Ivy waited in the common room with the patience of a stone. Most of the other girls were home for the long weekend, but she knew all too well that Serena was still around. Meaning that all she needed to do was bide her time, and sooner or later she was going to get her chance at that bitch. She didn't care how long it took. She wasn't going anywhere.
Around nine o'clock, she finally got that chance. Serena wandered into the common room, not even noticing Ivy from her spot in the study alcove next to the door. She watched Serena pad across the room in bare feet, her olive skin seeming slightly darker against the light carpet, as she went over to the microwave and popped some popcorn. Ivy kept still and hidden, waiting to spring her trap.
It wasn't until Serena settled onto the couch, her back to Ivy so that only her long dark hair was visible over the couch cushions, that Ivy made her move. She swiftly sprang to her feet and closed the common room door, wedging it shut with a chair so they wouldn't be interrupted. And so that Serena couldn't escape. Serena turned at the noise, and her dark brown eyes widened as she saw Ivy standing by the now closed door.
"Oh!" she said, affecting a pose of mock relief that didn't fool Ivy for a second. "You startled me, Ivy. I keep forgetting anyone else is here." She looked down at the bowl in her hand. "Popcorn?" she asked, holding it out.
Ivy glared at her with a mix of incredulity and fury, her bright blue eyes narrowed to slits. "You really think it worked, don't you?" she asked at last, her voice icy with carefully controlled anger. "You really think that I forgot it all."
She saw it then, the look of terror in Serena's eyes as the other girl stammered out her denial. "I-I don't know what you're talking about, Ivy. I-I mean, you-I mean I don't know what you're talking about. Forgot what?"
Ivy pulled out the pendant, then. A faceted sphere of violet glass, refracting the light into rainbow prisms at every edge and every corner, dangling from a silver chain. "You left it in my room," she said. "Left in a hurry, did we? Maybe you thought the RA was coming to see what all the noise was, or maybe the guilt just got to you. But you left it in my room. In the bed. And the second I saw it, I remembered everything."
Serena tried to keep her voice smooth and calm, but Ivy could tell she was rattled. "I think you might be confused," she said. "You probably had a silly, sleepy dream, that's all. You just fell deep asleep, and-"
"It's not going to work this time," Ivy said, taking a menacing step closer to the couch. "You got me with that hypnosis crap once, when I wasn't expecting it, but I know all your tricks now. I'm ready for you." She grinned wickedly. "The question is...are you ready for me?"
Serena looked confused. She got to her feet, crouched defensively and prepared to run at a moment's notice. "I don't understand, Ivy. What-what are you talking about? What are you going to do?"
Ivy held the pendant up at just above eye level. The same way that Serena did the other night, when she visited Ivy's room. "I'm going to pay you back in kind," she said, her voice filled with icy menace. "You want to play games with hypnosis? You want to turn someone into your lesbian sex toy? Fine." She advanced, giving the pendant a tiny flick of the wrist to set it into motion. "Let's see how you like it."
Serena backed away as Ivy moved in, but Ivy had chosen her ambush too well. There was only so much room she could retreat before her back hit the wall of the common room with a sharp thud. The impact clearly startled Serena-she was already staring at the crystal so closely that she clearly wasn't paying attention to where she was. Ivy's grin widened. This was going to be all too easy.
