Sophie's eyes widened as the headmistress kindly offered to let her stay next to her. Vigorously nodding, she took a deep breath and sniffled softly. Though she didn't want to annoy the nice woman too much, she was certainly planning on sticking to the headmistress like glue. A massive sneeze exploded from her nose, causing her to shake her head in annoyance. As she did so, the wonderful headmistress gave her a small vial.
Gasping, Sophie read the label. "Pepper-up potion?! Aww, this stuff is the best!" She fumbled with the stopper for a few seconds before finally getting it open. "Bottoms up!" She upended the potion into her mouth, waiting patiently for it to work its magic on her obnoxious cold. Luckily, it took effect almost immediately and she found that she could breathe out of her nose again.
It was a good thing Sophie could breathe again, because a boy who couldn't have been thaaaat much older than her wandered over to offer his assistance with her phobia and introduced himself as Derf. Sophie offered him a teensy-weensy smile. "Hi, Derf," she said shyly. She didn't get any farther than that in her reply to him, however, because at that moment, steam began to pour out of her ears.
Awkwardly, Sophie took a step backward. This was the side effect she had forgotten! Steam, lots of steam, rapidly exiting her ears. She grimaced, slightly embarrassed by the spectacle. So embarrassed, in fact, that she almost missed the headmistress' first question. She was ready to be made more embarrassed, though, because she couldn't recall anything about the Ehwaz rune.
"Uh..." she began slowly. "Isn't Ehwaz the one that means -" Uncertain of what exactly it meant, she tried to quickly make up something that would make sense. "Chocolate?" As soon as she had said it, she knew it was probably wrong. Oooooooooppss.... |