Aida opened her door to Sue’s beaming face, which immediately fell into horror as she swept Aida from head to toe. In contrast to the neat dark pants and blouse Aida had on (her research for the Old Moon Festival gave her the impression that “seeing off” the Old Moon was something akin to meeting with family elders in order to thank them for their leadership in taking care of the family over the course of the star cycle), Sue was wearing a simple silken dress in a pale pink color. The fabric was light and floaty, swishing with every movement despite draping demurely against Sue’s curves.

“No no no,” Sue declared, forcing herself into Aida’s room. “I’ve been letting you get away with a lot of things lately, Aida, but I will not let you get away with this!”

“What—“ Dragged unceremoniously back into her room, Aida was thrust back onto the foot of her bed as Sue started digging through her wardrobe, recreating the mess Aida had painstakingly cleared during the recess.

“I can’t believe you were going to moongaze looking like that!” Sue huffed, holding up a long cotton dress that was thoroughly creased. She tossed it onto the bed before diving back into the drawers. “Just because we were beaten and smothered by the teachers these past moon cycles doesn’t mean we will let them see our spirits smoldering!”

“But I don’t plan on being there that long,” Aida protested weakly. Sue shushed her, snapping her fingers in Aida’s direction as small plumes of flame burst at each click.

“If you plan on sneaking away with someone, that means even more that you can’t look like that,” Sue fussed. She pulled out a woefully crumpled length of sky-blue fabric from the depths of the wardrobe, flapping it open to look at it. “Aida, what have you done to this poor thing,” she moaned.

“I…forgot about it?” Aida offered, laughing awkwardly.

Sue clicked her tongue, sliding the dress onto a hanger. “Come on, help me steam it and it should be good to wear for tonight.”

Sue took out her wand and lit a small flame at the tip, and Aida mustered up a misty stream to send through the flame. As soon as the last wrinkle was melted out of the dress, Sue turned to Aida with a mischievous glint in her eye.

“So, who are you going to be spending the Old Moon Festival with?”

“What do you mean?” Aida asked blandly, turning away from Sue as she began changing.

“I mean, it’s your first year attending the Festival without your parents…and there are a lot of boys here,” Sue hinted. She waggled her eyebrows at Aida, making her laugh.

“I was just going to attend the school’s own moongazing portion,” Aida said, smiling slightly. The more Sue (and Levi) talked about the Festival, the more Aida could see that what she learned about the Festival’s history was purely academic. To the current generation, the Festival had become more of an excuse to have a date, instead of honoring its original traditions of appreciating having survived through the dead of winter.

She remembered how Christmas and New Years events used to be all about friends and family as a child, and as she got older everyone in her peer group seemed to think of it as something that required a date. If she said she was just going to celebrate with her parents, her friends would respond with surprise, and the mood would be much more subdued after her admission; as if they didn’t want to rub it in her face that they all were spending the holidays with their significant other’s family, and not just their own.

I mean…Levi did offer to spend it with me…Aida shook her head slightly, frowning. Even if Levi did offer to spend the Festival with her in earnest, there was still no getting around the fact it was a pity date at best. Since the Old Moon Festival was starting to look more like a popularity contest than just peacefully moongazing and appreciating the past sun cycle, Levi was probably just trying to have a partner on his arm so that he wouldn’t, heavens forbid, look like a dateless loser.

“Sure, we all are, but…what about after?”

“No plans after,” Aida said as stoically as possible. She straightened out the dress: it hung to just below her knees, and it didn’t hang as low on her chest as she had feared it would. Overall, it was quite demure, which was a relief.

Sue cooed as Aida turned around. “You look so pretty! I’m sure one of the boys will try to get you alone during the last half.” She bounded forward with a blue silk ribbon, tying Aida’s hair up in an elegant half ponytail. “There! Now you look like a Moon Maiden!”

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“Please, if anyone’s a Moon Maiden, it’s you,” Aida responded playfully. It was true; the Moon Maiden described in one of the fables associated with the Old Moon Festival was an ethereal being who came down from the Moon when it was at its largest. A lonely person (the most popular story was a man without a family, and some variants said it was just someone in need of a friend) would find the Moon Maiden glancing around, perplexed and lost, and offer her aid. The Moon Maiden would gladly accept, and spend the rest of the night cavorting and experiencing all the sights in the mortal realm, chaperoned by the Lonely One. When the night was almost over, the Moon Maiden would return to the moon before it faded away.

Aida was glad she had read that fable and was able to pass Sue’s sniff test, but wished she had spent more time thinking about the Old Moon Festival in that kind of context. The Moon Maiden fable seemed to hold much more cultural significance than the actual gratitude part of the tradition.

“So…are you planning on spending the rest of the event with anyone?” Aida asked, turning the questioning back on Sue. She knew how the script was supposed to go: Sue, as the dedicated best friend, would do her best to encourage her bestie that she would have a date. And Aida, as the support character, was supposed to help her get an event with one of the love interests. Whether or not Aida actually had a date at the end of the night was no one’s objective.

But given how little information Aida had at the moment, she had no idea who was in the lead with Sue. But maybe it’s better this way. Not being in control of the narrative made it easier for her to just live as Aida.

Sue was positively glowing, thanks to the sparkles being thrown off her body. “Well…Caleb kind of asked, and I kind of said yes…”

Aida tilted her head, feeling her eyes widen. “Kind of? Kind of?”

“We’re just going to see how it goes,” Sue said hurriedly. “If the mood strikes, then…well…you know.”

Sue's excitement was contagious. Aida couldn’t help an uncharacteristic squeal from escaping her lips, before clapping her hands over her mouth. Sue’s blush deepened at Aida’s enthusiasm.

“Don’t make a big deal out of it, okay?” Sue pleaded, unable to stop the smile from spreading across her face. “It’s not set in stone.”

“I won’t,” Aida promised. “But I will do my best to make sure you two get your moment together.”

“Don’t! Don’t tempt the fates,” Sue scolded, her cheeks still red. The sparkles had dimmed, but were still illuminating her like a goddess.

“Okay okay, let’s go before we lose your opportunity,” Aida teased, feeling more like Sue than herself as she bounced in place.

As they left Aida’s room, both giggling as Sue pushed her for who she would want to spend the evening with, they ran into Lara, wearing a silvery gray slip dress similar to Sue’s, who had also just left her own room. With Lara’s sophisticated posture, she looked undeniably elegant. She looks like she really could be the Moon Maiden.

“Good evening, girls,” Lara said smoothly, her gray eyes bright. Her mana was steady and controlled, though Aida thought she could see through the veneer of calm and control to the undercurrent of wavering mana. “I thought I was going to be the only one who was late. Let’s head down to the courtyard together?”

Unable to come up with an excuse not to walk with her, Aida and Sue fell in beside her, neither one giggling.

“So, have either one of you made plans after the Maglica-organized event?” Lara asked delicately.

“No,” Aida answered honestly. Sue shook her head stiffly, not bothering to answer. Lara glanced at the two of them from the corners of her eyes.

“Do you…have your sights set on anyone?”

Aida glanced at Sue, who was stony-faced. When Sue didn’t answer, Lara looked to Aida, who just shrugged. Lara sighed.

“I’m not planning on doing anything nefarious. I’m just trying to make conversation.”

“Do you have your sights set on anyone, then?” Aida asked. Lara gave a thin smile.

“Why yes. I’m going to see if I can get Ezra Riolt to invite me.”

Aida couldn’t stop her mouth from dropping open. Lara’s smirk widened. “Were you expecting Ezra to ask you?”

“Not at all,” Aida said slowly. “But I certainly didn’t expect him to ask you. What makes you think he will?” she asked, trying to regain her tone of polite curiosity. It didn’t work; Lara’s face had frozen into a mask of cold fury.

“It’s common sense,” she said, biting each word out. “We run in the same social circles. Our upbringings are similar. Our skill levels are much closer together. And since Suelina already has the attention of Levi, it only stands to reason that Ezra will choose me.”

“Levi?” Aida couldn’t help but laugh, which only served to infuriate Lara even more. “I apologize for laughing.” Aida took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. I knew Lara’s social skills were bad, but I didn’t expect her observation skills to be bad, too. Sue was frowning between Aida and Lara.

“Levi’s just Levi. What are you talking about?” Sue demanded.

Lara gave Sue a withering look. “You may be good at using your mana, but you really are so obtuse, aren’t you?”

“Just ignore her,” Aida told Sue quietly, pulling on her arm to walk faster. She stifled a smile. “Lara’s not really great at reading social cues either.”

“Where does she get off on saying that?” Sue whispered angrily, throwing a scathing look over her shoulder as Aida rushed her ahead. “I hate how she just assumes she knows things.”

“I know,” Aida said soothingly. “And you know that she does that a lot too. Just ignore it.”

“But it makes me so angry!” Sue stomped her foot.

“Hey hey, calm down! We’re almost at the courtyard, you don’t want people to know Lara got to you, do you?”

Sue nodded aggressively, taking a deep breath. “You’re right. The Old Moon Festival is not the time to get angry.” She took several more deep breaths before finally smiling at Aida, though her eyes were still fiery. “Are you okay?”

Aida nodded back, feeling a thrill pass through her stomach and squashing the feeling of misgivings. Time to experience my first cultural event here.

She hoped she wasn’t missing anything important that would out her as a fraud to this world.