Owl Masking

Chapter 20 - Eda's Requiem

Luz presented her biology assignment yesterday, coming to conclusion that although there can be complications, vaccines are indeed necessary. She didn't get as high of a score as she thought but she didn't mind.

This morning, she applied for the Hexside gym membership, which is another thing she didn't know they had there. She spent two hours punching her feelings away, only to have her knuckles bruised because she couldn't punch properly

Then she got ready for her political science class. The only person she knew there was Hunter. As usual, they band together. Nothing really happened. They had a discussion on the plan for the year and then they were assigned countries, like some model UN. Hunter got the USA and Luz got South Africa. She was so excited, she did all the research she could do in one afternoon. Both on the country, and how a model UN was supposed to work.

All while Eda became suspicious of the teachers. She knew them, grew up with them, hell—taught with them. There was talk and she wanted to know what about. It didn't help that she had restricted access around the school. The only reason she was here was to look after Luz and Hunter.

King started his first day in the school a week after Luz did. As expected, he made everyone bow to him in the playground.

Luz couldn't believe the school was big enough to educate k-12. But at the same time, it made sense. The school may have been big enough to have thousands of students. You either needed good connections or talent to get in. or both. King certainly had...talent. He chose to join the Odinson club. Not surprising.

It's been harder for Eda, trying to avoid police questions and working to show the damn government she was a good citizen. It was harder especially since King had to move out of her apartment. And she was alone, dealing with her stress and anxiety.

What made things worse was how she handled her anxiety. You could probably guess

"Oh don't look at me like that" Eda said, pointing to her reflection in TV "you know I'm stressed" with another sip of her Elixer, she sighed "I wish you were here, Cam"

"Hey, Hey! I'm not getting caught. Come on" she almost choked on tears when a thought came to her head "what if Luz found me like this?" Eda shook her head, getting up from the floor. She wasn't going to throw out all the Elixer, but she sure as hell was going to hide it. She'd seen Luz's face when she asked what it was for. "Medicine for Autoimmune illness" that was Eda's response. It was medicine for Autoimmune illnesses. Now she didn't know what it was.

"Let's go for a walk. Come on, tiger" sighing, she fixed her hair and straightened her clothes. A walk was a good idea if you wanted to get lost in your head. But she couldn't be in her apartment for too long.

Walking out of her apartment, she started whistling. If she was going for a walk, go for a distracting one, right? Then she had an idea: why not go to the music room. But when she got there, someone was already playing tunes on the piano.

Short white hair. Eda gasped. Raine. Eda put on a confident face. And this time, really straightened her look before walking in.

"Wow, would you look at that" Eda leaned on the piano smirking. Raine looked up briefly then looked back at the sheet of music.

"Edalyn" seriously? Eda smirk did falter. But only for a second. Only for a brief second

"Is that any way to talk to an old friend, Raine Whispers?" Raine hitched. Always the shy type but Eda loved that.

"Edaaa" Raine cringed, covering their face with their hands. Eda chuckled. Yep, still the same.

"I thought you were off being Hexside's Music show demon" Eda sat next to them

"I was" Raine shrugged, putting the hands back on the keys to play soft melodies "I came back yesterday"

"So, how was it?"

"Weird"

"I bet"

"How have you been, Eda?" This time Raine looked at Eda with genuine light eyes.

"I've come back to hell, as you can see" straight to the jokes. Eda wasn't ok and Raine noticed that. But didn't push

"Welcome back" Raine chuckled

"Thanks" Eda muttered

"Want to play?" Eda looked around, then at the keys. She only learned ukulele from Raine. Shaking her head, she chuckled

"I'm out of touch, Raine-storm" she said

"Titan—I haven't heard that name in ages" ok, maybe one song wouldn't hurt, Eda took a breath, placing her hands on the keys as if they were foreign to her. They were.

She tried so hard to remember the keys. She played this song only on strings so, the keys felt weird. But Raine tensed then relaxed at the song choice.

"Raine's Rhapsody, more like Eda's Requiem" Eda joked about how badly she played, earning a chuckle from Raine.

"Eda's Requiem is a good song"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah"

"Sounds terrible" Eda countered but Raine just shrugged

"Anyway, i have a class in about ten minutes, I should get going" they stood up, taking their jacket from the top of the piano and put it on

"Ok," Eda breathed out

"See you later, Eda"

"Later" Raine walked away and Eda smiled, seeing this as an opportunity to mess with them "since when could you play piano?"

Raine turned around with a smirk and said "last week in Germany" leaving Eda almost stunned. It wasn't surprising that Raine was able to learn how to play an instrument so quickly. This was Raine after all. What surprised Eda was how casual they were. She could sense their ego almost. Yep, still the same.