One thing Jane had never particularly enjoyed about her 'innate fae powers' was the empathy. Not empathy as in sympathy for others, empathy as in she could literally feel everything others were. The terror of a nightmare, the lust of a . . . particularly lustful experience, the adrenaline of a sports match, the nervousness of people about to go into a test. All of it - and she could only kind-of control it. Her classmates were under the belief that she didn't spend a lot of time around others because she wasn't popular - a fact as true as the nose on her face - or just didn't like people. Jane didn't spend a lot of time around others because she knew that on a deep, almost basic level, a lot of her classmates didn't care whether or not she was in their presence unless she had something they wanted.
Generally, she didn't. She hadn't ever since mid-elementary school, when everyone finally realised that no, she couldn't do magic and no, she wasn't going to show them her wings or use them to fly them into the sky the way they wanted to.
She couldn't even properly help them cheat on homework - her answers simply did not fit into the maturity or education level that they had, her brain having adapted to the world faster than the rest of her, leaving her understanding of the world to develop quicker than people in her age group. When they'd been being taught the basics of referencing a writer of a novel in middle school, she been figuring out Oxford-style footnotes.
Jane stayed away from most of her classmates, being politely friendly at best. There were a couple she did like on a personal level - Lonnie, her first roommate before it became apparent that a roommate was not a good idea to Jane's disposition (turns out: extroverted roommate + anxiety caused by too many strangers = panic attacks. A LOT of them), Ally, who's understanding of the world around her was . . . is untethered was a good word for it? Ally's head was in the clouds, and Jane could appreciate it. Doug, Jane would never resent having to work with in class, nor eat lunch with and have a discussion about the music pieces he was learning with the marching band. But Jordan was one of the few people in school who could commiserate with her about her situation.
Jane would never really call Jordan a 'friend', but they were in the same boat together: the daughters of two magical friends to Auradon royalty, given the special 'privilege' of growing up in the royal circle, never mind that they were only considered if the royals wanted something magic done to or for them. Personality never really came into the equation.
She'd kissed Jordan, once. In the quiet time after a spring school dance - Jane couldn't be bothered to remember which one. They'd been sitting in the gardens, as the party quieted down and everyone filtered back to their rooms for bed. Jane had been sitting in the night, stargazing, Jordan plunking herself on the stone seat next to her.
Her schoolmates were some of the physically beautiful people - apparently 'awkward phases' weren't a thing most of them had to suffer through. Throughout her life, Jane had been surrounded by people that only ever seemed to be beautiful. Despite her knowledge of just what she was, she never felt anything other than strange, like there was something begging to crawl out of her skin, like her limbs simply were not meant to be the way they were. Jane chalked it up to simply lacking the looks of her female classmates, the ones whose mothers had been blessed with mortal perfection by her own mother and colleagues. Spirits forgive that some of that be sent Jane's way, that they teach Jane how to be like them. Sitting in her frothy-tulle dress that looked like a slightly-shinier version of the clothes she wore everyday, in colours that made her look washed-out and blend with the wall, Jane forced a breath. Turned her head to look at Jordan, sitting next to her, her body radiating warmth in the gold-accented dress that brought out the colour in her skin, the essence of magic user blistering Jane's brain.
"What the hell is with everyone's dumb obsession with each other?"
Out of all the conversation openers Jordan was known to come out with, that was not one that Jane had heard.
"Obsession of what kind?" Jane asked, trying to figure out the topic.
"Everyone wants to kiss each other, get their sweaty gross hands on their bodies. Like, I know that's a thing that can apparently be fun, but it's happening to everyone at once." Ah. That was the topic. Jane had felt the fluttering nervousness of her peers, the queasy slide of thoughts that led to slippery hands and tied tongues. She'd felt something akin to it when she sat next to someone she didn't know that well, but Jane bet that for her human peers, it had more to do with hormones than unease with people.
"I imagine puberty is the reason for that. You don't like it?"
Jordan slumped her shoulders, huffing a breath. "I could like it, but what I don't like is how everyone is making it out like it's some big deal, instead of fleshy slimy body parts touching another person's fleshy slimy body parts."
"It's the first time they've ever considered it's something they might want for themselves," Jane replied, "They don't know how to deal with it. I don't know how to deal with it, and I don't like dealing with it. I can feel everyone else not enjoying dealing with it either, so count your blessings."
Jordan smirked, her fourteen-year-old eyes holding the same sarcastic look they held two years later. Jordan didn't really change too much as a person, no matter how much time could pass, not if she didn't want to.
Jane at thirteen wanted nothing more than to change as time went by. But that didn't stop her body from rejecting that request.
"It's talking to you, Janey, that really makes me feel what I am. I forget sometimes. People treat me like a human most of the time."
"And with the anti-magic ban, they have no reason to remember that we aren't." Jordan nodded. Jane tucked her loose hair behind her pointed ear to emphasise the point.
"Girl made of fire, girl made of dawn. Pair of peas in a pod, surrounded by everything on the plate except more peas." Jordan cast her eyes skywards. The stars reflected in her eyes.
"Was that supposed to be philosophical?" Jane asked, bemused.
Jordan snorted. "Nah. Statement. Metaphor. Exhaling carbon dioxide with the added benefit of noise. My brain distracting itself from what it hears the people around us from thinking."
"What are they thinking?"
"Stuff about sleep. Dancing. Dating."
"Do you want to date anyone?" Jane couldn't imagine someone wanting to date her, but Jordan definitely had her own allure.
"I don't have anyone in mind, but it seems like it'd be a good way to pass some of eternity. I don't think I want to date anyone. I don't want to date you, Jane. But I would like to kiss you."
So she did. Both of their eyes closed and their lips connected. It was a chaste kiss, zero passion involved. But it was nice, and Jordan's skin was as warm as the embers that her parents had created her out of.
It was not something the two of them ever discussed in the years after - at least, not in high school.