Cursed Blood | Chaelisa

Chapter 3.

We drifted out to the Lunch Hall after a few of our new classes, but when we opened the grand double doors, the entire place was in a state of organized chaos.

The sound of porcelain plates colliding with spoons and forks could be heard all over the place. All the Ultara geniuses were moving around, laughing and talking amongst themselves. I could recognize a few faces of my former classmates, Nayeon from Science, Sana and Jihyo from Arts, also Momo and Dahyun from Chemistry. And I was sure a few of them had a mega crush on either Joy or Jisoo or even both. I was just glad that I stayed out of their gaydar.

Throughout seventh and eighth grade, all the Ultara students have to bundle together, learning from general curricula until they discover their passion and go off to blossom in the different fields.

Actually, Jisoo should be around the Einstein nerds with the rest of the physics freaks whereas Joy should be in the multi-lingual crowd, speaking Elfish or ancient Greek and whatnot. Instead, the three of us have made the oddest trio in this school. We still hang out together like blood sisters, but none of us have anything in common.

"Your birthday is next week, Chaeng. Do you want to have a party?" Jisoo asked me while we were walking inside.

She made it sound like if I said "Yes", she would wave a magic wand to run the whole thing- which she might. For the daughter of a town mayor, it's just a piece of cake, literally. But the importance of having my birthday party for Jisoo is emphasized on the word 'party'.

We reached our usual table. We'd always been sitting together since the first day we met.

"No, I guess not," I said as I took a seat opposite them.

"Don't you want to do anything fancy? I can order the best birthday cake for you, you know, with a Michelangelo's David made of candy on top," Jisoo suggested, and I couldn't help imagining a naked man on my cake. I burst out laughing.

"Whoa! What's wrong with your teeth Chaeyoung?" Joy exclaimed out of a sudden, "Did you do anything dental?"

"What? No...why?" I asked, feeling a little self- conscious.

"For a moment, it reminded me of a cat's claw. They look kind of different from the last time we saw you, I mean your canine teeth." Joy said.

"Really?"

"Are you even sure you're not evolving backwards into a gorilla?" Jisoo said and then both of them laughed.

"Ha-ha, genetics joke, funny," I said, trying to shut them up, "We're not exactly evolved from gorillas, dummies. We are all homo..." I said tilting my head to Joy, "Homo sapiens, so we're likely to have canines. You have that too, see?"

I reached over the table and pinched both of Jisoo's cheeks and stretched them. She yelped and pulled away, rubbing her face with a sour expression.

"But the chimps," I added dramatically, "can be the reason why some people are so fond of trees!" I arched an eyebrow at Joy again although biologically that is not entirely true. She scrambled a piece of bread into a ball and threw it at my head. I dodged it and the ball sailed past.

"Ha! You missed!" I said mischievously.

Unsatisfied by the first attempt, Joy picked up a grape from her lunch tray and pitched at me again. This time I seized it with an instinctive move.

"Looks like you have a poor hand-eye coordination, Joy," I said.

The remark irritated Joy so much that she bolted out of her seat and grabbed my tie. Then I was towed forward, and she pointed a chicken leg at my face like a knife.