"R-Riddle!" Cater called out nervously as he tried to distract Riddle, "Don't lose your temper here!"
"Calm down, Riddle." Trey hurriedly tried to pacify the situation again, "You're letting him get under your skin again."
Riddle struggled not to use his pen and unique magic with a furious red face.
"Ummm, Floyd, you're from the Coral Sea, right?" Cater quickly diverted the conversation frantically, "Why aren't you going home?"
"While the three of us, including Azul, come from the Coral Sea, our hometown is actually far to the North." Jade explained patiently with another of those annoyingly courteous smile, "This time of the year the surface is completely covered by a glacier."
"Yeah..." Floyd grumbled, "Getting around the glacier sucks. And once we get there, there's nothing fun to do."
He smirked as he continued, "So, we'll head back during Spring Vacation after the ice melts."
"Hmmmh..." Trey hummed in thought, "Living under the sea comes with it's own troubles, I guess."
"Hmph!" Riddle huffed in irritation after calming down enough to regain his usual skin color again, "I would never spend new years with the likes of Octavinelle! I'll take my leave. I wish you all happy holidays."
Trey shook his head with a wry smile as soon as he saw Riddle walk away towards the mirror with his luggage, "My goodness, have you gotten back to normal a little?"
He turned to them, "I hope you guys don't completely forget to be students over vacation. See you!"
As Trey walked over to the mirror, Cater turned to them and waved, "I suppose it's time for me to get moving too. Let's take a pic and then I'll go."
Lotus ducked out just in time behind Deuce as the flash occurred. She breathed a sigh of relief inside as Cater continued, "#finaldayoffallterm, #withgreshmen, #happynewyear, #timeflieslol."
He put away his phone and said to them before leaving through the mirror, "Happy Holidays, everyone!"
"Lil' Shrimp, Seally, and Angler fish, are you two staying here?" Floyd turned to them seeing the other three leave.
"Then, you should come to Octavinelle. I'll hang out with you." Floyd spoke up with a wide smile almost in a weird and scary manner.
"That's a great idea." Jade spoke up with a wide smile, "We could all have fun over the holidays, so please come over at anytime. Good-bye..."
As the two walked away laughing mysteriously, Grim whined teary eyed, "Ugh... Seeing their faces brings back all my trauma from Mostro Lounge, y'know."
"Yeah," Deuce grumbled wearily, "That was rough..."
"Don't remind me..." Ace shuddered.
Lotus chuckled, "We all did have a hard time during, then."
"Now," Deuce spoke up as he looked around to see the decreasing number of students, "most of the other students have cleared out so we should probably be on our way too."
"You're right." Ace concurred with a new smile upon those words, "Oh yeah, Prefect."
"H-Huh?" Yuu looked over to Ace in surprise.
"We should trade magicam ID's since you got a smartphone. Then, we can message each other over the break." Ace explained with a wide smile.
"Me too." Deuce said with a wide smile, "Let's keep in touch."
The two handed Yuu their ID's before Ace looked back to his phone and scrolled over the screen, "Add friend, add friend, and... done."
He smirked mischievously as he said sarcastically, "Go ahead and hit me up if you get lonely~!"
"I won't message you without a reason." Yuu shook his head with a sigh as they handed the phone back to him.
"Thanks," Lotus chuckled and shook her head, "They may just do that."
Yuu gave Lotus a little glare as she only returned it with a small smirk playing it off. Ace shook his head and sighed, "There's our mood killer. It was a joke."
Deuce chuckled too before he said encouragingly, "His joke may have been in poor taste, but, really, you can message us if you need anything. My mom is probably waiting so I should head out. Prefect, Grim, Lotus, have a nice vacation!"
"Alright, I'm leaving too!" Ace said as he saw everyone almost gone and grabbed his luggage, "Prefect, Grim, see ya next year!"
Seeing the two gone, Grim shook his head and sighed, "There's never a dull moment with those guys around, but you know..." Grim wore a grumpy scowl, "Now that they're gone, I just noticed that they really never shut the hell up."
"Haha!" Lotus laughed aloud, "You mean that it's a little quiet around here."
"Shut up!" Grim pouted and turned away.
Lotus shook her head and patted his head, "I got the duck meat before the student store closed and a variety of other ingredients. Since it's winter, I'll just make something warm for dinner tonight."
"Really?!" Grim gasped in delight, "Yay! Duck meat and a warm meal before Christmas!"
Yuu shook his head and sighed, "And, he's back to being a child again..."
"Hey! Who're you calling a kid?!" Grim huffed.
Lotus laughed, "We didn't say who."
"Fgna..." Grim pouted before he cheered, "Now that it's break, I get to do whatever I want!"
"Don't forget your assignments." Lotus shook her head with a smirk.
"Gah, don't remind me..." Grim whined, "Can't we just wait till the last week of break?"
Yuu shook his head, "You do put aside assignments far too often, though..."
"Dang it, Yuu! Aren't you my follower? You should be taking my side!"
Lotus laughed as she said, "Anyway, let's go back to the dorm. The ghosts are waiting for our return."
As soon as they walked out, Lotus shuddered under the cold winds. She frowned slightly.
"Lotus?" Yuu looked back curiously as did Grim.
"Hm? Could it be that you can't stand the cold either?" Grim said in confusion before he smile, "Nyaha! So, the scary Lotus does have a weakness, after all!"
Lotus peered over to Grim with a small sneer, "Oh really? I remember you having some trouble in the Coral Sea too. Be careful not to get smothered by the snow or it could be harder for you to use your magic."
"F-fgna!"
Though Grim wasn't scared of her words, the glare from her eyes was enough to give him another shudder under the cold winds. Yuu shook his head and picked Grim up, "Let's go back, then."
"Right." Lotus nodded as she began to notice how attentive Yuu has gotten since he first arrived.
He's gotten better to attention to details. She'll have to be more careful in the future.
.....
As she watched them leave, Lotus headed back to the cafeteria's kitchen where she found that the place was quite bustling and as people were chopping up food. All of the people had a similar attire, if not identical, to Jamil's. However, only he had his hood on. Seeing that they were doing that, Lotus thought for a bit before she walked over to Jamil and asked, "Do you require help?
Jamil looked to her with a frown, "What?"
Lotus continued, "It looks as though you're making a big meal. I was wondering if you require an extra pair of hands, so that the process can go by faster. Your competitor is time, correct? I can help cut the vegetables at least."
Jamil looked to her with a frown as if she was an idiot, "Why would you want to help?"
"Because I want to use the kitchen to make food for myself too." Lotus responded bluntly, "However, all the stoves are taken and the space too. Since you really need this amount of space to cook, then I'll help as long as I get a place to make food later as well. I'm not exactly charitable either, you know, and you don't have the time or energy to be wasted on me when everyone requires your help. Rather than beating around the bush, isn't putting my meaning forward easier and less time consuming? At least, my hands would only be touching the vegetables."
Jamil frown grew deeper when he heard her words but sighed and shook his head, "Grab a cutting board and starting mincing those onions."
"Right."
She hurried away and began to work.
Lotus chopped up a bunch of vegetables according to Jamil's instructions and others began to chop away.
"Gah!"
Another half an hour went by when she looked up and saw a person freak out with blood flowing out from his left hand. The student held on to his hand with a slight panic in his eyes as he looked away nervously. Jamil frowned as he walked past the other Scarabia residents and turned to Lotus, "Take him to the nurse's office."
"Right." Lotus wiped her hands on the kitchen cloth before grabbing the guy's hand to see that there was a clean gash on the back of his knuckles.
She raised a brow in bewilderment before she pulled him to the side. As Jamil instructed some other students to sanitize the knife and whatever it was that he was cutting at or on, he turned to her and said in confusion, "The nurse isn't here today. Should we take him down to-?"
"No need." Lotus spoke up, "I have the keys to the infirmary and the gash isn't deep. Name?"
"R-Raaji." The purple hair student spoke up nervously.
"Keep your hand up, Raaji. We need to keep the loss of blood to the minimum." Lotus instructed as she pulled him outside of the kitchen, "Don't panic. It's not like you're going to lose a hand anyway as long as we sanitize it."
"Eh?" Raaji looked to her in confusion as they arrived at the lunch area.
"You can take care of it?" Jamil asked her.
She nodded, "It's simple. I'll close the wound up and he'll be fine as long as he doesn't open it up again."
"Then, I'll leave him to you."
She nodded again and brought him to the school infirmary which she unlocked with a key the nurses handed to her before break started.