HISTORY - The Order - Vera Stone

Writing History As We Know It

The Blade and Challice was definitely a place for the college students, though Xander could not stop himself, he had found a few professors drinking and probably trying to relieve some stress from the day. Sitting in a booth to the side of the door, he found Veronica. 

"No burger? And here I thought the awesome professor deserved a bacon cheeseburger from his student, guess not."

The Professor flagged the waitress, giving her a smile before ordering a bacon cheeseburger and chilli cheese fries with a large vanilla shake. 

Noticing the look his student gave him, his eyebrow rose. 

"What? I never had breakfast, 'Scuse me if I decide to gorge on this bar food for a moment."

Shaking her head, Veronica pulled out her laptop and started writing, only to stop suddenly and finding herself nibbling at her bottom lip in nerves. 

"Ha! I did the same thing when I was your age, it actually took me talking to my history teacher to enjoy it. I enjoyed a lot of things about it. Even went during my lunch period to speak with him about it, we had many conversations and suddenly I was hooked, I was a geek for history, mostly world war II but I digress. Speak to me, who are you and what do you want from Belgrave?"

Veronica did not know how he could make it sound so easy as if the job of his life came to him.

"How did you do it?"

The Professor once again raised his eyebrow towards her, expressing her to elaborate further. 

"Find who you are or what you want to be, how did you suddenly feel like this was it? You said, history is our narrative and we dictate it. How did you write your history, Professor?"

Xander laughed that he drew some attention to himself, his eyes had met the green of Veronica and this time, there was no interest or some respect, it was not annoyance and fear.

"I didn't, not for a long time and going through a lot of things. That's the thing about who you are and history Veronica, it's forever changing and it moves at the pace we, ourselves, do. Some move faster than others, some don't. Some do not decide history is theirs to write, either way, along the way, you will find who you and what you want." 

Finally, his food had arrived as he noticed the look Veronica gave him, it almost seemed like she was looking at him differently. 

"I came here because of a rumour and now I've come here, the rumour is supposedly not true...I wanted to be apart of it, to make my father proud, to be better than my mother was to the rest of my family."

Xander nodded his understanding, he could see that she had no idea what she had anymore. It was obvious, she came for this one thing but here she was, maybe he could find something out of it for her...something that linked to this rumour of hers in some way.

"What was this rumour, may I ask?"

Veronica blushed ever so slightly, it wouldn't have been noticeable but he had been watching her, he saw it.

"The Hermetic Order of The Blue Rose, supposed to be rumoured around here but when I asked, it was like it never existed. Everything regarding it around here was just whoosh! I tried to find something, I had my paper trail, I knew it existed but nothing...just nothing."

Xander smirked, she was a finder, she searched and searched. It was a goal of hers to join this Order, he had no idea what she was talking about but he found himself smirking, dipping a french fry into the burger sauce before munching happily. 

"Be a reporter, that's your history, find a university newspaper, a program that allows you to be this passionate besides this order...I've never exactly heard of it but I never went looking. Let that be your history, for now, Miss Crane. Remember when I said, history, like us, is forever changing."

He gave her a soft smile which she returned and so she went typing away, believing that Professor Grey was right, the order was not right now. Maybe it could be something down the line, she didn't exactly know yet.

"Thank you professor, already you helped me remember why I came to university. You're teaching me that history is the past, present, and future of who we are. Each step we take forward is who we can be, each step we move back is who we were and each time we think on a step is who we are now."

He nodded, picking up his basket of chilli cheese fries, burger, and shake. He moved sitting on a stool at the bar and pulling out his android, he typed in The Hermetic Order of The Blue Rose. 

"I wouldn't waste any time on that man, everyone knows the order is just some fairytale meant to fulfil the intrigue of this lovely campus."

Turning his head in surprise, the professor is faced with a blonde girl and by her side is a boy, he has a blank face. Almost like he is trying to hide a sneer at him, the professor tipped his head to the girl. 

"Xander Grey, Professor by day and tutor by night, and who are you?"

The blonde girl blinked in surprised but recovered herself rather quickly, plastering on a quick smile. 

"Alyssa Drake, student and lover of Hawaiian Pizza with black olives, also avid debunker of rumours."

The history buff himself tilted his head to the side before cracking a smile, he stuck his hand out and could see the humour in her eyes as she spoke but she was uneasy. It seemed like she had not expected him to be a professor or maybe it was another thing. 

"This order group, you may be right. It could be used to add to the mystique and love of Belgrave University, it is one of the attractions. Thank you, Miss Drake, your view was interesting enough. Maybe you visit a history class, maybe we can discuss my new method. It has been a pleasure meeting the both of you!"

Going back to eating, Xander let it go, the order of the blue flowers had nothing to do with him now. He was a history professor, where exactly was the history with this supposed order?

Nowhere that was where now he could finally go to eating his chilli cheese fries in peace. 

Only the professor could not deny, a tiny voice in his mind asked, What if?

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Minor Edits: June 28th, 2020