Coraline finished her test, going up to put her paper in the basket before returning to her seat. She fidgeted slightly, waiting for the bell. She had forgotten about breakfast, and was ready to eat something. Besides, they were going to be hearing about the Sextant. And god, was she curious about it.
"I'm going to let everyone go early, so you can go clean up your dorms. The janitors were especially disappointed with Hall 7." Ms. Aspen looked pointedly at the boys at the front of the class. The boys didn't look particularly disappointed in themselves, but sort of jostled each other with their elbows. "Go on, then. Go clean your rooms."
Simon got up and went straight to its room, which was already perfectly clean. Crispin sat on his perch, swinging back and forth, happy to be back in his home.
Simon sat on its bed until the bell rang, then went to lunch and picked forlornly at a salad, pulling out the carrots and cabbage for Crispin.
Sir Waverley waddled his way into the cafeteria, standing at the podium in the right corner of the room. "I have chosen. Two capable students. To find. The missing Sextant. And restore it. To its rightful place." Sir Waverley cleared his throat, effectively silencing the chatter in the cafeteria. "I have chosen. Simon Andrews."
Simon stiffened, hunching over in disbelief. What? It barely heard Sir Waverley say, "And. Coraline Pewter."
They made a choking sound. Was Sir Waverley trying to make it lose its shit?
"Insulting," it muttered, returning to sort through its salad, ignoring the surrounding students' stares.
"The two students. Will be leaving. Tomorrow at high noon. To begin their quest."
Coraline had just sat down when the announcement started, and received a lot of looks with her face full of sandwich, the remaining part she almost dropped in shock. She wasn't exactly a great student or anything. She was fairly sure Sir Waverley only knew her name from disciplinary records. And, of course, they put her with the biggest goodie goodie in the whole damn school. She shook her head slightly. What were they gonna do, keep her in line? Nah. More like annoy the hell out of her.
Simon stood up and threw the remnants of its salad away, then sat down across from Coraline and said in its raspy voice, "I'm not particularly excited to be working with you, but I hope we can get the Sextant back." Crispin perched on its shoulder and croaked at Coraline in a greeting.
Coraline looked up, swallowing. "I'm not exactly hyped about this either, lets just get the damn Sextant and get back." She said, looking it up and down. Did she really have to work with them? "Alright?"
Simon scowled. "I wasn't exactly planning to go on a field trip," it said. "My only goal is to get the Sextant back. Anyways, as I'm sure you've already figured out, I'm Simon."
"Coraline." She said, a bit stiffly. It was already getting on her nerves. Why, Sir Waverley, why? "Or Cory, if Coraline is too much of a mouthful."
"Whatever. Coraline is fine. Look, we need to come up with a plan to get the Sextant back." Simon tucked his feet under its thighs.
"How? All we know is that it was nabbed from the library. It's not like we have actually useful information." Coraline said, crossing her arms over her chest.
"If you actually paid attention in class, you'd know that's not true," Simon snapped. "Tracking spells are relatively simple. In fact, I'm sure the librarian can help us out with that one."
Coraline raised an eyebrow. "Someone managed to get into the school, steal the Sextant, and leave without a trace, and you think they would be stupid enough to not have cast a cloaking spell that would help protect them from a tracking spell? Really? I thought you were supposed to be smart. C'mon. No one would risk that kind of a loose end."
"I am perfectly intelligent," Simon said coolly. "Every cloaking spell can be broken if you know what you're doing. Clearly, you don't."
"Yeah, and if you know what cloaking spell they used." Her words were more curt, and small tendrils of smoke were starting to rise from her fingers. "You, however, have too much fate that everyone else is stupid. Believe it or not, they aren't."
“I’ve already had Crispin check out the library,” Simon said, ignoring Coraline’s comment. “He’s determined that it’s a rudimentary cloaking spell, easily undone, which means whoever took the Sextant is either extremely dumb, or they want us to follow them.”
"So we're likely walking into some kind of trap is what you're getting at?" She asked, leaning back in her seat slightly. "And the Sextant is the bait?"
"You aren't as stupid as I thought," Simon said sarcastically. "Therefore, we can't put a cloaking spell on ourselves, as the person doubtless can undo it."
"So we're gonna have to do normal human espionage." She said, nodding. "Catch them off guard."
"I don't know if I'd use the word espionage," Simon said. "Breaking and entering is more accurate, I think."
"Yeah, but adults don't like to hear the phrase breaking and entering. Besides, espionage sounds cooler." She smirked slightly, running a hand through her hair to get a few strands out of her face.
Simon rolled its eyes and shifted slightly, Crispin hopping down on the table. The bird inspected Coraline closely. "in any event, we have no choice but to be prepared."
"Obviously." She said. "It's not like I was planning to take the fuck barehanded." She rolled her eyes slightly, looking down at the bird on the table.
"'Ello," Crispin croaked, tilting his head and flapping his wings.
Simon scowled. "I don't know what you know, you realize. Every time I've seen you, you haven't been paying attention in class."
"Oh, no, I'm that obvious?" She asked sarcastically. "And every time I've seen you, you look like you're riding on some fuckin' high horse, so maybe lay the hell off."
Simon's lips turned up ever so slightly. "It's too easy to get a rise out of you. You need to work on your temper."
"Shut it." She hissed, dark smoke rising from her fingers, seemingly without her notice.