He walked into the classroom, looked around and caught my eye. I looked away. He was very attractive but in two ways for me. I wasn’t what I seemed to be. I had a dark secret that I couldn’t let anyone figure out. I was getting my books and pencil case out when I realised that there was only two spare chairs in the room, and one of them was next to me. I was hoping and praying that the teacher would put him somewhere else. That’s when I realised that I’d been wrong because two weeks ago a new kid had come into our class, which meant there was only one spare seat in the room, the one next to me. The teacher was leading the boy toward me and with every step the boy took towards me the more I wanted him. I kept my head down and didn’t look up until the teacher was calling the role. “Hey, Timothy, isn’t it?” Blair, a boy who loved coming to school because it was like his kingdom, asked turning around and greeting the boy next to me. Blair thought that he was the most awesome person in the world. Every time there was someone new to the school, he always wanted to have them hang out with him. Then if the new person agreed to hang out with him, he would fill their head with things he makes up about the people who don’t hang out with him. “Yes.” the boy said in a quiet voice. “So I hear that you’re hanging out with David.” Blair said. “Ah, yeah, I am.” He said to Blair. “Well, David is ok but really you should come and hang out with me. You’d have heaps more friends and plus all the girls would hang out with you and you would have heaps more fun with the people you would meet.” Blair said. I just rolled my eyes. It sounded as if Blair had his speech well rehearsed. Maybe he said that to everyone he tried to get to hang out with him. He saw me roll my eyes and gave me a death stare. Ouch, that’s not nice. “What was that for?” He snarled at me. “Excuse me? What did I do?” I asked innocently. “Don’t play dumb. I saw you roll your eyes at me.” He said to me through his teeth. “Oh, Really? Who said I was rolling my eyes at you?” I said. “Nobody said that you did but don’t forget that I’m sitting in front of you and I saw you roll your eyes at me. So next time you’d better remember that I’m always on the watch.” He said to me. “Oh, I’m so scared.” I said to him sarcastically. “You’re such an uptight snob. I feel sorry for Timothy for having to sit into that seat. You look like you’re about to murder something. “Or someone.” I finished his sentence. “Well it sure isn’t going to be me.” Blair said. “Well then, turn around and don’t let me see your face again.” I said to him. “Aw, don’t be like that. I mean, we all know that you want me.” He said, flashing a smile to the boy next to me. I just laughed. How could he think that I would want someone as fragile as him? A fragile, arrogant, weak human. “Yeah, I do want you.” I said to him. “Wait, what?” he said in a shocked tone. “Are you deaf?” I asked him in a bored tone. “No. I think I heard you say... but no, you can’t have. Did you just say you want me?” he asked me, he stammered on the words. “Yeah, I did.” I said to him in reply. I couldn’t believe I was teasing him like this. “Well, you know you only have to ask.” Blair said to me. “I said I want you, but not in that way you idiot! Don’t you know what sarcasm is dufus?” I said to him, this time through my teeth. “Well, sorry, just ‘cuz I’m attractive doesn’t mean you have to pretend you don’t like me. I think it’s obvious that you and I have some chemistry going on. But don’t worry, everyone already knows that you and me are gonna be together.” He winked at me and I had the urge to rip his throat out but then. “Blair.” Miss Turner called out to him and he turned to her slowly. “Yes, Miss,” he said smugly. You could hear the smile in his voice. “Please stop interrupting you classmates or you’ll be on detention. Is that clear?” She said sternly. “Yes Miss.” He said. “Ok, now today we are going to...” Miss Turner had stopped talking so I looked up and saw she was looking at Blair. Blair looked up and saw that she was looking at him so he turned to me and with a smile on his face said. “Can you be quiet? I’m trying to listen to Miss and your yapping away and distracting me.” He winked at me. I clenched my fist, counted to ten and then unclenched my fist. “Actually, Blair, it’s you that needs to be quiet. Can you see if you can be quiet long enough for me to tell everyone what we are doing this lesson?” Miss Turner said, standing at the front of the class with her hands on her hips and a frown on her face. “Well, I don’t know. It might be difficult. Maybe my beautiful girlfriend could sit next to me.” He said turning to me and grabbing my hand. Bad mistake. I held on tight and twisted his whole arm around until I was standing up and I slammed his face against my desk and I had him in a chicken wing. “Let me go you crazy girl. I hate you. You’ll never get away with this.” He screamed at me at the top of his lungs. I reluctantly let go of his arm. “Go and wait outside please Blair.” Miss Turner said. “Do I have to?” Blair said, but he started to get up from the position I’d left him in. I knew that he wanted to get away from me. Who wouldn’t after what I’d done to Blair I think the rest of the class was a bit afraid of me. “Yes, you do. I’ll be out there in a minute. Don’t disturb the other classes please.” Miss Turner said to Blair. “What a loser.” I heard the boy next to me say under his breath. “Mhmm.” I said in agreement. I saw him look at me from the corner of his eyes and I started to draw random squiggle lines on the front of my book. The teacher started to tell the class that we were going to work with our partners for this lesson when I realised that the guy next to would have to be my partner because I didn’t have a partner. Great. This should be fun. “Any questions?” The teacher finished, looking around the room for any hands in the air. Her eyes stopped on a blonde that was sitting at the front of the class. The blonde always had a question. She would never be quiet until the teacher asked if there were any questions or problems and she was always the one to have her hand in the air first. It’s was somewhat annoying. “Yes, Peggy?” Miss Turner said in a bored voice. I suppose that if you had to put up with this every lesson you would be a bit bored. “So, what are we doing this lesson?” Peggy asked twirling her finger in her hair. She sure suits a blonde. No wonder they call her the dumb blonde of the school. I do feel a bit sorry for her though. “We are making a poster for the primary children, who are coming next week for the big day out. Showing them how cool our school is.” “OMG! Ok I get it now. Thanks Miss.” Peggy said happily. She then turned to her partner and started to brainstorm ways they would put different things on the poster. She always tries to be a good student but just can’t seem to understand what she’s doing wrong. “Alright, Timothy.” Miss Turner said walking towards my table. The Boy next to me looked up. That’s when I realised that it wasn’t just a nickname Blair had made up it was really his name. Timothy. Well that does sound mouth watering. I thought. “Because you are new here and Stella is the only one here without a partner, you’ll have to go with her. Is that alright?” She asked him. “MISS TURNER!” Blair’s voice came from the door of the classroom. “What does he want now?” Miss Turner said under her breath. She looked apologetically at us. “I’ll be right back.” “This boy was interrupting my lesson and I asked him to go away once but he came back again and was being a nuisance. I asked him who was his teacher and he said you were.” The head teacher said to Miss Turner. “I thought I told you NOT to interrupt the other classes Blair.” “I’m sorry Miss, but my cousin was in that class and I just wanted to say hi.” Blair said with a smile on his face. “Next time you will not interrupt any classes, is that understood?” Miss Turner asked him. “But what if I’m tempted and I do interrupt the other classes, Miss?” Blair asked her with a cheeky smile across his face. “Well you won’t have any temptation because you won’t be staying outside of the room. You’ll just be sent to the principal.” Miss Turner said with a smile on her face. “Ok. I’m sorry Miss.” Blair said and his smile disappeared. “You shouldn’t be saying sorry to me, you should be saying sorry to the class you disrupted.” Miss Turner said with a frown on her face. “Do I have to?” Blair said. I swear I saw a flash of fear for a few moments. “No you have already wasted enough time. So hurry up and go to your desk. We are making a poster with our partners to show the primary students what they are to expect at this school. Maybe you could put discipline on your poster.” Miss Turner said to him. “I’ll see what I can do.” Blair said. He then started to walk towards his desk in front of me. Before he sat down, he stood near his seat and stared at me for at least 10 seconds before the teacher told him to hurry up and sit down. “So Phoebe, what are your ideas for the poster?” Blair asked her in what I suppose was his ‘sweet’ or cute voice. “Um... well I thought that maybe we could ask one of the photography teachers if we could borrow a camera and take pictures around the school and then print them off and glue them on our poster.” Phoebe said smiling at Blair. Blair was smiling at her as if she was hypnotising but I knew that this was just an act. She would think that he likes her when really he doesn’t. “That’s a great idea.”Blair said with a smile on his face. “You think so?” Phoebe asked him with a smile on her face as well. “Of course, I reckon our poster is gonna be the best out of the class.” Blair said to her in a dreamy voice. “Get a room.” A voice next to me said. I jumped in my seat. I’d forgotten that there was someone sitting next to me. I guess I would have to get used to having someone sitting next to me. I turned my head slightly so I could look at him but when I did this I hadn’t realised that he was looking at me and when I turned my head he was looking at me with curiosity on his face I turned away from his gaze. That’s when I smelt it. Oh, it was magnificent. If I had ever known that there was that mouth watering smell in the world I would have gone searching for it. I looked at my pencil case for a distraction. He was so close right now that I had to hold my breath so I couldn’t smell him anymore. I just had to do this for the rest of the lesson. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to do this every lesson so I would have to change classes. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to sit here every lesson. It would have been impossible. “I wasn’t talking to you by the way. I meant them.” His voice said to me in a whisper. Probably so Blair and Phoebe wouldn’t hear. “Oh, I know,” I said to him not bothering whispering back to him. “Oh good.” He said with a smile on his face. It was a cute, crooked smile. “It’s just an act.” I said turning my head so I was facing him. “Really? It seems so real. Like as if they actually like each other.” He said. I leaned my head in towards his and whispered, “Between you and me, it’s Phoebe who likes him but Blair isn’t interested in her at all.” Then I sat up straight and started to draw a frame around a piece of paper from my book. “Hey that looks cool.” He said and I looked up to see whom he was talking to but I saw him looking at me. I looked straight into his dark brown eyes. “What?” I asked him. Confused by what he said. Did he mean that my random frame was cool? If so, he was weird. I suppose he was human so I shouldn’t expect anything different from the rest of the humans I live with. “Your frame. It has some interesting detail in it. Do you draw often?” he asked as if he was interested. Why is this human talking to me? Every second he sat next to me the more I wanted to attack him but I knew that attacking him wouldn’t be a good thing. It would uncover what I really am. A vampire. A monster. “Oh, it’s nothing.” I said to him. It was true. It was just something I did absent-mindedly. Why did humans have to be so weird? “I don’t think it’s nothing, I think it has some meaning to it.” He said smiling. “Well trust me it doesn’t.” I said to him. He was about to protest when the teacher came to help us out. “Well, well, it looks as if you don’t need my help after all.” Miss Turner said. I looked up to see what she meant when I realised she was looking at the frame I had drawn and so was Timothy. Human are so annoying! “Miss Flood. That looks very interesting.” Miss Turner said to me. “Really? I just started to draw. I wasn’t really thinking of what I was doing.” “Well maybe you could try and draw that again but on your poster.” Miss Turner said to me with a smile on her face. For a human she was evil. “I’ll try.” I said with a fake smile on my face. At that moment, I just wanted to run away from school. It was so boring and I could be spending my time doing other things. Repeating high school was as boring as a vampires life could get. However, I suppose that going and working for the Carter’s wouldn’t be such a good idea. A powerful ‘family’ of vampires. “Good.” She said. The bell rang as she said this and she looked at her watch. “It seems as if we have had an easy lesson but next lesson we will have to work twice as hard to make up for what we have missed out on doing today.” “Do we have you tomorrow Miss?” Peggy asked the teacher. “Yes you do. I’ll see you all second period.” Miss Turner said looking at me. I got up from my seat when I heard someone screaming outside. Running towards the door, I saw that it was Chloe, my best friend. “Alright, break it up.” the voice of our school sport teacher said from somewhere in among the crowd. When he had made it through the crowd, he tried to break up the fight going on but he could only keep the two fighters apart for a split second and then he would lose grip of them and it would start over again. Chloe ran over to me and hugged me. “Chloe, what’s wrong?” I asked her urgently. Her eyes were glowing with anger. I’d known her for a while. She was there when I first became a vampire and has always been there for me. So I knew why she was outside my classroom. She always walked me to my next class to make sure that I wasn’t tempted by all the humans that surrounded me as I walked. “It’s that new guy.” She pointed to Timothy, the guy I had just sat next to for a whole lesson. “What the hell is going on?” I asked Chloe. To me it looked like one of those rare human fights. Most of the time only the males fought and this fight was between Timothy and Blair. I didn’t understand why they were fighting. “Well, I told Blair to bug off because he was trying to charm me.” She rolled her eyes and then continued, “And then the other guy, the new one, said to Blair that he must be pretty lonely because he was trying to be sweet with the girls in class and now outside of class. I didn’t understand, but that didn’t matter because I didn’t have time to try and understand what New Guy meant before Blair swung his fist into New Guy’s face.” She looked at me. “Really?” I asked her watching the fight. Blair had finally found someone who could put up a fight. Timothy was new and was already in a fight with the best fighter in the school. “Oh no.” I whispered as Blair twisted Timothy’s arm and pushed his to the ground. Chloe turned her head and looked at me. I wonder why I had said that. Surely, I wouldn’t. No, I wouldn’t. I can’t like a human. No. “I think Stella has a crush.” Chloe said in a mocking smile but I could hear the seriousness in her voice. I’d known her long enough to know when she was in her serious mood or when she was joking. She wouldn’t let anything bad happen to anyone. Even if it was a fragile human. “Yeah right.” I said. But just as I said this, Timothy cried out and I launched myself at Blair. As soon as I hit the ground with Blair underneath me I realised that everyone saw me tackle Blair so I got up straight away and held out my hand to help Blair up when he kicked my knees and I fell on my bottom and knocked my head on the ground. Timothy had managed to get up while I was tackling Blair and held out his hand to help me but I knew that this wasn’t finished. I now knew what it felt like to literally want to kill someone. “Take my hand.” Timothy whispered to me. I grabbed his hand and got up quickly but knew that I needed to get out of here and so did he. I turned quickly to Chloe and I knew she would feel my emotions and gave me one nod of her head. I then turned and whispered quickly to him. “Follow me.” I then started to run at human speed with Timothy running alongside me. I hear his breath loudly now so I slowed down until he tugged on my arm. “Are you... nuts?” He said breathing heavily. “What do you mean?” I asked him. “Well you jumped into a fight. What kind of girl does that?” he asked me. “Yeah, I know. It was a split second decision.” I said to him. “Do you jump into many fights?” he asked me. “No. Not many.” I told him. I couldn’t understand why I could talk to him so easily. Out of all the humans I could talk to, the one I want to sink my teeth into and feel their warm blood slowly slide down my throat, was the easiest to talk with. “May I ask a question?” He asked me. “Sure what do you want to know?” I said to him, curious to know what he wanted to know. Of course, I wouldn’t let him know anything too personal. “What made you jump into the fight? I mean you could have got seriously hurt and then I would have felt really bad.” He said. I almost laughed. He sounded as if he cared for me. If he really knew what I was, he wouldn’t even talk to me. He would be terrified of me and for some reason I hated the thought of it. “Well, I don’t really know what made me jump into the fight. I guess I jumped into the fight because every fight Blair has been in his opponents have always ended up at hospital with bad injuries and I don’t think that your parents would approve of this school if you end up in hospital on your first day.” I said with a smile on my face. “I suppose you have a point there.” He said to me smiling. I started to walk away from him towards my next class when he caught up with me and his steps were matching mine. I stopped and so did he. “Can I ask you a question now?” I asked him looking down at the ground. “Sure. What do you want to know?” He asked me looking at the ground too. “Well, you don’t have to answer me, but I was just wondering why... why were you fighting with Blair in the first place?” I asked him. I couldn’t understand why he would get into a fight with Blair. Surely, someone would’ve warned him. Tell him what Blair is capable of doing. “Well, cutie boy knocked my books out of my hands and your friend Chloe was helping me pick them up. She asked me what my name was and if I knew whom you were. I said that I don’t know anyone’s name here so she explained what you look like and I said that I was sure that you were the one I sat next to in the lesson I just had. I told her that if I was thinking of the right person that you were a quiet student and she laughed.” He told me. “Yeah, Chloe is my best friend and always walks me to every class. She’s a nice friend and always looks out for people so I can tell why she helped you with your books. But still that doesn’t help me understand why you and Blair were fighting.” I said to him. “Oh, yeah I said to her that...” He stopped mid sentence. “Go on. What did you say to her?” I asked him. Most people would say she beautiful so I was expecting him to tell me that that’s what he said to her. “I said that...” He sighed but continued, “Don’t get angry with me, but I said that I thought that you’re very pretty.” He flinched away from me as if I was going to hit him. But I just stood there, shocked. A human thought I was pretty. Vampires were beautiful creatures and to human eyes, vampires were stunningly beautiful but any human who got too close to a vampire ended up the next meal. I knew what would happen if I got too close to any human. Chloe wouldn’t let that happen anyway. She would make us move onto another school somewhere far away. Although if she ever liked someone she wouldn’t move. But then again the chances of her finding someone that could put up with her in a relationship and be someone she couldn’t put in danger are very, very likely. “You think I’m pretty?” I asked him, still shocked. “Yeah.” He said in a hesitant voice as if not to offend me. “Oh, um... I think you’ll be ok to go to your next class. Just try and stay away from Blair As much as you can.” I said to him. His blood was getting too much for me to handle, at any moment my instincts could take over, my lips would part and my teeth would bite into his soft breakable skin, and his blood would slowly trickle down my throat and clam down the fire in my throat. “Please don’t leave me.” He said to me suddenly. I looked at him. Why did it always have to be me? “Why? You don’t need me.” I said to him. “Actually I do.” He said to me. I couldn’t understand. Why did a human boy need me? A human needed me. In my whole 98 years of immortality had a human said that they needed me. And the problem was I felt as if I needed him too and not just for a meal. “Look I know you and I just met but I feel as if we have known each other for a life time.” He said to me. I thought this over and he was right. It was probably why I had cried out when I thought Blair was going to put another human in hospital. I wonder why he and I felt the same way as each other. What would Chloe say? She’d probably say it was impossible for a human and a vampire to have met before unless both of them left the same place and moved to the same place, most unlikely. “I have to admit that I feel that way too.” I said to him. His blood was very tempting now. He was only a few steps away from me. If I lunged forward quickly enough... no I mustn’t think like this. He was an innocent human that didn’t need to die. Then overhead we heard the fire drill sound and I looked at him and he looked at me. “What does that mean?” He asked me. “It’s a fire alarm.” I told him. I deliberately took a deep breath to smell which way it was coming from when I realised that we were blocked. I realised that I had brought him into the hall. At both ends, I could see the smoke building a wall, which would slowly suffocate us. I could see a door on the other side of the hall but if I travelled there at human speed, I would be able to save us. “Wait here, ok?” I said to Timothy. He looked at me in panic. “What?” He shrieked at me. The smoke was closing up on us too quickly. “If you don’t do exactly what I say I will just leave you here but if you agree to listen to me then we can get out of here.” “Yes, yes. Whatever you say just please hurry up.” He said to me. I grabbed his hand and told him to close his eyes. He did it straight away. I then picked him up as if he was a child and then ran straight through the smoke and out of the open door. I knew that there was a crack in between two classrooms so I stopped there and put him down very carefully. “You can open your eyes now.” I said to him. When he opened his eyes, I saw him look around and I realised that it took me only 3 seconds to get out of the building. I probably shouldn’t have told him to open his eyes so quickly. “Wow that was quick.” He said. I looked at him, waiting for him to start freaking out. Then the alarm started to go off and I knew that people would be coming this way soon so I started to walk away from him, knowing that he would follow me. “Where are you going?” He asked me as he caught up with me. I said nothing. His blood was so tempting now. All I had to do was place my lips no his neck as if I was going to kiss him. His pulse would tickle down my throat... “Stella.” I heard a familiar, stern voice. I looked behind me and I saw her looking at me, eyes flashing. She walked over to us and grabbed me by the arm “Excuse us for a second, I’m afraid I’ll have to steal her from you,” she said in a joking voice. We walked ten feet away then she started to tell me that I need to control my thirst. “Stella, I knew you were here because I could feel your thirst. You mustn’t let that get in the way ok?” She said sternly to me. She was like a second mother to me. I knew that I would thank her later. I knew that if I attacked Timothy that I would regret it. I hate what I was. I hated being a monster. “I know. I am sorry. I won’t let that get in the way next time.” I said with my head down. I couldn’t help myself but remember feel that I had to have him. “What’s wrong Stella? I can sense something is wrong.” Chloe asked me. “It’s kind of annoying that you can feel my emotions, you know.” I said to her. “Oh, thanks Stella.” Chloe said to me. I didn’t mean to offend her. “I didn’t mean it like that. You know I didn’t Chloe.” I said to her. “Sure sure. However, we’d better get down to the oval so they don’t start a search party for us.” She said now looking back towards Timothy. Just as she said this, we heard people coming in our direction so we walked over to Timothy and Chloe looked from me to him. I shook my head. I knew that I could control my thirst for a little while longer. She started to walk away from us towards the oval so I followed. But Timothy just stood there. “Are you coming or are you going to just stand there and wait for the fire to swallow you up?” I asked him. He was looking towards the front gates to the school. Did he want to run for it? I’m guessing he did but I wasn’t going to let him. I needed to protect him no matter how much I suffered. “Someone is calling your name.” He said to me, pointing towards where he was looking. I looked towards where he was pointing and to my surprise, it was my ‘Aunty’ or that’s what I call her anyway. What was she doing here? “Hey pumpkin.” She said to me. That was her nickname for me. “Hey Dvina.” I said and I gave her a hug. I hadn’t seen her for 3 weeks because she had won a vacation from her work. I was glad that she was back maybe I would ask her if she wanted to come hunting with me this evening. “How have you been bub?” She asked me with a smile on her face. “Good. I’ve missed you so much. I was wondering maybe you wanted to hun...” I stopped because I had almost forgotten that Timothy was behind me. How foolish of me. I could have revealed what I really was without even knowing it. I knew that Chloe would punish me tonight. “Hunt?” Timothy asked. He was looking at me curiously. “Yeah, I love to hunt.” I said and I saw that Dvina and Chloe were looking at me. Chloe was looking at me as if I had gone crazy and Dvina was looking at as if Timothy was a vampire but I knew that she could smell his blood. She would agree to come for a hunt tonight because I knew that she hadn’t gone on a hunt while on her vacation. She looked so thirsty. “Where do you like to go hunting?” Timothy asked me. “Well at my house I have so many wild rabbits so I like to go and hunt them at night. It brings an edge to the excitement if you hunt them at night.” I smiled. It was so easy to be myself around him. I knew that it wasn’t a good thing to be friends with humans because sometimes they just got too close, then an accident happens, and then it’s the end for the human. “You’ll have to show me one time.” He said to me with a smile. Only then did I realise that he was in a lot of danger now. Two thirsty vampires where standing only a few metres away from him. He couldn’t escape. “We have to go.” Chloe said in an urgent voice. Then we could all feel her power taking over us. She slipped through the crack, which was in between both of the classrooms, and we all followed her. Dvina went after Chloe then Timothy gestured me to go so I held out my hand for him when it was his turn to go through the crack. He held on tight and didn’t let go of my hand, instead he pulled me towards where Chloe and Dvina were heading, the oval. Half the school was already sitting down in their places ready for their names to be marked off. On our way down to find our places, we saw Blair and he was staring at us. Then he saw our hands and shook his head. Timothy looked down at our hands as well. Chloe ran up to us and started to walk on the other side of me. I looked and felt completely normal for once in my forever-long life. I hadn’t felt this way before. My whole vampire life was like a dead black hole with no end, but now I felt like a normal human. Even though I knew that, I could never really feel like a human again. “I think someone likes Stella.” Chloe whispered so low that only vampire ears could hear. I smiled and she nudged my ribs. That was her way of warning me. Telling me to be careful. I knew she only meant me good but Timothy saw her do this and looked curiously at her. I laughed at him, he laughed with me, and Chloe joined in. “Let’s hurry up and go and sit down.” I said and hurried towards our spot. “Wow, you must be real desperate if you’re going out with Stella. She’s got no friends and everyone here thinks she’s a ‘weirdo’.” A way too familiar voice came from behind me. Timothy stopped and so did I but not to retaliate but only because I didn’t want to let go of his hand. Timothy turned around I saw Chloe’s eyes flash. It meant something was going to happen and I was willing to bet it was either Blair or Timothy. Chloe took hold of my free hand and tried to pull me away but I resisted instead of letting her pull me away like I normally let her control me. “You must be a pretty sad person if you don’t have anything better do to other than tell the new kids made up things about other people that go to this school.” Was all that Timothy said to Blair, who was shocked that someone had stood up to him. No one had ever stood up to him before because most people were scared of him. It put a smile on my face to have someone stand up to him. I pulled Timothy along to his seat. I turned to him to say goodbye. “I’m going to sit in my area now, so I guess I’ll see you around.” I said to him feeling a little bit sad because it felt as if I was leaving behind a part of me with him. I knew that he wasn’t mine but I felt as if my heart belonged to him. It wasn’t a good thing for a vampire to feel about a weak, insignificant human. “Oh, ok. Well I hope I’ll see you soon.” He said with a smile. I started to turn away when he caught hold of my hand and I felt his soft warm hand pull me back to face him. But it wasn’t a rough pull, only a gentle tug. I turned to face him again, fighting back the smile that wanted to come onto my face. It was if he did not want me to leave him and he was making my excuses so I didn’t have to leave. I didn’t want to leave but I knew I had to. It wasn’t safe. “What’s wrong?” I asked him. He looked as if he was confessing to a murder. “I just... I just wanted to say that I’m sorry for grabbing your hand and stuff.” He said, looking at his feet. I didn’t understand. Humans didn’t apologise like this boy did. Why was he apologising? I really didn’t care that he grabbed my hand. I was the idiot that took it his hand and didn’t let go. “Don’t worry about it.” I said to him. But, he still looked as if he had murdered someone. What should I say to cheer him up and convince him it wasn’t his fault? It was really my fault for not withdrawing my hand from his hand. “Are you sure?” He asked me looking at me with his head tilted to one side. “Of course I’m sure. It was my fault anyway.” I told him, smiling. Why did this human make me do thing that I wouldn’t normally do? I knew that it wasn’t normal. What was it that this human had that other human didn’t? “Ok. I just thought that maybe you were just too afraid to say anything in case you would hurt my feelings or something like that.” He said to me. “No. I wasn’t really fussed. I don’t care if you hold my hand.” I told him. “Oh ok. Well I’ll see you later then.” He said, giving me a smile before turning away and finding his seat. I watched him as he went until I was interrupted. “So you and Timothy aye?” The annoyingly familiar voice of Blair came from behind me. I rolled my eyes. Can’t the human leave me alone? “What’s it to you Blair?” Chloe’s voice asked from behind me. I turned around and saw her walking towards me. I smiled at her. She always showed up at the right moment. But I had to second her question. Why did Blair care if Timothy and I were together or not? Surely not jealousy. I guess you can never tell with humans. You can never tell what they are really feeling. “What? What do you mean?” Blair asked Chloe. Chloe rolled her eyes at him. “I mean what do you care if there is something going on between Stella and Timothy?” Chloe asked with her hands on her hips. “I really don’t care if Stella has a thing for Timothy but I’m telling you now that if she tries to get in with him I’m gonna mess everything up.” Blair said with a smug smile on his face. I felt like ripping his throat out and as I took a step forward Chloe pulled back on my arm and I smiled because I knew that she couldn’t hold me back for long because even though she had been a vampire longer than me I was still stronger than her. But she did have one advantage over me, her ability to control the emotions of others around her. “Don’t, Stella.” Chloe said to me in a quiet voice. I restrained myself with difficulty. Chloe could feel the tension and I knew that she would do her ‘hokus pokus’ and then I would calm down and I wouldn’t be able to fight it. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. You stupid girl. Stay away from him or I’ll whoop your ass and not even Claire can stop you.” Blair said to me. “Who the hell is Claire?” I asked through my teeth. I didn’t know anyone who had the name Claire. Why did this human have to be so arrogant? Why couldn’t he ignore me just like almost everyone else? “The girl behind you, she’s holding you for peat sake. How daft can you be?” “For your information you dweeb her name is Chloe. So next time you want to be a smart ass get your facts right first.” I said to him before pushing Chloe’s hands away from me and stomping off to my spot. “Nice work now I have something else to worry about along with everything else. Stay away from Stella she doesn’t need you bothering her....” I could hear Chloe say but I tried to block out her voice and imagine that I was alone and it worked. Everyone around me was a life-sized doll. “Ok, when I call your name please don’t muck around, answer me straight away and please try and stay quiet. The sooner we finish this the sooner we can all go. So SIT DOWN KATOMERGE!” My rollcall teacher shouted. “Sorry Miss.” He said to her and sat down. “Thank you. Ok quiet now while I’m calling the roll.” She said in her formal teacher voice, looking around. Everyone was quiet throughout the roll I muttered a ‘yes’ when I heard my name but that was the only time I talked throughout the time we all had to sit in our spots and wait to be dismissed. Chloe wasn’t placed near me so she couldn’t try to restrain me. All these humans were so tempting. I knew that I needed a feed. I would have to go tonight otherwise tomorrow wouldn’t be such a good day for the innocent humans to be around me. Our year adviser told us that we could go so I got up and started to walk fast. I couldn’t bare these humans any longer. Chloe caught up with me and I stopped and turned to her. She looked at me with sympathy flooding her eyes as she felt my pain. That’s what I loved about Chloe, she knew what I was going through and was trying her hardest to help me get through this difficult stage of my never-ending life. She has been with me since day one of my transformation that changed my life forever. “Alright superstar, let’s go.” She said so quickly that human ears would mistake her voice for a bee buzzing past. I looked at her and nodded once. “Thanks,” I mumbled to her as I felt her put her arm around my shoulder. “Anything for my pain in the butt best friend.” She said and I realised that she had sensed a human was too close to say anything that might give our identity away. I knew who it was by the smell of their blood. It was Blair. “Not gonna wait for your boyfriend, then?” Blair’s annoying voice came from right behind me. I could swing my arm around and knock him out with one hit and then his blood would be mine. I was so tempted to do this but then at the thought of having to leave someone I most certainly did not want to be parted with was the only thing stopping me. His face was the only thing I could now. “What about your boyfriend?” I asked, turning around to face Blair. He didn’t answer me. “Where’s your boyfriend? Aren’t you going to wait for him?” “I’m not gay!” Blair screeched at me. “I never said you were. I just asked where your boyfriend was.” I told him. He rolled his eyes at me and started to walk away from me. Chloe looked at me. “Nicely handled,” Chloe said, smiling at me. We walked all the way to the place in between the two classrooms and then Chloe stopped. “What’s wrong? Why are we stopping here?” I asked her, confused. “We’re waiting for someone.” Chloe said blankly. “Who?” I asked her, with curiosity. Why would we be waiting for someone? “You’ll find out soon enough.” She told me as if she had read my mind, but I knew it was just my mood, that let her know what I was thinking. That’s when I smelt it. I knew that smell from anywhere. I would travel far and wide for that beautiful, mouth-watering smell. It was his blood. Why was Chloe doing this to me? I thought that she was trying to help me but really, this just proves that she was trying to challenge me. That’s why we were waiting for Timothy. Did she want this innocent human to die? What had he done to her? “We’re waiting for you, Timothy.” Chloe said suddenly. “Oh, ok. I thought that you two had run off on me.” His voice said slowly getting louder and he was getting closer to us, closer to endangering his life. What was I still doing here? I barely knew this human yet I wanted so badly to protect it. Why was this happening to me? Why did a human have to affect me so greatly? It wasn’t fair. “Timothy?” I muttered under my breath, even though I knew that it was him. Chloe looked at me. I really wanted to rip her throat out right about now. “I was sitting next to him and I asked if he wanted to hang out with you.” Chloe explained to me. This I didn’t understand. Why was she making this so difficult for me? Some friend she was. She was going to pay. “Hey, wait up.” The voice of Chloe’s lover came from somewhere nearby. If it weren’t for him, Chloe wouldn’t be here. I still hated it when he was around but I knew it was only because I was jealous of him. Oh, great, I thought, let’s all just put Timothy into more danger. Chloe turned and looked at me but I didn’t make eye contact with her like I normally would, instead I just looked at the ground until I heard that Jacob had moved to stand next to Chloe. I wanted to turn away and run as fast as I could. I was faster than Jacob and Chloe even though they had become vampires before me. Running from this situation wasn’t the best option. “Are you free this afternoon?” Jacob asked Chloe. She looked at me. “Nope. I don’t think so. Stella is planning on spending time with Dvina.” Chloe said to Jacob with a smile on her face. Yes, I needed to go hunting and I was going to see if Chloe wanted to join us but obviously not. I was going to punch something in a minute. I needed to get out of here, fast. I turned on my heels and walked away from the group. I could feel someone following me but I didn’t care. I didn’t want to be the monster I was. I hated myself. I hated what I had become. I was a monster and nothing could ever change that. Nothing. “Go away, Chloe.” I growled at her. I knew it was her, she always followed me, she thought it was her job to protect me but what she was doing today was proving that she wasn’t doing it properly. “No, wait.” Chloe said to me. I hated it when she ordered me around. “No,” I said to her through my teeth. “You can’t tell me what to do anymore. I’m sick of you just assuming that I’ll do whatever you want. Just because you have Jacob back doesn’t mean that you can just ditch me for him.” “How can you think that? You need a hunt and I’m giving you the opportunity to go out tonight, have a hunt and catch up with Dvina seeing as you haven’t spoken in ages.” Chloe explained to me. I felt ashamed for getting angry at her but I didn’t want to be a second prize like the way she had been treating me ever since Jacob had come back from being overseas for 6 months. “I’m sorry.” Chloe said to me and then turned and walked away from me. “I’m sorry too,” I whispered to her. I turned away and walked towards the top of the school. I wanted to run away so badly. I wasn’t really paying attention to where I was going, I was watching where I placed my feet but not caring where my footsteps took me, just as long as it was away from all humans. “Come on,” Dvina said to me. I looked up to see her standing in front of me. “Well, come on. I think we need to talk.” She said to me, holding out her hand as if to say take my hand and I’ll save you from your misery. “Where will we go?” I asked her, curiously. Why couldn’t she wait until school had finished for the day? What was so urgent that she had to sign me out? “I need to take you to your appointment silly.” Dvina said with a smile. I looked at her suspiciously for a minute but then grabbed her hand and we started to walk towards the exit that lead to the car park. “Will Miss Flood be returning to school?” Asked the short, plump woman, who was standing at the counter looking at us as we were leaving. Dvina stopped and turned around to answer. “No, Stella will not be returning, thank you for your time.” She said formally. She almost made me laugh. The way she spoke so formally to humans was so funny sometimes. But I suppose that’s just how humans spoke to each other. “Ok, thank-you.” The office lady replied with a smile and then turned away. We started to walk away and when we were in Dvina’s car, away from all the senior ears and busy bodies who listened to other people’s conversations I finally asked her the question I most desperately wanted to ask. “So what’s the story? Why are you signing me out of school?” I asked her, looking sideways at her before continuing. “I didn’t know I had an appointment. I’m sure I don’t have an appointment.” “Because you have an appointment with a few mountain lions this afternoon.” Dvina said to me with a smile and I realised that it was a good thing I had waited until no fragile human ears. It would sound a bit strange if a human accidentally heard our conversations. But just for security, our kind must be careful where they have their conversations especially when human ears are capable of hearing the conversation. “Well, now that sounds good.” I said with real enthusiasm for the first time in a while. I smile at the thought of taking some time off school to go and tackle a few mountain lions and maybe some grizzly bears. “I’m glad to hear that,” She said to me with a smile that looked like it was carved by angels. She was so beautiful it made me so jealous of her. “So how was your business trip?” I asked her with interest. She always so a story to share. I wondered what this trip had brought her. “I’m guessing that you want to hear a story then?” She looked over at me. “Yep.” I smiled at her. She was annoying sometimes, but she was the closest thing I had to family besides her. “Well, first I want to know something before I share this story ok?” She looked at me sternly but I still saw the sparkle in her eyes. “What do you want to know?” I asked, eyeing her suspiciously. What did she want to know? She was always full of surprises. That was her quality. “Ok, first of all...” She said to me and I looked at her and noticed that it looked like she was trying to find a way to word what she wanted to know. “Just say it.” I said impatiently to her. “Ok, well, I saw Chloe before I went up to the office to sign you out and she asked me to talk to you...” “Oh and tell me to stop being a bi**h I suspect?” I interrupted her. I could feel the anger building up inside me. I tried to calm down but I knew that I had kept all my anger inside me and I needed to get it out. I looked at Dvina with an apologetic half smile. I wish I hadn’t said that. “Well, not exactly.” She said to me. I looked at her with interest now. “Really? Then what did she say to you?” I asked her trying to keep my voice calm and quiet so that it didn’t seem like I was yelling at her. “Well if you would stop interrupting me I could tell you,” She said laughing. “Well I’m glad I can make you laugh.” I muttered under my breath. Then I said more loudly to her. “I’ll shut up so you can hurry up and tell me what ever Chloe said and I can hear your story.” I said with a smile on my face. “Ok. Ok, I’ll tell you.” She said to me, and she turned her head away from me and I swear I saw her rolling her eyes at me. She was so childish sometimes. “So I saw Chloe and she asked me to talk to you. I asked her why and she said you were acting weirdly and were hanging out with a human and she thinks you are going to make a mistake and you’ll never be able to forgive yourself if something goes wrong. I suppose that all she is saying is that...” “Is that she doesn’t want me to make the same mistake someone close to her did? Yeah I get it. She’s just being overprotective. Now that that’s out of the way tell me about your trip and what story do you have to share this time?” I asked her eagerly. She looked at me as if to say I think you should listen to what Chloe is telling you. This time I rolled my eyes. “Don’t roll your eyes at me, Stella. You know how serious this is. Befriending a human is never a safe idea and you know that!” She pulled the car over to the side of the road even though she could drive without looked at the road. “We’re only trying to help you.” She said to me turning to face me. I wanted to tell her that I didn’t need people to help me because I wasn’t a baby but I knew that she would get shi**y at me and I didn’t want that. She was all I had now since Chloe would be crappy at me and would give me the silent treatment for a while. If I didn’t have someone to talk to then I knew that I would suffer. So I just sat there and listened to Dvina talk angrily at me. “Look Dvina, I’m sorry for disappointing you. Today hasn’t really been a good day for me and I thought that I would just take things as they came. I know that I can’t go back in time and undo everything that I’ve done wrong but I believe that I can learn from this situation.” I looked up at her. “I hope you do to. But just remember that you are going to have to face Chloe by yourself ok?” She smiled but I swear I saw a hint of fear in her eyes. “Yeah, I know. But I think that I should give her some time to settle down and maybe Jake needs some time to calm down too.” I said in a small voice. “Jake? Is he back?” Dvina asked me with a smile on her face. “Yep.” I said and from the corner of my eye, I saw Dvina look at me. I turned to face her. She had known that Jake had gone for a while. “Oh, come on Stells. Jake isn’t that bad once you get to know him.” She said to me. I hated it when I was trying to make a good point about someone or something and she uses my nickname. I looked at her and gave her a dirty. “Oh, yeah and he’s really going to give me a chance to ‘get to know him’ isn’t he?” I said in my most practiced sarcastic voice. “Well, maybe if you weren’t always looking at him as if he was the devil then maybe you would find that he is really a nice guy who is stuck with immortality just like you and me.” She said to me, obviously trying to make Jacob seem like the good guy.