“Well, welcome to Blairville,” Grace laughed and sat down at the table. “I’ve been cooking too much. Would you like to join us for dinner?”
“Yes, I’d love to!” it escaped me a little too energetically.
My obsession with food was really something to worry about, but life was too short for that. Larissa didn’t say no this time, either.
Blondie’s butler had limped through the house with three more suitcases, and Larissa and I had already made bets on how many more suitcases there would be.
We had sat at the table until 10 p.m. talking about everything from high school years in California to juicy Vanderwood professor rumors.
Julie and Grace were actually okay and easy to talk to. Thankfully, there were still people like that around. Not like the other three up there that Grace was in a room with. She had really wanted to get out of our room. Probably because of Emely and the bizarre drug rumors.
I decided to give Emely a chance. The same applied to Mady, who was apparently convicted because of her ties to the Copelands.
The bed I was lying in that night was more back-friendly than the uncomfortable mattress in my new room in Mum’s house. They had probably spent a lot of money on this one, too. I turned to the wall and pulled the covers up to my chin. And for the first time, I fell asleep without any worries.
Chapter 16
Larissa
“They were talking about some football players until after midnight!”
Julie had to smile as Grace told us about her first night with the three other girls. Admittedly, it was entertaining. And I didn’t envy her sleeping space one bit. But she had chosen it just to avoid being in the same room with Emely. However, Emely had already left when I was the second one to wake up this morning to take a quick shower. Unfortunately, the bathroom had already been occupied, and I had no desire for any discussions in the morning. Especially not with people like Vivienna, Amber and Kelly.
Finally, I had nothing better to do than get upset about the house's architecture. A single bathroom... Seriously? What were people thinking here anyway? Eight girls and one bathroom.
The architect had definitely been a man.
“And you don’t want to switch with Emely?” Bay asked.
“Even if I wanted to, she wouldn’t. Who would willingly sleep with those chicks?”
I understood Grace’s anger.
Thunder rumbled in the distance, and a glance upward told me the sky was still covered with dangerous cloud towers that seemed to be putting up as much of a fight as all the girls on campus. Wind rustled the crowns of the leafy trees around us, and a girl in front of us had her dark green Vanderwood baseball cap blown off.
“This weather would make me depressed in the long run,” I sighed, missing the hot Californian sun on my skin.
“It’s normal for the time of year in Blairville,” Grace commented, and I suppressed a frustrated sigh.
We stepped through a long archway that looked more like a small portico, connecting the adjoining forest section we had just had to walk through to the busy campus lawn.
Above us, vines of white lily blossoms grew, twining around the gothic columns, creating a romantic backdrop. In addition, the sun’s rays made the blossoms glow even more.
It was a miracle that the sun had not yet completely disappeared behind these monster clouds.
I stopped, raised my camera, and looked through the lens. It looked so good, almost enchanted. Especially with the stone serpent on the column with more petals nestled against it.
I quickly took a photo and hurried to catch up to the other girls, who by now had already arrived on the main campus and settled down by a wall with a cozy seating niche.
I took a seat next to Grace.
“Such morons,” Grace sighed, and we all looked at the muscle-bound guys under the big oak tree, all of whom, it should be noted, were shirtless. Two of them were arm wrestling, with the other quite attractive guys standing around them cheering the name Nash.
“Who’s Nash?”, I asked, hoping someone would know.
Grace nodded in the direction of the guys.
“The dark blond one.” My eyes fell on a handsome young man with pretty noticeable muscles. “Professional football player, nephew of the university director, and Mady’s ex-boyfriend...” Grace pressed her lips together and looked at me. “To let you know. He dumped her, like these guys do to all the girls.”
I looked back up at him and admittedly... He did look hot.
The guy whose arm he was trying to push down was the dark-skinned guy who had shot Mady down with his football yesterday.
Only now did I survey all the other guys who were cheering wildly for the game. In the middle of them: Emely.
“Nash Copeland is just as much of a douchebag as all the others in his group,” Grace added.
“Copeland? So, Emely and he are related?” Bay asked, seeming visibly interested in the Copelands.
“They’re brother and sister,” Julie replied. She, too, was still glued to the guys.
I propped my elbows on the stone table in front of us and peered over at the group through the camera's lens. Nash was squeezing the other guy’s arm down when the guys around them started bawling. I took a picture.
“What are you doing?” Grace asked me with interest.
“Just taking some pictures of the people and the area around here.”
She was silent for a moment, but finally looked at me expectantly.
