Heath

A way to describe the duality between the long-haired duo… was… polar opposites. NuWa had fair and clear skin, and brown eyes, her hair was orange wavy and shiny, and always worn in a braid. Zayda on the other hand was dark-skinned with a scar crossing the left side of her lips and another one on her right cheek, magenta eyes, and straight pitch-black hair. But both were definitely deemed beautiful in their own way.

How they ended up befriending each other is an actual mystery. No one knew, but you could always see them together. They earned several names throughout middle school.

The long-haired duo

The Fairy and the Vampire

The Ballerina and the Soldier

The Polars

The Lovers

This last one name didn't regard that they were dating… oh not at all. It was referencing the Major Arcana Card. Because if you knew them and knew what abilities they held… you would understand how deep the meaning of that name was.

While famous they were… they actually never interacted with the rest. They had each other.

Zayda walked into the classroom and saw Michelle, someone she definitely did not like, sitting at her assigned seat. She took some deep breaths. It's ok. There's nothing to be mad about, right?

She breathed in once more and walked up to Michelle. "Uhm… Michelle… you are in my seat" The other girl just rolled her eyes and ignored the one in front of her. When alone… Zayda wasn't really a liked person. At least not by Michelle so the dislike was pretty much mutual. "I share this seat with NuWa-Jī…" she didn't want to sound upset.

"So?" She sounded dry and annoyed. Her brown hair falling on the sides of her eyes. "You can sit at the corner of the classroom." More like a suggestion, it sounded like a demand. Her voice was giving off an irritated vibe and the day was barely starting.

The tall girl tried protesting yet she was ignored by the brunette of orange eyes with flying colors.

She sighed and made her way to the corner. It was comfortable but it was a single-seat, not a paired one, so she felt alone sitting there. It somehow was isolated from the rest of the classroom. If you liked sitting alone it would be fine, but Zayda absolutely hated sitting alone. She felt like when she was a child.

A girl wearing her bright orange hair entered the classroom, noticing her best friend sitting in the secluded area of the class. She didn't even greet the guys who were chatting at the front of the class like she normally would.

"Zayda! What the hell are you doing here" the expression Zayda was wearing on her face worried her. The only thing her friend muttered was "Michelle", which was enough for her to understand.

It wasn't the first time and it ached to the bones to know the brunette girl did that to whomever she disliked. NuWa grabbed Zayda by the wrist and pulled her over to where Michelle was sitting. Though being taller, Zayda had a habit of hiding behind the smaller teen. She couldn't even make eye contact with the girl who proudly was sitting at where the Lovers usually sat.

NuWa took a few deep breaths. "Move," she said firmly. The one with orange eyes looked at her.

"What?"

"You heard me, move."

Michelle snorted giving her a look that literally said she was going to do whatever she wanted. NuWa was the pacific kind but she voices out when she wasn't on agreeing terms with someone.

"If you don't want to cough Heath petals for the rest of the year, you will fucking move. " she slammed her hand against the table and Michelle got up immediately. NuWa frowned threateningly.

"As if you dared to make that to me, it's not like there's anyone to reject someone like me. " Oh, but isn't she an entitled one! "You should make your research Mich, it's clear I ain't talking about a romantic partner. " To that comment, the brunette reacted with an offended look and proceeded to move, not without pushing Zayda aside aggressively and lifting to both the middle finger.

Zayda stared at her friend for a while, seeing how she muttered obscenities at herself. She started looking down from her scalp and following the length of her hair. Her hair was touching the floor. Zayda bet down and picked up the mess of hair that was laying on the floor.

"Do you wanna mop the floor with your hair or what?" NuWa turned to see Zayda who was frowning. "Shui-Xiōng didn't braid it today… want me to do it?" It was touching the floor. While holding her friend’s hair, she reached out to her backpack where she kept a brush and hair ties. NuWa relaxed and accepted.

She sat at the table while Zayda stayed standing. She ran her fingers through the ginger's hair to get rid of any knots and brushed the tips to get rid of the dust that the girl collected while walking around. She opted to braid her friend's hair into three English braids. The ginger's hair was soft and shiny, when wet it was wavy and it was fun to style. You would be able to spot the girl in a group if you watched from above.

"Shui-Di had ballet rehearsal early today" NuWa was relaxed and with her eyes closed. "They will have a performance soon, so DiDi didn't have time to fix my hair.” Shui was usually was the one to fix the girl’s hair, and on occasions Zayda’s hair too.

Zayda’s hair wasn’t as long as Nuwa’s hair, it reached around the knee, yet it still was incredibly long.

As she finished tying up the last braid she made she felt someone approach. The Chinese girl mouthed a command to the standing one and she reluctantly acted in accordance with what she was commanded. Michelle. She angrily bumped Zayda with her shoulder, immediately jumping at the contact with the one she decided to try and burden. An electrical current ran and went through her body leaving her a bit in shock and with an angrier state.

Michelle frowned and exited the classroom, slamming the door on her way out. Whispers started flooding the room. Who made her angry? Seems like the princess is mad. Who would dare bother her? The day will be messy now… Who even is her to have all these people brainwashed? It’s not like it’s the end of the world if this tiny pretty petty princess is angry.

---

Later on, the rumor spread that Michelle spent all day in the infirmary. Throwing up petals and crying; lots of people arrived to check on her but she was crying and furious, yelling at whoever dared try and share a word with her. She wasn’t even able to eat a proper meal around the whole day. The mood of the sophomores was gloomy and absolutely upsetting, even the hero course and other technical course classes, who didn’t actually give a damn about what happened in the general studies, were affected.

Impressive how a single person can affect the mood of everyone if they are well known. The petals were like a threat becoming an action, tiny, purple, and sticky, with a scent of a rainy forest and the odor of blood. Should also be mentioned that the girl affected was sitting in a corner. Just like someone washed by solitude and despair.

---

The Lovers were sitting on one of the branches of the giant oak tree that was beside the gym, in one of the gardens. that tree was covered in carvings of past students, with hearts and people’s initials’ making a naive oath to true love, or people wanting to pass to history (with the weak attempt) by writing their hero names from when they were in their first year. Maybe writing the typical “random person was here”.

The girl with the scar was twirling the ring that she wore on her index finger. “You are anxious” She turned herself to her friend. “You do that when you are anxious. Spill.” When she just entered highschool Zayda wouldn’t have cared, she hadn’t cared for the past two years anyway. But it did bother her. This time it did.

Why was she so scared of a girl who’s only resourcing when fighting was ignoring and insulting? A girl who instead of fighting made others fight for her.

Zayda sighed. It truly was scary if you placed it with those words.

“I’ll take it back”

That’s all she said before hopping out of the tree branch and walking away. In the end, Michelle isn’t the only one who coughs Heath petals in a corner.

It is a two-way blade.