Royal Spirit

I sighed as my mom's car sped off behind me. I knew she wanted me to be independent and get checked in at the housing office, but I really wish she had come with me. For as long as I could remember, it had been just me, my mom, and my sister, Kylie navigating through life. My dad had died when I was young, pretty much too young for me to really remember him, but my mom took it harder than my sister and I did. She experienced supreme depression, which made it really hard for her to be a mom. I had no idea what to do without my mom or sister, mostly my sister at my side.

My mom had always been distant due to her depression, but I knew that she wanted the best for me. Even though she was not a very supportive mom, I would still miss her presence. I knew they were just a call away, but still, it just was not the same as having them by my side. I sighed one more time, grabbed the handle to my suitcase, and walked off toward the front doors of the housing office.

The campus was utterly gorgeous. Even though it was evening and the sun was going down, the campus still seemed to glow with power. There were woods surrounding the campus, with buildings evenly spread out. There was one main sidewalk, with little connected paths that led off to each of the buildings. There were brick buildings of various sizes that must have been dorms. Along the sidewalk, there were benches and picnic tables for people to sit on to study or eat or whatever it was college students did in their free time. It sounds cliche, but it was very cute and cozy. Trees were everywhere on along the path, and every so often there were little patches of flowers and shrubbery. The students that focused on the element earth must tend to them, as there was not a dead flower or leaf on any of the plants.

Eventually, I encountered a two-story building that said "Housing and Residence Life Main Office". Assuming this was where I was supposed to go to check-in and get my rooming assignment, I headed for that building. Luckily, I was late, meaning most other new students had already checked in and settled into their dorm rooms. Good. Less crowd meant fewer people to gawk at me and my awkward nervousness. I opened the doors and walked into the building.

"Welcome to Crimson University!" A blonde woman who looked about my age, maybe a few years older than me, exclaimed, as she waved me over to her table.

"Hi. My name is Lyla Jacobs." I said, handing her my I.D.

"Hi, Lyla! I'm Emily, one of the R.A.'s here." She said as she checked my I.D. and referenced it to her sheets where each dorm had its own list of residents. She highlighted my name and gasped excitedly. "Oh my gosh, no way! You're not only in my building, but you're one of my roommates! We get to share a suite that's so exciting!" She exclaimed with a smile.

"Oh, wow. Nice to meet you!" I said and returned her smile as I took my I.D. back from her. I could not match her extreme enthusiasm, but being the roommate of a resident assistant meant that I would always know what was going on and have a so-called "friend" that had already experienced her freshman year of college. It also meant I would be expected to follow the rules, which had never been a problem for me anyway. I did not like to party or anything crazy like that, and I definitely did not like to get in trouble, so I tended to follow the rules in order to stay under the radar.

"Here are your keys to your room and your school-issued identification card. Your identification card will swipe you into your dorm and serve as your meal ticket at the dining halls and restaurants. Make sure to carry this on you at all times and please don't lose it. It's such a pain in the ass to get a new one, trust me, been there done that!" Emily laughed as she handed me the keys and a red and white card. "I only have to sit here for ten more minutes and wait for any more late arrivals. If you want, you can wait for my shift to end and then I can show you the way to our room. That way, we can start to get to know each other and you won't have to worry about getting lost!" Emily said.

"That sounds perfect, thank you." I sighed with relief. I was so nervous about getting lost, but having a roommate that worked for the school was already coming in handy.

"Awesome! You can have a seat right over there while I start cleaning everything up." She pointed to a brown couch across the room near the door. I walked over to the couch and sat down, relieved for a chance to catch my breath. It was soft and comfy, definitely the opposite of what I would expect in an office building of a college. I let my mind wander as I waited for Emily to finish up.

It felt like no time had passed at all when Emily appeared in front of me. "Come on, let's go! Our building, Shadow Hall, is only about a five-minute walk from here. I can't wait to show you our apartment!" She gushed. Of course, our dorm was called Shadow Hall, because this college couldn't be any more stereotypical for a vampire college. Hello, it was called Crimson University for a reason! Crimson-as in red-the color of blood, because, you know, vampires need to drink blood to survive. We don't go crazy and murder humans for their blood like the vampires in the books and movies. Humans willingly donate blood (and are paid handsomely to do so) to the vampire blood banks and that is how we get our blood. We also can eat human food (another fictional stereotype), we just need blood every once in a while in order to stay strong. We can also drink directly from humans, but it has to be 100% consensual so most vampires just stay away from that so they don't have to worry about getting sued. It helps humans not fear us as much, which contributes to a peaceful society.

Stereotypicalness of my new college aside and mental tirade aside, I found myself getting more excited as we stepped outside and started walking toward our dorm. Maybe college wouldn't be so bad after all.

Emily and I made small talk as I followed her toward our dorm. She was a junior who was working towards a degree in secondary education/student affairs. The element that she was focusing on for her minor studies was earth. In other words, she wanted to make a career out of working for a college or university. I had only known her for a few minutes, but I could tell that she was a natural at what she did.

It is important to note that the way vampires do college/secondary school is a little different than humans. Our colleges are only for vampires and half-breeds, no pure-blooded human is allowed on our campus. The administration, professors, staff members, and students are all vampires. Humans are aware of us and we live in harmony (for the most part) with them. It just works better for everyone that we educate our species in a way that meets each group's specific needs. Each species learns about the other group and its history, they just keep us separate in education. There are witches too, and werewolves as well, and they educate their children the same way. All of our species interact in public, so our society is integrated in every other way aside from education.

Human colleges have attendees pick a major and sometimes a minor, and then students complete coursework based on the selected major until they graduate. Vampire colleges, however, still have students pick a major based on the career they are considering, like teaching, doctor, politics, etc. Our general education classes focus on things like bloodlust and relevant rituals for vampires, like the focus of the primary, middle, and high school. We don't have any bullshit math or English classes like the humans do. However, all vampires must select a minor in one of the elements: air, fire, water, earth, and spirit. Most vampires just pick their favorite element, others are selected by their specific element to host a special connection, meaning that they have special powers relating to that element. They then become priestesses of their element, and can either remain priestess and host rituals, or they can become a teacher of classes about those elements. Rituals are vampire's equivalent of church services, held weekly to worship our mother Goddess, Nyx, who is the mother of all vampires. They can also be held any time one of us wants to pray to her. Rituals are truly sacred to vampires, and I have never met a vampire that does not enjoy them.

"Here we are-Shadow Hall! Emily's perky voice interrupted my mental tirade. In front of us stood a 5-story u-shaped dark brick building that looked ancient and modern at the same time. It looked like a dorm for vampires, but it was also very chic. There was a bazillion windows-it looked like each apartment had a big living room window and each individual bedroom had a smaller window-and the entrance to the dorm was two big doors that opened into the lobby.

"You ready to go inside and see your new home?" Emily asked, holding the door open for me.

"As ready as I'll ever be," I said. I took a deep breath and walked into Shadow Hall.

The lobby of Shadow Hall was absolutely beautiful. There were black and grey decorations and pictures everywhere, making the inside just as chic as the outside. It was the exact opposite of what I imagined a dorm would look like. To the right of the entrance was a door leading to a staircase and a pair of elevators, and to the left stretched a long hallway for the first floor rooms.

In the center of the lobby sat a desk, where a young woman who looked about my age called out, "Welcome to Shadow Hall!". I smiled at her as I followed Emily to the elevators. Surrounding the desk were different pictures of vampire royalty, as well as various pictures of Nyx, our vampire goddess. Nyx is considered the vampire goddess because she is responsible for our creation and thinks of us as her children. As I examined the photographs, I noticed that one of the vampire royals looked strangely familiar, but I could not place why. Weird.

"That's Maureen, one of the office assistants for Shadow Hall. It's like a step down from being an R.A., where they don't have to live in the building they work in and they just run the front desk/keep the office organized. Unless a big emergency happens, it's basically like getting paid to sit there and do your homework, read, watch TV, or do whatever else you can do while sitting behind a desk. Being an R.A. is a lot more responsibility, and can be very stressful at times. It's so rewarding though." Emily explained as we got into the elevator, pushing the number five button.

"Oh, cool. Maybe I could do that next year. I definitely want to work while I am in school, but I don't know that I want all the responsibility of being an R.A. It seems like a lot." I thought aloud.

"It's not that bad!" Emily exclaimed, shaking her head at me. "You'll learn all about it being my roommate this year. You might like it! When it's time to apply for next year, we could at least talk about it!" She smiled at me encouragingly.

"We'll see," I said as the elevator dinged to let us know we had arrived at our floor. I did not really want all of that responsibility, but maybe she was right. Maybe I would enjoy it, but I wouldn't know until I tried.

Pushing that thought to the side, I followed Emily down the hall and took in my surroundings. Each door was decorated with its residents' names, some more decorated than others. Every so often there was a bulletin board too that had an encouraging message on it or where to find certain resources for college. Emily pointed to the decorations with residents' names on them. "I made those because this is my hallway. There are 3 R.A.s per floor, and each one has its own hallway. All the residents in this hallway are my responsibility, so I wanted to make everyone feel welcome. Some residents have already been here a few hours, so they added their own flair to their doors. All of that is fine as long as they don't become a fire or tripping hazard. I design all the bulletin boards too, and I usually let my roommates help me if you'd be interested in that. I wanted to wait for you guys to arrive so we could all contribute to our door aside from our names. You're the last one to arrive, so the other two girls have already settled into their rooms."

She stopped talking as we paused in front of a room that had "517" beside the door and the names "Emily", "Lyla", "Sora", and"Marie" written on construction paper that was taped onto the door. Emily let me test out my key to unlock the door and then she held it so I could get my suitcase inside.

"The living room is there, and the kitchen is over here. There are two bathrooms, one to the left hallway and one to the right. If you turn to the right and go down to the door across from the bathroom "D", that one is your room. It's right beside mine, which is "C". Marie and Sora's rooms are in the left hallway, and they share that bathroom. Your room should still be unlocked, but if it is locked, the smaller key should work on it! Go on in and unpack. Take a few minutes to get settled. When you're done, come out into the living room and I'll get Marie and Sora. We can all get to know each other then. I know it's super lame, but I have some ice breakers for us to try. I'm an R.A., I just can't resist." She finished her explanation with a laugh.

I couldn't help but laugh too. She seemed like a sweet person, and I'm sure she was an excellent R.A.

"Thanks, Emily. You've already made me feel so welcome when I started out this adventure feeling alone. I look forward to getting to know you more." I smiled at her and gave her a dorky little wave before I turned toward my door and used the little key to unlock it. When I opened the door and stepped inside, I couldn't help but gasp.