Gregory's POV

It's been weeks and we are still at the refugee. Some of the clan members were having a harder time adjusting to being mortals again (some who have no immediate family or who have lost their moral compass). But, as far as I could tell my family of 5 have all been doing phenomenal. Of course we all have our specific setback and struggles but nothing we couldn't work through. For instance, dad was horrible at driving. He didn't have the patience to learn all the correct terminology, the rules of the road and how to actually drive. Mother was amazing at driving and cooking but the thing that got her confused was computers and phones. More like technology in general. She didn't understand how something so small had so much knowledge. Honesty? It was strange. Mortals...we....couldn't live without all the technology such as: GPS, timers, alarms, social media, the note section of the phone and google.

Anna—oh sweet Anna. She couldn't get modern day sayings and words right. We had to keep reminding her it wasn't the Renaissance period anymore and she couldn't walk around taking in haikus and in poetic ways or people would think she was crazy. Rudolf picked up on the 'slang' more than any of us, Maybe from the time he spent with tony before we all connected. Rudolfs problem was his diet and exercise, after being dead for 300 years and naturally being in prestige shape and having a diet laid out in front of you it was hard now having to watch what you put into your body and keeping in shape. All rudolf wanted to eat was sweets and carbs like French toast, ice cream, pasta and chips but after not being able to run for five minutes without needing a break he quickly realized he needed to add greens to his diet.

Me? Oh well shit. I liked driving (being in power) and I wanted to excel at it because in all the new movies we watched (it helped with learning how people speak and act) the boy of the relationship usually drove and I wanted to do that for Vivian. Technology was tricky but Vivian also showed me how to use some when we would spend nights together.

One day in group class we were going over social medial...instagram to be exact. We all had a Tablet logged into a fake account so we could explore the app freely. Of course what did I do? Exactly, look up Vivian. Her profile wasn't private so I was able to see everything. She had 256 pictures and 951 followers. It said her last picture was posted 2 weeks ago. It was a selfie of her looking sad with her hand on her jaw line. The caption read "will never stop searching for you🦇". Once I read it I could feel a blush on my face. I knew she was talking about me, the emoji proved it (we had a class about emojies as well). I wanted to DM her (which I learned stood for direct messaging, which meant between us) and tell her I'm coming for her but, I was scared. Scared that if we got into contact at this moment I would leave the refugee and not learn what it means to be human. I was scared I would get her hopes up that it would be soon and it would hold her back. I was scared.

I looked at her profile, just looked, taking in all her facial features. I missed her but I knew if I wanted to be there for her —Human to human—I needed to learn all I could.

Like I said previously, everyone has something they were bad at. What was mine? I guess it was being a normal human. I could drive, use technology, knew the correct things to say, I ate properly and worked out but I didn't know how to act. While my family cherished the sun, I was still skeptical. While everyone added more color into the wardrobe I opted to keep my style primarily black, white and grey. We all got new hair cuts and mom and Anna had a class on how to style hair and wear makeup. We once had a trip with the refugee workers into town and everyone else was able to interact way better than me. I didn't know how to be normal...how not to be always on defense. I just wanted to be with Vivian, to talk to her and be with her. The workers explained why that isn't okay....it comes off as possessive and anti social, which makes people uneasy. But I didn't know how else to act? For centuries I was alone...mother had father and Anna had rudolf. Me? No one. No one to understand me or to have normal conversations with. Finding Vivian and being able to connect with her on all levels was new to me and I didn't know how to handle it correctly.

I just wanted to be the best. The best human, the best boyfriend to Vivian. I wanted to make it all worth it. I wanted to learn how to do everything correctly, how to walk and talk. How to dress. Who was famous and what music is and was popular. Watch all the movies normal people have. Celebrities. Restaurants and movie theaters. Malls.

Deep down was I worried? Maybe Vivian would be tired waiting for me and find someone else. Someone who doesn't need to be taught social ques or how to use a microwave. Someone who isn't skeptical about the sun and who likes to sleep in a normal bed. Maybe Vivian found someone with a normal family who she can go on vacation with and see childhood pictures of.

But I knew it wasn't true. There was no sign of anyone else on her social media and I knew what we had. It was once in a lifetime.

Between human school (driving and technology) the whole clan also had to go to regular school (math, history, English). Lucky for us we all knew how to read and write, speak a second language or more, knew a lot about history (we literally fucking lived it). The subjects that were harder for everyone was math and Science, but with enough time we all got it. We only had to learn the basically really, unless we wanted to do advance work so we could figure out a career or more schooling.

The refugee camp was amazing all around though. They were able to make us birth certificates and other legal documents. We all learned our back story (we were a family that lost everything in a flood years ago and instead of rebuilding our parents homeschooled us as we traveled). The back story explains why we didn't have any pictures or possessions, it also explained why we didn't have formal school records. With the legal documentation they also were able to give mother a form that said she was legally aloud to do homeschool (they really thought of everything).

For careers my mother decided to be a home health aid for people with serious illnesses/injuries and for people on hospice. She couldn't fully get away from death, like father. After consideration father decided to peruse a career as a mortician, which takes a lot of schooling so while he is in school he is going to work as the new graveyard keeper (the old one well. Let's just say it wasn't a happy ending). Being older I was told I needed to decide what I wanted to do or too look more into. I wasn't sure exactly, I didn't even know my hobbies and interest. When I was a vampire I was worried about staying alive and before that my family was wealthy and in politics so I concentrated a lot on politics as well and the fine arts (which I hated).

But now, I sat outside, letting the sun hit my skin. It was such an empowering feeling. Anna sat behind me reading a series of books called the hunger games which is apparently a huge thing mortals are obsessed with. Rudolf is playing baseball with another clan member.

"Children" mothers voice echoed from a few yards behind. Her hair was still large and curly but more manageable and her had light makeup on. She wore dark jeans and an olive green shirt.

"Yes" Anna asked (we were both too stop saying mother and father after everything because even though it proper and out of respect no one does it anymore)

"We got good news" she smiled as she approached up and that caught mine and Rudolf's attention

"Which is?" I asked with a raised eyebrow

"If we keep up like we are now we can go back to Scotland in 2 weeks. The program has secured your father and I jobs and we just have to find a place to rent" Mother was glowing with joy

I couldn't help but smile and laugh

"That god" I said and I put my face in my hands. I so much closer to seeing Vivian. "so what do we have to do?" I ask

"Just keep going over our story. Get all the paperwork together. Make sure our driving is good so we can get our licenses officially. Get some necessities for ourselves and phones" she told us "there will be a meeting with one of the workers later on. Each member/family gets a debrief before leaving" she told us before kissing the top of all our heads and going back inside to where her and father were

2 weeks.

I could do that