Laura had vowed to herself that she wouldn't eat gingerbread ever again. Of course she had promptly broken that vow because a certain vampire happened to be wafting it right in her face and it would have just have been rude not to have taken a bite. But after that she had re-vowed never to eat gingerbread again. Ever.
That resolve didn't last long.
In fact Laura broke her vow the very day that the quartet returned to Silas, because they couldn't run forever.
It was so difficult readjusting to the canteen food. Laura hadn't realised just how much she hadn't missed it. By nature Laura was way too inquisitive for her own good so being told that she wasn't allowed to ask questions about something didn't sit right with her. Also it ended up with leaving all the gory details of canteen food to her overactive imagination.
So once again Laura found herself planning to live on a diet of cookies, cupcakes and hot chocolate. So that evening she made a trip to the shops to stock up on supplies. It was at the shops that she met her downfall in regards to her resolve never to eat gingerbread ever again.
To be precise it was in the reduced section. It wasn't even like the gingerbread was gonna go bad anytime soon, it was just that it was Christmassy and as Christmas had come and gone the shop was trying to offload its stock to anyone who could be tempted. And oh could Laura be tempted.
Laura could definitely be tempted, a lot.
Carmilla wasn't in the dorm room when Laura returned, bag stuffed with gingerbread, cupcakes and hot chocolate mixes. Laura shrugged the bag off, figuring that Carmilla had probably just gone to student services in order to stock up on her blood supply. One of the benefits of being a vampire and being able to survive on blood alone was that Carmilla was able to dodge the most questionable looking dinners provided by the dinner ladies, unlike Laura and the rest of her friends.
Laura switched her computer on and navigated through the Internet until she found a fanfic which held her interest. Before getting settled into the fic Laura made herself a hot chocolate in her Tardis mug and then opened a pack of gingerbread men.
Laura didn't know how long she sat at her computer sipping at her drink and munching on the gingerbread before Carmilla came back.
"Hey." Laura greeted, swivelling around in her chair.
"Hey cupcake." Carmilla looked at the gingerbread man in Laura's hand that was making it's way towards her mouth. "Gingerbread? Seriously cutie? I thought you swore off it for life."
"Yeah well when it's reduced then I'm not gonna pass up on it." Laura defended her weak will.
"Reduced? Nothing gets reduced around here sweetie."
"Well this was. It was the left over Christmas stock."
Carmilla stalked over and snatched the gingerbread out of Laura's hand. Laura's face immediately turned offended.
"The dinner ladies threaten any shop keeper who dares undermine their canteen by selling reduced products." Carmilla explained as though that would make Laura feel better about having her cookie swiped, again. Carmilla sniffed the offending biscuit cautiously. "I really think Ginger 2 should take a look at this."
"LaF is a bio major. Not a chef." Laura responded tersely, though she was secretly pleased that Carmilla had opened up enough to trust her friends and go to them for help. She supposed that being on the run from a great evil had a way of bonding people together.
Carmilla rolled her eyes and texted LaF herself. Laura wondered when she had acquired their number.
By the time that LaF had arrived with Perry in tow Laura felt absolutely no different. The gingerbread was obviously just gingerbread. But nobody would just take Laura's word for that and so her precious cookie was taken off to LaF's lab and Laura was forced to remain on hot chocolate until she returned. Not that Laura overly minded. She had her girlfriend here to keep her company and to keep the hot chocolate topped up.
That was until Laura started glowing electric blue.
Carmilla tried not to act phased but Laura could tell that even the vampire was a little disconcerted by the side effects that the gingerbread was causing.
"Okay so there's something not…" LaF declared as they entered the room without knocking, like usual.
"Why can't everything just be normal?" Perry moaned as she saw what had caused LaF to break off mid-sentence.
"So…" aura started, looking around the occupants of the room. "Do you know how long this is gonna last?"
"I don't even know what it is. I'd need to run more tests." LaF eyed the bag of remaining gingerbread excitedly. "But I'd suggest you don't eat anymore."
"I wasn't planning to."
"You might like your new aura." LaF shrugged.
Laura never did learn if LaF figured out what was in the gingerbread. But the incident did once and for all put her off buying reduced products from anywhere in Styria. Because who was she kidding, Laura could not resist gingerbread when it was offered to her, especially when it was offered to her with hot chocolate. The blue glow was a tad bit embarrassing. It lasted a fortnight and Laura had to go to all her classes with a slowly fading visible light emitting from her, but it wasn't the weirdest thing that the students at Silas University had seen and although the incident caused a few remarks and a lifetime of teasing from LaF, Perry and Carmilla (predominantly LaF) most students had forgotten completely about the time Laura Hollis glowed electric blue by the end of the month, which incidentally coincided with the giant mutated goat rampage.