Marbled Tulip

Luz observed the school grounds from the fancy gate at the entrance.

It was enormous; she had never seen anything like it in her life.

Four buildings, each one bigger than the previous one, with sober colors and ostentatious Victorian architecture could be seen a few tens of meters away from her, beyond, long green fields with trees older than the buildings themselves, a few sports fields, and in the distance, an impressive greenhouse next to an orchard.

Luz swallowed the lump in her throat.

To say she was nervous would be simple.

She would say she was about to explode.

And who wouldn't be?

Her life had changed completely practically overnight.

A new school, a private one, with fancy, expensive uniforms, not many students for a lot of space, with impressive infrastructure, classrooms bigger than her old house, gardens with exotic flowers and...

A church...

A GIGANTIC church that she didn't understand how she hadn't noticed as soon as she walked in.

The architecture was similar to the rest of the buildings and was highlighted by the colored glass that adorned the windows arranged in biblical scenes, a few meters from its entrance, there was a bronze statue of a man in elegant clothes carrying a cane.

Luz read the sign of gleaming golden brass above the latticework.

"Jacob Blight Catholic Academy."

Underneath, in smaller letters, it announced that the institute had been opened in the year 1945.

Luz was about to walk into the classic rich people's private high school that was talked about in books and movies.

And she had no idea what she was supposed to do.

This place was the opposite of anything she was used to.

What do you do in rich people's schools?

...

Would there be stables?

Uh! They'd surely have a Starbucks instead of a cafeteria!

Theater plays would be Hollywood worthy productions!

"Ready Bichita?" her sister asked bringing her out of her thoughts with a pat on the head.

"Ah, yeah." Replied Luz still a bit pensive.

"Let's go to the office, mami said it was the one next to the third building from the entry." Her sister announced leading the way with Luz close behind.

As they walked several meters forward, the young brunette was engrossed in her thoughts again, meditating on the beginning of this new stage of her life.

High-school, they called it.

The latina encouraged herself as she reached the doors of the building.

Relax, it's just a new school...

In a new neighborhood...

Of a new city...

From a different state...

In a different country...

Where they speak a different language...

If I didn't have friends where I was born, how am I going to get them here?!

She inhaled deeply, calming her racing thoughts.

Take it easy.

In this country people thought very differently, maybe somehow she could fit in.

It wasn't worth worrying before she even started.

Courage.

"Alright Bichita, you're about to start something new... How are you feeling?"

"I feel like I'm going to throw up..." The youngest stated glumly.

The eldest stopped her walking, turning around and leaning down to be at her sister's level.

"Luz..." She started taking her by the shoulders. "Do you remember what Eda said before she left in the morning?"

"That I should hit the first classmate that came across to state dominance?"

The older girl laughed softly and briefly.

"That too, but I meant the other thing."

"That the only scary thing about school was studying."

"Exactly Bichita, and you're an excellent student, so you have nothing to fear."

"Lola..." Luz uttered with low tone and nostalgic eyes.

"Nope!" interrupted the older one. "I don't want to hear you say that you're weird, that you have no friends, and that nobody understands you, it's not 2008 and you're not emo. Do you understand?"

"But I am weird! Lola, nunca tuve un amigo de verdad en la casa!"

"Y eso a mí que me importa?!" Lola replied with annoyance. "Ya no'stamo en la isla! E' tu oportunida' 'e cambia' eso!"

"¿Y cómo hago? ¿Si yo nunca tuve amigos?"

"Bichita listen, we are in a different country, just be nice and be yourself. ok?" concluded the eldest. "... And try not to be too outgoing at first, gringos don't like it too much."

"Ok..." Luz replied, still drooping.

Lola sighed.

"Look Bichita, you are a lovely girl, you are funny and very loyal, you are much more than your weird likings, I'm sure you will find people who value that, so relax, it's your first day, just try to make a good impression."

The younger girl, at last, smiled slightly.

"Ok..." She said with a little more enthusiasm. "I think I can do that..."

" Excuse me? I didn't hear you." Teased the older one.

"I said I think I can do that."

"Coño, you talk quietly, Luz."

"I think I can!"

"You think?"

" I CAN DO IT!"

"¡ESA E' MI BICHITA!" The older one exclaimed, stroking Luz's hair roughly.

"Let's go!"

They advanced the few meters that separated them from the third building, right next to it, there was a one-story building, relatively small, on the cedar door of the entrance, with elegant handle, it read "sub direction", as they entered the space, they heard an electronic bell and found a wide hallway with four black armchairs of different sizes, arranged in some sort of waiting room, at the end of the hallway there was another door, also made of wood, this time, mahogany, on which there was a golden plate where was engraved with elegant cursive the legend:

"Sub-Dean Lilith Clawthorne."

At that moment, the door opened, emerging from behind it a beautiful woman with straight jet-black hair and pale skin, she was wearing matte black low heels, a black pencil skirt above the knee, a white button-up blouse under a jacket that matched the almost monochrome attire, between her collarbones she sported a beautiful ovoid emerald attached to a silver chain, her gaze displayed two colors, green and gray, gray like...

"Oh~!" Lola exclaimed in a singsong voice. "So you're the oh-so-famous Lily!"

The pale cheeks reddened slightly.

Lilith Cleared her throat.

"I would appreciate it if you addressed me formally, Miss Noceda."

"Ha! You're just as uptight as Eda said! Don't worry, you can call me Lola."

Lilith sighed.

"I guess there's not much point in remaining formal if you're Camila's children, follow me please."

Lilith pushed the door allowing the sisters to enter, she released the door behind her, it closed with a slight sway.

"Why do you have a saloon door?" Lola asked arching an eyebrow.

Lilith frowned.

"It's not..." She sighed. "It's Doctor Blight's policies, all educational staff must always be available, so office doors can't be locked... Except for his."

Luz's eyes widened in surprise.

"That... Sounds very hypocritical."

Lola laughed involuntarily and quickly brought a hand to her mouth.

Lilith arched an eyebrow.

"I suggest you listen and don't talk too much when you visit Dr. Blight, now, have a seat, please." Lilith said pointing to the velvety office chairs in front of the desk.

The office was sleek and modern, three crammed bookcases were arranged behind the glass desk, on top of which were the minimal necessary supplies, there were a couple of cubist paintings on the walls, and, in the left corner of the desk, next to the desktop computer keyboard, two photos, one of a blond, blue-eyed man with a sober countenance in an elegant suit, and one of Lilith smiling solemnly next to a blond, amber-eyed woman in a flower garden.

The atmosphere was sophisticated and minimalist, if not for the pair of photographs, it would almost be impersonal.

"¡Uy, que elegancia la de Francia!"

Lola exclaimed looking around, Luz laughed slightly.

" I beg your pardon?" Lilith asked sitting down behind the desk.

"Nothing, nothing, just that your office is very nice." Replied Lola sitting down next to Luz. "Now... So what's there to do?"

"Oh, thank you." Granted the deputy dean opening a file cabinet under the desk. "We just need to corroborate a few things and then we'll give Luz a tour of the high school facilities."

Lilith found what she was looking for and pulled out a dark blue folder where on the front it read "Luz Noceda" underneath a headshot photograph of Luz.

"Now Luz, Lola, I need you to confirm a few things for me."

The sisters nodded.

"Luz Noceda... 15 years old... Dominican-American nationality... Born August 24, 2006... Mother Camila Perales de Noceda... Father Rogelio Noceda Flores... GPA 9.0 out of middle school, which would be an A- in our grading system..."

Luz nodded at every piece of information Lilith said.

"Conditional certificate of good behavior... A total of 40 disciplinary reports over the course of 3 years... Banned from the theater club, cheerleading and art workshops... She is labeled as responsible for the resignation of a biology teacher after an incident with the dissection of a frog..."

Luz had a grimace that grew with each statement as she shrank in on herself in the chair.

Lilith looked at her curiously.

"How come you made the teacher quit?"

"You don't have to answer that Luz." Lola hastened to say.

"I'm not interrogating her..." Lilith continued. "I'm genuinely curious."

The fifteen year old girl sat upright in her seat and hesitantly looked the sub-dean in the eyes.

"Uhhh... " She hesitated. "We were dissecting toads, in the report it says frogs, but they were toads, and looking at the functions of each organ... When air enters the esophagus it gets trapped until the muscular duct reopens, and I was curious if the dead body could still hold air... I had a small pump for my bike in my backpack, I took it out and connected it to the toad's throat and started to inflate it, the toad was already open and I saw how its stomach was inflating, I wanted to see how much it could inflate and just when the teacher went to my place... It exploded. And she stuffed us both with dissected toad... She didn't quite handle it right."

Lilith looked at Luz with astonished eyes while Lola bent over her chair covering her mouth to keep from laughing.

"You... How long have you lived with Edalyn?"

The loud laugh Lola uttered was uncontainable.

"I've only met her a few times at the holidays, but I like her a lot, we get along well." Luz replied with a smile.

"Well, let's move on..." Lilith continued. "Outstanding sports participation in the male baseball team? Male? But why the male?"

"Because I don't like softball and there was no female baseball team." She answered simply.

"And why not just look for another sport?"

"Because my little sister strikes them out like balloons among cacti! Your question has nothing to do with what we' re doing Lily!" Lola said with rapture and a frown.

It wasn't the first time Luz had been asked that question.

Lilith cleared her throat.

"My apologies." She said returning her gaze to the sheet of paper. "Youth literature award... Official member of the coed boxing club... Award in State Creative Drawing... Described as "bright but worrisomely distracted and impulsive..." Suspected unconfirmed ADHD diagnosis..."

Luz affirmed again at what Lilith was saying.

"Alright, now, I'm going to tell you, the class schedule is from 9:00 to 15:00, the subjects come in the schedule I'm going to give you, the campus opens at 6:30, from that time the clubs usually take the first hours to do activities, as well as from 15:00 and until 19: 30, the minimum passing grade is C+, so I suggest that you work hard, it is mandatory that you choose two extracurricular activities, one cultural and one athletic, you must also choose a foreign language, in the documents comes a list of activities that you can choose, but you still have two weeks for that, the high school building is the one next to my office, you can't enter any of the other buildings without a special permit, and to enter the high school building you need to use your student ID card to open the doors, you will be in group 1A, in a few minutes they will give you a tour of the facilities, then they will give you a brief medical exam and finally, you will have to go to the dean's office to formally introduce yourself to Dr. Blight, after that you will be able to go to class. Oh! And the church is always open for anyone who wants to enter, but the clergymen are absent from 13:00 and until 18:00, there is obligatory mass on Mondays. understood?"

Luz nodded.

"Very well, now..." She turned to Lola. " Your mother put you on the list of official guardians, along with Edalyn, for some reason, so I need you to sign some documents for me."

"Sure."

"Luz, take this." Lilith concluded, handing Luz a pink folder.

As the two women continued talking and signing papers, Luz looked through the folder.

Inside came her class schedule, a list of extracurricular sports activities and a list of cultural activities, the list of language classes available, a map of the campus, what would be her student ID, and a light blue pin with the letters "JBA" printed in gold.

Luz quickly placed it with the rest of the pins in her backpack, in between the rainbow pin and the good witch Azura's staff pin.

With everything Lilith had told her, Luz was beyond excited.

"That's it?" Lola asked in a monotone voice pulling Luz out of her thoughts.

"That's right, that's it. " Lilith replied tapping the papers against the desk to line them up."You can pick her up at 15:00, freshmen have no club activities the first two weeks, your presence is no longer required, you can join her or leave, it's your decision."

Luz looked at Lola with pleading eyes.

The older girl sighed.

"I go with her."

"Very well." Lilith continued. "Luz, are you ready for the tour?"

"I was born ready!" She declared excitedly jumping to her feet heading for the door.

"Oh, she' back to her natural state. " Lola said with amusement.

"I want to see the whole school already!" said Luz grabbing the door handle and pulling it hard...

Just as a young girl was trying to push it to get in.

"WAAH!" She exclaimed.

The unexpectedness caused the girl to stumble, almost falling face first on the carpet.

Luz reacted quickly, taking the girl's hand and pulling her tightly, causing the inertia to throw her body against hers.

She held her by the waist staggering due to her weight and hugged her tightly so that neither of them lost their balance, causing them to be face to face with an almost non-existent space between their faces.

"I'm so sorry, I was excited and didn't think, let me just..."

The verbiage of regret froze the instant she felt the small, pale hand in hers.

And how could she not, if Luz never imagined that the first thing she would see before entering school would be something so...

Perfect.

Even after the stumble, the girl's posture could be flawless, as if instead of having been about to fall, she had taken Luz's hand with the intention of dancing with her, her uniform, perfectly adjusted to her figure, did not show a single stain or wrinkle, the pale skin was immaculate and did not show a single freckle, the hair was the color of a toasted caramel, almost reddish, and her eyes...

They were a deep and caramel amber, reminiscent of liquid gold, they shone like precious stones refracting the light that entered through the door that Luz held with her body.

The brunette was enraptured, never in her life had she seen such eyes, or simply, never in her life had she seen someone so...

"Hermosa..." She uttered stupidly, not realizing that she had been staring at the girl for at least 6 seconds without letting go of her embrace.