Instead of, you know, doing something useful and getting off my arse, I decided to become a couch potato instead. If it weren’t Sunday I could go out to buy a bike, but then again, with my money still in cash form, it would be a tiny bit too suspicious to go out with an entire envelope of cash.

“Urgh.” I sighed. “What to do, what to do…” I took my phone in hand to browse my contact list. Em and Ria couldn’t do anything today so it was time for me to call up my other friends.

Sadly enough for me, Claire was spending time with Anya at a spa and Pres was at some kind of cookie-baking competition. Pres did invite me to come and watch, but sadly this competition was also too far away for me to do on foot, as I actually was quite interested in looking on from the sidelines, especially after Pres mentioned that the public could taste the cookies at the end to give out an audience award. I was sure that Ria would also not have minded joining in on that. But alas. I’d be holding a couch potato competition all by myself.

And that’s how I spent pretty much the entire day. Just sitting on my couch and watching television. In my boredom, I had been swapping so many channels that I ended up on this one Spanish television channel, which I didn’t even know I had. Thanks to the magic of subtitles, this managed to entertain me, at least. I have absolutely no clue why, but the way these people acted and how the plot lines and soundtrack worked together, was just really funny to me. By the time evening fell, I’d already gotten so invested in my Spanish telenovela that I’d already looked up where I could watch the first couple of seasons.

The answer was: the internet. Which I should have expected. If I had to wait until they started re-broadcasting from season one, I’d probably already be a couple of years older.

Anyhow, as the tv-marathon of that show ended around nine o’clock in the evening. Since my mood had improved a bit, I decided to be a good student yet again and flip open my books once more, at least for an hour or so. -I keep to the motto of never overpushing yourself when you aren’t feeling like it.-

However, just like yesterday, I only got interrupted by good-night messages from both of my girlfriends. “I guess I should head to bed as well now. Hopefully I can get some actual sleep this time.”

When I stood up and put my books away, my phone started ringing.

“Hmm?” I quickly looked to see if it was Em or Ria, maybe they wanted to hear my voice before bed. I was disappointed, in a way, to see Alessia’s name pop up instead. I liked talking to Alessia, that’s for sure, but my girlfriends take priority, of course.

“Hey, Alessia.” I picked up the phone.

“You don’t need to sound so disappointed.” She laughed.

“Ah, did I? Sorry, I had quite a boring Sunday. Ria and Em not being here kind of hits me.”

“Oh, you should’ve told me. I was in the neighborhood to put the last pieces of our plan into action. We could have hung out for the rest of it though but I thought you were busy.”

“Oh well… we can’t really change that now.” I sighed. “I take it you are calling for tomorrow.”

“Indeed.” She replied. “I have readied everything there is to be readied, so I wanted to give you a call to go over a couple of things before tomorrow.”

“Alright, I’m listening, it’s not like I have anything better to do.”

“Good.” Alessia laughed again. “First things first, you did receive the package, I assume?”

“Yep, Epiphania delivered it yesterday morning. We’ll have to talk later about why you found it necessary to give me heels, though…”

“It’s 100% because of the image we want to put forward to Corelia’s parents, I promise. This is the only time I’ll ever ask this of you.”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

Alessia chuckled. “Practically, I’ve made an appointment with her parents at seven o’clock in the evening. So, after you’re done with school, just go to your house and we will get you ready here. There are still a couple of papers that need to have your signature.”

“Okay.”

“Thirdly, so we are on the same page, from tomorrow on, after you’ve signed the papers, you’ll no longer be Aurora Beaumont, but Aurora Beaumont-Gattilusio, Lady of Montbrun and daughter of Alessia Gattilusio, Marchioness of Montbrun.”

“Wow, a Marchioness?”

“Yeah, I might as well pull out the big guns for this one. I did have to pull a couple of strings but everything went pretty smoothly to update the title.”

“And you are not going by Di Roma?”

“Only for conclave business, it’s easier to stay hidden if you keep multiple names at hand. Especially nowadays when everything is so easy to look up. Easier than it used to be, at least, getting archive access is still a bit of a pain in the ass though.”

“That’s a good point…”

“So, do feel free to go by your usual last name for conclave business, unless you like being fancy, of course.”

“Haha, thanks.”

“I think that’s pretty much everything I had to say about that.” Alessia stayed silent for a couple of seconds. “Although, maybe you should try to remember to call me ‘mom’ or ‘mother’ in front of Corelia’s parents. It wouldn’t be much of an issue if you didn’t, but we are supposed to be very close, so calling me that would sell the total package quite a bit easier.”

“I understand, mother.” I wanted to just call her that for shits and giggles, but something in my brain really reacted strangely to that. “Wow, that felt weird.”

“I can fully understand that, it’s not easy to make that switch easily.”

“It sounds like you’ve done something like this before.”

“That just used to be a part of infiltrating into certain societies in the past, espionage and intrigue is just a thing we vampires are pretty skilled at. Some, like Epiphania, are definitely better than others at it, though.”

“Huh.” I smiled. “I would really like to hear a couple of those stories one day.”

“We’ll make time for that one day, It’s not like time is an issue. I think your girlfriends would love to hear a couple of those as well.”

“No doubt.” I smiled again. “Well, mom, is there something else you’d like to say?” -Nope, still strange as fuck.-

“Uh… let me think.” Alessia stayed quiet for a while. “Not that I can think of immediately. Just try to not linger too long at school.”

“Alright, noted.”

“Thanks, dear daughter of mine…”

“...”

“I think I’ll just say Aurora when I speak directly to you… that sounds more natural, doesn’t it?”

“Agreed.”

“Anyhow, I wish you a nice evening.”

“Thank you, you as well.”

“See you tomorrow.” Alessia then hung up the phone.

“Well, that was that.”

Before I could put my phone away, it started buzzing once more. This time it was a message from my voicemail. “Missed call from ‘Emma “Goddess darn it, Alessia, you made me miss a phone call from Em. Please don’t be asleep yet.” I cursed my new vampiric mother while I dialed Em back.

“Auro, hey there.” Em sounded tired as fuck when she picked up.

“Oh damn, shouldn’t you be asleep, Em?”

“Couldn’t sleep yet…”

“Couldn’t or wouldn’t?”

“A bit of both.”

“So, what happened? Why do you sound like a Zembie?”

“Zembie?”

“Zombie and Emma… Zembie…”

“....”

“....”

“....Auro, no.”

“I thought it was pretty good.”

Em tried to chuckle but she started to cough instead. “Oh shit.”

“Em, really, what the heck did you do?”

“Too much.”

“Want to explain?”

“Give me a second…” A second then was given, and after that second, Em continued. “Went with my parents to the house of one of their friends for brunch. That brunch turned into dinner as well, and we’ve only been home for about an hour or so.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad.”

“Those friends happen to be the parents of a very young pair of twins. Who are waaaaay too energetic. And since I was the youngest at the table with some degree of responsibility…”

“Ah, you were promoted to impromptu babysitter?”

“Yeah…”

“And what about your sister?”

“She had a bit of a cold, so she stayed home.”

“Oh… were the kids at least a bit nice to you?”

“Definitely.” Em’s reply did sound sincere. “They were little angels, really, it’s just that watching kids is exhausting… really exhausting…”

“Hey, at least you’ve reaffirmed your child free status, right?”

“Yeah…. I really admire parents, it’s such a tough job. Especially if they work on the side as well.”

“That’s true.” I agreed. “By the way, my new mom just called me.”

“Oh?”

I started explaining what Alessia and I had just discussed. At the end of my explanation, Em had gone suspiciously quiet.

“Em?”

Em didn’t reply anymore.

“Ah, she must’ve fallen asleep next to her phone.” I chuckled softly. -That’s darn cute if you ask me.- “Good night, Em.”

Some soft mumbly sleepy Emma noises came through the line, just before I hung up.

“Hmm… If I go to bed thinking about that pile of cuteness, I’ll definitely be able to sleep.” I said to myself with the biggest smile on my face as I packed up my books and headed off to my bedroom.