Doom Valley Prep School

Naomi made a very pretty statue, with pink crystal hair, emerald green skin, sapphire eyes, and diamond nails. Her clothes had changed as well, her blouse had turned to a beautiful glittering white opal, with black pearls in place of buttons. A blue gemstone formed her pleated skirt, and her bag was red ruby. The only problem was the nervous look on her face, it wouldn't look good for a statue.

“So what will she be wearing when we do the heist?” I asked.

“This,” Ella said. “We're going to call her 'School Girl Rushing to Class'.”

“But she's wearing the Doom Valley uniform. They'll suspect something is up won't they?”

“We're going under my name, and anyone who takes a few minutes to investigate will learn that I'm a student here. So there's no reason to try to hide it.”

“Won't they immediately arrest us? We're probably going to be the number one suspect.”

“They have to have evidence. And we'll have Naomi wearing a wig and some other things making her look different. While she's a statue, we'll use an illusion spell on one of us, to make it look like she's mobile and enjoying herself. It would be better if we could have her arrive at the island anonymously, and pretend we don't know her. Unfortunately people would ask her too many questions. I can get away with arriving there with my friends via teleporting, my family does things like that all the time. But any other young woman who isn't rich and from a famous family, will be stopped at the hotel and questioned by police.”

Turning to the purple skinned Kai, I asked, “She is perfectly safe in there, right?”

Ella's brother gave me a warm smile. “Oh yeah. If something goes wrong she might be unconscious. So that's why I only gave her a few drops.  If she can't use the command word, she'll become human again in an hour or two.”

“So why hasn't she turned back yet?”

“To keep her from going nuts, she doesn't perceive time like we do. A minute to her is about an hour to us. She'll probably turn human in about fifteen minutes. That's long enough to make sure it works.” Turning away from Naomi, Kai looked at me. “Now we're going to need to deal with your RTS.”

Frowning, I thought about having to inject myself with the excruciating serum while on the island. “Yeah, I don't think Nurse Ratched will give me a bottle of the stuff and a needle.”

“Definitely not. She's a nasty one, the old nurse was a lot better with the whole bed side manners part of the job. He was tough, but fair.”

“What happened to the old one?” Ella asked.

“Nurse Ratched poisoned him. She is really good with poisons. We're pretty sure she was a member of an assassin guild before getting a job here.” His voice was full of respect as he talked.

I had to fight off a shiver as I realized I'd managed to make a potential assassin angry with me. “So what can we do about me?”

“I can whip up an elixir that will stabilize your shape a little. It's not as effective, and you build up a resistance to it fairly quickly, still it should keep you mostly stable for a week and a half. Strong emotions will cause some changes. But if you calm down for long enough and concentrate on your shape, you should return to your normal.”

“So I could end up with cat ears or something if I'm surprised?”

“That's right. Try not to get too excited or anything.”

Ella put an arm around my shoulder. “Don't worry, we'll keep you to working as a lookout. That's important and you shouldn't have any reason to get excited.”

I gave her a smile of thanks. I just knew that despite our plans, something was bound to happen and I'd end up humiliated and the centre of attention.

“Now,” Ella continued, “what's this going to cost us?”

Kai waved his hand lazily, like he was brushing away a bug. “Just another moderate favour. I'm getting extra marks for these potions as long as they work. If your heist goes well, I'll get some really nice extra credits from this.”

“GAH! That's weird!” Naomi said. Bending down to clutch her knees, she sort of twitched and jerked as her stone body turned fleshy. “I kept wanting to scratch my nose.”

Rushing over to my friend, I grabbed a nearby stool for her to sit down on. “You're OK?” I asked.

“Yeah. Just need a minute or two to remember I can move. Watching and listening to you guys was really strange. It was like you were moving at super speed.”

Grabbing her hand, Kai examined her skin, bent her fingers, and made her do a few simple movements. He nodded in apparent satisfaction as she did everything without any complaints. “It looks like the potion is a success. I'll make up a vial that will last three days. It'll be ready in a week.”

“Thanks Kai,” Ella said. “When you need to call in your favours just ask and we'll be ready to help.”

Saying good-bye we headed back to our dorm were the other girls were waiting. Not many freshmen were wandering around, it was almost lights out. The few we did pass gave us a mix of envious, jealous and angry looks. Word of our independent project had quickly spread, and a lot of our fellow students were upset that we'd pulled off another first. I'd heard a few groups were trying to come up with something they could do, so that they'd at least get some credit for being second. I hoped they wouldn't do anything stupidly dangerous.

On second thought, if Barbarina wanted to do something stupid like attack a real hydra or a great dragon, I wouldn't shed any tears. In fact I'd happily watch from a distance with a bowl of popcorn.

“How did it go?” Clarice asked as we entered our room.

“Perfectly. And we're getting an elixir that will help keep Petra mostly in her current shape,” Ella said.

Calci and Clarice both cheered.

“So we have the plan all ready. When we leave, the school will give us the bag of holding, and a teleportation charm. They've got the papers prepared and after I give them the final plan tomorrow they'll make sure our statue is in the contest. I just need to talk to my mother, and she'll have the caretakers prepare the family beach house for us,” my roommate said.

“Wait you have a beach house there? Why didn't you tell us?” Calci asked.

“Because I didn't know about it until I talked to mother the other day. Daddy has property all over the world, we have an entire department just keeping track of it all. And this is one of the smaller ones. So I'm not sure if it will be very nice.”

“Even if it's not a great, having a beach house all for us, will make pulling the heist easier. We won't have to worry about hotel staff, and there will be more places to hide our stuff.”

Naomi jumped onto my bed. “OK, we have a plan, it will work. We have a lot of stuff we prepared for Petra's detention to help us if things go bad. Now time to talk about the important stuff. What are we going to wear? I've got a pretty basic one piece bathing suit, but it's really only for swimming laps, not the beach. And I don't think my nice clothes would really fit a formal art show.”

“I've got a really nice red bikini for the beach. I'm sure Gold will love it,” Clarice said. “And I have a fancy blue dress for any special events. But that's about it.”

Calci played with her hands. “I don't really have anything except my school uniforms and work clothes.  I'm still too young to get anything fancy.”

“I'd offer you some of my clothes,” Naomi said, “but nothing I have will fit you except some hair pieces.”

“I don't have anything, except the pants I got last month. And I don't have a bathing suit,” I said.

“Well,” Ella said, “there's only one way we can solve this problem. We have several hundred gold pieces from the school to spend on supplies, and we'll need the proper clothes to fit in. So I think this calls for a shopping spree.”

As the girls cheered, my stomach dropped all the way to my feet. I knew things had been going too well.