The War of Six Crowns: The Vanished Knight

Claire

For heaven's sake! Callan reached for the faucet and shut off the water. "Can't you take a hint?" she muttered.

The girl chuckled. Callan shook her hands off in an attempt to release some of the pent-up frustration clawing at her insides.

"And here I thought you'd be crying."

Callan straightened with the full intent to stare the girl down, but ended up slack-jawed. A vision with red hair stood before her. In all the places she had been, she'd never seen a girl as stunning as this one. Of course, the redhead came nowhere close to Callan's mother. But still... Sky-blue eyes and soft laughter waited for her to respond.

She didn't.

"Of course not. Silly me. You're a tough cookie."

Callan arched an eyebrow at that wild assumption, but managed to hold in any smart remarks. If back-chatting entertained this girl, Callan would keep her tongue under control. She reached for the towel next to the mirror and dried her face.

"Not very talkative, are you?" the girl asked.

Callan inspected the redhead from behind the towel and tried to work out how best to get rid of her. If she couldn't become the phantom anymore, she'd settle for weird-tongue-tied-girl-with-zero-coordination. Callan bit the inside of her cheek and turned to the mirror above the basin. One look at her makeup-free face and Callan lurched for the trendy bag Mrs. Braden had given her. She dug for her emergency makeup kit and came up empty. Was nothing going to go her way? Where was the kit? She knew she'd packed it.

"Well, I'm Claire Hughes." The girl held out her hand.

Callan disregarded it.

"See? Now you say: 'Hi Claire, I'm Callan Blair.' Then you shake my hand. Then we laugh at the unintentional rhyme."

Callan's hands stilled. How did the redhead know her name?

"Well, Callan, I'm pleased to meet you too." Claire huffed and crossed her arms.

"How did you—"

"You're the only new girl my age," Claire said.

Great. Perfect. The school was even smaller than Callan had thought. She reached into her bag for the compact, but couldn't feel it. She narrowed her eyes at the bag's mouth.

"I'm your new roommate."

Oh...excellent. Someone determined to be a good roomie. "Great."

Callan gave up on the digging and emptied her bag into the basin. The kit fell out last. Of course. A minor explosion in her temples prompted her to search for something to stop her raging headache. One empty aspirin foil. When had she taken it? She hung her head. First days sucked.

"I'm not that bad!" Claire's voice conveyed deep injury. "I'm really a nice person."

Callan sighed. Claire sounded nice, but that didn't make any difference. Callan had tried to make friends before and it never worked.

"Look. Claire, is it? You don't have to hang around, do you? You probably have friends waiting for you outside." She turned back to the mirror and applied the powder, hoping to hear the girl leave.

Instead, she got a horrified gasp.

"Who the hell taught you how to apply makeup?"

Why wouldn't the girl just go? "I taught myself."

"Well, you should be whipped for mangling your face like this!"

"I'm not!"

Claire caught her chin before Callan could deflect her. She pushed Callan's face one way and another, analyzing with rapt attention. "The shade washes you out, sweet pea." Claire released her and reached for the lip gloss. She pulled out the wand. "And this is much too light."

Uh-oh. "I like it." Callan straightened, daring Claire with both her extra inches to contradict her.

Nothing. Not even a hesitation.

"Well...you shouldn't. And look at your hair! You've ruined it." The accusation in Claire's voice was so fierce that Callan took a step back. Claire just followed and grabbed a handful of Callan's frizz. "Brittle. Do you have any idea how long this will take for me to fix?"

No, oh no... Panic sent Callan's legs an urgent message to run, but Claire had her cornered. "Claire, it's fine. Really."

Her protests didn't even make a dent.

"And your uniform!" Claire screeched. "Do you realize how long it took for my mother to update the look when she was here? And now you turned her vision into...into...something a bag lady wears!"

"I'm sorry..."

Claire took a quick step forward and grabbed Callan's blazer. Callan stepped to the side in an attempt to shake the girl off, but Claire followed and bunched up the blazer until it pulled tight around Callan's torso. "This is much too large."

Claire's eyes lit up with a brilliant smile. "I know!" She clapped her hands.

Callan groaned. "What now?"

"We'll give you an inner and outer makeover!"

Oh, please no. "Claire, stop. Listen to me. I don't—"

"First thing we need to do is..." Claire grabbed Callan's shoulders and pushed them back before forcing her head up. "Better already."

Bloody hell. Callan tried to sidestep Claire again, but she was too quick.

"Then, as soon as we can get to town, we'll buy you a better uniform and hair dye in blonde. No!" Claire stared pointedly at Callan's head, where she assumed roots were starting to show. "Black. And then..."

Callan yanked herself out of Claire's grasp and sprinted out of the bathroom.

Sigh. Wattpad's not letting me respond to my comments. Sorry Marissa. I know today's post was a bit short. So... because you keep asking for more, I added this extra section specially for you. X