Chapter 3

I jumped for the second time today when the door burst open and a girl stomped in. To say she looked annoyed was an understatement. She was fuming,

"Ugh! I have had it, repeat, had it with men!" She swept past me and dropped herself onto the couch opposite me, raving about some guy who "screwed her over"… I'm hoping not in a literal sense.

While Ajeeta was very sweet, natural, slightly doughy in appearance, and a combination of air and earth, this girl seemed to be her polar opposite. She had long blonde hair- a slightly dustier blonde than Sky's- that reached below elbows, very shocking green eyes and prominent features. She wore a lot of make-up to enhance her already flawless pale skin and wide eyes. Her choice of clothing was more adventurous than mine or Ajeeta's- which she could afford to do because she had a figure that a lot of girls would kill for- sporting a tank top and tight cropped hipsters. As she waved her hands in fury, I noticed her fingernails donned a French manicure. Unlike Ajeeta, she didn't wear a pentacle; she wore a bronze sun glyph on a delicate gold chain.

When she finally stopped for breath, she noticed me looking at her,

"Who is this?"

"Morgan Rowlands, our new room mate." Ajeeta answered from the kitchen, "Morgan, meet Stacy Carroll."

Stacy's beautiful face finally took on the form of a smile as she greeted me warmly. It was then when she noticed what Ajeeta was doing in the kitchen,

"You're making tea, Age? Make me some too." She looked at me and grinned, "She makes great teas, brews and gem essences. But ask her to make anything else and it'll be the last thing you ever eat."

I could tell she was joking, and I laughed.

"I heard that!" Ajeeta said, although clearly suppressing a giggle, "I'll have you know that I am a good cook. I can make a pretty decent vegetarian lasagne."

Stacy lifted her hands in mock surrender,

"Okay fine. Do I get to have tea still?"

"Yeah." Ajeeta replied, "Just stop calling me Age. I'm older than you by a mere seven months. I'm not ancient, you know."

"Could have fooled me." Stacy retorted with a big smile on her face.

I grinned, sensing that these two had known each other a long time.

"Twelve years, to be exact." Stacy confirmed for me, "Too long."

"Ha-ha." Ajeeta called sarcastically as she picked up the three mugs in a true waitress style, "What were you ranting about?"

"Andrew was giving me all these hints, right? So today, I thought 'hey, it's been three months, why don't I just call him up on it?'. I ask him out, and he's all 'I have a girlfriend'. I mean, who does that?"

Stacy launched into a bout of swearing and talking about what a rat this Andrew guy was, using words that I daren't repeat. She suddenly struck me as a warlike Vikroth, now that her face held the same furious look as she had when she came in.

Ajeeta settled the mugs of herbal tea on the coffee table that settled between the two couches and sat next to me. She smiled at me quickly, to assure me that, even though Stacy was a hothead, she was completely harmless. She turned to Stacy,

"Stace, I told you that men are just not worth it." She said. Stacy gave her a look that I could tell Ajeeta had seen a hundred times,

"That's easy for you to say, Lady Galahad, but I happen to like this guy."

I grinned inwardly at Stacy's reference to Sir Galahad the Pure. The fact that Stacy had referred to Ajeeta as the female version of this particular knight, I realised that the nickname didn't need any further explanation.

Ajeeta, ignoring Stacy's Galahad comment, sipped her tea and spent time convincing her friend that if this guy didn't see how great she was, then he didn't deserve her attention. Her voice held a certain bitterness, which I recognised… having had that same twinge myself until Cal kissed me for the first time. Although Ajeeta had never been romantically involved with a guy, she had definitely had more than her fair share of heartbreak.

Memories of Cal and Selene rose to the surface, still so recent and painful. Not wanting to vomit or cry in front of my new room mates, I pushed my feelings back down and sipped my tea.

I was taken aback by a combination of raspberry and rose… it was surprisingly delicious. I saw Ajeeta sip on her own tea and recognised that it was her favourite.

I suddenly noticed that Stacy was looking at me,

"What's your story?" She was asking.

"Sorry?" I asked, settling my mug down.

"Do you have a boyfriend? Girlfriend?"

I was slightly surprised that Stacy had asked me whether or not I was straight, however subtly. That's something that I had never come across in Widow's Vale.

"I have a boyfriend, my muirn beatha dan." I replied, proudly, "His name is Hunter Niall."

"The teenage Seeker?" Ajeeta blurted, surprised.

"Yeah. Do you know him?"

"I know of him." She replied, "I met his parents when they came to our hometown looking for survivors of the dark wave about three years ago. Mrs Niall was very ill, so they stayed with my family for a few nights… until she had a vision of some kind and she and Mr Niall fled."

I felt a knot in my stomach, thinking about the dark wave,

"The dark wave… did it hit your town?"

"No, and I'm thankful for that every day." Stacy answered, "Some of the town's Pagans came down with the flu for a few days, but it ended quickly. Many of the local moots cast protection spells over the town in hopes that we would be fine. And I guessed they worked."

"Yeah, nothing says power like a large group of blood and non-blood witches, Shamans, Druids and Shuvanis working together."

I nodded in agreement and smiled.

Suddenly there were a few meows coming from the bedroom. Ajeeta looked at me,

"Pip!"

"Dagda!" I said at the same time. All three of us got up and ran into the bedroom and braced ourselves to see the two cats fighting. We all knew that if Dagda and Pip didn't get along, I'd have to move into a different room- something I definitely didn't want to do, as I really liked these girls.

We sighed with relief when we saw that the cats were merely playing with Pip's toys and having a game of Tug of War with a piece of string.

Ajeeta giggled, finding the display incredibly cute, and I soon found myself laughing too. I was definitely going to love it here.

A/N- Short chapter, I know. But I thought it would be best to cut it off here and change scene in the next chapter. Stay tuned for the next chapter, where we'll see the circle for the new students (Goddess, that sounded lame, but hey…). I haven't got enough feedback on my writing- please R&R people!