Chapter III – XIII
She remembers how she used to hate math class with all her being. She's still, and will never be, an actual fan, but she comes to find recently, that hate is a bit strong a word. Especially, since it strongly concerns the hour she spends in math class, and not the subject itself. She still doesn't like that.
She doesn't hate school in general, and she's not bad at it either. Moreover, it gives her a reason not to be home and alone. Here, she has one or two people she's not friends with, but is friendly enough, that sometimes she's not completely alone eating lunch, but even having no friends at school is better than siting at home and waiting for your mother to maybe acknowledge your presence for a few minutes. And when Fiona does, acknowledge her, there's still the possibility of being criticized and put down, instead of an actual polite conversation. They have this, every once in a while, but since it's way more uncommon than the criticizing, Cordelia doesn't wanna take a chance when she can avoid it.
Of course, she has Misty now, so it's not as bad as it used to be, when she had been too young for school and the babysitters have had the sole purpose of being in the house, ignoring her just as much as her mother normally did. But Misty has her own life, her own school, which means a day not spend in school still means a lonely day at home for Cordelia.
So she used to get through math class solely on her ability to sneak glances at her neighbor's sheets and, in very recent months, she might have even cast a little spell or two, to help her read the quiz answers right from her teacher's mind.
She used to have absolutely no idea what her teacher was saying because she can't understand the logic behind it.
Now, however, she has no idea, because she stopped listening. She's preoccupied with staring at the back of the boy in front of her. He'd transferred to her school three weeks ago and, suddenly, math didn't seem so horrible anymore. Her mind provides her with images in which she isn't too chicken to finally go up and talk to him, to have an actual conversation, instead of the shy hello she manages when he takes his seat in front of her.
She makes it a habit of being in class before he is, just so he has to look at her, however briefly, while walking to his seat and that's when she exchanges the only words with him, she probably ever will. She's sure he's only doing it to be polite, because he can't pretend he didn't see her when he's walking straight towards her, and so she needs to be the first one in class. If he's there before her, he would just rummage through his backpack or arrange some things on his desk and simply don't notice her and she would never be brae enough to make the first move.
It's her first crush, she just recently overcame the stage in her life where boys were nothing but eww, and it scared her at first. She'd talked to Misty about it at length and she'd even dared to ask her mother about the strange things she's feeling and though the woman wasn't that much of a help (She'd told her to get used to it and then left the girls alone for the weekend), she's not afraid anymore. She thinks she could even get to like it.
When the bell rings, she packs up her things slowly, she knows he's turning around every day to get his bag from the back of his chair. She can already picture his brown eyes, almost hidden by a few locks of dark hair that fall into it, and the light smile he sends her (even though Cordelia has to admit, she's not so sure anymore if this is an actual occurrence or something her mind had made up). Today is no different, but when the boy faces her, it's not the boy anymore.
She's staring at the beautiful face of her best friend, who smiles down at her gently.
Cordelia wakes to noises in front of the house. Her bedroom faces the front yard, and it's not the first time people woke her by standing on their doorstep. Normally, she's pretty annoyed by that, but today she finds herself rather glad for the interruption of her dream.
She's not sure what to think. She's dreamed about that particular situation a handful of times already, not much, but it's still not new to wake up with a dream about that boy fading in her mind. The fact, that he turned into her best friend, a girl, confuses her to no end, though. She would like to ask someone what that means, but her mother doesn't care enough and Misty is definitively the wrong person to talk to.
That's new, too. In the last seven years there was nothing Delia hadn't told Misty – or couldn't tell her. Last month, when the girl had her very first period, the first person she went to had been her friend. And only after she couldn't really help Cordelia out there, had the other girl reluctantly turned to her mother for help. Then she had shared what Fiona told her with Misty, because she knew the taller blonde couldn't talk to her own mother when the time came.
When Fiona had overheard that conversation, she told the girls that this is not really a topic you are supposed to converse over just for the joy of it (she'd said it's way too personal) but Delia hadn't cared. She's glad to have someone with whom she can talk about everything – no matter how personal or maybe even inappropriate it was.
So what is she going to do now? She has no other friends, at least none she really wants to reveal this to. Misty is her only real friend, and the two girls at school who are sometimes friendly towards her are definitely not involved enough in her life to be privileged to this conversation.
Yes, Misty will hear about this dream, and as soon as possible, but only until the point where her own face started to appear. Cordelia can improvise and lie around that, no problem. And Misty would be so delighted about that development in her crush of that boy.
Everything else, she relents, she has to figure out for herself.
The girl is pulled out of her thoughts, when she hears her mother calling for her. She's genuinely surprised by that. She hadn't known her mother is even home and she honestly hadn't cared last night when she went to bed. After their weekly Latin lessons, Fiona had left under one pretense or the other and Delia had spent the evening eating ice-cream and going to bed way later than she's allowed to on occasions her mother is there to monitor that. Interestingly enough, bedtimes have always been a thing Fiona was adamant about, but in recent years Cordelia came to understand, that with her asleep, Fiona didn't have to interact with her, on the occasions she's actually home in the evenings.
She pushes back the covers with a sigh, swings her legs over the edge of her bed and stretches her still tired muscles. A glance at the clock reveals that it's barely seven a.m., and she knows, that the only reason Fiona had opened the door in the first place, was because she just came home herself.
At another shout, she rolls her eyes, but gets up finally. She doesn't have to go far though; the moment she opens her bedroom door, a bunch of wild blonde hair crashes into her. She's about to make a joke about watching where you walk, but is stopped by a strange sound coming from Misty. It sounds suspiciously like sniffling. Looking her friend over carefully, Cordelia can see that the other girl had indeed been crying. Red eyes, wet cheeks, and that awful sniffling sound – all the indications are right there.
Taking the girl's hand, Delia drags her back into the room, closing the door with her foot while turning around and pushing her down to sit on the bed. She takes a seat beside her and envelops Misty in a tight hug. The girl cries into her friend's shoulder.
Delia's curious, but she doesn't want to push and so she just silently comforts Misty, tightening her hold ever so often, to let the other girl know she's there for her. Her patience is rewarded ten minutes later, when Misty pulls back and wipes her eyes with her sleeve. She doesn't care, she has enough clothes of her own in Delia's closet, that she's just gonna change later.
"I'm sorry I woke you up so early" she says, gets up from the bed. She makes her way over to Cordelia's closet and pulls out one of her own shirts. "Your mother probably hates me now" The words are mumbled into the fabric she just pulled over her head. Cordelia busies herself with her immaculate nails, because for some reason Misty changing in front of her, after that dream, feels way too much to handle. If she doesn't want this to become awkward real fast, she needs to figure out what the hell's going on even sooner.
"Don't worry, she just got home herself. And she hates everyone." The blonde tries some humor to cheer Misty up, before she just has to ask what she's doing here. There is a tiny shimmer of a smile on Misty's lips and, even though it's not a complete happy face yet, Cordelia counts this as a win.
In the last seven years nothing really changed and – if so – their friendship only grew stronger. Every day, they went to school, did their homework and then met at Delia's. The fact, that there were no real other friends to steal any of their time together, for neither of them, had only intensified their bond. There had been the odd birthday party invitation one of them received, probably more out of pity or whatever, they couldn't get out off, but that was essentially the only time they had really spent apart over the years.
Friday's were still reserved for Latin lessons with Fiona and Bible lessons with Misty's mother, though fortunately the girl had managed to talk her mother out of Bible Class just a few weeks ago. She's been showing up to that freak show once a week for the last three years, and it was the most boring shit she ever had to endure. As soon as she had turned ten, her mother had made her participate, and gone were the days Misty would sneak out to play with Cordelia.
So Cordelia had talked her mother into holding Latin Lessons earlier, while Misty was otherwise occupied and so she could still pick her friend up from Bible Class, because Misty would still come by Friday evening for sleepovers.
This week, Misty's mother had insisted that the girl stay home after lessons, because they had something important to discuss and, as much as she didn't want to, she had relented and told Delia she would be by around ten on Saturday. No matter what her parents had to say to her, she knew, she either wouldn't like it or just didn't care.
As it turns out, it is the former.
"We're moving" She grabs a handful of tissues from the vanity, because she can feel the tears coming again. "My daddy's got a new job offer and it makes more money, so he's taking it" She is engulfed in another hug as Delia folds her arms around the taller blonde's waist.
"When are you leaving?" They won't be moving far. This is nothing serious. They will still get to spend a lot of time together. If she's not in reaching distance for daily visits, there's still the weekend. And holidays.
"Saturday, so I have enough time to get around before the new school year starts." She buries her face in Cordelia's shoulder, lets the few tears that threaten to escape roll down her cheeks. This is goodbye – she knows it and, deep down, Delia does, too. "Delia, this is not like I'm moving to another street. We won't see each other anymore"
"But you can't leave" They are both crying now. They can't do this. They are like family – they are family – and though there are ways and methods of keeping in touch even when not in the same state, they just can't do this. The last seven years have been the best years of their lives. Without Misty, Delia has no one to talk to about her magic or use magic with – and vice versa. They need each other in more ways than they had ever imagined.
"I have to"
"Why don't you stay here?" Delia has to say something. It's barely audible through her tears but she needs to fill the silence that fills the room.
"I'm thirteen, Delia" the girl laughs. "I can't stay alone in another state" Misty does in no way want to move anywhere, much less anywhere away from her best friend, but she has had enough time to process the news and pretend to have made peace with it.
"No, I mean, why don't you stay here?!" She doesn't know where that idea came from, but she knows, as soon as it leaves her lips, that she means it. When she had uttered her sentence the first time, it had merely been a way to fill a silence, something to say, that left her lips without even really knowing what she had said. But saying it out loud again, Cordelia feels that this is the only right thing to do. Misty's spending the majority of her time at their house anyway, so what did it matter if she moved in officially?
It's the perfect solution – Misty doesn't want to leave and Delia doesn't want her to.
The wild blonde more than once confessed to her friend, that she doesn't know what she would do if she didn't have Cordelia. The friendship in itself, is of course incredibly important to the both of them, but there's also the fact that they are both witches. No one in Misty's family knows about her Powers and she intends to keep it that way. It is incredibly hard for the girl to hide her magic from her parents at times though, because when she doesn't use it for a while, she just tends to forget, that she has it. More than once objects started to fly through the room when she was thinking about something in particular and she's still afraid of anyone finding out. She can't see herself living with her parents, away from Delia and even Fiona and not let her magic get public notice.
"Honey, your mother would have a fit, and I'm going to school on the other side of town" Misty shrugs, "Besides, my parents would never allow this" She wants to stay, Delia can hear it in her voice and feel it in her body language as the girl leans more heavily against her. Her hair smells like roses and for a moment Cordelia is transported back to her strange dream.
Shaking her head, she gets rid of the images quickly. She doesn't have the time for that. "So you'll change schools, you'll have to do that at your new home anyway" They finally move out of each other's arms, but just long enough to walk back over to the bed and cuddle up against the headboard. "And my mother won't even notice you're here. I'm sure you know that"
She doesn't mention the situation with Misty's parents, because they both know, that this is the least of their problems. It they actually do this, if they get Fiona on board with this, the adult has ways and means to make it happen.
"You will be leaving here in three years, to go to that Boarding School for witches"
"So you come with me" Delia detaches herself from Misty's arms and turns around to look at her friend. Sitting cross-legged on her bed, she almost bounces with energy. She can't believe she hasn't thought about this before now. "This will be so amazing. We learn all about our magic and how to use it properly and we are going to be going to the same school"
The girl rambles on for a whole while, as Misty drifts off, lost in the idea of the image Delia is picturing. With a short laugh, Misty leaps forward and throws her arms around her friend's neck. This shuts the shorter girl up effectively.
"You seriously mean that?" Delia nods in reply, her smile hidden in the other girl's hair. When Delia leaps off the bed without warning, they stumble onto the floor and with a lot of laughter Cordelia pulls her friend off the floor and heads out the door with Misty's hand in her own.
Misty is confused, until they come to a stop in front of Fiona's room – then she's just scared. The adult would never hurt any of them, but she's still not pleasant to be around when tired, or drunk, or hung over – or just not in the mood to deal with the children. But Delia knocks without a second thought and doesn't shy away when her mother opens the door and glares at them. The girl's not scared of her mother anymore – at least not as often as she used to be.
Fiona is not really excited about the idea at first, but with some clever prodding and well-thought through arguments on how this would benefit all of them, they don't need that long to sell her the idea. She tells them to get out of her hair and let her sleep for a few hours and promised to have an actual conversation about this. They spend the day camped out in Cordelia's room and when there is a knock on the door four hours later, they can't help but be pleasantly surprised. When Fiona genuinely makes an effort to have this conversation, then this thing is leaning in their favor pretty heavily.
The girls are pretty confident, that this will work out.