the one & only { w e n d y }

“Do you reckon?” Tomie asked. She smiled, amused, but it was kind of funny because Keeya was definitely too white for her to dress up as for Halloween. Vera was sort of vaguely brown, though. Tomie hoped she had a better outfit in her spinoff comic. The door opened and she leaned forward to see past Wendy, wondering who’d be coming into her dorm.

“Hey Shelbs,” she said, smiling, but a little puzzled too. She hadn’t expected Shelby back so soon; they’d only just started reading the comic. Tomie took a sip of her pineapple juice through the thin plastic straw. “Yeah,” she said, glancing at Wendy first, then at Shelby with an easy smile. “Do you wanna come up here?” she asked. If they squished a bit then they could all fit. Tomie remembered thinking that she’d rather sleep in the Ravenclaw girl’s dorms with these two than in her own one, but for some reason thinking it now made her feel a bit weird. Whatever.

Tomie felt a touch apprehensive for a moment, remembering how Shelby had disliked the way she’d sided with Hazel that one time, and the conversation they’d had after. But this wasn’t like that; Shelby and Wendy were friends, or friendly at least. And no one was making fun of anyone.

Wendy waved at her and asked how science was, and Shelby made a face. "Not good. It was a creature dissection." She didn't really want to say anything else on that. The wave and cheer with which Wendy greeted her did make Shelby feel better already, though.

"Oh!" Shelby had seen some of the comics over the last few nights, chatting with Tomie until lights out, but she wasn't caught up yet, for sure. She was liking it, though. Not as much as Tomie and Wendy did, but she liked it! It was important that she like it a least a little, for some reason. Snacks sounded good, though. So did joining both of her friends on the top bunk - she might hit her head, but it seemed more fun than her previous plan of lying in bed, thinking about the dead pygmy puffs, and generally make herself miserable. But her teeth felt very bad and gross.  "In a second? I gotta brush my teeth."

She scurried to the washroom and brushed with all the speed she could, scrubbing her tongue a couple of times for good measure. Shelby gave the girls a thumbs up when she got back - hopefully she didn't smell weird. Climbing up, she squeezed in next to Tomie, grabbing a juice box on her way up. She felt dehydrated. "What's happening in this issue?" she asked realizing that she was sitting on Tomie's bunk with outside clothes. Maybe she should climb down and change.

Wendy nodded in agreement, thinking of what other characters appeared in the comic book and how every member of their friends’ group could dress up as one. They’d probably have to do a little catching up on the comic though, the witch knew that Benny read comics with Tomie as well, mostly the horror ones, but wasn’t really sure the thing that connected Tomie with their other mutual friends.

When Shelby mentioned creature dissection, Wendy made a face, wrinkling her nose before she let out a sound of disgust, her facial expression making it obvious that she was very displeased with the topic choice. “I’m sorry, that sounds awful,” she added sympathetically, internally grateful that she had decided to spend the more with Tomie in lieu of science class. “Okay! I’ve got juice boxes, too, if you want some?” she offered as well, resting the comic on her lap as she dug through her bag to pull out two more boxes, one grape flavored and the other apple. Wendy had always been the sort to overpack everything, after all, she believed that one never knew what kind of situation they’d find themselves in. And in this case, it had worked out as she would have felt terrible if she didn’t have enough to share with Shelby, too.

She moved over closer to the foot of the bed to give Shelby space when the fellow Ravenclaw had returned, “I’ll let Tomie tell you, I’m too distraught,” Wendy said dramatically, as she brought a hand up to her chest and pretended to fake cry. “But it’s so good!” she added. It was, a little drama and sadness was always alright as long as there was a happy ending. Wendy was still holding on to the hope that there would be.

She had to brush her teeth? Weird, but okay. “Sure thing,” Tomie called as she turned away from the bed. Creature dissection actually sounded pretty cool to Tomie, and a part of her was maybe regretting that she hadn’t looked further into “science” to find out that that was a thing. Maybe she could have done it with Benny; they’d both be grossed out and impressed by all the guts or brains or whatever. Tomie was pretty good with gore. Theoretically, anyway.

Tomie shifted a bit so that the others could sit on either side of her. Her arms were brushing theirs on both sides now, which was… fine. She felt a little claustrophobic, but didn’t let it show. She flicked a bit of hair – not hers – off of her shoulder with an easy smile. She chuckled a bit at Wendy’s dramatics and shook her head.

“Soooo…” Tomie held her juice box between two hands, stretching her legs out to touch the rail on the other side. “Keeya Lime is basically out here tryna’ sacrifice herself for Mikky and the ice cave people,” Tomie said to Shelby, “Because Mikky’s injured, so he can’t take on the ice witch? Buuuut I think she’ll be okay.” She gave Wendy a little smirk, bumping the other girl’s arm lightly before glancing back at Shelby. “And she’s just levelled up, look, new stage transformation and everything.”

Tomie took the comic from Wendy gently and flicked back a page to show Shelby Keeya Lime’s new transformation outfit. “Pretty cool,” she added, not inflecting like it was a question but expecting agreement from Shelby anyway.

Juice! Shelby took the apple juice box from Wendy gratefully, flashing the other Ravenclaw a little smile. "Thanks, Wendy." Briefly she wondered if Wendy was weirded out that Shelby hadn't asked to room with her instead of Tomie - after all, they had lived together already for like, nine? months? Nearly ten, by her reckoning. Maybe she should have asked Wendy first. But It would be weird to bring up now. Shelby already kind of knew she had been Tomie's second choice. Too bad boys and girls couldn't room together. Seemed like a dumb rule, to her.

It wasn't that she didn't like Wendy! Shelby really did like Wendy Willbond. It was just... weird, to see her outside of a Ravenclaw context, hanging out with Tomie.

Don't make it weird, Shelby, she thought to herself.

Both of them had shoved over to make room for her, but Shelby still felt like an ungainly giant, having to duck her head to keep from hitting the ceiling. This may have been a mistake. Her bare arm was pressed up against Tomie's, and the girl was suddenly hyper-aware of all the bumps on her skin and all the sweat. She nodded, only a little confused. "I don't think we got that far, yet," she said, "but that makes sense." There had been some moments in the comics she had read, foreshadowing that Keeya might not make it to the end of the arc.

Tomie pulled toward her, spreading the pages out in front of her. Shelby. She drew a breath. "Woah." Was that a ... gap in her costume? Above her chest? It wasn't very practical - Shelby's gaze kept going back to it, trying to understand the point. "That one is really cool." The girl on the page shimmered, petals falling around her as Keeya smiled. "Does she fight the ice witch in this one, or the next one?" Shelby glanced over at Wendy, who was being a little dramatic about it all, and giggled.

“But Mikky and Vera are still my favorites,” she pointed out, even though it really had little to do with what was going on in this issue of Mikky Blue. Tomie and Wendy had been talking about it earlier anyway so it felt like something that she needed to bring up, maybe Shelby would choose a side, too. “Yeah, I think she’ll be just fine as well,” she agreed with Tomie, smiling a little as she felt her friend’s arm bump lightly into hers, almost as if she was trying to reassure her or cheer her up. “Maybe she’ll unlock some new powers, too?” she wondered out loud, excited about the prospect of learning more about the characters as she continued reading. Even though she wasn’t completely over the moon about the plans for the spin-off, Wendy felt a little piece of her heartbreak as she went through each page. One less page to read, one step closer to the end. It all felt so tragic.

“Oh are you two reading it together as well?” Wendy asked, a little confused by Shelby’s comment. It made sense that Tomie and Shelby would read the comic together, that seemed like something roommates would do the same way she often tried to talk to Shelby about the novels she had been reading. However, Wendy wasn’t really sure how to feel about it. Mikky Blue felt a little more like their thing, she figured Shelby and Tomie would bond over something else. It didn’t matter, Shelby was cool too and they had been roommates all year.

“I hope it's in this one!” Wendy announced, “I’m not a big fan of the fighting scenes but this one feels a little romantic so I’m excited to read,” she continued, reaching into her bag before pulling out a few individually wrapped chocolates. “Do you mind if we eat up here, Tomie?” she turned to her friend, extending her hand to reveal heart-shaped chocolates in red and pink wrapping paper. They had caramel inside and were quite good, she figured Shelby and Tomie might be interested as they continued looking.

Maybe she’ll unlock some new powers, too.

“Hopefully,” Tomie said, nodding. She loved the levelling up stuff – it was one of her favourite parts of the comics. Mikky had gotten pretty powerful at the end of the last arc, but then all the stuff with the storm god had happened and he’d ended up stripped of his powers again. Now he’d regained some of it, but there was a little way to go. Tomie thought that that was why they were splitting the series; she suspected that they were going to reboot the series totally, since they couldn’t just keep stripping him of his powers totally and restarting the whole thing over and over. It’d be boring. That was why Vera had her own comic now.

“Oh, I only showed Shelby here,” she told Wendy, “at camp.” She and Wendy had been reading Mikky Blue together for a few months, but she and Benny had been reading it together, like forever. Tomie had literally every issue at home; it was the biggest perk of her parents workplace. “I thought you hated Mikky and Keeya together,” she teased. Tomie smiled when Shelby giggled, then nodded. “We don’t know yet,” she said to Shelby, feeling a bit caught in the middle as she turned the page. “We’re only just up to here – this one’s a new issue.”

“Yeah, go for it,” Tomie said casually, as if the idea of eating food in her bed, in outside clothes, didn’t make her skin crawl.

“Oh are you two reading it together as well?”

"Just a few issues," Shelby said, in a rush, on top of Tomie saying the same thing, feeling like she was covering up a crime. "Just since camp - I saw some and I was just curious." She felt bad, now - Shelby hadn't gotten nearly into Wendy's romance novels, but she just was not interested in romance! She wasn't even that into fiction! She liked books about real things and how to do things, like a proper loser. Maybe she should give the romance novels another shot next year, if Wendy hadn't been completely put off by her reluctance this past year.

She looked back and forth at her friends as they talked about the comic - the powers, the romance. She had enough knowledge of the general comic lore to follow, but she wasn't invested like Tomie and Wendy were. Maybe she should get invested in something like this. Something less weird and nerdy.

Wendy brought out chocolates, asked if they could eat up here. Tomie was playing it cool, but Shelby blanched. "Uh, what if we move to my bunk?" Shelby said, shifting forward to the ladder as she said so. "Just because, um," she pointed at the ceiling, and straightened up her back to demonstrated the problem. "There's a little more room?"

"That's great, now we can all talk about the spinoff series together," Wendy said enthusiastically. She liked the idea of having a whole book discussion about the series, especially if it meant that she would feel more of a part of the group. Wendy had connected with individual members of their friends group over a variety of reasons but knew that hanging out all together was probably preferable to just hanging out one on one. On the other hand, Wendy had been thrilled when Tomie and her had bonded over this one thing and felt a little hesitant to share the time she spent with her friend with someone else. But Shelby was also a friend and the two were close too, they had been roommates all year after all. It was all a little confusing for Wendy but she felt like it wasn't the time to bring it up.

"I love all the characters but I guess I can be a little biased sometimes," she responded with a smile. At least that statement also applied to how she felt about her friends. She cared for the all dearly but there were times when she wanted to be closer to one friend over the other. Everyone seemed to have their own friend, was Shelby now Tomie's favorite? It was starting to make her feel confused and a little jealous. When Tomie said that she was okay with the snacks, she moved to her bag, only stopping when she heard Shelby's suggestion.

Had she missed something? "Oh--" she said, looking at both girls with slight confusion before she nodded, putting the chocolates back into her bag. "Yeah that's probably better, good idea, Shelby."

“Book club?” Tomie asked, tilting her head to the side at Wendy’s suggestion. She wasn’t opposed to the idea of reading together – though she had been sort of expecting that to be a Wendy-and-Tomie thing (though that thought was pretty hypocritical, since she’d probably read it first with Benny anyway) – but a book club made it sound kinda lame.

Wendy gave her a confused look, so Tomie glanced at Shelby on her other side, giving her other Ravenclaw friend a confused look too. She was fine up here; if someone was going to get food in their bed, it might as well be Tomie. But Shelby was already moving to the ladder, and she was the tallest one here, so the Gryffindor girl followed her friend off of the bed.

She jumped from the second rung, landing lightly on the floor. Instinctively, she checked to see that Wendy got down okay, which was... kinda dumb. So she hesitated for only a moment more, then reached up and grabbed a couple of things from her bed – the juicebox she’d left leaning on her pillow that had almost been knocked over, for one – before sliding into Shelby’s bunk.

It wasn’t much roomier, but whatever. She got settled in, flipping the page to the part that they’d been reading. She’d kind of anticipated that the girls would sit on either side of her – she usually found herself in the middle of group things, whether she put herself there, or other people congregated more or less evenly on each side of her – but for some reason she was more aware of it this morning.

She flipped the page. “Look at that look she’s giving him,” Tomie teased, nudging Wendy with her elbow, a grin on her face as she glanced at the blonde’s expression.

Tomie seemed unimpressed with Wendy's suggestion of a book club, but Shelby thought that sounded kind of nice. Then they would all be reading the comic, and she wouldn't be the odd one out. Shelby knew that she had good friends here, but she was so afraid of being shut out. For no reason! Tomie had never pushed her away -

- well, there was that time in line for the Sorting, when Tomie seemed to forget that she existed -

but that was nearly a year ago! And Tomie had chosen to room with her! So she shouldn't be scared anymore, right?

Right?

Wendy and Tomie had seem weirded out by her request to move down to the other bunk, but Shelby had already said it and it would be weird to take it back now. She slid down the ladder, setting up on the far end of her bunk, near the pillows. If they were gonna eat in bed, it should be Shelby's - she was setting out her laundry tomorrow, anyway. Plus, it was more comfortable for her down here! She could straighten her spine a whole centimeter. "Sorry," she mumbled, but she was grateful for the extra room, and Tomie would probably appreciate not having food crumbs on her sheets. Maybe.

Shelby reached for one of the chocolate, glancing at the page Tomie was showing off now. What look? She couldn't see it. What was she missing? Shelby chewed her chocolate thoughtfully, trying to figure it out. It looked like how Dad looked at Mum, kind of? Shelby couldn't imagine looking at any boy like that. Or being looked at like that.

Wendy hadn’t thought of the word book club per say, more of a gathering of friends reading and discussing their favorite stories but now that she considered it, that was exactly what a book club was and Tomie didn’t seem particularly excited about it. Then again, maybe Tomie didn’t really like the idea of the comic passing through a bunch of hands to begin with. Wendy was pretty protective of her book as well, so that didn’t come as a surprise. But Wendy didn’t think much of it, she wasn’t opposed to it being a Wendy and Tomie thing. Not that she didn’t like Shelby but even on Tomie’s bed, three people seemed one person too many.

The blond followed her friends down the bunk, making sure to grab all of her things and checking that she hadn’t made a mess before slowly making her way down the ladder. When Shelby went to sit down in the far corner, Wendy considered how she might have preferred sitting in the middle so that she could have Tomie on the other side all to herself but that didn’t really seem very nice. And of course, Tomie had gotten down first so it didn’t make sense to expect them to sit in that manner.

“It’s okay, Shelby, the ceiling is kind of low, isn’t it?” Wendy suggested. She wasn’t nearly as tall as Shelby was, Wendy didn’t know anyone their age that was, but she also didn’t want her feeling uncomfortable. Wendy didn’t want to read too much into it, they were just having fun, after all.

Wendy leaned closer to Tomie, almost resting her head against the girl’s shoulder as she looked at the picture, smiling when Tomie nudged her. She sighed dramatically, “Shelby, who’s your favorite pairing? Because Mikky and Vera are the best, and I don’t like the way he’s looking at Keeya right now—ugh, are all boys like this?” she complained lightly.

The girls got settled in beside each other. “Yeah, no worries,” Tomie said after Wendy spoke, a little unsure about what Shelby was apologising for. Tomie gave Wendy a little smirk as the blonde leaned in, super close, to look at the comic. She felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end as Wendy’s hair tickled her shoulder, and then she decided to look at the comic, too, so she’d stop looking at the little details of her friend’s face that she didn’t usually see. They were never this close; Tomie couldn’t stop being aware of it.

She smirked again at Wendy’s words, though, and glanced at Shelby for her answer. “Vera’s the one trapped in the other dimension,” she reminded the taller girl helpfully, in case Shelby had forgotten. Tomie couldn’t remember which parts she’d read with who at this point, but she didn’t want Shelby to feel too left out. “Are all boys like what?” she asked, nudging her again.

Wendy was covering for her, but it was obvious to Shelby that she wasn't fooling anyone with regard to the height problem. She was just a gangly tall monster person and doomed to never fit on a bunk bed again. She wanted to still be small and cute, like Wendy, but that ship had sailed without asking Shelby if she wanted to go sailing at all.

She was feeling uncomfortable - maybe she should go back outside. There was still an hour to her next class but it was getting a little claustrophobic on the bed. And it was a little hard to see the pages through everyone's hair. And Tomie was - Tomie was focused on Wendy and the comic right now, and sharing a comic wasn't really a two-person activity.

"Vera, other dimension, right," Shelby repeated, grateful for the recap. They hadn't gotten this far yet. Favourite pairing? "I like Mikky and Vera too," Shelby said after a moment, "but I think Vera could do better than Mikky, probably." She looked closer, trying to see whatever Wendy saw in Mikky's eyes. "Boys aren't inherently gross, I think," she said, deciding that gross was what this meant. "But they seem to get gross when they get older? To girls?" Shelby made a face. She was also getting gross, as she got older, so that was relatable.

“Because you know, Vera’s trapped in another dimension, and Mikky and Vera belong together,” she emphasized. Wendy was sensitive about the romantic balance in the novels (not surprising in the least!) and the love triangles or squares or fancy shapes that were made when characters liked more than the one Wendy had assigned them in her head, things got confusing. She couldn’t decide who she liked more, Mikky and Vera or Mikky and Keeya, but felt more strongly that Mikky needed to get his priorities sorted out.

“He’s the hero, though,” she explained, though it wasn’t really a justification as to why they were her favorite couple. In the blond’s mind, it followed the natural order of things: the main character go together, and the subordinate characters somehow found their way on the sidelines. Wendy thought of Shelby and Tomie that way too, heroines in their story, whereas Wendy herself was more of a secondary character watching it all unfold in the sidelines. But Wendy was perfectly content to do so; she never did like the attention and certainly didn’t want boys to look at her in any way.

“Yuck,” she made a face, wrinkling her nose at Shelby’s words, “Love princes and heroes, do not like any of the second year boys like that. One of my cousins, she had her first boyfriend at twelve!” she exclaimed, sounding very appalled, not in any way like how she sounded when she daydreamed about princes and chivalry and courtly romance.