Knight of the Black Rose (38 page)

He finished handing out the quiz, no one at all happy about it; especially after they started to flick through it and realised that it was six pages long, with questions on both sides.

"You can write of the questions sheets, and there's also paper on all of your desks if you need the extra," Loring told them as he walked back around the desk and sat down, picking up a book.

"Is he just going to read the whole time?" Will whispered as he scanned through some of the question, not having much of a clue what half of them were about; he looked over at Lucy and was somewhat pleased to see that even she looked confused, at least he wasn't the only one.

The bell finally rang, and everyone was glad to be getting out of there dropping their quiz's on the desk on their way out looking rather tired and bug eyed. Will grabbed up Lucy's as well as his own as she struggled with her bag, he still couldn't believe that they had been given the quiz and hoped that their end of year exam wasn't as hard or otherwise he'd never pass, and wondered how Lucy could have written so much to need the extra paper with hers. More than half the questions hadn't made any sense what so ever, making him wonder if they had even been given the right quiz to start with, or if it had just been him, who hadn't gotten any of it.

"That was torture," Troy said as he came up behind him and dropped his own sheets on the desk, making Loring look up at him.

"They're just to make sure that you're actually paying attention in class," Loring told him pleasantly.

"Then, I think I've missed a few," Alex said walking past them all. "I need something to eat, before I pass out,"

"Lucy wait up!" Jess shouted as she ran after her.

"Wow...what do you really think she's got in that bag...it can't all be work right?" Troy asked staring after her. "Does she know something that we don't?"

Loring collect the papers as he stood up. "Probably to pay more attention in class, though her bag did seem pretty full,"

"We'll ask her later, after we've eaten something," Alex told them walking out ahead of them, and they quickly followed as they had all spent enough time in there today.

Loring collected the papers, quickly scanning through some of them to see how much they had answered, and was pretty disappointed to see that most of the class had left at least half the questions blank. He grabbed his book, and headed for the door as he wanted something to eat himself while he went through these. He walked along the corridor to the food hall and then took the lift up, as there were never many students on the top floor, which was why most of the teachers got their food from there before they went back to their offices. He was just heading out when Hunter stopped him and took his food off of him.

"Can't have you spilling that all over the students work," Hunter told him.

"I could have managed," Loring told him.

"You're welcome," Hunter said smiling slightly as they headed up the corridor, he juggled the food somewhat as he got a newspaper out of his inside pocket, which Loring took off of him.

"Is this the latest?" Loring asked as he scanned the front page.

"Yeah...after these, they're really trying to push through the sensors," Hunter told him.

Loring read, his head in the paper as he stepped out onto the main corridor and was almost knocked over as someone ran into him, he looked up as a pile of books and papers scattered to the floor, Lucy dropped picking them up as quickly as she could.

"Miss Shepherd is there a reason why you're running around in the corridors?" Hunter asked her.

Loring picked up some of the papers that she was trying to gather up, none of them were his as he still had hold of all of his; but he could see that she had put a lot of work into her research, of her science project. He stood up reading off of the page in his hand, unable to take his eyes off of it.

"I'm sorry...I..." Lucy said blushing deeply as she looked up at him, and then she saw the picture in the paper. "Why am I in the paper?"

"Excuse me?" Hunter said confused taking the paper back as Loring seemed too distracted with whatever it was that he was now reading, he scanned the picture and then looked at her as she stood with her arms full of books and papers. "You recognise yourself in this group shot?"

"Yes, of course...that's my dress, dad complained how much it cost, but he still got it me." Lucy told him.

"Do you remember who was close by at the time? Anyone acting strangely?" Hunter asked her.

Lucy adjusted the hold of her books as they were slipping somewhat. "Not really,"

"Loring take of those off of her so that she can sort herself out," Hunter told him.

Loring looked over at him and waved the sheet in front of him. "Adrian you should read this..." Hunter just looked at him, and he nodded taking the papers off of her. "This is seriously incredible..."

"I'm glad that you approve," Hunter said mildly. "But did you just hear what she said?"

"Adrian, these are research from the dead plants..." Loring told him, ignoring his question. "The work that she's put into this..."

"I've only been doing it the past couple of days...I haven't finished it..." Lucy told him. "I actually wanted to talk to you about it,"

"Yes, yes of course." Loring said happily guiding her towards his office with Hunter following. "I wouldn't mind talking to you about this as well,"

"I want to know who was with you that night?" Hunter asked her.

Lucy looked back over her shoulder at him. "Just my friends...oh and one of Nathan's new friends...he had been asking loads of questions. He didn't believe, just probably went out there so that he wouldn't be left out,"

"Which one of his friends?" Hunter asked.

"You've just been doing this the past couple of days?" Loring asked her as he opened his door and went inside.

"Loring, focus," Hunter said following Lucy into the office.

There was a large desk underneath the window covered in papers, and to the left were shelves full of books and jars with things inside of them. Loring though didn't go over to his desk but dropped into a comfy chair on the right, which faced a sofa that Hunter pointed out that she should sit on while he put their food down.

"So who was this?" Hunter asked.

"Scientists have been going over these for months," Loring said.

Lucy looked at Loring, wondering if she had done something wrong, but decided to answer Hunter's question first, even though she found it kind of strange that they were together when they didn't seem to get along most of the time. "His friend was called Harry...he was asking lots of questions, but I didn't think that much of it considering that he's from a non-magical family and this was his first ritual,"

Loring stood suddenly and went over to his desk, making Hunter stare after him wondering what had gotten him so worked up, but he had other things to think about at the moment.

"What else do you remember?" Hunter asked her. "Anything mentioned about the Luna Goddess, or any of the Goddess'."

"They were teasing me about being the Goddess," Lucy told him blushing again. "They normally do, considering my middle name,"

"That's very helpful," Hunter said thoughtfully.

"I haven't gotten anyone into trouble have I?" Lucy asked nervously.

Hunter shook his head. "No, you might have actually helped us. So, what did you want to talk to Loring about?"

Lucy looked over at him again going over her research. "It was about the pop quiz,"

"Loring...your student needs to ask you something." Hunter told him, but he still ignored him as he flicked through papers mumbling to him self.

"The questions were kind of advanced to be honest, everyone thought so..." Lucy told him, hoping that she wasn't going to get into trouble. "Half of them, we haven't even studied yet in class...but...err...the real reason...some of the questions had to do with those notes, and what I found out,"

Loring looked up now. "Are you sure?"

"Didn't you do the quiz?" Hunter asked him.

"No, Jevidah left it for me...but she is right; I did notice that nearly everyone left half the questions blank," Loring told them. "Adrian, her research is incredible, more advanced than a first years...she's really done...she's found stuff that even I haven't yet,"

"What?" Lucy said nervously. "Oh...then...err...maybe I did it wrong,"

"No...no you didn't," Loring said smiling at her. "May I have these for a while, to properly look over? I might actually send them off to a few other scientists that are also working on this,"

"Are you serious?" Lucy asked in disbelief that her work was actually helpful, when all she had been was confused at what she had found.

"Oh yes, trust me; this could be a great deal of help," Loring told her, as he picked up one of the quiz's scanning through the questions.

"Well, I'm glad that you actually brought us this," Hunter told him.

"Actually I was only going to ask about the questions, but sure," Lucy said. "I was also wondering..."

"Yes," Hunter prompted when he saw that she seemed a little nervous.

"The trees behind our dorms, some of them are dead...that's how I got the samples," Lucy told him.

"Yes...we noticed," Hunter said. "Mr Ryker told you what happened I'm sure,"

"Yeah...I was kind of confused about that," Lucy said.

"So are we," Loring said. "And about this, I'll have to talk to him about it,"

"Just be careful," Hunter told him.

"Are the two of you friends?" Lucy asked before she could stop herself, making them both look at her as though surprised by the question. "Well...err...it isn't as though it's a secret that the two of you seem to argue a lot...but...err...well...you seem to be friends at the moment,"

"It's complicated," Hunter told her.

"You don't trust all of the teachers?" Lucy asked again before she could stop herself.

"Okay, maybe not as complicated as we thought," Hunter said.

"She's a smart one, but no wonder being Charles' daughter," Loring said smirking. "Clair's very good, one of my top students; Jake's not too bad either,"

"You know my dad?" Lucy asked surprised.

"Do you mind if I keep hold of these for a while?" Loring asked her.

Lucy stood her books finally straight. "Nope, I've got another copy,"

"Of course you do," Hunter said smirking. "Miss Shepherd, stay out of trouble,"

"Yes sir," Lucy said smiling back at him as she headed to the door, then closed it behind her.

"Adrian...seriously, I can't believe that she actually did all of this by herself...there's so much here," Loring said excitedly. "She researched everything...though I guess that could be because she didn't know what she was looking for, but in doing that, she actually found out more than what we have,"

"So you're saying that she's done a better job in a week than the rest of the scientists have in four months?" Hunter asked.

"Pretty much," Loring said smiling as he sat down. "I'll go through it properly before I send it off,"

"So, just how much do you think that's wroth?" Hunter asked as he picked at his semi-warm lunch.

Loring looked up at him. "A small fortune,"

Chapter Twenty-One

Lucy watched as the snow came down heavily as she sat on one of the comfy chairs in the common room with her friends, with a small pile of letters on her lap, most of them from her friend Ella back home and her mum, along with a few from other friends. It was the letter that she had received that morning that was bothering her more than anything, her first letter from her dad.

Lucy,

I've been kept informed of your activities at school; I would very much like it if you would return home for the holidays, as we have much to talk about.

The situation with Corey isn't looking good either, so we will be needing your skills.

Father

Lucy had read the letter several times, and each time annoyed her more, not once had he asked how she was; just ordering her home as though she was only good for one thing. She already knew that things weren't going so well at home with Corey and the others because Ella had been keeping her updated with everything, along with a couple of the others, who seemed to have found it easier to talk to her about what was going on than to him.

"Did you get one!" Clair demanded.

Lucy looked up at the sound of her sister’s voice, which also distracted everyone else, as she walked over. She looked like Lucy, just a few years older; her dark brown hair was to her shoulders and perfectly straight and she had a pretty face, that her sister said had earn her a couple of boyfriends, though none of them had been good enough to keep long enough. Lucy handed her, her letter to read as she came up behind her.