After Claire had drank a bit, she and I decided to go to my bedroom to lay out the gear she’d brought on my bed so I could get a good look at it.

“There you go.” Claire said as she put my sabre fencing sword on my bed as the last item of the set.

“This looks fancy as heck.” I touched the patchwork over my left shoulder. It had the heraldic sign of my new family name patched on top of it. You could also see it embroidered at some other places, but those were way less obvious.

“Pretty much the highest quality gear money can buy.” Claire nodded. “That said, plenty of us have fencing gear that’s very similar to this.”

“Well yeah. Hashtag rich girl academy, am I right?”

“You’re quite the rich girl yourself now, you know.” Claire chuckled.

“Maybe in pure facts I am, but not in mind and soul.” I replied.

This made Claire chuckle even harder. I knew she’d like a poetic reply. “I suppose so. I hope your newfound wealth doesn’t change your outlook on the world that much. It’s quite refreshing to hear in our school bubble.”

“I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that too much.” I smiled. Money did make everything a lot easier, but I would never forget the struggles I’ve had until now. The world is still terribly unfair and I wasn’t about to just forget that.

My train of thought got interrupted by the doorbell.

Claire looked at her watch. “Huh, didn’t you say Corelia and Emma were going to be here in an hour or so?”

“Uh yeah…” I looked at the door. “Maybe they are early?” I looked at Claire but she just shrugged. “I suppose I should go open the door to find out.” I left Claire alone in my bedroom and jogged towards the front door. When I slowly swung the door open I was greeted by Alessia. Her car was parked in front of the door.

“Sorry that I’m late.” She apologized. “I was stuck in traffic.”

“Late?” I looked at her confusedly. “You know we agreed to meet at twelve-thirty, right?”

“Wait. We did?” Alessia scratched the back of her head and then pulled out a small leather book out of the inside of her black jacket. “Ah… I may have misread my own handwriting.”

“What?” I started laughing. “How did you manage to do that?”

“Look, I just wasn’t sure if that was a one or a two, I think I originally wrote down one but then scribbled a two over it but… well… let’s say mistakes happen even after being alive for centuries…” Alessia looked really embarrassed.

“Oh well, it doesn’t matter much, why don’t you come inside then while we wait on the others.”

Alessia nodded and followed me inside. Claire, in the meantime, had made her way to the living room.

“Oh… Hello there.” Alessia paused for a second as she saw Claire.

“Hey.” Claire smiled. “I take it you are Aurora’s mom? Lady Alessia?”

Alessia looked at me. Slightly confused.

“That’s Claire, I invited her to come along if you don’t mind.”

“Ah! Now I remember. That’s the friend you asked for some advice for.”

“Yeah.” I nodded.

“And you also met Viktor as well, if I recall correctly.”

“I have.” Claire nodded. “It’s nice to finally meet you as well.”

“Likewise.” Alessia smiled.

“So I take it she’s allowed to come with?” I asked.

Stolen novel; please report.

“Of course, I’ve got plenty of room in my car.” Alessia nodded.

“I hope I’m not being too much of a bother for you.”

“Any friend of my lovely daughter could never be a bother to me.” Alessia rubbed her hand on the top of my head and then started laughing.

I rolled my eyes. “Claire was just showing me my new fencing gear.”

“Oh?” Alessia tilted her head. “Aileen will be happy to hear that you are keeping up your practice.”

“It’s still all spread out on Aurora’s bed if you want to take a look at it.”

“Definitely.”

And with that we all moved back to my bedroom once more so Alessia could take a look at the gear herself. She was pleasantly surprised by what the gear looked like. Although she did make me promise to invite her to a competition if I’d ever join one. Seeing that she was my mother now, that wasn’t the weirdest thing to ask I suppose, although I’d definitely need to learn how to fence a lot better before joining one, just so I could hide my superior reflexes behind technique.

After we were done and I had packed my gear up again, the three of us just chatted a bit more, mainly about school in the living room, both Alessia and I with a glass of ‘grape juice.’

It was when I finished my glass that my doorbell rang again. “That must be Em or Ria.” I somewhat excitedly got off my chair, which did loosen a small chuckle from both Alessia and Claire.

“It’s fun to see how much she’s in love with them, isn’t it?” Claire asked Alessia.

“It sure is.” Alessia agreed.

I decided to somewhat ignore what was being said and ran over to the door. When I opened it, both Ria and Em were standing in front of me.

“Hey.” I hugged Em and gave her a kiss, and then did the same with Ria. “Both at the same time?”

“Em saw me walk over and asked Helen to stop the car.” Ria nodded after we’d broken off our hug again.

“Can’t let my girlfriend keep walking by herself, can I?” Em winked and then rubbed Ria’s back. Ria closed her eyes for a bit, clearly enjoying Em’s touch.

“Hehe. That’s true.” I looked back over my shoulder.

“Is Alessia already here?” Em asked. “That’s her car, right?”

“Yep. Claire’s here too. She’s coming along as well, if you don’t mind?”

“Claire? Is Claire here.” Ria asked and peeked past me.

“Yep! I’m here!” I heard Claire call out from the living room.

“Claire!” Ria ran past me into the hallway. “Oh! And Alessia!” Before I heard a dull sound of something falling into my sofa and Claire starting to chuckle.

“Did she just jump on Claire?” Em asked.

“I think she did.” I chuckled.

Em walked in and I closed the door behind her. When we walked into the living room, Ria had in fact hug-tackled Claire into the sofa. Alessia was just looking at it while giggling.

“Are you that enthusiastic to see Claire, Ria?” Em started giggling as well.

“We’ve not talked in ages!”

“We talked after the exams, didn’t we?” Claire was smiling at our girlfriend.

“That’s not the same! We hadn’t had long talks in like… more than two weeks!”

“I suppose that is kinda true.” I smiled. “I did also miss our lunchtime chats.”

“So did I.” Claire smiled and slowly lifted Ria away from her. It looked like Ria had refilled her Claire battery, as she just let it happen and made herself roll to the other side of the sofa.

“How come you are here, Claire?” Em asked.

“Was just delivering some necessary sporting equipment for our club activities. Then my dear and very close friend Aurora noticed that my agenda was completely free of trivial matters, so she kindly asked me to rejoin your group in searching for a new place to live. As her comrade, and because of the previously stated empty agenda of mine, I, of course, accepted.”

“In short, she came to drop off some stuff, had fuck all to do, so I asked her to join us.” I summarized.

Alessia was pretty much losing it right now, she was really trying to hold back laughter. The lack of composure was pretty rare.

“Alessia, are you okay?” Em smiled, she must’ve noticed it too. “Don’t forget to breathe, not that you need to, but, you know…”

“No, it’s fine.” She put her hand on her chest and just breathed in and out a couple of times. “Sometimes, when you’ve been at the castle for a bit too long, you forget how hilarious it can be to go along with people who are actually somewhat funny.”

“Hmm, I think I can understand that. Aren’t any of the housekeepers comedic geniuses?” I asked.

“There are some.” Alessia smiled. “But I generally don’t want to bother them too much, especially if it’s just for my own entertainment.”

“Maybe you should be a bit more selfish at times, I bet they won’t mind, you are a nice person, Alessia.” Em said. “You said before that they are somewhat like family to you, right?”

“I suppose I should, but I want them to live their own lives too.”

“You have us now too, so feel free to call us up whenever you need a good joke or two.” I gave Alessia a big smile and a thumbs up.

“I’d call Emma, Rora’s jokes aren’t that good.” Ria commented.

“What!?”

Claire and Em both burst out laughing. Alessia as well just started laughing all over again.

- I have been utterly and totally betrayed by the big ball of cuteness…-