Chapter Text
Toralei stretched on the grass, paws behind her head as she stared at the clouds. The gathering storm and slow drumbeats of her music fit each other perfectly, the eerie melodies combining with the wind to compliment the atmosphere of the afternoon. She closed her eyes, inhaling the fresh air, a bit sharp with the smell of far off rain. Like any sensible werecat, Toralei hated the rain, but she loved storms. She could feel when they would be coming, and would find a place all by herself to watch and feel the change in wind. Often, seeking that place alone meant the roof or a tree but today was a Saturday and not many people were at the school. She herself was only there to escape Meowledy and Purrsephone. When those two were fighting, it was best to be as far away as possible. She sighed and smiled, stretching from her pinkie claw to above her hands, forepaws brushing the soft grass. She opened her eyes and watched a wisp of soft grey melt into a larger, charcoal cloud. Soon it would be time to go inside and escape the rain. The music in her ears ebbed and flowed with the clouds.
Without warning, a brown head covered in wavy curls moved in the way of the clouds. Caught by surprise, Toralei jump and rolled onto all four paws pushing herself to her feet as she hissed and spat curses at the intruder. She winced as the ear buds ripped from her tender ears.
Clawdeen held up her hands, taking a few steps back. “Hey, it’s okay, it’s just me.” Toralei huffed through her nose, slowly relaxing her muscles. She groomed her fur back in place as Clawdeen continued. “Sorry ghoul, I thought you heard me coming! I didn’t see the ear buds.”
Toralei shrugged as she regained her composure, tucking her iCoffin into her back pocket. The second she was calm and ready to get to sassin’, the storm hit in full force and soaked her to the skin. Clawdeen hefted her bag onto her shoulder and ran for the school, but the angry cat beat her inside.
The ghouls leaned on the wall panting, and Clawdeen groaned as she gently dropped her bag to the ground. Though she had only been outside a few seconds, her thick hair was nearly soaked through. Bending from the waist, Clawdeen shook her hair, then flipped it while standing straight. “Much better.”
The scowl and grumbling beside her told Clawdeen that Toralei strongly disagreed with that assessment. Her attempts to dry off were much less efficient, and much less successful, than the werewolf’s. “Do you want any help?”
“I am doing just fine, just as I was before you ruined my day.”
“It’s not my fault we got wet! You were the one laying on the ground outside,” Clawdeen snapped.
“I was keeping an eye on the clouds and you distracted me, or I would have been inside with time to spare!” Toralei gave up trying to wring out her skirt and turned on her heel, stomping off down the hall. By the time she had reached the locker room, her stomp had wilted to a slump and her ears were low with dismay. While attempting to tell the twins of her miserable luck, Toralei had discovered her iCoffin had gotten drenched in the downpour and refused to do more than buzz sadly. Everything that could go wrong in a cat’s life had gone wrong. She was cold, she was wet, she hated being cold and wet, her phone died, and now her enjoyable afternoon of studying and reading was going to be a terrible afternoon of studying and reading…. with the smell of wet dog filling the school. Just great.
At least she had spare gym clothes- clean sweatpants and a tee shirt. Toralei draped her wet things over the edges of changing stalls. The reflection in the mirror was still mussed, unfashionable and damp, her phone seemed hopelessly dead, but at least she wasn’t soaking wet. She wandered back to the library, where her backpack waited.
Clawdeen Wolf also waited. She too had shed her soaked outer layer, thanking her lucky stars she wore a cami and leggings under her sweater dress and jacket. The hallway was lined with old heaters that were warm enough to dry them out before she headed home. She hoped so, anyway. Clothes all figured out, it was time to start on the real reason she was at the school library on a Saturday. Unfortunately, the real reason had gotten just as wet as she had. Through a snarl, Clawdeen shouted, “This bag was supposed to be WATERPROOF!”
Toralei walked back into the library to see Clawdeen hurriedly dumping the contents of her messenger bag on the floor, grabbing pieces of paper and laying them flat on a nearby table. Some of the papers were wrinkled as Clawdeen worked fast to rescue the worst off ones. Toralei walked to the table and saw what her frenemy was so desperately trying to save- watercolor paintings. She gently smoothed some out, sliding them away from the edge Clawdeen was working at. Absorbed in her task, Clawdeen barely noticed the help, simply laying them on the edge of the table as one by one, they were gingerly moved to the middle and smoothed perfectly flat. Toralei realized her paws were becoming tinted colors from the paint and wiped them on her sweatpants to keep other paintings from being spoiled. As Clawdeen pushed her hair out of her eyes, she looked up and smiled gratefully at the kitty. She grabbed what was left of the bag’s contents- mostly textbooks and pencils, paint brushes and a tightly shut palette of paint and unceremoniously plopped them on the edge of the table. She left to put her empty bag with the rest of her clothes, and returned to Toralei thoughtfully looking at the paintings. A single claw traced the air above one of them, as she followed the graceful shapes.
“Thanks for your help, Toralei. You didn’t have to.”
“Did too, you were messing them up. I didn’t know you were so talented.” Clawdeen snorted. “I’m not even being sarcastic.” Toralei smirked, still looking at the paintings. “I’m not always catty.”
“Just usually.” Toralei nodded at Clawdeen’s words, grinning. “Thanks, ghoul, but I still need a lot more work.” She wound her mass of brown waves up and slid a pencil to hold her hair off her face. She nodded at Toralei’s hair, still stringy from the rain. “There’s a nice warm spot near the corner, there’s like three heaters in one place over there.” She followed as Toralei raced for the spot, dragging a heavy table to the center of the three heaters. In seconds the werecat was stretched out on top, her hair inches away from one of the heaters. She began to relax then dug in her pocket, grabbing the drowned phone and pressing the on button. When it didn’t switch on, she slumped and removed the battery, setting the pieces of the phone on the table to dry.
Clawdeen perched on the edge of the table briefly, then jumped off. In a few minutes, she returned with a small bag filled with small white packets. “Put your phone in here, it will be dried out in no time.” Toralei reluctantly obeyed, sending a questioning look to the werewolf. “It’s silica gel. Y’know, from shoes and food and stuff. It keeps things dry in their packaging, so I collected them and put them here.” She gingerly placed the bag on the table. “It gets technology dried out faster. I’m friends with Lagoona- it helps to be prepared.”
“Me-ow, I like the sounds of that, Nefera will kill me if I miss responding to her texts.”
Clawdeen paused, then asked a question she had just been dying to ask. Everybody had their theories, but nobody had an answer. It would unkill Spectra if she knew before the infamous gossip. “Uh.. .why are you two together anyway?”
Toralei’s eyes popped open and she snarled under her breath. “What, you don’t think I’m good enough for a queen? I’ll have you know, she asked me out, I didn’t come to her for a pity date-”
“What? No! I just didn’t think she’d be…. your type.”
“What is THAT supposed to mean?! Do I not look gay enough for you? What am I gonna have to do, buzz my hair and only wear flannel?”
“What?! No, just wait, it’s not that!” Toralei snarled, and Clawdeen continued. “Look, I don’t care about class or whatever. And I thought you were bisexual? But whatever, my point is-” Toralei’s fur was all bushy and Clawdeen wondered if it would make things worse or better if she continued. She braced herself and said it- “She’s just so mean.” Toralei looked shocked and Clawdeen rushed on, “You have your moments, but you’re not so bad. I can talk to you and the nasty pranks aren’t causing bodily harm lately, you’ve even joined fearleading again- but Nefera is terrible! The things she’s done to Cleo, to Duece- to you!”
Toralei looked uncomfortable and Clawdeen felt a pang of unbearable guilt. “She’s not so bad,” Toralei muttered. She sat up. “She can be nasty sometimes, but I like nasty. Nobody’s perfect, and she can be sweet sometimes.” Her voice was bordering on the defensive, and Clawdeen narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “Well, it could be worse. I could be dating the other DeNile.”
Clawdeen rolled her eyes, scoffing. “Oh you wish, Cleo is ten times the ghoul Nefera is.” She knew she didn’t have to rise too much to Cleo’s defense. The disdain in Toralei’s voice seemed forced at best. A dim and distant light bulb clicked in her brain. “Oh. My. Ghoul.”
“What?” It came out as a nervous yowl, making Toralei cringe.
Clawdeen held up her hands, shaking her head. “No, no, it’s not my place to speculate.” She stood up and stretched, Toralei half-sitting up in suspicion. “I need to get back to work. Those paintings won’t label themselves.”
Part of Toralei was dying with curiosity about what Clawdeen had realized, or thought she realized. Did she reveal to much? Either way, it didn’t matter too much. After the ‘werelice’ incident, Clawdeen had been even better at keeping secrets. She never passed gossip along, true or not. Toralei settled back down, shifting so the dampest parts of her fur were facing towards the heat. There was no point in worrying. Whatever the wolfgirl thought was none of her concern. She closed her eyes and sighed, trying to put it out of her mind and relax before she got back to studying. Still, her tail twitched in irritation.