Chapter 11 - Funeral For the Fallen

Izzy, Jewel and Dante sat quietly at dinner after last classes' little 'blowup.' Let's just say any chance of Dante using his phone to contact home, or just using his phone in general went 'kabloohey.' Jewel has been using all her breath on him this evening trying for his forgiveness. Dante wasn't exactly mad at Jewel, he was more intimated if anything. He asked Izzy at their little round table in the corner of the drafts dining hall, "So ALL enchantresses can blow stuff up with their mind?"

"NO! For the last time, it was red magic! And Jewel, it's nothing to feel guilty over. In fact I say you followed the class just fine with the whole 'enable emotions' thing. Just enabled the wrong emotions is all."

"Well that's easy for you to say!" Jewel exclaimed "You owned that class!"

"I mean yeah Izzy, you knocked it out of the park back there." Dante conquered.

The redhead became a red face for a minute with all this praise going her way. "Guys, stop! It was nothing, really."

A familiar voice appeared behind Dante and Jewel, everybody's eyes looked up to meet Kimmy and Bernie on their way to the table. "I'm sorry," Kimmy said between laughs. "But that film was hilarious. Now I've seen your brother dancing I have full proof that two left feet is genetic in your family."

"Oh yeah, the same way a big mouth is genetic in yours?" Bernie quipped back instantly.

The two greeted themselves to everyone before the five began a normal conversation. Or what started as a normal conversation. It jumped from talking about classes to watching Bernie and Kimmy quarrel over the ocean of all things. Izzy apologized to Jewel for them. Jewel simply stated she's familiar with bickers like these from her friends Lucky and Leon. That kick-started a talk about their classmates. The most powerful (the girls had a bit of a scuffle over that one) and the most good looking, "Pablo." All but Kimmy and Dante agreed.

"Who's the weirdest? I mean just full on strange." Kimmy asked.

"You." Bernie said with a sly look.

"John." Dante mindlessly stated, followed by a series of nods and agreements.

"Oh yeah."

"For sure."

"He's insane."

"Remember when he killed that rat?" Jewel enquired.

"How could I forget?" Bernie said "I had to wash the guts out of my hair."

"I mean the poor kid too." Kimmy added. "I was kept up all night in the woods because of his sobbing."

Then, speak of the devil, the red-rimmed spectacled kid tapped on his glass using a fork, garnering the attention of his peers. Lucky beside him whispered something, but Dice brushed it off and said his announcement. "Uh, hello fellow drafts. As you may already know, this is the first official night without my dear friend Tootie."

Dante and his table nodded as if they definitely remembered. The other kids stayed silent and continued listening. "As you also know, my dear pet never got a funeral, as his...bits...were left discarded to burn in the grass. I was wondering if you all...would like to attend his official funeral right now."

Everybody stayed silent. Some looked away from Dice's pleading eyes. Jewel turned to her food and mouthed 'yikes' under her breath.

"C'mon." Izzy whispered. "We can't leave him hanging like this."

The others shared a nod before very slowly raising their hands. "Uh, Dice is it?" Kimmy said out loud. The four-eyed kid nodded. "We'll help with your burial or whatever."

His sad face grew a smile as Claire and Jane agreed to help as well. Soon, for whatever reason the children had, all twelve children surrounded Dice's empty table. A candle was lit beside a scratchy, disembodied tail on top of a napkin. Dice stood on his chair, holding a crumpled sheet with words smudged on the front and back. What confused Dante the most about all of this is how John was here at the front, messing around with the corpse HE was responsible for killing. Claire had to slap the blonde's hand away from the tail multiple times as Dice said his piece. As he spoke his voice shot up and down with emotion.

"Tootie was more that a rat I snuck into school. He was a dear friend who got me through some of the toughest of times. I had gotten him at the beginning of summer and fell in love almost instantly. He was by my shoulder almost everyday and I was certain he would be with me for years to come. Sadly, all those hopes for Tootie's bright future went splat this morning-"

"HAHA! SPLAT!" John cackled. Eyes burned into him, but he didn't seem to mind the attention.

"And here I am all alone. Nevertheless we will remember our dear friend for all the following school years and honor his bravery and compassion. Now... I'd like...oh god-" Lucky helped Dice off the chair as the spectacled kid let out repressed sobs. "Could somebody please finish for him?" Clair asked, looking for willing participants. Without warning, Kimmy took the paper out of Dice's shaking hands, stood on the chair and delivered the rest of Dice's speech.

"Now I would like us all to go to the courtyard and bury what's left of our beloved companion. If anyone has music recommendations, feel free to let me know. Unless I couldn't finish the speech and I'm crying in Lucky's arms. In that case, don't come to me. I would like the burial to be silent, as my spirit will be without my confidant."

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"Whoo! Chilly innit!" John said to Jane at the back of the crowd. It was dark now and the drafts were all burying Tootie in an old cardboard wristwatch case. Kimmy had fully taken over the operation now, placing the cold tail in the box and digging up a hole. Dice had stopped crying, now he was staring at Kimmy with admiration as she tried picking soil from her fingernails.

Jane shook her head at the demon. "Jonathan, this isn't an appropriate time to converse about the weather and outside temperature. We're attending a funeral."

Dante stood near the chatting pair A funeral? He thought, This is hardly a memorial.

"Maybe keep that to yourself or just leave if you don't wanna be here." A female voice echoed in the organics mind.

WHAT THE-

"NO PLEASE I'M NOT READY TO SAY GOODBYE!" Dice screamed clawing to the soil his friend was buried under. Kimmy and Lucky wrenched him away. "C'mon Dice, don't do this in public!" the blipper cried out. Dante searched every child's eyes, desperate to find out where that intrusive voice came from. A finger lightly tapped his shoulder, he whizzed around to the curly blonde and said "What did you just say to me?"

"Woah," Bernie raised her hands defensively "I was just gonna let you and the other know that I'm heading to bed. Today has been a weird day."

"Uh-huh," Dante said feebly, he was only half-listening, still shocked at that voice that crashed into his mind. "I've been to weirder funerals though."

That made Bernie laugh, she flashed Dante a shy smile. "Goodnight Dante."

"Night..."

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After another hour of trying to get Dice off his friends grave, everyone who didn't care went to bed, while Kimmy, Lucky, Izzy and a reluctant Dante tried consoling Dice. After another while, Izzy and Kimmy went to their dorms and Dante promised he'd check on them both in the morning.

Now here in his bed the boy reflected on the strange day he had. The more he contemplated the more he realized that STRANGE was an understatement. Within twenty-four hours he left his family, experienced a bus crash, watched a rat get smushed under a mallet, outran a wildfire, fell in a river, found out magic was real, chased down a dictator, learned the dictator and was his new roommate, learned of a curse he's indirectly part of that was casted by powerful goddesses that want the world to burn up to a crisp, watched his phone explode and went to the funeral of the smushed rat where it's murderer wouldn't shut up about the weather.

How he wished more than anything he was attending Laronda's instead.