Vee is rummaging through her locker, making sure everything is in its rightful place and getting set up for the first day of school. Masha, meanwhile, had stuffed all their school crap into the locker however it would fit, and is leaning against their closed locker.
Masha looks down the hall, and notices some cones and caution tape down the hall. Trying to read the sign, it reads “WET PAINT - DO NOT TOUCH”. The school must not have gotten through their maintenance yet.
“Hey Vee” they say, and point to the wall. “You should go watch that wet paint, make sure nothing happens to it.”, said with a friendly smile. “You never know what could happen.”
Vee thinks to herself, “I wonder what could possibly happen with human paint? Do the schools in the Human Realm eat people too?”. She looks to Masha, and says “okay” seriously.
Masha attempts to read Vee for a second. “Did she think I was actually asking? Nah. Nobody could be that dumb.”
“Well, I’ll see you in class!” they say, and walk down the hall. Quickly, the other students in the hall shuffle off to their own classes, leaving Vee alone with the wall.
She walks down the hall, and is soon standing in front of the wet paint wall. “I feel like I should be in class. At least telling the teacher I’m going to be watching this wall. But then again, Masha wouldn’t tell me to do something if it wasn’t important. Plus we’re both in the same class… they’ll probably tell the teacher for me.”
Grabbing a chair from a desk setup in the hall, Vee sits in front of the wall. “I hope they haven’t told me another one of their jokes I don’t get. Masha does know how important this day is to me.”
“Focus, Vee. I need to watch the wall.”
Vee stares intently at the wall for about a minute, which is about a minute more than her attention span can handle.
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. The sound of a nearby wall clock counting down the seconds increasingly pierces the meager amount of focus she can manage.
“What are my classmates going to be like? I wonder if they’ll all be as interested in the world I escaped from as Masha…”
“Nope. The wall.”
Vee attempts to stare at the wall again, but can’t help but looking at the doors of classes she can hear noises from. “I just want to know what I’ll learn… I can’t wait to be in a class.”
She looks back at the wall. The wall dries back at her. Her focus isn’t helped by the wall being painted white eggshell, the most boring of wall colors. Vee almost feels like the wall is getting wetter, just to spite her.
Sat in her chair, she suddenly has a look of shock upon her face. *“What if they notice I’m not like them? What if they notice I’m a shape-shifter?” Panic is setting in.
Gripping the underside of the chair to make sure it stays there, she stares off into space.
“Oh Titan, what if I accidentally shape-shift in class? Around all the other kids? They’d think I’m a freak!”
Vee scrunches up in her chair, trying to make herself small and hidden. In the middle of an empty white hallway. A yellow and blue haired girl, wearing her orange shirt… during class time. At least the wall can’t judge her.
“This was a mistake! I can’t believe I’m doing this! How did I let Camila talk me into doing this!”
“What if I run out of magic? What if I can never shape-shift back? There’s only a limited amount of magic in the Human Realm, and I’ve been eating it all to sustain this identity. I can’t believe I’m going to blow this. Everyone will be afraid of me…”
Vee is on the verge of tears, and she looks down upon her hands, thinking about hiding herself away further. If she can’t see the outside world, clearly they can’t see her. At least, that’s what she would tell herself.
Vee notices a small silver bordered card, and behind that a gold bordered card poking out of her leggings pocket. She pulls all the cards, about a half dozen, out of her pocket. Each one is a different color, with a mythical looking symbol on them.
“I’ve never been so excited to see these Hexes cards! I should have enough cards for about a week or two here… as long as I don’t do much ‘shifting.”
“Let’s calm down… I am good… we’ve got the cards, we’ve got Masha, Camila will come protect me by the end of the day if anything goes wrong…”
Vee takes a deep breath, and then another, and relaxes herself into a more comfortable sitting position. Thank goodness too, the wall was almost forming a consciousness to be worried about her with.
“Now I just have to wait for someone else to watch the wall. Hopefully they’ll explain human paint to me.”
Vee hadn’t noticed the bell had rung, and Masha was one of the first into the hall, worried and looking for their friend. It didn’t take long for them to find her though.
“Hey, Vee…” they say to her. Vee looks absolutely shocked. Her legs pull up and she feels like her hair is stood on end like a cat. She lets out a small “eep”, like the wall had grown alive and came to attack her.
“Masha!” she says, now looking at them like she’s been abandoned and frightened for weeks.
“You didn’t actually sit here and watch the paint dry did you?” they ask.
“You told me to…”, Vee blushes, realizing she was being joked with. “I guess it was a joke…”
Masha giggles. They say endearingly, “You’re so weird!”
“Come on, it’s time you actually go to class. The wall will be fine.”