40 | Somebody Else

Seaside, California March 30, 2013

Eleanor

ALL of my cousins have come into their magic this past month, Lily and Cel just a few weeks ago. Amberly came into hers just five days after they did. And soon, I would follow in the coming weeks. My mother had been planning a huge celebration with Laura.

I just hoped it wasn't too extravagant. I was not one for the parties. I could not handle liquor well at all. That hangover from the Halloween party lasted two days.

I was going to join the newly created Rezza Coven. My mother hadn't been a part of one since before I was born. I was surprised she even joined Laura's. But the numbers had grown significantly. It stood twenty-strong now. A few more others had deflected from the Hathaway coven.

It was Spring Break now, we had ten days off from school. Everyone was freaking out over prom coming and how horrible finals would be. And that other thing teenagers dreaded.

Finding a college to go to after we graduate in May.

I had applied to everything in California, with my grades though I should be aiming for Ivy League. But I wanted to stay close to home.

All of us were visiting a college about four hours north of here in Grass Valley. Redmond University was the closest college that we could all go together. Uncle Robert was staying with Kenny so Mom could go with me. We were riding with Lily, Laura, Cel, and Zach.

Amberly and Eddie were driving up by themselves.

We were just going for the weekend. They had tours going on, so my mother and Laura were adamant about having all of us go there to check the college out. They offered several types of programs.

Lily and I were already settled on business and design courses.

I was busy packing in my room, I had everything placed neatly. We were supposed to be leaving in about an hour. I could hear Kenny's video game from the hallway, he was screaming at it now. That was all he did.

Or he and his friends would go to the park and smoke.

At 15 I thought he would have more sense than smoking weed or skipping class all the time. At this rate he might as well just drop out. He was flunking all of his classes. I offered I don't know how many times to help tutor him.

But if he wanted to be in high school forever then that was his problem.

I was already taking college courses online at school. When we started junior year I took the opportunity to get ahead. Eddie did as well.

Amberly always told me I should have joined more clubs or gone to parties more often. That was never anything I cared to do. I worried about my future more than anything else. I may have missed out on some things, but I was so close to getting my associate's degree already that I couldn't care less now.

I would be out of school and on my way to success before they even finished their first year of college.

So I made two rules for myself when college starts.

No parties. No dating.

I wasn't wasting my time doing anything that wasn't studying. I was aiming for valedictorian, but that damn smart ass in AP Calculus beat me to it. His GPA was just a tenth of a point higher than mine.

Jordan Greene. I hated that guy.

It was between me, him, and a girl whose name I couldn't bother to remember. There were so many of us in this school. So I just had to settle with being the Salutatorian.

"Hey, you!" I heard a voice shout from my doorway. Lily popped her head in, scaring the crap out of me.

"You almost gave me a heart attack!" I shrieked.

Lily just grinned at me and pulled me into a quick hug. "You ready yet? I'm surprised you didn't pack a month ago.

"I'm not that crazy," I muttered and zipped my suitcase up.

"You aren't but I am," Lily chuckled. "I have an outfit picked out for each day, I was thinking business casual on the tour, a cute dress for dinner—"

Lily paused, her mind now lost in a haze. No doubt thinking of the millions of outfits she packed for two days.

"Everything I packed is gray and white, so I don't have any worries about what to wear, everything is collared, ironed, and packed perfectly," I beamed.

Lily just looked at me aghast. "You need to add some color to your life Elle! Maybe you'll meet someone there too!"

"I do not have time for boys," I insisted. "My grandmother has been very generous to have put a college fund away for me. I'm not going to ruin it by messing around."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Yes, your rules. No parties and no dating."

"Exactly," I chirped.

"Seriously Elle, college is where you find yourself!" Lily exclaimed. "You need to get out and party, date a few people! You have all the time in the world to study, you can spare some time for fun."

"I already found myself in high school," I replied. "I'm quiet and studious. I have never done anything bad except get wasted at your party. Which I will never do again. I don't even remember that night at all."

"You were sure something," Lily chuckled.

I shuddered in horror. The person they told me I was that night; I have no idea who that was.

Dancing and yelling? I'll believe that. Grinding against random guys? I think Lily was seeing things.

"Why isn't your boyfriend coming with us?" I asked, trying to divert her attention from fixating on my love life.

The two of them have been inseparable since they started dating.

"Scott has made it clear he went back to school to watch over Zach, and after we graduate he refuses to do any more schooling," Lily chuckled. "So he figured he would stay behind while we all went."

"College isn't just more schooling," I protested. "It is where we get to take the first steps on what we want to do with our lives!"

I will definitely be having a talk with him.

"Well he wants to be a brooding homebody, not everyone wants to go to college Elle," Lily put in. "Hell if I didn't need a degree to do what my mother does I wouldn't go. I hate school."

My mouth dropped.

"You guys coming? Your mothers are packing up the SUV," I heard Cel shout from the hallway.

Has it been an hour already? I lifted my wrist up and glanced at my watch.

"We have to go!" I yelped and scrambled all of my stuff into my arms.

I rushed right out the door, blowing past Zach and Laura. My mother was putting something in the back of the SUV when I skittered to a stop.

"You have everything packed?" my mother asked and gave me an impish grin.

"Yes! And if we don't leave right now we will be late to check into the hotel!" I cried and threw my suitcase in the back.

"We can clock in anytime after three honey," my mother sighed. "There is no need to have an epiphany if we aren't leaving right at ten."

"But—"

"Get in the car Eleanor," my mother ordered.

"Yes Ma'am," I squeaked and crawled into the far back seat where Lily and I were forced to sit.

The middle seats were "reserved" for the tall freaks.

After another antagonizing five minutes went by, Zach and Cel got in, their long legs still cramped. I didn't know how Laura was going to be able to see out her rearview window.

All of our luggage nearly covered it.

I kept eyeing my watch intently as we slowly pulled out of the driveway. I could already picture the five hours ahead.

Absolute torture.

We got to the hotel almost seven hours later. The number of times we had to stop so everyone could pee was ridiculous. Then we stopped for lunch.

That took an hour by itself. Zach ordered enough food for ten people.

I already had Amberly texting me where we were, they left way before we did. The rest of the evening went by uneventfully. I was holed up in the hotel room with Lily and our mothers. They left us to go visit the bar downstairs. Zach and Cel had their own room to themselves.

So I just spent my time researching everything I could about this college and town, even rereading things I already knew. I was going to be asking our tour guide every question possible.

I needed to make sure this college would be good.

If not, I would go to Berkeley. My mother and I went on a tour there last month. It checked off all my requirements. It was just expensive as hell.

Lily had been in the bathroom for several minutes now. When she emerged she was wearing a one-piece bathing suit. She walked over to her suitcase and pulled another suit out.

I just gave her a look.

"I already know you didn't pack anything to swim in," Lily grinned. "So I packed an extra so you can come join us at the swimming pool."

"I'm not going, I need to review things for the tour tomorrow," I insisted and resumed my reading.

Then the laptop just flew from the bed and into Lily's awaiting hands.

"Enough studying!" Lily shrilled and closed the laptop shut.

"Hey, that is not fair!" I yelled and got up to grab the laptop from her. "You can't just take my laptop from me!"

She set the laptop on her bed and shoved the swimsuit into my arms.

I just glared at her.

"When you get your magic in two weeks you can fling me off a roof okay? Now go get dressed!" she demanded.

Rolling my eyes with annoyance, I finally complied.

BEFORE we left to go on the tour, I had written out every question I wanted answered in my notebook. I had at least twenty I needed answering to even consider actually going to Redmond. The campus was absolutely beautiful though. All of the buildings were red brick, with beautiful trees that were taller than some of the buildings.

We weren't far from the Tahoe National Park.

So perhaps on the weekends when I wasn't studying, I would go hiking there. I'm sure I could convince some of my friends to come. The place where we were supposed to meet the tour guide was at the main entrance. The main building had a large gazebo in front if it, there were several people there already.

I was walking with my mother, Amberly, and Eddie. The rest of our group was scattered toward the back. There were at least 20 people here.

"I looked into their childhood development classes, you think I would make a cute preschool teacher?" Amberly exclaimed.

"You would make a cute anything," Eddie grinned. "But little kids? Are you sure?"

"Yeah!" Amberly replied though she sounded unsure.

"Well I will be doing business courses and make a few design ones, I plan to run my own designing business one day," I affirmed.

"I thought you and Lily were going to join Laura's company?" Amberly questioned.

"We are, but I aim to eventually branch out on my own," I muttered.

Laura's business was mostly local. I wanted to perhaps go to the East Coast and do something there. So I thought getting a business management degree would be a good place to start.

Eddie was set on their engineering course here. Cel had no idea what she wanted to do; as for Zach, he was going here against his father's wishes.

He needed to get out of Seaside, there wasn't much going on there.

A figure emerged from the main building, holding a stack of pamphlets. This must be the tour guide, who was two minutes late according to my watch.

He wasn't very punctual now, was he?

He was tall, at least six feet. He didn't look much older than I was. If I had to guess he was about 19 or 20. He sure was dressed not to impress. He just wore jeans and a T-shirt. If I was leading the tour I would be dressed as I am now. In a collared shirt, slacks, dress shoes, and my blazer.

"Hey everyone, how are we all doing today?" he greeted and started handing out the pamphlets as he got toward the center of our group.

A few mumbled some responses to him, but the majority of us remained silent. He finally got over to us, I stared directly into his dark green eyes. He held out a pamphlet for me to take; I took it quickly.

It was for the college. It had a map and a directory within it. Along with the major programs and some facts about the place.

"Thanks," I mumbled.

He just gave me a quick smile and continued on.

"They do have a degree for teaching little ones!" Amberly squealed quietly and pointed to it on the paper.

I just gawked at her. "You didn't even research the programs they offer?"

"I knew I would learn all about them today, so why waste my time?" Amberly protested.

I just kept my mouth shut. Nothing nice was going to come out. I just turned my attention to our tour guide.

We all stood in a semi-circle around him now, he finished handing out all of his pamphlets.

"Alright so I'll introduce myself, I'm Jonathan, one of the student aides here. We help new students with any questions they may have such as finding courses, student housing, just about anything you could need," he went on. "So any questions before we begin?"

"Are you a student?" I heard someone ask, it was an older woman.

I began to roll my eyes. This was already beginning to be a joke.

"I am," Jonathan chuckled. "I started going here in 2010, and hopefully will be finishing up my bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering hopefully sometime next year."

My eyes widened slightly; so he was smart then.

Maybe.

I felt myself starting to smile. I was going to see how smart he actually was.

"Do you guys have clubs and stuff?" I heard someone else ask, farther in the back. It sounded like Lily.

"We do, we offer several kinds of clubs, our most popular though is the Key Club, they do a lot of community service work locally," Jonathan informed. "Our debate club is also very popular; we've won in our region for the last five years straight."

Debate club? That sparked my interest.

Jonathan started to lead us further into the campus, several students were out and about, lounging in the commons area or doing various activities. Some were having picnics. Very few looked like they were studying. I was surprised by how busy the campus was on the weekend.

The student life here didn't look too shabby.

When Jonathan led us past the dean's house, my series of questions began. Mostly about how involved the dean was with the student body, and how they wished to enhance student morale. Each one I shot at him he replied back with an answer that made my head spin.

And then I got into the conspiracy questions. Every school had something creepy about it.

"Is it true that the founder's wife haunts the science building?" I asked.

"You really did your research on this place didn't you?" Jonathan laughed. "And to answer that, they say she does. On the anniversary of her death, they say she can even take a corporeal form or even possesses the living."

Amberly's mouth just dropped. Half the group would just glare at me with annoyance in their eyes, I was the only one asking questions at this point in the tour.

He even mentioned sometimes strange things happen, unexplainable things. I couldn't help but grin. Here we were, a bunch of witches, a werewolf, and a hunter.

Strange was our middle name.

We all walked over to the student dormitories now. Jonathan explained while most chose to live on campus, the town of Grass Valley was quite accommodating to students renting.

Despite him not being on time for the tour, I have to say I was impressed with his quick wit and knowledge about everything here. I wonder if he took an interest in reading novels or watching documentaries about historical things.

Why was I wanting to ask him? Lily already shot me several looks and wiggled her eyebrows at me. I would just shake my head at her.

No dating. No matter how interesting they may be.

Maybe if I had been somebody that wasn't so focused on school, I might have asked him out.

We made our way back to the main building, all of our legs were sore as hell now. I felt like I walked several miles. Jonathan was answering a few last-minute questions. My entire notebook was an unreadable scrawl of notes now. I would have to rewrite it later in a better format.

I was busy making sense of all of it before I noticed someone had walked up to me. Glancing up from my notebook I saw it was Jonathan.

"Do you have any more questions for me?" he asked, his green eyes having a teasing glint in them.

"No," I affirmed and snapped my notebook shut. "You have satisfied my curiosity about this place, so much so I'll have to consider going here for sure."

"Well then, hopefully, we will see you here in the fall then," Jonathan replied with a smile. "And thank you for making the tour less boring than it normally is."

I raised a brow. "Boring? I'd say the tour was quite informational and not boring, but I'm glad I made it more exciting, I think?"

"You did," Jonathan insisted. "I've never had anyone ask me thirty-four questions during a tour before."

"You kept track?" I asked, surprised. "What is the most anyone's ever asked you?

"Ten, I believe," Jonathan murmured. "But anyway, it's been a pleasure meeting you—"

He paused; he didn't know my name.

"Eleanor," I grinned.

"It's been a pleasure, Eleanor," he chuckled. "I got to go prep for the next tour, I'll see you around."

I just gave him a quick smile and he was gone. I could already feel Lily staring into the depths of my head. Turning, I saw she was grinning from ear to ear, her eyes bright with excitement.

"Elle!" she squealed and grabbed me by the shoulders and started shaking me vigorously. "Tell me everything he said!"

"He was just commenting on how many questions I asked," I sighed and pulled her arms off me. "That is all."

Lily just huffed. "The two of you were basically just conversing during the entire tour! He kept staring at you too, if you even noticed!"

"So?" I remarked. "I just met him, I know nothing about him. Now stop planning on trying to get me to date."

"Fine!" Lily snapped, exasperated. She opened up her pamphlet and pointed down to a building on the map. "This is the designing building, let's go!"

I just gawked at her. She did a complete 180 in a matter of seconds. Before I knew it I was being pulled along with her just as our mothers were catching up to us.

I knew one thing, if Lily was going to be this insane I was going to do myself a favor and just go to a college across the ocean so she couldn't talk me into doing shit I did not want to do.

The rest of the day went like a blur. Before I knew it all eight of us were having dinner at a local Italian restaurant. The bread was gone within seconds.

I think Zach ate an entire batch in one bite. Lily and her mother just had salads and were eating like birds. I was enjoying some fettuccine alfredo.

It was my favorite. I could eat it every day.

"So Elle, do you think this might be the college you want to go to?" my mother beamed.

"Maybe," I piped in. "I still want to go visit the universities on my list though."

I still had four I wanted to visit. Though I knew it was between Redmond and Berkeley.

And who knows, maybe I would see that guy again. But rules were rules.

And maybe sometimes they needed to be broken.