A couple of theses later the class was slowly coming to an end. Thanks to mostly Karin and Pres our group was the one to stand out most to Mister Lykaios.

“Good job, group four.” He applauded us while Karin and Pres sipped smugly from their tea again. “That’s all for this week. Our next meeting, like I already said, is the lesson from our guest speaker. Make sure to also read the chapters of ‘De jure belli ac pacis’ from Hugo Grotius that I handed out yesterday. It’ll help you understand a couple of things the ambassador will talk about.”

“Yay, more homework.” The monotonous nature of the sentence made Emma’s sarcasm clear as day.

“I don’t know, the book looked pretty interesting.” I replied.

“Auro, that’s because you are a history buff and it’s about war and peace.”

“Hmm, maybe.”

Mister Lykaios rushed past to leave the classroom; probably had to catch his train or something. Claire and Pres both said their goodbyes to us and also left the classroom.

“Oh, right. Corelia.” Emma continued while slowly packing her bag for the last time today. “I’ll have to borrow Aurora for today if that’s okay with you.”

“Awh? Weren’t we going to walk home together?” Ria-chan looked at me with her puppy-dog eyes.

“I did promise Emma I’d…uh… help her with something.”

Emma discreetly poked my side. “Don’t make it sound so suspicious you idiot.” she whispered.

Ria-chan pouted until Karin pulled her sleeve. “You can come with me. Our driver will pick us up.”

-Darn rich folks with their private drivers. Well, at least this way I’m sure they’ll get home safely.- This town was relatively safe but a prestigious school like this did occasionally pull some unwanted attention from not-so-very-well-meaning-people. In the past there were a couple of cases where students were abducted for ransom, luckily those were all resolved quickly with the girls being recovered unharmed. It was still a scary thought to have in the back of your mind though.

“Do you still have that book I was reading through last time?” Ria asked her friend.

Karin nodded happily. “Mhmm. I’ve left your bookmark.”

“Yay.” Ria-chan’s mood swung around. “See you tomorrow, Rora?” She ran towards me and hugged me goodbye.

“Of course. I promise tomorrow I’ll definitely walk you home.”

“Double yay!” She squeezed me with a gleeful look on her face.

“Just make sure you don’t snack too much, Miss Cookie Monster.” I brushed my hand through her hair.

“No. I’ll eat many many cookies.” She playfully replied.

“Alright then.” I laughed with her.

“Bye bye, Rora.” She stopped hugging me and left the classroom with Karin, who just waved at her sister.

“See ya.” I smiled.

When they left the classroom Emma looked at me. “To the gym?”

“Just let me go get an umbrella first.”

“Ah, and your uniform.”

“...Yes, and my uniform."

Emma decided to walk with me because she had nothing better to do while waiting for me anyway. On top of that she had been smart enough to bring an umbrella with her so we didn’t get soaked. All we had to do is to walk with our arms touching each other so we were both covered by her umbrella. But luckily Emma didn’t seem to mind.

“How are you gonna get home, Em?”

“The driver just comes to pick me up.”

“Again?”

“Well yes, it’s her job. How do you think I otherwise get home when I have training?”

“Ah…”

“Did you think I walked to the next town over?” She started giggling.

“...Uhm....electric bike?”

Emma stopped giggling. “Good point actually, I did propose that to my parents once. But because of the incidents…”

“Yeah... I was thinking about that earlier as well...”

“Scary world we live in, and that was even before I knew vampires were real.”

“Hey, I’m not a scary vampire! ...Am I?”

She softly smiled. “Nah, the only thing scary about you is how scarily dense you are.”

“Eh?”

“One day you are going to realize and look back at this all while sinking through the floor in shame.”

“Everyone is being so cryptic about this!”

“That’s because we realize this is a road you will have to walk alone, my unknowing friend.” She rested her free hand on my shoulder. “And on top of that, it is really entertaining too.”

As confused as I was I decided to not continue on the topic as we arrived at the administration building anyway.

“Want me to accompany you to the office as well?” Emma closed her umbrella in the big entrance hall of the admin building. This building was as old as the main building but even more grandiose when it came to it’s interior. With the entrance hall having a big marble statue of the school’s founder, and the walls and roof richly decorated with gold-leaf. A giant crystal chandelier is lighting up the entire room magnificently.

“If you want to, but you can always hang out here with Miss Von Schengen if you’d like.”

Emma twirled her umbrella around while looking at the statue. “Eh, I’d rather have a more lively companion.” and she stuck her umbrella in the, also gold-leafed, umbrella holder.

We walked into one of the hallways towards one of the offices designated for first-year students. When we entered one of the administration officers immediately greeted us with a smile.

“How can I be of help to you lovely ladies?”

“It’s just for me.” I raised my hand politely. “I’m looking for an umbrella and a shirt and jacket in a bigger size.”

“No problem.” The officer smiled and swiftly moved towards the wall of closets on her left before eyeing me. “Okay… I think this size should do.” She handed me a shirt and a jacket. “Can you try this on in the changing room?” She pointed to a door next to her. “Just so we can be sure this one fits.”

“Alright.” I nodded and did as she asked. These clothes did fit a lot better than my previous ones. -I do wonder though, did me turning into a vampire also halt my body’s development? Because if it did, this is probably the last time I’ll ever need to get new clothes here. Well, last time I went to the doctor’s office they did say I was mostly done growing… So I guess it doesn’t really matter anyway?- I shrugged and took one last look in the mirror before changing my clothes again.

“So, how did they fit?” The administration officer asked when I left the changing room.

“Very snazzily.”

“Great.” She smiled and opened one of the file drawers. “Could I have your name please?”

“Aurora Beaumont.” I replied.

She ran her finger over the files until she took out one. “There you are.”

I was a bit surprised they still used a paper filing system this day and age, and apparently the look on my face betrayed what I was thinking as she quickly caught on “We are working on digitizing everything but as you can see, it might take a while.” She pointed at the entire wall of cabinets. “Anyway…” She continued as she opened my file. “Looks like everything is covered by your scholarship, just make sure to bring the old sets back so we can repurpose them.” She smiled and handed me a couple of uniforms, all neatly packed and bagged.

“Sure thing.” I replied.

“Ah, and before I forget, here is your umbrella.” She unwrapped one from its plastic wrapping and handed it over too. The school umbrella’s were, just like the school, quite chique. Sturdily built with a wooden handle and the umbrella cover itself had the school’s crest on it.

“Thank you very much.”

“No problem. If you need anything else, please don’t hesitate to come back.” The officer smiled and went back to do her paperwork.

I rejoined Emma who was silently waiting at the door and we headed off.

“Didn’t get too bored waiting for me?” I asked her.

“Nah, we had a bit of smalltalk while you were changing, so it was fine.”

“Oh, what about?”

“You know, how the stock exchange is doing, oil prices, things like that, basic rich folk stuff.”

“Yeah right.”

We both started giggling and quickly reached the entrance hall again.

“Want to continue using my umbrella?” Em asked while taking her umbrella out of the holder. “It’s already wet anyway.”

“If we use the both of them we have more space, though.”

“That’s true, I guess...” She trailed off, staring despondently out into the rain.

I smiled, put my umbrella away and took Emma’s hand, which was holding her umbrella, making her jump a little.

“At least let me hold it then, okay?”

Emma's cheeks turned a little red. “S-sure.” she let the umbrella’s handle roll out of her hand into mine while mumbling something that I couldn’t discern.

“Hmm? Did you say something, Em?”

“It’s nothing, was just talking to myself.” She looked away from me

“Ah, ok then.” I walked up to the door. “Are you ready?”

She turned back around to face me, her look was focused and her blush had almost completely dissipated. She quickly joined me by my side and nodded. “Yeah, let’s go.”

And with that we both stepped back into the rain on our way to the sports complex.