Cameron stood in front of Julian Arinson, President of Shacrow VanMeter College. The office was a good-sized room, filled with things that complimented the colonial décor. Except this time, the décor probably WAS colonial and not just a mockup. As she studied the desk in front of her, Cameron heard the click of the door as the girl in the black cloak, Aunalita, left the room.
"How are you liking our campus so far, Miss Ellis?" The President asked, taking his glasses from his faces as wiping the lenses with a cloth.
"It's beautiful. The amount of trees... it's like going to school in a forest." Cameron berated herself for such a simplistic answer... she should have mentioned the architecture or some sort of appealing intellectual aspect and she was talking about trees. Well.
"Do you like nature?"
"Yes, very much so." Very much so? Okay, maybe that was overdoing it. "I mean... your campus seems to embrace the forest around it... the buildings look so... out of place yet so at home among the forest..." Cameron could feel herself start to sweat. "The architecture is stunning."
"We're big on history here," President Arinson said with a slight smile. Thankfully, he eased her torment by changing the subject. He gestured to the three other people in the room. "May I introduce some of the Heads of our seven Houses? This is Elias, Head of Arinson House."
A handsome young man in his early twenties offered a brief smile and a nod. Cameron returned the smile with a bigger one, and a nod in his direction. She noticed his slightly curled blonde hair and stunning green eyes, thinking he looked like a younger version of the college President. Maybe he was his son.
"Next we have Catherine, of Waldemar House." The twenty-something blue-eyed brunette had her hair pulled back in waves better suited for the first part of the century. Her sharp face was pretty, her pale skin set off by the darkness of her hair, the brightness of her eyes, and her choice of red lipstick. She eyed Cameron with a calculating look. "And this," the man with dark hair pulled back into a ponytail stepped forward a step, "is Gavin, of Ovidan House."
Cameron immediately recognized him as the young man at the Prom that she'd bumped into on the way to the bathroom. He was a Head? He looked like he was her age. And he had apparently gone to a high school Prom... Cameron heard Melanie's voice in her head, the things the silly girl said to her just moments ago in the theatre. Melanie said he'd bitten her. Part of her wanted to be appalled, the other part figured it was just some kind of kinky make-out session gone wrong. Melanie and her excuses aside, what was he doing here? Why was he at Prom?
Gavin seemed to recognize her too because he said, "we met previously at a social affair."
Cameron plastered a smile on her face despite being reminded of that awful event. "Yes, I remember, though we were not formally introduced." God, she sounded like someone out of a Jane Austen book. What was wrong with her? And the last time she'd seen him she'd actually curtsied before leaving. Blushing, she turned back to the President, hoping he would bale her out once again.
"I'm sure you are wondering why you have been selected to attend Shacrow VanMeter," the President said, "Each year we send agents into different school districts and this year your district was reviewed. You might even have friends here competing for the scholarship."
"Yes, two girls from my school are here as well." She glanced in Gavin's direction but he now seemed to be more interested in whatever could be seen from the window. Her eyes caught the other young man's before she turned back to the President. She didn't want to stare too long but she'd noticed how attractive the three spectators were and it made her a bit self-conscious.
"As we are not an athletic school, we have no interest in student athletes, yet we choose students in good health with a healthy family background. We look for things that incoming students may offer the school. For instance, you are fluent in French and speak a little Spanish, correct?" The President peered at her from behind papers apparently telling him these things.
Cameron was a little taken off guard. Was that why she was picked? "My grandmother is French," she hedged. "She moved here when she married my grandfather and she taught me her language and culture... I don't see them much since they moved back to France." Her grandparents had met during the Second World War and kept up correspondence until her grandfather proposed marriage in a letter and asked her to come to the US. Cameron's grandmother had no family left after bombs obliterated her town; she herself had been pulled from her basement by her future husband two years before they married. Cameron didn't feel the need to share that with the people in the room, but the story of valor on her grandfather's part and the will to survive her grandmother displayed had always been a cherished family history.
"As for the Spanish, I only know a little. I had a nanny from the Domenican Republic until I was ten." Bethina had been her mother in more ways than her own mother had been. "But she spoke French as well and helped me learn my grandmother's language. So I learned more French from her than Spanish."
"Wonderful." The President sounded pleased to confirm this about her. "Would you mind demonstrating these languages?" He nodded to the three standing apart from the interview.
"If I were to ask you about the Italian Renaissance and the effect Michelangelo had on art, would you be able to answer me in fluent French?" The sentence came from Gavin, who offered it an almost bored tone of voice. The question had been delivered in perfect French. It made her think of Louis and wonder how they were related.
Cameron considered how to respond. It was actually a yes or no question and but she figured a simple "oui" wouldn't do the trick. Instead, she responded in French, "Only if you wish to speak of Italians, my impression is that the French would rather speak of their own artistic achievements."
The blonde one, Elias, allowed a smile to play across his lips as he glanced sideways at Gavin then back to her. The woman beside him, Catherine, laughed haughtily and said "Spoken like a person with French blood in their veins." Cameron only understood a few words... the woman had spoken Spanish more common in Europe, but she got the gist. Was she supposed to respond?
"Godo di sangue francese." Gavin murmured.
"Enough," the President said, looking back at the papers on his desk.
Cameron caught the words but barely understood them... yet Gavin had used one of the romance languages and she was pretty sure he had made some sort of comment about French blood. Yeah, because you probably drink it, she thought sarcastically.
The President looked up at her, glancing at the others before going back to the papers. "You play tennis as a hobby. Why not for the school?"
"There are players on our school team that cause problems for... the less popular girls. I'm not fond of harassment." Cameron had been a freshman when she witnessed one of the tennis players tormenting a girl in the hallway. Cameron hadn't done anything because she didn't think she could keep herself from giving the girl what she really deserved... a good punch to the face. But she was a freshman, and though she had been in that school district for two years, she still felt new. Goodbye popularity and Hello expulsion.
In the end, she had just watched and said nothing. Her cheeks heated at the memory.
The President waited for her to finish but she didn't. Instead, he said, "you're grades are pretty good, yet you don't belong to many clubs..." he let the sentence fade into silence and Cameron guessed the President wanted her to finish it for him.
"Future Homemakers isn't really my thing... and science club or history club, they just make you do more work. Drama takes too much time. I guess I just enjoy my spare time."
