Catrina Billowson

“And now he lives in the states... for the time being. At least until Holly and Burton are going to head back, or he can fend for himself. They taught him that some destroy to change, some change to destroy.” Koby told me.

I snapped out of the trance, realizing I’d only put the first paragraph on the page. “Oh...”

“Don’t worry. I’ll write it down for you and bring it to you tomorrow.” He said.

“M’kay then... but the assignment is due Friday and today is...Wednesday. And I—we still have a whole lot of things to do.”

“Don’t worry, with my knowledge of the animals, we’ll be done in no time.” He gave me a huge grin.

I smiled back, still certain I would head down the friendzone path, but hoping, in that moment, he’d tell me different. Something else pulled at my mind, a question that might show me he’s insane, or that he’s a nerd. Either way, he’s still adorable. But I’d rather the nerd over the psychopath. Is that the right word?

“Hey, how do you—”

The bell rang.

And, thus, beginning the friendzone road I’d accepted I’d travel down.

What a lonely road.

I smiled through the negativity I placed upon myself. “See you fourth period, then.”

“See ya later,” He told me, and shot out the door.

I didn’t even get time to fit in a goodbye because he shot out so fast. And then everyone else crowded behind him like he was a magnet.

Great.

Friendzone it is.

I headed off to my first class - history.

Ugh. I hated that subject. Mr. Grey was the most boring teacher ever. I think his name got the best of him. I literally fell asleep every day and somehow absorbed all of the information and aced his tests, which he was always surprised about. I guess because I was a straight A student that he wasn’t surprised that I got A’s on my report card in his class. Or I’m just judging his thoughts weirdly.

His structuring was long and gangly and had floppy brown hair that just sat on top of his head like it was the bottom of a mop. He had big, green beady eyes that would freak you out if you looked directly at them, but were hidden beneath a pair of humongous brown-rimmed glasses that my grandpa would wear. He wore sweaters of different, ugly patterns, and brown slacks. Every day. He had black dress shoes on his feet, and when he wrote on the chalkboard (he doesn’t like white boards for some retarded reason he gave the class at the beginning of the year), the yellow chalk would squeak and I’d be sitting there digging my nails into the desk because of the stupid annoying sound. Plus, it’d wake me up and put me in a grumpy mood.

I stepped into his classroom and I sat down in my seat in the middle of the room. I swear the atmosphere changed like the crackling of an autumn leaf. It seemed more... dangerous. I don’t know how, and that’s the only way I could explain it. And the air was so much colder, like he had brought the winter inside with him. I shivered and pulled my Jacket onto my shoulders. I got cold so easily.

I glanced around the room and noticed that Mr. Grey was not in there. Instead, at his desk in the right corner of the room, I saw a man hunched over a piece of yellow paper in his chair, reading it as if it were a puzzle to solve. I looked at the chalkboard and saw the writing on it. It said, Mr. Sought. So we had a substitute today. Okay. I was fine with that.

The bell rang and everyone sat down. Mr. Sought got up.

He was a tall man with muscles that stood out from under his shirt and tie. I could see them practically ripple as he put on his jacket. He had dark skin and light eyes that almost glowed yellow. He wore black slacks and had black hair that was braided tightly against his head.

“Hello, my name is Mr. Sought. Your teacher is out for a few days, and I am substituting for him throughout those days.” He spoke in a deep, booming voice that echoed to the back of the room.

Half of the class muttered that they were glad that Mr. Grey wasn’t there. I was one of them too, but I didn’t verbalize it.

“Now, when I call your name, raise your hand and say ‘here’.” He told us. “Mark Aaloof?”

“Here...” he said quietly.

I didn’t even know how Mr. Sought even heard him from all the way across the room.

“Regan Andrew.”

“Here,” she said, raising her hand.

“Natalie Bettenson?”

“Here!” She said, tossing her short, blonde hair over her shoulder, then turning back to flirt with Rodney Catkinson, the quarterback.

“Catrina Billowson?”

“Here,” I muttered, just a bit louder than Mark had.

He called out my name once more, but as if he was talking to himself.

“Here!” I said louder.

He looked at me curiously, and nodded, then went on with the rest of the list.

I shivered, and then shook off the eerie look that he had given me, as if he had seen me before, but couldn’t remember where he had.

I was starting to miss Mr. Grey. Mr. Sought was creepy...

❦

In fourth period, Koby and I sat in the same seats: in the back and away from everyone that might hear us.

We chatted about werewolves and the project. We talked about his home and my home, and pasts. We talked until the bell rang, and even through lunch. Harvey gave me a few ice-cold glances, but I tried to keep my attention away from him. Honestly, he was terrifying me in a way I couldn’t explain or give a reason as to why. And why is he being so weird to me of all people?

When I was in fifth period, I still felt uneasy, as if someone was watching me. Fifth period I had biology. Mr. Gratenzki is a pushover teacher. He lets us text and listen to our iPods, and whatnot. He was actually a cool teacher, and the soccer coach for the girls’ soccer team. He was short (like half my height) and fat (twice my weight probably), and had graying hair that receded to the back, leaving a bald spot on the top of his head. It shined in the light like a puddle in the moonlight at midnight. He always wore baggy school shirts and jeans with black shoes.

We listened to his high-pitched voice as he took roll call.

I turned to Alice, who shared the lab table with me. And, like always, she was checking out all of the hot guys in the classroom. Alice was my best friend—my only friend at that.

“So,” she started and I looked at her. “I hear Harvey’s got a ‘thing’ for you now?”

She set her mirror down inside her bag, and looked at me with curious eyes.

“Well...” I started. How could I explain what had happened to me the other day?

“And you know what else I hear?” she chuckled. “You have a thing for him too!”

“Me? No!” I laughed.

“What about that blonde one you were with at lunch?”

“Koby? Oh, no. Nothing is going on between—”

“But you like him?” she stretched out the like.

“No I—”

“You like him!” she said smiling. “And you didn’t tell me? Oh, you two would look cute together. ’Course, you and Harvey would too...”

“Calm down,” I chuckled, my face red. “It’s only his first day.”

Alice was nosy. Especially when it comes to people’s love lives. Not that I had a love life...

She was short and skinny, but had meat on her. She had dark skin, and dark brown hair with eyes that matched. She always wore jeans or shorts, depending on the weather outside and how she felt she looked in the mirror that morning. She loved drama, and loved making enemies almost as meeting people or being the center of attention—not in a mean way. She would get ticked off easily, and no one could stop that from happening, trust me. Only the name Taylor Lautner could get her to calm down or laugh. Sometimes.

Most of the time.

She was also boycrazy. But had her heart broken so many times… she doesn’t trust most people.

“Well if you don’t like him, then I’m gonna marry one of those Taylor-Lautner-guys.” She said, comparing the boys to him, as if there was a comparison.

“Go ahead. Nothing’s stopping you,” I said, chuckling.

“Heck yeah!” she laughed and got out her phone.

❦

As I headed for the front of the school to my bike, Harvey was leaning up against it like he knew he was the biggest and baddest boy in the school. But badboys never had good hearts, and his was turning blacker each second. Why would he ever think anyone would like him? He was better when he stank.

I groaned as I walked toward him, his demeanor shifting as he made it a point he wouldn’t leave without talking to me.

“What do you want, Harvey?” I stopped in front of him.

“I wanted to tell you my offer still stands,” he said, looking into my eyes so deep, I thought they’d burn right there.

“Harvey...” I walked closer and put my hand on his shoulder, despite every instinct telling me to run. “I really don’t think—”

“Could I at least show you a taste of it before you turn me down?” he said, taking my hand between his cold fingers, sending chills through my veins. I pulled it away slowly, trying not to seem rude. But I couldn’t deny the way my heart was pounding. What had I said about him before? Who could like him like this?

Me, apparently.

But I’d never admit it.

“I just don’t think…”

Harvey took his right hand and placed it under my chin. He lifted up my face and looked deeper into my eyes, and I felt my heart skip a thousand beats every second he looked into them. Confusion blinded me.

“Please?” he said so softly, it sounded like velvet in my ears. His deep rose-colored eyes looked into mine, pleading, as if I was the only one who’d listen.

As if I was the only one he wanted to hear him speak.

I wanted to say no, but I couldn’t. I didn’t say anything.

Which he took as a yes.

He held my hand and pulled me into the woods by the school faster than I realized what was happening. He was backwards, looking into my eyes the entire time and suddenly, he came to a stop in a circular opening in the trees. He pulled me closer and held me against his cool body.

I couldn’t help myself. My knees were weak and all those stupid feelings in those stupid girly movies I watched only to laugh at the girls who can’t survive without the love interest hit me like a tidal wave.

I pulled away slightly, but he shifted his weight as if we were dancing. What happened to his klutziness? What happened to the know-it-all gleam in his eyes? And what happened to… me?

“What are you doing?”

My voice was a strangled whisper, sunlight dancing through the clouds and falling all around us, but never touching our skin. And the way he was looking at me… had I ever been looked at like this before?

With the sound of my words, he smiled at me and took a breath of the sweet air around us. It was filled with the scent of pink flowers that were falling from the trees, and the blue and purple blossoms in the luscious, green grass beneath our feet. He leaned in to me, and I felt his cool lips press against mine. I couldn’t help but kiss him back. When he pulled away, I could still feel his cold breath on me.

Then I felt something dripping from my bottom lip. I lifted up my hand to feel it. It was wet.

I pulled my hand away, and looked at it.

Blood.

“What did you…?”

I gasped, staggering back. Harvey’s arms were locked around me, but not in the way I would think eventually, reminding myself I was wrong and my head is lying to me for protection. He was gentle and helpful, keeping me upright. But why?

My eyesight went fuzzy and my legs went numb. I felt him gently take my glasses off.

I could see!

I could see… everything.

I cried out as muscles bunched up along my arms, my legs, and my core, aching like I’d worked for them. My nails thickened and sharpened as my body shifted and pinched and stretched in places it wouldn’t for at least another year, filling out. I looked down and saw more curves in places I’d never had curves in. I touched my face and felt it shifting into something unfamiliar.

“Wha—what’s happening?!” I asked Harvey, my voice even alien to me.

“Shh. Everything will be okay.”

I finally felt myself stop changing.

“Welcome to the world of Vampires, Catrina.”