I cringed. "Poor Dad."
Sakura shrugged. "It allowed him to spend time with me and that was what was most important to him."
"Mrs. Wolf," Headmistress Gonzalez greeted as she walked to our table. "I'm so glad you could once again join us."
Sakura stood and shook hands with her. "The students always put on the best events and I love supporting them."
"Let's sneak away while she's distracted," Tsukiko whispered before shoving another piece of food I didn’t recognize into her mouth.
Most of the food was gone, and we still had a lot to see.
Frances and I nodded our agreement, stood, quickly kissed Sakura on the cheek, and then jogged across the field. We jogged past the stage where a huge crowd had gathered, waved to Ainsley who was talking to a small group of harpies, and finally made it to the shopping booths.
There was a lot more magical items than I expected, including a potion booth.
"Don't get any ideas," Frances said with a scowl as she caught me reading the description on a sleeping potion.
"I was just looking," I lied.
She grabbed my hand and pulled me away from the booth.
I bought some trinkets to give to Frances and Tsukiko, as well as some for my parents and siblings. I would send my families' items by delivery service.
Hours later, exhausted from eating, buying, and partying, we stumbled to our rooms and crashed.
I had always thought I would hate events like this, but I was beginning to learn that some school events weren't so bad. As long as I had my friends with me, anyway.
"Love you," I called through the wall.
"Love you, too," they called back from either side of me.
Chapter 26
FRANCES
The festival was even more fun than I had imagined.
Before I knew it, Samhain was upon us.
Normally, Samhain was a time of celebration and joy. We would exchange gifts with the creature we had a crush on and have parties three nights in a row. It was similar to the human's Valentine's Day.
For Tsukiko, Loralie, and I, it was a time of sadness and irritation.
We had no one to give gifts to.
We had no desire to party.
We just wanted to finish our school year and go about our lives.
The pain of Takumi’s loss hadn’t dulled, even for me.
It felt too soon.
Too recent.
As classes ended the night before Samhain, students chatted excitedly about tomorrow. They discussed the huge party that was going to happen and the rumors of who was going to give who a gift.
We had decided to give no one a gift, not even each other.
“So, who are you three giving gifts to?” Ainsley asked as she walked beside us towards the dorms.
“No one,” I answered.
She chuckled. “Oh, you want to keep it a secret. I get it.”
“No, we aren’t—” I started to explain, but she flew off.
Loralie sighed. “Whatever. Let them think what they want. Hopefully, it will keep them away from us.”
“Let’s get some food and take it back to the room,” Tsukiko said.
“That sounds like an amazing idea,” I said and smiled.
The dining hall was surprisingly packed. I hadn’t seen so many students in there at one time aside from dinner before.
“What’s going on?” I asked a nearby gorgon.
She turned, her snakes lifting above her head to gaze at me. Strangely, she and her snakes had half-closed eyes and looked about to fall asleep. “Everyone is getting snacks so they can stay up and make their gifts for Samhain,” she said. She looked us over. “Isn’t that why you’re here, too?”
“We’re here for snacks,” I agreed with a nod. She didn’t need to know we weren’t participating in Samhain.
She turned back around and her snakes lay back on her shoulders, their eyes closing fully.
Was she sick? Most creatures didn’t get sick, but maybe she was one of the few who did.
The line moved extra slow due to students taking longer than usual to choose the items they wanted. The staff was calm and collected as they took our orders and I made a mental note to tell Sakura that they should give them a raise for putting up with us.
Once we had our food, we went to Tsukiko’s room, turned on mind-numbing television, and pigged out.
All I needed to get through life was delicious food and these two girls.
“I love you two,” I whispered.
They looked at me and said, “Love you, too.”
The evening of Samhain, we sat in Tsukiko’s room, dreading going to classes. We could hear the squealing and feel the excitement from here.
“We could skip classes,” Loralie offered.
“They’d report us missing to our parents right away,” I argued. “Our parents won't believe any lie we come up with.”
Tsukiko growled. “Hopefully, no males will bother us.”
“Hopefully,” Loralie whispered.
I had little hope of that. The school was big and there was likely at least a lower classman who would give us a gift.
“Let’s just go,” I said with a sigh.
We were all wearing black pants, a black shirt, and black shoes. Tsukiko had even put black bands to hold her hair back.
“Deep breaths. We can do this,” Loralie whispered.
I wasn’t sure if she was trying to encourage Tsukiko and me, or herself.
Probably herself.
I opened the door and, on the ground, sat six gifts.
Loralie groaned, grabbed them, and tossed them in the room without even looking to see who they were for or who had left them.
“Happy Samhain!” Ainsley yelled as she flapped past us, down the hallway.
“Happy Samhain,” we grumbled beneath our breaths.
We walked out of the dormitory and into a mass of excited creatures.
“This...was a mistake,” I whispered.
It was too late, we’d been spotted and several people came up to us, wishing us well and some giving us gifts.
By the time we reached our first classroom, we were irritated and ready to flee.
“This sucks,” Loralie whispered and let her head drop to her desk.
“Yeah, it totally does,” I agreed.
“Why do you three look so glum? Not get any presents?” Norma asked as she slid into her seat across the room.
“Don’t even acknowledge her,” I whispered.
“Doesn’t surprise me that no one wanted to give you a gift after the way you treated the Evil Three,” she added.
I didn’t even need to ask who the Evil Three were. It was obviously the guys. The girls liked to give them ridiculous names as they claimed to be their fan club or something else idiotic.
“I’m glad you showed your true colors. Now someone actually deserving of them can get them. Your spell is gone and we can finally make our move,” Norma purred.
“Have fun,” I said. “Just leave us alone.”
Dante came into the classroom, and I immediately dropped my eyes to look at the desk.
“Hey, Dante,” Norma crooned. “You look hot today.”
“Norma,” he greeted.
“I made you this,” she said.