Seeing as how Helena had not immediately thrown her into the wall, Andrea thought things were going well when her roommate took the muffin from her, "What is this?"
"An English muffin," Andrea said, "Or a peace offering, if you like it."
Her roommate looked at the muffin up and down, as if the thing had been ticking the whole time, "Yes, I see that. But why?"
Welp, there goes that, "I think that you and I got off on the wrong foot, Bruh? I don't want any beef."
Her eyebrow raised before she nodded her head, "Ah, beef. As in trivial conflict between the two of us. Look," Helena sighed, "I do not want beef either. But I do not like you being here."
"And that's kind of you," Andrea agreed. "But I genuinely--"
"No," Helena interrupted. "I do not mean it to be kind. I do not like you being here, because it is not right and because it is not fair. You are weak, and the weak shouldn't be allowed to live in our world. And I have a sneaking suspicion that you got in because of connections to others."
Andrea winced, those words struck heavier than the telekinesis assault she had suffered earlier, "That's not fair--"
"No," Helena interrupted again. "But nothing about your situation seems to be. And if it was fair, you would have died at the entrance exam." The intensity in her emerald eyes lowered a couple of octaves, "I just hope you come to your senses soon enough. Thank you for the muffin, Andrea. Goodnight."
She stood there, like an idiot, for a couple of minutes staring at Helena's door, before she finally turned and returned to her room. I should've kept the damned muffin, she thought, but in truth, Helena had shaken her. And that could only be if what Helena said was true.
If her test was based on what her ceiling looked like, Andrea would have entered that hall with absolute confidence. Seeing as how she had spent the entire night staring up at it, with the occasional break to toss, and in a shocking turn of events, turn too.
Andrea did not know what to do. On her way back, she had hoped that Walter would be at the front to receive question after question from her. But it was the serial killer still clocked in, and although he had been very helpful and nice, she did not feel confident in advertising how little she knew. Her coming off as ignorant made her want to crawl up into a ball and be left alone. And her interaction with Helena reinforced that. What if everyone thinks that? Andrea wondered, remembering that her magic was 'leaking' and she did not even know how to stop it. She wanted to beat Julian's ass and then eat his heart... and then name every one of his invisible workers out of spite. He had left her so exposed that she was fucking 'leaking' and he did not even think to mention it or teach her. All he did was feed her and then send her out of her way after nearly aura-farming her to death with her weird friend.
The man hadn't even given her that allowance he promised. Which was fine, if she was not dirt broke. And when she did finally find someone who could help her, a nice, beautiful man, she could not even cash in on that because he was part of a death cult. Or at least what she thought was a death cult but was not sure of because Julian. Tells her. Nothing. When sleep finally gifted her with its presence, she had barely tasted it before she was pulled out of it by her alarm. Andrea checked her phone and saw the message from Mr. Pennyworth, which was an 'A-Okay' message because this invisible man, apparently, texts in emoji's. It had been amusing somewhat when she reached out to him after being told off by Helena, but it was a little annoying because his answer when asked for a time was an 'eight'. Not even the number, but the actual emoji of the number eight.
She jumped into the shower, and because she was not up for pissing off a German by taking some of her coffee, she used a cold shower to try and rejuvenate herself before staring at the clothes laid out on her bed and frowning.
It should be formal, right? She wondered, lifting a black dress up that Andrea thought was cute. But what if the assessment is a physical test?
The alternative was running shoes, tights, and a black sweatshirt and pants combo with a white Nike tick in the middle. Andrea sighed before choosing the dress. If Julian is the headmaster, then I gotta dress like I have a stick-up my ass...
She decided to wear a black skirt with straps, and a white buttoned up shirt with black leggings and some boots. Her hair was a different matter. If she had the time to fight with it, she might have tried to do more than comb it out, deciding that Andrea would just have to corral it later. A black hairband is all she had to give. The attire could be considered passable, even by Mr. Nerva's standards, but her eyes had more baggage than an orphan from Gotham. Hoooooly shit, Andrea thought, looking into the bathroom mirror.
Andrea walked outside to find the Cadillac that belonged to the man she loathed, driven by the invisible person she kind of like, "Good morning, Mr. Pennyworth."
He bowed his head before open opening the door for her, making the 'A-Okay' gesture again when he got a decent look at her. Andrea curtseyed before entering the Cadillac, "You're far too kind, Mr. Pennyworth. You and I both know that I look like swamp water but thank you all the same."
The butler was having none of it, waving away her words, his monocle shaking profusely. And Andrea would have married him there and then; he would have only needed to ask.
"You're the sweetest man I know, invisible or not." He smiled at her, Andrea decided, as he closed the door and entered the car to drive her off to go and, potentially, die. Calm down, she told herself, trying to exhale the anxiety, Julian assured me that the potential sacrifices and killings were not going to occur... but he also didn't tell me about the end-of-year sacrifices so jury's still out on whether he is full of shit or not...
Andrea sat up terrified when the car parked by a sidewalk and was confused for a second before seeing Julian sat outside of a cafe, with a waiter arriving in time to deliver some pancakes and coffee. Her eyes locked onto him, and she opened her own door before poor Mr. Pennyworth had a chance to even touch the handle. Andrea stomped her way toward the table and was about to cuss him out when the waiter said, "Your pancakes, Miss."
She stopped and sat down, instead of punching Julian in the face, if that even was possible, "Thank you." Andrea snapped, staring at the top of Julian's head, his eyes buried in the book that sat in his cross-legged lap. The waiter stood there, awkwardly, watching Andrea stare holes into a man who could not give a fuck about her, before clearing his voice and saying, "Anything else, Sir?"
Julian did not look up when he said, "No." and dismissed the waiter with his silence. Andrea closed her eyes, God, thank you for the food and please be with me today, as you always are...
Andrea picked up her fork and knife, "You're never going to find a woman with an attitude like that," she said, stuffing a forkful of pancakes into her mouth. Julian raised an eyebrow before turning the page, "I am sorry about how abruptly things ended yesterday. An acquaintance believed himself a friend, and thought it was okay to show up early and leave extremely late. I did not get the chance to brief you and give you your allowance."
She almost choked, drinking from her coffee to help the pancake bite go down. This entire time, she had thought that it was due to his lack of care, not circumstantial at all. She felt a tinge of guilt for fantasizing about beating him into the ground and opening his chest to salivate over his heart, like she was some Aztec priest.
Andrea was at a loss for words, not knowing whether to apologize, breakdown and cry, or play it cool as if everything between them had been ticking along smoothly, but "Oh." was all she had in her.
"Do not be shy," he said, finally putting his book down. "Eat up. You will need your strength."
That got her heart beating a hundred miles a minute, "Why? Is this about the test?"
He raised an eyebrow, "Yes, but mostly because you look tired," Fuuuuck you...
"The assessment is like an IQ test, I told you. It is just to establish where you are in terms of your magic reserves and connection to the Source. And we will walk you through forging your own Grimoire."
Her hands' grip tightened around the utensils, "Okay... okay... okay..."
His eyebrow raised higher before he cocked his head, "Are you okay? You seem to be on the verge of passing out."
She tried to smile away his mild; and she could not emphasize how mild it was, concern.
"I will be fine. No passing out for me!"
"Good," he said. "That would be very embarrassing, so I would appreciate that you not."
"Why did you not tell me about the end-of-year sacrifice for the bottom forty students?" She blustered, "Did you not think that was something I should've known about?"
He raised his eyebrow at her again before shrugging, "I did not think it was necessary. We do not know, for a fact anyway, how strong you are. And again, I didn't exactly get a chance to say my peace."
She snorted, "You've made it very clear that I'm weak Julian, and apparently, I'm leaking!"
He frowned and focused a moment before his eyebrows furrowed even more, "It would seem so... huh, I must not have been paying attention to it much."
Julian was lucky that the pancakes tasted so divine, because otherwise, she would have made the kind of scene that would make even him blush, "Well, it was enough for some boy I ran into, to notice."
The sight of him returning to his book made her angry enough to slam her palm on the table, "Julian!"
"Hush now," he said. "No theatrics... I am not in the mood. Your aura is low, Andrea. It's just enough for you to interact with the magical world, but nothing that can be noticed unless one pays attention. And so, I did not really notice."
If someone calls me weak, one more motherfucking time! "Yeah! You've said that already! That's just about the only thing you're willing to tell me, over and over again. But not that I might be sacrificed, or that I'm leaking, or that I'm up shits creek without a Goddamned paddle. Nothing. I'm spiraling here and you won't even help me!"
Julian looked at an Andrea that was shaking, and on the verge of tears, before he glanced toward Mr. Pennyworth, "Finish up," he said, as he stood. "We're going to be late."
Andrea did not believe her eyes as she watched him head toward the Cadillac and open the door, looking back to look at her. She took one more sip of coffee before getting up and climbing into the backseat.
He slid in next to her, "Professor Mongold will be your assessor. He has a mastery over aura detection that is second-to-none. He will then help you form a Grimoire. I can tell that you're a little distressed, don't be. If you were incapable of doing this, Riggs would never have bothered to come after you, especially when he sensed that I was around. And I would not have brought you here, understand?"
Andrea's tears had fallen with such little fanfare that she only noticed that she had been crying when a tear hit the back of her hand, "Okay." she said, and they continued the car ride in silence until they arrived outside the main gate of the school. Its walls were at least 15-feet high and were covered with vines that had flowers sprouting out of the ends of them in colors that Andrea did not have the expertise to name. The guard stood behind a boom-gate and immediately waved them in when he saw the Cadillac, waving them on like a complete dork.
One said something to Mr. Pennyworth when he rolled down his window, and then something to Julian, and maybe even to Andrea herself, but she could not hear a thing at this point. Andrea's heartbeat was thumping away in her ears as they approached the front entrance of the school, an array of colors adorned the hedges and flowerbeds that stood like a Guard of honor on either side of the cobblestone road. They drove past a massive statue of an infinity sign, made of stone and yet, it hovered over the marble-carved base. And it was the umpteenth reminder that this was no ordinary assessment, Andrea was an otherwise ordinary girl, coming to see if this world of magic would make room for her.
"Julian..." she said after the Cadillac had come to a stop, "I-I... I don't know if I can do this..." she said, feeling a sting around her tired eyes. Andrea was far too frightened and exhausted to try and fight back the tears, "I'm scared..."
She looked up to her only source of comfort, and the tears flowed faster when she saw him sigh.
"Andrea, for the last time, nothing bad will happen--"
"How do you know?" She snapped, "And so what, Bruh? What if I'm so weak that it's up for me anyways? I'm gonna find out whether or not I'm doomed today, Julian! Do you not care?"
He took a moment to process what she said before he slowly nodded his head, "That could be true, Andrea. But what will fear do for you now? You can go back home to New Orleans and try and live a normal life. But then what if another Jeremiah Riggs comes to kidnap you? Your mother only had one soul to give."
She was sobbing now, but still tried to wipe away the tears, "You could protect us, can't you?"
Andrea winced at Julian's expression of disgust, "To what end? When you move out, am I supposed to come to university with you? On your honeymoon, should I book a flight and hotel room as well, or will you do it for me? Will your husband let me stay in the house, or should I get a cottage in the backyard?"
He snapped his fingers and Mr. Pennyworth opened her door, "We're here now, and we can 'what-if' ourselves forever and ever, but I could not imagine a bigger waste of time when we can just find out. Now get out of the car and stop crying."
She was left so speechless by what he said that Andrea barely remembered getting out of the car and walking behind Julian as they entered the front entrance of the school. She imagined a grand entrance that required one to climb a hundred steps before arriving outside something that looked like the Parthenon and a medieval castle had a baby. But with how out of it she was, Andrea could have totally imagined everything. They entered a hall with the cleanest cream marble floor she had ever seen, and walls of maroon that each had a doorway carved into the center of them. Waiting outside of the doorway to their right was a tall, Black gentleman dressed in a grey suit so form-fitting that he may as well have been born with it on. His tie was the most vibrant blue that went well with the visible socks he had tucked into his black dress shoes. He had the posture of a flagpole, and a white moustache that was so full and rich it might as well have gone by the name Al. His hairline was tragic, though; it looked like a child took a crayon in its fist and tried to draw a zigzag. However it did not take away from the majesty of his aura. His eyes were hidden behind darkened sunglasses, much in the same way that Julian's were, and it made her wonder if that was a magician thing.
He waited for them to approach before he marched off his mark like the epitome of a soldier, before extending his hand out for Julian to shake, "Headmaster Nerva." he said. He spoke with a British accent, that was jarring next to Julian's heavy French one.
"Prof. Mongold. Thank you for seeing us. I hope that we have not interfered too much with your schedule."
The professor shook his head once, never a wasted movement with this one, huh...
"Not at all, Headmaster. We have been diligent, and so our schedule was well prepared ahead of time. Think nothing of it," he said, turning his attention to Andrea, "Is this the young lady?"
"Yes," Julian said, as he gently beckoned her forward, "Introduce yourself, please."
Andrea nodded her head and extended her hand, "I'm Andrea Salem, it is nice to meet you."
Professor Mongold smiled and accepted the hand with a gentle handshake, "Well, Ms. Salem. Know that you are welcome here. Camelot is an illustrious magic school, the finest producers of Herald-level magicians in the world."
"But not of God-Vessels," Julian said, and Professor Mongold huffed, "It is unbecoming of you, Headmaster. To be the leader of this college and yet still hold loyalty to the College of Anjou is a bad look."
"It cannot be helped, Sigfried, my father loathed the English, and his seed was strong. It is only natural that I inherit such things, no?"
The Professor smiled, "Stronger in some more than others. And funny how I hate the French, ay? We are natural enemies then."
"No," Julian smiled, he actually smiled, "So long as we both hate the Belgians, we will always have common ground."
Professor Mongold laughed in a way that made her think of Santa, before he said something to Julian in a language that she did not understand. Julian clicked his tongue before responding and gesturing towards Andrea, "The girl must be assessed. The school year will begin on Monday, and I would like her to miss not one day."
Mongold nodded before bowing and gesturing towards the door behind him, "Then we have no time to waste. Even with you around, Headmaster. Come, Andrea. It will only take a moment."