just fall | ✓

24.

Life was much better having friends, I realized the next morning. I wasn't sure when I had fallen asleep or when everyone had left, but the scented candles in my room were out when I awoke the following morning. I half-thought I'd dreamed it until I began the walk down to breakfast with everyone else and found myself constantly conversing with one girl or another. Aquia was just as occupied by conversations with the other girls as I was, and half-shrugged when I managed to meet her eyes.

I hadn't expected Belle, Mima, Celine, Odetta, or Shane to reach out to me at all, yet Belle and Mima sat on either side of me at breakfast, and Odetta and Shane sat across from us, and they talked with me all through breakfast. I learned that the four of them had felt it was more important to apologize to Aquia, who they'd been quite rude to for associating with me, and had gone to her room instead of mine. I decided against asking about Celine for the sake of enjoying the normalcy of a casual discussion with new friends.

There were no eliminations that day, thankfully. We were just sent off to the Women's Room to do...whatever. Since it was mandatory to go there on Saturdays, I actually went and continued to chat with some of the girls as we made our way there. It was kind of...nice.

Aquia and I still sat off at our usual spot by the high windows to read and talk, and no one bothered us. We didn't discuss the weirdness of the past twenty-four hours. It just felt...I don't know, wrong? Weird? I tried not to think about how I felt too much.

We were in the middle of discussing our books when we were joined by, of all people, Gia, Clara, Sonechka, Fenya, and Zibiah (these last three were the Russian princesses, Fenya and Zibiah being the twins). We were actually startled out of our conversation by these sudden additions to our pair, but all of the princesses seemed quite happy to be sitting with us (this excluded Sonechka, who fixed me with a cold look the second she sat down). The other princesses were scattered around the room, chattering with their mothers (another surprise) or the Selected.

Aquia and I did our best to converse with the princesses, but quite frankly, it was hard to me feel comfortable talking to them with Sonechka glaring at me so steadily. It was a relief when Zibiah nudged her and asked something crossly in Russian. Sonechka snapped something in reply, and Fenya added in, looking quite disgruntled. Sonechka stood and stormed off, leaving the Women's Room and letting the beautiful doors hit with a hard bang. Clara looked vaguely ill.

The two Russian princesses looked quite sheepish. "Our apologies," Fenya said, "Sonechka is being...difficult today."

Gia laughed. "Difficult? Just difficult?"

"Well, yes," Zibiah said, shooting a not-too-happy look at the Italian princess. "She's just...unhappy is all."

"Unhappy that she won't be the one marrying Alexander, right?" A grin crossed Gia's face, and she looked very much like her older brother. "You can say it, you know. We all know that she's just pissy because she was hoping that Alexander would hate the girls here so much that he'd realize that he'd loved her all along." A beat of silence followed this. She leaned towards Clara and whispered, "I did use the word pissy correctly, didn't I?"

Clara just nodded. Her pale face looked vaguely like half-spoiled milk.

I'd expected the twins to be angry, but they merely sighed. They turned their dark eyes to me. "We're sorry, Lady Cassiana," Fenya said. "But it's true. She is."

I shrugged. "That's to be expected, I suppose. Though I can't say that it's my fault that Alexander is..." I searched for the word and came up empty. Settled for a vague wave of my hand.

"Enamored with you?" Gia actually giggled. "You can say it, you know. Everyone knows it. You should've seen his face when no one could rouse you."