Orna Puella

- IX -

The next several weeks were worse than hell for me. Elsie watched me like a hawk and she was serious about me taking the Cab with Cerylia. She wouldn’t let me anywhere near the bus anymore, and I couldn’t go out of the house after I came back from school even if it was a life-or-death situation.

Cerylia was grounded for the entire month of January and her life was miserable as well. I couldn’t believe it when Elsie wouldn’t even talk to her. During those weeks, Cerylia and I became almost friends, as weird as it sounds.

I was going crazy from not seeing Raven. I mean, I would see him at school and we would still sit together but that was it. Finally, by the middle of the second week of my imprisonment, I gave up and decided to talk to Brazin. I stayed after math one day and tried to make up some wild story about why I can’t make it to math class until the end of January. I knew that my dad was coming back home somewhere around that time and I hoped with all my heart that the situation will change.

“So if you could give me all the assignments until then, I swear, I’ll do them… I will do extra work, I’ll do anything really…” I looked at Brazin, my ears burning.

He shut his book and looked at me, his eyes tired.

“I guess that means you and your desk partner, huh,” he said softly and I was surprised that it was in fact possible for me to blush even more.

Brazin hemmed and got up.

“See me tomorrow after class, both of you,” he said indifferently. “You’ll get your assignments.”

I almost started crying right then and there. The relief I felt was indescribable. So we got our assignments the next day and Brazin firmly told us that if we won’t be back in class on the first week of February, he’ll do something drastic.

Life got slightly better after that. We had math four times a week, which meant that Raven and I had an entire hour to ourselves. Hour seemed like nothing but at the same time, it seemed like a gift from Talath himself. We would always go to the Black Shed, since nobody ever went there during classes, and we would try to be careful but it didn’t work. Careful and us never meshed.

We knew that we were stupid and beyond reckless, but we couldn’t help ourselves. I still have no idea how we never got caught. It was amazing. Both of us were almost shaking by the time we would get to that shed. Hell, we wouldn’t even talk! It was like temporary insanity.

Then on the last day of January, my dad finally came back home and I couldn’t believe my ears when he actually yelled at Elsie after I told him what happened.

“It is none of your business who she is involved with!!” he yelled that night. “Yes, I knew about that guy! And no, it didn’t bother me! It is her choice and as long as it doesn’t hurt her and makes her happy, I could care bloody less about his heritage!”

Elsie started shrieking something about disgrace and purity - oh, Talath, I hate that word with a passion! - when he cut her off.

“If you will ever get into her business again, I swear to Talath, you will be sorry!” he said quietly and Elsie immediately stopped shrieking. “It’s bad enough,” he continued in the same quiet voice. “It’s bad enough that she is slaving around the house for you, but I guess it’s just something she will have to deal with until she decides to move out… But Elsie, if you will do anything to ruin her life, I will send you back to Antana, I swear!”

After that conversation, Elsie wouldn’t say a single word to me which was great. She would still make me clean and do the laundry, but that was it. Cerylia was off the hook as well, and life was slowly turning into something pretty great. Raven and I would spend every single minute together. He would stay in my bedroom, away from Elsie’s furious glances since my dad said that he’d rather have us under the safe roof of this house than at some dark dubious place, and for the first time in my life I felt happy and complete.

I am not going to keep on blabbering about how great my life was for the next couple of months. For some strange reason, people get bored with happy stories sooner than you can get to the end of your first sentence. So let me just say that yeah, it was great until the end of May. You guessed it. Until that damn Annual Ball, which I had no intention of attending. But you remember how I promised Cerylia to do anything she asked me after she made up that great story about me running her errands and whatnot? Yeah, that and the fact that Cerylia and I became actual friends by the end of May were the reasons that I had to go there. So let me think for a second where should I start… I guess I’ll begin from the day when Vicky came back.