Chương 198: Interlude 44 – School Days Pt.1

=::= Cass's PoV =::=

Weekday mornings had become kind of hectic. This was the start of the second week of college for Sasha and I, and the beginning of Kaylee's second week at university. For the rest of Club Luna it was the start of their second week of grade twelve back at high school. And for four of the six of us who lived in the clubhouse, it meant scrambling to share the single upstairs bathroom as we all tried to get ready at the same time.

Neither Willow or Sasha said anything, but I had a feeling they were both a little harried by the whole situation. In my cousin's case it was yet another new experience ontop of a hundred other new experiences. I was sure she was secretly frustrated, or at least a little dismayed at not only having to deal with the care and maintenance of a mortal body but having to scramble for bathroom time too. And the cute sorceress went from basically having a bathroom all to herself back at her parents' place to sharing one here with three other people.

Kaylee was actually in the same boat, her parents' house had an ensuite in the master bedroom so the upstairs washroom was all hers. Now that she lived here she had to share with the rest of us. The difference between her and the other two was she had girlfriend privileges, which meant she wasn't shy about discussing the matter with me.

"I was thinking about the washroom situation again this morning," the small kitsune said as she started getting dressed for university.

Her tails were twitching in irritation and her ears were pointed forward as she looked to me and stated, "I don't like to complain after everything you've done for all of us, but it's kind of rough that the four of us upstairs all have to share a single washroom, while Cerys and Melanie get one all to themselves downstairs."

Before I could respond she added, "I know the cliché solution is for all of us to just be a lot less modest, so we could have more than one person using it at the same time? Like someone could be showering while someone else was doing her make-up or brushing her teeth or whatever? But I have a feeling a few of us are a little too shy for that kind of casual interaction."

I nodded quietly as I felt my cheeks colouring. It might not be an issue for me and Kaylee to share a washroom like that, but I'd feel very differently if any of our other housemates walked in on me while I was in there doing washroom stuff.

"So I hope this doesn't come across as me being greedy or anything," Kaylee continued, "But I was wondering if maybe Cassandra could use some more of her goddess powers to make another little renovation to the house? Like maybe you and I could get our own ensuite bathroom, since this is the master bedroom and all? Then we'd have one, the wolfgirls have one, and both Willow and Sasha would have one."

I grimaced slightly, "I'm not sure where it would go, but maybe tonight Cassandra can look into it? I don't want to make our house too big or weird-looking, I kind of like it being small and cosy. But I get what you're saying, and with six of us here it's the difference between 'cosy' and 'cramped'."

My girlfriend shook her head, "It's not cramped. And it wasn't really an issue all summer long? It's mainly just when we all need to be ready at the same time, that's when we really need another bathroom."

She was fully dressed by that point, in a pair of dark tights and a cute reddish-brown dress that made her hair and tails look even brighter and more colourful. She slipped on some dark shoes then grabbed her backpack before stretching up to give me a kiss.

"See you later Cass!" she said with a wide grin, before teleporting herself away.

I barely had a chance to kiss her back and say goodbye before she was gone. Then I finished getting ready as well. I wasn't doing anything stylish, I just went for my old comfy clothes. I had some dark green leggings, a loose dark grey top, and my oversized navy blue hoodie. A pair of sneakers on my feet and my backpack completed my 'ensemble', then I went out to the living-room to see how everyone else was doing.

Cerys, Melanie, and Willow were all dressed and ready to go. The three were having breakfast together, the werewolfs were sitting on one of the sofas while the sorceress was on one of the big comfy chairs.

"G'morning Cass," Cerys greeted me between spoonfuls of some sugary cereal. She and Melanie also had mugs of latte in front of them, while Willow had an unopened can of cola waiting for her.

I greeted all three of them, then went into the kitchen to get something to eat too. I didn't feel like cereal though so I put on some toast instead. While I was waiting for it to pop Sasha finally emerged from her bedroom, she was wearing some faded blue skinny-jeans and a pretty white top. She had white sneakers on too, and a light grey hoodie.

"Good morning Cassandra," my cousin greeted me as she got herself a glass of juice then pulled a muffin out of the fridge.

I greeted her as well, before she went out to the living-room to join the others.

By the time my toast popped and I got it buttered and put some jam on it my sister had teleported over, while Willow and the wolfgirls were already finished eating. The four of them all headed out for the walk to school, leaving Sasha and I to finish our breakfast together.

Less than five minutes later the two of us set out as well. The college was in almost the opposite direction from the high school, it was a half dozen blocks west of us and a couple blocks south of Main Street. The walk was fine, only about fifteen or twenty minutes, and the weather was still pretty good too.

I had a feeling come January there might be some debates about who'd get to take the Lunamobile, or if we'd all take it and just drop off one group before the other group went to class. Then again neither Sasha or I had started taking driving lessons yet, so we didn't exactly have the option of taking the van anyways.

Of course there was always the magical solution, I could just teleport my cousin and I to and from college. But I figured if the weather was that bad then the place might not be open anyways. And it's not like I never had to walk to school in the snow before. Teleporting only became an option last year, after all.

The first week we walked with our neighbours a couple times, but we didn't actually make any special plans or arrangements. It was more like some mornings we happened to see them and other mornings we didn't. Today was the second kind, so it was just the two of us as we made our way to college. We got there with plenty of time to spare, but neither of us had anything else to do so the two of us just went straight to our first class of the day.

It wasn't long before the prof was talking about marketing stuff, and despite my best efforts my attention started to wander. Unfortunately I just wasn't all that interested in the subject, but both Sasha and Cassandra thought it was important and they seemed to have some big plans on what to do with it when we graduated.

If it was up to me I would have just stuck with a literature or writing course, since that seemed like it would give me an excuse to do more reading.

So I tried to pay attention, I took notes when it seemed like other people were doing the same thing, but mostly I hoped that Sasha and Cassandra were paying better attention to the lessons than I was. I also found myself doodling in my notebook, and by mid-day I had a few different sketches of what looked like a 'Kid Chaos' logo. It wasn't even anything I'd consciously been working on, it just sort of happened in between daydreaming and trying to focus on the prof.

When lunchtime finally arrived we both packed up our books and stuff then headed to the college cafeteria. It actually wasn't that different from the cafeteria at high school, which was kind of disappointing. I'd been hoping it might be something special, or different, or just better in some way.

Instead it seemed like they figured there were enough fast food places within walking distance that students who wanted something interesting could go out and get it. The on-campus facilities were more like a token lunch room and minimalist kitchen so the students who either brought their lunch or were too busy or too lazy to make other arrangements had somewhere to eat.

Neither Sasha or I felt like going out though, so we made do with what they had on campus. She got a salad and I grabbed a chicken sandwich, and we both got bottles of water before continuing on into the lunch room.

The plus side of the place being kind of small and basic was you could spot your friends a lot easier. So we didn't have any trouble finding Violet and Jade and Sage there, the three of them were all sitting together off to one end of the dining area.

Me and Sasha started heading over towards them when I noticed someone else a few tables away. I told my cousin, "I'll catch up with you in a minute ok?"

She followed my gaze then responded, "Oh! I'll accompany you if you don't mind."

The two of us changed course, and as we approached the other table I smiled. "Hi Brooke! How are you doing, how was your summer?"

The tall blonde was sitting with two other people I didn't know, I figured they were friends or classmates or something. She looked momentarily surprised to see me and Sasha standing there, then she smiled back.

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"Hey Cass, Sasha. It's good to see you both," she responded. Then she gestured at the other two girls she was with, "This is Wendy and that's Ann."

Sasha and I greeted the other two girls and they both said hi to us too, but apart from that it quickly started to feel awkward. Like Brooke wanted to hang out with her new friends, and maybe she was worried we'd be too weird or that we'd mention magic or the supernatural or something like that.

So we just excused ourselves then went over to join our neighbours at their table, and the three of them seemed a lot more happy to see us.

"Hi Cass, hi Sasha!" Jade greeted us both with a friendly smile. "Pull up a couple chairs!"

As soon as we were both seated the green-haired girl leaned closer and asked, "So have you folks figured out that riddle yet? Violet told us about the ghost hunt, it sounded really neat. I kind of wish we could have gone with the rest of you for that? I'm glad it worked out ok though, Vi said you all figured the ghost would be at rest or something now?"

All that caught me off-guard, I really wasn't used to people outside of Club Luna just openly asking about a club investigation. And the ghostly riddle stuff all turned out to be really personal and kind of creepy, so I wasn't comfortable talking about that stuff either.

"We believe we've deciphered the riddle," my cousin responded in a calm but quiet voice. "However it's sensitive information, and in any event it's probably not a great idea to discuss supernatural topics in a public venue."

Jade nodded, "All right, I get it. I doubt anyone's listening in on us here, but I know the whole thing was supposed to be a big secret."

"Kind of hard to keep the supernatural a secret when our cute demi-human girlfriend is sitting right here," Violet added as she smiled towards Sage. Then while the small catgirl was blushing Vi looked back at me and commented, "Same with Kaylee right? Dating a tiny three-tailed kitsune has to make it hard to keep the whole supernatural thing hidden."

Once again it was Sasha who responded. She sounded a little disappointed as she said, "Unfortunately most people seem to think demi-humans are merely normal people wearing costumes. Kaylee does attract attention, and I'm sure you do as well Sage? But from what I've seen, most people stare for a few moments, then decide it's just a costume and put the whole matter out of their minds."

"Yeah," Sage nodded in agreement. "I had three profs last week all ask me to stop wearing the 'fake ears and tail' to class. So I tell them they're not fake, I'm a real catgirl. There's a little back and forth about it, then they seem to just give up. They don't accept that it's real, but I think they decide I'm delusional or crazy or something, and it's not worth arguing about. So in their mind it's still a costume, but they're allowing me to keep wearing it."

My cousin glanced at me before looking over at the catgirl again. She stated, "In time we hope to remedy those sorts of misperceptions. Cassandra and I want to see a world where people can be whoever or whatever they wish, and are all accepted as their true selves. Whatever that may be."

"That's cool," Jade smiled. "It'd be nice to live in a world where bigotry and prejudice didn't exist anymore, but catgirls and kitsune and plant nymphs were all normalized, along with being gay or trans."

Sasha raised an eyebrow as she smiled back at the green-haired girl, "Perhaps we could enlist your help too Jade? Living with a demi-human and a nymph must give you some ideas. Would you be interested in becoming more than human yourself?"

Both Violet and Sage looked a little uneasy, and I probably did too. Meanwhile Jade just laughed, "Not if it means becoming tiny! I like being the tall one in between my two cute little girlfriends."

After a gulp of her cola she added, "Although finding out you've got a couple werewolf friends got me thinking a bit. I suppose if I had to pick something, that's what I'd go for? Werewolves have a rep for being fast and strong and tough. That's my kind of thing."

"I'm afraid neither Cassandra and I are in a position to turn you into a werewolf," Sasha replied. "That would be up to Melanie, and last I heard she's very much opposed to the idea of turning anyone unfortunately."

My cousin continued, "Perhaps there's a 'next best thing' though? I happen to know there are wolf plush toys with the same sort of magic as the feline plushie that Sage used."

"Huh," Jade commented as she looked kind of thoughtful.

She didn't actually say she was interested, but she didn't dismiss the idea either, she just left it open. Meanwhile I was still sort of uncomfortable with the whole conversation. Like ok we stopped talking about club stuff but we were still discussing the supernatural and other people could have been listening in.

Fortunately nobody else said anything, and that seemed to be the end of that topic anyways. For now at least. Violet changed the subject, she asked how me and Sasha were liking college so far. That led to the five of us comparing notes and stuff, with our neighbours telling us about their different courses while me and Sasha talked about our marketing stuff.

We talked about college and classes right up until the end of lunch, then we all headed off to our afternoon classes. Sasha and I sat next to each other at the back of the class, and I opened up my notebook to those sketches I'd been doodling earlier.

This time my cousin noticed them, and she leaned closer to get a better look. She smiled as she commented quietly, "Those look really good. I think you have a talent for logo design."

That made me blush slightly as I whispered back, "I was just messing around. And it's not like we need a 'Kid Chaos' logo."

"Of course we do," she disagreed. "And any of those would work, but I'm sure you'll have come up with something even better by the time we're ready to go live with the plans."

I frowned, "Wait what? Which plans? Why do we need a logo?"

"Once the corporation has been formed and the paperwork filed we'll want a quality logo that's fun and friendly and highly recognizable," she replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

"We'll also want to register it as a trade mark," she added. "Then we'll hire someone to start developing a retail web site, while you and I work at building our social media presence."

Sasha continued, "I understand both Willow and Melanie know something about web design, in fact Willow told me she wants to focus on that when she starts college next year. So I believe we can turn to either or both of them for help with our e-commerce site."

I found myself staring at her as I struggled to come up with a response to all that.

"But," I finally mumbled, "I thought we were keeping the whole 'Kid Chaos' thing a secret? And why do we need a retail web site?"

My cousin replied in that same matter-of-fact voice, "Kid Chaos is one of your epithets. It was never meant to remain secret indefinitely. And obviously the retail web site will be so we can sell your enchanted plushies, along with all the other enchanted merchandise we come up with."

"Now hush," she added quietly as she turned to face the front of the room. "The class is starting."