The Lost Queen Book 1 - Alden

17. Settled In

We get back to the room at 3:30. Victor is standing in the kitchen holding a case of beer. The school staff are here, and they are moving the school furniture out of the room.

"No, don't take the fridge yet, it's got food in it."

"The food is on the counter. V Movers is early, they are waiting on us to get our stuff out. Go stand over there." One of the women on the school staff points at the window.

I can't help but smirk. "I love it when women tell you what to do. You stand there and look dumb."

"Yea, real funny."

Then someone walks out of my room carrying the toilet. "No, not that. I don't have another one of those."

Victor bursts out laughing as the same woman points to the window, "V Movers is early, they are waiting for us to get our stuff out. Go stand over there."

"But I don't have another toilet."

Clark is laughing his ass off. "Hey, Victor bought beer, I think you might need one." He hands me a beer.

"Just don't drink enough that you need to take a piss." Victor loses it.

He turns around, and they are walking out of his room with the toilet. He doesn't say anything else.

All I can do is have a drink of my beer.

Clark's eyes about pop out of his head when he sees it. "f**k this. I'm gonna sit on mine" and he takes off, running to his bathroom.

V Movers comes in carrying the couch. You can tell them by the big green V they have on their shirts. They put the couch in the living room and go back out the door.

A smokin hot woman comes in. "Hi, we're from V Movers. We have your delivery. We have items for 3 people at this address?"

Victor smiles, "Clarks in the shitter, he has major bowel problems. We can sign for his stuff if you need."

I choke on the drink I was trying to take. I start to laugh, and then I see one of the movers carrying the toilet from my apartment. "That was supposed to stay in the apartment. I don't own it."

The man carrying it nods, "You say everything here yours. We take everything. Except shower. Will not fit here."

"What do you mean everything?"

"Stove, refrigerator, dishwasher, toilet, couch, light switches, water spickets, you know, everything."

"I don't think your getting your security deposit back bro." Victor opens another beer.

"Forget the security deposit, I'm going to get sued."

The smoking hot girl chimes in. "No, we use hypnotics. You're not going to get sued. It's yours now, if it wasn't before. You will also get your security deposit back within 30 days."

"Nice." is all I can say as someone walks in with a garbage disposal.

Clark comes back in the room after a couple of minutes and spots the hot girl. He takes her hand, "Hi, I'm Clark. And you are?"

"Not interested."

Victor and I bust out laughing.

Victor hands him a beer, "This'll make you feel better."

It only takes them about an hour to get everything moved in the apartment.

"Man, they were thorough, they got everything hooked up and unpacked and everything." I sit on my couch. "What do you 2 want to do before dinner?"

Clark looks up from his laptop, "I don't know, I was expecting that to take longer."

"I want to have a few more beers then go to the backyard BBQ buffet. Been craving BBQ ever since I saw that. You guys want to go check out the club?"

"It's not open." me and Clark say at the same time.

"What did that Aver guy want with you 2 anyway?"

I shrug my shoulders. "Turns out Matt isn't the name of a student here. I guess they are trying to figure out who he is."

"Weird."

"Yea... and I'm tired of sitting here. I'm gonna go swim a couple laps."

The first week of classes fly by, and it's time for the Saturday study group. They are meeting in the conference room on the 10th floor.

"Are we in the same study group?" I really hope Clark is in my group. He is so book smart and reads all the time.

"I'm in the conference room by the library from 2-6." Victor goes back to his phone, "Hell of a long study group. What are we even supposed to study for that long?"

"Yea it is. But it's only the first week. We may need that time later, and I'm in the tower 1-5."

Clark chuckles. "I may need it now, trying to figure out my damn herb. Couldn't she at least told us the name of them? I'm in the 10th floor east from 1-5."

"I could use some study time for Bio. I thought it was easy, drink 6 ounces of blood daily and don't go into frenzy. And why do we need to know every organ and how everything works?" I rub my eyes.

Clark laughs, "Nothing is ever easy. But yea, 6 ounces will work if we don't need any vampire powers for the day. The second you use a power, it becomes like an equation. And don't get too far ahead of the class. Work on the sensing levels for now."

"The professor did say that the more we work on it, the more we will be able to sense our blood energy level. That will be nice. I mean at least we will be able to tell when it's getting low."

"Yea and no more waking up eating animals." Clark makes a gagging noise. "I feel bad for anyone who gets a pet here."

I can't help but laugh. "Let's get out of here. Study group starts in 10 minutes. I hope we don't have any idiots in our group."

"Well, you already have the biggest i***t at the school."

"Oh funny." I whip a couch cushion at Victor as I get up.

We get to the study group last. Jenny, Liam, and Joe are there.

"Hi, I've seen you in class, but we haven't officially met, I'm Alden." I reach out my hand.

"Liam."

"Well, what do you all want to study? I could use some help in Biology. Clark was bitching about his herb before we came down."

"I already figured out what my herb is." Jenny sticks out her tongue. "But what does yours look like? I can help with that."

"How did you figure it out so fast?"

"I have an app on my phone. Take a picture of the plant and the app will tell you what it is... Well, it gives you a few options for what it could be, then you have to figure it out. Saved me a lot of time. Let me see a pic of yours."

"Sweet! It's right here." Clark about jumps on the table to show her.

Then we all get out our phones.

She laughs but helps us.

"You know what's weird..." Liam looks around "the ages of people here. I saw a professor that looked about 16 and a student that looked to be 103. I mean, how does that work?"

"Vampires stop the aging process. So you will remain the age you were when you were bitten. That's why you NEVER turn a child... However, if you are born a vampire, you will age until you are an adult, then stop." She shrugs her shoulders. "It takes awhile. I'm almost 400, and I am now considered an adult, so I can come to school."

"I'm not feeling well, and it's not like we have much to study anyway. I'm just gonna take off." Joe says.

Jenny smiles at Joe. "Hope you feel better soon."

"Why did it take you 400 years?"

"Vampires age very slow. It's about 20 human years for 1 vampire year." She giggles, "I mean there's probably an equation we will have to memorize for it, but it's about 20 years to 1."

"Yea, I could see that being a pain in the ass equation." Clark shakes his head and writes something down.

4 hours later, we know our herb names, and we're getting better at learning how all our systems work on our bodies. I'm getting a little better at sensing my energy level. And thanks to Liam, we have nearly the entire first chapter of the Law book memorized.

"That was actually helpful." I hit the elevator button.

"I know right, that herb was pissing me off and causing me so much stress."

Victor is sitting on the couch watching tv.

"Didn't you go to your study group?"

"Yea, but there's nothing to study. It's the first week of class. What did you guys study for so long?"

"Herbs." Clark gives him a 1-word answer.

Joe doesn't show up to the next weeks' study group at all.

"There are so many parts of the body. No wonder why it takes doctors so long in school." Jenny rubs her eyes.

Liam looks up from his book. "Maybe we can make some flash cards or something."

Another girl from class walks in. She has a full face of makeup on, high heel shoes, a big puffy dress and lots of jewelry. "Hi, can I join your group? Mine keeps saying there isn't anything to study. I don't even know what my plant is yet. I'm falling behind. I need help... Oh, and I'm Sara for anyone that doesn't know."

"The more, the merrier" Liam smiles.

Jenny looks up from her book, "We're working on biology now, but I can help with your plant quickly if you have a picture of it."

"Yes, I do."

Jenny pulls out a chair. "Come sit here, and we'll figure it out."

"Thank you so much. It's Jenny, right?"

"Yep, welcome to the group. I think we lost Joe, he doesn't seem to want to study."

Then Emberlynna and Victor come in. "Hello everyone, It's good to see you taking this study group seriously. Victor will be joining your group as well as Sara, I see. Is Joe not here?"

"No."

"I will move him to the other group... Please continue to get as much as you can out of this group as well as the classes. We can only teach as much as you are willing to learn. Soon you will be out on your own."

"So what happens if we fail a class?"

"You may be able to retake a class if your scores are too low, and you want to. But there's no real pass or fail, only scores. You are here for 8 years. Then you are out. If your scores are high enough, you can join the school for a job. But the real purpose of the school is to teach you about our world. Teach you how to use your powers. How to defend yourself. And help you make similar friends. You should consider this an opportunity and do your best here."

"Thank you for clearing that up, Emberlynna." I am a little bit relieved that if I fail biology it's not the end of the world.

"Anytime."

Victor opens a book. "Man, I asked that group if anyone knew where to find the requirements for the nutrition class project. They said it was gonna be easy and started talking about their jobs. Then left after 5 minutes. They were no help."

"What class project?" Clark is white as a sheet.

"The herbs."

The color comes back to Clark's face. "Don't do that to me again man. Have you figured out what your herb is yet?"

"Yes, I figured out what it is. Gingko, works in brain health. I'm trying to figure out what's supposed to be in the report."

"I have an extra print out of the requirements you can have." Liam hands him a paper.

"Awesome."

"Thank you so much, Jenny. I seriously searched everywhere and couldn't find out what my plant was called."

We look at Sara.

"Echinacea." she seems slightly embarrassed. "So, what are you studying now?"

"Biology, we're thinking about making flash cards or something."

"I found some flashcards in the book store for Biology 1 and bought them. They have lots of study guides and stuff for the classes. I got most everything I could find. I didn't think I would have a study group this year." Sara rummages through her bag and comes up with them. "See, the front of the card is a picture of the organ and the back says what it is, general information about it, like it's weight and then what it does for the vampire body... Like this one is the pancreas. In our bodies, it controls our blood energy. It doesn't say what it does in the human body, but I think it has something to do with sugar levels. Will these help?"

"Those are perfect." Liam takes them.

"Yay, let's make this into a game, 2 teams." Jenny smiles. "I'll be the ref."

The next few hours fly by.

"I will end this tie and win the game." Victor rubs his hands together.

"Good luck. What is this body part and what does it do?" Jenny holds up a card.

"Kidneys... and I have no idea what they do."

"Over to Clark."

"Kidneys and they filter the water out of the blood, so the body can concentrate on the protein."

"That is correct. Clarks team wins!"

Liam laughs. "Glad it's over, I am getting hungry."

I check my watch. "It's 7. The dining room has Italian chicken if anyone wants to join me."

Sara gets all excited. "I haven't tried the dining room yet, I would love too."

Victor nods. "Chicken does sound good."

"We can all go, the dining room has a few big tables." Liam jumps up.

So, we head to the dining room. The waiter gets all the orders and takes off.

Jenny is looking all over the dining room. "That painting of Former King Kennian Sarris is ancient. And it was painted in front of his castle. He is the father of Fane and Mayra. Where did they get this artwork?"

I share the story Ben told me a few weeks prior.

"So we're dining with literal trash." Victor sits back and laughs.

"I'm sure they cleaned it." Jenny laughs. "I didn't even see that painting of Princess Mayra and right beside her stable and horses. That is so perfect. She loved horses."

"How do you know so much about them?" I ask as the food gets delivered.

"My parents are supporters of the former king and queen and their lost princess. They had me study about them growing up. They didn't know if King Fane had them erased from the history books... Parents always told me you have to know your history, and that someday the princess will be back to claim her spot as queen, and it will be important to know about her." she sighs. "Personally, I think it's wishful believing, so many people have searched for her for so long. No one had any luck and there weren't any signs of her. Most people have lost hope, but not my parents. They are still supporters."

"I hope for all of our sakes your parents are right. We definitely need help before we go extinct." Liam checks his phone, "Anyone up for a few drinks? Live music at the Roof Top Lounge."

"I'm in." Victor jumps up, shoving the last bite of his food in.

"I'm out." I half laugh. "I need to get some sleep."

"Sorry, but I do the spa before bed. I love the hydrotherapy pool." Sara smiles. "I'm thinking about a pedicure tonight as well. You have fun."

"I've never been to a club. I am SOOO going." Jenny jumps up and down.

Clark stands up. "I'll go for a couple of drinks, and I'll make sure everyone gets back to the right rooms tonight."

I can't help but laugh. "You have fun. Send me a message if you need anything."