Expectations When Expecting

Book 3, Chapter 2

One week had passed, Yuu's day had been going pretty normally, with Crowley having stayed with her for tea and escorted her to class. She'd then been stopped by Lilia, who'd offered her some questionable looking bread that was as hard as a brick, which she accepted regardless, and had suffered through her classes in silence.

As she walked around the halls from Crowley's office (after the bird man decided to kidnap her out of the blue), quickly meeting with Deuce.

"I'm not saying that I hate the visits, but you guys seriously need to stop breaking into my house." Yuu said.

Deuce smiled awkwardly, having been discovered in the early morning, sneaking some of Yuu's hand-made orange cookies with Ace. "Sorry-"

"Hold it right there, Grim! You're not gettin' off easy today, you hear me?!" Yuu groaned internally as her young ginger friend arrived, chasing her cat.

"Maybe you shoulda put your name on it if you wanted it that bad!" Grim cackled, quickly jumping into Yuu's arms. Ace glared at Grim.

"Why, you...!" Ace grumbled, unable to do anything to Grim anymore.

"Alright..." Yuu sighed. "What is it this time?"

"Seriously, don't they ever get tired of this?" Deuce muttered, looking at Ace and Grim.

Ace looked at Yuu. "Hey! You're the prefect, so do some prefecting!" He glared at Grim, who was nestled in Yuu's arms. "This lousy furball swiped the doughnut I bought and ate it! AGAIN."

Yuu looked at the cat in her arms. "Grim? Did you steal his doughnut?" She raised an eyebrow, looking at Grim, who instantly turned his face away and closed his eyes. An attempt to avoid the mom glare that Yuu had just begun to perfect.

"I didn't steal nothin' I just saw a snack left abandoned on a desk and gave it a home outta the goodness of my heart."

Yuu sighed at her other half. "Really, Grim? Not even you believed that." She set the little monster on the ground, who immediately cowered behind her legs.

"Yeah!" Ace spat. "Plus, it's not abandoned if it's on somebody's desk! If you're gonna keep runnin', I've got some wind magic up my sleeve with your name on it." Ace went to reach for his pen, glaring down at Grim, who smirked.

Yuu's eyes widened. Dammit, not another magic fight! "Ace..." Yuu said in warning.

"Oh YEAH? Try me! I've got fire magic ready to-" Grim and Ace both seemed to freeze, something akin to a flash of realization flashing across their faces.

"Y'know what? I think I'll skip the magic today. I don't wanna get sent to wash even MORE windows." Ace said, nervously returning his magic pen back to his pocket.

The pregnant woman froze, shock painted on her features. Of all things that could have happened, Ace backing down was among the most unrealistic. She turned to look at Grim, who gave an anxious smile.

"F-for once, I think you've got the right idea... yeah," He dropped his aggressive stance, leaving Yuu floundering to understand exactly what was happening between her two hot-headed friends.

"I'd be embarassin' myself if I was the only one usin' magic, so I'll let you off easy this time." Grim chirped in an attempt to play off his anxious behavior.

"Wait..." Yuu stared blankly for a moment, eyes wide in confusion."...What just happened?"

"Huh... It's not every day I see you two de-escalate one of your fights without outside intervention." Deuce rubbed the back of his neck, visibly confused. "Normally, you go at it until the classroom's blasted to bits and the headmage comes storming in."

Yuu's eyes narrowed suspiciously at the troublemakers. "He has a point. Why are you both backing down?"

Ace chuckled nervously. "Hey, what kinda punk would I be if I started fighting with a weasel over one lousy doughnut?"

Grim paused mid-nod and glared up at Ace, yowling. "Why do you always have to get in one last smart remark?!"

Yuu looked at the troublemakers, picking up Grim.

"Calm down and let's go to class, darn it."

.

.

.

"It's time for class to start, whelps. Get to your seats." The group had barely made it in time to be dismissed to their seats by Crewel.

"First, I'll pass your tests back." The professor said, waving his hand as piles of graded tests floated out to the students, everyone seemed to hold their breath.

"This is it—the moment of truth...." Deuce muttered, nervously grabbing the test with his name as it floated by, closing his eyes as he opened the booklet to the front page and peeking with one eye.

"Gimme! Gimme! I want that test, Prof!" Grim whined, jumping up and down in a pitiable attempt to reach the floating test booklet.

Crewel rolled his eyes, seizing two of the booklets. "Settle down, Grim. Stay. STAY!" He scolded, glaring at the cat monster until he settled back down.

"SWEET! I got a 92!" Ace celebrated, pumping his fist as he caught his booklet.

Deuce let out a laugh of excited disbelief. "No way! I got an 88! I never thought I'd see the day I scored over 80."

Crewel placed Yuu's in front of her and smirked. "Good job, pup." Yuu opened the booklet, anxious to see the score.

Yuu remained staring at the score marked on the inside of her booklet; A ninety-eight. She gave a sigh of relief before laughing excitedly "Yes! That's a new record!" Yuu hadn't gotten anywhere near the nineties since her first round of high school.

Beside her, Grim tugged on her sleeve and showed off the score proudly. "Check it out, Yuu! I got an 85!" He grinned.

Yuu smiled. "Awesome! These scores are amazing!" Yuu laughed happily.

"Now I won't get held back a year!" Deuce grinned widely.

At the front of the class, Professor Crewel cracked his whip against his hand to get the attention of the boys. "You appear to have studied a great deal for this exam." He looked specifically at the two boys and the cat monster beside Yuu. "Yes... A great deal indeed, compared to your quiz scores."

Ace, Deuce and Grim all flinched. "In fact, the class average has gone up to a degree one might call...unusual."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Ace asked, almost defensive.

"The average test scores across every level of potionology are over 90." Crewel spoke, suspicious. "Professor Trein has remarked upon similarly positive trends in his magic history classes."

The boys at Yuu's side seemed speechless and nervous.

"...Say what?!" Deuce yelped.

Grim yowled, eyes wide in shock and mind terror at the mention that the scores were average.

"Oh no... I don't like where this is going..." Ace murmured, nervously clicking his pen as Yuu looked at her friends, confused.

"The school's fifty highest achievers will be posted in the hall. You can look forward to seeing that shortly. Now..." Crewel sighed, turning to the board, his fur coat ruffling with the wind from the air conditioner. "Let us begin today's lesson. Open your textbooks."