It was practically the end of the school year and almost half the class didn't even bother to show up. I kind of wondered if I should have slept in this morning too.

The drama department had the first of three performances scheduled for tonight, and I was sure the profs and my fellow cast and crew would rather have an awake and alert Mara on stage this evening as opposed to a Mara who made it to her Friday morning art class on time.

On the other hand I was pretty sure I'd be fine. I knew the part, I only had two minor appearances and one big scene, and it's not like I didn't get any sleep at all last night. The rest of the DLP were pretty responsible, and since they all worked it's not like I'd stay up partying alone on a Thursday night anyways.

Plus drawing was fun! It was even more fun when you weren't panicking to get an assignment done, so you could just kind of play around with stuff. Or read. Anyways art wasn't my major, it was just a filler class I took while most of my attention was on drama. It was definitely fun though, and I could see myself majoring in one of the visual arts again next time around.

The other cool thing about spending the morning with the art students was it meant I got my hands on one of the programmes for tonight's play ahead of time. It was really well done, not like something you'd run off on an inkjet printer at home. It was all glossy and professional or whatever.

I was browsing through that on my way to the cafeteria when I accidentally ran into another student. Or walked into her, same thing. Neither of us were hurt and nobody fell or anything, but she dropped some books and notes and stuff while I dropped the little booklet I was reading.

"Sorry," I said as I crouched down to help pick everything up.

The other girl shook her head, "My fault, I wasn't looking..."

Her voice trailed off as she gave me a sort of shocked look, and for a moment I worried that my horns had become visible or whatever. Except nobody else was looking or freaking out. Plus I realized I actually recognized her.

"Hey I know you!" I grinned. "You're Kate right? Lily's friend? My name's Mara, we met like three or four years ago, at a halloween party."

Kate shook her head, "S-sorry you must have me confused with someone else..."

She wasn't selling it though, plus I had the whole demonic intuition thing and I could tell it was her. She was still scared of me too which was kind of sad. Like ok granted the one and only time we met I was leaning hard into the sexy demon girl thing, with red-tinted skin and wings and horns and stuff, but that was at halloween and almost everyone was in costume.

I gave her a friendly smile, "C'mon why don't we have lunch together? I'm not scary, I promise! My treat too, what do you say?"

"But..."

Kate glanced around anxiously, and this time I got a better read from her. She wasn't just scared of me, she was also scared of Lily too for some reason. And she knew what my mater really was and what she really looked like.

"Ok," I lowered my voice and stated, "There's absolutely no reason to be frightened of Lily. You know as well as I do she's a big blue softie. Now you and me are going to go grab lunch, my treat ok? And don't you worry about Lily, if she has anything to say about it me and Mira will sit her down and give her a good talking-to. I promise."

I was actually kind of surprised the big blue softie in question hadn't actually said anything yet, but she tended to sleep all day when I was in classes. I could go inside and wake her up if I really needed to talk to her or whatever, but I figured it would be easier to talk with Kate without my mater interfering.

"Um," the girl still looked uncertain, but she seemed to realize I wasn't going to back down. She finally sighed, "Ok."

"Yay!" I grinned, "Let's go!"

We didn't actually go very far, the cafeteria was like right there.

Kate got herself a slice of veggie pizza and a bottle of cola, while I grabbed a buffalo chicken wrap and a bottle of water. I didn't actually need to eat people-food, but it was fun now and then. And people got a bit anxious if you invited them for a meal then didn't actually eat anything yourself.

I paid for both meals then a minute or two later we were at a table off to one side of the cafeteria. We sat across from each other, and I finally took a moment to really look at my new friend.

Kate had shoulder length sunny-blonde hair, fair skin, and bright blue eyes. Her face was somewhere between cute and pretty, like either way she was attractive but she could probably go with innocent-cute or sexy-pretty depending how she did her make-up. For now it was right down the middle.

She was an inch or two taller than me, kind of average height, and rocking a t-shirt and jeans that revealed a slim healthy figure. She looked a bit older than me, like maybe twenty or twenty-one. I figured she was in her second year at college, but somehow I hadn't actually seen her till now. Then again she was probably in a different program or whatever.

At the same time she was staring back at me, and my intuition told me what she was thinking. Like she wasn't just taking in my dusky skin and long black hair and dark eyes, she was also realizing I still looked nineteen. Like I hadn't aged at all since that brief encounter four years ago.

After ten or twenty seconds of the two of us just staring at each other, I grinned and asked "So what are you studying, what are you into?"

"Music," she replied quietly as she opened her soda. "That's my major."

She tried to focus on her food but I wasn't going to let her escape the conversation that easily.

"Oh sweet, so you're in the performing arts too!" I grinned. "It's weird we haven't run into each other before now? I'm a drama major right now, but this morning I was in a drawing class."

I added, "I'm thinking about maybe swinging back to visual arts again at some point? Like when I first started college, my major was -"

"Photography," she stated, then immediately cringed like she wasn't supposed to know that.

"Yeah!" I grinned. "Did Lily tell you that?"

Kate hesitated, like she wasn't sure how to respond or what to say. My demonic intuition thing was still going though, and I suddenly got a funny feeling like she knew me back then.

I was left trying to figure out how she knew me, and for the next couple minutes we were both quiet. She ate her pizza slice and drank her cola, I had a few bites of my chicken wrap and gulped some water. She mostly stared at her lunch or the table, while I continued to watch her. And I remembered a few things Lily let slip at one point, that made me think her pen-pal was trans and that she was someone Lily helped sort of like she helped Melissa or Amber.

By the time she was nearly finished her pizza I decided to just ask her some straightforward questions. I kept my voice down just in case, but nobody was around listening to us as far as I could see. And I kept my intuition thing focused on her, which was maybe like cheating or whatever but it meant I might get some answers whether she responded or not.

"Hey Kate?" I asked quietly, "I get the feeling you and I knew each other before? Like maybe you were a student here earlier? Like four years ago?"

Her face got a bit pale and she looked scared again, but instead of answering she gulped down the last of her cola.

At the same time my intuition showed me something that surprised me but also left me really confused. I got an image of Kate sitting at a nearby table here in the cafeteria with a couple other people. And I recognized the others she was thinking about. There was Amber, but before she transitioned. And Amber's friend Matt. And one of Matt's former friends, Rahul.

For the next couple seconds I was trying to figure out what Kate would have to do with the three of them, when I felt a lurch in my gut as it suddenly hit me. There was one person missing from that picture, who would have been in the spot where Kate was sitting in her mental image.

My face probably went a little pale as well, and I knew my eyes were wide. I had like a million and one questions, for both Kate and Lily. If I was right it kind of made sense that Lily wouldn't want me to know Kate, but at the same time I wasn't going to get angry or whatever. I just wanted to know, and maybe make a new friend.

"Were you..." I started to ask, but cut myself off because if I was right I didn't want to deadname her. Instead I quickly figured out another way to ask the question.

I kept my voice soft, and I tried not to sound accusing or whatever. Like I was trying to sound kind and friendly and stuff as I asked, "Were you big into sports back then? Did you used to be friends with Matt and Rahul?"

She didn't answer right away, but her face had gone from pale to red as she looked embarrassed. And I could tell she was still scared of me.

After another couple seconds she finally responded. Her voice was so quiet though it was like she was almost whispering, "I'm sorry for everything I did back then. I've wanted to apologize to you and Amber for so long, but Lily always said I should stay away from both of you."

We were both quiet again for a few more seconds. She was staring at the table and I was staring at her, and I was trying to get my head around what I'd just learned.

On the one hand it was unbelievable. Like I was sure Lily made a meal out of that person, and I was equally positive they weren't trans. But on the other hand here was Kate sitting in front of me, alive and pretty and both she and my intuition were telling me she was someone very different now. And my intuition never lied to me before, so I was sure it wasn't lying now. And neither was Kate.

It also suddenly explained why she was so scared of me. After all, I did knock out a bunch of her teeth and gave her a couple concussions four years back. Not that she didn't deserve it at the time, but I definitely wasn't going to do anything like that now.

It took me a few more seconds to get past the shock, then I said quietly "Ok Kate. I understand now why Lily didn't want me to meet you, but there's nothing to be afraid of ok? That other stuff's ancient history now right? I'm not upset or angry or whatever, and I promise I'm not going to hurt you. Neither is Lily."

"And apology accepted?" I added. "I have like a million questions about how you got from there to here, but I can tell you haven't been like that in a long time. So um, let's just let the past go? Water under the bridge or whatever, right?"

She nodded slowly and half-whispered, "Thank you Mara."

I gave her a wide smile and asked, "So what do you think? Maybe we can be friends? I mean, you're already friends with Lily right? So we've got a mutual friend, plus we're going to the same college, plus we're both in performing arts. We should totally hang out!"

Kate looked up at me in surprise, "You... Really? You want to be friends with me?"

"Sure!" I nodded. Then I got a great idea and asked, "Hey, do you have plans for Canada Day? We're doing a big BBQ party, it'd be really cool to have you there! Are you still seeing Amber's sister's girlfriend's sister? Bring her along! It'll be fun!"

"Hannah," she replied, and it looked like she was suppressing a smile. "Her name's Hannah. And yes, we're still together. We're roommates now, she's taking a course here too. Different program though, she's working on a tech diploma."

I grinned, "Awesome! Well you and Hannah are both invited to our Canada Day bash! We'll have BBQ, drinks, music, fireworks, all that fun stuff. No pressure though, if you've already got plans or whatever. Or like, if you'd be uncomfortable. I just figured it'd be nice, you know? You've been friends with Lily for years, you should come round and be friends with the rest of the gang."

"Um," she hesitated. "I'll talk to Hannah, and we'll see. I'll get back to you though, ok?"

"Sure!" I smiled.

We exchanged contact info, then we spent the rest of lunch talking about the stuff we were taking at college.

I found out she was some kind of music prodigy or whatever, she played like six different instruments. She was doing classical piano and violin for her degree, but she admitted she liked playing the drums and messing with synths on her own time. She even gave me a link to her soundcloud so I could check out some of her stuff, which was really cool.

And I told her about my acting stuff, and gave her a couple tickets to the Sunday matinee incase she and Hannah wanted to see it.

In the end we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways, and as I wandered down the hall towards my drama class Lily finally spoke up.

"So you finally met Kate," she sighed.

"Yep," I grinned. "And when I'm done with class you and me are going to have a really long talk, mater. I have a million questions, and I'm not going to give up till you answer them."

My demonic mom sounded like she was pouting as she mumbled, "No promises."

PurpleCatGirl

Patrons who read Lilys Demonic Tales and Lily's Emails (two patreon-exclusive side-stories) already know all about Kate and what kind of impact she had on Lily. After 4 years Mara is finally going to try and get to the bottom of that story. If you can't wait though or if you want all the details, join our Patreon and check out the posts under the Lily tag.
https://www.patreon.com/purplecatgirl