Stella POV.
“You want to spend the night Cici? You can borrow some of my clothes and I can wash the uniform for tomorrow,” I suggest, tomorrow is Friday, and it’s the last day of the week finally.
“I don’t want to be a burden,” Calesti says, and then my brother gave me his best puppy eyes, he wants her to stay, and I would like to have her around.
“You’re not, and Mom loves you already,” I answer her, mom clearly likes her, they talk a bit together, and she gets Mom’s respect right away.
“If you’re really sure that it’s okay, then I’ll stay,” Calesti says with a tight smile, I nod my head yes, I wanted her to stay.
“Mom, Calesti is staying, is that okay?” I ask my mother just to be sure it’s fine to let her stay in for the night.
“Of course, she’s more than welcome, but she has to stay in your room and not Finn’s,” Mom says making Cici turn red and Finn pout, he wanted her to stay in his room. He should know better, she’s not going to stay in his room, maybe after he turns eighteen, not right now, not when he’s just fourteen.
We went toward my room and I gave her some of my clothes for her to change into, she asked if she could shower and I said of course, I showed her to my bathroom, and went to sit near my window seat, I was looking out for wolves, well one wolf, I’m searching for that angry one, was it still angry? Or did it calm down now and isn’t going to try and kill me anymore, I didn’t want to be killed, I wanted to be friends with the wolf, or for it to leave me alone and I’ll leave it in peace.
When I paid attention, and I mean a lot of attention and carefully looked through, I could see the shadow of animals moving around, I thought I had found the wolves, or maybe I was just imagining since I was thinking of that other wolf so much.
“Hey, are you okay?” Calesti asked when she was done showering, and she walked out in my pj which was a size too small, but she assured me it was fine, she didn’t mind the size being wrong, it was still comfortable.
“I’m fine,” I assure her, pulling my eyes off the window, she walked toward me and looked through the window too.
“If you pay enough attention, you can see the animals moving in the wood,” she says.
“You mean wolf?” I ask her.
“Yeah, wolves too,” Calesti says with a smile, I waited for her to finish getting ready for the evening, we have had our dinner, we didn’t have any work to do, and we didn’t attend the rest of today’s classes, so we don’t know if we’re missing something or not.
“Calesti, wanna see my room?” Finn says giving Cici his best puppy eyes, I nodded and let them go, I followed them and saw Finn showing her everything like a love-sick puppy, it was fun to watch him acting like that, but I hoped this crush wouldn’t ruin them both or ruin our friendship.
“Children,” we heard our father’s voice coming from downstairs, we had to go down and say hello, he was introduced to Calesti and he knew half of her family since they worked together and he too approved of her being my friend and spending time with us.
“We’re going to bed, night,” I say holding Calesti’s hand and dragging her away from Finn, he’s been talking to her for hours now, and he’s not bored and she’s very interested in everything he said.
“We can share my bed,” I say, I had a bed that was big enough to fit us both, she sat in the bed next to me and I sighed, everything that happened today was catching up with me now.
“Are you okay Stella?” she asks me.
“I don’t know, I’m thinking about that wolf,” I say, still thinking of it.
“The wolf or Milo?” she asks me.
“The wolf, I feel sorry for it, I don’t know why it’s so angry, and Milo, I don’t understand what I feel toward him,” I tell Calesti on the verge of tears.
“I think everyone in town got a crush on Milo,” Calesti says making me chuckle, maybe it’s not just me.
“When I walked out of the house today, I felt this strange pull toward the woods, do you think I’m messed up?” I ask her.
“The woods have their own magic,” she answers me.
“Do you feel the same toward the wood?” I ask her, just to be sure it’s not just me.
“Yes, all the time, the woods are my favourite place in the world,” she says with a smile.
“Isn’t that scary?” I say.
“Nah, it’s fine,” Calesti assures me ready to fall asleep.
“Cici, do you like my brother?” I ask her next.
“He’s a very nice guy, we’re just friends, you don’t have to worry about him,” Calesti tells me again.
“Fine, fine,” I say but I’m his older sister, it’s my job to worry about him.
“Is Theo okay?” I ask her next.
“He needs some time for himself,” she says.
“Did you talk to him?” I ask her.
“Today, not really, I don’t stand with what he did or how he’s treating you unless he starts acting like a civilized person,” she says and I nod, I am happy that she’s on my side instead of his.
“Thank you Calesti,” I say with a sigh, we both fell asleep after that, and we both went quietly lost in our own minds until sleep took over.
Mom woke us up the next morning, she kept encouraging us, saying it’s Friday, tomorrow we can sleep in, tomorrow would be our first weekend in this new country, and we’ll get to discover new things in this place. Calesti was a morning person, she along with Finn was too happy to get up and be alive while I was in the mood to unalive someone, but I held back, we got in Calesti’s car after our shared breakfast, and we drove toward school.
My eyes were looking for Theo, but I couldn’t find him, maybe I was looking for him just to know where he was so I’d keep my distance, or maybe I was checking where he was to make sure he was fine, to make sure that… I don’t even know, but I just wanted to see him, even for a second.
“You okay?” my brother asked me and I smiled, I was fine, I was not looking for Theo, I was just fine, I went along with Calesti toward our classes as she and Finn said goodbye, they looked like they were going to miss each other for the next years not a couple hours before they meet up again.
“Did you hear what happened?” One of the royals says, I didn’t mean to be sitting this close to them, but there wasn’t any empty seat but this one, and I’m trying my best to ignore their chats, but I heard them.
“He challenged him, it’s bad,” the other royal says.
“Milo is going to kill him, it’s final, he’s dead,” the other one says and the name Milo made my heart skip a couple beats, I don’t know why, but I felt like this conversation included me.
“He was always a hot head, not a big shocker,” the first one says again, and they went quiet after that, I felt bad for this person they talking about, I felt terrible for Milo, I had a big pout on my face as I went from my class to my next one.
The pout stayed on my face, with each class I left I kept on looking for Theo, but he was nowhere to be seen, I tried to look for him actively now, I walked around the school and the classes hoping to find him, but nothing he wasn’t anywhere to be seen.
“I wish we had lunch with Finny,” Calesti says with a sigh, she sounded like a love-stuck puppy and she wants me to believe that they are just friends, I gave her a side look, more of a side glare.
“Hey, he’s good company, and he’s funny,” Calesti defends herself and I roll my eyes at her.
“Sure he is, and you got a big crush on him,” I say and she doesn’t object to my accusation, she’s a big girl, and I’m sure she knows better.
“Who are you looking for?” she asked me next, she saw my eyes going around the cafeteria, to the royal table but he wasn’t there either.
“No one,” I lied.
“Liar,” she says and I shrug, I wasn’t saying otherwise.
The rest of the day was slow, I actually thought about skipping, about not going to the rest of the classes, maybe I could talk Cici into skipping classes with me, but I shouldn’t be doing that, I should let her attend her classes, maybe she has a good future ahead of her while I have to get over the wolves, and my double crush.
The day finally ended and I was really happy to leave, I was glad to be able to leave school and have two days of vacation, I mean the weekend, but two days aren’t that bad either, we decided to hang out instead of going home, Calesti wanted to show Finn around and I felt like I’m third wheeling them two, but I didn’t have anything better to do, so I went along with them.
“Do you want me to sit in the back too?” I asked them as we went toward her car.
“Yes,” Finn says at the same time as Calesti says “No,”
“Thank you guys, how generous of you to let me hang out with you,” I say with an eye roll getting in the car, and sitting in the front to my brother’s dismay.
Calesti took us to the middle of the town, she parked the car and we started walking around, she showed us all the shops and places that we could go to, this small town had a cinema with movies all the time, maybe I could third wheel my brother and friend to come and watch a movie. We ended up in the same diner again, it’s the place where young people like to hang out, and it’s the place where we met Milo yet again, he’s sitting with some of the royals from school, and so we all ignored them, they aren’t my friend and I doubted they’d welcome my presence.
“Hey, Lil-star,” Milo says walking toward me, everyone looked at him as he walked toward me, everyone saw him, and I tried to ignore them.
“Hello,” I say blushing, I didn’t want to talk with him in front of all of the royals.
“How are you sweetie?” he asks me.
“I’m fine,” I say my face going fully red.
“It’s Friday, any big plans for the weekend?” he asks me.
“Not really, I’m going to stay with Calesti,” I say, I didn’t have any real plans.
“Maybe I can take you out,” he says and I don’t know what to answer, I want to go out with him, but what about Theo? Would he do something? Would he get angry? Would he lose it on me?
“I… I don’t know,” I answer Milo, I wanted to go out with him, but didn’t know how to answer.
“Just say yes, I promise you’ll be okay, no wolves will attack you this time,” he says and I look up at his eyes.
“You promise?” I ask him.
“Promise, scout honour, no wolves involved,” he says and I nod agreeing to go out with him tomorrow, I don’t even know why I said yes, but I did.
“I’ll see you tomorrow then,” he says with a smile on his face as he leaves the diner.
“What just happened?” I ask out loud.
“You got a date with Milo,” Calesti says.