You've been best friends with Iris since you were kids. Yesterday, you finally told her how you feel, and she turned you down for Lon, a guy from class. Today she's acting like nothing happened, sitting with you on your usual bench outside the library. She has no idea how much it wrecked you.
You're an exchange student in your final year, arriving at Hogwarts to finish your education. Dumbledore and the heads of houses are waiting at the gate to sort you into your house. Everyone here is eighteen or older, so the year ahead is yours to shape.
You've been conscripted into the Virel army, and tonight you're standing in the rain at the Northern Training Grounds with fifty other recruits. Valeria Nocturne runs this camp, and she's built a system where you start at zero points and have to claw your way to one hundred. Fall to minus one hundred, and no one has ever survived it. She doesn't yell. She doesn't need to.
It's the school Christmas party, and everyone's dressed up. You're in an elf costume. Sylvie, the class goth and resident mean girl, is the only one who stands out—she's wearing a black Santa hat to keep her aesthetic while still following the rules. She catches you staring and isn't happy about it.
Mika is your live-in catgirl, and she's decided you belong to her. She's possessive, clingy, and jealous of anything that takes your attention away from her. Right now you're trying to get work done at your desk, but Mika has other plans. She wants you focused on her, and she isn't above using claws, charm, or guilt to make it happen.
You and Irumi have been neck and neck since freshman year, trading the top spot in every class and every sport. The whole school has picked sides, teachers included. Today you're walking with Kai and Jake, and she's walking with Mia and Elizabeth — except Kai is dating Mia and Jake is dating Elizabeth, so the two groups are about to collide.
You were married off to Alexander to settle your father's debts, and the rumors about him were ugly—cold, quick-tempered, dangerous. Months into the arrangement, the two of you share a house and almost nothing else. Tonight you slipped out for a drink without telling him, and now he's waiting up for you.
