Cinderella vs. Prince Charming

Chapter 11

Bundled up like Nanook of the North, Valerie slowly climbed up the grey spotted steps. The warmth inside the apartment building was slowly thawing her but she was still chilled. She could feel her legs radiating cold.

On the third floor she stopped in front of a still sturdy wooden door with a brass 305 nailed to it. She hesitated for a moment then sighed and knocked. Nothing happened. Val frowned. She could faintly hear voices coming from inside. She knocked harder.

A long moment passed before the door was opened. Erramun looked surprised to see her. "My lady! You have returned!"

Valerie nodded, keeping her face deadpan. "I'd noticed."

"Please come in," he said, standing aside and holding the door open but she saw the smile before he moved out of her view.

Stepping inside, she was surprised to see how many shoes were piled at the door. Looking up, she could see why. Sitting on the couch, chairs, and the floor surrounding the coffee table were some ten people, all talking to one another with books open in front of them. Val recognized two of them.

One of the boys on the floor looked up at the sound of her her boots hitting the floor. He grinned up at her and called "You're late! We started an hour ago."

The others turned to look. "Valerie!" Darren cried, jumping to his feet. "You're back!"

"Yes I am. Now are you going to introduce me to your friends?"

"Ah! Yes. Valerie this is Greg, Karin, Isaiah, Mackenzie, Sidney, Ben, Taylor, Tyrone, Jamie and Candice. And...well you've already met Mia." As their names were called, each of the people would wave or smile as their nature and preference dictated.

"Everyone, this is Valerie."

"Wait, is this the girl you were telling us about?" Greg, the one who'd smiled at Val when she came in, asked.

Darren flushed slightly. "Never mind that. Why don't you join us Valerie?"

Chuckling a little under her breath, she walked over. Ignoring the spot that Greg made next to Darren, Val sat herself down beside Mia and a brunette girl. She was pretty sure the girl's name was Sidney but she couldn't be sure. There had been too many names for her to memorize them all at once.

Mia looked surprised for a moment then shrugged when Valerie sat next to her. "So what's with the party?" Val asked the blonde girl.

"It's not a party. It's a study group," Mia replied.

"I don't know how you people do this," Darren complained, dropping his forehead onto his textbook.

"What's his problem?" Valerie asked, jerking her head in the prince's direction.

"We have midterms next week," the brunette on her other side answered.

"You guys don't have midterms in fairy tale land?"

Darren shook his head. "No. I don't see how your brains don't explode if you do this every year. Trying to cram all of this into your head...I hadn't even noticed you were back."

"I had wondered why you hadn't stalked me while I was out the last two days. So what class is this for?"

"Law," the others chorused.

"We've been quizzing each other," a fellow redhead called. However, the hint of dark roots at the top of her head shouted that her hair colour came from a bottle.

"You could help! You don't know what's an easy or hard question so you can ask us about everything. Here," a bouncy brown-haired girl said, handing Val her textbook before she could protest.