I turned in the direction of the voice and saw a cute little blonde girl. I was surprise by the color of her eyes, a strange but beautiful grey.

"I have a problem with my eyes and I have to always wear them. It’s the doctor who said that."

"Does it hurt ?"

I didn’t know how to respond to that. I didn’t like to lie, especially to the first person who actually talked to me but I guess I didn’t have a choice, unfortunately, so I just nodded.

Just like that, the two of us began to chat happily. I learned that she was named Samantha and that she lived not too far from my house and I was happy. I just made my first friend ever !

We went to play after that. I didn’t found the game particularly interesting but I enjoyed the sense of sharing and the joy I could see on her face. Thanks to her, I get to know a few other toddlers, the one we were playing with but I didn’t have the same sense of closeness. I know it’s strange, I had known her what ? One minute more than the others ? Even so I felt much closer to her than the others, probably because she was the one who came toward me and I could see that even after that she made effort to include me in the group. The teacher whistled loudly and we all returned in class but this time I had a big smile on my face.

"I will now assign your new seat to everyone. I will call you and point your seat"

Every seat was coupled. So there were in fact two desk per seat. I was currently next to a boy I didn’t know and we hadn’t talked. Previously he was already talking with the boys on next line, not paying me any attention, even if he did look at me curiously because of my glasses.

"Sofia, here."

"Jonathan, there."

"Samuelle, there."

….

"Samantha, here"

I looked up to see where she would be seated. Third row and second line, almost next to the window. I hoped to be next to the window because even if there was concrete everywhere, I would be able to see the weather or the sky, clouded or not, and I loved to pass time watching either of them but I was hoping more to be close to Samantha.

"Lucia, there."

And I froze for a second, the next one I was eagerly running to my place with a big smile, at the third row first line, next to the window and at the same time next to Samantha. I didn’t really believed in fate but I couldn’t stop myself grinning at the coincidence.

I sat down and turned myself to Samantha who did the same. We began to whisper happily, waiting for the teacher to finish his assignment. This type of chatter was something new for me and I had to confess pretty frightening because I didn’t have the mentality of a six year old girl but fortunately I didn’t really have to respond a lot, the blonde doing most of the talking.

At dinner we ate together before went to play with the others kids. There was a lot of different game, some stranger than other, but I was happy. Having friends was such a pleasant feeling and I had longed for it much stronger than I had thought.

—————

Two mounts passed by and November arrived. Our little group was formed of three people, me, Samantha and Scott. Scott was a boy we got the habit to play with during the breaks. He was pretty joyful, even compared with the others kids, so we had pretty good time together. I was somewhat the oddity of the group, if not of the enter class. I mean I have strange hairs, always wear mysterious glasses and even my behavior is somewhat strange. I’m more calm than most kids, some might think it was shyness and they would not be entirely wrong but not totally right either but whatever the reason is, I’m more introvert and silent than the other kid.

"Lucia, would you like to drink something ?"

That was Samantha’s mother, Miriame. I was at Samantha’s house with Scott. It’s the first time I was invented here and I was excited. I was not the only one, we spend the entire day talking about what we would do after school, to the point that we were scolded multiple time by the teacher.

"Can I have a glass of water please ?"

"Sure, and you Scott ?"

"I would also like a glass of water please. "

After school, we directly came here and are currently taking some brunch while talking animatedly. Well… more like Samantha and Scott talked and I listened and grinned happily while putting some comments occasionally.

After our brunch we went into the living room and begin to do our homework. Everything went merrily, I was pretending to have some difficulties, doing them only slightly faster than Scott but slower than Samantha. Scott could be viewed as the average boy in the class and as I wanted to score just above average it was a good target for me. Samantha was at the top of the class, I don’t know if she was the first but top three was easy for her. Scott sometime ask for help and we would then answer him but I never asked for help because I knew I would screw up and expose myself pretty rapidly if I did it. Because of that I passed for someone stubborn in this aspect, not that I really cared and I was pretty stubborn so it was not like they were wrong. Furthermore I was already tagged weirdo so a card stupidly stubborn in addition to the others wasn’t going to change anything. Samantha would ask for help from time to time and I would do my best to help her without being to obvious, providing more of a direction of thinking than an answer.

Maybe I was paranoid, much to cautious but I was not strong enough to risk it. I could probably overpower most adult but anyone with the least bit of martial or military training could crush me. Even the school guards could probably beat me… But that was if I didn’t use magic. During those years my free time was divided equally between cultivating, training life and light magic or searching on the net about pretty much anything, doing whatever was more convenient at the moment resulting in cultivating taking most of the time at night and doing others too if I could find time alone during the day.

I had some result, steadily progress in both magic and my control over them becoming pretty correct. The other result was in cultivation. I could now cultivate while lying in bed. It was not as effective as if I cultivated with the traditional cross-legged position but so much more confortable and discret. I ended using it most of the time, improving it slightly.

We finished just before six p.m, not really a problem for me because I was having a sleepover. Yes my first visit is a sleepover. Pretty scary. I was a little afraid because of my glasses. I couldn’t sleep with them on so I would have to take the off before sleeping and be very careful. I had discussed about it with mother and she was not over joyous about me having a sleepover but for some reasons she accepted. I didn’t understand. She didn’t want to but she accepted… Why do something, or accept in this case, that you judge bad ? And it was not like I insisted or anything, I just told her that I wanted and I would be exited if I could. Humans can be so contradictory sometimes … I was adapting pretty good at my new situation as a human girl but I still had trouble every once in a while. I didn’t view myself as a human yet but I would soon, I could feel my mind changing little by little, a very strange experience, sensing your own mind changing.

Just when we were about to play in Samantha’s room we heard the doorbell. I looked at Scott and saw his face fall. It was probably his parents and he didn’t want to go which was not surprising. We barely did anything beside studying, even if we did spend a lot of time laughing and playing while studying. We went to the front door and it was as expected his father. They looked very alike, both with brown hair and green eyes. I remarked that their nose had almost the same form. I loved to observe my surrounding and try to catch every details. I was pretty good at this when not distracted or focused on something. Sadly I was most of my time either lost in my though or paying attention to something, most of the time whatever game or conversation we had with the others children.

"… hope that he didn’t bother too much."

"Oh no, they were pretty sweet. Honey, did you all finished your homework ?"

"Yes, mom but we just finished. Can we go to play a little before he had to go ?"

"I’m not sure honey, they probably have other things to do. You’ll have to ask his father."

We all looked at him with puppy eyes, Scott and Samantha mainly and I just observed him curiously. He looked at us with a sad face.

"Sorry guys, but today is not possible. Next time you will have more time."

Scott pouted but didn’t say anything. Apparently he already knew his father would respond this way. However his pouting face rapidly became playful again after he said goodbye and promised we would see each other on Monday. I didn’t really understand how he could always be so joyous but I wouldn’t complain. It was much better this way after all.

"Okay girls, you can go to play in Samantha’s room. I already prepared your bed Lucia. I will call you when supper is ready."

"Let’s go Lucia !"

Samantha then took my hand and eagerly pulled me upstair.