Chapter Text
The high stone walls surrounding their table provided a welcome relief from the summer sun, which had grown so tenacious that it had managed to drive off the ever-present fog that usually covered the Addams Family graveyard. Their shelter, stone and wrought iron, was still comfortably cool out of the sun's oppressive sight.
Wednesday watched in disturbed fascination as Sally and Mina, once again, well into their own little world, unaware of anything besides each other. It had began early the previous school year, and grown more frequent and more intense with every passing month. Now, if there were a lull in conversation and they happened to catch each other's eyes... gone again.
"You guys are as bad as Wednesday's parents." Allison grimaced. "I know you are hiding it at home, but come on, this is the last time we all get to see each other for months!"
"Sorry!" Sally covered her face with both hands, shaking her head sharply. "You're right, I'm trying!"
Mina looked entirely unapologetic, a silly smile still stretched over her face. "Sure, trying."
Wednesday pondered the comparison to her parents.
It was true, her mother and father had the same tendency to be drawn together by a force not unlike gravity with the slightest provocation, and it took a crowbar to seperate them again. But Mina and Sally's affection, while disruptive and annoying, didn't have the same quality to it that she found so off putting. Perhaps because she didn't have to live with them?
"We ARE happy for you, you know?" Allison added. Then, as Wednesday remained lost in thought, elbowed her gently.
"Yes." Wednesday blinked. Then she remembered her own news and frowned. "I am not returning to Ilvermorny."
"What?!" Mina and Sally shouted in unison, leaning forward with pleading expressions.
"There is nothing they can teach me about witchcraft that I didn't know before I could walk, and I don't care enough about wizardry to bother with four more years of it. I only stayed this long because I hoped Divination would be better, but it was as useless as everything else." Wednesday explained.
"Where will you go instead?" Allison asked.
"Nevermore Academy. They put less focus on witchcraft and wizardry, and more broadly focus on outcasts in general. I think I will find it more engaging and useful."
"But... what about us?" Mina pouted.
"You two won't even notice I'm gone. And I will see you next summer, anyway." Wednesday waved a hand dismissively. "I will write, if you wish."
"Its not... because of us, right?" Sally asked hesitantly.
"Of course not. The two of you made it bearable. This is what is best for me." Wednesday insisted.
They sat quietly for a moment.
"Nevermore rejected me, too." Allison sighed. "Normie high-school, here I come."
The tension dissipated as Sally and Mina dramatically bemoaned the horrible fate of their friend.
Wednesday found her thoughts returning to the comparison of Sally and Mina's relationship to that of her parents.
Sally was among her favorite cousins. To an Addams, 'one sixteenth on my mother's side' was as good as siblings, and Sally's macabre sense of humor, sharp tongue, and generally calm demeanor had quickly endeared her to Wednesday. Mina... was loud. Often bordering on hysteria. She reminded Wednesday strongly of a chihuahua, if a chihuahua wanted to be friends with everyone.
But they seemed to get along well, and Sally seemed happier than Wednesday had seen her since they met. And Mina wasn't all bad, she had been the avenue by which Allison had joined the group, who was a welcome anchor of sanity and logic for Wednesday to rely on.
Yes, all in all, Mina had Wednesday's tentative approval for her cousin's affection.
Her parents, however, seemed in perfect opposition. Mother calm and poised, father ridiculous and embarrassing. Well, maybe not so different from Sally and Mina. Except that Sally and Mina seemed to meld together, bringing out different sides of each other, while her parents remained statically themselves, apart and together. Or she thought so. She had never seen them apart.
Wednesday tried to imagine Mina as her father, leaping over the staircase railings, blowing up model trains, lighting cigars with dueling pistols. It fit disturbingly well.
So what was the difference?
She blinked. Oh.
She imagined Sally in her mother's place, one meticulously crafted eyebrow raised delicately as she sipped wine as red as her lips. Then she saw her father enter the picture and immediately tossed the mental image aside.
She briefly swapped in various other men, boys from school, or from town. Nope. Nope nope nope.
That was illuminating.
She had assumed, if she ever felt attraction at all, gender would play no roll in it. The family curse either struck or it did not. If it struck, then nobody but the one she took into her heart would ever matter. If it did not...
She briefly thought about Fester's taste for shallow, mean spirited, artificial-as-plastic bombshells, or Itt's clubs full of scantily clad dancers. She hoped her taste would run more dignified.
"Wednesday?"
She blinked and turned to Allison.
"Yes?"
"I asked if you would be coming home for holidays this year?" Allison repeated.
"I am not sure. If there is enough magic in the air at Nevermore to keep the worst of the migrains at bay, I will likely stay. Otherwise, I will have to brave the horror of my parents at Christmas."
"Maybe you'll meet your true love and bring them home to meet us!" Mina laughed. It did seem a ridiculous notion.
"What about me? When do I get to meet the love of my life, of great oracle of love?" Allison asked.
"You're gonna marry some boring old academic and live in a library." Mina huffed. "How are you going to meet anyone when all you do is study?"
Chihuahua, for sure. Wednesday smirked. She would prefer something closer to a wolf.