Page 87 of Love Bites

BELLA

The massive front doors opened into a sweeping center hall without so much as a creak.

The floors were polished wood. A curving staircase split at the landing, each half leading to one wing. At the back of the hall, I could just see light coming through an opening, but I wasn’t sure if it was a door, a window, or an optical illusion.

“This way,” Eve said, leading me up the stairs.

A huge, panoramic window exposed the rear grounds, illuminated by the almost day-bright moonlight. A stone courtyard led to a boxwood labyrinth, which ended just before the darkness of the forest.

Eve took the west side of the staircase at the landing, and I followed.

Yards of priceless hand knotted rug adorned the whole run of stairs. I wondered who had the task of cleaning this place.

Hopefully not the students. Maybe that was how I would be expected to earn my free education. Had I come all this way just to be Cinderella-ed?

Eve opened a wooden door and headed down a corridor that ended in an open circle of space that told me we must be in one of the turrets. The scent of fresh baked cookies filled the air.

“This is the Bellwether House common area,” she told me. “You’ll spend free time here, conversing with other students in your house.”

So I was a Bellwether? Just like that? She wasn’t even going to consult any form of predictive headwear first?

I looked around appreciatively. The common area was at least three times the size of my apartment.

A curved window seat spanned one whole side of the room. Big windows on the back wall overlooked a stone courtyard between the places where the east and west wings extended backward. The labyrinth and the trees were visible beyond the courtyard.

The other side of the room was comprised of a nice little kitchen with cabinets built to the curve of the turret. A couple of round wooden tables with mismatched chairs stood at the center of the room.

“Come on,” she said.

There was another massive wooden door on the far side of the common area. She was already opening it by the time I crossed the room. We followed the corridor to the end, and she knocked on the last door on the left.

“Come in,” a gentle voice called out.

Eve opened the door to reveal a pretty room with wood floors, a pair of twin beds, two desks, two lamps and two big windows.

A curvy girl with dark, curly hair sat on one of the beds with a paperback in her hands.

“Good evening, Cori,” Eve said. “This is your new roommate, Bella. I expect you’ll show her the ropes?”

“Yes, of course,” Cori said, scrambling out of bed. “Nice to meet you, Bella.”

“I’ll leave you to it,” Eve said, before I could reply. “Good luck. Bella.”

“Uh, thank you,” I said, wondering if I was allowed to called her by her first name now that we were on school grounds. But I was also pretty sure she hadn’t mentioned her last name.

She was gone before I could formulate a question.

“Hey,” I said to Cori, who was eyeing me like I was an exotic bird.

“Is this your first year too?” I asked.

“Second, but I got here in the middle of last year,” she said.

“Was it hard getting used to everything?” I asked.

I had been doing fine back in Pottsboro, but this seemed like a very different situation. I’ve never had a roommate before.

“There are only ten or so girls in each year,” she said, her brown eyes twinkling. “It wasn’t too hard to make some friends and catch on. You’ll be just fine.”

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