#rosmilla

Velvette Jones is your stereotypical popular girl; leopard printed tops, skirts accompanied with studded belts she often gets dress coded for, ripped leggings, long Converse shoes, messy and a shit ton of eyeliner. Of course she has the daddy issues that come along with the role, except she has that twofold.

Her father Vincent is the CEO of a big American tech company, with most of her peers having at least one of his creations. He seldomly spends time with her because he’s quote: ‘busy doing important things’. Whatever the Hell that means.

Then you have her father's 'business partner' Valentino Peters (originally Pérez), the biggest shareholder of VoxTech except all his money comes from generational wealth. He also somehow has legal custody of her yet spends his time arguing with everyone (including his definitely-business partner he shares a bed with) and wasting Vincent's money on the latest fashion.

She doesn’t even bother to try and initiate a conversation with them anymore, she knew from a very young age that she was just an accessory to them, not a part of their family. Her nannies and maids raised her, not them. When she gets in trouble, a recurring event, Vincent just tells the teacher to ‘do what they think is best’. If she had a nickel for every time her father said, she’d be even richt than him.

It’s ten in the morning at the moment. Velvette is in History class, meaning she has to listen to mister Altruist ramble about World War One and needs to look at his fugly jeans for fifty minutes straight.

'‘God, would it kill you to just use another deodorant!?’' Velvette angrily thought to herself, putting so much pressure on her pencil it almost broke.

Though the garrulous teacher and his sense of style was already bad enough, the worst was that the class had a seating plan. Boys next to girls to prevent talking; except the girls were in the majority, so mister Altruist put her next to the best behaving student of the class; Odette Carmine, a.k.a. the most boring girl in existence. She had tried to gossip or even start a damn conversation with her multiple times, but she just looked her up and down and continued working.

This wasn’t going to stop Velvette of course, she always got what she wanted, even if it took a while.

‘‘So, I heard you liked Adam,’’ she said, leaning closer to Odette. ‘‘I could totally set you up with him, y’know? All you gotta do is ask.’’

This caused Odette to roll her eyes at Velvette and hunch further over her desk. She was already annoyed because she lost her earbuds, and she wasn’t going to let this insolent brat disrupt her. But she knew that ignoring Velvette only makes her talk more, so she had to respond.

‘‘I’m the furthest thing from interested in him.’’ Odette responded coldly, keeping her gaze on her work.

Velvette smirked at her and chuckled.

‘‘Oh, so you’re a lesbian? That would explain a lot.’’

Odette twitched her eye in annoyance and looked up to glare at her.

‘‘I’m not the gay one Velvette, must have mistaken me for your father.’’ Odette said, something she immediately came to regret.

Velvette was quick to respond and immediately lashed out, grabbing the collar of Odette’s ruffled blouse, pulling her closer and slapping her across the face.

‘‘Keep my parents’ name out of your fucking mouth, Carmine!’’ The girl shouted, something that Alastor of course immediately heard.

Odette looked at Velvette with her eyes widened and her lips parted; she had never been physically hurt before, not even as ‘punishment’.

‘‘Miss Jones, are leaving my classroom this instance!’’

Velvette cursed him out under her breath but complied and stood up and slowly placed her books back in her bag.

‘‘Faster, please, miss Jones.’’ Alastor complained, crossing his arms and glaring at Velvette.

‘‘Faster, please’’ Velvette mockingly repeated as she walked up to him, handbag in hand. ‘‘Is that what you tell your toyboy when he fucks you?’’

Alastor clenched his fist but remained calm.

‘‘Do I need to repeat myself, Miss Jones?’’

‘‘No, because unlike you, I still have perfect hearing.’’ she said, walking up to the exit. ‘‘Shoot me a text from the nursing home, grandpa.’’

Later that day, Carmilla walks up to the door of her apartment, lazily retracting her keys from her bag. Once she enters her home, she goes straight to the kitchen to see her daughters cooking for her.

“Odette, Clara, why are you two making dinner?”

The girls just innocently smiled and Clara walked up to her mother, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

“We just wanted to… surprise you, that’s all,” she sheepishly responded. “Not because Odette got Velvette suspended.”

“Clara!” Odette shouted.

“What?” The younger sister retorted. “She was gonna find out anyway.’’

Carmilla simply sighed and put her stuff on the kitchen table.

“Your sister is right, tell me what happened.”

Odette sighed and crossed her arms, avoiding eye contact even more than usual.

“We were in History class, and I told Velvette not to converse with me because I was working but she didn’t listen!”

Carmilla raised an eyebrow, skeptic of Odette’s story.

“And…?”

Odette sighed once more and fidgeted with her fingers.

“She called me a lesbian so I said that she must have mistaken me for her dad.”

Carmilla sighed and pinched her nose bridge, clearly disappointed in her eldest.

“Dios mío… Odette, I expect better from you. You know better than to respond to Velvette.”

‘‘If I respond she throws a fit, if I don’t she throws a fit. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t give her answer.’’

‘‘I’m not upset that you gave her an answer, I’m upset about the answer you gave her. You know she feels insecure about her home life, you of all people should know that.’’ she said with sternness in her voice. She walked up to the furnace, turning her back towards Odette and began stirring in the pot.

‘‘As punishment, you will be making that group project you have to do with her instead of Charlie.’’

‘‘What!?’’

Carmilla turned around and gave Odette an austere look.

‘‘Do I need to repeat myself, Mija?’’

Odette sighed and looked down, avoiding her mother’s glare.

‘‘No mom.’’

‘‘Good. Now, if you open my bag, you will find your earbuds. You left them at miss Rosàco’s class, she was kind enough to drop them off by my office.’’

Odette immediately made her way to the table and grabbed her beloved earbuds.

‘‘I’ll thank her monday.’’ she said before she started walking out the kitchen.

‘‘Oh, and Odette?’’

The girl turned around and looked at her mother.

‘‘Yes?’’

‘‘Make sure she can’t slap you next time. I didn’t raise daughters who cannot stand up for themselves.’’

Odette smiled and leaned against the doorway; she knew her mother was on her side.

She contrasts her students, and not just because she has the fashion style of someone from a different era; she is always calm, soft-spoken and a stickler for rules, yet everyone adores her still- including Carmilla, though she keeps that to herself. Keeping things to herself has developed into a habit of her. She doesn’t want to bother others, she already strains her daughter by having brought them into this cruel world without a present father. Zestial is the closest thing they have to one, but he is also their principal and Carmilla’s boss.

When Odette and Clara became tweens, Carmilla knew they would be attending her school. Athena High School is the best (and closest) school in the area they lived in. She did however make sure they didn’t follow any of her classes in the future. Carmilla only teaches those in the higher classes, and her daughters are freshmans, so this year there is an absolute certainty that they aren’t in their mom’s class.\

It’s currently 16:00, most students are already home and Carmilla has finished giving her classes. She’s still in her classroom, preparing her lessons for tomorrow since she already made tomorrow’s lesson plan.

As the brown-eyed woman was writing in her agenda, she heard a knock on the door.

“Come in.” she said not, not bothering to look away from the schedule on her desk. It was only when she heard the familiar clicking sound of Mary Jane shoes that she bothered to look up.

“Rosita?” Carmilla asked. She was one of those people who called everyone by their full first name instead of a shortened version of it- including the English teacher's name.

“I’m sorry to bother you,” she said, a polite smile plastered on her face as usual. “But Odette left her earbuds in my classroom, and I know how difficult it is for her without them. So I figured I’d give them to you.”

Carmilla gave her a grateful smile and took the item from Rosie’s extended hand.

“She does, she has that from me.” she mentioned. It was a slip-up; just like others, Carmilla was more open towards Rosie, a useful skill for someone who is also the school’s counselor to possess.

Carmilla’s response made the other's smile to form in a small smirk.

“Really, now? I would have never expected that from you of all people, Carmilla.”

Carmilla forced a small chuckle to hide her embarrassment and stood up. “It runs in the family, my grandfather was much happier deaf. Thank you for dropping them off, I’ll tell Odette you found them.”

“Send my regards, darling.” Rosie said as she walked out of the office.

“Will do.” Carmilla called out after her, but Rosie had already left. “God, I need to work on my timing...” she thought to herself.

When she finished writing her timetable, she stood up and put all her things in the messenger bag her daughter had decorated when they were younger- something she always has to clarify whenever people ask her why there is a rainbow on it. She turned the lights off and locked the door behind her as usual. As she did so, she saw Rosie in her peripheral vision doing the same.

The layout of Athena High School was strange at times; on the main floor you had the auditorium, computer room, a few offices, and the History classroom accompanied by a Latin classroom. On the first floor you had the classrooms for the subjects German, French and English of course, but also Mathematics. On the second floor you had the technical subjects; Chemistry, Biology, Geography and Physics. The only advantage of this arrangement is that Carmilla’s classroom is in front of Rosie’s.

“Have a good evening, Rosita.” she said, now in her usual stoic way. The blonde looked at her, and within just a few strides, she was besides her. “Before we part ways, I have a question for you. Who will you be sharing a room with on the trip to Paris?”

Carmilla shrugged and walked down the stairs with Rosie.

“I don’t know, do you already have someone in mind?” Carmilla asked as they now stood on the main floor.

Rosie met Carmilla’s gaze and held her bag in front of her. Hers was also made from leather, though it was a drawstring bag with two brown handles.

“I was hoping we could share one. Don’t get me wrong, I love Alastor to bits, but I’d rather sleep on top of the Eiffel tower than to share a room with him for longer than two days.”

Carmilla couldn’t help chuckle at Rosie’s analogy.

“No no no, I understand. I also find the idea of sharing a room with you more appealing than with another colleague.”

“That’s very sweet of you.” Rosie said as she leaned slightly closer to Carmilla.

That got her to blink a few times in surprise, not sure how to respond.

“I was just-”

“Take the compliment, Carmilla.” Rosie said.

Carmilla knew it was meant in a teasing way rather than in a rude way; she wasn’t that dense.

“Oh, right. Well… I’ll see you tomorrow then, Rosita” she said as they arrived at the doors.