Salem scowled at his phone that had failed to grant him the response he'd been waiting at least an hour now for. What had he told his best friend to do before this day came? File all her paperwork for the classes she wanted to enroll in this year or send him a text with all the classes she wanted so he could at least forge her signature on the paperwork himself. Personally he didn't THINK this was such a difficult task, but she was certainly proving him wrong. He understood when his reckless redhead had gotten her dimensional door hopping powers he wouldn't see her much, he anticipated that. But if she thought he was just going to sit here like a worried/pissed off wife waiting for her answer and potentially making him spend this semester alone, he had a rude awakening for her.
"So, I take it there's been no response from Locket?" Salem jumped, looking in surprise at his 3rd oldest brother leaning on the wall and looking condescendingly down at him. Well, it felt condescending.
"The heck are you sneaking around like a ninja for, how long have you been standing there?"
Skillian scowled back at his little brother. "I've been standing here 10 minutes, before you got distracted on your phone. We were talking about your precious girlfriend's-"
"She's not my girlfriend." Yet.
".....your precious girlfriend's terrible personal care regimen and if she was keeping up with the treatments for her hair and nails." He looked off to the distance in an abused sort of wonder at the memory. "Because I would hate to have to literally chain her down like the first time to shampoo and condition it. She is far too strong for a girl her age."
Salem shook his head with a shudder. "I learned my lesson last time when she broke my arm trying to give her a manicure, I swore never again. If she wants to wander these halls looking like a semi sexy swamp monster, I'm certainly not gonna stop her. No, I have more compelling things to worry about. Did you know she has nothing in her dorm room yet?? It's the day before school officially starts and she still only has 3 pieces of clothing in her wardrobe."
Skillian's perfect blonde eyebrows arched at that. "She'd have more outfits in her arsenal if nothing else than to prolong doing laundry, not even she's lowbrow enough to keep only ONE outfit in her closet. Is she?"
That bubble of worry Salem always carried for her pulsed inside him, not an encouraging sign. "No, she's not. She needed at least 3 school uniforms last year because of the rips and tears she kept getting." He put his phone away and blew out a sigh. "But she is Locket enough to have probably ignored her home life most of the summer by dimension hopping if it was giving her issues she didn't want to deal with. Meaning she wouldn't have gone home to pick up her stuff or have contacted her family to have sent it over. Meaning the problems are worse than I probably thought."
Skillian shrugged, now wanting food more than this conversation. "Maybe that's where she is now, packing up all her stuff from her home in Scotsland and about to hop right on over here before she misses the moderately delicious food the school is giving us? Cuz the one thing that girl would never miss out on is free food." He patted the unconvinced looking Salem on the shoulder. "Wherever she is, there's nothing you can do besides worry. Might as well save her a plate….to….?" He frowned when Salem's head snapped up and stared hard at the ceiling.
He turned his own head up to see what the deal was, frowning more when nothing spectacular happened. He opened his mouth to accuse, but was shut up when Salem tackled him a good 3 feet away from their spot. Before he could move his accusation over to that, a magic door appeared on the ceiling and opened, slamming down a mangled looking Locket wrestling down a-oh Gods what the hell was it!?
"The hell is that?!" Salem said aloud, staring in horror at the loudly screeching, scaly, half bird half rat alien looking thing that had it's long spiked tail wrapped around the struggling Locket. Who could they call for this!? Did 911 cover alien bird wrestlers? Did teachers?! He'd even take one of the Ocean's kings to come up here and throw this thing anywhere but here, his bestie was starting to turn blue!
Locket McGregor arched her back and stretched as far as she could around the demon alien bird's neck, now officially pissed. When her hands clasped together around its neck, she yanked the body down until her feet were planted on the ground. Then she twisted her body as much as she could until she heard the crack and squawk she was waiting for, sighing in relief when the body in her arms and tail trying to kill her went limp. Geez that delivery mission had gotten out of hand, why hadn't anyone warned her it would take so long?? She almost missed a giant free school feast.
She stood up, blowing out a long sigh as she stretched the cricks out of her back. That was the last time she took a whole summer to work for the Doorlord council, it had taken waaaay too much effort. She actually would have preferred staying in Kookiness this winter break with Salem, he would've been a lot more fun.
She felt people staring at her, now bothering to glance up and see what dimension she had landed in now that she wasn't so distract-oh hey my bestie!
She grinned wide at the disgusted look of her best bro in law and the nicely pissed off face of her number 1 bestie in any universe. "Salem, Skelio! What's up Fins! I haven't seen you guys in-"
"And why the flipping hells did you not answer my damn messages??" Salem loudly questioned while his brother scoffed quietly. "Skelio??"
Locket grinned up at him, dusting herself off as she stood up. "Cuz I've been doing one of 2 things the past 2 weeks ranging from running for my life or killing for my life. My interdimensional phone stopped working a long time ago, probably sometime around when i accidentally dropped it in that swamp dimension I'd stumbled into. Brightside, I've been getting a lot better at working these new door lord powers."
She threw her muddy arms up, enjoying the look of disgust on both their faces. "Praise me!"
"Gods and Goddesses above, I'm going to have a stroke," Skillian actually stumbled to hold onto the wall for support. Always had to be extra.
Salem rummaged in his messenger bag until he found the heavy duty rubber gloves he always carried because of her. Then used his protected hand to smack his foolish filthy bestie on her head. "Fool! Do you know how many days there are left before school starts!? How many messages I left pleading with you to answer so I knew what classes to sign you up for so you wouldn't suffer! But then had to ignore your wishes and sign you up for 2 of MY nerd classes so I wouldn't get bored-"
"Aw what!" She whined.
"Which means you're gonna have to take death like tutor sessions from Hyli cuz I'm too salty at you-"
"Aw WHAT??" She whined louder, hoping it would make a difference.
"To give you my fun tutor sessions since you've ignited my wrath from worry. Plus one art class because you really should learn some more culture." He sighed in satisfaction when she tilted her long, filthy, mangy orange hair back in a groan that sounded like pure torture. Served her right. "And the rest of the classes you can handle just fine. So, what have we learned from this experience?"
"That you get nerdier every time I bother talking to you?" Skillian asked sweetly.
"That you get really scorned and bitter when I miss your calls/messages even when it's totally not my fault?" Locket grumbled back.
Salem nodded at them both, satisfied. "Pretty much. Now let's go get you washed up and a new uniform to start the year in. Also you gotta set your room up and meet your new roommate."
That perked Locket up, falling into step behind him when he started walking to the dorms. "Whoa they actually gave me one? I thought after first semester freshman year-"
"You know, I'm still surprised they never went through with filing those charges. I only bribed them a couple thousand. And you swore to never talk about it again." Salem gave her a scolding look she grinned at. "You really should be nicer to people you live with."
"I happily am! When they're nice to me first. I'm not about to waste my good manners on someone who thinks they can hassle me and get away with it. You should know this after years of inviting me over for vacation breaks."
Salem shrugged, admitting that he was curious if the administration people had at least warned the poor new girl that she was about to spend a year sharing living spaces with the most reckless girl in several dimensions. "I dunno, but I heard she's a transfer student. If you play your cards right, maybe you can have a new friend."
Locket clapped happily until Skillian sighed and added, "Or another reason for the cops to eventually arrest you. Seriously, how are you not in any kind of jail yet?"
Both besties gave him a bland look. "It's amazing what you can get away with when there are no witnesses." Salem said.
"Yeah Skeliobro. Careful what questions you ask." After staring hard at that smile on her face and realizing he truly wasn't sure if that was a threat she promised to carry out or a joke, Skillian decided he'd had enough of their weirdness for today. "You randoes deserve each other, damn. Alright I'm going off to eat something and see the new potential of this year's students. Call me, Locket, when you're ready to stop hiding away from our beauty treatments."
"NEVER." She shuddered, then looked hopefully at Salem at the mention of food.
Salem stared right back into the depths of her soul with his weird gold eyes and snorted right in her face. "If you think I'm letting you escape to get food after all the stupidity you've put me through today the second you finally got back from a winter break ignoring me, you must truly underestimate my levels of evil vengeance. You're gonna go shower that gunk off you and wear this cool outfit I saw while out on a forced shopping spree with Sinbad, then we're gonna wait for your brother to make a door to here from your home in Scotsland and move your stuff to your dorm. Only THEN will I allow you to eat, if you play your cards right."
"Why do I feel so much more tortured here then I did when I was literally held hostage by space pirates in the past?" She groaned, making him snort out a laugh.
"Because your priorities are in a really messed up order. Now lucky for you, if you act now and as peacefully as possible, by the end of all this madness but before the welcome back dance tonight in the auditorium, I will take you to Loyetta Square and buy you any meals your heart desires. At the end of the week."
Locket gasped so hard she choked, making his smile widen. "Oh god, delicious food of every kind from the most overpriced town I've ever been in!? At my beck and call!?"
"And my allowance, yup." They had finally made it to her room, him pushing open the door and glancing around at both the empty sides, his eyes immediately locking on to the 3 items on the right side of the room that weren't there when he snooped in here earlier. Cool, poor unfortunate new girl was here and most likely wandering around on the tour before she came back to set her things up. "Only if you behave and not enslave the student body/world to your behavior."
"Well, that's hardly a fair promise to try and keep." Locket sighed looking over what was going to be her living space for the next year. She never was fond of closed indoor places. "You gonna decorate for me with your weird style again?"
"Sure am." Salem promised, glancing her over. He intended to ask her what the hell she'd been up to, she looked like she'd survived several apocalypses. You know what, the crazy chick probably had too. He was curious how she was in such a good mood from whatever she'd been up too. "You gonna tell me what you were up to this fine winter break without me and why you didn't take care of yourself properly?"
She kicked off her cool black mission boots and took off her shirt, making him pause to stare at her tank top covered back. Good lord how could there be so much dirt and bruises on one back?? "Sure, but it's gonna take me at least an hour to get clean enough for your standards. Sit on the toilet and keep me company?"
He blew out a long sigh, genuinely wondering if she'd ever realize he was a teenage boy with a totally mild crush on her. "Yeah, sure. There's a lot to catch up on anyway. Sinclair's got a cruuuush."
She pffted out a shocked laugh, accepting the towel he had gotten out of the shopping bag he had been carrying. Always prepared, her little nerd. "Your twin brother who literally screams and runs away and or vanishes at the sight of another girl?? Was my bet right in saying he was gay?"
"You and your 20 bucks wish. Nope, it's on this werewolf chick that came into mom's salon over break, with actual bird nests and massive tangles worse than yours dirtying up her hair. Sinclair did his stylist thing, too distracted at his vision of what to change her hair into he didn't notice she was a cute girl his age until his artist high faded and they were staring dreamily into each other's eyes. Then they BOTH screamed loud enough to make the other customers think a murder was happening and ran away before she could introduce herself or let me, mom, Sin and Skill snoop on her identity."
"You can pry my $20 out of my cold dead hands. I'll be damned, the little lamb has a crush on someone whose gender he's terrified of. Is she a student?"
Salem clapped happily, turning around politely as she turned on the shower and tossed the rest of her filthy clothes on the ground to hop into the still cold water. "She sure is! I saw her earlier this week walking around with one of the tour groups! And she still looks as cripplingly shy and awkward as my bro! So obviously it's become my new mission this new year to get them together or have them die from embarrassment trying."
"A noble cause as always. Such a good brother you are."
"Aren't I?" He peeked over his shoulder to look down at her clothes, wrinkling his nose at all the crap practically embedded in it. Now what the hell was all this, there was something dark purple that had the texture of clay, so many stains the original colors of her tank top was unidentifiable, and….blood. In a color of red he'd never seen before, but it smelled a lot like blood. How was he supposed to tell if any of these old stains had Locket's blood in them, if she was ok? This girl was going to be the death of him, how many times had he thought about her these past weeks? If she was getting enough to eat or was in a place that was safe enough to sleep? How many times he worried if she was lying dead somewhere in a place he could never reach?
He blew out a shaky breath, remembering why he had to stop himself from thinking too hard about what she got up to on her missions. He could handle asking her and hearing the answers, but handling his mind's overreactions was quite impossible.
"Got any soap in you bag of magic supplies?" His head snapped up to look at her peeking around the shower curtain and down at him with those acid green eyes. She'd probably be the death of him for several reasons.
"Magic's got nothing on my preparation skills," He responded with a sniff, digging through the bag he brought for the body wash and shampoo he'd picked up for her. "One must always be prepared having you as a bestie."
Her eyes crinkled up from a smile, accepting the bottles he passed her. "Always more prepared than me that's for sure. Do you know how often I wish you were with me on some of my missions because I know you would be able to help restrain me from eating all my food sooner than I should? I probably wouldn't even have to hunt with you there helping me."
That made a little smile come to his face and heart. Even when out in the depths of other dimensions doing her best to survive she thought of him. "No probably about it, I would happily smack you with a frying pan rather than let you inhale all of our food when it wasn't the right time."
He pulled out a fluffy towel and the clothes he had picked out for her, placing them both on the sink counter. He took out his phone and, after sending a text to Tumbler McGregor letting him know his crazy sister had returned to home base, selected a song from his personally made Locket playlist to give her a shower concert, smiling when she 'WOO'ed!' hearing the beginning drums of "Stupidity is your new best friend" from Paramouse fill the bathroom.
He made himself comfy on the closed toilet seat and took a sigh, satisfied the foresty smelling soaps were slowly getting rid of the odor on his bestie. "Now tell me about your top 3 favorite crazy adventures this break brought you.