cascade | kotlc

32. Finals, Finally

this is the tiana content you all crave

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They did have the sleepover, the night before their finals. Their parents agreed they needed to take their mind off things.

Sophie actually came, surprisingly everyone. Even June wasn't sure whether her sister would feel up to it, but she came, and it was the first time she smiled in weeks. Faye had to admit, Sophie looked good when she smiled.

The finals went past in a flash. Faye barely remembered taking her elvin history tests, suffering through elementalism (where her Mentor refused to have her bottle lightning strikes), or grinding away at Lady Vodka's assignment to turn indigo into gold. And here she was, standing amidst the celebrations, candy raining down all around her.

Her parents weren't here, obviously. She'd be afraid if they were.

"Hey," June whispered, sliding up next to her, shoving her way through the turbulent crowd. "How's it going?"

"Fine," she replied, biting her lip and wondering how she would squeeze past the thousands of people and to her locker, which was stationed all the way across the Level Five wing.

June seemed to understand. "Need a lift?" she asked, grinning and lifting herself into the air. Faye accepted the ride, taking her hand, and June carried them over the heads of the other prodigies.

"Hey, Tam's there," Faye pointed out as they cleared a corner. He and his sister were bending down, almost shyly, while other prodigies crowded them and shouted questions at them. Tam looked particularly surly as he removed a pink box from his Thinking Cap with fluttery hearts pasted all over the wrapping paper.

Linh giggled, her pink lips pursing together as she herself extracted a clear parcel with crush cuffs, and Tam scowled immediately.

"Whoever sent you that," he swore, "I will murder in their beds, bring them back to life, and murder them again, so god help me and tell me who sent my dearest twin sister that-"

Linh rapped him on the forehead. "They literally say our names, you idiot." She gestured at the cloth bands. "Orinio Cairo Quillan + Linh Hai Song."

"Orinio!" Tam yelled. "Wherever you are, don't touch my sister again!"

Linh rolled her eyes. "Will you ever stop being like this?"

"Hurry up and get a girlfriend already," he retorted, sighing loudly when he pulled out his own set of crush cuffs.

"Who sent you that?" Biana suddenly asked, popping out of nowhere and snatching the package from Tam. "Avana Liwly Wersilton," she read, her ring flaring with viridescent energy and lighting up like a beacon, and her lips curved into an angry smirk. A flyaway strand of her hair stuck upward like a disgruntled cat's as she crossed her arms and pouted, withdrawing a dark green pouch bound with thin golden wire.

Tam too took out a teal box. The two gifts were suspiciously identical in size and dimensions, and Faye and June shared a glance.

June snickered. "They're both getting each other crush cuffs," she whispered. "This is going to be entertaining."

"Couple goals. Heh, I don't have time for this." But Faye still didn't take her eyes off the adorably 'flirting' couple.

"That's nice, you shouldn't have gotten me anything," Tam mumbled, nervously rearranging his bangs. Shadows pooled around his feet, lapping up his ankles like gentle waves, and Biana flushed, accepting the package from him and draping her long hair behind her shoulders.

"Oh- um- of course I'd get you something," Biana stuttered, tucking her golden blouse into her dark trousers. She was stunning, and Faye suspected she'd put in extra effort in making herself look good for this occasion.