8 Chapter 7: recurring dreams and visions

"Your blazer, young lady." A maidservant said, handing Shaianah her baby pink polyester blazer. Lila wasn't around but there were three other maidservants who were helping her get dressed for school. She still seemed uncomfortable about it, but they were insistent about helping her, claiming that they were just doing their jobs.

"Thank you. Please leave it at my bed." Shaianah tries to flash a pleasant smile to hide the uneasiness she feels. Perhaps she could get used to it soon.

The maidservants let her sit in front of the vanity so they could fix her hair into a braid and put light amount of make up on her face. Shaianah admits that it actually felt nice to live a princess-kind of life. She feels like a royalty and she liked living at the moment.

A few moments later, a knock was heard and the door opens slowly. Black and worn out soles clasped against the tiles as a lady dressed in the same polyester blazer Shaianah had walked towards the vanity. She looked different today—a good kind of different—and it made Shaianah's lips curve into a genuine smile.

"You look lovely in that uniform, Lila." Shaianah compliments.

Both Shaianah and Lila would be attending the same academy, Queens High. Their school uniform included an inner white blouse and a baby pink skirt paired with the same color of blazer. The blazer also had a little pocket on its left with the school logo embroidered on top.

"Thank you, young lady." Lila shyly responds, glancing at the three older maidservants who also smiled at her. She was the youngest among all of them who worked for the Cohen family.

"Please don't call me that at school. You can call me Shaianah instead. Besides, we're already friends, right?" Shaianah tries to look at Lila's eyes on the vanity mirror and smiles. She swore to herself now that she's living in a new town and living a new life, she would open herself more to the world. She wanted to make friends and build bonds with them, and she'll start with the one that's closest. Lila.

That's why when she found out that Lila will not only be attending the same school as her but will also be her classmate, she was so thrilled. She was starting to like having the latter around.

Christine was pretty upset, though. Her personal helper was a middle-aged woman so she couldn't really get along well with her that much.

After Shaianah got dressed, both she and Lila proceeded to the living room where everyone else were waiting. Christine will be attending Queens High as well, while the twins will be studying at a different school.

"Do we need to hide that we're half human?" Christine curiously asks while they walk to the front door. Mammy pauses and thinks for a moment.

"It's not necessary. The things that happened in the past have already tainted the Cohen name and almost everyone in Cassiopeia would've already known about it. You don't have to worry, though. Elementals are kind people. They were just strict about the rules."

Outbursts of visions suddenly struck Shaianah after what Mammy had said. It was first a figure of the two persons she'd longed for the most—her mom and dad. She was shown a glimpse of the two looking at each other with so much love and devotion. And the next, visions of her mother being banished from the town that was once her home.

Shaianah suddenly takes a step back after seeing all those visions. She wasn't sure if they were true or if they were only a product of her imagination, but the memories were too vivid as if they were her own.

Mammy notices how Shaianah held the door for support. "Are you okay, my dear?"

"I suddenly got dizzy, but I'm fine." Shaianah tries to compose herself again so they wouldn't worry about her. "Mammy, what do you mean about the things that happened in the past?"

"Well, you see dear, loving a human is forbidden for elementals. That was the reason your mother got banished." Shaianah only nodded to Mammy's explanation. She couldn't stop thinking about the visions and the recurring dreams she were seeing. It had already been days and all these just kept coming without Shaianah even understanding a thing about it. Though, she'd just shrug it off and forget it after.

"Are you really okay? Is there something you're not telling us?" Christine asks her sister as soon as they sat at the backseat of their Impala. Lila sat on the front beside the driver while the twins, and their own personal driver, took their other car to school.

"What do you mean?" Shaianah averts her gaze outside the window when the car started moving, causing Christine to eye her suspiciously. "I'm not hiding anything, Christine."

"Then what was that about? Why did you suddenly get dizzy? I feel like there's more to it. Are you sure you're fine?" Apart from Christine's intuitions being mostly correct, she knew her sister too well, and she knows when the older is not telling something. She was worried that Shaianah is sick or is having problems she knew nothing about.

Shaianah lets out a sigh before looking back at Christine who was staring at her and waiting for her response. "It's just... I've been having these weird dreams since we left Manila. Someone unfamiliar kept calling my name."

"Oooh, Shaianah must be dreaming of her prince charming." Christine giggled and sat back comfortably on her seat, thinking that perhaps Shaianah was just having a crush on someone and kept dreaming about this person.

"That's not it. And sorry to burst your bubble, Christine, but it's a woman I've been seeing in my dreams." Shaianah playfully rolls her eyes. She doesn't want to worry Christine since she's not even sure what her dreams and visions were about, so she doesn't tell the younger all the details.

Christine's eyes grew wide as she gasps. "Shaianah, I didn't know you were.—"

"Oh, just shut up." Shaianah pushes Christine lightly and they both laughed.

"We're here." Lila interrupts as their rusty red Impala enters a grandiose golden gate that had the Queens High's emblem. Both girls gasps in awe as they admire the landscape of the whole academy. "Welcome to Queens High!"