Chapter 3: The Lambs of the Nameless Woods
THE twins and I had grown accustomed to school life a month after classes began.
We got along well with the other students, as was evident during 11 o’clock tea.
As soon as we showed our faces in the dining hall, the students from Lion Dorm swarmed us.
“You can sit here, Alice.”
“Thank you, Fry.”
“You drink Darjeeling tea, right? Here!”
“Thank you, Batta.”
Fry and Batta, the two boys who’d bullied me at first, went out of their way to prepare tea for me now. The other students also brought me pies and biscuits, though I had no idea where they came from. My long table always filled up with sweets.
“They all look delicious,” I said.
I grabbed the nearest cookie and felt its light, crumbling texture between my fingers. The scent of butter hit my nose. Eating sweet things was bliss. I could forget all my worries and pain so long as I was eating a dessert.
As I sipped my tea with a grin on my face, Dum and Dee plopped down in the two seats at both of my sides, glaring at the other students silently. Their intensity made them look like the guardian statues placed outside temple gates.
Students scattered away from the table, intimidated by the twins.
“Dum, Dee, you won’t make any friends with such scary looks on your faces,” I cautioned them.
“I don’t want friends.”
“I don’t want friends.”
“Don’t say something so sad. It’s a wonderful thing to have friends in your life.”
I wanted them to find someone they could open up to, just like how I had Rabbit.
Memories created with friends were what got people through hard times in life. Even if someday the twins couldn’t stay together anymore, having other people to support them should lift that mental burden if only a little.
The twins placed their elbows on the table and looked at me with unreadable emotions.
“I don’t need anyone but you, Alice.”
“I don’t want anyone else, Alice.”
I could tell just how much “Alice” meant to them.
So what are you two going to do once I belong to someone else?
Nothing lasted forever. Humans tended to believe that their present lives would never change, but the opposite was true. Things always shifted in one way or another. Keeping things the same was something that took work. Only the luckiest people could defeat the external pressures that brought along change.
“Be sure to get along with others, not just me, okay?” I told them.
“We get along with Charles.”
“We play with Robins too.”
“So you did make friends already. Well done!” I exaggerated my praise for them, and their masculine features grew slightly pink.
Making friends was an act of chance. If you naturally got along with someone, you would end up in a relationship that could only be called a “friendship” as time passed. It didn’t matter if the prefects had to be the ones to show them that.
Dum and Dee were like first-years when it came to their social circle. I would have to watch out for them. Their bodies had grown, but their hearts were still those of children. They were blind, like someone who’d fallen in love with a god despite their physical strength. As normal, innocent children, they were sure to find new things that amused them by the time tomorrow came.