It had been a while since Camie had been that interested in a class. After it ended she rushed to the professor and asked her numerous questions that she wrote down. The professor seemed very happy to have such an energetic student and answered all of Camie's questions with a big smile. Camie completely lost track of time and when she checked her phone on her way out, she saw how many unread messages she had. She realized how late she really was and at that exact moment, her stomach woke up. Camie grimaced. She hated being hungry and she needed to eat as soon as possible.
She rushed to the stairs and started running down. She was halfway through when she suddenly heard her name. She got so scared that she slipped and almost rolled down the stairs. She managed to get both of her feet back on the ground and would have stayed vertical even if two strong arms didn't come out of nowhere to stabilize her.
"Are you okay?"
She looked up at the newcomer and seeing Théa from so close made Camie freeze.
"Im hungry."
Théa smiled:
"Then we should find a solution."
Camie started blushing. Why couldn't she just say yes? She really needed to think before speaking. Camie decided to just forget about it but for some reason all her awkward moments with Théa suddenly came back to her mind. Among them the worst being their first meeting. No! Don't think about it! Stop!
Seeing her completely lost in thought, Théa kept one of her hands under Camie's elbow and she helped Camie walk down the stairs gently. Théa didn't let her go immediately and just waited for Camie to wake up. It didn't take a lot of time because Camie's stomach started rumbling. Camie finally looked up but meeting Théa's eyes immediately reminded her of what happened and she looked back down. She suddenly noticed Théa's fingers around her elbow and started looking at them. Théa followed Camie's gaze down. Seeing her hand, she immediately let go:
"I am so sorry.
-It's okay. Thank you for helping me."
She knew that Théa didn't have bad intentions. Seeing Théa blush actually made Camie feel better. She finally could forget about what happened seconds before and she focused back on her stomach ache:
"Let's go eat.
-Yes."
Camie's friends were waiting for the girls in front of the cafeteria and seeing Camie arrive, Nylora started waving energetically:
"Finally! Hurry up! There's so many people already."
It took them half an hour but they finally managed to get their food and they sat down at a rare empty table. Camie literally jumped on her plate and it took her a few minutes to come back to the outside world. When she calmed down, she heard Topiary talking about a documentary she watched the day before:
"It just came out and it is very interesting. It shows us the life of stars from the beginning to the end. If I didn't choose informatics, I would have studied astronomy."
Camie's head jerked up. Did she just say astronomy? Camie had completely forgotten about that part of the visions. So many things happened and it was so far in the visions that it wasn't surprising but Camie still felt dumb. How could she forget about that? It was the saddest part of the visions.
Camie's mouth turned upside down and she glanced at Théa. According to what she had seen, Théa would leave her studies to start studying astronomy months from then. After enduring Ember's bullying for so long, Théa would leave fashion and give up on her dreams. Camie didn't like thinking about that period because it made her so sad. She still remembered how painful it felt seeing that scene.
Théa didn't want to give up on fashion. But after years of being criticized by everyone, she felt that they were right. Maybe the reason why she didn't catch Omen after all that time was because she wasn't trying enough. Théa's powers were full of secrets and mystery. Even Camie had no idea how they worked after all the visions she saw. Théa thought that if she started studying black holes, she would be able to understand herself better and use her powers more efficiently.
Despite being the strongest hero, Black Gold only knew two features of her powers. She knew how to absorb light and make that black smoke that she somehow managed to control and use to fight villains. It was surprising that it worked but it did. She could heat up her smoke as well and melt people but Théa was way too nice to use that part of her powers. Therefore she never used that.
Apart from the black smoke, Théa had no idea what she was really capable of. She knew that she could do much more but she was scared that it would cause more damage if she couldn't control her talent. Théa was terrified of her powers and in that dark moment she hated them more than anything else. She was terrified of herself and felt like a monster. She thought that she would never be enough and that she was all alone. The strongest hero of all time had no one to rely on. How unfair was that? Just thinking about it made tears swell up in Camie's eyes.
Camie straightened her back. She couldn't let that happen. Neither Théa giving up fashion or her feeling bad about herself. She still had a few months but if she started now, maybe she could find out more about Théa's powers. And who knew? Maybe she could even figure out the extent of Théa's strength.
Camie didn't have time to understand what was happening that she jumped to her feet. Her chair fell backwards in a deafening sound and the whole cafeteria went silent. Théa immediately stood up as well while Camie's friends didn't move an inch.
"Camie? Is there something wrong?"
Camie looked at Théa and realized that she couldn't just run away in the middle of their lunch. She had promised to pay more attention to her. Camie forced herself to sit back down. She really wanted to run and find a professor in astronomy right then and there but she tried her best to ignore that idea.
"So you liked the documentary."
Topiary laughed:
"That conversation ended ten minutes ago."
Emma smiled:
"It's okay. It wasn't really interesting."
Topiary straightened up suddenly:
"Excuse you? Did you know that stars could be binary?
-Wow that really changes my entire vision of life."
Topiary started stabbing her salad angrily:
"Well it should! When I went to sleep I had nightmares about space. It's both fascinating and terrifying.
-So that's why you're in such a bad mood?"
Topiary pointed her knife at Emma:
"Be careful what you say."
Both of them laughed. As they went back to eat, Théa bent closer towards Camie:
"Do you need to go somewhere?"
Camie quickly nodded:
"But I will go after you all finish eating."
Camie looked at how much food was left on Nylora's plate and she thought that she would die. Théa immediately asked:
"Is it something serious?
-Yes.
-Can I help somehow?
-No! You shouldn't."
Théa backed a bit away:
"I understand. You don't have to tell me what it is about but if you ever need help, you can always come to me."
Camie quickly shook her head. Théa was the last person she could talk about this to.
"You don't have to ask me for help. I could just stay with you so you are not alone."
Hearing that conversation made Emma frown:
"Camie? Is there something wrong?
-Oh, no. Nothing wrong. I just need to go somewhere.
-If you want to leave then just go. We are almost finished anyway.
-Really?
-Of course. Go."
Camie's eyes started shining:
"Thank you!"
As she stood up more silently, Camie couldn't help looking back at Théa. She wasn't leaving her alone, so why did she feel bad? Théa liked her friends. Camie still couldn't help saying:
"You haven't shown me that coffee shop you liked."
Théa opened wide eyes:
"I could show you today.
-Okay."
And just like that, Camie rushed away.