Celeste Academy Dating Series - Introduction

Hey everyone! Here's the first chapter of that new dating series we talked about in a previous creative post. Today is the first day back at Celeste Academy for our protagonist Carida, where she'll be starting her fourth and final year of studies. At the end, you'll see the first three options for who to go on a date with. Vote for whichever one sounds the most fun to you! During the next post, you'll have a chance to go on a second date with the same girl, or find someone new. We hope you enjoy, and be sure to tell us what you think!

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     Towers of dishes cover the counter, stacked nearly as tall as I am. Enough silverware for a week’s worth of dinners litters the sink. The pots and pans still need to be washed too. The food’s all packed up. Meals for five, for the whole week. Healthy and delicious. That’s the easiest part. The only easy part. All in all, it’s gonna take at least half an hour to get the kitchen spotless again. And less than spotless isn’t an option. That’s not easy, but it’s not difficult either.

     What’s difficult is what comes after that. When dinner’s over, and everyone’s shut their doors for the last time and gone to bed. After I’ve picked out my outfit for tomorrow, packed my bag with everything I’ll need for my first class, and set three separate alarms to make sure I don’t oversleep. The third one conjures a little raincloud right over me if I don’t wave it away like a spiderweb, so it’s pretty much impossible to ignore.

     No, it’s not even that I’m dreading going to bed. What I’m really not looking forward to is what all of it means tomorrow morning. The first day of my final year here at Celeste. Like God is turning over some giant cosmic hourglass that’s trickling down to the end of finals season. What I’m really not looking forward to is waking up and knowing that I’ve got less than a school year left to figure my shit out.

                                                      * * *

     I wake up to the sound of two shrilly dueling alarm clocks and a puddle of water on my face. “No!” I yell at nothing in particular as I scramble up and out of bed. I glance at one of the clocks, still ringing, as I pull on my uniform. I’m already 15 minutes later than I should be, but class hasn’t started yet. I can still make it on time if I hurry.

     In the kitchen, I slam two slices of bread into the toaster then scurry back to my room to finish getting ready. The toast pops right as I shut my bedroom door behind me. I slice up an avocado with a quick spell, in too much of a hurry to do it the right way: by hand. I pinch it to the bread, still warm, and am out the door in record time.

     I make it to my seat in the lecture hall right on time, though I have to powerwalk most of the way there. Despite my rush, class itself trickles by like molasses through a sieve. I miss the naive semesters that started off with “syllabus day,” that last tiny reprieve before the big stuff.

                                                      * * *

     By the end of the day my hand is already sore from writing. My brain is just as exhausted. I head back to my dorm at a fraction of the speed I left it this morning.

     The dorm that I live in is suite-style, meaning that when you walk in the front door you’re in the living room, with the kitchen and bathroom attached. There are doors to all of our separate bedrooms, too. In total, there are five of us who live here. Although the odds of all five of us being in the dorm at the same time is slim to none, even late at night.

     When I walk in that afternoon, one of my roommates, Giselle, is sprawled out on the couch. With one arm she hugs a pillow to her chest, and with her other she holds her phone over her face.

     “Hey,” I say as I enter. Giselle doesn’t look up.

     “Sup.”

     “How was your first day?” I ask, although it’s tough to tell if she even went to class at all today. She’s one of those people who sometimes tries to schedule only Tuesday/Thursday classes, so she can have half the week off.

     “Pretty chill, nothing too bad today. Tomorrow’s the lit crit class and also the dragon bio class that are going to kick. My. Ass.” She pounds the pillow for emphasis on the last three words. “What about you? Regretting any life decisions right about now?”

     “Always.” I drop my bag in my room before dropping into one of the recliners in the living room. “Today was History of Magical Theory and two cooking classes. Tomorrow’s calc and chem. So today was kind of death and tomorrow is super death.”

     “Should’ve gotten those out of the way sooner. I did my math classes right away so I’d never have to worry about them again.”

     “Yeah,” I say. Just toss that onto the growing list of ‘ways I wish I’d done university differently.’ If I ever end up working in a field that has time travel, I’ve got a whole list of advice to give my younger self. Sorted in order of most to least relevant. I’ve put a lot of thought into it.

     “So anyway,” Giselle uses that super nonchalant tone that means she’s about to say something I probably don’t want to hear. “Lily and I were thinking about going out tonight. Wanna be our third wheel?”

     It’s tempting. One last night to enjoy before getting back into the slog of school. On the other hand, I’m not exactly doing great financially. Plus, I think of the stack of homework I already have waiting for me in my bag. Granted, most of it’s not due for a few days yet, but this is going to be the year where I stop putting that stuff off.

     “Thanks but I’ve gotta pass. Sounds like fun though, thanks for inviting me.” I give her my biggest smile. Giselle raises an eyebrow as she gets up from the couch.

     “Next time, then. Feel free to bring a plus one, if you’d like.”

     I know how I’m supposed to react. I’m supposed to be all ‘ooh, there’s nobody like that’ so Giselle can tell me something about putting myself out there, and about how this is my last year and I shouldn’t be so worried about what people think, and that she knows a girl who’d be perfect if I’d just give it a chance, and that sort of thing. I don’t need her to tell me all that. I have a secret. One that Giselle doesn’t know.

     “Yeah, sure thing. Next time,” I tell her. She’s heading out the front door so I see her off, waving from my bedroom door. “Have fun and be safe!” 

     I force the smile only as long as I need to. Shutting the door behind me, I flop down onto the bed, take out my phone, and open up my secret.

     Until a couple nights ago, I’d never had a profile on a dating site. It just wasn’t really my thing. But with it having been a year since the last time I so much as held a girl’s hand, well… It’s kind of clear that meeting people IRL isn’t really my thing either. So I made the profile while I was still back at my parents’ house, but I set the location as Celeste Academy. I haven’t looked at the results since then.

     I don’t need that lecture from Giselle. Not again. I already know that she’s right. This semester is going to be the semester that I get outside my comfort zone. So I double-check all the settings, and then I hit the “browse matches” button.

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Option A: Total plant mom and animal mom. I’m studying horticulture at Celeste with a practical emphasis on magical labyrinths. It’s not as scary as it sounds, I promise. If you speak dessert, you speak my language. I could write pages listing my favorite books and movies but I’d rather tell you about them in person. I love dogs, cats, birds, horses, rabbits, dragons, unicorns, birds, bears, and every other kind of animal I can think of. So I’m a vegetarian. Don’t mind if you’re not though!

Option B: I’ve been almost everywhere and I’m looking to complete the list! Right now home is Celeste Academy, but who knows when that’ll change? This is my first time ever using one of these apps, so I’m kind of looking to just keep things slow at first. Other perks of dating me include getting to pet Hugo, the lovely pup in my profile pic with me. 

Option C: Just moved here from a little town by the ocean! Don’t know many people here, so maybe you can help change that ;) Looking for friends or something more serious. Gonna be a doctor someday and move back home with my cute city wife - maybe you can be the one. I can show you the way around a boat but please don’t ask me to because I’ll totally get sick.