Luna Queen

Chapter 3: The Second Meet

                    The duo had reached their destination long before Christopher was satisfied. The walk was shorter than he wished for it to be, despite the slow pace. They had walked the past minute in silence. Cassandra worried that he was offended, and Christopher worried that she hated him.

"Thank you for walking me home, Alpha," Cassandra bowed.

"Christopher. Friends have the liberty of calling each other by their given name, do they not?" His response left her baffled. Was he saying that they were friends? Had they become friends in the five minutes that they had known each other? Cassandra refused to call another a friend in a time as short as this. Yet, here was an Alpha, calling a lowly human he barely knew, a friend.

She had no reply to give, and she gave none. She smiled at him and walked away.

*****

                     Cassandra woke up at noon the next day, to the sound of a knock on the door. Alice awaited her on the other side, seemingly exhausted. She had stayed up longer than Cassandra, doing something she did not like. They sat on the couch, discussing the events of last night. Much to the disappointment of Mr and Mrs Newman, Alice had not found her Destined at the ball. Something had happened though.

"How could anyone propose like that? Does that nincompoop not want to find his Destined?" Alice was venting about how a gentleman had proposed to her, stating that he had not seen a beauty like her in his life. She had turned him down. Obviously.

Cassandra listened to her best friend talk about her time at the ball, for she had a lot to talk about, waiting patiently for her turn. She knew that what she had to say was so crazy, that she was still contemplating if it was a dream.

Finally, she got her turn. "I met the Prince last night," she said, much to Alice's astonishment. She relayed the details while the other listened somewhat impatiently, interrupting every now and then.

"He barely talked to me. Just made an appearance and wished me a happy birthday. Maybe he's also like me; maybe he hates the noblemen," Alice gave her two cents.

It was the most bizarre thing to ever have happened to either of the girls. A conversation with a royal was uncommon for most people. A casual conversation was completely unheard of. A royal apologizing and asking to be addressed by name? That never happened!

The girls discussed excitedly about various possibilities; from testing a commoner to falling in love. Eventually, when they ran out of things to gossip about, they got hungry.

"Do you want to go get something to eat? My treat." Alice asked.

"I do. But I was thinking about looking for a job today. I have three months before college starts. If I can get something to do, it would be nice. I want to either get paid, or have something amazing to put in my resume, or both."

                    The girls set out to eat, and find something that Cassandra could do. They went to the café Penelope worked in so they could ask her if she knew of a well-paying temporary job.

"I could ask some of my colleagues. There is always a waitressing opening somewhere." Penelope helped Cassandra bag an interview with a nearby restaurant manager.

*****

                    Cassandra Stewart loved first days. First day at the new house, first day at school, first day at summer job, and now, first day in college. She would have liked to hope that she would meet a cute guy and they would hit it off immediately, probably fall in love, get married and live happily ever after. But, of course, she knew that was far-fetched.