Chapter Text
"Attention everyone! Attention! ATTENTION!" The high school teacher yells as they struggle to calm down the rowdy students, until one quiet student stands up from her sunny spot by the window and walks up to the teacher. Her long hair flows in beautiful, raven waves behind her, a beautiful contrast to her pale skin. A fluffy wolf tail, darker than the night, sways idly behind her, matching the wolf ears atop her head.
"Teacher, would you like me to help?" She asks with a voice of silk, and eyes, fossilized amber in color, twisted in soft concern. The girl stops once she's in front of the teacher as brown wings lower in defeat. "You’ll lose your voice if you keep yelling like that."
The teacher looks her in her eyes, "Willow. You're still so young. You have so much left to learn. Don't waste your time worrying about an old bird like me. I appreciate your concern, but please just go back to your sea-"
"Sorry for bein' late, Teach! Overslept! But I'm here now!" A boy says as he rushes into the class with a small, apologetic smile, out of breath. His fluffy, golden brown hair shines, and emerald eyes glitter in the light shining through the window. He wears a white button-down shirt and jeans, the jeans covered in grease and oil stains in all the perfect spots. His bag is a simple black book bag, much like his jeans, with grease and oil stains that look almost as if they're meant to be there, but it hangs awkwardly from one shoulder from the obsidian wings on his back.
Willow looks at the boy, and she feels her cheeks warm a bit. He's cute, but he's not in this class. Maybe he forgot where his class is.
The teacher looks at the boy and pinches the bridge of their nose, sighing as they say, "Late on your first day, Michael. Not a very good start." The teacher turns to Willow, adding, "Willow, can you return to your seat?"
As Willow returns to her seat, the class quiets down, and the Teacher turns to Michael. “Michael, please find a seat.”
Michael looks around, and the only empty seat is next to Willow. He looks again in case there’s one he didn’t see, but there’s none, so he walks to the back. Michael puts his bag under the desk and sits down. There’s an awkward silence between the two for a few seconds before he clears his throat and says, “Uh… Hey. I’m Mike. What’s your name?”
Willow pauses for a moment before sighing. “I’m Willow…” She mumbles, slowly closing her sketchbook with her pencil inside.
The cover of the sketchbook is beautiful, could easily be mistaken for a photo from a camera. It’s a gorgeous scene of Willow under a willow tree in the middle of a meadow. The meadow is full of whimsical flowers, and in the background is a mystical forest. In the art, Willow is sitting on a picnic blanket with a book in her hands, sleeping wildlife all around her in the shade of the tree, most notably a doe with a family of white rabbits sleeping on it as it rests its head in her lap. On the bottom left is a small, cursive signature. Willow Eclipse.
Michael looks at the sketchbook for a long moment before he looks up at Willow, eyes wide with interest. “That’s beautiful. The photography is amazing. Who took the photo?” He asks, leaning forward in his seat to get a better look.
“O-Oh… Uh… It’s not a photo,” Willow replies, cheeks dusting a sweet pink. “I drew it… I was bored during an assembly, and I’d wanted to draw a willow tree… It originally was just supposed to be a willow tree in a meadow, but then I added the forest in the background and it just all went from there.”
“Whoa! You’re real good at drawing, then!” Michael’s eyes sparkle in amazement. “Can I see some of your other art?”
Willow blinks. Once. Twice. “You… Want to see more? Really? You don’t think it’s a pointless hobby?” She asks, and when Michael nods her ears shoot straight up and face him. “No one really asks to see more! I’d love to show you!”
She opens to the first page, and it’s nothing like the realistic art on the cover. It looks like it belongs in an anime. Everything is cute, but not so cute it looks too cartoonish. And the scene looks like something pulled straight out of a romance book. Cherryblossom trees lining a smooth dirt path, with the petals falling like snow. A springtime wonderland for anyone willing to see. And in the same corner as the cover, a signature. The same whimsical cursive, the same beautiful handwriting. But a different name. Not even a name. MonarchStar.
“I drew this when I was in Japan for a fieldtrip a few years ago. It's not as good as the cover, but I thought it would be nice to draw in this style since Japan is known for anime and stuff.” Willow says, handing Michael her sketchbook. “It’s not the best since it was my first time drawing on paper in a while, but I was pretty proud of it.”
Michael takes the book, his eyes landing on the signature. His head tilts a little as he struggles to read it at first, squinting and leaning in to see better. But after a few seconds, he points at it and he looks up, his eyes meet Willow’s. “Who’s MonarchStar?”
Willow pauses a second before her eyes widen and her cheeks go bright red. “N-No one! Absolutely no one!” She gives a nervous laugh, quickly taking the sketchbook back. “I-It’s totally no one and you shouldn’t search her up on Spinner!”
“You’re pretty bad at lying. Y’know that?” Michael says with a chuckle..
Willow sighs, shoulders slumping in defeat. “I know... You’re not going to tell anyone, right?”
“Not gonna say a word.”