Chapter twelve

Gabriel opened a wooden door and entered a small room. There were hundreds of pictures covering the walls. Pictures of students posing and showing some trophies. On the front wall, there was a huge TV, positioned on an ancient shelf. He points out a picture at the center of the wall, "This is your mother. Angelina Berkshire."

The woman in the picture was beautiful, her appearance resembled pretty much Rebecca's. Her features were simple yet particularly delicate and refined. She had very long black wavy hair, just like her. Her eyes were of a deep blue. Rebecca's eyes instead were dark brown. She stared closely to see better. She wondered why Andreas had never shown her that picture if It was right there in the school. She couldn't take her eyes away from that picture. An odd tight in her heart for both sadness and joy at the same time.

"Why is this picture bigger than the others?" she asked.

"because she played an important role in helping us to defend the school against the Dark Souls. She was one of the strongest women who ever existed. That's why her photo is bigger, but that's not all..."

He gently led his finger on the picture, and when he did so the picture began to sink into the wall. Rebecca watched the scene astonished.

The wall rolled on itself, revealing a new side of the wall full of Angelina's pictures, from childhood to adulthood.

Rebecca's eyes filled with tears, she finally was getting the opportunity to see her, to know more about her, about her real mother.

That's all she ever wanted, all she ever looked for. She felt so happy that her heart reached her throat, drumming so powerfully It felt like It might explode in her chest.

She felt like she had something in common with her as if they were connected, she wasn't appearing to her like a stranger anymore.

With eyes full of tears and a trembling hand she caressed the wall filled with pictures. Her touch was delicate and pure. She dedicated a few seconds to each picture to mentally memorize each photo.

"do you know where she is now?" Rebecca demanded.

"Yes." He immediately answered, as if he was expecting that question.

Rebecca looked at him, yearning for a response.

"When it's time, she will meet you."

Rebecca looked down at the floor, disappointed yet puzzled. That was not the answer she was waiting for.

He pointed to a picture in the left corner of the wall.

"Here she was participating in a magic competition in Ohio. She won, as usual, but guess who was his ultimate challenger?" he waited a bunch of seconds and then smiled "Me. That's how we met." On Rebecca's face appeared a hint of a smile.

"She beat each competitor so easily that it seemed like she came from another universe. She was too powerful... ...even for me."

"she looks very young.." Rebecca Observed.

He nodded "She was very young here. She was only sixteen years old."

Andreas meantime was with Emily, a girl he had seen for quite a bit now. They were having a heated argument.

"If you say we're not dating then why did we sleep together last month? And 2 months ago too? You have all those rules about not sleeping with the same girl more than 3 times but we have been sleeping together for 1 year, Andreas. Don't you think it's normal for me to be this attached?" She yelled all in a breath, she was wild with rage.

"I'm sorry if I led you on..."

"You're lying to yourself. You can't accept the fact that you love me." She placated.

"Believe whatever you want. It's over between us now."

He hissed, gazing at her.

She swallowed, murmuring "w-what" her eyes filled with tears. She looks up trying to choke back the tears.

"This time, for good. You're getting too attached." He said with a stern voice.

Emily's tears began falling down her face, ruining her mascara, which caused black spots under her eyes.

She sobbed. Although he'd never seen her cry before, he wasn't showing any pity in her regard.

He indeed had very strict rules about dating, many of those rules were dictated by his difficulty in feeling and trusting people, and others were because of his rule in the school.

She rubbed her eyes, "Okay fine." She walked away stomping over, then opened the door and slammed it hard.

---

"Thank you again for showing me my mom's photos, this means so much to me," Rebecca said smiling at Gabriel, once they returned to the cafeteria.

Now the cafeteria was crowded with people since it was lunchtime.

"It's fine. If you need anything, count on me." He whispered, smiling to her.

"Heeeelllooo Enchantress." A ginger-haired girl showed a big smile to Rebecca and extended her hand but when she noticed Gabriel's presence, she composed herself. "Hello, Sir."

"Hi, Karen. See you around girls." He said waving lightly with his hand, and then turning around to leave.

"He's so scary. Almost as scary as Andreas. But Andreas is hot, at least." Karen whispered staring at him leaving.

"I hope he didn't hear this." She covered her mouth with her hand.

"Isn't there some spells or something to impede the reading?" Roselyn asked.

She shrugged "They don't always do that. Because it consumes a lot of energy. However, nice to meet you. my name is Karen, I was so curious to meet the school's enchantress. Did you train already?"

"yes, had the first magic tests and did some practice with Andreas.."

"Lucky you!"

At that comment, Rebecca felt her cheek heat.

"However, did you hear about the news?" Karen's voice got lower in a whisper, leaning close to Rose and raising her eyebrows.

She doesn't wait for a response as she spat out. "Andreas dumped his girlfriend for g o o d "

Roselyn frowned "He had a girlfriend?"

"Kind of. She claimed to be. and they slept together often." She explained.

"Oh, and why so?"

for some odd reason, she felt was curious about the school's gossip.

"He has his rules" Karen emphasized 'rules'.

"Rule number one: He doesn't sleep with the same girl more than three times. Second: He never sleeps with her in his bed. Third, third:he doesn't reveal anything about his family, his past, or his emotions... He doesn't open up to anyone. And so on..."

Roselyn shook her head, "That's so weird and silly .." her face was stunned yet disappointed.

Karen shrugged in response. "But what matters is that he's free now." She smiled and winked.

"He is like every girl's erotic dream here. I had a huge crush on him when I was 16. After one hour of disturbing his class, he threatened to turn me into a huge hairy spider, so I started to hate him and fear him at the same time. However, the fear doesn't blind me enough to stop me from daydreaming about him during his lessons."

Rebecca chuckled and shook her head.

"Don't laugh. This is serious. I hate spiders. And he seemed very serious when he threatened me. I had nightmares for one week straight." She continued the blabbering.

"Poor you. He Is so evil sometimes."

"Oh, he is! But still so hot. Isn't he?"

Rebecca composed himself when she saw the person they were gossiping about had just made his entrance into the cafeteria.

She couldn't stop herself from following him with her gaze and as soon as he met her eyes, her cheek blushed exposing her vulnerability.

"Look at you! So into him! Stop looking or he will notice you blush!"

Rebecca cursed under her breath and drew her gaze back to her new friend.

"I am not into him." She said crossing her arms.

"Look he is talking with a girl!" Karen pointed her finger and before Rebecca could even notice she turned around to check.

He wasn't talking to anyone, instead, he had his eyes glued on Rebecca and he frowned, probably wondering what they were speaking about.

"Ah! Busted! " Karen's face lighted up.

Rebecca shook her head, raising her hands in surrender. "I was just curious."