The lesson of Mister Jorgensson proceeded smoothly like usual. German wasn’t really a course I had a lot of trouble with, it was just those blasted cases and especially those definite articles that gave me a lot of pain.

-Der, die, das, die and all that jazz, why can’t they just make it simpler… Maybe Viktor could help me with them...-

At the end of the lesson Mister Jorgensson just walked out of the door without giving us further homework to do, but not before grabbing himself an extra cup of tea, quickly brewed by our Pres, after which the class prepared to move to the laboratory building where we would have our natural science classes. It was pretty rare for a class to move that distance between lessons without a break in between, but with the number of students in this school you just couldn’t fit everyone into the perfect time slots, and our class drew the short straw. Luckily Miss Verde was understanding of our situation so even if we took a bit longer to get there, she wouldn’t mind terribly much as long as you didn’t come much behind the group.

Our friend group left the classroom last as usual, as it was Pres who had to lock up behind us. I decided to walk next to her to tease her a little. Emma, Ria and Karin were chatting already with each other anyway and I didn’t want to make it awkward.

“So, Pres, a life or death situation, huh?” I poked her side, although she didn’t budge an inch.

“Yes.” She unscrewed her bottle of iced tea with a sigh of relief. “I only noticed we were running dangerously low on tea when I entered the classroom this morning. My fault for not checking it yesterday evening. But don’t worry, it will not happen again.”

“By the way, Pres, do you ever drink anything but tea?” Claire was also walking next to the two of us.

Pres drank from her bottle and skewered Claire with a deadpan stare right between the eyes. “Of course I don’t. Why would I? Where I’m from it’s practically heresy to drink anything else. They even installed tea kettles in tanks so the soldiers could have their tea in the middle of combat.”

“Oh, I remember reading that once!” I enthusiastically added.

“See, even Aurora knows.” She motioned at me with her bottle and elegantly took another sip from it.

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?!” Pres had somehow turned the teasing around and I started pouting because of it.

“Haha.” Claire laughed. “If fate would ever befall you to become a vampire, oh such pain and sorrow would follow.”

If I were drinking something I’d probably have spat it out right now. -What the fuck is with people and mentioning vampires since I became one!? Is this like confirmation bias or whatever!?- I gulped as Pres looked away in disgust.

“Oh, dear Gods in heaven, please don’t even make me think about that. My precious tea…”

“Haha. Don’t worry, they aren’t real anyway.” Claire laughed again and patted Pres on the back. “Or what do you think Auro, are they… Hey, are you okay, you look a bit pale?” Claire had turned her attention to me and my face had apparently revealed my shock about their conversation. “You look like the phantom of the opera right now.”

“Ah no… I’m fine… The cold just got to me.”

“Want to wear my training jacket?” Claire pulled her jacket out of her fencing bag and immediately draped it over my shoulders. “There you go.”

“Thanks…” The thought of how they would react if they figured out my vampirism flashed through my mind as we closed in on the laboratory building. -I can’t expect everyone to react as well as Emma did I guess…-

I looked at Emma, who was chatting happily with her sister and Ria. She must’ve felt it as she looked back at me, her shy look quickly turned into one of confusion.

“Why are you wearing Claire’s training jacket?”

“She was just feeling cold, that’s all.” Claire replied

“Hmm.” She let us catch up and then started rumbling through her bag, taking out her training vest too. “Here, now you can have two!” She smugly draped it around me as well.

“Oh, are we dressing up Rora?” Ria-chan had stopped as well together with Karin.

“Apparently so.” I softly smiled while getting a little bit toasty with all the new layers. At least the awkwardness between me and Emma had somewhat disappeared.

“Maybe I should join a sports club too so I can have Rora wear my training jacket!” Ria commented.

“Nah, Ria, your jacket would be way too small for Auro.” Emma teased her.

-Well, I guess it’s true that Emma and Claire are more around my size than petite Ria-chan.-

“Hmmph.” She pouted cutely. “I’ll just order a larger size then...”

“You’d be swimming in your own training vest.” Emma put her arms around Ria to accentuate just how much taller she was.

“We should continue walking, we are falling behind the rest of the class.” Pres dryly commented while the group started laughing.

“Alright, Pres.” Claire patted her head as we continued on our way to class.

“Watch out, she might bite!” Emma started laughing even more.

“Just you wait, my revenge will be swift and final.” A devilish grin appeared on Pres’ face while she sipped from her tea.

“And mine too.” Ria added.

“Oh no, we’re getting ganged up upon, Claire.”

“Don’t worry, I’m pretty sure we will survive, Emma.” Claire confidently put her hand on Emma’s shoulder.

“Oh boi, if only this doesn’t turn into a civil war...” I giggled. “The smols versus the tols.”

-I think I’ll need to take a neutral position here, #Switzerland.-

As though she read my mind Karin nodded to me as I was clearly not the only one caught between the two camps.

When we entered the classroom Miss Verde immediately urged us to change into the labcoats provided by the school as she had set up a practical chemistry lesson.

“Come on students, let us get started immediately. Please divide yourself into groups of three, appoint a group leader who will come to me to accept the assignment.”

She swiftly walked to the whiteboard, patiently awaiting the first group leader to come to her.

The little civil war from earlier continued as the groups were quickly decided. I’d join Emma and Claire while Karin joined Pres and Ria.

“Good luck, Ria.” I petted her on the head before heading back to my own group. “And watch out with the chemicals ok?”

“I’m not a kid anymore, Rora.” She pouted. “I know what I’m doing, it’s you who should be careful.”

“I know.” I smiled. “That’s why I’ll be doing all the writing and Claire the practical stuff.”

“Hey, no way you are going to let me do all the work!” I heard Claire call out from behind me.

“Obviously not.” I turned around and quickly replied. “There’s Emma as well to help you.”

“Hey, I didn’t agree to that either!”

“See, it’ll be fine, Ria.” I smiled.

Ria giggled. “Alright then.”

Our group appointed Claire as the leader, who left Emma and I to wait together until she came back. Which did make it obvious all the awkwardness hadn’t completely dissipated yet.

It was Emma who took the first step. “So...uh... you aren’t cold anymore?”

“Hmm? Ah, no. I wasn’t cold to begin with to be honest.” I lowered my voice so the people around us couldn’t hear what I was saying.

“Oh?”

“You see, suddenly Claire and Pres started talking about vampires.”

“Ah, I see now. And you said you were cold as a bad excuse for your reaction, right?”

“Pretty much.”

Emma facepalmed “You really need to work on your poker face Auro… But then again, that’s kinda what I like about you…” The last part of her sentence was a lot quieter than the rest of it even though I could still clearly hear it.

-A kind of like, like?- I started blushing but before I could really think about it Claire had come back.

“So, it looks like we are doing a pH titration.”

“Again?” Emma had turned towards Claire and the papers she was holding.

“Yeah. Should be easy enough.”

“Uhm. What’s a titration again?” I shyly lifted my hand.

Claire sighed. “C’mon Auro, this is basic stuff.”

“In a nutshell, you slowly add a base to a liquid and see when the pH value passes 7 so you can determine the concentration of acid used.” Emma explained.

“So… uuuuuhm…yes...”

“You just look at it until the colour changes.” Claire whacked me on the head with the bundle.

“Ah, I remember now. Thanks.”

The group got to work on the exercise and it didn’t take particularly long before we got our first results. Obviously mostly thanks to Emma and Claire.

“Ok, that’s one down, only four to go,” said Claire as she set up the next flask.

“Yaaay.” I cheered, devoid of any kind of enthusiasm.

-Chemistry is definitely not my cup of tea.-