Circle Quartet: 16

Chapter 16

Here I am in the History class which is located at the first floor of the North Wing. I sit in the front row, listening to every single detail of the explanation from the teacher. Abbie wants me to join her at the back row but I refuse. There’s no way I’m sitting at the back during History. Abbie doesn’t like History like everybody in this class does. That’s why I’m the only person who sits in the front row. Impressive, isn’t it?

My History teacher is Sallie Amber, as known as, Abbie’s mother. She teaches History and she always has her eyes on Abbie who, I think, is snoring back there. She calls Abbie’s name several times, making sure that she listens to everything that she teaches.

We’re now listening about the greatness of our first successor, Prince Dracula. Although he might be a little mean, or should I say totally bad, but because of him, our clan has spread little by little in this world. And of course, our clan had gone through the evolution where we can stand during daylight. We don’t have to run away from the sunlight or afraid of the cross, stake and garlic.

“Homework for you before you leave, children. Write a review on Prince Dracula and your opinion about him. Submit the review via e-mail by tomorrow morning. That’s all, children. Have a nice day,” says Aunt Sallie. The bell rings and everyone yawns and stretches their body as if they have woken up from deep hibernation.

“Alice, let’s go to the dining hall. I’m starving,” groans Abbie, rubbing her sleepy eyes.

I laugh at her we go to the dining hall together. Abbie gobbles her meal down like a hungry wolf. Luckily Stefan is not around. If not, he’ll die with a heart attack seeing Abbie’s eating habit while she starves! The only thing that doesn’t have in this Academy is the lockers. We don’t use books here except for notebooks for students who prefer writing down the notes in the class. Everything is inside the D-vice.

After lunch, I ask Abbie if she wanted to go to the library with me. I need to finish the review before night time. Abbie refuses because she’s too sleepy and she wants to catch few winks. But she promises me to go to the Sport Centre this evening. So, I dash to the library right after lunch.

The library is so majestic. I repeat, majestic. It’s so big – I think it’s bigger than my mansion! There are mountain of shelves and one big screen near the door. We can search any kind of books there. In the corner on the right, there’s a librarian. She looks old with grey hair tied in bun. And she’s busy with her work. I walk to the big screen which is called Touch-O-Info. I look for Prince Dracula and every book of Prince Dracula appears from the screen including the number of shelf.

It’s not easy to get to the right shelf even if you already know the number. There are more than 50 shelves and 17 of them are the Vampires Section. The ladders are provided in case you need the book from fifth storeys and above. I climb the ladder to search about the Origin of Vampire. I need to read for my bed-time story.

I take a seat which is in the middle and I can see some of the spellcasters – that’s what we call witches and wizards here, summon the books by waving their fingers. This is cool! They don’t even need ladders. I take out my notebook from the bag and start scribbling the important points that I need to write in my review. I still prefer writing down the notes rather before typing the review in my D-vice. I read and re-read about the beginning of Prince Dracula turn into a vampire and jot down every detail about it.

Prince Dracula real name was Vlad the Impaler. He was called Dracula because he was the son of Dracul or Vlad II. His father was the member of Order of the Dragon, which is called Dracul. The only part that I don’t like the most is this prince married three times. Three times! I don’t think he’s the loyal type.

As I’m busy scribbling about my first ancestor, I realize that there’s someone sitting opposite to me. When I look up, I’m so surprise that the person is Stefan. How long he has been here? He looks at me and smiles. Oh, that smile, again.

“Hi,” he says.

“Hi, Stefan,” I try to smile nicely to him.

“Your first assignment?” he points to the book that I’m reading.

“Yeah. The review for my History class. What about you?” I ask.

“Same here. I need to do a little research on werewolves. My History teacher is going to do a pop quiz tomorrow,” he shows me the book of The Origin of Werewolves. Interesting. “Am I interrupting you, Alice?”

“No, no. Not at all,” I shake my head. I don’t want to show him that I don’t like him.

“Thanks,” he smiles, again. “Are you going somewhere this evening?”

“Abbie and I want to go to the Sport Centre. We’re going to play volleyball together. You want to join us too?” I ask. I can’t believe that I asked him! What’s wrong with me?

“Cool. I thought I want to ask both of you to play baseball. I want to do batting training. It’s been a while since I haven’t play after graduating,” he says.

“That would be great. I’ll ask Abbie. Oh, by the way, can I ask Beatrice and my other cousin, Saffron too?”

“Sure. The more the merrier. Zayne is coming too.”

I smile and continue with my work. I’m sort of happy when he asked me to join him for batting training. Maybe he’s not bad as I think.

We continue doing the review together until the alarm shriek horrifyingly. I think all of us nearly jumped from our seat after hearing that such alarm. We put the book and the rack near the exit. Stefan and I exit the library together.

We walk along the corridor and talk about our previous school. This is the first time that I feel comfortable walking beside him. And he smells nice too. We part our way when we reach the fountain which is located exactly at the centre of the Academy. Beatrice said once that the fountain has its own significance and history on why it was built at the centre of the Academy.

I promise Stefan to meet him at the Sport Centre. When I reach at my room, Abbie is still having her hibernation season. I can even hear her snoring quite loud. I shake her body violently saying that it is already past 8. She wakes up abruptly and murmuring a language that I don’t understand. And then she looks around and goes back to sleep.

“Abbie! Wake up! Let’s go to the Sport Centre,” I shake her arm.

“What for?” she moans with her eyes still close.

“I thought you said you want to play volleyball with me,” I say.

“I did? Well, I don’t think I’m going because I’m still sleepy,” she opens her eyes and yawns.

“Are you? I guess I have to go there by myself,” I glance at her. “Too bad you won’t join me and Stefan for batting training. He invited you too. I should tell him that you don’t want to.”

Now Abbie is fully wake up. “Really? He said that? What are we waiting for! Give me 5 minutes to get read,” she jumps off the bed and go to the bathroom.

Look likes my trick works out after all. I try not to laugh. Then Abbie pops her head from the bathroom. “I have a question that I was trying to ask you yesterday. Is Stefan really your fiancé?”

“Uh huh,” I nod.

“So Saffron is telling the truth. I thought Saffron was joking when she told me about you guys. But, you didn’t look like you fall for him,” Abbie walks out from the bathroom with a small towel wraps around her neck.

“Fall for him? Why should I? Even if we are engaged, it doesn’t mean that I have to fall for him,” I shrug and give her a naughty look. “You like him, don’t you?” I raise my eyebrows few times.

She blushes and tries to look away from me. “See. You really like him. You can take him if you want. He’s not my type anyway.”

“What? He’s so damn hot and you said that he wasn’t your type?” Abbie puts her hands on her hip.

I smile and nod.

“You’re crazy, Alice. He’s your fiancé and you guys should love each other like Beatrice and Zayne. They are so romantic. I think I want to find a werewolf for my boyfriend and I can cuddle him every night,” she laughs while combing her hair.

Abbie sometimes can be crazy. And she’s a dog lover. That’s why she loves werewolves so much. Maybe I can ask Stefan to turn into a werewolf so that Abbie could cuddle him and play Frisbee together every evening.

“I’m going to call Beatrice and Saffron if they want to join us too,” I say and dial Beatrice’s cell phone number. Then, there’s a knock on the door. Beatrice and Saffron come by and I tell them about the plan for this evening. Both of them agree to go for batting training.

We wear our sport suits and dash to the Sport Centre near the field. Stefan, Zayne and Jeff are already there. Wait a minute. Jeff is here too? He waves at us with the baseball bat. Why on earth is Jeff doing here? I thought he’s gone for his mission.