Cursed (Book # 3 of Hunted)

Be Prepared

"Oh, my gods, Lori! The showers here are bomb! Oh, are you sleeping?" Phoebe exclaimed and I sat up with a groan. She was towel drying her short blonde hair and dropping her dirty clothes into a small hamper.

"Did you get ahold of Zane?" she asked flinging her towel over the back of the desk chair.

"Yeah, but he had just fed so he was a little loopy," I replied sitting up. I hung my uniform up in the closet on my side of the room and then unzipped my suitcase riffling around for my pajamas. I also grabbed my travel kit from the duffle bag of toiletries.

"Are you going to go home on the weekends?" I asked glancing at Phoebe. She was sitting on her bed with her schedule and a bunch of pamphlets spread before her. She leaned back on her hands and looked up at the ceiling saying, "Maybe. I'll see how I feel at the end of the week. Are you?" I gave her an incredulous look. She smiled and said, "Of course, you are." In response to my worried expression, she leaped up off the bed and took my hand in hers saying, "I'm sure Keegan is taking good care of him."

I gave her hand a quick squeeze before starting towards the door mumbling, "That's what I'm afraid of." I left the room and found the girl's restroom. It was impressive to say the least and I found myself wondering how much tuition cost.

There were toilet stalls on one side, at least ten of them and shower stalls on the other. In the middle there was a row of sinks and mirrors. the floors were tiled with a creamy, off-white marble, the walls were a mixture of small white tiles and pale lavender. Everything was impeccably clean. Perhaps Keegan was right. They had fairies in the greenhouses and fairies in the kitchen. Maybe there were house-elves who did all the cleaning.

There was a girl around my age brushing her teeth at one of the sinks and one of the showers was running. I had expected it to be more crowded. Then again, the semester hadn't actually started yet. It would probably be a mad-house come Monday.

I peeked into one of the shower stalls. It was huge. There was a small section just inside the door to put your clothes and a small stack of clean towels.

By the time I had finished showering, the bathroom was empty. I brushed my teeth and went back to the dorm. This felt extraordinarily bizarre. I didn't know if I'd be able to sleep tonight. So much had changed so abruptly. As nice as this place was, I really wished I was back home.

I entered the dorm to find Phoebe fast asleep. It was only a little after nine, but there had been a lot of excitement. I locked the door and got into bed. I should have brought a couple of books. Maybe I could borrow one of Phoebe's. I wondered if there was a library here. Or textbooks. Even Harry Potter had textbooks. Books with diagrams of vampires showing where to stick the stake. Ha! Funny...

I suppose at some point I must have fallen asleep, because suddenly sun was filtering through the window and I felt a finger tapping the tip of my nose.

"Wakey, wakey, Lori," Phoebe whispered. I opened my eyes and saw her blue eyes glittering with excitement.

"What time is it?" I asked groggily sitting up.

"Almost 8:30," she replied, "Now get dressed. I don't want to miss breakfast." I rolled out of bed and threw on some clothes before grabbing the dorm key and following Phoebe to the mess hall.

We spent the next three days memorizing the location of our classes. Phoebe showed me the greenhouses on the Witches side of campus. There really were faeries. I introduced her to the Brownie. There was another mess hall on the Witches side and their chef was a lady named Xania with pink hair and one green eye and one blue eye that seemed to switch sides every time you looked at her. I wasn't sure if she was human.

By the time Monday came around, I felt as prepared as I could possibly be. 

****