May 2, 2000

For the past few months, whenever she stopped by Victoria’s dorm, she made it a habit of landing in a remote alley nearby or behind heavily shaded bushes at night. She hated Victoria’s dorm: too many humans hanging around and it became too risky to enter through her bedroom window, even if she didn’t have a roommate.

Victoria wanted to talk to her about the apartment she found for July 1st. Coralis knew she was still in class so after landing, she went to a coffeehouse nearby for coffee, seeing that she had some time before Victoria returned.

As she got in line to order, Frank, one of Victoria’s friends, came out of the toilets and saw her in line. He was on his way out, but for the past few months, he’d been wanting to talk to her. Every time he saw her around the campus, she was either leaving or he was the one who had to be somewhere, so he never could talk to her. Not wanting to miss the opportunity to speak to her, he decided to get in line to get another coffee.

“Hey stranger!” said Frank, getting in line behind her.

“Stranger? I suppose you could say that. Did you manage to get your girl back or is she still drooling over her bad boy?”

“Who said I wanted her back?” said Frank, with a smirk on his face. “I’ve got to say, I think I now understand why you said you weren’t a good girl: you’re like an elusive girlfriend, I can’t ever catch you.”

“Oh, so you have been trying to catch me?”

When it was her turn to order, she told the teenager behind the counter what she wanted and indicated to Frank to place his, but he stayed silent. She shrugged and paid for her coffee. He then ordered his coffee and waited for it beside her.

“Maybe I have.”

“I guess that today is your lucky day, then.”

“Is it? Or can we argue that it was a matter of time, considering that we have a friend in common?”

“Depends on how good you think I am at being elusive.”

Their beverages were ready for pickup at the same time. They grabbed it and walked toward the exit.

“Are you going to Victoria’s?” said Frank once they got outside, seeing that she was walking toward the dorms.

“Yes, she said something about signing a lease for a 2-bedroom apartment and wanted to discuss it.”

“Then I guess it is my lucky day, I’m also going that way.”

Victoria had told her a little bit about the human friends she hung out with. Carlos was in the same medical program as her and they both went to the same cegep. Mark and Frank were his childhood friends. They were also 1st-year students at the university but enrolled in entirely different programs. Mark studied business management while Frank wanted to major in communication and get into journalism.

“Are you coming to study here next semester?” continued Frank.

“No, I work 2 full-time jobs and I barely have any time for myself. Let’s not add a school program to it.”

“Two full-time jobs? Oh wow. Vic told us you had a very irregular work schedule but didn’t elaborate. I thought that you worked while going to school. Where do you work?”

“I work in the national defence field.”

“Both works?” said Frank, wondering how she could be working two full-time jobs at her age. “How did you get into that?”

“Yes and no,” answered Coralis, thinking about how to explain what she does to a human.

She pretended to blow on her coffee to cool it off while she thought about her answer. She could easily describe her EBEE apprenticeship as being related to national defence but flyball had nothing to do with it. However, she couldn’t talk about it for national defence reasons.

“My main one is related to extreme sports, but I can’t talk about it because it’s considered classified information,” continued Coralis. “My other one was supposed to be an internship with an organization related to national defence and is also deemed as classified information, but it became actual full-time work. I was recruited into that field when I was in High School.”

She didn’t want to tell him more than that. She liked that he had no idea of who and what she was, and not having to worry about whether he had ulterior motives, so she didn’t mind talking to him on her way to Victoria’s dorm.

Frank was even more intrigued.

“What about you,” said Coralis to turn the conversation on him, “do you work outside of school?”

“Not at the moment. I have been able to get financial aid so I could focus on school. Maybe I will get a part-time job next semester to cover the cost of some equipment but I’m not sure. I plan on working during the summer break so it will depend on how much I’ll save up.”

She pretended to search for the key in her pockets. Because he also lived in that building, he unlocked the main door without her having to buzz Victoria’s code.

Coralis wasn’t a student so she didn’t have any keys to the dorm: she would usually walk in and use magic to unlock the doors. Despite having her eyeglasses on, if she closed her eyes, she was able to push a small amount of energy through her fingertips, palms facing it, enough to unlock a door by hovering her fingers over the locking mechanism. If she needed a prop, she always had keychains on her.

She couldn’t explain to a human that she didn’t need a key to get into Victoria’s room.

“Want to wait for her at my place?” said Frank.

He didn’t know when she would have to leave for work and wanted to spend more time with her. He was supposed to work on an essay but figured that it could wait.

“Hmm sure, why not. I will need to stop by the payphone to send Vic a ping so she knows that I’m around.”

Frank pulled his cell phone from his back pocket and handed it to her.

“Or just use this.”

Coralis looked at him, unsure, then shrugged and took the phone off his hand. She dialled Victoria’s pager number, typed in a code after the tone and hung up.

“Thanks!” she said, handing the phone back to him.

“No problem,” said Frank, returning to the elevator. “I can’t help but wonder, where are you usually staying? I know you’re going to share an apartment with Vic in July, and sometimes have to crash here, but where are you at in the meantime?”

“I live in London, in the UK. One of the organizations I work for is based in the Montreal metropolitan area and the other one is based in London, and I travel a lot for work. When I’m in town, I usually stay in hotels, but I don’t always have the time to search for where there’s a vacancy or go through check-in and check-out. Sometimes, it’s just easier to crash at Victoria's for the night.”

“In London? Oh wow, I never been there.”

“Where have you travelled to?”

Frank spoke about the few summers he spent in the United States with his mother and siblings when they entered his dorm room. He offered her a beer and continued talking about his family, telling her about his younger sister Stephanie and his older brother Raymond.

They drank all the beers and Frank was getting hungry. He looked at the time and saw that it was 18:05.

“Are you hungry? We’re out of beer but I think Mark got a couple wine bottles that he forgot he had because we always buy beers.”

“I am getting hungry, yes. I don’t mind going out to buy beers if you prefer.”

Coralis enjoyed talking to him, even if she couldn’t speak much about herself, so she didn’t mind spending her free time with him. She had a flyball practice that morning and she was free for the rest of the day. She was supposed to return to London the next day after the game and hoped that the EBEE wouldn’t call to send her on a case.

Frank opened a bottle of wine and went to the kitchen to figure out what to make for dinner. He hadn’t planned for it but was happy to have her at his place. Even if he barely knew Coralis, he wanted to impress her. He enjoyed cooking and could make a decent meal out of basic ingredients, and he hoped that she was going to like what he'd make.

“Need help with something?” said Coralis, curious about what he was going to make, “I can also order us something.”

“Nope, I’m fine. I enjoy cooking so it’s no trouble.”

Coralis’ pager pinged while he added mushrooms into a frying pan. Victoria was back.