When I rummaged through my closet for the clean uniform clothes for the Academy, I rushed to get dressed up. My mom, the vampire nomad who also wanted a human life not noticing turning me, was going to end my soul's wish to the heavens of the skies above. Dad, on the other hand, was an unknown species that makes him have pure white hair since his youthful years, when he attended a school farther than this one. Mom was the legendary nomad who was popular in this school. I was fourteen now, a freshman who needed to pass all my classes to receive a notice from the principal of the Academy. I sighed once more, looking at myself in the mirror. And I see it: my eyes. They were now an emerald green, which was odd because my eyes were naturally brown. All my life they were brown, and now they glittered in the sunlit room from the peak of the curtains in my dorm window.
This was so strange, since when does someone's eyes change that fast without notice? I shook my head out of this annoyance with my eye color and grabbed my backpack, slinging it over my shoulders as the bag hit my side every time I walked. As I closed the dorm room behind me, I put my key inside the side pocket of my gray blazer. Why a white sweater vest to match this uniform? If I hadn't sped to catch the laundromat, my sweater vest would be a goner, and I needed new clothing for the school year when the uniforms were expensive nowadays.
"Elena, right?" The same sixteen-year-old vampire that I saw shirtless last night spoke to me, watching me walk to class, as I guessed. His eyes never left my side as he continued to walk without clumsily running into anyone. But if it were up to me, I'd bump into anyone without noticing. I am a total clutz for a vampire who just got turned at age fourteen, but it feels like I am still aging because I've grown taller. From 4'11 ft. tall to 5'1 " tall. Normally, vampires stop aging at the age of their turning, but I was a pure exception. It had to be the fact that Dad had a species hidden from the family that made me immune to aging? I wasn't positively sure but remembering the eyes of the shifter outside of the Academy grounds watching me like my old friend Paul with his golden eyes and slick back gray hair that went all over the place. But this time our eyes matched this morning. Last night to me now. He changed his eye color from golden to emerald, like mine now. Usually, I can catch the scent of anyone and define who they are, which is why I suspected Paul was that wolf outside last night.
"Elena!" the vampire hottie spoke in a high tone and kissed my forehead as if he felt pity for me.
"Why?" I asked, wiping my forehead from his saliva lips germs.
"Because you deserve a friend on your first time here, and I'm your mentor, so if lost, you know where to find me. At the Gym practice for fencing," he added before leaving, with the bell ringing on time for me to find an empty seat this past October.
The girl beside me sounded squeaky when she spoke to me, "Hiya, Elena Macister." She smiled and turned her way back to the bulletin board filled with flashcards of Vampire History and the Shifters in the corner. I pulled out a notebook, which had my pen inside with the cap on. Usually, when I was human, I nervously bit every pen cap I could find, but it was different now. I feel different, trying to survive the embarrassment of others thinking I don't belong here, to be a fledgling only on animal blood while the others drink damphyr blood or human blood bags.
My nose wrinkled at the stench of old books with dust in them.
"Sorry, guys and girls," he brushed off the dust off, while those books from up so high above the bookshelf continued to make me feel sick. But I couldn't hurl in this class, my first one. Had to be strong-willed and not breathe until the teacher stopped dusting the books, passing each copy to a student nearby. I sneezed when I received mine, and it hit me. A part of me must be human because it affected me like allergies. Something only humans had.
I grabbed a handkerchief from the lower zipper of the bag that carried my books. I wiped the new History book that made my day with how a vampire like me gets allergies to something that shouldn't, at least. My Mom spoke to me of all the hunger I would experience until I gave in to the bags of blood in the cellar of the castle on the Academy grounds. She said, " You'd feel the urge to rip everyone's head off, even if they're monsters like you too. It's the cravings for human blood that speak for themselves." Mom chose a different path and did not lead the Lunar clan of vampires as their queen. Little did I know, at that exact moment, I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into. Rumors have it that when I turned twenty-one, I'd be the Alpha female of the Lunar clan, and the queen who needed to wed to accept the throne alongside her betrothed. I didn't want to lead anyone. When I was six, my best friend Paul was lost, and they couldn't find him. This is why I must find answers about the shifter with similarities to his younger self's eyes. A part of me clings to the chance he is part shifter and that he is safe even if he isn't by my side like when younger when I had a mean crush on him. He was nine, and that was not going to happen between us at that time; I was too young, and so was he. He didn't pay attention to girls, but for some reason he never left me without looking at me with wandering eyes.
The class lasted two hours, as every day was two to three classes at a time, and sometimes the students had to cover extracurricular classes after school because academics were more important than the activities. We needed to beat the neighbors, who were the shifters I saw in front of the Academy during my hunt. Their scent was excruciatingly nasty. Brutal even. I didn't want to lose control and attack someone who might be my past crush.
Especially Paul. My wonderful, good-looking guy who spooked everyone into thinking he was in danger. Now it all makes sense: he was mine to protect, even if we're sent to hate each other because of the laws of the Egyptians. The bell begins to ring, and I almost broke my seat by jumping from it in fear. I packed my things into my bag and slung it over my shoulders, letting it touch my sides, bruising me. Was this because I became a fledgling not close to a vampire bloodsucker, as the Vanhelsings used to say? My body was giving into less sleep and low iron that made me get bruises. Maybe I needed human food like beets for the blood to course through; it's for the blood's purpose, my body's strength. I cannot give in to my hunger for the human food chain...
All I can think about is how Paul's blood would taste, to see if I needed a million bags or one willing to comply, friend, to help me avoid getting sick. The horror would be to let him see me this way without notice. I knew the wolf-form shifter was him; I remember the tension between us that night, as if he feared and hated what I was now. My heart ached to know what really happened to him these two years. Did he care what feelings he made me feel, or did he have to take it out on me? The pain was inevitable--yet I knew if I masked it until I got answers, then he'd come to me as himself and not a wolf. I choked a little on my own saliva stuck in my throat, so I coughed hard. I pushed my legs to waddle down the stairs to the basement where the Gymnasium was located, and where fencing was a sport. Which it's why I am not skipping it. The vampire Senior looked very elegant in his uniform, black completely with shining gray boots. The sword pointed at me now, when a part of me craved the fight. The danger it could cause if I wasn't a vampire, or a fledgling.
I put my bag on one of the bleechers, so it wouldn't get in the way of me fighting. I didn't care I was wearing a blazer, blouse, and skirt for the fight. I just wanted to do something other than study. Like a way out of my own funky memories of Paul. He would not appear again. So why think of that night that I wanted to touch his snout. I prepared myself facing the cute vampire that was three years older. I winked at him to assure him I will win.