"Well, this is us," Kate said after laughing a bit at a joke that Chase had just told. Victoria smiled and walked over to the door, unlocking it and placing her hand on the doorknob. She gave a small yawn; after all the excitement of tonight, she was tired. Worse yet, she had soccer practice in the morning. She flinched slightly as she felt another jerking feeling in the pit of her stomach; she'd been feeling them all night since they left the party. She was trying to believe she'd eaten something bad, but she wasn't too sure…
"Oh, look out there," Chase said suddenly, reaching out and knocking a large, spindly brown spider from Kate's shoulder.
"Oh!" Kate shuddered as the spider flew from her shoulder to the floor near Chase's feet, where he deftly stepped on it "That's so gross, they're all over the place here. Thank you," she added with a smile.
"See? Chivalry isn't dead after all," Victoria said lightly.
"No, it just transferred in," Kate agreed, looking up at Chase, who blushed slightly and smiled. "Hey, we're going into town tomorrow, you want us to pick up anything?"
"Sure, I'm in room 311," Chase said, starting to back away from where they stood. "Call me." With that he gave one last snide smile and turned around, walking quickly around the corner and out of sight.
Kate and Victoria looked at each other for a moment before bursting out slightly in giggles. "He's hot!" Kate said in a loud whisper as Victoria turned the doorknob and led the way into the room.
Victoria rolled her eyes, but laughed lightly. She walked over to her bed and threw herself down backwards onto the newly-bought light blue comforter. "Don't you have a boyfriend?"
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I can't just look," Kate said, giggling. She pulled out some pajamas from her dresser and started to change into them. "You have to admit, though, he's pretty cute."
"I guess if you like that kind," she replied in a dismissing tone. She propped herself up on her elbows and looked at Kate. "So, why do you call them the Sons of Ipswich? Are they like, a boy band or something?"
"You know what? You're funny; a lot better than the other stuck-up bitches around there," Kate looked at her, smirking, before moving over to the vanity and sitting down. She picked up a brush from the wooden counter. She ran it through her hair, looking back at Victoria through the mirror. "No, they're supposedly the direct descendants of the five families who settled the Ipswich colony way back when."
Victoria coughed suddenly, a nagging feeling in her stomach. She remembered hearing something about that when her real parents were… "Old money," she managed to say, sitting up all the way.
"So, I saw both Reid and Caleb checking you out tonight," Kate changed the subject casually.
Victoria blushed and shrugged. "Yeah?"
"Yep," she turned around to face her. "But if I were, I'd go with Caleb."
"Why?" Victoria asked, getting up and making her way into the bathroom. As she listened, she stripped off her clothes and wrapped a large, white towel around her middle.
"I don't know, he's just one of those really good guys, you know?" Kate returned to brushing her hair. "He could stay here and party with the rest of us in the dorms, but instead, he stays home and takes care of him mom."
"What's wrong with his mom?" She asked, leaning against the doorframe going into the bathroom.
"Ever since Caleb's dad died, his mom became a bit of an alcoholic."
"Huh…" Victoria said thoughtfully. "So who's the fifth?" She grabbed a bottle of shampoo from the sink countertop and started walking towards the door into the hallway.
Kate turned to look at her, a mischievous gleam in her eyes. "What do you mean?"
"The fifth family; you said there were five."
"Oh, that. They say that the fifth was killed off in the Salem witch hunt," she giggled. "Pretty cool, huh?"
"More like creepy," Victoria managed to get out, before turning and hurrying out into the hallway and closing the door quickly behind her. She leaned against the wall for a moment and took a deep breath. She knew this place seemed familiar! She allowed her eyes to flame over black before closing them and slowly all the talks her real parents had given her played through her memories. Yes, everything she remembered pointed back to here. She shuddered and opened her eyes, then hurried to the showers as quickly as she could.
In the showers, Victoria reached inside the large, diluted glass doors and turned the water on hot and heavy. She placed the shampoo bottle on a little shelf built into the wall, slipped the towel from her naked body and hung it up on a hook near the sliding door. She shivered as she stepped from the cold, bathroom air into the warm, humid shower stall. She closed the door and her eyes and let the steaming water run all over her.
As she washed her hair, Victoria's eyes flamed over black again and she walked through her memories to find the one of her and her family, and the talk they once had.
"Victoria, where are-" Her dad's voice dropped as he found the young six year-old girl sitting in the big chair in the living room, a large, old, heavy book on her lap. She looked up fretfully at her father and closed the book quickly, sliding down off the chair and hurrying towards the door. She tried to squeeze between the doorframe and her father's strong, sturdy frame, but he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her to his side. "Where you heading off to?" He said in a slightly amused voice.
Victoria squealed as he swung her up into his arms and held her high up. "What were you reading, Vick?"
"Nothing!" She said quickly, thinking she might be in trouble for reading 'The Book' her parents always talked about. Not that she really could read most of it, but for some reason, everything on the pages made sense to her.
"Yeah?" He said, as he walked over to the chair where the old, brown book lay. He leaned down and picked it up. "You were reading the book, huh?"
"I'm sorry, Daddy!" She said, lip quivering. She waited for him to start scolding her and buried her face into his shoulder.
He just laughed. "Oh, Vick, it's not a bad thing," he sighed, sitting down in the chair and plopping her down on his knee. "I probably should've started telling you about this kind of stuff a long time ago."
She pulled her face away from his shirt and looked up at him eagerly. She always watched him whenever his eyes burned over black, and he used his Power to do chores that he didn't want to do. They'd laugh afterwards on how they were 'cheating' to get things done. "Tell me?" She asked, giving him a cute smile, showing a couple of missing teeth.
"You've got to remember everything, okay?" He said softly, making sure there was no one else in the room. She bobbed her head up and down in a nod, and looked impatiently up at him with her big blue eyes.
He went into a long explanation, opening The Book from time to time to help explain things. He told her about the history of their family, and about the other bloodlines who are also like them. He told them about the Covenant of silence they'd formed, and how their family had been banished for a mistake they'd made a long time ago. He told her about how she'd get the Power when she turned thirteen, then at eighteen she'll 'ascend' and be given new, stronger powers. He told her what'd happen if she misused the Power or overused it; he told her about the addiction.
"You sure you're going remember that, Victoria?" He asked with eyes urgent as he held her shoulders to face him. She nodded; of course she would! "And you won't tell anyone? Not a soul?" She shook her head violently; no, why would she do that? "That's my girl! Now go find your mom, she needs your help in the garden, okay?"
She'd bounced off, smiling and singing a little made up song. Her father looked down at the book for a long time before his eyes burned over black and he levitated the book back to its secret hiding place behind the bookcase. He rubbed a hand over his face, which looked tired and slightly aged; he looked older than his 29 years…
A crashing noise outside the stall yanked her out of her memory. Victoria jumped and she quickly looked through the glass doors, trying to see if there was something there. She slowly turned the water off and reached outside to get her towel. Wrapping it tightly around her middle, she stepped out of the stall and looked around. "Hello?"
Her call echoed around the large shower room, and she blinked, letting her eyes return to their normal baby blue. She looked cautiously around as she walked towards the toilet stalls. She knelt to look under the stalls to see if there was anyone in there, but she didn't see anyone. Victoria stood up again and looked around, trying to find the cause of the sound. She looked down at the tile floor and saw a shattered light bulb.
Her heart was thumping loud as she slowly slipped over towards the bulb and crouched next to it. She felt another jerk in her stomach—this time a painful one—and she gave a small gasp. Victoria reached out and picked up a piece of broken glass, looking at its sharp, jagged edges. She looked up at the light fixture, now missing one of its four bulbs. She stood up cautiously, trying to soothe the throbbing in her gut as she looked around the bathroom again. She couldn't help being feeling watched.
Suddenly, she felt something touch her back between her shoulder blades. Victoria let out a low scream as she spun around to see what was behind her. Her heart raced and her breathe came in gasps as she pressed her hand to the skin of her chest above her towel. She quickly turned and rushed out of the bathrooms, forgetting all about her shampoo.
Victoria slowed down as she got into the hallway her room was on, and she stopped, turning around to look behind her. She still felt as though she was being followed by someone. 'You're just being paranoid, Vix,' she thought to herself, shaking her head and turning back to walk to her room when she came face to face with someone.
"Oh!" She said very loudly before realizing it was just Reid. "Oh my god," she said airily, clutching her chest with one hand, her aching stomach with the other.
Reid had one arm crossed over his chest; the other hand was subconsciously up near his chin. He gave an awkward little wave with that hand. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," he said sheepishly. "I just got in."
"Oh… Oh, it's okay," Victoria said quietly. "I'm just a little freaked out right now. I felt like... like someone was watching me in the showers."
"Yeah?" Reid said, walking past her towards the showers. "Let's take a look shall we?" Victoria searched for the right way to say 'no' without sounding like a total chicken. Reid smiled a little and held out his hand to her. "C'mon," he said encouragingly. She paused for a moment, took a deep breath, and reached out and put her hand on top of his. He wrapped his fingers around her palm and held them as he led her down the hallway towards the showers.
At the showers, he slid his hand out of hers and pushed open the door. Victoria slipped into the bathroom reluctantly behind him, eyes darting back and forth looking for whatever was in the room with her before.
Reid surveyed the showers calmly, fingers tapping on his chin idly. He let his hand drop and shrugged, turning around to face her. "Don't see nothing," he said all tough-guy like. She looked up into his face, then back at the light bulb on the ground as he walked by. 'See, you're just being paranoid!' She mentally scolded herself as she turned around and walked back outside with him.
"You okay now?" Reid asked outside as the walked down the hallway.
"Yeah…" Victoria sighed, shaking her head. "I must just be paranoid; first day jitters, you know?"
"Yeah, most of us go through the same thing," Reid said, smirking a bit. They reached the end of the hallway near the door to her room and he stopped, turning to face her. "So, I guess I'll see you around sometime?"
"Um, yeah," Victoria said, giving him a smile. "See you later." He moved furtively towards the staircase and disappeared out of sight as she watched. She sighed again, throwing one last fretfully look over her shoulder down towards the showers before quietly opening her door and slipping in, trying to be careful so not to wake Kate up.