Isabelle let out an exasperated sigh as Ash stood in front of her. Ash was a tall girl but she had poor posture, and today her brown eyes looked tired. Her shiny black hair was tied up in a bun on top of her head, making her look like a matron."You look like h.e.l.l, Boots. What"s wrong with you?"
Ash smoothed her hair back and moved to rub her eyes. Isabelle slapped down her hand.
"Hey!" Ash yelped.
"Don"t do that, Ashy! Your hands are dirty from the oil in your hair!"
"Sorry, My Lady!" Ash said, rolling her eyes.
"You keep calling me "My Lady" and I will slap you right across your dumb face!"
"I would love to see you actually slap someone, Izzy. It would be hilarious. Saint Blaise himself would rise from the dead to see that."
"You are the most blasphemous person I have ever met, Ash Parker!"
"Clearly, you don"t keep the company of many blasphemers, Your Ladyship." Ash laughed.
Isabelle rolled her eyes at Ash. Ash laughed at her friend.
Prior to meeting Ash Parker, Isabelle Valois hadn"t been the type of girl who rolled her eyes. She had grown up prim and proper as the sheltered second heiress of the landed Count Valois. Her older brother Jean bore much of the responsibility for being Count Valois"s sole male heir, which left Isabelle with very little to do growing up. She had been her mother"s favorite and she had spent an idle childhood in a rich estate where she was waited on hand and foot by servants who would not look her in the eye. Needless to say, Isabelle had become quite bored of the rich life and wanted nothing more than to live somewhere else where n.o.body knew her name.
Ash Parker had been the first person in the entire school who had not known who Comtesse Isabelle Valois was. For what seemed like endless days, Isabelle had endured her cla.s.smates keeping a polite distance from her, as well as her teachers who, despite not using her official t.i.tle as recommended by the school, still managed to speak her name with such reverence that the t.i.tle "Comtesse" was implied anyway.
The sc.r.a.ppy scholar had been at the Academy for less than a week when she won Isabelle over with her warmth and good nature.
Most of the students in their year had kept a respectful distance from Isabelle because of her family background. Unfortunately, her close friendship with the orphan scholar further alienated the pair from their cla.s.smates.
The elites in particular saw no benefit to befriending a poor n.o.body on a full-ride scholarship.
Of course, most of the powerful families had their pet charities and various causes which they supported, but most of them also used these philanthropies mainly as tax shelters and reserved their outpouring of generosity for positive public relations. They were already throwing money to the poor; it was too much to ask that they also befriend them.
"Good morning, ladies!"
Celia had made her way downstairs while the girls were talking. Just as they turned to look her way, she flipped her hair over one shoulder and gave them a languid side-eye.
Isabelle raised her perfectly shaped eyebrow approvingly at Celia.
"Lovely coat, darling," she said.
Ash nodded in acknowledgment.
Celia c.o.c.ked her head and smiled back: the green coat had the group"s approval.
"Hey, uhm . . . " Celia started, suddenly turning serious.
"What?" Izzy asked.
"Ashy had that dream again."
"What do you mean?"
"You know, the little girl one. The first snow dream."
Isabelle immediately threw her arms around Ash. Ash didn"t even see the hug coming and just awkwardly had her arms up with her palms facing out. She looked wide-eyed at Celia, as if she wasn"t sure what to do next.
Celia lightly touched Ash"s face with her fingertips. She went around the two girls and took both of Ash"s upturned palms into her own hands and bent down to press her forehead into Isabelle"s hair, forming a three-person hug. Ash gave in to their collective warmth: she closed her eyes and rested her head on top of Isabelle"s hair and squeezed lightly on Celia"s fingers.
When Ash was around 5 years old, she had been found alone in a mountain lodge at the beginning of winter. Someone had called the police to report a disturbance in the woods. An investigation was conducted and it was concluded that a woman had been mauled by a large wild animal. There were traces of blood and signs of a struggle, but the woman"s body was never found. The woman was Ash"s mother.
Ash"s father had disappeared around this time and was eventually logged as a missing person. Ash was taken into custody, and having no other living relatives, she was put in an orphanage and she became a ward of the state.
Everyone at the Academy knew that Ash was an orphan and the rumor was that she had been abandoned by her parents as a child. Her friends were the only ones at school who really knew the official story.
Ash"s little girl nightmare was a traumatic memory from when her mother had been killed. A child psychologist had suggested that based on the dream imagery perhaps Ash had been abducted around the time of her mother"s death. That theory had been ruled out by the police; besides Ash and her mother, there had been no evidence to support the presence of other people being at the lodge.
Ash tightened her hold around her two friends. She wanted nothing more than to go back to her room and be cuddled back to sleep by them. Going back to sleep wasn"t going to change what happened in the past though; that part of her life happened years ago and she chose to live in the present.
It wasn"t a hard choice to make. The present was easily better than the past: the present was where she had her friends around her.
"I love you, guys." Ash whispered. The other girls nodded quietly.
She looked up from their huddle.
"I"m okay now, guys. Thank you."
n.o.body responded.
"This hug needs to end because it"s starting to hurt my back. You"re both putting your weight on me."
The other girls giggled.
"Sorry, Gramma!" Celia teased as she broke from their group hug.
Isabelle wiped a tear from her eye. Despite her ice princess facade, she had the softest heart in the group.
"Come on, you dorks. Let"s not get into it too heavy in the morning. It"s a school day! Let"s eat breakfast, okay?" Ash said with a smile. She had a rough way of saying things, but her heart felt full of love.