Star-Crossed

Date: Wednesday, December 1st, 2020

The chants of birds no longer graced Japan. Light snowflakes fell gently from the sky to cover the ground with white. Orchid innocently tried to catch the snowflakes with her pinkish cloth mitts as she walked on the side of the street, looking at the white snow that gathered in her hands with the sparkling eyes of wonder and curiosity. Hers was about the first time she could remember the snow being this beautiful.

She had long forgotten anything else than her studies these past few weeks. This outing with her friends during lunch was more than welcome. She walked amidst Gwen and Hitomi as they walked on the sidewalk away from school.

She rubbed her mitts together as the soft winter breeze caressed her beautiful skin, and as she felt snowflakes land on her red hair. The fabric of her pink coat rubbed against itself and made some noise. She looked up, closed her eyes, and smiled as the snowflakes landed on her face. She then opened her eyes to look at the street covered in white, and comment on her appreciation of the phenomenon.

“It’s so pretty…”, she said with some awe and admiration in her voice.

“Is this your first time?”, Gwen asked her, looking at her younger friend with a bit of amusement. Her long blond hair, some of it attached with a hair-slide, flowed with the gentle breeze. “It’s like you’ve never witnessed winter before”.

Orchid did not answer, conscious that whatever she witnessed in the past was never this majestic. Then, for a few seconds, she remembered her father’s smile, and wondered what the winter snow looked like back home.

Hitomi rubbed her green mitts against Orchid’s winter jacket leave and looked at her suddenly quiet friend, concerned.

“What’s wrong?”, the dark brown haired Japanese girl asked Orchid.

“I miss my daddy…”, Orchid said in a soft, wounded voice. Hitomi moaned as to appease her, and rested her short dark brown hair against Orchid’s shoulder. The three remained silent as they walked on the side of the street.

It was Gwen who broke the silence, a little irritated.

“Don’t we all”.

“I’m sorry…”, Orchid said, not realizing that Gwen’s parents were still back in Britain. She was living with her aunt and uncle in Japan. She rose her gaze towards her older friend, and smiled shyly. Gwen looked at her, then smiled back.

“Don’t be sorry for me, I’ll be seeing them soon.”

Orchid was reassured by these words. She remembered.

Gwen was in her final year at this school. Once the finals were over, she could then move back to Britain with her parents, and go to University.

“What do you plan to do afterwards?”, she had once asked her tall, slender, older blond friend.

“Life isn’t over after this School of Magic”, Gwen once answered. “I can use my powers of healing and become a nurse, even a doctor. Understanding of magic to heal wounds, and understanding of the human body, this is an appropriate combination, don’t you think?’

Gwen looked at her red-haired friend. Orchid had shortened her usual long hair a bit at a hair stylist, a few days back.

“What do you plan to do after you graduate?”, she asked Orchid.

The red-haired maiden looked down, a bit ashamed about the fact that she had never thought about it. “I don’t know…”

“I want to become a scholar!”, Hitomi shouted in her high-pitched voice. Orchid looked at her. “A… scholar?” Gwen looked at Hitomi too, with a dubious stare. “Yeah, a scholar?”

“This school was founded with the main purpose of studying magic, wasn’t it? Where it comes from, what are its possibilities, how it interacts with the natural sciences, with the humanities, with the divine”, Hitomi continued in the same breath.

Gwen looked upright, still a little dubious. “I guess you still have a year to think about it before you graduate…” They stopped at a red light before crossing the street, and watched as numerous cars passed right in front of them.

“I’m serious Gwen, this is really something I’m excited about!”, Hitomi said with a smile.

“You do know you need really high grades before you can even think about becoming a scholar in the School of Magic, right?”

Hitomi rubbed the back of her hair with a mitt and smiled, a little embarrassed about her very modest grades. As they waited, a gust of wind picked up, and Orchid had to hold her light gray skirt down with her hands in order for the wind not to reveal too much, much to her embarrassment, and much to the amusement of her two friends, who shared a common laughter.

Moments later, after the light turned green, they were inside a small coffee shop, sitting around a table, hot chocolate cups in front of them, Gwen’s treat. Gwen benefited from discounts at this shop, since this is where she works part-time, after school, to pay for her personal expenses. She doesn’t have the money to afford luxuries, but can indulge herself, and her friends, from time to time.

“So?”, Hitomi asked Orchid, looking at her with a grin. Orchid seemingly wondered what kind of question that was, so Hitomi continued. “Have you met anyone in the school in front of ours that you like?”, she said with a humorous tone. Orchid still had no clue as to what she was talking about.

Gwen drank from her cup, and tried to quench her thirst for gossip. “Any boy?”, she asked. “We see you all the time with this guy, Yusuke you say his name was? Do you love him?”, Gwen continued. Orchid blushed because of the pressure she felt her friends put on her shoulders, as they waited for an answer, silent and very interested, their bodies leaning towards Orchid, their elbows on the table, grinning.

“Love?”, Orchid asked in a soft and inquisitive tone. Gwen looked up, smiled and sighed, slightly pushing her body away from the table with her hands. “I remember my first boyfriend”, she started. “He was so gentle at first, he treated me with respect… He was never late, he always paid attention to me, like if I was a very important part of his life… Maybe the most important part…”

She kept on looking up with a smile, apparently dreaming of the past, her eyes gazing towards something immaterial. “But…”

“He was too immature… I guess it’s normal for boys his age. We kept on being friends, and I tried to have what I had with him with other guys, but…” She sighed again, this time losing her smile, still dreaming of the past. “The most important thing about a guy… Is that he makes you feel… like you’re the most important part of his life. As if he just couldn’t live without you.”

She looked at Orchid, who was letting Gwen’s words penetrate her soul, listening attentively, paying absolutely no attention to any other noise occurring around her.

“You know you’re in love when you guys have that. And then he protects you, and makes you feel safe. And you like being with him, no matter what you guys do, and he likes being with you too, and there’s nothing he would rather do than be with you”, Gwen went on.

Orchid thought about her relationship with Yusuke, and indeed knew that she liked being with him, that he made her feel safe, and that, at times, there was nothing she would rather do than be with him. Maybe then, she was in love?

Hitomi looked at Orchid with all the seriousness in the world. “Have you guys ever kissed?”, she asked.

“Kissed?”, Orchid replied with a her soft tone, blushing. The two other girls waited patiently and silently for an answer that just wasn’t coming. Gwen just went ahead and assumed.

“You two will get closer together… And then, your gazes will converge, and the rest will flow naturally, by itself. And if he’s the right one for you, your heart will pound, you will melt in his arms, you will feel like the fabric of time stopped moving expressly for the two of you, and you will feel like you were his for the taking.”

The three girls paused a long time to reflect on Gwen’s words, the vapour of their hot chocolate rising up and filling the air around them.

Gwen looked at her father cultivate the lands near her wooden house, as she sat down on the porch, legs crossed and swinging in the air. She was enjoying the tranquil breeze that was blowing over the countryside house, smiling, her eyes closed, listening to the sounds of her strong father as he worked. She enjoyed the smell of fresh green grass, mixed with the smell of the soup that her mother was preparing for dinner.

Suddenly, she felt something furry rub itself against her hand, and opened her eyes to see her cat. She grinned upon seeing the animal, and grabbed it with her two hands, bringing its face close to hers.

“Hello, you!” The cat mewed in satisfaction as she stroked its light brown fur with her hands. “How are you?” The little cat swung its limbs in the air. She gently allowed the cat to rest on her knees, and continued to stroke its fur. Her father had stopped working the fields,and had approached her.

“Your mother says dinner is ready”, the father told Gwen, speaking in Welsh English. “We’ll be waiting for you inside.”

“Sure ‘pa”, she replied in her native tongue, and she continued to stroke her cat’s fur as her father went in the house. The blue-grey sky became grey, suggesting, along with the humidity, that rain was going to fall soon.

She noticed a boy was looking at her, standing up on the fields. He was dressed in corduroy pants, a shirt and a small vest. He looked at her, seriously, and she looked back at him, puzzled. Her mouth was opened, as if to speak, but no sound would come out. Seconds later, the boy was sitting next to her on the wooden porch, legs swinging in the air, hands on his knees. Both looked to the ground, avoiding eye contact.

“Am I… ever going to see you again?”, the boy asked, breaking the silence.

Gwen lowered her gaze even more, very timid. “Thomas, don’t say things like that…”

“But you’re going to Japan… Are you ever coming back?”, the boy asked, one more time.

Gwen maintained her gaze fixed to the ground. “No”, she said, with more maturity than one would give credit for an eleven year old girl. The boy was obviously shaken by that answer,but did not speak. They both kept staring at their feet and didn’t say a word. After a moment’s silence, she changed her mind. “Maybe.”

Another silence.

“Yes.” Gwen looked at her friend with seriousness, then a smile. “Yes”, she finally said, with more assurance, then she looked back again, to the ground, avoiding any possible eye contact. A few drops pounded on her white blouse. It started raining, but neither of them wanted to move, not from that porch, not from each other.

Orchid was sitting on a small wooden bridge, her legs dangling in the air, rocking back and forth alternatively. She held a fishing rod in her hands and was patiently waiting to catch something. Anything. Her father was sitting besides her, also holding a fishing rod. They were both patiently sitting and waiting, silent. She looked at him with a smile, and fondness. He reciprocated the smile.

This was truly a magical moment for her. The sky was red as the sun was setting, and she was spending time with the one person that meant everything to her. Suddenly, something seemed to grab her fishing rod. She turned her attention away form her father, and to the water. He put his fishing rod away, stood up and knelt down behind his daughter, holding her hands with his, helping her complete that catch. They tried mightily, but the creature got away. Orchid moaned in disappointment, but her father reassured her, there were plenty more to be caught.

“You want me to read your future?”, Hitomi asked Orchid, pulling her out of her reverie. She held a pack of tarot cards in her hands.

Gwen looked at her with little, dubious eyes. “Hitomi, those things are for the superstitious only…”

“Not true!”, Hitomi replied with fervor, “we in the School of Mysticism can be taught to understand and read the odds, so they can be revealed to us when we want to know, and these cards are special tarot cards! I can really read the future with these cards!”

Orchid was enthusiastic, and looked at Hitomi with eyes big with excitement. “Really?”

“Yep, I’ll just take a few cards out of this pack right here…”, Hitomi said. A pinkish glow surrounded her body for a few moments. She shuffled the pack and pulled five cards out of it, at random, after having closed her eyes and focused. She quickly displayed the cards in front of her, and without reading, put the first one she had drawn on the table. On it was the symbol of a woman of breathtaking beauty, a succubus, whose black wings were similar to those of a bat, and whose skin was of a pinkish hue, held in the arms of a majestic man clad in iron armor. Hitomi’s face reveled upon seeing the card.

“See? This card is the first one I draw, and reveals a not so distant future; one could even say it is the present. It is entitled the love of Rose and Raiden; it means that you’ll meet someone that will be very special to you, and you two will fall in deep love, even if that love could be a little wild and dangerous…”

Orchid looked at the card with sparkling eyes, and waited impatiently to hear more. Hitomi put the second card on the table; it was that of a knight clad in iron armor, and a green dragon appearing behind this man. Hitomi’s smile did not wither.

“This card is the second I pulled out, and is a little more distant into the future, but not so much. It is entitled “Dragoneer”; it means that your lover will protect you to the bitter hand!”

Orchid was too enthusiastic to speak, and Gwen started to pay a bit more attention, visibly interested. Hitomi was about to draw the third card, but stopped and looked at it first. She saw a black card on which were illustrated human skulls lying on a deserted pathway. Her smile withered. The signification of the card was clear: “Death and suffering”. She was not about to reveal this to Orchid. She looked at the other cards. The second one had the picture of two bare chested women standing up, one in front of the other, as if they were antagonists. One had skin of a reddish hue, while the other had skin of a blueish hue. They held their hands upward, to the sky. This card she wasn’t sure if she wanted to reveal to Orchid, nor did she know about its signification. The card was entitled, “Clash of the goddesses”.

Both Gwen and Orchid waited impatiently for the other cards to be revealed. Orchid’s eyes were still sparkling with excitement. Hitomi looked at the final card and saw nothing but the color black on it. This card is the equivalent of a joker in any normal pack of cards, its signification is unknown to all. The card is entitled “Unknown”, and its signification, as she picked it up last, is simply that Orchid’s distant future cannot be read. Hitomi looked at her two friends, who were patiently waiting for the rest of the forecast, put back the cards in her pack of cards, and shuffled it. Her friends looked at her with incomprehension before she muttered these words: “We’ll be late.”

Orchid took off her mitts and put them in her locker, then did the same for her pink coat. She ran a hand through her hair, wet by the snowflakes that had fallen on it and melted. She closed her locker, and walked the stairs up to the school’s hallway. She noticed there was a lot of noise, and many students were gathered in front of a wall, whispering.

When she approached that wall, some of them were looking at her, with some curiosity. She wondered what was going on, so she frayed herself a little way through the crowd and saw papers on the wall. She understood, as she read those papers, why everyone was excited: those were the results of the first midterm exams, categorized per student and per class. She also understood why some people were looking at her with curiosity: she, Orchid Tanaka, got the best scores, and ranked first in all her midterms so far. Claire Wright ranked second, and Bleu Heisashi, third. Gwen joined up behind her and whistled, impressed.

“Keep it up, genius!”, she said. Orchid looked back at her with a smile, encouraged. “You’re new here, and I don’t want to spoil the surprise”, Gwen continued, “but if you do well like that for the finals, something good happens!”, with her usual huge grin. “Not putting pressure on you or anything, of course.”

Orchid looked at Gwen with excitement, wondering what kind of compelling secret her friend was hiding from her. She could wait.

Hitomi, Orchid and Gwen lied on the white snow that covered the ground, in a field near school. They were lying on their backs, feet outward, their hair brushing against that of the other, in a circle. One had her mitts pressed against the ground,while the other had their mitts pressed against their chest. They looked up to the night sky, and contemplated the bright stars. Only the noise of an occasional car passing by disturbed the tranquillity of this moment.

Small white fog came out of Orchid’s mouth as she breathed through the cold air. She looked at the stars, eyes sparkling, reveling.

“In the school of mysticism”, Hitomi started, “we learn the meaning of constellations of stars, and the exact moments and locations where we can see them best. We can learn to harness them in order to cast certain spells.” Orchid was listening, attentive to Hitomi’s words.

Hitomi pointed up to a succession of stars with her mitt, and in this manner, drew something resembling a hunter.

“This one is the constellation of Orion”, she said. Then, she pointed to another succession of stars and drew something resembling a lion. “This one is the constellation of Leo”, she said. She pointed to another succession of stars, and drew something resembling a scorpion. “And this is the constellation of the Scorpius”. She went on, drawing with her hand and pointing to stars, enumerating all the constellations she could possibly discern in the black night sky. And Orchid kept on listening, fascinated like a child. After some time, the three girls lied on the ground, quiet, their chests moving up and down as they breathed, reflecting on the magnificence of the astral bodies.

After some time, a shooting star cut through the sky, and caught their attention. Orchid drew one breath of marvel.

“It’s…”, she started. Gwen interrupted her. “Shush.”

They waited for the shooting star to finish its slow course through the sky. It was Gwen who then initiated a conversation.

“So what did you wish for?”, Gwen asked. Orchid looked at her with an inquisitive look. “Wish?”, Orchid asked. “It is a myth that shooting stars are related to good fortune. Besides, what have you got to lose?”

Orchid looked up again, quiet, and paused.

Then she closed her eyes, and wished for something in her heart.

Upon returning home, she closed the entrance door behind her, and awkwardly got rid of her small leather ankle-boots with her feet. She then awkwardly removed her mitts and put them on the sofa near the entrance, then zipped down her pink winter coat, removed it from her soft body, and also put it on the same sofa.

She tiptoed her way through the dark, careful not to make the slightest noise with her soft, white cotton socks as she gently put one set of toes in front of the other, feeling the wall on her side with her hand to maintain her balance and sense of direction where her sight couldn’t pierce through the shadows, advancing through the unlit hallway towards a room where light transpired.

When she arrived in front of the room, she saw Yusuke, standing up, removing his shirt with the intention of putting on his pajamas. She saw the details of the muscles that composed his athletic body, on his arms, and his back. For a minute, it seemed like the world had stopped moving, just for her, for them both. Time stopped, and it was only the two of them. Her heart pounded, her breasts quivered, her lips trembled.

She remained standing there, looking at him, speechless. And he remained standing there, looking at her, speechless.

Fact sheet: Gwen Savage Characteristics: Academic specialization: Orchid School of Magic, school of Regeneration Date of birth: 27th of September 2003 Blood type: AB Hair style: Long shiny blond hair Height: 150 lbs Weight: 5′5 ft About Gwen Savage: Gwen Savage was born in Wales in a relatively poor family of Welsh-speaking farmers and agriculture workers of Anglican Protestant faith, although her family’s talent as magical healers, acquired empirically rather than through formal education,helped in the healthy growth of their harvest.

Through the financial assistance of the British government for students wishing to study abroad, through assistance from her uncle and aunt, and thanks to money she earns working part-time at a coffee shop in Tokyo, she manages to study in the Japanese Orchid School of Magic and acquire the best of educations. She is also furthering her knowledge of her family’s magical talents. To study in Japan, she left her mother, her father and her childhood sweetheart Thomas Mulligan, although she will be returning to the United Kingdom once her high school studies are over. She is currently a 12th grader, and is in her last year of studies in high school. Upon completion of this academic year, she plans to undertake University studies in the field of either nursing, or if she is lucky enough to have the appropriate grades, medicine.

She is very protective, and acts like a big sister to Orchid (or, as she calls the red-haired maiden, Orchy). She enjoys going to coffee shops, talking, going to the mall and also enjoys other outdoor activities. Along with Hitomi, she had a few friends of her own before the arrival of Orchid, but this year, she has concentrated her attention and affection more onto Orchid and Hitomi, with whom she feels a deeper connection.