Chapter 39: Eight

The girls, that is, Charlotte and Abigail, decide to eat outside. Both of them brought their own lunches so they don’t need to wait in line in the food selling place and can just go out right away.

You’re okay with this. The weather outside is nice and warm and it’s sunny. There’s a lot of room with trees and things for Familiars that are dumber than you to run around in and even tables where you can eat. A few other students are there too, some in groups of friends, some in couples that are being all disgusting with each other and a few lone ones that are sitting by the shade of trees and writing or reading.

It’s a very nice place, you decide, for a big lunch.

“Time for food,” you declare as you maneuver your skirts into the optimal sitting position. You don’t know how mortal girls do it without the help of a bunch of tentacles.

“Patience,” Abigail says, but it’s not with an angry tone or anything, she just needs to sit herself down too.

Charlotte sits across from you and Web sneaks out from the neck of her robes and jumps onto the table where she pit-patters around.

Web isn’t a friend yet, but Web is Friend Charlotte’s Familiar, so she’s your friend by association, and you don’t eat friends unless you’re really hungry.

“What did you guys bring for lunch?” Charlotte asks as she brings out a tin box and sets it on the table. She opens it up to reveal a sandwich, which looks yummy, an apple, which looks yummy, and a dead mouse, which also looks yummy. She smiles across at you. “If I have any leftovers I’ll give them to you, alright?” she says.

“Dreamer, stop eyeing Charlotte’s food as if I never feed you,” Abigail says, but there’s a smile when she says it. “And could you pass me the lunches?”

Oh yes, in your efforts to be the best Familiar you volunteered to carry all the things.

With some tentacle trickiness you open a rift in space above the table and let all the food drop down. There’s a clatter as the lunch basket Abigail packed thumps onto the table.

“That’s... an impressive skill,” Charlotte says.

“It’s nothing,” you reply because that’s what it is. A hole filled with so much nothing that something from elsewhere fills it in. You just made sure it was the elsewhere where you are.

Abigail searches through the basket for a bit, then lays down a plate before each of you, some utensils and then two sandwiches covered in tin-foil.

You start munching on yours right away, the tinfoil making it all crackly as you bite through the metal. Near the far end of the table, Web is eating through her mouse with gusto. Abigail sets out a few more things and is about to eat when a voice cuts through the silence of your meals.

“A-Abigail?”

Abigail stiffens and turns at the same time as you do.

Daphne is standing behind you, a small basket clutched to her chest which she is looking at really hard. Her hair is pulled up to hide her face a bit and Archibald is resting on her shoulder, his head rubbing against hers in a weird bird-y hug.

“Daphne,” Abigail says. She stands up awkwardly, then moves to the side of the table. “Daph, I--”

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“Please,” Daphne interrupts. “I... I understand if you don’t want to see me anymore.” She takes a small step back.

“No, no it’s, it’s okay.” Abigail is being really weird again. She raises her arms then lets them drop by her side. “You’re having lunch?” she asks.

“I was just moving by,” Daphne says. “I don’t want to bother you, but I saw you and--”

“Join us,” Abigail says and it’s the first thing that makes sense. If Daphne joins your table you can share her lunch with yourself. “There’s room, and you should meet Charlotte. She’s nice. And Web too, and Dreamer likes you. Please?”

“I can?” Daphne asks. It sounds really confused, like the words are trying to come out but don’t know how to. Like Abigail when she was pooping and you walked into the bathroom and she tried to scream but was so red that it didn’t come out right.

Abigail nods. “Of course you can. Um. Can I hug you?”

Daphne places her basket on the table as if it’s about to burst into flames, then steps up to Abigail who grabs her close.

This is good, now they’re friends again and friends share their lunches with their friend’s Familiars.

“We have to... we should talk about things later. Because you’re my best friend and, and that’s what friends do, they talk, and I don’t want to lose you and I, I think I might.” Abigail flushes, shakes her hand and pulls out of the hug. “Let’s have lunch.”

Daphne deflates and a small laugh escapes her. “Okay.”

There’s a bit of shuffling around, and Daphne and Charlotte introducing themselves. Charlotte looks curious about Daphne but Daphne is practically floating so she doesn’t seem to notice.

You reach out and grab the skull of the mouse Web was eating and pop it into your mouth.

“Dreamer, no,” Abigail says.

You huff. “How am I supposed to know what to eat?” you ask.

Abigail rolls her eyes. “You can eat everything that’s on your plate.” She of course points to your very empty plate.

Charlotte giggles and puts a corner of her sandwich on it, but that’s only enough for one bite. You’re still happy about it, but it’s not enough.

Then it clicks.

Everything that’s.... Oh, you get it now. This must be one of those weird mortal things, like how they all think they shouldn’t hit each other or how they all wear clothes under their clothes and are very private about their underclothes. It’s all nonsensical, of course, but mortals will mortal.

You place the salt shaker and pepper grinder from Daphne’s basket on your plate. Then you put them in you mouth and start chewing through the glass and the yummy powder within. “What?” you ask Abigail after you notice her staring. “It was on my plate.”

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