Chapter 14

November 19, 1999

After her flyball game against Columbia, Coralis flew to Victoria’s dorm window. Victoria had started a medical program at the university to become an optometrist. Her dad’s family being human, she wanted to be able to better help them to see the world around them. It didn’t matter to her how gloomy the world seemed to be some days; it was still beautiful to see. Victoria wanted to help humans see the world for what it was: colourful, vibrant, full of beauty.

As she approached the window’s ledge, Coralis jumped off her flying stick and transformed into her black cat form mid-air, right after shoving her stick into her cloak. She landed on the window’s ledge as a black cat and scratched the window.

“Hey Cheetah, did we win?” said Victoria, as Coralis transformed back into her mage form.

“Yup, we did. Columbia’s team is better than it was last season, but they’re still lacking in cohesiveness. You missed the game?”

“I literally just got back. Human university is no joke. Cegep was easy, but this is something else.”

“Do you like it, or do you want to try a different program? Are you still interested in pharmacology?” said Coralis.

“I still like it. I’m still considering pharmacology, to be honest, but I think I’m going to stick to optometry. What I don’t like, is this dorm.”

“I can imagine. You’re sure it’s fine that I crash here for the night?”

“Yes, it’s fine. Don’t worry, I sound-proofed the walls as soon as I moved in. Honestly, I think I just want to find an apartment off-campus. The dorm I had for the past 2 years was fine, but this one… nah, it’s not for me. I want to find something else, but I would have to spend more on rent.”

“I wouldn’t know about all that. Is housing here more expensive than in London?” said Coralis, while cracking open a can of beer. “Want one?”

“Yes please!” said Victoria. “I don’t think that it is, but you should be the one to know about it.”

“I should… but I really got no clue. Gus pays the rent to his aunt and all the bills. Once every few months, he tells me and the twins how much we owe him, but I never asked for receipts.”

“I was thinking. Instead of crashing at different places whenever you’re in town, why don’t you come stay with me?” suggested Victoria after taking a sip of her beer. “We could split the cost like you do with the guys in London, and it would give you an actual address here. I know the flyball team plays half the time outside the country, but The Northerners are still based here.”

“If you are serious about it, count me interested, just make sure I got a safe landing space for when I get back home. I don’t mind using the front door when I get back from the flyball field… but I still need to be able to land somewhere. If I get here straight from an EBEE mission… well I don’t want to scare off the neighbours if I happen to have troll or vampire blood all over me.”

“Oh yeah, you’re still deep down in vampire wars And don’t worry, if you’re down for it, I’ll be looking for a top floor apartment, so you would have a rooftop at your disposal.”

“Not so much at the moment, lately the EBEE has been sending me in Eastern Russia to check into what the trolls there have been up to. I’m supposed to go to a meeting in Winnipeg next week, think they want to start sending me on missions here when I’m in town.”

Coralis wanted to go for a shower, but didn’t want Victoria to get into trouble if she got caught there by other people, as their bathrooms were shared. She took one before leaving the field in Mirabel, but while on her way to Victoria’s, she got into the flying path of migratory birds. She tried to get above them, but still ended up with feathers and excrements on her. An invisible cloak was too risky, as someone could still catch a door seemingly opening on its own, so Victoria gave her some spelled cloths that would dissolve all kind of things off her skin.

2 months later, she went back to Victoria’s dorm. While she was on her way there, Victoria pretended to need to go get more beers as an excuse to walk outside to call Coralis on her portable hologram. Coralis did not have a mobile phone. She had a pager, but Victoria needed to warn her that she needed to get in through the dorm front door this time, because she currently had some human friends over: she wouldn’t be able to explain Cheetah showing up through her 5th floor dorm window when there was no staircase leading up to it, and transforming into a person.

She walked to a dark alleyway and made sure there was no one who could possibly watch from a window. She walked behind a bush, pulled her own portable hologram and reached out to her friend. After ending the call, she walked to the store to actually get beers.

Coralis arrived 20 minutes later. She landed on the exact same spot Victoria called her from, removed a keychain shaped like cherries out of her cloak and turned it into a winter jacket. She took off her cloak and turned it into another keychain, one that looked like a banana. She then turned her flying stick into a keychain that looked like a toy troll, attached it to the banana keychain and shoved them both into one of her coat pockets. Out of that pocket, she pulled her eyeglasses and put them on. Her wand was in her cloak, which was now a banana keychain. Once she was satisfied that she didn’t have any sort of elemental paraphernalia on her, she walked out of the bushes. She wasn’t covered in anything that she wouldn’t be able to explain to clueless humans, so she felt comfortable walking through Victoria’s dorm.

“Here you are, finally!” said Victoria when Coralis arrived.

“Right on time B-Coralis,” Maribel said. She hoped that Victoria’s human friends didn’t notice her slip of tongue: she was about to call her Blue. If they did, she was planning on blaming it on alcohol making her confused with someone else. “These guys were arguing that all girls love bad boys, what do you think of that?”

“Are you kidding me?” said Coralis while unzipping her winter jacket and grabbing the beer that Victoria was handing her. “I deal with enough assholes at work, the last thing I want when I get home, is to deal with another asshole. No thank you, if I ever have the time to actually date, I’ll pass on bad boys.”

Coralis wasn’t expecting Maribel to be there, but she was happy to see her. She looked around the room and saw three human males.

“Vic, are you sure it’s still fine if I crash here for the night?” continued Coralis, looking at her friend. “I can’t stay here long right now, work called just before I got here. I have to go downtown for an emergency, but I should be back in about 2 hours.”

“Aww seriously?!” said Maribel. “I haven’t seen you in so long!”

“Yes, don’t worry about it, these guys won’t rat me out. You have to leave now? You literally just got here!” said Victoria.

“You know how it goes, if the boss calls, there is so much I can do. He said they got a situation downtown and he knew my other shift was over, so I couldn’t pretend that I was still at my other work. I’ll take the time to finish my beer and I’ll be on my merry way out”

“I’m telling you: these guys are overworking you,” said Victoria while turning toward her human friends in the room. “Guys, this is Coralis, a good friend from high school and future roommate. Coralis, these are friends from university, they live a floor above me.”

“I’m Mark,” said the man sitting next to Maribel. He got up to shake her hand, “and this is Frank”, he continued, while pointing at the man sitting on the single seater sofa next to him.

Frank got up to shake her hand, then the man who was standing by Victoria’s bedroom doorframe walked up to her to do the same.

“Hi, I’m Carlos.”

“Tell me then,” said Frank while sitting back down, “why whenever we get close to good girls we like, they either friendzone us, or dump us to guys who treat them like crap.”

“I will not pretend that I am a good girl and I don’t know what you are looking for in a girl. All I can tell you, is that none of us are seeking the same thing. If they don’t want you, someone else will and I don’t think it’s worth it to change who you are for the sake of a pretty girl liking you. Sooner or later, the truth always comes out. I will never understand why someone would want to willingly come home to an asshole, but to each their own I guess.”

She chugged the rest of her beer and turned around to grab the door handle.

“It was nice to meet you all, but I need to take off. Maribel, for how long are you in town?”

“Until Monday.”

“Coffee on Sunday morning if I don’t get called in to work?”

“Gladly!” said Maribel.

Coralis left and Frank stared at the door for a minute, thinking about what she said.

“Did you say that she was a friend from High School?” asked Mark, who was also baffled by Coralis’ answer. “She looked like she’s no older than 15.”

“Yup, we were in the same classes. She’s 19 like us.”

“Is she going to be staying here for the weekend?” asked Frank. He was hoping that she would come back before they had to leave. He was wondering what she meant when she implied that she wasn’t a good girl and he was intrigued by her.

“Until Tuesday in theory, but maybe not.”