Chapter 2

Elysium is as far as to the very next room.

If in that room a friend await

Felicity or doom.

- Emily Dickinson

Zoe woke up the next morning before sunrise, changed into her track clothes and left for her morning jog across her grandfather’s estate. The estate is so huge it takes 2 hours to complete a run of the entire estate.

Zoe always felt peaceful in the morning. There were a lot of trees surrounding the mansion, so every morning, since she could remember, Zoe would go and walk around for hours.

Zoe reached a clearing in the middle of the trees from where you can see the sunrise clearly. The first rays of the sun softly trickled her face as she stood facing the sun.

She used to love the sunrise, thought Zoe.

She stayed there for a few more minutes, watching as the forest was illuminated by the sun rays. She, then, jogged back to her house.

In the distance, she could see her mini mansion. It has 3 master bedrooms and 6 guest bedrooms on the 3rd floor. Living room, lounge room, dining room, kitchen, was on the ground floor. On the 1st floor, there was a conference room, meeting room, library and her personal office.

She entered through the huge double doors, into a circular living room with grand, marble staircase on the opposite sides of entrance.

She walked towards the sofas in the middle of the room, where a trolley was set up. She picked up a water bottle from it, and without looking back; she spoke, “Why do you always have to hide in shadows? You know that whole thing doesn’t work with me.”

While she was drinking water, a shadow came out from behind one of the pillars and slowly walked towards Zoe.

Zoe turned to look towards the man, who practically raised her. Alessandro.

He was the Chief Butler of her grandfather’s house. All the management in the house was handled by him, the servants were accountable to him. He was solely responsible for the personal affairs of the Blackthorne’s.

“I thought after last night you didn’t want to be disturbed, so, I kept to myself,” replied Alessandro to her earlier question

Alessandro had himself seen Zoe Blackthorne grow into the beautiful, young woman that she is. He was the one who picked up the pieced of her life after that incident. Her grandfather was a mere ghost in her life. Jack Blackthorne had made it perfectly clear, that he didn’t want any part in her upbringing, going as far as transferring her to a separate house, when she reached an age where she can take care of herself.

Alessandro was, for all intent and purposes, her caretaker.

Snap. Snap.

Alessandro came to, after Zoe snapped and waved her fingers in front of him.

“I asked you a question 5 minutes ago. Are you alright, Nonno?” asked Zoe with a concern in her eyes.

Alessandro was always touched when she called him Nonno, in his own tongue, even though he kept on telling her not to.

But Alessandro knew, first hand, the stubbornness that is Zoe Blackthorne.

“I am fine. I have a message from your grandfather.”

Zoe didn’t bother to reply. She turned and started walking towards the marble staircase. Without turning back, she told Alessandro, “Tell the monster no.”

“Young lady, you will not talk that in my presence. Your grandfather has requested your presence for breakfast in an hour” said Alessandro, while following her up the staircase.

“I knew what the message was. Hence my answer,” said Zoe as she reached the huge black double doors, that led to her room, and threw them open and walked in.

Her room was circular with Greek columns. Her entire room was in a brilliant theme of blue, silver and white.

She walked towards he walk in closet, to pick her clothes for the day. Alessandro walked behind her.

“Zoe, he didn’t request it. He commanded your presence. You know you should not antagonize him. The consequences are not pretty for the rest of us,” said Alessandro as he tried to reason with her.

Zoe sighed and came out of the closet, holding her clothes and told Alessandro, “Fine. I shall break my fast with the monster, but if he eats me for dinner, don’t forget to call my knight in shining armour,” said Zoe in a posh way with a cheeky smirk on her face.

“Are you sassing me, young lady?” asked Alessandro, mock angrily.

“Sir no, sir” saluted Zoe and walked towards her bathroom.

Alessandro started walking towards the room and spoke over his shoulders, “besides your knight in shining armour and his entourage will arrive by the end of your breakfast.”

Zoe laughed but didn’t reply.

She knew Alessandro was talking about Max and her friends.

Max was her best friend but, by no means her knight in shining armour. He was more like her confidante, her right hand man.

They shared a unique bond, a bond of a comrade.

She trusted him with her life.

She quickly got dressed in skinny jeans, crop top with a jacket and knee high boots. No need to worry about her midnight black hair as it was always straight with slight waves in the end, which reached till her lower back. She hurries down the stairs and to the garage to her baby. Her car.

It was a black BMW sports car with extra features that her friend added in for her.

She opened the garage door with a button placed on her steering wheel. As soon as the door opened she sped out of the garage at top speed; the garage door automatically closing behind her.

She sped towards her grandfather’s mansion. It was a five minute drive. She bypassed the main entrance and parked her car near the side entrance which opened up in the kitchen.

She greeted all the staff members politely as they all wished her good morning. She noticed that their smiles were kind of stiff and there were worry lines on their faces.

Damn the monster is angry. She thought.

She walked leisurely towards the dining room, taking her time, looking around. Her grandfather lived in the house all alone, not counting the staff.

Finally she reached the white double doors and pushed them open. She saw her grandfather already seated at the head of the dining table that seats 25 people. He was calmly reading the newspaper.

But Zoe knew better. This was the calm before the storm. The monster was polishing his claws.

“Have a seat, Zoe,” Jack said indicating the seat next to him with one hand and folding the paper with the other.

Zoe started walking towards the ridiculously long dining table. As she neared the table she started to walk towards the other end of the table.

“Zoe….” Her grandfather said warningly, knowing exactly what she was going to do.

Zoe didn’t listen, didn’t falter in her steps. She just kept on walking till she reached the other end of the table and seated herself at the other head.

They both knew it was a not mere childishness on her part, but a show of dominance, an implied message.

For a full minute, they both stared at each other, without blinking.

They broke eye contact only when Alessandro walked in with a service cart.

He served them their breakfast and retreated to the shadows.

For some time nobody spoke. Both of them were quietly waiting for the other to say something.

Finally, Jack broke the silence, “The party was a success wasn’t it?”

Zoe didn’t say anything. She just narrowed her eyes at him slightly. Jack wasn’t one for small talk, usually; he was blunt to the point of being insulting. Jack making small talk just told her that whatever he wanted to talk about was serious.

She leaned back in her seat with her hands folded to together in front of her on the table, waiting for Jack to start talking.

Jack knew what she was doing, so he got to point immediately.

“In a week’s time we are having guests here. They will be staying in the mansion. For how long they will be staying? I don’t know. But till the time they will be staying here, you are to have your breakfast and dinner here, at the main house. They will be coming with their family.” Then her grandfather went on for another 10 minutes about the do’s and don’ts during their stay. Zoe didn’t bother listening, as she knew he would send a detailed list of all this to her by night.

Yes. The monster was a control-freak.

“…and finally, the people who are coming here are the…” Zoe interrupted her grandfather there.

“I don’t care who they are” Zoe stated bluntly.

Jack was slightly stunned. No one ever dared to interrupt him.

“I just have two questions. One, why are they staying here?” asked Zoe. She admitted she was curious to know why her grandfather is allowing them to stay here, letting them ruin his monstrous sanctity. He was very private about his house.

“I don’t need to inform you of my intentions,” said Jack coldly.

Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, I see. She thought.

“Okay. Two, how many people will there be?” asked Zoe.

“Twelve.”

Now it was Zoe’s turn to be stunned. That many! Jack stood up and picked up the suit jacket on the back of his chair and put it on and walked away from the dining room without a room, leaving Zoe there to her own thoughts.

Zoe was still reeling after hearing the numbers. That was a quite a big number, especially when they were going to be living in the monster’s cave.

“Zoe,” said Alessandro.

Zoe started up. She completely forgot about his presence.

She stood up and started walking towards the doors towards the main doors. Alessandro walking besides her.

“Why are these people coming, Nonno?” asked Zoe, knowing he must have some answers.

“They are coming here for business reasons/vacation. As to why they are staying here, I have no clue.” Alessandro replied.

Zoe simply nodded. Before she could walk outside, she felt Alessandro’s hand on her shoulder, silently stopping her.

She turned and looked at him questioningly.

“You always forget,” said Alessandro while taking her palm in his hand and putting something in her hand and closing her hand over it.

Zoe nodded and turned to walk outside, as she could already here hear cars pulling up in front of the main double doors of the mansion.

She pulled open the doors to see her friends outside, leaning on their cars, waiting for her.

Two redheads. Two blondes. Three brunettes.

That’s what she saw first, when she opened the door, then a flash of blonde and the next thing she knew, she was on the floor with her life getting squeezed out of her.

She had to control her natural reflexes for whole 5 seconds so as not to hit her friend. That’s how strong her reflexes were.

Kiara was hugging the life out of her, but quickly got off her as if she remembered something.

“Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!” Kiara kept on chanting loudly.

Zoe slowly got up and dusted herself with a small smile on her face. Nothing has changed for last so many years. She remembered the first time she met them, something quite similar happened back then too.

Their friendship dated back 2 generations. Their grandparents had been friends, then their parents and now them.

Yes. The monster, once, was convivial.

The two read heads were Lily and Xander Gates. Sam and Kiara Quinto were the two blondes and Julia and Kaiden Sanchez were the brunettes.

Lastly, Maximus Petrakis. The last brunette.

Kiara was still going on and on about how sorry she was. Kaiden came and wrapped his arms around her and kissed her, effectively silencing her. Yes, Kiara and Kaiden were dating.

“Ewwww!!! Don’t do the nasty in front of me,” said Sam disgustedly. Then he childishly put one hand on his eyes and other one on his girlfriend Lily. Yes, Sam and Lily were dating too.

“I am telling daddy,” pouted Sam, still not taking his hands of his eyes and lily.

Kaiden lifted his head away from his kiss and looked towards Sam with a smirk and said, “Like you don’t get any action.”

“Hey!” shouted Lily, Sam and Xander.

“That’s my sister you duffus.” Xander shouted.

“I do get me some.” Sam smirked.

“Kiara, keep your man under control” Lily reprimanded.

They all kept on arguing, while Max and Julia came to hug me.

“How was vacation? And more importantly, how was the party last night? Did the monster breathe fire?” asked Julia

“Nah! Just fumes mostly,” replied Zoe.

Julia nodded understandingly, and moved towards Xander to get him to stop strangling Sam, whose was turning an interesting shade of blue. Yes, Julia and Xander are dating too.

It was no secret that Zoe and her grandfather cannot stand each other.

Max came closer and asked, “Did you…”

Zoe silently nodded in answer to his implied question.

Max only nodded.

“So how about we go stop them before we get late for school or before we have to hospitalize Sam?”

Max nodded.

“Yo! birdies come on. We are getting late for school.” Kaiden shouted.

They all seemed to have stopped fighting and were waiting for them near their cars.

Zoe nodded and they all put on their Ray-bans. Zoe walked down the last few steps with Max and headed towards her car.

No, Zoe and Max are not dating.

She quickly got in her car and started it and zoomed out first, followed by Max, then the others.

I hope no more surprises today, Zoe thought. Wait, today the new student was going to arrive. She had to meet Mr Hemsworth for it.

Zoe groaned loudly.

They were nearing the school, where a big crowd was gathered near the entrance. A big banner was stuck to the entrance with big letters stating: Welcome back, Valkyre!

Zoe pulled up into the parking lot and behind her so did the others.

As soon as everybody got out of their cars, the crowd of students started going wild.

All of these students were children of rich parents. the school was only for the rich and smart, i.e. the scholarhship students.

The school was filled with fake’s, plastic’s and what not. They were only cheering for them because they practically own the school and their families are the richest in town.

But at least they weren’t snobs about it, unlike the rest of the students out there, who can back-stab each other just for Abercrombie t-shirts or Prada bags. These people made life hell for scholarship students.

Zoe was still sitting inside looking at them distastefully.

Max looked over at her from outside. He couldn’t exactly see inside but he knew she was looking. He gave her an encouraging smile and his expression told her to go with the flow.

Zoe didn’t have any fear in facing a crowd; it’s just that she disliked drama.

Anyway she opened her door to get out of her car.

Her last thought, when she looked at the brats, before she got out of the car, was, How Jobless these students are.