, shall we?”
The crew leaned around the corner of the boys’ dorm, spotting their target. Victoria stood by the “Rachel owes me money” tree, her eyes turned down to her phone. She must have been waiting for Taylor and Courtney. Taylor was constantly tardy for things, but Courtney could be here any second. They’d have to be quick.
“All right, I’m up,” Max said, stepping forward and cracking her knuckles.
“You can do it,” Kate whispered at a volume that nullified the usefulness of whispering.
“Try not to die,” Chloe said.
Rachel just gave her a thumbs-up.
“Whew, okay, okay. Yeah. I’m great at making friends,” Max told herself, then began to walk, awkwardly and stiffly, across the courtyard.
In her attempt to make a beeline for Vic, though, her foot caught on one of the tiny ‘fence’ strings, and she ended up hopping her way only a few feet from Victoria. Her attempts to recover were many, but they weren’t very effective.
She face-planted into the grass a few feet from Victoria.
Victoria didn’t even look up.
“Heh, heh,” Max laughed, picking herself up off the ground and wiping away the dirt as if nothing had happened. Her chuckles managed to make herself feel creepy before Victoria had even laid eyes on her. She planted her feet back down and pivoted to make it clear she was trying to make contact, that her mistake at least had the purpose of trying to talk.
Nada. Victoria just kept scrolling on her phone as if Max wasn’t even there.
Max opened her mouth to speak, but realized she hadn’t actually planned this far. Crap! She usually only bothered to shoot back retorts with Victoria in class. It was sort of a next-level step to invite her into the coven. Or say hello without thick sarcasm.
Come on, Max! You’re friendly! Say something! Like, what would you say if you just ran into her in an MMO?
Max’s mouth was still hanging open, but she managed a bit of a dry swallow, and then a quiet, “Kek?”
This time, Victoria looked up, and Max froze.
“Did you say something, Caulfield?”
Oh my fucking god you idiot! What are you going to say now?!
“Um.”
Just say something! Say ‘hello, so nice to see you outside of class Victoria, love the cashmere today - oh, and thank you for saving me from that Chaos demon yesterday, it smelled like rotting flesh and it was awful and-’
Wide-eyed Max just booked it for the girl’s dorm without saying another word.
“Seriously, don’t worry about it, Max, I’ve got it.”
It was back to corner-leaning, but this time they were both more and less conspicuous. More because everyone could see them doing it, less because it was between third and fourth periods in the hallway and people were too busy to really care. Victoria stood at her locker, switching books between it and her bag, with her headphones on, bobbing a little to whatever song they couldn’t hear.
It was Chloe’s turn, and despite the fact that they’d agreed that they should “plan better,” this had only prompted Chloe to say, “I have a plan,” and not share it with anyone. Anyway, she’d seemed pretty confident, so here they were.
Chloe took a deep breath.
“Alright, Lieutenant Price, reporting for duty.”
She marched off, weaving as well as she could with her tall frame around the other students, which at a certain point should just be called ‘shoving’. Rachel gripped the hall corner tightly as she leaned over it, and Max held tightly to her shoulders, as if she, not the wall, could save her from the impending disaster.
Chloe hesitated briefly behind Victoria, then tapped her on the shoulder.
Victoria looked over her shoulder.
She smirked?, and placed the flap over her bag before tugging out her earphones.
She said something, then Chloe said something.
Victoria looked intrigued, leaning back against her locker and nodding.
Chloe continued for a little bit, and then Victoria laughed. It was loud enough that they could hear it from here, even considering the din.
She really did have a witch’s laugh.
They kept chatting for about another minute, and then Victoria said something that left Chloe rather taken aback.
Victoria didn’t really seem to notice, though, and gave Chloe a very obvious once-over before standing, leaning forward, and saying something quietly.
“Whoah, is she in?” Kate gasped.
Chloe’s stunned expression didn’t drop, but she pulled out her phone, nodding occasionally while Victoria recounted something.
Then, she walked off into the photography room.
Half a minute later, and Chloe wandered back to her cluster of friends with her phone still in hand. They spread out from the corner, instead forming a semi-circle near one of Dana’s hand-crafted posters for a Vortex Club function.
Rachel started, “So, like, is she going to talk to us? Is it a maybe at least?”
Chloe finally seemed to snap back into reality, shaking her head rapidly to clear her thoughts. She shoved her phone into her pocket then raised her hand to ruffle her own hair. “I, uh . . . I didn’t really get to talk to her about the witch thing.”
Blank glances all around.
And then Max’s, “But, wait, what did you guys talk about then?”
Chloe shrugged broadly, “Well, I mean, I tried but then things kinda just . . .” Chloe trailed off, not quite making eye contact with any of them.
Kate’s eyes narrowed with suspicion, leaning forward so that Chloe’s attention suddenly fell on her. She was . . . blushing?
“Just what?” Kate asked.
“I . . . I think I just became Chase’s booty call? I mean, I’m not sure but? she said she could find a better use for my mouth than talking so much and she had plans for my body and like, like, we’re definitely gonna fuck.”
Max cried, “Chloe, what?”
Rachel said, “Wait, seriously?”
Kate said, “But don’t you hate her?”
Chloe only really seemed to hear Kate’s final remark and replied, “I mean, yeah, but have you seen her?”
They all groaned, but Chloe just snickered.
Kate, Max, and Chloe sat in Max’s room during Rachel’s attempt. It was kind of weird to have them all in her room without the cauldron and everything set up, and her eyes darted around as if she’d find something new and interesting to direct their attention to while they waited.
This just resulted in silence. Chloe sat on her phone, while Kate made much the same glances that Max was. Rachel’s knocking out in the hallway had yet to produce any results.
“Huh, this is weird,” Chloe said without looking up from the screen. Max and Kate both focused on her, waiting for a follow-up.
“Texting Victoria’s phone has just been getting me these weird, automated messages saying she can’t receive texts.”
“That. Um. That doesn’t seem correct.” Max tilted her head as she tried to recall Victoria’s phone model. “I’m pretty sure she’s just got like, a Galaxy?”
The door out in the hallway opened, and they all quieted to hear through the door.
“Hey Victoria, I was just-”
“Nope.”
Kate winced as the door slammed shut.
A few seconds later, Rachel shuffled in to greet their dour faces.
“I guess she still hates your guts,” Chloe offered, returning to her phone after a beat.
Rachel shrugged and plopped down on Max’s bed, and she and Max both scooted further back to the wall for comfort.
Kate sighed, and it trailed on long enough to make Max look over in concern.
“I’m sorry guys. My plan sucked. I have no idea how to make Victoria join our coven when none of us are friends with her, and I have less of an idea how to make friends with her.”
Rachel said, “No, Kate, hunny, your plan was great!”
Max said, “Aww, c’mon Kate, we’ll figure it out.”
Chloe said, “I mean, it was kind of a bad idea.”
Everyone’s heads turned to Chloe.
Did she just fucking call Kate out? I raised her better than this . . .
Rachel replied, “Chloe, what the fuck-”
Chloe threw her hands up in the air and said, “I mean, it involved being nice to Victoria! That’s bound to get your ass bit.”
She blinked.
“Speaking of which, I’m going to just try calling her.”
Max raised her hand up against her wall, brushing her photo wall along the way.
“Um. I vote no?”
Chloe’s finger descended on her phone screen; “Yoooollloooo,” she insisted over everyone’s protests, and held the phone up to her ear.
Her face pinched in confusion after a few seconds.
“What the fuck?” she asked, looking around at everyone as if they could explain. When she only got shrugs, though, she turned the call on speakerphone.
“Dude, dude, they did it, they found our easter egg.”
“Who are you?”
“It’s me? David Jaffe - I directed the game?”
“What game?”
“Your game. God of War?”
“Go away or I’ll-”
“Dude, dude...”
“Okay, I think that’s enough of that,” Rachel interjected, and Chloe quickly clicked end.
“Whaaaaat just happened?” Chloe asked.
Rachel shrugged, but replied, “I think you did in fact just get fucked by Victoria Chase.”
It was the sudden death round. None of us had wanted to make Kate go alone to try, especially once she started feeling so down on her plan. We gave up for the night and disbanded, but met up again real early so we could be outside before Victoria and her cronies. Once again she stood reading something on her phone next to the ‘Rachel Owes Me Money’ tree while waiting for the others. And once again they were hiding around the corner of the boys’ dorm to spy on her.
The difference this time is that they were all trying to work up the courage to approach her. That should make it easier, but every time someone nearly worked up the nerve, they were out of sync, and fell back to the safe corner.
“Okay everyone, come on. Deep breaths. We can do this.”
Rachel didn’t sound that sure. She sounded much closer to how they all felt. But at least it was enough to get them to start their march down the walkway towards her. The path was a little too narrow for them to all walk abreast, but Max didn’t want to fall out of step, so she scooted further to the left of the path. Unfortunately, this led to her foot catching on one of the low wires of the grass, and suddenly skipping past everyone as she regained her balance.
This time, at least, it seemed to catch Victoria’s attention. She looked up at Max, and then the whole pack of teenage girls took her notice.
“Oh hey,” she said, “what do you sluts want?”
Although this particular title was usually saved for Rachel, Victoria’s eyes lingered on Chloe this time. She quirked an eyebrow for the question, but it only prompted a growl from her - and for her to stuff her hands in her pockets with no more response.
Kate raised her hands up in surrender. “We didn’t come to fight, Victoria.”
She remained unconvinced. “Oh? But you brought all four of you.”
Max nodded. “We did. But that’s because . . . because . . .”
She looked to the others for confirmation, and everyone gave her a nod.
She turned back to Victoria; “Because we want to ask you to join our coven.”
She scoffed. They figured she would do that. She placed one hand on her hip, her knuckles on the other hip (her hand was still a little busy with the phone). They’d figured she’d do that, too.
“And why would I want to do that? I saw you guys Tuesday. You’re a mess. Why would I want to join your coven?”
“Wait,” Chloe said, still with the big pouty face. “You knew it was us?”
Victoria shrugged. “Yeah? Your outfits don’t exactly hide your identities, dumbass. Try wearing a mask or, like, putting in some effort. That goes for in general, too.” She smiled oh-so sweetly, and it was obvious as Chloe’s hands balled into fists in her pockets.
Rachel held up a hand to interject, hopefully dissuading Chloe from knocking Victoria’s teeth in.
“Look, Vic, just stop being a bitch for five seconds. We could be a lot stronger with you in our coven, and you could be a lot stronger for having a coven. Look at what you managed by yourself - imagine what you could do with the Right at your fingertips?”
The girls’ dorm opened loudly while Victoria slowly leaned back against the tree, her self-satisfied smile giving way to a look of confusion. Max took a peak around the tree and found Taylor and Courtney approaching quickly - they’d have to wrap this up quickly.
“So, wait, let me get this straight. You’re offering because you think I don’t have a coven?”
The implication of the question was as obvious as the possibility it led to, and yet they all stood stunned as they heard it.
“Are you saying there are more witches at this school than just us five?” Kate asked.
And the smirk was back on Victoria’s face. Her eyes darted one way, then the other as Taylor and Courtney flanked her on either side of the tree, dousing them all in the same contemptuous looks from their endless soup kitchen line of contemptuous looks.
Finally, her eyes locked back on Kate.
“Oh, there’s a few.”
And then, with a snicker, Victoria kicked off from the tree, and she and her posse walked on by, Courtney just managing to clip Max on the shoulder as she passed.
A few seconds later, and the departing trio was laugh, though Taylor’s could really be called more of a cackle.
Rachel watched them all go through a slitted glare. When she spoke, it was so severe that it could only be called a curse.
“Those witches.”