Awakening (Covenant College #1) (15 page)

Brittany
made an
embarrassed
squeak and shook her head disapprovingly at Paris. I was interested in the theory.

“Why do you think that?”

“Because that guy at the library said that girl was a virgin until she was with those guys,” Paris said. “Why would she say no to her boyfriend but yes to strangers?”

“That’s a good question.”

“Plus, we know
Brittany
is . . .
“ Paris
broke off when she saw
Brittany
glaring her way.

“Frigid,” I offered. I didn’t really care about pissing
Brittany
off.

“Innocent,” Paris finally supplied.

Rick No. 1 sniggered as
Brittany
’s face turned a violent shade of red. “Just because I don’t sleep with whatever guy pays me any attention – like other people I know – doesn’t mean I’m innocent.”

“So, what, you do everything but?”

Brittany
looked confused.

“If you’re not innocent and you haven’t had sex that means you’re everything but girl.”

Brittany
still looked confused.

“You know, blow jobs, hand jobs . . . rim jobs.”

Paris couldn’t help herself. She choked on her ice cream she was laughing so hard.
Brittany
didn’t find me as funny.

“You are disgusting,” she hissed, getting to her feet dramatically and flouncing from the table.

The guys who had been sitting and listening were also amused by the conversation. Rick No. 1 actually swiped a few tears from his eyes, he was laughing so hard.

“I don’t think she could ever give a blow job or a rim job,” he finally wheezed out.

“Why is that?”

“She’d have to stop talking to do both and I’m not sure that’s in her wheelhouse,” he laughed.

He could be right.

When Paris and I returned to the room
Brittany
and Tara had both retired. Since we had our second week of classes the next day – we opted for the same. Paris wouldn’t let me go to bed, though, until I promised to apologize to
Brittany
the next day.

When we woke up the next morning, I was relieved to find that both
Brittany
and Tara had already left for class. If I was lucky, Paris would forget about my promise and
Brittany
would stop being such a pill. I know, a girl can dream, though, can’t she?

My classes were largely uneventful for the day. Even Journalism 101 was relatively relaxed.

When Professor Blake handed my paper back to me I expected to see a big fat F. Instead, he’d given it a 92. He’d even written “highly entertaining” in red ink on the top of the paper.

I noticed Matilda was trying to shove her paper in her bag quickly. She couldn’t do it fast enough to hide the 80 prominently marked on the top of her paper. I also saw the notation Professor Blake had etched across the top: “Try using your imagination.”

After class, Matilda and I were packing up our belongings and she was seething.

“I can’t believe he gave me an 80.”

“It could have been worse,” I offered. “That’s still well above passing.”

“I’m used to getting
As
,” she said haughtily.

“College isn’t high school,” I said succinctly.

“I know college isn’t high school,” she sputtered.

“Well, I’m just saying, we have to adjust our expectations.” Of course, I’d put zero effort into mine and still got a 92. I didn’t think that was something I should bring up to her, though.

Matilda decided she wanted to talk about something else. “Have you seen Rick lately?”

“We had ice cream together last night.”

Matilda furrowed her brow.
“Just the two of you?”

“No, just a few people from our floor.”

“Is he seeing anybody?”

“I think he’s seeing everybody,” I said honestly.

“Oh,” Matilda looked disappointed. “Does he ever ask about me?”

“No.” Now she looked crushed. “Maybe he’s gay?”

That notion didn’t seem to make Matilda any happier. “Maybe he just doesn’t like me.”

I bit back my reaction to her little gem of wisdom. I didn’t think kicking her when she was down sounded like a good idea. She wasn’t
Brittany
, after all.

We were heading out the door when I heard a voice behind me. It was Professor Blake.

“Ms. Lake, would you stay a moment?”

I froze for a second and then slowly turned to face him. “Why?”

“I want to talk to you about your paper.”

Crap.

Seventeen

Either Matilda didn’t notice my sudden panic about having to stay behind with Professor Blake, or she didn’t care.
My guess?
She didn’t care.

“See you later,” she waved brightly and walked away. I couldn’t help but hope she would trip and crash headfirst into the drinking fountain on her way down the hall.

I turned and faced Professor Blake. This really was my worst nightmare. To my horror, things got worse. Professor Blake motioned for me to sit down at a desk. When I did, he moved to the door and shut it so we were alone inside. Sure, there was a whole hallway of students just a few feet away – but I felt extremely secluded.

“I thought you liked my paper?” I was nervous, but I was fighting to regain some modicum of control so he wouldn’t see the fear.

“I don’t really want to talk to you about your paper,” Professor Blake admitted. “I did find it amusing, though. I would have given you a higher grade, but your punctuation is atrocious.”

“Well, then what do you want to talk about?”

Professor Blake was contemplative for a second. He seemed to be having an inner fight with himself. He sat down on the edge of his desk and regarded me.

“I saw you outside the library last night.”

“So?” If he was going to try and have me brought up on some sort of charges for kneeing that idiot I was about to get incensed.

“I was impressed.”

Well, I wasn’t expecting that.

“Not many people would put themselves in harm’s way to save a girl they don’t know.”

“That’s more of a commentary on the apathy of our society than me isn’t it?”

I don’t know what I was expecting, but the turn this conversation was taking was even more uncomfortable than I initially predicted.

“Yes, it is,” Professor Blake agreed. “Still, you showed great courage in what you did.”

“I didn’t really think about it. I just reacted.”

“Yes, but most people would have reacted by running in the other direction. You ran into danger.”

“I didn’t really consider him that dangerous.”

Professor Blake looked surprised. “Why is that?”

“He’s just another mealy-mouthed and pouty virgin. He thinks he’s owed something by society. I’ve found the easiest bullies to bring down are those that get off on hurting women.”

“You’ve faced a situation like this before?”

I hedged. I wasn’t sure how to answer that. “I don’t know what you mean?”

“You’ve intervened when a man was beating up a woman before?”

“Just my aunt.
She was getting beat up by her husband.”

“You mean, your uncle?”

“Not by blood. No. Plus, this was her second husband and she’s on her third now. He wasn’t around
all that
long. And, trust me, no one misses him.”

Professor Blake smiled a little at my answer.

“Zoe, I’m curious, what do you think about the essay I assigned?”

“I think it was retarded.” No reason to lie at this point. He seemed to want to hear the truth.

“And why is that?”

“This is journalism. We’re dealing with facts here. We shouldn’t be focusing on lame vampire fiction. I can do that in my English literature class.”

“I see,” Professor Blake seemed to be scrutinizing me a little more than I was comfortable with. “And what if it was true?”

“What if what was true?”

“All of it.”

“All of what?”

“Vampires.
Werewolves.
Ghosts.
Witches.”

Professor Blake said it with absolutely no guile. I couldn’t help but look around to see if I was being caught on some candid camera show.

“What are you doing?”

“Looking for the camera.”

“What camera?”

“The one for whatever stupid reality show this has to be a set-up for.”

“There’s no camera.”

“So, you’re just randomly crazy?”

Professor Blake didn’t seem offended by my disbelief. “Just because someone has different beliefs from you – that doesn’t mean they’re crazy.”

“Believing in vampires does.”

Professor Blake seemed to dismiss my statement with a wave of his hand. “No one believes at first.”

“At first?
You’ve told other people this? And you still have a job?”

“Zoe, are you telling me you’ve never seen anything that defies explanation?”

“Just Ashton Kutcher being paid millions of dollars to act,” I responded in my usual snarky way. I felt the conversation warranted it.
“Oh, and Justin
Bieber
being considered a musician.”

Professor Blake ignored my sarcasm.
“Nothing else?”

“Nope.”
I was being flippant now. I was also trying to figure out the quickest way out of this classroom and away from this situation.

“What about the Dog Man?”

“The Dog Man?
You mean the Bigfoot legend up at home?”

“Yes.”

“No, I’ve never seen Bigfoot.” Even as I said it I hesitated. The truth was, on my way to work at the local resort this past summer, I had seen something. It was 6 a.m. and I was supposed to have opened the golf course deli fifteen minutes earlier, so I was in a hurry. I was also hung over and – truth be told – maybe still a little stoned from the night before. In an effort to shave time from my commute, I’d taken the back roads that no tourist could ever find but residents of the area knew all too well. They were windy and dangerous roads – none of which were covered in concrete – but which also shaved ten minutes off my commute. As I rounded one of those curves I was forced to slam on the brakes. There was a large animal in the middle of the road -- and he was staring at my car. I thought at first it was a bear – but there was something off about the animal’s dimensions. This animal had a much more pronounced snout and – when it
raised
up on its hind legs – it was much thinner than any bear I had ever seen. And, I swear this is true, when the animal walked into the trees to disappear, it actually swaggered a little bit.

Professor Blake must have seen my mind working. “So, you have seen Bigfoot.”

“No, I’ve never seen Bigfoot,” I scoffed. “I saw a bear once.”

“But, even now, you’re not sure it was actually a bear.”

I didn’t know how to answer him – so I didn’t.

“What if I told you that the area you grew up in was a
stronghold.
Not for sasquatch, though, but for
Lupins
?’

“What are
Lupins
? I mean aside from the professor in ‘Harry Potter.’

My pop culture reference seemed to have initiated an involuntary tic in Professor Blake, because he winked and then scowled. “
Lupins
are werewolves.”

See, I should have seen that coming. “You’re so full of shit.
Werewolves?”

“Why are you so dismissive of the possibility? All legends start somewhere.”

“Every saga has a beginning . . .,” I muttered.

“What?”

“Nothing.
Just repeating the introduction to one of the ‘Star Wars’ movies.”

“Well, that seems helpful.”

I glowered at Professor Blake. “Why are you telling me this?”

“I think you came here for a reason.”

“And what reason is that?”

“To join the fight.”

“What fight?”

“Against evil.”

“You mean werewolves?” I just knew I was being ‘
Punked
.’

“Not just werewolves,” Professor Blake said gravely.

“Oh, vampires and ghosts, too.”

“And witches.”

“And witches,” I nodded enthusiastically. “And elves and fairies and trolls and gnomes. It’s just like ‘Charmed.’”

Professor Blake frowned at my mock enthusiasm.