Adjusting to the new life (Part 1).

I waved goodbye to my group of friends at the top of the stairs and watched them leave. Eric and Steven would wait for the bus nearby while Luna and Ruby would leave by car. I expected Steven to have a car, but he said he was a nervous mess behind the wheel, so he didn’t like driving.

I sat down to the side of the top step and waited for the girls. Seems like I finished earlier than then this time.

…

For once.

…

Why do I think things?

I happened to see Julian Jenkins walking down the stairs, too. Either he didn’t see me or he deliberately avoided my gaze, but our eyes didn’t meet. I’d seen him talking to a few people in class, and for what it’s worth, the usual arrogance in his tone seemed to be mostly gone. Still, we hadn’t said a word to each other, and I don’t think even Eric had talked to him at all. It suited me just fine, honestly, but Frey’s words about keeping an eye out for anything strange made me wonder if he wasn’t up to anything again.

…

The fact that he hadn’t said anything regarding what happened that time with Mila was a bit concerning in and of itself. He knew the supernatural existed now, didn’t he? Was he afraid I’d do something to him if he said anything about it? I’m pissed at myself that I sort of hoped that was the case.

Grudges are so hard to let go of…

Someone sat next to me, and a head of long, blonde hair was suddenly resting on my shoulder.

“What are we looking at?” Sarah asked me.

I sighed. “People, I guess. How was your day?”

“Boring. Wednesday classes are pretty dull. Well, most classes are pretty dull, but Wednesdays are the worst.”

“Bye, Sarah! See you tomorrow!” A girl said, waving at Sarah as she walked past us, holding hands with another guy.

“Bye! And watch where you’re stepping,” Sarah told her.

I chuckled. “Your friends, right? I think I remember seeing you having lunch with them.”

Sarah nodded. “Yeah. Nice people. A bit weird, but who isn’t?”

“Yeah.”

Sarah wasn’t the only one who arrived with more company. Grace also parted with three girls before she joined us, and then we saw two guys waving goodbye to Alice.

“I thought you knew we weren’t allowed to be friends with single men,” Sarah said, smirking. I poked her on the ribs.

“Not funny.” I have no say on who they’re friends with. I just don’t want guys pestering them.

“I caught them talking about the specs of the latest MZD sports car and getting them all wrong…” Alice said, sighing. “I could help but butt in and we ended up getting along. One of them is married, actually.”

“Woah,” Grace and I exclaimed. “Wait, but he’s a freshman, right?”

“Yeah, I was surprised, too,” Alice said, smiling. “Apparently got married the second he graduated high school. His wife is a year older.”

“Hm. Maybe we’re not alone in our brand of weirdness,” Sarah said.

“The world is big,” Grace said, nodding.

Noelle finally arrived, and with her a girl about her height who quickly said hello and goodbye to us before saying goodbye to Noelle with a quick kiss on the cheek that was more cheek-on-cheek than a kiss.

“She seems friendly,” Alice said, chuckling.

Noelle giggled. “Yeah, she’s… very affectionate.”

I smiled. “You seem in a good mood today,” I said as we began to walk down the stairs.

“Do I? I’m kinda pissed, actually,” Noelle said.

I blinked. I was fairly certain I felt some sort of personal satisfaction from her. Were my senses off?

“What happened?” Sarah asked her, raising an eyebrow. “Who do we have to kill?”

“Yeah, we need names,” Grace said.

“Girls…” Alice sighed.

“I… don’t actually know their names. It was a group from my class. They were trying to bully Mandy and me like it was high school. It was pretty pathetic.”

“What did they say?” Alice asked.

“They saw me showing Mandy the miniatures I painted with Fern and they were saying it was childish and that we were virgins who’d never get a boyfriend.” Noelle scowled. “Mandy got really upset, so I had to say something.”

Ah. “Did you put them in their place?” I asked her, grinning.

Noelle blushed and smiled shyly. “Well… I’d like to believe I did.”

There it is. There’s the personal satisfaction.

Grace gave Noelle a hug from the side. “Awesome. Tell me every detail.”

“M-Maybe when we’re with Mila and Diana…” Noelle said.

I took a deep breath as my heart stirred.

Not that I forgot, but what Noelle said brought it back to the forefront of my mind. Although she left a couple of hours after us and, accordingly, would arrive a couple of hours later, too… Diana now lived with us. She’d come back to our house every day. The mere thought of having to account for one more plate for dinner was exciting.

Oh, and speaking of…

“We need to buy groceries after picking Mila up,” I said. “Turns out making breakfast, lunch and dinner for six people every day empties the pantry really quickly. And now we’ll be seven…”

“We’ve yet to see our electricity and water bills, too…” Alice said. “Those are coming this week, I think.”

“Depending on how it all goes, we’ll have to adjust our budgets,” I said.

Still, we should be fine. The house was upfront payment for my help with Luke’s potion, but I still get paid a fair bit for my work at the bar. We even got a raise for how well the bar was doing, too. Noelle was also earning well from streaming, Mila also earned some money from sponsorships in her social media, and though I have some mixed feelings about it, Mila’s, Grace’s, Sarah’s and Alice’s parents are still giving them allowances. Diana was adamant about adding a part of her earnings to the pool, too, which is fair.

Well, this first month would be the time to figure a lot of this out… which felt very strange and awkward to even think about. I… never had to worry about it before. Mom would do it all, never even mentioning it to Isabelle or me beyond telling us to take shorter showers and to not leave lights on when we weren’t using them.

…

You don’t really appreciate the work your parents put in for you until it’s your turn, huh? I’ll give her a call later. Maybe invite her and Isabelle for lunch on Saturday…

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