“Oh, sorry” Mona chuckled, looking away in embarrassment. “I just thought you might have been drinking because, well, everyone else was, and, I don’t know,” she scratched the back of her neck. Then, she put a soft smile back on her face; her resting expression.
She thought about it. Thalia was probably right, Mona didn’t know much about these social events anyway. Back at her family’s estate, she could not remember any day where she did not go to sleep at sunset, or shortly after. Even though she was not tired this morning, she probably should have been, like everyone else. Given this, Thalia was most likely acting normal compared to all of their peers.
But Mona halted her thought, and dropped her hands to her sides, tilting her head to speak. “Why are you lying to me?” She asked, because as much as she tried to digest the girl’s words, they did not sit right in her stomach. She had a bit of a unique ability, where aside from her intuition, she could always tell when her friend was hiding something from her. And she didn’t always trust her intuition, but she did always listen to it. And even though she preferred to speak positively, her primary intention was to help Thalia.
Her smile made Mona smile, too, sending butterflies through her bloodstream when she leaned closer. “Just true, huh?” Mona nodded, giggling when the girl said she was happy to be with her. It was a sort of feeling that could only be described in pictures; the yellow light from a home, girlish whispers, bare feet on grass and carpet, moments so stunningly simple that you could only understand their beauty after they were long gone. Maybe one day she would understand it; far from now when she was laying in bed losing her ability to sleep.
For now, she had no idea of any of it.
“I missed you at the ball yesterday,” she said softly. Last night probably would have been a more accurate term, but it hadn’t come to her for the same reason that she did not understand whether or not Thalia should have been tired this morning.
The girl lied again, and Mona looked at her puzzled. What was her provocation for this behavior? She decided to ignore it, and move on with another subject to not make her uncomfortable.
“Something like that?” She repeated, wondering what Thalia could have meant, but the fact that she didn’t deny it felt like a pinch on Desdemona’s skin, and when she clarified, she felt a bit selfishly better about herself. “Well, what happened?” Her voice sounded more relaxed then.
Asking what happened, she thought back to the prior night, remembering her conversation with Raven, and how she healed someone new. She considered bringing it up, but then remembered the vision she saw at the cost of her magic; the burning house, the ashes, and the lake reflecting it. Whatever that was, it wasn’t important, her mind just liked playing tricks on her; that’s what mom and dad said.
It seemed like they were taking turns changing the subject of the conversation, and somehow they landed talking about Desdemona’s bearded dragon. Thalia asked if she had brought him, and Mona smiled cheekily. “Shhhh, it’s a secret!” Mona whispered, knowing that no one else had a pet at Wyndham, and they were most likely not supposed to, but wherever Mona was, Kiki had to be. It was the same situation with her lucky hat, except she usually didn’t wear it because people in this society seemed to distaste for cool accessories.
“I won’t tell anyone,” she assured Desdemona, and she relaxed. She did not think Thalia capable of betraying her in such a manner, but she really badly wished no one heard even the mention of Kiki’s name. It was them she did not trust as much.
The whole school was smile-faltering. Even though she acted like it went completely over her head, Mona had heard what the headmaster said about a student disappearing, and the thought of it haunted her. Alongside with her visions, of course. The issue with it was that she could do nothing about it. It was her responsibility to deal with those things, anyway, it didn’t matter if they hurt her.
On the other side of the wall, though, she still appeared content.
“Of course I brought her! She couldn’t stay home alone!” Mona defended herself playfully, and then kept listening to her. Thalia’s offer to look for food in the cafeteria was sweet, and it made her smile a bit. She thought about how it would be nice to go in and see what the school might be like. “Will you show me how the cafeteria works?” She asked, wondering in what manner the students got their food, and also admittedly wanting Thalia to show her how knowledgeable she was about the ways of Wyndham College.
They walked to the cafeteria together, still sharing small talk on the way, and then Desdemona saw the very tall dining hall. The cream color walls and dark brown tables were lit by the light of day, and it was a bit small in width because the school did not have too large of a population, but the ceilings were easily thrice as tall as they were. Since neither of them were going to stay very long, Desdemona let Thalia retrieve her breakfast first, and was excited to see she found blueberries for Kiki. “She’ll love those!”
Then she remembered! Although she had told Thalia that she did not know how students used the cafeteria, she did remember she had discovered the kitchen, and wanted to use that. “Wait,” she said, and hesitantly picked up a dark, grainy slice of toast off of one of the platters before going. Then, with her free hand, she took Thalia’s and brought her to the kitchen with a light rush, “I wanna show you something.”
In the kitchen, Mona went to open the fridge, and out of it pulled out a container filled with bright pink mush. She had brought crushed beets from her garden to school, and had been looking forward to them for some time. Desdemona placed the container on the counter, then retrieved a butter knife, and opened the lid before smothering the spread over her toast. After she was done, she closed the container and placed the knife in the sink before finally taking a sweet and savory bite.
She finished chewing and then offered it to Thalia, “do you want some?” Mona spoke, and then she giggled, realizing she had a bit of pink on her lip, and wiped it off. “I mightttt have brought a few of my crops here from the farm, too. These are my beets! They’re really good.” She said a bit proudly, knowing how much work she had put into raising them back home.
Beside herself, though, Mona also had to remember there was only a certain window of time before classes started, so she interrupted herself, saying they should go to her dormitory now, and put everything away. At that, they left and went up one of the staircases to find the lavish, purple cipher sweet. The majority of the building was conformed to shades of brown, but inside the house suites, it felt like entering another dimension. Walking through the lounge, the sofa cushions were cylindrical, and there were throw blankets messily spread across the furniture, illuminated by light tainted purple from the curtains, the entire place filled with allure.
Desdemona opened the door to her room and called her pet’s name. “Kiki!,” she searched, and within a few quick moments, the small bearded dragon crawled out from underneath their bedsheets, as it did not have a typical cage. Mona liked to think of her not just as a pet, but also as a friend, so there was no need to confine her to a tight container.
Kiki was a tiny little green thing. She had little eyes that she used to give a hard blink, and licked above her lip as a greeting to Mona. “Kiki!” She said. “We brought you blueberries!” She smiled, and then looked to Thalia like she was helping her parent the little lizard.
“Do you want to feed her, or do you want me to?” She said, trying to offer without pressuring Thalia. She knew a lot of the other people they knew weren’t very fond of reptiles, but Thalia was usually a bit more willing to try than them.
@Kristi sorry this took 1 bajillion years