When the dorm room door swung open, Enid Sinclair was sitting on her bed painting her nails a bright, unapologetic pink.
Sunlight slanted through the window, illuminating her short golden hair streaked with pink and blue, making her look like a walking rainbow.
"Wow!" Victor whistled. "I like your taste!"
Enid looked up and froze. Her eyes darted between Wednesday and Victor before finally settling on the black head poking out from Victor's shoulder.
"Who are you?" she asked, her voice at least three octaves higher than Wednesday's.
"I'm Victor! This is Venom!" Victor pointed at himself, then at Venom. "We're your new roommates!"
Enid looked at Wednesday. "Is he serious?"
Wednesday nodded. "Unfortunately, yes."
"Hey!" Victor protested. "We're super fun!"
Venom nodded. "Especially when he goes crazy."
Enid blinked, then suddenly broke into a brilliant smile. "Alright."
She jumped off the bed and extended her hand. "I'm Enid Sinclair."
Victor shook her hand with exaggerated enthusiasm. "Victor Black! By the way, you smell like strawberry chocolate—Venom said it!"
"—I did not say that!"
Wednesday walked to her bed, set down her luggage, and said coldly, "If you plan to chat all night, I'll nail your tongues to the wall."
Victor and Enid fell silent simultaneously.
Venom muttered, "She's crazier than we are."
Victor nodded. "I absolutely love her."
Enid looked at Wednesday, then at Victor, and suddenly laughed.
"You guys are really interesting." She began to look forward to academy life—though she would soon regret it.
As Wednesday took the first hammer out of her suitcase, Victor was perched on the windowsill, gnawing on a suspiciously shaped piece of chocolate.
"Wow," he mumbled, crumbs falling from the corner of his mouth, "are we demolishing the house?"
Wednesday didn't answer. She silently arranged nails one by one along the headboard of her bed, as if performing some dark ritual.
Enid stared blankly, finally snapping out of it when she saw Wednesday splattering black paint across the wall.
"Wait!" Enid's scream nearly shattered the glass. "That's my wall!"
"It was," Wednesday replied without turning around. "Now it's a Gothic art installation called 'The Raven's Funeral.'"
Victor jumped down from the windowsill and hopped excitedly between them like an overcaffeinated crow.
"Venom! Look! It's an art war!"
Venom emerged from his shoulder, studying both sides with interest. "The left side looks like melted rainbow candy. The right side looks like crushed cockroaches… I vote for Wednesday."
"Traitor!" Enid grabbed a pink cushion and hurled it at Venom, who swallowed it in one gulp.
"Hey! That was a limited-edition unicorn cushion!"
Wednesday continued her renovation project, replacing the originally pink curtains with black lace and nailing several specimen bats onto them.
Victor leaned in, his nose almost touching a bat's wing. "Are these real?"
"They were alive last week," Wednesday said calmly.
Enid gasped. "You can't just—"
"I can." Wednesday finally turned around, holding a pair of gleaming tailor's scissors. "Do I need to demonstrate how to cut a rainbow?"
Victor suddenly jumped between them, holding a piece of chocolate in each hand.
"Ceasefire agreement! Enid, try this 85% dark chocolate—bitter and sweet like Wednesday's soul! Wednesday, try this strawberry-flavored one—yes, the vulgar pink kind you despise."
Both pieces of chocolate hit his face simultaneously.
When Headmistress Larissa Weems arrived upon hearing the commotion, the dorm had been clearly divided by a line.
On the left was Enid's "Exploding Rainbow Unicorn" zone.
On the right was Wednesday's "Vampire Tomb" zone.
As for Victor—
"Why am I assigned to the area by the bathroom door?" he protested, squatting in a bed-sized space while Venom helped him tape the words "Victor's Territory" onto the floor with black tape.
"Voting result," Enid said, waving the hand she and Wednesday had raised in unison.
"And it's closest to death here," Wednesday added, pointing at the noose decoration she had just hung on the bathroom door.
Venom patted Victor's head. "Look on the bright side. At least we're closest to the chocolate stash."
It pointed at the toilet tank—stuffed full of various chocolates.
"That's my emergency stash!" Enid screamed.
Wednesday, unusually, curled the corner of her mouth. "Now it's war spoils."
Victor looked at the fuming Werewolf girl on the left, then at the gloomy goth girl on the right, and suddenly grinned.
"Venom, I think we're going to love it here."
"Provided you survive tonight," Venom replied, glancing at the "Territorial Convention" both girls had raised. The first rule prominently stated: Victor is prohibited from making noise after midnight.
Headmistress Larissa Weems stood at the dorm room door, her sharp gaze sweeping over Victor, who was squatting on the floor making his bed.
"Why is your 'territory' by the bathroom door?" Larissa raised an eyebrow.
"The result of democratic voting," he answered seriously. "And it's closest to death here."
He pointed at the noose decoration on the door. "See? They even prepared a gallows. How thoughtful."
Larissa took a deep breath, as if silently reciting a mantra of this is a relative, cannot kill.
"Enid, give them a tour of the academy," she warned before turning to leave. "Don't let Victor near anything flammable."
"—or any living creatures," Wednesday added.
Enid jumped up with a giggle, her golden hair looking like a dancing flame in the sunlight.
"Let's go! First stop—the Quad!"
The Quad was the central square of Nevermore Academy, surrounded by Gothic spired buildings and paved with ancient bluestone slabs. A raven statue stood in the center.
"Why is it called the Quad?" Wednesday asked coldly. "It's clearly a pentagon."
Enid blinked. "Uh… because of tradition?"
"Tradition is meant to be broken," Wednesday said, staring at the ground. "For example, there are at least three corpses buried under this slab."
Victor suddenly lay flat on the ground, pressing his ear to the stone.
"Venom! Quick, listen! The bones are singing!"
Venom poked its head out from his shoulder. "All I hear are your brain cells wailing."
Right then—
"Wow! New faces!"
A tall boy wearing a beanie approached them.
"Ajax Petropolus," he said, extending his hand with a bright smile. "Gorgon. Don't touch my beanie unless you want to turn into stone."
Victor's eyes lit up. "A Gorgon? Like Medusa? Is your hair—"
"—snakes, yes," Ajax said helplessly, pointing at his beanie. "They have a bit of a temper."
"So cool!" Victor reached toward the beanie. "Let me see!"
"Wait! Don't—"
Enid and Wednesday simultaneously took three steps back.