Melody's Whispers (discontinued for a rewrite)

Ridiculous Sport and Knots

"come on Mel, you'll be late!" Ma banged on my door. I pulled my blankets up over my head with a groan. I wasn't gonna go anywhere, let alone school. "Mel, you've already taken a week off, you can't hide behind a headache forever!" I couldn't face her. Not after Grom Night. I knew she liked me but something in the back of my mind made it near impossible to face her... and I hadn't spoken to Ma yet and... agh. "Whatever kid, but you're going to school tomorrow whether you like it or not."

I dragged myself down stairs, I hadn't brushed my hair in days... I don't think I'd bathed in days.
"Well, you look like crap." I glanced over at Ma sitting with King. She was in her old high school Grudgby uniform. She had an old scrapbook of photos out.
"I'm barely sleeping, nightmares are becoming more frequent. And my knuckles hurt." I groaned. "I feel like crap." I dragged myself to the kitchen to fix myself some hot tea. Ma leant in the doorway with an elixir in hand, I barely caught it as she tossed it at me. Looking between the bottle and my mug, I shrugged my shoulders. Call it an intrusive thought... Ma watched concerned as I dumped the whole bottle into my mug.
"You worry me, child." I threw the whole hot tea/elixir concoction down my throat.
"yeah... that really wasn't good..." I groaned.
"Hoot, Hoot! Guess who found a special friend in the forest! It was me! Hoot!" we watched Hooty dump Aunt Lilith on the floor in our living room. Had he completely lost his mind? Not like she was out to arrest us and I felt practically useless."
"Lilith." Ma snarled.
"Edalyn." Lilith returned
"HOOTY!" We all raised an eyebrow at Hooty before Ma told him to scram. "OKAY!"
"Why are you in your old uniform?" Aunt Lilith mocked.
"No reason. It's laundry day," Ma defended crossing her arms over her chest. "What are you doing here?" Aunt Lilith summoned a long scroll, I'm assuming with our arrest warrant. She cleared her throat.
"Edalyn Clawthorne, Melody Clawthorne, you are both hereby under arrest by the order of the Emperor of the Boiling Isles-." Ma drew her circle snapping the roll back up, hitting her sister in the face. "Come on, I have to bring you in!" She growled stamping her foot like a child. "It's time for you to join the coven! The Emperor has big plans for the Isles and he wants you to be a part of it."
"Ooh, ah, what an incredible opportunity for me." Ma said sarcastically. Picking up her old scrapbook of grudgby photos.
"what are you even looking at?" Aunt Lilith snatched the book from Ma's hands and flipped through the pages. "Grudgby pictures? Feeling sentimental?" Ma scoffed at the notion.
"Never! I was just telling King how good I was!"
"Oh Edalyn, not only is the curse affecting your hair, but your memory as well." Aunt Lilith took an old folded photo of Ma with a trophy to reveal Aunt Lilith standing beside her with a MUCH larger trophy. Turns out... though Ma was the star player, Aunt Lilith was the captain. They made a deal Ma would come peacefully to the coven if Aunt Lilith beat her in a game of one on one Grudgby.
"Don't drag me into this mess," I yawned. "I didn't agree to these terms. It's a ridiculous sport."

"Come on, Mel, let's play. One on two!" I raised my eyebrow at Ma.
"no." She tried to argue with me. "You scared you can't beat Aunt Lilith by yourself?" I taunted, blowing on a new mug of hot tea. Weaponising Ma's pride is a very good way to get out of things from time to time. Aunt Lilith snickered behind her sister. "Don't get high and mighty. I'd love the chance to shut your prissy little mouth," I growled. "But my head hurts too much to even bother. Why are you making me watch?"
"someone has to make sure Edalyn doesn't cheat." I raised my eyebrow at Aunt Lilith, she was acting like a child who wanted to ensure her sibling was playing fair... knowing full well there was very slim chance of it happening
"and you think that person should be me?" She hadn't thought that one through.

I didn't pay any particular attention to them playing, rather just scrolling on Penstagram. Every so often I would open my messages and go to message Em privately... I'd get half way through a sentence and delete it. What was meant to say? 'Hey I like you, wanna date me?' That's a stupid thing to ask, at least over a message, it was something I had to say in person. But... I didn't even know where to start. I looked up as Aunt Lilith taunted Ma. They were at a tie. Ma looked beat. Honestly Aunt Lilith didn't look much better. The two squared up. How these two were playing in heels of all things was beyond me. Hooty blew his whistle to start the final play. Now I should mention he had been interfering with the game all afternoon. Being a hinderance to both Ma and Aunt Lilith. Ma took the ball faster than her sister could and booked it to the other side of the makeshift field. Using Hooty's face to launch herself into the air and make her final score. The fastest play that had been made all afternoon. King in his little cheerleader outfit- sorry no 'intimidation armour' cheered for Eda. Winner, six points to five.
"YES! Still got it!" Ma cheered. "Still got the skills to pay the bills."
"NO! NO!" Aunt Lilith hit her fists on the ground like a child having a tantrum. "I can't go back to the Emperor empty-handed." Ma sighed and gave Aunt Lilith her ring. Telling her to tell the Emperor she had put up a good fight. "I will be back for you. Both of you. And next time... I won't be alone."
"Yeah. I'll be waiting." We watched Aunt Lilith leave. Ma turned to me and held out her hand to help me up off the ground. "Let's get you inside, I'll tackle that mess you call hair."

Ma brushed at my knots. She wasn't particularly gentle about it either, I just knew not to complain, she'd just tell me it was my own fault she had to do it.
"you need to take a shower after I do this, got it? Your hair is disgusting, Melody." I turned my eyes down to look at my hands. "You okay? You've been particularly quiet all week. Did something happen at Grom?" I shrugged my shoulders.
"I don't really wanna talk about it... but truely, on side of everything else, it's only a minor thing. I've had nightmares all week... so I'm not sleeping and my joints hurt like hell. Is it a cures thing or?"
"I dunno, Kid." Ma said yanking the brush through my hair. "The nightmares sound about right, but you also don't turn into an owl beast like I do. You can pull off body parts like me, but I've never had aching joints... not from early stages of the curse at least. Ha, mine are from being in my forties and running around after three kids." We sat quiet for a bit. "What's the deal with you and the Blight kid?" I instantly felt my face go red.
"Nothing. It's really nothing, Ma." She rolled her eyes at me but didn't press it.
"If these nightmares continue, you know where to find me. I get it, you're growing up... but I don't want you to feel alone in this, okay? I know how it feels to be alone in this." I nodded as Ma ran her fingers through my hair. "I think that's the best it's gonna get... without ripping all of it out." She handed me the brush with the large clump of red hair on it. "It's a wonder you're not bald."
"I'm pretty sure I get it from you."

I took myself upstairs to shower and wash my hair. I dreaded going to school in the morning. Knowing I'd have to do something.
"I'm home!" I heard Luz call out from downstairs. I dried off and tied my hair back out of my face. Luz, Willow and Gus laughed together telling Ma and King about their day. The current captain of Hexside's Grudgby team had been picking on them so Luz challenged her to a game... and some how won. But didn't win coz of some rusty beetle or whatever. I'm not a sports witch.
"I'm gonna make some tea, anyone want some?" Everyone followed me inside. Whilst prepping, Amity showed up her ankle bandaged. She'd hurt it playing with Luz. I sat quietly in the lounge, just sorta being there. Not interacting at all. Just a presence.

I cleaned up everyone's stuff and started dishes alone, Amity hobbled into the kitchen with me, not followed.
"Ed and Em are worried about you." She told me. "They want to know when. You'll be back at school." I lowered my head, continuing my washing up. "You gotta work with me here, Mel. They know I'm here. They're gonna ask me."
"I don't know, Amity. I'm sorry. I haven't been having a good time of it lately. I kinda have a thing... it's been affecting my day to day life..." I yawned and cracked my neck.
"you need to message the, at least. They can help make sure you don't fall behind in half your classes at least."
"Yeah, Amity... I'll do that." Amity was satisfied with that, or maybe she figured she wasn't gonna get anything else from me. I sighed down at the sink full of dishes. I dreaded the next day.