Gloomy after incessant thunder storms and hours slogging over pointless literature, Celeste suggested Lucille join her in exploring an abandoned house on the seedier side of Willow Creek.
It took some convincing to get the younger girl to join her, as Lucille found her new classmate's moods to be unpredictable, despite her pretty face and sweet voice; besides that, Celeste's work was shoddy - her needlework a tangled mess, and with no attention span to speak of. On the very first day, she even defaced the school mistress's chaulkboard with crude doodles! Yet, something about the dance in her sea green eyes - a challenge - made Lucille agree to accompany her new friend.
"Do you believe in ghosts?" Celeste asked her, grinning.
"Not at all."
"Then let me convince you otherwise. I heard there's something evil inside this place."
As soon as they arrived, Celeste's gentle teasing and prodding flared into rage. Everything seemed to be an annoyance, from the dust in the air, their wet clothes, to the glass crunching beneath their feet.
To soothe her friend, Lucille found something to light the hearth. As they dried themselves off, she attempted to turn Celeste's attention to other things - their upcoming geography project, and what she was going to do for college.
"Do you ever think about anything except work?" Celeste sneered at her. She got up from their place by the fire and began to climb the stairs.
"Wait!" Lucille called after her.
"Look at this," Celeste shouted down to her.
Sighing, Lucille got up from the warmth to follow Celeste. She found her crouched in the hallway, pointing down at a crate of wine. Before she could say anything in response, Celeste was already drinking straight from the bottle.
"What are you doing?!"
"Seems like good stuff." Celeste waved the bottle at her. "Try it."
There were only three girls at Magnolia Boarding School. Other than Celeste, there was Lilliana, whom Lucille knew detested her from the very start. Saying no to Celeste would be to alienate her only possible companion.
Lucille took a swig. She grimaced, then quickly corrected herself. "Yeah, it's nice."
For a while, the two girls sat on a cracked leather couch and took turns swigging from the bottle. They talked about their homes, their parents, and their mutual dislike of Lilliana. By the end of the bottle, Lucille was red in the face and giddy, and night had already settled the place in darkness. The only thing she could see was Celeste's face, looming lily white in the gloom.
Celeste jumped up from the couch and grabbed Lucille's hand. Her head began to spin as Celeste swung her around, pushing and pulling her away in a seasick kind of waltz. The girls laughed, and before they knew it, Celeste reached for her face and was kissing her.
They did not speak again.
Celeste slipped away into the night without so much as a 'goodbye', leaving Lucille to stumble through the shack after her. She was gone. The only thing she could do was hope that she had gone back to the school, and would have the decency to leave the window open for Lucille to climb the trellis and steal through, back to bed undetected.
