Authors: Sylah Sloan
“Yeah, but don’t let that scare you. Believe me when I say you play perfectly, and it will go great with my routine. You’ll at least think about it, right?” At my nod she squealed and looked at her watch. “We better go, or we’ll be late.”
I followed her out and back into the common room, where she headed off into another long hall. Every room we passed was filled with students looking no different than me. I don’t know what I expected, but seeing normalcy in a school that was anything but seemed almost surreal to me. I guess I thought there would be werewolves sitting at desks or faeries with wings looking back at me.
I went into my designated room, pretty normal looking in regards to any other room I’d been in. Every seat was filled except two in the back—two that Nik had saved for us. Before I could get to my seat, a guy that looked about my age stopped me with a smile and a hand on my shoulder.
“New student, right?”
He wasn’t wearing a uniform like everyone else, so I took him to be the teacher, though he looked no older than me. I nodded and smiled, my heart beating so fast, and my palms sweating. Everyone was staring at me, which only made my symptoms worse.
“I’m Mr. Crandall, your Arcane History teacher.” He turned us fully to the front of the class and displayed me to everyone. Eyes bore into me, and I swallowed roughly.
“Students, I’d like to introduce Meadow Caldwell. She…” I looked over at him when he didn’t finish his sentence. He picked up a clipboard and flipped through some of the pages. “Well, it seems I don’t have all my information on you.
Would you like to tell the class where you’re from and what species you originate from?”
I stared at him for a couple of seconds and then faced the class again. I wasn’t sure what he meant by “species”, but I would have to go with it. Maybe no one knew about my past, maybe only Mikhail, Cadeon and I knew what really happened. Since Mikhail had told me to keep my true identity secret because of the danger of revealing such a rare fact, I knew no one could know the truth. I just really hated lying to people, especially people who were genuinely kind to me like Nik and Violet. “Um, I’m Meadow.”
Students snickered, and I felt my face get hot. Mr. Crandall dropped the clipboard on his desk, but I had a feeling it wasn’t an accident. The room got quiet, and I continued. “I’m from Serenity Springs, and um…” I looked back at the teacher and then back at the class. “I am a vampire.” I hoped that was what he meant when he said “species”, and if not then I was sure the room would burst out in laughter. No one laughed, though, and I sighed.
“Thank you, Miss Caldwell. You may take your seat now.”
I was so thankful he didn’t make me elaborate on anything. I sat down next to Violet, before he changed his mind and asked more questions.
The rest of the day passed by quickly and before I knew it, I was following Violet to the cafeteria. There was a small line leading into the room, but it thinned out, and we made our way in. It was a large room, nothing like the cafeteria back at Serenity Springs High.
“Are you hungry?”
I nodded, surprised that after only a couple of hours, I was thirsty, and not for water.
Violet made her way towards a long table, off to the side, and stopped in front of it. Several greeted Violet, giving me a curious once over, before greeting me as well. I had at least one class with each of the people sitting at the table so it wasn’t like they hadn’t seen me today. It did make this a little less awkward.
“Let’s go get some food.”
I mimicked her and set my bag on one of the empty seats, then followed her into a small hallway leading into a kitchen. A salad bar was set up in the far corner, and I could smell the delicious aroma of something cooking from behind the swinging double doors. Everything looked really good, but my appetite was for something a little … different. “Um, Violet?”
“Yeah?” She didn’t look up from the salad bar, piling a large portion of lettuce atop her plate.
“Is there anything for me to … drink?” Even after everything I had been through, all the creatures I had learned about, it was still weird knowing and saying that I needed blood. She looked at me with a little bit of confusion, but then I saw the light click on. I looked around nervously, which was stupid, I know, because I was surrounded my all sorts of creatures.
“Over there, in that fridge.”
I followed her finger to where a large cooler sat. I don’t know how I missed it when I came in, because bags of dark red blood hung from hooks inside it. I walked over to it and stared at the bags through the glass, my mouth watering, even though I felt disgust for the way I responded to it.
All four types of blood were available, and I laughed inside at how strange this whole situation really was. I grabbed a bag of O positive, since that was what Cadeon had been giving me. I knew the blood probably wouldn’t hold me over until school ended, so I grabbed a cinnamon roll and a bottle of lemonade. The combination was weird, to say the least, me holding a bag of blood, a cinnamon roll, and a bottle of lemonade. I felt slightly better when I watched two guys go over to the cooler and grab several bags out a piece. They smiled at me as they passed, each noticing the bags in my hand.
“Get what you wanted?” Violet said, as she bit off a chunk of celery, her eyes dropping to the bags in my hand.
I nodded, and we walked towards the register. It was at that moment I realized I had no money. “I can’t pay for any of this.”
“No problem, I got you covered.” She smiled that happy smile of hers, and we advanced to the front of the line.
“Name and ID number,” the older woman behind the register stated blandly.
“Violet Fender, 2387. I’ll also be paying for Meadow Caldwell, although I don’t know her number.”
She looked over at me, her expression asking me without words if I knew it. I shrugged and shook my head.
The lady working the register glanced at both of us and entered something on her keyboard, presumably our names. “Ms. Caldwell has an account set up. Would you still like to pay for her?”
Violet looked at me and raised her eyebrows. She was probably just as surprised as I was I had an account. I had no idea where that money came from—I had nothing to my name. I would have to remember to ask Mikhail or Cadeon about this later.
“I guess not,” Violet said as we both paid for our meals and went off into the main part of the cafeteria and sat with the other students.
I ate in silence, but when it came to actually drinking the blood, I grew self-conscious. I was tempted to save it for later, but my stomach was starting to cramp again. One of the guys at our table, Landon, I think his name was, pulled out a bag of blood and popped a straw in it. I hadn’t even noticed he was a vampire, but as he was about to drink from the straw, he smiled at me, showcasing some wicked, long fangs.
After that, I didn’t feel so embarrassed and popped a straw in the hole at the top. It reminded me of the little milk boxes that I used to get at school. I felt a laugh bubble up inside of me, and when it came out several people glanced at me in confusion. I muttered an apology and drank it like a milkshake, a disgusting, cold, iron tasting milkshake, but it made the cramps go away, nonetheless.
“You could have warmed that up.” I looked up when Landon spoke to me, tossing his empty pink tinged bag on his tray.
I had a feeling he was a big flirt at school, and I was sure his good looks helped him out in that department. I shrugged, finishing up the last of mine and placing it on my tray. “I know, but I prefer it cold.” I really did too. It tasted bad hot or cold, but it was more tolerable cold. He gave me a strange look before smiling, starting a conversation with a guy sitting next to him.
I looked around the room, everyone talking and laughing with each other. Violet sat next to me, and I noticed her eyes were constantly going to one guy at the end of the table. I remembered him from my transitions class, a course geared to helping new students make the appropriate shift into their new role at Arcane Manor.
My eyes stayed on the guy holding Violet’s attention. He was telling some story about his lacrosse championship which he won single handedly. I rolled my eyes as he started to go into great detail about how he broke another student’s nose. I could see why Violet would find him attractive, what with his sandy blond hair and deep brown eyes. He was boy next door cute, but cocky.
I glanced around the lunchroom, every table having a different group of students. I guess every high school was the same, when it came to cliques sticking together. I was either blatantly staring, or Violet was just very astute, because her next words answered my unspoken question.
“That table over there,” she pointed to a rectangular table pressed against the wall, “is all of the werewolves, and the table by the stage is where the shifters usually hang out.”
“There’s a difference between werewolves and shifters?” Violet looked at me like I had grown a second head, and I knew I said something wrong. No one knew I was a brand new vampire, and of course everyone would think I was already accustomed to the world of the Arcane. I thought of something to rectify the situation. “I just meant I always thought of werewolves as shifters also.” This seemed to placate her, and I felt my heart rate returning to normal.
“Some would agree with you, although don’t let either of them hear you say that, because it tends to piss them off. They kind of have a silent hatred for each other.”
I nodded like I understood, but I really didn’t.
“The shifters like to think of themselves as above the werewolves, but really, they can shift into other animals,” her voice grew soft, “I think they are the same as well.” She sat up straighter, and her voice returned to normal. “Then you have the witches and warlocks on the other side, and then of course the demons, vampires, sirens, and a whole slew of other creatures which kind of mingle with the rest of the population.”
I looked at all of the different creatures she pointed out, not really seeing anything strange or unusual about them. There were some here and there that looked a bit out of the ordinary, but for the most part they looked like any other students at my last high school.
“And then you have our table, a mixture of everything.” Violet spoke with a mouth full of Panini as she scanned the table we sat at.
****
I finished my lemonade, as the bell rang, and everyone headed out. I could still hear the guy talking about his victories and hoped we didn’t have the same class next.
I walked out with Violet, his name right on the tip of my tongue. “What was his name again?”
“Xander Nicholls.”
I nodded, the name now ringing a bell. My instincts were right about Violet finding him attractive. I hadn’t had to tell her which guy I was talking about. “He seems pretty full of himself.”
“You should see him on the field. He’s a beast.”
I snorted at that mental image, since every guy here was “a beast”. “You like him?”
“What? Of course not. He’s really nice and all, but guys like that don’t go for girls like me.”
I scoffed at her statement, looking at her and not knowing what she meant. “What in the world are you talking about? You’re beautiful. He’s blind if he doesn’t see that.” She snorted as she made her way into our next class. I didn’t know which one this was and was irked that no one had even bothered giving me some kind of schedule. I probably wouldn’t have been able to find my way around anyway, but still, that wasn’t the point. I felt lost in this place, blindly going through each class and relying on Violet.
The routine was the same in each class: stand up in front of everyone, introduce yourself, and have a seat.
“Hey, I forgot to ask what elective you had chosen.” Violet was leaning over the side of her desk as she asked the question. That had been at least one thing they had let me choose.
“Swimming. I was disappointed that they didn’t have any kind of music class.”
“Yeah, they tried that last year, but they didn’t really have any takers. I have no idea why. I used to play the flute when I was like ten. It was pretty fun.”
“Why don’t you play anymore?”
She crinkled her nose. “I don’t know. I guess I kind of outgrew it.”
The class went by pretty fast, but I guess, if you knew nothing about the Arcane, all your attention was on the information. After class, Violet and I parted ways, despite me thinking we had all the same ones together, and I headed to my next class, thanks to Violet and her great map making skills. I glanced around, trying to decipher which hall she had written on the paper, and saw my next class ahead. The class was Vampyre History, and I was glad I had at least read through the book before today. As I walked in the classroom and saw everyone, I almost felt comfortable. I knew all of these students were like me, and because of that one element, I felt more at ease. That class also passed quickly and by the time it was over, I had made a few more friends.
“Hey, Meadow!”
I stopped and turned around and smiled as Nik jogged up to me.
“Violet told me your elective is swimming?”
I nodded, and we started walking again. “Yeah, why?”
“Nothing, we’re just in it together.
It’s cool, that’s all.”