Chapter Text
"I'm telling you, it makes total sense," Gangle insisted, her voice muffled slightly by her oversized pastel hoodie.
She gestured toward the screen with a half-eaten pocky stick. "If our lives were a high school anime, Ragatha would be the pristine Student Council President who secretly has a heart of gold, Caine would probably be a teacher, Jax would be the delinquent who sits in the back corner by the window, skipping class to smoke behind the bike racks–"
"I don't smoke," Jax’s voice drawled from his desk. He didn't look up from his phone, where his thumbs were flying across the screen, ruthlessly crushing some freshman’s high score in an online mobile game.
"You f£%#@ng liar. You so would smoke if this digital hell allowed it." Zooble stated. Frowning at Jax.
"You just want to seem all innocent all the sudden." They continued
"Nah, smoking requires spending money on cigarettes. I prefer stealing snacks from the vending machine. And bribing people to do stuff for me, but Its nice knowing you think so highly of me Zoobie~" Jax echoed, smiling with his signature shit eating grin.
Ragatha didn't look up from her book, the others could see a picture of a horse on the cover that she was trying, and failing, to hide. Jax just groaned and rolled his eyes, continuing to play his game. It wasnt every day they were allowed to use technology to entertain themselved. And Jax was not going to pass up the opportunity.
"SMOKE?!" Kinger exclaimed, almost out of nowhere. This made Jax chuckle.
"We must evacuate immediately!-"
"Not that type of smoke Kinger" Pomni smiled at him softly then Kinger seemed to be back in his own world just like that.
Jax smashed the phone harder then groaned as defeat music started quietly playing. He threw the phone back into a bag. Well, supposedly his bag but he wasnt going to carry a random bag that Caine gave them. It looked too dorkish.
"This is stupid..! Why would Caine even bring us here. Theres no violence. No thrill!"
Jax said almost exasperated as he did a gun move with his hand and 'shot' at Pomni which made her giggle.
"Gangle recommended this #£%face. Plus, it's a break from the constant action."
Jax gagged as Zooble defended Gangle. Jesus he hated when those two kept being all..lovey-dovey with each other. Get a room!
Jax then got an idea which made him smile. He quickly drew something on a piece of paper and scrunched it up before throwing it straight at Ragathas head.
Ragatha looked up at Jax while closing her book and Jax was leaning back, his long legs stretched out under the table, hands tucked into the pockets of his faded purple zip-up. A smug, sharp grin played on his lips as she picked up the paper and saw that he drew, or attempted to draw, what looked like a centipede. He loved tormenting Ragatha. He did it at least twice a day just to see the tiny, fleeting twitch in her left eyebrow.
"Jax!" Ragatha said, her voice rose.
"Don't you have anything better to do?! Like..i dont know..study for something?! We should still play the part to make this more enjoyable for ourselfves!"
"Probably," Jax said, shifting his gaze to the ceiling. "But 'Professor Caine’s exams'" he said in a mocking tone. The name "professor" he make the little quote speech hand gestur. "are basically just multiple-choice guessing games anyway. Besides, I have a strategy."
"Is your strategy failing?" Pomni chimed in from the corner armchair, slightly chuckling under her breath.
"My strategy," Jax said, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees, his amber eyes locking onto Ragatha’s tired blue ones, "is sitting next to the smartest girl in the room and copying her answers. Which brings me to my next point. Dollface, what are you doing for the next hour?" Ragatha let out a long, slow breath "I am going to the library, where it is quiet, and where people aren't allowed to call me 'Dollface' or 'Licorice hair' or treat my academic hard work like a public utility."
"Perfect. I'll walk with you," Jax said, instantly swinging his legs around and standing up. He didn't bring the backpack.
"You can give me a pep talk. Standard anime protagonist motivation."
Gangle let out a small, delighted squeak from her desk. "See? The delinquent follows her everywhere! It’s the trope!"
Ragatha sighed, grabbing her bag and throwing the strap over her shoulder. She pointed a stern finger at Jax's chest, stopping him a precise six inches away from her. "And you are not copying my test. If I catch your eyes drifting toward my desk today, I'm telling Professor Caine you're using a cheat sheet."
"Ooh, harsh~," Jax chuckled, stepping into her space anyway as they headed toward the lounge door, completely ignoring her boundary. "You wouldn't do that to me, Raggy!~. You care too much about my future."
"Keep dreaming, Jax," she muttered.
"Oh I would, but you certainly aren't in any of my dreams Raggy, sorry to break the news to you~" Jax teased as he walked infront of her.
Ragatha just groaned. "I dont even know why you are following me. It's not like YOU care about this. You said it yourself, you view this adventure as a joke. Well, some of us actually want to make these adventures fun for others—"
Before she could continue Jax interrupted "Jeez, are you gonna lecture me all day? And here i thought i was hanging out with the most tolerable one of the group."
He clicked his tongue as they kept walking.
Was this a..compliment from Jax? Ragatha didn't know whether to be upset or thank him for calling her tolerable.
Jax pushed open the library doors and looked like he ws sholding it out for Ragatha.
"Ladies first~ wait no why would i do that?" He said to himself as he walked through the doors anyways and practically force shut the door before Ragatha could get it, almost smashing it into her face.
"You are unbelievable you know that?!"
Ragatha exclaimed as she entered the library.
Empty manikins turned to her and shushed her. Ragatha immediately turned pink and Jax smiled while whispering "Gosh Rags, do you know how to behave in a library?" He teased her as she frowned at him.
Ragatha walked over to an empty table, near a wind in the library.
"Okay so..you never actually told me why you are following me. Do you just want to torment me or–"
"Jeez, can't a guy just want to study with his best pal? You are making it a big deal when it doesnt have to be."
Jax smiled. This definitely wasnt his intention.
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After what felt like hours of Jax distracting Ragatha in the library, it was finally home time–where would they go..did Caine even think this far ahead? She thought to herself as she was outside the school doors. She looked out of place, well, physically yeah as everyone was an NPC. But she didnt know where to go or what to do–
"Hey Ragatha!" Pomni exclaimed as she cought up to her
Ragatha turned around and smiled. Pomni. Way better than Jax.
"Oh hi Pomni! Im glad I found one of you, I was just..unsure of where we need to go, you know.. do we have homes or–"
"Ah! Yeah..uh..something like that? There are these small dorms behind the school, me and kinger found them while we were trying to find out what we needed to do in this adventure to leave..we still dont know"
Ragatha just gave Pomni a soft smile
"Im sure we will figure it out! You know how Caine is, he usually gets bored so he sends up home before we even complete the adventures!"
This made Pomni smile and nod as they walked together to their dorms.
———————————————————————
Once they arrived, Ragatha noticed how..out of place they looked. There were six dorms. And there were six of them. The dorms themsekves were more like a block..? If that was even the right word to use. Three dorms were on the bottom. Those being Zooble, Pomni and Kinger. And three dorms were on the top. Ragatha, Kinger and Jax. Theres was a small stairwell that connected the bottom and the top floor. However everything about it lacked any form of colour. The walls were made out of concrete and lacked any painting. This was a total contrast to their goofy circus back home. Ha, Ragatha referred to the corcus as her 'home'.
The only thing that had some colour were their picture frames that were on the doors which indicated who stayed where.
"Right, im heading out for tonight, i wanna get up and early tomorrow morning to explore more of this place"
Pomni pulled Ragatha out of her thoughts.
Ragatha smiled and nodded "alright! Goodnight Pomni!"
To which Pomni walked away and went into her now dorm.
Ragatha liked Pomni, she liked her company. It seemed..weird. like, Pomni was Ragathas, you know, everyone in the circus had a buddy. Zooble with Gangle. Jax with Ribbit. And now Pomni with Ragatha.
Ribbit..
Ragatha shooked her head. She wont think about this now. Ribbit was gone and that was that and if Jax found out Ragatha was thinking about Ribbit after she had to promise him that she wouldn't even mention the name to anyone he would –
"Jeez Rags, you know, if you stare at the dorms any longer they may actually grow a pair of feet and walk away"
Jax teased
"Oh would you look at that! We are roommates!" He noticed.
"Uh..actually- Kinger is also-"
"Blah blah blah, thats all I hear from you Dollface."
"You are absolutely unbelievable Jax!"
She exclaimed as he just skipped up the stairwell and to his dorm.
She should do the same, she thought.
She climbed up the rusty and old stairwell and turned the handle to her dorm down which opened it.
She walked inside cautiously, not that she was scared..well maybe. She didnt know what fould be inside, for all she knew–
Immediately she saw a carbord cutout of a massive centipede which she immediately knew whos work this was.
She groaned loudly "JAX!!".
She really couldn't get any peace away from that darn rabbit. Not even in her own dorm.