Chapter Text
Aphmau has grown tired of college. It’s the same thing every day. Her friends Gerry and Lucy agree. They are bored. So bored. After every school day they meet up and complain how the movies made college look so much more fun, say how they wished they lived in cartoons where magic and werewolves or vampires were real. Then one day, three letters are pushed through the mail slot.
“These letters are addressed to us!” Gerry exclaims, reading off the names, “Gertrude Robinson, Lucy Calloway, and Aphmau Shalaka!”
Aphmau grabs her letter and opens it. She reads the contents inside it only for her eyes to widen, “I’m invited to Calstorm Magic University…” she looks up at the girls, “what on earth is that?”
Lucy opens her up and confirms that she was also invited to to Calstorm Magic University, “5626 Armstrong Lake…show this letter to gatekeeper. This is Darians doing isn’t it?”
“Let’s entertain him,” Gerry says.
“Hell yeah,” Aph laughs.
The girls pack up their things and get into their shared car when they reach Armstrong Lake. Rolling their eyes they show the gatekeeper their letters. The man nods his head and activates a button, the home behind the gate suddenly vanishes and a portal opens behind him.
“What the fuck?” Lucy exclaims.
“Congratulations on your entrance to CMU girls,” the gatekeeper says.
The girls stare at each other before stepping into the portal with their bags. Once they arrive they see werewolves, vampires, fairies and anything magic roaming the school grounds. Suddenly the floor beneath the girls move towards the principals office.
The principal turns around and smiles warmly at the three girls.
“Welcome to CMU! University for people of magic! You may be wondering why you girls are here right?” He says, staring at the confused girls faces, “you guys carry magic blood in you. Gertrude or Gerry, you are a fairy. Lucy, you are a werewolf, your parents taught you to hide your ears before you were conscious! And Aphmau, you are a goddess, a rare dying species.”
Aphmau stares at the man in shock before laughing, “oh wow! Darian outdid himself this time!!”
“I’m serious, have things always turned out good for you even if it started bad? Like your soccer team doing terribly and suddenly you score 10 goals one after the other?”
Aphmau opens and closes her mouth, trying to come up with any excuse for that explanation. But the truth is, there wasn’t one.
“And Lucy, haven’t you acted just a tiny bit more aggressive during full moons? Or Gerry, haven’t you woken up with glitter in your hair when you have no memory of buying or using glitter?” The principal crosses his arms.
The girls look at each other, shocked at the revelation and now all the odd things that happened to them suddenly have explanations.
“Now I’ll let you girls settle in the dorms.” The principal hits a button and the floor below them shifts again and moves them to a dorm room door.
Aphmau opens the door and helps the girls bring in their bags as well. They settle into the room and sit down on beds they assigned to each other.
“My mom lied to me…no, scratch that! My parents lied to me!” Aphmau groans, lying down on her bed.
“All of our parents did girl…” Gerry replies, staring at the door.
Lucy simply nods . Trying to focus on making her ears pop out of her head. After a solid 10 seconds, the ears and tails suddenly pop out. She grabs her ears as the sounds amplify quite a bit. Lucy then hears footsteps outside the door. Lucy stands up and opens the door.
“Right you’re a werewolf! You have amazing hearing. Anyways I’m Chloe. You don’t need to know my last name,” she says, “I heard that there is a goddess here!”
Aphmau walks over to Lucy, “yes. Do you need something?”
Chloe laughs, “oh no! I just want to tell you some things. The prince comes to the school here but he is fat. So overweight. Stay away from him,” she whispers, Aphmau frowns, “also he’s cursed. Not sure what it is but we all know he’s cursed.”
“Who gives you the right to judge someone based on their appearance and curse?” Aphmau asks, the edges of her hair starting to float.
Chloe scoffs, “everything? He dares call himself the prince but chooses not to take care of himself.”
The weather outside changes as it starts to thunder. Aphmaus eyes begin to glow a purple, “get out.”
Chloe rolls her eyes, “whatever! I was just warning you!” She clicks a button on the side of the door, the floor underneath opens into water as she jumps in. Her legs turn into a tail fin before them, “you’re no longer allowed to talk with sirens now!”
She swims away.
Aphmau turns around to a shocked Lucy and Gerry, “what?”
“Girl you changed the weather from your anger,” Gerry points outside, where it’s raining hard.
Aphmau sighs, “why do I have a feeling that this is gonna happen more than once?” The girls laugh at her response before Aphmau straightens up, “I’m gonna go to the cafeteria for some snacks, and maybe to calm down a bit.”
She goes to step outside when she notices the floor is still open. She closes the flooring and walks down to the cafeteria using the signs and maps around the campus to guide her.
She reaches the canteen when she spots a boy soaking wet, shivering, and ordering food on the machine. She walks over to the boy who groans at her footsteps.
“Sorry about the rain…I’m still trying to get a hang of my powers. My mom hid it from me,” she apologizes.
The boy ignores he and taps on the screen. 10 large items in the shopping cart.
“That’s a lot of food. Are you getting it for your friends as well?” Aphmau asks.
He turns around to face Aphmau, confused by her statement. He was overweight. He was known to be overweight. Was she making fun of him?
“I say that because it seems like a lot of food even for you…oh no that came out wrong I’m so sorry!” She slaps her forehead, “good job Aphmau! First day of freshman year in a school you just heard of and you accidentally insulted a nice looking boy!”
“Aaron…” he looks away and pays for his food, “prince Aaron, now stay away from me. I don’t care about you or anybody here.”
He walks away with the receipt in his hand, still shivering from the soaking rain. Aphmau frowns and walks over to him.
“I don’t think that you don’t care. I think you do care,” Aphmau says.
Aaron sneers at her, “really? You said it yourself, you’ve never heard of this place. You don’t know who I am or how I act. Now get the fuck away from me.”
Aphmau refuses, she continues to follow Aaron everywhere he moves. Eventually he gets tired of walking and sits down. He starts ignoring her. Still shivering from the cold. Aphmau notices the shivering for the first time and thinks for a bit. Suddenly Aaron feels warm and dry. He looks at Aphmau.
“What the hell did you—” he looks down at his dry clothes, “thanks I guess.”
“Someone who doesn’t care about others wouldn’t say thank you. You’re lying.”
“I’m not lying to you—”
“Not to me. To you. You’re lying to yourself.”
Aaron stares at the girl and scoffs, “whatever. You’re lying.”
For the rest of that hour she stayed next to him and talked his ear off. Even as he ate a lot of food and went back to order more. She never once judged him for eating a lot, and never once mentioned his weight after that clearly accidental one off.
Aaron hated admitting it, but he actually enjoyed it a bit. Not being ridiculed by Chloe nor being treated super nicely just because he was royalty. Just her talking and him listening. It felt good.
By the end of the hour, once he finished eating he looked at the girl.
“Why? Why do you hang out with me? Do you want something?” Aaron asks.
Aphmau stares at the man, confusion setting into her eyes, “want something? Well of course! I want friends. The only friends I have are also just getting aware of magical beings…so I want friends here! Not only to show me the ropes but also the more friends the merrier!”
Aaron can’t help but laugh at the answer she gave, it was so sincere that he couldn’t believe someone like that could exist. He stops and stares at her softly, “most people either insult me or treat me too nicely just because I’m royalty…they also keep their distance due to my curse.”
Aphmau stares at the man, “well an anvil hasn’t fallen on my head so I don’t think the curse is that bad! Besides, you’re only royalty! That has nothing to do with who you are as a person,” she places her hand on his, “don’t let others dictate what you should think of yourself.”
She stands up, “and I know you technically know my name through me talking to myself but I haven’t actually introduced myself. I’m Aphmau.”
Aaron smiles softly at the girl, “Aaron Lycan, prince of Calstorm, werewolf district.”
“Nice to meet you Aaron, I hope to hear more about you next time we meet.” She turns around, winks at Aaron and walks away.
Aaron chuckles before standing up and throwing his trash away. He stares at his hands for a good few minutes. The thick hands that once were thin.
He stops smiling once he remembers his doomed meeting with his soulmate. A failure at being able to find her— Aphmaus smile—How the insults from others deeming him a fake werewolf for not finding his soulmate thrashed him into depression—Why didn’t she leave me like the others—A deep depression that caused him to turn to overeating. He gained weight quickly and even when he tried to exercise—Aphmau—he’d tire quickly and turn to eating more food.
Aaron sighs, moving his hands to his side before walking towards his dorm room. He needed sleep. Time to think. Why was Aphmau in his head so much? He just met her. Even as he thought about his depression he’d snap out of it, remembering her. But why?
He reaches his dorm room.
Since he was the prince, it was only him in there. He lies down on his bed, staring at the ceiling. Usually he’d say that he felt empty but this time it felt like the cup he dumped down the drain constantly just to check if he felt slightly more filled with life, had filled just a bit. He regretted dumping it down instantly, sorting through his memories in hopes that the cup would fill again but not even memories of Aphmau filled it back up.
Sighing, he turns to the side and drifts to sleep.
Aphmau knocks on the door to his room. Groggily, he opens the door and stands surprised at seeing Aphmau standing at the door
“Usually its my soulmate standing on the other side of the door in these things…” Aaron says, “why do I keep thinking of you?”
“You shouldn’t be asking that.”
“Why?”
“Because you already know the answer silly!” She smiles softly, glitching into bluryness and then nothing
Aaron wakes up in a cold sweat. He looks at the door to his room. After assessing it isn’t open, he checks the time. 7:30 PM. He lies back down again, staring at the roof.
“Already know the answer? What the hell does that mean?” Aaron says to himself.
He lies awake before drifting off again.
A nice pink sunset occurs in the background. Aphmau stands in the tall grass, the wind blowing through her hair and skirt. She turns around laughing and enjoying the moment.
“Hello Aaron.” She smiles, “Have you figured it out yet?” She tilts her head.
“No. I haven’t…what are you saying?” He asks.
“That’s a shame darling.”
Aaron’s face warms up at the nickname she called him. He reaches for her but his hand goes through her arm.
“I’m not real Aaron. She’s out there.”
“I-I know…but I’m scared to talk to her…open up. I don’t know if she’ll make fun of me if I open up!”
“You’ll never know unless you do it. Life isn’t really life without risks. How will you regret and learn if you don’t make the choices at all?”
“I-…don’t know.”
Aaron wakes up. Realization dawning in his eyes. He needs to change. Needs to make choices.