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Ghostie knew balls suck, however her past experiences didn’t compare to this one.
It was her 12th birthday meaning from now on a ball will be hosted every year on her birthday.
So instead of running in the garden and eating cake, she now has to worry about the preparation and attending a stuffy ball with all the fun sucked out of it.
Everyone wanted something from her and she had to smile through it all while she just wanted to enjoy her birthday.
“So what do you think of my proposal?”
Ghostie’s head shot up to the person that was apparently talking to her, “uhm, I reckon my father could give you a better answer sir”
The next words of the man were drowned out when Ghostie saw a figure behind him, a small girl with clothes that could barely pass as normal day attire.
Apart from the obvious clothing difference there was another clear indication that she wasn’t supposed to be here, as she didn’t have a fake smile plastered on her face.
In some weird way Ghostie was sure she knew her, but forgot where she had met her.
The lord' daughter didn't get much time to remember as the girl came up to her, with a smile so innocent that made Ghostie wish they were friends.
“Hey, I remember you!”
And upon hearing the sound of her voice Ghostie’ memory came back. She had met this girl when she had ran away from her problems.
Tears were streaming down when Ghostie ran through the town she hated when she upsets her father but if that wasn’t bad enough her mom had gotten hurt all because of her.
It was stupid of her to be here right now, where so many people could recognize her. She started walking, in the hope she would blend in.
This was the first time she had been in the town without her guards and it felt completely different.
The streets were busy, a lot of people looked sad and most of the clothing they wore was dirty.
Ghostie felt bad for them, she had more than enough clothes, maybe she could share some with the people that actually needed them.
While deep in her thoughts the girl didn’t realize she was starting to wander in a place that wasn’t the main city anymore.
The path got narrower and more people started looking in Ghostie's direction, as she looked young and innocent.
“Hey there little girl, are you lost?” Three boys towered over Ghostie blocking her from leaving.
Ghostie's heart was in her throat, she knew how to fight one person but right now there were 3 and all of them were double her size.
“Leave her alone, you big jerks” a girl with cut up pants and a sewed together shirt stepped out of the alley.
One of the boys started laughing at the girl that was probably a few cm shorter than Ghostie herself, but the boy in front, who looked the strongest of the bunch, looked more pale.
“Do you think this is still funny when you are on the ground and I carve a tooth out of your mouth?” The girl spoke, with confidence Ghostie could only dream of, while grabbing a small white thing out of her pocket.
“It’s not worth it” the strongest boy said and with a shove that was hard enough to have Ghostie fall down on the street the gang went away.
“Are you okay?” The girl ran to Ghostie while reaching out her hand.
“Yea.. yea I am fine thanks to you” the daughter was still in shock of what just happened.
“Oh yea, don’t worry about those bullies too much, they act all intimidating but they are big babies.”
After the girl spoke she looked up, almost like she was waiting for something? Someone?
“Flick? Where are you? I am hungry and my friend is too”
As the girl called a bird, more specifically a crow came flying down towards the girl and plopped down the apple that the crow was holding.
“Let’s go eat this somewhere else.”
With practiced ease the girl ran through the alleyways while Ghostie was trying to catch up.
“Can I trust you?” The girl asked when she stopped in the middle of an alley.
“Uhm, yea!” Ghostie spoke feeling closer to this girl than half the friends she had in her private school.
The girl stepped in a smaller alley and pushed away some trashcans to reveal a small room with a worn out mattress, a sink and a few lights above the mattress.
“Welcome to my secret abode…” the girl paused and looked at Ghostie, “What’s your name?”
“My name is Ghostie.” Only a second after Ghostie said her name she realized she might have just made a big mistake telling this girl her real name.
“Welcoke to my secret abode then Ghostie, I am… AJ!” The girl spoke looking unaware of who Ghostie is and where she comes from.
“Back to the good stuff.” AJ spoke and took a small rusty knife out of her pocket and placed the apple on the small table.
It took her a minute as the knife was pretty beat up but AJ successfully split the apple in half and proudly handed Ghostie one side of the apple.
“It sucks being hungry.” AJ spoke and Ghostie heard a hint of sadness in her voice before she took a big bite.
“You’re AJ?” Ghostie asked, a bit unsure.
AJ nodded and a grin spread across her face, “Wanna do something fun?”
Ghostie smiled and quickly made the decision that anything would be more fun with AJ.
“Okay so listen, you distract the people and I grab the expensive items they don’t need”
Ghostie's eyes widened, “we can’t steal!”
“It’s not stealing if they don’t need it, I am just helping the poor.”
After hearing that Ghostie agreed to the plan, the rest of the evening was a lot more fun. AJ was always nearby, trying to steal the belongings of the stuck up people Ghostie was talking to.
The adrenaline of sneaking around and not getting caught made the night go a lot quicker. Before she realized, the ball was getting to an end, meaning she had about half an hour before she needed to deliver her speech.
“Ghostie, let’s do one final prank together here.” AJ spoke with excitement.
“What were you thinking of?”
“Pranking the host of the ball.”
Ghostie’s breath stopped and fear swirled in her body, her father would be pissed, AJ would be sent to jail.
“I have a better idea, what about I show you my room?” Ghostie proposed not wanting AJ to get in trouble.
“You live here?” AJ asked and for the first time Ghostie could see fear in the shorter girl’ eyes.
“Uh, yes I do, I am the host of the ball but don’t worry I won’t tell him about our adventure, you’re my friend!” Ghostie spoke not wanting to ruin her friendship with AJ.
“You promise?” AJ holds out her pinky.
“I promise” Ghostie interlinks her pinky with AJ.
When AJ smiles again Ghostie grabs her hand and they run through the halls of the mansion, they go up several stairs to finally get to Ghostie’s bedroom.
“Woah!” AJ exclaims upon seeing the room, the room was huge with the largest canopy bed she had ever seen and stuff she could solely dream about.
Ghostie pulled out a drawer from her desk and it revealed a hidden stash of chocolates, “you shared your apple so now I share my chocolate!"
AJ happily took a bar of chocolate and for the next half an hour they ate and chatted in Ghostie’s room.
Ghostie hadn’t even realized it was midnight till she heard familiar footsteps, her dad.
“You need to go now!” Ghostie whisper yelled and ran to the window.
AJ quickly followed Ghostie and without a second thought climbed out of the window trying to quickly find a place to hide.
Not even ten seconds later her dad barged into the room, “Why are you here, you were supposed to have your speech 5 minutes ago, you insolent child”
“Sorry father” Ghostie spoke but a small part didn’t feel sorry as today was the best day she had in weeks.
Her father left without another word and before Ghostie could back out she walked to the window and spoke, “My family will leave from 7 till 8 pm tomorrow” and shut her window.
———————————————-
The next day at 8.15 pm Ghostie went back to her room from the dinner she had with her family and a piece of paper was on her window sill, “nok windo 3 time for Flick to com, so we can right notes” (knock on the window 3 times for Flick to come so we can write notes)
Ghostie smiled as she wrote back to AJ, “Flick is a truly clever bird, just be careful that my parents don’t spot her.”
That was only the start of many notes, as time continued AJ’s writing got better and Ghostie’s answers came quicker, sometimes writing back and forth for hours till it became too dangerous for Flick to fly back.
Sometimes Ghostie was able to leave the big mansion and they would hang out all night under the stars and other times Ghostie had to go out in the middle of the night to bail AJ out of jail when she got caught stealing.
As time went on Ghostie and AJ stayed close however their friendship had grown into a relationship. They would go out on late nights where AJ would find the most wonderful places around town and Ghostie would pay for an inn so they could spend the night together, but when AJ would wake up Ghostie had already left, sometimes with a note but mostly without anything.
Even though AJ would have trouble when Ghostie canceled last minute or just left AJ to wait and eventually falling asleep because Ghostie hadn’t shown up. However Ghostie would always make it up later and when they were back together they would fantasize about a life where they didn’t have to sneak around.
A few days before Ghostie's 18th birthday Aj wrote yet another note to leave at Ghostie's window so she can read it after her long school day. The note contained sweet messages but there was also a more unusual part, an urgent request to meet up.
So that night Ghostie climbed out of her window again knowing she had to wake up at 6 am but prioritizing her girlfriend over the rest she could get and showed up to their usual hangout space.
When Ghostie opened the door she was immediately met with a bunch of paper scattered across the table and AJ closely reading said papers.
“I came as quickly as I could” Ghostie spoke and AJ shot up from the chair and walked over to Ghostie.
“Thank you Angel” Aj spoke with a grin as she picked up the slightly taller girl and spun her around in a half circle before pressing their lips together for a kiss.
Before things could escalate AJ pulled away, “I know I won’t be able to resist if we keep doing this and I need to show you something important.”
“Can’t we do that afterwards?”
AJ smirked at the whiny tone of Ghostie, “Have a bit of patience princess, we will have plenty of time later”
Ghostie rolled her eyes at the nickname but stayed quiet as she was curious what those papers on the table meant.
AJ smiled when she looked at the papers and Ghostie didn’t remember the last time AJ had smiled like that, it felt more pure and heartwarming then anything Ghostie knows.
“I found a place in a nearby town, it’s far enough to be out of sight and the town is so small nobody knows it exists, when you turn 18 we can be free.” AJ exclaimed, showing all the maps and papers she had found.
“I made sure to get enough money, so you don’t have to be connected in any way to your family” AJ continued explaining.
Ghostie tried to listen to the rest of AJ’s plans but she couldn’t understand the words anymore, she could only feel her breath quickening.
“No, no, AJ..” Ghostie interrupted AJ whose cocky smirk had faded into a confused look, “I can’t, we can’t… it’s too soon”
Ghostie stood up from the chair, “I am sorry”
Before Ghostie was able to leave, AJ grabbed her wrist “Wait!”
Distress was visible on AJ's face, something that Ghostie almost never saw.
“At least take the papers with you, if you change your mind you will know where to find me” AJ spoke and the normal charming confidence was stripped away.
“You don’t have to go” Ghostie spoke feeling frustrated but not at AJ.
“Yes I do, I can’t live like this being stuck in the town where almost everyone hates me I need to get out” AJ spoke still holding out the papers for Ghostie to grab.
A silence fell as neither of them knew what to say.
“I will leave the day after your birthday” AJ spoke and let go of Ghostie’s hand.
Ghostie was gone without another word.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Despite the disagreement AJ still wanted to get Ghostie a birthday gift. She knew how much her girlfriend hated balls so in the hope of making her 18th birthday special she would decorate a small space for just them.
With the leftover money AJ bought cute decorations that could be seen as childish but Ghostie would absolutely love.
The gifts were more difficult to find as AJ couldn’t afford the luxurious gifts.
In the end she did have to steal but it was definitely worth it.
The last part would be finished when the note was done.
“I don’t know why she chose her family over me Flick, maybe I don’t mean as much as I thought I did”
Flick chirped and it sounded somewhat disagreeable.
“You’re right, who cares, as long as I have you” AJ spoke, grinning, knowing she was just lying to herself, but the lie felt more comfortable than the harsh truth.
Flick chirped again hopping over to the presents while tilting their head.
“I don’t know why I bought those, I mean they don’t mean that much, just some insignificant gifts because I can’t show up at her birthday without any gifts now, can I” AJ reasoned.
Flick flew back to her and sat next to the
note that was still blank.
“I don’t know why I even bother, the note doesn’t need to be special”
Even though the note didn’t have to be ‘special’ AJ proceeded to take over 30 minutes for a 5 sentence note.
“Hey princess,
Come meet me at my place after the ball.
Change into something comfortable, (I will laugh at you if you don’t and you are uncomfortable for the rest of the night.)
Don’t have too much fun at the ball without me.
Your AJ”
“Here you go Flick, and be careful not to get caught as this will probably be the last time you will be going to that damn window”
Flick chirped before grabbing the note and flying away.
AJ sighed as her companion flew away, she knew the smart crow would come back as quickly as possible but she was also scared something might happen.
She didn’t have a lot of time to dwell over Flick as she needed a suit to look somewhat decent when sneaking into the birthday girls ball.
It didn’t take her long to find a somewhat decent suit that would probably fit her with some small adjustments.
Hopefully the person that had left the suit to dry didn’t mind AJ borrowing it.
Tweaking the suit wasn’t too difficult as she was used to cutting up her clothing and the results could pass as good enough not to be suspicious.
As the time went by AJ kept checking for Flick hating how long she had been gone, even if Flick was probably just waiting for a good time to deliver the note.
To make the time go by quicker AJ drank some alcohol, that would also help for when the ball started as it will probably be extremely boring.
When the ball was about to start AJ walked towards the big house taking her time while Flick finally came back.
“Took you long enough.”
The crow looked offended by the comment, and AJ laughed at how silly it looked.
“Sorry Flick, I am happy you’re back safe” AJ said and Flick flew down on her shoulder at the apology.
Getting into the mansion was almost a practised routine, so sneaking into the ball was quite easy but blending in was a lot harder.
“I forgot how much I hate everything about this.” AJ whispered under her breath to Flick who was hiding in her suit.
Her mood did turn around when she saw Ghostie walking out of the big hallway towards the ball with a beautiful sleek dark blue dress.
AJ had a difficult time peeling her eyes off her beautiful girlfriend, so the second Ghostie was somewhat alone, AJ tried to go and talk to her. But before she was able Ghostie turned around and started talking to someone else.
AJ told herself it could be an accident and that Ghostie wasn’t ignoring her, she just had to wait for another time Ghostie was alone.
After over 10 attempts AJ was certain Ghostie was avoiding her.
“Can you believe this, I show up to this stupid ball and she doesn’t have the decency to say hello” AJ muttered annoyed to Flick who she pretended was agreeing with her.
After a few more attempts at talking AJ gave up and went to the table with food and stuffed her pockets with all kinds of snacks for later.
An hour before midnight and AJ still hadn’t talked to Ghostie, her attempts also became more reckless, almost blowing her cover twice before Ghostie went to AJ.
“I can’t talk now, don’t distract me before my speech” Ghostie whispered and before AJ could respond with “am I distracting you?” Ghostie was gone.
There was no more time in between the small encounter and the speech they could talk so AJ was forced to wait through the speech.
The second the speech began AJ wanted to leave, the language of Ghostie was more formal than any of their conversations and everything she was talking about was politics and her family.
Till something in the speech sparked the tinkerers attention.
“… lastly the big announcement of the night”
Ghostie’s voice went a big higher, which normally happens when she’s nervous.
“I found my forever partner, please welcome …”
AJ didn’t hear the rest of the words out of the anger that was rising. Ghostie had been ignoring her all day just to announce she found a lover she didn’t have to hide.
As a cherry on top Ghostie and the guy kissed, in front of everyone, right before AJ’s eyes.
AJ moved as quickly as she could through the suffocating crowd that seemed to be getting larger by the second and ran to the room she knew, to leave one final note.
“Out of all the things I want to call you right now I would hate for one of them to be a cheater so whatever we had, it’s over now. Goodbye Ghostie.”
AJ laid the note at the window where the note Flick delivered was still there untouched and climbed out of the window.
Forever out of Ghostie’s Life. (Or so AJ thought)
In less than an hour AJ had grabbed all her belongings that she had been packing for the last week and left a day early to their previous arrangement.
The walk she did wasn’t too far, she knew which roads she had to walk and at 4 am she reached the town, where she went straight to the pub and drank so much she doesn’t remember most of what happened that night.
All she knew was that she wanted to leave everything that happened behind, so she could have a fresh start.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ghostie knew she made a mistake when she saw AJ leave the ballroom.
However she was unable to follow her as a whole crowd of people surrounded her asking questions about her ‘forever partner’.
After an hour of what felt like endless questioning, Ghostie was able to go to her room to see if there was a note AJ might’ve left.
She saw both notes, the one she saw Flick deliver but was at the time too upset to read it and one that was not there when she left to go to the ball.
She started reading the one Flick delivered first, she rolled her eyes at the nickname AJ gave her but smiled when she saw the rest of the note.
She had to leave this house quickly, she hoped AJ would let her explain.
She changed her clothes to comfortable ones, a hoodie she got from AJ and black jeans so it would be difficult to see during the night, and put the other note in her pocket and climbed out of the window as she always did when sneaking out.
She ran most of the way to AJ’S place while a feeling of dread was starting to settle in her gut.
When she arrived at AJ’s place she held her breath. Everything was gone and she remembered she had no idea where AJ was, she didn’t accept the map AJ wanted to give her, she forgot everything AJ told her about this place.
In the hope to find a some sort of clue where AJ could be she went and checked the whole place, under the mattress, at the shelf, on the cupboard, in the closet and on the table.
While searching the table she saw something in the floor, a note.
“I could tell you what I have planned but that would be boring, so I made it more fun.
It’s fairly easy, go to the place where it all began and go to the left, at the door you will find everything I set out for you.
Don’t expect too much princess”
Ghostie was confused what the note meant but her curiosity quickly overtook any logic and she wandered through the streets to go to the alleyway they met when they were younger.
When she arrived she followed the instructions perfectly, following the alleyway till she could turn left and opened the first door she saw.
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY”
Was spelled out by the decorations with 3 presents in the middle of the room, a few paper plates with labels with food.
Ghostie knew AJ was probably planning on grabbing the food from the ball to use it at her party.
But there was no AJ, however there were still 3 presents so maybe there was a clue there.
Ghostie knew it was a desperate and maybe even silly attempt but she was still holding on the thought that AJ would come back.
The first front present was the smallest, Ghostie carefully unwrapped the present, noticing the wrapping was done very neatly, which must have taken some time.
A small box appeared, it was a plastic box, nothing special but it directly felt like AJ, it was a cute and practical piece to keep something.
She opened the small box, two shining gold earrings in the shape of apples, laying on a piece of ripped off fabric so they wouldn’t break.
Ghostie felt her throat closing up at the sweet gift but it wasn’t what she was searching for, so with a deep breath she opened the next present.
A worn out quill was the first thing she saw with a small engraving, for my girlfriend.
Next to the quill there were a few small metal jars that were closed off and when she looked she saw ink in all different colors.
The small gift almost brought Ghostie to tears as she remembered the meaning behind it.
“That’s stupid” AJ spoke with annoyance, while Ghostie looked at her feet.
“Well I guess it doesn’t matter that much” Ghostie muttered, still feeling down but trying to reason with herself.
“That’s not the point, your father has plenty money, he throws it at all kinds of stupid things but he can’t buy a few new inks for you, that’s just stupid”
“It’s just ink, I don’t need any colours except black just like he said”
“But it’s not just about the inks” AJ voice got softer and Ghostie knew she was right, every time she asked for something, it would be denied and every time her brother would ask for something they would get it the next day.
“Yea, it’s not just about the inks” Ghostie spoke letting herself feel sad in the arms of her girlfriend.
There was one last present left, this one felt light, and there was even a ribbon around it, when Ghostie unwrapped it as a piece of paper and Ghostie unrolled the paper wishing it was a map to where AJ was hiding.
Dear Ghostie,
As Flick annoyingly seems so really like you she suggested (not me, don’t get it twisted) if you would want to be her second guardian.
Your signature My signature
____________ ___________
(P.s. I will fill in my signature after yours, that way it looks more formal)
Ghostie didn’t know how to feel, she loved the presents but she won’t be able to say thank you because she had no idea how to get to AJ.
Tears started filling her eyes at the thought of never seeing AJ again, that night she slept on AJ’s worn out mattress dreaming about any possibilities she could get her back.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Out of all the places AJ thought she would be when she was 23, it would definitely not be in an academy, even less in a dragon riding academy.
Everything about the academy was shitty, most of all the self sacrificial people that stupid enough reminded AJ of her.
Today however was worse than any day in the academy, her fist was bleeding, her lungs were burning, her stomach was growling and her bones were aching.
All she wanted to do was drink for the rest of the day and ignore all her problems but of course the world had different plans.
From all the people she could bump into she was glad it was open book, even though she would never be able to convince her that drinking would be a good idea.
On the way to the academy Drift asked at least a hundred questions which AJ couldn’t answer but she was able to deflect most of them till she was able to bandage herself up.
However when she stepped out of the bathroom she saw someone she swore to never speak to again.
Ghostie.
Not just Ghostie but there were two of her “favourite” people of the academy, Juniper and Ros.
“Hey AJ, this is the new student we are showing around” Juniper informed when nobody else filled the silence.
“There is no way…” Ghostie sounded shocked but her tone was hard to read.
After a brief moment AJ decided to clear up what was happening, “Yea I know, who Ghostie is”
“Oh, alright” Ros spoke a little confused
Ghostie however barely seemed to notice while she asked AJ, “What are you doing here?”
“What am I doing here, What are you doing here?” AJ fired back the question with not only shock but also frustration in her voice.
Today seemed to be only getting worse.
“AJ, what is taking you so long?” Drift asked while walking where now 4 people were standing.
“Let’s go somewhere else Open Book” AJ spoke, taking Drift's hand and dragging her out of the situation.
“Who was that?” Drift immediately adked when they were out of earshot
“A new student” AJ spoke and hesitated for a second.
“She’s also my ex, you know the one who kept me hidden from everyone.” AJ explained feeling tired and frustrated from the day.
Luckily Drift knew how to cheer her up and they wandered around the academy for a while being silly, helping AJ forget the last and realize she was in the present and she had a great “fake” girlfriend who could make her laugh.
Not too much later that same day while Drift and AJ were fucking around they went into the main hall and over 8 people were gathered in a circle and AJ was curious what the conversation was about.
As AJ and Drift stepped into the circle with people she quickly noticed Ghostie was there too but instead of going away she decided she could just stand in the circle with Drift and act as if Ghostie didn’t exist.
As the circle grew with more people joining it started to become loud and AJ didn’t care about most of them so it started to become boring as well. That's when an impulsive thought spoke to her.
The whole time she had been holding hands with Drift so it was already obvious they were close so as cherry on top when the group was a more quiet and Ghostie was watching, AJ spoke a little louder than necessary.
“It’s been a good time open book, see you around soon”
AJ kisses Drift in front of the circle and then walks away to her dorm, acting like her heart wasn’t pounding in her chest.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ghostie had been through a rollercoaster of emotions while being at the academy but seeing AJ kiss someone right before her was worse than she imagined.
Her thoughts were betraying her. It had been so long and she should be over her by now but all she could think was, please don’t be in love with her.
She knew it was wishful thinking, but AJ isn’t above petty revenge and she noticed AJ smile when seeing her reaction after the kiss.
She tried to forget about what happened and continue with the conversation, but her emotions and thoughts were too loud to hear anyone else’s conversation
Without saying a word she walked away from the circle hoping the others were too busy talking to notice.
She went outside for some fresh air and to take her time to think about what just happened.
She hated how much her thoughts went back to the kiss, but she hated even more how she felt bad for AJ.
She kissed someone right before her, when they were still together.
This girl also didn’t seem to mind being intimate with AJ in public, everything Ghostie was terrified about.
Ghostie knew there would only be one way to get the answer about how AJ is feeling and to clear up what happened and that is by talking.
Today Ghostie will talk to AJ and explain everything to her.