Chapter Text
She loves the south coast. Her hometown in the Queendom was quite far from the sea, which, according to Ville, might explain why Riddle missed out on the shopping center experience: the most popular recreational hotspots thrive by water, and demographically, so does freedom of thought.
Which she also didn’t have until recently.
Though, here she is on her umteenth mall trip, taking in the glamor—polished white walls and marble tiles, glass railings you could peer over to view the floor below. People walking by, couples and families with little children, groups of friends in middle school (judging by the tackiness of their graphic tees).
“Only tweenagers wear galaxy leggings and high tops together,” Ville mutters, another insight on a dated trend Riddle never took part in.
For years, she could only watch the crowd, never to be a part of it. Envy squeezed around her heart much like her fingers around her mother’s hands, grasp , forcing her to stand idly by as if waiting through a window.
Azul chatters about on her left, Jamillah listens on her right, and Leona is scrolling on her phone with the bags of purchases in hand. Ville talks about the latest movie showing, makes a joke she doesn’t get and the group laughs.
She remembers where she is, then laughs too.
A bzz vibrates in Riddle’s purse.
“Someone’s calling me.”
“Bet ten cents that it’s your girlfriend~”
“Really, Azul?” Ville sighs.
Leona grins. “I mean, if she starts turning pink, we won’t even have to guess—“
Riddle shuffles around in the meantime, pulling out her phone…
Her blood runs cold.
“Is everything okay?” Jamillah asks.
Her hands tremble, barely able to conceal the dreaded name on the screen.
“It’s my mother.”
“Shit,” Leona exclaims.
And suddenly, the warm fuzziness in her chest fades—throat closing up. Breathe, Riddle tells herself, but her body doesn’t listen.
“No. Nononono no, this timing could not be any worse…!”
“Riddle.” Azul gestures her hands out in a stop. “It’s going to be okay.”
“She only calls when I’m at school, why now…?!”
Her voice cracks in multiple lines. If Mother finds out that Riddle’s outside instead of being pointlessly diligent for some exam that won’t be administered until next Tuesday…!
Her phone is still ringing.
“I can’t…” Riddle stammers. “I-I can’t let her go to voicemail…”
“If you need to take it, don’t let us stop you,” Jamillah adds.
“It’s too loud in here.” Leona leans in, ears alert. “I dunno how sensitive her ears are, but if she picks up on background noise, she might not buy it.”
“Le, you are not! Helping!”
“Oi, I don’t want her to get in trouble as much as you don’t—“
“Quiet in the peanut gallery!” Ville claps in their faces. “We need to go somewhere less busy!”
“She can hear walking through the phone, y’know.”
“Doesn’t matter! This call is urgent. Everyone move!”
They pick up the speed of their heels. Platforms and chunky sneakers hustling against the floors, zooming around every passerby they encounter…
Mother will know. She’ll tear her out! She’ll accuse Riddle of hanging out with ‘bad influences’, then bar her from speaking to the Heartslabyul girls… and Riddle will have to cut off the committee, and she’ll have to break up with Trin and… and…!
Ring, ring.
They’re by the fountain.
She’ll get suspicious if you wait any longer!
Riddle fumbles trying to swipe her phone open.
“H-Hello?”
“Riddle, what took you so long?” There it is, that overly cheery coo that makes her stomach churn. “Don’t tell me you’re sneaking around!”
“I assure you,” she swallows back. “It’s nothing of the sort…”
“I was beginning to think you wouldn’t pick up. It’s been such a long time! You haven’t sent any messages in the past two days—”
“Yes, Mother, I’m well aware. Apologies, I’ve been… occupied with my responsibilities as a housewarden.”
“I understand that, dear, but it wouldn’t hurt to forge a little more time for your family! I’m your mother, Riddle, you know how much I worry about these sorts of things…”
“I’m sorry.”
A sigh. “What am I to do with you…?”
“I’ll answer faster next time, I promise…”
Frustrated. Mother has these little… growls at the edge of her voice. She’s annoyed. Riddle doesn’t like it.
“I just wanted to check in, make sure your academics are going well… how are you? How is school? I trust you’re working hard?”
So many questions, only one acceptable answer: Yes, Mother, studying hard, Mother, stellar grades and accolades, Mother—she would never be interested in Riddle’s genuine responses to the first two questions, not that she would ever be courageous enough to share.
“Yes, Mother. I’ve received perfect marks for the past few tests, as always.”
“Oh, that’s great news! My little rose, I wouldn’t expect any less...”
Fake, fake, fake. As if she wasn’t complaining about her mere seconds ago—the praise blooms like a flower in Riddle’s chest, only to be stabbed just as it opens its petals.
“Don’t forget to send me photos, okay? I want to see the proof of your success with my own eyes… which reminds me, I can’t enter your grade portals. I would expect Night Raven College to have better technomancy for such a prestigious school. For Sevens’ sake, I don’t even have access to your individual assignment scores! Is there an issue with the system? Could you bring it up with them?”
“I… yes, wait… slower, please…?”
“Mouth wide open, dear. If you’re going to speak back to me, I need to at least hear you.”
A compromise they made after winter break. Better than nothing, she supposes, at least having a fighting chance before being shut down regardless.
What she never told Mother was that the administration took her off the access portal for… safety reasons. Only Riddle has the new passcodes.
“I promise I will send the pictures later tonight, along with the unofficial transcripts for last semester—”
“Why not now?”
“I… apologies, Mother, I’m kind of in the middle of something…”
A crowd suddenly rushes out of the stores behind them.
“What’s with this background noise?”
“I’m sorry?” Oh no. Oh no. “You’re cutting out…”
“Riddle.” Her honeyed tone dries up. “I will ask you one more time. Is there something happening there that I should know about?”
Panicked eyes lock onto the others’.
‘You good?’ Jamillah mouths.
‘What do I say?!’ Riddle mouths back. “Nothing! N-Nothing whatever, notever, I promise I’ll get back to you—”
‘ Go on mute,’ Azul hushes.
‘What?!’
‘Just do it!’
She presses faster than she can think.
“Mother’s catching on!” Riddle gasps. “She knows I’m outside, I don’t know how much I can do before—”
"Wait," Azul commands. "We're not letting her bulldoze you. No! That woman is not ruining your day out.” She puts her hand out. “Give me your phone.”
“It’s my mother! She’ll be even crosser if you—”
“Do you think I'm an idiot? Trust me!”
“Azul, you better have something in mind…” Leona warns.
This is a horrible idea. Putting a friend on the line would aggravate Mother even further, but Riddle’s already curling up like a scared baby hedgehog and they need to think fast.
She tosses the phone like it’s a hot potato.
“Hello?” The mermaid raises the phone to her ear. “Hi. Am I speaking with Mrs. Rosehearts?”
The reception echoes in gibberish from the speaker.
“This is Azul, I’m the housewarden of Octavinelle… yes! Yes, of course. I completely understand! I get that it’s a little invasive of me to interrupt a mother-daughter chitchat, but she has several students asking her questions right now—oh, right. Let me explain that. We host a joint review session every week for second-year tests. It’s an inter-house collaboration to assist our classmates with their studies…”
Pearly whites smile in reassurance.
“Yes, we cover all subject material. Magic is very much our strong suit, though another frequently asked topic is in regards to arithmetic…”
Ville eyes light up. “Idea.”
“Huh?”
“Someone pull up test questions from previous mock exams.”
“The signal’s terrible here!” Jamillah whisper-yells back.
“If you have something downloaded, use that instead! Or the Internet if it works, we just need something!” The blonde waves a hand towards Riddle. “Come here.”
“You’re pretending to study?” Leona snickers.
“Pretend like you’re studying!”
“Either fake it now or shut up!” Azul grits her teeth. “I’m turning mute off in ten seconds.”
“Loud and clear.”
“Ville…” Riddle sniffles. “Everyone…”
“Plan first, thanks later.”
“Go, go, go!”
Frantically, Jamillah tries to load her search results. Riddle skitters over in her Mary Janes, sliding into the seat on the fountain next to Ville. Azul steps closer to them.
“Again, I’m sorry about the timing. Riddle makes such a big deal out of keeping in touch with family, so I know it’s killing herself inside to have to put you on hold, but! I offered to say hello until she comes back… just so she doesn’t have to end the call abruptly and have you wondering ‘Where did she go’? You know?”
“I don’t understand this,” Ville whines, loud enough to hear on the line. Wow. She sounds just like her freshmen.
Riddle breathes out. Ignore the call for now. “What about it?”
Jamillah’s furiously patting the screen. “C’mon, load, load… why is the Wi-Fi so bad?”
“Hurry up!”
“I’ve got it!”
First question that pops in.
“They’re asking for diameter when they’re only giving us surface area,” Ville reads off. “I’ve been at it for ten minutes…”
Focus. Get into character.
“It’s… it’s a simple formula conversion.” Riddle traces the steps in her mind. “Surface area is four pi times radius squared, so if radius is half of diameter, you need to replace ‘r’ with ‘d over two’…”
“But that’s the equation for surface area.”
“Then set it equal to d.”
“How…?”
“Let’s start from the beginning.”
No wonder Ville is a high-paying actress. With every step Riddle computes out loud, the side effects her senior makes in return are so convincing: hums of frustration, ‘aha’ moments of clarity, changes of tone where a normal student would sound stuck.
“Riddle and I work very closely, as fellow housewardens… mhm, you can think of it like student council. I’ve learned a thing or two from her particular teaching style… oh, yes! She’s wonderful, no doubt about it…”
“So the correct answer is ten?” Ville asks.
“Yes!” Riddle nods. “That’s perfect!”
“Hear that?” Azul chimes over the line. “She’s a great tutor. Did you know that Heartslabyul’s failure rate was reduced to zero because of her?… let me tell you, she has absolutely no tolerance for distractions. I wouldn’t put so much trust in Riddle if she did…”
More offhand echoes.
‘Do we need to keep going?’ Jamillah side-eyes.
‘Hold on,’ Azul places a hand out again.
Mother’s still talking…
“Of course! No, thank you. I appreciate you trusting me with your daughter, she’s in good hands.” Azul tilts her head. “Azul. A-z-u… yes, you’re pronouncing it correctly. It’s lovely to meet you too… oh. Oh, okay, you want to speak to her?”
Riddle stretches her hand out.
‘You sure?’ Azul mouths.
She nods.
“Give me a moment—ah! Here she is! Okay, switching off now. Buh-bye!”
The phone is passed off.
“Thank you, Azul.” Riddle shoves the phone to her ear. “Hello, sorry for the interruption, Mother… our classmates can be incessant at times.”
“Children these days!” she groans. “Truly, they need a lesson in manners if they’re bothering you in the middle of a phone call—”
“I assure you, Mother. I’ll be running them through extra pages of questions for having the gall to interrupt my personal affairs.”
Blegh. Those words taste like cardboard.
“That’s my girl! Whipping those children into shape.” Riddle winces at the comparison. “I see you’re also getting along with your schoolmates in leadership. What a relief! Azul seems very well to-do. At least you’ve made one responsible companion in your time at NRC…”
"Yes, Mother."
She probably wasn’t supposed to hear that last bit.
“Alright, I’m sure you have other students to discipline. Please don’t forget to send your grades! And be sure to eat your proper meals, the last I want to see is you gouging on sweets because you’ve forgotten your lunch breaks!”
“I will.” No promises.
“Bye, darling~”
“Goodbye, Mother.”
She hangs up.
…
Everyone relaxes at once.
“Thank the Sevens that’s over!” Riddle’s heart is still pounding into her chest, but the reprieve feels so much lighter. “I really thought it was the end…”
“Talk about a close call,” Azul sighs. “Literally.”
“Okay, but that was pretty smart of you.” Jamillah leans over. “Using the background noise to your advantage.”
“I’m used to talking over the phone. Nothing like a little customer service, right?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Can we talk about Ville, though?" Azul grins at the model. "Your acting really sold it…!”
“I simply followed your cues,” Ville muses. “You’re the one who created the setup.”
“Isn’t this the kinda combo that gets people’s accounts hacked?” Leona purrs. “Stream a video in the background with baby sound effects and convince tech support that your little sister’s crying, so you need to change your password ASAP.”
“Oooh, I should try that!”
Ville rolls her eyes. “Great. Leona just gave her an idea.”
“They use that same shit in film, don’t they?”
“Okay, sure they do, but—”
Riddle laughs, as if the Queen entertained at her court. They're so silly sometimes.
“Thank you, everyone.” she bows down. “For helping me.”
A strong hold grips her by the shoulders, standing her back up.
“Don’t even worry about it!" Azul dusts off her cardigan. "We're friends, right?"
Friends...
Whatever sense of security was shattered by her mother's voice, it comes back.
Because this time, she’s in the crowd, not outside of it.
Where she belongs.
"Yes," Riddle beams. "I suppose we are."