Chapter 139: Vol. 3: Chapter 137: Back to work

After getting a new dress and having a quick lunch, we made our way to school. The guilt of having skipped an entire morning, and lying about it made me feel bad. I had never done something like playing hooky before. Anna seemed completely oblivious to my nervousness and acted like it was the most natural thing in the world that we came in on this time, but my heart was beating like crazy and I was sure I was blushing.

When we arrived at the office everyone looked at us with a knowing smug look. I felt like everyone knew we were skipping.

“Sleep well last night?” Gazette asked.

Images of last night instantly flushed through my head obtaining me a pair of red cheeks.

“Oh, not that much sleep apparently,”  Valerie added.

Skipping this morning made me forget that she asked me to go to her place in front of everyone yesterday evening. I took a peek at Anna, she was rendered speechless and blushing heavily too.

All the girls were poking fun at us, but at the same time, I could see it was all in good fun. They were clearly happy for us.

Elsa on the other hand looked angry and walked toward us. “I'm happy for you, that everything worked out yesterday. But I am furious that the two of you skipped practice once again. I don't care what kind of errand came up.”

Knowing that we just skipped and went on a date instead drove that arrow only deeper.

“We will have this entire afternoon to practice,” Anna answered.

“After we made those reports about the voodoo thing,” I added.

Elsa looked like she was going to burst. “What reports? We don't have time for that.”

“What is that about voodoo?” Mia suddenly interfered. It seemed like she was really interested in that kind of stuff.

So I decided to explain from the start and told them everything that Ms. Lourdes had said to me.

“I-I'm going to get paid to mess around with voodoo?” Mia looked at me with big eyes. I nodded. “AWESOME! I'm gonna have so much fun with Cath on this.” Everyone looked surprised at Mia's enthusiasm, but Eve and Therese interfered and said “You are not doing anything to our dolls.”

They walked to the box I had brought yesterday to prepare for the funeral and took their dolls out of it. “These are ours. We like how things are now.”

Suddenly like a big shadow Ms. Odes popped up from behind them. “Ms. Lourdes told me all about that voodoo adventure you guys had. She was holding another of her contraptions pointing it at the dolls Eve and Therese were holding.

Her eyes became big in an instant. “These dolls, they are full of yuridium. I feel like we are going to make another big discovery Mia! Let's go to the lab!”

“You aren't taking the dolls!” Therese and Eve shouted.

Ms. Odes looked a bit in doubt about what to do, but Mia joined her with an eerie smile on her face. “Who needs the original, when we have the instructions and the diary on how they were used. We can just make our own dolls.”

They left to the lab, hyper enthused. “Mia sure changed,” Anna remarked dryly.

“Oh, she was always into the occult,” Valerie answered. “Just need something hocus pocus to get her going for days or weeks. She really used to obsess about those things when we were kids.”

Everyone was talking so lightly about what just had happened. But were we really sure that we wanted Cath Odes and Mia messing around with voodoo?

Elsa stood still in front of me tapping her foot angrily. Tina had tried to calm her down to no avail.

“Claire, since it will take another bite out of our rehearsal time, I want you to come to my place tonight to practice.”

Tonight I was supposed to be home. Mom was finally introducing her mystery bloke. There was no way I would be getting out of that one.

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I looked with apologetic eyes at Elsa. She clearly broke a fuse. “FINE! Tomorrow. No excuses for tomorrow night. Everyone will be spending the night at my place. We will practice until we got the whole routine down to a T. Or did you forget the queen is coming to watch our performance and what is at stake?”

The queen. Just hearing that title, made the hair on my arms stand up. I took a peek at Anna and was glad that that name had not affected her. Yesterday's events were still fresh in my mind, and my jealousy had not yet subsided completely, even if the queen had helped us to make up, that did not mean I had forgiven her just yet.

Elsa sighed when she saw my face react to the queen. “I get that you are angry at her, but put that anger into your performance. Let's show her together what Yuri Blooms is made of.”

I looked surprised at Elsa. She had really transformed from a classic class bully into one of those idol-formation leaders straight out of a manga. Our work to make the world more beautiful like in 2D really had taken root, hadn't it?

I was looking at Elsa with an endearing look, and she started to blush “W-What?!” She made a step backward “S-Stop looking at me like that!”

That made me snap out of it. “Sure, tomorrow night at your place. We will be there!” I said.

Anna nodded to confirm.

“Oh, a sleepover. This is going to be so much fun!” Tina shouted, Eve and Therese were laughing too. “Let's make some wonderful memories together!” Eve said. “I look forward to sharing some girlfriend stories,” Therese added. “Absolutely!” Anna reacted with a sparkle in her eyes.  Did she not realize this was going to be about her too? All the other girls seemed to share Anna's enthusiasm at the prospect. Was I the only one that liked to keep these things to myself? Just imagining the situation made my embarrassment levels reach overload.

After that, it was time to get to work. While the other girls started working on the play, we put in the effort to write our reports for Ms. Lourdes. I decided to just write everything exactly like it happened. It's not like there was a way to make us look good anyway. We were completely taken in by that whole voodoo thing. Well, at least it was all over and done now.

Once we were finished we started working on our idol routine. It was very clear that I was still the weakest link, but somehow the waltz practice had helped me with this too. But still, it was clear that we would have a lot of work to do before the school festival. Tomorrow's sleepover was clearly not an unnecessary luxury.

 It also didn't help that Narcy was calling in Elsa every other minute to practice her part in the play. With not only Cas coming to watch, but now the queen too, Narcy had become ultra-serious. She was doing her best to make this performance into the best thing she possibly could.

Luckily all the girls shared her enthusiasm, and even though we were all working hard. I could see everyone was having a lot of fun too.

Right before 6 pm, Ms. Lourdes showed up at our rehearsal. She didn't say anything about the reports and looked rather nervous. She had been nervous yesterday too. I guess she was getting a lot on her plate. I heard that thanks to her, CYA and FBY branches were starting in several other European countries. I cannot imagine the amount of work she must have put in.

She walked toward me and Anna, and said, “It's about time, I thought we could go together since we are all heading to the same place.”

“Oh did mom invite you to? It seems she wants everyone to meet him at the same time.” I said.

“Yes, something like that.” Ms. Lourdes answered.

“Oh, is Lisa finally introducing him?”  Gazette suddenly intervened.

I could have sworn Ms. Lourdes's gaze shot flashes of lightning to shut Gazette up, but when I looked better, she was all smiles. I must have imagined it.

“Yes, it is finally the day. Mom has been teasing me like crazy about it. She wouldn't tell me anything until today.”

Lisa sure loves her games like that. “Ms. Lourdes said with a  smile on her face. “She made me swear secrecy. I had to promise to let everything to her.”

“Ah, that explains a lot. Tell Lisa hi from me, and tell her to remember that she owes me and Elodie a romantic dinner at Femme Fatale for helping her out.”

I wanted to ask what Eline helped mom out with but Ms. Lourdes caught a severe coughing fit. I instantly moved in worried and checked her fever. She was slightly red on her cheeks. This was so atypical for her. I know her to be really strong. I don't think I ever saw her with these symptoms. She was one of my biggest examples of a woman who is always balanced and in perfect control, but something was bringing her out of balance today.

“It isn't a fever. Are you sure you are okay to come?” I asked. Maybe she needed a rest.

“I think everything will be fine, Claire. I am sure Ms. Lourdes will say something if it is necessary.” Anna then answered. I noticed she gave a little wink to Ms. Lourdes, who looked grateful at Anna. What the hell was going here?  Was Anna also in on mom's plan?