Gaelira left her hand on the trunk's latch and looked at Octavia. The redhead remained in front of the door with her arms crossed, watching the luggage as if she feared it might spread across the entire room at any moment.
After living with the old Gaelira during school, she probably had more than enough reasons to establish conditions before allowing her to put away a single piece of clothing.
"First rule," Octavia began. "I'm not waking you up for classes. If you oversleep, that's your problem."
"Agreed."
"Second, you won't copy my assignments. I can explain something to you if I have time, but I'm not doing your work again while you go out and have fun."
"That seems fair."
Octavia narrowed her eyes before continuing. "Third, if you skip class, I won't lie for you or convince the teachers that you were sick. I'm not making up excuses in front of the headmistress either."
"Understood."
The silence that followed was more uncomfortable than the rules.
Octavia seemed to have prepared an entire argument and now did not know what to do with all the responses Gaelira refused to give her. She parted her lips, closed them again, and finally uncrossed her arms.
"Is that all?" Gaelira asked.
"I had more things to say, but normally you would've started complaining by now."
"The rules are reasonable. Besides, I don't expect you to be responsible for me."
Octavia studied her for several seconds. "I also want you to keep your things on your side of the room."
Gaelira looked at the trunks and bags occupying almost all the space between the two beds. "That one might take me a little longer."
She knelt beside the first trunk and lifted the lid. Inside, she found several carefully folded dresses, hair products, and small boxes whose contents she did not immediately recognize.
Her mother had prepared every detail she would need to settle into Crownspire, despite acting as though she only wanted to throw her out of the mansion.
Gaelira did not know whether to feel grateful or concerned by how easily her parents had organized her departure.
Beneath the clothes, she found two Thornheart uniforms. Both included a light blouse, a dark skirt, and a wine-colored jacket with the thorned heart embroidered over the chest.
Gaelira lifted one of the garments and examined the small clasps arranged across the back and sides. Clothes in her previous life had never required so many pieces just to stay in place.
"Does that need instructions too?" Octavia asked.
"I'm trying to figure out why a jacket has more mechanisms than a lock."
"They're not mechanisms. They're clasps to adjust it."
Gaelira removed the coat she had worn during the trip and put the jacket on over her blouse. She managed to close the front, but one side ended up higher than the other and her hair became trapped beneath the collar. This chapter is updated first at novelping.com.
She tried to free it while reaching for the clasps on her back, but only managed to pull several strands and twist the garment even more.
Octavia watched her efforts from the other side of the room. "Do you want help?"
"I can do it."
"You could also put away your books, and that took you three months."
Gaelira let her arms fall. "I accept your help."
Octavia approached and stood behind her. First, she freed the hair trapped beneath the collar and moved it over one of her shoulders.
Her fingers accidentally brushed the back of Gaelira's neck, making her entire body tense. The reaction surprised Octavia too, and she pulled her hand away for a moment.
"Did I hurt you?"
"No. Your hands were cold."
"They aren't cold."
"Then it must've been the exhaustion."
Gaelira kept her eyes forward while Octavia adjusted the clasps on her back. Being so close allowed her to feel her breathing and the slight movement of her fingers against the fabric.
It was absurd that this made her more nervous than the duel against Clarke, but she still was not used to another girl being so close to her new body.
When Octavia finished, she smoothed the sides of the jacket and stepped back.
"Now it actually looks like your size," she commented.
Gaelira looked at herself in the mirror beside the wardrobe. The uniform emphasized the shape of her body and matched her golden eyes much better than she expected.
For the first time since she had awakened, the girl in the reflection did not look like a stranger trapped in someone else's bedroom. She looked like a Crownspire student.
"Not bad," she admitted.
"You always liked how everything looked on you."
"That sounds like a compliment."
When Gaelira tried to remove the jacket, she caught part of her hair in the clasps again. Octavia sighed and helped her once more before pointing toward the brush sticking out of the trunk. This chapter was copied from novelping.com without permission.
Gaelira picked it up and dragged the bristles from the roots, causing a painful tug that made her close one eye.
"You're going to rip it out," Octavia said.
"I'm just brushing it."
"You start from the ends when it's tangled."
Octavia took the brush from her and told her to sit in front of the mirror. Gaelira obeyed, even though that was not part of any rule they had established.
The redhead divided her hair into several sections and began untangling it with patient movements. Whenever she found a knot, she held the strand to avoid pulling on Gaelira's scalp.
"Did your maids do this for you?" Octavia asked.
"Probably."
"Probably?"
"After the spell, I still have gaps. I remember some things better than others."
Octavia continued brushing, but Gaelira watched in the mirror as her expression changed. That explanation could justify her forgetfulness for a while, but it would not work forever.
Sooner or later, she would have to learn enough details about the old Gaelira to stop looking like an impostor in her own body.
When they finished, Gaelira organized the clothes inside the wardrobe and opened the second trunk. It contained school supplies, bottles of ink, and a collection of books that looked new. When she checked one of them, she discovered that several pages were still stuck together at the edges.
"You never used any of them," Octavia pointed out.
Gaelira looked at the rest of the books. "Looks like she didn't even open them."
"Looks like?"
"I mean, I don't remember opening them."
She placed the books on the desk and found something wrapped in light-colored paper beneath them. It was a thick notebook, secured with a red ribbon that had lost some of its color. There was no dust on it, but the wrapping remained intact.
Octavia stopped organizing as soon as she saw it. The calm she had managed to maintain disappeared and was replaced by an expression Gaelira could not interpret.
"Do you recognize it?" she asked.
Octavia took several seconds to answer. "I gave it to you. I prepared all my notes to help you pass the final exams."
Gaelira looked at the ribbon that had never been untied and understood the rest before hearing it.
"You never even opened it."