When I had dropped the girl off in front of the student office, I had rushed to the registrar’s office to do whatever might help me start over. And I had completely forgotten to ask her for her name and phone number. Damn it…

Annoyed that Hunter and Amber had upset me so much, I entered the spacious office. 

Unlike Ezra, I didn’t have the urge to become like my parents and continue living the life they had not been granted to live. I had struggled to be a normal teenager. Going to parties, getting involved, and making friends. The last had always been hard for me, and the second was my way of dealing with all the crap life threw my way.

“Are you sure you want to be involved in so many things?”

The chubby, curly-haired lady with the big nose eyed the clipboard suspiciously, then me.

“I’m sure.”

I sounded confident. That’s exactly how it should be.

The woman just nodded, put the sheet in a pile and slid me a package containing a pine green hoodie, keychains, drinking bottles as well as other Vanderwood merchandise and smiled.

“Welcome to Vanderwood University.”

Chapter 12

Bayla

Julian had taken me to the secretary’s office after staring at my letter for an unbelievable two minutes. There, we were informed that there had been a serious error in the administration and that some of the letters had probably not made it to their rightful recipients.

Great. Somewhere out there were people who desperately wanted to visit this gigantic Hogwarts replica but couldn’t, and I had received this stupid letter. If that didn’t reek hugely of irony....

I walked through the campus forest, dragging the suitcase along the path behind me, and slowly I doubted that this path would lead me to my destination.

Students who passed me on the way occasionally gave me new hope and if I read the map of the campus correctly and there was not also a printing error in the sketches of the crossroads, it was not far anymore.

At one crossroad I had to think for a moment, but when I saw the black raven hopping across the path, I listened to my gut feeling and decided to take the other path. I had no desire to be attacked again by these unpredictable animals. It was enough that this town seemed to be their home.

“Oh, hello, girl!” chirped a way-too-high-pitched girl’s voice that sounded strangely familiar.

My head went up, and it was one of those moments where you wish you hadn’t looked.

I blinked at the tall blonde girl with the puffy lips and clipboard. 

She stepped toward me and held out her hand. “Jenny Bexley.” 

So, I hadn’t mistaken her. Great. But it was only now that I spotted the second girl standing behind her like a shadow, staring at me with a dead expression that sent chills down my spine. 

I immediately recognized the resemblance between the two.

“You must be new in town because I don’t know you. Anyway...” she continued with a wave of her hand. “This is my business card.” She held out a little blue-red card to me, with a definitely photoshopped profile of her on it, the name of the local news station next to it, and her contact information. “If there’s anything interesting happening, feel free to message me.” She winked at me, and only now did I notice the false eyelashes. “It’s good to have allies in a town like this.” 

And without hesitation, she scurried past me, in the direction I had just come from. 

The other girl followed her, sighing.

For a while, I stared after the two of them. 

What an absurd encounter...

I looked down at the business card.

Allies. The last thing I needed in this creepy little nest were allies.

However, I had made it. Now I was standing in front of the door with the number 113, remembering Mum’s words that we would be staying in residential wings. 

Nice residential wing in the middle of the bush. Very funny.

These weren’t housing tracts but freaking villas in the woods that looked pretty modern with their rectangular shape and wood and concrete design. Ten houses were stretching along a pond area overgrown with water lilies and connected by one wide and several narrow wooden paths. And there were forty of these residential parks located around the campus in the woods: forty residential parks, each with ten villas and eight sleeping spaces. Three thousand two hundred students and a little bit more could sleep on campus. The other two thousand eight hundred students were housed somewhere in the city...I guess?

Mum said it was a privilege that I had been given accommodation on campus. 

To me, it felt like a punishment from God.

I opened the door of the last house and, amazed, entered an open first floor, which was equipped with a huge kitchen, an open living area with modern yet comfortable furniture, and even a dining area with a glass table.

The entire first floor was lit up by the panoramic windows alone, which were present as fronts in the dining area and occasionally in the living area. A large television hung above a sandstone-colored fireplace. The cream-colored living room landscape full of cushions didn’t look too shabby either.

How much did all this cost? And how much money did my mother pay for this accommodation? Was I even in the right place here?

My gaze wandered to the large real wood staircase in the corner, which, like our staircase on the wall, made a curve once and disappeared behind a smooth wooden wall to the top.

Where it went up, the wall was completely glazed, like in the adjoining dining area, and you could see outside to the other houses, the pond and the forest.

I pulled my suitcase to the stairs and eyed the steps suspiciously.

How was I supposed to get this suitcase up here without falling flat on my face at least once?

The light wooden steps, on whose surface I could see myself reflected, had to be damn dangerous for people like me, who were used to running down the stairs.

I decided to unpack the suitcase down here, just to be on the safe side.

Two stacks of books, my clothes for this and the following weeks – hopefully, there was a washing machine here – and my toiletry bag, as well as other stuff that could be used in university, stretched out in front of me. Next to it lay Eddy.

Eddy had been my first and last cuddly toy. It was a gray-white wolf with blue plastic eyes, which already looked a bit rancid after a thousand washes. 

Mum had wanted to force a giraffe on me when I was only five years old. But I hadn’t wanted to part with Eddy, and besides, I didn’t like giraffes.

I reached for Eddy and picked up a few more of my books, as well as my toiletry bag. Then I balanced myself up the stairs.

At the top, I headed for an open door that opened into a large bathroom with a stone shower and bathtub by the window. The panoramic windows provided a view out into the woods. 

I found the idea that I might be observed bathing here strange. Relieved, I discovered blinds.

A bit clumsy, I threw my large wash bag onto the stone tiles, narrowly missing the white rug that lay in front of the also white washing machine. I would have been surprised if this house didn’t have one.