A sweet story about courtship in the era of light. A young rebellious boy named August finds a very unusual and clever girl, named Celeste. Celeste is born of a wealthy family, to whom she spits venom to prevent her early, and tedious marriage to t...
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She was the only girl in school. Extremely quiet, and supremely bizarre in many ways. She did not have friends, but she really didn't need them. Boys were usually the only ones to go to school, she didn't belong. Her place was in the home. She was put into a class, quickly introduced, and sat down next to a boy in a blue coat expected never to speak again for the whole year. The eyes were frozen on her, she knew what was expected of her, but she refused to comply. So she did not remain silent. When she spoke she was sharp as a blade, and articulate in such a charming way; it was thrilling.
The reason she was there was because her parents were wealthy, and were never around to tell her what to do. They were always gone, attending event after event in Paris, leaving her in their house alone to toil away her time. She had once been engaged in watercolor painting, and equestrian sport, but she grew bored. Eventually she decided that education would be her conquest, she would learn everything she possibly could. She had already read all of her parents books, and became bored with that too.
She didn't fail to impress the boy who she had come to sit beside. He was picky about his company, and frankly somewhat socially inept. He was from a harsh home where much of the pressure of his widowed mother was placed directly upon his shoulders. He had a fascination with odd things, anything strange or out of the ordinary he was curious about. He found her intriguing. It even managed to distract him all through lecture. He was simply completely lost in his thoughts; his head filling up with questions: why was she here? What does she know? What does she want to know? What are her parents like? Is she still soft and gentle like a woman? The thoughts kept reeling on like that, until he realized he didn't know what was going on around him.
Before he could reestablish his bearings though, class was over, and the one he wondered about for so long was gathering her things to leave. He jumped up, and grabbed her books from the table, hugging them to his chest under his long arm. "I'll carry these." He quickly spat out.
She stared at him, unsure what to make of him. She wasn't sure what his intentions were, if he was genuinely attempting to be kind, or if he was going to be rude and cruel, which she expected to be the case anyway.
He could see on her face that she was suspicious of him. It was the crinckling of the skin between her dark brows that gave her away. He had to say something. He thought hard for anything at all that he could say. He cleared his throat, "Can I walk you home?" He asked, pitifully. If anyone else had been there he would have been mocked for sure.
Her face relaxed, and she knew now that he wasn't out for blood. "That would be fine." She said, and gathered the rest of her things, carrying them in a bag over her shoulder.
His chest untightened as he followed her out, the unfortunate one to now have to carry twice as many books along with him. It was well worth it though, to him.
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