I went to wash and tried to remember the night. It had been a good party, and I was now very officially Joe's girlfriend. I watched my face satisfied in the mirror and froze. Oh, fucking fuck, I had a black eye. Oh fuck, that must have been a hard hit to cause Cala a black eye. What do I do now?

How could I, super-Cala, have been beaten last night?

“You were drunk.” - countered White Flower flatly

“And you did not help much!”

She did not answer immediately.

“Unfortunately, I don't seem to be able to handle much alcohol. I completely blacked out.” - she confessed.

Was she embarrassed by it?

I dressed hurriedly while the eggs were boiling for breakfast, and then I ate fast my eight eggs with mayo, ham and cheese.

“This is not normal! Why does Cala need to do sport and eat so much?”

After a couple of seconds, I got Cala's answer through White Flower:

“Cala says that without training, her muscles will grow weak.”

“Nonsense. Her muscles are strong because there is magic in them! That magic does not disappear!”

“True, the magic density in your muscles stays the same, but the muscle mass will be reduced if you stop exercising. This is a common human trait. Orcs are different. So you will have less muscle and thus less power. Simple as that.”

“Oh shit. But then, why does she need to eat so much?”

“Because the food here is low quality. If you would eat high-quality food as in the other world, then you could eat smaller portions. She thinks the muscle mass is somehow denser in her muscles than what normal people here have; that is why she needs more food.”

Oh well, maybe she has a point, but I'll need to hide this higher consumption somehow. I'll have to invent some kind of cosmetic treatment as the reason for my higher egg consumption. Oh yes, that is something Clara can understand, but then I'll need to eat them in hiding. What about salami and cheese?

With these thoughts in mind, I took a pair of sunglasses to hide my black eye and got out of my house and hurried towards the school.

At the entry, I found Daniel and Simon sitting on the fence and talking. Both were wearing dark sunglasses, and when they saw me, they waved and started to laugh. I could not do but laugh seeing them.

“If I see those bastards again, I'll teach them a lesson!” - said Simon, finally.

I shrugged.

“May I see your eye?” - asked Daniel

I took off my glasses and let him have a look.

“Oooh, almost nothing. Look at mine!” - he said proudly, taking the glasses off at his turn, revealing a very swollen closed black eye that he could not even open.

“Bastards!” - mumbled Simon again

“How is Joe?” - I wondered

“Fresh as a baby. Somehow he escaped unscathed.” - laughed Simon.

“He always does that!” - added Daniel rolling his eye.

I laughed. Yes, that looks like Joe.

“Are you coming to the blue cauldron show too?”

“Unfortunately not.” - said Simon shrugging - “the tickets are too expensive for me. Besides, your show yesterday was much better!”

I rolled my eyes. To compare our performance with that of those celebrities was an unexpected compliment. Or is he making fun of me?

“You're kidding!?”

“No, trust me. I loved it!”

“I would go; I like the Blue Cauldron's music.” - said Daniel - “but I got no tickets. I missed the opportunity to buy online when they were cheap. Now they ask a fortune for a ticket.”

“Can't Joe get some more VIP tickets?” - I wondered, feeling a little guilty.

“No, he was lucky his brother gave him those two tickets. It's a pretty small concert hall, only about two thousand places, and the tickets were gone in a couple of hours.”

“Small? Two thousand?”

Simon shrugged.

“What do you want... Blue Cauldron is a name that drags masses! They could have rented the stadium for the concert.”

We went in as the bells rang the end of the break.

The English teacher ignored my sunglasses. The math teacher asked me to take them down and then asked me if I wanted to talk about my black eye. What happened? I explained that I'd hit the kitchen door in the morning. There must be a kitchen door epidemic, he answered, shaking his head with disdain, but that was it.

I ate at noon together with Daniel and Simon in the canteen. The music teacher came and asked us to remove the glasses, and Simon said no. Why should we? He left us mumbling something about kids and no respect and gangs and whatever.

The sports trainer came later and asked if there was any problem that he should know about or could help with. Simon said that we were advertising for sunglasses, so he had a good laugh and left us to our devices.

I was feeling happy. Strange, yesterday night I had been beaten by some marauders, yet I was pleased with my little life here. I had friends, I had a boyfriend, I was successful, and I've reached peace in my inside world.

At two o'clock I went home and started preparing myself for the concert. That took me several hours. Everything had to be perfect. I had a lovely red dress that I wanted to wear for this event, a pair of high heels, and a red satin scarf over my naked shoulders. I tried first the dress without a bra. It was much too revealing, so I had to wear a bra.

In the end, I was happy with my apparition. Take this, Clara! I'm going with Joe to the concert. As soon as he parked his convertible, I left the apartment. My heart was beating in the tact of my high heels. Tock, tock, tock, tock, tock. Oh, I kept those shoes only for such events.

I asked Flo to take the lead to further refine my movement. I know she was making me look gorgeous; besides, I would undoubtedly faceplant myself at the first little gravel encounter with me in the lead.

Did my skin become softer? Did my eyelashes grow? Are my traits becoming more delicate? Are my lips more sensual? I felt a warmth coming from deep inside me, spreading further through my body, the same sensation I had each time she took the lead.

Is this only my imagination? But if it is, why do I see the reaction in his eyes, the same reaction I see in their eyes again and again?

He met me halfway, and we kissed. My heart was filled with joy singing like a happy little bird.

I'm sure Clara was watching from behind the curtains but in the end, who cares?