She beamed at the acceptance to her invitation, "Great! I'll invite Kaesha, Beth, Ada and Annya."
I cocked my head, "Beth said she's got a flight for the evening of the twentieth, and why invite them? Are you sure it's a good idea?"
She nodded, "It's supposed to be a fun sleepover, with zero serious talk about vengeance or anything Werewolf related. We're gonna gossip and do each other's hair and nails and makeup and watch movies and just have fun. The two of them being there will help make sure of that."
I wanted to balk at the idea of sleeping in an enclosed space with four other people, but these were my friends and I hoped I'd come far enough to have a sleepover with them, "Alright, I'll pack a bag. It'll be nice to have an actual sleepover in someone's room and everything."
"Yeah, I can't wait! I never actually had one, Keily made sure to kill most of the friendships I tried to start in school."
"Sounds just like her. Speaking of which, I hope she hasn't been bothering you?"
She swallowed the salad in her mouth and shook her head, "No, she's been keeping to herself and her new posse of friends. She did break up with her boyfriend again, so she's got too much time on her hands and uses it to try and sneak her laundry into mine. I'm just glad we have completely different majors and minors so she can't get mom start comparing our grades again."
"Again?"
We finished the meal off with her narrating about how Keily would approach her mom with feigned concern for Hailey's grades whenever the smug Seer scored higher in anything, even if it was just by a few marks. It got to the point where her mom doubted if Hailey would even get into Killdrain.
An hour and a half of us talking passed. Abruptly, she switched the topic from places we'd love to visit, "Oh, by the way, I wanted to ask before I forget. There's gonna be a full moon the night after our sleepover. Do mind if I come here to shift?"
Hailey had been coming over to shift in my basement for a few months. By now, it was a routine that I was used to, but she always made sure to let me know at least a week in advance.
"Sure, no problem."
My phone rang, and I looked at the caller ID, "I guess it's time for Timothy's update."
Since the thanksgiving holiday, Timothy had began calling me with progress updates on the construction on our territory three times a week.
She checked her own phone, "Yeah, it's probably time for me to go. Do you need any help clearing up?"
I shook my head, "I'll do that after this call. Thank you so much for today, I really needed it."
She smiled, "Anytime."
Then she was gone.
I picked the call, "Hello, Timothy."
"Greetings fair leader."
I rolled my eyes, putting the call on speaker and moving to my study, where the wooden model he'd given me and my notes were, "Give me the news."
He launched into his report. The main office building was coming along well, and they were reworking the sewage system to include secret passageways and escape tunnels in the event of an attack. They were having a few issues with the water pipes, but he'd been assured that it wouldn't cause too much of a delay, and the architect had finished drawing up the plans for the rest of the buildings.
After the call was over, I dragged myself through cleaning up, then a shower and brushing my teeth, before falling onto my bed and straight into sleep.
The next week and a half was another blur of stress and frustration, to the point that I saw some pimples on my face the one time I paused long enough to notice my reflection in the mirror.