All eyes were on me when we walked into the cafeteria and took our regular table. Looking down at my tight dress, and overly exposed assets, I wondered how I'd been talked into this. Sitting down, carefully so I didn't show off my underwear by accident, I put my elbows on the table and clasped my hands together under my chin trying to cover my breasts.
Garth's jaw dropped. And I realized all the other boys at our table had the same stunned expression. Looking down, I saw I was actually pushing my breasts together making them look even bigger and perkier.
I dropped my arms, and blushed. Whatever god had invented breasts had a lot to answer for.
“That's a new look for you, Petra,” Garth squeaked. He shifted a little in his seat, trying to subtly adjust his pants.
Somehow the blush which seemed to have set up permanent residence in my cheeks grew even brighter. “I'm only doing this because it might help. As soon as I'm done, I'm burning this dress, and the bra.”
“You can't burn it!” Naomi said. “You look great in it.”
“I don't like showing so much leg, or breasts. Or hips. Or butt. Or curves in general.”
“You're going to hate the swimming and aquatic fighting part of combat class,” she told me.
An involuntary shudder ran through me at the thought of wearing a bathing suit, or even worse a bikini. “Please tell me that isn't anytime soon.”
“Sorry, it's next month.”
The boys started to drool.
“Why do you know this and I never heard a word about it?”
“Angel Slayer told us at the end of class on the first day. You were curled up in the fetal position crying and begging us to stop killing you,” she said.
“Oh Petra!” Clarice hissed. “Lover boy is looking at you.”
I looked up and saw that yes, Rocks For Brains was looking at me with a big goofy grin on his face. Hunching down in my seat I had to fight the urge to run screaming from the room. I REALLY didn't want to deal with this. It was supposed to be me smiling at the pretty girl hoping she'd pay attention to me. Not the other way around.
“Smile and wave, Petra,” Clarice said.
I forced myself to smile, thinking about Ella's smile and copying it as best I could. But that was as far as I could go. My arm refused to move, there no way I was going to wave at him. Smiling was hard enough.
“Ivy, can you help Petra?” Ella asked.
Growling the werewolf grabbed by wrist, wrenched it up so fast I felt my shoulder almost pulled out of it's socket, and she began waving my arm for me.
“OW! Not! OW! So! OW! Hard! OW! Ivy!” I said, trying to keep my head from getting bashed by my own arm.
The half-giants grin became bigger and goofier. He waved shyly at me, his greyish cheeks developing a delicate pink blush. Then I saw something very bad. Victor was smiling and saying something to Rocks For Brains.
“Uh guys, I think Victor has something nasty planned. I don't like his smile.”
Rocks For Brains took his backpack off, reached inside and pulled out a boulder as big as I was. It did look pretty, being a sparkling bluish-grey stone with dark purple amethyst running through it. I didn't have long to admire it unfortunately. The half-giant leaned back, holding the boulder in one arm and then flung it as hard as he could right at me.
“DUCK!” I shouted, jumping out of the way.
There was a terrific crash as the boulder crushed our table. Food and drinks went flying, covering me, all my friends and every table in our immediate vicinity. Our jump for safety added to the chaos, as we slammed into those nearby, shoving them face down into their food, knocking them from their seats and crushing them against the tables.
Staring at the table, I realized I'd almost died from the boulder, which was sitting in a small crater that had once been our seat. The boulder actually looked prettier in person. I had no idea where he'd gotten it from, but it couldn't have been easy to find. It even looked like he had polished it, I could practically see myself in the stone.
I couldn't see Rocks For Brains, having fallen on the floor, and with so many kids standing between us. I did see Calci pull her own rock from her bag. It wasn't nearly as big as 'my' stone, but it was even prettier.
The Dwarf judged the distance and lobbed the stone at the half-giant. Getting to my feet, I watched the stone almost hit the roof the it started going down. And somehow Calci had perfect aim. It hit Rocks For Brains right in the head, knocking him on his butt.
A big hand grabbed my collar and lifted me into the air by my now stained, red dress. I found myself looking at Barbarina, who had mashed potatoes all over her face and gravy dripping from her hair. She looked angry.
“You ruined my supper,” she growled.
My head twisted looking for help. But everyone seemed to be in a similar situation of facing down angry, food covered students. “Uh, I'm VERY sorry. But you can't really blame this on me,” I said.
I was about to say more when I heard the sound of cloth ripping. My dress was designed to be pretty and show off my assets. The most activity it was supposed to deal with was dancing and potentially rather heavy petting. It was not made to hold someone up while being held by a barbarian.
The dress ripped in half under my weight. I found myself on my feet, only wearing my shoes and underwear, looking up at a very scary girl, who already had my scalp sewn onto her helmet. I was going to die, and I didn't have a belt of resurrection this time.
Doing the only thing sensible, I turned on my heels and ran for it.
Chaos broke out all around us. My friends mostly realizing cowardice was a better long term survival strategy than fighting, scattered, dodging blades, fists and magic thrown their way. Other students who hadn't been hit by food, found themselves getting punched, or dealing with an exploding fireball, narrowly missing a sword swing, or getting jumped by an overenthusiastic fighter.
They didn't take too kindly to this and the fighting spread.
Ivy, who had somehow kept a hold of her bone, grabbed a particularly dimwitted boy that had jumped her. She casually tossed him at another table. He landed with a splat on a bowl of soup. The soup flipped up into the air, spinning as it did, scattering its very hot content. There were screams of outrage and more people got to their feet.
Ella was surrounded by a swarm of fairies, being hustled away by Blood Wing. The half-fairy was gleefully zapping anyone who got too close to her. Clarice, Naomi and Calci were hiding under the remnants of the table, the small girl with her back against the boulder, while Naomi poked people with her spear and Calci punched anyone stupid enough to try attacking a Dwarf.
I lost track of the boys. I suspected that some of them were under a dog pile of shouting and fighting figures, but if they were, I couldn't help them. I was busy scrambling along the floor, in my underwear, trying to avoid the angry barbarian girl who wanted to take my scalp, again.
“Gotcha!” Barbarina shouted, lifting me up by my ankle.
Blood rushed to my head, and my breasts threatened to give me a black eye as she shook me. I was doomed. There was no way I could beat her, and she was going to tear me apart.
Then salvation appeared.
Garth came flying out of nowhere, catching the barbarian around the neck and bringing her to the ground. We all crashed to the floor, and were promptly trampled by the rioting students. Somehow I managed to get to my feet, and looked at Garth who looked surprisingly brave as he kicked Barbarina who was between us.
“RUN!” he shouted.
Taking his advice, I ran for it. We each went in different directions because neither of us wanted to risk getting close to the enormous and extremely angry girl. Especially now that she was shouting curses and promising to rip our scalps off while we were still alive and use our skulls for a beer glass.
I ducked, dodged and jumped through the wild melee, trying to avoid getting hit, tackled or killed. Unfortunately with my new body, I drew attention. Running around only in red underwear and shoes, I was drawing even more attention.
One of Victors minions tackled me, and I hit the ground hard enough to see stars. I tried to get up, but he was too heavy, and with all the food on the ground, I couldn't get my hands or knees under me. I couldn't even roll over and try to bite him. I was stuck.
“Victor, I've got her!” he shouted.
The floor shook. There were screams of terror, and the sound of teenagers flying at high speed only to come to an abrupt halt.
“I save you!” Rocks For Brains shouted.
I saw a pair of enormous feet come dangerously close to my head.
“Hey Rocks, I'm your friend!” the boy shouted.
“No hurt girlfriend!”
The weight on my back suddenly disappeared.
“Hey! Put me down! No! Don't throw MMMMMEEEEEEEE!” The cry cut off as the boy landed in a pile of half conscious teenagers who had found themselves in the way of Rocks For Brains.
And then I was being picked up by the love-struck half-giant, who looked at me with a big grin. “I saved you,” he said.
“Yeah. You did,” I squeaked.
“I did a good job, for pretty Petra. No one hurt you now.”
Barbarina came storming over, she had a nasty black eye, and looked ready to kill. Then she saw me in the arms of... my hero. The barbarian wisely turned around and began punching an unfortunate teen that was shoved within arms reach of her.
I reached out and patted Rock For Brains cheek, hoping he wouldn't try to kiss me, his mouth was as large as my face. “Good work. You did a very good job, Rocky,” I said, forcing myself to smile.
My brain was screaming at me that I was going to regret this. But the voice of self-preservation said, 'Survive now, we'll figure out what to do next when we're not about to die.' I couldn't argue with that logic.
The door to the cafeteria slammed open. Master Grieve stepped into the room, his armoured head scanned the chaos. Drawing his sword, he sliced the air, thunder boomed.
Everyone stopped what they were doing.
“You will go to your dormitories and clean up,” he said, his deep voice was barely above a whisper but everyone heard his orders. Meekly and quickly they started to clear the room.
His eyes turned to me. With a voice that reminded me of the deep rumble of an avalanche or earthquake, he said, “Petra, Rock For Brains, follow me. We need to discuss your detention.”
Petra x Rocky>>>
I knew it. IT made things worse, AND worked too well. And now, Petra has a new Nemesis... Who could, Potentially, Be an Asset... if they were smart enough to Use Her.
That said, I've noticed a Distinct lack of Actual Intelligence From the Various Characters. Sure, They Aren't Idiots, But completely lack Any Critical Thinking Skills. Using their Brains for Five Minutes would have told them It was A bad plan... but they got too caught up in the Idea, Shopping, And Planning Of a Honeytrap to realize that. Basically, They have Average Int, Low Wis... Honestly, Poor Rocks-For-Brains Seems Wiser, Hes Just Following his Heart... Hes A bit Low Intelligence, But Intellect Isnt Everything.
As a Wise Man once said, In his TTRPG 1St Edition: Intelligence Is Knowing WHY fire Burns, Wisdom Is knowing Not to Touch It. Int=Booksmarts, Wis=Streetsmarts.
So, Compared to the Main Cast, Rocks-For-Brains is Actually A pretty Wise Character... Just Easily Duped. "Throw a rock back at her" is just His Race's way of flirting... So he did it without question... but "hey, I'm your friend" From someone trying to hurt the Girl he likes? He's Wise enough not to Fall for it. He's, so far, A likeable character. So is Garth. I don't know about those Friends Of Petra's though... they seem to get her into more and more trouble... (JK, it's not their Fault They are Fools.)
So, detention... For someone technically innocent... Who is currently Nearly Nude... I got a BAAAD feeling About this...
Can't wait for the next chapter.
They're teenagers, gotta expect the to make mistakes.
And Ella will definitely be putting her foot down harder on honey trap plots in the future. She's not used to using s*x appeal in her schemes, so it's one of her blind spots.
Thanks for the comment.
Kind of agree but, desperation tends to have people make hail merry passes on the odds of life.
@markos Let's mind that IRL people are far from using critical thinking anyway. They just act on autopilot, which is how they get into messes.
Usually the ideas girls bring point the right direction. They just lack experience and skills a seasoned villainess would have to make it work (in more expected way) .
They do predict problems, so they are not dumb, it's just that they are always caught off guard by something they did not expect.
That does happen to adults on real life, even on the dumbest of things.
Though, admittably, it happens more often to teenagers in stresful environment
Also, I like the joke of how Petra gets deep into using female charm.
It might be hilarious, if Peter will find out how hard it is to control habits once formed
Though, I hope Ella doesn't mind the differences. At some point Peter may end up turning male to get a holiday, from Petra's trouble
On the other hand, there might be some hilarious trouble with his male form either (some prince jumping a sword on the presumed rival or some other evil court sheaningans? )
I somehow love the idea that people in court could get a wrong idea learning that Peter changes in Petra.
I mean, it might be considered manly to give up life for a (presumably) loved woman, but how many would give up their male form to protect her all the time?
That might earn Petra some unwanted fame and respect among factions in court As well as label of a pervert among others in there.
So, gender-fluid for the win!
@Quesa I'm liking how you think.
Thanks for all the comments.
@Domoviye Well, the most hilarious part is that I think Ella would roll with that, at least because it gives nobles/notables somebody who got ahead of them in getting close to her.
And that somebody lacks political ambition, which makes them even more precious for her.
Encouraging Minion Rivalry For Fun And Profit at it's finest.
Also, the better her standing in court, the more people will get distracted with trying to do something about Peter than look at Ella's hands.
I can imagine her asking Petra/Peter to escort her during a party (typically reserved for a family or pending-in-family) and that only gets Petra/Peter deeper into absurdity of the Mad Court.
Especially if they unwittingly disturb some of the (absurdly) finer plots of the Mad Emperor.
I doubt Peter ever imagined that he would meet the Mad Emperor for the first time in order to explain his relationship with Ella
Trouble in Court may also continue at school by proxies. How much more mess may Petra's nemeses cause with proper outer funding and support? (or test subjects, in case of Michael, since that would be easily his price)
There is even a chance that Peter's family will hear gossips (thorough customers) about a mysterious man enjoying favor of the princess
And they will not realize it's true and about Peter. Until maybe another family reunion.
@Quesa being asexual and not having to deal with that type of a mess is also an option.
@markos Where would be the fun in that?
@markos The thing with dynasties is family and expanding it typically involves certain activities. They are to be expected of members.
Also, being asexual is not a ticket from these trouble (at least IRL) .
Like, look what happened to the author of "Peter Pan". Without obvious sexual interest people will convince themselves it must the the next closest thing you stay with (same-s*x friend, pets, children, trees, candles)
So, some people in court could even decide that Peter being Petra is just playing along with Ella's preferences.
Then, expect some Petra's double soon approaching Ella
Michael will get busy with orders for "Petra's Charm"
Also, it was already proved with Charm, that Ella finds boys attractive, so claiming asexuality would be only a political statement. The question is if she also likes girls
Petra's case is more hilarious, since it seemed to work a bit in both cases
Though, she clearly despises cool and handsome guys around her regardless of the spin. Especially, if they target Ella.
Crush is a crush