Drowning Studies (Artemis University Book 2)

by Erin R Flynn

  They didn’t object then.

  Izzy looked about ready to pass out at the turn of events. She realized after several minutes she was freaking out and looked at me. “I don’t know how to ride a motorcycle. How do I ride or die then?”

  “That’s not what it means,” I comforted, giving her another hug. “It’s means we’re all in, hell or high water, we’re together. It means we’re going to take you to a strip club and get you all the lap dances you want now that you can really be out of the closet instead of people telling you it’s a phase.”

  “I’ve always wanted to go,” she admitted.

  “Anything you want. I’m sure we can find a hooker that swings your way too,” Mel teased, and it took everything I had not to laugh.

  We knew several we’d helped get out from under assholes.

  “And on that note, I’m done here,” Claudia teased, but then frowned. “She should know if—”

  “Nope, don’t want to know,” Izzy cut in. “Not when people are going to try and use me to find out. I like not lying that I don’t know.” She gave me a sheepish look. “But if I’m not one of the first people you show when you get your wings, you will hurt my feelings.”

  So she knew.

  And fairies did get wings then. Shit, I really needed more time to read up on myself. For the love of fuck.

  “Are you okay? We can skip the party,” I offered before glancing at Claudia. “You’re more than welcome to join us.”

  “Thank you, but I can’t,” she sighed. “I have several depositions to take.”

  “We’ll save you some curry,” Mel offered. “What type do you like?”

  “The hotter the better.”

  “I made Tamsin get more than mild apple honey for her.”

  “It’s the best one,” I defended.

  “I’ve never had Japanese curry so let me really get dressed and we’ll go,” Izzy told me, putting on her brave face.

  She was going to need it. She’d jumped off the cliff and was still falling so she was in for a ride. But we’d be there to catch her. It was what real family did.

  24

  “Now, the Tamsin Vale secret to the best fucking curry ever is to do a bit of both types of curry,” I explained to Izzy. “Japanese curry doesn’t marinade the meat like Indian curry but it’s what I do and in that way before I make Japanese curry.”

  “Show me the way, Yoda, because I have no cooking experience,” Izzy said as she snapped on prep gloves.

  “Tamsin basically knows curry and grilled cheese,” Mel chuckled. “She gets really into things and won’t move on until she’s perfected them according to her, so yeah, curry or grilled cheese.”

  “Two of the best food groups,” I defended before showing Izzy how to cut up the shit ton of steak we had. Irma and the others had really come through with a lot of prepping everything from the kitchen. “Marinade is basic, salt, pepper, and yogurt. Just tenderize it a bit, and cooking with yogurt will cream up the sauce later and you’ll thank me for it.”

  She nodded and mixed it all up to get it going after I did the right portions. She laughed at how Mel was like my prep chef and we were outside with folding tables using a huge spit roaster grill when we could use a cafeteria kitchen if we wanted.

  But then it was the university’s stuff and we might have to invite everyone, not just the people we wanted. It seemed like a valid argument.

  “Now, I use a scalding hot pan to cook and start with the onions listed on the box, but I add some garlic and ginger. I get that going a bit with some olive oil and then those flavors are on the pan when I brown the meat instead of the other way around. I want that onion and garlic in my searing flavor for the next level without having to add more salt.”

  We had four huge stock pots for the four batches we were making: mild, medium, medium-hot, and extra hot for the crazies. Right as I was about to start that I was happy to see a bunch of the scholarship students show up and started washing veggies.

  Someone asked about the rice but that was one thing we were using the kitchen for as we would need a lot of rice and they had tray warmers for when we were ready.

  Mel put my iPhone into some speakers and got the party really started. We had pop and beer but everyone was on their own to behave as we were still on campus. When I finished the beef for the first pot, they had enough potatoes and carrots ready to go plus the onions for my next batch.

  “We’re doing mushrooms on the side because not everyone likes them, right?” Mel checked.

  “Yeah, weirdos,” I teased, chuckling when a few others did as well.

  “Next we’ll have pineapple on pizza debates,” Natalie joked and sure enough, the best pizza toppings debate started.

  “Does anyone want hot peppers in the spicy ones?” I asked. “We got some just in case. And I make no guarantees on the spicy ones. I’ve only tasted mild and medium.”

  It turned out people said leave the peppers on the side for those who wanted them.

  Probably a good call.

  “Who’s got the wine?” I asked, glancing around. “Add half a bottle per pot.”

  “Got it!” someone called out.

  That was another of my cheats along with some tomato paste, which was more an Indian curry thing but it went really well with the sweetness of apple honey when you added extra ginger and garlic.

  When I finished the last of the meat, they were done as well, so we just had to wait for it to simmer for a while. Because of where the school was located, it actually put us closer to Topeka to get supplies and that was where we’d ordered it all from.

  “You got way too many catering trays when we were cooking,” Mel drawled as we loaded plates from the buffet.

  “It’s a party.”

  “Does that mean there’s dessert?” Natalie teased.

  Mel burst out laughing and I just rolled my eyes and nodded.

  “This should be good,” Darby muttered. I hadn’t even known he’d showed up but he was moving away from the cleaning up so it was nice he came to help.

  “It was a simple mistake,” I grumbled, Mel starting to laugh all over again. “I thought she said containers.”

  “What did she really say?” Professor White asked from behind me, a bunch of the faculty showing up.

  “Cases,” Mel gasped, waving in front of her face as she tried to stop laughing. “Tamsin bought three hundred cases of Talenti layered gelato flavors so everyone at the curry party could have their own pint for dessert.”

  “There are way worse mistakes than ordering too much friggin’ gelato,” I grumbled. “Really, it’s not like it will go bad or we don’t have the freezer space.” I blew a raspberry when people chuckled. “I was wondering why she was so damn happy about the order and asked if I wanted to set up a vendor account.”

  That really got people laughing, but again, there were worse mistakes to make in life than having too much fucking gelato.

  “For the record, that’s the only thing in the house until we go shopping,” I told Izzy and Darby. I beamed at Mel when she started laughing. “Hey, I did my part. We have ice cream for the whole break. You be the adult and get the rest.”

  “Stop, just stop or I’m going to pee,” she gasped in between laughing.

  Which of course I didn’t. “Mel, can I have ice cream for breakfast? There’s chocolate cherry cheesecake, that’s like pastries, right? Please? Please, please, please.”

  She grabbed me and moved her hand over my mouth. “Just stop. Oh, I needed that, thanks, babe.” She waited until she calmed down and let me go, people glancing between us.

  “Mel doesn’t do many full belly laughs but when she gets going she can’t stop if you keep poking. It’s like a huge case of the giggles but full laughs.” I shrugged. “We all have our quirks.” I plopped on one of the chairs people brought for the fun with all the folding tables the university probably had for events, and dug into my food. “At least they agreed to deliver some here and some to home tomorrow.”
<
br />   “Three hundred cases of gelato, Tams. You didn’t even try to cancel the order or change it.”

  I shrugged. “No way. I’m not getting that lady in trouble because I was distracted with fucking geometry.”

  “Not sure that’s my fault, Ms. Vale,” Professor Richardson drawled.

  “No, not yours, human high school geometry,” I replied, freezing in my next bite what I just admitted to so many.

  “Well, good you took reviewing it seriously,” he commended. There was the quickest flash of pity in his eyes before he looked away. So he knew—or someone filled him in—I hadn’t finished high school.

  I liked the man better for covering for me but he was still the most boring teacher I had. He wasn’t the laziest though, as Khan won that prize.

  Darby was thinking hard when I looked over at him, and I found myself flicking the switch on my telepathy… To find him typing out a grocery list on his phone. He was so damn serious it was hard not to poke at him.

  “What the fuck are they doing here? This was my time with her, not another reason for Mason to tell me to back off. He hasn’t even asked her out and he’s got the balls to tell me I’m encroaching. I’m fucking older and met her first. Fucking Alpha bear is going to get sucked dry if he doesn’t cut out the elitist crap with me.”

  It was hard to hide my reaction to hearing that and I quickly flipped my telepathy back off. I glanced over to what Darby was thinking about to see Juan, Hudson, Mason, and Lucca.

  “You can’t yell at us when you and Izzy aren’t scholarship students either,” Juan teased as he held up some bakery boxes. “And we brought some dessert. I’m half Asian. If there’s curry, I have to have some.”

  “As long as you contribute and help clean up,” I agreed. “And I’m throwing the party so of course I get to come and Izzy helped.”

  The look Hudson gave me was intense but I didn’t turn my telepathy back on. I wanted the night off. But I did get a text from him a bit later saying he didn’t have a reason he could tell Juan for not tagging along and wanted to try my cooking.

  Yeah, I wouldn’t hold a grudge on that one. It was nice to see him even if the energy between us was distracting. He didn’t push it, making sure he was down the table from me, which I appreciated.

  “Why do we have to cook at all over break?” I asked Mel, gesturing to the trays. “Come on, let’s just order a bunch of these and whatever frozen breakfast stuff. Can’t we make something easy when we’ve got work guys coming and I’m getting tutored and power assessment tutored and—”

  “You’re working with her over break, Craftsman?” someone demanded, and I glanced around to find him, not having seen him join us.

  He sat down next to Mel with a plate and shrugged. “It’s where all the misfits are going over break and I fit in well with that lot. Besides, Melody said she’d work with me on training and she’s at a level much higher than mine.”

  “We might need to explain to you how school breaks work, Tams,” Izzy grumbled. “You do nothing. You sleep in late and catch up on movies and be a bum.”

  I snorted. “That’s not on this break agenda. Darby’s tutoring me. I’m tutoring him in physical training. Mel’s going to beat up all four of us, it seems, while doing renovations and whatever to the house that needs it.

  “Craftsman wants to take a crack at the libraries I inherited and we’ve got lists of what to do with it all and figure out the rest. And Craftsman wants to work with me on power stuff.”

  “And we have some other projects we’re up to,” Mel reminded me.

  Right, the hobgoblin sanctuary and training my fae dog pack.

  “But we’ll have fun, right?” Izzy sighed.

  “We will be entertaining; we always are,” I promised instead, winking at her when she frowned. “Mel and I like training. That is fun for us. We’ve got to get internet in tomorrow and all the whatever hooked up, but the house wasn’t touched for a while so there’s a lot to do. Mel’s been busting her butt getting it all done. Want to learn how to ride a motorcycle?”

  “No, not even a little bit. I want to be a bum.”

  “Then be a bum.” I shrugged. “Do whatever you want, Izzy. We don’t judge. We do our own thing like adults. I’m not getting the issue.”

  “She’s used to normal, where parents tell their kids what to do and lecture or give them chores,” Mel explained.

  “Ahh, that’s what I’m missing. We don’t do ‘normal.’” I snorted and looked over at Mel. “Remember that place with the slum lord and—”

  “No, I forgot about that,” she drawled.

  “And we spent a whole day in bath towels because he kept promising the water would be fixed and we gave up changing back and forth and were out of clean clothes?” I finished.

  “Yeah, well, you threatening to walk around naked in front of him and call the police for child porn did the trick.”

  I rolled my eyes. “He was trying to get with you like he had a chance in hell and it was freaking me out he was just going to move in until you caved.”

  “God, he was creepy.”

  “We have a list of creepy people we’ve come into contact with.”

  She wiggled her eyebrows at me. “Now we get to be the creepy ones and leer at the hot repair men.”

  “It’s not being creepy when any of them would immediately jump on anything you offered, Mel,” I drawled.

  “Shhh, don’t ruin my fantasy of seducing some young guy to clean my pipes,” she chastised, several people choking on what they were eating or drinking at the innuendo. “Oh please, you’re around college kids all the time. There’s no way you’re not used to that sort of talk.”

  “Personally I laughed as you’re a whole mid-twenties talking like some mid-life human woman wanting a pool boy of her own,” Professor White admitted.

  “I do have a pool,” I teased Mel. “You can have a pool boy if you want.”

  “Yes!” she cheered, pumping her fist as she did. “Do you have an indoor pool for winter?”

  I opened my mouth but then frowned. “I don’t know. I haven’t been in the basement yet, have you?”

  She gave a slow nod. “Yeah, it was how I realized the hot water heaters were way too old and needed updating. But just that utility room.” She groaned. “Are you saying we still have a whole basement of that mansion to handle?”

  “How much could be in a basement?” I wondered.

  “Tams, the way that place is, you have fucking Narnia in that basement along Jumanji and whatever other mythical place. We haven’t even started on the library yet, just the books in the study, and I cleaned out the master suite for you.”

  I snorted. “I’m not taking the master suite. You’re the adult, you do it.”

  “It’s your house,” she growled. “You’re an adult too. You take it.”

  I frowned. “Wait, weren’t there two master suites? One in each wing?”

  “Oh, for the love of—it’s like watching a comedy special,” someone muttered.

  We both snorted. That wasn’t nearly as amusing as we both got.

  The timer went off for the curry so we were saved from having to respond or try and figure out anything else out.

  I hadn’t spent more than a few days at a time at the Townsend estate and we’d focused mainly on what we needed to do to live in the place now that the stasis spell was off. And it wasn’t like we knew what we were doing most of the time.

  Yeah, we were totally winging it.

  “This is really good curry,” Juan praised as he about devoured his plate. “It’s the perfect heat too where you still taste the flavor and the heat complements it.”

  “Vermont Curry is the mix I use with some tweaks.”

  “Good tweaks,” Hudson praised, several others nodding as well.

  That was the general consensus and people seemed happy to get something hearty after the stressful time of tests. I guessed right that people didn’t want to hang out all day given they were free from school, s
o after we ate and cleaned up, they took their pint of gelato and headed out.

  “I’ve got the container for Claudia,” Mel told me.

  “Then I have perfect timing,” Claudia said from behind her. “I need the three staying with you during break to sign the NDAs.”

  “Not me?” Mel asked her, giving an amused look.

  Claudia smirked right back at her. “You would endure torture over telling her shoe size just on principle alone and I mean that as a compliment.”

  “What are we going to see that we have to sign NDAs?” Darby asked. He sighed when we all gave him looks like that was sort of the point. “I’m not…” He rubbed his eyes under his glasses like he was tired and I caught on.

  “He doesn’t want to accuse me of stealing again like when I donated the ball gowns, but he wants to know if he sees anything illegal he can report it like the good guy he is.”

  The look he gave me was less than flattering. “That was not what I was going to say.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Maybe not, but that’s where your head went, Darby. I’m not stupid. An NDA doesn’t prevent you from reporting crimes, even I know that. It prevents you from finding something in my house that clues you in on my species and running your mouth, okay? It’s to protect me, not fuck you over.”

  I finished loading the cart for the cafeteria and headed that way with it.

  “Your lack of faith in her isn’t just insulting, but pissing people off,” Mel told him. “She’s not done one thing to deserve your distrust besides not wanting to tell everyone her species.

  “She knows less about you, never bugs you about answers or your backstory, and yet you treat her like a criminal because you don’t know everything about her. Guess it’s not only elites that are judgmental, huh?”

  I didn’t hear anything after that, letting it go in my mind. They’d sign or not.

  Darby was waiting for me as I exited the back door of the kitchen. “I don’t do well with not knowing or feeling unsteady. I didn’t think you were doing anything illegal. I was worried you’d tell me what you are and then I’d have to lie to people. That’s not a position I want to be in.”