The Relationship Contract

[2] Halloween Party

- second year -

"You people have effectively ruined my favorite holiday." Agatha grumbled, glaring at him from where she was slouching against one of the outer walls of the Blue Forest. "With your idiotic balls and questionable traditions." She continued when he rose a brow and snuck a glance around the rather vacant section of the woods, leaning against the shovel he had grabbed to dig a sizable trench that he had decided to create for the 'harmless melee' that the two schools decided to host, when he deemed them alone enough. 

"I don't see how the two are related. Is there supposed to be a holiday in October? Outside of All Saints' Eve?" Tedros questioned, raising a brow in counter question towards her. He continued to look more confused when she gave him a blank look, shock settling over her body as she remained baffled at the question he just asked her. 

"You did not just ask me if there was a holiday in October." Agatha looked aghast, paling and beginning to look rather faint in Tedros's opinion.

"I didn't..." Tedros answered, hauling himself out of the trench and rubbing his hands together to try and get some of the dirt off, not that Agatha would care if he had dirt on his hands when he caught her if she fainted. "I know there's All Saints' Eve." He gave her another questionable look.

"What even is All Saints' Eve?" She asked, giving him a horrified look. "Don't tell me it's one of your religious events."

"Isn't Gavaldon extremely religious?" Tedros countered. "Like, wouldn't we be burned at the stake for kissing outside of marriage?" 

"We would've been burned at the stake for looking at each other, Tedros." Agatha rolled her eyes. 

"My point exactly." Tedros continued. "You're saying you didn't celebrate All Saints' Eve?" 

"I don't know what All Saints' Eve entails, let alone how it is celebrated." Agatha retorted, crossing her arms once more. 

"All Saint's Eve is a day where we celebrate the canon of our holy saints. We spend the first part of the day in church, then we do acts of service before looking at their history and what-not. Later on in the evening, in the School for Good at least, we throw a ball in their honor. We each dress up as our patron saint, which is the saint we are named after or blessed by at birth, and we dance and feast until two in the morning."

"Seriously?" Agatha asked with a raised brow. "That sounds beyond boring." She shuddered when Tedros nodded. "I can only begin to think of how many Mary's there are. I mean, how many of us are named after saints--sorry, canon saints."

"There are in fact, far to many Mary's." Tedros confirmed. "More of us share 'canon' names than you'd think."

"Oh, you mean to tell me Beatrix dresses up as Saint Beatrix and not some Mary?" Agatha said, wandering over to the hole and sitting on the edge. "What does she do, walk around in red and blue and swings a sword around? Beatrix? The prim and proper holding a sword?" Agatha continued, waving around a mock sword before maiming to stab him when he sat down next to her.

"Yeah?" Tedros said, grabbing her wrists and tilting his head. "Did you not see her last year?"

"I didn't go down last year." Agatha pointed out. "I was...busy." She shrugged, pulling her wrists out his hold and running her fingers over the sleeves. Tedros gave her a careful look, trying to discern what busy entailed. He eventually gave up, not wanting to argue with her about any of the possibilities, knowing far to many. At least four of them would've started some type of explosive argument about 'staying in his lane' or 'not looking too much into her past' or 'it was her body, she could do what she wanted' or something else alone those lines. Instead, he hooked his ankle around hers and laid back onto the grass with a heavy sigh. 

"Aren't you curious about who I go as?" He asked after another beat of silence. 

"Not really. I can only assume it's Michael." Agatha shrugged.

"Nope. That's Chaddick." Tedros smiled when she turned to him with a raised brow. "Any other guesses?"

"I don't know. Jesus?" She waved out her hands with an exasperated expression.

"He's not a saint...and I think that's blasphemy." 

"And dressing as saints isn't?" 

"I dunno." Tedros shrugged. "But I go as St. George, the dragon slayer." 

"Of course you do." Agatha rolled her eyes.

"What do you mean, of course I do?" Tedros asked, offended. "I didn't choose it." 

"Oh, and I'm sure the heavens opened when you were baptized and St. George, himself, claimed you." Agatha dead-panned. 

"You're no fun." He said, crossing his arms. "What boring parties does Gavaldon throw?" He sneered in return.

"I'd hardly call Halloween as boring." Agatha said. "It's a lot less Catholic for starters and a lot more Pagan. It celebrates the dead and ghouls and goblins of the night. In Gavaldon, we all dress up as different characters of our own lore in order to 'scare' or 'blend into' our mythos. Allegedly, the gate opens which is they we have all the dead and ghouls." She smiled at this, leaning down to settle her chin on his shoulder, letting him place his arm around her own shoulders. "It was my favorite holiday because it was the one time I felt like my mom and I were able to live almost normally. While people would dare each other to go into the graveyards and we would have to lock our windows, we weren't as shunned because everyone was supposed to look ugly and we didn't even need to decorate."

"But..." His voice died because he didn't want to argue and he didn't want to wipe the smile from her face. Instead, he swallow his comment about her not being ugly and let her continue.

"There were always these parties. I always wanted to go to one, to dress up and dance around and drink and be normal and I always felt that maybe one Halloween, I would be able to do that with Sophie. One Halloween, we would be able to go out and just dress up and have fun." She sighed, a small smile on her face still.

"We should do that then...when we're out of school or something. Maybe even next October." He offered, running his hand over her arm. She smiled softly once more, pressing a kiss to is lips before raising a brow and leaning away. 

"Hey Tedros?" Agatha asked after a beat.

"Hmm?" He rose a brow in return, wanting to kiss her again.

"If I do this All Saint's Eve thing this year...and I go as saint Agatha...would I have to not wear a top? Since she got...you know...sliced?" Agatha continued, lowering her voice and leaning over him once more with a smirk when his face went red. "I think I might do that, you know? As the only Agatha here, I think it'd make a great statement. I'd love to see what the teachers have to say and I can only think of the absolute chaos and--"

"Agatha?" Tedros ground out, swallowing as he gave her a look. 

"Hmm?" She tilted her head.

"If you do that, you'd be expelled." He breathed out, not even continuing about the fact he'd lose the bet instantly. 

"Watch me." Agatha said with a downright evil smirk before leaning up and walking away. "Keep digging. We're going to lose otherwise." She continued with a half-wave over her shoulder as she disappeared deeper into the forest.