The royal circus

Reading body language for her means hunting for someone to fullfil your fantasties.

Seeking for a partner requires longer but when you mix the two, you get tension that in on verge of crippling at each touch of the two.

The glance at each other when it happens, when you suck in breath trying not to let the other know about the effect they have you on your accelerating heartbeat.

That's what kind of, effect this vampire boy had on her. Lauren smiled at her friends as they were chatting and asking her random questions. She made an effort to appear at ease with them. She knew they were good people, but she had a tendency to be alone, and these people didn't get along with everyone so easily.

She tried to engage in small talk and find common ground with them, but she couldn't shake off the feeling of being an outsider among them. Despite her reservations, she decided to give it a chance and see if they could become friends.

Elliott and his group had already gone, and now the room was able to breathe. Everyone was doing their work instead of turning around to stare or gossip about them.

"Have you heard of 'The Royal Circus'?" Raden questioned. He was the one who talked a lot and gave you a lot of information you had never heard of.

Alara and Feyre understood what he was talking about, so they continued to eat while Lauren grimaced as she heard "The Royal Circus."

"No... I don't believe I've ever heard of a circus in Máville."

"I guess you're unaware of the most popular circus of the twentieth century. Anyways, I had also just heard rumours about it... I wanted to go there when I was a kid, but it got banned one day and never reopened. Many say it held some unknown supernatural powers."

Lauren leaned forward as she listened to his story "What actually happened? Why was it banned?" Supernatural powers? Banned? Furthermore, a circus? She was obvious with all this news.

The circus unexpectedly came in 1995. There would be no announcements or advertising if local newspapers did not exist. It was just there, although it had not been there the day before.

People were taken aback when they learned that there was something new in their town. They would be recommended for job hires, but it was not open for business. Everyone in town had heard about it within a few hours. By the afternoon, word had spread to numerous towns.

Word-of-mouth advertising was more effective than typeset words. They assumed the royals would build it for them and give them jobs.

The gates were adorned with a black sign with white writing that read:

Opens at nightfall

Closes at Dawn.

"What type of circus only runs at night?" some wondered. No one had an appropriate response, but as darkness drew near, a sizable crowd gathered outside the gates.

Lauren listened to the story with interest and nodded occasionally. She heard some whispers, and out of curiosity, she looked up to see students looking in a particular direction.

A girl with the same age as Lauren had a huge smile on her face, and one could describe the smile as so beautiful to look at, and Lauren was thinking about the little girl she used to play with.

Lauren saw Hazel walking towards her with slow steps. When she stopped near her table. She didn't greet the others; instead, she leaned forward to Lauren and whispered. "We need to go." That was what she said, and Lauren understood it without any explanation and nodded.

Lauren turned to retrieve her bag when she saw that her new groupie was also staring at her like everyone else. Lauren felt shy and embarrassed. At this moment, she even forgot her curiosity about the circus. She gave a timid smile and said,

"I'll see you guys tomorrow." They nodded in agreement.

Saying this, she took her bag, looking at the specific table, which was empty now. She turned around as Hazel held her hand and dragged her, ignoring all the stares and whispers in the cafeteria, except for the fact that the new student was with the president's daughter, the most popular among them.

Lauren was holding her breath since she wasn't used to the attention she was getting solely because of Hazel, and she knew she'd be in the spotlight if she stayed with this girl because she'd be living with Hazel from now on.

"Father called us but I need to borrow stuff from my room. So, first, we'll go to the dorm, then head to his office." Lauren nodded and shifted her gaze ahead of them.

She saw a vast building leading them to maybe a dorm. She didn't notice things the way she was seeing them right now. She just came out without looking at everything, but now that she had time, she did. She looked at all the big buildings and the trees.

As they got closer to their dorm, she noticed a flash of colour well above them. In the same building, she was about to enter. It was on the tower, just like the room's window was so high.

It had been there and gone so quickly that Lauren's brow wrinkled as she scanned for it, unsure if she had seen anything out of the ordinary.

Guess what? There it was once again. A flash of lavender magical little lights moving in the illuminated window of the building to her right brought her to a standstill.

She couldn't see clearly because distance, darkness, and the distorted glass of the windows obscured much of what she saw. The weather was also very moist to see from here, but she got the impression of a strong jaw, shaggy dark hair, and a red jacket against a light background. But she did notice the light lavender substance moving near the window.

She couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl because she couldn't see the face. Why did she suddenly start watching unexpected things today?

It's not much, and there was no reason for it to have aroused her interest, but Lauren found herself staring up at the window for so long that Hazel crossed over the building stairs when she realised Lauren wasn't following her.

"Hey, Earth to girl?!" Lauren snapped out of the image. What she had a conflicted and strange sensation about, she either didn't know. She had this feeling for a long time. Something was devouring her insides.

She couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was, but it was slowly consuming her happiness and peace of mind. She knew she had to take action before it was too late.

Something.

But what exactly?

"Sorry, let's get going." Hazel nodded reluctantly and happily walked with Lauren over to her dorm room.

Lauren had heard that her uncle's university was so large and popular, and as she viewed the other buildings in her department, she never imagined that the dorm where she was going to stay would also seem like a large, shall we say, castle or mansion. Because it appeared to be one.

There was a long corridor leading up to the long and broad staircase, and everything was beautiful. Her uncle appeared to be quite wealthy, and this organisation appeared to be very successful.

Because she had now seen the inside of her dorm. Did she really pass these corridors and stairs?

Lauren was pretty sure she should be curtsying right now if Hazel wasn't guiding her inside, or else she'd be wandering around the big dorm like an idiot.

She also noted that the deeper she went into the university, the more students she encountered. Some were standing in groups on corridor couches, talking and laughing, while others had their books, phones, or laptop screens opened.

And she was attracting more attention from the students, some of whom were intrigued by the new girl and others because she was escorted by the president's daughter. Hazel. They took their things and headed towards her uncle's office.

As they walked, Lauren couldn't help but feel a sense of nervousness. She had never been to her uncle's office before and didn't know what to expect.