Page 6 of Skyblossom
“I think he wants attention.”
“Maybe he doesn’t want us fighting over the muffin. We could split it.”
She gave me a skeptical look before she turned to the side, and I followed her gaze to where the muffin was currently floating in a bowl of fruit juice, slowly disintegrating. “It’s… not to my taste right now.”
“Oh. Yeah. Mine neither,” I said. “My bad. Didn’t even notice I’d dropped it.”
She laughed—a small, quiet thing, and it made me laugh just as suddenly, and she laughed harder, breaking out into big, bright laughter that I found I couldn’t stop myself from catching. She laughed harder still when I started laughing, and she snorted by mistake, eyes wide freezing up, but it made melaugh harder hearing it, laughing until I was wheezing, and she laughed again too, and I guess Knot was just looking for a little morning cheer, because he relaxed his hold on the two of us then. Cadence and I stepped back from each other, laughing and wiping tears from our faces, as Knot coiled back up over her arms like nothing had happened.
“Maybe we should get something different,” I said, and she nodded, eyes still shining with tears of laughter.
“Maybe they have something else with dragonberry.”
“There are some croissants,” Lumi’s voice said from the side, and I looked over at where she stood next to a column with a big, colorful coffee drink, the kind that was more milkshake than coffee. “With cream and dragonberry preserves.”
“Oh, that sounds great,” I said, and then I realized the situation, my shoulders falling. I laughed nervously. “Um… hi, Lumi.”
“Hello, Summer,” she said, and I’d never seen someone pout as much as Lumi was pouting. I scratched my head, turning back to Cadence.
“Let’s get some croissants. T-together, with my friend.”
Chapter 3
THE 313thGALERIA
CADENCE
“You got a girlfriend and you didn’t tell me?Me?Your one and only very best friend in the world?”
“She’s not my girlfriend!” I protested hotly, and Rosie gave me a look like I’d claimed I met the five Founders. The Great Hall was getting busier now as we came into regular morning time, and I loved a crowd—nothing better to disappear intowhen I was mortified over having just been rubbing myself all over a gorgeous woman in the middle of the hall, not to mention making her friend hate me at the same time. I’d managed to escape after a meal and tea, but I felt like the tall diviner girl Lumi still had her eyes on me from anywhere and everywhere.
“I don’t know about you,” Rosie said, hands on her hips, “but I don’t dry hump just anyone.”
“Rosie,” I half-screeched, voice ashen. “We were notdry humping.It was Knot!”
“Not dry humping? It sure looked like it.”
“No—Knot.” I presented him, where he poked one little flowered stem up like a curious head, lookingcompletelyunchagrined. “He just up and tied us together!”
“Uh-huh.” She broke out grinning. “She’ssocute. Congratulations.”
“No—no! No…” I slumped, hanging my head. “Oh, saints, Rosie, please don’t tell the rest of the galeria about this. It’s so embarrassing. I mean it. I’m about to tell you something youcannotrepeat to anyone, and if you do, then I’ll… die. Just that. I’ll just die.”
She drew her wand, a dainty little thing of pale golden wood, and she held it up between us. “Wand oath?”
“Wand oath. I really appreciate it, Rosie…” I crossed my wand with hers, and they both shimmered a faint glow that settled like pixie dust over our wand hands. Rosie beamed, putting her wand back.
“Okay, let’s get to a quiet place. Unless you’d rather do it after class?”
“Let’s go now, after class I, uh… I’ve gotta run somewhere with… someone…”
She stopped, turning to me with her hands on her hips again, grinning. “That girl?”
“No! No…” I tented my hands in front of me, bouncing awkwardly on the balls of my feet. “Um… maybe yes. But it’s not like that.”
“Mm-hm…” She looked at me skeptically the whole time as we got outside, up a stairway around the corner, and settled onto a quiet terrace where we could see the district of Dragon’s Walk with its ornate architecture and cute little Juliette balconies in the pathway leading up to the grand courtyard in front of the Great Hall. Once we were both settled on the terrace, I sank into a seat while Rosie stayed standing, leaning on the rail, but she wasn’t much taller than me even so—Rosie was all of four eleven, with a full, curvy figure and pink hair just above her shoulders. She looked about as scary and dangerous as a hamster, but knowing her from my first day at Starfall, living in the room right next to mine in our galeria, I knew she was anything but. It hadn’t surprised me one bit when she’d gotten into the duelist’s circuit, nor when she’d started doing well collecting other duelist’s tokens.
That said, I mostly just didn’t want to be on her bad side because she was my best friend. I had a habit of staying in a library or in the galeria common areas or a greenhouse studying for too long, going late into the night and forgetting to eat, and she always made sure to bring me snacks and remind me to sleep.
