MAGE ; benny weir [1]

thirty-nine

Ethan, Benny, and Ellie sat zoning out to the same rules they've heard every year.
Vice Principal Stern was going over the new dress code that was being reinstalled for this school year, which tended to make the lecture extremely boring.

"This dress code is literally the same stuff they say every year," Ellie commented to Benny. "We know this stuff already."

"Well, it beats having to learn new slope formulas," he countered.

"We learned that last year."
"...We did?"

------------

"Ellie!" 
Hearing her name, Ellie whipped around to see Ethan and Benny quickly appearing beside her locker. "GameStop is having a massive clearance sale tonight! We have to go!"

"No way!" she smiled. "I thought you guys said it wasn't until next week!"
"I guess they moved it!" Ethan said. 

Continuing to geek out over their gaming excitement, they almost didn't recognize Vice Principal Stern clearing this throat behind the teenagers.

"Excuse me, Miss Prince?" Stern greeted. The three turned to face him, finding this a bit awkward.
"Um... yes?" Ellie answered, finding this interaction to be instantly weird.

"You do realize that we have a new dress code policy here," he stated, pointing to the new poster that was hanging from the wall. The poster read all of the dress codes that the students had to follow.
"I'm sure you've read it, so you know the policy," Mr. Stern continued. "Hand it over."

He held his hand out, waiting for Ellie to give him something. She looked to Ethan and Benny for help, but they were just as confused as she was.
"Uh- I'm sorry, sir, but I don't really know what you're—!"

"The bracelet, Miss Prince," he spat. "Give it to me."

The three of them turned ghost white.
Ellie began to stutter, "U-um... sir, it's kind of a—!"

"If you don't give me the bracelet, Miss Prince, you will receive a detention slip for blatantly ignoring student policies. You wouldn't want that... would you, Miss '4.5 GPA'?" Stern smirked.

Watching from behind their friend, Ethan and Benny began to panic.
Benny thought to himself, "Oh man, he knows how to get to her. Threaten her with her permanent record. Nice going."

Ellie gulped, having no choice but to slowly untie her yarn bracelet's knot. Even then, she could feel the raw magic tickling the back of her brain. Ellie could almost hear it beg to stay in control, but she was forced to disregard it.
Deciding to bite the bullet, Ellie quickly tugged it off with her eyes closed, dropped the bracelet into Mr. Stern's hand, and turned into her locker and stuck her head inside.

"Thank you, Miss Prince..." Mr. Stern smirked, before walking away into his office. "That wasn't so hard now, was it?"

As Stern's heels clicked along the school hallways, Ethan and Benny could hear Ellie's growing breaths from her locker.
She felt the stray power rush into her hands and through her fingertips all at once. Her vision became that blurred magenta that she had been so scared of for all this time. Ellie was being electrocuted by her own design.

"Uh... Ellie?" Ethan asked. Slowly cupping a supportive hand onto her shoulder, Ellie's energy flung Ethan into an unexpected vision. 
His vision was brief, but enough to send chills up Ethan's spine. He couldn't believe what he just saw. The anguish, the desperation; could Ellie really be capable of doing something like that? 

"El, it's okay. We can—!"
Benny's aid was interrupted by Ellie's sudden exit from her locker. Her green eyes flickered back and forth to magenta, appearing like a countdown into her madness. Tears began to form in the purple corners as Benny watched his girlfriend overwhelm herself with raw magic.