Flights of Fancy

[inventrix]

Set at Doomsday Academy, in its 10th year. Written for my rainbowfic project.

It was a quiet Tuesday afternoon. Most of the students were at club meetings, which meant Sweetwater – or Aguita, as most people called her – had the fourth-year dorm to herself, by virtue of sitting out today's Drama Club meeting. They were picking the next play today and, as the self-designated Stagehand, Aguita didn't have much of an opinion on the matter. Besides, even though three years of living in the Doomsday dorm building had gotten her used to the noise and chaos of constantly being surrounded by people, it didn't make rare opportunities for time alone any less valuable.

This time, Aguita was using it to work on her homework, quietly and happily humming to herself as she considered her notes on the economy of pre-Collapse Mexico. She wasn't very good at history – she had no head for names or dates or places or any of that stuff – but the subject was interesting anyway. Plus she liked the teacher, Professor Lily, a lot. She was one of her top choices for a Mentor, once she'd Changed. Although maybe--

“Water-Speaker!” The door swung open and Greer burst through, pointing imperiously.

Aguita stared blankly at her friend. “...Me?”

“Yes, you.” Greer flopped into her desk chair with a flounce of her skirt. “I can't think of one for me, though.”

Greer's flights of fancy could sometimes be hard to follow, but Aguita didn't think she'd ever been this lost. “Wait, who? Why? What are we doing?” She pushed her chair back, homework temporarily forgotten.

“We're going to be a crew, remember?” Greer gestured dramatically with an arm. “We need a crew name, and names for each of us--”

“But we're not Adults yet?” Aguita interrupted.

“That's what I said.” Tec wandered into the room. “But she's picking names anyway. Apparently I'm Third Star.” He sounded like he was sulking but trying to hide it.

“Third Star to the Right.” Greer half-turned, hanging over the back of her chair.. “From Peter Pan, 'cause he doesn't grow up.”

“I am growing up,” Tec protested. “I'm fourteen!”

Aguita ignored the pending argument. “So why am I... Water-Speaker?”

“Because. Your name is Water and it sounds cool.” Greer stated her reason like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“But...” Aguita hesitated, not wanting to say outright that she thought it sounded kind of stupid. Even though it definitely did sound stupid. “Can't you wait until we Change, at least? What if I'm not watery at all?”

“Don't be silly, of course you are. With a name like Sweetwater?”

“What about Nimbus?” Tec cut in, his tone challenging. “His Change was a cat. Nothing cloud-like at all.”

“Don't you have homework to do, Starry?” Greer looked over at him, raising her eyebrows.

“How about we just pick a crew name for now,” Aguita said firmly. “Then we could discuss individual names as a proper crew.”

“Agreed,” Tec said, still sounding a little sulky despite his best efforts.

“But Giiitaaaa...” Greer's sulky pout, on the other hand, used every ounce of her overdramatic nature.

“You can make up the crew name.” Aguita gestured at Greer. “How about that?”

“Oh, fine, I suppose.”

“Good, that's all settled then.” Aguita smiled brightly at her friends. “So how was Drama?”

“We're doing The Tempest,” Tec replied, pulling out the chair from the desk next to Aguita’s and sitting down. “Professor Gabriel opened the floor to suggestions for a reimaging and we spent the rest of the meeting talking about ideas.”

“No decision, huh?” Aguita sounded sympathetic and felt relieved, glad she'd opted not to go. When the whole club got going on something, you could barely believe there were only five of them.

“I want to make it about the returning gods,” Greer said, extending her pout from the whole ridiculous name thing to the play. “Prospero can be one of them, trying to regain his status from before they were sealed away.”

“That... actually sounds interesting.” Aguita was impressed.

“I know!” Greer leaned forward, coming dangerously close to tipping her chair over. “It would be great.”

“But Abi doesn't like the idea and he's senior, so...” Tec shrugged.

“That boy wouldn't recognize brilliance if it bit him in the ass.” Greer dropped her chair back onto all four legs with a bang. “Ugh.”

“I tossed out doing some kind of Arthurian thing,” Tec continued, “which Abi really likes. It was before Greer’s idea, though.”

“And Tuuli just wants to keep the setting and switch around character roles.” Greer made a twirling gesture with her finger. “Make Prospero the son instead of the dad, like that.”

“That could be interesting, too,” Aguita said thoughtfully. “How are you planning to decide?”

Tec shrugged again. “Have an unofficial meeting tomorrow, I guess. And the—”

“Hey!” Omer, the owner of Tec’s current seat, stood in the doorway and folded his arms. “I don’t care if you’re older, I told you to stop sitting in my chair.”

“Sorry, sorry.” Tec swung out of the chair, flipping his ponytail back in a gesture that clearly said I’m not sorry at all. “Catch you two later, I’m being evicted.”

“The Three Seasons!” Greer yelled after Tec.

“That’s terrible.” He shuddered. “Please think of something better.”

“Hmph.” She turned to Aguita. “You like it, right?”

“For a crew name?” Aguita hesitated, trying to think of a tactful way to say no. “Um…”

“Ugh!” Greer slumped back into her chair. “No one appreciates me.”