Luck Has A Balance

"Call me Cater." Cater said to them striking another pose with three fingers much to Lotus's confusion, "Cay is fine too. Nice to meetcha'!"

"This guy is carefree." Lotus noted in acknowledgement.

"Nice to meet you too." Yuu responded with a smile while elbowing Lotus quietly.

"Ah, you're the supervisor from Ramshackle Dorm I heard about." Cater said with a smiled, "Good on you, living in a place like that. It's super dark and you can't get a good Magicame in there. You have my sympathy."

"This guy is running his mouth." Grim said with a frown as he folded his arms together.

Suddenly, Carter looked up at the bush in shock as he cried out, "Ah, I don't have any time for small talk! The party is in two days! I don't want to lose my head for being late."

"Hey, you guys." Carter called out to them as he climbed up the ladder, "will you help me with painting the roses?"

"But, why are you doing something so weird?" Ace questioned curiously.

"It can't be because that Riddle likes the color red, right?" Lotus questioned in thought, "If not, then..."

Carter hummed in thought before he shrugged, "I don't know about that, but red roses at a party are the most photogenic! I guess...? I've also got to change the flamingos' color for the croquet match, so I'm busy with all this work."

"You're changing flamingos' colors?! Your chores are so weird." Grim said in bewilderment.

"So the tart that Ace ate was going to be used for the dorm leader's birthday party." Deuce concluded, "That's why he was so mad."

"Nope?" Carter shook his head when he heard this, "That's not it."

"It's not?!" Ace cried out in bewilderment, "Then who's birthday is it?!"

"It's not anyone's birthday." Carter answered with a smile, "The day after tomorrow is our dorm's traditional 'Unbirthday Party'. The dorm leader chooses a random day that isn't anyone's birthday and we have a tea party."

"The heck is that?!" Ace said in bewilderment.

Cater smiled and said, "Later. Worry about the reason later! All you have to do is make the roses red! Deuce, Grim, you two can do it with magic. And um..."

He turned to Lotus in confusion, "Oh, right! You didn't tell me your name earlier. Lotus, was it?"

Lotus smirked, "That's right. I'm Lotus Xue. A resident alongside our supervisor at Ramshackle dorm. Like our supervisor, I can't use magic either. Then, I'm guessing you're gonna have me use the paint directly?"

"That's right." Cater smiled, "Ace and Supervisor, since you can't use magic, here's some paint too."

"We can change the color with magic?!" Deuce exclaimed in shock.

"I've never done anything like that." Grim stated bluntly.

"Okay, it's fine." Cater smiled, "Just relax! We'll figure it out! We better hurry if we don't want to lose our heads to the dorm leader?"

With that, he handed them the bucket of paint, but, when he turned to her, he was surprised to find her gone, "Wha-?! Where did she?!"

Yuu looked around to find that the girl had gone missing to which Lotus smirked as she actually was standing right next to him the entire time without moving an inch.

Ask her to do work while the other runs? Does he seriously take her for a naive child? Hah!

Yuu raised a brow, "Looks like she ran off again. She's pretty fast."

"What about us?!" Grim whined as he heard this.

However, the cat was dragged away by Ace as he was also unwilling to be the only one to do this stuff.

Half an hour later, the group were still at work as Lotus stood next to carter who was also busy painting. She smirked and asked, "So why does the roses have to be painted red?"

"Wah!!!" Carter stammered in bewilderment as he turned around to see nothing, "Was that Lotus just now?"

"Yeah, about him." Ace grumbled as he continued to paint the roses red, "The guy said he has a weak presence and nobody notices him too often, even if they can hear him."

"Um..." Carter wore a small nervous smile, "Isn't that just an ability then? Maybe he does have magic?"

"He doesn't." Ace responded insistently.

"Red, red, red... There!" Deuce used his magic pen with a flick and jolted when he saw the blue color rose, "Gah! It turned blue..."

"Change that color!" Grim growled and aimed for one of the flowers on the bush only to burn it with blue flames, "Gahh! The roses are on fire!"

Carter sighed with an exasperated smile and folded his arms over his chest, "You guys are really more terrible at this than I could've imagined."

"Aren't the roses fine being white?" Ace pointed out irritatingly, "They're pretty."

"This is our tradition." Carter replied smoothly, "Roses are red for the Unbirthday Party. And, we use flamingos in seven different colors for croquet and hedgehogs for the balls. But, y'know, the spring garden concert of the flowers uses white flowers. That's an important point, too."

"Those are all strange rules." Grim noted as he folded his arms.

With a sigh, Lotus took a bucket and brush as she began carefully paint the roses red. If it's something that they have to do, it might be interesting to see what would happen if she takes part in it, after all.

"They say these rules were all decided by the Queen of Hearts from the Great Seven." Carter explained, "Riddle is particularly passionate about following the rules even compared to other strict dorm leaders. I won't deny he goes too far sometimes, though..."

"That's right." Ace's eyes widen upon realization, "I don't have time for this. I want to speak with the dorm leader, is he inside?"

"Hm?" Carter looked up curiously, "I think there's still time before he leaves..."

Recalling the situation, Carter asked, "By the way, Ace the tart thief, did you bring a tart of apology?"

"Ah?" Ace raised a brow and scratched the back of his sore neck, "No, I came first thing, so I'm empty handed."

"Ah, no..." Carter cried out in disappointment, "That so..."

"It'd be a good idea to bring one to replace the once Ace ate..." Lotus said with a wide smirk, "But, I guess a 'tart of apology' isn't something we make if we're really sorry, huh?"

"Nah." Carter sighed shaking his head nervously not being able to see her, "Since you're going against the laws of the Queen of Hearts, Number 53: 'One must always return what they stole', I can't let you in the dorm."

"Hah?!" Ace stared at Carter in disbelief, "The hell is that?!"

"I'll lose my head too if I knowingly let you in while you're not obeying the rules." Carter pointed out his own powerlessness plainly to them with a smile on his face, I feel bad but you need to leave before Riddle notices."

Seeing the unsmiling eyes on the young man's smiling face, Ace and Deuce jumped in bewilderment when they heard this. Ace muttered in shock, "Woah, his face got serious! Guys, help me out!"

"Why me?!" Deuce pointed out in bewilderment.

"Please!" Ace begged, "I can't use magic right now!"

There were some movements as Ace trembled with wide fearful eyes, "Wah... here he comes!"

From the corner of her eyes, she could see the guy chanting something and the guys began fighting the air. Lotus raised a brow and watched the three fight the empty air with a smirk as she painted. Finally, another half hour had passed and they were nearing close to the start of class when Carter jumped into the fray of a worn-out group of three. Yuu was without magic and didn't jump into help as he knew it was hopeless. How silly of them.

Having already finished two bushes, Lotus got down from the ladder and approached the group that were then dragged by Carter to the entrance. As Lotus followed suit without her abilities and a wide smile on her face, Carter was a little unsettled by her sudden appearance as she spoke, "I only finished two of the bushes just now. It wasn't much. Sorry, I was a bit slow."

"No problem, no problem." Carter responded with a smile.

"Then, I'll go with them to figure out the tart problem now."

"Oh!" He nodded with an easy smile seeing that she was at least easier to talk reason with then the collared freshman.

He plopped the two boys and a cat next to the maze entrance and said with a wave and a smile, "Now, go get a tart and try again! Bye-bye."

After he pushed the three out of the maze, a bewildered Yuu and a smiling Lotus walked back out the mirror calmly.

With the upperclassman gone, Ace scowled, "What's his problem?!"

"No matter how many times we took his down, he kept coming back." Deuce stated, "I wonder if he was using illusion magic?"

"On top of that, we get turned away at the gates for a tart? But, we didn't have anything to begin with." Ace pointed out with a scowl, "He just wanted us to paint the damn roses!"

"He's a shrewd one..." Grim stated with a discontent look on his face.

"Then, we can just bring a tart and try again." Deuce responded, "We can go after-"

"We have class in less than ten minutes." Lotus pointed out with a feigned sigh of exasperation.

"What?!" Yuu's eyes widen in bewilderment.

"Ugh, crap! This is bad, then the warning bell already rang! We're gonna be late!" Deuce shouted in bewilderment.

"Fgna!" Grim cried in panic and pushed his 'henchman' forward, "My shiny school life is going to be tarnished on day one! Let's get a move on!"

"What class are you three in?" Ace questioned in confusion, "You're first years, right?"

"The headmaster told us class 1-A!"

Lotus nodded in agreement, "They're in the same class as us."

Deuce sighed in relief, "Wow, we're in the same class! First period is potions."

Grim cheered with a wide smile, "Woohoo! Sounds like fun!"

"I can't use magic, so I wonder how this will go..." Ace groaned.

Lotus smiled, "It'll probably just be for one day. Better than two consecutive days."

"I guess..." Ace groaned as they rushed to their first class.

Classes that day was rather simple. After learning of the layout of the classrooms the day before, they were now going through the professor's introduction a second time as there were some changes in some of the students' schedules causing them to switch classes.

The first period was Potions with Professor Divus Crewel, who seemed to be fascinated with the color of some of the students' hair on day one when he noted it aloud in class and referred to his students as puppies. When Lotus saw him the first thing she could think about was the black and white scheme of his clothes and fancy fur coat. Perhaps he is a fanatic with fur in general?

The first day was class was potions and they had to memorize a few types of medicine and poisons which wasn't too bad. Except, Lotus was disappointed to hear that Deuce, who was more serious about this, doesn't even know what a fungi was. She knew that he wasn't really too good with studies, but to think that she still overestimated him was a little much...

Second period was History class with Professor Trein and his black and white Persian familiar cat, Lucius. He looked to be a man in his late middle age with a stern look on his face and a dull crimson red clothing and other expensive clothing. Lotus had recalled the man having informed the headmaster of the missing student on the ceremonial day whatsoever.

Their first lesson was the start of magic which wasn't too difficult and very insightful with facts of the history of the place they had been in and, as Lotus had imagined, the first owners of the place was indeed seven dwarfs. And...

That's where she learned that Deuce simply doesn't know how to take notes...

And that Grim wanted to destroy the classroom with a bang...

Third period was athletics led by the PE Teacher, Vargas, who likes to call them bean sprouts. We learn that he admires big muscle and eats raw eggs every day. Their first day was simple with twenty laps around the track and a hundred pushups. Was this really a school for higher education?

Thinking this Lotus wasn't satisfied at all, but she recalled the reason why she came here and continued onto the next class.

Deuce was looking on the schedule of their next class as he said aloud, "Our next class is...

"For a school of magic, it's not really different from a regular old school." Ace noted as they were changing classrooms during the break time.

Hearing this surprised Lotus who turned and asked, "What is a regular old school like?"

Deuce looked to her in surprise, "Eh? You don't know?"

"Now, that you mentioned it." Yuu noted curiously, "You said that you're here to experience school life."

Lotus nodded her head, "I've never gone to school before. I was homeschooled back in the countryside since I wasn't welcomed by other people very easily. Last winter, I came across a staff of this school who wanted to recommend me here and managed to get me an acceptance letter. Said that I should try attending this school to see what it's like or to communicate with more humans than myself and my employer."

"Eh?!" Ace looked to her in bewilderment, "Wow... So, you were already working when you came across a chance to attend school here? Talk about luck... First, you got a job, then you came across an acceptance letter, and now you've won a deal with the headmaster."

"That's amazing, Lotus!" Yuu exclaimed with a wide smile.

She grinned, "They say luck is also a factor in life. If you're lucky, everything will be well in the future, but you still have to work hard because nobody is born to be wise. You have to learn to earn wisdom."

"And, here I am with a damn collar..." Ace groaned in disappointment, "What rotten luck I got these past two days."

"I don't know about that." Lotus smirked, "You'll see when this conflict is over if you're unlucky or not. Just remember not to use up your luck. They say it's fine to have good luck, but a balance is always there, so, if you use too much, you'll also have to experience a really unlucky time to make up for all that luck you got."

"Geh..." Ace scowled, "I hope something good comes this way then."

"Anyway, what's a 'regular old school' like?"