As expected, their Magic and Science teacher, Mister Gabriel, greeted them with the quiz he repeatedly reminded them about. As if the midterms didn't just finish last week and barely scratched the surface of the new lesson. It was a good thing she thought of rewriting her notes earlier. Once she gave her paper to him, she sat back down and opened her notebook again. It wasn't difficult to find where she ended her rewriting earlier. When she finished the last bit, there were two pages left.

Perhaps it was a good thing she stopped instead of rewriting them for the eighth time. She didn't know if she could still use this notebook with just these two pages left. She had one remaining spare notebook left at home. It was also the weekend tomorrow, so maybe she could buy a new one.

Just thinking about that made her fingers ache again. Parts of her left middle finger had stiffened, and there was a small bump on it. As she brushed that finger with her right finger, she sighed to herself. Perhaps she should write with her right hand for the rest of the day.

"Alright. Settle down, everyone," Mister Gabriel said as he tapped his chalk on the board twice. Tala almost flinched at the sound. She didn't know if her ears were just extra sensitive today or if he intentionally scratched the board like that to get their attention.

"The school year is almost over," he continued. "Not only that, this is your last year in junior year. I'm sure your history teacher had already told you about your final class collaboration product earlier. As of now, Miss Isolde has only asked me to collaborate. We'll ask the other teachers about it later.

"For your final product, you're going to make a model based on a historical event you learned ever since the beginning of the school year, and the best one will be displayed in the Starfell Fest Dance. Isolde will be grading your historical accuracies and how well the model is made, but I'll be grading a different thing. Instead, I'll be grading how well your control over the model is and what part of Magic and Science you've applied. You will also be writing an essay of how you've used your magic in the model.

"Now." He clapped his hands. "Please write all of your names in a slip of paper so I can group you into pairs."

Tala furrowed her brows, and she raised her arm. "Mister Gabriel, there's thirty-three of us."

Mister Gabriel hummed at that. Soft brown, almost black, eyes scanned the classroom. They stopped in a specific spot. But before Tala could even turn around to check what he was staring at, he had already turned away and waved a hand. "I see. This project has always been in pairs, so one of you will be working as a trio. Alright, names, please. And be quick; there's fifteen minutes left of class."

She quickly did what he asked. When she was seated again, she sighed and rested her chin on her palm. She knew how this was going to go down. It didn't matter whether she had the trio or the pair. She was going to do the heavy lifting, like always. The first Starfell was one of their earlier lessons all the way back from the first semester. They would definitely expect her to be the one recreating it.

Maybe she could ask them to do the essay? Or would they also ask her to do it? She could already imagine their reasons.

It's your magic. It's your historical event. I think the Starblessed should write about the star-related event. You know more about this than we do, after all.

Back then, she would have been glad if she got paired up with Cess or Lysandre, maybe even Kael. But after that memory dive from Cess's head earlier...

Just how long had she thought of Tala like that?

At least Lysandre and Kael were more reliable, right? Right?

Lysandre was the no-nonsense to Kael's troublemaking tendencies. There was no way the two of them thought of her the same way like Cess.

Or maybe... Or maybe they did. Whether they were better than Cess or worse than her, they still had similar thoughts. And if those three thought of her like that, just how many more of them did?

"She's only special because she's a Starblessed. If she was normal like us, she wouldn't even be where she is right now."

Her grip on her pen tightened. No. She needed to stop thinking like that. It could just be Cess. That was what happened if someone as smart as her got in the wrong crowd. They would become a waste of talent.

Whoever she was going to be grouped with, they would either work with her or she would have to beg her teachers that she should work alone. She didn't know how high were the chances of them agreeing, especially since it was their final product of the year. But she was going to try.

She watched as Mister Gabriel continued calling the names. Every now and then, he would pause for a long second and readjust his glasses, as if verifying what he was reading. He raised a brow as he unfurled one paper before grabbing another. He hummed.

"Tala Brillantes and Noctis Nakagawa."

What? What?

If the grip on her pen earlier was tight, then she didn't know what to call this one now. Maybe it was just her, but she could feel it cracking beneath her fingers. She wanted to release her grip on it. But as the name continued echoing in her head, she felt an eyebrow twitch.

Of course. Of course she had to be paired with Noctis. Surely, nothing could go wrong. Just like the several previous times they had been grouped together in the past.

Mister Gabriel wrote their names on the board, officially making them a pair. Was she unlucky for being stuck with him of all people for the next few moons, or should she be glad that they wouldn't have a third groupmate be subjected to his unneeded comments about everything?

When Mister Gabriel finished the groupings, he nodded. "Alright. There's still less than fifteen minutes left before class ends. Sit with your partners and discuss what you'll be talking about. I'm not sure if Miss Isolde told you this, but there's a lot of things in the past you can pick. We don't want to see more than two people with the same model. I'd say be creative with how you include your magic, but perhaps that'll be Sofia's job once we ask her to collaborate as well."

Tala nodded. She doubted anyone else would do the Starfell Fest. She already knew how to do that. And she was going to do it, whether—

"Tala."

A scream left Tala's lips as she jumped up. The pen cracked between her fingers, and her eyes widened as black splotches of ink stained the back of her hand. She reached for her chest. Stars, she could feel how fast her heart was beating. Crap, crap, crap. Did she bring a handkerchief with her? There should be one in her bag, right? No, no, no, no, no. She needed to be careful. She would get this everywhere. Maybe she could fold her hands and—no, no, no. She was not touching that.

"Hey." A hand on her shoulder made her jump again, and she turned around. Noctis had sat down next to her. Something cold flowed down her veins, most likely his magic. It was difficult to see what expression he had behind his sunglasses. Hopefully, he wasn't mocking her.

"Relax," he said. "It's just ink. You'll be okay, I promise."

Just ink...

Of course it was. Tala scoffed, and she swatted his hand away from her. "I know that. I'm not stupid."

Whether she liked it or not, the coldness of his magic did allow her to breathe easier. Deep breath in, deep breath out. Why did she even scream? No, why did Noctis have to surprise her like that? If he had just sat down and called her like a normal person, she wouldn't have overreacted, and she wouldn't have broken her pen.

She folded her hands together, making sure no ink would get on her uniform's sleeves. As it flowed down her hand, a shiver traveled down her spine. It was just ink, but the liquid felt warm. Before it could spread further, she let her magic flow and separated her hands again, the clean one hovering over the other. The black splotches flew up, and they finally left her skin. The remains of the pen also returned to her fingers. Within a few seconds, her pen was in one shape once again, as if it had never snapped in the first place.

She turned to Noctis. He flicked his hands, making the curtains behind her close. When he removed his sunglasses, the expression he held was unsurprising. A gaze as cold as he was. "Tala."

"Noctis."

"You're making this more of a big deal than it's supposed to be. Never thought of you to be the violent type."

"Me breaking a pen once doesn't make me violent. You act as if I've broken more things during the times we had the unfortunate fate of working together."

"Of course. You always somehow manage to break the limits of my patience."

"Wow, I'm so honored. I didn't know I made that deep of an impact in your life."

"It's very deep. In fact, it's so deep I wonder why you don't just bury yourself in it sometimes."

Mister Gabriel cleared his throat, silencing the class. "Does anyone have any questions?"

Tala raised her hand. Next to her, she saw Noctis do the same.

Mister Gabriel sighed. "Yes, Noctis? Tala?"

"Are we allowed to work individually?" Noctis asked.

For the first time, she agreed with something he said. "Please let us work individually."

Not even a beat passed before Mister Gabriel replied with, "No. Does anyone else that aren't Noctis and Tala have more important questions?"

Her brow twitched again. Great.

They still had a few minutes before the bell rang. Which unfortunately meant talking to Noctis. She looked at him again, resisting the urge to make a comment. He was reading something in his notebook when he also turned to look at her. But before he could say anything, she already raised a hand. "Whatever it is you're going to say, I'm not accepting it. The model we're making is the first Starfell."

Noctis scoffed. He closed his notebook. A little too loud for her taste, as if he was intentionally doing it for dramatic effect. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Because that's what we're going to be making."

"And I suppose you expect me to sit down and let you do all the work without help?"

"No, you're going to sit down and—" She blinked. Heat rushed down to her cheeks. She cleared her throat and fanned her hand in the air. "Absolutely. I'm going to be doing it. You can do the essay if you want, I don't care. Just let me do the model."

He rolled his eyes and shook his head. "As much as you recreating the exact moment the first stars fell and blessed Isandara with their presence sounds interesting, may I propose a suggestion? Something that doesn't involve you making something you've probably done and still do every year?"

"You just stated the exact reason why we should do this. I've already made models like this ever since I was young. It's an easy perfect score for us."

Us. Tala felt her heart skip a beat for a moment. She was paired with Noctis. Whatever score she got was also his score. She would be pulling him up. And if he would beat her in more classes, it meant he might be able to beat her and...

No. She needed to stop that. Like she would let that happen.

Noctis was silent as he stared at her. She couldn't tell what he was thinking, and she doubted another mind read would be successful. But what she could tell was that his expression was a mixture of mockery, amusement, and genuine surprise. "I meant that as a joke. I didn't think you actually tried recreating the first Starfell before."

"Not tried." A smile formed on her face. "I've successfully done it several times. Get on my level, Moonboy."

He was silent again. This time, the confusion on his face was evident. Her victorious smile against him, however, didn't last, and she frowned again. They hadn't even spent ten minutes talking to each other and they were already disagreeing. Why did she have to be paired with the one guy who refuted everything she said? Maybe the Stars hated her. Or they had a sick sense of humor, and her suffering was their favorite.

"Yeah, fine. Whatever," he continued. "Little Miss Starblessed is talented and has been recreating the first Starfell ever since she was created. And I'm gonna guess you have several models of the first Starfell just sitting in your home?"

She furrowed her brows. "I mean, duh? They're supposed to showcase how I've become stronger over the years. Why wouldn't there be several of them in my house?"

He took a deep breath. "Again. That was supposed to be a joke. I did not think you were serious."

"See?" She shrugged, leaning on the wall behind her. "I have several models of them already. I can just copy what I did for the most recent one, make it better, and then pass it. We'll have it done way ahead of the deadline."

"I think you're forgetting the part where this is a paired project, so I should also have my input."

He reopened his notebook and textbook, showing her a page. His notebook was clean, and there were even some sketches of the lessons on it. On top of the page, drawn in red ink, was a large red moon. The details were intricate, and she could tell he copied it directly from their textbook.

If only his handwriting was as decent.

He tapped on the largest letters in the book and continued, "I think it's better if we recreate the Blood Moon Massacre instead. It's one of the most interesting events in history, and I doubt we'll get other people copying us since there's still a lot of stuff they can do. Plus, since you were talking about it with Cess earlier, maybe this is finally your chance to be right about the first Blood Moon."

Tala raised a brow as she grabbed the textbook. The Blood Moon Massacre... this was already during the Post-Starfell Era, when the first stars already left Isandara. Anything during that era barely interested her, and she couldn't remember most of them. While the Blood Moon Massacre was one of the things she remembered, it still didn't sound as interesting.

She closed the book and scoffed. "No. You heard what Mister Gabriel said earlier. No one's allowed to do the same model. You're not the only Moonblessed in this class. What makes you think the others won't do it?"

Noctis blinked. His brows immediately furrowed down as he snatched his notebook back. "Just because you're the only Starblessed left in this school doesn't mean your word is law."

"In this case, it is."

"There's other things more interesting than Starfell. That thing happens at the beginning of every year, everyone knows it by now. The Blood Moon happens once every twenty-five. Something about the Blood Moon is unique."

Tala blinked. Did he just call the Stafell Fest a 'thing'? Did he even know what it was supposed to be about? Magic flowed in her veins, and she had to clench her hands into fists before they could leak out and be uncontrollable. "Starfell isn't a 'thing'. You wouldn't be here without the first Stars. None of us would."

"Yeah, and it happens every single year. Everyone knows about it by now. If we have the best model, what are you going to do? Are you going to show a model of the first Starfell? During the Starfell Fest Dance? When people can just look up and see the actual stars falling?"

"Yes! It's symbolic!"

Noctis gritted his teeth. His hands reached for her shoulders, making her jump up. The corners of his eyes turned into red, almost as the same shade as his irises. "Listen to me, Tala. I'm trying to help you here. You don't understand what you're going t—"

"Noctis! Tala!"

Tala flinched. Any excess of uncontrolled magic that almost leaked out became calmer almost immediately, and she was quickly able to reel it back. At the corners of her eyes, she saw Noctis lower his head. It was easy to see a blush of embarrassment on his paper-white cheeks, and even the tips of his ears turned into the same reddish hue. When he blinked, the sclera of his eyes returned to their normal white color again.

In front of them, Mister Gabriel was shooting them both a glare. Tala tried looking at his face. Tried. But one glance at his expression was enough to shut her up. It wasn't easy to get him mad. She had to have done something to get him this angry.

"I understand you two never work together. But for the love of the Stars, if you're going to have an argument, try to keep it out of school where you won't bother anyone? I expected more from both of you." His glare hardened as he looked at Noctis. "Especially you."

Noctis returned the glare at Mister Gabriel, and it made Tala blink. She didn't think Noctis would be the type to show disdain right in front of the teachers. Mister Gabriel was his track instructor, so perhaps he was as close to him the same way she was to Principal Celeste. But to actually glare at his teacher, not only right in front of his face, but in front of the entire class?

She elbowed his arm. "Hey, he can still see you, you know," she whispered.

He scoffed. "I know."

Tala didn't get the chance to ask more. The bell rang before she could. Usually, this was the part where everyone got up and started leaving, grabbing anything they needed for lunch. But aside from the bell, the room was quiet. She only heard a few standing up. And even then, nobody even stood by the door.

Mister Gabriel sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Everyone's free to leave. Noctis, you're staying here."

Noctis's eyes widened. "Wait, just me? But she—"

"Yes, just you."

Like before, Mister Gabriel showed him a hard glare. Though this one seemed even harder. If possible, it was even colder than Noctis himself. That seemed to shut him up, however.

"Tala," he continued, "you're free to go. For now, this is just a warning. But the next time this happens, I'm sending you both to the principal's office."

Tala sighed. "Yes, Mister Gabriel. Th- Thank you."

She started cleaning her stuff up, and she could finally hear her classmates doing the same. She didn't know if she wanted to look up or not. She knew everyone was staring at them. Staring at her. Were they all thinking about it? That a top student like her, a Starblessed like her, got reprimanded in class? Not only was this embarrassing, if this happened again, it would stain her record. And the last thing she needed was a stained record. Everything in her future rested there.

She slung her bag over her shoulders. Before she left, she casted one last look at Noctis. He still looked angry. Was it a reasonable expression or not? While she could understand if he was angry at her, it seemed to be more directed at Mister Gabriel.

She quickly left the classroom with the others. As soon as she stepped out, the door clicked. The room was locked. A sigh left her lips, and she looked at her right.

Two of her classmates were by the door, ears pressed against the wood. She furrowed her brows. "What are you doing?"

The person at the frontmost, Mark, placed a hand over his lips. "Shh. He might hear us."

Tala scoffed. She swept her hands at them. "Scatter, all of you. What's happening inside is none of your business. Mister Gabriel's scolding a student."

"Mister Gabriel is scolding Noctis," Ashley whispered.The mere sight of her made Tala's blood boil, but she bit back the snark before she could say something she would regret. It didn't help that Ashley was way less subtle than the others, even crouching down the door and pressing her ears on it. "He looks really mad, too. Do you think Mister Gabriel's his father?"

"They look nothing alike, though," Mark whispered.

Ashley scoffed. "You'll never know. Isn't Noctis albino or something? Maybe if he wasn't, they looked like each other."

"That's not how genetics work, I—" Tala rubbed her temples. This girl, I swear. "Scram, all of you! Don't make me call Mister Gabriel and say that you're all still listening! You wouldn't want other people eavesdropping when you guys are sent to the principal's office again, do you?"

Mark glared at her before grabbing Ashley. "Ash, let's go."

"I'm listening, I—"

The door opened. As expected, a very angry Mister Gabriel exited out of the classroom, glaring at the two. Before he could notice her, Tala immediately stepped back.

"I told you all to leave, didn't I?" he hissed. "Leave. Now!"

Like the cowards they actually were, Mark and Ashley left. It made Tala roll her eyes. She expected nothing less from a crowd of terrible people that did nothing but gossip, talk about people behind their backs, and waste their parents' money sending them to this school.

She needed to go to the cafeteria, anyway. Hopefully, Florante and Laura had already found a place to sit. She was so hungry, especially since she hadn't eaten breakfast.

For a brief moment, she caught a glimpse of Noctis in the classroom. His gaze met hers as well before he immediately looked away. It didn't look like he got hit, which was good. For now, he was just sitting on the same desk, tapping his fingers on the wood. Mister Gabriel closed the door again, blocking anything else from her vision. Despite that, her ears picked up something.

"You're doing the complete opposite of what you promised us you'll do, do you know that?"

It made her furrow her brows down, and she stared at the door. Was Noctis okay? Maybe she should ask him about it later. She was still the class rep, and it was still her duty to make sure the teachers weren't hurting their students. For now, she headed to the cafeteria.

Fun Fact: Even though the ONC version of Wish only had three chapters published, this was actually in the backlog. In fact, it wasn't Chapter 5, but Chapter 4! which is also probably the reason why i keep thinking i was one chapter less and labeled my chapters wrong but

Obviously, that chapter didn't end the same way. Since it was just a novella and I don't have time to properly flesh out Tala and Noctis's interactions, it ended with them eating at the cafeteria together and agreeing on what project to make.

Maybe I should have kept their original Chapter 2 interaction. Noctis roasts Tala there, and he does so again here. 

Anyway, thank you so much for reading this chapter, and I'll see you all in the next one!