Daughter of Luka (LGBT+)

Nine 🌑

"No," she answered, "Why? Have you? Weren't the wolf rumours enough to put you off?" she asked me. 

No, was the answer to that one, but I didn't want to explain the whole thing to Kate, who looked incredibly concerned by the fact that I had even had the mere idea of exploring said forests. 

"I'm just intrigued. First my father warns me to stay out of them, next Uma is telling me not to," I explained. 

Kate rose an eyebrow at that. 

"Uma? As in the girl that we saw in the bathroom earlier today?" she asked. 

I simply nodded in response to that question. 

"She's the one," I added. 

I thought about Uma for a few more moments and then my mind drifted to thoughts of the other girl that I had seen outside of the bathroom. 

"Hey, do you know of a girl with golden eyes?" I asked, sooner than I could stop myself from doing so. 

"And a voice like silk? You're probably thinking of Accalia Winters," she explained. "She's relatively new here, too, though her family has lived here for centuries. Apparently she was doing online school for a long time. I'm not too sure what the whole story is, there. She seems nice enough, though." 

"That's a beautiful name, don't you think?" I asked Kate. 

She turned to me with a thoughtful look, for a moment. 

"Well, Accalia is a beautiful person. She's almost too perfect, if you ask me," she said. 

"Are you jealous?" I asked her. 

"No," Kate replied too quickly, in a voice that made me believe she felt much the opposite. 

I had many more questions on my mind but before I could even think about asking them, Accalia Winters herself walked into the cafeteria and sat down at a table opposite Uziel. 

Kate eyed her with jealousy. 

"Relax," I said. 

She looked at me with an expression of curiosity. 

"You look as though you want to crush her like that cupcake," I said, in relation to the cupcake that was now crumbling apart in Kate's hands. "They're probably just friends." 

Kate loosened her grip. 

"Uziel strikes me as the type of guy that just flirts with girls," I added. I had known many guys like him, in my time. Hadn't dated many of them, of course, but had known a fair few. 

Accalia's eyes then scanned the cafeteria, and they settled on our table. 

Kate swallowed. 

"Oh god. She's standing up. She's going to come over here. She's going to know that I've been shit-talking about her," Kate said. 

I sighed. 

"Doubtful," I replied, unless she could read minds. 

"Hey, Ophelia and Kate, right? I think we have English class together," she said. 

Kate appeared to be pleasantly surprised that Accalia had remember her. She smiled. 

"Yeah. That's me," she said, with a grin. 

"Your shirt looks very beautiful today," Accalia said and then turned to me. "I wanted to come over and see how you were doing. I didn't realise that your teacher was Mr. Z, he can be a bit..." she trailed off. 

"Scary?" I asked. 

Accalia released a small laugh. 

"Strict. He only wants the best for his students, though. Believe me, I should know," Accalia said and then looked down towards her hands, as though she knew a lot more than we did about that matter. "I can understand why you might find him a little scary, though. He can definitely be fairly intense at times. Anyway, Kate, Uziel said you looked really good today."

Both mine and Kate's eyes widened, this time around. 

"He did?" I asked because Kate was currently struggling to form a coherent sentence in response to that little piece of information. 

 "Yeah, he did, and you know integrity is very important to me, so I thought I should let you know," Accalia said with a smile. It was a genuine smile. 

Kate smiled back at her, seemingly relieved. 

I should have counted on Uziel to charm his way into the heart of every girl at the school. 

"Well, hey, that's nice!" I said happily, as I smiled at Kate. 

"I should get back to eating my dinner. It's not going to eat itself, but Uziel has a hunger that matches about three boys'. I'll see you both later," Accalia said. 

I nodded in agreement. 

Kate was still smiling. Her mind clearly far, far away. 

"Sure. See you soon," I said, gently pressing my shoe on Kate's. 

She broke free from her daydream, then, but looked disappointed at being back in the real world. 

"Hey, I was daydreaming!" she said, with mild irritation. 

"That much was evident, believe me," I replied nonchalantly. 

"Maybe I'm just being silly. Maybe he won't ever want someone like me," she said and I could tell from her expression that this was one of Kate's core fears. 

"Now you're being silly. You're an amazing person, Kate. You look out for your friends. You're kind and caring. Those are all great qualities already and that's only the start of it," I said, with a sincere smile which Kate seemed to appreciate. 

Accalia wandered back over to our table, then. 

"Hey, Ophelia, can I speak to you in a minute?" she asked me. 

"Yeah," I said, slightly taken aback that she wanted to speak to me again so soon, but it was a pleasant surprise all the same. 

Kate's eyes glanced between the two of us and she seemed to decide upon something. 

"I should probably get to my next study session. See you soon, Ophelia!" she said and then pulled me into a quick hug. 

"Sure. I'll see you soon," I said, managing a smile at her, before she walked away. 

Accalia and I then headed out of the cafeteria, too, and down the hall until we found a more quiet area and an empty bench, which we both sat down upon. 

"The other night, what did you do?" she asked. 

"The other night?" I asked, "I just went for a walk." 

Her eyes widened in worry. 

"Where to?" she asked me.